We live by Dreams and Death
As I have written elsewhere , we all live by dreams and death. The core existential angst of human kind is the internalised angst of death from the time one derives an identity and reconciling that life is unpredictable and the fear of death become a part of existence and life itself. The paradox is that the roots of most of the creative ,productive and reproductive urges of human beings are driven by angst and fear of death. This angst of internalised unpredictability of death and an urge to achieve immortality is the beginning of religion and the idea of rebirth or life after death or urges for heaven or fear of hell. This is why almost all religions offered freedom from death or through death and survive on invoking fear of death and destruction and offering the dreams of 'eternity or eternal life'. Hence the notion of creation, ( sristi, sthithi, samhara and punarjani), sustenance, death and rebirth. In fact human creativity is driven by the imaginative potentials of dreams and the human will to create transform dreams in to multiple forms of creative expressions that can outlive us so that we have at least illusive glimpses of immortality and the urge to leave the foot print after the demise.Hence Shakespeare is still with us, centuries after the person of that 'name' died.. So is Buddha, Jesus , Marx or Che or Van Gog or Einstein, Narayana Guru or OV Vijayan. When there is less human will to transform dreams in to creative expressions , human begins simply reproduce by sustaining their gene-pools and giving their names to their children. We all love , make love and live by dreams and death. At some points of life death looks more real than dreams and we begin to wonder how others may respond to death. Human begins live by dreams and death.
( in response to a facebook post by my friend Murali Vettath- sharing his feeling on the death)
23 March, 2016
On Inequality in India
As per the Oxfam research report 22 people in India owns as much as wealth of the entire fifty percent of the population. This means huge concentration of wealth in few hands; twenty two people have wealth equivalent to the wealth of around 600 million people!!
The issues of social , economic and consequent political inequality and the emerging trends of social and political fascism pose serious challenges and potential crisis to the democracy and democratic governance India. Around thirty families control the predominant part of politics, market and media in India. Crony capitalists of different variety are laughing all the way to their own banks every day. They finance elections of major players on the winning and losing side; they buy out media and journalists; they take over mines, minerals, gas ; they finance NGOs and think tanks to posture and pontificate on their 'social responsibility'. They accompany the Prime Ministers and President in search of foreign markets ; they provide vehicles to MPs and grants /fellowship for the kids of journalists and politicians to study in Europe and America. They can finance or finish off a politician. Whose nation is it any way?
( responding and sharing the Oxfam India report on Inequality)
March 21, 2016
Depoliticisation of Political Parties
The irony of the Indian politics is that political parties are increasingly being depoliticised. They have become election networks of interests and identities managed by political managers on the top. Their communications look more like corporate advertisements outsourced to corporate advertising companies in Metros. There is hardly any transparency or accountability of the real sources of income and expenditure of most of the political parties. The perception is that the unaccounted 'black money' get into full circulation mode during the elections. Many of the 'resourceful' political elites 'invest ' in all sorts of construction or other outfits and get the money back during elections. In other cases corporate business establishments or NRI business outfits invest in political leaders and parties in anticipation of the return on their investment. They hire election fixers and 'strategists to 'manage' elections. Such fixers can move from Mody camp to Nitish campaign to Congress 'high command ' without any problems as basically their politics is dispensable and they consider themselves as operators in the electoral market place and made elections campaigns into marketing campaign circus.. Many political parties are not confident of their leaders to win the election and then seats get outsourced to retired film actors/ actors or TV anchors with a 'nice face'. There is no problem for anyone to contest election on behalf of any alliance. But when we have candidates with zero engagement with the political or social process and contest only because people have seen their face on TV or Cinema , it shows the decreasing self confidence of political parties in themselves.
( Responding to the outosourcing of election campaign to advertising agencies and the tendency to hire a candidate from non-political background to win an election)
20 March 2016
Media Masala for Money
The 24×7 media are desperately in search of news to fill in their slots. There are 14 channels in Kerala. Whenever there is even slight chances of a sensation , 24×7 pursue it vigorously to 'build up' the controversy or like Times Now cook up a controversy through the shouting matches of Arnab barking variety . The TV media is in a crowded market desperately trying to increase ad revenue and this requires flow of masala and gossips and controversies. This is why Sarita gets TV media coverage which she uses for her own 'business' and actually even made a business model' of benefiting from cooking up allegations and distributing them in different slots to use media . Tv media are facing a huge crisis. Earlier they only had to compete with print media and now they also have to compete with online media and social networks. We are all living in the time of hypermedia. Media market requires controversies to attract the audience as the new generation of people depend more on social media and social networks. Hence the 24×7 media managers are desperately in search for one or other masala for the dinner discussions. And generally there is a lack of imagination and enterprise in the TV media space. Hence they imitate each other and copy each other and go with the flow of the day. Even now the TV in Kerala follow the programme design of the old Asianet and there is hardly any imagination in developing new programme. And even for dinner discussions they recycle the very same characters with very predictable rhetoric . As a result more and more viewers are leaving TV. This shows a trend. I too increasingly access news and views on social network as i have wide range of choices to read or not to read. How many of you actually watch the TV discussions and masala in the evening?
( responding to the tendency of how each media channel try to cook up a new controversy for the discussions and go in for another controversy next day without any commitment to do substantive journalism or follow up)
19 March, 2016
The tragic predicament of the Congress Party
The problem with the Congress Party is its sheer opportunism and trying to be everything to everyone. What made the congress to this sad predicament of dispersion and dissipation in most of the states is that it has been reduced to a bunch of leaders fighting with each other for a slice of governmental power at any cost. No one can join the congress party today. They can only join a faction of one or other of local chieftain fighting with each other or outsmart the other to capture the paraphernalia of governmental power. There is only one ideology : it is the ideology of unending want of governmental power and it's comforts zone. Power here is less about responsibility and more about the comforts ; power here is not about people and more about the paraphernalia; Power here is not about transformation but about the status quo; power here is not the power of people but power of corporate lords. Power here is not to serve but to show off. Power here is more about convenience and compromises and less about conviction and commitment. Nehru is a nostalgia and an unfinished dream. Gandhi is far away and reduced to the power of currency notes and photo in the establishments of interests.Unless congress move out of the ideology of power for the sake of it and redeem itself from the rootless soothsayers in the corridors of power and self-serving bunch of parasites of power, the grand old party of India will continue to lose credibility . The problem is that there are no more congress men and women of the good old party of Gandhi, Nehru or Azad in the congress establishments of today..When are we going to have at least few leaders with courage of conviction ?
( responding to the news that congress party supported the suspension of a MLA in Maharashtra Assembly for saying that he won't should Bharath Mata Ki Jai because Sangh parivar hijacked the slogan during the freedom struggle to make it a saffron campaign)
18 March 2016
On Civil Service
This is how civil servants should be...and this kind participatory excercises can make a difference. A typical 'civil' boss is perceived as personification of the arrogant bureacracy and often follow the status quo of hierarchy and the colonial ghosts of power 'over' people are still haunting the so-called 'civil ' 'service' . The irony is that most of them are neither 'civil' nor consider their mandate as ' service '. It is time to get rid of the term 'collector' , another colonial hangover as if still their role is to 'rule to collect taxes' for the colonial power. They should be designated as DCEO District Chief Executive Officer . In any case it is good to read that there are still many who try to be true civil servants. My friend Prasanth Nair too belongs to this tribe . It is encouraging that new generation of IAS are beginning to move out of the feudal and colonial modes of power 'over" people to a more democratic 'power with' people.
( Responding to the news that the Erankulam Distric Collector and his wife- IPS- joined the people in cleaning up a local pond as a part of the campaign to clean up all ponds in the city)
16 March 2016
Marginalisation of Women's in Politics of Kerala
Why is that all political parties in Kerala continue to marginalize women leaders when it comes to women's political participation in Assembly elections and assembly ?Kerala has one of the worst record of representation for women in the Assembly . All political parties still remain male-centric and patriarchal in their approach to women leaders . There are political parties like Muslim League with zero woman participation in Assembly. The record of a dozen pieces of Kerala Congress too is next to nothing. The entire UDF had only one women. LDF is better not because they have adequate representation and because the UDF is pathetic when it comes to women's political participation. Today every party will say platitudes on women's rights. How many political parties will have the honesty and guts to say at least one third of candidates will be women leaders in forthcoming assembly election ? It is time to publicly shame the leaders of political parties who never have not even a single women in Assembly
( responding to lack of women's political participation in Kerala on 8 March)
8 March , 2016
As I have written elsewhere , we all live by dreams and death. The core existential angst of human kind is the internalised angst of death from the time one derives an identity and reconciling that life is unpredictable and the fear of death become a part of existence and life itself. The paradox is that the roots of most of the creative ,productive and reproductive urges of human beings are driven by angst and fear of death. This angst of internalised unpredictability of death and an urge to achieve immortality is the beginning of religion and the idea of rebirth or life after death or urges for heaven or fear of hell. This is why almost all religions offered freedom from death or through death and survive on invoking fear of death and destruction and offering the dreams of 'eternity or eternal life'. Hence the notion of creation, ( sristi, sthithi, samhara and punarjani), sustenance, death and rebirth. In fact human creativity is driven by the imaginative potentials of dreams and the human will to create transform dreams in to multiple forms of creative expressions that can outlive us so that we have at least illusive glimpses of immortality and the urge to leave the foot print after the demise.Hence Shakespeare is still with us, centuries after the person of that 'name' died.. So is Buddha, Jesus , Marx or Che or Van Gog or Einstein, Narayana Guru or OV Vijayan. When there is less human will to transform dreams in to creative expressions , human begins simply reproduce by sustaining their gene-pools and giving their names to their children. We all love , make love and live by dreams and death. At some points of life death looks more real than dreams and we begin to wonder how others may respond to death. Human begins live by dreams and death.
( in response to a facebook post by my friend Murali Vettath- sharing his feeling on the death)
23 March, 2016
On Inequality in India
As per the Oxfam research report 22 people in India owns as much as wealth of the entire fifty percent of the population. This means huge concentration of wealth in few hands; twenty two people have wealth equivalent to the wealth of around 600 million people!!
The issues of social , economic and consequent political inequality and the emerging trends of social and political fascism pose serious challenges and potential crisis to the democracy and democratic governance India. Around thirty families control the predominant part of politics, market and media in India. Crony capitalists of different variety are laughing all the way to their own banks every day. They finance elections of major players on the winning and losing side; they buy out media and journalists; they take over mines, minerals, gas ; they finance NGOs and think tanks to posture and pontificate on their 'social responsibility'. They accompany the Prime Ministers and President in search of foreign markets ; they provide vehicles to MPs and grants /fellowship for the kids of journalists and politicians to study in Europe and America. They can finance or finish off a politician. Whose nation is it any way?
( responding and sharing the Oxfam India report on Inequality)
March 21, 2016
Depoliticisation of Political Parties
The irony of the Indian politics is that political parties are increasingly being depoliticised. They have become election networks of interests and identities managed by political managers on the top. Their communications look more like corporate advertisements outsourced to corporate advertising companies in Metros. There is hardly any transparency or accountability of the real sources of income and expenditure of most of the political parties. The perception is that the unaccounted 'black money' get into full circulation mode during the elections. Many of the 'resourceful' political elites 'invest ' in all sorts of construction or other outfits and get the money back during elections. In other cases corporate business establishments or NRI business outfits invest in political leaders and parties in anticipation of the return on their investment. They hire election fixers and 'strategists to 'manage' elections. Such fixers can move from Mody camp to Nitish campaign to Congress 'high command ' without any problems as basically their politics is dispensable and they consider themselves as operators in the electoral market place and made elections campaigns into marketing campaign circus.. Many political parties are not confident of their leaders to win the election and then seats get outsourced to retired film actors/ actors or TV anchors with a 'nice face'. There is no problem for anyone to contest election on behalf of any alliance. But when we have candidates with zero engagement with the political or social process and contest only because people have seen their face on TV or Cinema , it shows the decreasing self confidence of political parties in themselves.
( Responding to the outosourcing of election campaign to advertising agencies and the tendency to hire a candidate from non-political background to win an election)
20 March 2016
Media Masala for Money
The 24×7 media are desperately in search of news to fill in their slots. There are 14 channels in Kerala. Whenever there is even slight chances of a sensation , 24×7 pursue it vigorously to 'build up' the controversy or like Times Now cook up a controversy through the shouting matches of Arnab barking variety . The TV media is in a crowded market desperately trying to increase ad revenue and this requires flow of masala and gossips and controversies. This is why Sarita gets TV media coverage which she uses for her own 'business' and actually even made a business model' of benefiting from cooking up allegations and distributing them in different slots to use media . Tv media are facing a huge crisis. Earlier they only had to compete with print media and now they also have to compete with online media and social networks. We are all living in the time of hypermedia. Media market requires controversies to attract the audience as the new generation of people depend more on social media and social networks. Hence the 24×7 media managers are desperately in search for one or other masala for the dinner discussions. And generally there is a lack of imagination and enterprise in the TV media space. Hence they imitate each other and copy each other and go with the flow of the day. Even now the TV in Kerala follow the programme design of the old Asianet and there is hardly any imagination in developing new programme. And even for dinner discussions they recycle the very same characters with very predictable rhetoric . As a result more and more viewers are leaving TV. This shows a trend. I too increasingly access news and views on social network as i have wide range of choices to read or not to read. How many of you actually watch the TV discussions and masala in the evening?
( responding to the tendency of how each media channel try to cook up a new controversy for the discussions and go in for another controversy next day without any commitment to do substantive journalism or follow up)
19 March, 2016
The tragic predicament of the Congress Party
The problem with the Congress Party is its sheer opportunism and trying to be everything to everyone. What made the congress to this sad predicament of dispersion and dissipation in most of the states is that it has been reduced to a bunch of leaders fighting with each other for a slice of governmental power at any cost. No one can join the congress party today. They can only join a faction of one or other of local chieftain fighting with each other or outsmart the other to capture the paraphernalia of governmental power. There is only one ideology : it is the ideology of unending want of governmental power and it's comforts zone. Power here is less about responsibility and more about the comforts ; power here is not about people and more about the paraphernalia; Power here is not about transformation but about the status quo; power here is not the power of people but power of corporate lords. Power here is not to serve but to show off. Power here is more about convenience and compromises and less about conviction and commitment. Nehru is a nostalgia and an unfinished dream. Gandhi is far away and reduced to the power of currency notes and photo in the establishments of interests.Unless congress move out of the ideology of power for the sake of it and redeem itself from the rootless soothsayers in the corridors of power and self-serving bunch of parasites of power, the grand old party of India will continue to lose credibility . The problem is that there are no more congress men and women of the good old party of Gandhi, Nehru or Azad in the congress establishments of today..When are we going to have at least few leaders with courage of conviction ?
( responding to the news that congress party supported the suspension of a MLA in Maharashtra Assembly for saying that he won't should Bharath Mata Ki Jai because Sangh parivar hijacked the slogan during the freedom struggle to make it a saffron campaign)
18 March 2016
On Civil Service
This is how civil servants should be...and this kind participatory excercises can make a difference. A typical 'civil' boss is perceived as personification of the arrogant bureacracy and often follow the status quo of hierarchy and the colonial ghosts of power 'over' people are still haunting the so-called 'civil ' 'service' . The irony is that most of them are neither 'civil' nor consider their mandate as ' service '. It is time to get rid of the term 'collector' , another colonial hangover as if still their role is to 'rule to collect taxes' for the colonial power. They should be designated as DCEO District Chief Executive Officer . In any case it is good to read that there are still many who try to be true civil servants. My friend Prasanth Nair too belongs to this tribe . It is encouraging that new generation of IAS are beginning to move out of the feudal and colonial modes of power 'over" people to a more democratic 'power with' people.
( Responding to the news that the Erankulam Distric Collector and his wife- IPS- joined the people in cleaning up a local pond as a part of the campaign to clean up all ponds in the city)
16 March 2016
Marginalisation of Women's in Politics of Kerala
Why is that all political parties in Kerala continue to marginalize women leaders when it comes to women's political participation in Assembly elections and assembly ?Kerala has one of the worst record of representation for women in the Assembly . All political parties still remain male-centric and patriarchal in their approach to women leaders . There are political parties like Muslim League with zero woman participation in Assembly. The record of a dozen pieces of Kerala Congress too is next to nothing. The entire UDF had only one women. LDF is better not because they have adequate representation and because the UDF is pathetic when it comes to women's political participation. Today every party will say platitudes on women's rights. How many political parties will have the honesty and guts to say at least one third of candidates will be women leaders in forthcoming assembly election ? It is time to publicly shame the leaders of political parties who never have not even a single women in Assembly
( responding to lack of women's political participation in Kerala on 8 March)
8 March , 2016
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