ನೂರೆಂಟು ಸುಳ್ಳು (nUreMTu suLLu)

1 Vote Does Make A Difference...But, What About 4 Factual Errors?

2008-02-08T12:08:00.000-05:00

In yesterday's (Feb 7, 2008) Vijaya Karnataka, there's an article with the title: "ಒಂದು ಮತ ಹಾಕದಿದ್ದರೂ ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿ ತಪ್ಪಿಯಾನು ಜೋಕೆ!"

The gist of the article:

ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ 'ನಾನೊಬ್ಬ ಮತ ನೀಡದಿದ್ದರೆ ದೇಶವೇನೂ ಮುಳುಗೋದಿಲ್ಲ' ಎನ್ನುವ ನಿರ್ಲಿಪ್ತವಾದಿಗಳಿಗೇನು ಕೊರತೆಯಿಲ್ಲ. ಒಂದು ರೂ.ನಿಂದ ನೂರು ರೂ ಆಗುವಂತೆ, ಒಂದು ಮತದಿಂದಲೇ ಸಾವಿರ ಮತಗಳಾಗುವುದು. ಹಾಗೆಯೇ, ಒಂದು ಮತದಿಂದಲೇ ಸೋಲು ಎರಗಬಹುದು. ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿ ಕೈ ತಪ್ಪಬಹುದು. ಒಂದು ಮತ ಏನೆಲ್ಲ ಮಾಡುತ್ತದೆ ನೋಡಿ.

Could a single vote make a difference? Sure it could.
To illustrate (or emphasize?) this point, the author of the article mentions the following historical events:

ಒಂದೇ ಮತದ ಅಂತರದಿಂದ ಸೈನಿಕನಾಗಿದ್ದ ಆಲಿವರ್ ಕ್ರಾಮ್‌ವೆಲ್(1645) ಎಂಬಾತ ಇಡೀ ಇಂಗ್ಲೆಂಡ್ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಿಡಿತ ಸಾಧಿಸಿಬಿಟ್ಟ.
ಒಂದನೇ ಚಾರ್ಲ್ಸ್ ದೊರೆಗೆ ಗಲ್ಲು ಶಿಕ್ಷೆಯಾಯಿತು. ಕೇವಲ ಒಂದು ಮತದ ಹೆಚ್ಚಳದಿಂದ!
ಅಮೆರಿಕ ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರಭಾಷೆಯಾಗಿ ಜರ್ಮನ್ ಬದಲಿಗೆ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಅನುಷ್ಠಾನಕ್ಕೆ ಬಂದದ್ದು ಒಂದೇ ಮತದ ಮೇಲುಗೈ ಕೃಪೆಯಿಂದ!
ಜರ್ಮನಿಯ ಹಿಟ್ಲರ್‌ನನ್ನು ನಾಝಿ (1923) ಪಕ್ಷದ ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥನನ್ನಾಗಿಸಲು ದೊರೆತ ಹೆಚ್ಚುವರಿ ಮತ ಎಷ್ಟು ಗೊತ್ತೆ? ಬರೀ ಒಂದು!

So, what's the problem?!
The problem is, none of them is really true.
All these are urban legends. (For details, you know what do here)

By the way, the author mentions about Vajpayee government's loss in parliament by one vote in 1998. This, as far as we know, is factually correct.

Tail Piece: We have sent an e-mail to VK's Correction Department. Let's see what happens..

So, What's The Answer?!

2007-11-28T11:23:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday (Nov 27th, 2007) Mr.Shivanna, an M.P. from Karnataka asked the following question in Lok Sabha:

ದೇಶದ ಈರುಳ್ಳಿ ಬೆಳೆಗಾರರು ಈರುಳ್ಳಿಯ ದರ ಕುಸಿತದಿಂದ ಕಣ್ಣೀರು ಸುರಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈರುಳ್ಳಿ ರಫ್ತು ಮೇಲೆ ನಿರ್ಬಂಧ ವಿಧಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ರೈತರ ಕಷ್ಟ ನಿವಾರಿಸಲು ರಫ್ತು ನಿರ್ಬಂಧ ಸಡಿಲಿಸುವ ಆಲೋಚನೆ ಸರಕಾರಕ್ಕಿದೆಯೇ

How did we find out? It's there in a report published in today's (Nov 28, 2007) Vijaya Karnataka.

The report mentions that Mr.Shivanna asked the question in Kannada even after the Speaker requested him to use English. The report also mentions that Jairam Ramesh the concerned minister started his answer in Kannada but quickly switched over to English.

Dear readers, now tell us what's that you want to know.
The minister's answer?
Or, Mr.Shivanna's attire?

If it's the attire that you are interested, you will find what you want in the V.K. report. In fact, the report itself is more or less about Mr.Shivanna's attire. For the record, he was dressed in a full suit and a tie.

Now, if you really want to find out what the minister said about the onion exports, you will have to read another newspaper. You won't find it in Vijaya Karnataka.

So, what's the answer?

From the Economic Times:

Referring to the increase in onion prices a few months back, Ramesh said the government changed the policy on October 4, restricting exports. The policy was reverted on November 14 after the prices in the wholesale market in the country moderated, touching as low as Rs 7.5 to Rs 8.5 per kg, he said.

How About A Special Olympics For Factually-Challenged?

2007-11-27T10:49:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,

The entire staff -- exactly one person -- of 108 Sullu World H.Q. is in a fairly good mood. Our favorite actress Madhuri Dixit is back with a movie!

If she can come back after so many years of hiatus, shouldn't we do the same? After all our hiatus isn't even that long. Relatively speaking, that is. Let's see how long this mood lasts!

Ok. Enough about our mood.

In today's (Nov 27, 2007) Vijaya Karnataka, in his ""ಕ್ಷಣ ಹೊತ್ತು ಆಣಿಮುತ್ತು" column, Mr.S.Shadakshari writes about a Special Olympics held at Seattle.

It surely is a very touching story about mentally challenged kids. When one of the boys participating in the 100 Meters dash, stumbled, all the other 8 participants in the race, came to help him rather than dashing forward to victory. Eventually, all the 9 participants, linking their hands together crossed the finishing line. All at the same time!

He concludes the story thus (before getting into the rather simplistic and obvious moral lessons):

"ಆ ಬೌದ್ಧಿಕ ವಿಕಲಚೇತನರ ಹೃದಯವಂತಿಕೆ ಗೆದ್ದಿತ್ತು. ಅಂದು ಒಲಿಂಪಿಕ್ಸ್ ಪಾಳೆಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದರದ್ದೇ ಮಾತು! ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ದೂರದರ್ಶನಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇದರದೇ ಸುದ್ದಿ!"

Touching, though the story is, the facts are a bit different. First, it did not happen in the place where Mr.Shadakshari claims it happened. Second, it also did not happen the way he claims it happened.

Mr.Shadakshari's this "ಆಣಿಮುತ್ತು" is really based on an urban legend.
Do you want to know the details?
You know what to do here.

Is there more to this story? You bet.

A similar story was once told by our beloved (then) President Kalam. At that time, it was claimed this story of "ಬೌದ್ಧಿಕ ವಿಕಲಚೇತನರ ಹೃದಯವಂತಿಕೆ" happened at our own Hyderabad instead of Seattle.

If it's a touching story, don't you think it should be retold? Of course.

It was retold in the ನೂರೆಂಟು ಮಾತು column. This time made even more touching with additional (made up) details!

[The lone person who makes up our entire staff of 108 Sullu World H.Q. actually wrote about this as part of a longer article about hoaxes. You can read it here.]

Since Mr.Shadakshari's column is about morality, and this story actually kind of shows mentally challenged people in a good light, you might ask what's wrong with that even if it's not factual.

There are a couple of problems.

One, Vijaya Karnataka is a newspaper and the story is published as a fact. It's not published as fiction.

Two, even as a morality story it's kind of unfair to mentally challenged people. Snopes puts it well -

"Our guilt over having more abilities than others have been blessed with is appeased by the belief that the mentally handicapped are better natured or in another way of a higher order. As long as we can believe the scales are being balanced in some inexplicable way, we can feel comfortable with our comparative good fortune.

Such stereotypes no matter how comforting they are to us are unfair and dehumanizing. They cast the mentally disabled as angels who smile benevolently from among us instead of as very real people who are every bit as capable of feeling and expressing the same emotions everyone else does. Just as the 19th century belief that woman was of a higher order than base, animalistic man and thus needed to be placed on a pedestal where she could be sheltered from contact with a brutal world kept her from being treated as a person in those times, so does the currently common characterization of the disabled as smiling cherubs who might not be able to talk to us all that clearly but who are constantly whispering in God's ear.

Special Olympians train long and hard for their events and are every bit as committed as athletes who compete in any other athletic endeavors. The Special Olympics are not a casual get-together organized to give less fortunate members of the community a day to socialize and perhaps run in a foot race or two they're highly organized sporting events taken very seriously by all involved, with each competitor striving to do his best. It's about trying. And succeeding."

Tail Piece: We sent a note to V.K. Corrections department about this. Let's see what happens.

Tip Of The Tail: We want to know what's the policy that the Kannada newspapers follow in giving credit to original sources and what's considered as plagiarism.

On 30th Sep. 2007, The New York Times published an article by John Schwartz on Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Interested in reading it? You know what to do here.

Two days later, on 1st Oct. 2007, ಹಾಲ್ದೊಡ್ಡೇರಿ ಸುಧೀಂದ್ರ in his weekly column ('ನೆಟ್'ನೋಟ) essentially wrote about the same college. You can read it here. (Hopefully! We had trouble linking to the article)

Pretty much most of the facts and quotes (of the students named) that are in Mr.Sudhindra's article actually come from Mr.Schwartz's article. However, no credit is given to either Mr.Schwartz or the Times.

Constructive Criticism!

2007-08-04T17:06:00.000-04:00

It had to happen. And it looks like it's happening to us.

We really seem to be losing interest in the words that appear in our newspapers.
If the words are factual --- Good!
If they are not ---- Who Cares?!
At least, that seems to be current mood in our World H.Q.

Then again, pictures are not words. Are they?

On August 1st, Vijaya Karnataka had an op-ed article about student ragging.
If you are interested, here is the link.

No, we did not really read it.
What caught our eyes instead was the picture that accompanied the article.

It was vaguely familiar. And of course, not really relevant.

First, let's get to the familiar part.

On May 24th Vijaya Karnataka had another op-ed article about.. ragging.
Yeah..the same picture was there.
Again, if you are interested, here is the link.

Now to the relevant (or is it irrelevant?) part.

The picture appears to be that of a group of elderly ladies.
The question is -- Do they have anything to do with students ragging each other in India?
The answer is -- No. Not really.
Unless of course you mentally supply an additional "G" to the banner they are carrying!

You can get to know more about these Raging Grannies if you follow this link and this one too.

Since Vijaya Karnataka likes to publish the pictures of elderly American ladies along with their op-ed articles on student ragging, we have decided to provide here two additional pictures of the same grannies. Hopefully, next time around V.K. will use one of these rather than using the same old picture.

Now, don't tell us that we criticize without being constructive!

Tail piece: In June 2006, M.V. had this line - "ವರದಿಯ ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸುವ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು ವರದಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧ ಪಟ್ಟೇ ಇರಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಸಂಪಾದಕರ ನಿರ್ಣಯ ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ವಿಷಾದನೀಯ" More than a year later, we are glad to note that V.K. breaks that repressive rule!

Believe Ye... And Thou Shalt Be Saved!

2007-07-03T13:02:00.000-04:00

Dear Reader,

It has been a while since we last wrote. Not that you really missed us. But, if you indeed did, we are very sorry.

Our usual excuses still hold good: Work, Travel and Net Connection Problems.
If you think that they are old excuses, here's a new one: It's Not Fun Anymore.

For some reason we are losing interest in pointing fingers.

Yes, we are still reading newspapers. Yes, we still notice factual errors. But, the pleasure -- vicarious -- that we earlier used to have in writing about them is slowly waning.

So, is this the end of our blog? We hope not.
But, more and more, it feels like that.

O.k. Enough about our blogging blues.

We Believe...!

Pratapa Simha writes (Vijaya Karnataka, June 30, 2007) about the need for a security fence that secures India from Bangladesh.

Vijaya Karnataka is a Kannada newspaper that's published in India. The fence is being built by India. But, we believe that there is really a very good reason why the cost of the fence must be quoted in dollars. ("೧.೨ ಶತಕೋಟಿ ಡಾಲರ್ ವೆಚ್ಚದ ಈ ಬೇಲಿ")

You have our word. If Dr.U.R.A. says it is actually a sign or evidence of a dark conspiracy of U.S. and its Hindu Capitalist Cohorts in India, we will believe that too.

We believe Mr.Simha when he writes:

"ಇನ್ನೊಂದೆಡೆ ಬಾಂಗ್ಲಾ ಗಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಅಸ್ಸಾಮ್‍ನ ಒಟ್ಟು ಜನಸಂಖ್ಯೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಶೇ.೪೦ರಷ್ಟು ಬಾಂಗ್ಲಾದೇಶಿ ಮುಸ್ಲಿಮರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ"

In 2004, writing in The Indian Express, Arun Shourie wrote: "The present population ratio of Muslims is calculated to be 28 per cent in Assam and 25 per cent in West Bengal."

It is our firm belief that the facts are completely different now. We have no doubt that in less than 3 years, an additional 12% became not only Muslim, but they also became Bangladeshis!

We believe Mr.Simha when he writes:

"ಇತ್ತ ೨೦೦೧ರ ಜನಗಣತಿಯ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ದೇಶದ ೧೦ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಜನಭರಿತ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ೫ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಗಳು ಪಶ್ಚಿಮ ಬಂಗಾಳದಲ್ಲಿವೆ. ಅವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂರು ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಗಳಾದ '೨೪ ಪರಗಣ (ಉತ್ತರ)', '೨೪ ಪರಗಣ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ' ಹಾಗೂ ಮುರ್ಷಿದಾಬಾದ್‌ಗಳು ಬಾಂಗ್ಲಾದೇಶದ ಗಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿದ್ದು ಇವು ಹೆಸರಿಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಭಾರತಕ್ಕೆ ಸೇರಿದ್ದರೂ, ಇಲ್ಲಿ ವಾಸಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವವರು ಯಾರೂ ಭಾರತೀಯರಲ್ಲ, ಬಾಂಗ್ಲಾದೇಶಿ ಮುಸ್ಲಿಮ್ ಅತಿಕ್ರಮಣಕಾರರು."

As per 2001 census, only 24.2, 33.2 and 63.7 per cent of the population of the above mentioned districts are Muslims. That may be so, but we fully believe in Mr.Simha when he says that all the people living in those districts are Bangladeshi Muslim intruders!

To be frank, we are a bit confused. Mr.Simha cites 2001 census and 2001 census seems to say something different. Confused we may be, but, our faith in Mr.Simha is staunch. We know sometimes the reality plays tricks on the faithful to test us!

More than anything we believe in Mr.Simha when he writes:

"ಆದರೆ ದೇಶದೊಳಗೆ ಇರುವ ದೇಶದ್ರೋಹಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಬೇಲಿ ಹಾಕುವುದು ಹೇಗೆ?

ಇಂದು ನಾವು ಗಡಿಯಾಚೆಗಿರುವ ಶತ್ರುಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ತಲೆಕೆಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕಾದ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಕೇರಳದಿಂದ ದಂಡುದಂಡಾಗಿ ಬರುತ್ತಿರುವ ಮಾಪಿಳ್ಳೆಗಳಿಂದಾಗಿ ನಮ್ಮ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಕನ್ನಡ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಅಸ್ಸಾಂ ಆಗುವ ಲಕ್ಷಣ ಕಂಡು ಬರುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಕಾಸರಗೋಡಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಮಿನಿ ಪಾಕಿಸ್ತಾನವನ್ನು ಕಾಣಬಹುದಾಗಿದ್ದರೆ, ಪುರ್ಬುಗಳಿಂದಾಗಿ ಕಡಬ, ಸುಳ್ಯಗಳು ಮಿನಿ ಕೇರಳಗಳಾಗಿವೆ. ಕಾಡು ಕಡಿದು ಗಾಂಜಾ ಬೆಳೆಯಲಾರಂಭಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಪರಿಣಾಮವಾಗಿ ಖೋಟಾನೋಟು ಜಾಲ, ನಕಲಿ ವಸ್ತುಗಳು, ಕಳ್ಳಸಾಗಣೆ, ಮಾಫಿಯಾ ಇವೆಲ್ಲವನ್ನೂ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಣಬಹುದಾಗಿದೆ."

We do not know what or who "ಪುರ್ಬು" are. But, we are very sure that they are dangerous. They are not only traitors, they might even be enemies.

Shouldn't we build a fence to separate Karnataka from Kerala?
As long as we can quote the cost in dollars, why not?!

When I’m Gazing My Own Navel, Do Other Navels Exist?!

2007-03-29T06:30:00.000-04:00

Dear Readers (if there are any still left!),

Off late we have not been able to update this blog. There are many reasons: We still do not have a reliable Internet connection at Noorentu Sullu World H.Q. More than that, the entire staff – all of one person – of our office has been busy with other things. We have been traveling out of the country and have not been able to read some of our favorite newspapers.

One thing that we never fail to do when we are traveling is, visiting the newsstands at the airports. Be they are at the Singapore airport, Frankfurt airport or the JFK in N.Y. It is almost a religion for us. We must have the "ದರ್ಶನ" of what is on display there. While we take a look at pretty much all that is on display, we pay special attention to some of our favorites like International Herald Tribune, The Economic Times and of course The Time & The Newsweek. When we do, we always wonder about the change in "ಅವತಾರ" of some of them. By the time we hop from one airport to the other, they would have taken a new a "ಅವತಾರ" leaving us to wonder whether these are instances of “ಅವರವರ ಭಾವಕ್ಕೆ, ಅವರವರ ಭಕುತಿಗೆ…”

Some of our readers know that we spent a considerable time of our life in the US of A. Like any other country, it has many things to like and many things to dislike. In fact, we – with a libertarian outlook – found a lot more to like than dislike. But, one thing that we sometimes found a bit disappointing was the inward-lookingness (We know that there is no such word!) of the American mainstream media. We wished (and still wish) they took a bit more look at the rest of the world. Provide a bit wider and deeper coverage to things that are happening around the globe. (BTW, this is in no way an endorsement of the Indian news media. In our experience, NY Times, Time and Newsweek have more coverage on global affairs than say Indian Express, The Hindu, Outlook or India Today.)

During one of our travels – last year in Buenos Aires to be precise – we met a gentleman at the airport. During our conversation, he had this question: “When the whole world is against the Iraq war, how come the American people think it’s a good thing?”

There are complex/many answers to this simple question.

If you know us, you know that we always prefer “simple/single” answer to “complex/many”. Call us lazy. Or, whatever.

Our simple answer is here (Thanks to Huffington Post):

The editors of Time and Newsweek think that while their non-American readers must learn about what's happeing in Afghanistan, they think that it is more important for American readers to know about Why Bible Should be Taught in Public Schools and Annie Leibowitz's Life in Pictures.

Tail piece: If you want to read a bit more about American media, you can find it here. BTW, it is written by one of our only one staff.

May Not Be Humor, But Still Unintended!

2007-01-26T23:55:00.000-05:00

Today's (January 27, 2006) Vijaya Karnataka, "ಸುದ್ದಿಮನೆ ಕತೆ" column is about factual errors, inappropriate headlines, etc and the unintentional humor that's caused by them.
Writing on this topic "ಸುದ್ದೀಶ" mentions about a correction issued by the British newspaper The Guardian. Here is what he writes (the emphasis is ours):

ಅಮೆರಿಕದ ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧ ತತ್ವಜ್ಞಾನಿ ಡೇನಿಯಲ್ ಡೆನೆಟ್ ಎಂಬಾತ ನಿಧನನಾದಾಗ ಲಂಡನ್‌ನ ಪ್ರತಿಷ್ಠಿತ "ದಿ ಗಾರ್ಡಿಯನ್" ಪತ್ರಿಕೆ ನಿಧನವಾರ್ತೆಯನ್ನು ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸಿತು. ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಅವೆಷ್ಟು ತಪ್ಪುಗಳಿದ್ದವೆಂದರೆ ಮರುದಿನ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆ ಓದುಗರ ಕ್ಷಮೆಯಾಚಿಸಿತು. ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಅಲ್ಲ ಧೀರ್ಘ ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟನೆ ಸಹ ನೀಡಿತು. ಅದನ್ನು ಯಥಾವತ್ತಾಗಿಡಲಾಗಿದೆ.

The truth, shall we say, is, a little bit different.

Daniel C Dennett is very much alive. At least, as we write this. The report about his death is, as the saying goes, grossly exaggerated.
Again, as we write this, the Guardian has not published a report about Dennett's death. It was a profile of him that had the factual errors.
The correction was not issued the next day. The initial story was published on April 17, 2004 and the correction was issued on April 22, 2004.

Since these factual errors were about a correction about other factual errors, could we expect a correction in Vijaya Karnataka? Hopefully a humorous one?!

Update: There was a correction published yesterday (February 3, 2007). This week's "ಸುದ್ದಿಮನೆ ಕತೆ" column has the following bit at the end:

ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿ: ಹಿಂದಿನವಾರ ಈ ಅಂಕಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಡೇನಿಯಲ್ ಡೆನೆಟ್ ನಿಧನರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆಂದು ತಿಳಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಸಂತಸದ ಸಂಗತಿಯೆಂದರೆ ಅವರು ಬದುಕಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಇರುವವರನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲವಾಗಿಸುವ ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯವಿರುವುದು ಪತ್ರಕರ್ತರಿಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ. ಉದ್ದೇಶರಹಿತವಾಗಿ ಅವರನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲವಾಗಿಸಿದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ ವಿಷಾದ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸುತ್ತೇವೆ.

Our Reader Is Right; (Almost) Everyone Gets It Wrong!

2006-09-28T05:04:00.000-04:00

Commenting on one of our earlier posts, a reader opined that English newspapers too get the facts wrong. We of course agree with that. To prove that our reader is right, we will provide you an example.

Here is Saubhik Chakrabarti's column from the Indian Express dated September 18th. It is about the recently concluded IMF meeting in Singapore. Mr.Chakrabarty is not too happy about the current power structure of IMF. (We agree with his sentiments, by the way.)

This structure -- based on a quota system -- was established in 1940s when the economies of US and Western European nations were much bigger than most Asian and African economies. Now, of course, things have changed. The Chinese, South Korean, Indian economies have grown tremendously overtaking the economies of many Western countries. Yet, the IMF quotas do not reflect this changed reality.

Commenting about this, Mr.Chakrabarty writes (emphasis is ours):

The original, horrendously complicated formula for fixing quotas was drawn up on the basis of three things: the size of a member-countryÂs economy, the quantum of its foreign exchange reserves and the economyÂs propensity to volatility. It made sense in 1944 that ChinaÂs quota was less than that of the Netherlands or Belgium. But does it make sense in 2006? ChinaÂs economy is now twice the size of the Belgian and Dutch economies combined. But both Belgium and the Netherlands still have larger IMF quotas than China. What about us? IndiaÂs economy is now twice the size of BelgiumÂs. Belgium has a larger quota.

The question is, Is Mr.Chakrabarty Right? when he writes "But both Belgium and the Netherlands still have larger IMF quotas than China.". If you are a regular reader of our blog, you know the answer: NO!

Here are the numbers from IMF's website:

Country Quota %Quota Votes %Votes
Belgium 4,605.2 2.16 46,302 2.13
Netherlands 5,162.4 2.42 51,874 2.38
China 6,369.2 2.98 63,942 2.94

(Note: Mr.Chakrabarty's article was written before the quotas got revised. China's number increased from 2.98% to 3.72%. The numbers cited above are also from that time.)

Now that we know Mr.Chakrabarty has problems with elementary mathematics or has not bothered to check the numbers before he wrote what he wrote, if you are like us, you would be wondering why in the whole world (or, rather Europe), did he pick Belgium and Netherlands to compare with China? Why not, say Germany and Italy, which really have higher IMF quota numbers but lower GDPs than China?

Then you start noticing that the same comparison and similar error is made by many news sources including the venerable BBC and CNN (citing Reuters).

This from BBC:

China currently has fewer votes than either Belgium or the Netherlands, even though its economy is twice the size of the two combined.

This is from CNN:

The overhaul aims to correct the under-representation of countries such as China, which has fewer votes than Belgium or the Netherlands even though its economy, the world's fourth-largest, is twice their combined size.

However, the much despised (in US) Aljazeera gets it right when it says:

Despite its growing economy, China has less voting power than Belgium and the Netherlands combined.

The Flight from Boredom: The Quest for Facts

2006-09-25T04:53:00.000-04:00

There comes a time when one has to explain the why behind what he or she is doing. This may be that time for me.

I am not a journalist. I have no training in that area. I am not a writer either. Barring a couple of articles in an online publication and the posts in my blogs, I have not written much else.

But, I am a news junkie; have been one since my early childhood. I love newspapers. Even the ones that are published in languages that I can’t read; many times I have bought French, German, Portuguese, Spanish newspapers just to look at them.

Living in US for a long time, I did not have regular access to the Indian newspapers. Once the Internet arrived and the Indian newspapers started publishing over the ‘Net, things got changed. Eventually Kannada papers also started appearing online. Mean while, having lived in the New York area, I started reading the New York Times every day and other newspapers whenever I could.

It was not too long before I realized the difference in quality of the Indian newspapers and the New York Times; not just in the depth or the breadth of the news coverage, but in the efforts to ensure that readers are presented only facts. Of course that did not mean that NYT did not get things wrong. It did. Wen Ho Lee, Jason Blair, Judith Miller/WMD episodes being the more infamous ones.

But, I still haven’t lost trust in NYT. Why?! Because, each time it got things wrong, it has admitted the mistake and has taken corrective actions. Not just major blunders but even minor factual errors; factual errors that had no impact on the rest of the article. For an example, read this correction from September 19th:

A front-page article on Sept. 8 about the background of Ralph J. Phillips, the escaped inmate known as Bucky who was the target of a manhunt in western New York for five months, misspelled the surname of his lawyer. He is John Keavey, not Keaney.

Do most readers of NYT care whether the surname of the lawyer of an escaped convict is “Keavey” not “Keaney”? Probably not. Yet, for the NYT it is quite important to make sure that its readers get that fact right.

The Origins

I am not sure when I started reading Thats Kannada. Probably as soon as it made its appearance over the Net. One column that I regularly read there was Mr.Bhat’s “Noorentu Maatu”. When I started reading it I did not know who he was. When I realized that he was the editor of the number one Kannada daily, I was appalled. I found many factual errors in his articles. Some of them were “Keaney/Keavey” kind but others had an impact on the story being told. It appeared as though these other errors were introduced either to make the story more melodramatic or steer the readers into a particular viewpoint. (I write “it appeared” because, I cannot say that was the intention or not.)

Credibility is an important value, especially so for the newspapers. I believe even minor factual errors – if they keep repeating and are left uncorrected – could raise doubts in the readers’ minds; at least it does in my mind. When I read in a news report that Mr.Bhat talked about “Credibility”, I could not help but note the irony. I wrote an article about “Media and Credibility”. In hindsight, I cannot say it’s any good, but, it got published in That’s Kannada. (Thank you Sham!)

My article received many responses. Many of them were quite positive. I became friends with some of the readers. While exchanging emails with these friends and some of my family members, I came up with the idea of starting a blog to make a note of the minor/major factual errors, falsehoods and any other things that I cared to note. To make it a bit interesting to read, I decided to be sarcastic in my writing style. Since Mr.Bhat’s “Noorentu Maatu” , in a way was the inspiration, I decided to name it “Noorentu Sullu”.

Mr.Bhat and Me

I have nothing personally against Mr.Bhat. I have met him twice. Once in a public function where he was one of the chief guests. Another time in his Vijaya Karnataka office. Both the times I was struck by his humility and decency. He is the editor of a major newspaper in India and I write a blog mostly read by a few of my friends and family members. Yet, he treated me with respect and even friendliness. Considering the sarcasm I have frequently employed in my writing style, it’s even more striking.

I also must mention that, even before we met, Mr.Bhat wrote about me in Vijaya Karnataka in one of his editorial columns. That was quite a pleasant surprise.

Newspapers and Me

I love newspapers. I respect journalists a lot. In spite of my frequent complaints, I believe that most newspapers and journalists try to provide only the facts to their readers; may not be all the time but most of the time. I think Vijaya Karnataka, Prajavani and Kannada Prabha are all very good newspapers. They have served and are still serving their readers quite well.

But, I expect them to be even better. I do not believe striving to get even minor facts right should be dismissed as “editing Panchanga”. I also do not subscribe to the thought that today’s suddi is tomorrow’s raddi. While the newspaper copy itself may end up inside the tummy of an ass, the contents in that are matters of public record and should be treated as such.

Why Not In Kannada?

For more than 18 years I have lived away from Karnataka, 16 of them away from India. Even though Kannada is my mother-tongue, due to lack of practice I find it much easier to write in English.

Is This Serious Media Watch?

Most definitely not. I neither have the talent nor the temperament for being a serious media watch dog. In spite of all the serious stuff about media, journalism, credibility, etc, my quest for facts are just a way to flee from boredom. My blog entries are just the rants of an individual who derives some joy by pointing a finger or two at the mighty and famous.

Why This Explanation?

As I mentioned earlier, when I started this blog the few readers who read were all kind of aware of the back-story. It remained like that till a few months back. At least that’s what I was thinking. I certainly had no inkling that my blog would be noticed by Ravi Belagere, let alone that he would write about it.

Mr.Belagere’s article, links from other blogs and websites – including those written by eminent writers like U.B.Pavanaja and M.S.Sriram who mentioned my blog in Sudha –- have brought in many readers.

I hope this explanation provides some context to the readers of my blog.

How Recent Is "Recent"?

2006-09-17T13:33:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's (September 16th, 2006) Vijaya Karnataka has an article titled " ಸಂಪಾದಕನ ವಿರುದ್ಧ ಇಡೀ ದೇಶವೇ ತಿರುಗಿ ಬಿದ್ದರೆ?" in the "ಸುದ್ದಿಮನೆ ಕತೆ".

It is about Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times and his decision to publish an article about the existance of a secret warrantless eavesdropping program.

As per this article:

ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ ಅಮೆರಿಕ ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷ ಜಾರ್ಜ್ ಬುಷ್ ತನ್ನ ವೈಟ್‌ಹೌಸ್‌ನ ಓವಲ್ ಕಚೇರಿಗೆ ಬಿಲ್ ಕೆಲ್ಲರ್ ಹಾಗೂ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಪ್ರಕಾಶಕ ಆರ್ಥರ್ ಕುಲ್ಜಬರ್ಗರ್ (sic) ಜೂನಿಯರ್ ಅವರನ್ನು ಕರೆಸಿದ್ದರು.

The question is how recent ("ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ") is this "recently"?

The New York Times article was published on December 16th 2005***. Keller and Sulzberger visited 11 days before that article got published.

We know "recently" is relative. But, is 9 months+ "recently"? Especially for a daily newspaper? We are just asking.

The article starts with a reference to the recent coverstory in the New York magazine:

ಇತ್ತೀಚಿನ 'ನ್ಯೂಯಾರ್ಕ್' ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಮುಖಪುಟ ಲೇಖನದ ಶೀರ್ಷಿಕೆ- The United States of America Vs Bill Keller

If you are intrigued by the VK article and want to read the New York Magazine article, you can find it here. BTW, if you read the Vijaya Karnataka article and the New York Magazine coverstory, you may find that it is not just the "ಶೀರ್ಷಿಕೆ" that caught the eye of "ಸುದ್ದೀಶ".

Towards the end of the VK article it is mentioned, rather abruptly without any explanation:

ಅದೇನೇ ಇರಲಿ ಟೈಮ್ಸ್ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಪಬ್ಲಿಕ್ ಎಡಿಟರ್ ಬೈರಾನ್ ಕೆಲವು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಕೆಲ್ಲರ್ ಉತ್ತರಿಸಲು ನಿರಾಕರಿಸಬಾರದಿತ್ತು ಎಂಬ ಮಾತು ಸಹ ಕೇಳಿ ಬರುತ್ತಿದೆ.

If you are like us, you would be curious to know about those questions of Byron Calame (ಸುದ್ದೀಶ seems to be in first-name basis with him!) that Bill Keller stonewalled.

We feel that they are interesting --if not important -- questions and hence need a bit of an explanation.

The questions are about the timing of the publication of the NYT story.

The NYT knew about the existance of the (possibly illegal) warrantless eavesdropping program for more than year before it evetually published it in December of 2005. According to some critics of the Bush administration and the NYT, the delay in publishing it might have helped Bush in 2004 elections.

Initially the NYT claimed that it delayed the publication "for a year", seeming to imply that it did not know about the existance of the program before the elections in November of 2004. But, later it was learnt that the NYT delayed the story by 14 months and that it could have clearly published it before the November 2004 elections had it chosen to do that.

Many feel that this may have damaged the reputation and the public trust of The Times in general and Bill Keller in particular.

People get upset with the NYT and Keller when they term 14 months as "for a year". And we rant about VK terming 9 months+ as "ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ". Notice any irony?!

(Correction:
*** Our post read "2006" instead of "2005". My thanks to the reader --"noora ombattu sullu" -- for alerting us about this.)

The Truth About Dilbert

2006-09-11T05:09:00.000-04:00

September 9^th Vijaya Karnataka “ಸುದ್ದಿಮನೆ ಕತೆ” column has an article titled “ಅಮೆರಿಕಕ್ಕೆ ಬೆಳಗಾಗುವುದು ಆತನೊಂದಿಗೆ...!”. It is about the hugely popular cartoon strip “Dilbert”.

As per that article, “ಫಾರ್ಚುನ್, ವಾಲ್‌ಸ್ಟ್ರೀಟ್ ಜರ್ನಲ್, ವಾಷಿಂಗ್‌ಟನ್ ಪೋಸ್ಟ್, ನ್ಯೂಯಾರ್ಕ್ ಟೈಮ್ಸ್‌ನಂಥ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳು ದಿಲ್‌ಬರ್ಟ್ ಕಾರ್ಟೂನುಗಳನ್ನು ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸುವುದಷ್ಟೇ ಅಲ್ಲ, ದಿಲ್‌ಬರ್ಟ್ ಯಶಸ್ಸಿನ ಗುಟ್ಟಿನ ಹಿಂದಿರುವ ಮರ್ಮದ ಕುರಿತು ವಿಶೇಷ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸಿವೆ"”

The truth, however, is a bit different

Neither the New York Times nor the Wall Street Journal publishes the Dilbert cartoons. The Times doesn’t publish any cartoon strips at all in its daily editions. Only recently it started publishing cartoon strip in its weekend magazine. This cartoon most definitely isn’t Dilbert.

The Wall Street Journal seems to have published Dilbert – as a paid advertisement! We haven’t read WSJ in recent times on a regular basis, so, we do not know whether it is still carrying this advertisement or not. Our guess: Not.

Does this make any difference to the rest of the article? Probably not.

Does that mean that facts are unimportant as long as one gets the central theme right? We just ask...

ವಿಕ್ರಾಂತ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ

2006-08-30T06:45:00.000-04:00

Dear Readers, it has been a while since we updated our blog. Our move from US to India, frequent travel and more than them, a lack of a reliable Internet connection has kept us away from this blog. Not that anybody missed...

Mean while, it's now old news that there's a new Kannada magazine:ವಿಕ್ರಾಂತ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ. We still haven't had a chance to check out it's print edition. But, based on what we have read and read-about, it has lofty goals and aspirations. We welcome this magazine with interest and an open heart. May it meet all its aspirations. As media-junkies, we need our fix. If there's an addition to the provider's list, who are we to complain?! More the merrier!!

This is our 50th post. Some sort of a mile-stone. Wouldn't it be out of character if we didn't rant a bit?Yeah...we thought so too.

We really do not understand the reluctance of some (?) Kannada newspapers to credit the story they publish. Why not publish the name of the agency that provided the story? Or provide the name of the reporter or reporters who reported/wrote the story? Is there a problem with that?

We find it disappointing that the new kid on the block Vikranta Karnataka too is following the ways of its more well known brethren. For example, take a look at this story about Pakistan winning a cricket match against England. We don't know who wrote that. Was it written by a Vikranta Karnataka staffer? Or, was it picked it from an agency's news-wire? If it was written by a staffer, why not publish his/her name? Or name the agency? As readers, don't we deserve to know this much? Doesn't it also serve the magazine/newspaper well? (Remember Reuters' admission about doctored images?)

Could we expect ವಿಕ್ರಾಂತ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ to do a better job in this regard?

Some Pictures

2006-06-27T23:43:00.000-04:00

Let's take a break from the monotony of our rants and musings about the news media. Here are a few pictures from our recent trip to South America.

All these pictures were taken at a place called Petropolis near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Let's hope Brazil wins the World Cup! If they don't, let it be Argentina!!

Left High and Dry By P.T.I. ?

2006-06-26T15:19:00.000-04:00

Today we read this article in Kannada Prabha. Here is what it says in the first two lines:

ನವದೆಹಲಿ: ೧೯೯೯ರ ಲೋಕಸಭಾ ಚುನಾವಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಗೆದ್ದ ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿಗಳು ನಿಗದಿತ ಮಿತಿಗಿಂತ ಸರಾಸರಿ ಸುಮಾರು ೩೦ ಪಟ್ಟಿಗಿಂತಲೂ ಅಧಿಕ ಹಣ ವೆಚ್ಚ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಎಂದು ವಿಶ್ವ ಬ್ಯಾಂಕ್ ಹೇಳಿದೆ.
ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿಗಳ ಚುನಾವಣಾ ವೆಚ್ಚಕ್ಕೆ ೨,೫೦,೦೦೦ ರು. ಮಿತಿ ನಿಗದಿಪಡಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಆದರೆ, ಗೆದ್ದ ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಸುಮಾರು ೮೩ ಲಕ್ಷ ರು.ನಷ್ಟು ಹಣ ಖರ್ಚು ಮಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಎಂದು ವಿಶ್ವ ಬ್ಯಾಂಕ್ ತನ್ನ 'ಭಾರತೀಯ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಸೇವೆ ಸುಧಾರಣೆ- ಯಶಸ್ಸಿನಿಂದ ಪಾಠ' ಎಂಬ ವರದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ತಿಳಿಸಿದೆ.

The question is, does the World Bank Report really say that "೧೯೯೯ರ ಲೋಕಸಭಾ ಚುನಾವಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಗೆದ್ದ ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿಗಳು ನಿಗದಿತ ಮಿತಿಗಿಂತ ಸರಾಸರಿ ಸುಮಾರು ೩೦ ಪಟ್ಟಿಗಿಂತಲೂ ಅಧಿಕ ಹಣ ವೆಚ್ಚ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ." ?

No. It does not. We actually read that report. You too can read it here.

So, what does it say? Here is what it says about the spending:

While campaign ceilings for a Lok Sabha seat have been re-pegged at Rs.25 lakhs, the average winner spent approximately Rs.83 lakhs inthe 1999 Parliamentary elections.

It does not say anything about "30 ಪಟ್ಟು" or any "ಪಟ್ಟು". So how did Kannada Prabha arrive at that figure? We don't know. We can only guess.

It appears that the Rs. 25 lakhs in the World Bank report has erroneously become Rs. 2.5 lakhs in the Kannada Prabha report. This simple error has further been compounded by the assumption that Rs.2.5 lakhs was the mandated spending limit for the 1999 elections. Since, 83 lakhs actual spending is about 30 times that of 2.5 lakhs, it is reported as "30 ಪಟ್ಟು". (Please note, this is just a guess on our part. We really do not know where that "30 times" came from. It certainly is not there in the WB Report.)

Actually, the Rs. 25 lakh that is cited in the World Bank report is not the spending limit for 1999 elections. As the WB Report states, that figure is after "re-pegging". And it was done in 2003 for the 2004 election. The 1999 spending limit was about Rs. 15 lakhs. So, the Kannada Prabha report is incorrect on following counts:

First of all the World Bank did not say "೧೯೯೯ರ ಲೋಕಸಭಾ ಚುನಾವಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಗೆದ್ದ ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿಗಳು ನಿಗದಿತ ಮಿತಿಗಿಂತ ಸರಾಸರಿ ಸುಮಾರು ೩೦ ಪಟ್ಟಿಗಿಂತಲೂ ಅಧಿಕ ಹಣ ವೆಚ್ಚ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ"
Second, the World Bank did not say "ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿಗಳ ಚುನಾವಣಾ ವೆಚ್ಚಕ್ಕೆ ೨,೫೦,೦೦೦ ರು. ಮಿತಿ ನಿಗದಿಪಡಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು." Instead, it says "campaign ceilings for a Lok Sabha seat have been re-pegged at Rs.25 lakhs". As mentioned earlier, this re-pegging happened after the 1999 elections.

If we use the 1999 ceilings of Rs.15 lakh spending limit, the actual money spent of Rs.83 lakhs is only about 5 times more. Not 30 times.

Why are we blaming P.T.I. for this? Because, it appears it's a P.T.I. story even though Kannada Prabha fails to credit it.

We found the same story appearing in Mumbai Mirror. Yes, it has the same error. However, the Mirror takes care to credit the story to P.T.I. Here are the same lines from Mumbai Mirror:

New Delhi: Winning candidates on an average spent over 30 times the stipulated amount for a Lok Sabha seat in the 1999 general election in India, says a World Bank report.

While the campaign ceiling for a Lok Sabha seat has been re-pegged at Rs 2,50,000, the average winner spent about Rs 83,00,000 in the 1999 parliamentary election, said the report "Reforming Public Services in India — Drawing Lessons from Success".

We really do not understand this failure to credit where the credit is due. Actually in this case blame is due.

Is that it? Not by any chance.

Further in the story while discussing about Muti-Party System Vs. Two-Party system, as per Kannada Prabha, the WB report said that "ದ್ವಿಪಕ್ಷೀಯ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯದು."

Is the WB Report as unequivocal about the Two-Party System as Kannada Prabha states? Does the report really say "ದ್ವಿಪಕ್ಷೀಯ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯದು."? The answers are actually, "No" and "No".

So, what does the report actually say about Multi-Party System Vs. Two-Party System?

It indeed discusses the benefits of a Two-Party System (as opposed to a Multi-Party one) at some length. But it does not declare that the Two-Party System is "ಒಳ್ಳೆಯದು". In fact, the authors of the report take enough care to write the following:

"On the other hand, multi-party systems may disrupt collusive tendencies among dominant parties andprovide more space for citizen voice. More research is needed to understand the effects of two-party and multi-party systems on public service delivery."

Interestingly the Mumbai Mirror version of the PTI story does not have what Kannada Prabha has in this context. It does not say anything about the Two-Party System. All it says is:

The [World Bank] report attributed the staggering expenses to the growth of the multi-party system in India. "The growth of multi-party competition in tight races has encouraged a free-for-all to outspend opponents to win," it said.

A simple question: Do we get the right picture about the WB Report by reading the Kannada Prabha report?

Decide for you yourselves.

Tail Piece: The WB Report is pretty interesting. The issues that are discussed in that are quite educative. Please go and read that. If you are a journo, I am sure there is more than one story to report there. Definitely a more interesting story than the one about Indian politicos spending more than the mandated limit in their election campaigns.

Kannada Prabha Is Paper Number One!

2006-06-25T22:44:00.000-04:00

Based on Google Trends, in our previous post we wondered whether Prajavani is the "Paper Number 1" among Kannada news papers as far as Interenet is concerned.

While Google Trends provide some idea about the searches being done on Google, it seems there is a better way to measure the Internet traffic. One of our readers wrote the following:

Dear Sanjaya,
On Internet KannadaPrabha is No.1. The graphs you have shown from google trend - beta service is of not much significance. Infact, if you want to take fairly relaiable ranking you should use alexa as a standard service.

According alexa Page rankings for Kannada Dailies are as under:

Kannada Prabha - 64,138
Prajavani - 109,735
Sanjevani - 126,051
Udayavani - 1,645,940
Vijaya Karnataka - No Data
Samyukta Karnataka - No Data

We thank our anonymous reader for providing us this information.

Prajavani - Paper Number 1 ?!!

2006-06-23T14:25:00.000-04:00

In terms of print circulation, Vijaya Karnataka is the "Paper Number 1" of Kannada newspaper field. This has been the case for a few years now.

Does it retain the same spot on the 'Net? We don't know. We are not sure if any stats are available in this regard.

However, we can tell you one thing. More people search for "Prajavani" on Google than any other Kannada newspaper. As per Google Trends , Prajavani beats both Vijaya Karnataka and Kannada Prabha hands down at present.

But why?! Readership demographics? Prajavani's relatively longer presence on the 'Net?

Among the Khan trio of Bollywood who is most sought after? Find out for yourself by doing you know what here. Notice that Morocco trends towards Shah Rukh unlike most other countries? No surprise there. We already knew about that by reading Sriram's English blog. Money quote:

It was heartwarming to see some Moroccan kids claiming that their hearts were Indian. Shah Rukh Khan was a passport for all houses and there were none that had not seen at least one Shah Rukh movie. No, Aamir, Salman, Saif did not feature in the list.

Now for the all important question. Kareena Or Priyanka? The answer is here.

Water Cooler Talk At Churumuri

2006-06-23T09:17:00.000-04:00

If you are interested to read something interesting about Kannada journalism and journos, do drop in here and read the comments section. The talk there is not always illuminative. At times it is even vulgur. But at all times it is quite interesting. We learnt a good bit of information from there.
(Our thanks to Subhash for sending us the link.)

Disclosure: Our blog makes a "You Blink, You'll Miss It" appearance there.

Is the situation really that bleak?

2006-06-22T16:43:00.001-04:00

Dear Readers,

All through our short existance, we have complained about errors -- factual or otherwise -- in the newspapers that we read. But, we have never lost our hope. We have wondered at times about these errors, but have generally stayed away from making any blanket statement and wholesale indictments of our journalists. Yet, based on the reactions we have seen in the comment section, many are upset.

Now, in his column, writing about the acquisition of Vijaya Karnataka by the Times of India group, here is what Ravi Belagere has to say:

"ಬೇರೆ ಯಾವ ಸಬ್ಜೆಕ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲೂ ಸೀಟು ಸಿಗದ ಅನೇಕರು ಯಾಂತ್ರಿಕವಾಗಿ ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಎಂ.ಎ., ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅಷ್ಟಿಷ್ಟು ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮದ ಚಾರ್ಮ್ ಕಂಡು, ಹೆಸರು-ಅಹಂಕಾರ ಗಳಿಸಲೆಂದು ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮಕ್ಕೆ ಬಂದು ಬಿಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅಂಥವರಿಂದ ನೀವು ಯಾವ ತೆರನಾದ ಬರಹ ಬರೆಸಬಲ್ಲಿರಿ? ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮಿಗಳು ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಇಂಥವರು : ಧಣಿಗಳು ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಅಂಥವರು. ಇನ್ನು ಓದುಗರ ಪರವಾಗಿ ನಿಂತು ಮಾತನಾಡುವವರು ಯಾರು?

ನನ್ನಂಥ ಅನೇಕರನ್ನು ಕಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವ ಚಿಂತೆ ಅದು. ವ್ಯಥೆ ಕೂಡ."

Whoa...!

While we don't always agree with Mr.Belagere, we know that he speaks what's in his mind. And, what he says here are pretty strong words. And indeed sad, if it's true.

The question is : Is the situation really that bleak?

We hope not.

Kannada Prabha: Last In Translation?

2006-06-18T11:46:00.000-04:00

[Without a note of irony some one criticised us by saying "criticising is easy". In that spirit, we are going for easy criticisms here. We really like it easy.]

Just the other day we mentioned about Kannada Prabha's creative translation of Singer's Nobel speech. Today we saw some more.

Here is TJS George's article in English. And here is the version as translated by Kannada Prabha.

In his article, George mentions about a political play "The New Statesman, Episode 2006. The Blair B'stard Project.", for some reason, in the Kannada translation it becomes 'ದ ನ್ಯೂ ಸ್ಟೇಟ್ಸ್‌ಮನ್, ಎಪಿಸೋಡ್ ೨೦೦೬ (ಹೊಸ ರಾಜನೀತಿಜ್ಞ, ಅಧ್ಯಾಯ ೨೦೦೬) -'ಬ್ಲೇರ್ -ಬುಷ್ ತಾರಾ ಅಭಿನಯ ಯೋಜನೆ'

Later in his article, George mentions about "Hundreds of murderers, rapists and thieves escaped from some of Britain's open prisons ". But Kannada Prabha translates it as "ನೂರಾರು ಮಂದಿ ಕೊಲೆಗಡುಕರು, ವ್ಯಭಿಚಾರಿಗಳು, ಕಳ್ಳಕಾಕರು ಬ್ರಿಟನ್ನಿನ ಕೆಲ ಬಯಲು ಬಂದೀಖಾನೆಗಳಿಂದ ಪರಾರಿಯಾದರು." I do hope that the good folks at Kannada Prabha know the difference between "rape" and "ವ್ಯಭಿಚಾರ".

While the word "escape" could some times be translated as "ಪರಾರಿ", not in this case. "ಪರಾರಿ" changes the meaning entirely. It implies that these criminals ran away. But the fact is, they were allowed to walk free after completing their sentences.

The "escape" here is not about running away from open prisons, but about serving the sentence and then being allowed to walk free instead of being deported to their native countries. (In fairness to K.P., we have to mention that the next setence in the article makes context a bit more clear. But, not clear enough.)

There are something else about this article. No, they are not about Kannada Prabha's abilities (or lack of them) of translations.

While on the topic of the political play, George writes about the "anger of the playwright and of those who flock to see the show.". The fact is, the play is a satire. Even a farce. If the playwright is any good, those who flock to see should see the British Prime Minister Blair as an object of ridicule rather than one of anger.

In his article, George mentions about the "mutiny" of British Civil Servants and about the freeing of thousands of foreign criminals who should have been considered for deportation. If one reads George's article they appear to be two separate events, both undermining Tony Blair's credibility. Note that in George's telling the "mutiny" is mentioned first and then the freeing of the criminals.

But, the fact is, as reported here in the Daily Mail, the head of the Civil Servant's association's "mutiny" seems to have been at least as a reaction to the criminal freeing fiasco.

Do any of these matter? We say, decide for yourselves.

ಕನ್ನಡ ಪ್ರಭದಲ್ಲಿ ಭೂತ ಚೇಷ್ಟೆ?!

2006-06-08T11:33:00.000-04:00

On May 17th Sriram of ಕನ್ನಡವೇ ನಿತ್ಯ posted an article about Kannada nationalism in his blog. (We at 108 Sullu World H.Q. fully encourage you to read it. It sure is different from all the chest thumping rhetoric we generally get to read.)

Sriram ended that article with the Kannada translation of a part of the speech given by Isaac Bashevis Singer, the well known Yiddish writer.

It sure is an interesting speech. Especially the parts Sriram translates and quotes in his blog post.

What is more interesting -- to us at least -- is the fact that on June 4th, Kannada Prabha published the same exact speech. The one difference being, while Sriram uses only the portion that's relevant to his article, Kannada Prabha quotes almost the entire speech. (You can read the Kannada Prabha version here.)

Consider this. Singer gave this speech in 1978. He has been dead for a long time. (1991) It is not like this speech is news, say, like Jaffer's double century against the Windies, where all the newspapers have almost the same story to report.

What are the odds that a well known Kannada blogger and a Kannada newspaper discover the same speech of a long dead Yiddish writer independently of each other almost at the same time? We must say, not that very good. If we were of the betting kind, and had there been a bet about this, we definitely would have bet against it.

Note that, unlike Sriram's article, there is no context for Kannada Prabha to publish this speech except that it's interesting.

Did someone at Kannada Prabha read Sriram's article? We don't know. If they did, shouldn't they at least give some credit or make a reference to Sriram's blog? (We know that we are asking accusatory questions based purely on speculation. But, we are just a blog. Should we have higher standards than newspaers?! We know that it is not impossible that some one at Kannada Prabha chanced upon this speech. But what is the chance? While it is not impossible, it sure is improbable.)

It always amuses us -- we at 108 Sullu World H.Q. are easily amused -- to see these kinds of antics at our esteemed newspapers. We then start wondering whether these are the works of nameless ghosts or Harvard juniors with names who use their photographic memories to internalize the things that they read.

Tail pieces:

For some unknown reason, the ghost that translated Singer's speech for Kannada Prabha does not like the word "Yiddish". In his speech Singer uses the word "Yiddish" 8 times. But it appears not even once in the Kannada Prabha translation.
By the using the phrase "ಯಿದ್ದಿಷ್ ಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುವ ಕತೆಗಾರ" the Kannada Prabha piece leaves the impression that Singer is not dead. That could be just a typo. Or, an oversight. Or, Singer's ghost could be the one that's writing for Kannada Prabha.
Compared to Sriram's translation, Kannada Prabha's translation uses conversational Kannada.

Want to read a third translation? Even more colloquial? Here it is:

"ಅಲ್ಲ..ರೀ.. ಆಗ್ಲೋ ಈಗ್ಲೋ ಅಂತಿರೋ ಭಾಷೆಲಿ ಬರೀತೀರಲ್ಲ ನೀವು, ಯಾಕೆ?"

ಅಂತ ಸುಮಾರು ಜನ ನನ್ನ ಕೇಳ್ತಾನೇ ಇರ್ತಾರೆ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಆನ್ಸರ್ರು ಒಂಚೂರು ಎಕ್ಸ್‌ಪ್ಲೇಯ್ನ್ ಮಾಡಿಬಿಡ್ತೀನಿ.

ಫಸ್ಟಫಾಲ್ ನಂಗೆ ದೆವ್ವದ ಕತೆ ಬರೆಯೋದು ಅಂದ್ರೆ ಸಕ್ಕತ್ ಇಷ್ಟ ಜೊತೇಗೆ ದೆವ್ವದ್ ವಿಷ್ಯ ಬರ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಇನ್ನೇನು ಗೊಟಕ್ ಅನ್ನೋ ಲಾಂಗ್ವೇಜೇ ಬೆಟರ್ ಅನ್ಸುತ್ತೆ. ಲಾಂಗ್ವೇಜ್ ಸತ್ತಷ್ಟೂ ದೆವ್ವ ಲೈವ್ಲೀ ಆಗುತ್ತೆ. ಯಿಡ್ಡಿಷ್ ಅಂದ್ರೆ ದೆವ್ವಗಳು ಪ್ರಾಣಾನೇ ಬಿಡುತ್ವೆ. ನಂಗೊತ್ತಿರೋ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಅವೆಲ್ಲಾ ಮಾತಾಡೋದು ಅದ್ರಲ್ಲೇ.

ಸೆಕೆಂಡಾಗಿ, ನನ್ಗೆ ದೆವ್ವಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಅಲ್ಲ ನಂಬ್ಕೆ ಇರೋದು, ಅವು ತಿರ್ಗಿ ಎದ್ ಬರುತ್ವೇ ಅಂತಾನೂ ನಂಬ್ಕೆ ಇದೆ. ಶ್ಯೂರಾಗಿ ಹೇಳ್ತೀನಿ, ಒಂದಲ್ಲಾ ಒಂದು ದಿವಸ, ಲಕ್ಷಾಂತರ ಯಿಡ್ಡಿಷ್ ಮಾತಾಡೋ ಡೆಡ್ ಬಾಡೀಸ್ ಸಮಾಧಿಗಳಿಂದ ಎದ್ದು ಬರೋದು ಗ್ಯಾರಂಟಿ. ಅವಾಗ, ಅವು ಕೇಳೋ ಫಸ್ಟ್ ಕ್ವೆಶ್ಚನ್: "ಯಾವ್ದಾದ್ರೂ ಹೊಸ ಯಿಡ್ಡಿಷ್ ಬುಕ್ ಇದ್ಯಾ ಓದಕ್ಕೆ?"

ಮೂರ್ನೇದು, ಟೂ ಥೌಸಂಡ್ ಯಿಯರ್ಸ್ ಹೀಬ್ರೂನ ಟಿಕೆಟ್ ತೊಗೊಂಡಿರೋ ಭಾಷೆ ಅಂತಿದ್ರು. ಸಡನ್ನಾಗಿ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಲೈಫ್ ಬಂದ್ ಬಿಡ್ತು. ಹೀಬ್ರೂಗಾಗಿದ್ದು ಇವತ್ತಲ್ಲಾ ನಾಳೆ ಯಿಡ್ಡಿಷ್‍ಗೂ ಅಗ್ಬೋದು. (ಆದ್ರೆ, ಅದು ಹೆಂಗ್ ಆಗುತ್ತೆ ಅಂತ ನಂಗೆ ಒಂಚೂರೂ ಐಡಿಯಾ ಇಲ್ಲ.)

ನಾನು ಯಿಡ್ಡಿಷ್ ಬಿಡ್ದೇ ಇರಕ್ಕೆ ನಾಲ್ಕನೇದಾಗಿ ಒಂದು ಪುಟ್ ರೀಸನ್ನೂ ಇದೆ. ಅದು ಯಾವ್ದಪ್ಪಾ ಅಂದ್ರೆ: ಯಿಡ್ಡಿಷ್ ಹರೋ-ಹರ ಅಂತಿರ್ಬಹುದು, ಆದ್ರೆ ನಂಗೆ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗ್ ಬರೋದು ಅದೊಂದೆ. ಯಿಡ್ಡಿಷ್ ನನ್ನ ಮದರ್ ಟಂಗು ಆಂಡ್ ಮದರ್ ಕಭಿ ನಹಿ ಮರ್‍ತೀ.

If you have Mangalore-Kannada, Dharvad-Kannada, Mukhya Mantri Chandru- Kannada translations of the above, please do send us.

ಸೂರ್ಯಂಗೇ ಟಾರ್ಚ್ ..?!

2006-06-07T08:52:00.000-04:00

We can't say we are particularly fond of writing about ourselves. But, then again, it's not everyday that people of eminence are talking about us. Forget about people of eminence. It's not everyday that any one is talking about us.

We hope that you will excuse our exploitation of the 15 minutes of our fame to its last second.

Mr.Belagere's article about our blog has generated a few responses. One among them being our own. You can read all of them here.

Caste-ing Aspersions

2006-06-06T22:00:00.000-04:00

A few weeks back we read an article in The Outlook. You can read it here. (Requires Registration).

The sub-head of the article asks the following question:

Promoted to RBI dy governor, then demoted. Is his caste the issue?

What is it about? It is about Dr.R.B.Barman an executive director of RBI who was first elevated to the post of deputy governor of RBI and later "demoted" back to his original designation.

Why?
As per the report itself, one or more of the following could be the reasons:

One view is that he was not adept at "political manoeuvering, lobbying and promoting himself"—at least until he was publicly humiliated—and this led to his being sidelined. Another contention is that he was ignored because there was no precedent for a statistician to rise to the position of deputy governor. A third charitable one is that the RBI made a genuine mistake. Finally, sources close to Barman claim that he was a victim of RBI's inner politics.

In retrospect, it appears that Reddy elevated Barman "in his personal capacity" without following the proper appointment procedure.

So, where's the "caste" here, you ask?! Good question. We wish we knew the answer.

As per the report, Dr.Barman belongs to a "scheduled caste" and some nameless "sources contend that one of the reasons why he was sidelined may be because of his scheduled caste background".

Yes. That's it. "may be"!

That's all is needed for the good editors at The Outlook to see the caste as "the issue". It does not matter that Dr.Barman's own letter to the governor of RBI (as quoted in the Outlook report itself) does not make any such allegation. It also does not matter in the whole sequence of events as reported by the Outlook itself, there is nothing to indicate that the caste played any role.

So, who were the people who discriminated against Dr.Barman because of his caste, you ask? Again a good question. Did the nameless "sources" name anyone? We don't know. The Outlook certainly does not name anyone.

Yes, we agree that Dr.Barman seems to have been treated shabbily. But, was that because of his caste? Doesn't the Outlook need to establish a few more relevant facts before casting aspersions?

ಬೆಳಗೆರೆಯ ಮನದಲ್ಲಿ .. ನೂರೆಂಟುಸುಳ್ಳು!

2006-06-06T16:24:00.000-04:00

Dear Readers,

We are baa...aack. We are not sure for how long though. But, for now, we are here.

It's party time at 108 Sullu World H.Q. We have been noticed!

First Sudha takes a note of us. Thanks mainly to Pavanaja and Sriram.
Then, Ravi Belagere writes about us. Want to know what he has to say? You know what to do here.

Regards,

"Sanjaya"

Is Mallya Also From Mars?!

2006-04-27T13:36:00.000-04:00

Recently, we at the 108 Sullu World H.Q. were reading an article by our favorite writer Mr.Vishveshwara Bhat. An article about Mr.Vijay Mallya. The following lines in that article intrigued us.

"ಕೆಲ ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ ಸದರ್ನ್ ಕ್ಯಾಲಿಫೋರ್ನಿಯಾ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯ ವಿಜಯ ಮಲ್ಯಗೆ ಗೌರವ ಡಾಕ್ಟರೇಟ್ ಪದವಿ ನೀಡಿದಾಗ ನಾವೆಲ್ಲಾ ಜೋಕು ಮಾಡಿ ಅವರನ್ನು ಆಡಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದೆವು."

We at 108 Sullu World H.Q. are not journalists. So, if something intrigues us, we don't joke around. To be fair, unlike a real newspaper with paying customers and numerous employees, we are a lonely bunch. To be specific ours is a single-man operation.

Since we couldn't joke around, what did we do? We tried to do the next best thing. We tried to find the whereabouts of this "Southern California University".

Having lived in US for the past 16 years and having studied there we know a little bit about the universities in US. Not a whole lot. Just a little bit.

Having never heard of "Southern California University", we thought about the possibility of Mr.Bhat having his facts wrong. If you are a regular reader of our blog, not exactly an illogical conclusion.

So we decided to check. And check, we did. We visited some of Mr.Mallya's websites. Examples: this and this. And they also said that Mr.Mallya got his honorary Ph.D. from "Southern California University".

Having satisfied with Mr.Bhat's possible sources on this matter, we then started searching for this "Southern California University". We found no such university.

The closest we found were "Southern California University of Professional Studies" and "Southern California University of Health Sciences". While the second one is a small school that teaches Acupuncture and Chiropractice, the first one is a for profit trade school that is "100% Online" requires "No Attendance". Hardly the schools a billionaire would brag about.

More interestingly we also found a "Southern California University" in a document prepared by the Michigan state government. Here is what the document says about "Southern California University" (as well as the "Southern California University for Professional Studies") among other such colleges and universities:

"This is a listing of colleges and universities which are not currently accredited by an accrediting body of the Council on Higher Education Accreditation. Degrees from these institutions will not be accepted by the Department of Civil Service as satisfying any educational requirements indicated on job specifications. Please note that this list is not all inclusive; unaccredited schools will be added as we become aware of them."

A bit more looking around yielded this reference to the "Southern California University":

"DipScam's largest case came to its grand finale in a federal courthouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, in October 1987, with John present as an expert witness and observer. On trial were the seven perpetrators of a long string of degree mills, most recently including Roosevelt University, Loyola University, Cromwell University, University of England at Oxford, Lafayette University, DePaul University, and Southern California University, as well as several fake accrediting agencies."

While Mr.Bhat and at least some of Mr.Mallya's own websites say that Mr.Mallya -- or should we say Dr.Mallya?-- got his honorary doctorate from "Southern California University", there are other websites which say that this award was conferred on him by the "University of California, Irvine". Examples: Forbes.com and SECINFO.COM

However, when we contacted University of California, Irvine about this degree, here is what we received from them:

"Please be aware that the University of California, Irvine does not award honorary degrees, nor does is (sic) award a Ph.D. in Business Administration."

As per UB Group's corporate website, Mr.Mallya was awarded this honorary degree by yet another university. This time it is the prestigious University of Southern California (USC).

We contacted USC. We also contacted the P.R. department of the U.B. Group. But, till now we have not heard anything back from either one of them.

Is there a simple explanation for all this confusion? Or, is this just another case of Martian Syndrome Ã la "Dr." John Gray? Or, -- since the same information is also used in some government filings -- an attempt to mislead investors and other business folks?

We are just asking questions.

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಏಕಿಲ್ಲ?!

2006-04-20T11:27:00.000-04:00

ಓದುಗ ಮಿತ್ರರಾದ "ವಿಶ್ವಪುಟ" ಬ್ಲಾಗಿನ ಶ್ರೀ ವಿಶ್ವನಾಥ ಬಸವನಾಳಮಠ ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಯನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಇದೇ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಇತರ ಓದುಗರ ಮನದಲ್ಲೂ ಸುಳಿದಿರಬಹುದೆಂಬ ಅನಿಸಿಕೆಯಿಂದ, ಶ್ರೀ ಬಸವನಾಳಮಠ ಅವರ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಮತ್ತು ನನ್ನ ಉತ್ತರವನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

ಶ್ರೀ ಬಸವನಾಳಮಠರವರ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ:

ಸಂಜಯ್,
ಕನ್ನಡ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳ ಕುರಿತ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಟೀಕೆ ಟಿಪ್ಣಣಿಗಳು ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಏಕೆ ಇರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ?

ನನ್ನ ಉತ್ತರ:

ವಿಶ್ವನಾಥರವರೇ,

ನನ್ನ ಬ್ಲಾಗಿಗೆ ಭೇಟಿ ಇತ್ತದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು.

ಇನ್ನು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗೆ ಉತ್ತರ. ಒಂದೇ ಪದದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೇಳ ಬೇಕೆಂದರೆ: ಸೋಮಾರಿತನ.

ನನ್ನ ಬ್ಲಾಗನ್ನು ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಿದಾಗ ಯೂನಿಕೋಡ್ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸಿ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುವ ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆ ಇದೆಯೆಂದು ನನಗೆ ತಿಳಿದಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯಲು ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಿದೆ. ಅದರ ಜೊತೆಗೆ, ಕಳೆದ ೧೮ ವರ್ಷಗಳಿಂದ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಹೊರಗೆ (೧೬ ವರ್ಷಗಳಿಂದ ಭಾರತದ ಹೊರಗೆ) ವಾಸಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವುದರಿಂದ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯಲು ಕಷ್ಟವೆನಿಸಿತು. ಚಕ್ಕನೆ ಹೊಳೆಯುವ ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷ್ ಪದಗಳ ಕನ್ನಡ ಅವತರಣಿಕೆಗೆ ಪದೇ ಪದೇ ಡಿಕ್ಷನರಿ ಮೊರೆ ಹೋಗುವುದು ತೊಂದರೆ ಎನಿಸಿತು.

ನಾನಿನ್ನೂ ಭಾರತದ ಹೊರಗೇ ವಾಸಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದರೂ, ಯೂನಿಕೋಡ್ ಮೂಲಕ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುವ ವಿಧಾನ ಈಗ ನನಗೆ ತಿಳಿದಿದೆ. ಆದರೆ, ಸೋಮಾರಿತನ ಮಾತ್ರ ಇನ್ನೂ ಉಳಿದಿದೆ.

ವಂದನೆಗಳೊಂದಿಗೆ,

"ಸಂಜಯ"

Kannada Prabha Needs A 10 Year Old Girl Or A 40+ Year Old Man

2006-04-13T22:42:00.000-04:00

Dear readers, we are a pretty old fashioned bunch; we expect a certain skepticism in our journalists. In fact, we don't even mind a bit of healthy cynicism.

If you are like us, then we are pretty sure that you would be completely disappointed by this article about "Pranic Healing" in Kannada Prabha. We are not sure whether the writer of that article or Kannada Prabha got paid by the "Pranic Healers" or not. But it sure does read like an advertisement.

You may be wondering about what's all this got to do with a 10 year old girl. Don't worry. We sure will get to that topic. But, before that, we will write about the 40+ year old man. A man by name...Ravi Belagere.

A couple of months back the entire staff of 108 Sullu World H.Q. was in Bangalore. At that time we got a chance to watch an episode of Mr.Belagere's Crime Diary. The episode we watched was about a quack who was defrauding desperate AIDS/HIV patients by selling them essentially snake oil. The episode was highly entertaining. For sure it was a classic case of "gotcha journalism". But, it did unmask a conman.

Is "Pranic Healing" any different from the snake-oil that conman was peddling? We do not know. (Actually, we think so. But, that's only our opinion.) So, when we don't know, what do we do? Of course, we ask questions. Call us old-fashioned, but, if some one is claiming all sorts of health benefits for patients suffering from cold and fever to cancer, we really want to find out whether the claims have any scientific basis or not. Then again, we are not reporting for Kannada Prabha. And our name is not Devadatta Joshi.

To be fair, Mr.Joshi asks some questions. Unfortunately they are not the kind a skeptical journalist would ask.

First he writes:

ಮನುಷ್ಯ ಕೇವಲ ಮೂಳೆ, ಮಾಂಸಗಳಿಂದ ಮಾಡಲ್ಪಟ್ಟ ಭೌತಿಕ ಶರೀರ ಮಾತ್ರವಲ್ಲ. ಆತನ ಒಳಗೆ ಮತ್ತು ದೇಹದ ಸುತ್ತ ವ್ಯಾಪಿಸಿರುವ ಪ್ರಾಣ ತುಂಬಿದ ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮ ಶರೀರವೊಂದಿದೆ. ಈ ಶರೀರವೇ ಪ್ರಾಣಮಯ ಶರೀರ.

As per Mr.Joshi we human beings are not just made of flesh and bones, but each of us have a "life filled" (ಪ್ರಾಣ ತುಂಬಿದ) tiny/microscopic/unseen body (ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮ ಶರೀರ) in and around our physical bodies. Really?! Where did this scientific fact come from? Oh, sorry!! We forgot. We are reading a newspaper article here. It's our fault to expect factual basis for statement like these.

So, how does this "Pranic Healing" work?

After establishing the existence of this "Prana Shakti" , Mr.Joshi provides the scientific explanation:

ರೋಗ ಗುಣ ಹೇಗೆ ಸಾಧ್ಯ?
ಪ್ರಾಣಶಕ್ತಿ ದೇಹದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದರೂ ಮಾನವನಿಗೆ ಅದನ್ನು ದೇಹದಲ್ಲಿ ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ಹೊಂದಾಣಿಕೆ ಮಾಡಲಾಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಅಲ್ಲದೆ, ಆತನಿಗೆ ದಿನನಿತ್ಯದ ಏರುಪೇರುಗಳು, ಮಾನಸಿಕ ಅಥವಾ ಭಾವನಾತ್ಮಕ ಒತ್ತಡಗಳು, ಕ್ರಿಮಿ ಕೀಟಗಳು ಅಥವಾ ಪರಿಸರ ಮಾಲಿನ್ಯದಿಂದ ಶರೀರದಲ್ಲಿನ ಪ್ರಾಣದ ಸರಾಗ ಚಲನೆಗೆ ಅಡ್ಡಿಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದಲೇ ಧ್ಯಾನ, ಯೋಗ, ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥನೆ ಮೂಲಕ ಪ್ರಾಣಶಕ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ಆತ ಪ್ರವಹಿಸಿಕೊಂಡರೆ ಮನಸ್ಸು ಶಾಂತವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ದೇಹದಲ್ಲಿನ ರೋಗ ರುಜಿನುಗಳು ಗುಣವಾಗುವ ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯವೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚುತ್ತದೆ. ವಿಶೇಷವೆಂದರೆ, ಇತರ ಕೆಲ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸಾ ವಿಧಾನಗಳಂತೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ರೋಗಿಯ ಮೈಮುಟ್ಟಿ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸೆ ಮಾಡಲಾಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ.

In essence, by facilitating the "free flow" (ಸರಾಗ ಚಲನೆ) of this unseen "Prana Shakti" -- that's within us and around us --, "Pranic Healing" enhances the healing quality of our bodies. If this "Prana Shakti" is within us and around us, where's it flowing to, you ask? Please don't. Don't you want to write for Kannada Prabha?!

Surely there must be some explanation for it's ability to "heal" (not "cure") dreaded diseases like cancer, you say? Ok. Here is the explanation:

ಕ್ಯಾನ್ಸರ್‌ನಿಂದ ಬಳಲುತ್ತಿರುವ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ ಪ್ರಾಣ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸೆಯ ಮೊರೆ ಹೋದರೆ, ಆತನಲ್ಲಿ ರೋಗನಿರೋಧಕ ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯ ಹೆಚ್ಚುತ್ತ ಹೋಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ ಆತ ಯಾವುದಾದರೂ ಔಷಧ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದರೆ ಅದರ ಸೇವನೆಯ ಪ್ರಮಾಣವನ್ನು ದಿನದಿಂದ ದಿನಕ್ಕೆ ತಗ್ಗಿಸುತ್ತ ಹೋಗಬಹುದು. ದೇಹಕ್ಕೆ ಔಷದಿಯ ಅಗತ್ಯವೂ ಕಮ್ಮಿಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಏಕೆಂದರೆ ಪ್ರಾಣ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸೆಯಿಂದ ಆತನಲ್ಲಿನ ರೋಗ ಗುಣ ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯ ಹೆಚ್ಚುತ್ತದೆ.

The explanation is, "Pranic Healing" increases the immunity (ರೋಗನಿರೋಧಕ ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯ ) of our bodies and the patient can start reducing the dosage of the medicines he takes. Forget about how and why. By now, you sure know you can't ask such questions. Let us accept that "Pranic Healing" somehow increases the body's immunity. Now, does it really help cancer patients?

The answer to that question is actually a few clicks away from that article. Yes, right there in Kannada Prabha. This time in an article written by Dr.Cheluvanarayana Swamy. A real doctor. A doctor who seems to know what he is talking about. Here it is:

ರೋಗನಿರೋಧ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಬಲಗೊಳಿಸಿದರೆ ಕ್ಯಾನ್ಸರ್ ಮರುಕಳಿಸುವುದಿಲ್ಲ.

ಇದು ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಸುಳ್ಳು. ಕೆಮೋಥೆರಪಿಯಿಂದ ರೋಗನಿರೋಧಕ ಶಕ್ತಿ ಕುಸಿಯುತ್ತದೆ. ಆದರೆ ಕ್ಯಾನ್ಸರ್ ವಾಸಿಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ ರೋಗ ನಿರೋಧಕ ಶಕ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ಬಲಪಡಿಸುವುದರಿಂದ ಕ್ಯಾನ್ಸರ್ ಬರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಅಥವಾ ಮರುಕಳಿಸುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಅನ್ನುವ ವಾದದಲ್ಲಿ ಹುರುಳಿಲ್ಲ ಅನ್ನುವುದು ವೈದ್ಯ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ.

Unfortunately, while You and We read what's in Kannada Prabha. It's too much to ask the editors of Kannada Prabha for doing the same.

The rest of the article continues in a similar vein. For a guy who seem to care not too much about all the "how" and "why" details of this latest "therapy", Mr.Joshi is very scrupulous about providing the "where" details. He gives you the full address and the telephone number of the "Pranic Healing Foundation of Karnataka".

Now about the 10 year old girl.

While "therapies" like "Pranic Healing" may be new to Kannada Prabha, they themselves are not that new. These "therapies" claim that our bodies are surrounded by a "force field" and by manipulating this "force field" a person's health could be improved or changed.

In 1998 a 10 year old American girl by name Emily Rosa came up with a simple test. Keeping aside the manipulation part, her project tested the abilities of these "therapists" to detect the existence of this so called "force field" (akin to "Prana Shakti").

From a CNN report:

Emily set up a cardboard screen through which practitioners put their hands. With their sight blocked, she asked them to identify which of their hands was near one of hers.

The 21 practitioners chose the correct hand 44 percent of the time. That was slightly less than the 50 percent chance they would have had of choosing the correct hand by guessing, authors said.

Emily Rosa's findings were later published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

We can't say we are big fans of Mr.Belagere. But, in the case of AIDS con-man, Mr.Belagere's brand of journalism was not only entertaining, it also did some public good. One certainly can't say that about this particular article in Kannada Prabha.

Don't you think Kannada Prabha would have been served well by a 10 year old girl like Emily Rosa or a 40+ year old Belagere?

By the way, if you want to read about "ಪ್ರಾಣಿಕ್ ಸ್ಟೀಲಿಂಗ್", you know what to do here.

ಒಂದೇ ತಲೆಗೆ ಎರಡು ಟೊಪ್ಪಿಗೆ - Hats Off!

2006-03-28T15:57:00.000-05:00

ನನ್ನ ಹಿಂದಿನ ಲೇಖನವನ್ನು ಓದಿ ಶಿವ ಎಂಬುವರು ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಅವರ ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆ (ಅವರು ಕೇಳದಿದ್ದರೂ) ನನ್ನನ್ನು ನನ್ನ ಲೇಖನಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಒಂದು ವಿವರಣೆ ನೀಡುವಂತೆ ಪ್ರಭಾವಬೀರಿದ್ದರಿಂದ, ಅವರ ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆ ಮತ್ತು ನನ್ನ ವಿವರಣೆ ಎರಡನ್ನೂ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ನೀಡಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

ಶಿವ ಅವರ ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆ:

ಮೊದಲು ಮನೆಗೆ ವಿಜಯಕರ್ನಾಟಕವನ್ನು ತರಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆ.ವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರ ಭಟ್ ಮಾತ್ರವಲ್ಲ ವರ್ಣರಂಜಿತವಾಗಿ ಬರೆಯೋದು. ಶನಿವಾರ ಪ್ರತಾಪ್ ಸಿಂರ ಅಂಕಣ ಇರುತ್ತದೆ.ಅವರು ಸುಮಾರಾಗಿ ವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರ ಭಟ್, ರವಿ ಬೆಳಗೆರೆಯವರ ಹಾಗೆ ಬರೆಯೋದು.ಈಗ 'ಕನ್ನಡಪ್ರಭ' ತರಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ. :-)

ನನ್ನ ವಿವರಣೆ:

ಶಿವ ಅವರೇ,
ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆಗಾಗಿ ವಂದನೆಗಳು. ವಿಜಯ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಕನ್ನಡ ಪ್ರಭ (ಅಥವಾ ಪ್ರಜಾವಾಣಿ/ಸಂಯುಕ್ತ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ) ಉತ್ತಮವಿರಬಹುದೇ? ನನಗೆ ತಿಳಿದಿಲ್ಲ. ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ಶ್ರೀ ಭಟ್ಟರ ಲೇಖನಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇರುವ ಫ್ಯಾಕ್ಚುಯಲ್ ತಪ್ಪುಗಳು ಇತರೆ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳ/ಲೇಖಕರ ಲೇಖನಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇರುವುದಿಲ್ಲವೇ? ಅದೂ ಸಹ ನನಗೆ ತಿಳಿಯದು.

ನನ್ನ ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಬಹುಮಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ವಿಜಯ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಮತ್ತು ಶ್ರೀ ಭಟ್ಟರ ಲೇಖನಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆಯೇ ಇದ್ದರೆ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾರಣ ಇಂದು ವಿಜಯ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಕನ್ನಡದ ನಂ. ೧ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯಾಗಿರುವುದೇ ಆಗಿದೆ.

ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ವಿಚಾರ: ಶ್ರೀ ಭಟ್ಟರ ಲೇಖನಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಾನು ಬರೆಯುವುದೇನೇ ಇರಲಿ, ಪ್ರಜಾವಾಣಿ, ಸಂಯುಕ್ತ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ, ಕನ್ನಡ ಪ್ರಭಗಳಂತಹ ಎಸ್ಟಾಬ್ಲಿಷ್ಡ್ ದಿನ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಹಿಮ್ಮೆಟ್ಟಿಸಿ ವಿಜಯ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದಂತಹ ಹೊಸ ದಿನಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ನಂ. ೧ ಮಾಡಿರುವ ಭಟ್ಟರ ಸಾಧನೆ, ನೈಪುಣ್ಯ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಮೆಚ್ಚತಕ್ಕದ್ದೇ. ಹ್ಯಾಟ್ಸ್ ಆಫ್ ಟು ಹಿಮ್!

ಲಕ್ಷಾಂತರ ಮಂದಿ ಓದುಗರಿರುವ ಒಂದು ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುವುದು ಸುಲಭದ ಮಾತಲ್ಲ. ಸಂಪಾದಕನ ಕೆಲಸ ಪೂರ್ಣಾವಧಿ ಕೆಲಸ. ಸಂಪಾದಕನಿಗೆ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಬರೆಯಲು ಬೇಕಿರುವ ರೀಸರ್ಚ್, ಸಿದ್ಧತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಸಮಯ ಸಿಗುವುದು ಕಷ್ಟ. ಭಟ್ಟರು, ಬೆಳಗೆರೆಯಂತಹವರು ಸಂಪಾದಕ/ಲೇಖಕ ಹೀಗೆ ಎರಡೆರಡು ಟೊಪ್ಪಿಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊತ್ತಾಗ ಎರಡೂ ವಿಭಾಗಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ತಪ್ಪುಗಳಾಗುವುದು ನಿಶ್ಚಿತ ಎಂದೇ ನನ್ನ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ.

ವಂದನೆಗಳೊಂದಿಗೆ,

ಸಂಜಯ

Parody Too Subtle For Kannada Prabha?

2006-03-26T00:32:00.000-05:00

Some one creates a parody web site comparing Bush to Shiva. And, Kannada Prabha reports it with a straight-face:

ವಾಷಿಂಗ್ಟನ್: `ಐ ಆಯಮ್ ಶಿವ... ಬುಶ್ ಶಿವ'. ಹೊಸ ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಕರ್ತ, ದುಷ್ಟ ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ವಿನಾಶಕ!!!
-ಹೀಗೆಂದು ಅಮೆರಿಕ ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷ ಜಾರ್ಜ್ ಬುಷ್‌ರನ್ನು ಬಣ್ಣಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ ಅಮೆರಿಕದ ವೆಬ್‌ಸೈಟ್ ಒಂದರಲ್ಲಿ.
...

...ಶಿವ ಹೇಗೆ ದುಷ್ಟರ ದಮನಗೈದು, ದುಷ್ಟರ ಜಗತ್ತನ್ನು ನಾಶಮಾಡಿ ಹೊಸ ಜಗತ್ತನ್ನು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸುತ್ತಾನೋ ಅದೇ ರೀತಿ ಬುಷ್ ಇರಾಕ್ ಮೇಲೆ ಯುದ್ಧ ಮಾಡಿ, `ದುಷ್ಟ'ರ ದಮನಗೈದು ಹೊಸ ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಗೆ ಹೊರಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಎಂದು ಪರೋಕ್ಷವಾಗಿ ಈ ವೆಬ್‌ಸೈಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಡಿ ಹೊಗಳಲಾಗಿದೆ.
...
ಬುಷ್ ದೇವರ ಅವತಾರ. ದೇವರೇ ಖುದ್ದಾಗಿ ಬಯಸಿ ಬುಷ್‌ರನ್ನು ಅಮೆರಿಕ ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷರನ್ನಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಎಂಬುದು ವೆಬ್‌ಸೈಟ್‌ನ ಒಕ್ಕಣೆ. ದುಷ್ಟಶಕ್ತಿಗಳನ್ನು ದಮನ ಮಾಡಿ ಹೊಸ ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಗೆ ಸಹಾಯ ಮಾಡಿ ಎಂದೂ ಕಳಕಳಿಯ ಮನವಿ ಮಾಡಲಾಗಿದೆ ಇದರಲ್ಲಿ.
...

Update: Another Bush - Shiva comparison. Now, it's a cartoon in the International Herald Tribune. And the idiocy begins. IHT publishes a cartoon and a cartoon called Dr Shami Ahmed belonging to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) wants to burn effigies of the President Bush. Even Dick Cheney is not so off-target.

Some More Bhat Covering

2006-03-25T20:53:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers, it's been a while since we last updated this blog. Is there a better way to restart our posts than one about our old favourite Mr.Bhat? No. We did not think so either. So, here we go.

Just today we read his recent article lamenting that Rajya Sabha becoming the "(Last) Resort" of the industrialists and the rich.

He starts his article with Chaitanya "Chai" Patel. A doctor and businessman of Indian origin in Britain. Dr.Patel is making some news in UK because he gave £1.5m in loan to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party and was later nominated by Mr.Blair for a life peerage. (Peers, barring some restrictions by default are member of the British House of Lords)

Here is what Mr.Bhat writes about Dr.Patel:

...

[ಚೈತನ್ಯ ಪಟೇಲ್ ತನ್ನ] ಸಿಂಪಲ್, ಮುನ್ನುಗ್ಗುವ ಸ್ವಭಾವದಿಂದ ಬಹುಬೇಗ ಬ್ರಿಟನ್ ಪ್ರಧಾನಿ ಟೋನಿ ಬ್ಲೇರ್ ಸಖ್ಯ ಸಂಪಾದಿಸಿದ. ಪ್ರಧಾನಿಯ ಲೇಬರ್ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಗೆ 'ದೊಡ್ಡ ಗಂಟ'ನ್ನು ಕೊಟ್ಟ. ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಆ ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ರಾಜಕೀಯ ಪಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೆ ಸಾಲ ಕೊಡುವುದು ಅಂತಾರೆ. ರಾಜಕೀಯ ಪಕ್ಷ ಸಾಲ ತೀರಿಸಬೇಕಿಲ್ಲದಿರುವುದರಿಂದ, ದೇಣಿಗೆಯ ಬದಲು ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಲವಾಗಿ ಪಡೆಯುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಈ ಚೈ ಪಟೇಲ್ ದೊಡ್ಡ ರಖಮ್ಮು 'ಸಾಲ' ಕೊಟ್ಟ. ವ್ಯವಹಾರ ಕುದುರಿತು. ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ರಾಜ್ಯಸಭಾ ಸದಸ್ಯರಾಗುವಂತೆ, ಆತ ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಹೌಸ್ ಆಫ್ ಲಾರ್ಡ್ಸ್ (ಮೇಲ್ಮನೆ) ಸದಸ್ಯನಾದ. ರಾತ್ರಿ ಬೆಳಗಾಗುವುದರೊಳಗೆ ಚೈ ಪಟೇಲ್ ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಪ್ರತಿಷ್ಠಿತ ಶಾಸನಸಭೆಯ ಸದಸ್ಯನಾಗಿಬಿಟ್ಟ. ಉದ್ಯಮಪತಿಗಳು ಹಣದ ಥೈಲಿ ಹಿಡಿದು ಮೇಲ್ಮನೆ ಸದಸ್ಯರಾಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆಂದು ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳು ಬರೆದವು. ಬರೆದು ಬರೆದು ಸುಮ್ಮನಾದವು.

No. Not TRUE. The simple truth is as we write this post, Chai Patel is still not a member of the House of Lords. This is from The Times:

Despite their being nominated by Blair, the Appointments Commission, an independent body which vets potential peerages, has refused to ratify the honours for Patel, Garrard and Townsley. It has declined to give its reasons.

Mr.Bhat is also wrong when he writes that the political parties in Britain accept money in loans instead of donation because they don't have to repay the loans.("ರಾಜಕೀಯ ಪಕ್ಷ ಸಾಲ ತೀರಿಸಬೇಕಿಲ್ಲದಿರುವುದರಿಂದ, ದೇಣಿಗೆಯ ಬದಲು ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಲವಾಗಿ ಪಡೆಯುತ್ತಾರೆ. ").
So, why did the Labor Party take the money in loans instead of donations?

Quoting the The Times again:

...

If he [Chai Patel] had given the money as a donation, it would have had to be declared to the Electoral Commission and published, so exposing Labour to a potential cash-for-honours controversy.
...
...
[Chai Patel] might have been prepared to convert the loan into a donation at a later date, which means it would not be publicised until long after he had been awarded an honour.
Labour introduced the loans scheme last year amid mounting criticism of party supporters being handed honours, including knighthoods and peerages, after giving donations.
...

Now, why does Mr.Bhat get these basic facts wrong in a column being read by hundreds of thousands of paying readers? Is it because he does not care? Or is it because the rearranged "facts" fit his narration better? Why let uncomfortable facts get in the way of a good story? Right?!

As the saying goes: We report, you decide.

Punching Bag For A Punch-Line

2006-01-29T01:21:00.000-05:00

Dear readers, a few days back we wrote about Mr.Radhakrishna S. Bhadti's column in Vijaya Karnataka. If you remember, in that column he wrote about water resource experts and the seminars they attend. He seemed to know a lot about them including the type of toilets they use. However, when it was time to name the names, alas the words failed him; he failed to name a single person or seminar he so vigorously railed against.

This week [Vijaya Karnataka, January 27th, 2006] Mr.Bhadti has written about Laavancha aka Vetiver, the fragrant grass grown in many parts of India -especially in the coastal regions of Karnataka.

Vetiver [Vetiveria zizanioides]is known to control soil erosion and also block water runoff. In addition to these, the roots of this grass are very fragrant and is used in many ways.

Mr.Bhadti writes about Vetiver and how an essay written by an expert called Richard Grimshaw has led to interest across the globe for this grass.

In his last column if Mr.Bhadti was bashful to name the comic villains who use flush-toilets. Not this time. He names the name. Yes, the NAME!

Of course it is the global villain America.

Here is what he writes:

ಬಹುಶಃ ನಮ್ಮ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳ ಇನ್ನೂ ಅದೇಷ್ಟೋ ಮನೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇಂಥ ಅಸಂಪ್ರದಾಯಿಕ ಪದ್ಧತಿಗಳು ಸದ್ದಿಲ್ಲದೇ ನಡೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದಿರಬಹುದು. ತೀರಾ ಸಣ್ಣಪುಟ್ಟ ಸಂಗತಿಗಳೂ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ದೊಡ್ಡ ವೈಜ್ಞಾನಿಕ ಕ್ರಾಂತಿಗೆ ಕಾರಣವಾಗಬಹುದು. ಅಂಥವನ್ನು ಹುಡುಕಿ, ಪ್ರೋತ್ಸಾಹಿಸಿ ವ್ಯಾಪಕ ಬಳಕೆಗೆ ಮುಂದಾಗದಿದ್ದರೆ ನಮ್ಮ 'ಹಿತ್ತಿಲ ಗಿಡ ಮದ್ದಲ್ಲ' ಎಂಬ ನಿರ್ಲಕ್ಷ್ಯ ಧೋರಣೆಯನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿ ನಮ್ಮದೇ ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಸಸ್ಯ, ಪ್ರಯೋಗ, ಪದ್ಧತಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಅಮೆರಿಕದಂಥ ಬಂಡವಾಳಶಾಹಿಗಳು ಪೇಟೆಂಟ್ ಪಡೆಯುವಲ್ಲಿ ಅನುಮಾನವಿಲ್ಲ.

Earlier in the article when Mr.Bhadti writes approvingly about Richard Grimshaw, he does not mention about Mr.Grimshaw's country. Yes folks, Richard Grimshaw is an American. He runs an organization called The Vetiver Network to promote the usage of Vetiver. Yes, the same usage that Mr.Bhadti says that must be promoted.

However to end his column Mr.Bhadti was looking for a punch-line. Of course, is there a better punching-bag than the capitalist USA?

Is Prajavani The Best Kannada Newspaper?

2006-01-21T18:14:00.000-05:00

Dear readers, we are sorry. In the best tradition of misleading headings, we will not answer the question we have asked. We actually do not know which Kannada newspaper is the best.

But, we can tell you one thing. In the fast unfolding events that might bring down Mr.Dharam Singh's government in Karnataka, it is Prajavani that first identified the major roles being played by Mr.H.D.Kumaraswamy and the B.J.P.

On January 8, 2006, it carried a front page story that not only linked J.D.(S) and B.J.P., it also mentioned about talks of Mr.Kumaraswamy forming the government.

ದುಂಬಾಲು: ಬಿಜೆಪಿಯ ರಾಯಭಾರತ್ವ ವಹಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಇಬ್ಬರು ಹಿರಿಯ ಶಾಸಕರು ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ಜೆಡಿ(ಎಸ್) ಕಾರ್ಯಾಧ್ಯಕ್ಷ ಎಚ್.ಡಿ.ಕುಮಾರಸ್ವಾಮಿ ಅವರನ್ನು ಭೇಟಿ ಮಾಡಿ ನಿಮ್ಮೊಂದಿಗೆ ಕೈಜೋಡಿಸಲು ಸಿದ್ಧ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. `ನಿಮ್ಮ ಬೆಂಬಲದಿಂದ ಅಧಿಕಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಬಂದಿರುವ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಈಗ ನಿಮ್ಮನ್ನು ನಡು ನೀರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕೈಬಿಡುವ ಸಿದ್ಧತೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಇಂಥ ಸನ್ನಿವೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್‌ಗೆ ಪಾಠ ಕಲಿಸಲು ನಾವು-ನೀವು ಸೇರಿಕೊಂಡು ಸರ್ಕಾರ ರಚಿಸೋಣ' ಎಂಬ ಮಾತುಗಳನ್ನು ಬಿಜೆಪಿ ಮುಖಂಡರು ಹೇಳಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಎಂದು ಮೂಲಗಳು ತಿಳಿಸಿವೆ.

`ನೀವೇ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿಗಳಾಗಿ. ನಾವು ನಿಮಗೆ ಬೆಂಬಲ ಕೊಡುತ್ತೇವೆ. ನಮ್ಮ ಪಕ್ಷದವರಿಗೆ ಉಪ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಸ್ಥಾನ ಕೊಟ್ಟರೆ ಸಾಕು. ಇಬ್ಬರೂ ಸೇರಿ ಹೊಂದಾಣಿಕೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಪೂರ್ಣಾವಧಿ ಸರ್ಕಾರ ನಡೆಸೋಣ. ಆ ಮೂಲಕ ಸೇರಿ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಮಣಿಸಬಹುದು'

While Prajavani was reporting the above, Kannada Prabha had multiple stories about Congress - JD(S) coalition. All of them were about the recently concluded district panchayat elections and none of the reports mentioned Mr.H.D.Kumaraswamy's name even in passing.

From Kannada Prabha, January 8, 2006:

.ದಂಡ ಕಟ್ಟಿದರೆ ಅಕ್ರಮ ಬಡಾವಣೆ, ಕಟ್ಟಡ ಸಕ್ರಮ (ವಿಶೇಷ ವರದಿ)
.ಪಂಚಾಯ್ತಿ ಮೈತ್ರಿ: ಜೆ.ಡಿ.ಯಸ್. ಆಗ್ರಹಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ನೋ
.ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಕೇಳಿದರೆ ೪ ಪಂಚಾಯ್ತಿಗೆ ಸಹಕಾರ: ಸಿದ್ದು
.ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಜುಟ್ಟು ೪ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ ಕೈಲಿ
.ಬಾಹ್ಯ ಬೆಂಬಲ: ಜೆಡಿಎಸ್‌ನ ಹೊಸ ಚಿಂತನೆ
.ಪಂಚಾಯ್ತಿ ಫಲಿತಾಂಶ: `ದೋಸ್ತಿಗೆ ಧಕ್ಕೆ ಇಲ್ಲ' ಹೊಂದಾಣಿಕೆಗೆ ಸಿದ್ಧರಿಲ್ಲ

On that day, Vijaya Karnataka's leading story was also about the panchayat elections. It reported that Mr.Siddaramaiah was ready to join hands with Congress.

From Vijaya Karnataka January 8, 2006:

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು, ಜ.೭- ಅತಂತ್ರ ಸ್ಥಿತಿ ನಿರ್ಮಾ ಣವಾಗಿರುವ ಪಂಚಾಯಿತಿ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಜತೆ ಕೈಜೋಡಿಸಲು ತಮ್ಮ ಪಕ್ಷ ಸಿದ್ಧ ಎಂದು ಮಾಜಿ ಉಪ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯ ಘೋಷಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಪಂಚಾಯಿತಿ ಚುನಾವಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಮೊದಲ ಸ್ಥಾನ ಪಡೆಯಲು ತಮ್ಮ ಪಕ್ಷದ ಕೊಡು ಗೆಯೂ ಇದೆ. ಈ ಅಂಶವನ್ನು ಆ ಪಕ್ಷದ ಅನೇಕ ಮುಖಂಡರು ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆಂದೂ ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು.

While a son of Mr.Deve Gowda appeared on the front page of Viajaya Karnataka, it was not Mr.Kumaraswamy; instead it was Mr.H.D.Revanna.

Clearly in this instance Prajavani readers were served better by their newspaper. Does this make that paper the best? We at 108 Sullu world H.Q. say, "We Don't Know".

Digging Deep To Find Nothing Specific

2006-01-20T21:47:00.000-05:00

In today's (Jan. 20, 2006) Vijaya Karnataka, there is an article about Water [Resource] Experts, and the seminars they hold. It is written by Mr.Radhakrishna S. Bhadti.

It is Mr.Bhadti's contention that these seminars are not of any use. He starts thus:

ಇಂಥವುಗಳಿಂದ ಅದ್ಯಾವ ಪುರುಷಾರ್ಥ ಸಾಧನೆಯಾಗುತ್ತದೋ ತಿಳಿದಿಲ್ಲ. ಹಣ, ಸಮಯ, ಶ್ರಮ ಹೀಗೆ ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದೂ ವ್ಯರ್ಥವಾಗುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಇದು ಸ್ವತಃ ಅವರಿಗೂ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಆದರೂ ಅವರು ಅಂಥ "ಘನಕಾರ್ಯ" ಮಾಡುತ್ತಲೇ ಇರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅದು ಅವರಿಗೆ ಅನಿವಾರ್ಯ ಕೂಡ.

It is only the beginning. Here are some of the things he writes about these experts and the seminars they hold:

They talk for hours.
The seminars are held in very expensive star hotels.
There are way too many seminars - at least one or two a month in Bangalore alone.
If you want to attend these seminars, you better have "Nike" footwear, jeans pants and designer shirts. Further, you better use perfume...
Once you are there, you must consume [alcoholic] drinks.
These seminars are sponsored by companies like Coke, Pepsi, King Fisher etc.
These seminars are held in expensive hotels. (Yes, this is mentioned twice in the article.)
The professors and experts who attend these seminars have no clue about ground-water.
Their toilets are better than our prayer-rooms (ದೇವರಮನೆ).
They use western style toilets with flush buttons. (Yes, it's there in the article!)
They drink "Bisleri" water bottled by companies that are depleting our ground-water.
Some NGOs [that arrange these seminars] that live on foreign money have made this their "ದಂಧೆ".

Mr.Bhadti seems to know a lot about these seminars, experts (and the toilets they use). Surely he must be able to name at least a few of them, no? Definitely he is capable of naming one such seminar and one such expert, don't you think?

If you thought so, think again. In an article that's 11 paragraphs long, that engages in incessant attack on these "seminars" and "experts", not a single seminar or an expert is named.

As far as strawman-arguments go, this indeed is a gem!

Don't Hold Your Breath

2006-01-12T21:01:00.000-05:00

A single story in today's New York Times proves the two stars of Kannada journalism wrong. Here it is:

Former President Bill Clinton plans to announce today that his foundation has negotiated lower prices on AIDS tests and on two important AIDS drugs.

Four companies, from the United States, India and China, will offer rapid H.I.V. tests for 49 cents to 65 cents, which will reduce the typical cost of a test in poor countries by half, Mr. Clinton said in a written statement. Another four companies - three from India and one from South Africa - will make the antiretroviral drug efavirenz for as little as $240 per patient per year. One of the Indian companies, Cipla, will also make the antiretroviral abacavir for $447.
The most common three-drug combination pill for H.I.V. now costs $136 per year, so the new drugs, even at steep discounts from the thousands of dollars they cost in the West, can easily triple the cost of therapy. But as patients become resistant to their first-line drugs, doctors must have new options.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation acts as a broker, meeting with the health ministries of about 50 poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America and with drug makers.

In July 2004 Mr.Vishveshvara Bhat was not at all happy when Bill Clinton was appointed by the UN as an envoy in its initiatives against the HIV and AIDS. Here is what he wrote then:
While Mr.Bhat was upset about Clinton's involvement, Mr.Ravi Belagere saw a sinister conspiracy. For him AIDS/HIV were "specters" created by "countries like US" to sell drugs manufactured by US companies and "swindle" millions of dollars from India!

Here is what he wrote:
Now that Mr.Clinton and his foundation have made major headway in supplying test-kits/drugs for AIDS/HIV patients in developing countries -- test-kits/drugs manufactured in countries like India -- can we expect our star journalists to revisit this story?

Belagere On Islamic Extremism

2006-01-09T14:27:00.000-05:00

Ravi Belagere writes here about Islamic extremism. To be more specific, he asks the all important question: How does a Muslim become an extremist?

This is an important topic. We at 108 Sullu H.Q. compliment him for that. We generally don't get to read such topics being discussed by major Kannada journalists like.

It is also refreshing to note that Mr.Belagere does not view -- unlike many of our intellectuals -- the phenomenon of Islamic extremism (in India) as a reaction to the rise in Hindu fundamentalism. In fact, Mr.Belagere excoriates them for their theory that the Islamic extremism is a natural expression of Muslim minority's fears of insecurity in a Hindu majority India. According Mr.Belagere, these are the thoughts of intellectually immature people.

If that is not enough, he further calls these -- albeit nameless -- intellectuals: "phoney revolutionaries who condemn the meek and punish the undeserved"

Even those -- again nameless -- intellectuals who condemn all orthodoxy including the Islamic variety do not escape Mr.Belagere's ire. According to him, these intellectuals do not show the same alacrity when reacting to the violent acts of Islamic terrorists that they show when they issue condemnations when a structure of a mosque is disturbed.

We at 108 Sullu World H.Q. always welcome articles on such topics. Especially, if the writer is ready to name the names. However in Mr.Belagere's article, except for Mr.Baraguru Ramachandrappa's name -- who gets mildly skewered for an unrelated issue -- there are no other names mentioned.

Now to the topic of Mr.Belagere's article: "Why does a Muslim become an extremist?"

He has a simple -- in our opinion a rather simplistic -- answer: Bangladeshis.

As per Mr.Belagere, Bangladeshi Islamic preachers are brain-washing and recruiting Indian Muslims against Israel, USA and of course India.

While this may or may not be true in a particular incident like what happened at I.I.Sc., we have seen no statistics to blame Bangladeshis for the general rise in Islamic extremism. Mr.Belagere of course does not prvide any either.

There probably are more Bangladeshis in West Bengal and Assam than in most other states. But, we are unaware of any statistics that show that Islamic extremism is more prevalent in these states than others.

Mr.Belagere also engages in hyperbole: For example, all the taxi drivers in Mumbai and Calcutta are Bangladeshis. And the gentle Bangaloreans do not even sound their vehicle's horns near the mosques lest that disturb the prayers of Muslims!

We also did not like Mr.Belagere's disinterest or even seeming acceptance of extremism against Israel and USA. In our opinion, when it comes to violent extremism, it is not acceptable anywhere; India, Israel or USA.

Mr.Belagere's article has many nits to pick. Still, we at 108 World H.Q. congratulate him for his intellectual independence from the still fashionable left wing intellectual orthodoxy.

That Was Then.. This Is Now

2005-12-29T05:28:00.000-05:00

In July 2005, Ravi Belagere wrote the following about AIDS .

Clearly at that time, for him HIV and AIDS were just spectres created by countries like USA. (You can find our comments about that article here.)

Now it is December 2005. Mr.Belagere feels that Kannada movie stars are not doing enough for the people afflicted with AIDS and HIV. He even laments that he hasn't been able to read a single anthology of Kannada poetry on AIDS/HIV!

Has Mr.Belagere changed his mind on this?

Is The Half Empty Glass Half Full?

2005-12-29T04:37:00.000-05:00

It appears somebody in Times of India doesn't like vitamin D. On Wednesday, some US scientists released a report claiming that high doses of vitamin D could reduce the risk of some common cancers including breast cancer, ovarian cancer and colon cancers.

This claim was reported by the news media virtually all over the world. From CTV in Canada to The Daily Telegraph in Australia carried this story. And virtually all of them had the same title. Except The Times of India. See below:
The TOI sourced its report (with a New York byline) to BBC News online edition. The BBC News report has more than 20 paragraphs. Out of them, only one paragraph (the 11th one) mentions about the risks of taking too much vitamin D. For some reason, this paragraph caught the eye of the TOI news people.

The TOI report has 6 paragraphs. Two of these (the 1st and the 4th) talk about the dangers of too much vitamin D.

Curiously, this Reuters report does not even mention the dangers of taking too much vitamin D.

Wholly Cow!

2005-11-19T10:06:00.000-05:00

Kannada Prabha has this news item and we have no comments.

UPDATE: Apparently many private companies have beaten Madhya Pradesh government in this effort. Read the full MSNBC story here. Do we need any more proof that private enterprise is better than public sector?

Still Silent... II

2005-11-15T23:11:00.000-05:00

Vijaya Karnataka editors still have not commented about a matter that's being discussed all over the state. Today's (November 16th, 2005) editorial is about Bihar.

On an unrelated topic, Mr.Natwar Singh is being attacked from both left and right.

In Praja Vani, Kuldip Nayyar writes the following:

In Vijaya Karnataka, S.Gurumurty writes:

Still Silent...

2005-11-14T21:29:00.000-05:00

Vijaya Karnataka editors are still silent about the actions of Kannada activists. Still no editorial comment. Are they afraid? Your guess is as good as ours.

On an unrelated issue, we must praise Vijaya Karnataka about the article on Wall Mart. Quite frankly it is a point of view that's rarely seen in the Kannada news media.

Here is the gist:

On the other hand Praja Vani has an article with the still fashionable left-wing orthodox complaint about foreign investments

Here is the gist:

Shame!

2005-11-13T21:01:00.000-05:00

On Friday the mayor of Belagaum was visiting Bangalore for some official work. While he was at the Legislators Home, he was attacked by some Kannada Activists.

Take a look at the picture. This is what love for Kannada has come to. SHAME!

(Picture from Vijaya Karnataka)

Praja Vani rightly condemned it in its editorial. Here is the gist.

You can find Praja Vani's news story on this act here. In our opinion it is better than the ones in Vijaya Karnataka and Kannada Prabha.

Kannada Prabha also had an editorial. However, unlike Praja Vani, it was less unequivocal. In fact, the first few paragraphs did not even mention this shameful act. Instead, it talked about the actions of Belagam Municipal Corporation.

While it called the act of these self styled Kannada "activists" as unacceptable in any civil society, it did not directly say this act a criminal one. Instead it mere called it "attracting the rules of criminal procedure code".

The editorial also ended equivocally:

The editors of number one Kannada newspaper, Vijaya Karnataka, have remained silent on this issue till today (November 14th, 2005). When the other two major Kannada newspapers wrote about this issue, the editorial in the paper was about Madhu Dandavate who died on Saturday (November 13, 2005). However, it has a letter written jointly by U.R.Anantamurty and others that condemns this shameful act:

Natwar Sings.. The Hindu Joins The Chorus

2005-11-09T21:54:00.000-05:00

Mr.Natwar Singh -- the former foreign minister of India -- is in the news off late for wrong reasons.

In September an American Congressman questioned Mr.Singh's mental competence by calling him "dense".

Then his name figured in the report submitted to UN by Paul Volcker who investigated the corruption and kick-backs in the oil-for-food program in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Mr.Singh was forced to resign from his position.

On Tuesday The Hindu published an article to voice Mr.Prakash Karat's defense of Mr.Singh. Mr.Karat as you may know is the General Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist). According to Mr.Karat Volcker's committee itself is " to project the whole programme as a corrupt scheme".

As if not satisfied with providing Mr.Karat enough ink to defend Mr.Singh, on Wednesday, The Hindu published an opinion piece written by him. Good Communist that he is, Mr.Karat used the it to bash US and say all the things that is expected of him. He wrote: "Those who mounted the attack on the U.N. and the OFFP are totally silent about the loot of Iraq and the profiteering by U.S. corporations." Like a true intellectual , he also took enough care to remain "totally silent" about Saddam Hussein's atrocities.

Is Natwar Singh "dense"? We don't know. Is he a corrupt man? Again we don't know. But he seems to have no qualms about sharing platforms with a convicted felon who served time in jail. The convicted felon we are talking about is Lyndon LaRouche.

Mr.LaRouche is an American "politician" who runs his "party" like a cult. His ideology has shifted from far-left to far-right to now far-left. He is best known for being a perennial candidate for US presidency. In 1988 he was convicted for mail-fraud and sentenced to a 18 year jail term. In 1994 he was released on parole after serving 5 years in jail. He has many conspiratorial views including ones such as the Beatles being the "product shaped" by the Psychological Warfare Division of the British Intelligence service and AIDS possibly being a creation of "Soviet biological-warfare apparatus".

You can read more about Mr.Lyndon LaRouche here.

Due to his history and his kooky views, he is not taken seriously by anyone in the US mainstream.

Then again, The Hindu ("India's National Newspaper") and the Indian politicians are not in US mainstream. Either they don't know who he is or they don't care.

In May, 2003 when Mr.LaRouche visited Bangalore, some of our politicians were happy to join him. Chief among them were left-wingers Mr.Natwar Singh and Chandrajit Yadav. When left-wingers join with Western idiots to denounce US, our newspapers like The Hindu have to cover, no?!

Like a true-stenographer The Hindu reporter wrote about Mr.LaRouche's comments about "growing inflation" in US at that time. A simple internet search would have told that it was not true. Of course, it is too much ask from our reporters, don't you think?!

As an added bonus for The Hindu, Mr.LaRouche also seems to love China the darling of the newspaper.

[Note: We had earlier written about Mr.LaRouche in Kannada as part of an article about media credibility. We love recycling!]

It's All Relative...Even The Truth

2005-11-02T20:50:00.000-05:00

The entire staff of 108 Sullu H.Q. recently found this particular article by Mr.Bhat. It's about .. among other things, Albert Einstein. And... you guessed it! It has many things which seem to have no basis in facts.

Due to a bit of sloppy writing, Mr.Bhat leaves the impression that Einstein got the Nobel Prize for his theories on Relativity and E=mc². Actually, the Nobel committee cited Einstein's work in photo-electric effect in awarding him the prize.

Mr.Bhat writes that Einstein had received "ranks" (high honor) in both mathematics and physics. In truth, due to his some what brash personality, Einstein's professors did not particularly like him. Forget about high-honors, he barely managed to get his diploma.

Mr.Bhat writes that after graduation Einstein worked as a waiter in a restaurant (hotel) and eventually got the position of a college lecturer through a customer.

Here is what Wikipedia says:

Upon graduation, Einstein could not find a teaching post, mostly because his brashness as a young man had apparently irritated most of his professors. The father of a classmate helped him obtain employment as a technical assistant examiner at the Swiss Patent Office

Mr.Bhat further writes about Einstein begging the hotel customers for tutoring assignments and being an object of ridicule for such an abject behavior. According to Mr.Bhat this behavior even led to the termination of his waiting job once the hotel owner knew about it.

If these events did in fact happen, there seem to be no records. None of Einstein's biographies mention anything of this sort.

Mr.Bhat also writes about Einstein in desperation throwing all his certificates, awards and notebooks into a bin in front of his house.

Again, no such incident seems to have happened in Einstein's life.

By the way, Mr.Bhat had earlier written about a similar incident in the life of famed British journalist Sir Harold Evans. We had blogged about it. Then as now, there seem to be no records to indicate that the incident did indeed happen.

Due to a bit of careless writing --in our opinion-- Mr.Bhat leaves the impression that Einstein was working as a lecturer in a local college when he first wrote about Relativity. It is not right. It is very well known that he was working in the Swiss Patent office at that time.

In the entire article Mr.Bhat does not mention Swiss Patent office even once. However, Einstein's working in a hotel gets many paragraphs. Why? Is it because working in a Swiss Patent office does not fit well with Mr.Bhat's inspirational narrative of people rising from really dire conditions? We at 108 Sullu World H.Q. do not want to speculate. At least, not this time.

As the saying goes, we report, you decide.

A Tale of Two Papers

2005-10-18T11:21:00.000-04:00

Recently former Prime Minister of India Mr.Deve Gowda wrote a letter to the Chief Minister of Karnataka Mr.Dharam Singh. He also made that letter public. In that letter Mr.Gowda raises many questions about the land being given to I.T. companies. He further demands that Mr.Singh's government -- of which Mr.Gowda's party is a partner -- release information about how much land has been granted by the government to various I.T. companies and how many jobs these companies have created.

He also demands that a comparative study be made about the jobs being created by I.T. companies that are using leased land/buildings Vs. the companies which have been granted land by the government. (Companies like HP, IBM, Intel, Wipro etc. fall in the first category and Infosys is the prime example of the seconds category of companies.)

Mr.Gowda further expresses fears that some of these I.T. companies may use the land granted by the government for real-estate business instead of the stated purpose.

Most newspapers in Karnataka have interpreted this letter as a thinly veiled attack on Infosys and its Chairman Mr.Narayana Murty. (Here is an article from Prajavani)

Since this dispute involves major personalities -- not to mention the possible impact on policies -- in both government as well as business, we thought it would be a good idea to see how this was being covered by the Three Musketeers of Kannada newspaper filed (Kannada Prabha, Prajavani and Vijaya Karnataka). Especially in their editorial comments.

Vijaya Karnataka in its editorial (dated October 18th, 2005) states that Mr.Gowda's letter brings the matter of "contribution of the I.T. companies & the government towards development to debating platform". Further it supports the demands of Mr.Gowda for information about the government grant of land and also job creation statistics. While it does not say anything negative about Infosys, it also emphasizes that there is "nothing wrong in expecting that the government granted lands be misused".

Commenting about Mr.Dharam Singh's assurance that he would look into Mr.Gowda's letter, the editorial states that "the letter is not important" and ends with the following note: "curtain should fall on this dispute between I.T., B.T. companies and the government."

Vijaya Karnataka's new coverage (or lack of it) similarly reflects the similar sentiments.

Kannada Prabha on the other hand takes a different tack.

Its editorial starts with a comment that "it has been a long time since Mr.Gowda wrote a letter to bring certain matters to public attention and to get public attention". Since Gowda's party itself is a partner in Mr.Singh's government, it's the opinion of Kannada Prabha that the motive behind Gowda's letter is to " make public the desires of Infosys and Narayana Murty to own land" rather than "collecting the information".

The editorial also clearly defends Infosys in this dispute by saying that it's a common practice for companies --including public sector ones like N.G.E.F. -- to buy land if the capital is available. Further it states that the information about how the granted lands are being used is not "secret". (This is clearly in reference to Mr.Gowda's expressed concern about misuse of lands.)

In the opinion of the Kannada Prabha editorial writer, Mr.Gowda is upset with Mr.Narayana Murty and others because, whenever they complain about lack of infrastructure, such complaints get the attention of "powerful people" at the center. (The editorial however does not say who these "powerful people" are. It also does not say why that should make Mr.Gowda upset.)

Unlike the Vijaya Karnataka editorial, the Kannada Prabha editorial chastises Mr.Gowda by saying that writing such letters do not befit the dignity of a former prime minister.

Kannada Prabha news coverage also reflects an anti-Gowda bias. For example in this article with the heading "Gowda ko gussa kyo aayaa.." , there are many speculations. And these speculations are always sourced to unnamed individuals: a) Unnamed "JDS sources" claim that Mr.Gowda is upset with Mr.Murty because of an article in "The Business World". b) It has been "said" (by unnamed people) that in the private meeting between Mr.Murty, Mr.Gowda and Mr.Dharam Singh, Mr.Gowda took Mr.Murty to task in no uncertain terms; others would have walked out but Mr.Murty with his "rock like mentality" heard what he wanted to hear and said what he wanted to say. c) Talks are being heard (again unnamed people are the ones who are talking) that Mr.Gowda's actions are to satisfy his vote-bank. d) Finally it says that "the whole world knows" (since it it is the "entire world", no need to name anyone!) that Mr.Gowda cannot digest anything done by the former Chief Minister S.M.Krishna; it is being "heard" that that in fact could be the reason why Mr.Narayana Murty is caught in the "hostile gaze" of Mr.Gowda.

If the above article clearly shows an anti-Gowda bias, Kannada Prabha also covers his letter more extensively than other papers. For example, it covers his side of the story here and also BJP's reaction to this dispute here.

For some reason, till now (October 18th, 2005) Prajavani has not found this dispute important enough to comment in its editorials.

Osho and The Art Of Making It Up

2005-10-15T01:10:00.000-04:00

Why do some of our journalists find Rajanish fascinating? We don't know. This has always been a mystery to us. We have tried reading some of his stuff and found them pretentious, boring and full of bromides.

Mr.Bhat seems to like him. A lot. Especially so when Osho talks about journalists and journalism. See the articles here and here.

The most important thing that a journalist must not do IS providing false or incorrect information. Then again, Osho was not a journalist.

In the second article linked above, Mr.Bhat approvingly quotes Osho extensively. As per Osho, Abraham Lincoln's father was a shoe-maker and when Lincoln was elected the US President, one of the senators used that 'fact' in his efforts to embarrass Lincoln.

The entire staff of 108 Sullu World H.Q. (the grand total of one!) tried hard and long to confirm the 'facts' that Lincoln's father was a shoe maker, and that Lincoln was ridiculed in the Senate on that count. Tried as hard as we did, we found nothing to back these claims. Except of course, Osho's own words..

Did Lincoln's father ever make shoes? We don't know. But, it is fairly well known that Lincoln's father was a farmer and a carpenter.

It also appears Lincoln did not particularly get along well with his father. In fact when his father was in his death-bed, Lincoln did not visit him. Nor did he attend his funeral. (Source:The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953Â55 )

We have two complaints about Mr.Bhat's article: 1) He should have fact-checked Osho's words before quoting them as truths. 2) Mr.Bhat's article, as written is not very clear as to where Mr.Bhat's words end and Osho's words begin; a bit more clarity in writing would have been helpful.

It's Not Even Wrong

2005-10-12T21:12:00.000-04:00

We at 108 Sullu World H.Q. do not know whether the eminent Kannada writer/Socialite Socialist U.R.Anantha Murthy and the man milking the cash-cow at Crime Diary Ravi Belagere are sworn enemies are not.

But, if you read this, this & this it's not too difficult to conclude that there's not much love left between them. Mr.Belagere even suggests - without naming him- that Mr.Anantha Murthy is the kind of person who would ask a partially burnt woman whether her private parts also got burnt.

Now that both of them of them are voicing their opposition against the growth of the I.T. industry/call-centers in Bangalore, suddenly Mr.Anantha Murthy starts appearing Gandhiesque to Mr.Belagere.

Mr.Anantha Murthy has written -- in our opinion -- a really dumb article about the impact of the I.T. industry/call-centers on India. Mr.Belagere loves it so much that he decides to publish it verbatim in his own column.

You can read it here.

The article is so bad, to paraphrase Wolfgang Pauli, it's not even wrong.

What is so bad, you ask?

First of all it romanticizes rural poverty in India. As per Mr.Anantha Murthy, the people who cant afford to eat anything but ragi balls twice a day, sleep in their dilapidated houses and can't even afford to buy a bicycle are not poor. Coming from cocktail sipping, globe trotting Mr.Anantha Murthy this comment is so rich in irony.

Then there is the needless yet necessary bashing of Western countries. If you are from a Western country, your expression of concern about hunger in India is just "duplicious politics". But, when Anantha Murthy does the same after attending cocktail dinners, it's "truly humane".

You have to have some stupid comment about modernity don't you think? Of course. According to Anantha Murthy one true benefit that modernity has brought to India is -- drumrolls please -- "women now don't have to die while giving birth!" Other than that, he says: "we don't have to worry about them".

Let those rural folks live in their huts, he tells us. See, how happily they are singing and dancing in groups?! Forget about them. After all, we the Sophisticated Socialists must attend a Chinese Opera programme in a five-star hotel that is introducing a new Chinese menu.

And so it goes on and on.

Katrina's Toll: Truth and Accuracy

2005-10-03T21:34:00.000-04:00

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina many if not most American media organizations grossly overstated the atrocities and violence in New Orleans.

About a month after these reports, now it is being reported that what were once reported as facts were actually unsubstantiated rumors.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, the local newspaper of New Orleans had this to say:

"Four weeks after the storm, few of the widely reported atrocities have been backed with evidence. The piles of bodies never materialized, and soldiers, police officers and rescue personnel on the front lines say that although anarchy reigned at times and people suffered unimaginable indignities, most of the worst crimes reported at the time never happened."

The L.A.Times now says "Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy". You can read it here.

Mr.Bhat also wrote about Katrina, specifically how Katrina uncovered the "selfish", "evil", "cold hearted", "inhumane" and "racially divided" American society for the world to see. In addition he also wrote about how woefully inadequate America and American government were in their abilities to handle a storm like Katrina; especially when compared with the recent floods in Mumbai.

As proof for the the barbaric nature of American society, Mr.Bhat wrote about "American whites" who were engaging in "rapes" and "atrocities" against the "African Americans" who were trying "just to survive".

There are no reports to indicate that there were any racial elements in the widely reported violence and atrocities in the immediate aftermath of Katrina; specifically there were no reports that said that whites were targeting African Americans.

As an example of lack of preparation on the part of the Bush Administration to handle Katrina, Mr.Bhat writes that America had to "bring in thousands of doctors from inconsequential countries like Cuba and Venezuela".

This again is untrue.

While it's true that Cuba offered the service of thousands of doctors, US did not respond to that offer.

In his article, Mr.Bhat writes about incidents where coast-guard helicopters that were trying to rescue flood victims came under gun fire. Such incidents were reported during the "live" coverage of the storm. Both by American media as well as others. Now, Knight Ridder says that there is "no evidence" to "backup reports of rescue helicopters being fired upon". Specifially it says:

Two Coast Guard spokesmen who were asked in recent days about helicopter shootings said there were no incidents of any Coast Guard personnel or vehicles taking fire.

"We don't know of any shots ever fired directly at us," said Capt. Bob Mueller, commander of the Guard's New Orleans station.

(Note: The same report says that "a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security - which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency - contradicted that statement, saying Superdome flights were temporarily suspended because of gunfire.")

Bet On Bhat?

2005-09-30T22:33:00.000-04:00

In Mr.Bhat's recent article, he writes about an incident which he says happened in the life of the Telugu writer Yendamuri three years back while the Telugu movie "Rudranetra" was being shot.

There is one small problem; Rudranetra was released sixteen years back in 1989.

Does it make any difference in the matter being discussed by Mr.Bhat in his article? Most definitely not. But, many readers use the newspapers as references. Suppose, based on Mr.Bhat's article, a reader who is not familiar with the Telugu films bets that Rudranetra was indeed shot just three years back, she may not win. So, does this error make any difference for the reader? You bet it does.

More importantly a reader who is well aware that the movie was indeed released sixteen years back may start wondering what else could be factually not right in the article thus questioning the credibility of the writer.

Note: The entire staff of 108 Sullu HQ recently exchanged a few e-mails with Mr.Bhat. He was quite kind towards us. In fact he even wrote a very positive editorial about us. This is especially remarkable considering some of the things we have written. We thank him for that.

Did N.Y.Times Sai-nath?

2005-09-30T15:32:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the entire staff of 108 HQ was reading this opinion piece in The Hindu. The main gist of this article is that the people of Andhra Pradesh are still punishing Chandrababu Naidu for his " pro-rich, anti-poor measures". And that this may have significance beyond the borders of Andhra Pradesh.

It is written by P.Sainath, a well respected journalist.

In the article -- an anti-Naidu polemic -- writes:

"Also, Mr. Naidu's union-bashing (so richly praised in The New York Times) did not help his party much."

We wanted to find out what kind of "rich praise" Mr.Naidu's "union-bashing" got from The New York Times. So, what did we do? Yes, we went and read all the New York Times articles where Mr.Naidu's name gets mentioned - from Jan. 19th 1996 to May 15th 2004. There were 30 articles and we read each one of them.

Out of the 30 articles, there was only one article that mentioned about Mr.Naidu's "union-bashing". On December 27th 2002, Keith Bradsher wrote in his report:

Under Mr. Naidu, Andhra Pradesh has enacted a law requiring union leaders to be workers from the factory or office they represent. Outside political activists have sometimes used Indian labor unions in struggles between political parties instead of seeking better contracts for the workers. Andhra Pradesh has also relaxed some of the restrictions on laying off workers, removing a major obstacle that has discouraged many businesses in India from hiring additional employees.
To the anger of public-sector unions in a country famous for its slow-moving and often unresponsive bureaucracy, Mr. Naidu has begun measuring state employees against one another and preset targets, and he has instituted surprise inspections. He has fired 50 people just in the state's agriculture department and disciplined many more for nonperformance.

Yes. That's it. Is that a "rich praise"? For you and us it may not sound like much of a praise. But, Mr.Sainath is not just a well respected journalist. He is also a left winger who takes part in a workshop organized by The Student Federation of India -- Communist Party of India's student wing.

Is he a card-carrying member of the Communist Party? We have no idea. But he seems to carry a lot of water for them.(We will write more about that later.)

He of course is also an editor at the India's "national newspaper", The Hindu. Does that bother any one?!

All Are From Earth

2005-09-20T12:07:00.000-04:00

In our previous post, we wrote about John Gray. As per this press-release from American Psychological Association, Janet S. Hyde Ph.D., of University of Wisconsin has found that all of us belong the same planet: Earth. Money-quote:

"According to the meta-analysis of studies on gender differences reported on in the current issue of the American Psychologist, males and females from childhood to adulthood are more alike than different on most but not all psychological variables, said psychologist Janet S. Hyde, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Psychological differences based on gender were examined in studies that looked at a number of psychological traits and abilities to determine how much gender influenced an outcome. The traits and variables examined were cognitive abilities, verbal and nonverbal communication, social or psychological traits like aggression or leadership, psychological well-being like self-esteem, motor behaviors like throwing distance and moral reasoning.
Gender differences accounted for either zero or a very small effect for most of the psychological variables examined, according to Hyde. Only motor behaviors (throwing distance), some aspects of sexuality and heightened physical aggression showed marked gender differences."

Even Martians Want Ph.D.s!

2005-09-17T15:25:00.000-04:00

"Dr."John Gray "Ph.D.", is an American author of pop-psychology books. A self described expert on relationships, he has been able to sell millions of copies of his books. His 'Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus' alone has sold 6 million copies and has been translated world over into 40 different languages.

'Men Are From Mars, Women Are Fom Venus' is now being made available to Kannada readers. It is being serialized on a weekly basis in ThatsKannada.com

We at 108 Sullu H.Q. generally stay away from pop-psychology and self-help books. And we have not read any of John Gray's books including the most famous one. So, we won't be able to directly opine on his books. But, we can tell you a bit about his background. And also what others -- others who have better academic qualifications than John Gray -- think about his books. We will do just that.

What are his credentials? From Wikipedia entry:

After high school he attended St. Thomas University and the University of Texas, but did not receive degrees from these institutions. He lived as a Hindu monk for nine years in Switzerland and studied with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He received his BA and MA in Creative Intelligence from the Maharishi European Research University, a non-accredited institution[1].

Gray's books and other publications typically refer to him as 'Doctor John Gray' or 'John Gray, Ph.D. According to his website, he earned a Ph.D. in psychology at Columbia Pacific University [2]2001 [3]. In one instance, "a Ph.D. dissertation written in Spanish was approved by four faculty who cannot speak the language." Gray's website[4] notes that degrees issued by CPU before June 25, 1997 are legally valid (although it is not clear whether these degrees were ever accredited. Gray's site further claims that "at the time John Gray graduated and received his degree CPU was a highly respected school in its field"; however, in 1997 California's Deputy Attorney General Asher Rubin called it "a diploma mill which has been preying on California consumers for too many years"[5]. - an institution that was forcibly closed by the California Department of Consumer Affairs in after a judgement that found that CPU "awarded excessive credit... to many students" and "failed to meet various requirements for issuing Ph.D. degrees"

In other words, the only accredited degree "Doctor" John Gray seems to possess is a high school diploma. Does that mean his books and the advice he gives have no merit? We don't say that. We say, we don't know.

For a man who is an "expert" in the human-relationships, does he even have license to practice psychology. According to this Psychology Today article:

[Gray] isn't licensed to practice psychology but is allowed to work as a "spiritual counselor" in California because of his nine-year stint as a monk.

(The same Psychology Today article also says that 'for a few thousand dollars, plus a yearly renewal fee, you too can buy the right to call your therapy practice a "Mars & Venus Counseling Center."')

So, what does John Gray say in his books? As we noted, we haven't read his books. We can tell you, what others -- others who are academically and professionally more qualified than Gray -- have to say about his works:

The women who pick up a copy of one of John Gray’s Mars and Venus books should know that the book ought to be stamped with a warning for female readers: Caution-- this book could be hazardous to your health.
...
Gray's Rx for relationships is for the woman to leave the man alone while she supervises the kids' homework, cooks dinner and cleans up. That's advice that gets people into trouble, not out of it. A woman who takes Gray's advice at face value may be at serious risk for high stress. Unable to express her anger openly, to ask for what she really needs, always on edge because she must sense a man's every whim and need, she is likely to turn her anger inward. ... [Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers]

Gray isn't into scare stories; stereotypes are his specialty.

He writes that male and female children are very different from each other and have different needs. Girls need to be supported, cared for, understood and helped. He depicts all female children, the researchers say, as dependent on others.

In contrast, he portrays boys as requiring independence, space, and opportunities to solve their own problems.

Mothers should avoid helping boys, Gray says, because it "insults them" and boys don't need help. Girls, in contrast, feel loved when they are helped. [Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers]

In their book Same Difference: How Gender Myths Are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children, and Our Jobs. Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers dismiss the Mars-Venus concepts as “junk science, no science, or bad science.”

In 2001, after studying the ten top selling self-help books including John Gray's Mars-Venus books, Colorado State University researchers had this to say:

...the messages in four of the top 10 books are detrimental to relationships. ...

... Books that the study found to be inconsistent with accepted best practices were "Men are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" by Gray; "The Rules" by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider; "Mars and Venus on a Date" by Gray; and "Mars and Venus in the Bedroom" by Gray. ...

We want to again stress that we have NOT read the book. Now that John Gray is being introduced to Kannada readers by thatskannada.com, we just wanted to provide you the parts of the picture that are missing.

Tail Piece: John Gray's main idea is that men and women are fundamentally different. But, Ms.Sudha Prasanna, Principal of Martin Luther School in Bangalore and Mr.Arunachalam of Bangalore are not that different. Based on reports in Sanjevani [June 4, 2004 and September 7, 2004], both of them got Ph.D. degrees in Psychology from Cosmopolitan University of USA.

If one look at Cosmopolitan University's website or not having a ".edu" in their Internet address does not give away their accreditation status, they themselves tell you that they are not accredited by any one. If that's not enough, here is a rather stern warning from the state government of Oregon:

Degrees from all of these suppliers are invalid for use in state or licensed employment in Oregon and the use of such degrees can result in criminal prosecution or civil penalties depending on the circumstances of the use.

The "all" in above of course includes Cosmopolitan University and Columbia Pacific University -- the university that conferred Ph.D. degree to "Doctor" John Gray.

If you want to read more about the "diploma mills" in US, you know what to do here.

On the other hand, if you WANT to get a degree (MBA, Ph.D., M.A.) in a hurry, we will provide you more specific instruction; click the left mouse button after pointing the cursor here.

Tip of the tail piece: The Oregon list of unaacredited universities includes a bunch of "universities" based in India. One such institute is "Bangalore Inst of Science, Tech. and Mgt". Does any one know anything about this?

Crocodile Tears?

2005-09-12T22:15:00.000-04:00

Damayanti Tambay is the wife of Flt.Lt.Vijay Vasant Tambay a pilot officer in the Indian Air Force. During the 1971 war, while on a military mission in Pakistan, Mr.Tambay's plane was hit. Damayanti heard over the radio that her husband had been captured by Pakistan. Later, there was also a report in a Pakistani newspaper that mentioned the capturing of an Indian Air Force pilot with the name "Tombay".

After the war finally ended and India and Pakistan signed the Shimla Agreement in July 1972, prisoners of war were released to their motherlands. However, Mr.Tambay was not one of the released prisoners. He has not been released till now.

As per Indian government there are 54 prisoners of war missing (or still) in Pakistan. Pakistan, however, denies that they have any prisoners in their jails.

Meanwhile, the relatives of these POW have kept their vigil. They keep meeting the Indian government officials and political leaders to put pressure on Pakistan to release the prisoners of war still languishing in Pakistani jails.

Are these POW still in Pakistani jail? We don't know. What about Fl.Lt. Vijay Tambay? Again, we have no idea. All we know is his wife Damayanti still believes that he is being held in the Pakistani prison.

Mr.Bhat has written two articles about Damayanti's plight. Want to read them? You know what to do: Click here and here.

In order to prove that Vijay Tambay was in the Pakistani prison, Mr.Bhat provides two bits of evidence: 1) a Time magazine article that mentions Tambay's name and 2) a book by Victoria Schofield, a senior BBC London reporter that again mentions Tambay's name.

As usual Mr.Bhat is upto his game in both the above "evidences" he mentions in his article.

It appears that Time magazine article does not actually mention Vijay Tambay's name. In fact, in that issue of the article there is a picture identified as an Indian prisoner of war. The relatives of that man believe that it is actually Major A.K.Ghosh who was earlier declared as killed in the war. (Sources: The Tribune & The Telegraph)

As far as Victoria Schofield's book, again, there appears to be no mention of Tambay's name.
From Organizer:

A book published in 1980 from Lahore titled Bhutto—Trial and Execution written by Victoria Schofield, a senior BBC London reporter, covering the period of 1978 when Mr. Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, was detained in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore (page No. 59) reads: “(Bhutto’s) cell separated from a barrack area by a 10 foot high wall, did not prevent him from hearing horrific shrieks and screams at midnight from the other side of the wall. One of Bhutto’s lawyers made enquiries amongst the jail staff and ascertained that they were in fact Indian prisoners of war who had been rendered delinquent and mental during the course of the 1971 war.” “Fifty odd lunatics were lodged in the ward next to mine. Their screams and shrieks in the dead of night are something I will not forgot,” wrote former Pakistan Prime Minister, Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, referring to Indian prisoners of war of 1965 and 1971 who were kept in a cell next to his in Kot Lakhpat prison.

For Damayanti and other relatives of the POW, the above two are two more bits of "evidence" to believe that their loved ones could still be languishing in the Pakistani jail. But, note that both of them clearly do not mention "Tambay" by name.

For Mr.Bhat those "evidences" were not good enough. His narration needed a more stronger evidence. And of course, he fabricated them.

Even though in the first article, Mr.Bhat mentions that Damayanti and Vijay got married in 1970 and Vijay left for the war in December of 1971, and even mentions about their 20 day honeymoon in Kashmir, in the second article he changes all that to a week of married life ("maduveyAgi kai hiDidu oMdu vAra saMsAra mADida").

In the second article Mr.Bhat also mentions about Mohanlal Bhaskar an Indian spy who was tortured in the Pakistani jail for 17 years. ("hadinELu varsha"). In truth, Bhaskar was in Pakistani jails between 1968 t0 1974. (Source: Again Organizer and the Times of India)

(Note: To be fair, both of the above could be typographical errors. But with a track record like the one Mr.Bhat has, it is very difficult to dismiss these as mere typographical errors. We report. You decide.)

In both the articles, Mr.Bhat excoriates every one for being "hard hearted". As usual politicians and ministers are paid special attention. ("avaLa duHka avara edeyalli toTTu kanikaravannU mUDisilla") He further asks whether any one member of the parliament asked a single question in the noisy-market called the parliament ("saMsatteMba saMtekaTTeyalli") about the plight of Damayanti. He then firmly answers his own question - No.

We do not know whether the Indian parliament is a noisy-market ("saMtekaTTe") or not. We also do not know whether any MP has ever asked a question in parliament specifically about Tambay or Damayanti. But, we found that the topic of Indian POWs in Pakistani jails has been raised many a times in the Parliament. For example, please take a look here, here, here, here, here , here and here.

Should there be more discussion? We don't know. But, in our opinion the picture Mr.Bhat provides about the Indian Parliament and the Indian MPs is unfair.

The second article about Damayanti Tambay was published in the last week of September 2004. Immediately following that article, in the first week of October 2004, Mr.Bhat writes a very flattering profile of George Fernandes. In that article, he mentions about spending five hours only a few days back with the former Defence Minister of India.

For all the chest beating and heaping of scorns on the politicians, when he gets a chance spend 5 hours with Mr.Fernandes, does he ask the former Defence Minister about Tambay? Sadly, readers never find out. Tambay was last week's news.

Crocodile tears?!

Some Quick Links

2005-09-11T02:03:00.000-04:00

Here are a few quick links to some of the Kannada articles written by the single soul who makes up the entire staff of 108 Sullu H.Q. They all deal with media credibility in one way or the other.

US Media and Elections

Credibility and Media

Hoaxes and News-media

Journalism ... drOha chiMtanaM

2005-09-09T22:08:00.000-04:00

Does Ravi Belagere really know what he is writing?
We at 108 Sullu HQ have no idea.
But take a look at what he has written here:

"... inta chikkapuTTa vaMchanegaLannu kaMpanigaLu, saMsthegaLU, maMtrigaLU, mAtra mADuttAre aMdukoLLabEDi. amerikadaMtha dEshagaLu atyaMta vyavasthitavAgi mADuttave. AIDS athavA HIVya bhUtagaLannu sRuShTisiddU iMta kutaMtragaLalli oMdu. adu miliyAMtara kOTi DAlarugaLa vaMchane aMta namage gottE Aguvudilla. ... [AIDS] mAtregaLannu namma sarkAra amerikada kaMpaniyoMdariMda kOTyAMtara DAlaru suridu KarIdisiruttade. ..."

("Don't think that only companies, organizations, ministers engage in such scams. Countries like US do that in a very systematic manner. The creation of AIDS or HIV spectre is one such thing. We don't even realize that it's a multi million dollar scam. ... Our government buys AIDS drugs from an American company after paying tens of millions of dollars. ...")

Is the AIDS/HIV scare just a spectre created by US in order to sell American drugs in India? No. No. No. It amazes us that a man who engages in such absolute nonsense and stupidity is one of the stars of current day Kannada news-media.

As per the estimate provided by Indian government's own agency (NACO), there were about 5.1 million people with HIV infection living in India in 2004. By any measure that's a scary number. In fact, based on that number, "India accounts for almost 13% of the global HIV prevalence and now holds the second largest absolute number of HIV infections in the world, following South Africa"

(Note: With a population of close to a billion, 5.1 million infected people is a drop in the bucket; less than 1%. However, Dr. Richard Feachem, Executive Director, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria says "The official statistics show India in second place and South Africa in first place," adding: "The official statistics are wrong. India is in first place.")

As per UN projections, "there were 2.7 million AIDS deaths in India between 1980 and 2000. During 2000-15, the UN has projected 12.3 million AIDS deaths and 49.5 million deaths during 2015-50."

With all these statistics and figures, if Mr.Belagere wants to be complacent and still think it is just a "spectre" (bhUta) created by US to sell AIDS drugs to India, we have two words for him: "Prove It".

Now about India importing AIDS drugs from an American company: The entire staff of (one!) 108 Sullu HQ searched and searched in vain for some information about Indian government paying tens of millions of dollars to an American company for buying AIDS drugs. Did it ever happen? We don't know. However, by now it is common knowledge that India is one of the major sources for cheaper AIDS drugs. In fact countries from Pakistan to Kenya to Brazil are importing AIDS drugs from India. When that's the case, wouldn't it be strange if Indian government bought the same drugs from an American company?!

Later in his article Mr.Belagere badly confuses AIDS drugs and controlling further spread of HIV. After writing about Indian government spending millions of dollars on American AIDS drugs, he writes about how the "poor-illiterate" African nation of Uganda "controlled AIDS" with "no spending" ("KarchE illade") by just three slogans: Don't engage in pre-marital sex; Say no to extra-marital sex; Always use a condom.

Again we have some words for Belagere. We will be very slow and simple, so that, even our celebrity journalists will understand: "Mr.Belagere, those slogans are for preventing further spread of HIV. The AIDS drugs are used for saving the lives of already infected." We hope he understands this. After all when a "poor-illiterate" country like Uganda can overcome HIV infection, is it too much for us to hope that a rich-educated man like Belagere would overcome his ignorance?!

Ravi Belagere ends his column with the saying: "vyApAram drOha chiMtanaM aMdare idEnA?"

We will end our post this way: "journalism drOha chiMtanaM aMdare idEnA?"

Oh! Brother!!

2005-09-09T10:26:00.000-04:00

A region of your state is experiencing floods. Many in that region have lost their homes and livelyhoods. You are the editor and the publisher (not to mention a high profile columnist) of a widely read newspaper. The Deputy Chief Minister of your state talks to you about the floods. He tells you that he personally spoke with all the I.T. companies [in the city? State? Country?] about helping the flood victims and even offered to hand over them the couple of tens of thousands of rupees provided by the central government. He further tells you that the I.T. company officials told him that they would get back to him but later never did. If you are a serious, responsible journalist, what would you do?

How about asking the deputy chief minister why in the god's name he is planning to hand over the public money to a group of private companies? Why can't the government help the flood victims directly instead of channeling through a private group? Before making that proposal was that matter (handing over the public money) discussed in the legislature? Doesn't the government need the consent of the legislature in handling of public funds? How much did the central government really provide for assisting flood victims to rebuild their homes? Why wasn't that sufficient? Did the state government demand more from the central government? How much money is really needed? How is the government planning to raise that kind of money? Since the floods and draughts seem to be happening on a regular basis, does the state government have a long term plan to alleviate the plight of the people? What is the plan? Coming back to the meeting with I.T. companies, how many were approached? What are their names?

If you are a real reporter you might even do a little bit of reporting by actually giving a call or two to the executives from those "I.T. companies" and seek their comments.

If you thought the above sounds right, then, we sadly have to inform you that you don't have the right mind to become one of the top notch celebrity journalists of Karnataka. The questions which seem so very natural to you, have no place in the minds and the brains of these journalists. They don't want answers to real questions; why bother with hard questions and real reporting when you can engage in easy sentimentalism and cheap populism?

And that's exactly what our celebrity journalist Ravi Belagere does here.

He writes a public letter to the wife of one of the I.T. company officials. Calls her "sister" and yet accuses her of "blackmail". Asks her whether she eats "dollars". And repeatedly questions her: "Why did you come here?", "Where did you come from?".

Oh! Brother!!

PS: Want to read (almost) the same in Kannada? You know what to do here.

Sanjevani's Sleaze

2005-08-30T22:51:00.000-04:00

In our first non-Bhat related blog we want to bring to you some sleaze courtesy Sanjevani.

We do not know whether the Kanchi seer is indeed involved in the murder he has been accused of. We also do not know whether he was/is involved romantically with any women. We will wait for all the facts to come out. We will wait for the courts to give their verdicts. If we have to keep waiting... we will keep waiting. But some newspapers just could not wait. If there is a hot pile of cowdung, of course that needs to be served. And Sanjevani (an evening newspaper in Karnataka) did just that.

We don't want to comment much here. Just take a look:

We have many other examples. But the entire staff of 108 Sullu HQ is disinterested in peddling this sleaze any further. Even for the sake of analysis and commentary.

Net, Bait ...and What A Catch?!

2005-08-29T20:06:00.000-04:00

We at 108 Sullu H.Q. like Mr.Bhat's columns very much. Without any doubt his columns are the inspiration for us. Strike that. Actually, his columns are the raison d'etre for this web-log. At least at this time. So, we find it very difficult to pick a favourite among his gems of journalism.

But, we are not all that hardy a bunch. It does not take too much of a persuasion to pick one. And we pick this one. It's not because this one has any more factual errors than others. We do not even know whether there are any factual errors here or not. In fact we are fairly certain Mr.Bhat himself would not be able to confirm or deny the central fact of his column.

The central story here is not that complicated. Jayalakshmi, a 32 year old woman from Sivakasi went missing. Her father sent a telegram to Tamilnadu High Court alleging that his daughter had been illegally detained (or mudered) by Tamilnadu police. The court deemed that telegram as an habeas corpus petition. From The Hindu:

"The court took up the petition following a telegram sent by Jayalakshmi's father to the Chief Justice. He alleged murder of his daughter by policemen. Subsequently, she was produced before the Bench by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sivakasi, on court directions. The DSP filed an affidavit stating that she was secured from a lodge at Vellore and that several petitions on charges of cheating were pending against her in Madurai and Karur districts."

After she was produced before the court, Jayalakshmi herself produced an affidavit alleging various abuses including sexual exploitation. Again from The Hindu:

"In her affidavit, Jayalakshmi listed the names of several police officers in the ranks of Superintendent of Police to constable who allegedly harassed her. She also alleged sexual exploitation, cheating, wrongful confinement and bigamy against these officers."

While there have been other allegations against Jayalakshmi including cheating, what caught the eye of Tamil media was the sexual angle. Overnight Jayalakshmi was made into a seductress of sensational abilities. (Please read Krithika Ramalingam's analysis in The Hoot)

Dear readers, if you thought only tabloids would be interested in such a story involving a seductress of unimaginable prowess you know not Mr.Bhat and his Vijaya Karnataka. Mr.Bhat had to write an article. Write, he did:

"...kAnsTEbalniMda hiDidu, es.pi. ai.ji.pi maTTada adhikArigaLella Ikeya tekkeyalliddAreMdare...adeMta hikmattiniMda bale bIsirabahudu, gALa hAkirabahudu eMbudannu Uhisabahudu."

("... when officers from constables, SP to IGP were under her spell ... one could imagine with what cunning she must have cast her net, set her bait.")

We at 108 Sullu H.Q. do not know whether Jayalakshmi was a seductress or not. All we know, based on more reputable sources -- like for example The Hindu, Rediff -- is that in her affidavit she named 22 officials as her abusers. Out of the 22, she specifically alleged that 6 officials sexually abused her. The six included a DSP. Was she romantically/sexually involved with many police officers including an I.G.P? We have no idea.

Mr.Bhat continues:

"... sumAru 38 polIsaru Akeya saKya beLesi, dEha suKavuMDiddAre. IkeyU polIsara saKya suKa anubhavisi, avarannu dALagaLannAgi upayOgisikoMDu mADabArada kelasa mADiddALe."
("...around 38 police [men] have been intimate with her enjoying her body. Even she has enjoyed the intimate friendship with police to do things that shouldn't be done")

We at 108 Sullu H.Q. have no idea whether Jayalakshmi bedded one, zero or 380 policemen. Without any DNA evidence or eye witness accounts, we believe it is sleazy to write what Mr.Bhat has written. Then again we are just a blog and not the number one selling Kannada newspaper. Obviously our standards are a bit higher.

Mr.Bhat has written as though he was an eye witness to these Jayalakshmi-police trysts. If he indeed is an eye witness, why write "about (sumAru) 38"? Did he lose count before 38? Or after 38? Where did he get this number? Why doesn't he ever name his sources? Is it because he doesn't have any? Or, is it because the source is not trust worthy? Or, is it because Mr.Bhat wants the full credit for this earth shattering revelation?

A marginally educated woman accuses police officers including at least one DSP of abusing her. The police officers contend that she is a cheat and of loose moral character. The courts order investigations into the accusations and counter-accusations. We at 108 Sullu H.Q. really have no idea whether one or both of them right or wrong here. But, some in the media, including Mr.Bhat, in their haste to peddle sleaze jump to conclusions even before all the facts are in.(What will you do if the facts will never be in? - Editor. We still refuse to jump.)

We have no intention of further delving in this sleaze. But while researching for the original source, we accidentally found this particular report in a web site called India Daily. Other than a few minor changes (embellishments?) all the claims made in Mr.Bhat's column seem to be present here. Is this Mr.Bhat's source? We are unashamed to say, we have no idea.

By the way, this "India Daily" seems to be a classy web site for news. On the day we checked, the front page had such important topics (among others) as:

"Claire Forlani caught off guard topless in the beach",
Negar dropped her pants during rain dance in Dubai to the music played by Ryan Beck and his band Brandish
Did Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins intentionally stumble and drop her dress in the fashion show?"

Mr.Bhat ends his column with a sigh of relief that Karnataka police are better than the Tamilnadu police force. According to him, they have not stooped to the level of associating themselves with a woman of loose morals like Jayalakshmi.

How we wish we could also say that the number one newpaper in Karnataka does not stoop to the same level as some sleazy newspapers in Tamilnadu!

Run Mr.Bhat, Run .... Away From Facts!

2005-08-26T23:05:00.000-04:00

Wilma Rudolph was a great athlete and an inspiration to many. There is no doubt about that. But, when Mr.Bhat starts writing about her life, we at Noorentu Sullu H.Q. as usual start having doubts. Not about Rudolph's accomplishments but about what Mr.Bhat writes.

Mr.Bhat writes :

"1960 ROm olimpiksnalli tanna 18nE vayassinalli nAlku chinnada padakagaLannu paDeda chigare"

(In 1960 Rome Olympics, when she was 18 years old, this gazelle won 4 gold medals.)

Facts:
Wilma was born in 1940. She was 20 years old when she participated in Rome Olympics. She won 3 gold medals there. (Source: ESPN)

Bhat writes:

"..Ike tanage hattu varSha Aguvavarege I bhUmiya mEle kAlugaLannE iTTiralilla. avaLa kAlugaLeraDannU pOliyO tiMdu hAkittu."

("Till she was 10 she had not set her feet on the ground. Both of her legs were lost to polio")

Facts:
Wilma was a premature baby. She weighed only 4.5 lbs when was born. As a child she was chronically sick. However she contracted polio just before her 5th birthday. Mr.Bhat is wrong when he writes that she did not set her feet down till she was 10.

Further, it's not true that both of her legs were afflicted with polio. Polio deformed her left leg only. (Sources: Publishers Weekly via Amazon and White House)

Bhat writes:

"vilmA samudra daDadalli guDDagADugaLalli oMdE samane ODuttidare..."
"I madhye Ake tannUrinalliruva vishvavidyAlayada kOch baLi hOgi "...nanage mArgadarshana mADi. nanage guruvAgi...." eMdu bEDikoMDaLu."

("When Wilma started continuously running on the seashore and hilly paths..."
"Meanwhile she went to the coach in her local university and begged him to train her, guide her")

Facts:
Wilma was born in Tennessee and spent most of her life there. The last time we checked there was no sea near Tennessee. So which seashore was she running on?

As mentioned earlier, by her 5th birthday Wilma's left leg was deformed due to polio affliction. Between ages six and ten, she wore leg braces. By 11 she had removed her braces and even started playing basketball. By 15 she had become a star player for school basketball team. In fact, Tennessee State University athletics coach Edward S. Temple noticed her for the first time in one of the basketball games. And it was he who approached her rather than Wilma approaching him. (Source: Tennessee Encyclopedia)

Later Mr.Bhat writes about US President paying his last respects to Wilma by standing infront of her mortal remains. When Wilma died in 1994, Bill Clinton was the president. We in Noorentu Sullu H.Q. tried to confirm this "fact" at many places. But, no luck. Nada. The above referred Tennessee Encyclopedia article mentions about funeral as well memorial service for Wilma. But does not mention President Clinton attending either of them.

Bhat writes:

"...huTTu kuMTanAdarU....fraMklin rUsvelT.."

("..born a cripple.." "Franklin Roosevelt")

Facts:
Franklin D. Roosevelt was not born a cripple. He was born in 1882. He contracted polio in 1921 while vacationing with his wife Eleanor. By that he had already been a well known figure in Democratic party. (Source: Wikipedia)

We believe when Wilma and Roosevelt could overcome their terrible physical afflictions, Mr.Bhat could very well overcome his anti-fact-checkitis.

Bhisham, Vasisht ... What's in a name?!

2005-08-26T02:17:00.000-04:00

Mr.Bhat writes here about an unnamed eminent writer who feels many of his earlier writings are "bogus". Is there really an eminent writer who feels that way? We at Noorentu Sullu have no knowledge. Or could that be Mr.Bhat's own (guilty ?) conscience? Again, we do not know. Unlike some of our celebrity journalists, we at Noorentu Sullu head quarters have not mastered the art of mind reading.

But, we can tell you one thing. When Mr.Bhat names names, go and check.

Mr.Bhat writes about a mathematician from Bihar by name "Bhishma Narayana Singh". He writes as though Singh is dead. ("gaNitajnanidda" instead of "gaNitajnaniddAne"). (Note: Later in the article, Mr.Bhat writes that Singh's whereabouts are not known thus making clear that he could still be alive.)

In fact his name is really Vashisth Narayan Singh and he is still alive. While writing about Dr.Singh, Mr.Bhat writes that he was a mathematician of the stature of Srinivasa Ramanujam. Further, he writes that Dr.Singh's research and discoveries turned the existing [mathematical] laws upside down. To make Dr.Singh a bit more impressive, Mr.Bhat also writes about nameless American scientists who had great respect for him. (Knee-jerk anti-American that he is, yet when it fits the narrative he does not fail to mention citing Americans when necessary. For a guy who deplores the Americanization of Indian culture, I am not sure why he still wants to cite the appreciation of American scientists as some kind of a badge of honor.)

We at Noorentu Sullu HQ know a bit about mathematics. Very little. We have no doubt Dr.Singh was once a top notch mathematician. But comparing him to Ramanujam is more than a bit of stretch. Ramanujam is recognized world over as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. It is only Indian newspapers that compare Dr.Singh with Ramanujam. Even they do it when they are writing about him (Dr.Singh) and want to sensationalize the story.

(BTW, here is an obituary for Ramanujam originally published by London Mathematical Society. We found it a very interesting read. And here is a quote (via Wikipedia) about Ramanujam by Prof.Robert Kanigel of MIT.

Almost a century after his death, it was said of him, "Ramanujan was a mathematician so great that his name transcends jealousies, the one superlatively great mathematician whom India has produced in the last thousand years. His leaps of intuition confound mathematicians even today, seven decades after his death. His papers are still plumbed for their secrets. His theorems are being applied in areas scarcely imaginable during his lifetime." (quoted from Kanigel's biography, "The Man who knew Infinity", p.3)

)

Mr.Bhat further writes that Dr.Singh burnt 6000 pages of his research (the fruit of 12 years of toil) and wrote a letter saying that he had found nothing new hence his work was useless. As his wont Mr.Bhat does not cite any references for his claims. However, as per this report Dr.Singh seems to still retain his mathematics books and diaries filled with mathematical formulae as his prized possession.

In the same article Mr.Bhat writes about eminent journalist Sir Harold Evans. Again he does take much care in usage of tense ("badukiddAgalE daMtakatheyAda" instead of "badukiruvAgalE daMtakatheyAgiruva") thus leaving the impression that Sir Harold is dead.

He writes about Sir Harold literally trashing 2 decades of his writings in The Times as well as his autobiography that he had finished. As per Mr.Bhat they were found years later by some one and got published.

Again, Mr.Bhat does not cite where he got this information from. Prolific writer that he is, Sir Harold has many books to his credit. But, there is no sign of any autobiography yet. Unless Mr.Bhat or someone else found something and published it without anybody's knowledge.

We at Noorentu Sullu H.Q. find it inconceivable (but not completely impossible) that a man who eventually headed the Random House publishing company would throw away his work to be published years later by someone else. Further for a man who hated his own writing so much as to trash them is it not strange that Mr.Evans continues to write till today with his latest book "We the People" slated to be released soon?

Udara nimittam ... praise the Indians

2005-08-25T18:31:00.000-04:00

One of the conceits Mr.Bhat and many of his colleagues including Ravi Belagere, Nagatihalli Chandrashekhar etc. engage in is to compare Indians and Americans. Of course they will make sure that Indians always come ahead. If not, at least Americans are portrayed in bad light.

When New York and parts of US & Canada experienced a blackout in August of 2003, Mr.Bhat did not let it pass by without praising the glory of Indians. He had to write a column. And, he did. Of course the column had to have factual errors, gross exaggerations and illogical conclusions.

Mr.Bhat begins :

"monne hadinaidu tAsu ghOra kaggattaleyalli kuLitiddAga, barI vidyutcchaktiyannE tiMdu naDeyuva aDuge mane stabdhavAdAga anEka bhAratIyaru amerikannarannu kare karedu pukkaTe UTa hAkidaru. amerikannarige acchari!"

("The other day when everyone was sitting in total darkness, when the kitchens that run only on electricity had become silent, Indians [in US] repeatedly invited Americans and provided free meals to them. Americans were surprised!")

He further writes that on that day hotels in Florida, New York, New Jersey and California became soup-kitchens ("dAsOha kEndra") inviting guests and providing them free meal. According to him this strange generosity ("vichitra oudArya") of Indians was reported big time in many newspapers along with the news of blackout itself. He also writes when the whole nation was experiencing blackout ("iDI dEsh vidyut illade"), it is not unnatural for Americans -- who think "there is no free meal" -- to be mystified by this strange action of Indians.

When blackout struck we (the entire staff of 108 Sullu H.Q.) were in New York. The electricity outage was not selective about households. It was not just American kitchens that became silent that day; the kitchens of Indians became silent too. So how did Indians cook without electricity? Or do Indians not use electricity in their kitchens? In my experience and opinion the daily meal that a typical Indian family eats requires more preparation in kitchen than a meal eaten by a typical non-Indian American family.

The blackout affected mostly New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, some parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Canada. This fact has been widely reported. When that's the case, why did Indian hotel owners thousands of miles away in Florida and California offer free meals to their guests?! Of course it's because in Mr.Bhat's mind the power outage affected the whole of US. ("iDI dEsha vidyut illade"). We surely can't expect a celebrity journalist like Mr.Bhat to be aware of even basic facts about what he is writing . Can we?

He writes about reports ("doDDadAgi anEka patrikegaLalli prakaTavAgittu") about Indians' generosity that got widely published in many newspapers. Needless to say, he does not cite even one single example of these widely publsihed reports. As far as we can tell there was one report about an Indian restaurant owner that got reproduced in many Indian newspapers and web sites. Other than that we could not find any reports specifically highlighting the generosity of Indians.

That day in August was a warm day. There were long lines of people standing in sun waiting for transportation back home. People were sweating and thirsty. Some used this opportunity to price gouge on water bottles. But, we also experienced first hand a few generous folks who were handing out cups of chilled water for free. We also noticed some restaurant owners offering free icecreams, other food and yes, even wine. Take a look at here, here and here. NY Daily News reported about shopkeepers giving away water and food.

Mr.Bhat (deliberately ?) misreads the American saying "There is nothing called a free meal" to imply that Americans lack generosity ("oudArya") when it comes to serving food. In truth both the American government and the American people indeed provide "free meal" for the needy.

Many American churches have food pantries where they regularly distribute grocery to the needy. In addition many churches, religious and other organizations run soup kitchens every day to serve hot food to any one who wants. Schools, libraries and yes even corporate offices hold food-drives regularly to collect food for the needy. In addition to these American government itself has a food-stamp program for the poor.

Of course Mr.Bhat either does not (care to) know any of these or he deliberately bends the facts to fit his narrative that Indians are more generous than Americans. Why care about facts when readers trust you?!

We at 108 Sullu H.Q. have no idea whether Indians are less or more generous than people of other nations. But, based on Vijaya Karnataka's rising circulation figures, it appears Kannada newspaper readers are very generous towards executive editors who strive to serve a low-fact news diet.

....Kimakurvata Sanjaya

2005-08-25T02:24:00.000-04:00

Sanjaya uvAcha:

Vishweshwara Bhat is the executive editor of the largest selling Kannada newspaper Vijaya Karnataka. In addition to being the executive editor of his paper he is also a well known columnist. His column "Noorentu Maatu" is quite popular among Kannada newspaper readers.

This column is also available over the 'Net. An archive of his columns is available here.

In the earliest available column he ends the article with the following statement:
"prItige mAtra alla, naMbikegU kshamisuva guNa ide alvA?.."
(Not only Love but Trust also has forgiving quality, don't you think?)

If one reads his columns it appears that Mr.Bhat would like to test the above premise. By engaging in factual errors, untruths, sloppy writings he certainly is testing whether his trusted readers would continue to forgive him. If circulation figures of his newspaper are any measure, he seems to be right.

The entire staff of 108 Sullu H.Q. -- comprising all of one single soul -- is dedicated to chronicling this battle that many of our scribes are waging against facts that come in their way of opinions and narrations.

Country	Quota	%Quota	Votes	%Votes
Belgium	4,605.2	2.16	46,302	2.13
Netherlands	5,162.4	2.42	51,874	2.38
China	6,369.2	2.98	63,942	2.94