Consent and Content in the City of Rainbows

• Miscellaneous
• 20th January 2011
• YC

The Europeans, the developed, our mentors, our enviable "others" have been practicing this for a long time. Money and enfranchisement have been tied together for most countries. Between 1815 and 1830, in France, only 100,000 people over the age of 30 who paid 300 francs in direct taxes could vote. Before 1832, England had landlords influencing elections through bribery and patronage. In most of the "developed" lands, politics has been whipped from time to time with theories of justice and democracy. In most of them, they have learnt it the hard way. Why on earth shall we pretend to be different? After all, we are strict followers of History and Tradition.

Jokes aside, we wake up every morning with a rainbow of newspapers in our hand. One calls the other the villain, initiating an endless cycle of scams being unearthed in rival publishing houses. One calls the other land grabber, the other brings out discarded, torn, disowned linen and calls it dirty. One calls the other the thief; the other, in turn, calls the other a terrorist. Such is the code that we live by.

Once upon a time, the corporate world used to queue up in media houses to successfully or unsuccessfully win the favors of editors of newspapers. The direction is reversed now. The editor today wears a challenging attire, painstakingly aware of the corporate trap.

As a result a few newspapers have humble circulation and limp with a limited staff, committed to professional integrity. And somewhere around the block, a few are forced to give in to the carrot dangling act. Question is, how many carrots are we attempting to eat for one single lunch? By one lunch, I mean: one life and by carrots I mean: one commitment.

Today, any curriculum vita brags of multiple professional engagements, more than twenty or even more attendance in seminars, a few associations with serious reference-worthy personalities. Truth is, not many have had more than a year or two of service career.

Not many even know how to spell the word: 'media' properly. Forced by our needs of the current times, some sections of the media are either becoming a megaphone for the inexperienced or a tool for greed.

A week ago, the finance minister while addressing the press answered queries of the press, with his usual friendly stance and before he could finish, we were witnessing headlines on the demise of Grameen Bank. To a guided question on whether the government will be delving deep into the off-shade practices of the bank, the Finance minister's obvious "yes" had turned into a statement in isolation. This is an ideal example of an out-of-text scenario and this is what made news the entire evening.

As readers we are astounded by the twists in the headlines. Let's examine the Yunus fever that has again been gripping a few dailies, especially in the past 72 hours. An article by an Indian journalist in the New York Times on the 5th of January, 2011 on the failure of microcredit, mostly in India and also with reference to our honorable PM reacting to the Norwegian expose on Grameen Bank, was interpreted by a local Bangla daily as an emerging people's struggle against the microfinance loan sharks in all the countries of the globe.

 

On the 7th of January, again a Bangla daily referred to the Economist and made the story title sensational, clearly indicating that Grameen Bank will be taken over by the government.

I checked the main edition and found no such content. Upon a little more digging, I discovered the source of the story: the blog site of the Economist. A careful reading revealed that the column had clearly stated that Professor Yunus was under attack in his own homeland and that if the government ever took Grameen Bank over, other institutions like BRAC would also possibly face the same fate. This content could not have led to such a definitive statement by the daily by any standard.

At the same time, news sites that make and break public opinion should also not allow its platform to be steered by obvious corporate agenda. Sites that many non-resident Bangladeshis rely on should kindly critique the tough realities of microcredit instead of focusing on reports in the foreign media that only call for speculation, unfounded gossip on unproven grounds.

This humble suggestion, trust me, comes from an ardent reader of the site and someone who has a lot of faith in the editorial policy of the newsroom.

After all, when there are so many corners that can be focused on, when the negative and harsh social consequences of microcredit can easily be targeted and when the issue of 22% rate of interest can easily be ripped to pieces, why pick controversies on the wrong footing? Professor Yunus's political ambitions in the past may have been a disaster, but the fact that this lone man had built and believed in his system and had given hope to many otherwise handicapped by extreme poverty represent an entire episode of success, even if considered through objective lenses as a partial marvel.

In the City of Rainbows where throughout our waking hours, the colour of reportage manufactures both content and consent, where own dress codes are dictated by the colour of power, let us not sell our souls to the invisible devils of our times. Let our pens never turn against our conscience and let us never be tied to anything but the truth. Let us not be swept with our hands tied behind our backs to a state of blindness where citizens have vision and cannot see. May the Portuguese Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's 'Blindness' never become our living nightmare where an entire city suffers from an all pervading blindness spreading like an epidemic amongst the citizens, with no food, no water and no government to prevail.

The writer is Managing Director of Muhammadi Group and CEO, TV Southasia