14 December 2006

What Define Obscenity?

Couple of days ago, as I was reading through the newspaper a news-headline caught my attention which mentioned government has decided not to impose blanket ban on nudity which it say as, 'nudity per say is not obscene'. The government feels placing a ban on such matter would hinder the freedom of speech/expression. Moreover they feel it would be like moral policing on the society.
Question were raised what really define obscene, does nudity really amounts to publicising obscenity. What really took me by surprise was the comparison between the western society and that of our, which really have a different opinion of obscenity. Since they have a society where this is completely accepted. Above this the government raised the issue that by placing a ban on such material in news, they would be stealing the adult of there share of entertainment.
As this thoughts were slowly wading of from my mind, I suddenly recollected the President talk to the nation where he mentioned the role of media in disseminating right information to the society. And I realized the folly of government of failing to impose such a ban on media. At the onset let me highlight the concern is just not regarding moral issue when we fail to impose such a ban in media, but has a larger role to play in the development of the society.
"We get to live in a society, that we make around us." If the definition of obscenity is western countries is normal to them, to which we aren't yet comfortable living with. Why not take our time going back in history at least a century back in this countries. And try to realize when they were exposed to such idea of obscenity as we know it today it would have been not a normal situation. But the media like TV which started there earlier than in our country had it share of slowly exposing the entire society to such definition of obscenity. Slowly as the society get exposed to such ideas, it becomes an integral part of the society. Its not that Obscenity/Nudity is acceptable to any society, its just that they are so used to see/hear it on the media which they feel has become a normal situation there. If an Idea/Opinion is readily available in media, then its not alien to them, its a part of them. And that's what media had done to the Westerners by exposing them to Nudity in form of art/movies that it became an integral part of the society.
Not all citizen view Nudity from Picasso/Michelangelo eyes. Its so obvious nudity in any form when marketed in media has no other role than disintegrating moral fabric of the society. Its not that nudity is an alien concept to anyone of us, but cheap marketing it in media, will only ensure people tomorrow demand for more and get immune to obscenity. A day might in slowly come in nearby future BARING will be so accepted in the society, will be viewed just as an expression of being comfortable. And the whole event are just fuelled by the role of media by simply publicizing such cheap materials.
Its not that society seek nudity in any form as a source of entertainment, its just that since its available it doesn't mind going for it. Therein lies the entire essence. If society is happily fed with such inputs, its grows and thrives on it. Imagine if wasn't available, the society wouldn't have craved for it and I'm sure would have still lived without Nudity as se.

12 December 2006

Child Labour: Nations Ignominy

The future of any country lies in the hands and minds of growing childrens. But wherein countries like that of ours if the childs hand is involved in menial jobs fighting a race for the survival and mind engrossed in dutifully doing the job so as to avoid the wrath of the owner. Then what future beholds for the country is a question that is equally posed in front of every Indian citizen. Out of 1 billion population around 12.6 million childrens are engaged in child labour. Most of them working in the food and hospitality service sector. Most of the childrens are forced to work for long hours and unhealthy environment that breeds high possibility of infecting themselves with diseases and moreover most terrible being the issue of physical abuse especially for the female child.
Despite being actively involved in UNICEF and other international organization in order to protect the childs right, Our country still is a home for the largest child labour in the entire world. Though its very obvious thats its the poverty that drives the parent to send there childrens to unhealthy and long working condition to make there daily meets end. Though there are plethora of laws and regulation passed by the government citing cases under which environ are child allowed to work. They have classified it as Hazardous and Non-hazardous, which require skill operation obtained after proper training like that of Rock breaking in mines, packaging at Fire Crackers Industry, Glass polishing and manufacturing and many more of even which im not aware of. But the Owner mindlessly recruit them for its a cheap investment in terms of wages they will be have to be paid.
Infact untill proverty breeds in the country, there is no way we can avoid such stigma blotting the country image. But the only solution that beholds such a situation in the enforcement of COMPULSORY and FREE primary education. This will ensure that the child has more oppurtunity to spend times in confined four walls learning to build his/her future, rather picking up rags and ruin the country future. A clear example being the state Kerala which has 100% literacy rate has only 1 in 100 children involved in child labour compared to 8 in 100 with the rest of country child labour distribution. Schemes like mid-day meal will also act as a bait to ensure that the child will attend schools. Though the law has been already enforced by the government quite a year ago. But the way it has to be implemented by each state government has really been the real bottleneck as it involves a huge investment. No doubt this mammoth project can never be single handedly run by the government. And its here in this context that the Non-Government organization plays an important role by bridging the gap that government fails to cash in. There are multitudes of such organization running across the length the breadth of the country. And its my earnest request to readers of this page in case you come across any such an organization please make a sincere effort in contributing any possible way that you can.
Lets remember the best we can do for the future of the mankind is leaving a society that is free of many such ignomious traits, that haunts the world. And if that involves contributing a mere fraction of our resources and our time. I hope thats the best that we can do for a bright future.
Dil Se.

06 December 2006

Men in Blue: Thrashed Black and Blue

Well if every Indian consider himself to be a Cricket Pundit, how can people like me atleast who play cricket, should have a say on the game that symbolises countries major religion, with sachin as there demigod.
Even before the tournament had begun there were several theories running that India has a meagre chance of even winning a single match on pitches where it find itself very vulnereable to pace attack coupled to unexpected bounce. Every batsman had a wrecked time in this tournament except for Dhoni who played unconventional shots and thus survived. With heavy blame being poured out on Chappel and the Captain Dravid for such a miserable performance (0-4), The last time we performed so miserably was against srilanka(0-3). I myself feel there is no use in blaming the captain and coach for the poor team performance. Cricket is a team game, where contribution from entire 11 players finally end to team' victory. Coach-Captain discuss strategies based on every players performance, so if all player play miserably who is to be blamed. So the question is who is to blamed. The answer is more deep-rooted if we analyse the situation more correctly. Players weren't exposed to such bouncy pitches before thus struggled. So why doesnt the BCCI, spend it large share revenues in making such bouncy pitches like the one in Perth & Durban.
Next the local cricket tournament should be more vigorous, only when players have performed consitently should they selected for the national team. eg M. Hussey scored 15,000 runs at domestic level before joining the national team, and no doubt his test and cricket averages are best to date. Even Australian key players when axed from national team have to proof themself in domestic cricket before they join the national team. Even McGrath was not exempted from such rule before he joined the team for the Ashes. We might argue if players more at domestic level, by the time they join national team they might tend to be in late 20 and ealy 30, which is also close age of reteriment for many cricketers. The question to answer is wheter we want quality players, or mediocre young players. Thats the reason we might observe over the last few years there are just few players who have retained there place in the national team. Young players might have played well in national tournament, and when they play in International matches they lose to peer pressure, and finally whiter out to another young player awaiting his chance.
The solution lies in the fact that our national cricket matches should be made more competitively, how about making foreign cricketers join the national team, Like English county cricket. Unless these issues are addresed we cant hope sachin, dravid lead the team india to glory in every match they play, with there peak performance closing in as they approach there mid 30. So untill we really change our national cricket matches to that of english and australian domestic standard. We cant rely the big guns to perform and win matches for the country.