| Sajha.com Archives | |
| Username | Post |
| paramendra | Posted
on 02-Jun-03 08:57 AM
Arundhati Roy is new icon for anti-G8 protestors http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_269464,0005.htm ....Parts of Lausanne, where delegations attending the G8 summit and related meetings are staying, look like concentration camps, with the authorities sealing off VVIP zones using concertina wire. The situation has forced Switzerland to deploy some 6,000 troops - the biggest military deployment since World War II. Many soldiers could be seen flaunting their weapons. ... Roy's The God Of Small Things is quite a read ...... "who should love whom and how much.." She was a major voice during the global anti-war protests. And now this. Making waves. Way to go. |
| ashu | Posted
on 02-Jun-03 10:13 AM
I enjoyed Roy's work of fiction, the language of which was stunningly/hauntingly beautiful. Who knew what it was like to be children in Kerala? But I do NOT like Roy's works of non-fiction, which I find way overwrought with a sense of absurd melodrama, pretentiously moral prissiness and self-righteous indignation. Ian Baruma, a writer I have been following with admiration for the past several years on the pages of The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, had this to say when he reviewd Roy's anti-American rantings in The New Republic. Enjoy, http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020429&s=buruma042902&c=1 oohi ashu ktm,nepal |
| KurLey | Posted
on 02-Jun-03 12:47 PM
ashu Ji, thats funny you mention Ian Baruma here, It reminded me of few months back when I got this chain email about Roy's anti war stance and with it her whole speech, I think you know which one I'm talking about, and as I looked into who had sent the mail first, I was pretty taken aback to see the mail was mostly circulated around Nepali/Indian people working in the WORLD BANK. So I sent an article on the Nirmada Damn Project by Roy and with it Ian Baruma's out take on Roy ( Which I also took away a lot from), telling them who they should be leaning for. Peace, Kurl. P.S. but for her to came to New York and call the now American President "George Bush the Lesser" takes a lot of guts. |
| bewakoof | Posted
on 02-Jun-03 04:45 PM
I agree with Ashu here and obviously Ian Barumas assessment. I was recently at a tech-in held by anti-war activists, where they showed Roys speech on video. It was quite a spectacle to listen to her rants laced with absurd hyperbole work up the crowd to a tizzy. But my quest for more level-headed and reasoned arguments against the war or against the empire as she sees it, was left begging. She falls under the same class of celebrity- activists like Michael Moore and Sean Penn. People who are talented in their trade but cannot help but demonstrate how talent-less they are in other areas. While her polemics certainly appeals to the left it is counter-productive for liberal causes. Liberals have to stop using Penns, Moores, and Roys as poster-childs for their cause. It is pretty easy to preach to the choir and that is all they do. These absurdists are nauseating to middle-of-the road folks and are easily dismissed by the right. There are very many good reasons to have opposed the war and there are unpleasant side-effects of globalization to be pointed out and rectified. But these activist-celebrities are incapable of making that argument. BTW, KurLey it doesnt take any guts to insult and slander others. In fact that is always the trademark of enraged cowards. A bigger and stronger person has the discipline to take a principled, well-reasoned stand and oppose. Gandhi and MLK opposed without ever indulging in cheap insults & that my fried is guts . |
| Yadav | Posted
on 02-Jun-03 07:33 PM
Ashu, That was a really nice read in the link you posted! Could you do me a favour and list some of the other sites you manage to take a peep through for these kind of articles? I spend plenty of time on the net but unfortunately nepalnews.com and kantipuronline.com (and of course Sajha.com) are the few pages that I limit my visits to. How do u manage to visits those sites that other(s) have never heard of? Anyways, I'd appreciate if you could let me know what other sites you're a regular visitor(subscriber) of, so that I can keep enjoying reading articles like the one you linked above! |
| allare | Posted
on 03-Jun-03 02:58 AM
Yadav, There are thousands of such links. Anyway, whenever you feel bored of reading kantipur, nepalnews then go to news.google.com and find your interest and follow the links. |
| KurLey | Posted
on 03-Jun-03 08:41 AM
Yadav, you can try this one, Roy's Page but has Baruma's and others articles as well. http://website.lineone.net/%7Ejon.simmons/roy/tgost7.htm |
| KurLey | Posted
on 03-Jun-03 09:58 AM
BK ji, looking for that middle of the road preacher, me too, but for now, for me, Roy is as middle of the road as I can get. Talking about hyperbole, the actions of the rightists are more hyperbolic than the reaction from the left, it would not be wrong to say that leftist are actually stunned by them and its people like Roy ( who has her own problems and concerns at home), who from half way across the world can come up and speak her mind in a country which is supposedly mother of Democracy but where people have to think many times before they can speak there minds...any thing that they say, that is not congruent to "Them and Us" terms of the Rightists, your face is stamped on the deck of cards and termed...untalented. FYI, Gandhi was called the "Naked fakir" for showing what he believed in and was ultimately shot and so was MLK. |
| dumdum | Posted
on 03-Jun-03 11:23 AM
while i am a big roy fan myself, i do not quite get the notion of g-8 protestors using her as "new icon"......while her fictional endeavors remain undoubtedly bold and awe-inspiring, she has yet to come up with anything substantial on the political front besides some mundane outcries echoed world over....maybe the protestors should choose someone like Samrat, he may well be able to "arrest the ghosts" and implant some much needed ideals of a lot more desirable love in this war torn world...after all he is the "guru" himself!! |
| ashu | Posted
on 03-Jun-03 04:51 PM
Yadav, For good articles, I do NOT go Googling. I visit: www.aldaily.com, which always gives me my daily bread for the mind and soul. :-) Aldaily has other sites and blogs listed too, and they too are good. I recommend aldaily.com to you. Occasionally, I visit the sites of The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation, The Guardian, The Economist, edge.org and so on, and download, save and read the kind of articles about the natural sciences, social sciences and the arts are fun/enjoyable/stimulating/insightful and even controversial. Of course, being restlessly curious about those fields helps too. For business-related stuff, I visit www.businessdailyreview.com, and that site too has a whole gamut of other sites to choose from. Hope this helps. oohi "Thank God for the Web" ashu ktm,nepal |
| bewakoof | Posted
on 04-Jun-03 06:01 AM
KurLey, Actually I am NOT looking for a middle of the road preacher. I can think for myself, thank you. But being an open-minded person I try to listen to all viewpoints and learn from them. I am more interested in the arguments and rationale behind particular views and stances. Since Roy has become the icon of anti-G8, as the originator of this thread pointed out, I was interested in her rationale. And that is where I get stumped because I find very little arguments. Mostly, I just find enraged diatribe. If you find Roy to be middle of the road then obviously she appeals to you. That was my original point to begin with. She is pretty good at riling up those that are already converted. But she is off-putting to others. And by celebrating her and her venomous style as the face of anti-G8 and anti-war movements, these movements are causing themselves more harm than good. Surely, there are right-wingers who are just as absurd. But is that your defense, really? &. that the left should be accorded similar absurdity. Finally, your FYI was already in my information set but thanks anyway. And it only shows that opponents of Gandhi who insulted him were the cowards and he was not. Gandhi and MLK were shot not for insulting others but because they showed how powerful they were in their resolute yet dignified opposition. I dont think anyone is accusing Roy of the latter. |
| paramendra | Posted
on 05-Jun-03 01:27 PM
Thanks for the link, Ashu. I followed through. Nice to have come across a differing perspective. "Some of them, such as the protest against potentially catastrophic dam-building projects in India, are certainly worth fighting for." The word "certainly" is suspect here. "Her reaction to the events of September 11 was that we would never know what had motivated the hijackers..." I don't think the motivation is clear cut. You can not pin it down on any one thing. "The snobbery of her tone alone betrays the lingering, if perhaps unconscious, influence in India of British lefties from the end of the Raj...." There is a definite right wing sneak peek here. As long as you can suggest someone you disagree with is a leftie, you consider your job done, since the insult has been heaped upon. " In a sharp attack on Roy's political statements, published in the newspaper The Hindu in November 2000, Guha argued that Roy should stick to writing novels, because her vanity and her self-indulgence devalues the work of more serious activists." If we needed reminding that we South Asiana live in perhaps the most sexist part of the planet. That he should feel the need to tell her to "stick to writing novels." "....the way Enron squeezed billions of dollars out of the state of Maharashtra for a power plant that most local industries cannot even afford to tap..." You need more not fewer Roys to talk this up. "....It is simply "time to snatch our futures back from the 'experts.' "..." I like the idea. I am all for it. More people should participate. And Roy's media attention is no bother. "....a "Surround Sound stereo mouth which amplifies his voice and filters out the sound of the rest of the world..." Not bad imagery. "....Roy has become the perfect Third World voice for anti-American, or anti-Western, or even anti-white, sentiments...." So a call for a more just sharing of profits is anti-white!? She is a critic. Not everything she says might be considered valid, but her role is important. "...For a start, it must be said that American corporations--Enron being just one instance--have not always played a pretty role in India...." Now you mention. Almost like an afterthought. "There is one verbal tic that keeps recurring in Roy's writings that may help us to understand her feelings--for that is what they are, more than coherent thoughts." Verbal tics, not coherent thoughts? This discredits the author. This amounts to name-calling. "....better informed, more intelligent criticism of American policies, foreign and domestic, is needed more than ever..." She is vying for the same. |
| paramendra | Posted
on 05-Jun-03 01:32 PM
Ashu, thanks for the other two links: http://www.aldaily.com/ http://www.businessdailyreview.com/ Nice launch pads. |
| ashu | Posted
on 05-Jun-03 07:31 PM
Paramendra, The pleasure's all mine. BTW, thanks to aspects of globalization, your hometown of Janakpur now has a number of Internet booths, and young people there spend a lot of time and money, chatting with strangers. :-) That said, Janakpur's hotels and lodges -- long notorious for their indifferent services -- are also gearing up to revamp their services and image (by hiring hotel industry experts from Kathmandu for a short period of time) to be be more tourist-friendly. oohi ashu ktm,nepal |
| dumdum | Posted
on 06-Jun-03 09:40 AM
hey thanks form my side as well ashu....i don't think i have ever come across better sites than aldaily |
| paramendra | Posted
on 06-Jun-03 01:53 PM
Ashu da Tourist! Yeah, I have heard there are about nine internet cafes in Janakpur. |