Hi,
I wanted to give a shout-out to Sneha and Sayani for writing to Newslaundry on judging women who provide sexual favours in return for career advancement (emails read out during episode 171).
Their emails illustrate that on the subject of sexual harassment and abuse, women are not a monolith that speaks in one voice – something to keep in mind while selectively amplifying views that endorse your worldview (you know who you are).
The irony of a mostly male panel weighing in on the merit of Sneha and Sayani’s arguments was not lost on me. That Abhinandan chose to characterise Sayani’s more adversarial email as “hysterical” versus Sneha’s as “well-articulated” is telling. The long history of classifying non-conformist action and speech by women as “hysterical” is a story for another day, but rest assured that you’re in illustrious company.
I shall summon my calmest, indoor-voice to say that the Hafta panel lacks credibility when it discusses gender. Over the past year (51 episodes), out of an average of five speakers per panel, only 1.5 were women. This includes Madhu and Manisha. You’ve hosted 39 guests, of which only five have been women.
You may wish to include this information in the next piece Newslaundry commissions on women’s representation in media.
Sincerely (and politely),
Swati
Hi Kapil here… I have been following Newslaundry for the past three years and finally subscribed in January this year.
I heard this week’s Hafta 171, you might have missed a big event in the discussion – “Google I/O” they unveiled a product called Google Duplex where their AI can chat as a real person.
Major ethical concerns here. I would like to know your views on the matter.
Big thumbs up to Newslaundry.
Kapil Mahawar
Hello NL Team,
The discussion on Iran sanctions have far greater concerns than what was covered by the panel. I hope Anand covers them in the next Hafta after his research.
The obvious impact is on crude oil prices, which are expected to go up, as the supply of crude goes down and given the growing global economy, demand is ever increasing. This will have an adverse effect on India’s current account and fiscal account deficit as India imports a lot of crude oil. Given that shale gas production by the US has not gone up significantly, crude oil prices are already hovering at around $75.
India is also a major rice exporter to Iran, however the sanctions may not apply on staple food, but this is still to see. It can potentially have an adverse effect on rice exports.
Cheers,
Harsh Beria
Hey guys.
About public spaces.
Have any of you seen a Tamil death procession? It is the absolute opposite of a “private moment of grief”. Not that you’re expected to know, but please do look it up.
I don’t have much of a ‘broader point’. Except to say that we’re not great at regulating anything. We’re also not great at following due process. So the expectation that there would be complaints before vigilantism supervenes? Or on the other side, that permission would be taken for organised activity on public land? That doesn’t seem to be part of how we do things.
As long as we don’t regulate these things, there will be hiccups. I wish we could trust our natural instincts enough not to need regulation, but if that’s not possible I guess forms in triplicate will need to be demanded for all these things.
Vijay Krishnan
Dear Abhinandan,
I heard you talk about the Iran deal and how Trump junked it. I just thought I’d write in and give another ‘spin’ to this wobbly catastrophe.
Remember how Trump went to Saudi Arabia early in his term? What happened after that? Saudi Prince took power. Talks of reforming the nation. But now we have an era of alternate fuel, which means this guy doesn’t have money to reform his country.
How does he get that?
High oil prices!
I have been tracking the oil prices for the last two years, and just on this fiasco, it has shot up to new highs. How do you fight an idea (renewable energy) when it’s time has come?
Like The Joker said: Chaos!
Vivek Ananth
Hello Hafta team,
I’ve been a subscriber for almost a year. Hafta, Constitution, Newsance and Reporters Without Orders are what keep me hooked. I love Abhinandan’s trademark lines promoting Newslaundry. That said, I’ll jump right into my main criticism.
The extreme levels of USA love by Madhu needs to be pointed out. Since last December, Madhu has brought up some USA story in every single Hafta that she has been a part of. If her parts of Hafta would be isolated, one would think that this is an Indo-US podcast, and not an Indian one.
A comment of hers from a few weeks ago perfectly sums up my point. Abhinandan was talking about his contempt for the Indian police force. Madhu responded by saying that the situation is the same “all around the world”, and then went on talking about USA cops. Because, of course, the “entire world” is just India and USA. The fact that as a whole, cops in the developed world (minus USA) are great at their job seems irrelevant to the conversation.
The list goes on. For way too many stories, Madhu has a reply about some US incident or the other. I’ll just give a few more examples.
Topic: Farmers’ march. Madhu’s response: Anti-NRA march in the USA ( which, incidentally, she brought up on three consecutive Haftas that she was a part of.)
Topic: Indian political spokespersons (Hafta 161). Madhu’s response: Kelly something, a political spokesperson in the USA.
Topic: Jinnah statue. Madhu’s response: Confederate flag in USA.
Not to mention the time she used the two US political parties to explain her point.
Surely, internationalism is not a bad thing. But internationalism goes beyond the USA. This is fan-boyism of another country.
Regards,
Pratik
P.S. Since Abhinandan will get a kick out of it, I thought I should mention that I am a research mathematician by profession.
Dear NL team,
(This email may cross whatever new ‘tweetable’ word limit you’ve set. But I have a sincere request: please either read it entirely or don’t read it at all).
- I found the hounding of Mr Vardhan by the rest of the team (in the notable absence of Madhu ma’am and Ranga uncle) on the issue of Rudra-Hanuman picture to be in bad taste.
To begin with, a slight intro: I am born into an upper caste Hindu family in the middle-class income group. I also don’t eat meat by choice, if one can believe that. Now that the author’s bias criteria is satisfied, let’s move on.
I don’t believe that keeping a Hanuman poster in a person’s car/home/wallet/locket/bracelet – even if it happens to be in the Rudra-roop, makes or defines a person to be an extremist-minded one.
Example: Imagine an extremist person who might enforce his views on others and doesn’t mind harming the people who don’t conform to his views – religious or otherwise. Imagine that he also happens to wear a skullcap publicly.
Now this does not make all skullcap-wearing persons – Muslims wearing Taqiyah/Jews wearing Kippah – as extremists. Nor does it make the skullcap as the symbol or weapon or a tool for extremists to enforce their views on others.
Why can the same benefit-of-logic not be extended to people carrying Rudra-Hanuman pictures?
If there wasn’t such an ‘angry’ God picture, would the so-called RW-extremists starve for the need of a propaganda tool?
The initial article on this angry-Hanuman picture itself was a childish and superficial one. But people who like calling themselves ‘liberals’ still play to the gallery and propagate this ‘innocent’ picture (going by Manisha’s remarks on this picture designer’s intent) as the weapon for rabid-hateful right-wingers.
I did not have high hopes from Abhinandan. As people who call names and hate others for ‘being fat’ and ‘having a paunch’ are not liberals by any stretch of imagination (try Libera-Nazi or CommuNazi, maybe). So, accepting a Rudra-Hanuman picture as a possible normal/non-communal practice would be too much to hope from him.
Even Raman sir played right into the part of citing ‘one example’ and justifying it as a ‘weapon’ for that cause. Sir, if that incident moved you so much, then instead of just giving us the apparent victim’s story, shouldn’t we get a proper report on it. A report which ideally should include both the involved parties explaining their sides – but that’s ideal, why should one care about it while proving his point?
Introduction continued:
I also happen not to go any temples and rarely pray to any of the gods. I don’t wear any of the identifiers of my religion or caste – but this is by choice.
I still identify myself as a Hindu – because Hinduism has taught me to love everyone equally, irrespective of his/her identity; and try to do no harm to anyone.
If I chose to wear a ‘Janeyu’ or wear a ‘Tilak’ or wear a locket with a ‘god-picture’ or drive a car with the ‘angry’ Hanuman picture – it should not offend or scare anybody if I’m not causing/willing harm to anyone. If at all we are judging anyone, shouldn’t it be based on one’s acts and not his accessories?
Isn’t that what ‘liberals’ are supposed to believe too?
So, I chose not to get bogged down by any commuNazi or LiberaNazi, who tries to burden me with any ‘Hindu upper caste privilege guilt’- as frankly I neither decided my birth, nor my ancestors’ actions. And the only thing that may really be considered a privilege was being brought up by middle-class parents.
- What happened to be the Cauvery chronicles part 2? I believe the Karnataka election coverage was more important than a conundrum plaguing us for decades. I hope it materialises soon.
Appeal to listeners/NL consumers – please read the excellent first part of the Cauvery chronicles by the same journalist – TR Vivek, if you really feel the story deserves an equally riveting second part, then please try to complete the deficit.
I don’t know what the K-election result will be, but I know that there will be another state elections in about five years at the most. But the Cauvery problem may become much worse by then and we may never understand it like how we can understand it now.
Rahul Pandey
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