Vivek's Info » Podcasts & webcasts

The art & craft of academic writing: Interviews & talks

Vivek S. — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:16:47 +0000

Unlike a lot of people, writing does not come to me naturally. It has been a slow and difficult learning process, and I had to contend with massive writing project as I started the dissertation. As it turned out, writing the dissertation was fun, but not always. It took me an year and a half to write the dissertation after the fieldwork, and in the process, it helped me to know what other writers had gone through. A lot of that advice came from the committee and from my peers at the University, and some of it came from webcasts on the art of writing.

These talks helped me reflect on writing: why I write, how to write, and what one goes through as a writer. It helped me anticipate that I will have to re-write again and again, and that there will be days when I will get stuck staring at a blank page or a half-written paragraph. It is not that these talks ensured that I did not get stuck, but it helped to know that it happens. More than anything else, they helped me remember that writing can be fun; something that a lot of us in the run to finish a long project forget.

Click on the list icon that looks like a stack of cards in the bottom to see the entire list of videos, or you can always visit my YouTube channel here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mind-maps for organising the layout of a chapter, article or dissertation Mind maps can help us contend with different ways of...
Making subjectivity visible: Sections from my dissertation My pot belly, being 'rosy complexioned' and other stories from...
Right to information call centre in Bihar: Video clip It looks like Government of Bihar has launched a Right...
Webcast of interview with Amartya Sen: Reflections on theory in social sciences Many talks and interviews with well known people are now...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Jaswant’s Obama-like interview on his Jinnah biography in CNN-IBN

Vivek S. — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:24:04 +0000

Jaswant Singh’s discussion on partition was bold, balanced and mature; it was a public discussion of a kind we rarely expect with a senior Indian politician.

Jaswant Singh, a senior BJP leader, gave a two part interview in CNN-IBN on his recently released biography of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. The interview by Karan Thapar focused the role of Jinnah and Indian leaders like Nehru, Gandhi and Rajaji in the saga of partition. Majority of us Indians are used to considering Jinnah as the villain of the piece and sentiments about him are so strong that Advani was asked to step down as the BJP president for just making a statement that Jinnah was a great leader. In this polemic context, Jaswant Singh’s nuanced view of partition was both rare and delightful.

In this interview with Karan Thapar, Jaswant Singh argued that Jinnah used Pakistan as a bargaining tactic to secure more autonomy for Muslims in India. Jinnah’s position was appreciated by leaders like Gandhi and Rajaji, but Nehru with his vision of centralised socialist nation was not able to appreciate Jinnah’s demand. Congress in general was not able to come to grips with federalism and the majoritarian tendency with Congress at the helm made Jinnah uncomfortable.

Jaswant Singh took a strong stand that Jinnah was a (Indian) nationalist for most of his life, but was repeatedly not able to find a political space for Muslims. He also took a firm stand against the popular notion that Jinnah was a Hindu-hater. While he was critical of Nehru and Gandhi for certain things, Jaswant Singh displayed a rare sensitivity and balance in seeing their position as well. It was remarkable that on a polarising topic like Indo-Pak partition, he was able to criticise certain acts without villainising Gandhi or Nehru.

This was an unusually bold act for many reasons. It was not long back that Advani was asked to step down. If praising Jinnah would infuriate his colleagues, I wonder is in store for his praising Gandhi and Nehru, two people that BJP has grown accustomed to criticise. Jaswant Singh is not going to win friends in Congress either for calling Nehru and Gandhi great statesmen and patriots; for Congress is a party accustomed to blind hero worship and will not have the guts to accept that some of its tallest leaders of the past did some mistakes. I do not know what this book and the interview will do to Jaswant’s political future, but I atleast hope that he will win enough fans among the Indian public.

Many of us may have differences with Jaswant Singh on his reading of history (at least parts of it), or his position on certain issues like reservation policies; and we should disagree with him if we have a reason to. What is beyond my doubt is that if we have leaders who could perform this way on polarising issues, our democracy will have a reason to flourish.

The interviews can be found in CNN-IBN website under the programme “Devil’s Advocate”. Part 1 can be found here and Part 2 of the interview here.

Ps. The joy of the interview was tempered by the inconsiderate and dismissive response by the Congress spokesperson. I guess I should not get carried away by the prospects for democratic discussion.

http://bbprod.syr.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/announcement?method=search&context=course&course_id=_128534_1&handle=cp_announcements&mode=quick

Webcast of interview with Amartya Sen: Reflections on theory in social sciences Many talks and interviews with well known people are now...
India’s role in Hungary, Congo, etc. India’s role in countries abroad is something that we do...
Shifting from PDS to coupons or cash transfers: FAQs The Public Distribution System (PDS) in India has come under...
Webcast of Noam Chomsky interview on Activism, Anarchism and Power Many talks and interviews with well known people are now...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Best international news programmes: A list

Vivek S. — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:24:17 +0000

An effort to build a list of good international news programmes to get news from diverse perspectives

Over the last few years, I have developed an interest in international affairs. Unfortunately, International English news sources were dominated by channels in USA and Britain. BBC and CNN that were available widely had some high quality programmes but put forward highly circumscribed views. My earning for diversity of views got a fillip with online news channels. I am now trying to compile a list of good weekly programmes, documentaries, etc. that we can watch now and then to catch up with major issues in different countries. Without such a list, it would be impossible to keep up with all the new resources that are becoming available now through You Tube and other sources.

Your suggestions please

I will build a list and publish it here soon. In the meanwhile, I would appreciate your suggestions from mainstream or alternate channels from different regions. Some examples include:

NDTV (India): We the people
CNN-IBN (India): Devil’s advocate
Al Jazeera’s (Middle East): People & Power
Dawn News TV (Pakistan): Talk back
BBC (UK): Hard talk
PBS (USA): Frontline
CNN (USA): GPS by Fareed Zakaria
University of California Television (USA): Conversations with history
Fox News (USA): O’Reilly Factor (To say the least, this represents a point of view!)

I would like to expand this list and identify good sources for other areas including African countries, Latin America, etc. If you know of a good crisp TV programme that is available online, please let me know with a comment below.

Thank you.

Google News: Advantage of using news readers Online news is more than just reading the same stuff...
Media & Alternate media links: news, analysis, critique Articles on media and its role, links to media sites...
List of data sources for social science research My bookmarks on data sources that is continually updated An...
Big list of Webcasts online: Documentaries, talks, television & other videos This is a huge list of lists of webcast sources....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

India refuses to sign cluster bomb treaty & we know not why

Vivek S. — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:11:24 +0000

Here’s a news item from the Real news network on India’s refusal to sign the cluster bomb treaty along with China, US (not surprisingly), Israel, Russia and Pakistan.What is shocking though is the paltry coverage it got in Indian media for an issue that is clearly important. ToI, NDTV, Zee News, Economic Times, and a few others carried an article straight from Associated Press or other services. Given that India had not signed this treaty, some home work could have been done here – but NOTHING was done. This is true of the highly celebrated Hindu as well. No interviews, no commentaries, no reasons offered as to why India did not sign the treaty…the silence is total.

Short video on the treaty

Poor coverage in Indian media

The coverage by Indian media is so un-reflecting that Zee News could carry the headline “111 nations adopt cluster bomb treaty, but not US”…being an Indian media outlet, were they not obliged to highlight India’s stand? The issue was so hushed up, that I had to discover it through Al Jazeera that carried the video above. Thanks to Indian media’s slience, we know not why India did not even participate in the treaty.

Poor media coverage is not a reflection of media’s priorities alone. It reflects the fact that no one in India must have campaigned actively for India to join the treaty. It’s a failure on the part of the civil society here. Even if a small group had taken interest, it would have made it to the media. Unfortunately, the way a lot of international treaties work is through Western mediation with an agenda set in the West without much domestic consultation.

It looks like India is one of the major producers of cluster bombs. It is unlikely that commercial interests will make way for moral and social concerns without strong public support – no effort has gone into securing it in this country.

Media & Alternate media links: news, analysis, critique Articles on media and its role, links to media sites...
Will school shootings guntinue in India: Should media care? School violence is just a petty issue in India so...
Developments in Hindi cinema: Will the big kill the good? As big budget movies with huge marketing costs become popular...
Should India seek a position in the Security Council? Ever since I got interested in foreign policy issues during...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

American war par da song by Jayashree

Vivek S. — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:55:50 +0000

Eisenhover in a memorable speech talked of the danger of the military industrial complex. His warning has sadly been borne out time and again in the decades following the speech. In this context calculations of gain overwhelm concerns for morality in foreign policy. Thankfully, the same decades have also seen an appreciable growth of people’s voices for peace. This movement has made remarkable use of media to covey its message; this song by Jayashree is a good example of such efforts.

Set in the tune of the Sinhalese song “Surangani” that took India by storm, “American war par da” is a spoof of US foreign policies.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For an excellent critique of India’s nuclear politics, I recommend “War & Peace” by Anand Patwardan

Interesting interview on civil rights with African-American Judge – Justice Henderson Many talks and interviews with well known people are now...
Right to information call centre in Bihar: Video clip It looks like Government of Bihar has launched a Right...
Nothing as entertaining as extremism In a world that is deeply worried about extremism I...
Fighting corruption using right to information: Arvind Kejriwal’s talk Good introductory video on using right to information to combat...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Bhagalpur blindings, Gangajal & brutality in Bihar today

Vivek S. — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:42:09 +0000

Brutal and grotesque punishments deter crime better than an inefficient and corrupt legal system argue many

Brutal punishments are back into public debate in India with the airing of the video below. A boy who had snatched a chain from a woman was caught and brutally punished by a mob – relentlessly. A Policeman joined in meting out this “justice” by finishing the act by tying the boy to his bike and dragging him in the road. Even before this furore has died from public debate there has been another mob action today emulating the infamous Bhagalpur blindings epitomised by the movie Gangajal.

The Bhagalpur Blindings

In 1980 many undertrials (people in Jail who have not yet been convicted yet) were tortured by the police by poking needles into their eyes and by pouring acid in their eyes to blind them. The act came out into the public with a series of articles by Indian Express led by Arun Shourie and it took close up pictures of the brutalised eyes to raise the public furore. But furore was not the only sentiment expressed about the incident. There was also a great deal of public support for the incident in the crime prone state (Bihar). The dilemma was brilliantly filmed by Prakash Jha in the movie Gangajal almost two decades after the incident. In Gangajal police gouge out the eyes of goodans used by a local goon winning great public support for the act. The acid is euphemistically called Gangajal (the holy water of Ganga) and people enthusiastically take this method of punishment in the streets in response to crime. Today a repeat of the incident happened in Bihar where a mob gouged out the eyes of three young men who had stolen a bike at gunpoint from a man. ‘Justice in the street’ has once again become an issue within weeks in Bihar.

Justice: from courts to streets

There is a genuine frustration in India about long delays in the legal system and the ability of those with money to have their way in the criminal justice system. The lack of confidence judicial and legal system is indeed a context for some of the mob violence in the streets of Bihar today. I am all for street action. But an action of a completely different sort. Criminal justice system in India cannot be rescued without strong democratic protests by us. Mob violence over petty crimes is neither just nor a solution to a crime infested state.

I cannot help noticing that most of these violent incidents are meted to relatively poor people who have indeed committed a crime. Such violence is both crime and punishment – but punishment far in excess of anything that a decent society will consider. Mob punishments, lynching, beating, rape and other forms of violence are undeniable realities in India today. These are chief instruments for keeping ‘people in their place’ be they women who demand a just treatment or a Dalit who wishes to break the injustice of the casteist society. The context of gender, class or caste cannot be ignored in the system of street justice in India. They often go in the name of justice but are nothing more than crime in the garb of justice.

Despite the fact that many see an element of justice in the recent incidents I condemn them for the crime that they are, in the name of human rights and for their ability to justify violence that then becomes an instrument to sustain injustice in India today.

Right to information call centre in Bihar: Video clip It looks like Government of Bihar has launched a Right...
Why even those who oppose Naxalism should support Binayak Sen Binayak Sen has just received a life-term jail sentence for...
Interesting interview on civil rights with African-American Judge – Justice Henderson Many talks and interviews with well known people are now...
The politics of PDS “reforms” This is a part of a series of articles on...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Fighting corruption using right to information: Arvind Kejriwal’s talk

Vivek S. — Sat, 19 May 2007 16:19:56 +0000

Good introductory video on using right to information to combat corruption by Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal has been at the heart of an inspiring campaign to combat corruption by using the right to information. He spearheaded a campaign in Delhi along with many other groups that popularised the use of right to information. Arvind got the Magasassay for his work. The videos below contain a talk he gave on using RTI, which I think is a good introductory material for people with an interest on how it could be used, and what it means.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Right to information call centre in Bihar: Video clip It looks like Government of Bihar has launched a Right...
Touching talk by Desmond Tutu: Nobel Laureate from South Africa Many talks and interviews with well known people are now...
Documentary on MKSS and right to information campaign This documentary by Jan Madhyam Productions gives a very good...
The peace movement in historical perspective with Linus Pauling – Webcast Many talks and interviews with well known people are now...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Right to information call centre in Bihar: Video clip

Vivek S. — Sat, 19 May 2007 16:04:11 +0000

It looks like Government of Bihar has launched a Right to information call centre. Personally, I think this is a great idea, though I dont know how it works at this point. If found a video about it in You Tube that has been widely televised. This is a eight minute clip about that appeals to different groups of people to use it, and gives an idea about how it could be done.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fighting corruption using right to information: Arvind Kejriwal’s talk Good introductory video on using right to information to combat...
Documentary on MKSS and right to information campaign This documentary by Jan Madhyam Productions gives a very good...
Bhagalpur blindings, Gangajal & brutality in Bihar today Brutal and grotesque punishments deter crime better than an inefficient...
Usability: Giving information is not enough Data, data everywhere, not a bit to use: Why the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Food Politics by Marion Nestle: How industries influence eating

Vivek S. — Mon, 14 May 2007 16:09:58 +0000

Food politics: how the food industry influences nutrition and health

Rating: 5 out of 5

Author: Marion Nestle

Year: 2002

Category: Nutrition, Political Economy, Agriculture

Publisher: University of California Press

Fascinating book on the politics of food in USA

The book was motivated by the contradictions between nutrition policy and practice. The author argues that the basic nutrition advice has remained more or less constant for the last fifty years. She examines the role of food industry in the US in creating an environment conductive to over eating and poor nutritional practice.

Overproduction, Competition & pressure to make people eat more

The book argues that in the early 1900s there was a lot of under nutrition in the US, and it was in the interest of people, USDA and the food industry to increase consumption. This has changed over time, and now good nutrition advice essentially involves ‘eat less’ messages, especially of certain foods. This goes against the interest of the food industry, which is overproducing. Foods high in fat (meats, diary, fried foods, grain dishes with added fat) sugar (soft drinks, juice drinks, desserts) salt (snack foods) are the ones that are most promoted since these are the most profitable foods in the food industry (Nestle 2002: 10).

In the context of overproduction companies compete hard for the market from each other, but at the same time, they try to expand the market on the whole by making people consume more – which is against the nutritional interest of most people in the United States today. Apart from making foods more tasty, convenient, available at a low price, companies also take other measures to enhance sales. These include confusing nutritional advice, serving larger portions, etc. (Nestle 2002). Further, some groups, including, minorities are specially targeted and a lot of marketing addresses children.

Confounding nutrition education

One tactic that is growing is to supplement food with vitamins, calcium, etc. and highlight them rather than undesirable aspects of food such as fat, calorie content. Nestle predicts a horse race by food manufacturers to fortify every food on the shelves. She quotes Gilbert Leville, “the addition of nutrients, just so that they may be listed on the label, is not a sound nutritional philosophy” (Nestle 2002: 305). Efforts are regularly made to confound the nature of food, and the basic principles of nutrition as well. In doing this they often solicit and get the support of USDA and FDA.

Food Politics discusses at length the efforts by food industry to influence food policies and advice from various governmental bodies. The discussion includes many case studies and an outline of tactics used by the food industry to influence policies. For example, an elaborate effort was bid to subvert the food pyramid diagram that clearly indicates that less must be taken of foods on the top of the pyramid. Instead, the “food pyramid” was depicted in the confusing shape of a food bowl. Similarly the food industry fought and got the permission to make health claims of foods, many of which are not tenable. They successfully lobbied to include these claims in lables without processes specified by FDA for drug companies.

Social Environment of Food Choice

By looking at the ‘social environment of food choice’ and the ‘food politics’ associated with it, Marion Nestle clearly argues that food choice is not merely a matter of ‘individual preferences’. It is something that is determined, at least in part, by society and culture. The ‘politics of food’ attempts to influence this preference in accordance to the agenda of different players. The major player in this is the corporate sector, whose agenda is at times congruent with that of the consumer, and at times conflicting. If food choice were to be excessively influenced by corporate sector, it will lead to choices that are profitable to the industry, but are unhealthy. Public action is crucial to counterbalance this influence of food choice, and it will help in putting together those concerns of people that do not necessarily contribute positively to the bottom-line of corporations.

A book for laypersons

The style of the book is simple and is accessible to any person. The essential messages are simple and are presented clearly. The book is likely to a fun reading for most people with an interest in this issue.

Here’s a 60 min presentation on the book that should give you a good synopsis of the themes.