Paul Henry's rant on Shiela Dikshit

[tarunraju]

Let's not make this discussion about Chinese politics. The only thing relevant is that once you get to know someone from China, you'll find that they're very humble and friendly people, as long as you don't talk politics (because you're essentially trying to hold an intelligent conversation between an astronomer and a geologist about oceanology).

 

[The Messiah]

Chinese are good people...but the direction there govt has taken is not good.

One chinese woman always sends me some delicious chinese home made food on chinese new year....suffice to say its miles better than any chinese restaurant ive eaten in.

 

[shotgunner]

Remember, someone who's born and brought up in a developed country will inevitably see a poor person from India or China from the same prism as seeing a "zoo animal" (the same feeling of awe and intrigue). The onus is on us to prevent that.

Who care how they see us ... boring
Don't use the world "developed country", they invented that term for their own comfort ... when we slept in silk-made pajama they were still hunting with stones.

 

[hit&run]

When media was flashing shit news about India i became 100% sure that the damage is done. Anti India Media is worst than suicide bomb making Madrasa. Paul Henry was one of those person who took it of guarantee to dare to talk nonsense about India cause media was on full swing to conspire against us. These Paul Henrys are not the culprit but victims of media who was successful to reap out all racists upfront. Indians has to learn the art of hitting them back. Like our Cricket team learnt the art of sledging after comprehensive bullying of many years. India ! prepare your self to insult them before they could, be assertive and preemptive.

I totally agree with the Tarun's post..
I lived before in Australia and now in New Zealand. I have always maintained my dignity and has never exposed my apprehension if i ever have. I have skipped my meals many times but has never done a job to put myself in a bad light. My grand mother told me that a man's life should be like a rope, even burnt will have tensile twist in it. Sometimes i observe that Indians overseas do compromise when it wasn't suppose to be done(wont go in detail).

The world order will change in the favor of India soon, but we are greedy or full of guilt enough to give the bad impression. I have always told my family that we are carrying the Indian flag always on our heads, our action will be adjudged not on personal merits but with a view that we are Indians. I represent India with respect, well mannered way and by giving and demanding the need of great self respect. I have never delayed the onslaught if some one has ever offended me. Trust me whosoever interacts with me, sees a different India/Indian in me against their all misconceptions and shattering superiority myths.

There is saying in Punjabi ''je apna chaga chuko tan apna he tidd nanga hunda hai'' if you lift off your shirt your belly will become naked. Therefore Indians and specially India media has to think twice before exposing India for cheap rating or distrusting that things are not going to change. Indian media can not run alone and ahead of rest of the India cause we not yet USA.

India is at a very critical phase of transitions/development against all odds. These pig head racists were living without sanitation and proper cooked food when started sucking our GDP. We have to trust India's destiny and would be prosperity; coming soon, before ranting negatively against her thus indirectly giving a huuush/go to these less pigmented dogs.

 

[hit&run]

great posts Tarun you are diagnostic with your approach..Keep it up.

 

[pmaitra]

Who care how they see us ... boring
Don't use the world "developed country", they invented that term for their own comfort ... when we slept in silk-made pajama they were still hunting with stones.

Well we slept in silk-pajamas but not anymore. Do we want to keep harping on the fact that we had a glorious past and sleep over it? Of course we had a glorious past, but is it a matter of great pride that our past is past us? Is it patriotic to harp over our glory that existed before millenia or are we going to assume some humility and courage to accept the truth that right now we are not at the top?

I don't like it when people point out that 'India is dirty' (actually most occidentals are careful and polite enough not to mention that), but is it not true that many people in India defaecate along the railway tracks, spit red betel juice mixed with human saliva onto walls, trains and roads or vendors occupy footpaths and setup makeshift shops forcing people to walk on the streets risking their lives? Ironically, these vendors are the first ones to beat up a driver if anyone is run over.

If we are a target of insulting diatribes, then we are definitely not altogether undeserving of them.

Don't take this personally, but the 'Who care how they see us' attitude isn't particularly very helpful towards solving India's woes!

 

[Quickgun Murugan]

I really think India needs to build the nerve to ignore such useless rants. This Paul Henry guy is a "nobody". No one cares about him in his own country of new zealand which has the population of Goa.

There are lot of crazy racist people in the world. If we pay attention to all of them, we are giving them what they want- TRP popularity.

Foreign ministry asking for apology was the height of stupidity. How can NZ govt be responsible for whats happening in its media?

 

[johnee]

China handled this well. It screens all footage that leaves the country. There's poverty in China too, though the country doesn't allow portrayal of its negatives to overshadow its positives or achievements. What India is doing on the other hand, is letting west get away with bucket loads of bad PR for our country in the name of "freedom of expression", and then later objecting to Paul Henry's freedom of expression, which he built over years of accumulating bad PR about India by foreign press operating in India. It's not that Paul Henry built his opinion based on personal inspection, which is why his is "foreign perception", rather than a blatant slur. All he is exposed to about India probably is the abject poverty, whatever was portrayed about India in Slumdog Millionaire, or some other western documentary.

Remember, someone who's born and brought up in a developed country will inevitably see a poor person from India or China from the same prism as seeing a "zoo animal" (the same feeling of awe and intrigue). The onus is on us to prevent that.

Superb analysis. Frequently people in India take this negative publicity as 'deserving' by India. They say that things pointed out by such publicity are actually true. What they miss is that the focus is almost always exclusively on the negatives of India. If someone forms his opinions on the basis of this kind of repoting, then he will surely see Indians the way Paul Henry-or-whatever sees it.

Yes, India has several negatives. But which country doesnt? If we have the intent to find negatives, then we can find them in every country and use them to portray the country unfairly. If the reporting is not balanced(for whatever reasons, be it routine scourn for Indians, be it agenda driven, or be it just ignorance), then such reporting needs to be taken to task. China does it quite effectively. Of course, it goes to extremes some times. But we have gone to the other extreme and are allowing every tom, dik, and HENRY to malign our nation.

 

[king98121]

well its just not 1 guy comments on youtube and facebook are both flooded with anti indian comments most likely by kiwis who are racist and well *cough* MAYBE pakistanis who hate india:angry_1:

 

[civfanatic]

well its just not 1 guy comments on youtube and facebook are both flooded with anti indian comments most likely by kiwis who are racist and well *cough* MAYBE pakistanis who hate india:angry_1:

I still find it funny and somewhat sad how many Pakistanis make degrading comments about India because of our poverty, even though Karachi is the largest slum in Asia.

 

[pmaitra]

Superb analysis. Frequently people in India take this negative publicity as 'deserving' by India. They say that things pointed out by such publicity are actually true. What they miss is that the focus is almost always exclusively on the negatives of India. If someone forms his opinions on the basis of this kind of repoting, then he will surely see Indians the way Paul Henry-or-whatever sees it.

Yes, India has several negatives. But which country doesnt? If we have the intent to find negatives, then we can find them in every country and use them to portray the country unfairly. If the reporting is not balanced(for whatever reasons, be it routine scourn for Indians, be it agenda driven, or be it just ignorance), then such reporting needs to be taken to task. China does it quite effectively. Of course, it goes to extremes some times. But we have gone to the other extreme and are allowing every tom, ****, and HENRY to malign our nation.

Well, it is the job of Indians to point out these mistakes. If some foreigner is doing it for us, then we should work towards making at least one dirty road intersection clean, cleaning at least one wall in the city or painting at least one ramshakle bus-stop in our neighbourhood. It doesn't cost too much if the people in a locality come together to do that. Do we do things like that? I haven't seen this among Indians. I have seen many Americans using a few hours of their weekends picking up litter from their neighbourhood.

We have every right to be proud of our cricket team, our space program, our rich culture. Similarly, it is our duty to be ashamed of our negatives as well.

Whatever China is doing, they are doing. However, simply hiding the harsh reality of China isn't really going to remove the reality. The reality is a reality and it will remains so; albeit hidden from global cognisance.

If Paul Henry called Sheila Dixit as 'D*p-S**t', he was totally wrong and has shown that he himself is uncultured. However, if he were to say that 'Indian trains travel on s**t' (yes, we deserve it), I will be one of the first persons to stand up and support him, because it is my (and everyone's) duty to stand up for the truth.

Let us not get carried away by patriotic jingoism but be patriotic enough to clean up our own mess, if we truly love our country.

 

[johnee]

Foreign ministry asking for apology was the height of stupidity. How can NZ govt be responsible for whats happening in its media?

Well, Foreign ministry had to do something, especially since its a congress CM who is under attack. If it were Narendra Modi, then they would have joined Paul Henry...

If insult meted out to a constitutional authority(Chief minister) was the real motive, then why did not the foreign ministry protest against denial of visa to Gujarat CM? Remember, Narendra Modi is denied US visa and the congress govt at centre sees it as an approval of its politics.

 

[pmaitra]

Well, Foreign ministry had to do something, especially since its a congress CM who is under attack. If it were Narendra Modi, then they would have joined Paul Henry...

If insult meted out to a constitutional authority(Chief minister) was the real motive, then why did not the foreign ministry protest against denial of visa to Gujarat CM? Remember, Narendra Modi is denied US visa and the congress govt at centre sees it as an approval of its politics.

Technically, you are right. If Modi can be denied Visa for his alleged role in Gujarat violence, then even Bush should have been denied Visa for his role in the illegal invasion of Iraq over false pretexts of WMDs. However, there are many other parameters in politics and international power-play! I guess, we'll have to live with that, as unfair may these things be!

 

[johnee]

Let us not get carried away by patriotic jingoism but be patriotic enough to clean up our own mess, if we truly love our country.

Lets not confuse two issues here:

1) India has several messes to clean up. Its happening, its a process and will take time.

2) Foreign documentaries, movies and media portray one-sided view of India. Their projection of India fuels bigotism against India.


Both the above points have to be kept in mind. One does not counter the other. Yes, there are problems. Yes, we need to solve them. But that is no excuse for others to use these issues as handles to insult us. We must be clear that having a problem does not justify others to use that problem to insult us. That does not mean, we stop working towards solving the problem...

 

[pmaitra]

Lets not confuse two issues here:

1) India has several messes to clean up. Its happening, its a process and will take time.

2) Foreign documentaries, movies and media portray one-sided view of India. Their projection of India fuels bigotism against India.


Both the above points have to be kept in mind. One does not counter the other. Yes, there are problems. Yes, we need to solve them. But that is no excuse for others to use these issues as handles to insult us. We must be clear that having a problem does not justify others to use that problem to insult us. That does not mean, we stop working towards solving the problem...

Absolutely. Keeping the above points in mind, does one have to feel insulted if a foreigner says 'India is dirty?' or speaks about 'Delhi Belly'? It is the truth and if we feel insulted by the truth, then we have a problem. We also need to understand that by not doing enough for our own country, we are giving the foreigners an opportunity to point fingers at us.

Again, as I have mentioned before, Paul Henry was totally wrong in what he said; however every foreign documentary or even Slumdog Millionaire (yes it focuses on the negatives of India, but it tells the truth) is indeed a reality and we really have no moral right to protest that.

 

[johnee]

however every foreign documentary or even Slumdog Millionaire (yes it focuses on the negatives of India, but it tells the truth) is indeed a reality and we really have no moral right to protest that.

This is the point where I differ. Its our country and we live as we please, as far as foreigners are concerned. They have no right to insult us, even if we eat, drink and live in $hit. If they insult us, then we have every right to protest against such an insult. This must be our message to the world.

Internally, we must try to solve our mess. But remember, all the problems are never solved. All the poverty is never eliminated. Newer and newer problems will rising and solving the mess is a continous job. If we allow others to insult us on the excuse of one issue, even if we solve that issue, then they will use some other issue to insult us. The real motive is actually just jealousy with a tinge of racism.

Our problems are pointed out to humiliate us and not with any benevolent motive. If India had remained at the bottom, then these people would have taken pity at us, but since we are rising, they use these issues to insult us.

Like Gandhiji said: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

We are now at the second phase, they are laughing at us...

 

[pmaitra]

This is the point where I differ. Its our country and we live as we please, as far as foreigners are concerned. They have no right to insult us, even if we eat, drink and live in $hit. If they insult us, then we have every right to protest against such an insult. This must be our message to the world.

Yes, here we agree to disagree. The question is not whether they have the right to insult us (of course they don't have that right; but they do have the right to speak the unpleasant truth); rather do we have the right to feel insulted if some foreigner points out our negatives?

Moreover, I definitely feel that we are making ourselves objects of ridicule "if we eat, drink and live in $hit".

I live in a large city in the US where public transport sucks. I always point this out to my American friends but I never insult them. They, in response, are always willing to accept their flaws instead of feeling insulted.

Internally, we must try to solve our mess. But remember, all the problems are never solved. All the poverty is never eliminated. Newer and newer problems will rising and solving the mess is a continous job. If we allow others to insult us on the excuse of one issue, even if we solve that issue, then they will use some other issue to insult us. The real motive is actually just jealousy with a tinge of racism.

Yes and No. Some news articles, editorials and documentaries are biased. Again, there are many that speak positively about India.

Ponder for a second:

• If one were to make a documentary about Slums in Mumbai (a negative), he is going to talk about Slums in Mumbai and not about how state-of-the-art locomotives are manufactured in the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (a positive).
• I had seen one documentary about the Chernobyl Disaster (a negative). That documentary talked about the Chernobyl Disaster and not about the great Russian literary figures like Tolstoy, Pushkin and Chekhov (positives).

I'd rather documentaries stick to the point.

Our problems are pointed out to humiliate us and not with any benevolent motive. If India had remained at the bottom, then these people would have taken pity at us, but since we are rising, they use these issues to insult us.

Like Gandhiji said: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

We are now at the second phase, they are laughing at us...

I totally agree with you on this point.

The point is that we tend to ignore the positive documentaries foreigners have made about India and focus only on the negative documentaries; and consequently, we accuse others of harbouring hatred against us. Oftentimes it is true; yet not always. By failing to mention the positive documentaries and harping on the negative ones, are we not manifesting our own hatred as well?

Hatred, that is the topic of this thread.

 

[dove]

What we really need is a McCarthy (sp?) to clean up our own liberals a bit. US does not realize what a boon he was to them. Otherwise instead of UK, it would have been US that's the global HQ of jihadistan.

 

[johnee]

Pmaitra, the point is the topic of the documentaries is always negative and hence the entire documentary is negative. There may be some positives within it, but overwhelmingly, the message is negative. There may be a few positive or neutral ones, but IMHO, most give out a biased and negative portrayal of India and its people. And I pressume that its not just India but any and every country other than their beloved ones.

 

[pmaitra]

Pmaitra, the point is the topic of the documentaries is always negative and hence the entire documentary is negative. There may be some positives within it, but overwhelmingly, the message is negative. There may be a few positive or neutral ones, but IMHO, most give out a biased and negative portrayal of India and its people. And I pressume that its not just India but any and every country other than their beloved ones.

Not true. There are many documentaries that speak positively about India. This is exactly what I am trying to point out.

Critisize Henry for insulting India, I will support you. However, stating that documentaries are always negative is simply making a false claim. I can't believe you haven't seen a single documentary from the West that is positive about India. Check out National Geographic's the Great Indian Railways or the National Geographic's documentary about the LCA.