Internet is a weak substitute

This is a great interview with Jia Tolentino in Interview magazine. Take for instance her answer to the question “What has this pandemic confirmed or reinforced about your view of society?”:

That capitalist individualism has turned into a death cult; that the internet is a weak substitute for physical presence; that this country criminally undervalues its most important people and its most important forms of labor; that we’re incentivized through online mechanisms to value the representation of something (like justice) over the thing itself; that most of us hold more unknown potential, more negative capability, than we’re accustomed to accessing; that the material conditions of life in America are constructed and maintained by those best set up to exploit them; and that the way we live is not inevitable at all.

From later in the interview:

I think the American obsession with symbolic freedom has to be traded for a desire for actual freedom: the freedom to get sick without knowing it could bankrupt you, the freedom for your peers to live life without fearing they’ll be killed by police. The dream of collective well-being has to outweigh, day-to-day, the dream of individual success.

 

Doing the right thing is always tough.

The great state of Victoria is right now the laughing stock and the black sheep in Australia. With rising counts of COVID-19 cases, clearly pointing to large scale community transmission leading to a second peak, and the inability of the government to prioritize resident health over revitalising the economy has clearly shown the lack of strong leadership in the state. And the relative outstanding performance of other states, even neighbouring states, paints a bleak picture for Vic. If these other states can efficiently manage these numbers, why can’t us ?

This is the same failing leadership which was on display during last year’s bush fires. Yes, that was just last year. This ‘wait and watch’ approach to emergency situations is something typically seen in developing nations. It does not sit well in such a developed country.

The truth is, the people in power know what the right thing to do is. But can’t. It takes courage, and commitment, to do the right thing.

The kids in the government need to grow up.

Prime’s free movies: Becoming Jane

https://medium.com/@placetaken/primes-free-movies-becoming-jane-612e500d97ba

We have been under lockdown for more than 3 months now. During this period, I finally found some free time, and I spent a few of it watching some free movies on Prime. From yesterday. Here are my reviews:

Read the rest here : 

https://medium.com/@placetaken/primes-free-movies-becoming-jane-612e500d97ba

Where’s the peak ?

I honestly cannot believe we are now 6 months into this year. This pandemic filled nightmare year. How could we have got this so wrong ? 2020 was going to be the fancy year, the fun and happening year. The culmination of two decades into the millennium, the yeas in which millennials turn adults.  And , if you subscribed to the political propaganda, and had read the books of Abdul Kalam, this was the year India was going to makes its mark (Remember the book, India 2020 ?)on the world.

Well India has left and will leave its mark on the world. The world’s largest lockdown has turned out to be hogwash, and India has accelerated itself into the top 5 of the world’s COVID affected countries. Long predicted by the world’s non-Indian infectious disease experts, this statement was ‘fake-news’ed by India’s politicians early on. Even now, the Govt denies India has community spread, and is getting ready to organize political rallies for the upcoming state elections.

And here is the bare truth : we are yet to peak.

It does not inspire confidence when scientific consensus is thrown out in favour of political propaganda. To be fair, India is not the only country to do so, almost every country has fudged their numbers, if rumour is to be believed, to look better than others. But while some others have genuinely put in the hard work and effort to fight this invisible enemy, ours is a case of being attacked on multiple fronts.

 

The plights of India’s poor migrant labours was the first of these. This was followed by reported intrusion at the border with China. And now , the country is hearing about the border being redrawn with our northern ally Nepal.  PM Modi and his cabinet has long denied the reported slow down in our economy, but now the pandemic has brought it to stop. There is now a half planned, and half-hearted attempt to restart manufacturing in this troubled economy, and to ‘turn the virus into an opportunity’. It is balderdash that the nation can do in a few months what it could not do in more than 70 years. But the biggest gobbledygook of all was the stimulus package announced by the govt, which was mostly repackaging of previously announced plans, with the govt delegating   responsibility of the stimulus to the nation’s already trouble banks. It did not help that a section of the media sided with the govt’s lies to keep  the people in the blind.

 

Day to day life has now become increasingly dangerous in India. The govt no longer cares (if it ever did) about its people, and is focussed on upcoming elections, and making the people work for the govt, instead of the other way around.

Ask not, they say, what the nation can do for the people, but what the people can further do for the nation.

 

 

 

 

Going medium

https://medium.com/@placetaken

 

Sometimes, you have to be in the medium space.