Lonely Planet a book full of Bull Crap

agni5454

Ha ha.

Well if constructive criticism bring meaning to one's life then i guess "therefore you are"

CA? I envy you! Enjoying the weather?

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"Human Life without happiness or hope of happiness is not a life, but rather a death in life" - David Swenson The Dignity of Human Life

"History is always a perspective; but numbers never lie"

agni5454

Well in my original BBC post, notice how i said the country in still under developing status; hence sure there might be more disorder present and more energy should be applied to make it more orderly. Time is the only essence that can bring this order taken into account the financial situation of that country.

Nick-H

Oh dear! a nondescript article about a nondescript event. Why on earth would the BBC bother with this? I don't know. Ex-etonian on the staff of that program probably...

There was an excellent thread on IM I recommend to you here

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

Rob_The_Pom

That's was a pretty p1ss poor story by the BBC, but otherwise I think their coverage of India, and South Asia in general is excellent.
If anyone thinks that they should report more 'warm and fluffy stories' then they need to bear in mind that the BBC is a news channel, they don't broadcast many stories of that ilk about anywhere.
As a British institution I'm immensely proud of the BBC, and their ability to survive despite continual knocks from the govt - the Thatcher govt wanted to abolish them, the Blair govt seems to want to as well.
They aren't perfect, but I think they stand well above any other news provider.

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cyberhippie

The media in general has a blinkered view of India, even articles about the gains in the Indian economy are often accompanied by images of Juggi Dwellers, or beggars on the street. One of the most ironic was the stories of outsourcing to India last year. Here we had Indian companies competing with the west for Banking databases software and services and winning, several channels from around the world ran stories on this, pretty much all of them deemed it necessary to accompany the stories with images of India's poor!!!!
The west seems to enjoy portraiting places like Africa and India as counties not really able to compete with the mighty west!! Certainly in India's case that is a mindset that is set to be challenged in the coming years as more and more institutions and jobs flood east!
I could of course again point out that this reality is not the one that every Indian sees when he looks out his front door.
The western formula of consumerism and equal opportunity may not be the answer to any of India's problem. It's a questionabler formula in the west and with the sheer numbers involved in India society, it may well be a long long time before the snakes charmers hang up their snake so to speak!!
To float a system in India where the wealth is supposed to "trickle down" and solve the problems of poverty, is frankly a joke but don't take my word for it time will prove me right or wrong.
Already the signs of disifranchment are there, (that shouldn't suprise us, almost every consumer led society has the same problems from time to time) equal opportunity usually translates into have and have nots, the have nots are usually accused of not be active paricipants (denial of good education, class and bad health are the real factors here) somehow the have nots haven't tried on the level playing ground of consumer led market economy. Of course equal opportunities does not mean equal opportuntities for all that is inherent in the system. Equal opportunities for all would look something like the recenty defeated communist ideals and we all know how how we fought to rid the world of that ideology
Foisting such a system on India will inevitably bring Millions of losers!!
Anyway I digress, India has seen changes but much of the India shining is spin when you look at India "the whole" many millions of India's population have seen minimal changes in their lives some none at all, as India marches towards a market economy many more will suffer adversley, like the farmers of the west, big business will eventually make small holding agriculture a thing of the past, probably the the single thing that hold the India micro economies together!!
I am so happy that India can now hold it's head high in the world, it is just reward for a proud hardworking nation. No longer do I have to explain the positive aspects of India to the morons in the west, India now speaks for itself in this regard.
I only hope that ingeniuos India sees something we in the west have missed when it comes to implimenting western business ideas in India. I really hope so, for failure to bring a uniform standard of life to all India and Indians could well destroy what has been achieved up to now in terms of economy and democracy as India's rural population becomes disenchanted with policies that seek to ignore their plight!!
India is shining the trick is to make it shine for all!!!!

Rob_The_Pom

This phenomena can be describe as constructions of the 'self' and the 'other', it is basically a neo-colonialist interpretation of the world. The west constructs its own culture as dynamic, and superior (the 'self), it then constructs cultures such as India as static, backward and unchanging (the 'other'). In fact, all cultures are dynamic and ever-changing.
It is through the use of these constructions that allow western govts to pursue policies towards developing, and under-developed nations that continue to patronise and oppress. One only has to consider that a lot of aid isn't really aid, but an investment which furthers western hegemony.

What a strange thread, we started on the LP, but I've just posted on neo-colonialism......
Oh well.

cyberhippie

Well put RTP and very very true!! Yep this thread has definitly devloped into an interesting discussion!
I think the anomoly of India that these seemingly opposite India's sit comfortably side side by side, something I notice people struggle to understand!

wandering_kat

From LP-bashing/defending to Beeb-bashing/defending.... will this become the generic bash-and-defend thread?!

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agni5454

Nick,

I will get back to this as soon as i get a chance

agni5454

Why is stating the truth considered bashing? Do not really understand what you mean. Why was this thread opened in the first place to begin with? The answer: to discuss the extreme negativeness potrayed in the Media about a foreign culture. Now if you want to call that bashing, then i guess our terms of bashing differ in mere definition

agni5454

actually, that is only one example i bought up since Nick asked for an example

There is one whole subsection in BBC site devoted to the "Empire" if you scroll around BBC homepage.

On one hand, the indians as well as other colonial subjects are trying to move on and on the other hand they are constantly reminded that colonial rule was "beneficial"? (Refer to Eton Story). The staggering fact was that, in one of the articles 60% of the youth in UK thinks (survey) that colonial past is something to be proud of. Hmm ...do the german youth think of Hitler the same way? Are the facts being twisted to portray the colonial rule as "beneficial"? I think so; why else would the youth think the way they do?

No mean to cause offense, just stating the obvious.

On the second note, we should probably get back to the LP topic

amogasiddhi

If the LP book is 'full of bullcrap' then it is a fair representation of India.

On the other hand, if you are the sort of person who totally relies upon what a book says and the analogy of treating LP like the bible springs to mind, then you deserve to get the fright of your life. Of course LP is going to be flawed but generally, and it is a general guide to give foreigners the first clue about how to deal with india, it's not bad....unless you want to find out something about Raipur in which case it is a load of bullcrappings.
Compiling a book like that is bound to be fraught with bullcrappings of the highest degree as they cannot say that ignoring beggars, the way many people on forums such as this do, is better than feeding their lifestyle as that would lead to further conflict. It's not easy to compile a guidebook you know, could you write in one book everything about India? Then you are also full of bullcrap and i'll be the first to admit it!

Hope this clears things up and if you really want to know what bullcrap is, go to Varanasi, they have whole herds of bulls crapping there, they do.

Anne Onnymouszche

Rob_The_Pom

1. You are stating the 'obvious' as you see it. Different countries interpret history in different ways. Do you expect Great Britain to teach history from an Indian nationalist point of view? It can be equally claimed that interpreting history from a nationalist perspective is twisting facts.

2. Comparing the British Empire to the Nazis does cause great offense to me. A colonial past is not something I'm hugely proud of in terms of suffering it caused, but the Nazi's Britain certainly wasn't. Posting stuff like that is likely to cause rows that I don't want to see on here.


Again, the truth in your perspective.

agni5454

1) I am no nationalist, I am not even Indian to begin with. So you are telling me that it is perfectly ok to twist the past and portray it from a British nationalist perspective then? that it was perfectly ok to plunder another if they do not have access to gun powder?

2) and how many millions died due to those faminies again? (Do not believe me? Just ask the Irish)

No, not offensive, just facts.

Anyways, i really think we should get back to LP topic. Not even sure how we got into discussing colonialism. Oh, wait..the BBC article

P.S. There was no DIRECT comparison made with UK and Germany. Read carefully; there was only a small comparison made on the mindset of the current YOUTH on how they view BOTH events. On one side, the youth view colonialism as positive but yet they view nazi regime as evil. Quite paradoxical; dont you think? Evil is evil because suffering is caused by evil; one cannot take a lukewarm perspective towards evil acts. Hence, a rational mind can only downgrade both events as act of evil and forsake them rather than upholding one and downgrading the other.

Rob_The_Pom

It is only a 'twist' of the past because you claim it is. If you think I'm describing things from a British nationalist perspective then you have me sorely wrong.

Comparision with the Nazi's are offensive and grossly inaccurate.