[Reader-list] Post - Beslan impossibilities

[sanjay ghosh]

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Jeebesh's call on the Beslan tragedy has elicited surprisingly little response. It's especially ironic after the reams of outpouring on Dhananjoy. Does it reinforce our societal preoccupation with celebrity and spectacle ? Is the mainstream media setting our agenda for discussion ? Maybe the problem lies with human lives becoming numbers. A bigger number outdoes yesterday's number.

Beslan seems to have disappeared from Indian newspapers already. It may come riding piggy back on the third  9-11 anniversary coverage but then maybe the latest Jakarta bombing will take it's place.

Irina has a point vis-a-vis Moscow's willingness to allow international camera crews. Consequently I guess the 'Wag the Dog' effect plays on us, with so many fake encounters around, our natural response is numbed by underlying suspicion. Putin's persistent insistence in avoiding a public enquiry (a la Bush Jr) and the drugging of 2 Beslan bound journalists** only adds to this theory. 

On Monday (6 September), Ariel Sharon welcomed the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, for a meeting about strengthening ties in the fight against terror. "Terror has no justification, and it is time for the free, decent, humanistic world to unite and fight this terrible epidemic," Sharon said. Even with the media bias for Israel, the Beersheba suicide bombing didn't quite blip, it took 10 women among it's 16 victims. 

Ahmed Zakaev (Aslan Maskhadov's representative and deputy prime minister in the Chechen government elected in 1997) wrote a response in the Guardian on 7 September :
 ...Ten years ago Chechnya had a population of 2 million. Today it is 800,000, and Vladimir Putin has an army of what we estimate to be up to 300,000 Russian soldiers in Chechnya inflicting a regime of terror. Many Chechens are refugees and many others have simply disappeared, often in the night. At least 200,000 Chechen civilians have been killed by Russian soldiers, including 35,000 children. Another 40,000 children have been seriously injured, 32,000 have lost at least one parent and 6,500 have been orphaned. These are figures supported by reports of human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, and we believe they are conservative. This is how Putin's soldiers treat Chechen civilians. 

As charges and counter charges are traded, one can't gloss over the fact that without a celebrity/spectacle angle our attention seems to waver quite quickly. Kombakonam is gone but the remains of David Beckam's marital indiscretions still haunt our media. On the terrorist's front, in order to squeeze into the narrow media space they have to generate ever more spectacular catastrophes. It's perhaps our fault that we consume the 'disaster film' on media outlets, while neglecting this ominous pattern. Bersheeba, Belsan, Jakarta all within 9 days and it's become a part of ordinary life. One is almost disappointed with the headlines for not serving a catastrophe with one's breakfast.
 
I think the real threshold we are sitting on is the yawning inequality of resource distribution. According to the UN, the gap between rich and poor countries was 3:1 in 1820, it widened to  44:1 in 1973, Oxfam puts the figure at 98:1 in it's 2001 report. In terms of population vs wealth distribution the picture is grotesque.  I think we gloss over this essential nugget when we talk of terrorism as an unprecedented phenomenon. Without addressing inequality, the tensions which give rise to this seemingly endless cycle of violence may never end. 

Also the present high tide of terrorism rides on back of two decades of globalization which has simply blown the inequality issue out of proportion. As representative governments downsize / deafen, people are resorting to extreme measures just to get themselves heard. Ideally terrorists around the world should stop going after primary school registers and invest in the Fortune 500 annual issue.

regards,
Sanjay


**http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1302311,00.html



On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 Jeebesh Bagchi wrote :
>dear friends,
>
>was trying to write something to get some clarity after the Beslan massacre. Could not make much headway.  Was going through reader-list posting to see if somebody has written about it. Was surprised by a total absence of any posting. Given that this list has always been very active during global crisis events and many different point of views have been articulated and debated, this peculiar absence seemed strange.
>
>About myself, i could not understand what to make of the events.
>Trapped within nationalist retributive logic of violence are very vulnerable population group and so many just killed.
>A editor of a newspaper in Russia got sacked apparently because of showing the graphic images of the incident. This editor have been opposed to the violence of the state in russia in the conflicts in 90s.
>A scared man being taken away by two hooded commandos and he confesses.
>
>What to think about it? Maybe, some of you have something to say more about it.
>
>best
>jeebesh
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