[Reader-list] Young Turks on Dark Side of Moon

[NAEEM MOHAIEMEN]

This was meant to go in DAILY STAR this week, but got
sidelined by the Nobel Prize announcement.  The line
about Yunus at the end was appended after the fact.

######

Young Turks on Dark Side of Moon
- Naeem Mohaiemen

"I'm not actually from India, you know," said Samad.
Poppy Burt-Jones looked surprised and disappointed.
"You're not?"
"No. I'm from Bangladesh."
"Bangladesh..."
"Previously Pakistan. Previous to that, Bengal."
"Oh, right. Same sort of ball-park, then."
"Just about the same stadium, yes."
[White Teeth, Zadie Smith]

The American mediascape is agog about Google's $1.65
Billion acquisition of YouTube.com this week.  The
central "wow" factor is the insanely high valuation
for a company that is only a year old, representing a
return to the "irrational exuberance" of the first
Internet mania (from which I carry battle scars). Much
has been made about "Web 2.0", which is supposed to
represent the new model of Internet startups -- steady
leadership, bottom line focused, and no more crazy
parties. Whether that's true or not remains to be
seen, but the zero-to-hero trajectory of YouTube has
everyone using cliches like "paradigm shift" once
again.

Discussing YouTube on San Francisco radio, I focused
on the third co-founder of the company -- 27 year old
Jawed Karim, a graduate student who made a fortune as
the third-highest equity holder. He also generated
instant clout with his track record (he was an early
member of PayPal, which was bought by eBay). The youth
factor is also an immense lure for an age-obsessed
media cycle. More important for my own intervention
purposes are Jawed's Bangladeshi-German roots. DNA is
not destiny (far from it) and nurture is the real
determinant, but you can still spin this as a story of
another Bangali doing quirky, unconventional projects.

While the US media is ga-ga over YouTube (the New York
Times lead Business story -- with photo -- was about
Jawed), there has been little coverage of the story in
Dhaka.  No doubt that will change in the next few
days, but it's interesting to note a seven-day lag for
this story with a Bangladesh link, long after the CNN
canines have chewed the story dry.

In a comparable high profile story involving an
Indian, the Indian and Indian-American press runs at
light speed to cover it.  Kiran Desai winning the
Booker, DJ Rekha's album release, Raju Narisetti
becoming Deputy Editor of Wall Street Journal, Gautam
Malkani's Houslow rudeboys in Londonstani, Jagdish
Bhagwati's nomination for Nobel Prize, Rana Dasgupta's
shimmering ephemera in Tokyo Cancelled, Indra Nooyi
becoming CEO of Pepsi, Shashi Tharoor's nomination for
UN Secretary General, Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer, Fareed
Zakaria's tenure as Newsweek International editor,
Sabeer Bhatia's founding of Hotmail, Rajat Gupta's
time as head of McKinsey - every single one of these
stories has been celebrated (often to excess) in the
Indian press.  This can even lead to over-extending,
as with front page stories celebrating Norah Jones
multi-Grammy sweep (her father is Ravi Shankar), even
though Jones herself does not (publicly) claim a
primarily South Asian identity. The NRI bloc has been
so critical in molding India's global image, even
crusty citizenship laws have been changed to create a
new category of PIO (Persons of Indian Origin)
passports. An excess of "India Shining" may lead to
nausea in the audience, and the intersection with
Indian superpower designs are a potential danger. But
on a simpler level, the focus on diaspora accomplishes
a limited goal of instilling optimism.

By contrast, the Bangla media is slow on the uptake to
talk about the widespread younger diaspora. Deeder
Zaman (Asian Dub Foundation), Akram Khan (Sacred
Monsters), Moushumi Khan (Muslim Bar Association of
NY), Farook Shamsher (Joi), Aziz Huq (former clerk for
US Supreme Court), Sham Miah (Vol de Nuit), Sam Zaman
(State of Bengal), Abeer Hoque (Olive Witch), Aladdin
Ullah (Port Authority Throw Down), Shazna Nessa
(Milky), Monami Maulik (DRUM), Fariba Alam (Bangla
East Side), Shireen Pasha (Roti Eaters), Monica Ali
(Alentejo Blues), Chaumtoli Huq (Taxi Workers
Alliance), Dishad Husain (Viva Liberty), Ivan
Jaigirdar (3rd I), and many others are not covered
comprehensively or quickly. When the voracious
Chernobyl virus invaded the Internet, a young student
of BUET programmed an anti-virus in 24 hours. If he
had been an Indian student of IIT, the Consulate would
have ensured that he was on CNN by live satellite link
within hours. But I had to wait two years until the
BUET wunderkind came to graduate school in the US to
meet him. Living inside the New York media frenzy, I
look at the wall-to-wall coverage of Indians in the
media and think that Bangalis are the little engine
that could -- if only the Bangla press would wake up. 


I am always wary of excessive nationalism because it
can quickly lead to chauvinism and exclusion. We only
need consider our horrendous record in Chittagong Hill
Tracts to see the dark side of nationalism. There is
also a deep contradiction in gaining domestic applause
after validation from a Western power structure. But
at the current crisis crossroads, we could do with an
injection of optimism and inspiration from
unconventional locations. A decade ago, Mahfuz Anam
gave a heartfelt lecture at Columbia University about
the Bangla diaspora. But Daily Star and others have
been slow to follow the lead of those words. 

Media profiles do not have to focus only on middle
class professionals, or the sons and daughters of
"established" people back home (the latter would only
re-inscribe hierarchies and local elites). There are
many other stories to track down -- the near monopoly
of Bangalis in Brooklyn's brownstone renovation
business, the Bangali head cheese buyer at Balducci's,
the huge bloc of Bangalis in the pugnacious Taxi
Drivers' union, the Sylheti uber-dominance of "Indian"
restaurants in London and New York, the
packed-to-the-gills Belgian bar-restaurant and trendy
East Village hotspots, the new young Bangla activists
in New York's immigrant rights battle, and the men who
commandeered a signature campaign for International
Mother Tongue Day. We can also attempt, emotionally
and politically, to embrace a pan-Bangali identity and
take the success stories of West Bengalis as part of
our mosaic. The network can extend to projects that
have a Bangla link, such as My Architect (we failed to
build on the buzz around that film's Oscar
nomination), and Telling Nicholas (HBO documentary
about 9/11 that features a Bangali family).

Current politics is a death-bound roller coaster, and
the passengers can't disembark. People are always
banging on about the resulting short supply of
optimism. Dr. Yunus' Nobel Prize will bring a new rush
of energy into the national psyche. Many more role
models are also needed. The stories are there, inside
and outside the borders - vested with the Tireless
Activists, Young Turks and Culture Agitators.
***
Naeem Mohaiemen's recent projects include
DisappearedInAmerica.org and Between Devil & Deep
Blue.


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com