Alternative Perspective
 Issue 26, March 25th, 2003
 Compiled by Madhukar Shukla

Introduction: Alternative Perspective is an attempt to widen our awareness about issues related to business, environment, role and influence of media, geo-politics, culture, etc. It aims to share, on a regular basis, some of those pieces of news and information, which do not find place in the highly monopolised mainstream media. Please feel free to share/ forward/ distribute this newsletter to others who may be interested.



The next issue of the Newsletter will appear after April 10th, 2003

Note: The URLs of sources used in the text are numbered and given at the end of the Newsletter.

In This Issue:
  • Living through the War of Misinformation
     The first casuality in a war is the truth; this time more likely with the "embedded" journalists, who cannot report anything more than what their coalition 'minders' would allow them. The deception started with the 48hr deadline speech by George Bush on March 17th[1], and continues with Basra or Umm Qasr falling in one news report - to be followed by another which describes that fighting and resistance continues. This article by Robert Fisk is a timely reminder of the "share of the mind" (as a brand specialist will put it) we are likely to sacrifice, as we watch the war on the TV channels and read in the newspapers (he should know, being a journalist, himself)... also worth repeating here is an item from an earlier issue of this newletter on the "12 Ways the Media Misreport Violence"[2]
    http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=387592

  • Is Electoral Democracy a Real Solution? Part-1 and Part-2
    "Democracy" is not longer a social institution which evolves out of the need of a people to govern themselves; at its best, it has become a political doctrine to impose on the vanquished (remember Afghanistan?[3]), or, at its worst, a "global brand" - to be launched in new markets (like Coke). In current times, when democratically elected leaders - who got controversial 50%+ votes in an election in which the voter turnout was 40%!! - can lead a country to wars, it is worth revisiting the realities of this doctrine/political system. These two webpages contain writings from some 10-15 democratic countries (ranging from India to Great Britain), about the extent to which the democracies actually "represent" the people who elected them.
    http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-3-623.jsp
    http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-3-626.jsp

  • Internet as a Medium of Participative Democracy?
    Would Internet usher in a more participative democracy? In the recent months, we have seen how internet helped creating the history's largest coordinated action - the antiwar protests - which spanned the globe. But when World Bank shifted the venue of its Annual Conference on Developmental Economics from Barcelona to Internet, it also heralded another message: the Net which connects people to voice their concerns, can also become a refuge for those, against whom these concerns are voiced!!!
    http://www.fair.org/media-beat/010524.html

  • Hitler on Propaganda
    An excerpt from Hitler's Mein Kampf - very instructive in the present days... After all, Hitler had also used the fire of Reichstag, the German Parliament, to create the Ministry for "Schutz von Heim and Reich" (roughly translated, Office of Homeland Security!!!).
    http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/RESOURCE/DOCUMENT/DOCPROPA.HTM

  • Battling the Fog of Finance
    There is one invisible but looming crisis, which is getting ignored amidst the focus on war. For past many years, analysts have been warning about the perils of dollar standard[4]. It had been building up since long, but is now approaching an inflection point. Yes, the US Dollar - simultaneously the strongest and weakest currency in the world. Obviously, it is stongest because it is in great demand across the globe. But is also weakest because it is fiat currency, floating only on consumer sentiments, and given the nature of global economy, it is worth a frightening thought, to consider what will happen if consumer confidence in dollar goes down (as it has been in the recent times)... oil shifts to getting pegged to Euro? countries start keeping forex reserves in gold/Euro/Yen? international trade shifts to some other currency?... and dominos start falling?!!!
    http://tinyurl.com/838r


    Other Sources Quoted in the Newsletter:
    [1]: http://www.presentdanger.org/papers/iraqspresp.html
    [2]: http://www.alberni.net/bcooper/12ways.htm
    [3]: http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0610-02.htm
    [4]: http://www.usagold.com/SennholzPerilDollar.html


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