You can see clearly how important it is to think in advance every event in every day. You will no doubt have experienced the opposite of thinking your day in advance, and one of the repercussions of that is having to rush and hurry.
If you are rushing or hurrying, know that those thoughts and actions are based in fear (fear of being late) and you are "fixing up" bad things ahead for you. As you continue to rush, you will attract one bad thing after another into your path. In addition to that, the law of attraction is "fixing up" more future circumstances that will cause you to rush and hurry. You must stop and move yourself off that frequency. Take a few moments and shift yourself, if you don't want to summon bad things to you.
Monday, December 07, 2009
'Indian Journalism Is At A Crossroads'
Mumbai: The phenomenon of paid news in the media has become entrenched as an institutional malpractice, especially evident in the coverage of the recent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Can something be done to restore lost ethics in an environment where commercial interests are increasingly driving and degrading journalism?
Distinguished mediapersons presented various aspects of the problem and likely solutions at a panel discussion on “Journalism for Commerce,” organised by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) here on Saturday.
“Indian journalism is at a crossroads. When we shirk our basic duty of being the purveyors of facts in order to empower public opinion towards a more robust democracy, we commit the same crime as a parliamentarian who sells his or her right to ask questions for money,” said Vinod Sharma, Political Editor, Hindustan Times.
“Powerful sections within the media are offering covering packages to political parties. The enormity of this problem has not sunk in the media completely,” said SAFMA president KK Katyal.
Driving home the need for drastic steps to rein in the practice of paid news, P. Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, warned: “Either we finish it or it finishes us. There will be no space, no scope for legitimate journalism if this process expands any further.” He put his finger on hyper commercialisation pervading every sector, including the media, over the past 20 years as the root of the problem. “It goes hand in hand with the rise of corporate and money power in politics.”
Sainath said statistics from data collected by the National Election Watch showed an increase of 338 per cent in the average asset growth of re-contesting candidates for the recent Maharashtra polls. The average value of an MLA was Rs.4 crore, that of a re-elected MLA 4.6 crore and of a re-elected Minister Rs.4.9 crore. Of the 288 MLAs, 184 were crorepatis. Between the 2004 and 2009 elections, there was a 70 per cent increase in the number of crorepati candidates. An average MP was worth Rs.5.1 crore, a Union Cabinet Minister Rs.7.6 crore and the combined, declared wealth of 543 MPs was in excess of Rs.2,800 crore.
With respect to the media, Sainath cautioned: “The fact that there is no distinction made between the corporate sector and the media is extremely serious.”
Some of the characteristics of the paid news pages he highlighted were the absence of any negative line against a candidate covered and the blacking out of rivals, small parties and candidates. “Even big candidates are blacked out if the opposing one has paid a fabulous sum,” he said.
“The scale of the malpractice is a new trend. So is the multimedia nature of media packages and a shift from individual corruption to a structured industry. With copies worded by ad agencies, it has become a coordinated and integrated exercise.”
Looking for a possible solution, he said: “Either we self-regulate or somebody else will. And that kind of intervention will be most unwelcome to those who fulfil their legitimate function as a free press.”
Sainath advocated strengthening the existing regulatory bodies such as the Press Council of India. The Election Commission had a stronger role to play in curbing misuse of the press and money power in politics. “As a society, we have to move towards greater restraints and regulation of monopolies in general. There are risks involved, but it is the duty of the rest of the press to shame [the perpetrators],” he said.
The only political viewpoint came from panellist Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP Rajya Sabha member. Given the “eyeball catching” news on television, which affected the quality of content, he asked for a transparent system of TV ratings. Stripped of its utilitarian value, news would become a product, editors would become brand managers and journalists salespeople, he said.
(Courtesy:The Hindu)
Distinguished mediapersons presented various aspects of the problem and likely solutions at a panel discussion on “Journalism for Commerce,” organised by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) here on Saturday.
“Indian journalism is at a crossroads. When we shirk our basic duty of being the purveyors of facts in order to empower public opinion towards a more robust democracy, we commit the same crime as a parliamentarian who sells his or her right to ask questions for money,” said Vinod Sharma, Political Editor, Hindustan Times.
“Powerful sections within the media are offering covering packages to political parties. The enormity of this problem has not sunk in the media completely,” said SAFMA president KK Katyal.
Driving home the need for drastic steps to rein in the practice of paid news, P. Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, warned: “Either we finish it or it finishes us. There will be no space, no scope for legitimate journalism if this process expands any further.” He put his finger on hyper commercialisation pervading every sector, including the media, over the past 20 years as the root of the problem. “It goes hand in hand with the rise of corporate and money power in politics.”
Sainath said statistics from data collected by the National Election Watch showed an increase of 338 per cent in the average asset growth of re-contesting candidates for the recent Maharashtra polls. The average value of an MLA was Rs.4 crore, that of a re-elected MLA 4.6 crore and of a re-elected Minister Rs.4.9 crore. Of the 288 MLAs, 184 were crorepatis. Between the 2004 and 2009 elections, there was a 70 per cent increase in the number of crorepati candidates. An average MP was worth Rs.5.1 crore, a Union Cabinet Minister Rs.7.6 crore and the combined, declared wealth of 543 MPs was in excess of Rs.2,800 crore.
With respect to the media, Sainath cautioned: “The fact that there is no distinction made between the corporate sector and the media is extremely serious.”
Some of the characteristics of the paid news pages he highlighted were the absence of any negative line against a candidate covered and the blacking out of rivals, small parties and candidates. “Even big candidates are blacked out if the opposing one has paid a fabulous sum,” he said.
“The scale of the malpractice is a new trend. So is the multimedia nature of media packages and a shift from individual corruption to a structured industry. With copies worded by ad agencies, it has become a coordinated and integrated exercise.”
Looking for a possible solution, he said: “Either we self-regulate or somebody else will. And that kind of intervention will be most unwelcome to those who fulfil their legitimate function as a free press.”
Sainath advocated strengthening the existing regulatory bodies such as the Press Council of India. The Election Commission had a stronger role to play in curbing misuse of the press and money power in politics. “As a society, we have to move towards greater restraints and regulation of monopolies in general. There are risks involved, but it is the duty of the rest of the press to shame [the perpetrators],” he said.
The only political viewpoint came from panellist Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP Rajya Sabha member. Given the “eyeball catching” news on television, which affected the quality of content, he asked for a transparent system of TV ratings. Stripped of its utilitarian value, news would become a product, editors would become brand managers and journalists salespeople, he said.
(Courtesy:The Hindu)
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
2010 Economic Forecast: Slow Growth With Chance Of Stagnation
Washington (USA)(Mediabharti Syndication Service) 02 December: Positive third quarter economic statistics have been greeted with cheers and proclamations that the "Great Recession" is over, but economist Steve Fazzari is not convinced that it's time to celebrate.
Consumer spending, the engine that fueled economic growth for the past two decades is "out of gas" according to Fazzari. "I continue to worry that the household sector cannot support growth over the next few years the way it did before the recession."
With consumer spending accounting for 70 percent of GDP, he considers it a "matter of arithmetic" that the economy will stagnate over the next few years if American households curtail their spending and borrowing to repair their balance sheets.
"We may see a good quarter here or there," Fazzari says. "But there is no obvious source of medium-term sales growth for business in the next few years to replace the recent consumption boom."
Fazzari documents the extended consumer shopping spree that fueled economic growth in a paper published last year. The research shows how consumer spending was accompanied by a dramatic rise in household indebtedness. Credit cards were maxed out and real estate assets leveraged to extreme levels. Fazzari posits in the paper that household debt is not only a source of growth for the economy but also a risk of collapse. A conclusion that proved to be prescient of the massive home foreclosures, bank failures and collapse of the credit markets that led to the global economic crisis of 2008.
Consumer spending, the engine that fueled economic growth for the past two decades is "out of gas" according to Fazzari. "I continue to worry that the household sector cannot support growth over the next few years the way it did before the recession."
With consumer spending accounting for 70 percent of GDP, he considers it a "matter of arithmetic" that the economy will stagnate over the next few years if American households curtail their spending and borrowing to repair their balance sheets.
"We may see a good quarter here or there," Fazzari says. "But there is no obvious source of medium-term sales growth for business in the next few years to replace the recent consumption boom."
Fazzari documents the extended consumer shopping spree that fueled economic growth in a paper published last year. The research shows how consumer spending was accompanied by a dramatic rise in household indebtedness. Credit cards were maxed out and real estate assets leveraged to extreme levels. Fazzari posits in the paper that household debt is not only a source of growth for the economy but also a risk of collapse. A conclusion that proved to be prescient of the massive home foreclosures, bank failures and collapse of the credit markets that led to the global economic crisis of 2008.
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