Hafta letters: Climate change, free market ideas, average news consumers

I just have one question to those backing the "we are the poor countries, let the right countries do it first" theorists, and the "per capita emissions" theorists.

When the sea rises and Mumbai drowns, or when Jaipur's temperature increases by 4-5 degrees and millions die. Is climate going to ask Mumbai and Jaipur:

Climate: Hello, Mumbai. Oh, we should not recede your coastline. Oh, you are the poor country.

(Climate to its mates)

Climate: Boys and girls, we need to go to NY and not Mumbai. They are poor.

Yes, this seems ridiculous but so are these two theories.

If you have someone with cancer, you would have heard of Stage 1, 2, 3 and 4. Beyond 2, the person starts counting his days. Try telling the cancer patient, "We can't give you chemo at this moment because you're in Level 1. We need to reach 2, only then chemo is fair."

A pop culture reference: Daenerys asking Jon Snow to bend the knee first before she is ready to talk about helping him with the Night King.

Dhiraj

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I would like to commend Manisha for really calling out the BS on free speech when she interviewed Supriya Sule. Indians need to be a little less thin skinned and laugh at themselves a little more. 

Shantanu

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I wish to applaud Akanksha Kumar's report on the dismal solid waste management situation in the national capital. Her attention to detail in this report is commendable. Also, her calm and measured narration aided by the video editor's excellent cut makes for a very useful and informative report. Kudos to her and the rest of the team at NL. You are doing important work, covering critical urban issues forgotten in the midst of the shorgul that has come to characterise prime time television in this country. 

Yogi Joseph

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I think Mehraj making up facts about Julian Assange while talking about why journalists who are activists can still be journalist is hilarious. You can have your own opinion about Assange, but to say leaking military documents didn’t put his life at danger – or even that he isn’t a Russian asset for leaking Hillary’s emails right before the 2016 elections (even though he had them from before) – is wrong. 

Shows why it is indeed important in newsrooms to sometimes put opinion (US sucks) and fact (Assange leaks documents) aside. 

Aryan

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Hi NL Hafta team,

In light of the Shraddha murder case, I have returned to one of my pet peeves. I wrote a letter about the hijab judgement as well.

Why do women have to carry the burdens of religion and the men its privileges? In Iran women took up the "chador" as a sign of protest against the Shah regime and see where it has gotten them. In the US, Phyllis Schafly led a movement in the 80s supporting a more traditional role of women and look where it has led them in regard to abortion rights.

Now, I see calls for Hindu women to stay in their lane for their safety and of the religion. Why should Indian women have to wear hijab to protest the conditions of Muslims in India? Where have men given up any of their rights to protect religion? Can you please have separate detailed discussion about the religion and women? Would love to hear panellists' views about it.

Regards,

Shipra

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Episode 407 of Hafta has to be one of the most interesting exchange of opinions in Hafta history, whether it be selection of judges or activism in media, the panel once again proves its prowess in articulating intelligent opinions and expanding the horizons of the listeners. Thank you so much NL team :) 

Dr AK

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Hi NL team,

This letter has been long due. I have been a subscriber for a couple of years now, but I was always renewing my subscription for three months.

Recently, I happened to attend an event where the guest speaker was an interesting personality but he turned out to be a right-wing nutter, bigot and buffoon (thanks, Abhinandan, for the lingo). After the event, I realised how misinformation and propaganda-driven news allow such people to exist and thrive. I immediately renewed my subscription for a year and I am paying to keep news free!

I am from Rajkot. And if anybody from NL is going to be here to cover the election, please count on me for office space, internet, any form of assistance required. Manisha, if you are going to be here, then please allow me to treat you to some Gujju food. You'll not miss non-veg food at least for two or three days! (In reference to Manisha's Instagram story from yesterday.)

A big up to everyone at NL for the amazing work you are doing!

Ronak

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It would be interesting to watch a debate between Mehraj and Anand Ranganathan followed by a boxing match...

Anonymous

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This is actually a letter regarding NL Tippani.

While watching today's Tippani show, YouTube showed me ads a couple of times. This happened twice today. This has never happened with me while watching any of the NL shows. I have a photograph of this if you need.

Has there been any changes to the policy of not showing ad-free?

Thanks,

Gurudeep

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(1) Loved the Abhinandan-Mehraj and Abhinandan-Anand debate. Only way to get enlightened is by having opposing point of view. And loved how much Manisha's inputs have grown intellectually from early days of Hafta where she and Arunav would keep quiet despite Nikku's prodding.

But here is my request to Abhinandan and all other people who have false belief that free marketeers/libertarians/capitalists do not understand the connection between rule of law and free market. Please read the relevant articles and books (see the links from Cato's site), or why not call Amit Verma, the most vocal libertarian in India?

https://tinyurl.com/yn6mcwy9 

https://tinyurl.com/3u5uyfys 

And claiming that Company Raj is the epitome of a libertarian worldview is a horrible inversion of truth. Being pro-market/capitalist and being pro-industrialist are two completely different things. In fact, a pro-industrialist would actually oppose the free market in order to protect the industrialist from new competitors.

(2) We are not in post-ideological world and neither can we ever be, because ideology is simply a set of connected ideas; ideas about the kind of world you want to see. 

And just because the US and many countries have mixed economies, that does not mean that their economic system is not ideological. It means that different ideologies influence the economy at the same time to a different extent, and the same is true of other countries.

In some countries, free market/liberty ideas are dominant and in other countries, ideas about socialism/equality dominate. In fact, if you were to draw a curve using GDP and HDI data, you would see that countries where socialist ideas dominate are poorer and miserable (eg Brazil, India, Latin America, Vietnam, North Korea) than countries where capitalism dominates (UK, Germany, South Korea, Japan, etc). Ideology matters and people understand that intuitively if not intellectually, there are good reasons why people the world over risk their life to enter the US but not Norway.

Uddalak Aruni

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Hello Hafta team,

Interesting discussion as always on episode 407. Anand in this episode spoke of an "average news consumer" and how his/her interests would be different from that of an activist journalist. How would each of you define an "average news consumer"? 

Also, don't you think that the opinions and interests of people are very easily influenced by the way an incident is reported by legacy media? Jyoti Singh's case brought people to the streets and changed laws. And the release of Bilkis Bano case convicts has seen far less coverage and far less outrage. While refugees from Syria are viewed with condescension and suspicion, Ukranians fighting the good fight are welcomed with open arms in the UK, and I believe that this is partly owing to the news coverage. By shaping views and  opinions, you as dispensers of news (and unfortunately, the likes of Arnab and gang with a much wider reach) probably wield far more power than you think .

Indu