Racist or arrogant, they are all the same
The rogue Kiwi TV show host may have been deemed an errant New Zealander gone crazy with certain “personal views”, calling our Chief Minister all sorts of names. His Government says it does not subscribe to his views. However, the man has merely been grounded from the show for the unwarranted obscenities he uttered against Sheila Dikshit — grounded, not sacked — something the Government of that country should have instantly done. By not taking strict action against this fellow, it has shown its inherent softness to blatant racism.
Actually, racism among the whites is pretty evident, though in varying degrees and forms and some may tone it down to calling it mere arrogance. A whole lot of foreign elements have been hired to conduct the Games and encountering them you learn how either most of them are contemptuous about Indians and India and others downright rude, smirky or overtly critical.
Take Team Australia, for example. They are considered to be the most arrogant people on the circuit, and that seeps down right to their last official. The Australian team’s Press co-ordinator Michelle Cook rarely entertains calls from Indian journalists. If she does, she never grants any interviews with players and never ever answers any email queries. Every morning, there is a Press conference with some or the other Australian player, organised only for the Australian journalists where no one from the Indian brigade is invited. Even their chef de mission Steve Moneghetti is unavailable on the number listed by the OC for media queries. Privately, people following the Aussies, admit they are not interested in the local media — all they want is good Press back home and in the rest of the White world.
The thing is, no one ever says ‘no’ because it will be politically incorrect to do so, but the attitude and the snub is all-apparent. Unfortunate then, that the Australians are the real achievers and professional commitment ensures that you run after them, mostly fruitlessly!
Then there is the English media co-ordinators. Though the spokesperson is a gentle lady who understands that media queries around her athletes need to be answered as a matter of routine, and she goes out of her way to get you an interview if there is any scope, the swimming squad media manager Dave Richards of the same team has no such considerations. After holding a general Press conference, he asks the rest of the media to leave as the one-on-one session is “only for the Englishmen.” It could not be more unprofessional than this but that’s the way things stand. You ask him if email queries will be answered and he says yes. Of course, that is something that never really happens. Not just that, if you go and talk to an athlete casually, he comes running to say he is not allowed to talk to anyone except the English media! Needless to say, young swimmer Liam Tancock is as shocked and amazed as the journalist talking to him!
The Canadians, however, are accommodating, perhaps because they are still not on the top and so unconcerned about publicity. One wonders why the Aussies or other such delegates are here at all if they feel like, well, deep s**t about being here. Take the case of a Games News Service person. This is the agency hired by the OC to upload information about the tournament, players, games and statistics on media computers to facilitate coverage. They have been stuck with technical glitches in getting the job done. In that context, their frustration is justified. But does it also justify one of them telling another journalist, who was generally praising the opening ceremony, how he should go take a walk to old Delhi and know how bad real India actually is. He smirked, made a face and laughed out aloud when he was told by the foreign journalist that he may be biased. You ask him how bad is it back in Australia from where he comes, and he looks at you accusingly. Then you tell him how the Australian Ministers have been queuing up in India trying to say there is no crime against Indians there and that racism is a new concept they are unable to fathom and he has no answer. He also has nothing to say about the underbelly of Australia where Indians and other foreigners are advised not to visit late night as the police there are unable to control the crime.
Then there was this Press Operations man at IG Indoor Stadium. So disgusting was his attitude towards an Indian colleague that one wanted to throw him out instantly. His brand of racism was the most blatant. The “you guys” actually meant “you Indians” and it was only after one shouted back at him, saying that he was rude and unbearably intolerant that he toned down and apologised for calling my colleague all kinds of names because she had dared to sit on an AP allotted desk! “If the volunteer tells you to cut your head will you do it,” he asked when she told him she was there only because the volunteer had asked her to sit there and that she had no idea about demarcations.
One had to literally shout back at this Richard something or the other and tell him to rein himself in to put him in his place and to bring his unexplained vitriolic under control. To say everyone around him was amazed at his attitude would be an understatement. The venue manager had to apologise profusely on his behalf.
The thing is, somehow Indians have conveyed to these foreigners on assignment here that they are pushovers. Also, even though it hurts to admit, messing up things is a very Indian trait, something that takes the goat of these so called professionals. They can’t understand babudom and OC is hugely bureaucratic. This means, nothing will ever happen smoothly and everything will go through some incompetent committee or the other where these babus rule. Which means everything is largely stuck.
But that’s India and these guys knew this before accepting the assignments here. So it is absolutely not in their brief to castigate the nation and its people at every given or snatched opportunity.
And just to remind the Australians that their legacy rests in a lot of criminals being sent away to their land by the British, unlike India whose civilisation is older than any, as is its knowledge base.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, October 10, 2010
Actually, racism among the whites is pretty evident, though in varying degrees and forms and some may tone it down to calling it mere arrogance. A whole lot of foreign elements have been hired to conduct the Games and encountering them you learn how either most of them are contemptuous about Indians and India and others downright rude, smirky or overtly critical.
Take Team Australia, for example. They are considered to be the most arrogant people on the circuit, and that seeps down right to their last official. The Australian team’s Press co-ordinator Michelle Cook rarely entertains calls from Indian journalists. If she does, she never grants any interviews with players and never ever answers any email queries. Every morning, there is a Press conference with some or the other Australian player, organised only for the Australian journalists where no one from the Indian brigade is invited. Even their chef de mission Steve Moneghetti is unavailable on the number listed by the OC for media queries. Privately, people following the Aussies, admit they are not interested in the local media — all they want is good Press back home and in the rest of the White world.
The thing is, no one ever says ‘no’ because it will be politically incorrect to do so, but the attitude and the snub is all-apparent. Unfortunate then, that the Australians are the real achievers and professional commitment ensures that you run after them, mostly fruitlessly!
Then there is the English media co-ordinators. Though the spokesperson is a gentle lady who understands that media queries around her athletes need to be answered as a matter of routine, and she goes out of her way to get you an interview if there is any scope, the swimming squad media manager Dave Richards of the same team has no such considerations. After holding a general Press conference, he asks the rest of the media to leave as the one-on-one session is “only for the Englishmen.” It could not be more unprofessional than this but that’s the way things stand. You ask him if email queries will be answered and he says yes. Of course, that is something that never really happens. Not just that, if you go and talk to an athlete casually, he comes running to say he is not allowed to talk to anyone except the English media! Needless to say, young swimmer Liam Tancock is as shocked and amazed as the journalist talking to him!
The Canadians, however, are accommodating, perhaps because they are still not on the top and so unconcerned about publicity. One wonders why the Aussies or other such delegates are here at all if they feel like, well, deep s**t about being here. Take the case of a Games News Service person. This is the agency hired by the OC to upload information about the tournament, players, games and statistics on media computers to facilitate coverage. They have been stuck with technical glitches in getting the job done. In that context, their frustration is justified. But does it also justify one of them telling another journalist, who was generally praising the opening ceremony, how he should go take a walk to old Delhi and know how bad real India actually is. He smirked, made a face and laughed out aloud when he was told by the foreign journalist that he may be biased. You ask him how bad is it back in Australia from where he comes, and he looks at you accusingly. Then you tell him how the Australian Ministers have been queuing up in India trying to say there is no crime against Indians there and that racism is a new concept they are unable to fathom and he has no answer. He also has nothing to say about the underbelly of Australia where Indians and other foreigners are advised not to visit late night as the police there are unable to control the crime.
Then there was this Press Operations man at IG Indoor Stadium. So disgusting was his attitude towards an Indian colleague that one wanted to throw him out instantly. His brand of racism was the most blatant. The “you guys” actually meant “you Indians” and it was only after one shouted back at him, saying that he was rude and unbearably intolerant that he toned down and apologised for calling my colleague all kinds of names because she had dared to sit on an AP allotted desk! “If the volunteer tells you to cut your head will you do it,” he asked when she told him she was there only because the volunteer had asked her to sit there and that she had no idea about demarcations.
One had to literally shout back at this Richard something or the other and tell him to rein himself in to put him in his place and to bring his unexplained vitriolic under control. To say everyone around him was amazed at his attitude would be an understatement. The venue manager had to apologise profusely on his behalf.
The thing is, somehow Indians have conveyed to these foreigners on assignment here that they are pushovers. Also, even though it hurts to admit, messing up things is a very Indian trait, something that takes the goat of these so called professionals. They can’t understand babudom and OC is hugely bureaucratic. This means, nothing will ever happen smoothly and everything will go through some incompetent committee or the other where these babus rule. Which means everything is largely stuck.
But that’s India and these guys knew this before accepting the assignments here. So it is absolutely not in their brief to castigate the nation and its people at every given or snatched opportunity.
And just to remind the Australians that their legacy rests in a lot of criminals being sent away to their land by the British, unlike India whose civilisation is older than any, as is its knowledge base.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, October 10, 2010
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