‘The Hawk’ is a poem which is divided into four sections, each one talking about a hawk and the power dynamic of the natural order. It is set at a time of draught and scarcity where “…land was filmed with salt”, in such a context the apex predatory- the hawk- is portrayed to be ruthless towards its prey. The hawk is described as “a rapist in the harem of the sky…” and “diminishes a rabbit one talon morsel at a time…”. Considering the context, the hawk is not only attending to his need for food, but also exploiting and being brutal towards the weak, its prey, in a time of scarcity. Such actions can be inferred as misuse of power and exploitation of the vulnerable. It is the discussion of such issues that make the poem’s extended metaphor come to light- the misuse of power by human beings. Daruwalla creates vivid and gory images of this misuse of power, in order to stress upon the harms of this ruthless nature exhibited by human beings. 

A similar issue is discussed in ‘The King Speaks to the Scribe’- which is a narration of a conversation between “The King” and “the Scribe” on a battlefield which “reeks of slaughter”. They talk about the destruction caused by war and the moral burden on the scribe to record such an event in history. The poem has intricate descriptions of the war and the damage it has caused and a complementary reflective tone, which leads me to believe that it highlights the uselessness of war and asks existential questions about a person’s right to take another life. This poem also revolves around human action, such as war, and how it is mutually harmful to both parties, the winners and the losers- the definition of these two sides, therefore, becomes paradoxical. This shows how suffering is both caused and experienced by us humans and the roles simply keep changing. 

In ‘Wolf’- a poem about poaching of animals and innocent realities- Daruwalla discusses the issues of greed and exploitation of resources in a very impactful way. He talks about how “the wolf” formed the basis of a story all the children in a village heard growing up, as wolves would howl in and around the area. However, over time these wolves had been killed and “smoking barrels ring… daughters’ dreams”. This personal and innocent sub-narrative of a village myth makes the act of poaching and destroying the environment feel graver and more sensitive as issues. 

Conclusively, Daruwalla talks about the harms of the changes which have come about in the Post-Modern era. Exploitation of the weak can be seen to take root from the Industrial Revolution, depletion of resources and its impacts can be observed for the same reason- rapid industrialisation. Daruwalla, through his poems, highlights an important part of the zeitgeist we live in today and the issues he discusses pertain to our daily lives in a multitude of ways.

 

 

On the existential crisis of climate change, Chomsky- apart from giving a spine-chilling characterisation of its consequences- attacked the root of the problem and why steps being taken to mitigate its harms can never be as effective as planned. This reasoning he gave was with regard to governments like the USA and big banks and how they have been funding, and thus promoting, fossil fuel production. Increasing production and development of fossil fuel resources is counter-productive to tackling climate change because they are the primary source of air pollution and greenhouse gases. Chomsky believes that the CEOs of banks and government officials are aware of the problem, but the institutional structures and issues are the reason why they can’t turn this awareness into tangible activism. Chomsky believes that in the case of banks it is their structural incentive of earning profit which is making them invest in fossil fuel and thus the institution tends to contradict the belief systems of the individuals that run the organisation. To my mind, Chomsky’s evaluation of the banking system’s incentive structures leaves out a very important structural motive of banks: more risk, more reward. Structurally, big banks give some risky, big loans because they can materialise into great profit for them and the risk of a loss is-therefore- overlooked. One such industry that involves risk and can mean great profit is that of renewable sources of energy. Across the world, from India to the USA, entrepreneurs are developing and producing renewable sources in tandem to the global trend of ‘going green’ and fighting climate change. Firms like Siemans and Vestas work in this field and they have reached the apex of the renewable industry due to a risky loan given to them in the past. Investing in renewables, therefore, is an investment which fits the structural incentive of banks. While Chomsky’s ideas are valid and can be observed in the real world even the other side of the spectrum exists, and in my opinion, we must understand both perspectives to move forward.

 

As President Trump pulled out of the INF treaty of 1987 and wishes to do the same with the New START treaty. Chomsky, sheds light on these and many other nuclear policies of the Trump administration and how this scenario seems to be re-igniting tensions between Russia and the US. Apart from the tensions, such moves are an indicator of the ultra-nationalist almost militant nationalist policies of the Trump administration. Chomsky recognises a similar trend and behaviour pattern of leaders and governments across the world like Nethanyu in Israel. This ultra-nationalism has given rise to policies and steps which are similar to those of the fascist regimes of the 20^th century, according to Chomsky who cited the examples of the former president of Brazil- Lula Da Silva and the founder of WikiLeaks- Julian Assange, whose voices were silenced when they challenged those in power. This supressing of voices was compared by Chomsky with the imprisonment of dissenter Antonio Gramsci under Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in Italy. This absolute control and power of Trump can be seen when he reversed the UN Security Council’s decision which declared Israel’s invasion of the Syrian Golan Heights as null and void, in doing so Trump broke international law and the UN could not do anything about it. By citing such examples, Chomsky paints a picture of an ultra-nationalist, all powerful leader of the free world and as a result a world heading towards fascism and the far right- be it Modi, Maduro or Duterte. Chomsky almost makes the reader feel a little scared and fearful of the future- be it the existential atomic bomb or climate change- having ultra-nationalist leaders driving such policies comes across as spine-chilling.

 

All in all, Chomsky gives the reader food for thought and this ‘Hour with Chomsky’ acts as a thread for reflection, thought and hopefully activism as well. 

 

The image of the lions running on the beach is a constant memory that Santiago has through all his hardships on board his fishing boat. While this memory comes across as unrelated and out-of-place it serves to highlight the issue of human experience and how it plays up at the most unexpected of times. It is this broader issue that Obreht looks into and she characterises it as the essence of humanity when she says, “We all have our lion moments”. Obreht argues that while this image of the lions is a childhood memory and has no connection to the plot it is still etched in the reader’s memory because it is a glimpse into the private experience of the character and this “moment of interiority” which is shared with the reader establishes intimacy. Obreht’s argument seems to be applicable to many other works that I have read and by establishing this link between “interiority”, intimacy and memory, her article prompts the reader to think of their own Santiago and their own “lions”.

 

From this article, I have come to understand that a ‘lion moment’ is an experience a character has which is private and means a great deal to them. Letting the reader in on this creates a very deep connection with the character as the reader almost feels like he or she has been confided in by the character. This connection is even deeper when the information or experience being shared has a large impact on the plot and the other characters. Personally, I had a ‘lion moment’ in the short story ‘Tomorrow is Too Far’ from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s anthology ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’. In this narrative, the unnamed, Nigerian narrator is victim to gender discrimination from her grandmother, who always gives preference to her brother Nonso because he’s a boy. During her summer vacation in Nigeria, the narrator continues to get frustrated about this discrimination and purposely tries to hurt Nonso, who she identifies to be the reason for this discrimination and lack of love. In doing so, she manages creates a situation where he falls from a tree and dies. Apart from her cousin Dozie, no one else knows that she orchestrated Nonso’s death- not her mother, father or grandmother. It is this private information that Adichie reveals to the reader. Thus, at the end of the story - twenty years after her brother’s death- when the narrator returns to Nigeria and finds herself “weeping under the avocado tree” only the reader and Dozie know why. In doing this, Adichie makes the reader feel a similar feeling of guilt to the narrator because the reader knows more than the other characters. This dramatic irony is the technique Adichie employed to give the reader a glimpse into the interiority of the protagonist and create this ‘lion moment’ for me.   

 

Conclusively, I have come to understand that these lion moments are fundamental in maintaining engagement with the reader through the course of a narrative and thus enhance the impact of both character and plot choices because the reader knows something important that other characters don’t. One can identify the sharing of such personal experiences across narrative forms like short stories, poems and plays. These lion moments are the trigger for a series of connections between the reader and the characters as the plot progresses and thereby, to my mind, form the basis of good story-telling. 

 

The fundamental concept Ngugi explores is the use of language and literature to shape the neo-colonial mindset of the people living in the commonwealth nations of today. While violence and fear mongering were used by coloniser’s to extract the maximum economic benefit from the natives (which was the primary incentive of imperialism), Ngugi brings forth a greater force which was at play: the imposition of language and cultural hegemony. Ngugi explains that by creating missionary school, central boards of education and making English education compulsory, the British were able to indoctrinate the native children and make them write, read and even think in English. In order to minimize resistance, Ngugi says that the British used corporal punishment as a deterrent to not speak in the native language: Igbo or Gikuyu on school campus. Apart from suppressing native languages, they also highly incentivized mastering English by highly rewarding winners of essay writing, loud reading and debating competitions. Ngugi describes this as “psychological violence in the classroom” which acted as a means of spiritual subjugation for the youth (which now forms the English-speaking class of these commonwealth nations). Similar methods seemed to have been employed in India as well and the extent of this was so great that the freedom fighters and fathers of the nation: Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Pandit Nehru themselves all spoke and thought in English. This created a similar neo-colonial (brown sahib) class in India, who wholly adopted the foreign culture and in the midst of all this the culture of pre-colonial India was lost. With the coming of a more right-wing BJP government, things seem to be changing and even now, in order to transform the culture back to that of the pre-colonial times, the Modi administration uses language; this can be seen in the form of the proposal of making Hindi compulsory in secondary education across the nation. Such an example re-enforces the idea of language and literature being the basis of a culture.

 

Ngugi states that language and literature, using story-telling and folklore, were used to create an image of the world for children. So, in Asian and African nations folklore and grandmother myths revolve around the importance of the community, collective force and the weak standing up to the powerful because of their colonial past which has forced them to adopt what the western world calls ‘Asian Values’. This entails prioritizing the community and the welfare of society over the individual and such a narrative has formed the belief system of most Africans and Asians. The Panchatantra or Amar Chitra Katha collection of short stories in India does a similar job of imparting certain values which are essential to the Indian belief system and are in tandem with ‘Asian Values’ as a whole. This belief system has been formed using language as a tool of communication and this is where culture creation and communication (the two roles of language) inter link. It is this link that Ngugi brings to light when talking about how English has become the first language of commonwealth nations in terms of communication and how that has created the neo-colonial culture of the present day. 

 

Looking into the role played by English literature, Ngugi says that its study replaced the native narratives with works of Shakespeare, Dickens and Tolstoy. This had the effect of creating an alternate- somewhat superior- reality for the native youth and all the works which were studied seemed to glorify western values of individual freedom and capitalism. This caused the youth- who would go on to join the civil service, military or colonial agencies- to adopt these values and, therefore, this class of people were conditioned to think and live like the British. This adoption of culture, via language, helped the British exercise their power over this superior native class. The heads of princely states, teachers and civil servants formed this class during the British Raj in India. This colonial control exists even today in the era of post modernism because this class still has maximum control over the commonwealth nations. Now, of course, the Britain and France share this pedestal with America, but the essence of the control remains the same: it is the control of the mind.

 

Ngugi talks about a personal experience he, as an author who writes in Gikuyu, had. Many African writers, who write about African struggles in English, have called him abnormal for writing in their mother tongue- this goes to show that the native has become abnormal and the foreign has been normalized. This shows the extent to which commonwealth minds have been colonised and this also goes to show that the colonisers have been successful. Therefore, a book like ‘Decolonising the Mind’ really puts things into perspective for the neo-colonial youth and provides food for thought.

 

‘The Propaganda Model’ is an excerpt from the book ‘Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media’ by Noam Chomsky and it talks about the underlying effects private mass media has on the viewer and its incentive structures as an institution. The premise of Chomsky’s argument is that mass media is used as a tool by private corporations and the government to indoctrinate and condition the masses for their own personal benefit. Chomsky highlights five filters of the media which make it an institution that is easily influenced and controlled by the aforementioned powers: media ownership, advertising, the media elite, the use of flack and the creation of a common enemy. 

 

Chomsky argues that with the coming of the digital age, media houses have advanced with the times by shifting from print to TV and now onto media convergence and this has caused them to grow into large corporations. While, in the status quo millions of small news agencies and media houses run around the world, only a select few control the market: this is because they are the agencies which both broadcast and collect news, while others simply buy news from them. This oligopoly of media firms exists in most democratic nations around the world. These leaders of the industry are funded and have grown to such great heights due to the investment and expertise of the corporate firms which own them and corporate sector giants who sit on their boards. This direct influence over the media houses, grants these firms control over the bias, political standing and broadcasting of these channels. To take an example, recently Spicejet- an Indian commercial airline- bought a majority stake in India’s world-renowned News Channel- New Delhi Television (NDTV), such investments help big corporates like Spicejet further their interests using the news channel. Apart from direct investment, Chomsky highlights that even taking on debt from big investment banks can have a similar effect as the bank’s interest is then given precedence much like that of a corporate firm. 

 

Another factor of influence is the government as it dictates and creates media and censorship laws. Therefore, the big media houses are always compelled to pander to the ruling party and its interests for their own survival. The access the ruling party has to state agencies like intelligence agencies, investigation agencies and an influence (in some cases) over the judiciary, requires these media firms to abide by their ways in order to exist. Failure to do so can result in changing of specific laws which target a firm or putting unnecessary enquiries into their finances. This can be seen in India under the Modi administration. Recently, the owners of NDTV Prannoy and Radhika Roy were detained in the Mumbai International Airport because the enforcement directorate had re-visited a closed enquiry into their finances which was cleared years ago. This sort of harassment and enquiry can be attributed to the objective and non-biased reporting NDTV is famous for; their failure to comply with BJP propaganda earned the promoters such a fate of detention. This is an example of how the state can indirectly control and coerce media firms to abide by their standards.

 

All these external private players and governments are so willing to invest or getting financially involved with the media because of the accessibility it brings as a platform: almost the entirety of the human population accesses some media platform on a daily basis. This kind of reach brings with it immense amounts of power because what these media houses put out there is what helps shape the people’s “values, beliefs, and codes of behaviour”.

 

The primary source of income for media houses has shifted from the revenue they earn by selling papers to the payments they get for advertising space on newspaper. The rise of advertising has caused both local and radical newspapers to close down because they have limited readership as compared with the big mainstream ones- the same ones which are already controlled by the state or the private sector. So, advertising becoming the main revenue stream acts as a barrier to entry for smaller media firms. This re-enforces the bias and creates a ‘media elite’ who run the narrative fed to the masses. This argument put forth by Chomsky is fair because it is only more localised media firms which have unconventional views that can be different from that of the government or the big corporates. For instance, a socialist newspaper that runs in California would face such a problem because it’s readership would be limited and advertising firms would simply not be interested in such a small, radical consumer base. All in all, this helps propagate the bias and the media becomes an institution which ‘manufactures consent’.

 

The media gets its raw news from convenient sources like the government, state agencies or big corporate firms because it is cheap and objective. This source of news contributes towards the bias which grows in a news organisation. Considering that the only institutions which have the resources to collect news in its raw form are governments and big corporates, they will give out the information which is in their best interest and any criticism towards them will be brushed under the carpet. Thus, Chomsky argues that news collection is structurally prone to bias because governments and big firms have multiple ways to access what goes on to the screen. Even the opposition media gets in terms of the kind of opinions, information or interviews they entertain come from the state or big firms. These are in the form of court cases, enquiries or boycott-  mechanisms which require a lot of resources- the amount that only the state or the big corporates can invest. Therefore, any dissidents can be silenced using this ‘flack’ which these institution’s use. An example of this is a defamation case put on NDTV by Amit Shah last year which cost NDTV a drop in viewership and TRP ratings. 

 

Conclusively, media houses are majorly influenced by both the state and the corporate sector be it in terms of ownership, flack management, advertising or news collection. This influence helps these institutions use the media for their vested interests like promoting their goods or supporting their policies, thus the media acts as a medium to convey their messages to the masses and it manufactures the people’s consent without them even knowing.