Image credit: The Moscow Times
by Supratim Barman 13 March 2022
In a Globalised World, when we see images of the conflict that is currently occurring in Ukraine on our News Feeds, Whatsapp Groups, Telegram Twitter, and Instagram; as well as of course on our TeleVision sets; we tend to lose sight of the human element and how close it could have been us instead. We sit far away and analyze it, show our support for the Corporate side by posting stickers and flags on our social media profiles and we feel good; as if we have done something worthwhile with our day. As if we have somehow “helped”.
But what are we achieving? I wonder. I am 58 years old and I have been in Kolkata for these past 3 chaotic covid driven lockdown years due to my 86 year old mother not being well and I, feeling that I need to fulfill my obligations; almost my duty, as it were, to be with her. Not that I do much, it is just the reassurance that I am near her that helps her be a little less nervous as her age-related dementia slowly takes over her life. This is the longest time I have ever spent at a stretch in the Indian Republic and it is an ongoing unique experience.
These past 3 years has allowed me to see the world and its complex intertwined machinations of media propaganda, lies and deceit from the perspective of, as if almost, of someone who has perhaps never ventured outside the Republic but is trying to make sense of it all from within a nation that is itself deeply complex and almost impossible to categorise into nice “keywords” or even “key phrases”.
This is a vast country of 1,400 million people, 350 million of whom speak English as a first language fluently, and, who are in turn deeply influenced by “Western Values” and “Corporate Media”. There are parts of this gigantic nation that are rooted firmly in the traditions and living standards of the year 1800, and, yet; turn the next corner, and you walk into parts where the value of land and apartments exceed those of New York City and the ultra-posh parts of Central London and are awash in technology and innovation that will leave you in awe.
Yet, the Indian Republic is; regardless of the constraints that bind it like a vice, still a very important country in the overall grand scheme of things. However when you sit in London and consume the information broadcasts of the British Government owned BBC, (for which every household, by the way, needs to pay for via a tax called the TV Licence Fee of approximately 160 pounds per year), you feel that India hardly even exists; except for when there is a requirement to present a “balanced output” by showing poor Indians eating with their hands, sitting on the floor, their dark faces smiling but oh so happy; which allows the message to be conveyed that — oh, look how spiritual they are and how nicely these Wogs behave themselves even after all the humiliation we put them through, both internationally and within their own country via sanctions and immoral IMF and World Bank loans which are now beginning to generate hyper-inflation and an internal currency crisis.
Look at them, they don’t fight back, nor, complain. They just take it “where the sun doesn’t shine” and get on with their lives of coolie servitude, (just like when we ruled over them; back in the good ole days). Wish these uppity Arabian sand niggas and Russian steppe niggas would do the same and not be so “Bolshy” about “denazification” and things like “demilitarization”. I mean after all, you know how it is yeah; if those Russkie boys start pulling on that denazification string then how long before it unwinds all over us in the United Kingdom and our deep complicity in fomenting and nurturing this Slavic bloodbath of death and destruction. Why can’t they be just like these “house niggas’ in India and all just sort of, you know, get along and all that.
It’s all fine and it is all good.
But living here within Kolkata and in turn, within the Indian Republic, I realise, now; how this same media machine can alter the very perception of reality for a nation where the median age is 25. A nation where the media is privately owned by huge Corporations that are all at the end of the day, funded generously from the “Home of the Brave” and “The Home of Imperial Empire”. Where a critical analysis of events that are about to radically alter their futures is given no prominence.
Why is it that when I went downstairs to see how my mother was and to talk to her about the day, (with the TV being in her room), I saw that RT is blocked here in India with just a screen displaying the coloured test bars? I hardly watch TeleVision and didn’t ever really take much notice before. I also noticed that the rest of the English language Indian channels are just mimicking the “West”, (by recycling selective media clips in endless loops) without any real commentary whatsoever. Surprisingly, India would block RT, as there has been no official Government Order to do so until you realise that what has happened is that the private cable operators have just decided for themselves to act as guardians of good faith for their Colonial paymasters.
YouTube and Facebook, I can understand. They are Imperialist outlets but why the cable operators in India. India is officially neutral in this conflict but the Indian Government is supporting the Russian Federation, and are fully aware that the Indian Republic is now in the direct firing line for secondary sanctions from the US of A and all the Instruments and Institutions owned by the “Exceptional Nation” and her servants and slaves; from the various UN Organisations and Agencies down to SWIFT.
There is a contradiction here. That contradiction is that the private media here in India is being exposed as totally owned by “foreign money” from the “West”; as are the cable operators, so much so that they feel they can do as their wish about deciding to block RT without a Government Order.
This is about to lay the foundation for a problem later, as when these same foreign media sources can, and will, turn on the Government, (for not having voted against the Federation) when ordered to do so from outside the territory of the Republic to then put pressure on the Government by creating Social Chaos and Disturbant Upheaval in India in the form of a Colour Revolution, by magnifying the already difficult situation of rising petrol prices, youth unemployment, enhanced further by inbound food scarcity and a grain price elevation crisis; that has not been caused by this conflict in Ukraine but have been building up, (actually since President Trump took office), within the Financial Derivatives Market in London, Frankfurt and New York as rising inflation was first seen in ETFs such as the RJA and WheatUsd about 3 years ago
This inflation was not caused by India, nor China, nor Russia nor by the “Global South” but rather by the Hedge Funds that forced unlimited Dollar printing of the World’s Reserve Currency to offset the losses from the Great Financial Crisis of 2006/2008 initiated by the Credit Default Swaps of the SubPrime Mortgage Scam. Now, with rising petrol and natural gas prices in the United Kingdom and the US of A, two economies which have both stalled and are facing stagnation and inbound “StagFlation” – a dangerously lethal combination of Stagnation coupled with Rampant Inflation, there is every incentive to destabilise India and gain total access to her vast internal market of 350 million “high end” consumers of junk, her vast resources and her fairly advanced network of technical, agricultural and scientific assets.
Now, at the moment, the Government and the Private Media are on the same page as the current Government uses them blatantly to project a larger-than-life image of the current Prime Minister and his fine achievements of grand oratory. Each gets along nicely as they further each other’s interests. The Private Media get a vice-like grip on the consumption masses and the Government is delighted with the free publicity and lack of friction when it comes to getting them to broadcast delightful illusions to cloud over the current state of affairs, by masking the true conditions of the working classes from these very same workers. But what happens when this Private Media starts to diverge and act like private pirates and mercenaries against the Government of India. And believe me they will as they brook no allegiance except to their bosses in Wall Street, the Military-Financial-Industrial Complexes in the erstwhile, “West”.
The current Government has used this Western Financed Media as a weapon for their gain and this very same Media knows his weaknesses and how easy it is to make him look like a fool to his people. This Media has been, unfortunately, allowed to deeply and dangerously embed itself within the infrastructure of the entire Indian Government apparatus.
The Goose that laid the golden egg off which you fed yourself so sumptuously may be about to devour you itself.
When the order is given to punish India for not reading from the same hymn sheet as dictated by the Globalist Corporations, this very same Media will destabilise the Indian Republic on a grand scale.
So, it is what it is.
This is from a friend of mine in one of the Five Eyes Nations and I would like to conclude with the exact words as expressed by himself – “RT is suffering from DDOS attack. Here in Canada, you are prompted to DDOS guard when you go their site. So the guardian of democracy and free speech is now funding hackers and blocking news sites”.
You have a site like SouthFront which has its DNS completely taken off the internet as if they never existed. These are not Denial of Service attacks where you flood them with spam much like someone shouting over you as you speak so your voice remains unheard and drowned in the noise. DNS is more akin to erasing your house and your very existence of the web, as if, you never existed to begin with.
SouthFront has been brilliantly able to overcome their difficulties under extreme pressure but the fact remains that why are you so persistent and hell-bent on silencing them if you are totally on the right side of history in all this and they are but a fringe nuisance. A dog on your leg barking like a maniac. If so, then why go to such extreme methods? The more you do this the more it leaves an impression that you have something to hide. Something you don’t want SouthFront to show and talk about. After all, is this not all about Debating and Constructive Arguments that you so proudly encourage within the Education System? An Education system that demeans Asians and Africans as all just barbarians that need to be civilised and Russians – ah, well; they are all — just beyond the pale. Nothing good can ever come from those steppe niggas and Slavs in Ukraine.
I would also like to come back with another short essay of the story with which I opened. The story of a young Indian guy and how he escaped from Kyiv with his one-year-old daughter and young Ukrainian wife and the pictures and details of the chaos and confusion. It exposes the complicated relationship that exists between racism, politics, being non-combatants, war, lies, propaganda and the selfless urge to survive for the sake of your child and your wife in a situation that has nothing to do with your place in it. All this is – just beyond the pale and exposes deep contradictions which are now all coming home to roost.