The International Refresher Programme and the National Convention of Journalists held in May at Bangalore, India brought hundreds of delegates from South Asia and also from other parts of the world. High quality keynote addresses, in-depth debates and discussions made the programme highly informative, inspirational and helped towards the taking of initiatives and planning actions for the future.

Theme and keynotes

The theme “Glit, Glamour, Moral Decadence and the Media: Information, Education, Consciousness, Controversies” helped analyse the new effects of globalisation and the making of new superpowers. The keynote speakers and resource persons included Mr Stephen David of the weekly India Today, Dr Ambrose Pinto of St Joseph’s Arts & Science College, Mr Nick Dawn of the daily Deccan Herald, Media Scholar Dr S. Jayanathan, Just and Equal Society activist Dr Aruna Roy, Right to Information Activist Shailesh Gandhi, Archbishop of Bangalore Dr Bernard Moras, Justice N. Santhosh Hegde and Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India Executive Secretary for Social Communications and Bishop-elect of Bellary, Henry D’souza.

The resource persons exposed challenges facing journalists in our times especially, the consequences of globalisation, new colonisation, increasing greed and concentration of wealth; impacts of outsourcing without respecting the value of labour and rights of workers; establishing new forms of slavery; risks of shortages of basic commodities; injustices practised by the world’s financial institutions and the rich; ecological and agricultural catastrophes that have already left their scars. The city of Bangalore gives an idea on where India is heading in these times. Of Bangalore’s more than 10 million people, 23 per cent are locals and 76 per cent are immigrants both from India and abroad. And less than 20 percent of them mostly foreigners control the wealth. We bring you a few of the major findings of this highly rewarding formation event.

From colonisation to globalisation

The neo liberalism wildly practised in the name of globalisation shows that there is no break in colonization. Europe and North America practically control the whole world. And it is done through speculation, destruction of indigenous economies, lifestyles and cultures.

Robert Clive was rewarded the title the “founder of the British empire” for his role in the military conquest of India. He went to India as a youth, practised injustice and repression and returned from there as the wealthiest man in Great Britain. Even after he was declared “innocent” by the British parliament for their national interests, he committed suicide. That was in 1700s.

The situation is not different today. India is the source of wealth: intellectual, spiritual, cultural, religious and thus economic. And the Alexander the Great’s most important and repeated question in his life beginning from the age of two: Papa, mama, teacher, friend, general, colonel, commander, what and where is the route to India?

India is known for its extraordinary advances in the field of philosophy, mathematics, religion, health, culture, art, beauty, astrology and above all freedom, wisdom and knowing the true meaning of life. Peoples from all over the world since unknown times have been travelling to this inspiring land. India has been the destination for so many. The intended destination of just one of those many voyagers, Christopher Columbus, was India – although he landed in the Americas, resulted in the “discovery” and “destruction" of Americas.

The effort by colonisers together with established religions to reduce India to dust is part of a few-thousand-years old behaviour: They continue to copy without copyrights, imitate, and use all the resources for making money for individuals or groups. Thus porters and intermediaries continue to become the owners, authors or even the source.

It is easy to colonise India even today, because the people on this continent by nature are open-minded, life-loving, philosophers, and they do not have the weapons necessary for defending. And colonisation is done today through economic, religious and cultural globalisation.

Scars of globalisation

The biggest consequence of globalisation in cities like Bangalore is the “legal” establishment of injustice on all levels. It has made people high-tech slaves and cyber coolies. Thus many cyber companies are servants of multinationals; they are not Indian companies.

Globalisation has converted cities like Bangalore in India and abroad into some of the world’s biggest Information and Technology (IT) conglomerates at a huge cost to quality life and with complete disrespect for the person and the nature.

Some of the cruel outcomes of this uncontrolled and unjust globalisation are: the absence of labour laws, labour contracts which can be changed arbitrarily for the benefit of the owner or company, moving the company elsewhere at any time and without notice: no strikes, no questions, no information and thus no justice. Thus one can find people earning from US$ 2,000 to less than 1 US dollar a day in the same premises of a multinational co-operation. There is no longer that innate social awareness that this nation has been practised and advocated for thousands of years of the recent history. Today a few can easily be feasting on the top floor terrace while many eat dust on the ground floor. Thus the so-called foreigners in India earn a lot more in their own countries.

Such huge disparities together with the absence of an economic and moral code have created a class of new rich who are after glitter and glamour. They fall easily to the dark depths of moral collapse, devastating themselves, the larger society and the environment. The refresher programme participants emphasised that a healthy approach to money is absolutely essential for true happiness and welfare.

In this wild economic world, politicians and decision-makers practically do not exist, as they have become the servants of multinational corporations and individuals. These “organised” methods of amassing, concentrating wealth and practising daylight robbery have made a few millionaires in India and many outside the country. Thus several participants observed: “No one becomes rich without making the other poor”.

The world has for long been a place for the survival of the fittest. The powerful have always tried to justify and safeguard unjustly amassed riches by saying that the problems are outside their home, outside their city or village, outside their country, outside their continent, far, far away on those continents from where they get their resources to become richer.

Today such injustices are considered models and ideals in a wildly globalised and capitalist world. What makes the day is generating a profit. It does not matter how it has been achieved, how many lives are knocked out, how many natural or social laws are broken, how much posterity is endangered.

Unjust pricing of commodities

Hence any one with power and money can fix prices of all commodities including the basic ones worldwide.

In the year 1999-2000, Thailand produced some 24 million tons of rice and Vietnam 31 million tons. In 2007-2008, Thailand produced 30 million tons of rice and Vietnam 36 million tons. Such an increase in rice production going against nature and using heavily artificial methods brought down the quality of the rice.

But the price of rice has increased more than 400 per cent: for example, Thai long grain rice cost less than $200 per barrel in the year 2000 and more than 1000 per barrel in the year 2008!!

This greed and attitude have to be changed if any one wants to think on any useful service to humanity.

The IT castes

The resource persons remarked that the IT (information technology) boom has put people into three categories: software people, hardware people and no-where people.

If you do not belong to either the software or hardware categories, you are no-where. And it is the situation of the majority of the inhabitants of Bangalore. And people are forced to migrate against their will at any time from one of these new “castes” to another.

Though migration from villages to cities is not new, the IT city phenomenon has multiplied it by 10 to 20 times and millions of people from poor villages were dragged to Bangalore alone. Thus this city with some one million people some 20 years ago has now more than 10 million.

And the scene of people sleeping in the street under roaring planes throughout the night has become common. It never used to be the case of this “Garden City” which has now become a concrete jungle. That is the price the poor people from villages pay to earn a few more rupees before they die.

Present world economy is anti-democratic

The present world economy is the first completely anti-democratic institution. People worldwide do not have control over their own economy.

75% of the world population do not benefit from the so-called economic development. This alone is the proof that there is no true economic development. What is presented as economic development is the earning of a few in the national or world statistics and those who are around them having a “good life” as long as they remain slaves in the circle of the rich.

The undemocratic economy does not want to have trade unions. Workers are supposed to have information on profits they make.

States worldwide have become spectators, slaves and police for multinational and trans-national corporations as they steal patents, employ without labour laws and loot all resources of nations and peoples.

In healthier times, economy was controlled by the whole society. Now with globalisation, economy controls the societies and world and even shapes their destiny.

Localisation and democratisation of economy is the alternative for concentration of riches in a few hands in the present globalised world. Local productions help local communities and their autonomy. Localisation can help bring back the true meaning of globalisation where wealth is justly gained and used.

An undemocratic economy and wars created the so-called second, third, fourth and even fifth worlds. The creators of unjust economy are also the creators of wars and conflicts worldwide to weaken nations and keep control.

Local resources and medicine

Nations like India have shown examples of self-reliance, respect and autonomy using one’s own resources, energy, science and medicine. Now with the “continuous attacks and bribes by pirates in the globalised Indian ocean”, the ruling class has been granting almost everything free to the globlisation pirates in the name of privatisation and international co-operation: Hence comes catastrophes at Bhopal nuclear plant, more and more terrorist attacks and stock market collapses.

There is little respect for local resources and local wisdom. One of the vivid examples of this is elimination of local medicine practised and applied through Yoga and Ayurveda. Today, practices such as Yoga and Ayurveda are luxury and it is no more in the reach of common people.

Pharmaceuticals and modern hospitals that eliminate traditional medicine have sprung up like mushrooms in all parts of the nation to rob money especially from the ignorant and intellectually and spiritually weak, the poor and the middle class.

Respect and rights

UNO celebrates 60th year of human rights declaration by getting ready to sign in religious laws as human rights in order to curtail the fundamental human freedoms and possibilities.

Peremptory truth is against dialogue and human friendship. The horizons both horizontal and vertical must be kept open for any true and reliable exchange and thus search and research. Religions are to help human person in this necessary every day existential exercise rather than telling him that religions have found solutions.

Media

Media is no more a catalyst or vehicle of truth and change in the world of globalisation. Today one is talking about “plantation journalism”, referring to journalists and media who are given water and fertilizers to produce a planned result and there is no place for reflection and evaluation. Thus we find many “gifted” journalists who get countless gifts for doing “the job”.

Thus television has become the first instrument of propaganda. Media is used more and commercially to promote consumerism, politically to exercise power on people, and militarily to control them in all aspects.

Therefore, there is a great need to reinvent journalism. Seminars like these are vital to take a little distance and reflect. That is the only way to stop understanding and deciding morality and truth based the balance sheet. This makes media responsible for moral decay.

Moral decadence is not accidental; it is gradual. Finally it is like hurricane bringing huge destruction and devastation in a few minutes or hours. And media can foresee them if journalists are well trained in seminars like these. Moral values are social values and media has the responsibility and duty to protect them.

Instead, media ignore them and avoid such responsibilities. Thus for example, media have made grave issues like poverty a mere archaic academic subject, as media’s sole aim is money.

The seminar helped understand the need to go back to the roots of journalism and to become aware that fruits are influenced by what come through the roots.

Thus media can play its irreplaceable role of defending freedoms, independence, dialogue, cultural and spiritual values, values of silence, service, contemplation and non-violence; building bridges across cultures, religions, societies; and acting against injustices and manipulation.

In this context, the print is still the most reliable media followed by radio. Unfortunately, like in many countries, television has little room for reflection and promote entertainment and yellow journalism.

Mass media is a subsystem in a larger system. Capitalistic system created a capitalistic media system. In such a context one can not expect to promote human, women and other rights. Media’s objectives therefore are capitalistic and there is no difference between the Indian or global challenges in the filed of the media.

Global media gives publicity to corporate companies: corporations need politicians and politicians need corporations. Some 10 conglomerates control the entire international media. And they decide what makes or does not make news. Internet is controlled by USA. Thus communication is subdued to profit-making and vested interests rather than welfare for all.

Mass media has become the agent of cultural and economic standardisation. North America and Europe controls more than 90 per cent of broadcast spectrum.

As journalists, we also need to acquire experience and vision (Darshana) in order to give and demonstrate (pradharshana) examples and ideals. And we need to avoid the intentional glitter in the media.

Then we as media men and women can show that all monopolies are dangerous such as uni-polar world, capitalism based on disrespect and elimination of the other in making money.

Life styles

Globalisation and lifestyles without values have brought the terminal illnesses of modern society such as fast food, alcoholism, pizzas, divorces, and psychiatric and modern hospitals. They are integral part of the robbing money from the masses.

Hence there is no rest as one has to earn money, no mediation, no time for oneself or the other, no traditional schools that cared for the integral development of the human person, more cardio vascular diseases, cancer, AIDS.

Economically, for many, life depends on loans. There is no problem for killing animals and eating them comforted by advertisements like “make sure that you have a wine from Chianti region for your evening meat”, which was unimaginable amidst the cultured.

Thus globalisation and neo liberalism took systematic toll of humanity and culture.

Charity is another integral part of this business world. Charity organisations do big business by exporting infants and children through adoption. They sell unhealthy medicines to bring unjust profit to multinational pharmaceuticals, which ensure the vicious circle and the dependence of charity institutions.

Poverty

State is no more responsible for the poor in the world of neo-liberalism. It does not have an interventionist role. And the media, the last resort, is monopolised by multi-conglomerates.

Most of the un-wealthiest 90 percent of more than 6.5 billion people on earth cannot afford basic products. Half of them, more than three billion do not have regular access to food.

Instead of finding solutions, States and media unfortunately support perverted initiatives for basic necessities: LifeStraw, an instrument to drink “clean water” forces people to live in unhygienic areas.

Lighting a candle should not be an excuse to eliminate darkness and bring broader light.

Church

It is in this difficult atmosphere that the Catholic Church tries to render its services to society. It has formed associations of young people who are the first victims of these man-made evils.

The position of the Church is not easy as it is seen as the religion of the globalisation leaders, their nations and their friends. Therefore the Church is forced to take clear stands, distance itself from the forces of capitalism, neo-liberalism and all forms of colonisation, and to deal with the causes of the problems at its roots. This approach has helped the Church to establish a respectful place in the society.

Exposure

The refresher programme was also an occasion to visit the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), which is a living example of cruel colonisation and modern slavery. The tragedy today is that a few of the posterity of those slaves are ignorant even today as they praise the colonisers, slavery and their religions that destroyed cultures and above all freedom to think.

The participants were able to meet with former employees of these Gold Fields, their families and descendents. The exposure helped them understand how national and religious ghettos were instituted and maintained in KGF, which was a nation in itself. Some of the famous ones were British and Italian ghettos separately administered.

They also visited other historical places such as Mysore so that they could get a comprehensive exposure to the lives and realities of the peoples of the region.