May 14, 2010

Conversations, #9

Been on the road driving for four days, as always plenty to catch up on here. Don't know if I'll get to it all, but let me try.

The ninth installment of the conversation Beena and I have been conducting went on air some days ago: Perceptions, perceptions.

Previous: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8.

2 comments:

Jai_C said...

Hi Dilip,

1. "..the Indian fear is less than the Pakistani one.."

Many have already pointed out a problem with the equation between:

real, repeated, increasingly violent, terror attacks (the next terror attack is certain the only variables are specifics of when where and how many it will kill)

and

something that has never been done and will not be done (holding back water).

You have now an inequation! reduced the Indian fears of reality to a lesser position vis-a-vis Pakistani fears of imagined future acts.

2. Leaving that aside, the most problematic part was:

"...these terrorists and criminals within Pakistan operate outside the government.
** IF ** sections of the ‘establishment’ still support these elements, they do so at odds with the present government...."

The IF has appeared very clearly. I dont know whether it was implied before. Need to track.

3. Nuclear tests:
I was uncomfortable with this when it happened until INI posters convinced me that it was merely a reveal of existing capability that forced Pakistanis to also come overground.

Yet I balked at your use of "ek haath se taali" (because Pak was responding to us it was not an equal clap)

In trying to track Beena I note she used this in her very first email #1 the equi-equi implication of hand clapping is at "Indians are instigating violence in Pakistan"

4. Perceptions:
I do hope you will find use for Kristof's comparison of Pak to BD. For me it helped the following way.

How we perceive the cooking up of terrorism:

To the recipe, we add most things we are not familiar with as possible drivers and remove or discount those factors that we know or are comfortable with.

a) For Nick Kristof:

Add collapsed schools and students meeting under trees.

Add madrasas and heavy religious indoctrination.

b) For Jai_C:
Collapsed schools familiar; remove.

Add Madrasas and religous funduism.

c) For Beena_S perhaps, (or for more Pakistanis than I think):

Remove collapsed schools.
Remove religious education/ madrasa

Credit for c) is due to MastQalandar's comments from #8.

Thanks,
Jai

Anonymous said...

Can you get Beena to comment about the youtube, facebook etc ban? Next time when you talk.