Tuesday, November 07, 2006

observations of the news

Some years ago after a series of travels I realized the following about newspapers around the world -
Nigeria - any newspaper you buy here will have several pages with full spreads and sometimes twin pages and often half and less pages of obituary. That ofcourse does not mean that there is only one obituary in the paper. Rather among all the aobituary in the paper there will be some news about soccer, the world, the president, and the country's economics and politics (almost in the same order, but decreasing).

USA - besides the new york times and wall street journal and asome other reputed papers that pretty much discuss less than equally world affairs and american affairs, the majority of american papers are crap. the news is usually so irrelevant that people do not even use the paper for anything else.

India - none of the indian papers reach the depths of crap that american papers do. however the times of india and a few others usually papers catering to New Delhi and Mumbai tend toward being tabloidish. The hindu is a remarkable paper and very well balanced. but I have also observed that during elections the hindu is very biased and the Indian express while biased too is more reliable during elections. It is no wonder that even in remote indian villages people know of world affairs.
The andaman herald - a crap regional paper. they cannot help it. every thing in the islands revolves around the huge bureaucracy of the civil and military establishments.

Singapore - This was an interesting read as teh major papers are in English. A country so small with perhaps no policitcal instability at all and being pretty much a police state, they really have very little to talk about in the papers. Affairs of your next door neighbour qualify as much as the affiars of the president. To be fair smaller islands states are at that stage, not Singapore. Here however headlines are usually of the kind where some one is sentenced for not flushing a public toilet, or is being axed (literally) for possessing drugs. Within those several pages there is some international news and the front page does carry major headlines. I was in Singapore on the day the Concorde broke apart on landing in 2000, and interestingly enough that was the cover story.

South Korea - These people need to write in english, I did not understand anything they said.

England - I have heard, only heard because when I visited as a child with my parents they censored me from the papers that they felt were too adult. I dont think that is the case any more. But yes, why do you think the paparazzi is a nuisance in England - news papers and their editorials. So much for world affairs and #10 Downing St.

France - Tomorrow I will try to read the french paper. I fortunately can read and write some, but speak none. however an interesting observation is that most countries TV stations weather reports usually show images of continents and countries labelled with well known cities. But when it comes to Africa there is a big difference. With France atleast. It is here that the French hold their fond memories of their vast colonial empire of the 19th century, sure much of it was the Sahara Desert. Watching the news channel here all cities are shown the same except for Africa. Have you ever seen the weather of Ouagodogou, or Brazzaville , or Tunis, or Accra, or Conakry, or Yaonde, or Lome? I mean all on the same map without otherwise well known cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Cairo, Khartoum, Nairobi, etc... ? And that too on a map from other than an African country.

Sri Lanka - These people sadly have alot to talk about but it is always clouded but their civil unrest in the north and east. but then who goes to Sri Lanka to read a paper ?