Editor,
The statement of first time MLA from Nongstoin, Macmillan Byrsat about the transfer of West Khasi Hills DC Arun Kembhavi sounds absurd and hollow. The allegations that advertisements for vacancies are put up online and therefore many people miss seeing those adverts is pathetic since every job seeker in government today is expected to be tech-savvy. His observations therefore are childish and not expected from a people’s representative. I have known and met up with Mr Kembhavi during his stint in West Jaintia Hills and everyone and everywhere has commended him in all spheres and in the initiatives he has taken in his official capacity. I do not wish to take sides here but when we have officers who are working for the betterment of a section of society who are underprivileged it would have been wise and mature of the local MLA to exhort and encourage the bureaucrat instead of talking nonsense. Initiatives to bring about transparency and accountability are perhaps not the norm for such representatives and those with selfish interests which is why they do not wish to have such performing people in their midst. The ultimate victims of such political interference and immature statements are that those who are marginalised and from difficult backgrounds will suffer most.
Yours etc…
Dominic S. Wankhar
Via email
Uranium mining!
Editor
I happened to read the news item regarding Morning Star Sumer’s presentation on the dangers of uranium mining at the United Nations(ST April 30, 2018) This is good news but it should not stop there. In this century the sun no longer rises in the east, It rises in the west. Eight high net worth individuals (all from the west) own half of the world’s wealth.55% of the world’s wealth comes from Christian and Jewish countries whereas only 3% comes from Hindu countries. Think about that! Had Kashmir been of the same value system as the West it would have been liberated long ago.
As for the dangers of uranium and coal mining I know a thing or two about it as I have friends from a group that received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1985.Studies show that waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that produced by their nuclear counterpart. When Yasser Arafat died of poisoning in 2004,pathologists found his blood contained polonium 210 and uranium235/238, the by-products of uranium mining. I wondered then whether it could have been smuggled from Jharkhand or Meghalaya. World bodies have the knowledge and the will to do something for this region. More importantly Gita worshipping, monolithic culture rulers cannot even comprehend the matter.
I wish this group and their future programmes the best.
Sincerely
Lucas Brahmjee
Research scholar
Haflong,
The obsession with white skin
Editor,
This refers to the report, “I’m proud of my exotic brown colour : Diana Hayden” (ST, April 27, 2018). Hats off to former Miss World, Diana Hayden for pointing out that she is proud of her exotic brown colour and that she turned down a fairness cream advertisement because it went against her beliefs. This is a fitting reply to Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb who had reportedly said that he failed to understand the process of judgement of the crowning of the Miss World contest in 1997, in which Diana was crowned. His comments showcase our double standard. We can simultaneously worship a dark goddess and show our disrespect to a dark woman!
I remember an incident in which an actor, Tannistha Chatterjee had been publicly humiliated on a TV show for her dark skin colour a couple of years ago. She had been ridiculed with repeated questions ~ how she being a Brahmin, could be so dark. She walked out of the show and articulated loud and clear against our casteists and racist mindsets in a Facebook post, “Why does dark skin still lend itself to jokes in India,” in which she wrote that a regressive arithmetic ~ upper caste = fair skin = touchable and lower caste = dark skin = untouchable ~ was deeply embedded in our mindsets.
It explains why repeated attacks on Africans have been plaguing our country. All these underline the need to censor fairness cream advertisements that associate dark complexion with ostracism and fair complexion with popularity. Repeated audiovisual propaganda by the celebrities through such advertisements consolidates the myth of equating beauty with fair complexion and nurtures apathy against dark complexion. They make us forget how popular and powerful a dark man in the White House was! One of the advertisements of fairness cream tries to brainwash impressionable minds into believing that so long as a man remains dark, girls will only force him to work but do not let him come closer to them. Such advertisements are as harmful for our society as it gets. It promotes apartheid and lowers dignity of labour at one go. This is to broadcast hatred against dark complexions and blue collar jobs.
In fact, any such advertisement that corrodes humanity and fraternity needs to be nipped in the bud. The advertisers should learn a thing or two from their western counterparts who do not hesitate to select Naomi Campbell and Serena Williams to promote their products. According to fashion stock market, there may not have been another public figure whose clothing choices were obsessed over to such an extent since Michelle Obama left the White House as the first (dark) lady of the USA.
Slavish mindset still treats Dalits and dark people as untouchables. A recent survey report suggests that untouchability is still widely being practiced in our country. Every Indian needs to clean casteists and racist apartheid from his or her mindset before touching the portrait of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, Nelson Mandela, Goddess Kali or Lord Krishna.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata