DailyOh! New York Post journalist laughs at Indian journalist’s accent and that reminds us of The Party

Hello there,

No matter how you are consuming news, we mean TV, internet or newspapers, over the past few days, you would have found it full of very unpleasant stories. The death toll has risen to 42. We are talking about the Delhi riots.

Both Hindus and Muslims have died in the clashes, so don’t go by the one-sided videos being posted on social media with an intention to incite you. Don’t get incited. Stay calm. Stay vigilant. That is if you are in Delhi.

Even if you are not in Delhi, do not get incited.

Talking of videos, did you see the video of a New York Post (NYP) journalist mocking and making faces at an Indian journalist? If you haven’t, you totally should before we get talking about it.

Who is that reporter in the green mocking an Indian reporter? I bet she thinks Trump is racist. pic.twitter.com/YtGv32XOUe

— Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

The NYP journalist in green has been identified as Ebony Bowden. The Indian journalist, who is being mocked at, is Raghubir Goyal. The video is from February 26 and was shot during a press conference US President Donald Trump was holding on coronavirus at the White House in Washington, DC. The video shows Goyal saying he was sure Trump’s medical team would keep America safe. From what? From coronavirus.

At this point, Bowden is seen starting to get uncomfortable. We aren’t sure if she was just trying some facial exercise or making faces at Goyal. But the White House wouldn’t be the ideal place for facial exercises, we believe. So, it is more likely she was making faces at Goyal.

Now, we do not know if it was Goyal’s accent that made Bowden uncomfortable or Goyal’s trust in Trump’s medical team in keeping America safe. Whatever it was, it made Bowden so uncomfortable that she seemingly asks the lady seated next to her, “What is he saying?” The lady seated on Bowden’s left nods dismissively and then Bowden does some more ‘facial exercises’ before starting to laugh, even as Goyal talks to Trump. No, she wasn’t laughing out loud. You know the silent, noiseless laughter? That’s what Bowden was doing. Laughter, we keep saying, is good. But laughing at someone is bad. Bowden doesn’t look to be the age where she needs to be taught such basics, but then there is no age to learn. We believe Bowden can learn as well. So, here’s a lesson for Bowden. Do not laugh at people. Laugh with them, if you feel like. And if you want to know why Bowden’s behaviour is so problematic, read this.

Now, Americans — many — not all, find Indian mannerisms funny and unrefined. Have you seen the movie The Party (1968)? Hollywood has called it a comedy. And by Bowden’s standards, it is a comedy. The movie is about a bungling actor from India, Hrundi V Bakshi. Bakshi’s role is played by Peter Sellers. So, Bakshi is in the US with aspirations to become an actor and accidentally gets invited to a Hollywood dinner party. Unfamiliar with Western ways, Bakshi goes on making 'mistakes'. Watch the trailer to know how deeply racist the movie is:

Now, the thing is that before we accuse the Westerners of being racist and classist and some other ‘ist’, let’s not forget we also laugh at others for their accents. In India, we, ironically, laugh at people who get English words wrong when English is not even our mother tongue. But it is easy to see faults in others than to look within. So, we are looking outside at Bowden. But while we are looking at Bowden, and maybe some of us are also looking within, let’s just look at the word accent. Yes, accent is our Word Of The Day.

The Oxford dictionary defines accent as “a way of pronouncing the words of a language that shows which country, area or social class a person comes from; how well somebody pronounces a particular language”. This is what the word has come to mean. You see, some words acquire meaning over time. Anyway, we will discuss that some other day. Today, let’s just talk about accent.

An accent is actually a stress or emphasis on a particular part of something, usually a word. That is why the word accentuate means to make (something) more noticeable or prominent.

Accent comes from the Latin accentus, which means ‘the intonation of singing’. In some foreign languages, the mark above a letter is an accent that signals how to pronounce it. In music, an emphasised note is accented. Now, if you were to go back to the Oxford definition of the word, it basically is in the limited sense of regional accents.

But we began by telling you about the Delhi riots and since we got talking about the Goyal-Bowden video, we did not give you the details. So, today while no fresh cases of violence were reported, the political bickering has not stopped. The politicians have been making appeals to stay calm, but their appeals are for others; not their own selves. Like we have a problem with Bowden’s racism, not our own.

So, all parties are accusing all parties of making hate speeches. And BJP’s Delhi Chief Manoj Tiwari has asked for an independent body that will define hate speech. You know the Indian Constitution put restrictions on the freedom of expression to ensure that people don’t make hate speeches by using freedom of expression as an excuse.

When the Constitution of India came into effect on January 26, 1950, the right to freedom of speech and expression was absolute. The restrictions were imposed after the First Amendment to the Constitution in 1951.

Between 1950 and 1951, the Bihar government imposed restrictions on a pamphlet saying it incited violence, but the Patna High Court quashed the order. A judge, who was presiding over the case, said, “If a person were to go on inciting murder or other cognisable offences either through the press or by word of mouth, he would be free to do so with impunity because he could claim freedom of speech and expression.” You can read about the case here.

There were many such cases that came up and then Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar agreed that curbs on freedom of speech were a must. So, the amendment introduced “restrictions” on freedom of speech and expression “in the interests of the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence”.

While the Indian Parliament put curbs on freedom of speech in 1951, the Punjab Assembly today brought down the retirement age from 60 to 58. Every time the debate over retirement age for service class people starts, fingers are pointed at politicians, who have no retirement age. Even a person on the other side of 100 can contest elections. She can win too. Now, we can’t do anything about it because laws concerning lawmakers are made by lawmakers themselves.

But have you ever wondered how the retirement age was decided? In 1998, the age for retirement in India used to be 58. That year, it was raised to 60. Of course, retirement age differs across professions and states. Retirement age is dependent on the availability of labour in the market.

The Economic Survey of India 2018-19 suggested raising the retirement age further up from 60. The survey suggested that there could be a reversal in population growth in the future. So, the number of youth would eventually begin to decline, according to the survey. But states sometimes lower the retirement age to fight the immediate problem of unemployment. If the old don’t retire, how will the young find vacancies?

Also, many government departments have a surplus of staff. With work getting increasingly digitised, fewer people are needed to do the same jobs now. Experts say human beings have been increasing their longevity by three months per year over the last 150 years. So, if people live longer, should the retirement age not go up? Most of us would say yes even though we struggle to drag ourselves to office every day. Just kidding.

Talking of old age and longevity, did you know a person died of coronavirus in North Korea? You might say what is so unique about it when so many people are dying of coronavirus in China. Actually, the person in North Korea was apparently shot dead because he was tested positive for the virus. He wasn’t killed by people in panic, but by the North Korean regime — so says an anonymous social commentator. We have no way to verify anything from North Korea because, well, North Korea. In North Korea, it is common for the regime to execute people it doesn’t like. The ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, killed his own uncle Jang Song-thaek after getting suspicious that Jang was plotting a coup with the support of China. Kim appears more dangerous than COVID-19, we say. A cure can be found for COVID-19 but not for Kim.

While Korea is going after people with coronavirus, the US government is going after bison, also called wild buffalo, which are migrating out of Yellowstone National Park. The bison are moving towards Montana, where hunters will capture them and take them to slaughterhouses to reduce their size by up to 900. These hunters are sponsored by the US government.

Millions of wild buffalo once roamed the American West. Scientists believe they came to North America from Asia.

The history of the bison is interlinked with the native Americans in the American West. Indian tribes settled in these same grasslands centuries later because of the bison. The bison supplied everything from food to clothing, and so it also came to be worshipped. But by 1800, white traders were hunting the bison for its hide, the raw skin with the animal’s fur still on it.

Later, US government officials began to kill bison to defeat the native Americans who resisted the takeover of their land.

In May 2016, bison was declared America’s national mammal. Wondering what had changed? Due to relentless killing, the population of bison dwindled. A combination of hunting and the US Army almost drove the bison to extinction in the 19th century. But protection measures introduced saw their numbers rise beyond what some parts can handle and hence the killing.

Human beings can kill animals. Animals can also kill human beings but they kill only for food or when scared for life. Humans can kills animals for food, fear and also fun. Now, you may say, it is cruel and all, but when human beings need space to live, they think they are doing it only as a need.

Remember, nilgai was killed in India on government orders because it was destroying crops. We have no value judgement to offer in the matter. We hope everyone gets enough space to live and grow, animals too.

On that note, and since we are assuming you are in weekend mode already, here’s a song for you:

Have a great weekend. We will be back on Monday.

Also read: Why does the Indian accent scare you?