Is the Middle East brazing up for another tussle?

Is the Middle East brazing up for another tussle?

Posted by: "R.K kutty"

Is the Middle East brazing up for another tussle?
Iran is posing bellicose mood by warning the US Warship from entering the Gulf. Strait of Hormuz is the gateway to the Gulf and through that Strait flow the oil wealth out of the entire Gulf countries. Iran says it can stop anyone from entering through the Strait, if their interests are adversely affected.
Only recently, the US President Barak Obama and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu had chalked out strategies to hold Iran from going nuclear at any cost. Iran persistently repeats that their nuclear endeavor is for peaceful purpose but the US and Israel is trying to prove it otherwise. Russia is behind most of the Iranian nuclear ambitions and the latest news of test-firing of cruise missiles by Iranian warship in the Gulf too shows that Iran is adopting bellicose postures.
One of USS’s biggest warships, the USS John C Stennis recently entered through the Strait in to the Gulf of Oman as a routine round on which the Iranian Navy warned by test firing their latest missile. Iran’s posture that they will not repeat the warning again but will act shows that they are for something different this time. On the other side the US and its allies have issued strict sanctions against the Iranians that would cripple their economy further. Already there were stringent sanctions over their nuclear strides and the latest sanctions targeting Iran’s central bank which process most of the Iranian oil export sales will add more problems for Iran. 
Under the circumstances, it is anticipated that the Middle East may be brazing up for another dangerous confrontation this time. Whether Iran is already holding nuclear weapons, therefore, they have test fired such long range missiles and posing dangerous postures, is not known. But, their unilateral decision to block the Strait of Hormuz, thereby stopping the oil flow out of the Gulf,  would not only affect Iran but the entire OPEC countries of which many are supporters of the US and their allies. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq and many others are directly or indirectly supporting the US for their mutual interests. The US, in return of the oil support, is ensuring the safety and security of those oil producing and exporting countries. Iran’s leadership are aware of what had happened to Saddam Hussein of Iraq and that country, after its liberation from dictator Hussein, is now pursuing democratic process, though not fully under firm
control as yet. 
However, the US had already withdrawn its forces fully as promised by Obama in his election campaign. Now, in the entire Gulf, Iran is the only one country shooting much trouble and their nuclear ambition solely for the purpose of taking revenge against their Sunni brotherhood and particularly the Israelis is well known. Israel’s concern for their security cannot be overlooked as in the 1991 Gulf War the world had already seen how dictator Saddam Hussein fired a volley of scud missiles against Israel. It was but for the US protective nuclear umbrella, Israel too would have jumped into that war for self defence. Even now, the joint strategy of the US and its strong ally Israel to desist Iran’s nuclear ambition is to safe-guard its own security, as they are surrounded by enemies from all sides. Under such circumstance, bellicose postures, as far as avoided would be better for the world at this time.

The 10 Most Dangerous Meds Driving America's Pill Crisis

More Americans now die from prescription pills than car accidents. The nation's response to the trend will define an era, but corporate influence threatens reform.

December 26, 2011  |  

 

Photo Credit: AFP

 

 

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For the first time in nearly a century, automobile accidents are no longer the nation’s leading cause of accidental deaths, according to a major report released Tuesday by the National Center for Health Statistics. The new number one killer is drugs—not smack, crystal meth or any other stepped-on menace sold in urban alleyways or trailer parks, but bright, shiny pills prescribed by doctors, approved by the government, manufactured by pharmaceutical companies and sold to the consumer as “medicine.” Yet of the billions of legit pills Americans pop every year for medical conditions serious and otherwise, the vast majority of lives are claimed by only a select few classes—painkillers, sedatives and stimulants—that all share a common characteristic: they promote abuse, dependence and addiction.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg of the prescription drug abuse problem,” says Dr. Margaret Warner, the federal report’s lead author. “The take-home here is, this should be a wake-up call.” Some 41,000 Americans died from what the report refers to as “poisonings” in 2008, compared with 38,000 traffic deaths. That tally marks a 90 percent increase in poisonings and a 15 percent decrease in car accidents since 1999.

Nearly nine out of ten of those poisonings were caused by prescription drug overdoses, with the chief culprit being opiate-based pain relievers such as Vicodin (hydrocodone), OxyContin and Percocet (oxycodone), codeine, morphine—and let’s not forget Actiq (fentanyl), the infamous berry-flavored lollipop that is 100 times stronger than morphine and—like most opiate analgesics—so overprescribed that only about 10% of its sales come from its original indication to treat cancer pain.

These legal opiates accounted for 40 percent, or 15,000, of the fatalities, up from 25 percent, or 4,000, in 1999. Deaths by painkiller now outpace the combined nationwide number of deaths by cocaine (5,100) and heroin (3,000); these fatal overdoses often involve mixing painkillers with other prescription drugs—for example, Klonopin, Xanax, Valium or another benzodiazepines, which are the second most lethal class.

Other report findings: Three quarters of the poisoning are unintentional—likely the result of overdoses rather than drug interactions or allergic reactions—and some 13 percent are suicides. The five states with the highest oxy-type drug death rates (per 100,000 of the population) were New Mexico (30.8), West Virginia (27.6), Alaska (24.2), Nevada (21.0), and Utah (20.8).The most likely to die: white men, American Indians and Native Alaskans, usually between the ages of 45 to 54.

Warner’s death report is but the latest in a disturbing accumulation of evidence, ranging from scientific surveys to celebrity deaths, that underscore what we already know about our painkiller nation: pill mills and doctor shoppers are not just creating a land of bathroom-cabinet addicts—their bodies are packing morgues.

With our surging “oxy addiction” showing no signs of letting up, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year officially named it an “epidemic.” President Obama has repeatedly invoked prescription drug abuse as the nation’s leading drug problem responsible not only for a rising number of overdoses and deaths but also ratcheting up the incidence of break-ins and burglaries of pharmacies.

Warner and her colleagues at the agency, which is overseen by the CDC, are at pains to draw comparisons between oxy-type drug deaths and those from auto accidents, because they hope that the same comprehensive approach that helped cut traffic deaths in half during the previous decade can save just as many lives on the drug front. Auto fatalities fell following a concerted government focus on national highway safety, resulting in car safety improvements as well as a wide range of regulatory, legal, and public health measures. Seat belt laws were enforced; drunk driving laws became stricter. The fact that alcohol—yet another legal intoxicant—is responsible for close to 40% of all traffic fatalities indicates how difficult it is to apply policy to substance abuse and get significant results. Still, drunk driving is playing a smaller and smaller role in automobile fatalities, falling by close to 40% since 1982.

You need to look at policy, laws, individual behavior, community behavior and health care provider behavior,” says Dr. Chris Jones, a consulting pharmacist with the CDC. One of the most innovative interventions includes building a database on patients who abuse painkillers and identifying doctors who overprescribe (or do so without examining the patient or his medical history). So far, five states have adopted specific pill-mill laws to flush out such doctors. “We’re looking at these laws to evaluate them and for guidance on policy,” says Jones.

That includes sharing information from state medical licensing boards and pharmacy licensing boards to monitor prescribers and set thresholds for how many pills are hitting the street and why.

The Drug Enforcement Administration launched an annual National Prescription Take-Back Event; the third drug dump, in October, collected 188 tons of old pills nationwide. The agency also operates 26 Tactical Diversion Squads—agents specializing in identifying wholesale traffickers and suppliers of black-market pharmaceuticals.

Some 48 states have adopted prescription monitoring programs (PMPs), which typically encourage (rather than require) doctors to record the data of every controlled drug prescribed, but only 37 are currently operational.  In 2011, Florida implemented its PMP after its Tea Party governor reversed his controversial opposition to the surveillance tool, and the Sunshine State has already seen an exodus of pill mills to Georgia, which still has no PMP.

These federal and state campaigns come not a moment too soon, either. Painkillers have become the most common drug taken by adults between the ages of 20 to 59. The trends in sales, deaths and abuse treatment admissions for oxy and the like have all risen fourfold or more since 1999, according to a new state-by-state study. In 2009, for the first time, emergency-room visits resulting from prescription drug ODs topped 1 million, with some 343,000 due to opiate analgesics like oxy, 363,000 due to benzodiazepines and other sedatives, and 22,000 due to stimulants. (For a ranking of the top 10 drugs whose use or abuse led to overdose deaths or survival in ER visits in 2009, see the list at the end of the article.)

In 2010, enough prescription painkillers were sold nationwide to keep every American medicated around the clock for an entire month. Some 12 million Americans admitted that they were using painkillers without a prescription, and at least 14% of these nonmedical users met the criteria for abuse or dependence. In one recent survey, more than 5 million Americans reported using them to get high—in a single month period. The majority of those people say they obtained (or stole) them from friends or their family.

Jones does see one bright spot in the otherwise grim report. Methadone, which is used as a pain reliever as well as to treat opioid dependency, had been on the uptick for nearly a decade—from about 800 deaths in 1999 to about 5,500 in 2007. But for reasons not yet clear, that number dropped by remarkable 600 deaths in 2008. “For  many years it had been the most common opioid in overdose deaths,” says Jones. “We don’t know if it’s just that people have shifted to these other drugs of what. But it’s promising. We’ve have to wait and see what we find when we look at  2009.”

In terms of the big picture, however, the fact that prescription drugs have overtaken automobiles as the nation’s leading cause of accidental deaths marks a deeper societal transformation. One of the most defining developments in twentieth-century America was motorization; as more people bought more cars and drove more miles, more accidents, injuries and deaths were the inevitable result until government intervention bent the curve. The 21st century is shaping up to be about, among other things, the pharmaceuticalization of America, as lifelong prescription drug use starting in early childhood becomes the norm.

How will pill popping transform our lives? Certain things are predictable: The drug industry will develop and sell more and more chemicals targeted at the brain, which remains medical science’s “black box”; that will result in treatments to enhance the performance of mood, cognition, attention, memory and other mental functions that will have become, in due course, “medical conditions.” Any pill that promises to make you smarter or happier invites abuse, and some will be as addictive as Oxy or the “morphine popsicle.” But with the enforcement of effective policies—the seat belts and DUI laws of pharmaceuticalization—the drug industry’s off-label marketing and the medical profession’s overprescribing could be dramatically curtailed.

Given the current state of corporate influence over politics, these reforms are anything but predictable. What's at stake is nothing less than the nation’s expanding medicine cabinet doubling as its morgue.

The Top 10 Most Dangerous Rx Drugs in America

This list of brand name and generic drugs was compiled from the Drug Abuse Warning Network's (DAWN's)database of emergency room visits in 2009, including drug poisonings that lead to both deaths and survivals.

1. Xanax (alprazolam) 112,552 (benzodiazepine class)

2. OxyContin (and other oxycodone drugs) 105,214 (opiate class)

3. Vicodin (and other hydrocodone drugs) 86,258 (opiate class)

4. Methadone 63,031 (opiate class)

5. Klonopin (clonazepam) 57,633 (benzodiazepine class)

6. Ativan (lorazepam) 36,582 (benzodiazepine class)

7. Morphine drugs 31,731 (opiate class)

8. Seroquel (quetiapine) 29,436 (antipsychotic class)

9. Ambien (zolpidem) 29,127 (sedative class)

10. Valium (diazepam) 25,150 (benzodiazepine)

Dr. S. Akhtar Ehtisham
(607) 776-3336
P.O. Box 469,
Bath NY 14810
USA
Blog syedehtisham.blogspot.com
All religions try to take over the establishment and if they fail, they collaborate with it, be it feudal or capitalist.

Ethnic Cleansing of Invented People.

Ethnic Cleansing of Invented People.
By Miko Peled

Mostafa Tamimi from Nabi Saleh, Bahjat Zaalan and his son Ramdan from Gaza died on my fiftieth birthday and just a few days after Newt 
Gingrich declared them an invented people. They were murdered by the 
Israeli terrorist organization, the IDF, an organization that is 
supported and funded by the US.  One Israeli terrorist shot the invented Tamimi in the head with a tear gas canister, and another Israeli 
terrorist fired a rocket that murdered the invented Zaalan and his boy 
Ramadan.  Both terrorists were educated and trained by Israel, and armed by the US.  The Israeli terrorists are not invented but quite real, and they are safe, protected by the apartheid regime that trained and sent 
them on their missions, and the Israeli court system will make sure that they are never brought to justice. This is how Israel’s well-oiled 
ethnic cleansing machine operates.

The Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine is not a thing of the past 
but an ongoing campaign that is executed by three arms of the State of 
Israel: The education system, a dedicated bureaucracy and the security 
forces. The education system is dedicated to indoctrinating and 
producing soldiers and bureaucrats who will execute and enforce the 
ethnic cleansing. The bureaucracy is charged with making rules that make life unlivable for Palestinians.  Rules that restrict Palestinian 
access to their lands, and restrict their ability to travel freely to 
work and school. This same bureaucracy then demands that Palestinians 
pay for permits to be allowed do these very same basic things that they 
were denied. The security forces, the most obvious of which is the IDF, 
are charged with enforcing the restrictions, fighting off the 
resistance, armed or peaceful, and terrorizing the “invented” people of 
Palestine.

Since my father was a general and I served as a soldier in the IDF 
terrorist organization, people often ask me how is it that Israeli 
children who are raised in a Western style democracy become such 
monsters once they are in uniform?  The detailed answer can be found in 
my book, The General’s Son due out in February 2012, but the short 
answer is this: Education – Racism requires a mindset that is fashioned 
by education.  In order to rationalize and justify the ethnic cleansing 
the Israeli education system portrays Palestinians as culturally 
inferior, violent and bent on the annihilation of the Jews, and at the 
same time, void of a true national identity. Palestinian national 
identity is but a figment of some anti-Semitic imagination.

Israeli children are educated to see the Palestinians as a problem 
that must be solved and as a threat that must be eliminated. They can go through life, as I did growing up in Jerusalem, without ever meeting a 
Palestinian child. They know nothing of the life or culture of 
Palestinians who quite often live only several hundred meters from them.
Palestinians are portrayed as an existential threat through absurd 
comparisons like that of Yasser Arafat to Hitler, the Palestinians to 
Nazis, and the Palestinian resistance to Al Qaeda. Since Israeli kids 
never meet Palestinians what they learn in school, particularly in the 
school textbooks, is all that they know. In fact it is remarkable that 
even though they live so close to one another, much if not all of what 
Israelis know about their Palestinian neighbors comes from high school 
text books and popular racist stereotypes. Israelis don’t know that 
Palestinians never had an army, that they do not posses a single tank, a single warship or fighter jet, that they don’t have a single artillery 
battery and do not in fact pose a military threat at all.  According to a new book by Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan, not a single photo of a person who is a Palestinian exists in Israeli textbooks and there are millions of 
Palestinians in and around Israel.  Israelis don’t learn about 
Palestinian doctors and teachers, engineers and writers. They don’t 
learn Palestinian poetry or prose and they don’t read the works of 
Palestinian historians.

At a recent lecture I mentioned the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and someone called out: “What ethnic cleansing?” People are unaware of the 
ethnic cleansing taking place in Palestine because Israel hides it well 
and the mainstream media doesn’t care enough to ask. In mainstream peace groups and dialogue groups that discuss Palestine/Israel, a basic 
Israeli condition is not to bring up issues like the ethnic cleansing 
because Israel doesn’t like to talk about it.
But for the past 64 years ethnic cleansing of Palestine is what 
drives the Zionist policies towards Palestinians. All Zionist 
governments and all Zionist political parties left right and center 
support the ethnic cleansing.  The Israeli judicial system lets the 
Israeli authorities get away with abuse, theft and murder as long as 
they are perpetuated against Palestinians. Had these same crimes been 
committed against Israeli Jews they would have been prosecuted to the 
full extent of the law.

Zionist supporters like to bring up the fact that on November 29, 
1947 the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish sate 
and an Arab state.  What is left out of the Zionist story is that within one year of the vote Israeli forces had managed to capture close to 80% of Palestine, destroy close to 500 Palestinian towns and villages, kill scores of unarmed civilians and force the exile of some 800,000 
Palestinians.

Then, when the UN passed resolution194 in December of 1948, calling 
for the refugees to be allowed to return to their homes, Israel 
proceeded to build cities and towns, parks and highways for the use of 
Jewish Israelis on Palestinian land. Then the Knesset began passing laws that prohibit the return of the refugees and allow the new state to 
confiscate their lands.

After the war was over, the Palestinians who remained within the 
newly created Jewish state were forced to become citizens of a state 
that despised them and saw them as a “problem” and a “threat.” They were designated as “The Arabs of Israel” a designation that stripped them of a national identity and denied them any rights to the land and provided them very limited rights as citizens. From being the rightful owners of their lands and their country they now existed at the pleasure of the 
new owner of the land, the state of Israel. Palestinian refugees were 
forced into concentration camps, conveniently called refugee camps, and 
those that tried to return were shot.  A military unit was created for 
the purpose of punishing Palestinian refugee who “infiltrated” back into their homeland, now called Israel.  It was called Unit 101, the 
notorious Ariel Sharon led it and it made a name for itself as a 
murderous gang with a license to kill Palestinians.

So regardless of the myth, now perpetuated by Newt Gingrich among 
others, that says there was no forced ethnic cleansing, we know today 
that the creation of Israel was made possible through a systematic 
campaign of ethnic cleansing, conducted by the Jewish militia, involving massacres, terrorism, and the wholesale looting of an entire nation.

Newt Gingrich, being the history buff that he is, might be interested in a story I mention in my book The General’s Son, about my mother. She was born and raised in Jerusalem and she remembers the homes of 
Palestinians families in neighborhoods in West Jerusalem. She told me 
that when she was a child, on Saturday afternoons she would go for walks through these neighborhoods, admiring the beauty of the homes, watching families sit together in their beautiful gardens. In 1948 when the 
Palestinian families were forced out of West Jerusalem, my mother was 
offered one of those beautiful, spacious homes but she refused. At age 
22, the wife of a young army officer with little means and with two 
small children, she refused a beautiful spacious home, offered to her 
completely free because she could not bear the thought of living in the 
home of a family that was forced out and now lives in a refugee camp. 

“The coffee was still warm on the tables as the soldiers came in and 
began the looting” she told me.  “Can you imagine how much those 
families, those mothers must miss their homes.” She would ask and she 
continued, “I remember seeing the truckloads of loot, taken by the 
Israeli soldiers from these homes. How were they not ashamed of 
themselves?” there are thousands upon thousands of homes in cities all 
over the country that were taken.

Moving forward now to 1967 and the myth that Israel was fighting for 
its existence as it was attacked by Arab armies from all directions.  
Much was written about this but nothing is more revealing than the 
minutes of the meetings of the IDF general staff from June 1967, just 
prior to the war. According to the generals, one of whom was my father, 
Matti Peled, not only was there no existential threat but the generals 
clearly state that the Egyptian army needed at least a year and a half 
before it would be ready for war and therefore this was an opportune 
time to attack and destroy it.  The army pressured the cabinet to 
authorize an attack and indeed the cabinet approved an attack against 
Egypt.  The IDF destroyed the Egyptian army and then went on to attack 
Jordan and Syria. It took the IDF six days and 700 casualties to kill an estimated 15,000 Arab forces, take the West Bank, the Golan Heights and The Sinai Peninsula.  One may like to think this was a miracle but it 
was a well-planned, well-executed attack against countries that had no 
viable military force.  The Israeli army had thus fulfilled its goal of 
conquering the entire Land of Israel, and the De-Arabizing of Palestine 
could now proceed into the West Bank and Gaza.
Since the early days of the State of Israel the IDF made it its 
mission to be the most brutal bully in the region.  

Today the IDF has 
one purpose: to conduct an all out war against Palestinians by 
terrorizing Palestinian civilians, kidnapping children from their homes 
and using brutal force against protesters. We are reminded of the 
intensity of IDF cruelty every so often, the latest major display being 
the three-week bloodbath in Gaza that began on December 27, 2008. 
Hundreds of tons of bombs were dropped by Israeli pilots on Gaza, 
followed by a massive invasion of land forces.  All this for the purpose of  terrorizing a defenseless civilian population that includes 800,000 children.

Now that Israel has been in control of the West Bank for over four 
decades it had built and invested there heavily.  But all of the 
investment and construction in the West Bank was made to bring Jews into the West Bank. 

Palestinian lands are being taken at an alarming pace, 
their homes are destroyed and thousands are incarcerated, while 
industry, roads, malls, schools and gated communities with swimming 
pools are being built for Jews only.  

Water, which is the scarcest 
resource of all, is controlled and distributed by the Israeli water 
authority, as follows: Per capita, Israelis receive 300 cubic meters of 
water per year.  In comparison, per capita Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza receive 35-85 cubic meters per year, while the World Health 
Organization recommends a minimum of 100 cubic meter of water per person per year. But what is even worse is that per capita, Israeli settlers 
in the West Bank are allocated 1500 cubic meters of water per year. Jews in the West Bank live with green lawns and swimming pools while 
Palestinians quite often get no water at all.  Perhaps invented people 
have no need for water.

De-Arabizing the history of Palestine is another crucial element of 
the ethnic cleansing. 1500 years of Arab and Muslim rule and culture in 
Palestine are trivialized, evidence of its existence is being destroyed 
and all this is done to make the absurd connection between the ancient 
Hebrew civilization and today’s Israel. The most glaring example of this today is in Silwan, (Wadi Hilwe) a town adjacent to the Old City of 
Jerusalem with some 50,000 residents.  Israel is expelling families from Silwan and destroying their homes because it claims that king David 
built a city there some 3000 years ago. Thousands of families will be 
made homeless so that Israel can build a park to commemorate a king that may or may not have lived 3000 years ago. Not a shred of historical 
evidence exists that can prove King David ever lived yet Palestinian 
men, women, children and the elderly along with their schools and 
mosques, churches and ancient cemeteries and any evidence of their 
existence must be destroyed and then denied so that Zionist claims to 
exclusive rights to the land may be substantiated.

Once we connect the dots it is not hard to see that the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is only a small part of the Israeli Palestinian 
issue. The greater issue is the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Zionist state.  The way forward for Israelis and Palestinians alike is to oppose the ethnic cleansing by opposing all its manifestations. 
This means supporting the movement to boycott, divest and place 
sanctions on Israel, or BDS for short, it means actively participating 
in the popular non-violent struggle in Palestine and it means 
challenging the racist laws that govern Israel by defying them. There 
has to be a clear and unequivocal call to recognize that the IDF is a 
terrorist organization and its officers are war criminals. Furthermore, 
the reprehensible discrimination against Palestinians, whether they live in Israel/Palestine or not, practiced by the security officials at Ben 
Gurion airport and other points of entry to Israel/Palestine must be 
challenged. The struggle for a democracy in our shared homeland is no 
different than the struggle at Tahrir square and can in fact be seen as 
part of the Arab Spring.
http://mikopeled.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/ethnic-cleansing-of-invented-people-by-miko-peled/

NOTE:  Miko Peled is the son of an Israeli war hero, General Matti Peled, one of Israel's top decision makers in the '67 war.  He grew up in West Jerusalem and now is a peace activist and lives with his wife and children in Southern California.  Hajja Romi/Blue

एसपी ने कहा था, मीडिया में सवर्ण जातिवादी वर्चस्व है!

 http://mohallalive.com/2011/06/24/last-interview-of-sp-singh-by-ajit-rai/

14 साल पहले : सुरेंद्र प्रताप सिंह से अजित राय की बातचीत

ये संभवत: एसपी सिंह का आखिरी इंटरव्‍यू है। यह 15 जून 1997 को जनसत्ता में छपा था। ठीक दस दनों बाद उनका इंतकाल हो गया था। इस इंटरव्‍यू में उन्‍होंने पहली बार इस ओर इशारा किया है कि मीडिया में सवर्णों का वर्चस्‍व है। आशुतोष को कांशीराम का थप्‍पड़ पड़ने के बाद मीडिया में मचे शोर से वे निराश थे। उनका कहना था कि क्‍या कांशीराम की जगह एक सवर्ण नेता होता, तो भी क्‍या मीडिया में इतनी ही बेचैनी होती? कई मायनों में यह एक जरूरी इंटरव्‍यू है। इसमें उन्‍होंने साहित्‍य और पत्रकारिता पर बेहद सधी टिप्‍पणी की है। अजित राय का शुक्रिया कि उन्‍होंने मोहल्‍ला लाइव को इसे पुनर्प्रकाशित करने का मौका दिया :मॉडरेटर

आप प्रिंट मीडिया से इलेक्ट्राँनिक मीडिया में आ गये हैं। अपनी उपस्थिति में कैसा अंतर पाते हैं?

किसी माध्यम या संस्थान में निजी उपस्थिति का कायल मैं कभी नहीं रहा। मैंने जहां भी काम किया, टीम वर्क की तरह काम किया। अखबार में भी जब मैं था, तो पहले पन्ने पर दस्तखत करके कुछ भी लिखकर छपने की वासना मुझमें नहीं रही। हिंदी में तो इसकी परंपरा ही रही है। मैं भी चाहता तो ऐसा अक्सर कर सकता था। अब टेलीविजन के लिए काम करना मुझे रास आ रहा है। बतौर प्रोफेशन मैं यहां पहले से ज्यादा संतुष्ट हूं। क्योंकि यहां लफ्फाजी और छल की गुंजाइश नहीं है। आलस्य और मिथ्या पत्रकारिता यहां नहीं चल सकती। जैसा कि कुछ लोग अनजान सूत्रों के हवाले से कुछ भी लिखते रहते हैं। यहां तो आप जो कुछ भी टिप्पणी करते हैं, उसे दिखाना पड़ता है। ये बात अलग है कि यहां ग्लैमर ज्यादा है।

आजकल हिंदी अखबारों पर संकट की हर जगह चर्चा हो रही है। आपको क्या लगता है?

ये.उनके घोर अज्ञान की अभिव्यक्ति है। हिंदी पत्रकारिता का स्वर्ण युग चल रहा है। हिंदी और भाषाई अखबारों की पाठक संख्या, पूंजी, विज्ञापन और मुनाफा लगातार बढ़ रहा है। हां, इस वृद्धि के बरक्‍स उनके समाचार-विचार के स्तर को लेकर आप चिंतित हो सकते हैं। पर ये सब समय के साथ ठीक हो जाएगा। दूसरी ओर आज, दैनिक जागरण, अमर उजाला, राजस्थान पत्रिका, दैनिक भास्कर सहित अनेक क्षेत्रीय अखबार अपना विकास कर रहे हैं। जयपुर में भास्कर और पत्रिका की प्रतियोगिता से कीमतें नियंत्रित हुई हैं। गुणवत्ता भी सुधर जाएगी। सच तो ये है कि हिंदी पत्रकारिता अपने पैरों पर खड़ी हो रही है। हालांकि पेशे के रूप में अभूतपूर्व वृद्धि के कारण हिंदी पत्रकारिता में बड़ी मात्रा में खर-पतवार आ रहे हैं। लेकिन ये स्थिति स्‍थायी नहीं होगी।

इसी संदर्भ में कहा जा रहा है कि हिंदी अखबारों की विश्वसनीयता घट रही है।

भारतीय समाज में तुलसीदास के समय से ही त्राहि-त्राहि का भाव व्याप्त रहा है। पिछले 150 सालों से तो ये रोना और तेज हुआ है। हर आदमी बताता फिर रहा है कि संकट काल है। कम से कम मैं इस सामूहिक विलाप में शामिल नहीं हूं। भारतीय संस्कृति मूलत: विलाप की संस्कृति रही है। नरेंद्र मोहन अखबार की बदौलत राज्यसभा पहुंच गये तो बड़ा शोर हो रहा है। 1952 से ही ये सब हो रहा है।

पत्रकारिता के मिशन बनाम प्रोफेशन होने पर भी बहस हो रही है। आप क्या सोचते हैं?

सरकारी सुविधाएं और पैसे लेकर निकलनेवाले अखबारों की सामाजिक प्रतिबद्धता क्या है? ये एक फरेब है, जो हिंदी में ज्यादा चल रहा है। पत्रकारिता कस्बे से लेकर राजधानी तक दलाली और ठेकेदारी का लाइसेंस देती है। मैंने किसी मिशन के तहत पत्रकारिता नहीं की। मेरी प्रतिबद्धिता अपने पेशे यानी पत्रकारिता के प्रति है। आजादी की लड़ाई के दौरान पत्रकारिता मिशन थी। इसलिए वस्तुपरक भी नहीं थी। मिशन की पत्रकारिता हमेशा सब्जेक्टिव होती है। यदि कोई पार्टी, संस्थान, आंदोलन मिशन की पत्रकारिता करे तो समझ में आती है। लेकिन नवभारत टाइम्स, जनसत्ता या हिंदुस्तान क्यों मिशन की पत्रकारिता करे?

मीडिया में वर्चस्व की संस्कृति को लेकर कुछ राजनेताओं ने अच्छा-खासा विवाद खड़ा कर दिया है। कांशीराम द्वारा पत्रकारों की पिटाई का मामला ताजा उदाहरण है। आपने इससे अपने आपको अलग क्यों कर लिया?

उसमें जातिवादी ओवरटोन ज्यादा था, इसलिए मैं अलग हो गया। यदि आप इस पेशे में आये हैं, तो इसकी पेशागत परेशानियों का सामना करें। वरना कोई अतिसुरक्षित पेशा चुन लें। कल्पना कीजिए यही काम किसी सवर्ण ने किया होता, तो क्या ऐसा ही विरोध होता? सवर्ण पत्रकारों ने इस घटना को दलित नेता को जलील करने के एक अवसर के रूप में इस्तेमाल किया। मीडिया में प्रच्छन्न सवर्ण जातिवादी वर्चस्व है। उत्तर भारत में तो अधिकतर अखबारों में सांप्रदायिक शक्तियां ही हावी हैं। पिछड़ों को सबक सिखाने का भाव आज भी ज्यादातर महान किस्म के पत्रकारों की प्रेरणा बना हुआ है। ये वर्चस्व चूंकि समस्त भारतीय समाज में है, इसलिए मीडिया में भी है।

साहित्य और पत्रकारिता के रिश्तों पर आपकी टिप्पणियां खासा विवाद पैदा करती रही हैं। क्या आप अब भी ऐसा मानते हैं कि साहित्यकारों ने पत्रकारिता में घालमेल कर रखा है?

भाषा की बात छोड़ दें तो विषयवस्तु या विचार के स्तर पर किसी भी साहित्यकार संपादक ने हिंदी पत्रकारिता को कोई ज्यादा मजबूत किया, ऐसा मैं नहीं मानता। लेकिन ये भी सच है कि आज हिंदी पत्रकारिता की अपनी भाषा बन रही है। सारी दुनिया में पत्रकारिता की भाषा को साहित्य ने अपनाया है। हमारे यहां उलटी गंगा बहाने की कोशिश होती रही। इसे दुराग्रह नहीं तो क्या कहेंगे कि पत्रकारिता की भाषा को साहित्यिक बना दिया जाए। आप बेशक जैसी मर्जी वैसी साहित्यिक पत्रकारिता करें। लेकिन बजट और विदेश नीति पर पत्रकारीय लेखन में आपकी दखलअंदाजी क्यों? प्रिंट मीडिया के लिए भाषा और शैली की जरूरत है। लेकिन इसका ये मतलब नहीं कि किसी बड़े विद्वान पंडित या साहित्यकार को संपादक बना दें। हिंदी में अक्सर लोग शिकायत करते हैं कि पत्रकारिता में साहित्य को तरजीह नहीं दी जाती। आप बताइए कि संसार की किस भाषा की पत्रकारिता में साहित्यिक खबरें प्रमुख रहती हैं। खबरों में बने रहने की इच्छा वैसी ही वासना है, जैसा कि राजनेता पाले रखते हैं।

ऐसा कह कर आप पत्रकारिता के लिए साहित्य के महत्व को रद्द तो नहीं कर रहे हैं? क्या आप रघुवीर सहाय, अज्ञेय, धर्मवीर भारती, सर्वेश्वर दयाल सक्सेना, श्रीकांत वर्मा और अन्य अनेक साहित्यकारों के पत्रकारीय योगदानों को स्वीकार नहीं करते?

देखिए, एक बात साफ कर दूं कि मैं इन लोगों के प्रति बहुत श्रद्धा रखता हूं। साहित्य पढ़ना मेरी आदत है। जो लोग कविता लिखते हैं, वो बहुत कठिन और बड़ा काम करते हैं। मुझे खुद इस बात का अफसोस रहता है कि मैं कविताएं नहीं लिख पाता। ये मेरी असमर्थता है। लेकिन ये लोग सिर्फ अच्छे साहित्यकार होने की वजह से संपादक नहीं बने। ये लोग अपने समय के श्रेष्ठ पत्रकार थे। ये उस दौर में सामने आये, जब हिंदी पत्रकारिता दोयम दर्जे के पत्रकारों के हाथों में था। इन लोगों ने इसे नया चमकदार चेहरा दिया। साहित्य सृजन की एक श्रेष्ठ विद्या है। जैसे चित्रकला, अभिनय, गायन, नृत्य आदि। फिर आप बहुत बड़े डॉक्टर, इंजीनियर, नेता, वकील या कुछ भी हों पर इसका मतलब ये नहीं कि आपको संपादक बना दिया जाए। महज इसलिए कि आप उस भाषा में लिखते हैं, जिसमें अखबार निकलता है।

ऐसी कोई स्वतंत्रता नहीं हो सकती, जो अमूर्त और परम हो!

ऐसी कोई स्वतंत्रता नहीं हो सकती, जो अमूर्त और परम हो!

इंडियन एक्‍सप्रेस में छपे जस्टिस मार्कंडेय काटजू के लेख की पहली किस्‍त का अनुवाद हमने शनिवार को छापा था, हमारा मीडिया फासिस्‍ट है! इस पर नजर रखना जरूरी है!! आज दूसरी किस्‍त का अनुवाद हम छाप रहे हैं। काटजू के इन विचारों को मीडिया के एक‍ सिपहसालार मुकेश केजरीवाल ने एक आत्‍ममुग्‍ध व्‍यक्ति की गर्वोक्ति कहा है। उन्‍होंने काटजू के बारे में टिप्‍पणी की है कि “डंडा मिलते ही लगने लगा कि सारे लोग इस डंडे से पीटे जाने के लिए ही पैदा हुए हैं। और उन्हें ईश्वर ने इन सभी मूर्खों का उद्धार करने के लिए भेजा है। बेहद नकारात्मक सोच के साथ यह दंभी व्यक्ति मीडिया को ठीक करने आया है। ” खैर, मुकेश केजरीवाल जैसे मीडिया के सेठपरस्‍त पत्रकारों को एक तार्किक बातों पर अतार्किक तरीके प्रतिक्रिया करने दें, हम सब काटजू का लेख हिंदी में पढ़े और मौजूदा टीवी मीडिया का चेहरा बदलने के बाद में चर्चा को आगे बढ़ाएं : मॉडरेटर

जैसा कि मैंने पहले ही कहा है कि इस संक्रमण काल में हमारी जनता को आधुनिक, वैज्ञानिक युग की ओर अग्रसर करने में मीडिया को सहायक की भूमिका अदा करनी चाहिए। इस उद्देश्य के लिए मीडिया को तार्किक और वैज्ञानिक विचारों का प्रचार-प्रसार करना चाहिए, लेकिन ऐसा करने के बजाय हमारे मीडिया का एक बड़ा हिस्सा विभिन्न तरह के अंध-विश्वासों को परोसता रहता है।
यह सच्चाई है कि बहुतेरे भारतीयों का बौद्धिक स्तर बहुत कम है – वे जातिवाद, सांप्रदायिकता और अंध-विश्वासों में जकड़े हुए हैं। हालांकि सवाल यह है : तार्किक और वैज्ञानिक विचारों के प्रचार-प्रसार के जरिये मीडिया को हमारे लोगों के बौद्धिक स्तर को उन्नत करना चाहिए, या इसे कमजर्फ स्तरों पर लुढ़कते हुए इसे कायम रखना चाहिए?
यूरोप में, पुनर्जागरण के युग में, मीडिया (जो कि उस वक्त सिर्फ प्रिंट मीडिया ही था) ने लोगों के मानसिक स्तरों में इजाफा किया, उसने स्वतंत्रता, समानता और बंधुत्व तथा तार्किक चिंतन का प्रचार प्रसार करते हुए लोगों की मानसिकता में बदलाव लाया। वॉल्तेयर ने अंध-विश्वास पर आक्रमण किये और डिकेंस ने जेल, स्कूलों, अनाथालयों, अदालतों आदि की भयानक दशाओं की आलोचनाएं की। हमारे मीडिया को भी क्या यही सब नहीं करना चाहिए?
एक समय में, राजा राम मोहन रॉय जैसे साहसी लोगों ने अपने अखबारों मिरातुल अखबार और संबाद कौमुदी में सती-प्रथा, बाल-विवाह और पर्दा-प्रथा के खिलाफ आलेख लिखे। निखिल चक्रवर्ती ने 1943 के बंगाल के अकाल की भयावहता के बारे में लिखा। प्रेमचंद और शरत्‍चंद्र चट्टोपाध्याय ने सामंती रिवाजों और महिलाओं के उत्पीड़न के बारे में लिखा। सआदत हसन मंटो ने विभाजन के खौफ के बारे में लिखा।
लेकिन आज के मीडिया में हमें क्या दिखता है?
कई चैनल नक्षत्र-शास्त्र पर आधारित कार्यक्रम दिखाते हैं। नक्षत्र-शास्त्र को खगोल-विज्ञान से गड्‍डमगड्‍ड नहीं किया जाना चाहिए। खगोल-विज्ञान एक विज्ञान है, जबकि नक्षत्र-शास्त्र पूरी तरह अंध-विश्वास और गोरखधंधा है। यहां तक कि एक सामान्य विवेक भी हमें यह बता सकता है कि तारों और ग्रहों की परिक्रमा और किसी आदमी के 50 या 80 साल में मरने, या किसी के इंजीनियर या डॉक्टर या वकील बनने के बीच कोई तार्किक संबंध नहीं है। इसमें कोई शक नहीं कि हमारे देश में अधिकांश लोग नक्षत्र-शास्त्र को मानते हैं, लेकिन ऐसा इसलिए क्योंकि उनका मानसिक स्तर कमजोर है। इस मानसिक स्तर में लोट-पोट होने और इसको जारी रखने के बजाय मीडिया को इसको उन्नत करने की कोशिश करनी चाहिए।
कई चैनल बताते हैं कि कोई हिंदू देवता कहां पैदा हुए थे, कहां कहां वे रहे, वगैरह वगैरह। क्या यह अंध-विश्वास को फैलाना नहीं है?
मैं यह नहीं कह रहा हूं कि पूरे मीडिया में कोई अच्छा पत्रकार नहीं है। कई बेहतरीन पत्रकार हैं। पी साईनाथ एक ऐसे ही नाम हैं, जिनका नाम भारतीय पत्रकारिता के इतिहास में स्वर्ण अक्षरों से लिखा जाना चाहिए। अगर ऐसा नहीं होता तो कई राज्यों में किसान आत्महत्याओं के मामलों को उजागर करने की कहानी (जिसे कई सालों तक दबाया गया) कभी कही ही नहीं जाती। लेकिन ऐसे अच्छे पत्रकार अपवाद हैं। बहुसंख्या ऐसे लोगों की है, जो जन-हितों पर खरा उतरने की कोई चाहत नहीं रखते।
मीडिया के इन दोषों को दूर करने के लिए मुझे दो चीजें करनी हैं। पहला, मेरा प्रस्ताव है कि प्रत्येक दो माह या अन्य किसी निश्चित अंतराल में मीडिया के साथ (इलेक्टॉनिक मीडिया सहित) नियमित बैठकें हों। ये बैठकें समूची प्रेस कौंसिल की होने वाली नियमित बैठकें नहीं होंगी, लेकिन अनौपचारिक मेल-जोल होगा, जहां हम मीडिया से संबंधित मुद्दों पर विचार-विमर्श करेंगे और उनका लोकतांत्रिक तरीके से, अर्थात बातचीत के जरिये सुलझाने की कोशिश करेंगे। मेरा यकीन है कि 90 फीसदी समस्याएं इन तरीकों से सुलझायी जा सकती हैं। दूसरा, एक हद के बाद, जहां मीडिया का एक हिस्सा उपरोक्त सुझाये गये लोकतांत्रिक प्रयासों के बावजूद इन्हें अनुत्पादक साबित करने की हठ पर अड़ा हो, कठोर उपायों की जरूरत पड़ेगी। इस संबंध में, मैंने प्रधानमंत्री को प्रेस आयोग अधिनियम में संशोधन करने का आग्रह किया है कि इलेक्ट्रॉनिक मीडिया को भी प्रेस कौंसिल (जिसका संशोधित नाम मीडिया आयोग हो सकता है) के दायरे में लाया जाए और इसे और शक्ति-संपन्न बनाया जाए। मिसाल के लिए, सरकारी विज्ञापन बंद करना, या किसी अतिरेक स्थित में, कुछ समय के लिए मीडिया हाउस के लाइसेंस को निरस्त करना। जैसा कि गोस्वामी तुलसीदास ने लिखा है : “भय बिनु होय न प्रीत।” यद्यपि, इसका इस्तेमाल सिर्फ बेहद, अतिरेक स्थितियों में और लोकतांत्रिक उपायों के असफल होने के बाद ही किया जाएगा।
यहां एक आपत्ति हो सकती है कि यह तो मीडिया की स्वतंत्रता को बाधित करना है। ऐसी कोई स्वतंत्रता नहीं हो सकती, जो कि अमूर्त और परम हो। सभी स्वतंत्रताएं तर्कसंगत सीमा का विषय होती हैं, और इसमें जिम्मेदारी भी निहित होती है। एक लोकतंत्र में, हर कोई जनता के प्रति उत्तरदायी है, और इसीलिए हमारा मीडिया भी है।
निष्कर्षतः, भारतीय मीडिया को अब आत्म-चिंतन, एक उत्तदायित्व की समझ और परिपक्वता विकसित करना चाहिए। इसका यह अर्थ नहीं हैं कि इसे सुधारा नहीं जा सकता। मेरी मान्यता है कि गड़बड़ी करने वालों में 80 फीसदी एक धैर्यपूर्ण बातचीत के जरिये, उनकी गलतियों को इंगित करके अच्छे लोग बनाये जा सकते हैं और धीरे धीरे उन्हें उस सम्मानजनक रास्ते की ओर अग्रसर किया जा सकता है, जिस पर यूरोप का मीडिया नवजागरण काल में चल रहा था।
http://mohallalive.com/2011/11/07/why-our-media-is-anti-people/

इंडियन एक्सप्रेस, 04 नवंबर 2011 को प्रकाशित