Of course, the worst thing about celebrity culture is the misplaced sense that the private lives of famous people can affect our own; that their happiness or heartache is as important as our friends', our families', our own.Still, I must admit that I gulped rather hard when I discovered that Siouxsie and Budgie have split up.
And on a completely different level, this story fills me with admiration and humility and anger and all sorts of things. What do you think?
10 comments:
That's a great story. I think that's exactly what local news media should be all about - exposing injustices, calling the appropriate people to account and campaigning on behalf of disadvantaged or wronged people in the paper's local community.
There's supposedly a crisis in local news reporting at the moment (especially in the US), as all the ad money has gone to Google Ads and Craigslist and what have you, so local newspapers are underfunded. Something has to step into the gap and ensure that local issues and injustices get reported and exposed. I reckon blogging is ideal for that (this Indian chap would be a blogger if he could be, I reckon), and the sooner we see outside.in-style community blogging in the UK - and elsewhere - the better.
I think Rajak is the new punk rock.
Actually, I'm sort of serious.
P is right about the local news funding drought. I think we're seeing various low- and high-tech approaches to bringing some meaning to local again... while corporate news becomes ever more corporate. It's going to be interesting to watch.
thanks for quoting one of my favorite Siouxsie and the Banshee songs.
I, too, am distraught at the news that Siouxsie and Budgie broke up. I saw a documentary a couple of years ago called Punk Attitude! (I'm sure you've seen it). Siouxsie was interviewed in it and she looked really bad. She had gotten fat but still insisted on spiking her hair and wearing lots of black eyeliner (come to think of it, so does Robert Smith of The Cure). Maybe she had been going through that difficult phase at the time. But from the pictures in the article, she looks great now.
The sad thing is that we can accept the need for a publication such as Rajak's among the disenfranchised Dalits; but then blithely accept a homogenised, corporate worldview for our own news needs.
Nowhere Girl: Apparently Smith left the Banshees for the last time because Siouxsie kept calling him 'Fat Bob'. I hope they had a big gothy fight, because goth fights are hilarious.
Great man, that Rajak. On the other hand:
His wife is less than impressed with his efforts. "He just wastes his time and money every week. I have no idea what he gets by bringing out the paper," says Lakshmi Devi.
Without women like her, the world would grind to a halt.
Most people I know who buy Edinburgh's local paper the "Evening News" do so for one of two reasons - the sports results or cinema times. I think Patroclus is right in saying that blogging is an ideal medium for highlighting local issues. I think the fact that the only editorial policies in the blogosphere are personal ones makes it especially compelling.
And Tim, you're right. There's always the danger of adopting a "well done, plucky little poor , disenfranchised person. Of course, it wouldn't work here in the sophisticated north..." kind of attitude. I'm presuming that's the sort of thing you meant?
This guy who washes other peoples clothes for a living is changing the world on 8.00.
Al Gore needs to tie this man's shoes every morning for the rest of his life.
excellent, Tim.
I love the wife, Jun. I imagine an Indian Nora Batty.
That is what I mean, Marsha. What concerns me is that even somewhere like Thailand most people are too complacent to do something like this.
I'd listen to a pompous, finger-wagging lecture from Rajak any day, FN, with or without PowerPoint. Whether I'd let Al Gore wash my socks is another thing...
Great story about Rajak. Ta for that. Perhaps we could stick him on the web. Is he the modern day equivalent of the Skibbereen Eagle, keeping its beady eye on the Tsar, or was it the Kaiser?
It was the Tsar, VftV, and Lord Palmerston as well, if I recall.
Damn, we're showing our ages...
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