Goons in Burma

Goons in Burma

Myanmarese crackdowns can wait, for Ponting's just issued a challenge.

Every friend who's been to the US speaks of how the media tends to be very insular, with the canonical cat-up-the-local-tree being more important than say a tsunami in India. For the last couple of days, the international media has been headlining the recent upheavals in Myanmar, and the reactions of India, being one of the key nations in the area, are being keenly watched.

Only we can't really tell if there have been any reactions. Today, Indian news channels are all about the upcoming cricket series against Australia which starts on Saturday. I couldn't see the Burmese agitation being part of even the top-5 headlines of most channels; that is, if they were not talking to cricketers about how they won the championship ("they batted, they bowled, they fielded").

Perhaps, if considered important enough, we should reality-TV-ise news itself, however redundant that may sound. Vote for the Burmese monks or the junta. Whoever wins gets the country - the Wikipedia article for Burma will be updated accordingly, so that at least for ten minutes, "reality" will triumph.