It was probably CNN, when it was owned by Ted Turner, which first gave credence and pride of place to the ‘citizen journalist’, particularly for eye-witness footage, and ‘man bites dog’ stories. Not only was this amateur footage used on international satellite TV, but the production values were jollied up as much as they could be, and seamlessly integrated into the big-tent professionalism that CNN injected.
Many other broadcasters followed this gritty lead into the authentic and unvarnished, till today. It has become commonplace.
But CNN was full of firsts back then. Wasn’t Mr Turner’s satellite TV channel the first to cover that one-sided Gulf War I of 1991? And we all had ring-side seats and popcorn to Bush Senior’s Iraq pounding, one that just stopped short of ‘taking out’ Saddam Hussein. All of it in full colour and ‘live’. There was even a genial interview with Saddam Hussein to boot.
It was an all-American aerial fight, no Yankee boots on the ground whatsoever, terrific precision bombing from miles away, in the stratosphere, and way over the sea. That photogenic war, unlike Bush Junior’s wade into Gulf War II, was neatly funded by the Kuwaitis too. The neighbours were naturally outraged by Hussein’s earlier invasion, and pretentions to annexation, oil fields and all.
Some say Hussein was deliberately led astray by the Americans. They apparently backed his claims till he fell for it, letting him violate and call Kuwait no more than Iraq’s traditional 19th province. Ah nostalgia! Remember all that pretty anti-aircraft gun tracery lighting up the night sky? And those Diwali-style bomb explosions, as entire streets in the Government districts of Baghdad were obliterated?
And then CNN also covered those daily briefings, unedited, given by that hilariously unself conscious ‘Chemical Ali’. ‘Ali’ was the unlikely chief spokesperson for Saddam Hussein. There, in his jaunty black beret, his impossible syntax and Arabian bombast. Chemical Ali, Saddam Hussein’s first cousin, was hauled up and finally hanged for war crimes in 2010. His evocative moniker, given unto him by the gradually sizeable international Press corps, camped in Baghdad in 1991, was for being the hero of an earlier comprehensive gassing of the revolting Kurds in the North.
Mr Turner himself was then married to Jane Fonda, famous (and admired), ever since her young turn as Barbarella, and later, not just for her acting and activism. Besides, Mr Turner wore white cowboy hats and string ties on occasion. He also bought thousands of acres of pristine forest land in Montana, mostly in order to preserve it.
To come across that same citizen reporter spirit of CNN, applied to a dire need, unsuspectingly, in Goa’s Assagao; was something of a surprise. There, in the tree-shaded courtyard of an old Goan bungalow. That courtyard serves as an al fresco restaurant on every day, except a weekly off. I witnessed a presentation of the work being done in various parts of India by an American NGO called Video Volunteers. It was established circa 2003 by a young lady called Jessica Mayberry in New York, who still runs it in India along with one Stalin K.
VV works in Brazil and the US too, and posts a lot of its work both on Facebook and Youtube. Its videos are rebroadcast, on occasion, also by some Indian news channels, digital platforms, and the well-known Huffington Post. Predictably, the general public and the bulk of the national media tend to ignore its unglamorous but useful efforts. VV provides a video-camera and rudimentary training in its use to grassroots activists. These people are drawn mostly from rural and semi-urban local areas, and pays them a salary too.
What is refreshing about VV’s work, and merits kudos, is that its attitude is not on the usual Far Left collision course with the establishment. Instead, it is focussed on the ‘last mile’ implementation of so many of our Government welfare schemes, notorious for their pilferage and non-delivery. There were tales of village level exclusion of Dalits for Government benefits and infrastructure engineered by their higher caste neighbours. This, till the taken video was shown to the DM.
It was former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who remarked that it was perhaps five per cent, or at the most 15 per cent of the money and benefit, that actually reached intended recipients. And that was said over 30 years ago. VV essentially tracks the deliverers, and does it through local residents who manage, more often than not, to persuade the local administration and the designated providers of Government largesse to pony up. Remarkably, there is no shaming or punishing.
What then is VV’s deep-throat other purposes apart from helping the disadvantaged? Are they looking for converts? Are they fomenting class or caste war? No, apparently not. It is as peaceful and non CIA as the erstwhile Peace Corps. VV is unassumingly headquartered in North Goa, but recognised and funded by several international institutions and Governments, including that of the British.
Of course, in India, NGO work is considered for reporting on mass media only if there is a celebrity around. So, Arundhati Roy helping out Medha Patkar qualifies, as does Rahul Gandhi slumming it in the depths of Kalawati-land in the company of David Milliband. Arvind Kejriwal, a long-term activist cum NGO type himself, protest sleeping on the pavement in the chill of a Delhi winter, certainly hacks it!
An unleavened peasant, rambling on, or whining about his woes on TV, is considered edit-outably tiresome. With the kind of attention span most people have, and the TRP ratings TV news channels have to compete for, this is not surprising. Some of the bigger global outfits in the NGO-cum-foundation space, such as Greenpeace and Ford Foundation have recently been put under the Indian Government’s scanner for suspected activities that are once removed from doing good. The intelligence and tax agencies are both looking into it.
Taking issue with NGOs and their supporters, predictably anti-nuclear, anti-dam, road and bridge, pro-terrorist and separatist, is thought to be anti-democratic. The Modi Government, undaunted, seems to be cracking down on some of these organisations anyway. Is VV into blocking things too? Well, it doesn’t want builders building on every square inch of paddy field in Goa. Or the Government building a bridge to reach a proposed golf course, when there is already a ferry, digging up a beautiful beach in the process. But true to its gentle style, VV doesn’t protest too vigorously. Video Volunteers could, in fact, be very useful as an independent outsourced resource, to test the efficacy of various Government nostrums.
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