Politics, War And Yes Love!
By Aakanksha Mohan Sharma
11 February, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Politicians love politics. Love for politics results into conflicts. Conflicts results into wars. Violence, killings, and destruction happen in wars. There is one more thing which happens in wars- LOVE. There are many forms of love which happen in politics and wars. The first one to talk about is jingoism. Well, these are not only policy makers and men with guns at borders in the trap of this love but countless others also. Media often shows it’s over whelming “love” with policies. Media’s love for getting trapped into this love is not exceptional. Coverage of Iraq’s invasion and bombing of Afghanistan shows that the government’s capacity to overwhelm the means of communication is truly awesome. Media is at consensus with officials at the helm of affairs.
Recently, Indian media reported about an avalanche in Kashmir which killed few Indian security officials and injured few of them when it made an Army training camp its target. They covered it in details but they forgot to report about the teenagers who got killed allegedly by Indian security forces in the same week. Earlier this week Wamiq Farooq was hit by a tear gas shell in his head when police was throwing tear gas shells on the protestors. Zahid Farooq also fed to death by a gun shot when he was playing cricket. Another teenager named as Inayat khan was also killed in such incident in the same week.
Killings of these teenagers could be dramatic breaking news if these killing would have happened in some other part of the country. But it got just one minute coverage in the era of 24/7 news channels. The Kashmir’s story is a prime example in this league of state lead journalism. This is not the first time police bullets killed innocent civilians but it has been happening since an armed insurgency broke against Indian administration twenty two years ago which hardly gets any coverage in national media.
Well, everything is fair in love and war. Though there are many who do not agree with benett’s indexing hypothesis but there is a fair degree of relevance of his indexing hypothesis in defining relationship between media and policies. . According to Gregory Nokes, a former correspondent with the associated press, the administration dominates the national news agenda “about 70 percent of the time. It determines when something becomes news, and how long it stays in the news.”
Well, much of this love which brings out hatred. There is another love which happens in wars and conflicts. Love which makes moon looks bigger, birds singing when actually they are just doing their daily routine, breeze flowing in rhythms, music becomes more musical, and even stars seems like falling from a blazing sky when actually they are the meteors heading towards earth. Every thing becomes beautiful when one gets trapped into this form of love.
A real life Romeo and Juliet story happened recently in Middle East with a Palestinian- Israeli twist. The boy was from Gaza and the girl lived in the West Bank. They communicated though internet and political problems prevented them to meet each other. So, this modern day Juliet travelled through dangerous tunnels to Egypt where she met her Romeo for the first time and they went to Gaza to marry. He saw her first time covered with sand all over head to toes.
One of my Hungarian friends told me about a play which she had watched about Romeo and Juliet in Budapest. It was about an Israeli Romeo and Palestinian Juliet. This time they weren’t the families on the opposition but the religion, culture and nationalities took the place. They didn’t die in the end as in the classic Romantic epic but they regained consciousness after consuming poison. She looked at as the solution for the political problem between Israel and Palestine. She thought that even they need to regain humanism and love for each other in solving their political problems.
There was another famous play “Palestinian Romeo and Israeli Juliet produced in 1990’s which talked about love in war.
In the same league is a docu- drama, “In fair Palestine- Romeo and Juliet” acted, directed and produced by the Palestinian high school students in Ramallah. It gives a picture of life of young people in Palestine.
Even in this production by young Palestinians, the Romeo and Juliet did consume poison but didn’t die in the end. Here, Romeo does not hear of Juliet's faked death because a messenger sent to bring him the news is stopped at an Israeli checkpoint.
There is a famous real life love story with American- Iraqi twist. The American soldier left Army to wed his Iraqi love who was a doctor. So, love do happens amidst all the bombs and destruction and so do the politics happen and so the do the war.
The trailer of this docu drama produced by young Palestinians high school students is for all those who are in love with love in the month of Love…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkGSGlpwUyw
Aakanksha Mohan Sharma
MA Political Communication, University of Leeds
email id- [email protected]
