Between Sunday and Wednesday, CNN and BBC and the private TV channels in Pakistan were carrying the tsunami story as the lead story most of the time, and were frequently telecasting small visual clips to indicate how the walls of water traumatized thousands and thousands of men, women and children, who will perhaps never ever recover from that experience.
One question that many viewers asked themselves was whether it was possible for any TV channel to have shown how the tsunami struck those countries - "Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Maldives, Bangladesh and so on. Something each viewer wanted to see what exactly were the details of how much would the camera be able to show' how much had the camera captured? The amateur and the professional cameras? Questions like those included the thought that had there not been television on the scale that we have today, courtesy the cable and the satellite, what would have been the impact of the tsunami that struck on 26th December 2004?
I want to quote here from an article that first appeared in 1965 and which was reprinted in a collection of articles and columns in 1970 (in book form). It is called "TV news bulletins: Too many and too soon? You are seated in front of your television set intent on drama. The hero is approaching a crisis. The story is rushing onward to a conclusion. You are immersed in the lives and problems of the characters.
"Suddenly the actors disappear and on the screen flashes the word BULLETIN. You blink with reflex dismay at the abrupt wrench from your concentration. In the few seconds of silence that ensue, you regroup your mental forces and bring them to focus on the single word which, by now, is growing more ominous by the moment... Your heart beat quickens." We interrupt this programmer to bring you a special news bulletins from..."
Has it finally happened, you think? Is this really the voice of doom telling me that a larger drama--the atomic one-has reached its logical denouement?"
Now let me remind the reader that the above extract is from a contemplative column written in 1965.
That is forty years ago today. Which reminds me that today, when this column appears, it is the first day of the New Year 2005. Happy New Year? Honestly speaking, keeping in mind the tragedy that has struck the countries mentioned above, and epic proportions" of the "ratural tragedy" that has no parallel in recent times, there is a sorrow holding back that greeting.
With reference to the above extract, and particularly to the word Bulletin, in our times there is the expression called "breaking news". Almost all channels use this term, and truly speaking when this is flashed across TV screens with the signature tunes of each channel, many disturbing thoughts do come to mind. Anxious, and even shattering thoughts. Is that breaking news about home or abroad.? Like that, those questions.
I saw on CNN Jim Clancy and Zain Virgee on Sunday night, and someone used the expression of man colliding with nature, or vice versa.
And that this was perhaps the worst natural disaster in geological history. And the water hit at 500 miles and hour?
It is here that one would like to bring in the Views on News that I saw on ARYOne on Monday night when Dr Shahid Masood was particularly grim, even sombre, and contemplative, examing the tsunami tragedy in the context of the religious-philosophical question: whether there was a relationship between what is said in the Holy Quran and what had happened in the wake of the earth quake and the floods that followed.
Whether there was a message contained in symbolic terms, and whether the Almighty Allah had sent a warning this way. Needless to say that such catastrophes and other miseries that people encounter do indeed bring forth the question, and the realisation, that perhaps Allah is sending out his signs and signals to Man.
I am unsure whether there were any other channels doing this kind of interpretation. But there certainly was weight and thematic strength in it. Dr Shahid Masood is perhaps at his best when handling such grim themes. He began his programme with a detailed chat with Shaukat Ali Awan, chief meteorologist, Lahore, on the causes, consequences and other background details of what is behind something like the tsunami disaster.
I must express my appreciation of the manner in which the conversation was carried out to enable the common viewer to understand the geological details. Called the silent killer, it was caused by the colliding of tectonic plates beneath the sea, which created volcanic eruptions,. There were other details also, educative and scary both.
I am distracted here by a short powerful report that appeared in the International Herald Tribune during the week, and will quote some paragraphs.
It said that "eyewitnesses reported seeing the classic signs of a tsunami just before the disaster struck... The water receded abruptly, from land and then rose in a 10 metre wall, devastating coasts from Thailand to India, and Sri Lanka which seems to have suffered the worst damage.
The underlying story of this tragedy is the overpowering mechanics of the Earth's surface, the movement of plates that grind and shift, and slide against each other, with profound indifference to anything but the pressure that drives them.
Whenever those forces punctuate human history, they do so tragically. They demonstrate, geologically speaking, how ephemeral our presence is".
It is here now, that I wish to refer to the second part of Dr Shahid Masood's programme that night. In this he spoke in detail to that learned Islamic scholar based in Lahore, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi in which this disaster was viewed in the context of what the Holy Quran says about earthquakes and natural disasters.
Some of the points that were emphasised by the scholar were the result of the questions that were asked of him; and these included the purpose of life. According to Islam was not "justice" but "trial" (Imtehaan) And Javed Ahmed Ghamidi said that it was a time for "dua, and Istaghfar" and that man should be cautioned and made aware of the will of Allah.
Other questions that Shahid Masood asked included the one that wanted an explanation why the poor in particular were hit by such calamities and catastrophes. He also mentioned the good fortune that Pakistan was not part of the canvass of the monstor called tsunami. In passing, at the outset, he also depicted a picture of the Christmas celebrations that were being carried on in places like Thailand and so on. There was much in between the lines, as usual.
TV coverage on the tsunami theme also focused on the relief work that has begun; but the question that was underlying the story was whether the effort was enough, and when in the foreseeable future these affected places would be able to recover, even partially.
I have noticed that the women's morning transmission of the Indus TV network, which begins around 9am is an extremely absorbing one and has plenty of variety to hold onto the interest of the housewives ,in particular. Apparently the competition for this comes from ARY Digital which has a breakfast show compered by that very buoyant and somewhat over talkative Nadia Khan, who is perhaps based in Dubai these days.
The content of programming on the Indus Plus, for women stretches from women's health and home themes, to kitchen and art, and it makes one mention the women's pages of the newspapers; that is, when such special pages began. But the difference between the print and electronic media is so obvious. Print media takes second place.
I have been able to watch in part some of these Indus programmes and find them of interest, and so is the variety of women guests, each a specialist in her respective field.
I have been wanting to take notice of a news report that appeared following a meeting that was held in Karachi by the Media Women Publishers and Journalists Organisation. The subject of the meeting was "Women and Media: the South Asian Experience". Two delegates from Bangladesh ,one from Sri Lanka and local participants interacted on the above theme.
A report on the meeting that appeared in a National daily said "Regarding the electronic media ,the speakers said that in the past, the censor board, had been deciding what was fit for screening, but now, with many private TV channels, having been on the air, there was no check on the screening of indecent and unfit stuff The censor board's role in this regard had now been acquired by advertisers who, they said, dictated their terms to the channel operators.
"The speakers also suggested that the advertisers-advertising agencies, multinational and other major commercial firms, etc-should be approached and urged to review their policy of using women models like a commodity, or using them in ads without a valid justification.
"The speakers demanded that the radio and TV channels should allocate time for different programmes relating to women's issues. They also criticised the practice of portraying women as the weaker sections of society, and presenting them in negative roles, like cruel mother-in law etc.
I have read this particular report with interest and wonder why there was no mention of the positive side of women as is seen on television. More and more women are in the national mainstream, with and without the Hijab and the headscarf, and in numerous current affairs programmes they are heard speaking eloquently and candidly. And regularly. How does one explain this change? By ignoring it?
During the week, on the 23rd(?) December felt the fourth death anniversary of Melody Queen Noor Jehan and PTV and the other private channels all took notice of the occasion. It gave to Noor Jehan's fans, the grand opportunity to hear some of the sweetest songs that she sang, with that coquettish charm or that disarming innocence (of her younger years) that the TV channels telecast. Noor Jehan's younger years? She was young right till the end, and that is how she is remembered by the public mind.
In one such tribute there was also the unique sight of the legendary Dilip Kumar recalling his association with her, when they worked together for cinema.
I noticed that the popular Anoo Kapoor musical show Gaee Gae Duniyya Geet Merey has been shifted from Sunday to Friday evening, and I am sure it has lost viewers in the process.
And instead in that Sunday prime time slot there has come a highly publicised drama serial called 'Ana'. A glimpse of that episode that I saw in the channel surfing on Sunday I saw a belly dance an that episode. A daring, baring, belly dance, that surprised me, to say the least. It reflects the media changes that are coming, and the untying of the knots of censorship that are evident. Not just media changes, but those that reflect societal attitudes too?
Was that being baring done as per the dictates of advertising? Or was that part of the thematic thrusts that the drama script called for?
Or are we doing this to ensure that our TV drama competes with the challenge that is coming from Indian cinema that is all over the Indian channels that the cable operator provides us with here. Little wonder, that the cinema industry in this country is now demanding that we permit the screening of Indian cinema in Pakistan now.
And when public preferences are leaning this way then it wouldn't surprise one that cable operators are unable to accommodate the news and the views channels, and stick to popular entertainment options. Back to square one: more women focused upon?