Post Mortem of Mumbai Massacre

It was amazing how almost non-stop CNN covered the attacks in Mumbai. It wasn't too much of a surprise that BBC did. BBC also didn't ignore another important story unfolding in Thailand for a while now--the occupation of the airport by anti-government protesters who a few days later were joined by pro-government protesters in a sea of redcoats(pro) and black outfits (anti). On the radio front NPR did a fairly thorough job. Fox-TV did, too. Of course, the mighty ABC stuck with its scheduled special, the Obama interview with the diva Barbara Walters. My original plan was to watch this, but as a protest I didn't.

The American TV media were more focused on the American and other Western lives caught in the terrorism drama. They decidedly concluded that the terrorists exclusively targeted the Westerners. It was not very nice that they overlooked giving equal importance to the scores of Indians who had been killed. BBC gave due recognition to them. NPR interviewed the man on the street as well as celebrities like the navel-gazing, best selling author and columnist Shobha Dey.

The man on the street shared my view about the kind of biased coverage by the American TV media. He felt offended by this. Ultimately, it turned out the terrorists were not particularly looking for Westerners, most of whom actually survived and thank God for this. They were focused on high profile targets and ensuring the Western governments' and the Western media's attention by having enough Westerners in the mix, most of whom of course stay at these high-end hotels. Of the nearly 200 people killed, 19 were foreigners (six Americans and not sure how many other Westerners).

Sometimes it feels like some media outlets monger paranoia. This is even worse than peddling fear. Too focused on the ratings game, sometimes integrity gets sacrificed even if unintentionally. Their slant was ironic given the fact the attacks occurred on Indian soil and the carnage at the train station involved only Indian travelers. Foreigners after all are a rarity at train stations. I didn't monitor every single station, so I cant' really comment on the others.

All in all, it sounded like the Mumbai tragedy could have been avoided. There was enough advance warning communicated to the powers that be.

Though Pakistani government sanction might have been missing, in the past Pakistan had had no qualms about being a tacit partner in terrorist actvities against India. On TV, during an interview, President Zardari pleaded to the Indian Government not to "punish" Pakistan for the attacks. If the U.S. were in India's shoes, it would have, much as it discourages India from doing this. What comes out of the investigation and what action India takes would be interesting to watch. But the fundamentals need to be addressed. If terrorism is allowed to grow any further, untold miseries are in store for the world.

President-elect Obama seems like an awfully capable man, so one has to hope that under his leadership with cooperation from all the other players, the U.S. might would be able to eradicate terrorism once and for all. Tall order but certainly doable if the will is there.

The Pakistani High Commissioner to U.K. during an interview on November 26 claimed that the terrorists were dark-skinned so they must be south Indians and most likely Tamil Tigers. This was one of the most ludicrous claims of any kind I had heard.

This morning BBC did a full hour of post mortem analysis. P. Swami, a Security Analyst and Anand Mahindra MD, Mahindra and Mahindra made some very good points and of course P. Chidambaram is a lion and now he is the Home Minster. Hopefully, he'll do all the needful and terrorism will never take place again in India.

Ciao!
Ro.