Did you know that there is something called the Special Olymics? Maybe you do. Even if you did, did you know that it was held this year, in Shanghai? Even fewer people might know. Now, did you know that the Indian contingent won a whopping 150 medals - 36 gold, 44 sliver and 70 bronze!! I seriously doubt you knew.
This is amazing. As per the definition of the Special Olympics, these are people with 'intellectual disabilities'. And they go out to Shanghai to compete in Olympics and win more medals in one year than our best athletes (normal people) win in ages. I digged a bit more and found that India's all time haul of Olympic medals is a grand 17. Yes - 17 medals in 107 years. Isn't that a stunning difference?
Still I dont see any mention of this in the major news channels. Major newspapers reported this in a small column in a corner of the sports page. (I obviously didn't see all papers, so don't blame me if it did appear in one!!). Why? Because WE are not bothered. And they will show us what WE want. They are here to make their money, isn't it? The Times of India had a page-full of coverage on the India-Australia cricket series. I am a cricket fan, & a pretty crazy one at that. Still this somehow hit me. This story deserved to be on the front page.
This is part of a bigger problem. Media today is more and more concentrating on stuff which everyone WANTS to see, instead of what everyone SHOULD be seeing. The same happens to other sports when compared to cricket. The same happens to important political and social happenings compared to dumb stories about personal lives of politicos and movie stars. The same happens to soldiers dying in conflict as compared to some wacko going on a hunger strike for an illogical demand. Imagine, even 'Indian Idol' results are in the news!! This is outright stupid!
Everytime I see this I feel something is wrong. But the Special Olympics was a big one. I dont know why it went un-noticed. Kudos to the athletes who achieved magnificent success in Shanghai. Hope they and their kind continue to excel in whatever they do. Because they deserve it ...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
A good topic and very well written. And I absolutely agree with the fact that media today is showing us what we want to see (or perhaps, their perception of what we want to see) than what we should. This is an irony considering the fact that our leaders who led the freedom struggle against the British, published newspapers in an attempt to unite the people of India and make them aware of the injustice taking place around them. Not a trace of the original ideal seems to have rubbed off to most of the media in existence today.
Anyway, this is one blog entry I'm going to forward to my friends. Thanks!
Post a Comment