Building malls.
You have to wonder what we have learned in the last 60 years. The BMC is reportedly planning to “construct ‘municipal malls’ at various spots in the city,” where “prices of commodities would be regulated ... so that they could ‘cater to the masses’.” Mumbai Mirror rightly lashes out:
All this focus on a ‘business enterprise’ comes at a time when hundreds of roads across the city are still dug up, a large part of the Mithi river is yet to be cleaned up though the monsoon is already here, the city’s massive parking problems need urgent solutions, the Jijamata Udyan needs a thorough clean-up, octroi evasion is depriving the BMC of crores of rupees, the question of adequate and 24/7 water supply is still to be resolved, most BMC schools are on the verge of closure, and Mumbaikars on the whole want the city’s crumbling civic services to be improved.
The populist rhetoric accompanying the proposal is startlingly naive. These malls, a ‘civic official’ is quoted as saying, will “accommodate small shops that have been forced to shut because of big malls and also the BMC’s development projects.” The BMC should ask itself a few basic questions: If some small shops have shut down because of big malls, why is that so? When they don’t regulate prices outside those malls (with good reason!), how will regulating them inside the malls help? If those shops could function at a price lower than the market, wouldn’t they have destroyed the big malls, instead of the other way around? Isn’t the whole point of a market to satisfy the needs of the consumer, and is there any point accommodating stores inside government malls that the consumers have rejected outside them?
My prediction: If any such malls come up, they will become vehicles of enrichment for rent-seeking officials. Space within the malls will be allocated to merchants at the discretion of municipal officials, and corruption will be rampant. These malls will not turn a profit. You and I, again, will end up as shmucks. And the roads will still have potholes.
(Where your taxes go: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Also see: 1, 2, 3.
My essays on taxes and government: Your maid funds Unani, A beast called government.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 June, 2007 in
Economics |
India |
Old memes |
Taxes |
Politics
I’m sticking my neck out: the two guys named in the headline of this post will reach the final three of this year’s Indian Idol. The third will either be Emon Chatterjee—good singer but a bit kiddish—or Parleen Singh Gill, who I see as a dark horse. There will be no girls in the final three, as much because of the bias against girls in the last two seasons that I spoke about here, as because none of the girls this time seem to be a complete package. All the boys I named are likable, and sing well, and that’s the ticket.
However, they have the lottery of the next two rounds to get through first. Last night, three out of 12 girls were eliminated, and this evening three boys will get a ticket home. I think there’s a fair bit of luck involved at this stage, as the supporters of a good singer might feel complacent, and criticism of a bad singer might just propel that person’s supporters to vote furiously. I’m assuming that’s why the excellent Aisha Sayed got eliminated, and the much-criticised and mediocre Vartika Shukla stayed in the contest. If Indian Idol had the voting mechanism of Bigg Boss, and viewers had to vote to throw people out instead of to keep them in, the results would be different.
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Posted by Amit Varma on 06 June, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment |
Indian Idol
I wrote yesterday about how bad the 2012 Olympics logo was, even if it did resemble Lisa Simpson giving head. Well, now BBC reveals:
A segment of animated footage promoting the 2012 Olympic Games has been removed from the organisers’ website after fears it could trigger epileptic fits. [...]
Charity Epilepsy Action said it had received calls from people who had suffered fits after seeing it.
Organiser London 2012 said it will re-edit the film. [...]
Emphasising that it was not the logo itself which was the focus of worries, [a spokesperson] said: “This concerns a short piece of animation which we used as part of the logo launch event and not the actual logo.”
Ya, right! There’s a horror film in this somewhere. Perhaps this is the return of the antichrist, only not in human form, for how banal would that be? Humans can be eliminated, but once such a logo is unleashed upon the unsuspecting world…
(Link via email from Prabhu.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 June, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment |
Sport
On Reuters I come across this headline: “Radio station fined for bra removal contest.”
Radio station?
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 June, 2007 in
Miscellaneous
Public letters are most illuminating, and two recently released in Britain concern the use of images of Princess Diana’s accident in a Channel 4 documentary. Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the private secretary of Princes William and Harry, wrote a letter to Channel 4 asking them to “appreciate fully that publishing such material causes great hurt to us, our father, our mother’s family and all those who so loved and respected her.”
Kevin Lygo, Channel 4’s director of television and content, replied saying that “in the context of a measured and responsible history programme, these photographs provide, for the first time, an accurate and detailed eyewitness record of an event of international importance that for ten years has been obscured by conspiracy theories, claims and counter-claims.”
My position: While the media may have the right to publish photographs of events that take place in the public space, publishing pictures of someone’s mutilated body would be tasteless and insensitive. However, Lygo clarified in his letter that Princess Diana wasn’t visible in any of the pictures that Channel 4 was showing, and I think it is silly, then, to object muchly. This is especially in the light of the conspiracy theories surrounding the accident—most famously by Mohamed al-Fayed—and if the documentary serves to inquire into the truth, then it is worthy journalism.
Meanwhile, here’s an excellent recreation by the Guardian of the hours leading up to the accident, and here’s an interview of Trevor Rees-Jones, the only survivor of the crash.
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 June, 2007 in
Media
Haven’t we heard this before? Geeta Basra, while being interviewed about her film called The Tram or The Autorickshaw or something like that, says that she is “not comfortable at all” with kissing on screen. However, it “all depends on the way the scene has been shot,” and her film “has a strong storyline compared to these smaller elements.”
In case you’re wondering if there’s any kissing in the film, well, her co-star is Emraan Hashmi. So whaddya expect?
And in case you’re wondering who Geeta Basra is, well, I’ve been equally curious the last few days, as her pictures come on the party pages of the newspapers I get most regularly, and she does possess some prettiness. Now we know.
PS: That’s not all. Basra redefines Bollywood by saying that her film, The Minivan “has a complex story with many things in it. It’s pure commercial cinema.”
And elsewhere she explains, “Just because I exposed a lot does not mean I don’t have talent.”
Of course it doesn’t. Quite the opposite.
(Rediff link via email from Prabhu.)
Update: Hmmm.
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 June, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment
Oddly, I find this lovely photo-essay more moving than appetizing. And it’s not because of the food.
(Link via email from Gautam John.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 June, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment |
Personal
Sigh. Isn’t the logo above, unveiled recently for the 2012 Olympics, in a class of its own for badness? Have the gentlemen who selected this design never heard of the virtues of simplicity? How they must all hate the Swoosh.
And can you believe they paid £400,000 for this? (That’s about Rs 3.2 crore.) Pestilential parakeets plunder.
(Link via email from Aspi Havewala, who also points me to a discussion on BBC here.)
Update: Anon Tipster points me to Tim Worstall’s revelation that the logo shows Lisa Simpson giving a blow job. The two gifs below, created by Theo Spark, illustrate that and go a bit further.
Now I like it!
Update 2: Scribbler points me to Andrew Orlowski’s post on how the BBC, showcasing user-generated logos, ran a parody of the infamous Goatse on their website. Heh.
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 June, 2007 in
Miscellaneous |
Sport |
WTF
This is an important issue, and I hope this clears up the matter.
(Link via email from Gaspode. Previous posts on Eldritch horror: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 June, 2007 in
Miscellaneous
If I’d waited for the piano rounds of this season’s Indian Idol to start, I might never had written this Rave Out. As I mentioned here, there are just too many kids in there. Twelve girls took part in yesterday’s round, and a third of them made me feel that I was watching some children’s singing competition. Most disconcerting.
A few quick thoughts:
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Posted by Amit Varma on 05 June, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment |
Indian Idol
