Austin Szabo

INDIA: Is Modi a Murderer?

Posted by Austin Szabo | May 30, 2014 | India |

AUSTIN SZABO WRITES – Has India elected a dangerous man? The media failed to answer this question. As Narendra Modi becomes leader of the world’s biggest democracy, his role in the killing of a thousand Muslims in 2002 remains murky. The 2002 Gujarat riots, a pogrom against Muslims, happened on Modi’s watch. His supporters claim he only failed to stop the riots, but a Human Rights Watch report claimed Modi’s government was involved in the massacre. If Modi was simply incompetent, and not responsible for the carnage, he did little to apologize for it. In an interview with The New York Times, Modi claimed his only regret was that he “didn’t manage the media well.” After that disastrous The New York Times interview, Modi learned his lesson in media management, handily winning the election with little mention of his past. Those who criticized Modi, like U. R. Ananthamurthy, a famous author, were threatened and told to go to Pakistan. “Modi is morally responsible for what happened,” Ananthamurthy said. “Such an able administrator and could not control the killings? Difficult to believe.” Aside from the massacre, the new Prime Minister has a lot to answer for. In a scathing New York Times Op-ed, Basharat Peer listed every instance of Modi’s exclusion of Muslims from Gujarat’s growth. Peer primarily lists Modi’s membership to the RSS, a Hindu nationalist organization, and the unlivable condition of Muslims in Gujarat as evidence of his...

PAKISTAN: Is ISI Behind Media Assault?

Posted by Austin Szabo | Apr 24, 2014 | Pakistan |

AUSTIN SZABO WRITES – For years, news anchor and journalist Hamid Mir has been fighting for the cause of a free press in Pakistan. Now he’s fighting for his own life. Still recovering from an unsolved assassination attempt April 19, Mir, undaunted, issued a statement accusing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of being behind the attack. Mir claims his long career of criticism against the ISI has made him a target of the intelligence agency, leading to the attempt on his life. Well-known in Pakistan for his TV show, Capital Talk, he has held the ISI responsible for the alleged cover-up of Osama bin Laden’s location and the disappearance of thousands of Pakistani Balochi (an ethnic minority). Mir’s accusation ignited a loud and public dispute between the media and the government. The state has tried to shift blame to the Taliban, but drew criticism after the Defense Ministry demanded that Geo, Pakistan’s largest news network and Mir’s employer, be shut down over a “vicious campaign” against the ISI. Despite the apparent attack on freedom of the press, some media outlets turned on Geo, questioning Mir’s character and motives. Mir’s accusation is just the latest story in Pakistan’s long history of anti-journalist attacks and censorship. Reporters Without Borders reports that seven journalists were killed in Pakistan last year, one of the highest rates in the world. Amnesty International is using the...

PAKISTAN: Taliban’s PR Blitz Divides and Conquers

Posted by Austin Szabo | Apr 10, 2014 | Pakistan |

AUSTIN SZABO WRITES – The Pakistani wing of the Taliban wants to do the seemingly impossible: Win public sympathy through improved PR. Surprisingly, it’s working. Since the election of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last year, the Taliban has retooled its communications ops to project the image of an embattled and misunderstood political party. Despite its own long history of killing civilians, the group recently condemned a deadly attack on an Islamic center, claiming those responsible were tying to “tarnish the image of the mujahedeen.” By distancing itself from such attacks, the Taliban (under a local front known as the TTP) has encouraged rumors of a splinter group. That lets it keep killing “American stooges” with a degree of plausible deniability. Why does a terrorist network suddenly care about its image? The shift is part of a plan to win the hearts and minds of Pakistanis, and extract concessions from the government as peace talks continue. Yes, such attacks diminish government confidence in the group. “Whatever little trust there was between the two parties, that trust has completely fizzled away,” the Pakistani defense minister said. But the PR campaign has successfully distracted the media and altered public discourse, even as the violence continues. And while talks continue, the Taliban has slowly retaken land, improved their own image, and inspired fear in those who might oppose them. A sign of their...

INDIA: Elections Could be the Costliest Ever

Posted by Austin Szabo | Mar 13, 2014 | India |

AUSTIN SZABO WRITES – The world’s largest democracy may finally be set to host the world’s most expensive elections. In the months leading to India’s April-May congressional election, the competing Congress and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party, or the People’s Party) will spend upwards of $5 billion on TV, print, radio, and internet advertisements aimed at the estimated 814 million eligible voters. More than triple the expenditure of the 2009 election, the total will grow until the last stage of the election in May. This unprecedented spending fest and series of high profile events will approach or even surpass the $7 billion spent in the United States during the 2012 election, which currently holds the record. The 2014 election will be costly enough to briefly boost India’s economy, according to the Times of India. But it won’t last long. India is creaking under the weight of corrupt, bureaucratic institutions and the sheer size of its population. In an election focused on poverty and corruption, issues that spawned the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man Party), it is ironic but fitting for it to be the most excessively funded in Indian history. While many see this rise in spending as appropriate to reach India’s massive population, the causes for this surge in spending are more American in character. The first is an extended election season. While it’s typical for Americans to discuss elections years...

POVERTY PROJECT: Measuring Inequality, How Asia Stacks Up

Posted by Austin Szabo | Feb 20, 2014 | Australia, China, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam |

AUSTIN SZABO WRITES: When you want to know the economics of a country, you usually look at its gross domestic product — the amount of wealth it produced over the course of a year. But GDP tells only part of the story; it leaves out how the wealth is distributed. Income inequality has become a focus of social movements like Occupy Wall Street and even of the first Jesuit Pope, Francis. And a new statistical index helps wealth watchers quantify it. The so-called Gini coefficient looks at how bunched up a nation’s fortunes are. The more egalitarian, the lower the coefficient between rich and poor. The index ranges between zero and 1, with a zero representing perfectly equal wealth distribution. While countries like China and the United States usually come out on top in GDP terms, on the Gini their performance is less impressive (0.421 and 0.408 respectively, making them 108th and 96th in the world.) Better results can be found in Thailand, Laos, and India, where average Gini is 0.367. Measuring the Gini of countries written about on this site gives us a surprising new ranking of which societies are best at distributing wealth. For example, Singapore, a country frequently cited as an example of economic miracle, is ranked lower than nearly all the other countries on Asia Media at a shocking 0.425. At the top of the...

Author: Austin Szabo

INDIA: Is Modi a Murderer?

PAKISTAN: Is ISI Behind Media Assault?

PAKISTAN: Taliban’s PR Blitz Divides and Conquers

INDIA: Elections Could be the Costliest Ever

POVERTY PROJECT: Measuring Inequality, How Asia Stacks Up

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