Poverty in Bollywood cinema

For all the commotion that Slumdog is causing in India, including allegations of “poverty porn”, we should recognize that poverty, and its associated ills, have rarely been depicted by bollywood cinema, new or old. The great masters of the “old” Bollywood such as Bimal Roy and Guru Dutt were not really mainstream popular cinema. They were [...]

Slumdog Millionaire and Indian Cinema

I was struck by Chris Morris’ piece last Saturday on the Today news programme, discussing its international background. In the piece, Morris asks why could this not be made by an Indian team: namely the directory, screen writer nor the financing were from India.
And therein lies the real question. The Hindi [...]

Disabled Snap Preview

Blog administration: disabled the snap preview, Lorelle has a description of how to do it here.
I find the snap previews distracting and agree with her on the reasons why people don’t like it:

1. It pops up a thumbnail without warning as their mouse moves over the link, even accidentally, startling the reader and covering [...]

Official numbers of this week

Here are some numbers out this week in the media.
$1.2 trillion - Deficit forecast for 2009
693,000 – Job losses in December 2008
$166 billion  - Loss in tax revenue in 2009
Percentages (smaller numbers)
2.2% – contraction of the economy in 2009
8.3% – Deficit as a percentage of GDP
9% – Unemployment by the end of 2009
Graphjam sums it [...]

Inebbed?

So here I am, in Fhronss (as the Fhrensch call it), sitting at a computer, one hour away from Paris, in a home that defies description. Is it a country home, a manoir, an estate perhaps? A mansion?

Anyhow, it is the place to drink copious amounts of Vouvray, Bordeaux and Gronh Cru (as the Fhrensch [...]