Have you discovered The Fairly Current Show yet?This is a great new venture by Fahmi Fadzil and Mark Teh (both well know theatre practioners and much more), a new weekly Internet TV programme which features interviews with well known Malaysian personalities though not the kind of celebs talking about the usual kinds of things that you would get on terrestrial TV :
The show is part of PopTeeVee, a new media network initiated by Hardesh Singh (composer, producer, music entrepreneur & all-round good fler) and friends. In the very near future, PopTeeVee will also feature other channels, including a local music channel (The Wknd Sessions) and a youth/student-generated campus news channel.You can watch and download all episodes here, and if you subscribe to the group on Facebook you will know when next episode is up.
The latest episode features award-winning journalist Jacqueline Ann Surin*, author of Shape of a Pocket, talking about press freedom and those "spiked" columns.
Previous episodes have featured Ng Sek San (our friend who kindly lets us use his gallery for our readings) talking about the cutting of trees in his part of Bangsar, Adrian Yap of KLue/Junk, on Urbanscapes, the 'user-generated', day-long creative arts fest which happened last Saturday, and Shanon Shah, musician and activist, talking about his first play Air Con (which, hurray, I'm going to see tonight!).
Watch for the PopTV sign behind the speakers in these episodes. Hilarious!
*(I decided not to embed the link on the page because the recording starts automatically ...)
3 comments:
It's funny that we're here talking about press freedom and "spiked" columns, and elsewhere people are starving to death.
I've just spent a good productive weekend in a place where the toilet was a hole in the floor, and the room faced a back alley covered in trash. The people there would struggle to come up with money to feed their addiction (of which I was in charge of) even if it meant that they didn't have enough to eat. There's nothing more disheartening that seeing someone empty his pockets, looking for the elusive coin that meant he didn't have to forego his addiction for one day.
yes, it's all relative,isn't it? i remember shakeel posting a photo on his blog of some poor guy who had lost everything in floods in bangladesh and then asking why were we so concerned about things to do with books and publishing when there are far worse things to worry about.
but you have to argue from where you are standing a particular point in time. here it is so necessary to keep fighting for freedom of speech. if that's ever achieved, there will probably be the next thing along to fight for.
sounds like you are doing good work ...
Of course I'm biased, but I don't think "there are far worse things to worry about" than books. I think those who've lost everything in natural or man-made disasters can be forgiven for thinking that, but *we* can't be excused for thinking that. Freedom of speech and imperialism of all kinds -- economic, cultural, ideological -- are not two separate issues. Surely any educated person who sits down to think about it can see the many connections between the freedom of speech and the global class struggle. Freedom of speech is not a luxury we should save for a time when people are no longer starving to death; it is the very means by which we hope to move -- albeit slowly and painfully -- towards a world in which fewer people will starve to death.
-- Preeta
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