Articles by J B D'Souza

The response that greets every successive disaster is typical. As seen in its reaction to the floods of July 26 in Mumbai, the government sets up more 'bodies' and 'authorities' to deal with the crisis. But such structures, such as the disaster management authority for the city, are already in place. What is absent is efficient management, administrative will and the lack of officers with adequate experience.

in running the elections. At a seminar in Cambridge:
The Ballot

War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24/7 edited by Daya Kishan Thussu and Des Freedman; Vistaar Publications, New Delhi;
J B D'SOUZA This is a collection of essays by 25 contributors, a collection that tries to provide a framework for analysing the interplay between the media and its representations of war and conflict in an era of sophisticated information warfare and news management. The contributors are mostly journalists or teachers in the communications field, but there are also a couple of sociologists who have successfully concealed their thoughts from this unsophisticated reviewer at least in gobbledegook. Practically all the contributions were written before the US began its assault on Iraq. The contents give fascinating insights into how the conduct of war is presented and perceived.

The principal reason for administrative and police failure is the growing power that politicians, and ministers in particular, have assumed over civil and police officers directly and indirectly through encouragement and tolerance of inefficiency and misconduct, and by the means of punitive transfers of officials if they act against misbehaving politicians. If the horrific events of the recent past in Gujarat are to be prevented, a sense of the responsibilities under the law should be restored among officials of the state.

Development in India India: Human Development Report by Abusaleh Shariff, National Council of Applied Ecocomic Research and United Nations; Oxford University Press, pages 370,