Does Craigslist promote prostitution?

That is the question being asked from Craig Newmark the founder of Craigslist. The spotlight fell on him following the alleged murder by a Boston University Medical student of a 25 year old masseuse who advertised on this website.

The website which as ABC news says "is the most visited site on the planet", has a section labeled as "Casual Encounters". It is clear from the word go that this is like the personals section of your daily newspaper except that no one is mincing words here. If they are looking for an unbidden sexual orgy, that is what they are asking for. There is frankly nothing new about this and no one is complaining about this- the hullabaloo is about the ads where money is being offered and sought for in exchange of these “casual encounters”. This, the police and the general community are saying is a clear promotion for prostitution. So is Craigslist really promoting prostitution by allowing these ads to continue?

Solicitation for sex using public media is nothing new. All of us know that the innocent escort services being offered in the newspapers are nothing more than a cover up for a prostitution racket. But where these ads differ from the listings on Craigslist is that they do technically abide by the law and do not mention money for sex. They are like the ads put out by makers of alcohol for music CDs, playing cards and golfing gear. Thinly veiled but compliant by the letter of the law. We may say that they do promote alcohol, after all everybody knows what the ads are for. But till the law extends to these ads, they are legal and valid. But in many of Craigslist’s ads there is no such disguise and the offer for money is clear. They meet the simplest definition of prostitution. “I will have sex with you and you pay me in return” or vice versa. The people there are making no effort to respect the law that governs public media. And we must not forget that Craigslist is public media.

But maybe that is where the problem lies. Those who use Craigslist do not quite think of it as “public media” like commercials on TV or ads in newspapers. It is an extension of a private community they are a part of. An alternative to the mainstream media. Therefore there maybe a tendency to say and do things that you would not do in public. But even if that were true- prostitution is illegal in many states in the US and of course in many countries around the world. So whether the solicitation is public or private it is illegal!

So it is clear that there are open ads for Prostitution on Craigslist and hence Craigslist is promoting or allowing prostitution to be promoted. The question now arises who is responsible for monitoring these and who should take responsibility for this? Craigslist is mostly a free of charge community. You can list your goods and services for free and can browse all sections for no charge and there are no irritating banner ads to make money from. But there are some services that you have to pay for. So it is a commercial organization and we know that there are people managing it. Tomorrow if Craigslist was to win an award or someone was to hijack the URL, Craig Newmark and some other people would have the legal right to take action in each case. So does it not make them “owners” as it were of the website and hence responsible for ensuring that illegal activities are not going on in this virtual world?

If they absolve themselves of this, it would be like Rupert Murdoch’s Star Corporation just absolving itself of any responsibility to prevent child pornography and sexual harassment on My Space. Most services there are free on My Space and yes they make money from ads but they also have a whole department dedicated to preventing such things as prostitution and child pornogrophy.

Craig Newmark says that he expects the community to weed out such menaces. It is a democratic set up, for the people, of the people by the people. But what he is forgetting is that even democracies have a police force and a set up for law enforcement. Human nature is selfish and people do not have the time to monitor what does not directly affect them. Yes it is possible to overlook a menace such as someone posting the same thing multiple times but what is illegal is illegal. When we put into motion something that can take on its own life and yet keep ownership of it, we must put in place a mechanism that takes care of such situations. So while I do not think Craig Newmark or Craigslist are deliberately allowing prostitution to occur, they are certainly not doing enough to prevent it. And maybe that is where the paradox lies- nothing can ever be completely "free" - monetarily or legally- because there will always be people to misuse it.

Why buy Satyam ?

It has been four months now since Ramalingam Raju brought down Satyam with his carefully worded letter. I would have given anything to be a fly on the wall in the room where he probably sat with his lawyers to decide which sin he was going to admit to and then put it down in a letter. Yes I do believe that he picked the lesser of the two evils- pretending that there was no money rather than admitting to having stolen money that was always there. But then I digress. Today I want to talk about the aftermath of the letter.

The government has appointed a Board, there have been several bids for the company, a back and forth with SEBI to decide what will be considered a fair date to determine a price for the open offer and amidst all of this thousands of the companies employees have left, taking some big clients with them. But is that so surprising? Do big companies expect employees to sit around like the orchestra of the Titanic as the ship sinks? They were certainly not consulted as the money was siphoned off to other projects.

And frankly in a services organization, the people and their knowledge is all that a company has. Unlike the SAPs and the Oracles and the Microsofts of the world there is no product that Satyam sells. It goes in with people to design custom solutions for clients. The solutions being ultimately owned by the client and the employee having gained knowledge in the bargain.

So that makes me think whether it is worth anyone’s money at any price to buy a Satyam? A company like that really has only two main assets- it’s brand equity and the intellectual power -house of its people. The first has been royally destroyed in a very public way and as for the second it is far easier to just hire people than to go out and buy a company, especially one that is straddled with several pending class-action lawsuits.

So I want to ask all the financial experts out there who are still working on valuations for this company- why are you letting more money get wasted? Just sell the hard physical assets of the company and let this thing pass into oblivion. Those people who have talent and experience will find the jobs if the projects they are working on are worth moving forward with. A bank, a defense company will hire them because they want the project done, Satyam or no Satyam.

So basically let us have the courage to admit that as much as as we would like to preserve Satyam as an icon of the great Indian IT revolution, this is a boat with one too many holes and whoever we sell it to will only be lugged with a loser.

This ain't no poetic license

I haven't seen the movie Gulaal yet and I am glad I haven't. If the mindless lyrics of the songs is any indication, the makers of the movie need a course in sensitivity. There is a song that is quite popular with the local DJ's. It is titled "Rana ji more". It uses a tpical Rajasthani flavor in terms of language and even the music style to spell out the agony of a woman whose lover is being unreasonable and furious.

Now most folk songs have a palyful tone and a lot gets said which would not otherwise be said in our uptight urbane settings. But my objection with the song is not that. It is this line that shocked me "jaise dur desh ke tower mein ghus jaaye aeroplane". A clear and obvious reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trace Centre. But more than just the lyrics what surprised me was the context in which this line is being used. The lover's unreasonable anger and his tantrums are compared to the mayhem caused by a plane smashing into a large tower. This is clearly an insult to the memory of all those innocent people who lost their lives in this mindless act of brutality and also shows complete lack of sensitivity to what that act means in our modern history.

For a nation that has people always ready to object to any small thing- I am outraged that all the RJ's who are playing this song are not boycotting it for it's insulting lyrics. We had a pink panty brigade for those who objected to women drinking in public but we will blare a song that celebrates an act of terrorism just to make our home bound commute a little easier!

The lyrics are written by none other than the celebrated theatre director, actor and lyricist Piyush Mishra who has given us beautiful songs such as "Aye ajnabi" in Dil se. Surely a person of his artistic back ground and achievement should have more sense than to perpetrate such a lack of sensitivity to his fellow beings.

Mr. Mishra I intend to find a way to reach out to you and make you realise that as someone who was there in the US when this happened and who lived through the after math of this- it can not be allowed to be belittled in the name of poetic license and political frankness.

Finding our due place under the Sun

It has been more than 6 months now that all hell broke loose. I am talking of course about the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the chain reaction that followed. The collapse of several more banks on Wall Street, crashing of the stock markets around the World and the complete loss of confidence in the financial systems of the World. It is safe to say that every newspaper worth its salt carries an article on the issue every day- in essence this stuff has received a lot of ink and rightly so. But how much ink has been devoted to the situation in India? I do see an occasional note on it on Yahoo financial news but no one has really taken the time to write about what we did right.

We are one of the few countries in the world that will actually grow this year. All of Europe, USA, Japan and Australia will actually have negative growth. There are plenty of examples of what India has done right. Jobs in PSU banks are growing- because they are the ones who played the game right. Advertising spending in India is going to go up as a result of the General Elections- and that did not happen in USA – where it actually fell despite the hotly contested Presidential election in 2008. And in India there is still a huge latent demand for affordable housing just waiting to be fulfilled once the liquidity issues are resolved.

A large part of the country’s population lives in the rural areas. Un-touched by the fancy synthetic derivatives that dug the graves of our so-called more “developed economic counterparts”, rural India is spending like never before. Yes the CPI is rising and yes Wheat prices in India are rising, but that is money that is being put back into the hands of a consumer that is learning how to spend- the Indian farmer. These are not free bonuses that are being handed out to failed executives at Multinational Insurance companies. This is money being given to hard working people so that they can keep the wheels of the economy turning.

Today’s Mint carries an article about the possibility of creating a new Global currency-something to replace the US Dollar. I think that is clearly reflective of the inevitable change that we will see in the next decade. Where the US, fueled by years of political isolation will not just be a financial leader by default. Where It’s companies will have to compete with Asia and win a fair war. Where purchases such as that of IBM’s laptop business by a Chinese company will no longer shock the world. Where the Indian Software industries’ cost advantages will no longer be viewed as “cheap” but as examples of operational efficiency.

For most US car manufacturers Asia (India and China primarily) are the only beacons of hope even if it means they have to adapt to local appetites and market demands. Destinations where they can still sell cars. India is one of the few countries with a large enough population under 35 to be an attractive destination to all major marketers in the World. Now only if we knew how to wear that badge proudly and also get just a little bit more of civic sense. But more on that later. For now I think we just need to fight for our rightful place under the Sun.

We must live a lie

I didn’t know actress Natasha Richardson. I could not even put a face to the name when I first read the news of her death. But still her death in a freak ski accident made me sad and for a few seconds left me speechless. It made me think- if she can die then who is safe? After all these Hollywood types lead a charmed life- don’t they? They have the best medical care, safest homes and as an actress who does mostly character roles she never really did any dangerous stunts. How could she die just skiing with her family? It was the same basket of emotions that had been stirred up by the death of Princess Diana, Heath Ledger and even Rajeev Gandhi.

These were people who filled our newspapers and television sets. These are the kind of people about who you make conversation over “Chai Tea”. They have ideas for the future, they win awards and fight for causes. So how can fate just whiz them suddenly, violently? If it can happen to them then what is to insulate the rest of us who lead just ordinary inconsequential lives?

But then death is the ultimate equalizer. She shows no partiality for the rich and the famous and as most religions around the world say- if your time is up, your time is up. You gotta go if it is time to go. How, when, where- no one can know that.

So what does that leave us mere mortals with? Are we born only to live each moment with the knowledge that as life progresses it is only to bring us one step closer to death? Maybe the answer is in the focus. We have the choice to live each day and each moment to the fullest. To not focus on the trivial things in life and just let by gones be by gones and live each day as if it is our last because all said and done it could be.

Somewhere deep down all of us know that truth about death. And yet, that is the one thing that none of us want to acknowledge. And there in lies the biggest paradox of human happiness. As human beings we must learn to ignore the biggest truth of our lives if we are to truly live the life that we have. Otherwise we will all have lived a life but just waiting for death.

Honoring those we love

Today’s post is unabashedly dedicated to the one hero in my life who I do not recognize enough. My husband. And I say this not because I love him to death but because through the years I have seen him to show the kind of moral courage that many of us do not have.

Sure he has all his guy things- will not remember to reply to e-mails and will not “learn to love my parents” like I love his, but what he has is far more precious than any of this. It is in the small and some of the big things he does in his life.

When we were getting engaged the one thing that absolutely won my grand-ma over this NRI was that he did not “drink or eat non-veg”. Not that she considered any of this an evil. But to her this symbolized the courage of someone to stand up to his convictions under what must have been tremendous amount of peer pressure.

Similarly at work I have always seen him stand up for stuff he really believes in. And this includes talking to bosses and colleagues openly about their attitudes or actions. And I know that this is the reason that people at work take to him quickly and give him their trust so easily.

But one incident will always stay in my mind as the one act of bravery which may be I let pass to easily. One night on our way to Hard Rock café in Parel for a dinner, we saw a guy in a cab being beaten up by a bunch of goons. And Manish decided to do what very few would do. He decided to go challenge all these guys alone. And I did what I should not have done. I screamed and cried and refused to let him go. I admit I was scared like I had never bee scared in my life. And fear makes us selfish. I did not want to lose him and be left alone. Why for a stranger, I asked him? And told him that I didn’t care if he thought that I had no guts. I just wanted my husband to be safe. I wanted my world to be unharmed. But Manish was neither selfish nor scared. He knew that he believed in standing up for someone who was helpless and he did so.

So today when there is a call for nominations for bravery awards by Godfrey Phillips company on TV, I would like to tell him in the most honest way that I can- that I will always be proud of his courage, his conviction and compassion for strangers. I don’t know if I will ever be brave enough to do what you did, and I don’t if I won’t panic, but then you must stand up to that pressure as well. Love you.

This "Mint" leaves a bad taste in your mouth

Whether you are writing a small column in a daily tabloid or you are the host of a much watched financial advise channel- as a journalist you have a responsibility to be unbiased and objective. I am not saying that everything printed or broadcast has to be so, but then it should be labeled as advertising, infomercial, non-editorial.

So when I see a newspaper like "Mint" blatantly use headlines to promote one political party over another, it makes me wonder if there is really any objective journalism left. The newspaper has been running a series of reports about the success and failures of the UPA government in the past five years. Of course this is a much needed exercises leading up to the General Elections next month. And when an article in this morning's edition stares back at me with the title "Verdict: the voter is worse of after 5 years"- I sit back and take notice. But a look between the lines reveals a story that is quite different. The very first piece of statistic says that 38% people feel that they are better off after 5 years of UPA rule, 18% feel they are worse off and 44% feel they are at the same level. What is more, even if we look at more pie-charts the highest number of people who feel they are worse off after 5 years is 20% in constituencies held by the Congress. But if you look at the UPA ruled states almost 50% of the people feel that they are better off. So why this incongruency between the content and the label on the package? So how, I ask, is the headline justifying the content?

I am not denying that with so much noise, a newspaper too must compete for the attention of its readers. But this kind of a headline is not clever it is just inaccurate and leaves the fleeting reader with a completely incorrect picture. It is designed to create a bias.

And what is more I am beginning to feel that this manipulation of statistics and headlines is not just tied to sensationalism and is not a one time thing. It has to do with the fact that the "Mint", in this race up to the elections, has picked the side it is on- the BJP. In the past one month alone the newspaper has extensively covered the BJP's online advertising campaign. But surprisingly enough, in all this coverage there is no comparison to what other political parties are doing or what the international trends on the same subject are. Something that would make these articles much more relevant. You can get a glimpse of their agenda to push the BJP in another article in today's paper. The online advertising story in today's campaign section, a piece about how the online media houses are growing, starts with a mention (yet again) about the BJP's online campaign.

My anger is the same as that of John Stewart of the "Daily Show". He is daring to point out that if Jim Cramer was recommending Bear Sterns stock just 7 weeks before the complete collapse of the bank, he can not be allowed to continue as a financial expert in the public space. He can continue to be so in his private sphere, but if he chooses to enjoy high ratings and all the adoration and wealth that comes as a result of his perceived expertise, he must also admit that he made a horrendous mistake and is not all as good as he made himself out to be.