Tuesday, January 02, 2007

And the Time Waster of the Year Award goes to…


Take your pick. Any of the media houses that have announced Indian of the Year Awards.
And that’s a shame.
Because there’s so much that they could have done, being powerful media entities.
To prove my point, I’ll do a poll that asks readers on this site who the Indian of the Year as decided by three major media houses one month from now, and results WILL prove little or no recall.
Yet, most respondents will remember the Time Person of the Year.
Because of the attention to detail, because of the importance they attach to the award, because the process is transparent.
Living in India as we do, it should be easy to figure out how to make people respect and believe in elections.

1.You need an impartial arbiter
2.You need a transparent process
3.The public needs to know when the elections are being held
4.The public needs to know who the candidates are
5.The public needs to know who is eligible to vote
6.The public needs to “see” the elections being held
7.The public needs to be informed who won


All the Indian of the Year awards fail on one or more of these fundamentals. Because the owners of the award, brashly, decide that the rules that they think of are the rules that matter.

And they institute awards that no one remembers.

Sad.

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