Freedom of Expression & Choice

Written by

I had written a post about a couple seeking mercy killing for his 12 year-old terminally ill son, because parents don’t have enough money for the treatment. I get an encouraging response from Himanshu:
Hi, somehow I landed up on ur blog while searching in goggle.
I must say it looks so Proâ€¦
U have expressed ur thought and views very neatly in this blog..
I am linking u on my blog so that techie guyz can know watz is happening apart from SDLC in this world.
And thankz for the address, Iâ€™ll b making a contribution towards treatment of Vijay.

Himanshu, thank you so much for everything.

But I received these comments too.

==========================================

DesiPundit Â» Archives Â» Who is real needy? Says:
June 2nd, 2006 at 3:10 pm

[â€¦] Alka Dwivedi questions Amitabhâ€™s decision to donate money to the Balaji temple when they are other worthy causes (she mentions one) [hat tip: Mridula]. Personally, I have found such questions troubling because it infringes on the individualâ€™s right to handle his wealth. [â€¦]

confused Says:
June 2nd, 2006 at 8:39 pm

Alka,

Its not a question of who needs it more bu a question of whom Amitabh wants to give it to.

Sorry, I don’t think anyone has the right to question what do I do with my own

money.

====================================

Can any argument be presented in isolation? Can we lift any sentence from any country’s literature or constitution and apply it as such in entirely different environment? I think, even when multinationals come to India they mold their products and ads according to Indian circumstances and reality. When we use these words , freedom of expression, freedom of choice, sometimes we tend to go overboard. I was listening to a talk show where one person was advocating freedom to use drugs. When it was explained to him how drug addicts end up helping terrorism ultimately, that fellow was not listening. I remember a similar case where one was defending his right to smoke. But what about our right to have a clean environment? He has nothing to say to that.

When I was reading those comments and was very much tempted to figure out how to make a table in wordpress and give statistics about India and USA or any other progressive country.

What is their poverty line and what is ours? It is estimated that India’s progress lags behind 250 years

than that of USA. If each and every Indian have to attain theirs’ living standard and consumption level we have to wait (work hard for)250 years. We all know the infrastructure, medical support system, unemployment benefits, people living on welfare, old age benefits, Social Security, Life expectancy , infant mortality rate…in USA.

Then I stumbled upon this,

â€œHow â€œPoor are America’s Poor.â€? It states some interesting facts :

* 38 percent of the persons whom the Census Bureau identifies as "poor" own their own homes with a median value of $39,200.

* 62 percent of "poor" households own a car; 14 percent own two or more cars.

* Nearly half of all "poor" households have air-conditioning; 31 percent have microwave ovens.

* Nationwide, some 22,000 "poor" households have heated swimming pools or Jacuzzis.

In the light of such glaring contrasts, can we conveniently say things like â€œIts his money, he can spend it the way he wants.â€? Can we comfortably make statement like these commentators? Does we have a support system like USA? Therefore when we try to follow individualism like developed countries, it sounds odd.

What Amitabh’s PR was doing? That news was beamed all day and night long on NDTV. He might have earned a lifetime goodwill of that family, instead he had chosen to waste that HUGE amount of money to a jeweler. ( No wonder rich are becoming richer.) That too when Amitabh is admired and respected around the world by most of the Indians. THAT amount of money have changed the fortune of a villege. Generations could have been lifted to another living standard by that amount of money.

It might sound old fashioned but we have forgotten community feeling and a sense of responsibility towards less fortunates. I am not saying that we should give up all the fun and turn into philanthropists. But once in a while we can do something for our people. It necessarily shouldn’t be in the form of money. Even if Amitabh might have come out and asked people to donate money for Vijay, it would have been collected in days. Even Bill Gates is going to devote all his time to charity, and that to third world countries. Why should he be feeling responsible for third world countries while we are BUSY BEING MORE AMERICANS THAN AMERICANS THEMSELVES.

Comments

34 responses to “Freedom of Expression & Choice”

6/21/2006

Jo

Similarly, I have seen some celebrities ‘feeling patriotic’ to be presented in the finale of common-wealth games after being paid with thousands of rupees. Sonu Nigam, Saif Ali Khan etc said “I feel glad to represent my country”. It was just a glamour show and they were paid well and they feel “patriotic” when there are so many talented athlets in our country who have been forgotten easily by the country and people and struggling hard to earn their daily bread.

I am not against partying. Party hard, but meanwhile think about something that you can do. We don’t need to be millionaires to do a small contribution to an orphanage in our neighbourhood. Atleast we can sponsor their food for a day or something. We should think about the “other India” that exists. The fashionshows, IIFA (which is a very poor mimick of Oscars) that conducted in foreign countries, the bollywood brand etc cannot hide the real India. Time to get over the pseudo-patriotism and do some thing ‘real’ patriotic – that is to look into the ground facts and care about the ones in need.

PS: Your statistics about the poor in America is interesting! 🙂
6/21/2006

Manish

It is really a tricky situation.

It may be possible he may be doing enough philanthropy, but we might not be knowing.
6/21/2006

confused

Ah!

The worst thing is that I live in this country and know these statstics….just to give an example; the poverty level in US is 19000$ while India’s per capita income is around 550$. So the gap is huge.

But do I still stand by what I said? Hell yes.

The point is simple. We all pay taxes, beyond that you can expect something from Amitabh but you cannot demand it or criticize him for not doing something.

An individual’s freedom to spend his own money is absolute, and you cannot question it unless you want to open a pandora’s box. For example, I might demand that youw donate 50% of the money you earn to charity, the third person might set another level and such.

At its most basic level, you are attempting to decide for Amitabh what is right and wrong. Why do you think he should share your vision? Maybe he supports some other charity, maybe he does not. Its his choice and we must respect it if we want to live in a socity whre individual rights are respected. Would you like me to tell you what you should wear for office tomorrow? I can argue that since so many people in India do not have anything to wear, you should wear garment less or such. Similarly, you have no right to tell me what to do with MY money. If I want, I can and should be able to throw it in Bay of Bengal.

Finally, US is among the most charitable countries in the world so correct that notion that charity has something to with living in a poor nation.
6/21/2006

Sudipta Chatterjee

I had read about this one on Manish’s blog some time ago. And I have an opinion on this that is similar to confused’s, but something which I believe treads a different path.

The point is that we don’t have any right to dictate what Mr. Bachchan does with his money, true, but we do have the right to know what a role model for millions does with his booty: whether he decides to help some living beings sustain better or he decides to clad a bejewelled stone with yet another layer of gold.
6/21/2006

confused

Sudipta,

That is fine, though Amitabh can turn his back on you say..”Hey, don’t make a me a role model.”

So there! Th thing is that Amitabh thinks he will get more for his buck by a donation to God, which is preposterous idea…since when we have started hanging people who are no good with their money?

🙂
6/22/2006

Mridula

And here I thought, one also should have the freedom to question things that we come across in newspapers! Looks like only Amitabh has the freedom to do what he wants with his money, while we blog writers have no right to comment on a news item.

If Amitabh does not want his actions to be discussed, maybe he should keep it out of the nespapwers. News in the public domain will get talked about and I or Alka or for that matter anyone else, have every right to talk about it.

Of course Mr. Bachahan is free to spend his money but if it gets reported in the newspapers, I thought Alka too is free to bemoan the actions if she finds them disappointing.

I wonder if no one should praise Bill Gates decision to do charity work, as he is free to do whatever he wants to do with his time and money. Or is it OK to heap praise but not criticism when things are reported about public figures in the public domain?

It is a different thing if we demanded that he did Alka’s bidding or else face the consequences. She found the action disappointing, she wrote about it, so what is your problem Confused?
6/22/2006

Alka

Jo I agree with you. We don’t have to roll in money to help them.

Manish, I think whatever Big B does, it makes headlines. 🙂
6/22/2006

Alka

Confused I agree with you. That’s why when some girl is eve teased or a mentally retarded child is raped in moving train in full public view, people exercise their RIGHT TO SILENCE. Recent development is, one of my neighbours told me, her relative’s security guard was first beaten up by some goons then got murdered in front of her eyes. But that person had EXERCISED HER RIGHT WHEN NOT TO DIAL 100 ON HER CELL PHONE. Freedom to keep quite and when to use MY OWN cell phone JINDABAD.
You have not read my post, but that’s your right to not to read it carefully. The whole jist is developed countries do LOTS of charity work. That’s why due to community effort many problems are solved, but we are busy protecting individual rights.
6/22/2006

Alka

Sudipta, we will never understand what I am trying to say, unless our own near and dear ones will suffer from this “individual freedom” or in clear words “I, ME, MYSELF CULTURE.”
6/22/2006

Alka

Guddi, no amount of writing or arguments can convince these champions of freedom of choice and expression that these rights are not absolute. Or there is A CONCEPT OF RIGHT AND WRONG in this world.
6/23/2006

girl

Oh ya sure.. wot u say is rite and after reading this post, the anger that had subsided in me days after watching all that coverage on aaj tak… this post raged me again.. i mean.. its really stupid wots going on.. just take a second n think.. y dont these ppl do it?!
6/23/2006

Manish

No Alka, it doesn’t.

I know many a things Salman does, but it doesn’t come in newspapers. He donates chunks of money, he even regularly donates bone marrow(its painfull, I can vouch).

Similarly, Amitab has taken the responsibilty of one village in Maharashtra, one village in Gujarat. Not many know.

Philanthropy is like a secret ballot. Not many would know. Even if it is Amitabh.
6/23/2006

Barbarindian

Very touching. I offer to sell my car, liquidate my stock investments and 401K and send the proceeds to this family.

After you.
6/23/2006

Amrit

Barbarindian, why not set an example? Why do you want to follow someone? Sell all your possessions and show people like Amitabh Bachchan that how wealth should be utilized for the betterment of the society. Oh! You’re gonna be my hero. People, cheer this guy! He needs all the encouragement and applause!
6/24/2006

disha

i usually dont jump into frays of the sort, but your post induced me to respond. I agree that Amitabh could have better used his money, but I also agree that it was his money to use. Did anyone help him out when he was a bankrupt superstar, who practically sold himself and his wife (Why do you think he endorses anything and everything) to pay his debts off. Then his lack of money was his own problem. When you earn money the hard way, the right to use it is also yours.
And as for American infiltration, do you think that tehre were no poor in India before british came? Are you advocating each according to his need (Ala communism) then you had better be ready to give up your home and computer because someone else “needs” it more than you do!
6/24/2006

Alka

Girl, thank you for being so sensitive and responding. I hope you have saved the matter of your old blog.

Manish, that’s really unfortunate. I know about Salman, but I was totally unaware about Amitabh’s. Thanks for letting us know.

Barbarindian, I think, Amrit has shown you the way. 🙂
6/24/2006

Alka

Disha, agree. Amitabh has full right to use his money the way he wants. And, if the matter is made public, I can USE YOUR logic. I too have the RIGHT to voice my disappointment.
I was saying “freedom of choice” is western concept.If they use it, then its fine. They have created enough support system for thei citizens. But here in India we hide behind the garb of “freedom” to evade our social responsibility.

Ah! My computer. I have already given it to more “needy”. And now I am using someone else. 🙂 Giving up my house? First let me have one. :-)I can’t give up someone else house. 🙂

Since when having a community feeling is known as communism?
6/24/2006

disha

thanks for visiting my little spot on the web..
and replying to your reply to my comment..I agree we should not evade social responsibility, but again US always looks good from a distance.As for freedom of choice being a westren concept, you mean to say you refuse to exercise freedom of choice in anything? Such as who you will marry(assuming you are not married), what you wear and do not wear..those are concepts that are also governed by freedom of choice..do you realize that giving up that freedom of choice is also giving up the freedom of expression you enjoy now?

And this is just a logical argument, not an attempt to malign you or your blog in any way!
6/24/2006

Alka

All I am saying is freedom of choice is misused often in India and no FREEDOM exists in ISOLATION. Here a child is dying. And in the interview the child was saying he wants to go to school and back to his friends. No one is coming forward, except Himanshu ( I have posted how we can help Vijay and the address and to whom the cheque should be addressed.), to say that we should do something.No suggestions, no ideas. All I am getting is THIS and THAT lecture about freedom of choice. Doesn’t that child HAS the RIGHT TO LIVE?
6/25/2006

Writing Cave » Why we are the way we are

[…] There’s an interesting thread going on on Alka’s blog regarding freedom of spending your money the way you want it. And here’s a ranter who does nothing but rant. I noticed how sardonically some people reacted to her post, and some of the reactions basically illustrate why our society — as far as India is concerned — is the way it is. […]
6/25/2006

Raghuveer

Alka,

Chanced upon your site today.

On principle, you are right. A child is dying and it seems like such a ridiculous thing to donate tons of money to an abstraction. But by making this a black-and-white debate, you are ignoring several things (and not just the notion of personal freedom).

Where does one draw the line? Don’t you realize that this argument can be drawn out to the point where the only right thing is all of us eating just enough to survive and giving up everything else till all suffering is eliminated? What makes me question AB’s decision when I just had a Starbucks that I could have easily avoided and provided for a kid’s meal for a month in the third-world?

You do have a valid argument on our collective lack of priorities. Maybe you should have used the incidents as an example and said that had AB donated the money on God’s name to the needy, it would have made a better example. But by making it a kid (vs) God for AB’s money, the discussion is digressed and even trivialized.

Btw, thanks for posting the kid’s address. Will see what I can do.
6/25/2006

Barbarindian

Barbarindian, I think, Amrit has shown you the way.

Absolutely Ma’am. This is how socialists of our country are showing us the way for decades. They want us to give up our money for the poor.

Talking of which, how about your own jewellery? Surely you own more than you need. How about dresses? Do you have dresses Ma’am? Nice ones, expensive ones? How about your computer? Oh, I see, you need it for blogging! Now that’s gotta be important!

You see Ma’am, we have been weaned on a socialist diet for several generations. That is why we can not even understand these concepts. In fact when anyone points out these things, all we have is a blank stare for them. Meanwhile we want to forget that the very computer we are using to blog etc. is an invention of a country where individual freedom is paramount.

Charity makes good copy and wins nobel prizes but only goes so far.
6/25/2006

Alka

Barbarindian, sweety, whatever you are saying is right. Amitabh has every right to spend the money the way he wants. And when the matter is made public I too have every right to voice my opinion.Now enlighten me a little about that dying child’s RIGHTS? I have already told about my compueter. I have given it up to more needy sweety. I am using someone else. And please don’t let your imagination run lose about nice dresses, ornaments and that too expensive ones.
6/26/2006

Barbarindian

Amitabh has every right to spend the money the way he wants.

Case closed, isn’t it?

But not quite. You must attach your value judgement.

You have every right to voice your opinion as long as you don’t make it a dogma people must follow.

A dying child has no extra rights than any other very healthy citizen. It may make you feel good by writing about “a” dying child but hardly makes any difference to us. There are millions of children dying. What are you gonna do about it?

We prefer attacking the right problem, i.e. socialism which tends to mean revert towards communism.

Of course you are the only one whose imagination can run lose at other people’s closets and jewellery boxes while we are not allowed a peek into yours. What you don’t understand is that perhaps 200 million Indians if not more will unanimously agree that you are far better off than the poor little rich girl that you claim to be. Just because you are using someone else’s computer does not make yourself immune from your own value judgement.
6/26/2006

Alka

barbarindian, why don’t u call urself impotent indian? u r just a paper tiger. nothing constructive 2 offer. never have ur own children. u will fuck up thier mind like ur own. even chakkas have more courage than u.dharti ke bojh apane jaise aur mat paida karna.
6/26/2006

Alka

Barbarindian, thank you very much for your valuable input. And for your kind information, I am not peeking into anyones closet (here Amitabh’s). It is there for the whole world to listen and read.Its not my imagination running lose sweety that he is donating to god. Its you who is dictating and making it a dogma that people should follow.
6/26/2006

Alka

Anon, stop using abusive language. Next time I will delete your comment. And you have a very sick mind. You have used my name and URL to leave this comment. Your mail is bouncing. sO ITS FAKE. And you can be traced by IP address. So don’t try to be too smart.
6/26/2006

Alka

Raghuveer, I like the way you write. And when you write
=================
Where does one draw the line? Donâ€™t you realize that this argument can be drawn out to the point where the only right thing is all of us eating just enough to survive and giving up everything else till all suffering is eliminated? What makes me question ABâ€™s decision when I just had a Starbucks that I could have easily avoided and provided for a kidâ€™s meal for a month in the third-world?
=====================
See I have already written,
==================
I am not saying that we should give up all the fun and turn into philanthropists. But once in a while we can do something for our people.
===========================
But people only read what they want to read.
But a big THANK YOU FOR CONSIDERING to help the child. You are a gem.
6/26/2006

Raghuveer

Alka,

I did read your article in its entirety…the debate here is what that ‘something’ in ‘but once in a while we can do something for our people’ is.

For me that ‘something’ is a percentage of salary every month. For someone else working full-time in an NGO, it is their entire life/livelihood. But as confused says in his blog, what someone does personally shouldn’t matter to what we are discussing. In the present example, we do not even know if AB is aware of this child’s plight. And suppose he makes a gesture and saves the child, then it would no doubt stimulate other people to seek help from him and obviously he cannot save them all. So what is he to do? Who is he to make a judgement on which lives to save? See, now this debate takes on an entire new pitch.

Our real gripe should be on our public health services that cannot seem to provide for most of its citizens. It is the hardest thing in the world to debate ‘larger issues’ when a poor child is dying for want of money.

I admire and respect what you are trying to accomplish for the kid. But you are mixing up unrelated issues.
6/26/2006

Billions for Charity at Nerve Endings Firing Away

[…] But would such magnanimous gestures be seen if rich people were coerced â€“ emotionally or otherwise â€“ into donating their hard earned wealth. Probably not, they would instantly lose any interest in doing so and rather be not told what to do with their wealth. For every Bill Gates, there might be several wealthy businessmen who do not donate a single penny of their wealth and frankly, according to me they both are perfectly within their rights to do so. There is a certain section of the blogosphere that looks down upon Amitabh Bachchan for donating a shitload load of money to the Tirupathi temple. Personally, I would donate it to a worthy charity and not to an already-worthy place of worship but mind you, I havenâ€™t earned Amitabhâ€™s millions, he has. And he is perfectly within his rights to spend it as he wishes. […]
6/26/2006

Raghuveer

Alka,

Reading further on other blogs, I find it funny that we are even debating this. As I see it, there is no debate at all.

1) Without exeption, everyone is in agreement that money is better giving to worthy causes and not to God.

2) Everyone, including yourself, says AB is free to spend his money as he wishes.

What you did was ‘look down’ on AB for doing this and exceptions were raised. I think it is a personal preference on how we see AB for this gesture and there is no need to look for a closure on the view you took. Rest of the comments are digressions on personal preferences which we do not need.

End of story.

More importantly, in this case, if you can find the hospital the kid is in, maybe all of us can sign a petition or write/email the doctors to waive/reduce the fees for this kid? And if you can please find out the status of donations and e-mail me, I will try to pool in money from my friends. Since we have spent hours discussing banalities, we can justifiably spend more time raising money.
6/27/2006

Alka

Raghuveer, I will write you an e-mail. Sorry for replying late.
6/27/2006

Mridula

Raghuveer, Alka was not looking down on AB but expressing her disappointment as people here at BBC are ‘having their say’ about Bill Gates’ decision to do charity

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=2207&&&edition=2&ttl=20060627185230

People should go and tell the BBC not to let readres ‘have their say’ as it violates some kind of frigging rights of Bill Gates and he will stop doing philanthropy if opinions are voiced about his actions.
6/30/2006

Writing Cave » Some good came out of it

[…] Despite all the inane rhetoric one of her earlier posts generated it all culminated into something really fantastic, as more and more people are coming forward to help that kid. She talked to the kid’s father yesterday on phone, and he was really overwhelmed by the response. As I always say, and will keep on saying, the world goes on because if selected few people, the rest live off their efforts, tanding by the sideway, either cheering or jeering, or doing noting. Here’s what she’s posted on her blog: I had posted about a couple, writing to the Indian President seeking mercy killing for their son, Vijay Kumar. Their son has been diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia. […]