Date:11/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/11/stories/2008111151170200.htm

Kerala

The world as Hart sees it

‘Let us face it, there is racism in today’s world.’

Alan Hart

Alan Hart , former BBC television presenter, writer and expert on West Asia, speaks to P.K. Ajith Kumar about the broadcaster, the West Asian situation and Barack Obama’s election.

Of late, concerns have been expressed about the future of the BBC as the world’s leading broadcaster. Alan Hart, who presented ‘Panorama,’ the world’s longest running current affairs on television for seven years on the BBC, says those concerns are not misplaced.

“The BBC depends on its existence on funding from the British government, which often threatens a cut in the licence fee, and the BBC, as we saw in the Andrew Gilligan affair, has had to work under pressure,” Mr. Hart said during a recent visit to Kozhikode. “The BBC also has always had to deal with the bureaucracy as well. I feel there has been a decline in the quality of the BBC’s television programmes, but the BBC World Service radio is continuing its fine show. Whichever part of the world I am in, I wake up and go to bed listening to the BBC World Service.”

Before the arrival of satellite television, India too depended mainly on the BBC World Service radio to catch up with international news. “The world over, radio is making a strong comeback, as people are fed up with television, which gives you little or no background of a news story,” he says. “Unfortunately, television news has become just entertainment. It wasn’t, in the days when I worked for ITN (Independent Television News) and then the BBC.”

Reporting the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbours (Egypt, Jordan and Syria) and the Bangladesh Liberation War (1971) is among his most memorable experiences working in television. “There have been a few unforgettable interviews too, like the ones with Golda Meir, ‘the mother of Israel,’ and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia,” recalls the author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews and Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker?.

Talking about the West Asian conflict, which he has been studying for a few decades, Mr. Hart says a solution still looks some way off. “There are some hopes with the change of guard at the White House. But there are far too many expectations from Barack Obama; he would struggle to fulfil them. If he does manage to do something about the Middle East, he would be endearing himself to the 80 per cent of the world’s population. The Middle East remains the biggest problem of the world and if some kind of a solution is found, we would see the end of much of the terror attacks around the world.”

He says the election of Mr. Obama means America has changed somewhat. “Nobody would have expected so many Whites to vote for Obama. Let us face it, there is racism in today’s world; I have seen it in the United States and I see it in the U.K. So, to have Obama as the U.S. president is a positive change.”

He feels India is making a mistake by forgetting its poor and focussing just on a flourishing middle class. “I admire India for many qualities, especially in the advancements it has made in technology, but it shouldn’t forget the fact the majority of its people is underprivileged.”