Tag Archive for 'Michael Jackson'
In The Hoot, Nupur Basu on the satellite revolution and an unlikely visitor to Manikganj, near Bangladeshi capital Dhaka
In the year 2000 I was directing a documentary on the impact of satellite television in South Asia. The skies had opened up with the ‘dish’ technology over this region and, in turn, it had opened the floodgates for a new cultural universe.
Travelling across the region from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Peshawar where Islamic groups had given a call to ban satellite television to the hills of Nepal where the government was fighting hard to have it’s own Nepalese channel so that Nepali children did not say that Rajiv Gandhi was their prime minister – the stories and reactions we were filming were truly revealing.
New age guru — and MJ’s health guru — Deepak Chopra tells The Daily Beast’s Gerald Posner about his own medical dealings with the troubled singer and how a simple emergency room drug could have saved his life.
“I will not be doing any more interviews,” Deepak Chopra, the famed mind, body, wellness guru and 21-year friend of Michael Jackson, told me. “No more TV, no more print. If someone calls, I can tell them I spoke to you in depth. I just want to mourn now for my lost friend.”
Chopra will talk to the media at some point, of course, but right now he says he is emotionally and physically exhausted. In a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Beast, Chopra, a board-certified internist and endocrinologist who also formerly worked as an emergency-room doctor in Massachusetts, made several points to try to clarify the circumstances surrounding the pop star’s death. Among them:
• Based on his understanding of Jackson’s final hours, a common and well-known overdose antagonist, naloxone (narcan), could have saved him.
• When Chopra learned that Dr. Conrad Murray had been Jackson’s full-time concert physician and had stayed overnight, he wondered why the star wasn’t still alive.
• Chopra made his own efforts to force an intervention a year ago over Jackson’s drug use, with the Jackson family’s knowledge and approval.
• Stars get these drugs using fake names, multiple prescriptions, and complicit pharmacists.
The Sindh Assembly observed a minute’s silence to mourn the death of Michael Jackson. The News, Pakistan, has the report.
Below, the video of a thief who would be MJ comes via All Things Pakistan:
And from Pak Tea House: Michael Jackson’s death led many of Pakistan’s local television channels Friday morning, knocking the near constant coverage of the military campaign against Taliban militants off the top of the news lineup, if only for a few hours. At Illusions CD shop in downtown Islamabad, employee Irfan says, even today, years after the height of Jackson’s career, people still come to buy his music.
Irena Akbar in the Indian Express:
Michael Jackson was the Barack Obama of pop music. Or perhaps it should be put the other way round, since Michael came long before Obama did on the public scene. On Thursday, as the king of pop passed away, here’s what makes Obama and Michael so similar in more ways than just the fact that they are the world’s most recognisable Black faces.
Like Obama, Michael, an African-American youngster, had White audiences under his spell. His 1982 album Thriller, with 50 million copies sold worldwide, is history’s best-selling album ever. His concerts had Whites attempting to “moon-walk” like him. MTV, which was criticised for playing videos by only white performers, started regularly airing the title video of Thriller.
Soon enough, Michael had cast his magical spell all over the world, just like Obama’s victory was celebrated from New York to New Delhi. As an Indian child growing up in conservative Saudi Arabia in the 1980s -- I still remember Michael’s legendary numbers like Billy Jean and Beat It beaming out of racing sedans on the streets of Jeddah. Blasphemous it may sound, such was my craze for Jackson -as was that of any other kid in the 1980s -- I would play the number in our car when we would drive back to Jeddah after our pilgrimage in Mecca. Not to forget, we would play a videogame whose theme was based on his song, Smooth Criminal. And oh yes, who can forget the Bad poster that adorned many a wall of my friends there. More:
Below, another tribute:
And in Outlook, AR Rahman on Michael Jackson:
I met him personally after the Oscars in Los Angeles and we vibed very well. He said that he loved India and the Indian people. He said he heard good things about me and he was praising the chord progression of Jai Ho’s chorus.
He was bursting with energy and told me that every dance move he did, came from his soul and did a five second stunning example. It was like a lightning strike 
He was concerned about developmental issues such as Global Warming and about wars and its damages to the human community.
He asked me to compose a unity anthem on the likes of “We are the World ” for him. I nodded in awe …! More:
