The news of President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is refusing to die down.
So as one came across CNN anchor Richard Quest, one thought it prudent to know his and the American media’s insight into the jury’s unprecedented choice. After all “Quest Means Business”! However, Quest preferred to play safe, only narrating an instance.
“Once during an interview Sri Ravi Shankar told me it is only at the sunset that you come to know how well the day was spent. In that sense the Nobel’s committee’s decision to award the Peace prize to Obama seems premature because till date Obama has only promised. He has yet to deliver. But at the same time the Nobel committee’s decision has put him under unprecedented pressure. Every time he will take an action in Iraq, the media will say but President you have got the Nobel Peace Prize. Every time he will show aggression in Afghanistan, somebody would ask but President….”
Predicting recession
Talking about the American media’s inability to predict recession, Quest, who has been doing business reporting for two decades, admitted the media did fail to figure out the magnitude of the problem. But he refused to accept that when the going is good business reporting begins to speak the language of the corporates leaving the public in the lurch.
“A couple of analysts did predict it but nobody took them seriously because there were no apparent signs. Yes, we were a bit lazy. Now everybody is looking for a bubble everywhere.”
He said that India hadn’t suffered the impact so much because it didn’t open its banks as much as the U.S. and Germany.
“India is now in a position that when it says no to something, the world listens. However, to achieve a higher rate of growth Indian economy has to open up.” Quest felt as the domestic market would take time to grow, India had to export. “Infrastructure and poverty still remain issues for India. Every time I land in the country it is a night flight. And every time I see slums very near to the airport. Poor people, how do they sleep…the Boeing makes so much sound.”
However, Quest found Indian’ entrepreneurial zest akin to Americans. “I haven’t seen big hoardings of IPO scrips in the US the way I saw in Mumbai.”
In love with gulab jamuns, Quest also found the flavours of Indian spices appetising. But how did he make numbers appealing?
“Numbers tell the story in business reporting. But it depends on you what you do with them. You should not have a set agenda and try not to make it boring. I have used every possible analogy to explain the recession!”
