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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-06
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPZw3ebk8oI
how many of you are Bob Dylan fans while like you I'm a fan and in nineteen ninety seven someone asked me a question about Dylan that changed my professional life I had been at MTV for over a year but had not been able to penetrate the assertive culture of the place I just arrived in New York City and I was still shy and reticent several executives
were sitting in a conference room on the twentieth floor discussing a show about rock and roll movies now usually I didn't say much in meetings but I couldn't contain my passion when the subject of Dylan films came up my suggestion for a film was met stone cold silence after what seemed like a painful eternity someone finally asked no threat how would you know anything about Bob
Dylan this time it was my turn to be stunned I went to an exclusive British school in India and I grew up on a steady diet of western culture I listen to everything from let it go hand to Bruce but Bob Dylan and David Bowie with the twin gods of my adolescence I was obsessed with everything about them so the question how would I know anything
about Bob Dylan sounded really strange but in that moment I realized the reason for my lack of traction at MTV people have assumed an image of me because I was from India a land of snake charmers and elephants and extreme poverty and they didn't think I could know anything about Bob Dylan or American pop music in fact I realized that most Americans didn't know much about
the world itself and indeed well be beamed MTV programming in two hundred and fifty countries there was no global pop music on the channel in the U. S. A. this insight informed the rest of my career at MTV and is responsible for whatever impact my work has had since we live in troubled times the world is riddled with parity hatred never have they been so polarized
but ideological differences or bombarded so much noise he always in this swirling echo chamber allegations and outrage fake news and misinformation it's hard to parse the truth from lies it's easy to be misled to be angry instead of empathetic and to hate the state of love but I believe that many of our conflicts could be reduced if we looked for the true and if we give
voice to the absence let me give you two examples of recent issues that are causing so much debate and anxiety in our world first the Syrian refugee crisis these are some of the falsehoods associated with one of the biggest humanitarian tragedies of our time in public discourse political rhetoric and media debate there is one voice that is conspicuously absent the voice of refugees themselves most of
us form our opinions about refugees without having met a single one of them or listening to what they have to say we would be surprised if we looked at the situation from their perspective and if we give them voice stirred by the enormity of this tragedy I decided to hear directly from the Syrian refugees and last year I flew to Lebanon to volunteer at the sink
Syrian refugee camp and what I discovered completely changed my impression of these unfortunate all that these kids men and women want to do is to survive the day most of them dream of returning home to Syria most of them view America and the west as saviors who can alleviate the horrors that they have lived through and yet we never hear their voices while deciding their fate
the second example I'd like to give you is the image that has been created of Muslims post nine eleven especially treatment of women in Islam now as a media executive based in New York City I've had a front row seat do the systematic and subversive programming of the western mind about the way Islam treats whistling Muslim women here are some impressions fact is that most Americans
and a high percentage of Europeans know very little about Muslim I have personally never interacted with the Muslim woman and unfortunately the voices of everyday Muslims especially women are missing from the dialogue and cannot counteract tropes and misinformation but here are some clarifying facts if we chose to dig deeper for most of my career at MTV I've created platforms for unheard music an amplified voices missing
from the conversation we created MTV world to bring pop music and culture from around the planet to America and Europe whether it became pop or Columbia or Bollywood but most importantly we humanized countries and cultures that were being demonized by the media too stereotypical and one dimensional dipping we created a documentary series called rebel music stories of young musicians and activists fighting oppression and injustice interpretant
country these unheard voices presented their cultures in a new light and the stories have been viewed millions of times but the episode that most surprised and impacted American audiences was rebel music native America story of indigenous musicians coming of age to reclaim their destiny NQA people human life for life music is a powerful tool express likely to say it Volvo yeah bottom %HESITATION once and for
all one free from what of angst give us the fate you Chris it's not real it took extra in my that sucks you lashes some of them with ready ready for change Greg for revolution until we created this the depiction of native Americans was brutally one dim a ravaged and embittered community whose lands and culture had been plundered and their voices silenced we change that image
by inviting their youth speak for themselves in the film seventh generation rising and for the first time America saw an inspiring vision of its indigenous we give voice to an important segment of our country that had been invisible in creating rebel music we wanted to tell all sides of the stories we were covering but most importantly bring unheard voices to the forefront in Afghanistan we gave
the microphone to its young women and we ask their tormentors Taliban to explain themselves in Egypt during the second revolution we heard the young liberal perspective but we took security risks also include the voices of the Muslim Brotherhood and in Turkey we heard from the young conservative supporting Oregon also those who V. have mentally opposed his repressive regime it's important to listen to a point of
view before we decide to condemn or accepted but it's critical to hear the voices of the human beings whose lives we hold in balance it is my belief after years of work amplifying the unheard that we all need help correct the inequity of voices and democratize media we have an urgent responsibility seek out amplify the voices of the voice in this cacophony of noise I want
to you to ask yourself a very important are you hearing the voice does we are passing judgment on if not I want you to seek that voice listen to it understand what it's and if you think it's not being represented I want you to be bold take a leap of faith and speak on its behalf in doing so we will become vigilantes of facts rather than
for champions of humanity and creators often authentic new narrative in which the voices of the others are also represented and our decisions are based on an egalitarian distribution of and in listening to the voices of the voiceless we might find that we are engaged in a conversation with them rather than a war
