South Asian Good News Channel

 Have you notice there is something in common among headlines from leading newspapers of our country?  That is the negativity. The mainstream media is somehow focused more on the negative news and goes the extra mile to spread them. They must be having their reasons for doing so. The 'Good News' or the positive news somehow gets buried in the corners of the unimportant pages. In such a scenario all that is available to the general public is the negative news. Being the most intelligent of species, the humans discuss these negative news items be it during a coffee break at work, or at the college canteens. They even go to the extent of sharing it on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. This creates a vicious cycle where we humans, subconsciously breathe in the negativity and participate in spreading such negative news. Being aware of the negative happenings around is one thing and propagating them is another. 

When being constantly bombarded by the media with negative news, we tend to create an image about things that makes us lose objectivity. We tend to give less priority to the negative news when we encounter it on a daily basis. Therefore, issues such as corruption, harassment, malnutrition etc. all seem to take less importance in our daily lives.

Has it ever occurred to you that we are not told of the good side of things occurring? We are not told of a politician who is truly working towards making the life of his people better. We do not come across news of how a Buddhist priest is coaching the volleyball team of this school after seeing the enthusiasm of the students and due to the lack of teachers and coaches in a rural village in Sri Lanka. We do not hear of the Navy transporting school children to school during the heavy rains. All these positive news get submerged in the mountain of negative news that flow to us via different news channels. This is simply because 'bad news' sells!

Clearly, this causes for a need for a source of Good News where good deeds happening around us are highlighted. This would act as positive stimulus to our brains to think about solutions, or to simply be inspired. It would make us believe that life is not all that bad and that there is hope. That there are indeed good people around us and good things do really happen. The South Asian Good News Channel is a small step towards spreading positive news.

I am sure you are thinking as to why this news channel focuses only on South Asia? The seed of this idea - South Asian Good News Channel - was sown at the SAYC 2011 where delegates from the SAARC nations got together to discuss real burning issues. We found that our nations and people had so much in common. It was not only the history and culture - but the tastes, the likes and dislikes, our behavior, our take on issues was also very similar. At the end of the Conference, if was difficult to identify a Pakistani from an Indian and an Indian from a Sri Lankan. If such harmony exists at people level then this definitely needs to get highlighted. Pakistan is not India's enemy nor is Afghanistan Pakistan's. The media, to a certain extent, is over-emphasizing the conflicts and under-emphasizing the people-to-people harmony. The South Asian Good News Channel is our way of helping to highlight not only good things happening around us but also happening across the borders to foster regional peace among the South Asian nations.

At the end of the day when you are tired after a long day at work or frustrated by your irrational boss's unreasonable expectations - you can tune into the South Asian Good News Channel for your dose of inspiration or simply a drop of hope.

To get the Good News from South Asia - subscribe to the Facebook page -http://www.facebook.com/SAGNChannel or the twitter handle http://www.facebook.com/SAGNChannel