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6 theSun | FRIDAY AUGUST 7 2009

news without borders

The Nut Graph


Symbols of expression that seeks funds
to stay afloat
have shaped our diversity
by Eddin Khoo
by Karen Arukesamy
newsdesk@thesundaily.com

PETALING JAYA: Online news portal The Nut Graph is


running out of funds just a year after its launch and is

PIX BY DANNY LIM


appealing for public donations to stay afloat.
Its co-founder and editor Jacqueline Ann Surin
TRUTH be told, we have yet to learn posted a note on the site on Saturday, calling for
the deeper intricacies of our histories donations after its investors said in May that they
– the unravelling of our landscape, the could longer fund it.
creation of our cities, the convergence This, she told theSun via email, was due to “several
of our cultures, and the hands that reasons including the current economic climate”.
crafted and built them. “To be fair, the online media business, both in
Located at the very heart of the Malaysia and overseas, is still
“modern account” of history, Malaysia struggling to find a sustainable
For more info, log on to
(Malaya) encapsulates the grand nar- www.thenutgraph.com and profitable business model.
rative of the last century – the narrative Within the current economic
of transformations historical, cultural, climate, it would be unfair to ex-
social and political. Immigration, the pect any one group of investors to
modern transnational economy, the keep on putting in money into such an enterprise with
very notion of a geo-politics was no guaranteed returns on investment,” Surin said.
weaved in the movement of peoples As at Wednesday night, the company had received
RM19,169 and donors names will be made public
across continents.
if they wish; however, they can choose to remain
From the various ports of India anonymous, she said, adding that the company
such as Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, operates on a tight budget of RM80,000 a month. Its
youthful Indian men and women sailed present funds will dry up by March next year.
to all corners of the globe – South Asked why the company, launched last August,
Africa, Trinidad and Malaya – where was asking for donations instead of charging for
they would forge the massive maze that news content, Surin said: “It is the fastest way to
would, in more recent times, be termed raise funds in the short term to buy us the time we
the Indian diaspora. need to keep going a bit longer until we figure out
Arriving here in the Malay peninsula how to make the company and the business work.”
they would serve as labourers, part of The Nut Graph is not the first website to ask for
Arumugam,
the system of indentured labour known donations to stay afloat – websites such as Wikipedia,
priestess
as kangany, to clear the land for planta- OpenSecrets.org and BNO News Service also run on,
of the Sri
tions and what would be the beginnings Mother Goddess: mugam, this shrine, the Sri Padhpathira or have previously resorted to public donations.
Padhpathira
of the railways, with only the promise “The goddess Kali is almost always Kaliamman Alayam temple in Brick- As for turning into a subscribed for news site like
Kaliamman Malaysiakini, Surin said the company does not think
of meals, perhaps a small plot of land at described as having a terrible, frighten- fields, attests to this lineage of faith.
temple, there is a market for another such site right now.
the end of the term’s labour, or a pass ing appearance. She is always black or Home to an ever-growing, multira-
leads a “Also, if we launch a subscription model right now,
for the returning steamer. dark, is usually naked, and has long, cial congregation, regular prayers and
congregation our readership (the site has an average of 78,000
Barrenness, the invocation of dark- dishevelled hair. She is adorned with rituals – all the details of a living faith
in procession. unique visitors a month) is likely to drop and that
ness, and an old Tamil proverb would severed arms as a girdle, freshly cut – are still held at this shrine, culminat-
resound – “settle not on land where heads as a necklace, children’s corpses ing each year, at mid-year, when the would definitely affect our existing stream of revenue
there is no temple”. The cultivation of as earrings, and serpents as bracelets. image of the goddess Kali is “taken for from online ads.
estates and the urgings of an individual She has long, sharp fangs, is often a walk” within the surrounding vicin- “But we suspect that we would probably only be
faith led to the personal effort of build- depicted as having clawlike hands with ity. able to charge for content when we have built up
enough of a reputation and an archive of content that
ing a shrine, enacting religious observ- long nails, and is often said to have That month is Amma (mother)’s
people would find valuable enough to buy.”
ance and creating a community united blood smeared on her lips. Her favourite month. The ritual ablutions and bath Although the site has a small team of six full-time
in belief. The deities, distinct in their haunts heighten her fearsome nature. that precedes the walk serve as a sym- staff and a part-time contributor including Surin and
reflection of the community’s hopes, She is usually shown on the battlefield, bol of the act of renewal and creation co-founder and business development manager
fears and desires, guided and guarded where she is a furious combatant who through destruction – in accordance Cindy Tham – an experienced journalist previously
the plight of their devotees. gets drunk on the hot blood of her vic- with the Kali way – of the individual with theSun and The Edge – the company’s major
The choice of deities naturally tims, or in a cremation ground, where ego, of self-delusion and the material. cost has been salaries.
reflected this. Muneeswaran, the che- she sits on a corpse surrounded by jack- In a climate where the viability of “One cannot get good writing and analyses without
root-smoking Tamil folk god, blade in als and goblins.” modest, old shrines are being chal- hiring intelligent, talented and experienced journalists.
one hand, warding off evil; and Sub- Commonly associated with the rise lenged, occasions such as the walk And if we are to attract the best in the industry, and
ramaniam, known also as Murugan, over adversity, Kali worship grew and the daily rituals – elemental and we think we have, we need to pay fair wages,” said
the archetype of Tamil consciousness among the working communities of effusive – practised in temples such as Malaysia Surin, an award-winning journalist and author who
whose spear would bring light into the the Malay peninsula. In estates, in the these remain testament to the particular considers previously worked with several news organisations.
world. A perennial presence was Kali, squatter areas of the menial workforce, histories of communal expression that China- She said the company had cut back on expenses
mother goddess, goddess of death and where light was scarce and conditions have shaped our diversity – a diversity the past few months, but if it cannot raise enough to
destruction, who ruled over this age – intense, the appeal of the dark goddess challenged by the formalisation and style sustain operations, it will shut down after it pays its
the Kali Yuga (age of Kali) – marked by was natural. institutionalisation of even individual internet staff “a fair compensation”.
its constant stress, strife and turmoil. So it was some 80 years ago when faith. In her post, Surin said it would then donate any
filter public funds left over to the Centre for Independent
In this age, it was Kali Ma who a dream inspired a railway worker to
devoured evil, ignorance and illusion, plant a trident at his home, break the Eddin Khoo is a poet, writer, translator pg 8 Journalism Malaysia “as a way to spread the support
true to Her representation in classical ground, and invite the goddess Kali to and journalist, and founder-director of for efforts to promote good journalism”.
Hindu tradition, whose lineage traces enter. the cultural organisation Pusaka. For a
the Goddess to her representation Bequeathed to his daughter decade he has worshipped at the Sri Pa- Donations can be deposited into Public Bank account
on a battlefield. Hinduism historian Muniamma Superaian, and now dapathira Kaliamman Alayam temple no: 314 5184 219 or by cheque payable to Insight
David Kinsley writes evocatively of the attended to by her daughter Gowri Aru- News Sdn Bhd.
on Jalan Ang Seng, Brickfields.

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