Who am I, why am I doing this?

I am Anup Shah, the editor of this web site. My roots lie in India, via my grandparents—my parents grew up in East Africa. Born in 1974, I grew up in England for 23 years and then got the opportunity to work in the USA for almost four years. In June 2001, I moved back to England.

Living and working in the US was an amazing experience for me. However, I quickly became concerned at what appeared to be rather poor quality mainstream media. International coverage appeared incredibly lacking and when available, very narrow. And so, in mid-1998 this web site (initially just something to do in order to learn about developing web sites!) started.

The mainstream media is one of the most important aspects of a functioning and participatory democracy. It helps us form our views of the world around us, influence our opinion and let us learn about all manner of things we may otherwise never come across. It is incredibly beneficial, but in today’s world it also has real problems. Just as good quality and diverse mainstream media enhances democracy, poor quality and narrow mainstream media can negatively impact democracy.

The next page in this section (link is available below) goes into why I am doing this web site in more depth.

Where does the site’s funding come from?

I maintain this site in my spare time, on my own.

The site was never started or intended to be a money generator.

Since mid-1998 when the site was launched, there had been no source of income generated in any way, and I was running it at my own cost. I have also been running this site free of advertising and sponsorship.

I had been offered donations by a few readers, which was very kind, but I had refused.

However, to allow me to push this site further, as of January 2007, I have started accepting donations. The site will remain free from advertising and sponsorship.

I have long had a reading list page for books I have read and that are on my queue. From February 2008, I started to add links for each book to Amazon.com’s affiliate system to help readers find out more about those books (there were no links before). Any purchases from there will result in a very small referral fee which will also help this this site.

Has the site indirectly generated additional income for me?

Not at the moment.

Due to the interest in the web site, I have occasionally been asked to write some articles for other publications, and even taken part in some radio interviews. When occasionally offered compensation for articles, I have thus far decided to donate it to a local charity in the country where the article was published.

That is not to say in the future it will always be like this. If, for example, considerable spare time is used to write for another publication and payment is offered, depending on various circumstances I may or may not accept that payment. Readers often suggest I write a book. If that ever happens, it is likely I would mention it on this site. The web site would thus drive some sales. I don’t see anything wrong with that, for example.

What are my qualifications?

My background is a degree in computer science—not exactly a degree in global issues! The point is that you don’t need to have qualifications to be concerned and want to do something, although you do need the time to sift through a lot of information to understand what is happening!

My aim here is to raise awareness and provide links to more information for people wanting to look deeper into these issues. Most of the links on a given page are to external web sites that provide more detail to the points I raise. There are some 7,000 external links to news articles, research papers and so on, from charity and non-government organizations like Oxfam, Amnesty International, etc. to multinational bodies like the United Nations. Furthermore, as I read more and more books, I am sourcing those as well.