Text – Page 30 – Citizen Reporter

Starving Mongolia

In two months time I expect to be traveling through Siberia and Mongolia. As I read up on the places I might pass through and what citizen journalism is going on there, I’ve run into the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Mongolia. Following a summer drought and currently one of the coldest winters the country has ever experienced, cattle are dying by the millions. A source of income and sustenance for 35 to 40% of the Mongolian population, according to the UN, the onslought of starving cattle leaves hundreds of thousands of people in a desperate situation.

Speaking about the situation for children in Mongolia, UNICEF reports that more than 400,000$ is needed in essential medical and humanitarian supplies, in addition to at least 300,000$ in order to reach those living in remote and now isolated regions of the vast country. In total, around 63,000 children are in need of assistance from either the national government or international organizations as a result of this crisis. Temperatures are currently hovering around -40 to -50C and are expected to stay that way into April.

While in Mongolia I will not likely be in any remote regions of the country, but I will still be asking people and putting out content about what I find out in regards to this terrible situation. Thankfully even in a part of the world that doesn’t get much mainstream media attention EVER, there are citizen journalists at work even there. One great project associated with my friends at Global Voices Online is called Nomad Green (who I hope to meet with in April). It features voices in both Mongolian and English, writing about these and other developments relating to quality of life in Mongolia.

Voices of A People’s History Night

Friends and readers in the Amsterdam area and beyond, I’ve been hard at work planning, reading, and organizing the details of a reading-performance even in honor of Howard Zinn and his greatest work – A People’s History of the United States. I will be MC’ing the event, doing my best to run it just as well as Howard used to, hoping I do him justice. Speakers will include some wonderful native and non-native english speakers from my network of friends here in Amsterdam. Speeches and text as far back as 1542 and as recent as 2005 will jump between some of the great voices that are rarely taught in school or mentioned in mainstream media. And as if that weren’t enough, I will most likely be singing a few songs related different eras in A People’s History. (brace yourselves)

For those outside of the Netherlands I will not be streaming it because I have enough to worry about. But audio/video recordings will be made available as podcasts, so that you can join share in this event afterwards. Here are the vital details:

Howard Zinn Reading-Performance Night. Selections from A Peoples History of the US.
16 February
20:30 – 22h
at Schijnheilig – the lovely new Squat-Gallery-Creative Space
Passeerdersgracht 23-bg
Amsterdam

More on Journalism In Digital Times

“It would be better to have a society with newspapers and no government, than one with government and no newspapers.” – Thomas Jefferson.

Robert McChesney and John Nichols are two people that have taught me alot about how the global media works and doesn’t work. Their writing has accompanied me throughout my journey as the independent and admittedly unorthodox type of journalist that I try to be. So when they talk, I take it seriously. Last week they were guests on Radio Open Source to talk about their vision of the future of journalism in a digital age. I’m now listening to this program for the third time, still trying to decide what they’re telling us and how I feel about that vision.

Ultimately I recommend anyone and everyone out there listen to the program so you get the details directly from them and not from me translating it the way I understand it. But I’ll just go over the part I like best and I feel its close to the “third way” of funding journalism in the future, that I’ve been looking for.

According to McChesney and Nichols, the idea is that a free press will not just happen naturally, if there is no funding for citizen and community media, the government should take steps to make sure it can exist and compete with commercial or any other media. To do so, they envision every citizen getting 200$ (in the US case) in federal money to put towards a non-profit non-commercial media outlet of their choosing, every year.

Thus if there’s a local radio station or newspaper doing work you appreciate and want to see continue, you put your annual money on them. Say you live in a place, a community where you wish there was some kind of community project, you could pool money amongst the people of the neighborhood and start a new non profit media center. In the case that you fund something one year and in that year it doesn’t do what you feel is a good job or ceases to produce anything of use, in the following year you can put your money somewhere else.

At first I thought this plan was an old plan that had been laid out and debunked long ago. But listening to it now, this might really be something. A chance to get around the profit motive that has choked out so much good reporting. It doesn’t mean there won’t be commercial media, those would continue to exist much in the way they do now. In fact McChesney points out that in the nations where the most money is given in subsidies to non-commercial media, the private sector is the most robust! Beyond that such a system would encourage philanthropists, including some people I know, to start new projects in non commercial media and gain support from the public.

Give the program a listen, after 3 listens I have finally recognized that this is not just the same old discussion about what will happen to media.. there are possible answers here.

I Will Continue the Tradition

Howard Zinn has died. The wonderful man who wrote books and gave speeches and walked picket lines and spoke out against war and tyranny… he has died. The human who through his work, taught me so much about who am I, what I am passionate about, how the world came to be as it is.. learning about the world from the powerless instead of the powerful.

Howard Zinn has died and I never got a chance to thank him in person. I never got a chance to let him know, like so many throughout the world, I will continue to speak out, I will continue to try and give voice to the voiceless. I would have liked to tell him in person, but instead I will just continue the tradition…

“People in all countries need the spirit of disobedience to the state. The state that is not a metaphysical thing. But a thing of force and wealth. And we need a kind of declaration of interdependence among people in all countries of the world who are striving for the same thing.” – Howard Zinn 1970

Big Pharma Ads on Their Way

Anyone who has ever been to the United States, or watched commercials on American Television somehow, knows of the never-ending barrage of Pharmaceutical ads that have come to take over the gaps in between programming. They feature excessively clean and happy people walking through parks or high-fiving each other because some ailment they have has been cured by some brand name you should “ask your doctor about”. I can only imagine what its like to be a doctor in the United States today and have your patients coming up to you “asking about” a drug they saw on TV which they would like to have.

This has become the state of the American mediasphere, while over in the EU we still have in place relatively strong regulations preventing that kind of advertisement. Until now.

Ok perhaps the “until now” part makes things seem a little to dire, I would have done better to say that at this moment in time, the EU may relax its rules on Pharmaceutical and medical advertising. Relaxing doesn’t mean we’ve got old people holding hands and discussing pills to lower their cholesterol on TV. But what we do have is a potential break from the clear policy of no medical advertising in the media.

The information is not easy to come by, perhaps due to its complexity or vagueness, so it is not exactly being discussed by the major news outlets. What I’ve been able to gather at this point breaks down this way:

The change in policy would “allow pharmaceutical companies to provide information directly to consumers”
This was proposed in 2008, but put away soon thereafter due to strong criticism from member states.
The information they provide would have to be factual, objective, and not seek to advertise prescription drugs.
Any such information will go through a committee or a panel that will decide if it meets standards.

Of course many questions remain which I will now pose to various stakeholders and associations, regarding such a change. Is this taking the EU down the same path as the United States, towards bombarding citizens with clever and appealing visuals regarding what they should choose for when it comes to health and medicine? Is there a push now within EU institutions to pursue this as early as this year? While I’m at it, just how powerful and influencial is the pharmaceutical lobby in Brussels?

Hopefully very soon Ill have some answers which you’ll be able to find right here in a future post.

From out of the Shadows

A week after the 26th Chaos Communication Congress and I find myself looking back at the issues, the people, the presentations, the ideas.. everything that was being thrown around and shared during that amazing gathering of hackers from around the world. I sit at the computer working on a larger write-up about the hackerspace movement, which has taken root not only in the west, but on every continent in more countries than I ever believed possible.

Besides all the great ideas and the very talented and fun individuals taking part in this event, what I find most interesting is that whether it be through annual events or permanent creative spaces, this community feels more and more open and engaged with other communities in society. From science, to art, to politics, or history… the list of intersection and cooperation with the hacking community continues to grow. A development which I would describe as positive when compared to being an isolated, ignored, or intimidated group of thinkers.

For the past 4 years I’ve wandered around these congresses and marveled at everything around me. Above all at how much individuals can create together, without a profit motive, out of sheer interest and curiosity (and maybe some bragging rights). They take this massive bland building, and they make it into a living, breathing organism that functions in a very efficient and exciting manner.

Looking at all the banners and listening to all the languages being spoken, it seems more clear than ever that hackers have entered a new era where they are not afraid of being judged, and will not be shamed because of their interests and abilities. It begins perhaps, as it has for many minority groups in history, with taking back their word that was twisted into something derogatory – hacker. And it continues with the establishment of creative spaces, all over the world, where people can meet and work on their projects.

It’s safe to conclude that at 26C3 last week, I was watching history be made…. again.