Category Archives: Text

Hungarian Rescue Plan

I must admit I didn’t know Hungary was until recently considered an economic powerhouse of Eastern Europe. My limited time there last week left me with neither the impression that it was an extremely well off country, nor the opposite.? At the same time I did notice plenty of construction projects seemingly left unfinished, and infrastructure (like public transport) that looked like it hadn’t received new investment since the 1980’s.

There was talk among Hungarians and expats that I met about the terrible economy, with many expressing that it hadn’t been that bad in a long time.? But even then it wasn’t obvious to me how bad it really was.

Today I read about the rise and fall of the Hungarian economy, and immediately following that, the plan to pump money into that economy.? Among the reasons for its fall? A government burning through alot of money and taking on alot of debt.? One of the lowest employment rates in Europe.

With the IMF’s 25.1 billion dollar bailout of the Hungarian economy, it isn’t clear – as is so often true with bailouts, if this will turn things around.? The term “tighten their belts” is thrown around alot.? Which begs the question, at a time when so many people are in need of help, where can the government afford to make deep cuts without doing harm to an already wounded citizenry.? Then again, I noticed Hungarians are tough, maybe tightening of the belt is precisely something they would be up for.

ExCon and the Vote

Ever since the 2000 election in the United States, the fact that in many states ex-convicts are barred from voting, has become somewhat more known.? Rarely covered in the mainstream media, the few investigative reports done on the topic of voter fraud in places like Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, revealed that in several cases, people were taken off of voter rolls and labeled as former convicts.

One related issue that even fewer reports or public figures are brave enough to bring forward is the policies in various US states that keep prisoners, parolees, those on probation and those once convicted of the most minor of offenses, from voting.? In 10 US states people who have served their sentences and are now out of prison, not on parole or probation, are kept from voting for life.? As incarcerated citizens are often stigmatized regardless of their crime or if they’ve already completed their sentence, it would seem the average citizen doesn’t care or see them as deserving of equal rights once they’re back in society.? Which translates to very little political pressure to change this policy that so many states have.

On a recent edition of The State We’re In, this was exactly the topic that was explored. Specifically the program looked into how ex-cons feel about not having that right. And, for those who do, what importance they give to having that right. What interested me most was when they briefly touched on studies that have shown that when ex-cons return to society and have their right to vote restored, this can have the effect of making them feel more part of society and responsible for what happens in their community.? Click the link above and listen to the segment, a very important question that hardly any people in positions of power are willing to ask.

PRess Freedom Index 08

Hard to believe another year has gone by and it is time once again for the Reporters Without Borders PRess Freedom Index.

The list itself doesn’t contain anything too shocking compared to last year, but I went looking for countries that had experienced the most change in ranking. Lebanon, having had a relatively less violent year than last, jumped several spots to 67, which it shares with nations like East Timor which has also experienced slightly more stability this year. Meanwhile nations like Ivory Coast and Indonesia dropped down several spots to around 110, reasons for which I can only speculate stem from internal strife along political and ethnic lines.
RSF points out that economic prosperity does not equal a freer press, with the United States coming in at 36th tied with nations like South Africa and Bosnia. Or everyone’s favorite economic powerhouse, China, which comes in at 167.. a number one can only hope will be influenced somewhat this coming year as the government is said to be implementing more press freedom in the wake of the Olympics. Venezuela also continues to have a poor showing towards the bottom of the list, though its no surprise as the president there often gets involved in media politics.

The index features, with the exceptions of New Zealand and Canada, only European nations in the top 20. Immediately following in 21 and 22 there are the Caribbean/Central American nations of Jamaica and Costa Rica.

One final point on this year’s press freedom rankings, the list separates some nations by within territory and extra-territory or beyond its borders. This is very interesting to observe, for example Israel itself comes in at 46, whereas extra-terroritorial Israel, which includes Palestine where indeed a journalist was killed in the last year, they rank 149th. Along the same lines, the extra-territorial US is ranked 119. Which reminds me, Iraq is once again almost at the bottom of the list as, despite claims by many US politicians that things are going great, it is still extremely difficult to be a journalist in that country.
Those are my observations regarding the report, read the rest for yourself.

Steal Back Your Vote Investigation

In an effort to get this investigative report out there, I’m posting Greg Palast and Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Steal Back Your Vote Comic. YES, it is a comic, and YES it is an eye opening investigative report. If you do download and read it, also consider sending a contribution to them on their website. I sent them a few bucks as I feel their work is essential if the American election system is ever to really become a democracy.

En Route to Hungary

European Youth Media Days conference in Brussels is now over for me, and now making my way to Budapest. Regular blogging and podcasting will resume once I’m settled in over at VlogEurope HQ in Hungary. Also you’ll be able to join vlogeurope live via streaming video and ask questions and all that fancy shmacy real-time virtual participation action.? Info on that on the vlogeurope site.

-More Soon.

So Long Agricultural Free Trade

In a few hours I head to Brussels where I’m participating, for the second year in a row, in European Youth Media Days.? This year I’m helping coordinate and speaking as part of a workshop on Food Prices and the Media.

In preperation for this event I’ve been stepping up my own research into the global food production system over the past 100 years and the current breakdown it is experiencing.? Although the conference is Europe focused, I’m finding alot of useful and I would argue, applicable examples and analysis from North American news sources.

My hope is that one thing young journalists at this event will think more about is what lay behind the story of food prices. I have no interest in the typical commercial media exercise of finding a person-on-the-street and asking how they feel about prices. A more useful exercise would be to look at who benefits from increased food prices, and even before that, how was the global agricultural system organized that it could fall so hard, so fast.? From there the connections should be made to climate change, CO2 emissions, the lack of emphasis over the last decades on growing local and crop diversity. All these things happened for a reason, and if we’re to solve this problem as a society, we need journalists to do more than just point to the price tags and stick a microphone in front of consumers.