Spike in Airline Prices

The last night of February 2010 has me looking forward and asking the difficult questions about just what I’m going to focus on, push myself to do that is new and innovative, and where I will take this here journalistic project as the year matures. What topic in what corner of the world do I feel needs better coverage, more explaining, and increased understanding on the international scale? What can I do? What is within my power, as a reporter with connections or in terms of making new contacts- to get more information to present to you reading this.

Naturally for the sake of learning and first hand reporting, I want to do more than bring you information from the comfort of my always interesting Amsterdam life… I want to travel.  Nevermind wanting, when you’ve got family and a life in 2 other countries besides the one you dwell in, travelling isn’t a luxury it is a necessity somewhere behind food, shelter, and clothing on the life-list of what is needed.  But while I’d normally be looking at flights to Portugal for the spring or summer to visit my family and take care of my responsibilities there, this year presents a bigger challenge than ever in the last 8+ years. While I’d like to fly off to New York to visit family and speak at The Next Hope this July, again looking at the options, it is looking increasingly unlikely.

Whether it is for good reasons or not, airlines across the board are raising their prices. With flights within Europe and crossing the Atlantic (that I know of) costing double what they did last year.  And combined with a general decrease in my already extra-modest income this year, even flying at normal rates would have posed a budgetary challenge for this alternative voice in the media wilderness.

All this to say, suddenly the road ahead looks foggier than I had expected.  And while ironically I’ll soon announce several exciting journeys to new corners of the globe, those will be funded by third parties. Because the truth is the combination of my intercontinental life choices, journalistic goals, and an economy that sees little monetary value in what I (or anyone these days) do.. makes for a very difficult road ahead.

What’s the plan then? I’m working on it…

ctrp328 Voices of a People’s History

In keeping with the tradition started by Howard Zinn. The following podcast is from an event held here in Amsterdam on February 16th, 2010. Voices of a People’s History of the US features those voices that we normally don’t get to hear from in the history books. Speeches by rebels, revolutionaries, agitators, organizers, enemies of the state and more. Music to go along with it.

Special thanks to Jim, Cecilia, Shailoh, and Alice who read in this particular recording. As well as Pete, Carly, Tess, and Sarah who read in the first half that is not featured in this recording.

videos of the event available on youtube.com

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.

ctrp327 Obama’s Nuclear Push
Photo by fickr user: Rowens27

During his presidency GW Bush spoke openly about a return to building nuclear powerplants in the US. Now, president Obama says he’s going forward with those plans, calling Nuclear Power a clean solution for America. However despite the pro-nuclear policies of both presidents, projects are costing double and triple their original budget, designs and plans are full of problems and delays, and the question of how to handle extremely dangerous nuclear waste still has no answer.

My guest on this program is Kate Sheppard, a journalist who rights about politics and the environment for Mother Jones Magazine in Washington, DC. She joins me to talk about whats happening with the Obama administration’s nuclear plans and who is benefiting from all this. Her article “Obama’s Nuclear Giveaway” is available now on motherjones.com. You can also follow her on twitter.

Voices of A People’s History Night

Image by flickr member: Mezilla

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.