In a recent post you might remember me pointing to the words of The Wire creator and former Baltimore journalist David Simon as he was interviewed on Bill Moyer’s program.? You might also remember that I’m a huge, let’s be honest, FAN, of Simon as I find the Wire to be one imperfect and completely accurate mirror of how our society and our world functions.
So it might come as a surprise and certainly ironic when I tell you I hated David Simon’s testimony before US Congress during the recent session on the state of the media industry. Hmm, saying I hated it is kind of silly, the basic fact is that based on Simon’s words before congress, I don’t agree and would argue some of his statements/facts.
I actually plan to develop my response further, possibly putting it out as a video entry, but for now I wanted to begin to break-down what problem I have with Simon’s words and to properly lay out my own responses.Continue reading “Testimony on the State of the Media”
In all the excitement of my trip to Istanbul last month, I failed to post 2 podcasts I recording during my time at the Re:publica conference in Berlin.
So at long last I’m starting with this first interview with my friend Geraldine who has worked in a development corporation for the past 5 years. Since last year she has been involved with open source and digital culture project in subsaharan Africa.
Together we get into blogs and the role they play in Africa. Different and unorthodox ways content is diffused throughout the continent, broadband penetration and the building of new deep sea broadband links for the continent, the OLPC, and much much more.
Links Geraldine recommends:
Music:
- Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Bloodless Coup
- Steve Earl – Someday
I admit that during his life I didn’t know everything about Augusto Boal and his work for social justice and human rights. I should have, because now only a few days after his death, it is clear he was my kind of guy; someone who’s life is an example to many of us.
DemocracyNow recently played an old interview with Boal from 2007, I would highly recommend you listen to his words, they’re brief but meaningful.? Also I wanted to include my favorite part of the interview which is better in audio format, but for those who prefer to read:Continue reading “Augusto Boal Interview”
It was a Monday late afternoon as N and I walked onto the extremely crowded Istiklal, Istanbul’s see-and-be-seen pedestrian avenue lined with all the coolest shops and restaurants. She and I walked among the masses on our way to meet a friend for dinner, chatting about her work and upcoming events at the University, when all of a sudden out of the hundreds of voices rose one extremely angry and violent? male tone, shouting in Turkish in such a manner that you needn’t understand Turkish to understand that this man was on the verge of hurting someone or something.
The voice must have pierced through the crowd and into our conversation at about the same time for both of us, as we immediatelyContinue reading “Abuse on the Street”
Can a government be effective in deterring terrorism while still being completely transparent? Glenn Strachan has been asking this very question on twitter, and several weeks ago, I noticed. As someone who has worked in development for many years and travelled to almost every corner of the globe, Glenn is both interested in transparency as well as reducing the amount of terrorism in the world… yet he wonders if the two are mutually exclusive?
Glenn on Twitter
Music:
- Metric – Gimme Sympathy
- Constantines – Time Can Be Overcome
cross posted on the Metroblogs Global Conspiracy
It has been more than a month since CurrentTV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained by North Korean authorities on the China-North Korea border. Yet relatively little has been made public about what their status is as well as what the US government or their media corporation is doing to ensure their fast and safe release. If convicted of the crime of entering the country illegally, they face something between 5 and 10 years in a North Korean prison. The following video entry explains the situation.
(click play on the viewer or the link below)
References in this video include:
Huffington Post on Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s arrest.
Reporters Without Borders