Tag Archives: obama

crnr1 Weekly News Review

Presenting a new program from citizenreporter.org, The Citizen Reporter Weekly News Review, which aims to go over global news stories with the help of guests in different corners of the planet.  This week being our first attempt at it, my guests are Bente Kalsnes in Norway and Atul Chitnis in Bangalore.

We cover:

  • The Earthquake in Haiti
  • Google and China
  • Laws against Homosexuality in Uganda
  • Ukrainian Elections
  • Fast Food tax in Romania
  • Copyright law changes in India
  • Public data portals online in Scandinavia, UK, US and beyond.

Please don’t bother commenting about the audio problems, I’ve listened many times and I know where its bad, Im working on this issue, but its a new program, so this will take time to get right.

Channel Kennedy While I Sleep

Just arrived in Lisbon and enjoying the comforts of staying uptown with one of my dearest family members. The cold and soggy Portugal winter is making it even harder to stay awake. Therefore before I change location tomorrow, I leave you with a great edition of Radio Open Source, featuring James Blight.. who I honestly had never heard of but have now come to recognize as one of the minds behind the film “The Fog of War”.

In this particular interview he does a great job of explaining how Kennedy thought about things and made decisions, and how Obama might also do similar.? The main thing he says Kennedy would do, and I must say- what I would call one of the most lacking and necessary characteristics of ANY reprepresentative or world leader, Kennedy was very interested in considering how others thought and how others might think he thinks.? Might seem like a simple thing, but as Blight explains, if we understood or at least tried more to consider how and why other world leaders think, and how they think we think, we’d be much better at communicating with them.

Listen for yourself.

Work on the Candidate

Many of you know I’ve lived outside the United States since late 2001.? If I were trying to seem poetic or sentimental I would mention that it was 2 months after 9/11.? Or I would bring up the extreme difficulty and hostility I experienced trying to do research as a freelance journalist into the disappearing immigrants of Arab descent.? But thats not really it either, the reasons I left are more complex and less dramatic.

Still throughout the last 7 years I’ve often wondered if a change of president would make it more appealing to live once again in the US.? But I can also tell you that one thing I’ve figured out for myself is that the president is not what is wrong with the United States.? No the problems go beyond the white house and beyond politics.? So a change of president does not equal a change in culture… things don’t happen that quickly or easily.

Speaking with one of my most valued friends back in NJ today, he said to me “Obama mania is sweeping the nation man… its going to be great.”? To which I responded “Just because there is Obama mania does not mean things will be great.” Which is the response I feel I need to give more and more these days.

Like his profile? Sure why not. Plenty to like about that life and family history.? Like his speaking style? Most of the time, although if we’re honest with ourselves we know that 75% of the time he’s not really saying anything, just using the talking points and the slogans like advisors tell him to.? Like his politics? Im not sure about that anymore either. From Free Trade, to Middle East policies, to Criminal Justice, Barak Obama says less and less that I can actually agree with or that differs with the same old populist politics of the last decades.

Obama mania is sweeping the nation.? It starts to sound like any one progressively minded should lay down their arms and embrace the man in the name of getting him elected.? Yet I propose.. hell.. I demand something else.? I demand that you hammer this candidate with questions. That you scrutinize his proposed policies, his staff choices, his voting record, and the details of the lofty promises or the shady relationships with questionable forces. Don’t jump on the bandwagon, stand up and ask your candidate to explain himself.? Run him through the ringer, before its too late, and we end up with a man that owes favors to the same old powerful interests and politics we never actually wanted.