1.2 Billion missing from MF Global Client Accounts

"It wasn't my fault," John Corzine said in his testimony before Congress.  He went on to say that he didn't intend to break the rules.  I am pretty sure Bernie Madoff said the same thing. Chief Operating Officer Bradley Abelow and Chief Financial Officer Henri Steenkamp will also testify and have submitted written testimony attempting to distance themselves from the hands on operation of the company.  The main crux of thier testimony is that is wasn't thier job and they don't know how the money went missing. As the COO and the CFO, it is thier responsibility to make sure that there are compliance procerdures in place to deal sepcifically with co-mingling of funds and leverage and it is thier responsibility to make sure that these procedures are being followed. Steenkamp said he was not aware that there was a problem with clients segregated accounts until October 30th, when he discovered serious issues in fund calculations.  If he was the CFO, how could he miss this, unless someone in the organization was actively hiding it, or he was complicit in the actions.

Are bloggers "real" journalists?

Not in the state of Oregon:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2016960612_apusbloggerdefamationsuit.html

A Montana blogger just got sued for defamation by an Oregon lawyer--and she lost the case because she couldn't prove her assertion that the lawyer was a "thug and a thief" without revealing her source. The judge ruled that she was not protected under Oregon's shield law--thus couldn't keep her source private--and wasn't a "real" journalist because she had no professional affiliation.

Interesting case. Like it's mentioned in the article, this probably won't be such a big deal for bloggers--at least until a case like this goes to the Supreme Court--but it certainly hits a nerve anyway.

After last week's discussion in class, I found this NY Times piece really fascinating. It discusses the lives of war time photographers, and how they're right there, embedded, in the middle of a war and still have to perform their own job. Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/magazine/mag-08lede-t.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=print

The Inner Lives of Wartime Photographers

By BILL KELLER

This has been a grievous season for the tight-knit tribe of combat photographers. For The Times, the sorrow began last October, when a land mine exploded under Joao Silva while he was shooting pictures of an American patrol near Kandahar, Afghanistan, destroying both of his legs and shredding his intestinal tract. This spring, three other photographers working for The Times — Jehad Nga, Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario — were among the numerous journalists who disappeared into the custody of Libyan state thugs, where they were beaten and terrorized before we could negotiate their release. The darkness deepened by several hues last month when two admired lensmen — Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros — were killed while embedded with Libya’s hapless rebel militia.

Covering conflict is perilous for anyone — reporters, local stringers, the drivers and interpreters we depend on — but photographers are more exposed, in at least two senses of the word. They need a sustained line of sight to frame their photographs; a reliable source is never enough. And they cannot avert their eyes; they have to let the images in, no matter how searing or disturbing. Robert Capa’s famous advice to younger photographers — “Get closer” — translates in combat to “get more vulnerable,” both literally and emotionally.

Back in 2000, Joao and Greg Marinovich, a shooter who was my partner and guide on journalistic adventures in South Africa, published a book called “The Bang-Bang Club,” about four photographer friends who worked together during the bloody death rattle of apartheid. By the time Greg and Joao wrote their account, they were the only survivors. Kevin Carter, a charismatic, talented, addled mess of a man, had run a garden hose from his exhaust pipe into his car and, while smoking a hypnotic mix of methaqualone and marijuana, composed a suicide note. That same year, 1994, Ken Oosterbroek, the grown-up of the quartet, was shot dead in a crossfire in Thokoza township. Greg, who was standing nearby that day, took a bullet to the chest but eventually recovered. After chasing wars around the globe for another five years and being wounded three more times, Greg retired from combat work to write and do less hazardous photography and video documentaries. And that left only Joao, wedded to the life and seemingly invulnerable.

When I called on Joao at Walter Reed Army Medical Center last week — where he is getting accustomed to his new robo-legs and fighting off waves of infection — Greg was also visiting. Most afternoons, Joao straps on his prostheses and circles the physical-therapy room for an hour and a half, clinging to a walker. He’s months from being able to walk on his own, and until then he’s confined to a bed or a wheelchair, attached to a colostomy bag and a stream of antibiotics. His attitude is amazingly resilient. (The first time I visited Walter Reed, I remarked that he didn’t seem to be any older. “No,” he replied, “but I’m a bit shorter.”) Still, the serial operations and infections have made him more somber. As medics came and went tending to Joao’s gauges and nozzles, we spent a few hours discussing the various predicaments of their field, beginning with the obvious mystery: Why do they do this crazy work?

They do it for the most mundane of reasons (to feed their families) and the most idealistic (to make the world pay attention) and the most visceral (it is exhilarating; it is fun) and the somewhat existential.

“It becomes your identity in so many ways,” Joao said. “This is my identity. This is all I’m known for. Nobody sends me out to go shoot beautiful pictures for travel articles, you know?”

Greg, while conceding there is much about the life he misses, implored his best friend to give it up. But Joao hopes to go back to it as soon as he is firmly on his high-tech feet.

“I wish I was in Libya right now,” he declared at one point.

“If this hadn’t happened, or if you were in a position physically, you would go back?” Greg asked.

“If I was in a position to, yeah. Why not?”

“Why not? You’re asking me? I don’t know, what about your family, Joao?”

Joao, who has an endlessly patient wife and two young children, paused for a time.

“The families are very brave,” he concluded.

Perhaps because they are the sharp end of our journalistic spear, combat photographers have long been subjected to mythologizing. The most common myths are that combat photographers are reckless of spirit, or why else would they take such chances, and hard-shelled of heart, or how else could they bear it? “The Bang-Bang Club” was just made into a movie (which played at the Tribeca Film Festival to disappointing reviews), and one of its failings is that it falls for both of these superficialities. It shows the moments of cowboy exuberance — Greg, played by Ryan Phillippe, sprinting across a sniper alley to fetch Cokes for his thirsty comrades — but ignores the exquisite caution, the calculation of every footfall, the patient diplomacy that is more the rule in conflict coverage.

Another scene has Greg, at the site of a massacre, carefully adjusting the lighting so he can photograph a dead child while his girlfriend breaks down in horror.

“Maybe you have to be like that to do what you do,” she tells him afterward.

“Be like what?” the movie version of Greg asks.

“I think you have to forget that those are real people.”

For most of the combat photographers I’ve known, the idea that they are unfeeling is exactly wrong. You can see the almost-unbearable sympathy in the best of their work, and it is an adhesive that binds them to one another. What people mistake for emotional distance, I think, is an intensity of experience that an outsider cannot fully penetrate. Even most of their spouses do not pretend to understand.

“People just don’t get it,” Joao said. “You have to be there, and you have to live it.”

The moral implications of their work are not quite so readily dismissed. Any photographer who has snapped memorable images has had the experience of being damned for it, and it is something the most thoughtful of them take to heart.

One familiar indictment, a moral corollary to their ostensibly hardened hearts, is that they are voyeurs, paparazzi of doom, exploiting the misery of others. Three months before he killed himself, Kevin Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for a picture published on the front page of this paper: it showed an emaciated Sudanese toddler doubled over, as a vulture lurked behind her. Afterward, Carter was asked over and over, What became of the girl? He stammered through a variety of answers, failing to comprehend that while his picture, by awakening the world to a famine, may have saved many lives, he was being judged as a heartless opportunist for not rescuing the one life that he had put at the center of attention.

According to Joao, who was nearby, the child in the picture was within the perimeter of a feeding center, not far away from adults, not quite so alone or menaced as the picture suggested. Even so, Greg believes Kevin fumbled the question because he was ashamed that, in his exultation at a great picture, he didn’t think to carry the girl closer to shelter.

“Sometimes we fail our own moral compass, our own emotional compass,” Greg told me. “Kevin was a bloody warm, generous and fantastic guy, and I’m surprised that he didn’t pick up the kid, just to make himself feel better.”

The other knock on combat photographers is that they are cynics who have no loyalties or values.

Joao, on assignment in Iraq for The Times in 2004, talked his way into a company of insurgents of the Mahdi army in the battleground town of Najaf. For days he was accompanying and photographing snipers as they took aim at Americans. The coverage was vilified by some readers, for whom it was incomprehensible that we would show what the war looks like from the other side.

“I do understand, if you have a son fighting in the armed forces, or you might know someone who has lost his son, where that antagonism comes from,” Joao told me. “But from my point of view, I was just being a professional,” revealing the state, and state of mind, of the other side.

“Track suits and sandals, and they’re out there putting their lives on the line and fighting against the mightiest army on the planet,” he mused. “There’s something to be learned from that. . . . Because at that point nobody knew who these guys were and what they were capable of.”

An altogether different moral dilemma falls to me, and it has cost me some sleep at times: What is the obligation of those who send journalists to war? We pay these people to risk their lives. (The day rate for combat is double the rate for less dangerous work.) We put them up for prizes. We are literally their enablers. When someone gets hurt, is it my fault for encouraging them to take chances?

After the CBS reporter Lara Logan was sexually assaulted in Egypt and our own Lynsey Addario was manhandled by her captors in Libya, some critics demanded to know how we could justify sending women into places where the threat of bombs and bullets is compounded by the threat of sexual violence. On that question, I defer to some of the intrepid Times women who have distinguished themselves in a field that is mostly populated by men — war journalists like Carlotta Gall, Alissa Rubin, Sabrina Tavernise or Lynsey herself, who says that compared with the beatings her male colleagues suffered during six days in Libyan captivity, “I felt like I got off easy.” The women who do this work will tell you that the question is patronizing, that they are capable of making their own choices and that, importantly, they have access to stories that men do not.

Lynsey recalls covering sexual assault as a weapon of war in Congo and in Darfur. The victims were more comfortable entrusting their stories and showing their wounds to a woman. In Muslim societies, Lynsey points out, female reporters and photographers have access to homes, to women and girls, that would be off-limits to any man who was not part of the family. For a sample of what you’d be missing if Lynsey Addario worked only in safe places, visit her 2010 portfolio of women in Afghanistan, who, in despair over brutal marriages or ostracism, set themselves on fire.

My general sense of the employer’s responsibility is this: We have an obligation to provide the equipment and training, to make clear that we do not consider any story or picture worth a life and, if they get in trouble, to do everything in our power to get them out. But they are there. We are not. We should hesitate to second-guess decisions they make on the ground. (They do enough of that themselves.)

I admit this formulation may be tested when Joao is ready to work again. If he asks for that posting to Baghdad or some other place where things blow up, what do I say? To him? To his family?

Bill Keller is executive editor of The New York Times.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 8, 2011

An essay this weekend on Page 11, about photographers who cover wars, refers imprecisely to Chris Hondros, a photographer who was killed last month while covering Libya’s rebel militia. He was a senior staff photographer for the Getty Images agency, not a freelancer. The essay also misstates the year that Joao Silva was on assignment for The New York Times in Najaf, Iraq. It was 2004, not 2006.

Kilpatrick’s Rules of Newspaper Writing

Hello, all. I came across this brief set of rules for newspaper writers. Angelia has made many of these same points in class, such as avoiding redundant words. It's not so easy to write clearly, cleanly, concisely, but this ability sets the great writers apart from the mediocre ones.

Jim

Kilpatrick’s Rules of Newspaper Writing

Some time ago columnist and author James J. Kilpatrick met with a group of college students who asked him for a set of newspaper-writing rules. The list that resulted is reprinted with Kilpatrick’s permission.

1. Be clear. This is the first and greatest commandment. In a large sense, nothing else matters. For clarity embraceth all things: the clear thought to begin with, the right words for conveying that thought, the orderly arrangement of the words. It is a fine thing, now and then, to be colorful, to be vivid, to be bold. First be clear.

2. Love words, and treat them with respect. For words are the edged tools of your trade; you must keep them honed. Do not “infer” when you mean to “imply.” Do not write “fewer than” when you mean “less than.” Do not use “among” when you mean “between.” Observe that “continually” and “continuously” have different meanings. Do not write “alternately” when you mean “alternatively.” Tints are lights; shades are dark. Learn the rules of “that” and “which.” When you fall into the pit of “and which,” climb out of your swampy sentence and begin anew.

3. As a general proposition, use familiar words. Be precise; but first be understood. Search for the solid nouns that bear the weight of thought. Use active verbs that hit an object and do not glance off.

4. Edit your copy; then edit it again, then edit it once more. This is the hand-rubbing process. No rough sandpapering can replace it.

5. Strike the redundant word. Emergencies are inherently acute; crises are grave; consideration is serious. When you exhort your readers to get down to basic fundamentals, you are dog paddling about in a pool of ideas and do not know where to touch bottom. Beware the little qualifying words: rather, somewhat, pretty, very. As E.B. White said, these are the leeches that suck the meaning out of language. Pluck them from your copy.

6. Have no fear of repetition. It is better to repeat a word than to send an orphan antecedent in its place. Do not write horsehide, white pellet or the old apple when you mean baseball. Members of the City Council are not solons; they are members of the City Council. If you must write banana four times, then write banana four times; nothing is gained by three bananas and one elongated yellow fruit.

Can't we expect something more from the Republicans?

A few weeks ago, Angelia asked us to post on this blog, describing what outrages us when we read the political news.

More than anything, I feel frustrated at the overall low quality of the Republican candidates. Really, are these people the best, the most intelligent, capable candidates the party can put forward? There are certainly superior potential candidates, but most are simply not willing to subject themselves to the scrutiny, the grind, the pandering that is necessary to participate in the process, and to end up getting enough votes to be a serious contender.

Take Mitt Romney. An intelligent, affable businessman, who truly believes that he understands the problems of America & the world better than anyone else, and can guide the country into better days. He is as bland as they come, unimaginative, saying whatever he thinks he has to to get political favor.

I reference this excellent, extended article 'Building a Better Mitt Romney-Bot' in the November 30, '11, NYTimes Magazine. If you want to understand the packaging, the marketing of Romney for this current campaign, this article will open your eyes: so many managers & image makers, regulating how Romney is presented to the world.

A couple of representative quotes:

"Those who at close range watched Romney’s failure to close the deal in 2008 did not witness a rejection per se. Instead, it appeared that Republican voters could not quite envision this decent, clever and socially uneasy fellow governing their country — as opposed to, say, managing their stock portfolios. Stories of Romney’s wooden people skills are legion. “The Mormon’s never going to win the who-do-you-want-to-have-a-beer-with contest,” concedes one adviser, while another acknowledges, “He’s never had the experience of sitting in a bar, and like, talking.”

"It’s very unlikely that we’ll ever hear Mitt Romney and Barack Obama openly discuss the things they have in common. Nonetheless, we may well see in the general election a contest between two dispassionate and accommodating pragmatists and skilled debaters who relish intellectual give-and-take, and whose willingness to compromise has infuriated the party faithful. Both have promised change. Each will frame the other as being not up to the task."

If Romney gets the nomination, I will vote for Mr. Obama. Yes, Obama has spent most of his first term learning how to be president, with disappointing results. But he will, no doubt, be a better president during his second term, infinitely preferable to the cold ('Let Detroit Go Bankrupt'), dull, gray, predictable machine that is Romney.

That's one person's opinion.

Jim

Where Children Sleep

This photo collection, called "Where Children Sleep," ran in the New York Times a few months ago. Many of you have probably already seen it (it made the list of the top 40 articles posted on Facebook in 2011), but if you haven't, it's worth a look. The slideshow is only 19 images; the child on the left, and their room on the right.

Most of them are disturbing, but they're disturbing in very different ways. From a 4-year-old pageant queen to a 14-year-old Kenyan tribe member -- and everyone in between -- it's a haunting collection of kids around the world.

Revolution in West Africa: Senegal, NY Times' Adam Nossiter and Lauren's Post (and how they may all connect)

Adam Nossiter writes from his base in the NY Times West Africa Bureau and if you search for him on the Times' website, it will become evident that, indeed, he is one of the most published news writers in the region charged with a hefty responsibility of conveying "West Africa" to "America."

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to copy these images to the blog (and will see if there are any further technical solutions). However, here are the two photo links (below): the first, comes from Nossiter's September article on a widespread (multiple cities, thousands of people) political revolution to oust Senegalese President Wade who has, unsuccessfully, attempted to change the Senegalese constitution to extend his term beyond its legal limits; the second image comes from a Senegalese teenager's posting about the same revolution. The teenager seems to more effectively, and using one blog page, both cover the vast scope of players (including many youth) in the revolution and provide evidence of this in the photos on her website.

Having lived in Senegal for two years from 2008-2010, I have been receiving since June 2010, first-hand accounts of protests held on the 23rd of each month, from three cities in Senegal, and over ten different neighborhoods. From information from activists, teachers, electricity company employees, musicians, and other professionals, I'd propose that Adam Nossiter has done a public disservice by framing the revolution as a small-scale, musician-led happening.

Certainly, the group of rappers that he featured in his September 2011 article below, continue to play a significant role in supporting the movement (they are called in French, Y'en a Marre) to oust Wade; however, the reports that I am receiving from the region actually point to this expansive scope of professionals and community members (including Y'en a Marre) who have organized massive protests and varied group of protesters, now uniformly referred to as the M23 Movement. The M23 movement, which is named more frequently than Y'en a Marre in Senegalese media (www.seneweb.com), organizes hundreds and sometimes, thousands, in the cities, Dakar, Thies, Bambey, and Kaolack on the 23rd of each month, calling for the President to announce his plans not to run in the February 2012 elections.

This discrepancy, in Nossiter's reportage and images, led me to research commentary on his work before he relocated to the Times West African Bureau. In doing this, I found some more concerning information. Darwin Bondgraham, a Ph.D based in New Orleans and contributer to CounterPunch and Z Magazine, criticizes Nossiter's reporting of post-Katrina New Orleans, as follows: "quite a few of his missives were pretty poorly researched, thought out, and reported."

Bondgraham goes on to provide links to examples of Nosster's reporting as "partially wrong" and "downright omitted." Additionally, News Busters, an organization which "[exposes] and [combats] liberal media bias" included a criticism of Nossiter's coverage of the south's "rejection of Obama" during the last presidential election.

This is quite profound, again, considering that Nossiter is now one of the "number one" sources for you and I to now glean impacting images and read about events from 16 countries in the West African region.

This has also raised a question that relates to the issue Lauren posed about the seemingly repetitively dichotomized system of current U.S. political coverage. Extending that inquiry to world news and specifically, the African continent, the tendency of regional reportage seems to be yet another narrow system of reporting. In this case, it is predictably, disaster (war, famine, dictatorship, unsuccessful political revolution, and, of course, "endemic" poverty) that we hear coming out of Africa. As we rarely hear about Democrats and Republicans' mutual goals to improve society, rarely, do we see or hear about Africa's political, economic and societal innovation and large-scale successes emerging in the region.

If these examples do point to a case of bottom-line story selling, while there may always be attempted media industry gain from dichotomized and unipolar thinking, approaching, photographing and writing about issues, I hope that there are also many idealists in the public and in journalism schools hoping to break out of that mold.

I'm wondering, then, are there courses that help journalists to examine personal experience (where they grew up, how they grew up, what were their communities' various angles on events and issues worldwide, what beliefs do they assume "everyone thinks" when everyone doesn't, what types of news coverage systems became deeply ingrained in their own thought during 7th grade current events classes, what other alternatives exist are there to two-sided political coverage, etc.)? Do editors discuss these issues or receive formal training on this? It seems, if so, we may be able to see and convey more of the world's social, political, cultural and creative variance and similarity, not to mention fresh ideas on old topics and problems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/world/africa/senegal-rappers-emerge-as-political-force.html?ref=adamnossiter

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/09/19/world/asia/SENEGAL.html

http://www.teendiariesonline.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/TD_Rugi_M23_3.jpg

http://darwinbondgraham.blogspot.com/2009/04/adam-nossiters-parting-shot.html

Billions, Artfully Sheltered

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/business/estee-lauder-heirs-tax-strategies-typify-advantages-for-wealthy.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=lauder&st=cse

This less than flattering portrait (right) of Ronald S. Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder fortune, accompanies a less than flattering piece. The article is part of a series about tax shelters for the rich titled, “But Nobody Pays That.” The photo on the left shows Lauder's photo from his corporate bio page on the Central European Media Enterprises website. (http://www.cetv-net.com/en/about-cme/ronald-s-lauder.shtml).

The article opens with a brief description of a gala at Lauder’s private art gallery, held to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of New York’s Neue Gallerie, also owned by Lauder. But the nutgraf outlines Lauder’s “shrewd use of the United states tax code”, the “sophisticated strategy [Lauder] used to preserve a fortune” and “a tax sheltering stock deal so audacious that Congress later enacted a law forbidding the tactic.”

The article acknowledges the many contributions Lauder has made to the public good, but surely there were many happier photos taken of Lauder at a gala affair celebrating the success of his indisputably gorgeous contribution to New York’s Museum Mile. I just love that the above-the-fold, front page portrait selected for this piece casts its subject in shadow, avoiding eye contact. The gold-leafed backdrop, Klimt’s “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” was purchased for $135 million, an amount that Lauder came up with shortly after routing profits from his sale of a large stake in CME through Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Blogs and ethics

One thing about freelancing is how difficult it can result for a journalist to make a living out of that only.

I know of at least one great journalist who works as a freelancer and despite how good her work is, it is still hard for her to get a fair paycheck every month. She works here and there, but her blog is her passion. She has been offered many times to get paid for allowing sponsors to announce on her blog, to link them on her texts, or simply to mention their brand name. But she has never accepted to sell out her “baby” as she calls it.

This is a good story to review the ethics of journalism, the interests of those who only care about selling and how social media can call for bigger audiences when it shows not only a mere description of facts, but as we have discussed many times, an opinion.

I found particularly interesting how the companies involved in this story immediately reached Nolan to either deny their participation in this kind of practice, or specify how they have never worked with such agency to reach their target customers.

"But this incident brings up a whole slew of issues when it comes to the business of digital media. Editors/producers of traditional news outlets have long felt the pressure of advertisers breathing down their collective necks. They've had to be sure as to never anger them or else risk losing a chunk of their only source of revenue. But advertising isn't so simple on the internet. It comes in all shapes, sizes, or even links." Sameer Bhuchar

Give it a read and share your thoughts.
http://www.thejournalismbiz.com/2011/10/paid-per-link-blogger-corruption.html

A nod to those up long before dawn

From the front page of The Boston Globe today.


Another picture from an article I loved.


I don't know why but I like these kinds of stories. I've always respected and felt an honest admiration for those who work during the hours I am usually asleep in the warmth of my home.

There have been times when I've thanked them personally for doing what I simply consider impossible for me to do. Being up all night, or wake up in the middle of it to go to work and have the bread and coffee we, so unconcernedly, drink as if it was brewed magically without any human participation.

The picture portrays the essence of the story; the darkness of the blue sky letting the red and yellow light of the new day show and announce the beginning of another day.

To read the full article this is the link:
http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/11/27/nod-those-long-before-dawn/SEYSn1jRsGGz1INzHuoJAI/story.html

Photography Story Telling

This my not be a sea of blood but the image shows Boston Globe readers sculpted veins and muscles, stretching for power in this photo of Eagle's Riley Cooper and Patriot's Kyle Arrington. The game is in the 2nd quarter so we're following the Globe's real-time updates.

I like this photograph because it's an intimate view, almost as if hovering beside the players. We can see their eyes and each ripple in their arms. Val

Photojournalism

One of favorite web sites is the MSNBC Week in Pictures Archive. I really admire good photography, especially when it does not require an explanation to convey its meaning and sentiment. I always wonder how the photographer took these shots and what type of camera did they use. Is there a standard type of camera most photojournalist use or does it depend on preference? Anyone know?

These were my top favorite of the week.

Blood in the water
Residents of Faroe Islands catch and slaughter pilot whales during their traditional 'Grindadrap' (whale hunt) near Torshavn on Nov. 22. The inhabitants of the Faroe Islands, an
autonomous province of Denmark, slaughter and eat the whales every year. The Faroese are descendants of Vikings, and pilot whales have been a central part of their diet for more than 1,000 years. They crowd the animals into a bay and kill them. 'Grindadrap' whaling is not done for commercial purposes; the meat cannot be sold and is divided evenly between members of the local community.


Thanksgiving Spc. Teigh-jae Delancett, of Lafayette, Ga., embraces her 4-year-old son Trey, as members of the Georgia Army National Guard Dragon Masters (1-171st Aviation Regiment) arrive home from a yearlong deployment in Iraq at the Clay National Guard Center at Dobbins Air Base on Nov. 23. The unit returned a day before Thanksgiving.


Human-powered Ferris wheel
An Indian carnival worker hangs from the bars of a manual Ferris wheel as he propels it around at a fair in New Delhi, India on Nov. 19. In a city affected by frequent power cuts and blackouts, the ride requires no electricity or generator and is run solely by the physical power of the workers.






These shots inspire me to enroll in a photography class. Enjoy!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45416694/ns/news/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1

Glen Johnson

I thought Glen Johnson was fantastic on Monday night, and I'm looking forward to re-watching the class. I have included an AP piece from 2008 (fittingly, covering Mitt Romney) as I've found it to be a good example of how a writer can have fun with a serious topic and still provide information to readers (there's a solid nut graf, too). His attention to detail is something I'll strive to include in my own work. I am still seeking his candidate portraits from the 2004 election... hope everyone enjoyed a happy Thanksgiving.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-02-04-2218983339_x.htm
By Glen Johnson, Associated Press Writer

ABOARD XTRA AIRWAYS FLIGHT 314 — It took a 37-hour trip to do something that eight rivals and a 12-month campaign couldn't: muss Mitt Romney's hair.

The Republican presidential contender's signature coif was in disarray when he touched down in Charleston, W.Va., at 5 a.m. Tuesday amid a more than 5,000-mile, coast-to-coast-to-coast dash aimed at bettering rival John McCain in the Super Tuesday nominating contests.

After flitting from Nashville, Tenn., to Atlanta to Oklahoma City to Long Beach, Calif., on Monday, Romney turned around and flew a redeye to Charleston, W.Va., so he could address the GOP state convention Tuesday morning.

The overnight flight left Romney with a bad case of bed-head, but 30 seconds in the forward lavatory with a comb and some water and -- Shazam! -- he was good as new.

Romney hoped his odyssey would not only help him win West Virginia and the other states he visited heading west, but most particularly in California, which was holding a pivotal primary.

McCain was endorsed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but late polls showed Romney running neck-and-neck. Delegates are awarded to the top vote-getter in each of the state's 53 congressional districts.

"We said, you know, something's happening out in California; we got to get back to California," he told a crowd of about 1,000 who gathered for an evening rally in a Long Beach airport hangar. Among them were about 25 members of Romney's extended family.

When he kicked off his journey in Tennessee on Monday morning, Romney declared, "If I win California, that means you're going to have a conservative in the White House."

Late that afternoon, as he flew toward the Rocky Mountains, Romney came back to joke with his traveling press corps before settling into a seat at the front of his chartered Boeing 737 for the remainder of the flight to the West Coast.

The former Massachusetts governor, who tries to keep his body clock on East Coast time wherever he travels in the country, said he would sleep on the return flight, aided by a pillow, pink fleece blanket and inflatable mattress his campaign staff brought aboard in Oklahoma.

"I want to sleep on the floor as long as the flight attendants say it's OK, because they need to go up and down the aisle," Romney said. "My feet will hang out into the aisle, but I'd rather sleep on the floor."

Romney joked: "It's been a while since I slept on the floor; usually if I'm in trouble, I sleep on the sofa." He said his last actual floor slumber occurred about a decade ago when he went camping with one of his five sons.

As it turned out, Romney traded his pink blanket for a tan one, and confined himself to a pair of business-class seats at the front of the plane.

His entourage, including his brother, Scott, and longtime friend, Bob White, spread out through the rest of the plane, one person on each side of the aisle across the 26 rows of seats. All were given blankets and pillows, along with a takeout dinner from the Outback steakhouse.

White and Ron Kaufman, a Washington lobbyist who serves as a senior adviser to Romney, also scooped ice cream for the passengers as they boarded in Long Beach.

In pre-convention remarks to supporters, Romney urged West Virginians to post an early win for him. The results were due to be reported at midday.

"If you want to become the nominee of our party, you have to show the nation that you can become the winner in the general election, and for that to be the case, you got to be competitive all over the country, and that's something I want to show by winning in West Virginia," Romney said.

During a news conference afterward, he also denied he was questioning former Sen. Bob Dole's military heroism earlier in the day when he questioned the wisdom of the former Senate leader and 1996 GOP presidential nominee writing to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and urging him to stop criticizing McCain.

"I think very highly of Senator Dole, but I do not think highly of the mental set that says we should choose our nominee based on how many years they've served and how long they've waited in line," Romney said.

Afterward, Romney flew to Massachusetts to vote in his hometown, the Boston suburb of Belmont.

He said he and his wife, Ann, had talked Sunday night about the prospect of walking into the voting booth and seeing his name listed as a candidate for president.

"It's something I would have never imagined," said the 60-year-old, whose late father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, sought the presidency in 1968.

"I mean, it's an honor, obviously, it's an enormous honor to even be considered as a candidate for president and to know that there will be hundreds of thousands and hopefully millions who will say, 'You're the guy we'd like as our next president.' It's a very humbling honor," he added.

Romney then hoped to relax at home for the first time since he awoke there Jan. 8 -- the morning of the New Hampshire primary -- before attending a campaign party at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

"I feel excited," he told reporters as he flew west, "very eager for the day to come and to start counting results. It's going to be hard to go to sleep tomorrow night, because we won't hear from California probably until very, very late."

What makes us different from one another

One of my favorite newspapers in Mexico is La Jornada.

I found today’s front-page picture quite interesting. Personally because I’ve always struggled with the idea that people in wars, conflicts, or simply different political parties, in the end are simply people; with blood in their veins and the same number of bones. We may have different skin tones and eye color, but we are all made equal. Therefore, when there are two sides fighting over ‘something’ no matter what that is, the only thing that makes us different is what we believe in; our thoughts. And those could be so radically different from one head to another they can depict images like the one in today’s front page.

It is about Cairo and the conflicts against a military government.

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/11/22/portada.pdf

The footnote reads something like this (I will try to translate to my best ability):

A police officer dressed as a civilian throws stones against protesters after the continuous confrontation near Tahrir Square, in Cairo. The violence chain begun Saturday morning, when dozens of activists were arrested and hit for spending the night in that same square.

How could anyone know this guy is a police officer dressed as a civilian if it wasn’t because the reporter, or cameraman, clearly stated so? He could have passed by another protester, but he was throwing stones from the ‘opposite’ side. The story never explains how they found out he was a police officer in his regular clothes, which leads me again to think, we are all the same just wearing different ‘uniforms.’

Proof in the media - "How's it going to get fixed?"

PROOF. That’s all I want. I want real proof of how each candidate’s plans to rebuild the economy and how they plan to do it. I’m not partial to any necessary method of proof; I just want to see it.

Whether it’s in a PowerPoint presentation, an excel sheet or a business plan model, that Mitt Romney seems to be so well at creating and then tearing apart into perfect little pieces. I want to see how they plan to do it. I’m so frustrated with all the “I-Hate-Obama” talks and “Obama-messed-up-the economy” line; it does nothing for me as a voter, it’s a broken record and in the words of Jerry McGuire, “Show me the money,”- well… where you plan to spend the money… and how you will bring down the national deficient… and how you will create jobs. How is it going to ensure future generations that social security will exist. I’m freaking out about the national deficit. In FY 2009 it was $1.9 trillion, one year later it $1.7 trillion and as of November 17, 2011 the gross debt was $15.03 trillion. It’s not like the government can file bankruptcy and start over again, someone has to pay it; and who’s better qualified to solve that tangle mess?

I don’t like gossip or bad-mouthing people, maybe it’s just my mother’s voice in my head saying “if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say it,” - which I acknowledge would be practically impossible to ask a presidential candidate to play nice. But I’m just done with it. I just want a straightforward and clear answer. I’ve spent a lot of time on each candidate’s web site in search of detailed answers and reviewed several videos and watched numerous debates but, I still have a lot of unanswered questions.

My frustration with the media has more to do with the lack of real news. I feel as though there is a great focus on who is the biggest clown of the evening or did something embarrassing. I feel some journalists are only looking for the next biggest blunders or scandal. Unless the information that investigative reporting digs up will negatively impact the candidates’ ability to run the country then I don’t want to hear it.

I’m almost tempted to tape headshots of my top two choices (as of now Romney & Cain) and throw a dart with my eyes closed and, whichever the dart hits the lowest, I’ll vote for that guy since gravity seems to be the only reliable source.

No more sexual allegations, no more bad mouthing, no more hallow promises and wordy sentence that say nothing.

I just want the proof.

Maybe I'm just (politically) jaded

My outrage regarding politics is more about politics itself than it is about political coverage, though I don't think the latter does the former any favors. I'm constantly frustrated by the two-party system here in the U.S. I think it sets up a false dichotomy between Republicans and Democrats.

This builds upon what Rock just posted. Perhaps I'm getting too jaded about the political system now that I've witnessed (and participated in) many elections over the years. But it does seem to me that when you have two of anything (political parties or something else entirely), the differences between X and Y are incredibly and unfairly magnified.

For example, I know several people who feel swindled by Obama. He ran his campaign on hope and change, and they feel the effects of neither three years later. There's a common thought pattern out there that "Obama was going to fix things and things are still broken; thus, he's not the right person for the job."

I contend this is fallacious thinking. I'd wager that WHOEVER we put into office in 2008 would be stuck in a similar position. Yeah, sure, some things would be different, but the overall gist would be the same. Both parties work within the same system, even if they approach things differently.

This kind of thinking happens in science (and the world) all the time. When you're looking only at the differences between grapes and raisins, they appear radically different. One is juicy, the other is dry. One is plump, the other is shriveled. But when you step back and look at the bigger picture, only then do you see that not only are they both fruit but they're the same fruit, just in different states.

The media often enhances the differences between the two political parties. Is this a right-leaning or left-leaning publication? Do you agree with this side or that side? It's the classic "us vs. them" mentality, and it leaves me cold.

I'm not sure what the answer is here, or how I would change this. I'm sure people are reporting and writing about this false dichotomy, but it's hard to find when it gets swallowed up by more polarizing topics.

Why Political Coverage Doesn't Interest Me

It's difficult for me to comment on politics since I do not follow it with any passion. This is a remarkable turnaround for me since back in 1998, I eagerly and proudly voted in my first election thinking I somehow helped make a difference voting for Chuck Schumer over incumbent Alfonse D'amato in the race for U.S Senate.

Reading more about politics over the years, I've come to realize it doesn't really matter who was in power. I've subscribed to the notion that America is The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Special interests of the wealthy nearly always win out unless there is a seismic movement from below. Change doesn't come from the top, it comes from the bottom.

In 2008, I had many peers who were suddenly interested in politics thinking the election of Barack Obama was somehow going to change our government. I didn't bother to vote. While I was happy for other reasons to see President Obama win, I knew in the grand scheme of things, life would not be any different. Our wars would continue and government would still be beholden to corporations like Goldman Sachs, Obama's top donor.

We give too much credit to our elected officials when real change comes from the people, who force politicians with no choice but to act. Achievements in civil rights were not because of people like John F. Kennedy, but was really the work of people like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. If there is a real financial reform, it will not be because of Obama, but because of movements like Occupy Wall Street. While OWS has been getting a large amount of coverage, there are many other important movements that are happening now and have happened in the past that deserve more coverage. At least more than the latest Republican contender gaffe.

Politics, photos, and excellent reporting

Thanks to this class I'm looking at news articles with a more discerning eye. Take for example, Teaching Good Sex by Laurie Abraham in Sunday's New York Times Magazine. How in the world did Abraham to get the Friends School outside of Philadelphia to let her sit in on their sex ed class and interview the students and the teacher? Very provocative article and very impressive reporting. The same goes with Eliza Griswold's article on the downside of natural gas, The Fracturing of Pennsylvania. Another example of thorough reporting.

Now, on to politics. I, too, believe there is too much of an agenda in the news. It's hard to find the facts. The primary source, the politicians themselves, are filled with spin.  I live in liberal Massachusetts and mostly get my news from The New York Times, Boston Globe, NPR, and The New Yorker--all liberal publications. My brother lives in conservative Singapore and gets his information from Wall Street Journal, Economist and other right-leaning publications. When we get into political discussions, which we try to avoid at all costs, it's like we live on separate planets from each other. And I believe, maybe naively, it's because of our reading material. The leanings in each of our publications is like a gas leak--invisible to the eye but when mixed with an ignitor, flammable.

And for those photos, wow, can you imagine a paper without them? On a hurried morning, they are what I scan. In today's Globe, two photos struck me. The first is of this officer spraying Occupy Wall Street protestors with pepper spray. The spray looks a little funny like it was a doctored a bit but I believe it. It looks like he's watering his lawn. Very powerful.

And then for metaphor, this photo spoke to me:

The article is about a receded Texas lake that when the water dried up artifacts such as this gravestone were discovered. The line right through the middle of the gravestone of a one-year-old child speaks volumes about drought, fragility of life, global warming, the future. That's not easy to convey in a 300 word article.

Photos/politics

I really enjoyed this picture from the Salem News: http://www.salemnews.com/archive/x67370088

Also: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111120/GJNEWS_01/711209878/-1/FOSNEWS01&template=DoverRegion

Amazing how well a picture can depict a story. They're so important to the newspaper, especially local publications, as all news is local... if you can tie in your readers, they are more likely to become connected to the newspaper on a day-to-day basis.

In terms of what is missing what in today's political coverage, I still get frustrated with reporters' lack of objectivity. If the piece isn't an op-ed, then truthfully, I am much more interested in learning the facts of the story. That is, to me, an immense piece of journalism as a reader and a writer.

great use of picture in a local newspaper

A picture on the front page of the free daily newspaper given out at the Subway, Am New York,  of the Wall Street Protesters walking with a sign that said, "Out of Wall Street, into the schools."

The day before was the two month anniversary of the Wall Street occupation, there were reports that part of the movement was to branch out to make life difficult for regular New Yorkers.  It was reported that some of the protesters were yelling at young children as they went into a private school close to Wall Street. They also marched up to Union Square (14th Street) to disrupt traffic.  Actions like this are turning the working class in New York against the protesters.  No one likes the image of adults yelling insults at small children as young as 4 years old. 

Political Coverage

Mexico is a country where money can buy pretty much everything, from opinions to political favors, to law amendments that legalize what otherwise would still be done but considered illegal.

The small group of people (less than 10% of de Mexican population) who control most of the money (that is 37.5% of the national income, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico), pretty much determine what the media outlets will publish, cover, say and show in their different spaces. Whether it is TV, newspapers or radio.

It is really unfortunate the way major media outlets show, print or say only what serves the interests of that small group of people in power. Distortion of the reality and biased news is a standard practice in some newspapers of national circulation, or major TV news programs.

I was reading a book just a few days ago about how constant exposure to something or someone can make people feel attracted to it and how we tend to like people/faces we see more often than those we see less frequently. And I think in Mexico that is exactly what happens when the two major media outlets, owned by two of the richest people in our country, show the masses only what they want us to like and approve.

These constant exposure to certain faces and promotion of specific government programs shape the masses likes, dislikes, perceptions and deceptions about our politicians and their careers and present a distorted image of the reality our country lives in.

Just to cite an example, since 2006 the presidential candidate who alleges the presidency was stolen from him during the elections that year, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) has been banned from the two major TV outlets in our country. No more interviews and air time was given to him at all during the past five years, unlike it happened to the other candidates who also ran for the presidency in the same elections.

In contrast, there is one man, from an opposite party, Enrique Peña Nieto, who was governor to one of the most (politically) important states in Mexico, who’s been favored all these years with a significant amount of TV air-time in these media outlets.

Everyone in Mexico knows he’s the favorite candidate to occupy the presidency in 2013. It is no secret that the ruling party will more likely lose their power to this particular man because every survey in the country shows Peña as the favorite candidate, by a significant percentage, over any other.

AMLO has traveled all over the country since his loss in 2006, visiting the main and largest cities as well as the smallest, worst communicated towns in Mexico. In an effort to build a stronger, better organized base of voters for his second candidacy in 2012. However, no major media outlet has ever mentioned this effort, talked about those pre-campaign acts, nor has shown images of the multitudes that crowd in those towns whenever he visits them.

Five years of absolutely no exposure in the major TV shows, in a country where people don’t read newspapers (and pretty much anything at all) is simply the best way to kill the possibilities of anyone who would hope for a fair competition.

For those, few, who also read leftist newspapers is easy to see how biased the information is. There is, in my opinion, no way you can get a fair, impartial image of the political picture in Mexico. It’s pretty obvious that you will get only radically opposite news or comments from the different media outlets.

I don’t think it will be possible, in many years to come, to see a fair, impartial coverage of the political affairs in our country. I simply don’t see how anyone, with the power to do so, of course, will be interested in changing the way things are today. They work quite well for the groups of interest who define and direct the present and future of our country, so why would they want to change it? After all in Mexico we have an old saying that describes very well the ways of the masses “better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t.”

The Dog Meat Story

I thought this Chinatown Dog Meat story summarized by Media Bistro was interesting in light of our ethics class last Monday. A reporter, who apparently was fast-tracked to his position by his station boss/frat brother, reported falsely that there was a place Manhattan's Chinatown that sold dog meat. This was all based on a phone call interview, with an interview subject who said his English was "not very good."

According to an alternative weekly in Minnesota, a source said the reporter was told this, which should have been a red flag to get clarification on what the non-native English speaker was saying. It's amazing this story got approved to by others without any verification.

Above, I embedded a video of the story as told by those awesome animators from Taiwan.

Missing political story

The story that I see missing most from any U.S. News outlet is any substantial discussion of the relationship between Israel and Palestine and how that relationship affect America.  When I travel abroad, I see many articles that give in depth coverage of the issues between Israel and Palestine, but I never see that coverage here in the U.S.  I am actually almost afraid to post this because of how it might be interpreted, and the possible backlash.  I feel that the coverage in England and Europe covers a much broader scope, and covers both sides of the story, while U.S. News covers the story from one side, and generally restricts the flow of information.

Impact of the use of a photo in a local paper

The picture was on the front page of the New York Post of Zucatti Park empty.  The police moved in at 1 a.m. to evict the tent village of Zucatti Park, and managed to block all access to the press during the process.  There are few pictures of the actual eviction and most that do exist were taken by the protesters as they were being evicted.  Following the announcement by the protestors that they planned a "Day of Action," with marches to Wall Street and taking over the subways, Mayor Bloomberg began planning for a peaceful eviction process.

The afternoon following the eviction, there was a Court battle over the first amendment right of the protestors to occupy a private park with tents and generators.  The Court decided that the protestors did indeed have a first amendment right to gather in the park, however, that right did not extend to erecting a tent city in the park. 

Many New Yorkers cheered this outcome, while they agree that the protestors have a right to voice their discontent with the government and Wall Street, if they were allowed to erect tents, then where would this road lead, especially in New York, would homeless people all over New York have the right to erect tents in private parks?  Another point of contention with many New Yorkers, was the rights of the people who live close to the park, who would have use of that park to stroll with their child if not for the protestors, what about the rights of New Yorkers?  What about the local businesses and delis, who had their bathrooms overrun by the protestors?  What about the homeless people who were displaced from that park by the protesters?

The Writing Life by John McPhee

John McPhee, a master of nonfiction storytelling, wrote an engaging article for The New Yorker this week about how he finds his ideas. Progression: How and What? (I've linked an abstract here--you can only get the complete article as a subscriber) is wonderful because he shows us how his mind works and how he approaches his projects.

There is a lot to learn from this article. First, is the importance of structure. For McPhee, the right structure is paramount to the success of a story. He gives an example of a couple of articles where he devised a challenging structure first and then built the story from there. Now, there's an idea I had never thought of. (And, maybe only McPhee can pull it off).

Second, is idea generation. One day, McPhee decided to make a list of all the articles he had ever written. He put a check next to the ones that had concepts that he was interested in as a child. He was amazed to discover that over 90% of them had checks. Now it's possible he was an extremely precocious child, or maybe he's revealing an important truth: The ideas are in us, we just need to tap them.

It all sounds so simple, doesn't it? Good idea + strong structure=New Yorker article. Ha! Not to use a cliche but...the devil is in the details.

Is there a similar case in the US?

Dear fellow students,
in the plagiarism context, I find it interesting if there has ever been a similar case in the US?

In Germany, the case of the former minister of defense is the most prominent regarding politicians that cheated in their thesis using sources incorrectly:

" In 2011 the chancellor’s Christian Democrats were rocked by scandal. In March her party’s brightest young star and federal minister of defense, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, resigned after it emerged that he had plagiarized his doctoral dissertation."
taken from: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/angela_merkel/index.html?scp=1&sq=Karl-Theodor%20zu%20Guttenberg&st=cse

You can find a more detailed report in a German publication (SPIEGEL):
http://www.spiegel.de/thema/karl_theodor_zu_guttenberg/

The Romenesko Debacle

Wow, what a kerfuffle. Unsurprisingly, when you read only one or two posts--especially from the same source--you get a diluted sense of this situation.

The crux of the issue: Jim Romenesko, longtime blogger and journalist for Poynter, resigned recently due to criticism of mis-attribution. Apparently some of his posts were littered with the original authors' verbatim words, and were not in quotation marks.

One of the editors at Poynter, Julie Moos, is another key player here. Romenesko submitted his resignation to her (and probably whoever else represents her--it sounds like she's the media representative). Moos has come under fire all over Twitter for accepting his resignation; many journalists argue that Romenesko's deeds were not all that dastardly--he credited and linked his sources.

The furor here is huge. People love a good media fight. Who's right, Romenesko or Moos? Which side do you fall on?

Well, in my humble opinion, we're all fighting about the wrong question (at least given what I've learned about this debacle). I read several spinoff articles regarding this debate, and by far the most informative one is here, written by Columbia Journalism Review's Erika Fry--the woman who Moos credited for finding all those mis-attributions.

Fry makes several points here, including the following (though you should definitely read her whole article):

1. She was preparing to interview Moos about changes she had noticed at Poynter, and sent her questions to Moos in advance. From these questions, Moos went on to write a post that set the debate in motion.

2. Fry noticed problems with attributions with other Poynter staff, too--not just Romenesko.

3. Mis-attributions was only one of Fry's points: her bigger problem was the rise in "over-aggregation" by Poynter staff. When a significant percentage of an author's column is the verbatim quote of another writer--without much original insight--readers won't want to read the original article. Thus, Poynter gets all the traffic.

I'm sure if I kept reading the seemingly endless trail about this story, even more facts would come to light. But even after digging around for just a few minutes, I feel like many reactions--especially from the Twitterverse--are overblown and ill-focused.

This fight has been taken entirely out of context. And someone ended up losing a job over it. What a shame.

Great example: translating complex material, without being patronizing

Hello, everyone. I thought this article in today's NYT 'Europe’s Banks Found Safety of Bonds a Costly Illusion' is an excellent example of how to explain a complex, somewhat technical topic in a way that is understandable for the average reader, without insulting or talking down to the reader.

Reporters Liz Alderman & Susanne Craig methodically explain the parallels of the current euro debt crisis to the mortgage debt crisis that began in U.S. a few years ago. European banks have invested billions in the bonds issued by eurozone economies such as Greece, assuming those investments to be “bulletproof.” But, as we all know by now, Greece & other shaky economies of Europe (the PIGS) are hugely over-extended and unable to pay back those obligations. The banks are being forced to swallow huge losses on these bond investments. If these banks continue to lose billions on their bond holdings in other countries, such as Italy, Spain, & Portugal, the solvency of the banks themselves is threatened. If major European banks fail, the euro debt crisis becomes a worldwide financial crisis.

Alderman & Craig have obviously done their homework, to the point that they can explain the intricacies of the current financial crisis for the layman, without being patronizing. This a basic, central skill that we must all come to have: to translate our deeper knowledge of a topic which we have researched, in plain, clear language that the average reader can easily comprehend.

Later, Jim

BOSTON LATINO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 10th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Guys, for all the locals who enjoy good films please take a look at the press release from the Boston Latino International Film Festival and join us!


http://www.bliff.org/

November 17 - 22
6 Days of Over 50 Films from 15 Countries

Boston, October 20, 2011 - The Boston Latino International Film Festival (BLIFF) is proud to announce its 10th annual celebration. The festival will be held from November 17th to the 22nd and will feature 50 films hailing from 15 different countries. This very special 10th edition of the festival will also include the participation of 12 domestic and international directors. After a decade of bringing the Latino experience to Boston through film, the festival again promises to deliver an exceptional selection of projects.

This year the festival will be headed by the presentation of America in a special event that will serve as the opening of the festival and will include the participation of the cast for both the screening and the reception. The opening event will be attended by the cast of the movie: Academy Award nominated actor Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Miami Vice, Stand and Deliver), Lymari Nadal (CSI-NY) and Yancey Arias (CSI-NY, Burn Notice) The selections this year represent a varied gamut of projects and interests. BLIFF will be presenting Mistura a Peruvian documentary about the power of food, directed by Patricia Pérez and winner of the Best Short Documentary Award in the prestigious International Family Film Festival (IFFF). Unfinished Spaces, another of the selections, narrates the story of how Cubaʼs ambitious National Arts School project, designed by three young artists in the wake of the Cuban Revolution, is neglected, nearly forgotten, then ultimately rediscovered as a visionary architectural masterpiece. BLIFF is also proud to present Charly Braunʼs film Por el Camino. Braun combines French, U.S., and South American influences with dramatic Uruguayan landscapes and his lead's relaxed chemistry to create a road movie that captures the airy restlessness of youth, in the tale of two characters who start out digging into their past, only to find they’ve unearthed their present.

“It is an honor to be able to showcase such high quality projects this year, which we are eager to share with the Boston community. It is going to be an unforgettable celebration, we are bringing in 2011 one of the best selections of international films ever projected in the Boston area” - Jose Barriga, Festival Director.

The festival will be held at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, MIT (54-100) and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. All Spanish and Portuguese language films will be subtitled in English. General admission tickets will be sold at the door for $10, $8 for students with ID and senior citizens. BLIFF is the only film festival in the Boston Metro area that brings about 30% of its programming for FREE. A $50 all access pass will also be available which includes all screenings except the opening film and reception.

A profile with attitude

I read this article Her Life Is a Real Page-Turner in The New York Times a couple of weeks ago and keep it on my desk for inspiration. It's a slice-of-life story about Sarah McNally and her independent (and thriving!) bookstore in Manhattan. A rarity these days.

I love the tone. The author, Jan Hoffman, fills the article with witty and original observations that seem to perfectly capture the main character. For example, "Who else can go to war with Amazon but an Amazon warrior?" We've already been told that McNally is a "tall, ethereal Canadian.."

It's conversational: "It was so other....And?...'Alas,' she said. It's revealing: "'I have A.D.D.,' she said, her slender arms flying, like a crane."

The lead grabbed me "To keep her independent bookstore not only solvent but thriving (revenue is racing ahead of last year by 16 percent), Sarah McNally has a limitless supply of small tricks up her sleeve. And a whirring, wheezing behemoth at her side" and then the language and tone kept me reading to the end.

But for all of the breeziness, it is a serious business story about an independent book store succeeding in this age of e-books. Bravo Jan Hoffman!

The Once and Future Way to Run

This is an interesting article about running and, I really enjoyed how the writer without any introduction dives right into his story and uses a quote in the first paragraph.

When you’re stalking barefoot runners, camouflage helps. “Some of them get kind of prancy when they notice you filming,” Peter Larson says. “They put on this notion of what they think barefoot running should be. It looks weird.” Larson, an evolutionary biologist at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire who has been on the barefoot beat for two years now, is also a stickler about his timing. “You don’t want to catch them too early in a run, when they’re cold, or too late, when they’re tired.”

The writer, CHRISTOPHER McDOUGALL, not only breaks the "don't use a quote in your first sentence rule" but also quotes a source without introducing the source before; And it works well, I couldn't stop reading this story, even though it was incredibly long and I wasn't really sure what the point was until later on.

In the second paragraph McDougall hints at a possible story about running and photography - not so interesting to me, but he mentions running, and I'm on the hunt for a new pair of shoes, so I believe this story may be of value to me, so I keep reading. And then his third paragraph he name drops the trendy new brand - Vibram FiveFinger shoes - so I think it’s about Vibram.

But it's not and, you don't find out what exactly it is about until the end for the fourth paragraph where McDougall states - "Larson surreptitiously recorded them all, wondering how many (if any) had what he was looking for: the lost secret of perfect running."

So then I had to know, what does perfect running mean and how do you do it? Luckily this article has an illustration to show you the proper form. However the description and the illustration were not enough to get me out of my seat and actually try it. But then I noticed the video that was attached to this piece, and that did it for me. I watched the video several times, took off my shoes and started mimicking the people on screen. I wonder if this articles would have been one of the "top emailed" stories of the week had it not had the video. I also wonder if this story would be as popular if it were only available in print.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/running-christopher-mcdougall.html?src=me&ref=general

Refugee and Aspiring Journalist

Lest we fatigue of deadlines, or otherwise lament our lot in life (and we all do from time to time) it's good to have perspective on our fortune and assets.

Here is an a sobering but uplifting story, part of the Wairimu Gitani's series of profiles, "Tales of success from Dadaab, world's biggest refugee camp." published by the BBC World Service. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15158976

According to Gitani, "Dadaab refugee camp in north-eastern Kenya was set up in 1991 as a temporary solution to conflict in the Horn of Africa. Twenty years later its numbers are still growing and for many of the camp's younger residents it is the only home they have known. The camp was built to house 90,000 refugees but its population is now broaching half a million people and with drought and famine ravaging East Africa, more arrive each day. Despite the desperation some residents are battling the odds, determined to make a success of life as a refugee."

Here is an excerpt from the profile of Moulid Iftn Hujale, an aspiring journalist, recalling his arrival at the camp without his parents:

"But there we found peace, there was no gunfire and there was some sort of tranquillity," he says.

He was able to go to school and focused his energy on his studies. Three years later his mother made it to the camp. It was a dramatic moment, he remembers.

"My younger sister came to me in the school. I could tell that she had good news and immediately I saw my mother running through the main gate."

"My mum's tears were like water flooding and made my uniform wet."