Film on the Dolphin Hunt Stirs Outrage in Japan

This article can be found here.

October 22, 2009

Director Louie Psihoyos recently debuted the screening of his highly publicized documentary called "The Cove" that aimed at raising awareness of the inhumane capture of dolphins by fishermen in Taiji, Japan. Every winter it's dolphin fishing season, and fishermen flock to the sea to initiate their mass slaughter of the species. Captured by OBarry's candid cameras, the fishermen trick the dolphins into their nets by luring them in with the vibrations of their beating metal poles. Once trapped, the fisherman equip themselves with spears and stab the gentle creatures repeatedly until they finally die. Aside from these practices being highly unethical, dolphin meat consists of dangerous amounts of mercury, that may be hazardous to the consumers it is so haphazardly distributed to. Japan is probably more known for their more publicized mass slaughtering of the whale population; but the 13,000 dolphins that were killed last winter should not be ignored. The documentary allowed for Japanese people to become more aware of the inhumane activity of dolphin fishing through the gorey, explicit footage of fisherman making their murderous jabs at the dolphins, showing the sea slowly turn red with blood. This image has already activated several influential people, like Hollywood's Ben Stiller, into lobbying for the termination of such practices after the documentary's debut at the Tokyo Film Festival.

Asia Said to Be Leading the Globe Out of Crisis

This article can be found here.

October 21, 2009

When Ben Bernanke, the nation's leading economist and chairmen of the prestigious Federal Reserve, tells you to do something relating to finances, you'd be smart to listen. On October 19, 2009, Bernanke came out with a statement requesting that the US and Asia, the world's most influential economic powers, combine efforts to lower trade imbalances across the globe, ensuring that such action will greatly aid in the rapid recovery of the global economy. Bernanke also suggested that Asia's own rapid recoveries should be looked to as inspiration for other nations still dwelling in the red. He blatantly calls out the United States' practice of excluding some nations from their trade as directly influencing the failure of the economy, along with their reckless lending practices. Bernanke suggested that Asia, now out of the red, has a duty to export less and focus on selling their goods domestically, since less successful economies cannot produce goods as cheaply in light of economic challenges. Though straightforward in most of his statements, on the verge of harsh bluntness, Bernanke still manages to avoid commenting on the recent decline of value of the US dollar, something that relates directly to his own activity as leading chairman of the Federal Reserve. No, commenting on the insecurities of his own governmental organization would imply weakness. Save the criticisms for governmental groups other than your own. Psh.

A Harvest of Golf Courses From Vietnam’s Farmland

This article can be found here.

October 20, 2009

It's hard to imagine the prominence of golf, the most pompous and western of all sports, in a third world nation; but golf courses have become one of the most essential of capitalist enterprises in Vietnam. To the author of this article, Seth Mydans, the association of elitism to golf courses is an apt symbol of the plight of the nation's poor farmers. These groups of people struggle to retain their land in the face of developers hungry to acquire their livelihood simply to create more golf courses. What's more is that these very sites that pushed rural peoples out of their homes, would most likely never cater to the needs of anyone other than the rich, a very minute portion of the Vietnamese population. Mydans cites the fact that at least one permit to construct these courses are issued every week. After the Vietnam War, the country had only two courses. Today there are 13. The government have tried to slow the creation of these courses because they feel there are environmental hazards and social costs to their rapid production, which there are. Over 3,000 farmers have lost their farms and their way of life. And since golf courses simultaneously provide so few jobs and suck up so much of the available land, the Vietnamese people have ultimately been placed in a lose-lose situation. Golf courses are being seen as a way for Vietnam to re-enter the global scene and change their image from one of aggression to one open to tourism. Even the strict communist leaders are having a hard time controlling wealth-driven investors. It appears that capitalism is a major motivating force behind the creation of these sites, as the golf courses aren't the only thing being constructed with these permits. Hotels, resorts, and recreational parks are also being developed on the appropriated land. New developments have reported that not only do these courses destroy the way of life of thousands of natives, but they also suck up so much water that meager amounts are available for the city-dwellers.

Guest Speaker: Marianne Giordano

October 19, 2009

Marianne Giordano is a 1977 UF graduate who is the current editor the New York Times' "The Local" blog, an experimental media outlet that focuses on intense news coverage of a small region, namely the suburbs. Before her current position, Giordano worked for several different newspaper outlets. Her first job was as a writer for the Miami Herald. She then moved to New Jersey, where she worked on and off for the New York Daily News for seven years. There, she covered all kinds of stories, from murders to the New York drug trade. She was the first woman to earn the position of bureau chief. She then gained a prominent position at Columbia University, where she not only taught, but wrote for Columbia Journal News. After Columbia, Giordano was offered an editing job for the New York Times, something she was always wary of because she had always loved being active in the field. After a short tenure as editor there, Giordano left to work for the New York Observer in the late 90s; but following the 9/11 attacks, Giordano realized she had real interest in what got covered in the news and how. She took the position and was assigned to the National Politics desk during the 2008 election. Since the last time she had been editor, the newspaper became a lot more interested in integrating their printed news with the web, so she was also put in charge of editing the NY Times' National Politics blogs. She, in turn, became very interested in this revolutionary way to present news and went into blogging full force, updating on a regular basis with election news. At one point, she had edited for a live blog that updated continually during events such as debates or caucuses. At the end of these informal articles, she would create a report summarizing the entire evolution of the event and send it off simultaneously to print and the web. Her intrigue in finding new ways to present news led up to her participation in "The Local". The paper incorporates user generated content, since citizens are encouraged to get involved in contributing news for the blog to post. The most revolutionary aspect of this type of coverage is the informal, conversational, and truthful tone that blogs are capable of conveying. People are able to comment, supplying corrections or asking for clarifications. The future of news, as Giordano sees it, is a new, more interactive journalism combining contemporary social media with old media. The purpose of "The Local" was to see if the NY Times could become more interactive with their readers, and if the paper could make a little money from selling advertisements at the same time. As of now, these local blogs are not so profitable as they are popular.

Egyptian Demands on Return of Nefertiti Statue Mar Reopening of Berlin Museum

This article can be found here.

October 18, 2009

Just in time for the Neues Museum to reopen their doors after years of overdue renovation, the Egyptian government has claimed their right to one of the museum's most prized exhibits, the bust of Queen Nefertiti. Germany took ownership of the 3,300 year old statue after Germany originally acquired it in 1913. Investigations have been initiated questioned how the piece originally arrived in Germany. If they find out that it had been looted and sold to take its current residence in Germany, the Egyptian government has a legitimate right to ownership. It is just now, 96 years after it was removed from its Egyptian homeland, that Egypt has first attempted to claim ownership of world-renowned artifact. Only a few days after claiming this piece, Egyptian officials began to claim five other artifacts currently installed in the French Louvre. The French government were also willing to return the pieces if there was any proof that they were now under the possession of the Louvre as the result of any illegal activity. Of the various nations that house Egyptian artifacts in museums, most would argue that giving the pieces back would lead to their demise, because Egypt provides such poor conditions to house these works in.

Russia’s Leaders See China as Template for Ruling

This article can be found here.

October 17, 2009

Clifford Levy, the author of this article, does not hide much bias when exploring the Russian government's attempt to emulate Chinese Communist Party. He attacks the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, by comparing him to an "envious underachiever" who is "ashamed" of his country's poor transition into a capitalist economy. He hints that Putin is capable of rash, irrational decisions when throwing his nation into fundamental political and economical changes. Levy adds that Putin does not wish to mimic the Communist Party of the old USSR, or even the one under Chinese President Hu-Jintao. Instead, he only wishes to promote a government with the utopian ideal of being able to maintain single party dominance while supporting a flourishing economy, something China has only recently- and probably temporarily- been capable of. In past years, before he he quickly decided to give up on creating a more capitalist system, Putin haphazardly lowered government controls on all businesses, making these completely dependent organizations suddenly fend for themselves, rather than being eased into that position. Recently, the article cites that he has been trying out a new "Russian Conservative" policy. Again, Levy offers these examples to his readers to solidify the belief that Putin's political views are fundamentally flawed.

Pipe Bursts, Floods Dorm

This article was found on the front page of the Alligator, volume 103, issue 35.

October 13, 2009

The author of this article, Rebeca Martinez, chose an interesting source to rely upon for an eyewitness account of the recent flooding of Riker Hall on Saturday. Unfortunately, the whole first portion of the article, the part encompassing a large chunk of the front page of the paper, depends on the report of one Uri Ramirez, a UF sophomore who lives on the third floor of the flooded building. In large bold letters usually reserved for supplying the reader with a summary of the article's important content, Martinez displays Ramirez's rather precocious comment: "It was pretty loud actually. And my hypothesis is that they hit one of the sprinklers, and suddenly, I heard a splash of water." Since Ramirez himself isn't able to write out his statement for Martinez to use, I believe it is up to the author in displaying the quote with the most readable use of grammar. I an not suggesting that Martinez should change the statement in any way, but just make sure that proper sentence structure be used to present the article in the most professional light that is easy for the reader to understand. Instead, the quote could be written as: "It was pretty loud actually; and my hypothesis is that they hit one of the sprinklers," and use the second part of the quote--"and suddenly, I heard a splash"-- in another part of the article; perhaps when using Ramirez's second quote where he describes how he heard a couple of guys playing with what sounded like a nerf ball outside his window. This would make more chronological sense, so there would be an ease in the flow of the article, for the reader's sake. Continuing on the eighth page of the paper, the article uses another witness' statements, Josh Perry. The author makes the mistake of using a third party quote, which isn't very professional since there is a questioning of reliability. "From what I heard" is how the quote begins. The article then begins to rely exclusively on what "Perry said", as most of the concluding paragraphs end in or include the phrase "Perry said". If a writer is going to depend so heavily on witness' statements, it needs to find more than two contributors.

Guest Speaker: David Frank

October 12, 2009

David Frank is a video journalist at the New York Times; but before beginning his video journalism career, Frank used to be an editor for the photojournalism department at the New York Times. After a long tenure as editor, he turned away his managerial job and decided to go back out into the field. He is now currently working on creating video news stories for the New York Times. By doing so, Frank is taking his photojournalism background and melding it with more a traditional, written journalism to create a more contemporary form of news coverage. Though this type of coverage is young and not yet proven to be economically profitable, Frank assures that this not the reason these new forms of coverage are explored. Rather, they are ways for news outlets to experiment with more ways to incite the public into becoming better informed, by providing more 'entertaining' ways to present their information. An example of his work can be found here. This tear-jerking account is exactly the kind of news Frank loves to cover. It is a sports story in that it does inform the watcher about Olympic hopeful Melanie Roach, but it is also unexpected since it primarily focuses on her struggle with her son's autism.

In Paris Without Papers, and Seeking Visibility

This article can be found here.

October 10, 2009

The US isn't the only nation with immigration high on the political agenda, with thousands of African, Turks, Pakistanis, and Chinese inhabiting the camps in the outskirts of Paris. But, unlike the immigrants of America that try to keep their presence concealed, these immigrants march and protest for citizenship on a regular basis, disregarding the risk of deportation. The main reason for this difference lies in the fact that the Parisian police do not do regular checks in common immigrant settlements and perform subsequent deportations like they used to do in America. Event under President Obama's recent measures, deportations and direct attacks on common immigrant sites are also becoming less regular. In Paris, though, one or two residency permits are cranked out every day at a consistent rate, awarding 150,000 immigrants citizenship yearly, the second highest in Europe. Some believe that it is actually the prevalence of these immigrants that keeps them safe from government deportation, since common national opinion on the subject would lead to nation-wide resentment if this were to occur.

Surprise Nobel for Obama Stirs Praise and Doubts

This article can be found here.

October 9, 2009

When it was announced that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I was confused as to how such a new president could already earn the great honor. But it became clear that the award was less about President Obama's accomplishments and more about the hope for his future success in limiting the stockpiling of nuclear weaponry around the globe. The committee noted specifically the president's increased emphasis on diplomacy. Republicans question if it is not Obama's charisma that has won the award, and Democrats too wonder if the president has really earned this award. Leaders of many Middle Eastern nations, most notable Iran, are fuming over the committees decision. The committee assured those confused by their decision by admitting when considering their nominees, they think about who has made the most effort in the past year to enhance world peace, and they came up with Barack Obama's name. The $1.4 million prize money will be donated to charity. Since the award is more of an expectation rather than a congratulatory award, a lot of pressure will be placed on Obama in the future years of his presidency to make global peace a reality.

Former UF Employee Arrested for Molesting

This article was written in the Alligator

October 7, 2009

When is an article's contents considered too obscene to be shown on the front page of a newspaper? This was one of the first questions I asked myself when I picked up the most recent Alligator newspaper. There on the front page was a short article about the UF engineering employee, 53-year-old David Blankenship, who was arrested for lewd and lascivious conduct involving a young girl. The topic is one that is not new to popular newspaper headlines. Rather, the specificity upon which this article took when describing the man's act was what I found to be obscene. In only the fourth sentence of the article on the front page of the newspaper, the author Katherine Bein explicitly lays out the finer details of the young girl's molestation. Bein outright describes how Blankenship "touched [the girl's] genitals under her clothes and penetrated her with his fingers". Something like this should be found in a newspaper, even on the front page. But details such as these which some may find offensive or traumatizing belong on the inside of the newspaper. A topic such as this is not being treated respectfully if the intimate details are being immediately put up front.

Guidelines in England for Assisted Suicide

This article can be found here.

October 6, 2009

Assisted suicide has been illegal in England for over 50 years, but recent guidelines have been cleared by the courts making it easier for friends or relatives to get away with doing such acts. One way this has been made easier is with the promise of courts to review and judge on these cases individually, and not by one generalized ruling. Some other provisions required that the person aiding a suicide to be motivated by compassion, that the deceased clearly wanted to die, and that the deceased being terminally ill, being severely physically disabled or suffering from an incurable degenerative disease. However, those who assisted in the suicide might be prosecuted if the deceased was under the age of 18, was mentally handicapped or not sure about his or her wishes, or was not being seriously disabled, terminally ill, or suffering from a degenerative disease. Also, if the person aiding in the suicide pressed someone into it or seemed to be motivated by some personal gain, they may also run the risk of prosecution. These measures were passed after Debbie Purdy successfully led a suit against the court on clarifying the law. Purdy wanted to have her husband try and aid in her suicide, but did not want him to go to jail.

Dancing Into the Evening, Brazil Celebrates Arrival on World Stage

This article can be found here.

October 4, 2009

After being recognized as the hosts of the 2016 Olympic games, Brazilians are beginning to view their country as an emerging power in global politics. Especially since this set of games will be the first to be held in South America. The author of the article purposefully takes a quote from a Brazilian electrical technician and cites him as saying, “We aren’t the United States, but we are getting there, and we will get there.” Using this source allows the author to convey not only the newfound sense of national pride found in the lower class sectors, but emphasize the reference point on which countries like Brazil base their global status: the United States. Brazil's emergence as a new world power can best be seen through the closing gap between the wealthiest few and the middle class. But economic success can be found mostly through luck. As the author points out pessimistically, the nation was just "lucky" enough to discover "huge troves of deep sea oil". The author repeatedly points out these 'lucky' instances as he describes the President da Silva's rise from poverty to leadership and Brazil's flourishing prosperity in the midst of a global economic crisis. Does all this talk of luck insinuate that their winning bid for host as host of the Olympics was just another one of these 'lucky' instances? Was Chicago just not lucky enough? In the end, the lack of 'sportsmanship', if you will, that the author expresses creates an overall jealous tone in the article.