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.