Archive for July, 2008
« Previous EntriesGlobal News Coverage in Decline
Thursday, July 31st, 2008According to research by the Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Center coverage of global news in U.S. print media is declining and now makes up 10.7% of coverage.
Editors say they are reducing both staff and resources for coverage of news outside the United States. The report says staff cutbacks and movement to [...]
Global Food Crisis: Part Two
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008This is our first day in Cote d’Ivoire where I’m meeting with church and government officials to talk about communications issues, particularly radio. In our opening briefing we were told the visit was almost cancelled last week due to price increases in fuel.
Fuel increased fifty cents per liter bringing costs per gallon between eight and [...]
The Global Food Crisis
Saturday, July 19th, 2008Reports from Somalia are the worst I’ve seen in years. Hunger is already threatening over two and a half million Somalis and the United Nations says 3.5 million are at risk of famine in coming weeks.
Security, already terrible, is becoming even worse. A U.N. official was killed as he exited a mosque in Mogadishu and [...]
The Measure of America:U.S. Slips Downward in Development & Health
Thursday, July 17th, 2008A report released yesterday says the U.S.is 42nd among developed nations in life expectancy despite spending more on health care than any other nation in the world.
And the U.S. is twelfth in human development which includes income growth, quality education, life expectancy, personal safety, secure livelihood and a say in the decisions that affect one’s [...]
Websites to Make You Think
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008Four websites I’ve been following that make me think:
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading is a remarkable collection of thought-provoking ideas by innovative thinkers and doers in a wide range of skills, some highly specialized, some with unique new thoughts on common subjects. I found Hans Rosling’s thoughts on poverty fascinating.
Big Think: We are what you think [...]
Del McCoury Sings of a “Forgotten America”
Sunday, July 13th, 2008“Over the last couple of decades, you have turned Rural America into a scene of devastation which can now best be described as ‘Forgotten America.’”
This is the opening sentence of the liner notes on Moneyland, a new bluegrass collection assembled by bluegrass master Del McCoury. It is directed at Washington politicians under a heading of [...]
The Social Security Disinformation Campaign
Friday, July 11th, 2008John McCain’s widely quoted criticism of Social Security repeats an on-going misinterpretation that seems to have as its goal the privatization of retirement accounts.
“Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace, and it’s got [...]
Chrysler Building Sold
Thursday, July 10th, 2008The Chrysler building is my favorite skyscraper in the world. News that investors from Abu Dhabi have bought majority ownership brought back a long-buried personal memory.
I was working on a film with an editor in a building south of the Port Authority Bus Terminal off Times Square. We were pulling an all-nighter and at 2:30 [...]
Real Faith-based Initiatives:HIV/AIDS, Medicare, & Global Food Crisis
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008With so much talk recently about faith-based initiatives it occurs to me three significant issues ought to generate action in faith communities. They could truly be faith-based initiatives if people of faith would take the initiative to press the U.S. government to act now.
First reauthorize PEPFAR, The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has [...]
Faith-based Initiatives: Just Say No
Saturday, July 5th, 2008It’s hard to tell if Barack Obama and John McCain are merely clumsy in their attempts to appeal to religious voters, if they are cynically pandering to perceived religious sensibilities, if they are fuzzy-headed about religion, or if they have really good ideas about faith-based initiatives.
Obama’s statement on faith-based initiatives last week is causing me [...]