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GLOBALISTSpring 2010 / Vol. 10, Issue 3
The Yale
Lunchtime in Mumbai 6 Afghanistan’s Indiana Jones 28Justice for Sudan’s President? 33
Breaking News, Breaking Convention
An Undergraduate Magazine of International Affairs
New Models of Journalismfrom Around the World
The Yale University Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
The Program in Agrarian Studies
Ethics, Politics, and Economics as an Undergraduate Major
The Interdisciplinary Introduction to Statistics Program
Center for the Study of American Politics
The Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies
The Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) strives to facilitate interdisciplinary inquiry in the social
sciences and research into important public policy.
Newspapers in the United States have spilled oceans of ink lamenting their declining fortunes
over the last few years. In this issue of the Globalist, we aim to offer a perspective on jour-
nalism that looks beyond the borders (and anxieties) of developed North America. Instead
of headlines about layoffs or circulation cuts, within these pages you’ll find articles which highlight
both the promise and the perils of journalism around the world.
This issue includes several exciting articles written by freshmen. In “The Talk of the Town,” Jes-
sica Shor profiles Alfred Sirleaf, a Liberian man who has dedicated himself to providing the daily
news for free via blackboard, convinced that increased access to information can bring peace to his
country. A continent away, Erin Biel’s “Little Voices, Resounding Change” examines a program which
gives children from India’s most marginalized communities the tools to become journalists and ad-
vocates for their own cause.
Of course, no issue focusing on journalism could ignore the pressures and hazards that make
reporting a potentially life-threatening occupation in many countries. Kanglei Wang’s Perspectives
piece offers a meditation on the dangers of pursuing journalism in China, from the years of the Cul-
tural Revolution to today, while Carlos Gomez reports on Cuban bloggers who risk their safety to
make their voices heard. Finally, in this issue’s main article, Cat Cheney takes up an often-ignored
element of the U.S. newspaper crisis: the transformation of foreign correspondence, a process which
promises to alter how Americans see the world.
You’ll find equally intriguing articles outside of the journalism section. In Culture, Alon Harish
analyzes Afro-Peruvian music’s journey beyond the Andes. In Politics & Economy, Adèle Rossouw
delves into the taxi drivers’ strikes which have crippled Johannesburg. And Monica Landy inaugu-
rates a brand new section, Science & Technology, with an article on Japan’s drive to build robots to
care for its rapidly aging population.
Enjoy!
Yours,
Alex Soble
Editor-in-Chief, The Yale Globalist
ON THE COVER:South Korean newspapers report on the release of hostages held in Afghanistan,
August 2007.(76371603/Chung Sung-Jun/Courtesy Getty Images)
JOURNALISM AdVISORY BOARd
Steven Brill, Yale Dept. of English
Nayan Chanda, Director of Publications,
MacMillan Center
Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Foreign Affairs
Jef McAllister, Time Magazine
Nathaniel Rich, The Paris Review
Fred Strebeigh, Yale Dept. of English
ACAdEMIC AdVISORY BOARd
Harvey Goldblatt, Professor of Medieval Slavic Literature, Master of Pierson
College
Donald Green, Director, Institution for Social and Policy Studies
Charles Hill, Yale Diplomat-in-Residence
Ian Shapiro, Director, MacMillan Center
Ernesto Zedillo, Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
GLOBALISTREADERS,D
EA
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Interested in subscribing? Log on to tyglobalist.org and
click the Subscribe link in the upper right corner.
Editor-in-ChiefAlex Soble
Managing Editors
Jeffrey Kaiser, Rishabh Khosla, Emma Sokoloff-Rubin, Alison Weiner
Associate EditorsRae Ellen Bichell, Raphaella Friedman, Uzra
Khan, Alexander Klein, Angela Ramirez
Copy EditorAlexander Krey
Production & Design EditorChristina Lin
Online EditorCatherine Osborn
Assistant Production EditorsRaisa Bruner, Anjali Jotwani, Eli Markham
Production StaffMeaghan Barr, Anna Kellar
Executive DirectorAlice Walton
Publisher
Courtney Fukuda
Director of DevelopmentGeorge Bogden
Events Coordinator
Joanna Cornell
Assistant Events CoordinatorJoseph Bolognese
GLOBALISTAn Undergraduate Magazine of
International AffairsSpring 2010 / Vol. 10, Issue 3
www.tyglobalist.org
The Yale
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This magazine is published by students of Yale College. Yale University is not responsible for its contents.
Send comments, questions, and letters to the editor to alexander.soble@yale.edu.
Editors-at-LargeCatherine Cheney, Amila Golic,
Rachel Wolf
Business MentorsGemma Bloemen, Brad Schecter, Amira
Valliani
Editors EmeritusMaria Blackwood, Jesse Marks, Pete Martin,
Emma Vawter
CONTENTSSpring 2010 / Vol . 10, Issue 3
FOCUS: Journalism
Little Voices, Resounding ChangeA UNICEF journalism initiative in India teaches disadvantaged
children to speak up about the hardships they face daily.
By Erin Biel
12
Financial pressures, new technologies, and changing expectations are transforming the future of foreign reporting. By Catherine Cheney
17
The Talk of the TownIn post-war Liberia, Alfred Sirleaf sees access to information
as the key to peace. By Jessica Shor
14
The Yale Globalist is a member of Global21, a network of student-run international affairs magazines at premier universities around the world.
Q&A: A Conversation with Nicholas Kristof By Jeffrey Kaiser
21
Peace Through PrintThe island of Cyprus has long been the site of ethnic conflict
between Turkish and Greek factions. Could reforming
journalistic practices help bring about peace?
By Emily Sosangelis
22
Cuba’s Emerging BlogosphereIn spite of government repression and limited access to the
Internet, Cuban bloggers are determined to make their voices
heard. By Carlos Gomez
23
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE
IN FLUX
Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons
Visit our website at www.tyglobalist.org for additional reporting, online exclusives, and blogs by Globalist writers.
6 | The Lunch Box MenAt lunchtime in Mumbai, 20,000 office-goers can sit down and enjoy their own hot, home-cooked food, thanks to the
city’s band of dedicated, error-free dabbawalas. By Uzra Khan
7 | Are We Moving Yet?In South Africa’s commercial capital, destructive strikes and slow negotiations threaten to bring a major public
transportation project to a standstill. By Adèle Rossouw
8 | Ten Million VoicesIn Colombia, new media moves millions to march against the FARC. By Diego Salvatierra
9 | Invisible CityAn ambitious proposal to expand Venice’s port threatens to overwhelm the lagoon’s already fragile ecosystem while
excluding the city’s residents from the process. By Charlotte Parker
10 | Climate-Proofing the NetherlandsThe Netherlands prepares itself for an era of rising sea levels. By Anne van Bruggen
11 | Defiance in DubaiFor Dubai’s immigrant workers, the financial crisis has brought further hardship but also an opportunity to challenge the
unfair conditions under which they work. By Shashwat Udit
25 | Shining in the RoughBeijing’s “it” galleries find a new home in an unlikely neighborhood. By Helena Malchione
26 | Compiling a CultureThe international success of Afro-Peruvian music has brought a once-obscure tradition into the potentially distorting
glare of the spotlight. By Alon Harish
28 | The Eroded Face of AfghanistanArchaeologist Zemaryalai Tarzi seeks the country’s history in its sandstone cliffs. By Rae Ellen Bichell
POLITICS & ECONOMY
CULTURE
PERSPECTIVES 33 | The Hunt for Al-BashirThe President of Sudan has evaded standing trial for the genocide in Darfur. What does this mean for global justice?
By Sibjeet Mahapatra
34 | Journalism in China: A Memoir and a Future?For my family, stepping down the path of journalism is cause for fear as well as hope. By Kanglei Wang
6
25
31 | Robots that Care?For better or for worse, Japan looks to robots to fill the gaps that will soon be left by the world’s fastest aging
population. By Monica Landy
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
8
33
POLITICS & ECONOMYSPring 2010
6
With a twinkle in his eye and his traditional white Nehru hat
placed jauntily on his head, Gangaram Tarekar, secretary of
the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association (NMTBSA), ar-
rived at his destination in Mumbai and, true to his profession, was
right on time. The NMTBSA, popularly known as the dabbawalas,
delivers boxes of steaming, home-cooked food to 200,000 Mumbai of-
fice-goers everyday. For the equivalent of seven to nine U.S. dollars a
month, this lunch-delivery service even includes returning the empty
boxes to each subscriber’s house. The dabbawalas keep the city fed,
pumping food through its veins of public transport. Even during the
horrific Mumbai monsoon season, the dabbawalas manage to find a
way through floods and train delays to deliver lunch.
“Dabba” means “lunch box” in Hindi, and “wala” means “man.”
These 5,000 “lunch box men” started their business over a hundred
years ago when India was still under British rule. Indian office-goers
preferred home-cooked meals to the foreign food provided by their
British employers. Today, the dabbawalas are a force to be reckoned
with. Their trademark: they make no mistakes. Their error rate is
one in 16 million, and in 2001, Forbes Global magazine gave them a
rating of Six Sigma, or 99.999 percent accuracy.
Over the years the dabbawalas have evolved from a small group of
business partners to a large organization, managed by an administra-
tive trust under the command of an elected president and secretary.
Yet they retain the characteristics of a brotherhood. They all belong
to the same caste — the Malvas — and dress in the same white garb
and white Nehru hats. As Tarekar said in rapid Hindi, “We only take
new dabbawalas from our own people. Forty percent of dabbawalas
got into the profession because their father was in it before, and there
is a rigorous 6-month training process for each new dabbawala, and
it is in this time that we decide if we like him.”
How do the dabbawalas perpetually avoid mistakes? It’s easy to
imagine reams of addresses and names, a secret computer database
somewhere in Mumbai updated regularly to accommodate their
growing clientele. But most dabbawalas are illiterate. Their method
is shockingly simple: “We work on memory. If you subscribe to us to-
day, one of our brothers will come to your house tomorrow to memo-
rize its location, and go to your office to do the same. The day after
tomorrow he will come to collect your dabba,” said Tarekar proudly.
Apart from this amazing absence of error, the dabbawalas pride
themselves on almost never going on strike. “Error is horror. Strike is
suicide,” Tarekar said in broken English. “A strike has disastrous re-
sults; our brothers in the offices don’t get the lunch that their wives,
mothers, and daughters have prepared for them with so much care.”
The dabbawalas’ remarkable drive has been recognized interna-
tionally by the likes of Prince Charles, Richard Branson, and Bill Clin-
ton, all of whom have traveled to India to meet them. Tarekar, in fact,
was one of the guests at Prince Charles’ wedding to Camilla Parker
Bowles. “We really liked Prince Charles, he was always so punctual
when he met us,” said Tarekar, smiling.
In keeping with changing times, the dabbawalas now have their
own website and offer subscriptions by text message. Even more
striking is the little effort they put into advertising: they rely solely
on word-of-mouth. Mumbai’s dabbawalas have no plans to expand to
other cities in India. As Tarekar put it, “Mumbai is perfect for us. It
is a long and narrow city, and it has an excellent train system. We
wouldn’t be able to function elsewhere. Only in Mumbai can you find
such a variety of people with such a variety of home-cooked food.” He
is unfazed about what the future holds: “The future? We’ll work, we’ll
eat, and we’ll enjoy ourselves! The moon won’t change, the sun won’t
change, the sky won’t change. People will change, but their hunger
for a home-cooked meal will not. And as long as that doesn’t change,
we will not either.”
With a chuckle, a namaste, and a bow of his Nehru hat, Mr. Ganga-
ram Tarekar is off — he can’t be late for his next appointment.
Uzra Khan is a sophomore Psychology major in Trumbull College.
The Lunch Box MenAt lunchtime in Mumbai, 20,000 office-goers can sit down and enjoy their own hot, home-cooked food, thanks to the city’s band of dedicated, error-free dabbawalas.By Uzra Khan
The illiterate dabbawalas use their own codes to distinguish each of the 20,000 lunch boxes they handle daily. (Courtesy Meena Kadri/Flickr)
POLITICS & ECONOMYthe yale globalist
7
Are We Moving Yet?In South Africa’s commercial capital, destructive strikes and slow negotiations
threaten to bring a major public transportation project to a standstill.By Adèle Rossouw
As the taxi drivers of Johannesburg strike, their vehicles sit idle in the streets. (Courtesy Pierre Rossouw)
“If we hear there’s a taxi strike, we know that there will be no
transport to get to work. People who are desperate start walk-
ing, you don’t dare take the bus,” Aida Moyo explained. “If taxi driv-
ers see you getting into buses they will shoot you, or they will burn
the vehicle.” Moyo is a native Zimbabwean who, like so many others,
came to Johannesburg in search of work. “These taxi strikes affect
everybody. You find everybody is in fear.”
Moyo is just one of thousands of members of the South African
workforce who were paralyzed by a series of taxi driver strikes
throughout 2009. The protestors expressed outrage over the govern-
ment’s implementation of a new mass transit system. Modeled on the
transport networks of South American cities, the Bus Rapid Tran-
sit System (BRT) was designed to upgrade Johannesburg’s public
transport in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Taxi drivers,
who have long been the key providers of public transport in the city,
feared they would lose their customers to the government-subsidized
BRT buses.
The BRT system, which was renamed Rea Vaya (“we are moving”
in the Sotho language) by the department of Transport, was launched
in August 2009. Before then, more than 70 percent of Johannesburg’s
public transport users depended on the city’s chaotic mass of mini-
bus taxis. The limited number of buses and trains could do little to
compete with the taxis’ vast, unregulated network of vehicles, which
are a fast and cheap means of transport. Such advantages, however,
come at a price. Taxis are notorious for reckless speeding, poor ve-
hicle maintenance, and — after the government’s implementation of
the first phase of Rea Vaya — violent repression of competitors.
The BRT system’s main line runs through central Johannesburg
from Soweto Township to the Ellis Park Stadium, a route once dom-
inated by taxis. Protests by taxi drivers started in March 2009 and
brought movement in the city to a standstill. The Ministry of Trans-
port is nevertheless determined to implement Rea Vaya. “This project
will continue to develop, both before and after the World Cup,” stated
Ibrahim Seedat, the ministry’s director of public transport policies.
In recognition of the service that the taxi industry has been pro-
viding, the ministry committed to employing taxi drivers who would
lose clients to the BRT system. Taxi owners will become shareholders
in companies which will eventually run Rea Vaya on behalf of the city.
“The government has stated repeatedly that there will be no loss of
legitimate jobs or profits,” said Seedat.
Such promises have induced members of the taxi industry to en-
ter into negotiations with the City of Johannesburg. By december 14,
2009, the two largest taxi organizations involved in the negotiations,
the Greater Johannesburg Regional Taxi Council and the Top Six
Taxi Association, had signed a memorandum of understanding with
the city. The agreement did not commit taxi operators to any part of
the implementation of Rea Vaya. “How will taxi operators be compen-
sated? What will their shareholding in the BRT companies be? These
are matters which we are discussing at the moment,” stated Frans
Mashishi, secretary general of the Gauteng Taxi Council. “I can’t say
with certainty that these people will get jobs. There are still some
who are against the implementation of BRT.”
The first phase of Rea Vaya replaced 575 taxis with 143 BRT bus-
es, but this number represents only a small proportion of the 25,000
taxis in the city. An approved fleet of drivers has been hired to trans-
port soccer fans for the duration of the World Cup, but only the bus
route from Soweto to Ellis Park will be operational. If Rea Vaya is
to develop into a superior alternative to Johannesburg’s chaotic taxi
network, it will have to incorporate the labor and territory currently
controlled by taxis. The Ministry of Transport hopes that peaceful
negotiations with the taxi industry will continue, but no agreement
has yet been reached. While the power struggle continues, members
of the public are impatient for an improved means of public trans-
port. “If only these problems with the taxis could simply disappear!”
lamented Moyo. “Then everybody could travel to work. Everybody
would be safer.”
Adèle Rossouw is a freshman in Trumbull College.
POLITICS & ECONOMYSPring 2010
8
Ten Million VoicesIn Colombia, new media moves millions to march against the FARC.
By diego Salvatierra
Protesters take to the streets of Colombia on February 4, 2008. (Courtesy Oscar Morales and El Tiempo)
deep in Colombia’s jungle, on February 4th, 2008, several hos-
tages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
guerrilla group huddled around a contraband AM radio, listening to
the crackling chant: “Libertad, libertad, libertad.” They were hearing
the shouts of five million protesters across Colombia calling for an
end to the FARC and its terrorist tactics, which have fueled violence
in the country since 1964. The marches became the largest and clear-
est public outcry in Colombian history.
The hostages would later say that it was the brightest day of their
ordeal, bringing them a glimmer of hope. And it was all due to a
single Facebook group, created by 33-year-old Colombian engineer
Oscar Morales. “deep inside, I knew I couldn’t take it anymore,” said
Morales, describing the frustration with the FARC and its violent
guerilla tactics, which include the kidnapping of civilians.
In response, Morales started the group “A Million Voices Against
the FARC.” It grew exponentially; within 12 hours, 1,500 members had
joined. Within a day, 4,000. After one week, over 150,000. discussion
groups proliferated, followed by the moment that set this particular
group apart: Someone suggested they take concrete action.
With his supporters’ help, Morales organized marches to be
staged in Colombia and around the world. The group’s growth seized
headlines in the mainstream Colombian media. On the day of the pro-
tests, nearly five million people, one-tenth of the country’s popula-
tion, poured into Colombia’s streets. Five million more marched in
hundreds of other cities worldwide in a massive show of solidarity.
Since Facebook began, thousands of groups have appeared seek-
ing “a million members” in support of their cause. Most die off before
they reach 1,000. According to Erin Mazursky, co-founder and former
director of the activist group STANd: A Student Anti-Genocide Coali-
tion, what set Morales’s movement apart was that it took “tangible
action, not just online action.”
Once core members of the groups decided to act, dedication be-
came crucial, said Morales. From the start, he wanted to “do things
right, to shine above other groups,” and began devoting almost all
his time to planning the marches. Over 200 local organizers coordi-
nated their actions using Google docs for instantaneous file sharing.
Stylized logos for the movement’s new homepage were posted on the
sites of other organizations, and Colombians living abroad translated
the homepage of “A Million Voices” into 17 languages.
Their use of online media to mobilize people has so far been un-
matched in scope, but many hope it can serve as an example. Morales
himself has been invited to speak at the Facebook headquarters in
Palo Alto, California, and to several new media conferences.
The marches of February 4 also marked the beginning of a year
of defeats for the FARC. Throughout 2008, President Alvaro Uribe’s
government had unusual success in liberating hostages, bringing
down FARC leaders, and demobilizing guerrillas. It remains un-
clear whether the marches sparked these efforts, but as Morales put
it, “historically the military solution by itself hasn’t gotten the job
done.”
After the marches, the guerrilla group’s full name, FARC-EP (EP
standing for “People’s Army”), has been used far less by media and
the FARC itself. According to Morales, a few guerrilleros even said
that the marches convinced them to abandon the fight. Angela Lon-
dono, a Colombian student studying at Yale, noted that people “feel
safer mainly because the military has gotten stronger.” She agreed,
though, that the marches were “a way to unite Colombians” and
show that “there was consensus” against the FARC.
Undoubtedly, the marches allowed millions of people to make
their frustrations public. Before the marches, “people commented on
the streets, but there was no mass show of indignation,” explained
Morales. Mazurky emphasized that the timing of such demonstra-
tions is crucial, but so is the commitment of those involved. “It starts
with a moment, but it’s what you do with that moment: That is really
the important part.”
Diego Salvatierra is a freshman in Pierson College.
POLITICS & ECONOMYthe yale globalist
9
Looking out from streets on the edges of Venice, it is impos-
sible to ignore the dark forms that dot the city’s lagoon. dredg-
ing machines idle like large mechanical birds in the middle of
calm water, auguring the development that Italian officials and the
Port Authority argue will transform Venice into a central hub for the
maritime trade of the 21st century. But to concerned activists, the
machines represent a change that will irreparably damage the city of
Venice and its ecosystem.
On May 11, 2009, Paolo Costa, former mayor of Venice and now
president of the Venice Port Authority, submitted a proposal to the
Italian Senate to further dredge the main channel into the port. The
proposed dredging would expand the Port’s capacity to accommodate
ships larger than 400 meters in length. The proposal forms part of
a 260 million Euro plan for development of port infrastructure that
aims to make Venice a rail, road, and sea hub serving Italy and East-
Central Europe.
The channels dredged for port traffic, however, have been “ac-
celerating the ongoing natural erosion in the lagoon,” according to
biologist and Venice resident Jane da Mosto. The prospect of inten-
sifying port activities is “deeply worrying for those concerned with
safeguarding Venice,” wrote da Mosto and Professor Luigi d’Alpaos
of the University of Padua in “The Venice Report,” a comprehensive
study by British non-profit Venice in Peril.
In 2009, d’Alpaos published research showing that port traffic
and dredging have exacerbated the lagoon’s instability. Excavation
erodes the sedimentary deposits that protect Venice by keeping the
lagoon water lower than sea level. disappearance of these sediments
is linked to increased bouts of flooding and rising water levels.
The Port’s proposal deflects environmental concerns by asserting
that “the situation regarding the lagoon has completely changed and
can be managed through judicious use of the MoSE system.” MoSE
(Experimental Electromechanical Module) is a flood defense system
consisting of giant mobile underwater gates positioned where the Ve-
netian lagoon meets the Adriatic Sea.
But MoSE is simply a tidal flood control system. It cannot protect
the city against damage wrought by large scale excavation, wrote
Tom Spencer of Cambridge University in “The Venice Report.”
The controversy surrounding the port enlargement proposal in-
tensifies the ongoing debate between environmentalists and policy
makers that began when the government first approved the MoSE
project. Accusations of profiteering and data manipulation have
flown back and forth, yet the two sides rarely enter into constructive
dialogue and have not consulted the residents of Venice.
The city has not officially heard the port expansion proposal.
Francesca Meneghetti, an employee of the Environmental Manage-
ment department of Venice, resignedly said that the municipality
would doubtless be against it. Historic Venice and its inhabitants
are politically impotent. The central Italian government has first say
in most city matters because it supplies the majority of funding for
public works projects. The municipality has only a 2.5 percent share
in the Port and no legal control over the state-owned waterways in
question. The hierarchy of political power — the Italian government
at the top, followed by the Veneto Region, and finally the municipality
of Venice itself — leaves the city’s government little room to work for
its constituents. For activist citizens of historic Venice, years of pro-
testing, mainly against the MoSE project, have led to little tangible
action.
The already complicated situation is further convoluted by the
fact that “the average Venetian doesn’t understand what’s going on,”
da Mosto explained.
Invisible CityAn ambitious proposal to expand Venice’s port threatens to overwhelm
the lagoon’s already fragile ecosystem while excluding the city’s residents from the process.
By Charlotte Parker
A cruise ship leaving Venice dwarfs the city. Cruise ship traffic in the Port increased from 200 ships in 2000 to 510 in 2007. (Parker/TYG)
POLITICS & ECONOMYSPring 2010
10
Yet the Port’s expansion project would have very real consequenc-
es for Venice. da Mosto emphasized that it would “exacerbate and
accelerate the degradation of buildings caused by higher water levels
and continue the pressure of cruise ship traffic on Venice, which ef-
fects all kinds of distortions on the local economy and excludes the
permanent inhabitants of Venice.”
Giovanna Benvenuti, a spokesperson for the Port, countered that
the expansion would bring economic benefits, stimulating the local
economy through increased ship traffic. She also noted that the ex-
pansion could have positive consequences for the environment; part
of the excavation will focus on removing and treating sediment pol-
luted by heavy metals. The debate over the future of Venice’s port has
yet to yield a creative, forward-looking vision for the city, its infra-
structure, and its natural environment.
Alternative proposals for the development of Venice and the sur-
rounding region have garnered little airtime. Carlo Crotti, chairman
of the non-profit Association for Hydraulic Protection of the Vene-
tian-Paduan Territory, backs a potentially transformative model that
would also safeguard historic Venice. He spoke of a “highway of the
sea,” a network of inland canals plied by small river-sea craft. These
boats would deliver containers, deposited on offshore platforms by
large ships, via the waterways to inland ports, eliminating the need
for damaging large-scale dredging.
Although construction began in 1965, the waterway from Padua to
Venice — a key part of this alternative system — remains incomplete.
The Port’s proposal acknowledged the value of a waterway system
and suggested further development of existing canals. This commit-
ment, however, rings hollow; the Port recently called on the central
government to approve a project to build a highway where the Padua-
Venice waterway was planned.
According to Crotti, there are around ten small, grassroots asso-
ciations in the communities between Padua and Venice pressuring
officials for completion of the waterway. These associations, however,
appear fairly limited. Their challengers are the multinational compa-
nies who carry out the highway construction, and the central govern-
ment, which stands to make a profit from tollbooths.
Hope remains that protecting the lagoon will become a priority,
but da Mosto warned that time is running out. Ultimately, mobile
flood barriers and large infrastructure investments will not solve
Venice’s problems. Candid discussion between all sides — govern-
ment, citizens, business interests, and environmental activists — is
the only way to protect both the ecology of the lagoon and the living
organism of one of the world’s great cities.
Charlotte Parker is a freshman in Calhoun College.
Accusations of profiteering and data manipulation have flown back and forth, yet the two sides rarely enter into constructive dialogue and have not consulted the residents of Venice.
The dutch have always fought against the sea. A quarter
of the Netherlands’s land — an area that generates 65
percent of national GdP — lies below sea level. As a result,
its citizens take climate change very seriously.
Will the Netherlands really vanish from the map, as
Al Gore suggested in his documentary, “An Inconvenient
Truth?” According to Marcel Stive, a member of the dutch
government-appointed delta Commission, “the problem is
very urgent.” Stive cited official forecasts which predict “a
regional sea level rise of 2.13 to 4.27 feet by 2100 and of 6.56 to
13.12 feet by 2200.”
The Netherlands has already spent billions on a vast sys-
tem of levees, dikes and floodgates, and costs are expected to
rise. Raising flood protection levels by a factor of 10 and cre-
ating a special delta fund to finance climate-proofing projects
through less prosperous times will cost an estimated 1.2 to 1.6
billion Euros per year until 2050, according to experts. “It’s
better to be safe than sorry when you live below sea level,”
quipped Peter C. G. Glas, director of inland water systems at
delft Hydraulics. “We’ve had a tradition over the past cen-
tury of being frightened of the water, and rightly so.”
As part of the scramble to reduce dependence on carbon-
intensive sources of energy, the dutch are turning towards
the very force that threatens to flood their country: the sea.
Last year marked the inauguration of the North Sea’s larg-
est offshore wind park. Its 36 windmills have a total capacity
of 108 megawatts, enough to power about 100,000 households.
Other initiatives include the construction of multifunctional
dikes, which in addition to protecting against floods have
been integrated with systems for transportation, irrigation,
national defense and drinking water. Proposals have been
floated to build a 60,000-hectare tulip-shaped island off the
coast, which would protect the coast, shield against storms,
generate electricity and provide more space for industry and
housing.
Of course, none of these projects alone will be able to stop
a true climate change disaster. But the dutch government
and its delta Commission hope that in the fight against global
warming and rising sea levels, the Netherlands will serve as
an example of innovation for the rest of the world.
Anne van Bruggen is a freshman in Silliman College.
Climate-Proofing the Netherlands
The Netherlands prepares itself for an era of rising sea levels.
By Anne van Bruggen
POLITICS & ECONOMYthe yale globalist
11
Until recently, dubai seemed like one of the world’s great success
stories, replete with gleaming skyscrapers, super luxury hotels,
gigantic shopping malls, and artificial islands. Hearing the call of its
splendors, workers from South Asia, youth from across the Middle
East, and investors the world over poured into dubai. Even during
the boom times, though, not everyone who came to the city enjoyed
its indulgences. Some lived in ramshackle housing, worked danger-
ous jobs under scorching desert sun, and were frequently cheated
by employers. during the bubble years, the problems faced by im-
migrant workers could be ignored. Any attempts to organize resulted
in jail or deportation. But the impact of the recent economic crisis
cannot be brushed aside so lightly.
When the global financial crisis struck, it became evident that
cheap borrowing rather than strong fundamentals had driven dubai’s
growth. Construction projects came to a halt, companies went bank-
rupt, and the massive state-owned conglomerate dubai World sus-
pended payments on its debt, sending jitters through the financial
system. However, according to Samer Muscati, United Arab Emirates
researcher for Human Rights Watch, “those hardest hit by the down-
turn were the workers.”
during the boom years, human traffickers priced passage to the
promised land at thousands of dollars, meaning many workers came
to dubai already heavily indebted. Layoffs left many of them with no
means to pay off their debts. Even worse, employers took advantage
of the opportunity to cheat workers out of what they were owed. To
avoid paying back wages, employers often waited until workers re-
turned home to visit their families to fire them.
The government of the United Arab Emirates, of which dubai
is a constituent emirate, rejects the view that immigrant workers
lack protection against exploitation. A U.A.E. government employee
speaking anonymously did not deny that private companies had com-
mitted abuses, but stressed that the government’s laws and actions
showed they were committed to protecting the rights of workers. The
official pointed to a new electronic system for paying wages, one that
makes cheating on payments impossible. Labor Minister Saqr Go-
bash proclaimed the new system “a model worth emulating in boost-
ing the rights of workers.”
Nonetheless, the workers are not waiting for government action.
They “barely manage to survive and send money to their families,”
one worker told the Associated Press. despite being required to leave
the country when they lose their jobs, many defiantly hold on to their
visas. Some stay in the country illegally. despite being forbidden to
form unions, organize, and strike, they have done so. In december,
workers held a strike against Robust Contracting, a company that
had not paid wages for three months. during the boom years, such
an action would have led to jail time or deportation for the strikers.
This time the U.A.E. government recognized that it had to investigate
the company, not the workers.
Human rights groups welcome the sentiment but retain doubts.
Muscati worried that “it’s about the optics.” While well-intentioned
laws are on the books, too few inspectors have been appointed to en-
force them, and there have been delays and difficulties in setting up
the new electronic accounts. Moreover, he readily acknowledged that
the problem extends farther than the U.A.E. government. Western in-
stitutions and western corporations operating in dubai, including the
Guggenheim and New York University, contract out building projects
to developers known to not respect worker’s rights. Migrant work-
ers’ home countries, mainly in South Asia, also gain heavily from
remittances, enough to make them turn a blind eye to the trafficking
networks that operate within their borders. In the end, “everyone is
willing to make a buck off these guys,” as Muscati explained.
The root of the problem is a system that leaves workers at the
mercy of their employers. Given such a skewed power dynamic, it is
unsurprising that some will be tempted to exploit the helpless. The
workers are already rising to challenge this order. In spite of the cri-
sis, a dubai that still aspires to greatness should help them on their
way.
Shashwat Udit is a sophomore Economics major in Silliman College.
Dubai’s soaring towers have been built by immigrant laborers, largely from South Asia. (Wikimedia Commons)
defiance in dubaiFor Dubai’s immigrant workers, the financial crisis has brought further
hardship but also an opportunity to challenge the unfair conditions under which they work.
By Shashwat Udit
FOCUS: JournalismSPring 2010
12
“We develop only when someone encourages us. It’s
like a bean plant, which grows well only if there’s a
stick to support it,” Samuel Venkatesan, 17, said in
rapid Tamil during an interview with NdTV, a news station based out
of New delhi, India. Samuel’s optimism and pride were unmistakable
as he described his UNICEF-supported filmmaking projects. Sharing
the story of his childhood in a series of e-mail messages translated by
Thomas George, UNICEF communications specialist for Tamil Nadu
state, Samuel explained how a children’s journalism project provided
him with the support he needed to grow and to thrive.
Samuel has spent his childhood in missionary boarding hostels
and is now a 12th-year student at the Government Higher Secondary
School in Shoolagiri village, an impoverished community in Tamil
Nadu. His father deserted his family when he was five years old, and
his family’s only income is the money his mother earns as a domes-
tic helper in Bangalore. At 15, Samuel contemplated dropping out of
school and getting a job. His plans, and his life, changed when he
heard that a non-profit organization called the Nalanda Way Foun-
dation was coming to his district to select students for a journalism
training program.
The program, Eastside Story, selects students ages 12 to 18 to re-
ceive mentorship in journalism, theater, performing arts, or media.
After completing their training, the students research, write about,
and film stories related to pertinent issues in their communities.
Their final products get published in or broadcast on local and na-
tional media, including newspapers, magazines, radio, the Internet,
and television.
Seeing this as perhaps his only opportunity to enrich his life, Sam-
uel decided to audition for a spot in the filmmaking program. “For
the audition I was asked to speak on any topic of interest for a few
minutes. I am a chatterbox and I spoke as usual.” Samuel won over
the representatives of the Eastside Story Program with his charm.
The video camera they gave him felt like the key to a new future.
An Army of Adolescent AdvocatesSamuel joined the ranks of over 7,000 Indian students who are part of
UNICEF’s Child Reporters Initiative (CRI), a program that now spans
14 states in India. UNICEF launched the CRI in 2005 to help fund non-
profit programs like Eastside Story and to encourage children from
marginalized communities to document the hardships they face. The
structure of the program differs from state to state; UNICEF may
work directly with local non-profit organizations, establish programs
with media outlets or universities, or fosters bonds with local govern-
ments so that students can discuss policies that affect their lives with
local officials.
At least 90 percent of the child reporters come from marginalized
communities marked by poverty or caste discrimination, according
to an official internal CRI evaluation conducted in 2008 and 2009. dalit
Sangh, the CRI-sponsored program in Sohagpur, Madhya Pradesh,
started as a result of the glaring caste discrimination toward the
dalits (members of caste groups once referred to as “untouchables”)
in the area. Traditionally the lowest social group in the caste system,
for centuries dalits were considered “impure” and oppressed both
socially and economically. While caste discrimination is illegal in
the Indian constitution, abuse of dalits remains common throughout
much of South Asia. In 1999, major floods swept over Sohagpur and
the impoverished dalits living in the rural areas were left homeless.
However, there was absolutely no media coverage of the dalits’ plight.
As dr. Raote, director and co-founder of dalit Sangh, remarked in
the CRI evaluation, “Reading the biased media coverage, it felt as if
the villages did not count for anything. Why? Dalit poverty-stricken
families suffered the most.” Along with co-founder Gopal Narayan
Authey, Raote decided to encourage young people in the community
to document issues of caste-based discrimination.
CRI reporters learn to channel their artistic passions into advo-
cacy tools when exploring problems in their villages. The 300 child
reporters affiliated with dalit Sangh write articles, poems, and
drawings for their own student-run newspaper entitled Bacchon ki
Pehl (Children’s Initiative). As Anil Gulati, UNICEF communications
specialist for Madhya Pradesh, explained, the children have month-
ly meetings, interact with people from media, and visit newspaper
houses to understand how newspapers are published.
Growing PainsCRI-affiliated programs have not been free of obstacles. Communities
are often unwilling to look upon young people as reputable sources
of information. Sometimes villages do not want to acknowledge such
issues as child marriages, superstition, violence against children, or
caste discrimination, which are all commonly reported. According to
the CRI evaluation, “The CRI is still at its infant stages, meaning that
implementing organizations have little or no past experience of en-
gaging with children.”
The evaluation also noted that the program often does not focus
enough on the wider dissemination of content to the general popu-
lation. For instance, since many CRI initiatives are centered in ex-
tremely impoverished communities, most families and even local offi-
cials do not have televisions or computers. This reality often defeats
the purpose of the videos or Internet articles that the children are
encouraged to produce.
despite these barriers, the CRI has grown substantially, especially
considering its status as an “add-on” program under UNICEF, which
relegates it to lower funding levels. Many of the child reporters’ arti-
Little Voices, Resounding ChangeA UNICEF journalism initiative in India teaches disadvantaged children
to speak up about the hardships they face daily.By Erin Biel
13FOCUS: Journalismthe yale globalist
cles are regularly published in The Hindu, a national newspaper, and
their interviews and films are shown on local cable channels as well
as at public events. The child reporters even have their own regularly
updated blog, and the student-run newspapers have acquired mass
readership within their local communities, including local officials
from the education, labor, and police departments.
Many CRI programs have created balapanchayats, a children’s
version of the local governing councils found in most Indian villages,
to leverage this official attention. These balapanchayats are com-
posed of equal numbers of boys and girls who are elected by their
peers, debate issues amongst themselves, and ultimately speak with
local officials regarding problems they observe in their villages. In
addition, the three-hour-long balapanchayat meetings are modeled
off of the Indian parliamentary process, giving these students insight
into the inner workings of their own government.
Bright Futures on the HorizonAccording to “Voices from the Field,” another internal CRI report,
discrimination against the poor in the village of Baharpur in Mad-
hya Pradesh had reached a crucial point. Ration cards, which give
access to government subsidized food stores, were unavailable to
the village’s poorest inhabitants. Child reporters in the area decided
to write a barrage of articles related to the scarcity of ration cards
and poverty discrimination. The students spoke with their families,
elders, and even people from other villages. Ultimately, the local pan-
chayat responded, and now ration cards are more easily accessible
to the poor. As Rukmini, a slight yet determined child reporter from
Baharpur, commented in “Voices from the Field,” “If we want change,
we have to bring it. Not wait for others to dole it out to us. It does not
work like that.”
Through the CRI program, the child reporters not only learn to
hone their writing skills but also learn a great deal about their in-
ner fortitude. In Uttar Pradesh, three child reporters gave refuge to
a 13-year-old girl who was to marry a man 15 years her senior. The
children resisted all attempts by the community to remove the girl
from their home. Instead, the three reporters communicated with the
girl’s parents and local officials in such an articulate and calm man-
ner that the marriage was called off.
As for Samuel, the garrulous 17-year-old from Tamil Nadu, his
once bleak future now seems to have no boundaries. In July 2009,
Samuel was selected as one of three students to represent India at
the UNICEF Junior 8 Summit, which was held concurrently with the
G8 Summit in Rome. While at the Summit, Samuel was given the op-
portunity to address the entire audience about his devotion to equal
education for all. “I want free quality education for all kids in devel-
oping countries and rights for girls,” he said. Samuel went on to pro-
pose a resolution to improve education in impoverished areas of the
world and to enact steps that help prevent girls from dropping out
of school. His resolution was adopted. Thanks to the CRI program’s
mentorship, Samuel feels that he has become a member of greater
humanity. “Until now, I belonged to a small place. But now, I am a
global citizen.”
Erin Biel is a freshman in Ezra Stiles College.
Samuel Venkatesan, a child reporter from Tamil Nadu, addresses an audience at the 2009 Junior 8 Summit in Rome. (Courtesty Tamil Nadu/UNICEF)
FOCUS: JournalismSPring 2010
14
so people believed whatever they were told to believe.” Experienc-
ing the oppression and atrocities of war, Sirleaf said, inspired him to
create “a new medium of communication, so people can be informed
about local, national, and international issues.” That new medium of
communication was The daily Talk.
Something for EveryoneTo reach a maximum number of readers, Sirleaf strives to keep The
daily Talk a community-centered, grassroots project. He selected
Tubman Boulevard, a street running through central Monrovia, for
his blackboard to ensure that his information would be displayed in a
high-traffic area. As a result, The daily Talk’s readership includes a
diverse group of Monrovians of all ages, classes, and education levels.
Luke davis, a 22-year-old law student and self-proclaimed “daily Talk
admirer,” said that Sirleaf’s service plays an especially important
role for the young people of Monrovia: “It brings to light the issues
and challenges young people face and informs us of our country’s
direction. Youths are more and more politically and socially active in
Liberia, and we must have access to news.”
The illiterate, who comprise 40 percent of Liberia’s adult popula-
tion, is another demographic that Sirleaf seeks to reach. To deliver
the news to those who cannot read, Sirleaf devised a system in which
he hangs objects on The daily Talk’s blackboard to symbolize the
topics of the day’s news. Frequently displayed objects include a gun
representing Charles Taylor, a hubcap showing President Ellen John-
son Sirleaf — known as the Iron Lady of Politics — and a blue helmet
symbolizing the U.N. peacekeepers stationed in Liberia. And just as
the news is never static, neither are Sirleaf’s symbols. While a white
handkerchief, implying peace, usually represents President Obama,
for example, a red cloth was displayed after his announcement of
a troop surge for Afghanistan. This system, Sirleaf said, helps him
“reach all levels of people in society: educated, semi-educated, and
uneducated.”
Perhaps The daily Talk’s greatest accomplishment, however,
has been providing the news for free. In a nation where 80 percent
of the population lives below the poverty line, many people cannot
In the early morning, before the streets of Monrovia, Liberia, fill
with the bustle of everyday life, one man has already begun his
day. By the time the city awakens, he has prepared the news for
all his countrymen to see. This experiment in grassroots journalism,
a news outlet called The daily Talk, lacks an office, paid staff, and
even a computer. Instead, Alfred Sirleaf disseminates the news in
Liberia’s capital city using the simplest of tools: a blackboard and a
piece of chalk.
Liberia is a nation in recovery. After enduring more than a decade
of civil war, the country has emerged as a tenuous democracy. The
daily Talk is Sirleaf’s contribution to his country’s newfound stabil-
ity. Sirleaf hopes that with free access to the news, his fellow citizens
will become informed and engaged, turning to politics and debate,
rather than war, for answers.
A Legacy of WarSince May 14, 2000, Sirleaf has spent each morning on the side of
Tubman Boulevard, tirelessly writing stories of interest on his black-
board. Some news, especially international stories, comes from the
Internet, which Sirleaf accesses at a local café. But more often than
not, the news is generated on the streets of Monrovia itself. Sirleaf
works with a number of volunteers, each of whom brings him infor-
mation for local stories. Though this team of tipsters is small and
unpaid, it is well organized. Only after receiving information for a
story from at least two volunteers does Sirleaf post it on The daily
Talk. “I have several different people covering the same story, so we
get different view points,” explained Sirleaf. “No two opinions on a
piece of news will be the same, but this way we can ensure we get
accurate information.”
Sirleaf’s desire to provide free access to accurate information
stems from witnessing first-hand the horrors of his country’s lengthy
civil war. Fighting first began in 1989, and with the exception of a
brief ceasefire from 1996 to 1999 when former rebel leader Charles
Taylor served as president, war raged until 2003. By the time the sec-
ond ceasefire was signed, the country had been ravaged. The fight-
ing destroyed much of Monrovia’s infrastructure and left most of the
country without electricity for nearly 14 years. disease, violence, and
starvation killed 250,000 people, one out of every 12 Liberians. For
those who survived the war, life expectancy dropped to 44 years, in-
fant mortality rose to more than 10 percent, and GdP per capita fell
to just $500.
According to Sirleaf, the causes of his country’s turmoil are clear:
“One can trace the war back to misinformation. Those with informa-
tion used their own machinery to misguide, misuse, and oppress the
people without information. They denied the people of information,
The Talk of the TownIn post-war Liberia, Alfred Sirleaf sees access to information as
the key to peace.By Jessica Shor
We can’t just have a few informed people ruling the rest of the country. That’s how we ended up fighting and killing. We’re talking about a democracy.”
–Alfred Sirleaf
“
POLITICS & ECONOMYthe yale globalist
15
afford televisions, newspapers, and internet access. For unemployed
readers like Joseph Johnson, The daily Talk may serve as their sole
source of news. According to Johnson, “Without The daily Talk, we
would have no access to information. It focuses on us, the readers,
and helping us stay informed.”
Beatrice Mategwa, a broadcast journalist working with the United
Nations in Sudan, explained that many impoverished Africans like
Johnson must prioritize daily necessities, often at the expense of ac-
cess to information. “People need to get food on the table and meet
their basic needs,” Mategwa remarked, “so they don’t buy a newspa-
per that day. The reality is that people need to make choices.”
Yet in Sirleaf’s eyes, ensuring that Liberians do not have to make
the choice between food and news is fundamental for the survival of
his country’s democracy. “We can’t just have a few informed people
ruling the rest of the country,” he explained. “That’s how we ended
up fighting and killing. We’re talking about a democracy. We need
freedom of speech, freedom of information. We need to get the neces-
sary information to the people. With The daily Talk, we make sure
people are educated and can take part in society, especially the poor
and uninformed.”
A Man with a MissionSuch a bold undertaking, however, was bound to encounter prob-
lems and face opposition. Not long after creating The daily Talk,
Sirleaf was targeted by political leaders seeking to stamp out what
they perceived as a source of dissent. His surname, shared by Presi-
dent Johnson Sirleaf, though the two are not related, proved most
problematic. President Johnson Sirleaf was a vocal opposition figure
during the civil war, and political leaders assumed a subversive con-
nection between her and Alfred. On several occasions, government
forces threatened him with jail time and destroyed or stole The daily
Talk’s blackboard.
Nevertheless, Sirleaf’s resolve never faltered: “The daily Talk
knows no affiliation. It knows no name, no party, and no politics. dur-
ing the war, those invented connections hurt me. But we were people
with ambition, and we stayed put. I put my life on the line to make
sure people were kept informed.”
Today, Sirleaf remains just as steadfastly committed to spreading
the news. While funding remains a significant obstacle, Sirleaf has
high hopes for the future of The daily Talk. He has set his sights
on expanding into more Liberian communities, and eventually into
other African nations. The innovative model of The daily Talk could
provide citizens in other post-conflict states with the information
they need to actively participate in their new democracies. In her
work broadcasting from nations that have endured civil wars, includ-
ing Sierra Leone and Sudan, Mategwa has observed that “communi-
ties with access to the news are more involved. They understand the
issues. They’re able to engage politicians and make informed deci-
sions, and that does make a great difference to the communities.”
With more communities of informed citizens, Sirleaf believes peace
and stability could become reality for Africa’s war-weary nations.
This promise of an engaged populace has pushed Sirleaf to con-
tinue with his morning routine, despite many setbacks. He views
each reader as an integral part of Liberia’s economic and political
recovery, knowing that each will walk away from The daily Talk
more informed than when he or she arrived. And for Sirleaf, even the
few stories he can fit on his blackboard make a world of difference.
“A little knowledge is better than no knowledge,” Sirleaf proclaimed,
“and knowledge is power.”
Nicknamed the analogue blog, for 10 years The Daily Talk has empowered Monrovians through access to free news. (Courtesy Alfred Sirleaf)
Jessica Shor is a freshman in Ezra Stiles College.
FOCUS: JournalismSPring 2010
16
Financial pressures, new technologies, and
changing expectations are transforming the future of
foreign reporting. By Catherine Cheney
Freelance foreign correspondent Amanda Lindhout, 28, was captured by gunmen in Somalia on August 23, 2008. Along with an Australian freelance photog-
rapher, Nigel Brennan, she was held captive for 15 months before being released in November 2009. This was one of several trips Lindhout had taken to conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, reporting primarily for her hometown newspaper, the Red deer Advocate. She funded her inter-national reporting by working as a waitress in an Alberta, Canada pub.
Only recently has it become possible to pursue foreign correspon-
dence as a part-time job. The traditional image of a foreign corre-
spondent once involved a man wearing a trench coat and a fedora
hat, traveling with a local translator and a professional photogra-
pher. This reporter would have enjoyed generous accommodations,
worked in a permanent bureau and returned to his room at the end
of the day to type his article, which he would then send back home to
the paper before it went to press.
But the rise of the Web and digital technology, combined with the
impact of the financial crisis, caused the traditional profile of the in-
ternational reporter to change. The financial pressures of the 2007
recession hit already vulnerable newsrooms across America, and
news organizations began to cut costs, leading to dwindling numbers
of foreign correspondents and dwindling coverage of international
issues. Foreign bureaus began to close, and media entrepreneurs be-
gan to develop new ideas for covering the world. Now, as financial
pressures force many news organizations to close their foreign bu-
reaus and adapt to a new information landscape, media professionals
and news consumers alike are redefining the future of foreign cor-
respondence.
The End of an EraThe decline of newspaper journalism marks the end of an era, as
fewer publications are able to employ journalists to local, national,
and international beats. The rise of the Internet has created unprec-
edented global interconnectedness, as well as a demand for imme-
diacy that can affect the quality of reporting.
While information is becoming increasingly accessible and people
are demanding more news than ever before, the revenues of news
organizations are in constant decline as publishers and media ex-
ecutives struggle to monetize content and maintain readership. In
the past, newspaper publishers such as the Sulzberger family, which
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE
IN FLUX
17FOCUS: Journalism the yale globalist
Westin sent an email to ABC News in February announcing the
need to “embrace what is new, rather than being overwhelmed by
it.” Cutting 25 percent of its staff, ABC is halving its bureau corre-
spondents, instead relying on two dozen digital journalists to report
abroad with editing software and small cameras.
Other strategies do not limit bureaus to one person, instead con-
solidating whole groups of countries into regional posts, such as an
“East Africa” office or a “South America” office. This requires news
organizations to fly in reporters to cover breaking news stories. As
the reporters may not have had time to study the language or culture
of the area., their reporting may explore the who, what, when, and
where, but it might misrepresent the why or how.
Beth dickinson, an assistant managing editor at Foreign Policy
magazine and a former Globalist editor, worked as a foreign corre-
spondent in Nigeria for The Economist after graduating from Yale.
dickinson explained that this concept of flying in reporters, referred
to as “helicoper journalism,” assumes that expertise is not needed to
report the news.
“Sometimes, it’s the only way, but it certainly diminishes the depth
that journalists’ have in discussing their topics,” she explained. “No
matter how many books you cram on the plane, you’ll never know as
has controlled and published the New York Times since 1896, made
international reporting and permanent bureaus a top priority. But
while the New York Times maintains 26 bureaus abroad, the age of
fully staffed foreign bureaus is over.
Entrepreneurs redefining foreign coverage have challenged tra-
ditional media outlets. All at once, the industry is having to adjust to
shifting expectations, changing technology, and financial pressures.
From downsizing to outsourcing to creating new models for foreign
news, each media outlet has taken a different tack as they attempt to
weather the crisis.
Bureaus of One ABC News took a new step in the process of redefining foreign corre-
spondence in 2007, when it sent seven television journalists with lap-
tops and handheld video cameras to one-person bureaus around the
world. dana Hughes, an ABC correspondent based in Nairobi, told
the American Journalism Review, “We are fixers, shooters, report-
ers, producers, and bureau chiefs.” Five jobs, one person.
Many argue that this consolidation, this shift from massive foreign
bureaus to bureaus of one, is not only cost effective but also a better
way to report, encouraging reporters to be enterprising by decentral-
izing foreign correspondence from major capitals like Moscow and
London. ABC News president david Westin explained, “Technology
now makes it possible for us to have bureaus without a receptionist,
three edit suites and studio cameras and so on.” He added, “The es-
sence of what we do is reporting.”
No matter how many books you cram on the plane, you'll never know as much about a country as a reporter who lives there.”
— Beth Dickinson, Foreign Policy
“
Responding to new media companies like GlobalPost and Twitter drawing reporters and readers to the web, media outlets such as CNN and the BBC are moving more of their effort to their websites. (left: Cheney/TYG; above: Jotwani/TYG)
FOCUS: JournalismSPring 2010
18
and pictures of breaking news.
Citizen journalism, as applied to international coverage, refers
to foreign nationals working as active participants in the collection,
reporting, and dissemination of news and analysis for an overseas
audience. Media organizations rely on citizen journalism either for
breaking news coverage or as a way of exploring local reactions to in-
ternational events. “Citizen journalism allows us to have bureaus ev-
erywhere in the world, six billion people strong, and that just makes
us better,” said Klein as he described why CNN relies so heavily on
citizen accounts of news in their own hometowns. “Increasingly, that
is a big part of our value. The meeting is taking place in our living
room.”
Twitter is becoming an outlet for snippets of citizen journalism,
as the 2008 Iran protests and the January earthquake in Haiti made
clear. When people on the ground describe what they are experienc-
ing, news organizations far removed from the course of events can
use Twitter as a form of crowd sourcing. CNN is one of many outlets
that relied on this social media Web site to try and capture the reality
on the ground, but Klein warned that it is important to be cautious of
what information to trust.
“We know everything about the people we send to these coun-
tries,” he explained, referring to CNN international correspondents,
such as chief correspondent Christiane Amanpour. As for the content
many citizen journalists upload to the CNN Web site, “we have to
take more time to run them down, double check them, triple check
them,” said Klein.
Mainstream media companies are not the only ones looking to
citizen journalists to maintain foreign news coverage. Other organi-
zations have built models which capitalize on the grassroots power
of the Internet. demotix, a “citizen-journalism Web site and photo
agency,” accepts photographs from “freelance journalists and ama-
teurs” and markets them to mainstream media outlets. According to
its Web site, the company’s goal is to “rescue journalism and promote
free expression by connecting independent journalists with the tra-
ditional media.”
A B C F o r e i g n B u r e a u C l o s u r e sABC’s fully staffed foreign bureaus prior to 2003 ABC’s fully staffed and one-person foreign bureaus in 2009
ABC closed seven fully staffed bureaus in 2003. In 2007, it sent seven “one-person bureaus abroad; as of January 2009, ABC had 17 fully staffed and one-person bureaus. (Information courtesy Project for Excellence in Journalism; graphs Jotwani/TYG)
much about a country as a reporter who lives there.”
Increasingly, though, newsrooms cannot afford the expertise that
comes with permanent bureaus. “Training oneself to the point where
you can effectively [fly] in is the challenge of the new foreign corre-
spondent,” said dickinson. “The best of these keep their eye on the
news throughout their region, so that they can [fly] in from another
close-by location,” ready to report on the situation.
Other strategies to maintain foreign news coverage include fur-
ther collaboration between media outlets as well as further reliance
on newswire services, such as the Associated Press and Reuters.
The Washington Post, part of the Washington Post Company,
maintains 13 international bureaus, and the Tribune Company, which
owns the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, is currently dis-
cussing the possibility of paying the Post for foreign news coverage to
include in its eight daily newspapers.
But even The Washington Post relies on wire services for much
of its foreign news coverage. Wire services cover the major issues
in a given country for an international audience, but there is still a
need for freelancers, and even citizen journalists, to contribute added
value reporting through on-the-ground sourcing, investigative jour-
nalism, and feature stories.
Citizen Journalists “Anybody who is there automatically knows more, has better insight
than anyone sitting in the office,” said Jon Klein, the president of
CNN for the United States, with multiple television screens on the
wall of his New York office displaying domestic and global news cov-
erage. “Whether you are an employee of ours or you are a citizen who
witnesses something, you’ve got a validity right off the bat that needs
to be paid attention to.” The organization maintains 33 international
newsgathering locations, and in January appointed three new inter-
national correspondents, in sharp contrast with the trends affecting
smaller news organizations.
CNN also draws on freelance work and citizen journalism, as evi-
dent in its iReport initiative, which allows people to upload videos
Full foreign bureaus
One-person foreign bureaus
19FOCUS: Journalismthe yale globalist
This shift toward citizen journalism demands increased education
regarding journalistic ethics. Nick Raistrick, a producer and trainer
at the BBC World Service Trust, works to develop news outlets and
train journalists in countries that lack a strong, independent media.
He recently trained journalists from six different radio stations that
the BBC helped establish in Uganda. This form of media development
helps international media thrive, creating a culture of citizen journal-
ists devoted to their craft, aware of its importance, and able to send
their work to American news organizations looking to educate an au-
dience on the area. “I think it is a great opportunity for Americans to
learn about the world, and British people to learn about the world,”
Raistrick explained.
Foreign FreelancingMedia outlets can draw from a more diverse array of reporters and
perspectives by looking to freelance journalists. Many news organi-
zations are adapting to financial pressures by hiring freelancers, who
place themselves in foreign countries, pitching stories to multiple
news organizations in hopes of earning a living. “There are more op-
portunities [today] for people who are resourceful,” said david Case,
editor of Passport, the membership service of the online news service
GlobalPost. “Rather than trying to figure out how to get a foothold at
The New York Times, the market is more fluid and open.”
Jerry Guo, who graduated from Yale in 2009, owes his journalism
career to the adventuresome spirit that allowed him to succeed in
freelancing. “In college I would just basically spend my break in ex-
otic places, and I found that that was an easier way of convincing
editors [to let me write], if it was a place that no one else was stupid
enough to go to.” As an undergraduate, Guo reported from coun-
tries including North Korea, Zimbabwe, Nepal, and Indonesia. After
spending his college career planting himself in compelling areas and
pitching his stories to a variety of publications, Guo was hired as a
staff correspondent at Newsweek. “There is no one path,” he said
from his roaming cell phone in West Africa, explaining that people
who are willing to take risks can find work by digging up unique,
compelling stories.
Frank Smyth, Washington representative of the Committee to
Protect Journalists, spent many years as a freelance journalist and
risked his life in pursuit of stories, including an 18-day imprisonment
in Iraq during the Gulf War. He explained that there are benefits and
disadvantages to relying on the work of a freelancer as compared
to that of a staff writer or special correspondent. “Newspapers may
have a military reporter who is closer to the military than someone
else,” he said. Close relationships between staff reporters and their
sources lead to greater journalistic access, Smyth explained, but at
the same time, freelancers who lack those relationships “may report
more unilaterally, more critically.”
Smyth said that success as a freelancer or a stringer in this com-
petitive media environment requires moving to “an area with lots
of news, like Iraq a few years ago, and Afghanistan today.” But with
freelancing becoming one of the predominant paths to international
journalism, more and more inexperienced people are traveling to
conflict zones hoping to sell their stories, and they are often igno-
rant of the real dangers they face. Amanda Lindhout’s kidnapping is
one example among several, such as Laura Ling, who was arrested
in North Korea while filming at the China-North Korea Border for
the online media company Current TV, and Steven Vincent, a former
freelance journalist for the Wall Street Journal, who was shot dead
in Basra, Iraq in 2005.
Smyth explained that while these risks should be understood, peo-
ple who thrive on bylines and television spots will always take them.
“It is easy to say, well, don’t take risks, but I’ve also taken risks and
gotten stories that were exclusives,” he said.
Funding Foreign CorrespondencePortable digital technology and instant communication online make
it possible for news organizations to utilize freelance reporting, but
with shrinking revenues, it is hard for newspapers and television out-
lets to support their freelance contributors financially. That is where
foundations come in.
Foundations and fellowships are providing new opportunities for
foreign reporting, even as some in the established media can no lon-
ger afford to fund international correspondence. John Schidlovsky
worked as a freelancer in the Middle East and as the bureau chief
for the Baltimore Sun in Beijing and New delhi before becoming the
director of the International Reporting Project. He founded the or-
ganization, which offers the most competitive journalism fellowships
in the country, in 1998 after determining that American journalism
needed a program empowering individuals to pursue foreign re-
porting. “It was clear that a lot of mainstream media organizations
were going to reduce, cut back, or eliminate entirely their foreign
bureaus,” he said. And he was right. The organization has since sent
300 journalists to report in more than 85 countries.
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting “helps underwrite the
cost of foreign reporting projects and works to get the stories fea-
tured in newspapers, broadcast outlets and on the Internet.” The
Center recently partnered with YouTube to create a journalism com-
petition open to aspiring reporters who want to “share their stories
with the world.”
This is one of a few foundations taking the lead in cultivating the
next generation of foreign correspondents, in addition to organiza-
tions such as the Overseas Press Club Foundation, which offers fel-
lowships to undergraduates and graduate students wishing to pursue
international reporting projects. The intent behind the many foreign
journalism foundations and fellowships is to equip journalists with
the resources they need to report important stories that would oth-
erwise go untold.
Organizations outside of the traditional media, including non-
profit organizations, are also funding global storytelling projects that
Now, as financial pressures force many news organizations to close their foreign bureaus and adapt to a new information landscape, media professionals and news consumers alike are redefining the future of foreign correspondence.
FOCUS: JournalismSPring 2010
20
provide new forums for journalists to publish and broadcast their
work. Human Rights Watch, for example, funds international human
rights reporting fellowships, and the Kaiser Family Foundation offers
fellowships in global health reporting.
From the Ground Up In 2007, when the Boston Globe closed its last three international bu-
reaus in Jerusalem, Berlin, and Bogotá, Charles Sennott, formerly a
foreign correspondent for the Globe, partnered with Philip Balboni to
found the foreign news Web site GlobalPost. Emphasizing the impor-
tance of foreign correspondents living in the areas they cover so that
they can best “untangle complex issues,” the founders of GlobalPost
explain on their site: “Our mission is to provide Americans, and all
English-language readers around the world, with a depth, breadth
and quality of original international reporting that has been steadily
diminished in too many American newspapers and television net-
works.”
Relying on paid membership, syndication in other publications,
and online advertising, GlobalPost was founded in January 2009 with
a for-profit business model. The venture employs more than 70 cor-
respondents in more than 50 countries. These reporters are encour-
aged to produce multimedia content in addition to print stories, and
most of them report for the site part-time. david Case of the Global-
Post explained that the site is a pioneer not only in its financial mod-
el, but also in its approach to foreign news. “War, famine, crises and
politics have long been the lifeblood of the foreign correspondent,”
he said. “GlobalPost is about covering the world the way we cover
domestic news.”
In addition to covering current issues in politics and commerce,
the Web site features stories such as “Saudi women revel in online
lives” and “The ‘miracle babies’ of Mexico City: 25 years later.” These
kinds of stories had gone uncovered by the mainstream media be-
cause publishers and producers assumed that people would not pay
for them. However, as the world grows increasingly interconnected
and people look for new ways to engage with international issues, the
Web creates a forum for a wider range of content. No trend in con-
temporary foreign correspondence, from the rise of citizen journal-
ists to the shift towards one-person bureaus, could have taken place
without the incredible access and speed afforded by the Internet.
Looking Ahead “There are more links between the U.S. and the rest of the world now
than ever before and ironically the mainstream media has receded
from its responsibility to cover the rest of the world,” said Schid-
lovsky. With the increasing number of success stories in new media
models for foreign correspondence, the mainstream media will have
to adapt, as it has already begun to do. If the definition of interna-
tional correspondence is broadened to include these new models, the
field may actually be growing, despite tight budgets and closing bu-
reaus.
Foreign correspondence is not, in fact, dying. It is weathering the
storm of financial pressure and new media technology, with freelanc-
ers, citizen journalists, foundations, and entrepreneurs at the helm.
Catherine Cheney is a senior Politcal Science major in Trumbull College.
counterclockwise from top right: Amanda Lindhout, a freelance foreign correspondent held captive in Somalia for 15 months before being released in No-vember 2009. (Courtesy freeamandafreenigel.wordpress.com)Christiane Amanpour and Anderson Cooper, foreign cor-respondents for CNN. (Courtesy Flickr/Creative Commons)Philip S. Balboni and Charles M. Sennot, co-founders of GlobalPost. (Courtesy David Case/GlobalPost)
21FOCUS: Journalism the yale globalist
some of these new media outlets, whether they be radio stations,
websites, bloggers, who can hold officials’ feet to the fire and, bit
by bit, upgrade the conditions for greater prosperity, greater so-
cial services, greater literacy, and just more efficient government.
Q: Aside from hearing so many heartbreaking stories, what is
the most difficult aspect of the type of reporting you do?
A: It is often hard to be sure of what is going on in places, just trying
to verify the facts and understanding what narrative is right. When I
was a foreign correspondent based in a pretty poor country it was hard
enough, but at least then you are in the country, you speak the language.
Now, in contrast, well, I am just planning a trip to the Congo, and so I
don’t speak any local languages. It’s an enormously complicated coun-
try, and trying to make sure that you get it right can be really tough.
Q: In a world where so many issues warrant attention, how do
you choose which stories to cover?
A: In part, I look for those topics where I think I can make the
most difference. I think of the column as a bit of a spotlight, and
it is most effective when directed at something that is not other-
wise illuminated. Of course, it really only works if I can get ac-
cess to a conflict or to a problem. I look for places that are acces-
sible in some form and that aren’t getting a lot of attention, where
I think that if people read this over breakfast or over their coffee
in the morning that it will be one step toward making a difference.
Jeff Kaiser is a sophomore in Saybrook College.
Nicholas Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. His work has focused on issues of global health, poverty, and gender. Some of Mr. Kristof’s most notable columns have focused on regions in conflict, especially Darfur and the Congo. In Janu-ary, the Globalist’s Jeff Kaiser interviewed Mr. Kristof about his work. Below is the edited result of their conversation.
Q: How do you see the state of the international news media?
A: Overall, I do think there is a little more appetite than there
often has been historically in the U.S. On the other hand, news or-
ganizations are cutting costs in any way they can, and TV especial-
ly has realized that if you go out and cover Pakistan, Afghanistan,
wherever it may be, that is dangerous and incredibly expensive,
and on balance, probably won’t get the same ratings as throw-
ing a democrat and a Republican in a room together and hav-
ing them yell at each other. I think overall we’re going downhill in
terms of coverage, with more and more news organizations clos-
ing their foreign news bureaus and relying on stringers, if at all.
Q: Many of your columns seem to have an activist tone. Is this
something you strive for?
A: I flinch a little bit at the notion that I am an activist or a
crusader because there is some connotation that that means
that one’s first loyalty is to some ideological position as op-
posed to just empirically trying to gather the facts. But I must
say I look back at my body of work and it’s clear that I really do
want to galvanize readers and that I care about a whole range
of humanitarian issues. So I wouldn’t fight that label too much.
Q: Do you see this activism as a broader role for all
journalists?
A: I think there is an inherent tension there because a lot of peo-
ple, myself included, went into journalism because we do want to
make a difference, and this is an opportunity to do so. On the other
hand, you can’t cover every school board meeting or every political
fight as if it’s the civil rights movement or genocide. There are a lot
of cases where we really do need rigorous journalistic neutrality and
objectivity. Maybe we can try a little harder to make a difference.
Q: On this theme of journalism as a way to promote action,
what role should the media play in the endorsement of democ-
racy around the world?
A: I wish that we would see democracy not just as an issue of
elections but really as a much broader process, and I think that
one of the best ways to promote that kind of a democratic environ-
ment is to support independent news organizations in countries and
Q & A
A Conversation With Nicholas Kristof
FOCUS: JournalismSPring 2010
22
Peace Through PrintThe island of Cyprus has long been the site of ethnic conflict between
Turkish and Greek factions. Could reforming journalistic practices help bring about peace?
By Emily Sosangelis
At a Greek check point in Nicosia, an anti-Turkish sign depicts the bloody Cyprus conflict along the UN buffer zone. (Courtesy Christopher Rose)
From 1963 to 1974, over 500 Turkish Cypriots went missing. during
the same period, nearly 1,500 Greek Cypriots also disappeared.
For years, both the Greek and Turkish communities of Cyprus as-
sumed that they alone had been the victims of these murky, deadly
attacks. They were shocked to discover that, in fact, each side had
fared similarly in the 50 years since the country’s founding. Thanks
to Cyprus’s ethnically divided media, neither side had learned about
the tragedies the other had suffered.
Cyprus has been rife with civil war and cultural division for years.
British rule from 1914 to 1960 eventually gave way to Cypriot indepen-
dence, but no reconciliation occurred between the two ethnic com-
munities living in separate enclaves on the island. In 1964, U.N. peace-
keeping forces demarcated a buffer zone, called the “green line,” to
end a bloody civil war between the two groups. This line still serves
as a physical and psychological barrier that separates the Republic of
Cyprus from the self-proclaimed Turkish Federated State of Cyprus,
created in 1984 and recognized only by Turkey.
Historical and cultural divisions between Cypriots run deeper
than politics. Greek Cypriots speak only Greek, attend separate
schools, and read only Greek newspapers. Turkish Cypriots are simi-
larly self-segregated. Without linguistic common ground, isolation
persists. Nadia Karayianni is the project manager of the NGO Sup-
port Centre, a Cypriot non-profit that seeks to build a stronger civil
society on the island. “The problem is that there is no joint source of
information,” she said. Karayianni fears that isolation, reinforced by
separate and biased media, engenders deep mistrust.
Many journalists on the island resort to sensationalism and com-
munalism as they pursue readership and ratings. The front pages of
major newspapers in Cyprus regularly seethe with divisive nation-
alism. “Unacceptable Positions of the Turkish Cypriot Community,”
ran the headline of Greek newspaper Philenews in January 2010. The
Turkish Cypriot newspaper Volkan often leads with proclamations
like “Turkish Cyprus Needs to Live on Forever.” Newspapers tend to
depict the other side as the primary cause of the conflict. A 2006 study
by Metin Ersoy, media scholar at Eastern Mediterranean University
on Cyprus, found that over 30 percent of Greek Cypriot newspapers
ran negative headlines about the other side, as did 25 percent of
Turkish Cypriot newspapers.
Cyprus resident and teacher Konstantinos Chatzisavvas, like
many other Cypriots, buys into the headlines. “The media presents
the Cyprus problem the way it is, with Turkey remaining intolerant,”
he said. This language of separation and division renews distrust,
kindling the popular belief that the Turkish and Greek perspectives
are incompatible and irreconcilable.
After several Cypriot reporters were targeted with violence, in-
ternational journalism advocates began to call for reform. One idea
is the concept of “peace journalism,” which encourages mutual un-
derstanding by undermining the divide between “self” and “other” in
journalistic reporting. developed over 40 years ago, the idea has only
recently reached Cyprus. Inspired by the concept, the Boston-based
Cambridge Foundation for Peace has developed a pluralistic Cypri-
ot news source, CyprusMediaNet, which pools reporting from both
sides of the green line and translates each article into Turkish, Greek
and English. While only first steps in bridging the Cypriot language
barrier, such initiatives are providing broader access to information.
On the ground, however, progress is slow. Journalist George Pittas
of the popular Greek Cypriot newspaper Politis described his publica-
tion as “the one and only newspaper in Cyprus that has a couple of
Turkish Cypriot columnists on a permanent basis.” Although there is
some movement towards bridging the two communities, according to
Pittas, these efforts remain limited.
The financial structure of the industry has also posed an obstacle
to the pursuit of a more closely connected media on the island. Be-
cause Turkish Cypriots depend heavily on Turkish financing, nation-
alist news broadcasters in Turkey hold a monopoly on culture and
information for Turkish Cyprus.
There is no doubt that media in Cyprus will continue to play an
important role in easing, or blocking, the road to reunification. As
Karayianni put it, “Journalists should be the initiators of peacemak-
ing. On the contrary, some are only repeating the same stories of the
past, repeating what divides us, not what unites us.”
Emily Sosangelis is a freshman in Timothy Dwight College.
23FOCUS: Journalismthe yale globalist
Cuba’s Emerging BlogosphereIn spite of government repression and limited access to the Internet,
Cuban bloggers are determined to make their voices heard.By Carlos Gomez
Yoani Sanchez was headed to a demonstration for nonvio-
lence in November 2009 when she was kidnapped and beaten
by government agents. The famed Cuban blogger had her
hair pulled, knuckles smashed, and head, chest, knees, and kidneys
punched and kicked. Cries of “traitor” and “dissident” were hurled
her way as she was forced into a car, beaten, and then thrown out
on the street 20 minutes later. Such harassment is not uncommon in
Cuba; Sanchez is but one of many who have suffered under the gov-
ernment’s harsh policies toward independent journalists.
Sanchez created her blog, “Generation Y,” in 2007 as a place to
write freely about Cuba, without government interference. It has
since drawn attention to the repressive regime and sparked a new
wave of Cuban bloggers committed to reporting the real stories of
Cuba. Working within the constraints of the country’s almost nonex-
istent Internet infrastructure and against the government’s attempt
to restrict them, these bloggers must draw on all their creativity and
courage as they attempt to launch a new generation of Cuban jour-
nalism.
Voices of the Government“Independent journalists are mercenaries,” read a 2000 headline of
Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde. “The U.S. Empire pays, orga-
nizes, teaches, trains, arms and camouflages them and orders them
to shoot at their own people.”
Clearly, independent journalists have a strained relationship with
the Cuban government, which owns all major news outlets on the
island. Civilians are often hard-pressed to find information not sup-
plied by the three state-controlled newspapers, La Granma, Juventud
Rebelde, and Trabajadores. These three papers serve distinct pur-
poses but share common themes: party loyalty and Cuban national-
ism. La Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party
and the most widely circulated of the three, publishes mostly celebra-
tions of Cuban policies and chastisements of the American govern-
ment. Juventud Rebelde (Rebellious Youth) runs similar stories to
those in La Granma but geared towards a younger demographic with
the hope of instilling strong nationalism in the rising generation. The
third national publication, Trabajadores (Workers), is the official
voice of the government-controlled trade union.
Journalists for these three papers are well paid and have access to
a number of top government sources, but they trade journalistic lib-
erty for security. The Cuban government dictates what — and how —
stories can be reported. In the words of dr. Jose Alberto Hernandez,
president of CubaNet, these government publications produce “very
somber and unimaginative journalism.”
But the creativity allowed for by independent journalism brings
with it significant risks. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
puts the number of independent reporters in Cuba at only 25, prob-
ably because these journalists are subjected to routine harassment.
“Immediately the government will identify you,” said Hernandez.
“On a daily basis, they make your life miserable.”
Independent reporters lose at both ends of the journalistic pro-
cess. Sources easily available to government writers suddenly be-
come unreachable, and publication becomes exceedingly difficult.
Because the Communist Party controls all communication, selling
independent work is impossible, making a sufficient income unat-
tainable. Independent journalists also frequently have their phone
lines disconnected and are under constant surveillance by govern-
ment agents. Consequently, Juan Gonzales Febles, Odelin Alfonso,
Luis Cino, and Sanchez — the only Cuban bloggers with available
contact information — could not be reached for this article despite
numerous attempts.
Some reporters are put under house arrest. Others are rounded
Yoani Sanchez copies her articles and emails them to friends to post on foreign servers, a common practice for bloggers who must work around Cuba’s nonexistent Internet infrastructure and government scrutiny. (Courtesy José Luis Orihuela/Flickr)
FOCUS: JournalismSPring 2010
24
writers are forced to type their blog posts on home computers, copy
them to flash drives or Cds, and take them to Internet cafes to send
via email. This is complicated by the fact that most Internet centers
aren’t open to civilians. Sanchez, for example, must pretend to be a
tourist to slip past guards. Other bloggers are similarly forced to use
creative methods to send their entries to friends abroad who post
them online.
Cuban citizens, in turn, have a hard time accessing the Internet
due to its high price and painfully slow connection speed. Some of
the entries are distributed through the population via Cds and flash
drives. The blogs’ real successes, however, have occurred in the inter-
national community. Sanchez has received a number of international
accolades for Generation Y and was included in Time Magazine’s
“100 Most Influential People of 2008.” In addition, organizations like
Reporters without Borders and the CPJ now put Cuba on their top
priority lists, and sites like CubaNet.org post articles that can’t be
published in the mainstream Cuban media. Recently, even President
Barack Obama responded to a series of questions posted by Sanchez.
The Government RespondsSanchez and other bloggers have mostly eluded the level of govern-
ment harassment faced by traditional independent journalists. dan
Erikson, a Cuban expert for Inter-American dialogue, suspects that
this is because most government officials are over 70 years old. “I
suppose there’s a generational disconnect between the activities of
Raul Castro and Yoani Sanchez,” he said.
Nonetheless, the government consistently denies Sanchez the
travel visa necessary to leave Cuba. Clearly, independent blogs are
no longer going unnoticed. As of August 2009, all blog sites were
blocked within Cuba. In addition, the government is reportedly hir-
ing computer science students to serve as cyber police to monitor the
content of these different sites. “There could be a massive crackdown
if the bloggers’ work continues to be recognized abroad,” Lauria said.
With the increased attention that the blogs have generated, how-
ever, most agree that international scrutiny will prevent another
Black Spring. The 2003 arrests caused the European Union to issue
economic sanctions against Cuba, which the country can’t afford to
provoke again. In addition, the global community now monitors the
government’s actions more closely. After the recent assault on San-
chez, the U.S. department of State promptly declared that it “strong-
ly deplores” violence against journalists and urged Castro to honor
the “full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms of all its
citizens.”
Castro has yet to respond, but Cuba’s new blogging community
shows no signs of slowing down.
Immediately the government will identify you. On a daily basis, they make your life miserable.”
— Dr. Jose Alberto Hernandez, president of CubaNet
“
Carlos Gomez is a freshman in Saybrook College.
A Cuban civilian reads La Granma, the official organ of the Communist Party and one of the only media outlets readily available in Cuba. (Courtesy Mike Reid)
up and driven to remote locations in an effort to keep them from
publishing for a few days. More seriously, prison is a constant threat.
Journalist Bernardo Arevalo served a jail sentence of six years sim-
ply for referring to Castro as a “liar” after the president failed to en-
act promised democratic reforms. In March 2003, a period now aptly
referred to as “Black Spring,” 75 Cuban dissidents were arrested and
imprisoned, including 23 journalists. Many remain in jail, making
Cuba home to the third largest number of imprisoned reporters, after
China and Iran.
With the change of leadership from Fidel Castro to his brother
Raul in 2008, some hoped for an improved journalistic atmosphere.
However, Carlos Lauria, director of the Americas region for CPJ, says
that despite Raul’s announcement of reform, nothing has changed.
“In terms of independent reporting and the ability of journalists to
work freely in Cuba, it’s just not possible.”
Slipping Past the GuardsIn the past few years, independent journalists have found a new ven-
ue for their writings: blogs. Beginning with Sanchez’s Generation Y
blog, Cuban journalists have turned towards less traditional media
to disseminate information. The CPJ reports that there are about 25
regularly maintained news blogs from Cuban authors. These young
reporters are mostly stationed in Havana, as the Cuban capital is
the easiest place to access the Internet. Rather than engaging in
the purely anti-government rhetoric sometimes associated with in-
dependent journalists, the blog entries focus on telling stories not
published in the government-sanctioned papers. Laritza diversent,
for example, runs a blog entitled Laritza’s Laws, which explores le-
gal issues in Cuba. In a recent post titled “Legal Illiteracy,” diversent
discussed the disparity between the idealistic concept of justice she
learned in law school and the reality of working as a lawyer in Cuba.
“Bloggers are slipping through the tight restrictions of the regime
and have been able to report on some of the issues that Cubans face
daily, like food shortages, health care, and education problems,” ex-
plained Lauria, but “they face huge practical obstacles from the re-
stricted Internet access in Cuba.”
Since surfing the web in Cuba costs six dollars an hour, while the
median salary is $17 a month, the CPJ reports that only about 2.1 per-
cent of Cubans have Internet access. Most of these few are govern-
ment employees. Posting blogs online thus presents problems. Cuban
25CULTUREthe yale globalist
This past summer, gallery owners, artists, and collectors raced
around the world to catch the openings of the newest cutting-
edge galleries. They didn’t head to long-established art capitals like
New York, London, or Berlin but to Beijing, searching for the “latest
thing” in art in the capital of communist China.
Beijing first arrived on the international art scene 30 years ago,
when a group of experimental artists called the Stars defied govern-
ment orders and displayed their art in public. But only in the last
decade has China become known as the hot new market in the world
of art. “I have been active in the contemporary art field for 25 years,
and I have never experienced such a boom, at such a speed, to such
heights, in such a short period of time,” explained Fabien Fryns, Bel-
gian owner of gallery F2, which he relocated to Beijing from Spain in
2007.
The journey to international recognition, however, has brought
about major shifts within Beijing’s art community. The 798 Arts dis-
trict, an arrangement of formerly abandoned Soviet factories which
now house galleries and studios, has been the historic nucleus of Bei-
jing’s contemporary art scene. But as boutiques and tourists crowd
its streets and inflate its prices, artists and gallery owners are in-
creasingly establishing or re-establishing themselves in Caochangdi,
a village on the outskirts of Beijing’s urban sprawl that has become a
more serious and subdued home to China’s modern art.
The food stalls, dirt paths, and shirtless construction crews of
Caochangdi are a far stretch from the charming Bauhaus spaces of
798. When artist Ai Weiwei, considered the godfather of contempo-
rary art in China, moved to Caochangdi in 2000, he set a bold prec-
edent that his colleagues considered crazy. Today, the gallery space
Ai opened within the compound he built for himself and his friends,
China Art Archives and Warehouse, is among Beijing’s leading con-
temporary art galleries.
In the years that followed, many more galleries opened in Cao-
changdi. The 2008 Beijing Olympics accelerated 798’s transformation
into a glitzy tourist attraction, and the global economic downturn has
hastened the movement of artists and gallery owners from 798 to Ca-
ochangdi, where tourists are few and real estate is cheaper. By now,
a critical mass of new galleries and anchor organizations — many of
them, including the well-known Pékin Fine Arts, Galerie Urs Meile,
and Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, housed in compounds
designed by Ai — have joined China Art Archives and Warehouse
(CAAW) in Caochangdi.
Two clusters of art spaces have emerged in Caochangdi. To the
north are galleries CAAW, F2 Gallery, Platform China, and Three
Shadows. F2 shows the work of new artists alongside long-established
names and often displays more controversial pieces, such as a recent
Shining in the RoughBeijing’s “it” galleries find a new home in an unlikely neighborhood.By Helena Malchione
collection of paintings by Sheng Qi. With its opening in May 2009, the
twentieth anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Sheng
Qi’s show “Power of the People” drew unusually high attention from
the Chinese government for its references to the protests. Several
overly political pieces were not permitted to be shown.
In Caochangdi’s southern cluster, a vast arrangement of galleries
lies tucked between the narrow streets. One of them is the veteran
Beijing establishment White Space, the first truly influential gallery
to relocate from 798. “We got to 798 early and we left early,” reflected
White Space owner Tian Yuan on the decision to move her gallery.
“There are very few people in Caochangdi. It is possible for us to
work more peacefully here.”
The shift from 798 to Caochangdi represents a formative moment
in the continuing development of contemporary Chinese art. The
rising prices and touristic ambiance of 798, which prompted some
galleries to close and others to relocate, have helped weed out the
ambitious hopefuls from the real talent. The quiet, more serious at-
mosphere of Caochangdi has allowed some of China’s most celebrat-
ed artists to reflect upon their bodies of work. In the September 2009
issue of The Beijinger, arts editor Madeleine O’dea wrote that a “new
bohemianism” had taken root in the city’s arts scene. If the rugged
alleyways of Caochangdi speak to anything, it is this spirit of bohemi-
anism and renewed creativity, and the promise of many more years
of extraordinary art.
Helena Malchione is a sophomore Economics and East Asian Studies major in Jonathan Edwards College.
left: The sleek, lush pathways of Ai Weiwei-designed Galerie Urs Meile form a sharp contrast to the bleak, dusty Caochangdi streets just beyond. (Malchione/TYG) right: The 798 Arts District has transformed from abandoned warehouses to a glitzy tourist attraction. (Welch/TYG)
CULTURESPring 2010
26
Compiling a CultureThe international success of Afro-Peruvian music has brought a once-obscure tradition into the potentially distorting glare of the spotlight.
By Alon Harish
When david Byrne, former leader of the rock group Talk-
ing Heads, watched a videotape of Peruvian singer Su-
sana Baca in concert, he immediately fell in love with her
voice. He persuaded Baca to sign with his New York-based record
label Luaka Bop, then combined her work with that of other tradi-
tional Peruvian artists in a 1995 compilation entitled “The Soul of
Black Peru.” Opening with Baca’s mournful and evocative version of
the Afro-Peruvian classic “María Landó,” the album not only started
Baca on a path to fame but also contributed to the preservation of a
musical tradition that was on the verge of disappearing. But the very
success of the album raised a difficult question: Can an American la-
bel promote Afro-Peruvian music without changing it?
A People in the ShadowsBaca, who in 2002 became the first Peruvian to win a Grammy, is
part of a new generation of Afro-Peruvian artists dedicated to keep-
ing alive the traditions of their ancestors. Since for most of history
Peruvian music was an oral tradition, much of it was “lost with the
deaths of people who carried the music in their memory,” Baca said.
Born in barrios like Baca’s hometown of Chorrillos, Afro-Peruvian
music was first developed by African slaves brought by the Span-
ish to work in mines and plantations along the Peruvian coast. The
Spanish, fearing the overt spirituality in the slaves’ music and dance,
imposed a ban on drums that inadvertently gave birth to a unique
percussive sound that has survived to this day. Slaves found other
objects with which to create a beat, such as the cajón, which evolved
from wooden crates used to collect fruit on colonial farms. They ad-
opted the quijada de burro (literally “donkey’s jaw” in Spanish) as a
percussion instrument, making its teeth vibrate by slapping the jaw
with the palm of their hands.
To Baca, “percussion is at the core of Afro-Peruvian music.” So,
too, is the theme of loss of a homeland and of freedom. Though the
rhythms and melodies that sprang from these emotions are sung in
Spanish, a language people speak in most of Latin America, they went
unheard by the outside world for centuries. And despite the natural
appeal of their soulful grooves, Afro-Peruvian music did not register
on the international scene until the release of Byrne’s compilation in
the United States.
Out of ObscurityBaca’s commitment to her country’s musical tradition began before
Byrne’s first visit to Peru in the early 1990s. Susana Baca and her
husband Ricardo Pereira founded the Instituto Negro Continuo
(Black Continuum Institute) in Chorrillos in 1992, years before she
became a commercial success. Instituto Negro Continuo supports
musicians and scholars of black culture in Peru by conducting
workshops at local schools to teach students about Afro-Peruvian
music and running a library with traditional musical archives and
documents.
Yale Evelev, Luaka Bop’s president, credits Baca with “single-
handedly reinvigorating a culture that was fading away.” But Luaka
Bop, which Byrne founded in 1988 as an umbrella label to unite his
numerous international compilation projects, has played a signifi-
cant role in the renaissance of a musical culture formerly unheard
outside of Peru’s borders.
It was Baca’s rendition of the landó, a signature Afro-Peruvian
meter akin to an extended waltz, that lured Byrne to Peru. The shuf-
fling beat of the cajón carried Baca’s deep voice through the tale of
“María,” a servant girl for whom life offers “no dawn,” only suffering
and “doing the work of others.” And yet, as Byrne and Evelev were
surprised to learn, no label in Peru had thought enough of Baca’s mu-
sic to record it.
“We went to the Warner Bros. outpost in Peru, a label called Iemp-
sa, and no one there had even heard of her,” Evelev said. Baca signed
with Luaka Bop in shortly after the release of “The Soul of Black
Peru,” and the label released “Susana Baca,” a solo album in 1997.
A product of Evelev and Byrne’s travels to Peru and acquisitions of
cassette material from local labels, “The Soul of Black Peru” boosted
Susana Baca performing in Reading, U.K., in 2006. (Courtesy Damian Rafferty/Flickr)
27CULTUREthe yale globalist
awareness of Afro-Peruvian music, once known only in small, iso-
lated black communities in Peru, until it was well known beyond the
Andes.
From the Outside Looking InLater in 1995, Luaka Bop set Baca off on a 30-show tour across the
United States, during which Baca played for audiences far larger
than any she could have dreamed of in Peru — but who were also
complete strangers to her heritage and did not speak her language.
despite those barriers, the song “María Landó” became so popular
that by the end of the tour, crowds would applaud only a few bars
into the introduction. Back home, while taking pride in Baca’s
success, many Black Peruvians were skeptical of whom she truly
sought to represent through her music while she was abroad.
“Here was a woman no one wanted to do a record with, and sud-
denly some outsiders come in and now she’s touring the States.
There were a lot of people wondering how that was even possible,”
Evelev said.
Evelev and Byrne put themselves in a complex situation in Peru.
The music that stirred them most had been left behind by local cul-
tural trends. Evelev and Byrne saw their task as unearthing forgot-
ten folk gems that deserved greater recognition. A quote from Byrne
in Heidi Feldman’s book The Black Rhythms of Peru captures Byrne’s
attitude towards his work: “Sometimes it takes a naïve foreigner to
appreciate what people who live in a country don’t realize they have.”
But many Peruvians, acutely aware that Byrne and Evelev were
marketing a culture they did not know firsthand, questioned Byrne
and Evelev’s motives. Black Peruvians who still remembered the
days when their music was first reappearing criticized his selections
for the compilation. Some questioned the inclusion of Chabuca Gran-
da, one of Susana Baca’s musical mentors, due to her mixed racial
heritage, claiming she was not truly black. They worried above all
that the image of their culture produced by Luaka Bop would not be
faithful to the reality with which they grew up.
Culture Preservation or Cultural Change?This cultural tension is not uncommon for Luaka Bop, a label that
despite its size — it operates out of a one-room office on Manhat-
tan’s Lower East Side — has done a great deal for the promotion of
under-recognized music around the world. Luaka Bop compilations
spread the musical wealth of places like Brazil, Cuba, and Mali,
among others. Although they contain notes with historical back-
ground on the musical culture of the country, Evelev says the label’s
core mission is to spread good music, not to educate. “We’re not the
Smithsonian,” he joked.
Every well-intentioned label described by the intellectually vacu-
ous term “world music” faces this conundrum. Because of the conve-
A street scene in Lima: Two men play the guitar and the cajón, performing a lando by Chabuca Granda. (Courtesy Flickr)
nience of grouping distinct foreign musical cultures like Baca’s under
the banner of world music, record stores and other distributors com-
monly shuffle her albums among those of various other “non-West-
ern” artists, not bothering to distinguish them regardless of how dra-
matic their differences are.
Baca, who recently finished her fifth album with Luaka Bop and is
planning a sixth, said she does not worry that her culture might be
misrepresented. “Music either stirs your heart or it doesn’t, regard-
less of where you’ve grown up,” she said. In Peru, at least, she be-
lieves that the respect she and her music have achieved through her
relationship with the U.S. label has been well worth the risk of mixing
culture and commerce. Indeed, in the past decade, its influence on Pe-
ruvian popular music and appreciation throughout Peru have grown
rapidly. Novalima, one of Peru’s most commercially successful rock
groups, proudly describes itself as heavily indebted to Afro-Peruvian
music. A man playing the cajón graces the cover of their latest album.
Baca said she believes the music of her ancestors will live on in
the generation that succeeds her. “Today I can see high school kids
learning all the old songs and dances, and I know that they won’t have
to disappear,” she said.
Abroad, however, Luaka Bop’s impact is less clear. As a purveyor
of foreign musical traditions to American listeners, Luaka Bop can-
not ignore its role as a cultural agent. After all, by choosing the songs
that appear on a compilation like “The Soul of Black Peru,” they in-
evitably shape international perceptions of a culture whose scope far
exceeds that of a single Cd.
Alon Harish is a freshman in Branford College. He worked as an intern at Luaka Bop Records in the summer of 2008.
Today I can see high school kids learning all the old songs and dances, and I know that they won’t have to disappear.”
—Susana Baca
“
CULTURESPring 2010
28
tions with his home country were once tumultuous. When he started
excavations as a student with a French team, Afghanistan was still
a kingdom and France had sole rights to excavate in the country. A
professor for many years, he held the title of director of Archaeology
and Preservation of Historical Monuments of Afghanistan, and also
of director General of the Archaeology Institute of Kabul. “When I
left, I was the big deal, the head.” Following the Soviet invasion in
1979, however, Tarzi was forced to flee to France in the trunk of a car.
during his exile, everything Tarzi knew in his home country
turned upside-down. “Kabul was destroyed, people disappeared, ev-
erything was magnified — the poor became poorer, the rich richer,
and everything razed. It was worse than Stalingrad.” Archaeology
suffered huge blows. “In this case, you have no patience, time, or
thoughts for objects of art,” he said, particularly when Russian sol-
diers loot the museums for gold objects.
Even now, conditions for cultural preservation are less than ideal.
The Eroded Face of AfghanistanArchaeologist Zemaryalai Tarzi seeks the country’s history in its
sandstone cliffs.By Rae Ellen Bichell
Azdhar, known as the Valley of the Dragon, was the site of Bamiyan’s fabled Buddhas until their wholesale destruction in 2001. (Courtesy Alessandro Monsutti)
Archaeology can serve as a slogan for a country. It can be venerated.”
— Dr. Zemaryalai Tarzi
“
For most of the year, dr. Zemaryalai Tarzi is a professor of ar-
chaeology at the University of Strasbourg, France. In the sum-
mer — excavating season — he becomes an “Afghan Indiana
Jones,” a nickname bestowed on him last year by the BBC in refer-
ence to his tireless search for the long-lost Third Buddha of Afghani-
stan.
Tarzi has conducted excavations in the Bamiyan province for de-
cades, managing teams of workers and students at a site that was, in
the sixth and seventh centuries, a thriving post along the Silk Road.
At 71, Tarzi’s career has spanned turbulent decades in Afghanistan’s
history, during which he has earned a name as the father of Afghan
archaeology and one of the only people, he says, to whom “politics
don’t matter much.” But with tribal tensions, high illiteracy rates,
and foreign troops patrolling the countryside, wiping complex politi-
cal cobwebs from Afghanistan’s past is an uphill battle.
Turbulent ConditionsTarzi has contributed extensively to Afghanistan’s cultural preser-
vation, recovering some of what the Taliban tried to erase. “Archae-
ology can serve as a slogan for a country. It can be venerated,” he
said. Tarzi has dedicated his life to uncovering his country’s buried
cultural treasures. “It’s my excavations that have yielded the most
information on Afghanistan’s Buddhist past,” he said. “Before me,
there weren’t sites excavated officially. It was more of a free-for-all.”
Tarzi may have a place in Afghanistan’s history now, but his rela-
29CULTUREthe yale globalist
At the foot of Bamiyan’s largest cliff, the Oriental Monastery endured wholesale destruction by the Taliban in 2001, and is now the site of one Tarzi’s excavations. (Courtesy Zemaryalai Tarzi)
Viewed from the former Buddha’s eye level, Bamiyan holds some of Afghanistan’s more important Buddhist sites, as well as a population of Hazaras historically at odds with Tarzi’s Pashtun tribe. (Courtesy Alessandro Monsutti)
Afghanistan currently houses troops from 47 different countries,
with 107,000 more slated to be sent this year by the United States and
others. “There are bombs, everything is so extreme,” said Tarzi. “The
world is becoming crazy.”
It is this violence which put a spotlight on the importance of
Tarzi’s excavations. In March 2001, the Taliban began obliterating all
idols as violations of Muslim sharia law. Among the victims of this
rampage were two 130-foot-high colossal Buddhas, which at one point
housed up to 5,000 monks in surrounding niches set within the cliffs.
The move was a cultural and archaeological disaster and a widely
publicized example of the Taliban’s fanaticism.
Far away, in exile in France, Tarzi’s years of work on the site had
a protective effect. Tarzi had inserted steel reinforcements into the
cliff to stave off natural erosion and shifting. As a result, it took the
Taliban four days of continuous shelling to reduce the site to rubble.
Feats like these have earned Tarzi his reputation for tenacity, and
maybe a side of egotism. “Have you seen the movie Saving Private
Ryan?” he asked as he described the event. “I was compared to the
man who saved Private Ryan. But instead of saving a soldier, I was
saving the artifacts of Afghanistan.”
Against the GrainSince 2002, Tarzi has received much attention for his search for the
Third Buddha of Bamiyan, a third and final colossus described in Chi-
nese accounts and somehow hidden from view. At a predicted 1,000
feet long, it could potentially be the largest Buddha in existence, but
Tarzi’s take on it differs from that given in the news. To him, the lost
Buddha may be the glamorous face of Afghan archaeology and an
enticing story for international media, but finding its location is not
the core of what he does. “The people who give me money want me to
find the Third Buddha, but when I work, I lead a scientific research
team,” he said, hinting at the discrepancy between how the world
sees of archaeology and how it is actually practiced. “What I find is
much more interesting than the Buddha. I am much more concerned
with the grottoes at the bottom of the cliff,” he said, referring to mu-
rals, clay figurines, and thatch huts which proved that the site was
actually much older than previously accepted.
His contribution to the national museum has been integral in
restoring the country’s heritage, but Tarzi and the government fre-
quently do not see eye-to-eye. Attempting to restore national pride,
the government now wants to rebuild the fallen Buddhas, but Tarzi
is against the proposal. “I want to debunk this view that restoring
cultural heritage comes with rebuilding. Why not then rebuild the
pyramids, just because we can?”
To Tarzi, even the site’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site is not much more than empty publicity. “UNESCO? No, no, no,
they don’t do anything,” he said of the NGO responsible for funding
another team of excavators in the region under Japanese supervision.
Tarzi has similar feelings about “Hidden Treasures of Afghanistan,”
CULTURESPring 2010
30
top: Shown on a visit to the former location of the Krakrak Buddha, Tarzi said, “The joy of discovery and the suffering of destruction are the daily lot of archaeologists.” (Courtesy Zemaryalai Tarzi)center: Before beginning excavations, Tarzi’s team of 169 workers gathers at the base of the Oriental Monastery’s Grand Stupa. (Courtesy Zemaryalai Tarzi)bottom: Now an empty hole in the cliff face, the Bamiyan Buddhas once housed thou-sands of monks in niches embedded in the cliffs. (Courtesy Alessandro Monsutti)
an exhibit of Afghan artifacts that toured the US last year. To Tarzi,
the show was little more than a “political exhibit.” “I was against the
objects ever leaving Afghanistan,” he said.
Another ReputationA purist and a traditionalist, Tarzi claims detachment from politics
and jealousy. According to Yale professor of anthropology Alessan-
dro Monsutti, the real picture may be different. Afghanistan’s long
history of fragmentation and tribal warfare causes locals to see any
attempt at cultural reconstruction as political manipulation. This is
especially true for Tarzi, who comes from a powerful family linked to
the former monarchy and whose relatives include an ambassador, a
representative to the United Nations, a professor at the U.S. Marine
Corps University, and Soraya Tarzi, late Queen of Afghanistan.
“The elite are interested in fostering a national identity, but the
Buddhist past is probably not relevant to the Afghan people,” said
Monsutti. “They don’t even know what a Buddha is. Even the statues
don’t represent a pre-Islamic time. For them, it’s a couple of kings,
local folklore.” The centuries-old history of friction between contend-
ing tribes, while recent in comparison with the ancient Buddhas, is
much more real for the inhabitants of the region.
Tarzi sticks to his objectivity: “I dig for archaeology and for histo-
ry. It’s not political for me.” But his reputation precedes him in Bami-
yan. Tarzi is a powerful Pashtun in a region populated by the his-
torically suppressed Hazaras. Antagonism between the two groups is
such that the province holds annual celebrations of local leaders who
resisted the Pashtuns, while Tarzi digs away nearby. “Tarzi probably
can’t imagine that he could be seen as an emissary of the Old Regime,
which the locals hate,” said Monsutti, “but there is so much suspi-
cion, fed by decades of war. He’s not following a political agenda, but
not one would believe that.”
In a country where illiteracy may be as high as 72 percent, the
disconnect between scholars and locals means that efforts to foster
a national identity will be difficult, particularly in rural areas like
Bamiyan.
Now at an age when most retire, Tarzi is still going strong. Besides
conducting excavations every summer, he is also the president of the
Association for the Protection of Afghan Archaeology, an association
he co-founded with his daughter to promote Afghanistan’s 5,000-year
old heritage. As for when he will stop, Tarzi said, “Maybe in four or
five years, when I am done with my final volume.”
Finished with two of four volumes, Tarzi waits for funding for the
third. “I’m old, you know. I’m gaining weight,” he said. If Tarzi had
his way, excavations would continue for centuries. Indeed, it may take
much longer before the troops pull out, tribal tensions ease, and a
consensus is reached about Afghanistan’s history. Regardless of old
age and the political swirl around him, Tarzi will be on the case until
his job is done, by the end perhaps a cultural relic himself.
Rae Ellen Bichell is a sophomore Anthropology major in Davenport College.
31SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYthe yale globalist
Robots that Care?For better or for worse, Japan looks to robots to fill the gaps that will soon
be left by the world’s fastest aging population.By Monica Landy
SPC101C measures a mere 13 inches in height and weighs just
over three pounds. With arms, legs, a torso, and a head, his
miniature frame clearly resembles that of a human. He march-
es, dances, and even responds to the human voice; on command,
SPC101C can check an email inbox or send a message to grandchil-
dren halfway across the world. He is one of many robots being de-
veloped to meet the needs of the world’s fastest aging society, Japan,
and his creators are confident that he will be an unmitigated success.
But will SPC101C and his kin really be capable of providing necessary
care to an aging nation, or will they be looked back upon as a foolish
and expensive flop?
In a desperate effort to avert demographic disaster, the Japanese
government has set a target to introduce robots into every household
by 2015 and has flooded the domestic robotics industry with funding
for years. But opinions within Japan differ dramatically from those
of foreign experts, leaving a great deal of uncertainty as to what Ja-
pan’s robotic future might look like or what the costs of such a future
might be.
Robots versus Immigrants Japan’s elderly will constitute about one-third of the nation’s total
population by 2025, according to Hiroe Kinoshita, a representative of
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This trend poses
two great challenges for Japan: an unprecedented number of elder-
ly in need of care as well as a shortage of Japanese who are fit to
work. As Kinoshita put it, “The era of absolute shortage of human
resources is approaching.” Plenty of young people in less wealthy
countries like the Philippines and Thailand would leap at an oppor-
tunity to move to Japan to work in high-demand professions such as
nursing. But immigrant-wary Japan issues very few work visas each
year, leaving an acute shortage of manpower available to care for the
country’s elderly. As an alternative, the Japanese government has
begun to invest substantially in the domestic robotics industry. Both
academic researchers and private robotics firms have been striving
to develop robots that will assist the elderly in their daily lives and
perform jobs left unfilled due to labor shortage, nullifying the need to
admit immigrants from South East Asia.
These investments are slowly paying off as the first such robotic
products reach maturity. A model named Robovie-II leads the elderly
around the supermarket, reminds them what is on their shopping
list, and makes suggestions for additional purchases. Saya, a robotic
teacher, is currently being tested in classrooms. According to Junji
Matsuo, a representative of the robotics firm Tmsuk, Japan will soon
enjoy the services of receptionist robots, guide robots, surveillance
robots, and rescue robots.
“We Should Always Try to Replace Humans ...”Japanese researchers and businessmen alike are optimistic about
how effective this strategy will be in dealing with the aging popu-
above: An encounter between the Japanese public and Speecys Corporation’s latest project, SPC101C, on display. CEO and Founder Tomoaki Kasuga expects a warm welcome for his robot. (Courtesy Speecys Corp.)
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYSPring 2010
32
lation. “I think that the robot will be the new platform for elderly
people’s communication,” pronounced Tomoaki Kasuga, CEO and
founder of Speecys Corporation. Kasuga has high hopes for his up-
coming SPC101C and believes that it will have a positive impact on
the lives of the elderly. “Generally, elderly people don’t use PCs or
mobile phones. Voice communication is much easier for them. My ro-
bots can help elderly people, because they can send emails by voice,”
he noted.
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics
Laboratory at Osaka University, was even more enthusiastic and con-
fident than Kasuga. “We should always try to replace humans per-
forming simple, mechanical tasks with robots,” he said. An adamant
proponent of robotics, Ishiguro believes that robots will one day ad-
vance to the point of being indistinguishable from humans at first
glance, an assertion he’s attempted to prove by creating an incred-
ibly realistic robot replica of himself named Geminoid. “Someday,”
he said, “we are going to replace the workers in the factories with
robots, and then robots will control the robots, and the people can
have better jobs.”
Robo-skepticism However, in the minds of many robotics experts from around the
world, Japan’s faith in a robotic solution is misguided. “We as roboti-
cists are often arrogant,” asserted Professor Ronald Arkin, a robotics
expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “We assume our tech-
nology is the best solution without even really investigating what
people really want and need.” Professor Robert Sparrow of Monash
University in Australia agreed, stressing that often the most impor-
tant aspects of robotics are the human factors. Yet, he said, “a lot of
the people doing the research and making the claims about robotics
are actually not sociologists, they’re not gerontologists — they’re en-
gineers.”
Sparrow remains skeptical about the practicality and efficiency of
employing robots in homes and in the workplace. “If you’re going to
test a robot, you need to look at what happens after all the engi-
neers have gone home, it’s been in your facility for a year, you’ve
spilled a few cups of tea on it, and nobody’s got the instructions
anymore. That’s the point at which you analyze a robot.”
Both professors expressed concern about the moral impli-
cations of entrusting the care of the elderly to robots. Arkin
worried that prolonged interaction with robots could delude
seniors. “These robots maintain the illusion of life, and
this may cause the elderly to not understand the real
world or what’s going on in society,” he said. Com-
menting on SPC101C, Sparrow was troubled by simi-
lar anxieties: “designing technology on the basis that
we want to trick people into thinking that they’re talk-
ing to a person instead of a machine, I would think that’s
ethically problematic.”
Japan’s robot strategy was sparked by concern for the
future of its people and is intended to have a significant impact on
their everyday lives. Yet thus far their opinions have been strangely
absent. “One of the interesting things in the debate about robotics
and aged care is how few voices there are from the perspective of
people who are in nursing homes or assisted living facilities,” re-
marked Sparrow disapprovingly. despite this absence, experts do
not hesitate to make their own predictions and assumptions. “This
situation is similar to that of the car, or the cell phone, or the comput-
er,” Ishiguro asserted. “In the beginning, people didn’t accept these
things, they didn’t react to them well, but ultimately they cannot re-
fuse new technologies because technology develops new markets.
The people never refuse new technologies.”
Control + ZRegardless of whether the Japanese public welcomes an increased
presence of robots in society initially, the robots will need to prove
themselves to be capable, productive, and effective in their roles lest
the enthusiasm of the public wane. “At a superficial level, clearly
there is a higher level of acceptance of robots” in Japan than else-
where, said Sparrow, “but whether or not that acceptance can sur-
vive interaction with robots in important roles, that’s a much more
open-ended question.”
The example of the Aidu Chuo Hospital in Fukushima prefecture
demonstrates that the transition to a robot-saturated work environ-
ment may not be as smooth as Japan’s avid robotics proponents imag-
ine. In 2006, the hospital welcomed a receptionist robot and two guide
robots, all produced by Tmsuk, to its staff. designed to greet visitors,
carry their baggage, and direct them vocally and with touch-screen
maps, these robots received a warm welcome, especially considering
that their new home was the first private hospital in the world to em-
ploy such devices. However, according to a current employee at Aidu
Chuo Hospital, the robots are no longer there. “The robots are being
repaired now,” she said. “They needed a new function.” She did not
know when — or if — they would return.
The debate concerning Japan’s demographic chal-
lenges and whether or not robotics can provide an effec-
tive solution is marked by optimism in Japan, skepticism
abroad, and a lack of input from the elderly, whose
opinion matters most. Yet, even if the elderly en-
thusiastically embraced the robotics program,
would that be enough to justify Japan’s robot
strategy? “I just think people should think
about their own experience with comput-
ers,” said Sparrow. “How much irritation,
how much frustration, how much time you
spend taking the bloody thing to be repaired,
and how many computers get thrown away.
Think about that and then think about what it
would be like to have Microsoft Word feeding
you.” Indeed, in the real world, you can’t
always count on pressing “Edit: Undo.”
Monica Landy is a freshman in Trumbull College.
According to Tomoaki Kasuga, CEO and founder of Speecys Cor-poration, SPC101C will be “the new platform for elderly people’s communication,” as it is vocally operated and therefore easy to use. (Courtesy Speecys Corp.)
33PERSPECTIVESthe yale globalist
Imagine a world where a man wanted for murder can
be president of a nation of 42 million people.
“Now imagine a world where that man is wanted
in not one but 110 countries, for not only the crime of
murder but also those of rape, extermination, forcible
transfer, pillaging, and torture, and not only remains
in high office but also plans to run for another term in
2010,” said Josh Rubenstein, a 30-year veteran of hu-
man rights policy and regional director for Amnesty
International USA.
Welcome to the world of Omar al-Bashir.
On March 4, 2009, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, head pros-
ecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), is-
sued an indictment against President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir of Sudan. Al-Bashir was charged with five
counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of
war crimes in the region of darfur. The warrant placed
square blame for the conflict in darfur, in which an es-
timated 300,000 people have been killed, on al-Bashir
and his administration. Al-Bashir is the first head of
state to be indicted by the ICC while in office. The
warrant has been lauded by the international human
rights community and supported by NATO and the Eu-
ropean Union.
The indictment has its opponents, too. The day the
warrant was made public, the permanent representa-
tive of Sudan to the United Nations lambasted the ICC
in the tiny, blue-walled press room at U.N. Headquar-
ters. “This verdict does not deserve the ink used to
print it,” the ambassador said, pounding his podium.
“The message that the ICC has sent to the entire world
is that it is a tool of imperialism and double standards.”
Thousands of Sudanese marched in the capital
Khartoum following the announcement of the war-
rant, rallying in support of al-Bashir. “Some Sudanese
don’t agree with al-Bashir’s politics, but at the end
of the day, they’re nationalists, and they will support
their leader against what they perceive as a patron-
izing and pro-Western system of justice, especially in
the northern part of the country,” said Beatrice Mat-
egwa, a journalist with the U.N. who has spent four out
of the past five years in Sudan. darfur, where most of
the violence has occurred, lies far to the west of Khar-
toum.
Most of the member states of the Arab League and
the African Union (AU) joined the Sudanese govern-
ment in condemning the warrant as an expression of
western hegemony. China and Russia have also voiced
their support for al-Bashir. An official message on the
Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website described the war-
rant as a “disruption” to the Sudanese peace process.
(Notably, the Chinese consume around two-thirds of
Sudan’s annual oil production.)
days after the release of the warrant, the Sudanese
government expelled most of the non-political interna-
tional aid organizations working in darfur, including
Oxfam International, Médecins sans Frontières, and
Mercy Corps. Al-Bashir accused the organizations of
being “spies” and “thieves,” though he made sure to
seize their assets before kicking them out of Sudan.
Almost a year after the warrant was issued, Omar
al-Bashir remains comfortably in power in Sudan. In
the months following the indictment, al-Bashir has not
curbed his international travel, travelling to confer-
ences in Qatar, Egypt, Libya, and Eritrea.
does this mean that the ICC — an institution found-
ed with the goal of ending impunity for even the most
powerful perpetrators of atrocities — is doomed to
fail?
“Absolutely not,” Rubenstein said firmly. “Sure,
we haven’t gotten al-Bashir yet — we always knew
he wouldn’t come easily.” But even so, “the fact that
the international community has gotten to the point
where it can hold a sitting head of state accountable
for human rights violations marks an enormous mile-
stone.”
For now, al-Bashir is free and in power, and he will
seek to extend his reign in the 2010 Sudanese elec-
tions. The politics of race, religion, and oil make it
unlikely that he will face trial at The Hague any time
soon. But the ICC has sent Omar al-Bashir a message:
Watch out. When you leave your presidential com-
pound, when you travel outside of Sudan for medical
treatment, and when you attend conferences in other
nations, you are stepping into a world in which you are
wanted for war crimes. Your days are numbered. We
know your game, and we will bring you to justice.
Sibjeet Mahapatra is a freshman in Silliman College.
The Hunt for Al-BashirThe President of Sudan has evaded standing trial for the genocide in Darfur. What does this mean for global justice?By Sibjeet Mahapatra
Does this mean that the ICC — an institution founded with the goal of ending impunity for even the most powerful perpetrators of atrocities — is doomed to fail?
PERSPECTIVESSPring 2010
34
Journalism in China: A Memoir and a Future?For my family, stepping down the path of journalism is cause for fear as well as hope.By Kanglei Wang
My grandpa was a newspaper man. He grew up running barefoot
near Guilin, a town in southern China known for its thumb-
shaped mountains, and studied chemistry at college in Beijing. In the
late 1940s, infected by the idealism of his era, my grandpa decided
that other pursuits mattered more. He took his notebook and pen into
the front lines of the Chinese Civil War and sent handwritten pages
of quick, accurate reporting back to Beijing. Later, after the found-
ing of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, he continued to write.
When the chief of Xinhua — a government-owned news agency and
the only officially sanctioned press in China at the time — needed to
be replaced, my grandpa stepped into politics.
For a time, he oversaw the press of an entire nation. I still don’t
know exactly what happened in those hallowed meeting halls of Xin-
hua, but I do know that my grandfather’s time was short-lived. A few
months after he took the reins, the beginning throes of the Cultural
Revolution hit Xinhua. Wealth and power were deemed dangerous
emblems of capitalism, and almost everyone in positions of power
was ousted. In 1976, my grandpa died of diabetes as a political pris-
oner in jail.
I interned for a magazine in Beijing this summer, in part because I
wanted to learn more about my grandpa, and in part because I want-
ed to see if I could be a writer, too. Before I left, my mom told me
the same thing she always tells me before I go to China: “don’t do
anything stupid.” Shut your mouth, she means. don’t let your all-too-
Americanized self get the best of you. don’t talk about politics.
Caijing magazine, where I worked, has been touted as one of Chi-
na’s most progressive. It reported the truth about SARS when the
rest of Chinese media remained silent; it exposes government and
big business scandals and interviews people whose communities are
being hurt by new Chinese development. But China’s information veil
is ever-present. Caijing’s style is carefully rendered; only after the
government-sanctioned “facts” are presented are Caijing’s indepen-
dent statistics or quotes added. While no opinion is stated directly,
it is clear the reader — often a member of the upper crust of Chinese
society — should think for him or herself.
Yet I was surprised last summer when, during the Uyghur riots in
China’s Xinjiang region, Caijing reporting fell in step with all other
government-controlled media outlets in China, who were sent script-
ed facts to broadcast. I was disappointed. Where was Caijing’s pur-
ported progressiveness? Its independence? Its voice?
Nowadays, the Xinhua compound in Beijing looks like a fortress,
or a jail. It has barracks of apartments for its reporters and steel
gates and guards who look at Id before letting you inside any build-
ings. I don’t work there, so I wasn’t allowed to enter. When I went
back to Guilin, Grandpa’s hometown, the people who knew him had
died. At the end of the summer, I went back to America, my questions
unasked.
Three months ago, I found out that Caijing Magazine underwent
an upheaval: the editor-in-chief left, and over seventy percent of the
staff followed.
It turns out that over the summer, as I wondered why we weren’t
reporting on the riots, Caijing had flown correspondents to Xinjiang,
only to be told by the magazine’s publisher and funder that Caijing
could not risk angering the government by publishing an indepen-
dent piece on the riots. The reporters were sent home. A few months
later, the editor-in-chief left to work in freer spaces, and hopes to
found another financial magazine with different backers.
The latest issue of Caijing — now under new leadership — began
with a letter from a former party official, commending Caijing’s past
coverage of social issues. But the people responsible for that coverage
are gone. Chinese online forums questioned if Caijing closing meant
“the death of Chinese journalism?” the question mark inserted, per-
haps, as a sign of hope.
My mom doesn’t want me to do journalism. Both she and my dad
were sent from the city to work in the fields during the Cultural Revo-
lution as part of China’s educating-the-youth initiative; their parents
were victimized because they spoke out. Yet, even in America, they
are defensive of China and offended by my questioning of Chinese
policies. This is the story of many Chinese of their age. How can you
convince a generation like theirs that an independent voice is impor-
tant, perhaps essential, to growth, when all it has brought is punish-
ment? My parents don’t want me to follow in my grandfather’s foot-
steps, because his disappeared.
Kanglei Wang is a junior Environmental Studies major in Branford College.
Shut your mouth, she means. Don’t let your all-too-Americanized self get the best of you. Don’t talk about politics.
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