Archive for the ‘Shoptalk’ Category
One year of corruption in Africa = 704 million years of HIV treatment
At least according to the calculations of the Namibian* activists who made this video, the first in a series called “Lords of Bling.” Take a look if you want to know how many courses of TB or HIV treatment you could get for the money Uganda’s President Museveni pours into his private jet, Swaziland’s King [...]
Check your press freedoms at the (US) border
John Dinges, a Columbia University journalism school professor and a veteran of Latin America (saving you the string of awards he’s won), headed back to his old stomping ground recently. Visiting Venezuela and Chile was no problem. It’s the coming home that got him: After examining his passport, he said, the CBP [customs and border [...]
Addendum to #CNNfail (a possible #NYTimesfail?)
Kris Kotarski made a nice point in the comments yesterday: “As far as #CNNfail, it does not necessarily mean #allmediafail.” But to complicate matters on the new vs. old media front (which is a totally made-up war, of course), check out this report from the New York Times. The report says most foreign journalists’ visas [...]
Enough with the #CNNFail, or, Why Twitter's Failings Prove We Still Need Reporters
I’m no defender of CNN, or of television news in general. (And if you can’t imagine why, I recommend Katie Couric’s recent performance on Jon Stewart). I think you get more context, nuance and information in three minutes of print than in three minutes of television, but that’s my personal opinion. And it’s confined to [...]
Truth vs. soundbites
I’m only just getting my head wrapped around the ENOUGH project’s new Congo campaign well…enough (damn them for making such bad puns inevitable!) to wade into the blogospherical dissent over it, but this entertaining hypothetical chant from the folks over at CongoResources is a nice riff on the trade-offs advocacy orgs always face between how [...]
South Africa loses feisty AIDS activist, poignant digital diarist
This happened last week, but I only just caught up: 24-year-old Thembi Ngubane died last Thursday, after becoming an incredible force for fighting HIV/AIDS. She did this in part by recording a year in her life living with AIDS, as part of Joe Richman’s Radio Diaries series. Her story starts: “Every morning, when I wake [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [