Except mine were black.
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Monthly Archive for July, 2005
Tina entered our house three weeks ago as an exchange student from Taiwan and left our home as a family member. We now have hundreds of pictures taken by her and us (hey!), a little video, and best of all, some incredible memories. We also have an empty downstairs bedroom and aching hearts.
We miss you, Tina!
Two weeks ago, the Center for American Progress and the Genocide Intervention Fund launched a joint initiative known as “Be A Witness” built around a petition calling on television networks to increase their coverage of the genocide in Darfur.
As “Be a Witness” noted:
During June 2005, CNN, FOX News, NBC/MSNBC, ABC, and CBS ran 50 times as many stories about Michael Jackson and 12 times as many stories about Tom Cruise as they did about the genocide in Darfur.
This week, tireless Sudan advocate Nicholas Kristof took up the call and chastised the press for its lack of Darfur coverage:
If only Michael Jackson’s trial had been held in Darfur. Last month, CNN, Fox News, NBC, MSNBC, ABC and CBS collectively ran 55 times as many stories about Michael Jackson as they ran about genocide in Darfur.
Shortly thereafter, Editor and Publisher printed a piece reporting:
New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof’s attack on the press for underreporting the atrocities and genocide in Darfur, which ran in today’s paper, has drawn the ire of some newspaper editors who said they are doing the best they can with what they have.
In this piece, USA Today Foreign Editor James Cox offered a partial but important explanation for the dearth of coverage:
Cox pointed to a two-day series USA Today ran in May on Darfur, stressing the difficulty the paper had in even getting a visa for reporter Rick Hampson to travel there. “It was excruciatingly difficult to get the permission,” he said. “We had an application that had been stalled for months.”
Sudan does not want journalists freely traveling around Darfur for the sole reason that their reports are going to reveal the true nature of Khartoum’s genocidal campaign.
Considering this basic fact in conjunction with the efforts currently underway to expand the African Union mission in Darfur, it might behoove all involved to consider embedding journalists with the AU just as the US did during the initial weeks of the war in Iraq.
People want information about Darfur; journalists want access to Darfur; and the UN and AU want (or at least should want) to disseminate information regarding to crisis in Darfur as widely as possible.
The US and NATO are currently providing key logistical support to the AU mission and ought to insist that any reporter who wants access to Darfur be assigned to and granted protection by an AU patrol force.
Brian Steidle served with the AU in Darfur for six months before eventually resigning his position so that he could share his photos with the world.
Steidle is a hero for doing this — but it shouldn’t take personal acts of sacrifice and courage to make the world aware of the genocide in Darfur.
From The Coalition for Darfur.
I received the following by e-mail today. Sounds like a good idea to me.
A campaign encouraging people to enter an emergency contact number in their mobile phone’s memory under the heading ICE (In Case of Emergency), has rapidly spread throughout the world as a particular consequence of last weeks terrorist attacks in London.
Originally established as a nationwide campaign in the UK, ICE allows paramedics or police to be able to contact a designated relative / next-of-kin in an emergency situation.
The idea is the brainchild of East Anglian Ambulance Service paramedic Bob Brotchie and was launched in May this year. Bob, 41, who has been a paramedic for 13 years, said, “I was reflecting on some of the calls I’ve attended at the roadside where I had to look through the mobile phone contacts struggling for information on a shocked or injured person. Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with ICE a rescuer would know immediately who to contact and what number to ring. The contact person may even know of their medical history.
By adopting the ICE advice, your mobile will help the rescue services quickly contact a friend or relative, which could be vital in a life or death situation. It only takes a few seconds to do, and it could easily help save your life. Why not put ICE in your phone now? Simply select your person to contact in case of emergency, enter them under the word ICE and the telephone number of the person you wish to be contacted.
Please will you also email this to everybody in your address book, it won’t take too many ‘forwards’ before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one’s mind at rest.
For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc.
We certainly wouldn’t want to impose a value judgment on the “bombers.”
Hat tip: Cox & Forkum.
Believe it or not, this isn’t about judicial appointments. It’s about the bomb. Based on recent statements, it would appear that we haven’t had enough nuclear warfare.
- Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu of China threatens to use nukes against the U.S. if we “intervene” in any conflict between China and Taiwan.
- Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., “throws out the idea” of bombing Mecca in response to a nuclear terrorist attack within the U.S.
Is the doctrine of mutually assured destruction effective in negotiations with a madman?
The New Republic Online posts a crash course on the history and future of Darfur.
Google celebrates the 36th anniversary of the first lunar landing with Google Moon. Zoom in for a surprisingly detailed, color view of the landing sites.
Hat tip: The Office Weblog.
Blogging has been light as of late. We have an exchange student visiting us and have been living life offline. ‘Should do this more often…
Ivan Tribble warns blogging can be dangerous to your employability. He apparently has some expertise on the matter, having recently served on a faculty search committee.
Job seekers who are also bloggers may have a tough road ahead, if our committee’s experience is any indication.
You may think your blog is a harmless outlet. You may use the faulty logic of the blogger, “Oh, no one will see it anyway.” Don’t count on it.
After providing some amusing examples of harmful blogging behavior, Ivan then claims none of the blogging activity actually disqualified an applicant. (Doesn’t this negate the whole point of the article?) At the end, we learn that even “Ivan” is a pseudonym.
Could it be that blogging isn’t the only online behavior with consequences?
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