Category: knowledge will set you free

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“Are you blogging this?”

Well I am now, prompted by the question from one of the organisers.

I’m in Fredrikstad in Norway at the Norwegian Institute of Journalism conference on Free Media. (The conference will be blogged, apparently, but starting only on the second of the two days.)

The morning sessions were fascinating – veteran Nepali journalist and media activist Kanak Dixit talked about the role of journalists in the so-called Rhododendron Revolution and Babita Basnet talked about women’s participation in media.

Kanak Dixit talked about the egalitarian nature of Nepali print journalism – how everyone from a minister to a rickshaw driver might read the same paper and it would be in Nepali, not English; that the class split in journalism seen over most of South Asia (English for the aspiring middle and upper-middle classes, other languages for the rest) is not the case in Nepal where, he says, journalists are very close to the people. He asked whether journalists were leading the people in their thirst for democracy and peace or whether the people were leading the journalists.

Babita Basnet talked about the extreme under-representation of women in the media environment in Nepal but said there were more women entering the radio field which was a positive development.

Nepal has fallen off the mainstream media agenda since the events of April/May this year but Global Voices is still passing on what the bloggers are saying.

Now there is a debate entitled “Media Support, a viable path towards democracy?”. I am finding this less interesting, to be perfectly honest. A panel of three men standing up one after the other and reading prepared talks. Empower the people, say I. Citizen media. But then I would.

Panel discussion

In an institute of journalists it wouldn’t be entirely surprising for a citizen media activist to be seen as something of an enemy. I’m here to talk about Global Voices and Blogging and Democratic Values but I’ve been told journalists here are particularly interested in the “gatekeeper” role between blogs and the mainstream media. Which in some circles can be code for “will you bloggers be putting us out of a job?”

Such a contrast to last week’s conference in Hungary which I still haven’t really written about. Here there is a small lecture theatre with eight rows of seats. In Tihany we were in a converted squash hall, 1000 delegates, two large auditoriums, parallel sessions. I’m such a nooob on the conference circuit it’s all fascinating to me.

This afternoon – sessions about Africa. Off now to lunch, if there’s any left.

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They don't make 'em like they used to

I was too young to see The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski when it was first broadcast. But I am definitely old enough to shake my head and tut sadly about the appalling decline in standards of science programming since my youth. Look at this for a profound and thought-provoking example of engaging with the audience without the slightest sign of patronising its collective intellect.

This reminds me of a fascinating conversation I had with my friend the artist Ruth Maclennan about her work We saw it – like a flash which looks at the presentation of science on BBC television between 1954 and 2003. She confirmed, from her experience of watching hundreds of hours of such programmes, that the standard has indeed declined alarmingly over the years.

I came across the link for this powerful piece of programming on Pharyngula, part of the Seed Media Group : Science is Culture, and whilst poking around also found the excellent blog SEED – seeking dialogue between art and science which despite its name is not as far as I can work out connected to the Media Group.

Posted on

They don’t make ’em like they used to

I was too young to see The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski when it was first broadcast. But I am definitely old enough to shake my head and tut sadly about the appalling decline in standards of science programming since my youth. Look at this for a profound and thought-provoking example of engaging with the audience without the slightest sign of patronising its collective intellect.

This reminds me of a fascinating conversation I had with my friend the artist Ruth Maclennan about her work We saw it – like a flash which looks at the presentation of science on BBC television between 1954 and 2003. She confirmed, from her experience of watching hundreds of hours of such programmes, that the standard has indeed declined alarmingly over the years.

I came across the link for this powerful piece of programming on Pharyngula, part of the Seed Media Group : Science is Culture, and whilst poking around also found the excellent blog SEED – seeking dialogue between art and science which despite its name is not as far as I can work out connected to the Media Group.

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Calling all GV readers

We need your help. Tell us what we’re doing well, what not, what would make us better.

We have a survey. It is the product of much careful thought. It will help us a great deal if as many consumers of our product tell us what they think. It won’t take long to complete. Click on the link above to take part.

Thanks!

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I’m off to Hungary

coffee

And I make absolutely no apology for reposting a poem I’ve blogged before, actually more than once, by a Hungarian poet…

The Poem of Darkness

Once more, the vigil season!
Broad pen-strokes on my sheet look grim.
Night’s rust-juice floods the gardens,
by six full to the brim.
damp oozes from the mouldering trees,
you muse on how much time
you’ve left. Your foot stops dead, in fear
of stumbling into a tomb…
But tell me: have you ever let
a snow-white sugar-cube soak up
dark liquid, dipped in the bitter night
of coffee in its cup?
Or watched how the dense liquid,
so surely, so insidiously,
will seep up through the white cube’s
pure, crystalline body?
Just so the night seeps into you,
slowly rising, the smells
of night and of the grave all through
your veins, fibres, cells,
until one dank brown evening,
so steeped in it, you melt and sink –
to sweeten, for some unknown god,
his dark and bitter drink.

Dsida Jeno, 1938
translated by George Gomori & Clive Wilmer

There’s no sugar lump on my saucer above – sugar-dipping is not a domestic activity. I’m looking forward to exploring the cafés of Budapest as recommended by Karen, who isn’t there, and Maria, who is, and dipping many a lump.

Then it’s off to a small village on the shore of Lake Balaton for the Internet Hungary 2006 Conference at which, on Wednesday, I am talking about Global Voices and citizen journalism.

And now I must go and start packing. I notice that I have only 33 30 minutes before I must leave.

Posted on

I'm off to Hungary

coffee

And I make absolutely no apology for reposting a poem I’ve blogged before, actually more than once, by a Hungarian poet…

The Poem of Darkness

Once more, the vigil season!
Broad pen-strokes on my sheet look grim.
Night’s rust-juice floods the gardens,
by six full to the brim.
damp oozes from the mouldering trees,
you muse on how much time
you’ve left. Your foot stops dead, in fear
of stumbling into a tomb…
But tell me: have you ever let
a snow-white sugar-cube soak up
dark liquid, dipped in the bitter night
of coffee in its cup?
Or watched how the dense liquid,
so surely, so insidiously,
will seep up through the white cube’s
pure, crystalline body?
Just so the night seeps into you,
slowly rising, the smells
of night and of the grave all through
your veins, fibres, cells,
until one dank brown evening,
so steeped in it, you melt and sink –
to sweeten, for some unknown god,
his dark and bitter drink.

Dsida Jeno, 1938
translated by George Gomori & Clive Wilmer

There’s no sugar lump on my saucer above – sugar-dipping is not a domestic activity. I’m looking forward to exploring the cafés of Budapest as recommended by Karen, who isn’t there, and Maria, who is, and dipping many a lump.

Then it’s off to a small village on the shore of Lake Balaton for the Internet Hungary 2006 Conference at which, on Wednesday, I am talking about Global Voices and citizen journalism.

And now I must go and start packing. I notice that I have only 33 30 minutes before I must leave.

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Zimbabwe

Only this afternoon I met someone, a friend-of-a-friend, from Zimbabwe. I lived there from 1992 – 1995. “Difficult times” he said. But not nearly as difficult, as horrific as now, I replied. And here’s the evidence.

Difficult viewing, too, but if you want to know what life is like in Zimbabwe, why it’s a situation we should all be concerned about, please watch.For background read Ethan’s post on this video – he recently visited and his posts on Zimbabwe contain much up-to-date information.The video was made by SW Radio and today shown to South African President Thabo Mbeki, in an effort to persuade him to use his influence in Zimbabwe. Here a link to the complete original programme in streaming video and below the break there is a transcript of the (slightly shorter) clip on YouTube.

Continue reading “Zimbabwe”

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Links

I went to a meditation group this evening (Thursday night, it appears to be Friday morning now), led by Alistair, the teacher of the meditation course I recently took. The blog-mending Mr Hg came too.

He came along not just, I think, because I am hugely persuasive persistent but partly because I had sent him the links to my two favourite pieces of writing about the practice of meditation – Confessions and How to be Uncomfortable by Dale.

Later the same day that the meditation links had changed hands I sent Dale the link to a piece Hg had written (on troubled diva) in the period last year while he debated whether to resign his job, which, if you read post, you will be unsurprised to learn that he subsequently did. And later still on the same day that this link had been passed on Dale resigned from his.

Enough mailled links to make a hauberk.

So, to stretch a fabric not generally known for its elasticity, the basic unit of the maille is three links. On that same day (last Tuesday, to be exact) it was decided that I should work part time, at least until the end of December. Four months on half pay and an uncertain future.

I have a lot of thinking of my own to do about “work” – what I want to “do” and why and how. And sometimes, in the current circumstances, I feel very vulnerable and utterly alone. And at other times, like now, I feel less so.

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The Tripoli Six

From Declan Butler, a reporter with the prestigious international science journal Nature, a reminder of the appalling case of the five nurses and a doctor facing the death penalty in Libya.

The six were found guilty of deliberately causing the infection of more than 400 children in hospital with the HIV virus after confessions which they say were obtained during torture. Testimony from international scientific experts as to their innocence has been ignored. They have already been in held in prison for seven years.

Declan has written an article detailing the latest stages of the women’s retrial (requires free registration, or try BugMeNot) in which activists involved with the case appeal for international mobilisation.

There is also an editorial which calls for action:

International diplomacy, dealing as it does with geopolitical and economic realpolitik, by necessity often involves turning a blind eye. But its lack of progress in response to the medics’ case in Libya is an affront to the basic democratic principles that the United States and the European Union espouse. Diplomacy has lamentably failed to deliver.

For anyone interested in writing a letter to Libyan Ambassador in their country about this issue, expressing concern and asking for it to be conveyed to the authorities in Libya, there is a list of addresses of Libyan embassies on the left hands side of this page.