triggerhappymedia

From the New York Times:

[…] According to a survey released in January by the Food Research and Action Center, an antihunger group, nearly 37 percent of residents in the 16th Congressional District, which encompasses the South Bronx, said they lacked money to buy food at some point in the past 12 months. That is more than any other Congressional district in the country and twice the national average, 18.5 percent, in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Such studies present a different way to look at hunger: not starving, but “food insecure,” as the researchers call it (the Department of Agriculture in 2006 stopped using the word “hunger” in its reports). This might mean simply being unable to afford the basics, unable to get to the grocery or unable to find fresh produce among the pizza shops, doughnut stores and fried-everything restaurants of East Fordham Road.

[…] Full-service, reasonably priced supermarkets are rare in impoverished neighborhoods, and the ones that are there tend to carry more processed foods than seasonal fruits and vegetables. A 2008 study by the city government showed that 9 of the Bronx’s 12 community districts had too few supermarkets, forcing huge swaths of the borough to rely largely on unhealthful, but cheap, food.

“When you’re just trying to get your calorie intake, you’re going to get what fills your belly,” said Mr. Berg, the author of “All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?” “And that may make you heavier even as you’re really struggling to secure enough food.”

For the center’s survey, Gallup asked more than 530,000 people across the nation a single question: “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”

The unusually large sample size allowed researchers to zero in on trouble spots like the South Bronx.

New York’s 10th Congressional District, which zigzags across Brooklyn and includes neighborhoods like East New York and Bedford-Stuyvesant, ranked sixth in the survey, and Newark ranked ninth, both with about 31 percent of residents showing food hardship. (At the state level, the South is the hungriest: Mississippi tops the list at 26 percent, followed by Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, the Carolinas and Oklahoma. New York ranks 27th, with 17.4 percent; New Jersey is 41st, with 15.5 percent; and Connecticut is 47th, with 14.6 percent.)

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Trigger: The Obesity-Hunger Paradox by Sam Dolnick

Index on Censorship is Britain’s leading organization promoting freedom of expression. Founded in 1972 by a group of writers, journalists, and artists, Index publishes a quarterly magazine and maintains an excellent website dedicated to censorship issues.

In 2003, I interviewed then editor Judith Vidal-Hall. Our conversation has only become more relevant with the passage of time. Last week Obama advanced new arguments in defense of the warrantless wiretaping program authorized by Bush days after September 11th.

Jenny Montasir: How did Index on Censorship change after the fall of communism?

Judith Vidal-Hall: The magazine went off the market for a brief period after the wall came down and communism collapsed. And people said you’ve done a fantastic job, we don’t need you any more. Money was withdrawn and the magazine went off the market for a time. What we really did was re-think the word “censorship.” There was a perception that censorship was something that happened “out there” and that it was something done by the communist state. But while the generals had gone in South America, the dictators had not in South Africa. So there was still the old-fashioned censorship. Ideologically, communism was no longer the great enemy. There was a huge sort of freedom of access, but suddenly economics became a problem.

JM: Like the ownership of the papers?

JVH: Precisely- those who were there to buy the papers. So you basically get the old apparatus are the only ones who’ve got the money. Or you get the mafia, or you get foreign owners. Like Bertelsmann in Germany who is now the biggest media group in Europe, or Robert Maxwell who bought a lot of papers in the Czech Republic and Beirut and indeed in Israel. So money and the ownership and the particular perspective of an owner could be a problem. We really thought that censorship was about any silence- any voice that could not break through the silence to get out. So we’ve done issues on madness, we’ve done issues on migration. We published the literature of small migrant groups and minorities in [the United Kingdom] because for them to find a publisher, for their voice to be heard, is extremely rare and difficult. We’ve done an issue on the Roma or the gypsies of Europe because they again are very much abused.

JM: So instead of just banned writing Index began to give a platform to people who would not otherwise be heard?

JVH: I think its very much that. It’s giving a voice to minorities, to groups or to people for whom access to media is denied for whatever reason. I also want to say to you that though it’s true that we had this watershed in 1991, I think 9/11/01- ten years later- I’m coming to realize personally more and more, that in a sense is another watershed. And what do I mean by that? I mean that I find freedom of expression, freedom of any kind has always had a certain relative quality. But I suppose we take as the gold-standard the First Amendment of the United States as an institution which is absolutely, categorically establishing freedom of speech and excluding interference. The next best thing to that would be Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights where the person has the right to give and to receive information free of hindrance. So if you take those as the gold-standards, then I think at the moment we’re hearing arguments that should cause concern. Yes, Article 19- BUT- and the but seems to be things like would you allow Al-Jazeera to say all these things it wants to say? Would you want to allow all these Arab-Americans to go free to write what they like in their e-mail and say what they like on their telephones? So I think to some extent- though I don’t think there’s a rigid line- I’m getting the feeling very strongly that even on the side of the angels, the free expression line, people are temporizing more. Yes, of course the First Amendment- BUT. And what it’s doing is targeting much more than before certain people under the disguise of terrorism. Things are being allowed to happen: access to e-mail, listening in on telephones, general surveillance. It has been happening with much more frequency. So I think in a way, post-9/11 is another period like post-1991 where we have to watch very carefully and guard what we have.

JM: Who reads Index on Censorship?

JVH: I’m afraid the audience is relatively old, relatively wealthy- sort of the higher catacombs. But I comfort myself by the fact that the issues which are distributed free go to Eastern Europe, and to academic institutions. In Africa, they go much more to schools, libraries, so that every copy that goes, you will have maybe ten, twenty people reading it. Obviously the language means that our audiences on the whole will be smaller. And again I comfort myself by saying, well, I wish it could be glossaries, but these are the people who will effect more, who will eventually be in teaching, in government, in universities. These are the guys, these are the women who are going to have the jobs that are influential in terms of the next generation.

JM: How do you judge the effectiveness of your magazine?

JVH: I don’t know. I think that is the most difficult thing. You can do your reader surveys- which we have done- but your reader surveys will only in the end tell you what the people who respond think. What effect this has on law and policy and the way individuals think, I truly don’t know. And I want to be honest with you, I don’t know any way we can measure that. I haven’t noticed a huge liberalization in the attitudes in our own country. I think it’s very hard to measure, and it’s a long game. I mean, you plug away and plug away and plug away.

JM: What of your work are you most proud of?

JVH: I’m not proud of myself. I love what I do. I actually think I’m quite lucky at 65 to have this to do. I love it, and I’ve been a journalist for a long time. I suppose I am most proud when I have an issue and my hand and it is good.

JM: And by good you mean?

JVH: When I have the issue in my hand and it turned out what we wanted it to be. Then I am proud, knowing that others are reading this work. And with the subscription program, it’s the people in these countries who normally Index wouldn’t reach. Does it have an effect for them? I suppose if they are reading something that they wouldn’t normally have access to, then we were effective.

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Trigger: Index on Censorship

Yahoo! Briefcase is Closing- Action Required, said the email. And so I have about 300 documents and presentations to go through. Most are years old. While the Briefcase has become redundant, I am finding some really cool stuff in my files.

For example, the Meet the World ad campaign designed for defunct Portuguese political magazine Grande Reportagem:

European Union

Angola

Brazil

Burkina Faso

China

Columbia

Somalia

USA

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Trigger: Meet the World

What if…all the people who attended Obama’s inauguration descended upon Wall Street for one massive demonstration?

It won’t happen. The current economic crisis has fueled a lot of talk about corporate greed and self-interested executives. But below the surface there is also a sense of admiration- envy even- for those who live the high life, fly in private jets, drop $1400 on a trash bin.  It may be cynical to say, but since when does morality trump wealth and status in this country?

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Trigger: Economic woes at heart of French strike

This is the invitation from Presidential Inaugural Committee.

In the same envelope, an opportunity to buy a $150 woven blanket with the Inaugural Seal.

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Trigger: 5 days to go

Yesterday was incredible!!

I was on call for Video the Vote, but the day was quiet until 6:15pm when a dispatcher contacted me. It turns out it was a false alarm, or so the poll workers said. But that story is to come- my computer just crashed when I finished uploading the footage so it will have to wait until tomorrow. But actually voting ran very smoothly in this state.

I’m exhausted, but excited and so relieved. I feel proud of my country for the first time in such a long time. Not just about the Obama win, but seeing people out yesterday and really caring about what they were doing. I don’t think I’d ever seen that. I remember a couple years ago a friend from Europe asked if the US would ever have anything but a white male president, and I said probably not in my lifetime.

I am so happy that I was wrong.*

*I’ll save my rant on all those fucked up bans on gay marriage that passed. Maybe 30 years from now homophobes will get over themselves, too.

Over the weekend Glendale, AZ, hosted an Arab American Festival, “a Non-political, Non-religious, Non-profit Organization established to build community pride […] targeted to all Americans to create an awareness of the diverse ethnic groups while having fun.”

The main sponsors? Yes, the CIA, FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence hosted a career fair thinly disguised by falafel stands and live music.

It was their way to reach out the Arab-American community, to say Uncle Sam is sorry for thinking that you all are dirty plotting terrorists; but if you know anyone who is, we’d sure love to have you come work for us!

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Trigger: Arab American Festival

Long lines.

Broken computers.

Discrimination.

Corruption.

Video the Vote is looking for people to be citizen journalists on election day. This is a great chance to protect the democratic process by gathering evidence of unfair practices and fraud.

Volunteers will capture footage and interviews at polling stations where voters have not been able to cast their ballots. If you have a video camera and web access, you can get involved.

Sign up at www.videothevote.org

Rock the Vote wants you to remind your friends to get out there and get heard on November 4th.

They recommend sending an e-card. An e-card? I haven’t sent one of those in ages. That’s why I didn’t expect them to suggest this:

and

Some other timely advice:

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Trigger: someecards

This advertisement for the National Guard is now playing pre-previews in movie theaters across the country. While searching for the video online, I was surprised to find how many people like the video and its message. Dissenters on message boards are accused of being hippie left-wingers who are unpatriotic and unsupportive of US troops.

Apparently the recruitment resource of high schools in low-income areas has been tapped. The new strategy is to reach middle America. The video doesn’t make any sense, but it sure is fancy. It just may work.

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Trigger: National Guard Warrior campaign