In 2006, Warren Buffet made a $31 billion gift to the Gates Foundation. He explained the generous donation this way: “A market system has not worked in terms of poor people.”

R. Glenn Hubbard and William Duggan, the dean and a senior lecturer at Columbia Business School, turn Buffet’s assertion on its head in The Aid Trap. Free markets, they say, are not the cause of poverty. Indeed, the market system and strong private business sectors are the solution to poverty.

“The market has not worked in poor countries because it never had the chance,” Hubbard and Duggan write.

For those who feel good about their charitable contributions, The Aid Trap is not an easy idea to stomach: The food and clothes and medicine rich countries send to poor countries, the money they put in the hands of government programs, even the wells enterprising students dig in villages during their summer vacations — this kind of long-accepted charity does very little to alleviate poverty. In fact, flooding the market with free goods makes it difficult for local businesses to compete and provides incentives for governments to maintain the status quo.

You can read the whole review at Zócalo. Hubbard and Duggan make a compelling argument to change the way we look at charity. Zócalo is dedicated to increasing public discourse, so please do weigh in and comment. I’ll be writing reviews regularly. The next review will be on Vali Nasr’s Forces of Fortune.

Learning from Lai Changxing?

Last year, Angilee Shah wrote a review at China Beat of Oliver August’s Inside the Red Mansion. The review inspired Simon Fraser University Professor Jeremy Brown to assign the text to a class and he recently invited the book’s protaganist, Lai Changxing, to join his class for a day. Brown and one of his students provide an account of the day’s visit below…

I enjoy writing book reviews, but it never occurred to me that readers might take any action other than a trip to their local library or bookstore. It certainly never occurred to me that Lai might agree to being questioned by a classroom full of students. I only wish I could have been there.

Luckily, Prof. Brown and his student, Xian Wang, provide a nice summary. If you haven’t heard of Lai Changxing, I highly recommend this post and August’s book. Here’s a bit more from Brown and Wang:

In his responses to student questions, Lai alternated between innocent charm and aggrieved combativeness. He denied giving officials cash-filled briefcases and providing them with modern-day concubines. But he admitted that he actively sought out and took advantage of loopholes. In order to avoid customs duties when importing oil and luxury cars to China, Lai said that he had his oil tankers unload when nobody was watching. His overarching goal was to make more money, he said, so he was constantly looking for opportunities. When local officials announced that new businesses would be exempt from taxes for three years, Lai opened a series of ventures, and then shut them down and changed their names before they hit the three year mark, managing to perpetually avoid taxes.

Thanks again to the folks at the China Beat for facilitating such rich conversations.

But for now, here is a post about one of the panels which I thought merited some discussion, even beyond the health journalism sphere. The speaker gave some specific admonitions about language in news. You can comment here or at the orignal Reporting on Health post.

Watch Your Language: Presenting Domestic Violence in News Reports

The New York Times reported in September that domestic violence programs in the state of California have have been largely eliminated. The Domestic Violence Program’s last $16 million was cut completely in July, in efforts to close a near $24 billion state budget deficit.

Violence is a public health problem, said Eve F. Sheedy, Deputy City Attorney, Domestic Violence Legislative and Policy Advisor in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office. It matters to public health that these resources have been cut.

While money is short, there are still ways to increase awareness and help victims of domestic violence. Sheedy made an appeal to the National Health Journalism Fellows to make some adjustments to the conventions of reporting on domestic violence. Here are some of her take-home points:

• Journalists have no problem calling gangs using guns violence, but hesitate when it comes to the domestic realm. “Please never use the word ‘domestic dispute.’ A dispute is not putting the toilet seat down or not putting the cap back on toothpaste. When you write about domestic violence, call it domestic violence,” Sheedy said. If a wife kills her husband or a husband kills his wife, this is violence. If a man beats his ex-girlfriend, it is domestic violence.
• Avoid sentences like, “The children were upstairs and unharmed.” “All children are harmed when they witness domestic violence,” said Sheedy. Even if they escape physical harm, they are certainly not unharmed.
• “If you choke, that is when something is stuck in your throat.” People do not use the word ’strangulation.’ Strangulation can kill in a matter of minutes and can have long-lasting damage for survivors. That word makes people react differently than the word ‘choke.’
• Be careful about naming and showing victims of domestic violence. They are often still in danger.
• The passive voice: the phrase “The woman was raped,” for example, takes the responsibility away from rapists. It does not make explicit that the victim is not at fault for what happened. “Focus responsibility to the person responsible,” Sheedy said. “The rapist is unknown,” appropriately places emphasis on the perpetrator. “The reason the passive voice sounds right is because it is familiar,” said Sheedy.
• “Domestic violence is not rage and it’s not anger and it’s not I’ve lost my job and I’m upset.” Stress, poverty and mental health does not cause domestic violence. All of these things can play a role, but pinning down a single cause undercuts the complexity and breadth of the problem.
• Domestic violence happens in rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods, even if wealthy people have the ability to avoid police and emergency rooms.
• “It is extremely rare for someone to come home one day and all of a sudden commit a violent act.” If a man runs down his children and neighbors say he was an incredibly attentive father, ask follow-up questions. Was he controlling? Were there incidents before the murder?
• When you write a story that arises from domestic violence, include a sentence about hotline numbers people can call. “It would be a tremendous public service if you can help us get the word out.” The number is 1-800-799-SAFE.

How Tissainayagam’s journalistic work translated into offenses punishable under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act and Emergency Regulations has been difficult for many Sri Lankans, journalists in particular, to understand. The International Commission of Jurists released a report last week that might clear up some of the details.

The report, a straight-forward account of observations of the court proceedings, offers translations of the two passages cited in Tissainayagam’s indictment. Both were written in 2006, during the ceasefire.

“Providing security to Tamils now will define northeastern politics of the future … It is fairly obvious that the government is not going to offer them any protections. In fact it is the state security forces that are the main perpetrator of the killings.”

“With no military options, Govt. buys time by offering watered-down devolution … Such offences against the civilians are accompanied by attempts to starve the population by refusing them food as well as medicines and fuel, with the hope of driving out the people of Valahari and depopulating it. As this story is being written, Valahari is being subject to intense shelling and aerial bombardment.”

It also outlines arguments regarding Tissainayagam’s police statement, which the defense said was not given voluntarily. In a statment to the court, Tissainayagam said that “he cannot speak Tamil fluently, and that for the first time since he left school he was made to write Tamil when the investigating officer from the TID, Razik, forced him to take down what Razik dictated to Mr Tissainayagam.”

In its conclusions, the Commission found that the proceedings were generally fair, but also notes that “this conclusion does not address the serious rule of law and human rights issues raised by the use of anti-terrorism laws to prosecute journalists for written expression…” The report also points out “that the police arrested Mr Tissainayagam not in the period in 2006 or 2007 shortly after the publication of articles in the North Eastern magazine, but in May 2008 at the time he visited colleagues held at the offices of the TID [Terrorism Investigation Division]…”

The report’s final conclusion is a strong one: “The effect of a prosecution case being brought under terrorism laws includes that no jury can preside over questions of fact, the burden of proof falls on the defendant and the Court determines matters without publishing reasons within time to allow an appeal.”

Sri Lanka’s judicial systems is a complex world indeed. You can read more about the report at the International Commission of Jurists website and find the entire 35-page report as a PDF. I wrote more about Sri Lanka’s judicial system in the September issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review.

George Packer at The New Yorker explains the often precarious position of fixers–the locals who help foreign correspondents with everything from translation to logistics–and expresses his frustration at what happened to Munadi in a blog post called, “It’s Always the Fixer Who Dies.”

In the course of the work, the fixer is relied on so heavily by the foreign correspondent that an observer who didn’t understand the system might assume that it’s the fixer who is in charge. After all, it’s the fixer’s country, and he or she knows it so much better. And yet the foreigner has the money, the name, the infrastructure, the power to hire and fire, and the ability to come and go, especially if things get sticky.

Packer’s post is exemplary of growing discomfort amongst foreign correspondents about safety for themselves and their fixers. Panelists in the first session of the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellowship 60th Anniversary Event, four seasoned conflict reporters moderated by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, discussed the risks of reporting on wars.

The panelists did not always agree, but one thing they did say was that flying in and out of a country to report on a war is a recipe for disaster. Kim Barker, a Murrow Press Fellow this year and recently let-go South Asia bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune said many of the journalists who have been kidnapped in Pakistan and Afghanistan were “parachute journalists,” brave enough to do things that journalists on the ground know is dangerous. Barker says she gets people to come to her, to places that she feels safe. She also gets guarantees of safety and develops contacts over time.

Kathy Gannon, a special correspondent for the Associated Press, has covered Pakistan, the Taliban and the border since 1988. She was allowed into Afghanistan by the Taliban itself, with permission that was granted only after developing a long history in the country.

“I do believe there is a way to do the job,” said Gannon. “You limit the risks as best you can, but you don’t stop taking risks.”

Mohamad Bazzi, adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct journalism professor at New York University, said that there is a new strain of Islamic militancy which kidnaps journalists and it is important that correspondents familiarize themselves with the various players in the conflict.

But this way of working takes time and money, both of which are dwindling in today’s media market. Bazzi says that although many young students are interested in covering wars, they do not necessarily have the institutional support to do it. Barker herself was a victim of cutbacks by the Tribune Company. She said that after leaving the Tribune, a major newspaper offered her $30,000 per year to cover Afghanistan, which she would pay not only her salary, but rent, a fixer’s salary and health insurance. She declined to name the paper, but said that they found a much younger reporter to take the job.

Christopher Dickey, Newsweek’s Paris bureau chief and Middle East regional editor, said that journalists need to weigh the importance of a story to the audience against the risks of telling that story. “Nobody wants to go die in Eastern Congo when nobody cares,” he said.

But Gannon disagreed, saying that it is not good for reporters to be always thinking about what stories will sell.

The risks are high for war correspondents, and they certainly were for Sultan Munadi and The New York Times. Bob Dietz gives a nice description of Munadi at the Committee to Protect Journalists blog. He points readers to a post on a New York Times blog, where Munadi wrote about why he stayed in Afhganistan.

By the way, if you first learned about Farrell’s abduction yesterday, you’re not alone. Though the two journalists had been held captive since Saturday, many media outlets have adopted news blackouts of journalists’ kidnappings. Editor & Publisher has a good discussion of the policy, its advocates and critics.

But Thio’s track-record on human rights is in question. She was nominated by a parliamentary committee in 2007 to act as one of nine unelected members of parliament in Singapore. During her term, parliament debated and upheld section 377a of Singapore’s constitution, a holdover from British colonialism that was first enacted in the 1800s to criminalize gay sex. While many Singaporean politicians, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, conceded that there was little desire to enforce the law, they argued that Singaporeans do not want to symbolically accept homosexuality by repealing it.

Thio was among the most vehement parliamentarians against the repeal of 377a; in one statement she equated gay sex with “shoving a straw up your nose to drink.”

Among the strongest opponents to Thio’s appointment is a student group, NYU OUTLaw, which says that her “intolerant, reprehensible words raise serious questions about Dr. Thio’s fitness to teach a course on human rights.” They are calling for greater dialogue and a strong condemnation of Thio’s stance on homosexuality from NYU Law’s dean.

In Singapore’s media, the debate is largely about what Thio says is “moral imperialism” and freedom of thought. She told Today that “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, free conscience, free thought — that is a cardinal principle for every academic community.” The Straits Times highlighted comments made on the progressive Singaporean blog, The Online Citizen, which you can read in full on their website.

If nothing else, the controversy has brought important debates back to the pages of Singapore’s mainstream media. It is an ironic turn of events that a former member of parliament in Singapore is calling on NYU to uphold her freedom to engage in critical debate; Human Rights Watch says that Singapore suppresses political opposition with defamation suits. As Singapore’s politics collides with students at NYU, it is clear that free speech and human rights are global conversations.

Blogger-turned-columnist Indrajit Samarajiva gave this quick bit in a recent post:

“I don’t get why the international media wants to come in and gawk when Sri Lankans are suffering and the pictures are bad, but doesn’t want to see or help actual improvement. Wait, I do get it.”

Is journalism a civic engagement? James Fallows of Atlantic Monthly has argued for “civic journalism” since his book Breaking the News came out in 1997. Here’s how he sums up his argument in Slate:

“The main argument of the public journalism advocates was that reporters and editors should think of themselves as being inside society, affecting through their coverage the way other people thought and behaved, rather than being wholly detached observers from outside. When viewing a society somewhere else in the world, members of the American press accept this point immediately. They know that the existence and quality of information flow will have a huge impact on other aspects of that society—whether people can hold their government accountable, how realistic a picture they have of other cultures, how unified or divided they seem.”

Journalist-turned-blogger Nalaka Gunawardene has a different take on journalists’ roles:

“What we lack – and urgently need – is plain good journalism that covers development, conflict and other issues as an integral part of human affairs. Noble intentions of saving the planet, or making world peace, sound good at beauty pageants. But these catch-all lines don’t give anyone the license to engage in shoddy journalism that lacks accuracy, balance and credibility – the core tenets of the profession.”

Gunawardene cites remarks by Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy:

“The reporter is there to report. We should be careful not to weigh down the media with additional responsibilities over and above their primary task of providing information. A healthy media environment is diverse and plural; it is there to explain but not take sides. The profession of journalism needs no justification and no sophisticated qualification.”

I’ve written about access to information in Sri Lanka for the Far Eastern Economic Review and continue to delve into the issues surrounding journalism in wars. I’ll be participating in a panel about reporting from hot spots in July at the South Asian Journalists Association’s annual convention, so I am culling ideas for framing the conversation. Are the main questions practical — how can journalists access information and stay safe? — or is it important to focus the discussion on the role of journalism in violent conflicts? Send me your thoughts, especially if you plan to be at the convention.

Anka Lee on the Star Ferry in Hong Kong

It’s June 4th today. 20 years ago, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing a huge protest movement was violently suppressed. The numbers are disputed, but hundreds, if not thousands were killed in clashes with the military. Tiananmen Square Massacre, June 4 Incident, or just Six-Four — whatever you call it, the event had a big impact on Anka Lee. He was just a kid then, but he remembers the day well. He was born in Hong Kong and was nine years old that summer in 1989. He talks about his memories and the city where he was born in this episode of Global Lives.

Anka wrote an essay about Tiananmen and his Hong Kong connection. You can find it on the back page of Time magazine’s June 8 international editions. UPDATE: Time put Anka’s story online here.

You can easily subscribe to this podcast or share it on your own blog or website.

That’s a lot of names, isn’t it?

It’s actually fitting; one of the biggest challenges of broadcast journalism is to take complex topics and tell compelling and often very short stories about them. You can read my posts on The Fellowship Blog at Reporting on Health, and see my tweets at @ReportingHealth. Here’s the first post:

Examining the Craft: Seminar on Broadcast Health Reporting Begins Today

In a world of sound bites, 140-character reports and information overdose on the Internet, news about health often doesn’t get all the airtime it deserves. The first session of a seminar for broadcast journalists will look at ways television, radio and multimedia journalists can boost coverage and depth in their reports.

Tonight’s keynote speech by NBC’s Robert Bazell asks the question, “Is it Possible to Cover Complex Medical Topics in Two Minutes or Less?” Through the weekend, California Broadcast Fellows will examine social media and digital resources, health reform and the black market, and what it takes to get depth of coverage in a media marketplace that demands that writers be editors and producers all at once.

Michelle Levander, director of the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, says that the pressures of being in a newsroom and on deadline make it difficult for journalists to feel that they are doing their best work. Specialty topics like health often take a hit when time and resources are short. The broadcast track of the fellowship program began last year to address the particular issues of working with sound and images on tight deadlines. Broadcast journalists have to tell compelling stories and need simple ways to cover complex topics, explains Levander. It’s a tough job, especially now that the business of journalism is in such dire straits.

“In a time of cutbacks and uncertainties, one of the things that helps journalists not become demoralized is a sense of community,” Levander says. “You can’t underestimate the value of exchanges that happen in seminars like this.”

You can join the conversation online throughout the weekend by commenting on posts. I’ll be twittering at ReportingHealth; reply or tweet using the hashtag #cabroadcasthealth. You can also email your comments to me at angshah@gmail.com and I’ll include them in my live blog throughout the weekend.

The big news this week is that Selamat was captured in early April, over one year after his escape. Authorities believe that Selamat, who had been held without charges under Singapore’s Internal Security Act since his first capture in 2006, is  the leader of the Singapore arm of Jemaah Islamiyah, or JI, which is responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings and an alleged plot to attack Singapore’s Changi Airport. News of his arrest came out last week, withheld, say Malayasian officals, to allow for continued investigation into the JI network. According to Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, Selamat escaped across the Johor Strait on an improvised flotation device; weaknesses in border security, say Singapore authorities, will be addressed. Perhaps now is a good time to revisit another mr brown show classic, Blame It on Somebody (or perhaps the remix, or the follow-up episode Just Can’t Quit). For a good explanation of the whole story, read the account from AFP.

From FP Passport via International Economy via vesseltracker.com, global trade is taking a hit, and Singapore, the “world’s busiest port for container traffic” according to International Economy, is feeling the pain. Compared to last year, traffic in Singapore dropped almost 20 percent in January and February, 2009. See the short but striking report (and a really startling graphic) on a PDF from International Economy. Other indicators of Singapore’s financial predicament are the central banks’s move to devalue Singapore dollars and Singapore Airline’s move to give people $1 hotel stays.

And not related to Singapore at all, an Asia Pacific Arts story is getting a lot of buzz in the Los Angeles neck-of-the-woods. I’ll let the headline sell it: Hot Asian Actors Hollywood Doesn’t Yet Realize It Needs.