DATE: August 27, 2008
TIME: 7:00p.m.
PLACE: Galloway Mansion
EVENT: River City Writers Reception and Reading with Journalists Stacy Sullivan, Josh Prager, and Christine Kenneally
The elegance of the columns, semi-circle concrete staircase and drive, and the lovely entry way were enough to convince me that the event was at least going to be worth something; the breath-taking house was intriguing and beautiful. As Stephanie and I entered with our t-shirts and jeans, we were in awe of the lighting, painting, furniture, and the elegant atmosphere—we had a good feeling about being there.
Once seated, I pulled out my red English notebook and turned to a blank page. At least, 20 of us students were crammed in this tiny sitting room on antique chairs, couches waiting to hear these speakers so that we could leave. I had a huge quiz to study for and I was already missing an amazing cello recital that my friend was giving, so I was ready to get this over with. As I gazed toward the room connected to the sitting room, I noticed paintings and special lighting above them. If nothing else, this experience was one of the most beautiful ones I had encountered. I longed to look around the entire house as I am fascinated with big houses—paintings, light fixtures, furniture, pictures, linens, rugs, carpet, and wood carvings and creations—I am into it all.
Soon the crowd of mostly adults slowly made their way to a seat, the floor, or a standing position; the room quieted and the readers took their seats. Mr. Prager made the way to his chair limping with his cane; as he sat his hands shook and his black wavy hair bounced. As he looked to face the audience he looked as if he was staring at us, but his expression told me he was in a different place mentally.
Friday, March 28, 2008
The Convenient Truth
“Thus, cherry picking is used metaphorically to indicate the act of pointing at individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position.” ~Wikipedia
“Cherry picking”—the metaphor that inspired movies like Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and an Inconvenient Truth has supported arguments for years. While picking the delightful fruit, I was always taught to choose the best cherries; this is proportional to a politician using propaganda to sway the public opinion of the accuracy of their views. Through the revealing of select information, an author, producer, politician misinforms their audience of the “whole picture.”
Filters like Academy-Award winning director producer Michael Moore utilizes anecdotes and sections of letters, legal documents, and private conversations to uncover one side of the story. Moore’s films, Sicko, Bowling For Columbine, and Fahrenheit 9/11, provide viewers with information on critical global issues. For example, Sicko addresses Health Care in the United States versus Canada, England, Germany, and Cuba. He choose to show only the pros of national health care systems of these other countries and only cons of the United States’ private health care system. Although, Moore provides truthful evidence, he fails to provide his audience with the full story. Therefore, to “prove” that United States’ health care system, Moore chooses to deceive his audience as opposed to addressing U.S. Health Care truthfully and completely.
So, even if I show you all the great cherries I picked, doesn’t mean that those represent all that were on the tree. --My two-cents for this week.
“Cherry picking”—the metaphor that inspired movies like Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and an Inconvenient Truth has supported arguments for years. While picking the delightful fruit, I was always taught to choose the best cherries; this is proportional to a politician using propaganda to sway the public opinion of the accuracy of their views. Through the revealing of select information, an author, producer, politician misinforms their audience of the “whole picture.”
Filters like Academy-Award winning director producer Michael Moore utilizes anecdotes and sections of letters, legal documents, and private conversations to uncover one side of the story. Moore’s films, Sicko, Bowling For Columbine, and Fahrenheit 9/11, provide viewers with information on critical global issues. For example, Sicko addresses Health Care in the United States versus Canada, England, Germany, and Cuba. He choose to show only the pros of national health care systems of these other countries and only cons of the United States’ private health care system. Although, Moore provides truthful evidence, he fails to provide his audience with the full story. Therefore, to “prove” that United States’ health care system, Moore chooses to deceive his audience as opposed to addressing U.S. Health Care truthfully and completely.
So, even if I show you all the great cherries I picked, doesn’t mean that those represent all that were on the tree. --My two-cents for this week.
River City Writers Speakers: Christine Kenneally
Terms:
~”I”-Tension between 1st and 2nd person in non-fiction: 1st person is considered unprofessional by some.
~Creative writing VS. Journalism: Creative writing leaves room for the author to 1st person, whereas, Journalism is purely fact and there is little to no room to use 1st person. “Viewpoint or point of view is a narrative technique. It's where the narrator exists within the fabric of the retelling. Every fiction writer should be familiar with the common tags associated with viewpoint:1st person, 2nd person, and 3rd person. Think of viewpoint as measure of distance. Envision a target with the scores reversed. The bullseye has a value of zero, while each consecutive ring outward is incrementally one higher. The higher the number, the greater the distance from the center of the target. 1st person viewpoint or retelling from the "I" viewpoint has a distance of zero. When the narrative distance is zero, the narrator is the central and integral focal point through which all events are characterized. As the distance from the protagonist's internal viewpoint increases, the perspective grows increasingly more abstract until we reach what's termed the "omniscient" viewpoint.” ~Will Greenway, Viewpoint, Perspective and Time
Questions:
1. What inspired you to write on linguistics?
2. What struggles, if any, did you have while writing this piece?
3. Do you typically write on these “scientific” philosophies and experiments, or was this a “one time” deal?
~”I”-Tension between 1st and 2nd person in non-fiction: 1st person is considered unprofessional by some.
~Creative writing VS. Journalism: Creative writing leaves room for the author to 1st person, whereas, Journalism is purely fact and there is little to no room to use 1st person. “Viewpoint or point of view is a narrative technique. It's where the narrator exists within the fabric of the retelling. Every fiction writer should be familiar with the common tags associated with viewpoint:1st person, 2nd person, and 3rd person. Think of viewpoint as measure of distance. Envision a target with the scores reversed. The bullseye has a value of zero, while each consecutive ring outward is incrementally one higher. The higher the number, the greater the distance from the center of the target. 1st person viewpoint or retelling from the "I" viewpoint has a distance of zero. When the narrative distance is zero, the narrator is the central and integral focal point through which all events are characterized. As the distance from the protagonist's internal viewpoint increases, the perspective grows increasingly more abstract until we reach what's termed the "omniscient" viewpoint.” ~Will Greenway, Viewpoint, Perspective and Time
Questions:
1. What inspired you to write on linguistics?
2. What struggles, if any, did you have while writing this piece?
3. Do you typically write on these “scientific” philosophies and experiments, or was this a “one time” deal?
River City Writers Speakers: Josh Prager
Terms:
~The Echoing Green: Giants' 1951 Comeback, The Sport's Greatest, Wasn't All It Seemed - Miracle Ended With 'The Shot Heard Round the World'; It Began With a Buzzer - 'Papa's' Collapsible Legacy.
~”The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant!”: The words of a radio broadcaster when the New York Giants won the Pennant in 1951.
~”The shot heard ‘round the world”: refers to Bobby Thomson's walk-off home run that clinched the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants.
~Bobby Thompson: nicknamed The Staten Island Scot, is a Scottish former Major League Baseball outfielder and right-handed batter who played for the New York Giants (1946-53, 1957), Milwaukee Braves (1954-57), Chicago Cubs (1958-59), Boston Red Sox (1960) and Baltimore Orioles (1960). Thomson became a celebrity for hitting a game-winning home run in a playoff game, off of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the 1951 National League pennant. The home run (nicknamed the "Shot Heard 'Round the World") is perhaps the most famous in baseball history. The baseball hit by Thomson provides a central motif in Don DeLillo's novel Underworld. Rumors that the 1951 Giants stole signs en route to the pennant were confirmed in 2001, when several players told the Wall Street Journal that beginning on July 20, 1951, the team used a telescope and buzzer wire to steal the finger signals of opposing catchers careless enough to not protect their signs.[1] Joshua Prager detailed the revelations in a book titled The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and The Shot Heard Round the World. Giant catcher Sal Yvars told Prager that he relayed to Thomson the stolen sign for Branca's fastball. But Thomson denied that he had foreknowledge of the pitch he hit off Branca for the pennant-winning home run.
~Ralph Branca: is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. From 1944 through 1956, Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944-53, 1956), Detroit Tigers (1953-54), and New York Yankees (1954). He batted and threw right-handed. Branca was known as a very good starter during his years in Brooklyn. Branca debuted on June 12, 1944 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and put up a 3.04 ERA in 109.2 innings pitched in 1945, his rookie year. A three-time All-Star, he won 80 games for the Dodgers with a career-high 21 wins in 1947. He is perhaps best remembered for one infamous relief appearance in a 1951 playoff game against the crosstown rival New York Giants. Branca entered the game in the ninth inning and surrendered a walk-off home run known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" to Bobby Thomson, giving the Giants the National League pennant.
Questions:
1. What got you interested dual task of writing and researching as a journalist?
2. Why did this subject interest you so much?
3. Was researching this topic difficult? Why or why not?
~The Echoing Green: Giants' 1951 Comeback, The Sport's Greatest, Wasn't All It Seemed - Miracle Ended With 'The Shot Heard Round the World'; It Began With a Buzzer - 'Papa's' Collapsible Legacy.
~”The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant!”: The words of a radio broadcaster when the New York Giants won the Pennant in 1951.
~”The shot heard ‘round the world”: refers to Bobby Thomson's walk-off home run that clinched the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants.
~Bobby Thompson: nicknamed The Staten Island Scot, is a Scottish former Major League Baseball outfielder and right-handed batter who played for the New York Giants (1946-53, 1957), Milwaukee Braves (1954-57), Chicago Cubs (1958-59), Boston Red Sox (1960) and Baltimore Orioles (1960). Thomson became a celebrity for hitting a game-winning home run in a playoff game, off of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the 1951 National League pennant. The home run (nicknamed the "Shot Heard 'Round the World") is perhaps the most famous in baseball history. The baseball hit by Thomson provides a central motif in Don DeLillo's novel Underworld. Rumors that the 1951 Giants stole signs en route to the pennant were confirmed in 2001, when several players told the Wall Street Journal that beginning on July 20, 1951, the team used a telescope and buzzer wire to steal the finger signals of opposing catchers careless enough to not protect their signs.[1] Joshua Prager detailed the revelations in a book titled The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and The Shot Heard Round the World. Giant catcher Sal Yvars told Prager that he relayed to Thomson the stolen sign for Branca's fastball. But Thomson denied that he had foreknowledge of the pitch he hit off Branca for the pennant-winning home run.
~Ralph Branca: is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. From 1944 through 1956, Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944-53, 1956), Detroit Tigers (1953-54), and New York Yankees (1954). He batted and threw right-handed. Branca was known as a very good starter during his years in Brooklyn. Branca debuted on June 12, 1944 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and put up a 3.04 ERA in 109.2 innings pitched in 1945, his rookie year. A three-time All-Star, he won 80 games for the Dodgers with a career-high 21 wins in 1947. He is perhaps best remembered for one infamous relief appearance in a 1951 playoff game against the crosstown rival New York Giants. Branca entered the game in the ninth inning and surrendered a walk-off home run known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" to Bobby Thomson, giving the Giants the National League pennant.
Questions:
1. What got you interested dual task of writing and researching as a journalist?
2. Why did this subject interest you so much?
3. Was researching this topic difficult? Why or why not?
River City Writers Speakers: Stacy Sullivan
Terms:
~Milošević, Slobodan: President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. He also led Serbia's Socialist Party from its foundation in 1990.
~Stalin, Joseph: as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. During that time he established the regime now known as Stalinism. As one of several Central Committee Secretariats, Stalin's formal position was originally limited in scope, but he gradually consolidated power and became the de facto party leader and ruler of the Soviet Union.
~Hitler, Adolf: an Austrian-born politician who led the National Socialist German Workers Party. He became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933 and Führer in 1934. He ruled until 1945.
~Détente: a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and confidence-building measures. However, it is primarily used in reference to the general reduction in the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and a thawing of the Cold War, occurring from the late 1960s until the start of the 1980s. In the Soviet Union, détente was known as разрядка ("razryadka", loosely meaning relaxation, discharge).
~Yugoslavia: describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century. The former constituent Socialist Republics of Yugoslavia, now independent States, are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Kosovo, formerly an autonomous province of Serbia, is a partially recognized State which declared its independence in 2008. It was not a socialist republic of the former Yugoslavia; it had the status of a socialist autonomous province within Serbia along with Vojvodina.
~Kosovo: is a region in the Balkans, presently under the ad interim control of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo and protection of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Kosovo Force. Its Provisional Institutions of Self-Government have recently declared independence from the Republic of Serbia, which contested the act; as the Republic of Kosovo, it has received partial recognition.
~Albania: a country in South Eastern Europe. Albania is bordered by Greece to the south-east, Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, and the Republic of Macedonia to the east. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. From the Strait of Otranto, Albania is less than 100 km (60 miles) from Italy. The country is a member of the United Nations, South East Europe Cooperation Process, Organisation for Co-operation and Security in Europe (OSCE), Council of Europe (COE), and World Trade Organisation. It is also a potential candidate for membership in the European Union and NATO. Albania is a parliamentary democracy that is transforming its economy into a market-oriented system. The Albanian capital, Tirana (Tiranë), is home to 750,000 of the country's 3.6 million population. As a result of the opening of the country in the post-communist era, Albania is now undergoing a development boom as its telecommunications, transport and utilities infrastructure is being revamped.
~Bosnia and Herzegovina: is a country on the Balkan peninsula of Southern Europe with an area of 51,129 square kilometers (19,741 sq mi). The last official census in 1991 recorded 4.4 million people, which was prior to the 1992-1995 war, while an unofficial census in 1996 by UNHCR recorded a postwar population of 3.9 million. Its 2007 residential population is estimated at approximately 4 million. Formerly one of the six federal units constituting the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina gained its independence during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Bosnia and Herzegovina can be described as a federal democratic republic that is transforming its economy into a market-oriented system, and it is a potential candidate for membership in the European Union and NATO. The country is home to three ethnic "constituent peoples": Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. Regardless of ethnicity, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina is often identified in English as a Bosnian. In Bosnia, the distinction between a Bosnian and a Herzegovinian is maintained as a regional, rather than an ethnic distinction. The country is politically decentralized and comprised of two governing entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, with District Brčko as a de facto third entity.
~Serbia: a landlocked country in Central and Southeastern Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkan Peninsula. Serbia is bordered by Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia and Albania to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the west.
~”Ethnic Cleansing”: various policies or practices aimed at the displacement of an ethnic group from a particular territory in order to create a supposedly ethnically "pure" society. The term entered English and international usage in the early 1990s to describe certain events in the former Yugoslavia. Its typical usage was developed in the Balkans, to be a less objectionable code-word meaning genocide, but its intent was to best avoid the obvious pitfalls of longstanding international treaty laws prohibiting war crimes.
~George Soros: is a Hungarian-born American financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist. Currently, he is the chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. According to his own website, Soros claims his support for the Solidarity labour movement in Poland, as well as the Czechoslovak human rights organization Charter 77, contributed to ending Soviet Union political dominance in those countries. His funding and organization of Georgia's Rose Revolution was considered by Russian and Western observers to have been crucial to its success, although Soros said his role has been "greatly exaggerated." In the United States, he is known for having donated large sums of money in a failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush's bid for re-election in 2004. On BookTV, November 12, 2007, he said that he supports Barack Obama for the Democratic candidate in the 2008 election, but says that John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, or Joe Biden are all fine candidates, as well. Soros is famously known for "breaking the Bank of England" on Black Wednesday in 1992. With an estimated current net worth of around $8.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 80th-richest person in the world.
~Abu Ghraib: an Iraqi city 32 km (20 mi) west of Baghdad. It became internationally known as a place where Saddam Hussein's government tortured and executed dissidents, and later as the site of Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal where the United States military's torture of Iraqi detainees was revealed in a series of photographs published in worldwide news media. Under Saddam's Ba'ath government, it was known as Abu Ghraib Prison and had a reputation as a place of torture and some of the worst cases of torture in the modern world. It was sometimes referred to in the Western media as "Saddam's Torture Central". The prison was renamed after United States forces expelled the former Iraqi government, which had called it the Baghdad Central Confinement Facility (BCCF) or Baghdad Central Correctional Facility. In May of 2004, Camp Avalanche, a tent camp on the grounds of Abu Ghraib for security detainees, changed its name to Camp Redemption at the request of a governing council member. The prison complex was built by British contractors in the 1960s, and covered 280 acres (1.15 km²) with a total of 24 guard towers. The size of a small town, the area was divided into five separate walled compounds for different types of prisoners. Each block contained a dining room, prayer room, exercise area and rudimentary washing facilities. Cells contained up to 40 people in a space four meters by four. By the fall of the government in 2003 the five compounds were designated for foreign prisoners, long sentences, short sentences, capital crimes and "special" crimes.
~”Fixers”: a local journalist who guides, translates, and arranges interviews.
Questions:
1. How did you get connected with the Albanian community of New York City?
2. Why report overseas? What got you involved in covering issues overseas?
3. What did you hope to accomplish through writing and publishing the article that uncovered Idema?
~Milošević, Slobodan: President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. He also led Serbia's Socialist Party from its foundation in 1990.
~Stalin, Joseph: as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. During that time he established the regime now known as Stalinism. As one of several Central Committee Secretariats, Stalin's formal position was originally limited in scope, but he gradually consolidated power and became the de facto party leader and ruler of the Soviet Union.
~Hitler, Adolf: an Austrian-born politician who led the National Socialist German Workers Party. He became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933 and Führer in 1934. He ruled until 1945.
~Détente: a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and confidence-building measures. However, it is primarily used in reference to the general reduction in the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and a thawing of the Cold War, occurring from the late 1960s until the start of the 1980s. In the Soviet Union, détente was known as разрядка ("razryadka", loosely meaning relaxation, discharge).
~Yugoslavia: describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century. The former constituent Socialist Republics of Yugoslavia, now independent States, are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Kosovo, formerly an autonomous province of Serbia, is a partially recognized State which declared its independence in 2008. It was not a socialist republic of the former Yugoslavia; it had the status of a socialist autonomous province within Serbia along with Vojvodina.
~Kosovo: is a region in the Balkans, presently under the ad interim control of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo and protection of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Kosovo Force. Its Provisional Institutions of Self-Government have recently declared independence from the Republic of Serbia, which contested the act; as the Republic of Kosovo, it has received partial recognition.
~Albania: a country in South Eastern Europe. Albania is bordered by Greece to the south-east, Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, and the Republic of Macedonia to the east. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. From the Strait of Otranto, Albania is less than 100 km (60 miles) from Italy. The country is a member of the United Nations, South East Europe Cooperation Process, Organisation for Co-operation and Security in Europe (OSCE), Council of Europe (COE), and World Trade Organisation. It is also a potential candidate for membership in the European Union and NATO. Albania is a parliamentary democracy that is transforming its economy into a market-oriented system. The Albanian capital, Tirana (Tiranë), is home to 750,000 of the country's 3.6 million population. As a result of the opening of the country in the post-communist era, Albania is now undergoing a development boom as its telecommunications, transport and utilities infrastructure is being revamped.
~Bosnia and Herzegovina: is a country on the Balkan peninsula of Southern Europe with an area of 51,129 square kilometers (19,741 sq mi). The last official census in 1991 recorded 4.4 million people, which was prior to the 1992-1995 war, while an unofficial census in 1996 by UNHCR recorded a postwar population of 3.9 million. Its 2007 residential population is estimated at approximately 4 million. Formerly one of the six federal units constituting the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina gained its independence during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Bosnia and Herzegovina can be described as a federal democratic republic that is transforming its economy into a market-oriented system, and it is a potential candidate for membership in the European Union and NATO. The country is home to three ethnic "constituent peoples": Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. Regardless of ethnicity, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina is often identified in English as a Bosnian. In Bosnia, the distinction between a Bosnian and a Herzegovinian is maintained as a regional, rather than an ethnic distinction. The country is politically decentralized and comprised of two governing entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, with District Brčko as a de facto third entity.
~Serbia: a landlocked country in Central and Southeastern Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkan Peninsula. Serbia is bordered by Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia and Albania to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the west.
~”Ethnic Cleansing”: various policies or practices aimed at the displacement of an ethnic group from a particular territory in order to create a supposedly ethnically "pure" society. The term entered English and international usage in the early 1990s to describe certain events in the former Yugoslavia. Its typical usage was developed in the Balkans, to be a less objectionable code-word meaning genocide, but its intent was to best avoid the obvious pitfalls of longstanding international treaty laws prohibiting war crimes.
~George Soros: is a Hungarian-born American financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist. Currently, he is the chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. According to his own website, Soros claims his support for the Solidarity labour movement in Poland, as well as the Czechoslovak human rights organization Charter 77, contributed to ending Soviet Union political dominance in those countries. His funding and organization of Georgia's Rose Revolution was considered by Russian and Western observers to have been crucial to its success, although Soros said his role has been "greatly exaggerated." In the United States, he is known for having donated large sums of money in a failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush's bid for re-election in 2004. On BookTV, November 12, 2007, he said that he supports Barack Obama for the Democratic candidate in the 2008 election, but says that John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, or Joe Biden are all fine candidates, as well. Soros is famously known for "breaking the Bank of England" on Black Wednesday in 1992. With an estimated current net worth of around $8.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 80th-richest person in the world.
~Abu Ghraib: an Iraqi city 32 km (20 mi) west of Baghdad. It became internationally known as a place where Saddam Hussein's government tortured and executed dissidents, and later as the site of Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal where the United States military's torture of Iraqi detainees was revealed in a series of photographs published in worldwide news media. Under Saddam's Ba'ath government, it was known as Abu Ghraib Prison and had a reputation as a place of torture and some of the worst cases of torture in the modern world. It was sometimes referred to in the Western media as "Saddam's Torture Central". The prison was renamed after United States forces expelled the former Iraqi government, which had called it the Baghdad Central Confinement Facility (BCCF) or Baghdad Central Correctional Facility. In May of 2004, Camp Avalanche, a tent camp on the grounds of Abu Ghraib for security detainees, changed its name to Camp Redemption at the request of a governing council member. The prison complex was built by British contractors in the 1960s, and covered 280 acres (1.15 km²) with a total of 24 guard towers. The size of a small town, the area was divided into five separate walled compounds for different types of prisoners. Each block contained a dining room, prayer room, exercise area and rudimentary washing facilities. Cells contained up to 40 people in a space four meters by four. By the fall of the government in 2003 the five compounds were designated for foreign prisoners, long sentences, short sentences, capital crimes and "special" crimes.
~”Fixers”: a local journalist who guides, translates, and arranges interviews.
Questions:
1. How did you get connected with the Albanian community of New York City?
2. Why report overseas? What got you involved in covering issues overseas?
3. What did you hope to accomplish through writing and publishing the article that uncovered Idema?
Friday, March 21, 2008
Left Behind
My brother, Ryan, will be thirteen next month. I can’t believe it! We have always been close, however this past Fall I moved nine hours away to attend college. After spending years of playing imaginary games, making up songs, producing movies and plays, writing and dancing to crazy music, and having crazy water fights, the brother and friend I had created endless memories with, I now would only see maybe four months per year. But no worries, we were prepared.
Every summer after my freshman year in high school, I spent at least a month away at a music camp. My eighth through twelfth grade years, I was home-schooled—meaning I spent almost every moment of every day in the house. Although I enjoyed staying home without the stress, drama, and cares of a typical middle or high school, by the end of each school year, I was ready to get out! Ryan and I would go to the Bible camp we’ve attended since the age of eight for a week and for the next month or so I would attend a music festival or two. I remember the first summer I left for a whole month. Ryan was miserable!
Every summer after my freshman year in high school, I spent at least a month away at a music camp. My eighth through twelfth grade years, I was home-schooled—meaning I spent almost every moment of every day in the house. Although I enjoyed staying home without the stress, drama, and cares of a typical middle or high school, by the end of each school year, I was ready to get out! Ryan and I would go to the Bible camp we’ve attended since the age of eight for a week and for the next month or so I would attend a music festival or two. I remember the first summer I left for a whole month. Ryan was miserable!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Five – Six – Seven – Eight…I can’t concentrate!
The concentration of a single human being is a short one. Our brains can only focus on simply one idea or subject at a time and our attention span—the period of time in which a person can comprehend and hone in on one particular subject—is only so long. According to a study…
My violin practice sessions are a particular time in which concentration has importance. To put all of my thoughts into one area of my mind is a daily challenge. Every time I practice, an array of factors effect how productive my practice will be. Productivity isn’t synonymous with concentration; however, productivity is dependent upon concentration. Mood, body temperature, and physical stamina affect my ability to focus and thus my productivity.
My violin practice sessions are a particular time in which concentration has importance. To put all of my thoughts into one area of my mind is a daily challenge. Every time I practice, an array of factors effect how productive my practice will be. Productivity isn’t synonymous with concentration; however, productivity is dependent upon concentration. Mood, body temperature, and physical stamina affect my ability to focus and thus my productivity.
Violin: Seventy Pieces of Wood
“A violin actually contains 70 separate pieces of wood.” (AmusingFacts.com)
The wood instrument that entrances the heart and soul of every listener and performer is complex. The maker of such a contraption spends many hours in training; however, the most effective method of learning is practice. Experience is the greatest tool to a luthier’s familiarity with his craft. Amati, Stradivarius, Guarneri are examples of those who have created these wooden masterpieces. The intricate shaping of each piece of wood and the different types of wood used for separate pieces of the violin. Without the careful sanding, varnishing, and placement of the each piece of wood.
The wood instrument that entrances the heart and soul of every listener and performer is complex. The maker of such a contraption spends many hours in training; however, the most effective method of learning is practice. Experience is the greatest tool to a luthier’s familiarity with his craft. Amati, Stradivarius, Guarneri are examples of those who have created these wooden masterpieces. The intricate shaping of each piece of wood and the different types of wood used for separate pieces of the violin. Without the careful sanding, varnishing, and placement of the each piece of wood.
Brian: A Great Listener
Walking down the corridor I intently look for my gate number. Once I find it, I sit—just sit in silence. My legs are on the floor and I am hunched over from exhaustion; my journey was just beginning. Throughout the lengthy wait, I noticed a young man take a seat in the row of chairs in front of me, facing me. He had brown, wavy, short hair and a fast receding line on his white forehead. At first, I thought he was Amish or Mormon, for he had a cross ring on his right hand and he wore a polo shirt and cache pants. What I noticed most, was his lips—there was just something so indescribably pleasant about them. And despite having mixed feelings about who he was, I felt a strong urge to get to know him. I wanted to know exactly what made him dress the way he did and wear the clothes he wore, but most of all, I wanted to see him speak. It boggled my mind that I was so intrigued with such an ordinary man. I soon forgot all about him the very moment they began boarding people on the plane. Once on board, I quickly went to my seat, but who was in the same row, but this young man, Brian. He was such a neat person to talk with; we talked for the entirety of the flight about our lives—our families, our hobbies, our faith and our families. I can talk for hours on end, and so could he, but what made him different is that was also a great listener. I truly hope that we meet again someday.
I will NOT do __________
Have you ever thought about something so hard that you end up acting upon those thoughts? I have…too many times. Once, I was talking to the conductor, Sara, of the youth orchestra I was in throughout high school. The young woman was Australian and grew up in England; her accent was strong. For the entirety of my Freshman year and the summer before, I worked with her. She studied violin through grade school and she picked up conducting later in her college years. Unfortunately, she left to find a permanent conducting position with a professional orchestra after that year. The following year, she came back to visit. Since I enjoyed working with her the year before, I immediately went to speak with her. As I glided towards her, I heard her speaking with that distinct accent, I thought hard about not reciprocating the accent back to her. As soon as we exchanged greetings and she asked me how I had been, I responded with the same accent. I was mortified! Surprisingly, she expressed how she thought I had imitated the accent well. Sara even suggested that I become an actress. Amused and embarrassed, I bowed my now blushed countenance. I guess I had learned my lesson—no matter how hard I tell myself NOT to do something, I will end up doing the very thing I set out to avoid.
River Walk
The sun is brightly shining over me as I sit staring at the almost perfectly still water. The scene is beautiful and unique. My thoughts consist only of the beauty of the “picture” before me. I am at the lonely “river walk” swinging on a red bench meant for two. This “river walk” is somewhat secluded; the sidewalk path that twists around the sides of the river are below campus—there are many entrances through downward staircases. The quiet, “perfect” area allows for couples to have some alone, romantic time. The still water provides a tranquil atmosphere—continuously and gently flowing, but sustaining the transparency of a mirror. My lonely spirit is filled with comfort and peace by this excellent scene. The trees arch toward the water while moss hangs low on the branches. Green patches that cover the water around the trees aren’t lily pads, but rather collected algae; however, they give me a sullen vibe—one that calms me inside. I feel free. I can breathe. I can sleep. My mind can wonder far and wide, yet I will still be seated here. The serene environment to which I so desperately cling captures me in this moment—a moment of peace.
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