LINKS


2008 Asia Sr. Journalist Fellowship Trip Photos

flickr photos


Co0lStateLA Website

http://www.CoolStateLA.Com


University Times

News Paper

http://www.calstatela.edu/universitytimes


The Projekt

http://theprojekt.wikispaces.com


LA Press Club

http://www.lapressclub.org


Jon Beaupre’s Schedule

http://ical.mac.com/jbeaupre1/Group


TRANSPORTING DREAMS August 15, 2008 Easy movement changes everything Transportation is a commodity, no less than corn, soy beans or light-sweet crude futures. It can be bought and sold, traded and bartered. It can be found on the rickety motorized tricycles in Kolkata or aboard the 777s we took across Asia earlier this summer.  Like those other commodities, the success or failure of an economy can depend on the ubiquity and accessibility of efficient transportation and mobility. Certainly, there have been international flights landing at Kolkata’s Dum-Dum airport for decades, but the availability of transportation compared to the vast population of the desperately poor means that the available transportation is neither wide spread enough to make much of a difference to that population, of a high-enough order to change that society or accessible to a degree that it might have a meaningful impact on that population. Put in other terms, yes, India has jet connections with the world at large, but at least in the state of West Bengal, that transportation is neither accessible or affordable to have a dramatic impact on the vast under classes there. There may be vast transportation infrastructure and resources, but they simply aren’t sufficient to be available far enough down the economic ladder to change that society at present. India is a mature democracy, with stable institutions stretching back at least a century or more. The country hasn’t been without its crises and massive challenges, but in terms of the availability of transportation, it’s remained poorer than its current international reputation might lead you to believe. On one hand, the partition of the sub-continent in 1947 led to the largest human mass migration in history, with the founding of Pakistan as the homeland for the Muslim minority. But that form of human movement can hardly count as the ubiquitous transportation upon which thriving commercial democracies can grow. If anything, the forced movement of all those people has led to a permanent underclass, in west Bengal, and in Bangla Desh, the successor to East Pakistan. The migration of all those people had to be accounted on the ‘debit’ side of the economic ledger, a loss that has never been recouped in over half a century since that partition. Thailand, on the other hand, with a booming economy of its own, owes at least in part its success to the exportation of the Thai image across the planet due in no small partto the investment in its brand new Suvarnabhumi International Airport, which opened in 2006 with a final bill at over US$ three billion. With the addition of this slick, efficient air terminal, Thailand has made its bid to be part of that international transportation web that can often lead to benefits at all levels of society. The problems connected with opening the massive new airport notwithstanding, Thailand appears to be maximizing its mobility, by bringing in millions of tourists each year, and making it possible for its citizens to travel freely and conveniently as well. Passenger travel, however, is just the frosting on the cake – important frosting at that. Unlike other resources, widespread access to transportation does not occur naturally. It requires investment, vision and patience, something the economically depressed cannot afford. If the choice is between paying for schools down the block, or gleaming airport terminals across town, it is hard for private consumers to invest in the vast, expensive, and risky infrastructure that can – if all conditions are right – lead to transportation ubiquity, or near ubiquity. The real money to be made after such investments is in the transport of high end commodities, and getting that mobility infrastructure down to the individual producers of goods and services on one hand and individual consumers on the other, not just to and from big commercial entities. And of course, the biggest effect of ubiquitous transportation is the transmission of culture – clothes, food, music, language, and art. The stories that follow, regarding our recent travels in Asia, unfurl in the context of the ever-changing access to transportation. More Info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_economics http://www.bangkokairportonline.com/%22%20%5Co%20%22Bangkok%20International%20Airporthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_economicsshapeimage_5_link_0shapeimage_5_link_1

Hawaii is Not Ironic

June 9, 2008


or How the Natives Pulled a Fast One On the Haoles

Hawaii is freakishly beautiful.  That’s the only way to put it.  It’s windward greens are so dense as to be lurid.  The jagged volcanic `a`a mountains look like massive, Vegas style scenic elements against which clouds and fog blow over as if in a 1950’s MGM epic.  It’s gorgeous like a female body-builder, or a three pound lobster.


This isn’t bad, mind you.


It’s virtually impossible not to like Hawaii – perfect climate, super nice people, eye-candy from all quarters.  It’s also surprisingly sophisticated – I mean for a resort town (Waikiki – Vegas without slots…).  There are more tourists per square mile on Waikiki than Disneyland on Labor Day.  Figuratively, of course.  But how many Hyatts does it take to really impress you?


Considering that the islands that make up the chain are tiny, stretched along the Pacific surrounded by, well, a really lot of water, it’s become the most important place that’s not important in the world.


It’s virtually an extended prefecture of Japan, boasts some of the best Korean food outside of Seoul, and wrestles with big state problems like over development, environment, and educating the next generation.  There is no majority ethnic group here; with enough sleeping around, Hawaiian men and women have become flat out gorgeous.  It likes to think of itself as the cross-roads of the Pacific, but in actuality, it’s cheaper to fly to Narita to get to Australia, than the more direct route.  Connected by so much separation.


The hokey kitsch of Hawaii 5-0, Magnum PI, and the recently deceased Don Ho - crooning ‘Tiny Bubbles’ to newly-weds and nearly-deads right up to April of last year when he checked out and went up to papa lani – has long ago robbed Hawaii of any irony.  It’s not cool to wink, and put on a lei and attempt to hula with the other tourists.


The natives - kama`aina - continue to fight some serious battles.  Educational achievement for native kids is much lower than for other groups, and affirmative action has a spotty record here.


One of the best stories told today was recounted by Susan Kreifels, the Media Programs Coordinator at the East West Center, which has organized and planned the massive two continent international journalism venture I’m on.


She recounted the story of some priceless artifacts that had been held as part of the massive Bishop family estate, the largest single private property owner in Hawaii.  The estate has assets of around $10 billion, making it one of the richest private charities in the world, the sole beneficiary of which are the two Kamehameha Schools, one for boys, one for girls, located in the heights above Honolulu, with a student body of only about 3,200 (more on this story later).

In any case, back in 2000, a kama’aina group pressured the Bishop estate, using some relatively arcane federal laws, to ‘loan’ a number of the priceless artifacts for a kind of cultural exchange.


According to the Honolulu Star bulletin, at issue were cultural items discovered in caves in Honokoa Gulch, Kawaihae, back in 1905.  Because the statuary and religious objects were believed to be sacred, the Bishop museum took great pains to restore and preserve them.  Hawaiian historian Herb Kane called them “tangible evidence that we existed as a culture.”

The native group Hui Malama I Na Kupuna o Hawaii Nei was organized by attorneys Eddie Ayau and Noelle Kahanu in the early 1990s to get as much of this cultural patrimony returned to its original sources as possile.  The two attorneys have built a considerable reputation fighting to ‘return artifacts in an appropriately Hawaiian manner.’

In any case, Hui Malama and a couple of other groups vouched for the Bishop museum ‘loan’, and the artifacts were handed over.


But when the Bishop museum asked for the artifacts back – as they claimed was their right by contract with Hui Malama, the native group balked, and to add to the mystery, wouldn’t reveal where the objects had been stashed.


Run the clock ahead to 2006.  The battle for the Bishop Museum artifacts carried on for half a decade, with the native group claiming that the artifacts had been illegally stolen in the first place and sold to the Bishop estate in 1880 by explorer David Forbes.  (Think:  Getty Museum, Marion True, Roman Antiquities!).



The museum on its part claimed that the issues surrounding how they acquired the artifacts weren’t the point, but rather that the loan was a contractual obligation that Hui Malama should live up to.


Who do you side with, the wholly sympathetic native group, which felt it had been robbed of its cultural patrimony, or the Bishop Estate, which is generally conceded to be a benevolent champion of native culture (though not without its controversies, often surrounding the $800,000 year fees paid to the trustees of the estate)?  The museum had a contract, the natives had the artifacts, though they finally returned them in 2006.


It’s a microcosm of Hawaii.  A lot of haoles realize that there are eye-popping assets here, if only they can auction them off to the highest bidder.  But nativists know what happens when you let in the first Indian Casino.  As related by our bus driver Jeff today (Ok, we’re journalists traveling around in a herd, on a tour bus, but we’re the good guys!) when he said “there are 9 Hawaiian Islands – the eight that the tourists know, and Las Vegas, where the kama`aina go.


And if Vegas is a joyous, unrepentant whore, Hawaii is still pondering the wisdom of being in that business at all.



Original story of the Bishop Museum ‘loan’

http://starbulletin.com/2000/03/25/news/story1.html


S.B. story of the return of the artifacts.

http://starbulletin.com/print/2005.php?fr=/2006/09/08/news/story02.html


Bishop estate background.

http://www.pritchettcartoons.com/bet_essay.htm






On Assignment

June 7, 2008


...ready, steady, ...


The East-West Center in Honolulu has been hosting international scholars since it was established by the U.S. Congress in May, 1960. The goal of the East-West Center is to promote better relations and understanding between the United States and the nations of Asia and the Pacific region, bringing voices, ideas, cultures and insights from across the Asian basin.  The senior Journalist Fellowship brings seasoned reporters, editors and producers from both Asia and the United States to the University of Hawaii campus, where the East-West Center is located for a series of meetings and presentations.  After an orientation period in Honolulu, the American journalists take off for stops in Kolkata India and Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.  The Asian journalists visit Washington, New York and Denver.  Then the dozen international journalists return to Honolulu to make some sense of what they’ve experienced.




I’ll be joining them this year and trying to report along the way.


In addition, after the trip to India and Malaysia, I will be traveling on to Australia for another couple of meetings and some rest and recreation with my beloved friends Ed and Simone Kopkas and their family.


It is my intention to report here on a daily basis - or at least as frequently as possible - with my observations, photos, videos, and audio clips - providing I can figure out how to do it all!


I’ll also be tracking some observations and ideas at my blog; I hope I can tempt you to follow along.


Stay tuned!

East-West Center:

http://www.eastwestcenter.org/


Itinerary:

http://www.broadcastvoice.com/Broadcast_Voice/Itinerary.html


Blog:

http://broadcastvoice.blogspot.com/



 

ASIA THE INEVITABLE

Sept. 4, 2008


...in which we face the obvious...


I’ve been putting off writing about the East West Center Senior Journalist study trip to Asia I took part in earlier this summer.  On one hand, I’ve been very, very busy since returning, with a couple of new ventures at my school, and just the demands of day to day life.


On the other hand, there’s no excuse:   the reality is that I haven’t been able to get my mind around the experience.  There is no way to summarize in some simple way what we saw, what we experienced, and what we came away with.


So today, I just said sit down and start writing.  Don’t make long stories, just try to capture some of the thoughts that occurred over the past couple of weeks of reflection.  So here I go:


When I applied for this fellowship, I sort of dared myself to visit Asia.  After many, many years exploring, visiting and living in the US, Europe, South America and the Caribbean, I was a little anxious.  I’ve seen the photos of the sprawling masses of humanity, the day to day struggle to survive, and the complete sense of dislocation – where not only English isn’t very common (my misconception), so many other cultural

College St., Kolkata

touchstones simply don’t exist:  the approach to food, religion, city planning, life-view and philosophy.  I was afraid that the challenge would be just too much. I was utterly, entirely, and joyously wrong on just about every count. 


First, while English is in fact spoken widely spread across Asia, even in those places where it isn’t spoken, residents were completely warm, engaging, friendly and welcoming.  It’s something of a cliché, but around the world, Americans, as a people and individually, are widely admired and appreciated.  Opinions about our government, however, are somewhat less favorable.


Near the end of our stay in Kolkata (the city that used to be called Calcutta), we were invited to a speak with a class of communication students at Jadavpur University, one of the best known and most admired institutions of higher learning in West Bengal.  As we fielded questions borne more of curiosity than ideology, we were struck by the intensity, intelligence and insights these students showed.  However, near the end of our conversation, one somewhat more militant young man rose up and wagging his finger at us on the panel, challenged with the question “Why did you invade Iraq?  What do you have to say about the tens of thousands of people who have died because of your actions?  Why do your troops remain in Iraq?


For a few moments, we were taken aback, but the panel rose to the challenge.  First, I suggested to the young man that on the issues of Iraq being an unjust war, the horror of the deaths, and the wish that US troops be out of Iraq, this is shared by many – perhaps most – Americans.  On that count, we felt exactly as the students did.  CNN producer Maria Ebrahimji, one of the two Muslims in our group, jumped to our defense.  She chided the young man, reminding him that journalism is not about soap-boxes.  She suggested that while he may have passionate opinions, he should keep them to himself, and focus instead on recounting facts.  She patiently explained that reporting on facts was more important than insisting on our personal passions.



My recounting of this here makes it sound like we were reprimanding the student.  Actually, Maria’s response was very classy.  She respected these students enough to disagree with them,and challenge them, and she did it more as an insider - a young person, a Muslim, a journalist  - and above all, as an ally, looking for truths that may not always be self evident.  I was impressed by Maria, and especially by the students-


We loved meeting with these young people, who were passionate, articulate and (generally) well informed.  We looked at each other from either side of a cultural divide, and very easily reached out to each other over that divide

CNN producer Maria Ebrahimji

.


This story doesn’t capture the spirit of the entire trip, but it was a great anecdote, one that characterized one of the themes of the trip.


There were so many other lessons and insights; I’m going to try to spin them out over the next couple of days.


Jahavpur University, Kolkata:

http://www.jadavpur.edu/


West Bengal Information

http://www.newkerala.com/states-of-india/west-bengal.php


The Telegraph Newspaper, Kolkata

http://www.telegraphindia.com/section/frontpage/index.jsp





 

Summary Photos of Kolkata