Almost Human

Walking through Amsterdam gives one time to chew on thoughts and experiences. Wednesday evening I was walking back home from the De Balie, a centre for culture and politics, located at Leidseplein. I had attended the presentation of the book The Engineerable News (Het Maakbare Nieuws)’. The anthology comprises twelve essays written by twelve Dutch correspondents in response to the controversial book Almost Human (Het zijn net mensen) by Joris Luyendijk.

How to make a difference in Russian media?

Choose the work you want, as long as you do not want to become a journalist. In Russia many parents are likely to advise their children likewise. The prospects of the Russian media are gloomy. This becomes clear at the Global Forum for Media Development. The GFMD describes itself as ‘a network of media assistance organizations around the world, promoting a collaborative effort by practitioners and researchers to develop tools to measure the impact of media programs’.

One of the speakers at the GFMD regional meeting on Central Asia (Paris, 17-19 April) is Maria Eismont, an independent media expert from Russia. She begins her talk with stating the rather provocative question: `Why have the millions of dollars spent on Russian media assistance resulted in such disappointing state of the press?’

Arabic spring

The presentation of ‘Dromen van een Arabische lente’ van Petra Stienen was almost finished. I arrived too late and only could enjoy the applause. Luckily the publisher is rather forward looking. An interviewer and cameraman have registered quite a lot; they kept on interviewing and filming the guests until the end of the party. You can watch the video (4 min 40), published on the site of her publisher Nieuw Amsterdam.

Petra Stienen studied Arabic and worked in the Arabic world for more then ten years. Now she works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. The launch of Stienen’s book attracted quite some supporters, friends and family in art gallery Gemak.

Some crowd surfing resulted in the following short encounters:

- a man was in the midst of organizing an Arabic Filmfestival

- people planning a holiday to Lattikia, a coastplace in the north of Syria, the end (or the beginning) of the Mediterranean sea

- somebody was working on an encyclopedia in Arabic

- another was studying Arabic in Leiden

- a guy proudly showing his new I-Touch and considering the production of an Arabic version

- also somebody was working on a review of the book

It was a interesting and vivid group, gathered at this presentation. I expect to meet the same kind of people while reading Petra’s book.

Freevoice

It was really busy at the office warming party of media organisation FreeVoice.

Amongst others I talked with a guy who is building a news site which will make it easy to share news items and interests with friends. For a first impression, have a look at the beta version. I will post a review as soon as this site is launched.

Obviously the party was a good start in a beautiful located office, right in the heart of the Mediapark in Hilversum.

Was it the snow that caused the chaos?

Last week Xiao Qiang landed in Amsterdam for a very short visit (two days), he wanted to be be back at Berkeley in time to give his lecture. Qiang is well known in the international internet scene as director of the China Internet Project and an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Journalism of University of California at Berkeley. He also is the founder and publisher of China Digital Times, an independent China news portal.

His story about the way the Chinese authorities handle the traffic chaos, which occurred after the heavy snow the first week of February, is a clear example of the way Chinese censorship works. Millions of Chinese wanted to travel from the cities to their home towns to celebrate Chinese New year with their loved ones. According to Qiang the real debate about the chaos and what caused it are to be found on the internet, especially in the blogosphere. This side of the calamity remains invisibly on the official canals. Leave stand that a critical question is asked to the causes of this chaos. Because how it is possible that the snow fall has so much impact? And why does the government permits all those millions migrant workers to travel only once a year – all at the same time – for thousands of kilometres? Those discussions are not shown on television or published in  the mainstream media, you have to be on line and read the blogs. Radio Netherlands Wordwide  interviewed (Dutch) Qiang.