September 8th World Literacy Day: International Literacy Day is a grassroots event
I'm a clear-cut case of a condition which is called exile. Like literature, exile invents its own rules. ‘There is a reason why the language we inherit at birth is called our mother tongue,’ writes Mukherjee. ‘It is our mother, forgiving, embracing, naming the world and all its emotions...’ Yet exile teaches us to embrace our adopted mother with real passion. Today marks the quarter of the century of those special goose bumps one gets when we focus our eyes on our new adopted mother country. My Lucky Country ... What is that impresses most when we finally spot the sanctuary of Sydney Harbour ... peering through the 707 tiny windows? Its sheer size? The way antipodean sunrays pull the trigger reflections out of self-interest? No. Nothing makes an impact like those dark reflections, impenetrable emerald eyes. Those chipped emerald mirrors rival literature, geography and even history and just like mother’s breasts they shout: Ach, drink me up!
Sydney is the mother of exiles. If you were a political refugee in Sydney in 1980 all roads led to our new homes based at Villawood or Coogee Hostels. For me, Villawood became my Hollywood and the script written in English come to me in strange frustrated waves. Driving from the airport on the wrong side of the road is one thing. But not being able to spot any red ferns at Redfern was another. No one could explain to me what could possibly be new about Newtown? Those strange descriptions and words rolled over me, and though they almost smothered me with hard to express sentences, the sentences left me with a unique accent and unique expressions ... But it is the unique kindness of strangers that I will rembember most on my deathbed. Endless mentors: From Dr Dorman to Dr Cope; Soulmates: from Mary to Lauren; Strangers who became friends and then Godfathers to the Daughters of the Velvet Revolution: Christopher & Steve; Adopted family: From June to Minna; Greatest Treasures: Alexandra & Gabriella; Adopted homes: From Villawood to Darling Point to Bellevue Hill to Scaborough to the Shire and only destiny knows where else ... [Lest we forget: Donald Horne's irony was lost on Australia ]
For me, it's a really, really big responsibility that Webdiary works, because if it works, other journalists will join the independent media movement.... Webdiary movement doesn't just have legs, it has tentacles Webdiary's offer to journalists: journalism bringing more passion to the table ; Confronting ethics in the netherworld between politics and the media
The Blog, The Press, The Media: Losing the next generation of idealists
Edward Wasserman says young people want to do something "active" -- to make things happen instead of reacting to events the way they do in newsrooms. "Students come back from summer PR internships with exciting tales of scanning the next day's papers for stories they helped bring about," he writes.
Journalists have enough worries: cutbacks, bloggers, a geriatric audience. But here's one more: They should worry that bright young people who might once have been heading into newsrooms are going into public relations instead. Worse, these people aren't going just for the money. Journalism -- assailed by self-doubt and public mistrust -- is in danger of losing its next generation of idealists to PR.
• Is journalism in danger of losing its young idealists to PR? [Use it as a guide, not a crutch: Jeff Jarvis: The goal is to be ready — God help us Recovery 2.0: A call to convene ; Who is the one person you would not want to read what you have just written? Heather Armstrong ]
• · Microsoft CEO: 'I'm going to f---ing kill Google' ; New Haven has a new online daily newspaper: New Haven Independent
• · · The American blogosphere has been criticised for its lack of reponse to the media's portrayal of those devastated by Hurricane Katrina since it hit New Orleans last week American Bloggers Come Under Fire ; Online campaign begins for Bill of Rights
• · · · Vega 91.5, the much anticipated brainchild of DMG has kicked off its first day of programming this morning A New Boomer in Town ; Affiliate site to sell for $1.3 billion dollars (via Blog Herald) Empire Poker
• · · · · Blog Herald: Blogs starting to make an impression in German Elections ; The future will make liars out of many current Political Masters WH to press: The time for bickering, blame-gaming is later
• · · · · · That's one question from today's Howard Kurtz chat. His answer: We don't have to deal with bureaucracies, just editors. We just get up and go How did journalists beat relief workers to New Orleans? ; A Gathering Storm for the Media: Misreporting on hurricane further eroding public's trust of media Ham blasts "putrid reporting" of Katrina by the mainstream media ; Search Engines Indexes Sites With Info on Hurricane Survivors and Missing Katrina Missing Persons Site; Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? Drowning New Orleans