Mentre Brunetta parla di 2Mbps per tutti, ieri è andato in onda su CurrentTv questo:
http://current.com/items/91311404_file-1-i-padroni-di-internet.htm

Grande Fabio! Molto spassoso (ed ahimè, molto esemplificativo) il finale.

It disturbs me that this is still going on in our world. Were so ahead, and supposedly so intellegent yet we still find time to be barbaric. PLEASE comment this if you watch it. I honestly wanna know how others feel about it.

Bad things are coming in threes right now so this video from the hilarious Target Women series is the best I can do. This web-series takes aim at advertising directed at women…you’ll never look at those “pictures of science” in skincare ads the same way again!

And the most classic one of all. It has nothing to do with beauty, but you need to be aware, if you could be described as female, yogurt is coming for you…

i own this book

I would like to preface this post by reminding everyone that I have no life.  I just recently discovered CurrentTV, a channel comprised almost entirely of viewer generated content.  And (most) programs don’t runner longer than fifteen minutes, perfect for myself and others from the Sesame Street/MTv generation.

Current encourages viewers to submit their own projects, to write or call in comments, and just give feedback in general.  I decided to take them up on their offer after viewing my first episode of the newest addiction, Sergio’s White Hot Top Five. (“Super News” is also a gem.)

For the record, Sergio did write me back.

His response is the title of this post.

**************************************************************

My letter (and CurrentTV’s response) read thusly:

**************************************************************

Hey there,

Thanks for writing! I’ve passed your email along to Sergio. (And I have to say—girls with glasses rock!)

Best,
Steph
++++
Stephanie Whiteside
Manager, Online Community
Current
http://current.com

On 5/19/09 1:37 PM, “toosexyforcontacts@yahoo.com” <toosexyforcontacts@yahoo.com> wrote:

Never one to be either hip or even marginally informed, I only recently discovered Current, InfoMania, and, most notably, Sergio’s White Hop Top 5.

My first exposure to this beacon of hilarity was last week when you did a spot on the top 5 downloads from iTunes (might I reiterate again that I hail from Northern Michigan, in the middle of the Huron National Forest and Internet just became available to me in the form of 56k dial-up…please don’t laugh at my pain and uncoolness.  But I digress.)

Having never been exposed to this new visual medium known as the Muzak vid-deao (sorry if i butcher the spelling; I’ve only ever heard it spoken, never written) i was quite disappointed to see the artist known as Taylor Swift (if that is indeed his real name!) trying to convince millions of potential droids that glasses are unsexy and only contact wearers will be getting laid anytime in the near future.

As anyone who has ever had the misfortune of wearing contacts into a smoky bar or club can tell you, there is nothing sexy about looking like Courtney Love on a three-day coke bender.  Blood shot eyes = not suitable for mating.  Or if you have ever had the misfortune if putting said contact into your eye backwards or had the little bugger fold over on you while still in the eye, I think you would agree that contact removal is almost as heinous as water-boarding.  Or not.  That’s cool too.

My point is, the “clear eye” guy is not sexy, and neither are contacts.  That’s why I have devoted my entire on-line presence to the promotion of sexy women (namely, myself) in my totally bangable librarian glasses.  Because there’s nothing sexier to a man than a woman who doesn’t really know what he looks like when they’re naked in bed because she already took her glasses off!

Thanks for your time.  Stay sexy Sergio.
Respectfully Yours,
C.S. Henry
http://www.toosexyforcontacts.com

Prim and businesslike PRC Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu had her work cut out for her today.

MFA Spokesperson Jiang Yu / 姜瑜

The reporters in the room were smelling blood — a high-profile editorial by America’s most famous ex-hostages in the L.A. Times asserted that the North Koreans had abducted from Chinese soil.  And this bombshell landed right in the middle of an equally high-profile visit of North Korean Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il to China.  Here was China, poised to lose some face, but also possibly working some back-room deals between Pyongyang and Washington.  The level of intrigue was higher than normal.

The first two questions at the press conference dealt with these issues in short order.  Of course, in the case of Ling/Lee, the question was longer than the answer.  And it’s a pretty good question, moving from the orthodox (“Regarding the American female reporters who had illegally crossed into North Korea…”  to the new and destabilizing “they have recently stated that they were taken from within China’s borders by North Korean border guards.”

The precise question then becomes: “Does China have any comment on this?  Will China open an investigation?”

问：曾因涉嫌非法入境而被朝鲜扣押的两名美国女记者近日表示，她们是在中国境内被朝鲜边防官兵逮捕，随后带至朝鲜的。中方对此有何评论？中方是否对此事开展了调查？

Jiang Yu replies curtly and opaquely: “据向有关部门了解，没有发现你所说的那种情况,” or, “According to the understanding of relevant authorities, no one found the situation to be as you said.”

Google News takes some liberties with the translation, rendering it as: “As we understand from competent authorities, we did not find the situation as you described it.”  Our translations, and thus the implications of the remarks are slightly different.

Perhaps you prefer the Google translation, but regardless, Jiang’s use of 有关 (you guan, or “related”) as opposed to 负责 (fu zi, or “responsible”) designation for the people who deal with this matter is interesting — does she mean Chinese? North Koreans? — and adds to the layers of vagueness with which China would like to smother the story.

But thanks to the press pool person in Beijing and China’s slightly more transparent than it used to be news market, at least the cat is out of the bag in a more public forum.

The next question centers on the idea that American Stephen Bosworth, in Beijing, might meet with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il.  China moves past this by expressing some boilerplate language about reviving the Six-Party Talks, but then revealing Kim is currently in Suzhou Jiangsu (probably supervising some foreign-currency gathering activities and stirring a few more rumors that North Koreans are studying Chinese economic model, which is probably part tactical, part real, and sure to be reflected in the work of Selig Harrison).

For the record, here’s the full text of the exchange:

问：美国对朝政策特别代表博斯沃思将于近期访华，请介绍他的访华日程。中方哪些官员将与他会见？将讨论什么议题？另外，朝鲜副外相金永日现正在华访问。中方哪位官员已经与他会见？讨论了哪些议题？

答：美对朝政策特别代表博斯沃思先生于今明两天来京访问。杨洁篪部长、武大伟副部长将分别与他会见。双方将就朝鲜半岛核问题、六方会谈等共同关心的问题交换意见。我们愿与各方共同努力，继续推进半岛无核化进程。

朝鲜副外相金永日的访华活动正在进行中，将持续到本周末。目前他正在江苏进行访问，随后返回北京。他已与武大伟副部长进行了会见，双方就双边关系及共同关心的问题交换了看法。

(Note: As no English version of the press conference exists yet on the Foreign Ministry website, it is quite probable that the exact syntax of the question may be different; I am working directly from the MFA’s Chinese version of the press conference. I also apologize for neglecting my interest in Sino-French relations by not analyzing the question about Nicholas Sarkozy at the press conference.  Like Carla Bruni, the Chinese love to kick this guy around!)

On a side note, the Huanqiu Shibao carries this story of South Korean espionage in the PRC.

Scene in #8 Subway Station, Beijing, June 2009 (photo by Adam Cathcart)

The Laura Ling/Euna Lee editorial has been partially translated and passed along, virtually without commentary or analysis, on the Daily NK’s Chinese website, which is accessible in China.

And the headline is, of course, “we were grabbed from Chinese territory.”   (This has an especially potent ring in Chinese, I might add: “从中国领土抓走,” evoking something sacred about the territory in a nationalist discourse which is the CCP’s stock-in-trade, something they learned darned well from the Nationalists.)  Why not?  The editorial by the CurrentTV reporters highlights the Chinese earth:

We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything that would keep us on Chinese soil, but we were no match for the determined soldiers. They violently dragged us back across the ice to North Korea and marched us to a nearby army base, where we were detained [uh, no, ladies, you were already detained].

China has soil.  We know that now.  It’s a powerful image, one by which the authors link themselves to the very refugees dragged back into North Korea.   But it is also a very political act to highlight in this way.  And thus the Chinese headline on ling tu, or earth, territory.

While Daily NK is not widely read in China (as indicated by the lack of discussion about it on BBS / internet discussion boards and within the site’s own comments section), occasionally, when it suits the purposes of the mainland Chinese to do so, Xinhua or the Global Times will quote from Daily NK reports.  This is usually done in subtle ways when China wants to embarass North Korea.  The same tactic is used when Chinese reporters write “South Korean media reports [something denigrating about North Korea]” and don’t add caveats.   However, as I indicated, I don’t believe this story will take off immediately in China.  There are other reasons for this which I’ll explain subsequently.

North Korean Soldiers in China, encore

As for the topic of North Korean soldiers in China, the timing of this story about a witnessing of one who doffed his clothes to grab some goods across the river could not be better.  Here we have several photos taken of the stretch of river which (although the site does not mention, I can tell you based on having just been there) were taken perhaps 1.5 kilometers west of the main bridge connecting the two cities of Hyesan (DPRK) and Changbai (PRC) where legitimate trade occurs.

Sept 1 2009 illicit trade across the upper reaches of the Yalu, Changbai/Hyesan

It brings to mind that when trade figures state that China supplies 80% of all goods in North Korea, if one were to estimate smuggled goods as well, that number might well reach even higher.

It also calls to mind a great deal of recent evidence mined in Good Friends’ Reports from defectors and cell phone conversations, dispatches which are somewhat less sensationalistic (perhaps due to more scrupulous translators!) than those of Daily NK.  These reports stress that corruption among border police has been a problem.

Coincidences, or, Fodder for Conspiracy Theorists

And corruption among border police has reached such levels that it was listed among Chang Song-Taek’s portfolio not long ago.  But most significatly, Kim Jong Il himself spoke to this issue of border security in a February 2009 inspection at Hoeryung city. And this wasn’t about Kangwon or the 38th parallel; he was there to tighten things up in North Hamgyong specifically.

My goodness.  Now there is a tidbit for the conspiracy minded!  Dear Leader travels to a North Hamgyong city on the Tumen River and calls for particular vigilance just a month before our intrepid trio of Ling/Lee/Koss and guide show up across that very river, mere tens of kilometers away, in nearby Onsong.  I have always been told that Kim Jong Il was prenatural, but that is really uncanny.  He really must be a brilliant man.

Almost as magnificently coincidental is the timing of the release of the LA Times editorial by Ling/Lee, which interests me primarily for the diplomatic and p.r. implications, not for the girls (dear God, I think we have had enough of them for quite a while, although they will be deigned experts for life on North Korea by the Oprah set) but for the Chinese government.

Isn’t it just a bit funny that the one shot the girls had left in their arsenal to cause international/diplomatic chaos was just played, e.g., to state that they were abducted from Chinese soil?  And that the revelation was timed just as the North Korean foreign minister was arriving in Beijing for four days of slated talks?

These girls are pawns, but their editorial was expertly timed to throw a nice little wedge in for the Chinese.  I wonder if someone over at State, or in the White House, or in John Bolton’s mustache, was really urging them to just revise it one more time, or to run it past a few more colleagues or vice presidents of marketing or government lawyers.

Let me be really clear here: It’s a loss of face and a p.r. problem for China to have this idea out that North Korean soldiers are arresting people on Chinese territory.

Pro-North Korean Propaganda in China

No wonder China is playing this down in its news media — there is really nothing to be gained.  So in its place — as something always has to fill the void — we get stories about initial market liberalization of the restaurant advertising business in North Korea (how bizarre, yet endearing, Xinhua leads us to think!), and two or three verbatim stories from Pyongyang’s KCNA about “over 170” recent violations of North Korean airspace by American spy planes.

One function of these stories is to absorb the vocabulary which the Ling/Lee divulgence creates (“border” “territorial integrity” “spying Americans”) but to direct the discussion in a direction that highlights Sino-Korean solidarity and confuses the issue.

This tactic was seen when Jung Chang’s total character assassination book came out in 2005, the biography of Chairman Mao, published in Taiwan and the U.S., but completely banned in China.  (Having reviewed it for a journal and tought the book three times in university classrooms, I can see why.)  How did the CCP respond to Chang’s book?  I don’t have the notes from the Propaganda Bureau meeting, but in Zhao Ziyang-on-the-I’m-taping-over-my-grandkids’-pop-songs-on-the-mike-style, I think it went something like this: “Dear God, Jung Chang is one hot piece of spiritual pollution.  And her book, even though its just a Lutheran-ladies-in-the-church-basement-hotdish-reheat of Li Zhisui’s Private Life of Chairman Mao, is dangerous.  People are going to start wandering the countryside looking for Mao’s villas to rehabilitate and sell for huge profits, or, worse yet, they will recall that at one time our country’s foreign policy rested upon the principle of unity with Albania.  We know people are going to hear about this book and talk about it, so let’s just confuse people.  Do you remember that guy, what was his name?  Ross Terrill?  Yeah, the one who is now writing really mean books about us, calling us The New Chinese Empire and talking about how closed we are? Let’s get his old Mao biography translated, take out the acidic stuff, and market that mother in Xidan and in all the Xinhua bookstores — and call it ‘the newest Mao biography from the West!’  Get a few graduate students to work and let’s get it done tomorrow!”

And that is precisely what happened.  People, friends, real Beijing University scholars I knew, would, when posed with a question about Chang’s book, refer instead to Terrill’s book in conversations in summer 2006.  So this misdirection tactic has legs even among Chinese intellectuals, and you can’t Twitter them into submission to your facts.

Thus, returning to the day’s North Korea story, if we think of borders in North Korea, Xinhua leads us to imagine, it should be to condemnthose American spy planes.  The North Koreans are just concerned about their airspace, and what Chinese patriot couldn’t empathize.  I’m sure we all remember the rocky flaming shitstorm that descended on the U.S. embassy in Beijing in 1999 after the Belgrade bombing of their embassy and of course the April 2001 EP=3 incident, both of which netted China nice apologies kind of like the one Clinton reprised in Pyongyang. (“You can tell your people I kowtowed and I’ll go home and everyone will be impressed with my dignified non-apology apology.”)

But the Chinese netizens aren’t taking the bait.  No one really remembers the giant propaganda attacks on American aircraft over Korea and China during the Korean War, even though people like me spend days poring over Zhou Enlai’s thick handwriting in the Beijing archives about just that topic.  So it serves a purpose in the Sino-North Korean dynamic of returning, at least temporarily for a day and in the language of propaganda, to that fertile basis of their alliance: shared defense against the American imperialists, staunch defenders of their revolutionary sovereignty.

The netizens don’t really care much about the airplane story.  Two comments on a Huanqiu Shibao article?  No netizens have passion for it…

But in terms of how China is playing the media game of late with North Korea, we see some socialist solidarity at work, trying to calm things down with the DPRK and reward them for recent moderation.  Of course, the Ling/Lee thing threatens that facade.  Even if the two countries’ leaders have talked about the incident and had full transparency (which is absolutely unlikely, not to discount possiblity of communication on the matter; after all, the two countries have a new military hotline opened up), the fact that our favorite ex-hostages have come out with this news about Chinese territory, the socialist bloc here has a bit of something to deal with.

The last thing the Chinese government wants this month, as it leads up to the giant quivering and missle-revealing orgasm of October 1, is to have netizens and super-patriots get on some unstoppable wagon of debate about China’s “territorial integrity,” much less as the target of that ire would be a somewhat dangerous and unstable socialist neighbor state.  Can’t we keep people focused on Taiwan in this month that we reflect back on 1949 anyway?  And how happy everyone is?

There are master narratives to be upheld here, people!

Or, it’s just China watching its back for hatchets from Los Angeles.  Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry (known by the bad-ass ackronym MFA, impossibly evoking the phrase “all up up in this muh” even as the building resembles the Death Star) happily hosts the North Korean envoys, who scatter plutonium-laced jars of precious mountain ginseng as little gifts around Beijing’s Chaoyang district and wonder why the hell it has suddenly become so hard to smoke a cigarette with impunity in the halls of the MFA, and then return to their embassy in Japanese cars that, like most of the commerce that goes on in the neighborhood, will breeze along irrespective of any dictate from Pyongyang.  Let’s hope the Foreign Minister can at least do some shopping while he’s in town; that is, unless he’s abducted by missionaries and spirited away to a third country.

Nitpicking Translations

And “third country”, I might add, is the right translation for Daily NK breathless reports about North Korean soldiers who run away to China.  Pyongyang, the website alleges, fears that the soldiers will run away “to a Third World country,” which is a very bad translation of the phrase 第三国。 Having lost their rights under U.S. occupation in Japan (along with the Taiwanese, something I discuss in depth in this scholarly paper based on documents in the U.S. National Archives and Chinese press reports from the 1940s) the Koreans of all people should be aware of this tricky term.  “Third Country National” (第三国人) was the epithet of the day.

You would think that a website that has as its mission, ultimately, to crack open the DPRK and transfer its population to places like Los Angeles via Mongolia (where Lee Myung Bak went this past spring to prep the conspiracy, to China’s consternation) would have a better handle on this concept as it is rendered in English.

[Note: In light of the speed of the news and the interest shown in this issue by Danwei readers,  I have followed this post with another, more considered, analysis of the Tumen river fiasco as it continues to impact evolving Sino-North Korean relations.  -- Adam Cathcart]

Amid the struggle to understand activity on the remote North Korean-Chinese border, few sources are more constant and seemingly complete than The Daily NK.  For English-speaking North Korea watchers like the widely-read, hard-boiled, and usually-credible Joshua Stanton at One Free Korea, the Daily NK has become indispensable and is a constantly-referred to resource upon which rest multiple specific claims of China’s inhumane attitude toward North Korean refugees.  However, few readers realize that the reports are predominantly written first in Chinese, and then translated into English.

And once again we in the West are therefore at the mercy of a translator somewhere in Changchun, Seoul, or Fairfax Virginia.

Prompted by recent dialogue with Mr. Stanton, who is an attorney and human rights advocate in Washington, D.C., I have been doing more investigation recently into the Daily NK’s massive digital archive of stories.  They are fantastically detailed, abundant reports from Northeast China, often based on cell phone interviews with North Koreans along the border or recent defectors.  These dispatches make for gripping reading, providing great detail about life in the northern border regions of the DPRK.  If you want to know the price of grain in Sinuiju or learn about North Korean women joining the army, or hear about the views of ordinary North Koreans toward the United States, check the Daily NK, says the conventional wisdom. But again, the articles are originally written in Korean or Chinese, and then translated into English.

Unfortunately many of the website’s translations are misleading and unreliable.

This matters a great deal, because the site is so frequently leaned upon in making assertions about the border region and China’s role in policing North Korean refugees in particular.

North Korean Soldiers in China

Take for instance the significant claim that North Korean soldiers operate with impunity in China or that China allows small units of the Korean People’s Army and/or North Korean border guards to patrol into China.

This idea is about to get seriously tested, as the CurrentTV reporters indicated they were chased and followed into Chinese territory by North Korean border guards.

And knowledgeable people like Stanton perpetuate the idea that North Korean troops are let into China at various times to catch defectors.  In response to a challenge to his assertion about North Korean troops running wire through refugees’ wrists in China and then dragging them back to the DPRK, Stanton explains:

As to the issue of North Koreans operating in China, multiple reports confirm that China allows it. Please begin with this report from the Congressional-Executive Committee on China, and then read this from the Daily NK.

Well, the linked Congressional report is from 2005 and extensively footnoted, but contains just one sentence about North Korean agents in China, a sentence itself which is qualified with “South Korean newspapers report.”  What is that source?  An editorial from the conservative Chosun Ilbo about the earlier case of Reverend Shik!  In other words, citing the Congressional Report which itself cites something of dubious credibility (and correctly qualifies that citation by changing voice) doesn’t in itself prove anything.  More to the point, the Daily NK translation on the linked article relies on a single telephone interview with someone who allegedly saw some North Korean troops “who looked like they were getting ready to cross into China” [adapted from the Chinese], not running around in the PRC with their (maybe-loaded) weapons.

So we have an assertion parading as fact: North Korean troops move freely within China!  Yes, according to a die-hard editorial writer with a regime-change hard on in Seoul, and a misunderstood translation from one cell-phone wielding source (maybe Ling’s guide! he has a black phone, you know…oooh) who is probably getting paid handsomely for his information.

To prove my point on the translation front, the English version of the Daily NK article states that North Korean security forces are moving into the areas around Changbai and Ji’an, when the original report in Chinese states (and this is certainly the original version, as the reporter is a Korean or ethnic Korean living in Changchun) that the North Korean security forces were moving in the areas across the river from Chinese Changbai and Ji’an.

And having just been there, I can say that my colleagues (and, yes, even a few friends with whom I have and would gladly again share a beer) in the Chinese border patrols would be quite ready to move against any group of North Korean border guards moving around in China.  Oh, and the linked article is actually about a group of North Korean border guards who fled into China in the first place.

So we have the concoction of “North Korean troops in China”:  yes!  The ones who take off their uniforms and run away!

Nevertheless, in a couple of dispatches from Daily NK, amplified and augmented by propaganda from missionary groups, a vision is offered of North Korean agents moving through Chinese territory along the border.  Sometimes, Stanton and the Voices of the Martyrs argue, North Korean troops come back from China with a bunch of captured hogs/human beings strung along in train.  The martyrs group in particular seems to get excited about North Korean refugees suffering wounds akin to stigmata: wires through the hands, they assert.

Thus, if we take this tainted evidence as fact, China is even more complicit with the regime of torture and beatings and killings and mistreatment of these people than heretofore known.  We can then remain smug in our understanding of China and North Korea as two very immoral governments engaging in mutual immorality.  In this scenario, there is no need to question how Chinese attitudes toward North Korea may have changed as a result of recent events: they’re still bad guys and enable North Korean bad behavior.

CurrentTV and the Chinese Response

And as we read the recently-issued mea culpa by the CurrentTV reporters, it all just fits in so perfectly: displayed here is the Chinese indifference to the suffering of the abducted, the stateless, those in need.  And more importantly, China is depicted as complicit in North Korean infiltration into Manchuria for the purpose of abduction.

According to my recent observations in the border region, talking to Chinese experts, and reading of the Chinese press, the PRC leadership and certainly the PLA is not at all eager to see North Korean troops on their soil.  Does anyone report on this?   In the past year, China has even issued somewhat demeaning press reports in mainline nationalist journals like the Global Times/Huanqiu Ribao [环球时报] about individual North Korean border guards gone rogue, and by extension, the force and effectiveness of the Chinese border guards in tossing such intruders into the relevant mobile prison/big fat paddy wagon near Kaishantun.

What a pleasant place to spend a year -- North Korean border surveillance outpost about 40 km north of Changbai/Hyesan (photo by Adam Cathcart, July 2009)

In response to reports that China is amping up its military presence across the Northeastern frontier, I can only state that everything in July appeared quit routine: the densest concentration of Chinese troops I saw consisted of the five or so AK-47 wielding PLA/bianfang/边防/border patrol in camouflage valiantly defending a karaoke island from intrepid North Koreans in little Linjiang, Jilin province — but there are others, of course.

But near the above photograph — a building full of peach-fuzz mustache PLA kids in t-shirts lying around on cots, eating, playing cards.  Of course they became serious at their roadblock when it was apparent foreigners were around, checking identification and such while one dug for some egg whites stuck between his teeth.  They are so much better fed than their Korean counterparts that any contest of strength would surely favor the Chinese.

Although, along the lines of true military mobilization, we did have the Chinese air force doing exercises directly over the city of Yanji.

Chinese Fighter Jet over Yanji (banner reads "Create a Civilized City," July 2009 -- photo by Adam Cathcart)

( The above image, along with an encounter with a Korean-Chinese scholar in a local bath, reminded me of 1951 when the entire Yanbian University library was relocated to the confiscated home of a local collaborationists landlord for safekeeping, only to return in 1954, the heyday of Sino-Korean cooperation in the new Yanbian Korean Ethnicity Automous Region.)  But I suppose that is all just for show, certainly China would never want to intimidate brotherly North Korea, especially not in an area where the May 25 nuclear test created a minor earthquake.   I’m sure that all the local school kids have forgotten the Chengdu quake and are all just ready to go back to singing songs of Sino-Korean friendship, that is, if they know any besides “March of the People’s Volunteers,” which itself, if one analyzes the lyrics along side the melodic and harmonic content, actually shunts the North Koreans off to the side.)

As regards North Korean security forces in China and the Ling/Lee/Koss debacle: Throughout the spring, the specter of North Korean troops/agents crossing the border was implied in Western media but never substantiated.   It was certainly not asserted in the Chinese media, who were presumably getting their facts straight with the help of testimony from Mitch Koss, his remarkable camera, and local Chinese-Koreans.

Does no one care, or find consequential, what China’s attitude would be in such a highly-publicized incident in the event that it were true that KPA troops hunting for foreigners walked into Jilin? In analyzing things should we not be aware of Chinese sensitivities about “territorial integrity” in a chunk of territory (one no less where Koreans in the early 1930s were overwhelmingly seen by Chinese as the spearhead of Japanese imperialism, not guerrilla fighters) which go way deeper than Tibet ever could? What is the functional linkage between KPA border guards and those on the Chinese side? Neglect of the basic issue — China’s response to the idea of KPA on Chinese soil — has, regrettably, been a completely unexamined facet of the whole CurrentTV affair.

Unfortunately the timing of the CurrentTV editorial, published yesterday at 6:30 p.m. PST, came in the aftermath of the PRC Foreign Ministry’s press briefing in Beijing, so no Chinese officials have had to comment thus far.

In fact, Chinese media, which would be on this story like, well, flies on s*** if they thought it would serve their purpose, is studiously ignoring the Ling/Lee divulgence.  Instead, China is mending its fences with the DPRK, since North Korea’s foreign minister is landing in Beijing (funny how the timing worked out here) and the two countries need to figure out how, among other things, to play the Japan card.   A cute story about North Korean liberalization of the advertising/food service sector is included in the latest Huanqiu, and overall things are pretty sweet right now.

The linked story to Huanqiu Shibao is interesting, however, because North Korea does get slammed for other reasons in the comment section and North Korean foreign minister described as a “white-eyed wolf” and a cunning “dog” who “relies on the United States”.  Say what you will about the rhetoric, but by God! this is shocking stuff — reader comments online, directly on the official newspaper website, appended to the article.  Fortunately in the egalitarian and democratic paradise of ambition that is the USA, we all believe the same thing, so we don’t need the chance to comment directly on sobbing and self-serving editorials in the LA Times or the occasional NY Times story that is unrelated to the Middle East or the stock market.  So suck on it, ChiCom dictators!

The CurrentTV reporters were arrested, according to the North Korean reports, in Onsung-ri, which means Onsung district, in North Hamgyong province.  Although no one in the media has bothered to do so (probably because they don’t read KCNA or understand basic Korean), one can quickly run the place name through the search function on the Daily NK website.

One finds a great deal of information about Onsung city, usually that executions have been taking place there.

The bottom line is that we should be careful with our evidence, there is more to know, and we also have to take care not to miss the much larger aspects of the Chinese-North Korean relations at work here.

Note: One particularly active blog commenter, using the pseudonym “Spelunker,” has not been to the place in question but has provided a wealth of data about the site of the arrest.  His entries on the One Free Korea and Liberate Laura blogs could be followed by any media person or student if they were so inclined.

Upper Reaches of the Yalu near Changbaishan, a North Korean, perhaps a border guard, has chopped down a tree to facilitate crossing. Photo by Adam Cathcart, July 2009.

2 US Journalists recently freed from North Korea have now expressed an opinion that they may have been lured into the reclusive Communist regime and then captured.

In a Los Angeles Times column, the two journalists recount their experiences as they were captured, expressing that they were captured on Chinese soil by North Korean officers. Once captured, the pair was sentenced to 12 years of hard labor, but later pardoned by leader Kim Jong-Il for diplomatic reasons.

The two journalists said that their guide, who had allegedly arranged interviews with several North Koreans, kept bringing them closer and closer to the North Korean border with China, which is not marked or fenced in any way.

Working on a piece about human trafficking, the two journalists were shown an area of safe houses in North Korea where people were kept, and then smuggled into China. The two journalists say they then became nervous, turned around, and headed back to China.

Article sourced from CNN

CNN Article- Journalists May Have been Lured

“Euna and I are two of the lucky ones whose story of captivity resulted in a happy ending. But there are so many journalists imprisoned around the world whose fate is still undecided. It is my sincere hope that the energy ignited around bringing us home will be harnessed into raising awareness around these fellow journalists and their struggle for freedom.” ~Laura Ling

UPDATE: Laura Ling and Euna Lee released a statement on September 1st, 2009 about their capture that was published both on CurrentTv’s website and as an op-ed in The Los Angeles Times: “When we set out, we had no intention of leaving China, but when our guide beckoned for us to follow him beyond the middle of the river, we did, eventually arriving at the riverbank on the North Korean side [...] We were firmly back inside China when the soldiers apprehended us. Producer Mitch Koss and our guide were both able to outrun the border guards. We were not. We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything that would keep us on Chinese soil, but we were no match for the determined soldiers. They violently dragged us back across the ice to North Korea and marched us to a nearby army base, where we were detained.”

I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to write in response to the return of Laura Ling and Euna Lee to their homes and families. All of us watching and waiting with bated breath, sending and re-sending Twitter messages, signing petitions, refreshing news feeds…we all waited for that moment when they descended from the plane, and Euna swept little Hana into her arms and Laura ran into the arms of her husband. I can’t tell you the relief and joy I felt, as I’m sure you all felt, watching that reunion of friends and family, and watching the restrained pride on the faces of President Clinton and Mr. Gore. It’s damn nice to see the good guys win.

I was less patient than I should have been. I was less patient with the media, the extraordinary American press of which Laura and Euna are both members, than I should have been. Weeks went by when Lisa Ling and her family attended candlelight vigils and we heard nothing, nothing from the press and nothing from Washington. There seemed to be a particular gag order that was afflicting CurrentTV, the San Francisco-based independent media company for which Laura and Euna work, and for which they were on assignment in China when they were taken. A lot of us got very angry very quickly, and with the blessing of hindsight that is 20/20, I realize now that I should have known that there was more going on behind the scenes, that sometimes international relations require calculation and calm, and that our waiting would pay off.

There’s an incredible irony in the fact that such great silence was necessary to prevent two of our press agents from being silenced permanently. It’s that necessity that made me hesitant to write this, and makes me wonder just how strategic we need to be in the days ahead…because “the girls,” as they were so lovingly (and strategically—it wasn’t lost on me that Lisa Ling and others who spoke on their behalf did their best to make them seem vulnerable and harmless) called during their time away from us, are home now, but the tenuous relationship with North Korea remains. America and her allies still have journalists doing work in South Korea and in China, and if we aren’t careful, there might be a next time—and we might not be so lucky next time.

The media’s reporting of their return remained cautious and strategic, even after the girls were in the air, even after they were home. Dan Abrams, Chief Legal Analyst for NBC News, tweeted his frustration with this: “The media reporting on the ‘pardon’ of Ling and Lee without more context implies there was a legitimate ‘conviction.’” I understood him, because it infuriated me as well, and for someone who has devoted one’s life to law and the integrity of the justice system, it must be devastating when things like this happen. That said, I wonder where our responsibilities really lie when it comes to freedom of the press v. control of the message in situations like this one, where complete truth-telling could be a serious bungle. There are situations where despite their reputation for being callous and hungry for any scoop, the media will withhold information upon request of the authorities, to avoid interfering with the investigation or to protect those involved, or even to protect our national security when it comes to details about military strategy and training methods. When it comes to dealing with a country like North Korea, a country that has a bitter hatred for the concept of a free press, and a country with which we have no diplomatic relations, how careful do we need to be? If in times of war or other turmoil, the law falls silent, should the press follow? Where do we draw the line between being wise, and being like them?

I don’t know the answers to these questions; I just know that I’m less judgmental of the media silence on this case, and other cases of imprisoned journalists, than I was a few short weeks ago, and I know that I worry about even publishing thoughts as seemingly harmless as these.

One thing of which I am sure is that there is great joy in this reunion, and great symbolism. The First Amendment and the people who protect it do not go down without a fight. Laura Ling and Euna Lee are soldiers for that cause; they are members of the United States press corps. I was heartened to see people displaying the yellow ribbon in their honor as they would for a POW, and I cried both for them and for this country when they were brought back to us. This was not a small thing we witnessed. This was a chance for the average American to take a moment and realize that it’s not just those in uniform who put their lives on the line for this country—they’re called the press corps for a reason. Sarah Palin and others would do well to reflect on this before they take another shot at “the media” in the general sense, because while there are rotten apples, I have no doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t be able to debate this subject at all were it not for the journalists who do their jobs well. It is their courage and nobility that allows me to write this blog, and allows you to read it. Journalists die every day. Journalists are captured every day. They risk this so that we can critique our government and hold them accountable, so that we can read books, and start blogs, and build libraries, and share information, and go to school, and learn new languages. They do it so we can make art, and sing songs, and love the ones we’re with. They do it so we can create beauty of the highest natural order.

I have such extraordinary gratitude for everyone who worked and wrote and fought and cried for Laura and Euna to come back. It was an honor and a privilege to be a part of the Twitter campaign, and I now have renewed confidence in new media and its daunting power.

And so the story continues. In far-off lands, and in America, where the streets are paved with gold.

The Grotto Blog by Lauren E. Moccio is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.lauriebethsgrotto.com.

The cause/effect relationship between media presentations of news and public perceptions of what is or is not important has long been debated and researched in communication studies.  Various theorists and scholars, as well as media agencies, have proposed a variety of relationships between news media and public sentiment.  Media agents and organizations most commonly claim that they provide viewers with what they want.  They use ratings numbers and viewership statistics to prove that we “like” entertainment news, reality programming, seeing the failures in the lives of others, etc.  Some theorists, such as Stuart Hall, argue that the media are a powerful force that supports and sustains an ideology held by those in power.  Thus, the media give us messages that support the needs and desires of some segments of the culture, while silencing other voices.  Some scholars, like Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, indicate that the media may not tell us what to think, but they certainly tell us what to think about (so, when the breakup of Jon and Kate is one of the top stories on CNN for several weeks running, it seems important to us and thus we spend our mental and communicative energy on it).

Whatever the case, it seems clear that there is some connection between our understandings of the world and what is represented in media messages, particularly with regard to “things” with which we have no direct experience.  Given the upheaval of the media landscape in recent years, we now have to reconsider the connections between the wants/needs/beliefs of viewers and the dominant media messages.

In a spring section of an upper level communication course, I asked students how many of them had read a print newspaper in the preceding week.  One or two hands were raised.  I asked how many had looked at CNN or another corporate news site online in that same period and over half of the class raised their hands.  As we then began to discuss participant “news” sites (blogs, twitter, etc.), it was clear that most of the students in the class had visited more than one participant “news” venue – not simply in the preceding week, but in the day prior to our discussion.  This is an intriguing, and potentially powerful, change to the way news is accomplished.

Even in more traditional media formats, like television or newspapers, the media landscape seems to be changing to a more participatory model.  Online version of print papers contain options for submission of news stories, debates about issues of public concern, and comments on paper content.  CurrentTV, a television “news” network, offers viewers the opportunity to create news “pods,” responses, reviews, and ads – thus bringing more interactivity into broadcast television than has ever been seen before.

So, what does all of this mean for us as media consumers and participants and as cultural and world citizens?  That remains to be seen.  If our interactive media forms are simply another venue to discuss the same issues (last weekend, in Philadelphia, the story of the Eagles signing Michael Vick was top news in traditional formats, and was also one of the most common subjects in Twitter’s news feed), maybe the changes won’t be particularly startling.  But, if these interactive media forms create an avenue for us to bring issues to the forefront that might not otherwise gain public attention, or if they provide us with insight into experiences we cannot access directly or through traditional media, the whole future of how we learn and what we “know” may undergo a seismic change.

In any case, it’s all very exciting for a communication scholar, student, or fan.  So, get “out there” and check it out.  Read some blogs, tune in to CurrentTV, check out the Twitter feed… see what people are saying and make some comparisons between that and what you see in your mainstream media outlets.  What do you think the future of “news media” holds for us?

LBA

Courtesy of Current.com

This is a chart that illustrates the number of people that died who did not receive timely and efficient health care. The higher the rate, the worse it is for the respective countries. For those not in the know, this should serve as a good wake up call for health care reform in the United States.

Made for Current VCAM competition.

Former President Bill Clinton, who went to Pyongyang, North Korea this week to discuss the prison sentence of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, has gained assurance that the two will be released.

Ling and Lee were sentenced to 12 years of labor for entering North Korea without authorization while reporting for CurrentTV.

Politico is reporting that North Korean President Kim Jong-Il has pardoned the journalists and stated that they may leave with Clinton, whose wife Hillary Rodham Clinton is Secretary of State, when he returns to the United States.

The White House called the trip a “solely private” one on the part of Clinton in a previously released statement and declined to comment while the former president’s efforts were still ongoing.

Politico also reported that Clinton was accompanied by John Podesta.

Head to Politico for additional coverage.

Watch this video:

Personally, I am more of a PC person.  I guess this all stems from way back when Apple was associated with words like “old” and ”outdated” but then their new fruity-shaped designs came along and we got inundated with messages of how “cool” and “sleek” Apple computers were all of a sudden.  To Apple’s credit, their PR campaign was a huge success-so much so that Bill Gates decided to start fighting back. 

In the end, I agree with the video above: both types of computers get you the same and are good at it … the only difference between them is us: brand loyalty.  So what is your computer orientation? PC or Mac?

Here’s a rustic print ad I did with the help of my friend Saira who modeled for me-thank you Saira! (this was part of an assignment that I did for a Communications class I’m currently taking):

Paper AND plastic are BOTH bad choices for your health

These are the basic elements of the ad:

Attention grabber: bright colors in the fruit and vegetables

Appeal: fruit, healthy living, relatable to you (you could see yourself doing what Saira is doing).

Narrative: the ad asks the question that you often hear at the grocery store: “paper or plastic?” It then urges you to be different, to “step outside of the box” and to support and pick “the better choice”: reusable bags.

Call to action: it asks you to reject the use of paper AND plastic bags so you can instead use reusable bags; it also invites you to visit the site www.healthebay.org/store  so you can get your own reusable bag.  In the future, the site could change to something like healthebay.org/healthyfuture (Heal the Bay does not have a site that has such a name … yet) that could be a centralized online center for people to take action (like send letters of support to newspapers and legislators or the like) on various issues dealing with marine debris.  Ideally, the center would reinforce the idea that it’s going to take all of us to solve the problem of plastic bags polluting our environment, working together: 1) through legislation that taxes the use of plastic and paper bags to discourage usage, 2) cleanup efforts, and 3) reclycling campaigns; and that if you take one element out (because of pressure from powerful moneyed interests), the efforts will most likely fail to solve much. 

I’m also trying to frame the situation very clearly with this ad with some long-term messaging:

• Plastic AND paper bags = bad for your health (because it impacts your quality of life).
• Reusable bags = healthy living, promising future, protecting your children from pollution.

Sure, the ad is not commercial-quality, but I think it gets the point across very effectively nevertheless.

  PS Don’t forget to click on the picture of the print ad above: it takes you to a video that CurrentTV aired about the problem of plastic bag pollution in our rivers and ocean.

So apparently we’re under swine flu watch.  Yes, it’s all over the news, like the bird flu and the mad cow desease were.  They way the media is talking about it, you’d think our civilization is coming to an end a-la Twelve Monkeys movie. 

The Center for Desease Control and Prevention (CDC) has the following up on their website:

“Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza among pigs. Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans, however, human infections with swine flu do occur, and cases of human-to-human spread of swine flu viruses has been documented. [...]

From December 2005 through February 2009, a total of 12 human infections with swine influenza were reported from 10 states in the United States. Since March 2009, a number of confirmed human cases of a new strain of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection in the U.S. and internationally have been identified. An investigation into these cases is ongoing. [...]“

People are taking advantage of this opportunity of the flu being on the news 24/7 and so we get videos trying to sell you vitamins and others to promote crazy right-wing tinfoil hat libertarian conspiracy theories:

I’m still unclear as to how exactly this “new” flu is more serious than other kinds of flu (other than being related to pigs).  According to the CDC, these are the symptoms:

“What are the symptoms of swine flu in humans?
The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.”

…uhm, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t those more or less the symptoms of regular flu? (if there is such a thing-because the flu can come in many strains).

I realize this “swine” flu is a serious matter because people have died from it … but again, correct me if I’m wrong: don’t people die of “regular” flu too when it’s accompanied by complications and not treated with the right medical approaches?  Also, how come no one is asking “who is cashing in on the flu paranoia?”  The manufacturers of desinfectant products and people like Donald Rumsfeld are sure making money on the deal, among others.  Meanwhile, the racist right-wing pig media talking heads are having a field day with this story even though there are now reports emerging that the “swine” flu might have actually originated in the United States.  To top things off, some political extremists have used this opportunity to display their own idiocy, just watch what Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann said here. 

Perhaps what is most annoying about this whole thing is the hypocrisy inherent in all this media circus.  IF there were such a sincere concern for pandemics, you’d think conservatives (like Michelle Bachmann) and its media talking heads would agree that it is now more urgent than ever to approve a public healthcare option that would care for all as quickly as possible … well, guess again-they’re trying to kill off any attempts to fix our healthcare system that would cover us all.  By the way, you can fight back the politicians that are trying to choke healthcare reform in its crib; to fight them, visit: http://www.standwithdrdean.com/FAQ

Update: Luckily, there are some personalities emerging in the cable news that are being more realist about this whole thing. Watch Keith Olbermann talking about this strain of influenza in a more serious in-depth manner; click here.

Also, Media Matters for America did a great week-in-review wrap up of how the right-wing media personalities hyped it up to blame immigrants and even Obama for the “outbreak”.  Click here to read it.

I leave you with this “Swine Flu Overload” infoMania Editorial. Enough said.

Do you twitter?  Here’s another CurrentTV video on the topic:

I am so lost in twitterland and I guess I’m not alone; the whole thing seems so esoteric to me.  Here’s Twitter’s CEO explaining what exactly Twitter is and how it come about:

 SO do you tweet … ehr, I mean, “twitter”?

Check out this video from Current TV:

An AlterNet article recently explored this very same topic: whether or not your online social network “friends” are really true friends.  Personally, I think online social networking is simply enhancing face-to-face interaction, rather than replacing it.  The claim that Facebook and MySpace are turning us into anti-social hermits seems to me a little bit of, uhm, I don’t know, shall way say ”old-people’s way of thinking?”…

Today we had a breakout session about what’s next in the industry from:
Bob Greenberg R/GA
Earl Cox Martin Agency
Jon Kamen @radical media

Will post more details on the discussion tomorrow. But for now, anyone else who is bewildered by Twitter’s ridiculous growth, I think you’ll enjoy this. From some folks at CurrentTV:

“Twouble With Twitter”

This is a pretty amazing video found on current.tv  that I found on Twitter. Once you watch the video you’ll think that the prior sentence is very ironic.

6 million users and counting, twitter is growing every month. Growing so quickly, you’re going to take your lumps.

Check out this video called the Twubble with Twitter. 

Plastic bags float in green slime in Compton Creek. The trash that flows through inland waterways eventually ends up in the ocean and on the beach.

So I am really hoping that our Communications class starts to get more into techniques on how to actually craft effective media campaigns and messages.  While I am in support of attempts to educate people on the topic of how media impacts the public and a person’s psyche, I am anxious to learn what kind of actual techniques are used (like PR micro-targeting and specific examples of messaging techniques-what works and doesn’t work).  In addition, while I am critical of media uses that have harmful effects on the public, I also believe that media can be an extremely useful tool to advance positive impacts on society. 

I’d like to share an experience that I had last year with a PR campaign that I thought was very clever but was nevertheless quite damaging to the environment (hence why I’m anxious to learn actual PR techniques so that people like me can help counter messages that do that much harm).

As you may have heard on the news, there is currently a push to increase the use of reusable bags when one goes grocery shopping.  This is so the use of single-use plastic carry out bags is diminished.  The reasons why environmental groups want to discourage the use of single-use plastic carry out bags are many, but the bottom line is that these bags pollute the environment and kill marine animals.  For a list of fact on this issue, visit this page:

http://www.healthebay.org/currentissues/ppi/theneed_bags.asp

You can also watch this CurrentTV video that summarizes the issue pretty well:

http://current.com/items/89141407/plastic_is_murder.htm

One way to discourage the use of single-use carry-out plastic bags would be to put a tax on them (and on paper bags as well-since their use are no better for the environment).  For this reason, there have been several bills in the California legislature to make this tax on plastic bags a reality. 

Now, you might think “well that sounds all good to me so who would opppose it?”

Enter the all-powerful plastic and chemistry industry.  When the plastic industry got word of the legislative attempts to decrease the use of their precious plastic bags, they VERY quickly launched a massive radio, online, and billboard ad campaign to basically kill ALL legislative attempts at curbing the use of plastic bags.  Not only did they oppose the legislation, they crafted a misinformation campaign that was so effective that it had legislators up in Sacramento shaking in their boots.  The campaign revolved around this site:

http://www.stopthebagtax.com/

They even funded a “Save The Plastic Bag Coalition” if you can believe it.  Their angle was basically this: “politicians are insensitive rat bastards that want to tax you for using plastic bags that are already being recycled.”  Now, when you put it that way, who wouldn’t agree with the plastic industry, right?  Well, that’s exactly the point.

The level of deceipt in their pro-plastic bag ads was amazing.  First off, it wasn’t “politicans” that were behind the legislation, it was actual environmental and community groups-real average people that were pushing for such legislation because they were concerned about the health of their environment and of their communities.  Second, the idea that single-use plastic bags are actually being recycled is just plain false.  There is a small percentage that is being recycled, but it is basically so tiny that it is NOT making a difference.  That is why more aggressive steps-like the legislation that was being considered, are needed to address the problem.  For an explanation of the pro-environmental stance on what happened, check out these two posts:

http://spoutingoff.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/evil-incarnate/ 

http://spoutingoff.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/compton-creek-bags-slime/

Ultimately, the solution to the platic bag problem rests in the view that “we’re all on this together”.  It’ll take all of us to tackle this problem through educational efforts, volunteer activities like beach cleanups, recycling efforts like what some grocery stores are attempting to do, AND legislative efforts to discourage their use (like the tax on plastic and paper bags).  If you take one those elements out, we will probably NOT solve the problem effectively any time soon. 

After everything was said and done, I am wondering what kind of messaging techniques the environmental groups should have used in order to counter the misinformation campaign that the plastic industry launched against them.  This was definitely a battle of the big wealthy plastic industry with big pockets against the small tiny nonprofit enfironmental/community groups.  A tale of David & Goliath indeed; but in this case, Goliath (sadly) won.

Pharrell once again is showing us why he is one of the most talented and creative minds in the game right now. Getting inspiration from his fans and followers Skateboard P has launched ARTST.com which is a community for people with creative minds. The site was formally named HeyWire until they started working with Pharrell and experience this new upgrade. It seems like it is going to be real cool so if your an artist (no matter the type) go visit the site and create an account. Video interview, courtesy of Current TV.