cool global BIZ

Eritrea, North Korea, Syria Top List of Most Censored Countries, According to Committee to Protect Journalists

 

The Committee to Protect Journalists and deputy director Robert Mahoney look at the world's 10 most censored countries, led by Eritrea, North Korea, and Syria. Video courtesy of the CPJ, on Vimeo.

 

TOPPING THE MOST censored nations in the world this year is the African nation of Eritrea, where no foreign reporters are allowed and where all domestic media are controlled by the dictatorship. Next are North Korea, Syria, and Iran -- "three nations where vast restrictions on information have enormous implications for geopolitical and nuclear stability," according to a recently released report by the Committee to Protect Journalists:

 

"The 10 most restricted countries employ a wide range of censorship techniques, from the sophisticated blocking of websites and satellite broadcasts by Iran to the oppressive regulatory systems of Saudi Arabia and Belarus; from the dominance of state media in North Korea and Cuba to the crude tactics of imprisonment and violence in Eritrea, Uzbekistan, and Syria . . . .

"One trait they have in common is some form of authoritarian rule," according to the CPJ. "Their leaders are in power by dint of monarchy, family dynasty, coup d'état, rigged election, or some combination thereof . . . .

"Lagging economic development is another notable trend among heavily censored nations. Of the 10 most censored countries, all but two have per capita income around half, or well below half, of global per capita income, according to World Bank figures for 2010, the most recent available."

 

As global businesses and investors charge into emerging markets, they know that Western-style freedoms, rule of law, and strong corporate governance and oversight are the long-run pillars of stable economies and countries. And more developing countries know that investors won't pour money and capital into markets plagued by corruption, political chaos, and weak regulation and enforcement.

Also critical to economic growth: financial disclosure and the free flow of business information, provided by the free and uncensored media. More than 900 journalists worldwide have been killed since 1992, according to the CPJ, with Iraq, the Philippines and Algeria as the top three most dangerous countries for journalists.

 

This Memorial Day, Thank a Soldier or Veteran Rather Than Shop for Good Deals

  

 

"Memorial Day 2011, San Francisco National Cemetery" by D.H. Parks (Daniel Parks), under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Parks is a photographer currently in Berkeley, California, U.S.A.

 

SAYING THAT FALLEN soldiers make the "ultimate sacrifice" is a cliche, but sometimes cliches are spot-on, right-on, dead-on accurate. Instead of shopping on Memorial Day, thank our many veterans and soldiers for serving on our behalf, for a cause greater than a good holiday sale.

 

Author Neil Gaiman to College Grads: Break Rules, Make Good Art, Enjoy the Ride

 

 

Commencement address by author Neil Gaiman at the University of the Arts Class of 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Video courtesy of the university. First saw this on TheStoryofTellingblog by brand strategist Bernadette Jiwa.

 

WERE YOU MOVED by the Stanford University commencement speech by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs a few years back? Then you'll love this one by author Neil Gaiman, speaking recently to the University of the Arts Class of 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. His words ring true for college students and working professionals alike. "And now go," Gaiman said, "and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art." (Full transcript.)

 

On balancing his dreams and the realities of life: "Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be . . . was a mountain. A distant mountain. My goal. And I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain I would be all right. And when I truly was not sure what to do, I could stop, and think about whether it was taking me towards or away from the mountain."

Workplace and Career Transitions: Know When to Hold 'Em, Know When to Fold 'Em

 

 
 

"layoff conversations illustration" by HikingArtist, under a Creative Commons license on flickr. "Hiking Artist" is Fritz Ahlefeldt Laurvig, an illustrator in Copenhagen, Denmark.

 

LIVING 7,000 DAYS on the carbon-choked planet as a business journalist, writing more stories than I care to recall, qualifies me to say this: Companies rock. Companies suck.

Companies rock because they create jobs, wealth and boom economies, raising the quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. I love their brains, talent, energy. We'd be drinking well water and riding horse-drawn carts if it wasn't for the fabled capitalist drive, work ethos and innovation.

Companies suck because they're soulless creatures, snuffing those same people in their drive for earnings growth, market share and greater stock-market value. I hate their unbridled greed. And in the brutal global economy, it may get worse before it gets better.

Asian Artists Explore Spiritual Realm in Asian Art Museum's "Phantoms of Asia"

  

 

Sun K. Kwak, a New York-based artist born in Korea, works on "Untying Space" for the exhibit "Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past" at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco (May 18 to September 2, 2012). Video courtesy of the Asian Art Museum, shot and edited by Lorraine Tuchfeld Goodman.

FOR SOJOURNERS SEEKING inspiration amid the daily slog, get thee to the Asian Art Museum in downtown San Francisco to see "Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past," an exhibition of 60 new works by 31 living artists (May 18 to September 2, 2012). Much museum art is musty, dusty, static. But this globally-inspired exhibit is a dynamic blend of centuries-old tradition and Internet-era modernity that should entice young and old art lovers alike.

Korean artist Hyon Gyon explores Kubla Khan-like the mystical power of female shamans -- their flashing eyes, their floating hair -- in her oil paintings and installations. Adeela Suleman is a Pakistani artist who fuses old family tales with the horrors of her war-torn land. Her "Peacock with Missiles" is a wall sculpture of steel, showing birds and flora amid missiles rising to the sky. And Thai video artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook lectures real cadavers in a classroom on death and the afterlife. I grew up praying for the safe passage of spirits during Buddhist memorials, plus worked briefly in a mortuary, so her piece is one of the more haunting works I've watched. (See a few exhibit photos in this SF Weekly blog post.)

Marketing Pro Seth Godin: Eating Our Peas, Dancing on the Edge of Finished

 

THIS SETH GODIN kid has a future in the writing industry. Someone give him a shot. A bald-headed buddha of business, with his damn koans and Zen-like aphorisms. There you go. Title for his next best-seller: Business Buddha: How to Find Peace and Profits in a Greed-Driven World. Godin's current blog post, "Dancing on the Edge of Finished," cuts too close and dead-on to many of us, including this mad perfectionist who's never happy with his work. "The cycle of never-ending" -- nice:

 

"Before, when your shift was done, you were finished . . . Now, of course, there's always one more tweet to make, post to write, words with friends to complete . . . And that's the dance . . . For the marketer, the freelancer and the entrepreneur, the challenge is to level set, to be comfortable with the undone, with the cycle of never-ending. We were trained to finish our homework, our peas and our chores. Today, we're never finished, and that's okay. It's a dance, not an endless grind."

 

Disclosure: This blogger/journalist does not know well-known marketing expert Godin and has no financial interests or ties to his enterprises.

 

OECD: More Education, Entrepreneurship for Women Equals Stronger Economies

 

 

A new report by the Paris-based OECD reminds business leaders and policymakers that more educational and entrepreneurial opportunities for women will lead to more vibrant economies around the world. Video courtesy of the OECD. See: oecd.org/gender.

 

Have a Happy Weekend: Herb Alpert's Classic Jazz and Pop Hit "Rise"

 

 

Herb Alpert's classic instrumental "Rise," a huge global cross-over hit on the pop, disco and jazz charts in 1979. Written by Andy Armer and Randy Alpert. Courtesy of frugola92's channel on YouTube. Buy the tune on Google Play, iTunes, and Amazon MP3

 

SWEET. BABYBOOMERS SEEKING Proustian moments may recall their folks slow-dancing in the kitchen to "Rise," Herb Alpert's huge pop-jazz hit from the late '70s. Ah, Moms and Pops. Everything is perfect in this one. Who is the smiling, dancing woman? Herb Alpert's wife, I assume? And why is this video so entrancing? At 1:18, they're moving as one, in perfect rhythm and repose, until she breaks the beautiful stasis by suddenly leaping into his arms. The photographers and onlookers can't help but whoop and laugh in joy. That instant. Grace? Harmony? Equipoise? The "secret chord" that Leonard Cohen sings of, the precise moment of embarking:  "It goes like this / The fourth, the fifth / The minor fall, the major lift . . . . * So we aim for this in our real writing, to trace that still point with our clumsy little words. We always fall a tad a bit a little short, but the fun is in the trying. Happy weekend.

* KD Lang's version of "Hallelujah" during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver is an even more moving illustration of that near-transcendent rise, the swelling of voice and intent. Her voice is powerful, angelic, other-worldly.

 

Mexican Writer Carlos Fuentes Dies at 83: "If You Do Not Name, No One Will Name"

 

ROLE MODELS IN literature and journalism were scarce for me when I was growing up. Even through my 20s, as a young reporter out of college, few writers who reflected my reality were published widely in U.S. mainstream fiction and non-fiction. At first I read John Cheever and John Updike, as far from the 'hood in L.A. as I was from soirees in the Hamptons. Homeboy, Run. Then I read global writers based in other countries for inspiration. Strong, bold voices such as Salman Rushdie, Yukio Mishima, James Baldwin. One of those writers, Carlos Fuentes, the renowned Mexican novelist and journalist, died on Tuesday. If you wanna blow your mind, try reading Terra Nostra, his epic global novel to end all novels. Oddly, that morning I was digging through musty boxes in the closet when I found an old, yellowed manuscript that I hadn't touched in 21 years. Big psychological block there. The epigraph I had chosen to guide readers into the manuscript was by Fuentes. It goes:

 

"What is your name? What is the name of this mountain, this river? Who are your father and mother? Who are your brothers? . . . If you do not name, no one will name."

 - Carlos Fuentes, "The Novel of the Americas: Dreaming in Spanish."

 

• Paris Review, "Carlos Fuentes, the Art of Fiction No. 68," interview by Alfred Mac Adam and Charles E. Ruas.
  
• Daily Beast, "Carlos Fuentes, Mexico's Universal Man of Letters, Dies at 83" by Mac Margolis.
• NPR, "A Fleeting Memory of Carlos Fuentes" by Linton Weeks.
• LATimes, "Carlos Fuentes dies at 83" by Reed Johnson and Ken Ellingwood.

 

 

Photo credit: Carlos Fuentes at the Miami Bookfair International, 1987. Photo courtesy of MDCarchives, under a Creative Commons license on Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Bellissimo! Christina Aguilera and Chris Mann Belt Out "The Prayer" on NBC's "The Voice"

 

Christina Aguilera and Chris Mann perform "The Prayer" on NBC's "The Voice." Video courtesy of NBC, on YouTube.

  

AMAZING PERFORMANCE OF "The Prayer" by Christina Aguilera and Chris Mann on NBC's "The Voice" Monday night. One striking note rarely heard on non-PBS, primetime TV: half of the moving lyrics (by Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster) were in Italian. I feared that the song might be sung all in English, given the way that networks water down everything for the masses. More, please. More genre-bending, culture-clashing, Gaga-busting, Glee-defying, Yo-Yo Ma-ing, cross-pollination. Even if it's only the lyrics. I hum Disney and Katy Perry songs while I drive. I worry about our youth. Pop tunes on YouTube get a gazillion hits; "The Prayer" only 30,000, even with Aguilera's star power. Here are the opening lyrics to "The Prayer":

 

"I pray you'll be our eyes, and watch us where we go.
  And help us to be wise in times when we don't know,
  Let this be our prayer, when we lose our way,
  Lead us to a place, guide us with your grace,
  Give us faith so we'll be safe . . . ."

 

 

 

The earlier version of "The Prayer" by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion. Bocelli and Aguilera also perform "It's Impossible" in Spanish, also on YouTube here.

 

 

 

An extraordinarily gifted Jessica Sanchez singing "The Prayer" on "American Idol" in late May 2012. All the more poignant because her military father just left to serve overseas. Video courtesy of Fox and "American Idol."