France: Ousting the Roma…Only a Short-Term Solution

It bothers me that France is pushing these EU citizens out of the country, though I understand that France also doesn’t want tent cities of displaced people around, but throwing them out of the country will only solve the problem in the short-term.  Yes, many of these Roma are currently in France illegally, if they stay more than three months, (at least until Bulgaria’s and Romania’s immigration wait is over and they can move as freely as any other EU citizen) but taking them out of France doesn’t solve the issue of why they felt the need to come there in the first place. Plus, they can legally come back as soon as they touch ground in their home country.

What needs to happen to fix the “issues”  is to help the Roma get an education and then succeed as a productive citizen… leaving job discrimnation and stereotypes behind.

Fact: Very few sub-groups of Roma actually want to be a begging “gypsies”, which I consider a “not-so-nice” term. There are just too many issues Roma face to get to that successful and intergrated spot on the ladder. I can say this with full confidence because I’ve listened to Roma. 

While doing my final project in Europe in the Spring of 2009, I gave myself the chance to go to Bulgaria. It was an area of Europe I have never explored, and with my blonde hair and blue eyes, I stuck out like the only white rock in a bucket of dark stones. I went there to do a story on how the current economic crisis was harming the Roma’s intergration and progression. Similarly to when democracy came in, the new crisis left lots of Roma without jobs. Because of discrimination issues, they are, unfortunately, the first to be fired and last to be hired in many places, but discrimination is not the only issue Roma face there. 

One of my Bulgarian friends brought me to the Roma “slum” in Sofia, and it was practically like entering a third-world country. He said his friends wouldn’t like that he brought me, an outsider, there, showing me the most deprived part of Sofia.

Because I was a “media” figure, the people in the “slum” there didn’t care for me to have video and still cameras down there, and I don’t blame them. I got lots of rough stares. They looked at me as if I were a tourist taking pictures of their “situation”, as if they were zoo animals in a cage and I gawking at the poor animals in their misery. Click!.. Each photo rougher than the one before.

The media in Bulgaria tends to shed the Roma in a very bad light. Most journalism is (in the end) basically controlled by government/mafia and with that, controlled by politics and most politicians are not pro-Roma because Roma make up the majority of unemployed people. The Roma are often used, in my opinion, as a scapegoat. Most Bulgarians I talked to from Sofia said the only thing that has changed since the Soviet Union failed is that the name of the government and that it joined the EU in 2007, by simply looking good on paper, but in my opinion, it’s better that it be in the EU for its citizens than not be. 

There are several human rights and non-profit groups working to help the Roma, but there still needs to be more integration and – the biggest factor – more education amongst the Roma.

It was tough to find a Roma student in college, but I did. Bulgarians first laughed at this idea when I asked English major students in Sofia if they had any college friends that were Roma.  Even with an education, the single Roma student I did find with a master’s degree was not having luck with jobs, but his family was so proud of him. Listening to his story was incredible, looking at everything he has faced to get to where he was. Many applications forced him to connect a picture of himself  to it, or asked about their heritage. Bulgarians can easily point out the Roma on the streets with their darker skin. 

He admitted that most Roma and especially more remotely located Roma need a better education and that he is an inspiration to many back home. He explained that many Roma students drop out of school at a young age because  A) they get married if they are girls, or B) their school is so far away from their home, it’s tough to get there. 

So put the puzzle together and it doesn’t take a genius to see why these people want to leave Bulgaria, (or Romania). What needs to happen and what the EU needs to focus on to change the issues underlying this mass immigration, if you can call it that, is to educate the Roma and make sure they stay on a track to success and integration. 

Without education, there is more reason for job discrimination. Without discrimination, they will be employed. Without unemployement, they will be successful, productive citizens. Without being on welfare, they can no longer be used as a scapegoat in government.  Without being a scapegoat, they will fight the stereotype. Without the stereotype, they will be more integrated. Without  being outsiders in their own country, they will be less likely to leave. 

To sum it up, education for the Roma is what needs to happen to solve the issues in the long run.

German economy doing something right

So what if Germany’s growth is based off of exports, their economy is growing! That’s what Germany does, it exports and they do a darn good job of it too if you ask me. The German economy has enjoyed a much higher rate of growth this last quarter than they hoped for, making America green with envy. The German unemployment rate already is better than it was before the recession on top of that.

So what are they doing right? – exporting to the right countries and the right people. Germany has done well in Asian and South American sales where the middle class is driving loads of consumers to buy. It’s good to know someone out there is spending! What will be the result? – I’m no economic expert by my guess is more spending on the ground in Germany and more domestic growth in turn for an even stronger economy. 

What I like about the European way of business is that they are slowly growing, but sustainably growing, where  as American business boom and bust in a matter of seconds it seems, which can be a good and bad thing. The Germans (and in turn much of the EU) are much more worried about keeping their economy sustainable rather than making it rich really quickly on riskier terms. Their history gives them the edge to worry more about welfare, the poor, healthcare, food shortages, etc and in turn they tend to go with policies that make more stable growth in their economy. 

It’s amazing they are doing so well after the recession but to me, not surprising. The Euro, its existence which was questionable during the worst of the recession is proving it’s strong base,even as Greece tugs at the European economy.

Typically, a more stable economy means it will not bounce back as fast as places like America could, but in this case, Germany passed up the U.S. in recovery, an interesting economic point and I think it has to do with the culture of consumers. Germany has a recent history of being, what I would call, conservative with their spending. Citizens are not as materialistic and in turn don’t spend beyond their means as many Americans have, so Germany is having less issues on the back burner keeping them from recovering. They have more restrictions protecting them from personal financial turmoil too when it comes to lending.

On the other hand, the U.S. is plagued with more debt from greedy lenders, who knew people could not afford their offer, a housing crisis, and a group of citizens who are now more worried about paying off debts than spending, myself included.  Three years of expensive American college has left me with a pile of loans, starting me a the bottom rung of ladder in paying off my debts as a young, working professional. I think I’m just happy to have a job I love in a country with such a high unemployment rate right now. 

Like President Obama followed Germany in “Cash for Clunkers” (Yes, Germany had the idea and made it work first.) the American economy might take some exporting pointers into play from Germany as well.

Nigeria: Spills finally brought to light

It’s insane to me the amount of coverage the BP oil spill has overseas when supposedly in Nigeria, spills like this happen often and have ruined many parts of the environment along the coast. Coverage on Africa has always been limited and polls often suggest it’s the least wanted international news, except for maybe when the World Cup is there. 

It’s incredibly sad to me that spills like this happen and never really get reported to the rest of the world. I want journalism to be able to cover everything, not just what people’s tastes want. I hate that money has to be in control of journalistic content to an extent.

In this business, we need ratings,  and to get ratings,  we need good stories that people want to see and give them the information they care about. It’s too bad that money is cut from international news and sending people abroad.

In the case of Nigeria, it took a US oil spill that got lots of attention to get theirs even a little noticed. This shows the impact of US news and media on the world. Its powerful and can bring to light situations in other countries.

G20 protests: out of control as usual

G20 protesting has never really been completely free of violence and damage and this year is no exception. It seems the masked anarchists are at it again. Their black masks covering their face and their seemingly free-of-police actions to turn parts of the city up-side-down. In Seattle the same thing happened when the WTO met.

While most groups were peacefully protesting, a group of masked people went through and destroyed lots of property for about an hour without police getting them. Some say it’s almost as if they have a deal with police to not catch them. Then after all the turmoil, the police have an excuse to round up peaceful protesters who are angry.

 Journalists caught up in the mix are easily arrested because they have no more rights than your average citizen. If police hold and arrest an entire city block of people, you can bet there will be a few journalists as well as people just walking through the area stuck in cuffs.

This I think pulls up another question. Why can police arrest large groups of people with out singling out probable cause before doing so. Don’t we have rights to not get arrested if we are documenting events or just passing through as regular citizens? I think we should. Police should not be able to “just arrest” someone. You should have to break a law to be in jail. It’s a surprise cities even want to hold these large events with so much negative press and drama that comes with protests. There were just as many stories on protests as there were stories on what was happening at these meetings. Often the stories give local police a bad name. I think for journalists there are many questions to ask though and we must check into conspiracies such as the anarchists causing problems to justify police action. You never know when something may turn out to be true, even if it doesn’t seem right.

Google vs. China and other leaking tales

Google vs. China.  It seems to be in the news a lot lately. They just can’t seem to agree on, once again, content.  China wants Google to comply with censorship laws. Google, as a private company, believes they don’t have to comply if they don’t want to. It’s a classic tale of countries not agreeing on what should and shouldn’t be controlled and by whom if it is on the internet. In the US, private companies can basically control what they want. In China, well,  not so much.

When we all have different ideas of what is culturally acceptable and what free speech is and how it should be used, we run into these issues. The Internet is still so young that all these content laws are still being decided and because content transcends borders, it’s a matter of what can be international law.

Take, for instance, leaks of information that could be potentially threatening to a country’s security. Again, then who is to say what is threatening to national security? What are the guidelines?

My professor told us about this site called “wikileaks” I believe. Countries are already searching to find its founder because of all the leaked information on it. There are hardly any boundaries to the Internet, but where should they be? I think the next 20 years will be crucial in spelling that out.

Pakistan internet

I just read an article about how Pakistan wants to control the content of their Internet to keep anti-Islam ideas at bay. This is too bad, however, I don’t think they are going to be able to do it very easily. The Internet is so vast and people have access to it in soo many different ways. It seems strange to think they will be able to control it that much. (Maybe I am mistaken.)

However this idea may not be entirely far-fetched. We, in the US, delete certain content in the US if it contains libel information or things like child pornography that is not culturally appropriate. That Pakistan wants to control something to protect their extremely dominant religion doesn’t seem so strange. It’s something many of them culturally believe in, however, many, most likely, do not believe in it.

However, it’s possible this blocking of information may also mean the people will get much more irked, especially the young people that may look towards the West. As people were pushed around in Tehran, they lashed out but then were beaten by police in some cases.

This ban, I read, has put blocks on web blogs, pornography and social media sites.  Can you imagine the US suddenly not being able to log onto Facebook. Oh the terror! All hell would break loose. Sites like Facebook are extremely popular worldwide.  The thing I don’t get is that this sort of information (I think) cannot be kept a secret.  The government may be able to slow down the spread of ideas but definitely not stop them.

How many pushed buttons will it take to get Pakistani people to protest? Let’s (unfortunately) find out.

Funerals: Are they news?

Recently, I did a story that covered the funeral of a soldier who died while fighting overseas.  Press was not allowed into the funeral service itself but there was a tent set aside at the burial for media. At KOMU 8 TV, we have a policy to not “intrude” in funerals and to tell the story a different way other than showing funeral video.

What I did for my story was talk to other veterans in the community and to one of this soldier’s friends on camera before the service and to the Patriot Guard riders that lined the way to the funeral. I think it turned out well and covered the news without interfering.

Other papers in town showed photos from the burial and on “Views of the News” , a local radio show, they talked about KOMU’s strict policy to not use funeral video. They said the policy was outdated and that very few news media hold this policy, but my question is should we take these photos?

I think, if the family cares that we are there, then we shouldn’t. If they want to share the funeral with the community then I , personally, think we should cover it. Why not? However I don’t necessarily believe in showing bodies, but coffins? Mourners?  My vote is as long as they don’t mind, then shoot it! Often when a young person like this dies, or the funeral is public, the community is also mourning and we can’t ignore this but we also shouldn’t take it too far. If we are not wanted there, we can cover it a different way and still tell the story.

Rules of free speech a matter of culture

Free speech. Here’s another topic countries don’t seem to agree on. Should it be allowed? Does it help a democratic society? How do you define free speech? What can NOT be considered free speech. These were some of the questions we are looking at in my communications law class this summer.

I like to think about the different cases. As I mentioned in another blog, a man in Germany who runs nakedpeople.de is demanding that Apple let him have an application for the Iphone. He says just because his site isn’t in okay in the USA, doesn’t mean they should block it in Europe where his site IS okay and culturally normal.

I know this is a matter of a private company controlling speech and not a government entity, but it’s scary to think how much content could potentially be controlled by  private companies like Apple who have total control over content on your computer or phone. Should that be right? A company in another country controlling what you in your country can and can’t access? 

In the US at least, the government cannot control what a company allows or doesn’t allow.

All the media around the world

As I’ve been starting to work at Newsy.com and searching for stories, I’ve been learning how different everyone can tell the same story. I love the international political stories, which I have pitched and worked on every time so far. As I’m researching for different views I’ve learned I can almost always count on Russia Today  to have alternate explanations and opinions, especially when it comes to stories involving communism.

For example, after the North Korea sinking of the South Korean ship, I found most videos talked about the investigation and the international view that the North did the act. Russia Today, however, also reported there was little evidence to make that claim and mentioned the whole ordeal could be a conspiracy against North Korea.

It’s so interesting to me how every country can tell history differently, their news differently and have such different level of standards. This makes it hard to work with journalists across borders.  Working with a journalist from Lithuania was different from working with one from the Netherlands or London. Even how we get out information is so different. What we print is different. There is no one simple solution to how journalism should work around the world because everyone believes something else.

The most interesting place to me: cause I don’t know anything about it

North Korea is one the most interesting countries in the world to me, and I think it’s because I have no access to go there, and know very little about it. To journalists, it’s like a treasure box of stories you just don’t have a key too. It’s dangerous, dirty, full of poverty and seemingly many unfortunate people. North Korea controls their media to a high extent and I want to break in. Now with the sinking of the South Korean ship, North Korea is a hot commodity for international news… again.

What I have been told is that North Korea often acts out in some way like a rotten child and tries to get attention, especially when the country is in need of food.  As journalists we can’t ignore this, but we also shouldn’t serve it either. We need to know more on international stories, so we can write with more expertise. That is one of my personal goals, to go back to Europe and finish a global politics program, so I can write about EU and other international relations with a better eye.

I think it’s tough to report on politics because politicians try to manipulate what media write and try to make them focus on some stories over others. There are too many hidden agendas.

Unfortunately what we don’t have far too often, is time. It takes time to learn about countries and get to know how politics work. I want to be in the know when I write about a place, not out in the dark.