Month: February 2017

Agata Poniatowski is a 20-year-old whose parents emigrated from Poland before she was born. Though her brother was old enough to learn Polish and was sent to Polish school, she felt that her parents “gave up” on teaching her the language.

It took years for it to bother her. When it did, however, she felt that she was out of touch with her heritage.

One weekend, Poniatowski found a remastered version of Baba Jaga, a Polish cartoon about an evil witch, on YouTube. Her excitement with finding it was soon clouded with the realization that she could only understand five words out of the entire episode.

“My brother knew Polish and then my parents sent him to Polish school, so he has no problem with reading and speaking it.” Poniatowski said. “With me, they kind of said, ‘whatever’ and decided not to send me to one. I kind of wish they did now.”

Polish schools, as they are often called, are generally started by Polish churches to preserve the Polish culture within first- and second-generation immigrants from Poland. Although some children and teenagers see it as a hassle, others see the classes as means to learn and understand their culture and heritage.

Classes generally take place on Saturday morning, though some schools choose to also organize classes on Friday night. Classes are often taught in four subjects: geography, history, Polish and religion. Students who attend the school until eight grade often do so to receive Confirmation at the church that the school is run by.

 

For this story, I have several people in mind that I would like to interview.

I already spoke with Agata Poniatowski, who is mentioned in my pitch. I am going to interview her once again and she offered to let me interview her brother, whom she mentioned in our conversation.

I also want to interview more people who have attended Polish schools to see what they took out of it, as this article needs more than two perspectives.

Lastly, I want to interview people who are currently in charge of running a Polish school, preferably a principal or a vice-principal. If that does not work, I will try to speak to someone who is currently teaching in a Polish school.

Pitch workshop

Look at pitches, workshop them as a class, give critical feedback, strategize.

Assignment:

First draft of story #1 due on Monday, March 6.

Second and final draft due Monday, March 13. 

Finally… check out equipment if you need it.

 

Hi Emily,

I am a student in your International Reporting class and since the beginning of this semester, I have wanted to cover Bangladesh as my beat. My fellow classmate, Brandon, is also covering Bangladesh so in order to add more diversity into our reporting, I wanted to take a different angle. Brandon wants to cover the corruption surrounding and within Bangladesh’s government, which specifically impacts the country’s press freedoms as well as labor rights. Taking on the angle of what local Bengali immigrants think of the country’s government is great, but I want to focus on those who are not even aware of what is going on in their country.

When I was doing my beat memo, I myself was not aware of half the information I came across about my country. After that, I decided to visit Ozone Park where there are many Bengali immigrants. I went around asking people if they could tell me the current state of their country and only 1 person out of 20 was able to tell me what was going on. This was very eye-opening for me.

So far, I have conducted 3 interviews: a 23-year-old man whose family moved here from Bangladesh when he was 3; a 54 year-old woman whose parents live back in Bangladesh; a 17-year-old who was born and raised in New York, but his parents are immigrants from Bangladesh.

Each individual had a different viewpoint on Bangladesh and had different levels of knowledge on the state of the country. It was shocking to me how out-of-touch some of us with our own country and roots.

I want to do more interviewing and focus on the fact that a lot of Bengalis do not know what is going on in their country. Had more people been aware of the country’s state, maybe a lot more could be done to fight back the powers that are oppressing the people and the country.

I look forward to hearing from you and getting your feedback on this angle.

-Tafannum (Taf)

Hi Emily,

I’m a student in your International Reporting class. I would like to do a story on the corruption surrounding and within Bangladesh’s government, which specifically impacts the country’s press freedoms as well as labor rights. I think the issue featured in this story is very important and the local angle of what Bengali immigrants think of BD’s government ought to be covered.

According to Transparency International’s corruption percentage index of 2016, Bangladesh was ranked 145 of 176 of countries in terms of their corruption index (176 being the most corrupt country, Somalia). Additionally, also on Transparency International was Bangladesh’s territory score- which was 26 out of 100. Territory score on the site is indicative of “the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean)” (Transparency.org)

But why does this matter? For starters, Bangladesh is one of the US’ greatest allies in South Asia. According to the US Trades Representative site, extensive trade occurs between America and Bangladesh in the exports of textile goods, agricultural products, and iron and steel. Additionally, the US is Bangladesh’s largest export market and both countries actively take on roles of combatting extremism.

However, despite their good trade relations and the economic support the US gives to Bangladesh, the country still faces “infrastructure shortcomings, weak governance structures, and a need for greater investment in human capital,” according to the US Dept. of State website. Bangladesh also struggles with its high population density and internal violence from extremist forces.

While creating my first beat memo for Bangladesh, I came across a BBC article describing Bangladesh’s media as “highly polarized”. As it turns out, many of the country’s news agencies align themselves with the different major political groups and reflect their reporting accordingly. I also found that NGO; Freedom House updated the status of Bangladesh’s press freedom status from “Partly Free” to “Not Free” in 2016. According to the webpage, the change was made “due to the murders of four bloggers and a publisher by Islamist militants, threats and nonfatal attacks against other writers, continued legal harassment of media outlets and press freedom advocates and government sanctioned economic pressures on outlet to censor social media.”

I believe that the current condition of BD’s press freedom ties into corruption in its government and aim to get the opinions of local residents on this subject.

Also, in 2014 the Bangladesh government issued a national policy where all TV and radio shows that broadcasted any material deemed harmful to the images of law enforcement and armed forces were banned. This was an interesting find, because this information corresponds to the information I got out of an interview with a Bengali immigrant, regarding the country’s government.

So far, I had an interview with 21 year old Rifat Hasnat, who was born in the capital and largest city in Bangladesh, Dhaka. There, he spent his childhood and most of his adolescent life until he and his family immigrated to New York when he was 13.

Rifat was very outspoken in his opinions when asked about Bangladesh’s government.

“I just feel like pretty much everything in BD works via bribing,” he said. “I’m sure that happens in a lot of other countries, but it’s just so extreme in BD…”

In addition to Rifat, I also plan to speak with both of his parents, where Rifat will fill in as my translator. I will also speak with the familial and friends-references that Rifat and his parents have agreed to provide me.

I want to gather more information on instances of corruption in BD’s government, with regards to press freedom and labor conditions, and get the opinions of local Bengali immigrants on this topic. I plan to compile this into a print story.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

-Brandon A

 

I am a student in your International Reporting class and I want to cover a story on India’s growing air pollution. Although there have been articles from a vast number of publications addressing this issue, the Indian government doesn’t appear to be doing much about it.

When most people think of air pollution, they think of China. Although China has been the world leader in number of deaths linked to fine particle matter (PM2.5), India is rapidly catching up. As the number of deaths in China stabilizes, the number of deaths in India continues to grow. According to data from the Health Effects Institute, a non-profit that provides relevant science on the health effects of air pollution, the number of PM2.5 caused deaths in China increased by 162,800 from 1990 to 2015. In the same amount of time, the number of PM2.5 caused deaths in India increased by 353,000.

It is not just PM2.5 linked deaths that are increasing either. “On a global basis, the fraction of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) deaths linked to ozone have increased from 5% in 1990 to 8% in 2015. Much of that increase occurred in India.” According to the American Lung association, the ozone layer found in the stratosphere protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, but “ozone air pollution” in the troposphere “causes serious health problems.” Ozone air pollution comes form the burning of fossil fuels and “high-heat combustion” such as burning coal or in using motor vehicles.

As India’s air quality declines, environmental regulations fail to curtail growing pollution. According to The Times of India, two Indians die every minute due to air pollution. Although air pollution is a growing problem, improvement still seems at a far. In India’s submission to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, it states that coal based power makes up 60.8% of India’s installed capacity. Rather than move away from coal, the goal is to “improve the efficiency of coal based power plants.”

When I interviewed Steven DSouza for my beat memo, he mentioned India’s poor air quality and visible smoke. DSouza also mentioned the lack of regulation and that people continue the practices that they are already doing. An article in the New York Times described this problem in further detail. The article states that although India’s environmental court, “The National Green Tribunal,” ordered the government to stop farmers from burning the straw left from their crops, NASA satellite images show that no progress has been made. Another article in The Times of India cited an important reason as to why farmers are not ceasing this practice, which is that it is still cheaper to buy higher quantities of fertilizer due to subsidies than to purchase a machine that removes the straw.

I want to explore this topic from an international perspective and write a print story.

February 19, 2017 was a big day for Ecuadorians. More than 105, 238 Ecuadorians living in the United States went out to vote and support their country. Yet, the two leading president candidates did not get the 40 percent needed votes to win election.

What does this election mean for the well-being of Ecuadorians and the Ecuador’s economy?  Refael Correa, the former president who ran the country from 2007 to January 15, 2017 led Ecuador to recession and high unemployment rate. The results of the elections shows that Ecuadorians want to continue the “Correism” meaning the majority voted for Lenin Moreno, who promised to continue Correa’s political view. Whereas, Guillermo Lasso wants to do more with less, cut taxes, create million jobs during his term and elevate Ecuador’s economy.

According to Correa the earthquake that happened in Abril, 2016 led Ecuador to damage its economy. Maybe that is partly true, but the economy was already bad way before that. For instance, the borrowing of 1.5 billion dollars from China brought more problems to Ecuador.

This feature on the Ecuador’s economy will be relevant to the world, especially to South and Central America countries because they have similar leaders who don’t care about their citizens.

 

 

 

Haiti: From the outside looking in on the Haitian-New York life it may seem as though they are living very decent lives with the exception of some of the less fortunate. The reason for thinking this because they are growing their businesses and securing a comfortable American lifestyle. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to focus on poverty within the Haitian-American community and how are they supporting the ones they left their homeland.

History: Sharing the island, Hispaniola with The Dominican Republic, Haiti gained their independence in 1804, freeing them from the French rule. The country was controlled by the Spanish before given to France. Haiti was the first Republic to lead a successful slave revolt. Although gaining independence is a good thing for the country, it went through a great share of negative effects. Many of the tribulations Haiti has faced were from consistent natural disasters, resulting in a domino effect of negatively spiraling effects.

Language Spoken: The official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole

Religious Beliefs: Haiti has a range of different types of religious beliefs. Most of the world believes that they only practice witchcraft, voodooism and things of that nature. Even though those practices do exist in this country, the belief system of voodoo revolves around family spirits. Many Roman Catholic Haitians do not see practicing voodoo as being a part of a different religion. They focus communicating with mostly spirits of their family who are called loua or misté. Besides Roman Catholicism coexisting with voodoo, there is one religion whose believers does not practice the communicating with sprits. That religion is called the Protestantism, and they strongly oppose voodoo because of the darkness that correlates to the practice.

Popular News Outlets: La Nouvelliste, Haiti Libre, RTVC Radio Television Caraibes, Metropole Haiti, Haiti Press Network, Radio Kiskeye, AlterPresse, Radio Signal FM 90.5, Scoop FM.

Current Events: 2010 Earthquake, Economic Recovery and Livelihood, Hurricane Matthew, Post-hurricane cholera outbreak threat.

Immigrants in NYC: Many Haitians stay together like cliques so finding sources wouldn’t be too difficult. Flatbush is one of the neighborhoods anyone can find a lot of Haitians restaurants and shops. Flatbush being the area where I also live I’m in the midst of it all, and with the help and recommendations of some my fellow Haitian friends I’m sure to acquire very useful information and quotes to use in my stories.

Country of Choice: Poland.

Language Spoken: Polish.

Religions Practiced: According to the 2011 census, 87.5 percent of Poland’s population is Catholic. Other religious minorities comprise less than 1 percent of the population. The only significant minority that the census notes is the group that does not associate itself with any religion, which amounts to 2.4 percent of the population.

History: Poland’s history dates as far back as the 10th century, but, for the purpose of this assignment, only the 20th century is worth mentioning. World War II began by Hitler’s invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. In the six years when the country was under Nazi control, Poland’s Jewish population was nearly eradicated, families were broken apart and many cities, including Warsaw, were reduced to rubble. When Poland was finally liberated by the Soviet army in 1945, another period of intense repression began. Soviet Soldiers were actively fighting a campaign against the Polish underground soldiers. While some tried to survive, others actively fought to undermine the Soviet rule. Two historical figures from this time period are worth mentioning—Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa, who led the anti-communist movement and led to the fall of communism in Poland in 1989. As a result of his actions, Walesa became the country’s first democratically elected president since the war ended. During the next 15 years, the country improved its economy, foreign relations and the well-being of its people. Western goods became widely available and the population began catching up with Western trends. In 2004, the country joined the European Union, which helped the country integrate.

Most-read and most-viewed local news outlets: Gazeta Wyborcza is one of the most popular daily newspapers, with circulation of roughly 600,000, according to pressreference.com. As for the weekly news magazines, some of the most popular titles include POLITYKA, Newsweek and Wprost.

Current events: There are several major events or debates that are currently taking place in the country. All of the problems that Poland is currently facing are tied to the election of PiS, or the Law and Justice Party. In 2015, PiS won the elections, winning both the legislative and the executive branch of the government. The government did not wait to bring the justice system to its knees. Among the current government’s most controversial moves was the placement of pro-government into the Constitutional Tribunal, which is the country’s highest court. The government also tried to push some of Europe’s toughest anti-abortion laws, but the so-called Black Protests convinced politicians to reconsider. Since then, a lot of pro-democratic protests have been taking place, including a student-run protest organized through Facebook. KOD, or the Committee for the Defense of Democracy, has been organizing and funding all major pro-democratic protests. However, a recent conflict involving the organization’s leadership has caused a lot of uproar in the media.

Demographics: According to the 2011, Census, 96.4 percent of Poland’s population is Polish. Approximately 309,000 Ukrainians, or 0.8 percent of the population, live in Poland. The number has since increased due to conflicts in Ukraine.

Popular neighborhoods for immigrant communities in New York: There are two areas in New York City that are known for their Polish communities. One of them is Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The other area is in Ridgewood, Queens.

Contact info for sources: I want to reach out to the people who organized the student protests in Poland. When I find their contact information, I will add them to this post. There is also a lot of Polish organizations based in New York, so I may receive help from them if I need it.

The country I have chosen as my main focus for the Semester is Israel, more officially known as The State of Israel. Israel is an 8,522 square mile country with a population of 8,174,527 people (according to the 2016 estimate.). Bordering with several other countries — Egypt, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank — , Israel is a small nation, as well as the only Democracy in the Middle East. According to a 2013 estimate: the religions that are present in Israel are 75 percent Jewish, 17.5% Muslim, 2% Christian, 1.6% Druze, and the remaining 3.9% is occupied by other remaining religions that are present. A predominantly large Israeli Community that I am aware of is actually right around where I live, the Kew Gardens, Union Turnpike area of Queens, as well as Bayside and Hollis Hills.

The history of the Land of Israel has always been one of dispute and different interpretation, which is what calls conflicts like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into order. The start of this conflict came to be in 1948, and still goes on to present day. In 1948, during the end of World War II, both the President of the United States who at the time was Harry Truman, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, acknowledged Israel as its own free independent state and nation. However at the time at which this agreement was made by the UN, the members of the Arab League refused to accept this plan implemented by the UN. They then declared self determination, which at this point marked the start of the conflict that is now in fact more present than ever in the everyday lives of the people of both Israel and Palestine.

Of course there is so much I can cover with this nation, but I will be going for different kinds of stories, something that pulls away from the stigma of this conflict and really dives into the real lives of the people who live in this truth every single day.

I would love to dive into the lives of IDF Soldiers, which I believe is one of the most unique stories to be told of this country. However what I think makes my article on this topic so interesting is that I am going to be reaching out to IDF soldiers that are ALSO naturally American Citizens, but have chosen at the age of draft to go and serve for a country they do not live in. Being that I am half Israeli, in the past year I have seen so many of my close family friends fly to Israel to serve in the Military, whether it is to train and be a part of the artillery, or to play their part in national security. One of my closest friends since I was younger, Yahav Sinay, has actually been living in the US for about two years now, post-IDF. From what I have spoken to him about, he left Israel knowing a lot of the suffering that it is to live in a country full of constant attack and fear, but he still has room to discuss the love and zest for life that the Israeli people have to show and give while living in such high tensions land.

Besides this topic, I do want to dive further into the IDF, and right a feature article about Women in the IDF, and how they see themselves in that environment. This will require me to reach out to the two close friends of mine, Hadas and Sherri, who are both currently in training for national security positions in the IDF. I think this will be very interesting in zooming into the lives of these American women who have chosen to go back to this country and call it their home and dedicate themselves to serving for it.

After these two article ideas, I also have several for the beauty of the country and the preservation of its nature and the way that the society is built around such dangerous times. I want to look at the way that the Israeli people look beyond the tension between themselves and a neighboring land, and see how they can still live a happy healthy life full of joy.

And I do also think it would be a very interesting angle to look at how other cultures and religions live and are treated in the Democratic Nation of Israel. To see how they practice their religion, the laws they live under, and how their living conditions are as a whole, in lieu of the constant tension taking place between their homeland and the country they are now living in.

Colombia is named after Christopher Columbus. Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela are the three countries that came from the split of Gran Colombia in 1830. The current population of Colombia is 47,220,856. It is the second most popular South American country, following Brazil. The official language of Colombia is Spanish and the dominant religion Roman Catholic. Life expectancy at birth for the total pollution is 75.7 years; 72.6 years for males and 79 years for females (98th highest in the world). The average age is 29.6 years old; 28.7 for males and 30.6 for women. Population growth rate for Colombia is 1.02 percent; 105th in the world. The ethnic groups of Colombia are: 84.2 percent mestizo and white, 10.4 percent Afro-Colombian, 2.4 percent Amerindian and 2.1 percent unspecified. The current president, as of August 7th 2010, is Juan Manuel Santos and the vice president is German Vargas Lleras. Presidents are elected by the majority vote and serve a four year term. Presidents used to be able to reelect for a second four-year term, but due to a recent change, starting 2018 presidents are only able to serve one four-year term.
Colombia is the fifth largest Latin community in New York City. Colombians started migrating to New York in the 1960’s and is predominately in Jackson Height, Queens. Most of Colombia’s media is run by for profit companies. The media gets most of its money from advertisements, mainly from the government and wealthy people. Many claim that Colombia is one of the, if not the, most dangerous place in Latin America for journalist.
Poverty, inequality and drugs are few of the main problems in Colombia throughout the years. Some of the more current problems in Colombia include the political issues and the Zika virus. One of the largest issues in Colombia is the conflict between the Colombian government and the rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed forces of Colombia (FARC). FARC was founded in 1964 during the Cold War and they follow a Marxist-Leninist ideology. FARC started off as primarily poor farmers who sought out for equality. After voters rejected a peace treaty between Colombia’s government and FARC in October 2016, the Government then went through congress to agree to a newly revised treaty in November, most likely to the disapproval of the people.
I would like to focus on the aforementioned topic for this class. Try to dig a little deeper and speak to those who are currently living in Colombia and find out why the majority of the people voted against the initial treaty between the Colombian government and FARC. Also, I would like to find out their thoughts on the government bypassing the votes of its people and agreeing to a revised treaty on their own. I would like to also speak to Colombians who have immigrated to New York find out why, if their decision or family decision has anything to do with conflict between the guerrilla organization and the government. Would also like to know their experiences living in Colombia and how it compares to living in New York, if it’s what they expected.
As of right now I have a source who moved to New York from Colombia with his family 16 years ago. He is willing to link me to sources and family members who are still currently living in Colombia. I was told by the source that their media outlets in Colombia are biased in favor of the government, which makes sense since most of it is for profit. The media outlets don’t explain in detail the reasons as to why the people opposed the initial treaty, so I hope to gain that perspective. Some issues I may face will be the language barrier. My source is willing to translate but sometimes things get lost in translation and can only be explained thoroughly in the language that the issues apply to. Another issue may be gaining perspective from anyone in an organization that supports FARC or anyone in some type of significant position in Colombia.
As much as I would like to use photography as my media, it would be difficult for this assignment as the issue is more so abroad than domestic. However, I will like to include some type of photojournalism.