Edit: Here is my photo-essay on medium
https://medium.com/@cristine.trimarco/craft-culture-and-camaraderie-6bf95c916455
Below is the link to my photo-essay.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dm8QCk3kwMGWAFeEbijhOGMlKCzyqUwPQspv2YwtcHA/edit
I want to better format this on medium, because the photos have been a bit displaced and some are missing. I will edit this post after doing so.
Thank you,
Cristine Trimarco
Format: print with photos
Photo essay: Myanmar Credentials Campaign. Myanmar community in New York hosted a… | by May Khin | Oct, 2022 | Medium
The Myanmar community in New York held a “Credentials Campaign for Kyaw Moe Tun” on Sep. 17. in front of the United Nations headquarters.
The campaign’s purpose is to voice the community’s concerns on the U.N. accreditation for Tun as the ambassador for Myanmar.
Tun was elected as the U.N. ambassador in 2018 and held the position since but due to the changes in government representation for Myanmar, the U.N. deferred the decision to accredit Tun as the official ambassador for Myanmar.
The U.N. accreditation committee will not hold a meeting until December and as a direct result of the deferred process, the Myanmar community is protesting and raising awareness to the international communities during the week of the General Assembly.
Myanmar has been fighting for democracy through protests and demonstrations to show opposition to the Myanmar junta since the coup d’etat in February 2021.
The Chairman of New York City Burmese Community (NYCBC) Nay Tin Myint is in charge of holding campaigns, protests and fundraisers in New York City.
“We are voicing for Kyaw Moe Tun to be the ambassador for Myanmar during the 77th U.N. General Assembly, to inform the international communities about our voices,” said Myint. “Tun is a leader the community looks up to, respects and desires as the representative, to fight for democracy for our country.”
“We held three meetings on Aug. 14., Aug. 20., and Aug. 28., to hold a global campaign and community leaders globally took leadership in organizing this campaign,” said Myint. “We want to hold one campaign with the same purpose at the same time in different locations and we called it one campaign, one poster, one global.”
Myint said they chose New York City and specifically the U.N. headquarters as the location to hold the campaign because Tun resides in New York and it is the location of the U.N. General Assembly.
“We marched from the Flatiron plaza to Times Square to the headquarters and the Myanmar community from 15 states attended and showed support,” said Myint. “Some traveled from Texas and California to attend the campaign and this illustrates the dedication of the Myanmar communities across the United States.”
The purpose of holding the campaign during the General Assembly week is to inform the high level officials at the U.N. who are attending the General Assembly.
Myint said Cambodia marched together with the Myanmar community and they also received support from Japan.
“We got support from Cambodia and Japan,” said Myint. “Some progress with the ASEAN leaders is our success of the campaign.”
Myint said the NYCBC sent out an official statement to nine countries participating in the Credentials Campaign and the statement has three initiatives.
“The three goals are to recognize the National Unity Government (NUG) as an official government,” said Myint. “To recognize Tun as the official ambassador and to stop all the violence in Myanmar.”
Myint emphasized how black money in Myanmar from the junta is supplying weapons which are killing Myanmar people.
“We are trying to stop the flow of black money in Myanmar which is used to buy weapons and causes violence in the country,” said Myint. “We have informed the U.S. Congress about the issue and hope to stop the violence in Myanmar. We want to stop the death of innocent citizens from these weapons.”
The Spring Revolution Band leader Min Han was in charge of the audio during the campaign performances.
“Audio is the most important thing during a campaign and I made sure the sound was smooth and perfect throughout the whole campaign,” said Han. “We collaborated with the Myanmar community from Buffalo for the performances.”
In July of this year, two political leaders from the National League for Democracy (NLD) were executed and this is the first hanging in 50 years in Myanmar history.
Phyo Zeya Thaw (41) and Kyaw Min Yu (53) also known as Ko Jimmy were executed in July.
There was a re-enactment on the hanging of political leaders by the Buffalo Myanmar community during the campaign.
The song they requested to be heard as their final wish was performed during the re-enactment.
“We want to send a message through performance, whether it is singing or theater, because language can be a barrier,” said Han. “We want to let the whole world know about the hanging of our political leaders recently.”
Community leader Nay Lin Tun said it is important for the Myanmar community to continue voicing for Tun to be officially acknowledged back to his original position.
“I believe we will win, we will continue to fight until he gets his position back because it was his seat to begin with,” said Tun. “We will not let the Myanmar military fill up the positions as they wish because we do not tolerate military dictatorship.”
“The Spring Revolution has been going on for two years but we will continue fighting until we get democracy,” said Tun. “And until all the violence ends, we will make sure the junta will not rule with dictatorship to our people.”
Reminders and Upcoming Dates:
Pitches for your second and final story of the semester will be due Tuesday, Nov. 1. This story will be a little longer than the first one; there’s scope for it to be more of a feature piece. 1200 words.
Quick Debrief/Discussion:
“Which Way Is the Front Line From Here?”
What were your impressions and takeaways from the film? For reference, here are the questions I gave you to think about:
Digital Security: Best Practices
When you’re a journalist, you will very likely find yourself in possession of information that other people want. Digital security comes down to protecting yourself and protecting your sources.
Messaging
Personal Information (Phone, Laptop, and Social Media)
Make sure you take a look at your Facebook page and other social media accounts to see what information about you is public. It’s probably more than you realize. Be aware that enabling location services and posting live updates can clue people in to your whereabouts. And depending on your current level of risk in your reporting, some of the personal information you have out there or on your person might be used against you. When Jim Foley was kidnapped, for instance, his captors found a photo on his laptop that showed his brother in a military uniform and singled him out for harsher treatment.
International Travel
If you’re going to be traveling internationally, remember to take extra steps to protect your contacts and any other sensitive information. It’s alarmingly easy for border agents to confiscate and search your things, and you don’t have much recourse if they decide to do so. If you’re already inside the United States, they need a warrant, but at the border, your rights are significantly curtailed in this respect. They don’t even need cause, and there have been cases where people have been denied entry for refusing to hand over their passwords. American citizens can’t be deported for refusing to do so; if you stand firm but calm, you may be detained and the devices tampered with, but you should eventually get home.
U.S. border agents stopped journalist from entry and took his phones
“During the interrogation, CBP officers requested Ou unlock his mobile phones so they could search them, he said. After he refused — explaining that he had an ethical obligation to protect his reporting sources — the agents took the devices away, he said.
When the phones were returned hours later, it was clear that someone had tampered with the SIM cards and potentially made copies of data on the devices, he said. Because the phones were encrypted, Ou is not sure how much — if any — information they were able to access.”
WSJ reporter and US citizen Maria Abi-Bahib wrote a Facebook post about a similar experience.
Another customs agent joined her at that point and they grilled me for an hour – asking me about the years I lived in the US, when I moved to Beirut and why, who lives at my in-laws’ house in LA and numbers for the groom and bride whose wedding I was attending. I answered jovially, because I’ve had enough high-level security experiences to know that being annoyed or hostile will work against you.
But then she asked me for my two cellphones. I asked her what she wanted from them.
“We want to collect information” she said, refusing to specify what kind.
And that is where I drew the line — I told her I had First Amendment rights as a journalist she couldn’t violate and I was protected under. I explained I had to protect my sources of information.
“Did you just admit you collect information for foreign governments?” she asked, her tone turning hostile.
“No, that’s exactly not what I just said,” I replied, explaining again why I would not hand over my phones.
She handed me a DHS document, a photo of which I’ve attached. It basically says the US government has the right to seize my phones and my rights as a US citizen (or citizen of the world) go out the window. This law applies at any point of entry into the US, whether naval, air or land and extends for 100 miles into the US from the border or formal points of entry. So, all of NY city for instance. If they forgot to ask you at JFK airport for your phones, but you’re having a drink in Manhattan the next day, you technically fall under this authority. And because they are acting under the pretense to protect the US from terrorism, you have to give it up.
So I called their bluff.
“You’ll have to call The Wall Street Journal’s lawyers, as those phones are the property of WSJ,” I told her, calmly.
She accused me of hindering the investigation – a dangerous accusation as at that point, they can use force. I put my hands up and said I’d done nothing but be cooperative, but when it comes to my phones, she would have to call WSJ’s lawyers.
She said she had to speak to her supervisor about my lack of cooperation and would return. I was left with the second DHS officer who’d been there since we left the baggage claim area.
The female officer returned 30 minutes later and said I was free to go.
Basically, it “scrambles your email until it is downloaded and decrypted with a personal key, so that even if someone spies on the content of your Gmail account or whatever they won’t be able to read your email.”
In a detail that will become journalism school legend forever, probably, Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald says he almost missed out on NSA stories because he didn’t have the time to set up PGP. Snowden anonymously sent Greenwald a bunch of emails, and even a step-by-step guide to setting it up, but Greenwald put it off.
“It’s really annoying and complicated, the encryption software,” he told the Times. “He kept harassing me, but at some point he just got frustrated, so he went to Laura.”
– All Journalists Should Use This Annoying Technology, Gawker
Other Resources
IJNet list of digital security resources
What To Do If Your Phone Is Seized By Police
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Surveillance Self-Defense
Announcement: UN visit
Please block out in your schedules Thursday, October 27 for our field trip to the United Nations for the noon press briefing. This will take the place of our evening class that day. We’ll arrive at 11:30 am to go through security. The press officer I spoke to is also working on arranging a meeting for us with Stephane Dujarric, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General. TBD if that will work out with scheduling, but we should be done by 1 or 1:30 depending on whether Dujarric speaks with us.
I’ll need a definitive headcount for the field trip, so please email me to confirm whether you are coming, and let me know exactly how your name appears on your ID because I need to provide a list of names in advance and they will be checking your names at security.
Today’s Class: Documentary screening: Which Way is the Front Line From Here?
As you watch, answer the following questions briefly (50-100 words each) and put the answers into a blog post. We’ll discuss the film and your thoughts on it next week. (Since next class we’ll be looking at your rough drafts.)
Thinking back to our discussion on the ethics of foreign reporting, what do you think of Hetherington’s approach to his work?
What do you think of the types of stories he is drawn to in the film, and how he chooses to tell them?
What do you think of how he handled considerations of safety/security in the course of his reporting?
Any takeaways regarding the making of this film, and how the decision to tell this particular story fits within the larger history/context of international reporting?
Reminder: Rough drafts of your stories are due by class time on Thursday! We’ll workshop them together in class.
Intro to the United Nations and the Humanitarian Aid World
What is the United Nations?
It was established after WWII to prevent something like that from ever happening again. How successful has the UN been in that mission?
(Imagine if CUNY was trying to be in charge of world peace.)
Members include nearly every nation in the world: 193 out of 196 (or 195 depending on whether you count Taiwan). When it was founded, they wrote the UN charter (sort of like its constitution) and a universal declaration of human rights.
The United Nations is made up of a number of main bodies:
General Assembly: This is the chief policymaking branch, and it plays a significant role in codification of international law. It’s the deliberative body of the UN, in which all member states have one vote. Issues on which the General Assembly deliberates and makes recommendations include matters of peace and security, budgetary matters, and nearly anything else within the scope of the UN Charter. Major questions require a two-thirds majority, and minor questions are resolved by a simple majority. It meets to go into session every year in the fall.
Security Council: This department is charged with maintaining international peace and security. Its main functions include hearing complaints, recommending peaceful solutions, and working to end conflict in areas where hostilities have already erupted through such means as cease-fire directives and UN peacekeeping forces. It is in charge of sending “peacekeepers,” also known as blue helmets, who are only supposed to use force in self-defense and who have been known to cause some problems of their own.
“UN peacekeeping operations are not an enforcement tool. However, they may use force at the tactical level, with the authorization of the Security Council, if acting in self-defense and defense of the mandate.
In certain volatile situations, the Security Council has given UN peacekeeping operations ‘robust’ mandates authorizing them to ‘use all necessary means’ to deter forceful attempts to disrupt the political process, protect civilians under imminent threat of physical attack, and/or assist the national authorities in maintaining law and order.”
Ongoing peacekeeping missions are a cocktail of acronyms like MONUSCO (DR Congo), UNSMIS (Syria), and UNMISS (South Sudan) and a complete list can be found here. (MONUSCO is the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since 1999, the UN has been trying to stabilize the eastern region of the DR Congo. MONUSCO has nearly 20,000 soldiers and an annual budget of $1.4 billion.)
You will sometimes find yourself dealing with peacekeeping operations that aren’t directly run by the UN, like AMISOM, the African Union Mission to Somalia, a peacekeeping mission operated by the AU in Somalia with the UN’s approval (not to be confused with UNSOS, the United Nations Support Office in Somalia).
The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, also known as the Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5, include the following five governments: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The members represent the five great powers considered the victors of World War II. They’re the only ones with veto power, which ruffles some feathers. Some people want to shake things up on the Security Council.
The ten non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly. At the moment, these include:
Albania (2023)
Brazil (2023)
Gabon (2023)
Ghana (2023)
India (2022)
Ireland (2022)
Kenya (2022)
Mexico (2022)
Norway (2022)
United Arab Emirates (2023)
The year refers to the end of their term.
Non-Council Member States are members of the United Nations but not of the Security Council and may participate, without a vote, in its discussions when the Council considers that country’s interests are affected.
Economic and Social Council: This body discusses international economic and social issues, identifies issues hindering the standard of living in various regions of the world, and makes policy recommendations to alleviate those issues.
The Hague: This city in the Netherlands is one of the major cities hosting the United Nations, along with New York City, Geneva, Vienna, Rome, and Nairobi. It is also home to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. The ICJ is the judicial body of the UN. It includes 15 elected judges and settles cases according to International Law. The ICC is an international tribunal that has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The Philippines recently left the ICC in protest over its opening of an investigation into Duterte’s drug war.
Secretariat: This body is the administrative branch of the UN and is charged with administering the policies and programs of the other bodies. The Secretary General is the top official in the Secretariat. The current secretary-general is António Guterres, a Portuguese diplomat who was previously the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015.
Aside from the main bodies, the UN has 15 specialized agencies. These are autonomous organizations working with the UN and each other and governments through the Economic and Social Council as well as at the inter-secretariat level.
These agencies include:
UNOCHA: The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response effort.
UNHCR: The United Nations High Commission on Refugees
UNICEF: The United Nations Children’s Fund
WHO: The World Health Organization
IMF: The International Monetary Fund
The World Bank: An international financial institution that provides loans to countries for capital programs.
(I’m often asked the difference between the The World Bank and the IMF: The World Bank’s mission is to work with developing countries to reduce poverty and increase shared prosperity, while the International Monetary Fund serves to stabilize the international monetary system and acts as a monitor of the world’s currencies.)
UNESCO: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
The rest can be found here.
Covering the UN as a journalist
As an international journalist, it’s good to be familiar with how the UN works for a number of reasons. Its affiliated agencies are often extremely helpful for journalists, especially freelancers, but you have to be very careful about how accepting assistance from these agencies could affect your objectivity as a journalist.
Aside from that, the UN itself can be a bountiful source of stories, and it’s good to examine it with a critical eye to hold it to account. No matter how noble its stated mission, it is a massive bureaucratic entity run by fallible people. It’s prone to corruption and is known for fostering a culture of impunity as well as mismanaging funds. (The UN has a LOT of money—member states pay dues—and wherever large amounts of money can be found, you can always find people being tempted to do bad things. Good rule of thumb for any humanitarian crisis situation: follow the money.)
I Love the U.N., But It Is Failing
“Six years ago, I became an assistant secretary general, posted to the headquarters in New York. I was no stranger to red tape, but I was unprepared for the blur of Orwellian admonitions and Carrollian logic that govern the place. If you locked a team of evil geniuses in a laboratory, they could not design a bureaucracy so maddeningly complex, requiring so much effort but in the end incapable of delivering the intended result. The system is a black hole into which disappear countless tax dollars and human aspirations, never to be seen again.”
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals for the year 2015 that were established by the United Nations in 2000. All 189 United Nations member states at that time, and at least 22 international organizations, committed to help achieve the following Millennium Development Goals by 2015:
The MDGs have since been replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals. This sort of thing can provide excellent news pegs.
The New Humanitarian
The UN used to have its own news agency, IRIN, but in 2015 IRIN split off to become its own nonprofit entity devoted to covering humanitarian news: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/content/about-us
NGOs
Not to be confused with UN agencies, there are also a number of high-profile nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) out there doing similar kinds of work with similar aims, but they’re not affiliated with the UN. These also merit scrutiny. Aid business is good business.
A few of the most well-known of these include:
World Vision
Partners in Health
Save the Children
I am choosing to cover Panama for my beat memo. I choose Panama because I am traveling there this upcoming weekend and thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to people there and become integrated in the Panamanian culture here in Brooklyn.
The second weekend of October, there is a Panamanian Day Parade in Brooklyn. They celebrate Panama’s separation from Columbia, which took place on November 3, 1903. They have commemorated this moment for the past 25 years with this parade which stretches from Franklin Avenue to Bergen St. The parade highlights Panamanian-Caribbean and Latin American food specialties, dance, and music. This will be my first story. I am planning on doing a photo story, to really capture the color and life of the parade and its people. I have reached out to several of the hosts of the parade and heard back from two who agreed to chat with me. In addition, Enrique Small, a community leader and the President of the Panamanian Day Parade has agreed to do an interview with me. Lastly, I also plan to interview and photograph the attendees and vendors.
For my second story, I have not decided on doing photo or print. I would like to visit Panamanian spots located here in Brooklyn, mostly around Crown Heights and Flatbush. Michelle’s Cocktail Lounge or commonly referred to as “La Mi-Shell-E”, KC Gourmet Empanadas, El Carnaval, and Nimbley’s Bakery are just a few of Brooklyn’s popular Panamanian-owned eateries that I want to visit in the upcoming months. I want this story to center around Panamanian culture and how it has integrated itself into our local Brooklyn neighborhoods. I will be reaching out to the owners of these establishments to see if they would be willing to interview or have me shoot some photos of their spots.
I am not sure what direction I want to go in for my third story yet. Maybe something that goes into more depth about Panama’s political climate. Over the past several months Panamanians have contributed to the largest protests seen on their land, demanding the government steps in to curb inflation and lower fuel and food prices in Panama City. This could be something I talk to people about while I am in the country this weekend. Or if I end up in th Guna Island area, I could get photos of local houses, artisans, and the boats the community relies on without being too intrusive. These photos would focus more on the location and culture while the essay could elaborate on why this area is threatened by climate change.
Upcoming Due Dates
The rough draft of your first story of the semester will be due on Thursday, October 13. We will workshop them in class.
The final draft will be due Thursday, Oct. 20.
Check-In
What are some big international stories happening around the world right now?
What happens when major international news breaks?
If it’s a big enough story, it will have a huge impact on what we call the “news cycle.” Journalists from all over the city, country, and the world will mobilize and converge on the scene. Depending on the nature of the news—natural disaster, war, mass shooting event—there may be wall-to-wall coverage for a few days, or sometimes even weeks or months/years, like in the case of the pandemic, though when a story drags on that long it will go through many different cycles and waves.
How does coverage evolve over time?
With breaking news, we often speak in terms of “day one” stories and “day two” stories (and beyond). The day one coverage, as the news is super fresh and the details are still emerging, generally revolves around trying to confirm basic facts and get the overall who/what/where/when/why details confirmed. Often the Associated Press and other news wires will publish essentially the equivalent of a breaking news alert in story form as soon as they confirm something has happened, with a note that this is a developing story and readers should check back soon for more.
At this point—which sometimes takes place within minutes of the event—there usually is no confirmation of the number of casualties or other numbers/details, as that usually takes time to know for certain. Typically within a matter of hours, another story will go out that contains a more complete picture of what happened.
Over the next couple of days, you will typically start to see more stories that attempt to delve beyond what happened to why it happened: explainer pieces, political analysis, who was affected, and what this means going forward. Often obituaries and tributes to victims will be published, if relevant. Editorials might be published, or segments will air on the major cable news networks that pit people with different “takes” against one another.
As weeks/months/years pass, most stories will recede into the background at least somewhat. Coverage may shift away from breaking news about the catastrophe/event itself and toward the ripple effects/rebuilding process.
How do news orgs approach covering these big international stories?
Depending on the story, the first day or so, the coverage will by necessity be provided by journalists who were already based there (and photos/visuals sometimes by citizen journalists and local witnesses). Editors of major international outlets will then scramble to send more reporters, often their star reporters, to provide more coverage as the story develops.
In-Class Discussion: Ukraine
Let’s take a look at a major international story and find examples that show how it has been covered, by whom, in what different forms of media, and how the story has evolved over time.
Day 1?
Day 2?
After a week?
After a month?
Six months/a year later?
*Attached pictures and videos show helpers unloading the packages on the donkey cart and then travelling through the waters to reach the victims. *
Pakistan is a multiethnic country in South Asia with a predominantly Urdu speaking Muslim population. The country was separated from India and gained independence in 1947 but struggled to gain political stability and grappled for social and economic development. Pakistan is the second largest Muslim country with population of 227 million residents. However, it faced extreme difficulties in defining its social structure. The country experienced occurrences of extreme racism as well as ethnic, religious, and social conflict within communities.
In few parts of the country these conflicts led to violence against religious minorities. Areas of Sindh and Baluchistan province experience these instances the most which prevents the central authorities to govern that land and the power goes in the hands of feudal lords.
The government of Pakistan is composed of the executive, legislative and judicature branches. It is a semi-industrial mixed economy in which state-owned enterprises constitute a large portion of gross domestic product. After imposing the country wide lockdown in response to COVID-19, the government at the end of 2021-maintained lockdowns at high-risk areas and essential jobs to allow the economic activity to flourish. However, the country also faced high unemployment rate. “Around 3 million people of the state were unable to recover their jobs after 3⁄4th end of the first wave of lockdown and average earning remain 5.5% below in pre- lockdown levels in November 2020.”
Recent torrential monsoon rains caused catastrophic floods in Pakistan which washed away a huge chunk of the state’s land destroying homes, buildings, killed more than thousand habitants and forced families to live without roof, water and food. The flooding has displaced more than 33 million people and threatened economy by causing acute food shortages in the country. “Government officials estimate at least $30 billions of economic damage and reconstruction costs, or about 10% of GDP. Domestic resources can only meet a fraction of the government’s estimated cost and the international aid received so far falls far short of the country’s needs.”
Despite being protected in the law; press freedom was violated consistently in Pakistan with changing regimes. Past and present governments used legal and constitutional means to control the press. Journalists and media organizations face threats, violence and economic pressure. Censorship is a common practice in the country where either news channels are banned, or journalists are not allowed to cover a particular event that put the government in a bad light. Moreover, journalists were wrongfully punished for “blasphemous speech” which is more of a tactic to silence them. Few are killed while reporting on terrorist activities and many are jailed based on other false accusations Newspaper circulation and readership is very low in the country. “Poor literacy, urban orientation of the press, and the high price of newspapers are detrimental factors for the under development of print media in Pakistan.”
Even though the rise of social media has changed how general public in the country consume news, disinformation and propaganda have ignited social, political and religiously extremist beliefs. The power of selective exposure is also being used as a tool for biased political narrative and has dire consequences. “There are approximately four million circulations of newspapers in Pakistan. Among the Urdu press, Jang is considered the largest newspaper followed by Nawa-e-Waqt. Whereas, The News, Dawn, and Business Recorder are the English popular newspapers.”
Most of the print media is privately owned but the state run broadcasting mediums are extremely biased and used for government’s publicity mainly through official advertisements. One of the major news agencies, Associated Press of Pakistan is controlled by the government. Bribing the journalists is also a common malpractice in the region. “Sometime vocal journalists are given appointments in government’s offices/departments to stop criticism.” Moreover, few private media organizations care more for the rather the idea of ethical journalism is simply neglected. There are also few self-righteous journalists who firmly believe that they are serving the public giving biased coverage and criticism and blatantly support a political party on screen urging the public to do the same.
From 2006 to 2015 Pakistani population was among the fastest growing Asian ethnic groups in New York with a population of 51,453. The large majority of Pakistani New Yorkers lived in Brooklyn (45 percent) and Queens (39 percent). Little Pakistan neighborhood is an enclave for Pakistani community in Brooklyn. Many local Pakistani media journalists cover the Pakistani community in New York, mainly in Little Pakistan.
There are many organizations in New York that represent the Pakistani community including the Consul General of Pakistan. Some other are Pakistani American Youth Organization, Pakistani American Youth Society, Overseas Pakistani Global Foundation, Pakistani American Welfare Association and Pakistani Civic Association.
Sources:
http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/indianStudies/PDF/6_v8_1_22.pdf
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/pakistan/overview
https://academicjournals.org/journal/JMCS/article-full-text-pdf/F309A3D10173/
https://www.aafederation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2019pk.pdf
Stories:
I want to focus on the issues in the country and especially the drawbacks of the catastrophe as well as press freedom, instead of the Pakistani community in New York.
These are my three-story ideas:
Interview:
I interviewed Kanwar Ahmed, media director of Pakistani American Youth Organization in Little Pakistan. The organization was started with the aim to provide after school activities and volunteer opportunities to students to save them from the bad hobbies or ventures. They are now participating in aiding the flood victims by collecting money or sending aids provided by the community in NYC. According to Ahmed, it is very hard to deliver food and other necessities to the victims. People have to unload the luggage from the truck and reload them onto donkey carts and then travel long distance to reach the victims who are now out in the open and vulnerable. Also, the needs change until the help arrives. When food arrives, they lack medication and vice versa. There are also many scammers who distract the public helping the victims and try to wrongfully demand help (when they actually don’t need it) and few government officials who have an eye on the donations but Ahmed believes that they can’t stop just because of few people trying to fraud, because 95% of aid is reaching the right place. The whole country is now facing the second disaster, waterborne illness due to drinking contaminated water spread of dengue and malaria. The country is in dire need of help and in Ahmed’s words “We are doing our best. Most of them are individual efforts for our country, for the people who are suffering from the consequences”.
For international reporting, I’ve decided to cover the Guyanese diaspora in New York City. Recently Guyana’s President Mohamed Irafaan Ali has been in the news because there were accusations that his administration is practicing racial discrimination. The accusations claimed that the Indo-Guyanese People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration was discriminating against Afro-Guyanese in the provision of land, jobs, and contracts. The president dismissed these claims and asked critics to provide proof. Recently Vice News did an episode about China’s presence in Guyana. In recent years China has increased investments in Latin America and the Caribbean. They have also loaned billions of dollars to governments in this region. This money often funds infrastructure projects that Chinese state-run enterprises run. This is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, their attempt to spread power across borders. There is a project to build a hydroelectric power plant in the rainforest. The rainforest is a huge collector of carbon dioxide. It collects more carbon than Guyana emits. It is crucial for fighting climate change and is home to indigenous populations. Currently, Guyana has one of the largest growing economies due to the discovery of oil. There is the worry that china will benefit most from this discovery while the citizens of Guyana suffer. Corruption is evident in the Guyanese government. Most of the corruption has to do with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. He holds a lot of political power in the country and has been called a “climate hero” outside the country. Essentially the vice president is taking bribes to have China build infrastructure in Guyana.
According to the Census Bureau, in 2019 there were 231,000 people claiming Guyanese descent in the United States. There are approximately 140,000 Guyanese residents in New York City most of which live in Richmond Hills in Queens or Canarise or Flatbush in Brooklyn. In Queens, the Guyanese-American community is the second-largest foreign-born community. According to the Center for Strategic & International Studies, approximately only half of Guyanese live in Guyana, the rest of the population lives across the globe with a large population living in the United States, Canada, and the UK. This is due to the steady emigration that began in the 1970s. A majority of Guyanese live in the Northeast section of the United States. The current population of Guyana is 808,726, this is a decrease from the previous year.
In New York, Guyanese immigrants typically work in healthcare, domestic labor, banking, clerical, and physical security field. Some Guyanese people established small family-owned businesses such as bakeries and take-out restaurants that cater to the flavors of the Caribbean. As Guyanese immigrants laid roots in the communities they inhabited they opened real estate offices, small grocery stores, neighborhood law offices, and beauty salons. The U.S. population of Guyanese immigrants grew in the 1980s due to economic crises such as the devaluing of the Guyanese dollar, a significant increases in prices of consumer goods, and shortages in basic needs.
Some major organizations and advocacy groups in this community include the Caribbean Equality Project, the Greenlight Guyana Education Project, Christ Church School of Guyana Alumni Assocation, Inc., Guyana Unity Movement, Daughters of Guyana, and Guyana Caribean Islamic Movement, USA Guyana Humanitarian, and Guyana Watch.
Some publications that cater to Guyanese and the West Indian community, in general, are Caribbean Life and the New York Carib News. The big news publications in Guyana are the Guyana Chronicle and the Official Gazette of Guyana which are both government-owned. The popular privately owned media houses include Kaieteur News, Stabroek News, and the Argosy. According to Reporters without Boarders, Guyana ranks 34 in the world for press freedom, the website says, “while Guyana protects freedom of speech and the right to information, journalists who oppose the authorities face intimidation.”
The GDP per capita in Guyana was $11,040.71 in 2021. This is equivalent to 87 percent of the world average. The main industries in Guyana are argo-processing (sugar, rice, timber, and coconut) and mining (gold and diamonds).
Guyana has a semi-presidential parliamentary style government with a multi-party system. The president is elected through a popular vote and is the Head of State while the Prime Minister is the Head of the Government and is picked by the president. Presidential elections take place every five years with no term limits. Guyana became an independent country on May 26, 1966, and its first president was elected on Feburary 23, 1970. The NY Consul General for Guyana is Ambassador Michael E Botherson. He has been the Consul General since July 2, 2022.
Link to Three News Story
Popular Guyanese shops are located in Richmond Hill, Queens which is also called Little Guyana. Some include S&A, Little Guyana Bake Shop, Tropical Jade 3 Roti Express, Sybil’s, and Sonny’s Roti Shop.
Three potential story ideas: