Assignment #1 – International Reporting

This semester I am planning on looking into Puerto Rico or Mexico.

PR:

I am not sure if Puerto Rico can be considered international but I would love to explore the issues with LUMA. LUMA is a private Canadian/U.S. based company, it is the only electric company responsible for the distribution and transmission of power to the island. Puerto Rico is known for having an already faulty electric system but since LUMA took over power outages have increased along with citizen’s bills so they decided to take to the streets to protest. Later that night police officers were instructed to forcefully remove protestors who demanded the cancellation of the contract with LUMA.

Another Puerto Rican issue I would like to explore is the Puerto Rican Statehood/ Independence Movement. It seems like the Island is split on this decision. There is talk of this being a generational issue as the youth understands the impact that independence has economically on the island but older generations want to see a free Puerto Rico. Furthermore, the new bill introduced in early July would allow Puerto Ricans to vote on three options: statehood, “sovereignty in free association” with the United States, or independence.

MX:

I have a couple of ideas for Mexico. I want to explore women’s rights and focus on feminicide or abortion. However, I am not completely sure on how to connect this to the United States. Perhaps looking into a feminist organization here or exploring the overturn of Roe V. Wade in relation to states in Mexico passing pro-abortion legislation and how women from the U.S. are crossing the border to gain access to abortions and contraceptives.

Another issue I want to explore is the gentrification of Mexico City. digital nomads are moving into the city driving locals out. Local businesses are being replaced by yoga studios. Locals are complaining that in some areas of the city people refuse to communicate with them in Spanish and have even gone as far as calling digital nomads a “plague”

The beat I’ve chosen for this semester is Armenia. My parents and I moved from there 8 years ago, and since then I’ve struggled to connect with the diaspora here. There is barely any conversation around Armenia, what’s going on in the country, and what’s going on with the diaspora in New York, but there is a community here regardless, and I want to familiarize myself with it and write things that will be specifically for the Armenians in New York. In terms of the stuff actually going on in the country, I want to deliver some much needed reporting on the Nagorno Karabakh/Artsakh conflict. At the height of the conflict in 2020, there were Armenian protests all over New York demanding for more media coverage. The feeling of knowing that tomorrow your country could disappear off the map and nobody around you would bat an eye is absolutely nauseating, and that feeling is what drives me to pursue this topic. Of course there’s other things to be reported on in Armenia, but I think amongst the concerning lack of coverage of the war, this is what I am most interested in exploring this semester.