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Category Archives: Commentary and Critiques
Reconciling two worlds
In the article, “A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds, ” the author begin with a descriptive lead that intrigues the reader into this man on his journey through Brooklyn, the title doesn’t really do much but the lead’s description is very on point. Elliot’s story telling of Sheik Reda Shata is very good in terms of showing the reader the rich history behind his landing in the United States and how his job has forced him to alter everything he knows to fit the needs of muslims in America.
I do feel like if this is a conflict story however, there should be more voices, throughout the reading you are basically stuck with Shata’s view and progression, there are quotes from others, but his voice is the main force of all the arguments in the piece, from his different encounters with situation in his office, all the way to his growing up and being persuaded by his father to not be a judge.
She does however develop conflict, when you think about how some pure muslims might disagree with his analogy that he has to be some sort of bridge in the middle of both worlds. The conflict is not so much that there are two sides, it rises more from the issue of having to alter muslims beliefs and traditions even by a little, just to survive in this new materialistic world that promotes all the things that muslim religion forbids.
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Reconciling 2 Worlds
“A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds” is a feature story that is developed with a descriptive lead. The lead gives a clear picture of the imam, the neighborhood he severs, and the office he operates out of. The writer uses the in depth description as a door way into the conflict Muslim Americans are facing. Andrea Elliott delivers the conflict by dividing the story up into topical sections. Her colorful writing gives the piece life while lending understanding to the reader of the conflicts faced.
The story is mainly from the imam’s point of view with instances of outside voices like the Egyptian law professor at the University of California or the police officer from the 68th precinct. These voices added credibility to what the imam has stated concerning the community and its attempt to uphold it religious beliefs while adapting to the American way of life.
Elliot uses the imam as a catalyst for revealing all of the issues people of Islamic descent face. Small issues such as should one eat a big mac to international issues regarding terrorism are all brought into the story by the imam. The instances where stories of the issues solved by the imam are brought up never give names of the actual people and is the imam telling the story of a situation that took place that he needed to solve. The point of this story is to take the reader inside the life of a Muslim American.
As a result, the sources in this story are all on one side. That side is the one in favor of the imam and the Islamic tradition. Elliot uses analogies from the imam to show the different ideologies of Muslims in America versus Muslims in Egypt. “In Egypt, if a person passes through a red light, that means he’s smart,” he said. “In America, he’s very disrespected.”” Analogies like this are the closes thing to the other side given throughout the story.
A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn
In the article, “A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds, ” the writer develops conflict subtly by getting into the world of mosque, imam, and congregation.
The article is a feature and not a news story because of the vision it produces and the background it provides. The writer begins with the “imam begins his trek before dawn” and references an “Egyptian farming village.” The detailed lede brings the leader to a place whereas news stories answer more W’s in the lede. The writer descipes the imam as “boyishly charming between prayers” and that his stories “left his vistors silent, their coffee cold.” This is feature writing language. The writer includes a historical background to frame the characterization of the imam in the section: An Invitation to Islam. A news story could not afford that much background and it would be treated in fewer sentences.
The writer developed conflict by showing details but did not spell out exactly who opposed the imam. She compared the worldliness in the first paragraph of the lede to the R train that rattled “beneath a littered stretch of sidewalk” and the huddled Mexican workers in the second paragraph of the lede. She said that the challenge for the imam was leading a mosque in America. The writer mentioned that the imam had to go from “rigidity” to “flexibility.” She even reveals conflict in the subtle detail of the two words written on the mosque, “one in Arabic and another in English.”
As far as representing sides, it is difficult to really distinguish what the opposing side is for the imam. Is it the psychological issues faced by his congregation? American problems involving business and diet? Is it that people think he is not rigid enough? Perhaps the conflict is that the people struggle and the imam struggles?
Some insight into what the core of the conflict may be is, again, subtle. The writer mentioned that “some of his [Mr. Shata] views would offend conservative Muslims.” The imam said that at times he found his colleagues were too literal in interpreting the Koran. The writer said that the imam “craved greater independence” at one point, showing his personal struggle. The writer was able to get into the nitty gritty of the problems the imam’s struggles, addressed with overwhelming questions about divorce, pornography, and bacon.
I suppose it is best that the conflict is so subtle. It shows that the writer did not intend to advocate for the imam or for the congregation. Instead of praising the imam for being able to handle all of these issues, she laid out all that he had to struggle with.
A Colorful, Deep Portrait of A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn
Ms. Elliott develops her story through the journey of one man bridging the laws of two different worlds. Though there are many ways in which this story could have been complex, she made Mr. Shata’s journey seem like more of a journey of decision-making.
What I think helped Ms. Elliott develop the conflict in this story was creating the right mix of tension from a variety of sources and anecdotes that add color to a multi-cultural picture. She was keen on detail from the very beginning of the story adding the Mexicans in Bay Ridge, comments from an Egyptian law professor, statistics on the city’s mosques, delineating the McDonald’s conundrum, mentioning the trouble of oral sex, and later pressing into the deeper conflicts of domestic violence and marriage.
The thread that held this conflict story together was the multi-faceted portrait of Mr. Shata as an imam, guidance counselor, lawyer, teacher, and coach all rolled into one and tasked with the challenge of spreading Islam in a Western world. In a post 9/11 context this story gives meaningful insight into the routine and happenings of an inclusive Islamic community.
In a reporter interview with Ms. Elliot on the NYT site, she noted how difficult it was at first to get the mosque to “open its doors” to a photographer and to her questions. Though eventually she made her case, highlighting that in order to get a deeper, truthful portrayal of the community, it is important to study and learn from the imam himself.
Ultimately, I think this conflict story was a product of sharp insight into the most fundamental elements of an Islamic community in the Western world. And the imam is a brilliant element of this community because from this story one can draw the conclusion, that he is the one who holds the community together.
Posted in Commentary and Critiques, Uncategorized
Tagged Kamelia Kilawan
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Deadly Choices at Memorial
The Deadly Choices at Memorial written by Sheri Fink on ProPublica was fair but expressed Fink’s judgment of Dr. Anna Pou’s actions.
Fink captured the devastation of Hurricane Katrina hitting Memorial Medical Center in gripping detail. She involved herself in the investigation of the critically ill evacuees as she writes in first person at times. She was able to portray the irony in decisions that seemed small at the time of their making but that resulted in huge tragedies. In writing about this investigation, she coupled positive information with negatives following, making the piece fair but biased.
The nutgraf of the article shows that she felt the actions of the medical administrators increased the number of deaths at Memorial. She paralleled the actions of a “well-regarded doctor and two respected nurses” to the most deaths- 45 bodies- than any other hospital of the same size. Fink wrote about the night after Katrina hit where the 52 LifeCare patients had not been evacuated and the Coast Guard was denied to take more patients for the night because of poor lighting and infrastructure. Before mentioning this, Fink wrote that the doctors were “under stress and sleeping little.” She said a doctor had ordered a patient’s heart monitor to be turned off and was angry when disobeyed. Although understandable, Fink may suggest that the doctors’ emotional states formed their decision making.
Fink goes farther than putting blame on the group of medical administrators and singles out Dr. Pou. She positively listed the laws and procedures Dr. Pou helped enact after the disaster. She even characterized her as “funny” and “sociable.” Fink injected a negative perspective after mentioning those positives. For example, she said that through her own research, she found that “more medical professionals were involved in the decision to inject patients” than was thought. She later said that “the full details of what Pou did, and why, may never be known.” First she said that many professionals wanted to inject patients but then she pinpoints Dr. Pou as the one who made the game-changing decision.
Fink seemed personally involved in the aftermath of this tragedy. She portrayed the horrors of the storm undoubtedly well. It is both easy and saddening to visualize volunteers carrying “patients who relied on ventilators down five flights of stairs in the dark.” Fink used this information in the piece to paint a picture of the absolutely helpless in the hands of administrators who – quoting one of them- stopped treating and went into survival mode.
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Tagged Deadly Choices at Memorial, Nirvani Harriram
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Deadly Choices and Fink
While reading part one of the tribulations at Memorial Hospital during Hurricane Katarina, investigating journalist Sheri Fink depicts the serve decisions and repercussion doctors made. A reader can feel that Fink showed biasness while writing these pieces, because there are certain parts of the text that indications her resent or misunderstanding of Pou and the other doctors. She included a quote from a doctor stating, “we spend too much on these turkeys… we ought to let them go,” which shows that these doctors are careless and no remorse was shown.
Even though I feel that Fink shows biases and attempts to bring an enlightened view of the events that occurred, as a journalist she also needs to be fair. Within one of the paragraphs, she notes that the beliefs of Pou will never be known but she is active in trying to change emergency protocol. This can show that Pou is regretful for what has happened and she wants to avoid these events from happening again at any hospital.
One of the aspects that are unique about these articles is that Fink takes a topic that many readers are aware of and changes the direction of it. Instead of reporting the events and the transcripts of court cases, she dives into the evidence and talks to people that were at the hospital. Fink takes the reader on journey from the moment the hospital enters Hurricane Katrina to the moments when those deadly decisions were made. She is able to make the reader visualization and feel they were part of the events that happened.
Posted in Deadly Choices at Memorial (Fink)
Tagged John Friia
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“Deadly Choices at Memorial”
In the article, “Deadly Choices at Memorial,” writer, Sheri Fink unveils the events behind the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina that led to the neglect of many hospital patients, which are namely the old, the declining and the most vulnerable. Despite the blame on Anna Pou and the hospital’s decisions, Fink revealed the topic to be a lot more complicated than expected. In details, Fink describes the lack of preparation the hospital had during the tragedy that led to Pou’s controversial decisions. However, despite not clearly placing the blame on Pou, Fink implies that she disagree with the decisions made. Fink had given Pou enough voice in the article to support her argument, but she did not whitewash the horrific results of the dead, helpless corpses that did not deserve to die with neglect. This especially hits hard in the following sentence uttered by one of the doctors:
‘”‘We spend too much on these turkeys,’’ he said some would say. ‘We ought to let them go.’’’
This casual conversation that refers to the patients as “turkeys” waiting to be let go is a harsh portrait of how the decision came to be. It wasn’t a decision that arrived in their minds during the hurricane, but a decision that was looming over their heads.
The eighth paragraph describes Fink’s motivation behind writing the article and the importance of discussing Pou’s decisions despite not fully knowing the full details behind it. And Fink’s motivation is that Pou’s controversial and “agonizing decisions” would arise again. This paragraph immediately shows Fink’s intentions of not simply writing an article that points finger at those she believes were to blame. Instead, Fink wanted to focus the discussion on the events that led to Pou’s decisions so that if ever it arises again, Pou’s argument of lack of preparation would not be tolerated.
Fink does not organize her story chronologically. Instead, she breaks it down by topic that helps the reader analyze the details. By not arranging the story chronologically, Pou is given the chance to voice out her argument without any clear bias against her. Fink finalizes the article with the trial and a profound quote from one of the panelist in the jury:
“‘As bad as disasters are,’’ he said, ‘even worse is survivors who don’t trust each other.'”
By using this quote, Fink shows that the effects of Pou’s decisions goes beyond the death tolls and the families of the patients who were neglected. Her decision led to breaking the crucial bond between survivors, patients and doctors.
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The deadliest choices at Memorial
Sheri Fink does a great job of not showing whether or not she takes a side in the story, however in my opinion she took to the defense of the lifecare patients, basically saying that the decision to sacrifice the sicker patients was wrong without really saying it, but by how she inserted quotes in specific places, such as the end of the first part when she includes a quote from Mark Leblanc, who asked: ” do you just flip a switch and you’re not a hospital anymore?”, she’s trying to lean the reader to see how wrong the way the hospital managed the whole situation was. She gives us an image of a calamity waiting to happen from the moment you start reading.
The paragraph beginning with the full details… is important because it opens the forum to a very important and most likely controversial topic on what paramedics should and should not be able to do in states of emergency, obviously it lets us know that she (FInk) believes this particular part of the story is key, and whether she agrees with it or not, deserves more attention from the public, it is a key aspect of the story, and it is important because she wants the reader to lean in that direction.
The story is organized with the intent to arouse the curiosity of the reader, the beginning of the story is descriptive, but not telling us any real details, after arousing the reader’s attention with descriptive imagery of the bodies, she goes into a sort of narrative story on what exactly happened to lead to the events that caused such controversy into hurricane Katrina, but its also important to note that before she goes into the narrrative, she explains who Ms. Pou is and makes it a case to not portray her as some heartless women, which kind of helps her look as neutral as possible throughout the story.
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The Deadly Choices at Memorial
Shari Fink tells the story of the choices made by the hospital in a balanced fashion. It is clear that Fink does not agree completely with the choices Anna Pou and Dr. Ewing Cook made in deciding who to save and who to let die. She knew that the reader would be disgusted with the circumstances of the situation and the decisions that were made. Fink strategically includes commentary from families who loved ones were declared least likely to survive. She shows the reader the stress the hospital staff is experiencing and the reasoning for their decision making. Fink’s descriptive ability further makes the anxiety and mass death seem like the walking dead without the zombies. Fink is able to win the reader’s heart and ethical mind into thinking how can we better handle disaster situations.
Fink’s bias is fully spelled out in the eighth paragraph. The hyphenated part of the first sentence beginning with that and ending in deserve closer attention shows that Fink does not agree with the legislation Pou is trying to pass. It is made clearer in the second sentence of the paragraph when she says, “health officials are now weighing, with little public discussion and insufficient scientific evidence.” The key word is insufficient because it shows Fink’s disagreement with the ideology. If not why use the word it could have stopped at public discussion. Throughout the rest of the story Fink seems to raise ethical questions along every stop in the story making the reader think in a situation such as this, what is the right decision?
Fink’s story is in chronological order starting in the section “A Shelter from the Storm.” The introduction to the story begins with a descriptive scene of the make shift morgue in Memorial Medical Center. The nutgraf jumps ahead in time to July of 2006 to explain the legal repercussions of decisions made by nurses and doctors at the hospital during hurricane Katrina. At this point, the story follows Anna Pou’s journey on passing legislation in Louisiana. The organization of the story is brilliant for the topic and effective in keeping the reader’s attention.
Posted in Deadly Choices at Memorial (Fink)
Tagged Deadly Choices at Memorial, Earl Mays
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Muslim Leader in Brooklyn
Andrea Elliott does an excellent job profiling the conflicts the Imam Mr. Shata has to deal with on a daily basis, and frames it within multiple larger viewpoints to give the article greater depth. She focuses at first on the Imam’s background in Egypt before coming to the United States, and his economic struggles growing up. This presents the Imam as a humble and learned man, who worked hard to get to where he is now.
There isn’t much of a one on one conflict present in the article, just numerous small conflicts that are brought to the Imam for him to resolve. The article oftentimes presents the point of view of the attendees of the mosque, and the deep emphasis on the background of the islamic religion along with the Imam’s background makes the article more of a feature story than a news story.