Random Thoughts

Been doing too much online reading and browsing lately. Here are some highlights:

"If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible psychological reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV on primary day. By all means stay home if you want, but don't bullshit yourself that you're not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote." --David Foster Wallace quoted by Roy Clark in Poynter Online.

A very harsh, well-documented analysis of the beginning of 2007 for New York Times Andean correspondent Simon Romero, who I happen to think is a fantastic writer. Juan Forero of the Washington Post, however, has been breaking the great stories lately. The article is by BoRev, who has no end of criticism for American reporting on South America and reserves particular bile for Romero.

New long-form quarterly planning to do away with the false mantle objectivity in foreign reporting while publishing, among other things, 19,000-word pieces on the real Borat of Kazakhstan. They've got a lineup of heavy hitters and a minimalist website to try to convince you to pay $60 for four magazines. Try an excerpt if you're not convinced--they're longer than most articles you'll find anywhere.

New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend--is that the coolest name or what?--speaks out about how he chews pens and other subjects. Rabid fans of the magazine that uses umlauts over the second 'o' in words like cooperative and never says unique when sui generis will fit take note.

On a personal note (Colombia being a personal topic these days), I came across a five paragraph story (Spanish) that hid under a very numerical lede that the country's Prosecutor's Office say reported disappearances have cuadrupled since 2007 and grown by a factor of 14 since 2003. President Alvaro Uribe, in unrelated news, was elected in 2002.

And I discovered that the Economist agrees with me that Semana magazine, which just released an English edition, is badass. Incidentally, the present cover story published Monday about the military possible murdering citizens is a translation of the Spanish version, which Adriaan reported/transcribed the Saturday it was published. In other words, we beat them to their own story (while giving them credit).

Finally, a virgin appeared on a ceiling, one model 'almost pushed' another and police prevented two people from being resurrected in a busy day for our Trivia section. The most read story I've written for Colombia Reports, by the way, is about Satan's influence over Colombian teenagers. Guess people opt for imaginary evil over the real thing.

Heading things up

Medellín, COLOMBIA--Last week was a good week for headlines. Here's my top three, working from the back:
3. The lede that follows outshines this headline, but I still like it:." (Good thing they didn't steal a Modigliani -- or anything with more than four letters.)
2. This story, at first glance, didn't offer much in the way of headline material, but a stroke of inspiration made something out of nothing: "Colombians causing trouble in paradise."
1. Credit the story, nothing more: "Devil possesses more Ouija-playing teenage girls."

Kay and Kumar go to Colombia

Medellin, COLOMBIA -- As I mentioned in a previous post, despite our offices being located smack dab in the middle of Colombia's second-largest city, the bulk of Colombia Reports' work could be done from anywhere in the world. Part of it is choice: we get Spanish news into English fast. But most of it is resources: we have three writers, one who does only sports.

This isn't the long-term plan. Adriaan's goal, albeit distant, is that the site supplements our swift news feed with original reporting (beyond our new, all-original travel section). Yet for now we mostly translate, compile and summarize. In fact, sometimes, when we're rushed and don't see any value in doing our own version, we lift English-language wire stories. It was doing just that a few days ago that I realized we're not so different from the big boys.

It was the day we'd launched our new website. Eager to cram it with brand new content, we were working hard into the afternoon. My story count, including three that were accidentally lost, was at eight or so. So, when word came that Colombia's state-owned oil company had made its first Wall Street offering, I was happy to see there was a Reuters article available. (After all, for business stories -- peso movements, oil drilling -- we often turn to the British wire service or Bloomberg.) I dragged from just past the dateline to the final sentence. In the credit line, I read, to my shock: "(Reporting by Shivani Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Savio D'Souza)." Reuters, one of the largest, most respected wire services in the world, reports on Colombia from Bangalore, India.

Not that this is news. The fire started with Pasadena Now, who last May unabashedly announced city council meetings would henceforth be reported from, well, the other side of the world. They were followed in June by the Orange County Register, a paper that has actually picked up a handful of Pulitzer prizes over the years, announced an Indian firm would take over some copyediting duties. And while the pair caught a lot of media heat for their moves, bigger fish have also taken the plunge. The Miami Herald had began sending advertising and community sections design seven thousand miles away at the beginning of 2007, and shortly after The Sacramento Bee followed suit.

So, does that mean there is no shame that sometimes I feel like Rajesh?

Oh musical fruit!

Medellín, COLOMBIA--Last week, after more than half a year in Latin America, I learned how to make frijoles. I had bought a few pounds, or maybe kilos, during my first shopping trip here and after exhausting the rest of my more familiar supplies -- rice, lentils, eggs -- I turned to the beans. Being new to the business, the chance presence of my Colombian roommate Giovanni's mother was a blessing. Managing a kind of trial-and-error communication -- her swift, heavily colloquial, paisa patois was a bear for me to untangle -- we assembled a soup that the following quantities, cooking times and order of directions may, just possibly, recreate:

Three cups red beans, soaked overnight (no predjudices against white, black, brown)
One 8-inch plantain, cubed to your pleasure
Two onions, finely chopped (red, white, yellow, whatever)
One carrot
Salt, to taste
Magical cube of seasoning provided by Giovanni
More ingredients which you will buy because you aren't too lazy to go to the market

Rice, as much as you want to eat when the soup is ready
Garlic, if you like your rice that way

Drop the beans, the plantain and the carrot, along with a lot of water into a pressure cooker. Heat until it explodes. Turn it down and go review how many tons of cocaine were recovered by the Colombian authorities in the last half hour. Take pressure cooker off burner, avoid frontal burning thanks to crystal clear warnings not to try to open it right away, instead use fork to hold up steam release until the pot clears. Open, remove now sodden carrot, drop in blender with some juice, blend, return liquid carrot to soup. Toss the onion and seasoning in to the cooker, seal 'er up and put her back on the hot spot. Now is a good time to make the rice, but be sure to wash it first, as that will earn the compliments of any Colombians in the kitchen. Once the pot explodes again, things could possibly be ready to eat. Or they may need another hour on the stove. Eventually, in any case, you will eat them. And, if all has gone well, your roommate will curse the fact that you ever learned.

Back in black, midnight black

Medellín, COLOMBIA--In lieu of actual personal news, I present an update on my friend Midnight. I was checking my email this afternoon, which I am prone to do with the frequency of a goldfish crossing its bowl, and found a new comment message from Juancho--a fellow Midnight groupie, if you haven't fogotten. It read:

I am such an idiot, i just got the whole Ken and Barbie thing.

Whoa. That would be big news. Immediately I checked Midnight's post, a snippet left under my article on the many protests and marches in Colombia this week:

Social activism in the name of rights for the people, excellent!

Ken,

What good is it at all if you can’t spend it on yourself now and then or act like a rock star.

BARBIE

So, what is Juancho's theory? That Barbie's letters are Midnight's take on the Jane and Joe Schmoe point of view? If so, I don't agree. It doesn't explain the servomechanism and the cocaine caviar. Midnight is a nut, an indecipherable, across the board, over the top nut. His nuttiness is only surpassed by my willingness to write long posts about it. My apologies.

As opaque as Midnight

Medellín, COLOMBIA -- Sometime after newspapers went to the web, they began to allow comments. I never used to take much notice. The few lines peeking up from below the article always confirmed my assumptions about such public exchanges--nothing but snide and poorly punctuated partisan blabber. (I can recall only one recent occasion in which I read through the comments. It was an article about journalism internships.) Since I started writing for Colombia Reports, my outlook has changed little. But I have gotten to know one particularly special commentor. 'Midnight'.

Penning an appropriate introduction has proven beyond me tonight, so I will simply present Midnight (man? woman? beast? I'll use a male pronoun for ease of reading) in his own words. This gem, far less opaque than his usual opinionating, came in response to an article I wrote on the lack of a Colombia-U.S. judicial cooperation bill:

Gee Ken,

I don't think that the DOJ, or Supreme Court need anything not even a video to expedite a hearing for the murders, not in this country. I may be wrong, I have been before but I believe that they have what they need right now. I have the family, family rules or what?

BARBIE

Yes, he is BARBIE. No, he is not always so lucid. And no, he is not always Barbie. For part two, I'll give you a more typical example, but stick with the family theme. He wrote this one today under my article about Colombian president Alvaro suggesting possible successors, including two women:

Excellent idea. I am just shocked, very generous, if you love something you will always find your way to this. Nobility is a just cause.

There are always those who will deny justice but in the end it will prevail. Isn’t that the funny thing. When some people say one way or another, they say it to defy justice, and when others say it, they say it to rectify or enforce it.

Ken,

It’s always the family, always, right now.

BARBIE

Despite the vast majority of our visitors coming from the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, a disproportionate of posters are, I assume from their grammar, non-native English speakers. This is fitting, as Adriaan is Dutch. But there is no guessing where Midnight hails from. Perhaps another planet. Here is a serious rant prompted (?) by an article I wrote on a Danish judge refusing evidence because it might have been gained by torture:

Common sense, yes thats what I expect. Common sense.

Ken,

If I have to take time to move I’m going to let the family scrutinize you. Will Colombia be there when I get back? Will you still be eligible for my spontaneity and humor? Can you follow family rules?

I will watch as closely as possible but there is a lot going on right now. I have to keep up with your better half. This I can do while not paying attention. You will find that when you get done with your cleaning and all of you are right now that you will once again be gaining ground all of you together. There is a plan and a feasible one.
Unlike myself you still have a budget, I belong to the servomechanism, please don’t make them come get me, it only causes us all to get upset.

DO YOU HEAR ME NOW?

BARBIE

I want to hear more about the servomechanism. Actually, Midnight is not always nuts. Sometimes forgets his role as resident nut and turns out rather cogent analysis. But that's only sometimes. The rest of the time it's off-the-wall commentary followed by Mattel-inspired garble. I wondered about this bi-polar schism until I came across this post:

Oh no! People do not think that, no not at all. Most people actually realize a wise investment in the future themselves. I myself check out the entire south basin all of the time, the wildlife and one never knows what I may have my hands in too. We don't want, "a rich man from this very website to catch on though." Machismo and all.

I was raised right outside of the gates of a military base however, and he's not only grating on my last nerve he is now squeezing my mainline. You understand.

Funny story one time another Ken launched all out warfare with me using bugs. The fifth month into it he looked terribly ragged and wanted to know how I came so clean.

The time before another Ken launched all out warfare on me and claimed to have the ability to make a mother f888ing junkie out of me. A few months into it and unsuccessful he parked his van outside of my house, unshaven and discouraged he caved right there.

You would not believe some of the ideas that I have had to endure.

Ken,

That dirty wash was not for free, no more cocaine caviar for you I didn't even like your predecessors. If I did know they were getting bags dumped on their heads I was on the East coast listening to the Sultans of Swing.

BARBIE

It seems we've been hearing from BARBIE -- why is it all caps all the time? -- the whole time. No fascinating split personalities here. Just one unforgettable one. And I'm not the only one who appreciates it:

Juancho to Midnight -

Your comments are extremely mind boggling to read. I am yet to understand one single comment, but I tip my hat to you midnight. You are fun to read. Don’t go sane on us now.

I second that.

A day in the Colombian news winds

Medellín, COLOMBIA -- It started out as a normal day. I knocked out a poll story, then our fourth piece with a headline starting "ICC Prosecutor..." -- although my now old friend Luis Moreno Ocampo had long since finished his three-day Colombian tour. Then suddenly the president was going to prison.

"Uribe's arrest ordered," one bold copywriter put it. I figured it was the latest volley in the battle of words between the country's Supreme Court and Colombian president Alvaro Uribe's administration. But surprisingly, the culprit was a court in the tiny department of Sucre. Apparently a bunch of judges, clerks and other court employees weren't happy their wages had not been equalized as promised.

A few other articles came and went, I spent a long lunch making beans, but when I sat down to eat, there was Uribe. He said he was going to appeal. I finished my lunch at the computer, banging out the new development.

But the story hadn't even been moved from ready to published before the final news of the day hit: the Supreme Court had overturned the prison sentence. The Colombian soap opera of the day was over.

In the course of reviewing the various media reports for each article, there was only a single piece that spoke with a legal expert. Seeing as the Supreme Court's position was, simply, this isn't allowed by the Constitution, that would have seemed an obvious reference point. But it didn't break with custom. In Colombia, you don't call to get the other side's story; you write another story. I'm still getting used to that one.