|
|
Government without newspapers?
Michael Alan Hamlin
Jon Meacham and Fareed Zakaria, in a joint column introducing the new format for the weekly magazine Newsweek , mused in their May 25 issue that, “At an otherwise lighthearted White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, President Obama concluded his remarks on a serious note, quoting Thomas Jefferson, who remarked that he would rather have newspapers and no government than a government without newspapers.”
Meacham is editor (and as an author recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography) and Zakaria is international editor “of a reinvented and rethought Newsweek.” The shift in format is an acknowledgement that “the Internet does a good job of playing the role long filled by newspapers, delivering headlines, opinions, and instant analysis.” With many newspapers forced as a result to deliver big-picture thinking-a role newsweeklies were created to fill-the new role of the editors’ reinvented newsweekly is to bring readers “as intellectually satisfying and as visually rich an experience as the great monthlies of old did, but on a weekly basis.”
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/27/2009 11:24:20 AM |
|
|
|
Will ASEAN be a community by 2015?
Orly Mercado
Recently, I was invited to speak before this year’s fellows of the South East Asian Press Alliance in Bangkok. After my talk, I stayed to listen to the afternoon session that featured an intelligent and articulate Thai academician who confidently declared, “ASEAN won’t be a community by 2015.” As a recently appointed Ambassador (Permanent Representative) of the Philippines to ASEAN, the remark caught my attention. After all, the new Charter that created the new post I now occupy is precisely aimed at creating an ASEAN community. In fact, the original target of 2020 was moved earlier to 2015. Personally, aside from advancing the interests of the country I represent, I consider efforts towards building this community as the real measure of my performance as a member of the Committee of Permanent Representatives. Is the objective attainable?
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/23/2009 1:11:14 PM |
|
|
|
Executives: Trade, not protectionism
Michael Alan Hamlin
The results of the latest McKinsey Quarterly survey (subscription required) on economic conditions in the view of senior executives around the world suggest that the global economy may be turning the corner. Almost 25% of respondents “expect their nations’ economies to be in better shape by the end of June-significantly more than thought that six weeks ago.” A significant number, 35%, expect an overall upturn by the end of the year.
Philippine business should find reason to cheer these results. If the global economy is turning around, demand for exports will swell, job creation will increase resulting in even higher remittances, and investment (such as it is) should begin to recover. Sectors that have been pushing for support of local products in the form of high tariffs on imported products, such as the Federation of Philippine Industries, won’t be pleased with the results of the survey, however.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/20/2009 1:06:48 PM |
|
|
|
A political shot in the foot of economic development
Paul Bograd
And this time it is not the politicians' fault... Sort of
With your permission I will start off today’s missive with a couple of trite old sayings:
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/16/2009 12:38:35 PM |
|
|
|
#nerdprom
Michael Alan Hamlin
Checking out the latest tweets from the incredibly interesting people I follow on Twitter Sunday morning, I noticed that a number of these famous and infamous personalities were on the way to the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced that he was grocery shopping before heading out to the glittery evening after dropping off his dry cleaning and getting some shoes repaired. Cool.
The New York Times media correspondent David Carr ran into Captain Richard Phillips at a pre-dinner party and tweeted, “Every year, #nerdprom pivots around heroes. He’s one of the It Boys this year.” (The quote is edited from the original abbreviated syntax.) Phillips of course is the captain of the Maersk Alabama who was kidnapped and freed when US Navy Seals simultaneously shot his captors from the heaving stern of the USS Bainbridge. They had been holding Phillips in a lifeboat drifting a "safe" distance from the warship.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/13/2009 1:30:31 PM |
|
|
|
Another Thai cover up
Michael Alan Hamlin
Murder on the beach?
For many years, Thailand has managed to keep violence against foreign tourists mostly out of media. With the economy crumbling amidst political chaos, this time could be different.
|
Posted
5/9/2009 5:05:52 PM |
|
|
|
Three good things
Michael Alan Hamlin
CNN news anchor Kristie Lu Stout, leading into a segment on Manny Pacquiao’s crushing victory over Ricky Hatton on Sunday, said Monday morning that while most news out of the Philippines is negative, Pacquiao was a rare good news story that not only sent the Philippines into a frenetic, nationwide celebration but also captured the attention of the world. “Even communist insurgents and military soldiers set aside their weapons to watch the fight,” another announcer earlier noted.
“They had to mention communist insurgents,” I thought to myself as I listened to the breezy commentary. Stout’s surprise that good news can come out of the Philippines seemed sincere and unfeigned. The reports were typically punctuated with Pacquiao and Hatton’s struggles with poverty, the loyalty of their impassioned fans, and in the case of Pacquiao, the political ambitions he holds along with his closest supporters.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/7/2009 4:24:45 PM |
|
|
|
Twiting swine flu and Asia
Paul Bograd
I would like to suggest an alternative view of why Asia has been largely spared from the recent so-called “Pandemic” of Swine Flu.
I can sum up the reason in 4 simple words:
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/4/2009 2:30:16 PM |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
