May 20, 2004

In other news...

Posted by Eszter

Some issues get a lot of play in the media while others go completely ignored. The UN has a site devoted to “10 Stories the world should hear more about”. Of course, one could probably compile an endless list of stories we shouldn’t be ignoring, but it’s certainly one place to start. You can read about child soldiers in Uganda, the role of women in negotiating piece and rebuilding societies (did you know that in Rwanda women hold 49% of seats in the legislature?), and the disappearance of some peoples and languages (did you know that there are languages out there spoken by less than 100 people?). These snapshots of stories are very short and the descriptions of the issues seem a bit simplistic at times, but it’s an interesting place to start for coverage of important topics that don’t seem to get much mass media attention. Alternatively, you can always head over to The Head Heeb who manages to cover a lot of issues from certain parts of the world that seem to go ignored by many. (Thanks to Neat New Stuff for the pointer to the UN site.)

Posted on May 20, 2004 07:24 PM UTC
Comments

did you know that in Rwanda women hold 49% of seats in the legislature

yes.

did you know that there are languages out there spoken by less than 100 people?

i find it truly astonishing that anyone could possibly not know.

Alternatively, you can always head over to The Head Heeb who manages to cover a lot of issues from certain parts of the world that seem to go ignored by many.

many what? uh, jokes aside, an interesting alternative way is to acquire some adjectives before “mass media”, especially since so many journals have online editions now.

Posted by drapeto · May 20, 2004 08:20 PM

I notice that the alledged bribes,graft, kickbacks, oil contracts, etc. paid by Iraq to UN officials and their relatives didn’t make the top ten list!!!

Posted by gary nelson · May 20, 2004 08:40 PM

“did you know that in Rwanda women hold 49% of seats in the legislature”
I think you’ll find that this isnt the result of “democarcy” but rather a consequence of th past genocide and Kagame ensuring that parliament is stacked with his loyal apointees. So are you suggesting this is a good story or a bad story? Or just interesting in an amoral sort of way?

Posted by Giles · May 20, 2004 09:04 PM

Giles - When I said that the reports were short and too simplistic, I was referring precisely to the fact that the reasons for and implications of certain figures and facts reported are more complex than they may appear. I wasn’t claiming good or bad, I was just suggesting that these topics seem to be interesting and important but don’t get much discussion. I am guilty of not knowing enough of the details myself to really comment, I’m afraid. So consider this just a pointer to what I thought may be material of interest to some.

Posted by eszter · May 20, 2004 09:39 PM

I know but this isn’t a news site you’ve pointed out - its a PR source.

So its a good start for stories that the UN wants us to know about in the way they want us to know about them. But not much else.

Posted by Giles · May 20, 2004 11:22 PM

I think it’s interesting to see what news items the UN PR people think are of interest and don’t get covered much. If then interested in more, with reasonable search skills, one can follow up for more info.

Posted by eszter · May 20, 2004 11:36 PM

What would be more interesting is to see whether these 10 stories are aid supply or aid demand driven i.e. are they 10 stories the world should hear more about because people need help or 10 UN departments the world should hear more about because they want more funds.

Looking down the list its seems to be roughly one story one department. It might be interesting to see if this trend holds.

If it did, that would suggest that the UN is not overly concerned about the efficient allocation of aid effort and more interested in the expansion of its departments.

Posted by Giles · May 21, 2004 01:12 AM

This weeks New Scientist editorial was on the failure to make any progress on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty in the “Preparatory Committee for 2005 NPT Review” and the minimal media comment on the subject. Here is the UN press release.

Posted by rdb · May 21, 2004 05:33 AM
Followups

→ IT'S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT OIL.
Excerpt: Timberite Eszter Hargittai points us to the United Nations website and specifically the page where they highlight "10 stories the world should know more about", such as "Overfishing: a threat to marine biodiversity" and "Indigenous peoples living in vo...Read more at Begging To Differ
→ UN on Indigenous Peoples.
Excerpt: One of the UN’s “Top Ten Stories The World Should Hear More About”: Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation A number of Amazonian groups face extinction as their space to live away from the modern world disappears Far from th...Read more at semantics etc.

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.