the morningside post

Rothbury: A Music Festival With Some Suggestions

By Ben Colmery
MIA 2009

In about a month everyone’s going to be asking each other, “So, what did you do over the summer?” Mostly, people are going to be interested in what internships everyone did, and just as importantly, where they did them.

Sure, these are interesting questions for SIPA people. After all, some are out there working on climate change, food security, economic development, conflict resolution, HIV/AIDS, or human rights. They are doing it in places like Ghana, Uganda, Thailand, Brazil, and Nigeria. And so much of it is important work, in the name of helping others.

I, on the other hand, recently did something that was of pivotal importance to helping me. I got my head screwed back on right. It wasn’t until I pulled this off that I realized just how askew my head had become after a year of pushing my brains to their outer reaches at SIPA. For all the good it had done me, something just wasn’t right.

Albany’s Folly: Public Policy Meets Politics

By Courtney Doggart
MIA 2009

With hours to go before Monday’s midnight deadline to vote on New York City’s congestion pricing plan, New York’s legislature failed to vote, effectively killing Mayor Bloomberg’s major initiative (part of PlaNYC) and the $354 million in federal funding that would have accompanied a ‘yes’ vote.

Subway (MTA) riders are now almost certain to face a fare hike in the immediate future due to a $17 billion transit deficit in the $29 billion capital plan and no revenue from the congestion-pricing scheme—subway riders are in for a ride that will be brutish, but certainly not short.  Delays in service upgrades due to lack of funding were anticipated even before the vote deadlock.  Now, the lack of vote on congestion pricing has essentially eliminated MTA plans for Bus Rapid Transit and increased subway service on several lines.  With the city’s population set to grow by 13.9% by 2030, Midtown will not be the only part of the city with congestion problems. 

PARIS & THE “PLIGHT OF THE PACHYDERMS”

Our Modern Media World

Paris & the “Plight of the Pachyderms”

Don’t believe Ms Hilton's Animal Magnetism rules here; Trees fall, unheard

Comment by Tom Lansner

Tom Lansner is adjunct associate professor at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, specializing in international media and communications. He covered conflicts in many countries over a decade as correspondent for the London Observer and other publications. His three-part e-seminar on war reporting is available at Columbia Interactive.

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HAVE we finally seen the perfect media storm? The Mid-November's teacup tempest blew away many other stories, and then became more complex as a torrent of denials and clouds of obfuscation buried a genuinely important story.

In a nutshell, an AP stringer in Gauhauti, the biggest city in Northeast India, filed on 13 November describing local reaction to Paris Hilton’s reported concern over elephants that died in an electrocution accident after sucking down stores of local famers’ rice beer. Paris’s “publicist couldn’t immediately be reached for comment,” AP waved as due diligence. After all, the source was an entertainment website that said it saw the piece in a British tabloid. This story was obviously too good to hold for verification. Hit “send” immediately!

Today, anything Paris Hilton — or Britney, etc.— does (or even doesn’t really do, in this case, as we soon see) is major news for even many of our allegedly most serious news outlets.

AP ran it hard. Pravda picked it up. YahooNews and the Hindustan Times got excited. The Critternews blog commented.  The Orange Country Register in California even elevated Paris’s conjured quote to a headline screamer: “Don't give booze to elephants, sobs Paris Hilton”.

Green Dragon Perspectives: The Real Cost of China's Environmental Crisis

By Kerstin Ahlgren
MIA 2009

David McCann from the Clinton Climate Initiative, Kyle Meng from Environmental Defense, and Jennifer Holdaway from the Social Science Research Council, share a vision for China:  to make addressing global climate change economically feasible and necessary. For McCann, this can be done by retrofitting public buildings, and for Meng by ensuring that the price of carbon is embedded in the economy. For Holdaway, advocacy and research (inherent in which is the collective treatment of environmental and health issues) is necessary to convince government institutions that death and disease stemming from environmental issues are causing a huge drain on the Chinese economy. Some estimates translate this loss to 5.8% of GDP, a vast underestimation according to Holdaway, and much of it is a direct result of individual poverty.

Climate Change, People Power, and the Upcoming Event "Who's A Leader?"

By Elie Chachoua
MPA 2009

[As the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, the US will need to get involved for the solution to climate change to reach a global scale. For this to happen soon, there needs to be more public action to put Climate Change on the US political agenda. Margo Bettencourt (CU Alumni 2006), is a great example of the public taking action. I asked her to comment on how she came to grassroots activism, and on the importance of "Who's a Leader?", an upcoming event she is involved with.]

Can I be an eco-American? I didn’t think so last October when I returned from a two year stint in Paris. Seeing our culture through a fresh lens, I was struck by what seemed like a contradictory stance on climate change. On the one hand, I was overwhelmed by the non-profits, businesses, policies and citizens bathed in various shades of ‘green’, promising to end the climate crisis. Yet, I was still trapped, like most people who can’t afford to live sustainably, in the consumption cycle that fuels climate change.