lwsimmons.org

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Gay Talese wants to go to Iraq. “It so happens there is someone that’s working on such a thing right now for me,” the 75-year-old legendary journalist and author told David Shankbone. “Even if I was on Al-Jazeera with a gun to my head, I wouldn’t be pleading with those bastards! I’d say, ‘Go ahead. Make my day.'”

Few reporters will ever reach the stature of Talese. His 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, was not only cited by The Economist as the greatest profile of Sinatra ever written, but is considered the greatest of any celebrity profile ever written. In the 70th anniversary issue of Esquire in October 2003, the editors declared the piece the “Best Story Esquire Ever Published.”

Talese helped create and define a new style of literary reporting called New Journalism. Talese himself told National Public Radio he rejects this label (“The term new journalism became very fashionable on college campuses in the 1970s and some of its practitioners tended to be a little loose with the facts. And that’s where I wanted to part company.”)

He is not bothered by the Bancrofts selling The Wall Street Journal—”It’s not like we should lament the passing of some noble dynasty!”—to Rupert Murdoch, but he is bothered by how the press supported and sold the Iraq War to the American people. “The press in Washington got us into this war as much as the people that are controlling it,” said Talese. “They took information that was second-hand information, and they went along with it.” He wants to see the Washington press corp disbanded and sent around the country to get back in touch with the people it covers; that the press should not be so focused on–and in bed with–the federal government.

Augusten Burroughs once said that writers are experience junkies, and Talese fits the bill. Talese–who has been married to Nan Talese (she edited James Frey‘s Million Little Piece) for fifty years–can be found at baseball games in Cuba or the gay bars of Beijing, wanting to see humanity in all its experience.

Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s interview with Gay Talese.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Local residents of Dungog, a small country town in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, held a celebratory nature walk on Sunday after they received assurance that their local forest was deemed worthy of “enduring protection.” Previously, a proposal before the NSW government to log over one million hectares of protected national park forests had caused alarm among nature conservationists.

To celebrate the continued protection of national parks in NSW, a free guided walk was held on Sunday in the Black Bulga Range Conservation Area. This family-friendly nature ramble meandered along the mountain’s ridge, with locals enjoying the forest, sharing a cup of billy tea and knowledge about the local forest’s ecology and history. The physical presence of the locals in the forest demonstrated their continued use of this area and the importance of national parks for the community.

Since early 2012, the possibility of logging for commercial timber in NSW national parks had been emerging. A state government inquiry on the management of public land in NSW received submissions and evidence from both the Australian and NSW Forest Products Associations (FPA). The FPA’s recommendation to “tenure swap” between national parks and state forests in order to sustain the timber industry were included in the final governmental report.

The process began in April 2012 when the NSW Legislative Council —the upper house of the parliament of NSW— established an inquiry into the management of public land in New South Wales, conducted by the General Purpose Standing Committee No. 5. According to a media release from the Legislative Council at the time, the primary purpose of the inquiry was to “scrutinise the management of the State’s public land and review the process and impact of converting Crown Land, State Forests or agricultural land into National Park estate.”

By August that year, the committee had received a recommendation from Mr. Grant Johnson of the Australian Forests Products Association for the “re-introduction of harvesting activities in forest areas previously set aside for conservation.” The following month, Mr. Johnson and Mr Russell Alan Ainley, Executive Director, NSW Forest Products Association, were invited before the committee. At this hearing, the chair, Mr. R. L. Brown, member for the Shooters and Fishers Party, asked Mr. Ainley for “a calculation of the area currently in [national parks] reserve that would need to be returned [to state forest] to be available for timber extraction”. In response, Mr. Ainley suggested “a little more than one million hectares.”

On May 15, the NSW Legislative Council published a Final Report on the management of public land in New South Wales. Among its key recommendations was that “the NSW Government immediately identify appropriate reserved areas for release to meet the levels of wood supply needed to sustain the timber industry, and that the NSW Government take priority action to release these areas, if necessary by a ‘tenure swap’ between national park estate and State forests. In particular, urgent action is required for the timber industry in the Pilliga region.”

A “tenure swap” would reserve areas of NSW state forest where logging is now allowed, in exchange for opening areas of national parks for logging.

Environment groups such as The Nature Conservation Council of NSW and The Wilderness Society announced that these government documents signaled an immediate threat of logging in national parks in NSW. This information raised concerns of other community and activist groups because logging is not conducted in national parks in Australia. According to the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, a national park is an area designated to “protect Australia’s plants, animals, ecosystems, unique geology and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultural connections to the land.”

The Black Bulga State Conservation Area was one of many parks listed by the environment group Save Your National Parks as potentially vulnerable for “tenure swap”. This forest covers 1554 hectares and connects Dungog Shire to the World Heritage listed Barrington Tops National Park, part of a green corridor from the ocean to the mountains.

Residents living near the forest were concerned by the proposal for logging in their area. A local information day held in June, at the Settlers Arms, Dungog, motivated local action. As a consequence of the event, over forty hand-written letters were posted to the Premier and local MPs. In a recent reply from the NSW government, the Minister for the Environment, Robyn Parker, stated: “The Government does not support commercial logging in national parks and reserves, including Black Bulga State Conservation Area, and has no plans to allow it. The NSW Government recognises that our national parks and reserves are special and unique places that deserve enduring protection. The Government is committed to their important role in conserving native flora and fauna and cultural heritage, and to improving community well-being through increased opportunities for recreation and tourism”.

As reported in the Dungog Chronicle, Jo New of the Black Bulga Range Action Group was thrilled by the government’s response to a community-driven campaign. “It goes to show what a wonderful impact local people can have after they do something simple, like posting a letter”.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

A panel discussion titled “Truth about Srebrenica” held at the law school at the University of Belgrade yesterday almost turned into a physical fight between panel participants and several dozen protesters.

The panel was organized by a nationalist student organization Nomokanon to mark what they consider, according to their promotional posters, “the anniversary of the liberation of Srebrenica.” According to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Bosnian Serb forces murdered more than 7,000 Bosniaks in 1995 in Srebrenica, during the war in Bosnia.

General Radislav Krsti? was convicted for his involvement and sentenced to serve 46 years in prison. Two other suspects, Radovan Karadži? and Ratko Mladi? are still on the run.

Protesters included activists of political parties Civic Alliance of Serbia, G17+ and Social Democrat Union as well as Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) Women in Black, Kapiraj-Kopiraj and Youth Initiative. Their activity delayed the start for half an hour. Organizations which protested this forum claim that Serbia should face its involvement in Bosnia and should not deny allegations of crimes committed by Serbian forces.

Many of the participants were wearing t-shirts with pictures of Radovan Karadži? followed by text “Serbian hero.” Some wore t-shirts of the Serbian nationalist organization Obraz.

The panel began at 19:30 local time, but the first ten minutes passed in a verbal fight between protestors and participants. Protesters were booing, and participants responded by calling them Ustashe, faggots, Soros’ workers, and traitors. Most protesters then left the room.

According to B92, one young man who protested said that security was “very unpleasant”. He was quoted as saying: “[Security] told us things like: ‘What’s up, Croats’ and ‘Faggots, we will beat you up now.'”

Four speakers took part in the panel:

• Milivoje Ivaniševi?, the president of the Center for Research of Crimes Against Serbs
• Radovan Radinovi?, a retired army general
• Dragoslav Ognjanovi?, Miloševi?’s attorney
• And journalist Ljiljana Bulatovi?.

Participants said that there was no genocide in Srebrenica but that only Muslim soldiers were killed, which was misrepresented to the public to bring international military action against Serbs. One participant said that only 2,500 people were killed, and that only 500 of them could have been shot in a fusillade, since there were only so many blindfolds found next to bodies.

One of the speakers congratulated Nomokanon for talking about “the truth, so nobody can force us to be ashamed of what deserves our respect.”

University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Law postponed the panel once and did not officially endorse it.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

On Wednesday, Chile, the host nation, defeated the defending champions, Uruguay, in the first quarter final of the 2015 Copa América ^{((en)) Spanish language: America Cup} which was held in Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos stadium in Santiago, Chile.

La Roja had 80% possession of the ball in front of Uruguay. Two Uruguayan players were red carded in this match.

Mauricio Isla scored in the 81^st minute, assisted by Jorge Valdívia, the only goal of the match. Cavani got his yellow card at the 29^th by arguing with a linesman. 11 minutes later, Uruguayan defender Jorge Fucile was booked for clattering on Vargas. The first half ended with 0–0 score, and four players booked.

Cavani’s father Luis Cavani was arrested earlier this week over a Monday truck crash in which a 19-year-old motorcyclist was killed. Then, in the 63^rd minute Chilean defender Jara provoked Cavani reportedly by putting his finger in Cavani’s anus. Cavani touched Jara’s face, and Jara fell to the ground causing Cavani to get a card. The Uruguayan team had only nine men left after Fucile received his second yellow card for a foul on Alexis Sánchez.

Friday, May 5, 2006

Monday, February 7, 2005

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