Can you get fired for talking to a reporter?
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So, what’s it like working for the clampdown?
For the past few weeks, I’ve wanted to pose this question to my friends and contacts who work for the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).
COMMUNITY VOICES | #OromoProtests in Perspective
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Since April 25th, thousands of high school and university students across Ethiopia’s largest region, Oromia, have turned out in peaceful protest against a government land grab that stands to displace millions of indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands. Even though the country’s constitution theoretically allows for peaceful demonstrations, the student protesters, along with local populations in many cities and towns, have faced a ruthless crackdown from Ethiopian Special Forces, known as the Agazi Commandos. These forces have used excessive violence by indiscriminately shooting into crowds in an attempt to quash the protests. Children as young as eleven years old have been killed, according to statement issued by Amnesty International on May 13, and reports of fatal injuries, torture, imprisonment, disappearances and killings have been coming out of Ethiopia since then.
COMMUNITY VOICES | Community School of Excellence Asian Penguins
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The Community School of Excellence (CSE) is the home to the student club called the Asian Penguins. Don’t be surprised by the name of the student organization. And you’re correct to guess that there are no penguins in Asia. CSE is the only Hmong charter school that has a Linux users group as a student club.What is Linux, you might ask? Linux is a computer operating system, comparable to Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX. Continue Reading
The OK Cast shares the open systems message – and spirit!
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To know Alex Fink, even a bit, is to want to share his ideas, his spirit and his work – specifically his amazingly energetic podcast series. The challenge is to do justice to his work! So I’m just going to focus on the podcast – an exemplary application of a format with which I am enamored. Continue Reading
COMMUNITY VOICES | The untold story of the Iran nuclear scare will be told in the Twin Cities this week
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This is shortly before talks between the P5+1 (The five permanent members of the UN Security Council: U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain + Germany) and Iran resume May 13, to be concluded in June. In the Twin Cities, Porter will examine the premise they are based on. He is the author of the Manufactured Crisis: the Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, published in 2014 (Just World Books). Gareth Porter will address his findings based on an intensive dissection of allegations about Iran’s nuclear program. Porter is “the most conscientious follower of the fantasy danger of Iran’s purported ‘nuclear weapons program,’” according to Iran expert William O. Beeman, a University of Minnesota professor.Gareth Porter, the 2012 recipient of the prestigious London-based Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, an award presented to a journalist who reveals “an unpalatable truth, validated by powerful facts.” (Julian Assange received the award in 2011 for Wikileaks) will be in the Twin Cities Wednesday, May 7, and Thursday, May 8, to talk about the Iran nuclear scare.As an historian and investigative journalist, Porter has been examining U.S. foreign policy, military and security issues regarding the Middle East and Afghanistan, as well as writing on the Philippines, Korea, Cambodia, and Viet Nam. Continue Reading
East Side Radio holds first community meeting
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If the first community meeting was any indication, the new East Side radio station should be broadcasting in at least four languages by the end of the year. Hmong, Somali, and Spanish speakers were among the 40-some people crowding the meeting room at the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council office on April 15.
COMMUNITY VOICES | Beyond awareness: Mental Illness Empathy Month
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May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s a good time to look back on what two great writers have said about their experiences with mental illness. These accounts remind us that even though we’ve made great progress with diagnosis and treatment, we are a long way from fully understanding the darkest corners of the human psyche.Next year will mark the 25th anniversary of William Styron’s groundbreaking national bestseller, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness. Styron, best known for The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie’s Choice, has been haled by many as the first writer to truly capture the “full terror of depression’s psychic landscape.” Darkness Visible illuminated the torment of depression and the taboos of suicide, but whether it increased awareness and decreased stigmatization as much as was hoped and predicted is hard to say. Continue Reading
OPINION | Biased news coverage benefits only the bigots
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A State legislative audit released earlier this year offered some options for strengthening the State’s four councils of color that advocate for Blacks, Asians, Latinos and Native Americans. Unfortunately, recent published reports and editorials in both Twin Cities daily newspapers focused narrowly on these groups’ alleged shortcomings and questioned whether they should continue to exist rather than clarifying the auditor’s actual intent, as the MSR’s reporting has disclosed.
Daily Planet offers free video class in preparation for One Day in the Twin Cities event
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Citizens across the Twin Cities will take to their camcorders and smartphones Saturday, April 26 as part of the cities-wide media creation event, One Day in the Twin Cities.One Day in the Twin Cities is a local project of One Day on Earth to “inform the future of our cities,” according to the event website. Eleven cities across the country, including the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, are taking part in the event, and the Twin Cities Daily Planet is hoping to help aspiring participants share their stories.The Twin Cities Daily Planet is hosting a free, two-hour class on the basics of camcorder and smartphone video making. The class will be lead by Eleonore Wesserle, a trainer and facilitator with Line Break Media.The class will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22 at The Common Table, 2001 Riverside Ave. in Minneapolis. Continue Reading