NEWS YOU CAN USE | Egal Shidad: Stories of Somali health to air October 6 by Mary Thoemke, TC Daily Planet • Every culture has its fairy tales and story tellers, and in Somali folklore, Egal Shidad is a character that is known as a “wise fool.” Now Egal Shidad is the star of a new production that focuses on mental health issues in the Somali communities of Minnesota. The program airs Monday, October 6 on both radio and TV. While the program uses the Somali language, it will also be translated into English, and will be available online.
Lawyer turned social designer: Pro-democracy advocate and reformer Won Soon Park by Martha Vickery, Korean Quarterly • At age 53 after building his third social reform organization in Korea, Won Soon Park has lately added a new title to his business card, “social designer.” It’s as though he finally has arrived at some terminology to describe the ways he continues to strive to move South Korea closer to the just, tolerant and progressive society he knows it could be.
Battery-powered bicycles provide gas-free transportation by David Introwitz-Williams, Minnesota Daily • Campus commuters looking for a gas-free and sweat-free way to get around need look no further.
Shooting at Blondies killed one, injured two…Liberians plan big meeting by staff, The Liberian Journal • Blondie’s Sports Bar & Grill in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, has generated another widespread concern amongst residents of the city, after a 19-year-old African-American man, Romel Jones, was shot dead at around 12:06 am on September 24, 2008.
NEW IN BLOGS
ARTS ORBIT | New Bob Dylan video, album streaming for free by Jay Gabler • A week in advance of its official release, Bob Dylan’s new album Tell Tale Signs—a compilation of rarities and unreleased tracks recorded over the past two decades—is available to hear in its entirety via streaming audio on NPR Music. Also available is the video for the first single, “Dreamin’ of You.”
FACTS AND FICTIONS | Retirement in modern America by Eleanor Arnason • I just asked Patrick why he sighed. He said he was reading a small article. The number of employed people who are over 65 doubled from 1977 to 2007; and the number of those people who work full time rose from 44% to 56% from 1995 to the present.
BLOG OF THE MODERATE LEFT | The non-issue issue by Jeff Fecke • It seems that debates are won and lost of late not on the issues — the idea! — but on something meta, beneath the surface of the debate. In 2000, it was Gore sighing when Bush was behaving like an idiot. In 2004, it was Kerry correctly noting that Dick Cheney’s out lesbian daughter was lesbian. These were huge transgressions, far greater than anything actually said about substance, and these were the reasons that the press gave for giving Dubya victories.
BY THE PEOPLE | Farmington organizing to support veterans, military families by Ellen Tveit, 9/30/08 • Annette Kuyper exudes energy and, dressed in jeans and a hoodie when I first met her, I assumed she was in her mid-30s. She probably isn’t much older than that, actually, but she’s already been through the deployment of her son to Iraq.
ARTS ORBIT | Sigur Rós at the Orpheum, 9/25 by Erik T • The sheer volume of confetti was indeed a surprise.
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