SIPA NEWS - School of International and Public Affairs - Columbia ...
SIPA NEWS - School of International and Public Affairs - Columbia ...
SIPA NEWS - School of International and Public Affairs - Columbia ...
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SCHOOLWIDEnews<br />
Audiences Enjoy<br />
Speaker Smorgasbord<br />
By Matt Craft<br />
<strong>SIPA</strong> News writer<br />
From former Russian Prime<br />
Minister Victor Chernomyrdin<br />
to author Anna<br />
Quindlen, a steady stream<br />
<strong>of</strong> diplomats, politicians,<br />
academics <strong>and</strong> authors<br />
addressed audiences at <strong>SIPA</strong> this year<br />
on topics as diverse as the speakers<br />
themselves.<br />
AFL-CIO President John<br />
Sweeney urged the linking <strong>of</strong> labor<br />
rights with global trade, Luis Felipe<br />
Bravo, president <strong>of</strong> Mexico’s principal<br />
opposition party, Partido Acción<br />
Nacional, updated students on his<br />
country’s history-making presidential<br />
elections.<br />
Azerbaijan Parliament member<br />
Eldar Namazov surveyed the foreign<br />
policy scene in the Caucasus, while<br />
Tanzanian writer <strong>and</strong> activist Gertrude<br />
Mangella, the secretary general <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Fourth United Nations World Conference<br />
on Women in Beijing, discussed<br />
the role <strong>of</strong> women in conflict resolution<br />
<strong>and</strong> peace negotiation in Africa.<br />
Muhammud Muslih <strong>of</strong> the C.W. Post<br />
Campus <strong>of</strong> Long Isl<strong>and</strong> University<br />
spoke at a conference titled “Peace <strong>and</strong><br />
the Future <strong>of</strong> Syria.”<br />
U.S. <strong>and</strong> Russian economic cooperation<br />
was Chernomyrdin’s topic.<br />
Speaking to an overflow audience in<br />
the Dag Hammarsjkøld Lounge, he<br />
urged the two countries to team up in<br />
a “globalization partnership.” Despite<br />
its grave political <strong>and</strong> economic weaknesses,<br />
Russia will not waver from its<br />
commitment to a market economy, he<br />
said.<br />
Associate Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Muhammud Muslih <strong>of</strong><br />
Long Isl<strong>and</strong> University, former Russian<br />
Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin,<br />
Tanzanian activist Gertrude Mangella,<br />
<strong>and</strong> author Pete Hamill.<br />
“This is our fate,” he said, “<strong>and</strong>,<br />
as they say in Russia, you cannot<br />
escape your fate.”<br />
Chernomyrdin’s was one <strong>of</strong> the<br />
many talks that focused on economics.<br />
Claudio Loser, the director <strong>of</strong> the<br />
<strong>International</strong> Monetary Fund’s Western<br />
Hemisphere Department,<br />
explained how the agency plans to shift<br />
“from crisis management to crisis prevention.”<br />
As part <strong>of</strong> the Journal <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>International</strong> <strong>Affairs</strong>’ conference on<br />
shadow economies, Time magazine’s<br />
Edward Barnes discussed illegal immigration<br />
into the United States.<br />
Journalists tackled an array <strong>of</strong><br />
issues. Pete Hamill, in a speech that<br />
brought tears to the eyes <strong>of</strong> many<br />
audience members, delivered a loving<br />
tribute to Mexico, where he has lived<br />
on <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong>f since the 1950s. It was the<br />
keynote address at a symposium,<br />
“Images <strong>of</strong> Mexico in the U.S.<br />
Media.” Hamill urged Americans to<br />
look beyond the clichéd images <strong>of</strong><br />
Mexico as a hotbed <strong>of</strong> corruption <strong>and</strong><br />
drug trafficking.<br />
Humphrey Hawksley, who<br />
reports on Asia for the BBC <strong>and</strong> has<br />
co-written a novel, Dragon Strike,<br />
sketched a scenario in which the<br />
United States finds itself on the brink<br />
<strong>of</strong> war with China. “What would we<br />
do,” he asked the audience, “if pictures<br />
<strong>of</strong> a massacre in Tibet came up on our<br />
television screen?”<br />
Hawksley said his point was not<br />
to alarm. But he wanted people to<br />
consider what might happen if, for<br />
example, an unsuspecting American<br />
entrepreneur moved his toothpaste<br />
factory to China on the eve <strong>of</strong> a war.<br />
“Keep the global perspective in mind,”<br />
he said, “or you’ll wind up with a<br />
warehouse full <strong>of</strong> toothpaste tubes that<br />
will never get sold.”<br />
In a two-day conference—<br />
“Opening the Channels: Television<br />
<strong>and</strong> Society in the Middle East”—<br />
Middle Eastern journalists <strong>and</strong> <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
faculty members looked at the<br />
recent explosion <strong>of</strong> television channels<br />
<strong>and</strong> news shows in the region.<br />
According to participants, shows<br />
beamed by satellite from London <strong>and</strong><br />
elsewhere are challenging the reliance<br />
on government-owned stations, which<br />
have a reputation for tiptoeing around<br />
anything controversial.<br />
“We are seeing a new generation<br />
<strong>of</strong> Arab television journalists,” said<br />
Moataz Demerdahs, an anchor <strong>and</strong><br />
producer for the London-based Middle<br />
East Broadcasting Center. “We are<br />
not here to do a P.R. job for the government.”<br />
<strong>SIPA</strong> journalism Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Donald<br />
“Pete” Johnston gasped when his<br />
friend, Anna Quindlen, the journalist<br />
<strong>and</strong> novelist, told students at the MPA<br />
Practicum, “I hate to write.”<br />
“But I love having written,” she<br />
added, allowing Johnston to exhale.<br />
“And there is no way to have the one<br />
without the other.”<br />
Quindlen told students that they<br />
shouldn’t be intimidated about writing.<br />
“They are just words,” she said.<br />
“But the truth is that words, really, are<br />
everything.”<br />
<strong>SIPA</strong> speakers are remarkable for<br />
the breadth <strong>of</strong> their subject matter.<br />
The Harriman Institute sponsored a<br />
talk titled, “Autobiographers as<br />
Generic Cross-Dressers,” while the<br />
Paul F. Lazarsfeld Center for the Social<br />
Sciences organized a lecture on quantitative<br />
analysis titled, “What Do Animals<br />
Do All Day?” You probably had<br />
to be there.<br />
12 S I P A n e w s <strong>SIPA</strong>