April 17, 2006

World Media Watch

by Gloria R. Lalumia

BuzzFlash Note: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR APRIL 17, 2006

1//The Telegraph, UK--‘SPEAK SOFTLY, DON’T ARGUE AND SLOW DOWN’ (Loud and brash, in gawdy garb and baseball caps, more than three million of them flock to our shores every year. Shuffling between tourist sites or preparing to negotiate a business deal, they bemoan the failings of the world outside the United States. The reputation of the "Ugly American" abroad is not, however, just some cruel stereotype, but - according to the American government itself - worryingly accurate. Now, the State Department in Washington has joined forces with American industry to plan an image make-over by issuing guides for Americans travelling overseas on how to behave. Under a programme starting next month, several leading US companies will give employees heading abroad a "World Citizens Guide" featuring 16 etiquette tips on how they can help improve America's battered international image. Business for Diplomatic Action [BDA], a non-profit group funded by big American companies, has also met Karen Hughes, the head of public diplomacy at the State Department, to discuss issuing the guide with every new US passport. The goal is to create an army of civilian ambassadors. The guide offers a series of "simple suggestions" under the slogan, "Help your country while you travel for your company." [Note: See tips below in full article.]

2//The Moscow Times, Russia--5 YEARS ON, HUNDREDS MOURN NTV TAKEOVER (On the fifth anniversary of Gazprom's takeover of NTV television, some 1,500 protesters and several prominent former NTV journalists rallied Sunday on Pushkin Square to demand greater media freedom and a television free of Kremlin control. The protesters -- many of them pensioners who pledged to listen only to independent Ekho Moskvy radio -- gathered at 1 p.m., waving Russian flags, wearing "I'm free" pins, and holding posters reading, "Kremlin, get away from TV," or "Take the remote control away from Putin." … Gazprom, the state-controlled gas giant, took over NTV on April 14, 2001, in what it said was an attempt to recoup multimillion-dollar debts owed by the channel's parent company, Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-MOST. Gusinsky and media freedom champions denounced the takeover as Kremlin-orchestrated and said it was motivated by NTV's critical coverage of the Kremlin and the war in Chechnya. Journalists left NTV en masse.)

3//The Globe and Mail, Canada--A NEW DEAL FROM THE ‘MEXICAN MESSIAH’ (When he climbs out of an SUV, the 52-year-old candidate for the left-of-centre PRD party is thronged by the enthusiastic crowd who shout his name and reach out to touch him. Dressed in a traditional guayabera, the long white shirt popular in Latin America, his head and neck topped with garlands of white and yellow flowers, Mr. Lopez Obrador looks like a cross between a 1960s guru and a Roman emperor. Mr. Lopez Obrador, who rose to prominence as Mexico City's activist mayor, is leading the pack [although his lead is shrinking] in the race to replace Vicente Fox as Mexican president in the July 2 vote. “We need a transformation, a purification of our public life so that there is no longer so much poverty and so much marginalization,” Mr. Lopez Obrador told the crowd. “Mexico belongs to everybody, not just to the few.” … George Grayson, a political scientist at the College of William & Mary in Virginia and author of Mexican Messiah, a newly published biography of Mr. Lopez Obrador, said he may be a populist, but he also has some troubling traits. “He's authoritarian. He's secretive. He's messianic, not one who listens to advice from other people. ... When he's criticized, it's always a conspiracy. He's never wrong. ...”)

4//MercoPress, Uruguay--OIL LAW MAY HIT EQUADOR-US DEAL (New legislation designed to increase the state’s share of windfall oil revenues by some $600m a year is set to derail Ecuador’s plans to negotiate a trade deal with the US, according to government officials. … The legislation – designed by Diego Borja, the economy minister – raises the government share of windfall revenues to 50 per cent, compared with an average of 30 per cent today, and would generate additional income of about $600m a year. … Ecuador is one of a number of Latin American countries eyeing a bigger share of revenues generated by rises in the prices of oil, gas and other natural resources. Its oil contracts were negotiated when oil was trading at less than $20 a barrel. Mr Chiriboga criticised the timing of the government’s announcement, which he says reflected “poor co-ordination” between ministers. Negotiations are especially complicated because Ecuadorian legislators – who are seeking an even tougher version of the law with a 60 per cent state share of windfall revenues – have still to approve the law.)

5//Canada.com, Canada--LIBERALS SATISFIED WITH HARPER, SAYS POLL (The Conservatives got a passing grade from a healthy proportion of voters who didn't support them during the January election, a new poll suggests. Forty per cent of Liberal voters, and a quarter of NDP and Bloc Quebecois voters, told Decima Research that they were generally satisfied with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. The Conservatives won 36 per cent of the popular vote during the last election. Pollster Bruce Anderson cautions that the numbers don't mean that those Liberal, NDP and Bloc voters would automatically check off Conservative on their ballot if an election was held tomorrow. But the party is doing something right. "If the big test for a Stephen Harper-led Conservative government is whether or not it could appeal to centrist voters, the early results here suggest it's doing that in a relatively significant fashion," Anderson said.)

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1//The Telegraph, UK Monday 17 April 2006

‘SPEAK SOFTLY, DON’T ARGUE AND SLOW DOWN’
By Philip Sherwell
(Filed: 16/04/2006)

Loud and brash, in gawdy garb and baseball caps, more than three million of them flock to our shores every year. Shuffling between tourist sites or preparing to negotiate a business deal, they bemoan the failings of the world outside the United States.

The reputation of the "Ugly American" abroad is not, however, just some cruel stereotype, but - according to the American government itself - worryingly accurate. Now, the State Department in Washington has joined forces with American industry to plan an image make-over by issuing guides for Americans travelling overseas on how to behave.

Under a programme starting next month, several leading US companies will give employees heading abroad a "World Citizens Guide" featuring 16 etiquette tips on how they can help improve America's battered international image.

Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA), a non-profit group funded by big American companies, has also met Karen Hughes, the head of public diplomacy at the State Department, to discuss issuing the guide with every new US passport. The goal is to create an army of civilian ambassadors.

The guide offers a series of "simple suggestions" under the slogan, "Help your country while you travel for your company". The advice targets a series of common American traits and includes:

• Think as big as you like but talk and act smaller. (In many countries, any form of boasting is considered very rude. Talking about wealth, power or status - corporate or personal - can create resentment.)

• Listen at least as much as you talk. (By all means, talk about America and your life in our country. But also ask people you're visiting about themselves and their way of life.)

• Save the lectures for your kids. (Whatever your subject of discussion, let it be a discussion not a lecture. Justified or not, the US is seen as imposing its will on the world.)

• Think a little locally. (Try to find a few topics that are important in the local popular culture. Remember, most people in the world have little or no interest in the World Series or the Super Bowl. What we call "soccer" is football everywhere else. And it's the most popular sport on the planet.)

• Slow down. (We talk fast, eat fast, move fast, live fast. Many cultures do not.)

• Speak lower and slower. (A loud voice is often perceived as bragging. A fast talker can be seen as aggressive and threatening.)

• Your religion is your religion and not necessarily theirs. (Religion is usually considered deeply personal, not a subject for public discussions.)

• If you talk politics, talk - don't argue. (Steer clear of arguments about American politics, even if someone is attacking US politicians or policies. Agree to disagree.)

Keith Reinhard, one of New York's top advertising executives, who heads BDA, said: "Surveys consistently show that Americans are viewed as arrogant, insensitive, over-materialistic and ignorant about local values. That, in short, is the image of the Ugly American abroad and we want to change it."

The guide also offers tips on the dangers of dressing too casually, the pluses of learning a few words of the local language, use of hand gestures and even map-reading.

Of course, US foreign policy - and perceptions of it - currently has the biggest impact on the image of Americans abroad. President George W Bush recognised this when he appointed Ms Hughes, a close confidante, to head the country's public diplomacy push. But Mr Reinhard and his colleagues are convinced that individual Americans can also make a difference.

(MORE)

2//The Moscow Times, Russia Monday, April 17, 2006. Issue 3394. Page 1.

5 YEARS ON, HUNDREDS MOURN NTV TAKEOVER
By Francesca Mereu, Staff Writer

On the fifth anniversary of Gazprom's takeover of NTV television, some 1,500 protesters and several prominent former NTV journalists rallied Sunday on Pushkin Square to demand greater media freedom and a television free of Kremlin control.

The protesters -- many of them pensioners who pledged to listen only to independent Ekho Moskvy radio -- gathered at 1 p.m., waving Russian flags, wearing "I'm free" pins, and holding posters reading, "Kremlin, get away from TV," or "Take the remote control away from Putin."

Many also wore T-shirts and pins calling for the release of jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and chanted "Censorship today, dictatorship tomorrow." Behind a Channel One cameraman, protesters held a poster reading, "Channel One, stop lying."

A handful of former NTV journalists made speeches from a stage, but few other journalists offered their support.

Viktor Shenderovich, who is best known as the main screenwriter for the axed "Kukly" political satirical television show, lashed out at the state of the media.

"You could watch me on three TV channels. Now you can only listen to me on two radio stations," Shenderovich said to the applause of the crowd. "What happened five years ago was only the start of a leadership that has proved incapable to rule a democratic country."

Shenderovich has shows on Ekho Moskvy and Radio Liberty.

Gazprom, the state-controlled gas giant, took over NTV on April 14, 2001, in what it said was an attempt to recoup multimillion-dollar debts owed by the channel's parent company, Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-MOST. Gusinsky and media freedom champions denounced the takeover as Kremlin-orchestrated and said it was motivated by NTV's critical coverage of the Kremlin and the war in Chechnya.

Journalists left NTV en masse.

Gazprom ended up taking over all of Media-MOST's assets, including daily newspaper Segodnya, magazine Itogi, cable operator NTV-Plus and Ekho Moskvy. It closed Segodnya but has left Ekho Moskvy's editorial policy in the hands of the editors, who also own a stake in the station.

Since the takeover, NTV's news coverage has inched closer to that of Channel One and Rossia, the two main state-run channels.

(MORE)

3//The Globe and Mail, Canada April 15, 2006

A NEW DEAL FROM THE ‘MEXICAN MESSIAH’
Alan Freeman

Huachinango, Mexico — Filogonio Gaspar Rios is a small man with weathered skin, a Pancho Villa mustache and a straw hat. And he loves Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Mexican presidential candidate known by his initials AMLO.

“I'm a campesino. I travelled with 100 other campesinos for 2½ hours to see him,” Mr. Rios explained. “We're all extremely poor peasants, but we like AMLO's project. ... He is a campesino like us.”

Mr. Rios has joined a large crowd in the central plaza of this hill town in the state of Puebla, 200 kilometres from Mexico City, to see the man who says he will deliver Mexico's struggling millions out of poverty.

When he climbs out of an SUV, the 52-year-old candidate for the left-of-centre PRD party is thronged by the enthusiastic crowd who shout his name and reach out to touch him. Dressed in a traditional guayabera, the long white shirt popular in Latin America, his head and neck topped with garlands of white and yellow flowers, Mr. Lopez Obrador looks like a cross between a 1960s guru and a Roman emperor.

Mr. Lopez Obrador, who rose to prominence as Mexico City's activist mayor, is leading the pack (although his lead is shrinking) in the race to replace Vicente Fox as Mexican president in the July 2 vote.

“We need a transformation, a purification of our public life so that there is no longer so much poverty and so much marginalization,” Mr. Lopez Obrador told the crowd. “Mexico belongs to everybody, not just to the few.”

He laid out the three principles he says are the basis of his political life: “Do not lie. Do not rob. Do not betray the people.”

In a country where half the population survives on less than $10 (U.S.) a day and where corruption is endemic in public life, that type of talk resonates with many voters.

He then mapped out an ambitious program for reform, including enriched pensions for the elderly, payments for the disabled, expanded health care and a massive investment in schools and universities.

He also promised to protect peasants such as Mr. Rios by guaranteeing prices for their crops and stopping tariff-free imports of corn from the United States that are to be phased in by 2008 under the North America free-trade agreement.

“We have to protect our producers from the invasion of foreign products,” he said. “You cannot have a rich government with a poor population.”

Concerned that his economic plans were being misunderstood by the business community, many of whom are worried that he is too far to the left, Mr. Lopez Obrador has recently begun meeting top executives of leading Mexican companies such as Cemex SA to reassure them.

His chief economic adviser, Rogelio Ramirez de la O, said Mr. Lopez Obrador plans to finance billions of dollars in spending on infrastructure, social programs and investment in the oil industry through spending cuts and better tax collection rather than extra borrowing.

Mr. Lopez Obrador himself is famous for his austerity. A widower, he lives in a modest apartment in Mexico City and, as mayor, drove around in a Tsuru, a basic Nissan. He insists on flying commercial class during his campaign, even when, as on this day, a delayed flight forces him to miss two campaign events.

If elected, Mr. Lopez Obrador has promised to vacate Los Pinos, the presidential palace in Mexico City and turn it into a museum.

George Grayson, a political scientist at the College of William & Mary in Virginia and author of Mexican Messiah, a newly published biography of Mr. Lopez Obrador, said he may be a populist, but he also has some troubling traits.

“He's authoritarian. He's secretive. He's messianic, not one who listens to advice from other people. ... When he's criticized, it's always a conspiracy. He's never wrong. ...”

(MORE)

4//MercoPress, Uruguay Sunday, 16 April 2006

OIL LAW MAY HIT EQUADOR-US DEAL

New legislation designed to increase the state’s share of windfall oil revenues by some $600m a year is set to derail Ecuador’s plans to negotiate a trade deal with the US, according to government officials.

Ecuador began free trade talks with the US two years ago along with Colombia and Peru. Both its neighbours have now agreed pacts with Washington but Ecuador’s negotiations were more protracted and have become even more complicated after the announcement of the new oil plans.

The legislation – designed by Diego Borja, the economy minister – raises the government share of windfall revenues to 50 per cent, compared with an average of 30 per cent today, and would generate additional income of about $600m a year.

But oil companies – including Los Angeles-based Occidental – plan to challenge the new laws, arguing that the new rules would violate production sharing contracts signed between 1992 and 2002. If unsuccessful they will almost certainly take the case to international arbitration.

Ecuador is one of a number of Latin American countries eyeing a bigger share of revenues generated by rises in the prices of oil, gas and other natural resources. Its oil contracts were negotiated when oil was trading at less than $20 a barrel. Mr Chiriboga criticised the timing of the government’s announcement, which he says reflected “poor co-ordination” between ministers.

Negotiations are especially complicated because Ecuadorian legislators – who are seeking an even tougher version of the law with a 60 per cent state share of windfall revenues – have still to approve the law.

In addition, Ecuador’s mainly indigenous maize, rice and grain farmers are opposed to the trade agreement, which they say will expose them to a flood of cheap US imports. They are threatening to resume protests that brought the country to a halt in March.

(MORE)

5//Canada.com, Canada Published: Saturday, April 15, 2006

LIBERALS SATISFIED WITH HARPER, SAYS POLL
Jennifer Ditchburn, Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- The Conservatives got a passing grade from a healthy proportion of voters who didn't support them during the January election, a new poll suggests.

Forty per cent of Liberal voters, and a quarter of NDP and Bloc Quebecois voters, told Decima Research that they were generally satisfied with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government.
The Conservatives won 36 per cent of the popular vote during the last election.

Pollster Bruce Anderson cautions that the numbers don't mean that those Liberal, NDP and Bloc voters would automatically check off Conservative on their ballot if an election was held tomorrow.

But the party is doing something right.

"If the big test for a Stephen Harper-led Conservative government is whether or not it could appeal to centrist voters, the early results here suggest it's doing that in a relatively significant fashion," Anderson said.

Overall, 53 per cent of poll respondents were satisfied with the performance of the Conservative government, including 70 per cent of that party's supporters.

The poll, conducted March 31 to April 4 by Decima, was provided exclusively to The Canadian Press. There were 2,131 respondents, a sample considered accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Another poll by Strategic Counsel and released Saturday suggested 73 per cent of Canadians thought Harper was doing a good or average job.

The Decima survey was taken at a time when Harper was making front-page news. He had just wrapped up his first major international summit in Mexico with U.S. President George Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox.

Also, the spring session of Parliament was opening with a succinct, focused throne speech on April 4.

The polls suggest that more people thought the Conservatives were doing a good job of handling international affairs and Canada-U.S. relations than those that thought they were doing a poor job. Ditto for the economy.

But the reverse was true of areas such as child care, the environment and health care.

For example, 63 per cent of respondents said they thought the Conservatives were doing a poor job on the environment. That was before the news came out that the government was pulling funding for a number of climate-change initiatives.

(MORE)