Category: Analysis Page 1 of 2

Launching The Doorstep and Bringing Global News To You

On Oct 09 2020

I am so excited to share, The Doorstep, a new international news podcast that aims to reach across the borderless internet and talk about the ways global affairs touch Main Street U.S.A. With my co-host, Nicholas Gvosdev, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for International Affairs and professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, and the support of the Carnegie Council, I plan to explore underreported stories that have a big impact on our everyday lives and highlight the news you may have missed in our whirlwind, whiplash news cycle. Every two weeks, Nick and I, along with roundtable guests, will finds news you need to know and discuss the U.S.’s position in the world with a different regional focus each time.

In our first podcast, out on September 25, Nick and I reviewed the jaw dropping financial scandal that few noticed. In the FinCen Files, Buzzfeed reporters detailed how big banks laundered trillions of dollars on behalf of terrorists and drug cartels – and got away with it. As Nick noted, “major financial institutions are really in the business not of securing the financial networks for the public good, but they’re looking at how they can make money, and they’re not going to ask too many questions about where the money is coming from.” This then adversely affects the American consumer.

We also spoke about the second wave of the novel coronavirus spread in Europe, and the beginnings of a second wave in the United States. We discussed Europe as harbinger of things to come in the U.S. and took a look at Belarus’ contested presidential election. Nick aptly stated, “When people look at a place like Belarus, before it would be to say, ‘Well that’ just one of those quirky East European countries we don’t know too much about. That’s just something that happens in that part of the world.’ But no, this is in a way a canary in the coal mine.” We discussed how the protests in Belarus are part of a larger phenomenon of global frustration, one that is further intensified by the pandemic.

As we looked ahead to the Trump-Biden debate, we discussed if foreign policy might make it into the sparring. Looking at Susan Rice’s New York Times op-ed, and Aly Wyne’s discussion in a webinar at Carnegie Council on great-power competition, it becomes evident that in order for the U.S. to project power on the world stage, its internal domestic health has to be strengthened. How is this possible in the face of multiple threats: a major health crisis, rising unemployment, food insecurity, natural disasters, and more?

Specifically looking at China, if we don’t fix internal issues, how do we position ourselves to win in a trade war or other perhaps more dire confrontation? We discussed the dissonance between the U.S. and China and how it is being felt not just in our wallets with rising prices, but also in our social media use, specifically with the the Tik Tok ban/not a ban. This story was one of the most watched by a younger audience, many of whom were not aware the platform was owned by a Chinese company but who were quick to react to a medium of their self-expression potentially disappearing.

Some of these issues discussed in our first podcast, fed into our second podcast out today, especially with foreign policy being addressed in the Pence-Harris vice presidential debate. The two candidates offered a stark contrast in their view of American in the world, one as a strongman, the other as a friend.

We spoke with special guest, Politico foreign correspondent, Nahal Toosi, about these diverging views of the U.S. in the world and what it means for us in our day-to-day lives. Nahal’s most recent Politico piece, Joe Biden’s First Diplomatic Fight Will Be At Home, looks at how “progressive activists are regularly talking with Biden’s campaign in a bid to shape the Democrat’s foreign and national security policy agendas,” and what that may mean if Biden takes office in January 2021. We also discussed what a Trump Season 2 foreign policy might look like, and actual similarities between Biden and Trump on certain issues like a strong China policy. I predict we will be speaking much more about Nahal’s idea of ‘omnipolicy’ (she her latest Global Translations newsletter)and how a foreign policy platform like Biden’s can include things like raising the minimum wage and reforming the criminal justice system.

All of this ofcourse can be upended by the health of the two candidates, both well into their 70s, and President Trump currently recovering from COVID. We discussed the spy games around the President’s health, and what they world is saying post the first presidential debate.

Some headlines I was fascinated to read, and we think it important to share with our idea of the borderless internet (credit BBC).

As The Times in the UK wrote, “The clearest loser from the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was America.”

“Chaotic, childish, gruelling” – that’s how French newspaper Libération described Tuesday’s debate.

Der Spiegel’s analysis of the debate is headlined “A TV duel like a car accident”.

The key takeaway is that Europe is watching us much more closely than we are watching Europe at the moment. But two particular issues should be resonating a bit more. The first is the resurgence in aggression and violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the tiny territory (about the size of Delaware) of Nagorno-Karabakh. It seems the U.S. will be sitting at the table to find a resolution to a conflict some say might lead to an all out regional war with players like Turkey, Russia and Iran in the mix. How this will play out over the next couple of weeks will be very important to assessing our diplomatic role in the world.

Similarly, Europe’s refugee crisis is a yet another harbinger of our own immigration crisis. Although the foreign born population of the U.S. is only about 13%, the idea that immigrants are taking American jobs and consequent threats to security hovers large in the current collective imagination. What must change in our understanding if we are to create new and more just policies? Tune in to hear our discussion!

We look forward to continuing the conversation with you. Please reach out @tatianaserafin or @DoorstepPodcast!

Let’s Not Become The Borg: Thoughts on Distance Learning For Fall 2020

By admin

On May 19 2020

In Analysis

Many colleges now are talking distance learning for Fall 2020. The Chronicle of Higher Education is keeping tabs.

My own college, Marymount Manhattan College, is planning an on campus, in person return with social distancing and all the necessary precautions. I think that is the way to go. But I did not always.

In fact, when Marymount Manhattan faculty began discussing moving instruction online in early March, I thought my journalism courses would be the easiest to transition. Many newsrooms are almost all virtual using Slack to communicate and CMS platforms to edit and post. I thought I’d convert my class to this style of newsroom and we’d be up and running without a hitch. After seven weeks together, we could manage the rest of the semester interacting online. (never mind the health and safety benefits)

However, in survey after survey I am reading at the end of this semester, students prefer to be in the classroom. And not just because of the money they are paying for the college experience.

As we think about hybrid classes or distance learning again in the fall, we have to address the following issues.

1: Access to technology.

We have heard this time and again. Not everyone has great wifi. Not everyone has the hardware to support Zooming and Slacking and emailing at the same time. Not everyone can be virtually trained to use new techno tools at the drop of a hat. And the most important, not everyone has the money to pay for all of these things.

In the classroom, we have connected computers that place everyone on an level playing field. Only with this equality can you move forward with learning.

2: Desire for connection beyond the Internet wall.

As great as Zoom, or any of the platforms we are using, is at letting us “see” each other, it is not a shared experience. We are sitting alone in our own space watching disembodied torsos shift and sway. We are in different time zones, some just waking up to coffee, other eating lunch. We can see each other blink back a yawn or write something down, but we cannot feel each other’s energy. The Internet wall is thick.

College – for those who are able to and chose to attend – is a collective experience. It is a sharing of space that creates closeness. It is personal. We sit in the same classroom that is too cold some days, too hot on others. The fan never works quite right. We smell each others egg sandwiches and flavored coffees. We feel the energy of a communal laugh. We sit around the table in an edit meeting where we can all look at each other and respond.

What is the alternative to Zoom? The classroom. Of course all I do will look different in the fall. I won’t be able to bring in Greenpoint’s famous Peter Pan donuts or my Girl Scout cookies to share. I will be wearing a mask as will students. Classes with be smaller. They will be in larger spaces. But at least we will be living the college experience.

3: Prevent the Borg from taking over. Although before the pandemic, we were on our devices all the time, and in the classroom, I had to remind students to stop checking their Insta, now I cannot wait to get OFF my device. I have a feeling at least some students feel the same. The idea of working online, all the time is like being connected to the Borg, a massive techno brain for those of you who are not Trekkies, and losing individuality and thought process.

After two months of Zoom Univeristy – get link, paste password, log in, look into camera, end meeting, repeat – I saw the Borg taking over. I tried to stop it. I chose to make my usual in person three hour classes an hour and a half and assign more reading and writing. Other professors went the full three hours of lecture. Some of my students had nine hours of back to back of online learning.

Some are predicting the wave of the future is online learning with a tech giants like a Google allying with schools like MIT or Stanford to make this so.

I disagree. I believe the future of college education remains in the classroom. Online is a tool but it is not a replacement.

Am I anxious for Fall 2020? Sure. But I can’t want to see my students in Nugent Hall 556.

It’s Not Fake News, It’s Information Disorder and Here is What To Do Fix It

By admin

On May 18 2020

In Analysis, Information Disorder

I recently sat down with Nick Gvosdev,Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute as well as Carnegie Council for International Affairs, to talk about Why, How and By Whom Information is Manipulated.

We focused on disinformation about #COVID19, the broader problem of information disorder and the role of state actors like Russia.

Here is a link to our talk which will help you understand what you can do to stop the spread of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation. (remember no more using the term fake news)

I, Journalist

By admin

On Nov 11 2016

In Analysis

Originally this essay, “I, Journalist” appeared in the online literary magazine, The Seventh Wave, in October 2016. I am republishing it here as a call out for journalists in a time when the craft and practice of journalism is increasingly under fire.

***

“If you’re tired of biased, mainstream media reporting (otherwise known as Crooked Hillary’s super PAC), tune into my Facebook Live broadcast. Starts at 8:30 EST/5:30 PST — you won’t want to miss it. Enjoy!”

To Those Who Use the Term “Mainstream Media”:

I am a journalist, editor, factchecker, professor and storyteller.

In these capacities, I have worked at Forbes, Barron’s, Inc., USA Today, Reuters, MSNBC, The National Interest, and other outlets. I have collaborated with hundreds of senior and assistant editors, reporters, photographers, copyeditors, and factcheckers on investigative pieces uncovering the billionaire money trail in Kazakhstan (Emerging Market Gold), on book reviews on Carly Fiorina pre-presidential run (2 Books, 2 Views on Carly Fiorina), and even on branded content (2014 BNP Paribas Individual Philanthropy Index — Philanthropic Journeys: The Importance of Timing). None of these outlets, none of my colleagues, and none of my work is “mainstream.” Why? Because today, “mainstream” could not exist in a country full of diversity and in a media industry that is in the midst of upheaval and change.

What is “mainstream” anyway? Can we believe that there is one “prevailing current” when our nation was raised on the notion of debate and dissent (thank you Hamilton v. Jefferson), when today over 800 languages are spoken in New York by some measure, and when the vastly differing eco-regions of the United States shape character (surfer versus cowboy anyone)? I am reminded of a scene in Monthy Python’s, “The Life of Brian,” where Brian is telling the crowd of people who have been following him to stop. He says they don’t need him, urges them to think for themselves, adding, “You’re all individuals…you’re all different.” One tiny voice is heard in the distance, “I’m not…”

Using the word “mainstream” is that person saying they are not ready to think for themselves.

The best antonym for mainstream is “curious.” We are a country of curiosity-seekers that has upended everything from how and what we watch, to what we read and consume. Just look at AT&T’s proposed $85 billion purchase of Time Warner announced this week : an old school telephone company and broadcast network coming together because the 21st century demands new forms of individualized content delivered to each of us based on our own curious minds. If we sit down on the couch with our partners or families, it is not to experience the same story — we each sit exploring our own interests on separate devices. This curiosity by extension has changed media including news media.

According to a Pew Center report, “State of the News Media 2016,” we seek information from increasingly divergent sources. This is not the Mad Men area of the big three networks and controlled news. Our growing and increasingly diverse population needs news from different sources. Indeed as the report states, “Eight years after the Great Recession sent the U.S. newspaper industry into a tailspin, the pressures facing America’s newsrooms have intensified to nothing less than a reorganization of the industry itself, one that impacts the experiences of even those news consumers unaware of the tectonic shifts taking place.” I have seen the changes firsthand: the cutbacks, layoffs, and the stories left untold because of a lack of resources. We live in an era where media outlets try new strategies to gain audience, where it is easier to launch new digital-only media properties to target specific readers (think: Breitbart or The Outline), and where citizen journalists take up the mantle to share the stories that aren’t being covered or funded because of layoffs (think: trend in crowdfunding investigative pieces). You might not be aware of the upheaval, but it is happening, and there is a lot at stake.

For one, 62% of US adults overall now get news on social media sites (Pew Report). Whether you are a newspaper, magazine, or digital outlet, you have to struggle with not only getting your story distributed on the best social media site (Do you ally with Facebook or Google? Do you Tweet or Snap?), you are dealing with mounds of competition to get your story seen in the “Internet of noise.” But this overwhelming democratization of information has fanned the flames of our curiosity: the consumer becomes in control and the burden is on media to court us.

Indeed, nothing about this industry upheaval leads to “mainstream” thinking. Instead, the tributaries of thought are stronger than any one stream. New ideas are opening up new opportunities to a vast array of people. Each day when I walk into my classroom, I share this enthusiasm with my students. In the short years I have been teaching, I have seen how my students have shifted their consumption of news from Facebook to Snapchat. We need these young eyes to participate in these changes and continue to move media forward with fresh ideas on how to engage readers and tell stories that have meaning and impact.

We should not scare budding journalists into silence, which was what one student expressed feeling this week.

And yet, we are. A recent article on Politico enumerated how Buzzfeed, Newsweek and a cybersecurity blog were attacked by hackers unhappy with coverage. No one yet knows what the recent attack on the Dyn server that took down broad swaths of the internet but it surely too was meant to silence. The situation is far worse on the ground where political journalists have seen and felt fear and intimidation covering press events. How can we forget part of the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights? “Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.”

I do not let my students forget. I plow forward. Every week, my students and I look at fairness and balance in headlines at 35 news outlets. We read everything from Slate to Fox to BBC and Al Jazeera America. A strong free press here and around the world could never be “mainstream” but always have diverse voices interacting. It is our obligation as journalists to read widely to understand these voices.

A key element to the work of a journalist is newsworthiness. We debate, discuss, and honor the idea that every person has a story and as public servants we focus on reporting news that must be read. We ask the traditional questions to determine merit — is the news new? Are many people affected by the story? Is it close to home? Public figures get more coverage, but we can still debate the merits of Gawker’s piece on Hulk Hogan or if Kim Kardashian’s robbery was newsworthy? How deeply we delve into stories reflects the resources of any given organization and the audience that the outlet is trying to reach. And if there is one indisputable trend, it’s that resources have been stretched thin at many organizations, which impacts our attention and expectation of news we think we want.

Diversity has always been the trademark of news, even when we didn’t have such wide opportunities in the digital realm. Back when the US media industry was just getting going, scholar Gorham D. Abbott counted over 1500 news publications in print. For a population of about 13 million (1830 census = 12.86 million), that’s quite a lot. It is impossible to do an apples-to-apples comparison with the world wide web, where anyone can publish on the web today and where page views are the main currency of trade: Fox gets 713 million monthly page views, Buzzfeed 468 million and Mashable 80 million according to SimilarWeb. That is a lot more eyeballs from a lot more people, but what’s clear is that from our beginnings, we have celebrated diversity. Let’s not begin lumping them together falsely now into some vaguely convenient term that allows us to be lazy readers like that one fellow saying “I’m not an individual.”

If there is one thing we overlook today, it is a respect for facts. I have a deep and abiding honor of facts because I spent my first year at Forbes doing just that: factchecking. Far more than the latest political buzzword, factchecking is the assurance that each feature of an article is scrutinized to avoid both error and bias. Each story I was assigned to, I would meet with the reporter and editor to understand how the story came together, what sources were contacted, and what resources cited. My role was to be the impartial arbiter: I underlined every single line of every single story and argued with writers and editors when I thought a turn of phrase erroneous implicated the profile subject or a fact needed to be highlighted to always have both sides of the story. Not every publication can afford to have full-time factcheckers, so today, every journalist must learn the art of factchecking.

First rule: do it. Second: back up every sentence you write. Third: have at least three sources to corroborate a controversial fact. In this digital age, when Facebook is having a problem disseminating fake news stories and clickbait clogs the internet, it is even more imperative that news outlets factcheck, factcheck, and then factcheck.

Only when we do all this can we write a story with flow and finesse. That is probably the most difficult thing to do for any journalist, new or seasoned. We are better writers when we are stronger readers, and so I encourage my students to continue to read widely, to think holistically and to work on gathering information for stories that will matter.

I am a journalist, editor, factchecker, professor and storyteller. I am not mainstream.

In truth,

Tatiana Serafin

2014 Newswomen’s Club Award for Ukraine Coverage

By admin

On Oct 07 2014

In Analysis, Awards

It is almost a year since the first protestors stepped onto Kiev’s Maidan to protest ex-President Yanukovich’s pro-Russian policies, a year in which many have died fighting to keep Ukraine independent, a year in which Ukrainians around the world have mobilized to promote the Ukrainian cause and gather humanitarian funds. The story is not over.

For this past year though, I am honored and proud to have been able to create a forum of news sharing and analysis on my Forbes blog (http://www.forbes.com/sites/tatianaserafin/) which has been given an award by the Newswomen’s Club of New York. (http://www.newswomensclubnewyork.com/). More information on all the winners across many different media categories can be found here: FPA-2014-Press-Release

Thank you for reading the pieces and please help me in thanking my partners in coverage, Halyna Klymuk Chomiak, and Yuri Aksyonov, a freelance reporter based out of Kiev, for their local insights and knowledge and inspiration.

And thank you to the Newswomen’s Club which has helped me in my journalist’s journey!

Save

Why Putin Won’t Win

By admin

On Mar 16 2014

In Analysis

Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My grandfather was a Ukrainian freedom fighter in the second World War sparring with the Nazis and communists to create a free Ukrainian state. He was on the losing side, and his country was consumed by Stalin’s Soviet Union. His hope for a free Ukraine lived on, along with those in the Ukrainian diaspora who recreated Ukrainian hamlets in the East Village in New York City, in the camps of the Catskills and all around the world from Canada to Argentina to Australia. These Ukrainians who lost their nation taught my generation how to be Ukrainian – by speaking the language and by continuing the refrain:

Слава Україні! – Slava Ukrainy! – Glory to Ukraine!

response: Героям слава! – Geroyam slava! – Glory to our Heros!

He did not live to see the Soviet Union’s fall and the blue and yellow flag of the nation he so loved flying high. I am glad he is not here today to see the Ukraine that he longed for coming apart at the seams. Today’s referendum in Crimea conducted under Soviet guns is history redux. The struggle is one for the very soul of Ukraine.

Ukraine has balanced its two faces throughout its history – the two faces in opposition today. The face of Janus turning to the East harkens back millenia. My first day in a graduate seminar on the History of Ukraine, I had to answer the question – did Ukraine as a country ever exist? Its origins in an early Slavic state called Kievan Rus are also considered the birth of Russia. Its borders have shifted as empires suppressed minority nationalities and traded territory like baseball card collectors. Stalin’s Russification and division of Ukraine was more of the same. The country’s split behooved Stalin so that he could maintain control of Ukraine’s natural assets – not just its breadbasket but also its coalmines in the East, which fed an enormous steel-making complex that propelled the Soviet Union’s industrialization. After starving millions of Ukrainians during the Great Famine, and purging millions more, Stalin filled Ukraine with those loyal to him and forced those who weren’t to conform.

Putin is pursuing the same tactics. Taking control of assets, moving in troops, suppressing the voices of those who disagree with him. He is using propaganda to play up divisions that exist but do not have to be divisive (many people, me included, speak both Ukrainian and Russia for example so it’s not a language division). And it looks like he’s playing to shift the borders once again.

The face of Janus to the West are all who see the potential of Ukraine in Europe. Ukraine has been looking to Europe for centuries. Today, Ukrainian citizens see opportunities for Ukraine to reshape its political landscape to be more democratic and less despotic, the chance to restart the economy with a version of shock therapy like Poland did back in 1989, the ability to build social, cultural, and literary links that have already bloomed. Take for example my cousin from the south of Ukraine (near Odessa, i.e. near the Crimea flashpoint) who is now studying in Poland where hundreds of Ukrainians like her are learning how to create a new future for their Ukraine. These ties cannot be severed.

Millions of Ukrainians like me in the Diaspora (14 million or so according to recent figures I have read) are tied to the idea of Ukraine as part of the West, not East. We have come together via social media rallying around “Euromaidan” – Ukraine’s Western Janus that toppled Putin’s lackey, Yanukovich, as well as Ukraine’s new leadership. Protests and letter writing campaigns have united young and old – one pre-form letter stating it the most succinctly, “The soviet ways are not ways that these people ever want to see again in their country.”

We cannot go backwards. In our church coffee hour today, we shared news of loved ones in Ukraine and checked our phones every few minutes for news on the referendum. The consensus rising is that Putin will fail in the long-term, even if he gets his Crimean vote. He has opened a Pandora’s box, said many, who believe the protests erupting across Russia will continue to grow. The hope is that sanctions from Europe and the US will further alienate Putin from his people.

There is also the very real sense that Ukrainians at home and abroad will fight – in actions and words – like my grandfather fought during WWII. The Ukrainian spirit is something Putin can never suppress.

Слава Україні! – Slava Ukrainy! – Glory to Ukraine!

International Women’s Day, C-Suite News and the Juggling Act

By admin

On Mar 08 2013

In Analysis, Leadership

A 1932 Soviet poster for International Women’s Day. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On this International Women’s Day, I am once again in angst over the very very delicate topic of women finding a balance between career and family. I struggle every day as many of my peers I know do. In a recent interview with a leading Latin American CEO for a very timely report on women in senior leadership, I was able to articulate it out loud because of her frankness. She said – and I agree – that women carry more of the guilt of not being 100% focused on career or family, the guilt of always thinking you are missing something when you are at the other. I know I can’t be 100% when I want to do two very separate things to the best of my ability, I don’t want to give up either but I also don’t have a clone. Sound familiar?

I was heartened in writing the recent Forbes Insights / Grant Thornton study that showed that women are making headway to top spots in the corporate world globally. This even though many of the CEOs and C-Suite executives I interviewed said that they still see many women leaving mid-career to start families, and it is a challenge to bring these women back into the workforce. A weak pipeline of women moving up the ranks means that it will be difficult to crack today’s tally of 24% of women in senior leadership.

I’ve written more about the study on my Forbes blog; NYSE Euronext today hosted several conferences around the globe bringing women leaders together. Starting the conversation is important because from the numbers we can see what progress is or isn’t being made and know that we need to do more to harness the energy of half the global population.

Back in the 1930s, the Soviet state tried to do just that redefining gender roles. Richard Stites, a former professor of mine at Georgetown writes in Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revoltion that “women were promoted, put into technical schools, and afforded wide opportunities to enter and rise in economic life, to establish their own identity through personal earnings, and even to gain a certain sense of self-respect and public respect as well.” The 1932 poster says it all.

But where did the promise go then? And possibly today? Stites continues, “women were saddled with a triple burden: of wage earning in the economy, of principal responsibility for domestic work and child care, and of public or voluntary work. This stripped them of their ability to use economic opportunity to advance along paths to power equal to men.”

We can get our power back by education, talent management and flexible work options says the report I wrote. Let’s keep looking for more solutions.

Forbes Billionaires and the Global Economy

By admin

On Mar 09 2011

In Analysis, Billionaires

Image via Wikipedia

This is the eighth year I have worked on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires. As always, I find the personal tales fascinating. I met with new Ukrainian billionaire Yuri Kosiuk at the Four Seasons in New York last fall when he was pitching Wall Street for investment dollars for his poultry producer. We had coffee and a long chat about how his business is faring in Ukraine’s often fraught political environment. His take: if you know how to play the game you can succeed. We heard the same from Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian billionaire who increased his fortune six-fold when he took his cement operations public. He is convinced he can maneuver the politics in Africa to build a continental (and global) cement giant.

On a macro level, the total net worth and number of billionaires says a great deal about how a country is doing. My thesis: in Ukraine and Russia, a disproportionate amount of wealth looks to be accumulated in a few hands, the relic of a centralized Soviet system (in Kazakhstan we don’t see the same because the state still controls many assets under the tight grip of President Nursultan Nazarbaev) (Caveat: some of the wealth is held in investments in other countries but I think my thesis holds true for the most part). Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe, though central planning was also instituted, the political systems and opposition to communism emerged differently and there appears to be more spreading of wealth and perhaps the opportunity to still amass wealth. (see stats below) Indeed, Poland’s robust stock exchange has regional players flocking to go public. Poland is serving as a model for wealth creation.

We can also see where money is coming from – US’ biggest billionaire names come from tech, investments/finance and retail – think Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Waltons of Wal-Mart whereas Western Europe is all about luxury brands like LVMH’s Bernard Arnault or Tod’s Diego Della Valle. In Eastern Europe, we see finance as a leader, and agribusiness. In the CIS, commodities dominate, though agribusiness is growing.

Total 2011 Billionaires Net Worth: $1.3 trillion
GDP 2011 forecast (World Bank): $15.3 trillion
8% of country’s GDP
Total 2011 Billionaires: 412
Total Population: 315 million

Russia

Total 2011 Billionaires Net Worth: $432.7 billion
GDP 2011 forecast (World Bank): $1.6 trillion
27% of country’s GDP
Total 2011 Billionaires: 101
Population: 140 million

Ukraine

Total 2011 Billionaires Net Worth: $30.3 billion
GDP 2011 forecast (World Bank): $165 billion
18% of country’s GDP
Total 2011 Billionaires: 8
Population: 45 million

Kazakhstan

Total 2011 Billionaires Net Worth: $12 billion
GDP 2011 forecast (World Bank): $144 billion
8% of country’s GDP
Total 2011 Billionaires: 5
Population: 15.6 million

Poland

Total 2011 Billionaires Net Worth: $8.9 billion
GDP 2011 forecast (World Bank): $472 billion
2% of country’s GDP
Total 2011 Billionaires: 4
Population: 38 million

Czech Republic

Total 2011 Billionaires Net Worth: $12.3 billion
GDP 2011 forecast (World Bank): $185 billion
6% of country’s GDP
Total 2011 Billionaires: 3
Population: 10 million

Romania

Total 2011 Billionaires Net Worth: $3.3 billion
GDP 2011 forecast (World Bank): $163 billion
2% of country’s GDP
Total 2011 Billionaires: 2
Population: 21 million

Nigeria

Total 2011 Billionaires Net Worth: $15.8 billion
GDP 2011 forecast (World Bank): $230 billion
GDP/NW: 7% of country’s GDP
Total 2011 Billionaires: 2
Population: 160 million

Mama Grisly and the Composure Class

By admin

On Jan 20 2011

In Analysis, Reflections, Table Talk

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

A couple of weeks ago one of my closest friends expressed concern over the message in Amy Chua’s memoir, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.” My friend, who is really Chinese from Hong Kong and speaks Chinese and teaches her children Chinese – as opposed to Chua who is of Chinese descent and grew up in the Midwest and hired a nanny to teach her children Chinese – was aghast that Chua was dictating how she should be raising her children as a “real” Chinese mother, or that anyone would think she is as self-absorbed as Chua. Then ofcourse we all found out the details – how Chua yelled and browbeat her children into being her image of perfection – and I told my friend not give Chua the satisfaction of buying her book. Chua is no more Chinese than I am. What she really is is a second-rate mother.

Look I am guilty of some obsessive helicopter parenting. It’s my generation – my three year old goes to preschool, ballet, gymnastics, music, yoga. I use the time out, I take the toy away (and sometimes threaten to throw it in the garbage when things get rough), and sometimes, yes, I raise my voice. Parenting = tough. But you have to want to be a parent to be a good one. Clearly Chua is missing that gene.

Then I read David Brooks’ brilliant essay in the New Yorker about his so-called, Composure Class. He writes, “They live in a society that prizes the development of career skills but is inarticulate when it comes to things that matter most. The young achievers are tutored in every soccer technique and calculus problem, but when it comes to their most important decisions-whom to marry and whom to befriend, what to love and what to despise-they are in their own. Nor for all their striving, do they understand the qualities that lead to the highest achievement. Intelligence, academic performance, [and playing instruments to perfection is something Ms. Chua would probably add if she were writing], and prestigious schools don’t correlate well with fulfillment, or even with outstanding accomplishment. The traits that do make a difference are poorly understood [Ms. Chua pay attention I say!], and can’t be taught in a classroom, no matter what the tuition: the ability to understand and inspire people; to read situations and discern the underlying patterns; to build trusting relationships; to recognize and correct one’s shortcomings; to image alternative futures.

Mr. Brooks, forgive me for the long quote but in case there are those who don’t get the New Yorker, don’t read your column in the NYT or won’t buy your book, I really feel this should be read. People skills. That’s the ticket. Life is about people, about family and friends. It’s a wonder Chua has any left.

Books of The Times: But Will It All Make Mommy Happy? (nytimes.com)
Amy Chua Sets Off Firestorm With ‘Chinese Mother’ Essay (huffingtonpost.com)
Chinese mom vs. matzah mom (blogs.jta.org)
Op-Ed Columnist: Amy Chua Is a Wimp (nytimes.com)

A New York City Story: Governors Island

By admin

On Nov 03 2010

In Analysis

: Image via Wikipedia

In the life of a freelancer, occasionally an article will not get the green light. In this case, I wrote an overview of the ongoing redevelopment of Governors Island and I would like to share it. The island has a unique place in New York City history and it is a great rejuvenation story as well. So here it is:

THE PROJECT: Turning a former military base into a mini-city

THE BUDGET: Over $250 million

THE TIMELINE: 2005 – ongoing

Governor’s Island was a fishing camp for Native Americans before a Dutchman, Wouter Van Twiller, bought the property in 1637 for two ax heads, a string of beads, and a handful of nails for his own private use. As it passed between Dutch and British control, a British Lord also tried to build his own mansion on the island. Mostly though it has been a military base from 1800 through 1996 when the latest inhabitants, the U.S. Coast Guard left – meaning its 172 acres (nearly half the size of the National Mall in Washington DC) have been off limits to the public for two centuries.

Beginning in 1995 discussions began over what to do with this choice piece of real estate located in one of the world’s most densely populated cities. President Clinton gave 22 acres to the National Park Service in 2001; a year later President Bush’s administration agreed to sell the remaining 150 acres for a dollar to the city and state of New York with the stipulation that there be no permanent housing and limited commercial ventures, e.g., no gambling. The transfer was official in 2003.

The challenge: where to get the money to get everything on the island up and running. Maintaining the island, which includes a ferry service to get staff and visitors to the island, is $14 million a year. Add the upgrades needed to abandoned buildings, landscaping – a superb tear down opportunity albeit with limited funds and squabbling siblings: state and city governments could not agree on project priorities.

Finally this past April, New York City took over control of the island, creating the Trust for Governor’s Island. The Trust employs a four-part strategy to tackle the enormous amount of work to be done. The first is to increase the number of people coming to the island. Back in 2005 when the island opened for business, 8,000 people ventured into this newly discovered territory; this summer the Trust expects 400,000 according to spokesperson Ms. Elizabeth Rapuano. It helps that the U.K.’s popular Prince Harry has played polo on Governor’s Island for the past two years in a charity polo event.

Category: Analysis Page 1 of 2

Related articles