News for December 2

Death Watch: Conflict in Congo  |  The Guardian UK

Some time ago, the head of the United Nations refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, said of the Democratic Republic of Congo: “Nobody in the outside world feels threatened, and so the international community is not really paying attention.” Not anymore: currently, Congo’s eastern province of North Kivu is in the headlines almost every day. Last August, fighting to the north of the provincial capital Goma flared up again, provoking a major humanitarian crisis that has no end in sight.

• Related link: Showing the War in Congo  |  The Economist

mere words  |  L’Hote

When we are presented with a grief so enormous and incomprehensible, we who have made language our business feel a desperate desire to use that language to make some sense of what we’ve confronting. We want to be heard, and we express ourselves out of the conviction that we must. That’s natural. But the temptation, which we have to work to avoid, is to believe that there is some utility in merely piling up adjectives to express our frustration. … The important question is what we advocate, and with an event like Mumbai, what language could match the event?

The Global Baby Boom  |  Coming Anarchy

Countries with a “youth bulge” in the population, are frequently cited as hotspots of social unrest, war and terrorism. Historians link youth bulges in populations to genocides, 20th-century fascism, revolutions (from France to Iran), and ongoing conflicts such as that in Darfur. Youth bulge theory is influential on U.S. foreign policy. Yet major changes are coming over the next twenty years.

The Disadvantages of Elite Education  |  The American Scholar

The first disadvantage of an elite education, as I learned in my kitchen that day, is that it makes you incapable of talking to people who aren’t like you. Elite schools pride themselves on their diversity, but that diversity is almost entirely a matter of ethnicity and race. … At the same time, because these schools tend to cultivate liberal attitudes, they leave their students in the paradoxical position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone in it.

Why Public Regard for Journalists is so Low  |  Nieman Watchdog

It seems to me that the main problem journalism now faces is the lack of public trust in journalists. I don’t have to repeat the numerous studies that document the level of public esteem for journalists to be a cut above – or below – politicians and used car salesmen. And if people lack respect for you and your work, doesn’t it stand to reason that they don’t value what you do and won’t pay for it?