Eye openers

 

We recently spent an enlightening three days with journalists from around the world, fellows in the 2023 World Press Institute Program. The ten of them are in the U.S. for nine weeks, and little Grand Marais is a part of their annual program, thanks to Marja Wiinanen and the Cook County Historical Society. Other cities they’re visiting include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, Miami, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. Impressive itinerary. Impressive journalists.

I was shocked to learn that the BBC hires journalists just to investigate (and counteract) misinformation. Fauziyya Turkur, from Nigeria, shared information about that daunting and ever-expanding position.

What does that say about our world? Piyumi Fonseka, Sri Lanka, is also an investigative journalist, most recently focusing on sex trafficking and government corruption. Tarek Kai, who we hosted, works in Paris as an international political correspondent. He shared the horrors of two visits to Ukraine last year. And the list goes on.

In a discussion panel at the ACA, we learned about the impact of social media on news coverage. A few journalists complained that their superiors encourage them to report on “trending news” rather than more critical issues. All ten countries represented are impacted by the economic fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, most far more than we are in the U.S. In fact, some of them aren’t even allowed to call it an invasion because of alienating Russia. Really? Most of the countries represented by last year’s journalists rely so heavily on Russian and Chinese support that they couldn’t report honestly about the war in Ukraine.

I talked with Alexander Uggla from Finland about their bid to join NATO, which was finally approved by Turkey’s Erdogan. We also discussed The Nordic Theory of Everything, a book by Anu Partanen. She emigrated to the U.S. from Finland and was shocked at the lack of services here— things like paid maternity leave, free medical services, free university, which she had taken for granted in Finland. She couldn’t understand why many Americans fear a “welfare state” when she sees socialism as a “well-being state.” In Finland she didn’t have to pay for medical services, worry about college costs, or save for retirement, as the Finnish government took care of those things. Realizing that’s a huge expense to the government, I asked Alexander how much of his paycheck goes to taxes, and he said it was less than 30 percent. Gosh, I barely got half my teaching paychecks after deductions for medical, retirement, taxes, and college savings. Democratic socialism sounds pretty good to me. My sister tells me if I like it so much, I should move to Canada or Norway. Tempting, but I love it here. Maybe someday we’ll figure it out.

Anyway, these journalists opened my eyes, as well as those of other hosts and community members who attended the WPI events. We’re fortunate to have people like Marja willing to organize events like this, and the journalists felt lucky to visit our beautiful area. It was win-win.

If you missed the WPI visit this year, watch for it next spring.