News: Regional business paper folds after two issues

Publication suspends operations after five weeks, decision infuriates staff

The first issue hit newsstands April 21st, the last employee left the offices of the GTA Business News two weeks later on May 7th (disclaimer: it was me).

"More than being a tad unjust to staff that was hired only weeks ago, it bespeaks of an egregious lack of foresight on the part of the owners in understanding what it takes to run a newspaper," said a reporter who refused to be identified.

"I'm mean, some people had turned down other great opportunities to work here, and after just weeks of full scale operations they decide to pull the plug? It's brutal," said another employee who also refused to be identified.

A lack of advertising interest is believed to have prompted the newspaper's decision to shut down. According to sources, there was not a single paid ad in either of the paper's two printed issues.

The GTA Business News was distributed to over 250 locations between Oshawa and Burlington and north to Newmarket, with a circulation of approximately 25,000.

Profile: Coach Glenn guides players on and off court

My last article from this year's Humber Et Cetera (published April 5):

There was a point last year when Chris Thompson, then in his rookie season as a forward for the Humber Hawks men’s basketball team, was on the brink of failing a course.

A philosophy class had got the better of him and it was clear to Thompson he was in trouble. Fortunately for the health and fitness student, head coach Darrell Glenn was in his corner. The third-year coach arranged for a tutor to get Thompson through the rough patch and back on track.

“He’s school first,” Thompson said, while doing schoolwork in the coach’s office last week. “We’re always in here doing our homework,” referring to the many student athletes found in the office on any given day.

Along with his bench boss duties for the Hawks, Glenn is Humber’s only academic adviser for varsity athletes, a job he relishes as much – if not more – than coaching basketball.

“As much as I’ve coached, for me, it’s more about teaching. I look at myself as a teacher first, because that’s what I am. That kind of transfers itself into me as a coach,” he said.

Glenn, also a teacher at Oakwood Collegiate secondary school in Toronto, is working through his second-year as an academic adviser at Humber. It’s a role he assumed after former men’s basketball coach and academic adviser Mike Katz left to coach at the University of Toronto in 2004.

When Katz left, the position seemed to get lost in the shuffle. However, Glenn quickly realized during his first year at the helm of the men’s basketball team that the void needed to be filled.

“We started to see a pattern among a lot of teams that we needed somebody here to help,” Glenn said.

That pattern was players being declared ineligible to play because of spotty school attendance from first-year athletes and poor performances in the classroom, according to Glenn. The solution was simple, reinstate the adviser role with a dedicated staff member on campus to provide some guidance.

“There needed to be somebody here for at least half the day that can look after the needs, or at least monitor academic progress,” he said.

After discussions with Humber athletic director Doug Fox last year, Glenn arranged to reduce his teaching load at Oakwood and become a paid academic adviser for Humber Athletics.

For Glenn, it means his mornings are spent teaching at Oakwood and afternoons spent at Humber helping varsity players, like Thompson, develop strategies for success. It begins with academic orientations at the beginning of first semester and continuing with informative workshops throughout the school year.

“Darrell’s run a number of sessions on time management, career development, financial advising – he’s tried to not just do academic advising, although that is his primary concern – but if a kid’s having problems then how do we arrange, get on top of this quickly and help this kid survive,” Fox said.

The biggest problem, according to Glenn, is the lack of appropriate preparation at the secondary school level for the pressures and demands that college brings.

“Let’s face it, I see this as a teacher, high school doesn’t prepare students for college or university in my opinion. High school does a lot of hand-holding. You get here and it’s every man for themselves and it’s a huge adjustment,” he said. “Some kids don’t make that adjustment well.”

Over the past two years, Glenn feels he’s making some progress. Thompson, for example, is now an honour roll student.

“We look at those kinds of successes and say, ‘Hey, this is working.’”

“There’s always gratitude,” Thompson said. “If there’s anyway we can help Coach, we try and help him as much as he helps us, whether it’s on the court or off the court. We’re all really grateful for what Coach does.”

Glenn stresses that he’s a resource for all varsity athletes though, not just those he coaches.

“This year, I’ve tried to build a better relationship with other sports. I’m starting to build a better rapport with other athletes, and they’re starting to feel more comfortable coming to see me about various problems.”

Fox said having Glenn fill the adviser role is a part of Humber’s plan to develop complete individuals.

“Our theme is building champions,” he said. “It’s building champions on the court and life as well. We’re trying to build people that walk out of here graduating with good grades and that are employable and with the proper character development.”

As for Glenn, his focus now is providing players with the guidance and advice they can use to get through final exams. Beyond that, he remains committed to Humber’s goal of preparing its athletes for the challenges they’ll face even after they graduate from school.

“We’re focused on preparing them for the next phase of their lives, when they leave Humber.”

- JS

Review: Smith's latest an unfulfilling pursuit

Pulled from a class assignment on arts reviews, a bit stale since the movie has been out for awhile but it was just released on DVD at my local Blockbuster, so thought I'd check it out:

In 2001, the author and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich published a book that documented a personal and investigative sortie of hers into the world of America’s working poor.

Ehrenreich’s book retraced a grueling three-month campaign where the author waited tables in the Florida Keys, scrubbed the bathrooms of Maine’s rich, and succumbed to working at a Wal-Mart in Minnesota, all in the author’s attempt to unearth just how the poor manage to get by.

What she found was “a thousand desperate stratagems for survival.”

Ehrenreich’s book is a marvelous tale of the human spirit’s indefatigable impulse to carry on. Cue the segue.

Fortunately for those who haven’t read her book or actually experienced the dearth of poverty first hand—which I hope is the very large majority of you—The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith, provides a palatable if somewhat clichéd substitute for Ehrenreich’s revelation. With much less effort, too.

The Pursuit of Happyness is based on the real life story of San Franciscan Chris Gardner, a poor and downtrodden salesmen who—with what is seemingly his last death kick—manages to miraculously land a lucrative internship and eventual job at a downtown brokerage firm.

Yet in the process, Gardner’s wife leaves him, he and his son become homeless, Gardner faces tax seizure capped by a little jail time to round out the gamut of blows dealt to him. However, this being a story fit for a motion picture, Gardner and son emerge victorious after he gets the job, and both go on to enjoy a comfortable life free from want.

OK, heartwarming. Uplifting…I guess.

If your moral compass points you toward the pursuit of money as the panacea to life’s challenges, this will inspire you.

You’ll relate to the epiphanal moments of the picture, when Gardner sees a Ferrari outside of his future brokerage, and decides then to go after the internship; or when, as the intern, he follows a client home one night to pursue a deal only to become stupefyingly enamored by the client’s sizable house.

Do not get the wrong impression, big houses and nice cars are, well, nice. But they’re not the sole ends of happiness in themselves, are they?

Yet there is something to be said about the reaffirmation of the American Dream here. Afterall, after living for so long in the nightmare shadow of it, Gardner’s vindication is worth watching, and it’s nice to be told that meritocracy is still alive.

To sentimentalize things a bit further, Gardner’s son is played by Jaden Smith, the real life son of father, Will—in a savvy ploy to tug at the heartstrings of the Academy perhaps (to little avail).

The father and son tandem do a commendable job of retelling Gardner’s story. Smith’s (Will) performance is as ever, workmanlike and professional, but not especially noteworthy. Jaden Smith is also passable in this picture; not quite the twinkle of a star yet, but there may be a future for the kid.

All in all, The Pursuit of Happyness is a reassuring story about the triumph of the human spirit over seemingly impossible circumstances. Gardner fought tooth-and-nail out of homelessness into a life of comfort; something we can all relate to on some level, and admire.

Yet it’s difficult to get past the clichéd rehashing of a tired parable, and if one would like to get a true glimpse into the triumph of the human spirit over impossible circumstances, reading Ehrenreich’s book is the more worthwhile pursuit.

-JS

Editorial: Dodging a bullet with current teachers glut

Ontario's teaching colleges see record number of applications, fortunately, none mine


Unlike more than a few of my peers, the latest survey on the number of would-be educators applying to Ontario’s teaching colleges this year provided a bit of relief for me.

The Ontario College of Teachers reported two weeks ago(March 13) that a record 16,000 undergraduates are currently being assessed by college registrars for next fall, while fewer than half that figure will eventually be accepted.

Teaching was a professional option I seriously considered a couple of years ago, as I pluckily thought about what I’d do after college.

In light of the study, I’m glad I didn’t.

The report revealed that although figures for admittance were tight across all subjects, most openings were – surprise, surprise – in the maths and sciences, as well as French studies; disciplines that I, being a history graduate, have almost no training in whatever.

The report states that the prospects for liberal arts majors, like history or English, are faring considerably worse, as a rash of new hires a few years ago has refreshed current staff levels in those areas with young teachers that aren’t going anywhere soon.

Beyond my initial relief from ducking that bullet, the findings had two other effects on me: the first, being that the report confirmed a suspicion I had developed during my undergrad years. And secondly, I find the current direction of education in Ontario somewhat disheartening.

The suspicion began with a simple question. I began fielding this almost immediately after my first lecture at Queen’s during my first September in Kingston: walking back to residence with a few engineering friends, I was asked, “so, are you gonna teach, than?” As if there was no other practical use for a history degree beyond converting it into a job teaching others about history (so they could presumably grow up, go to school…rinse and repeat).

It’s a question that, until recently (as I pursue a career as a journalist), I frequently had to answer for.

Beyond the fury this typically invoked in me, I began to form a realization; if I was cornered into answering the ‘history question’ time and time again, it was likely that the hundreds of other history students at my school were too (and, I would learn, they were).

If they didn’t have designs on teaching before, they were slowly being told that there were few occupational alternatives for history grads outside of education.

Add to that assumption that roughly half of the one-million or so university students in Canada in 2004 (another record [Stats Can]) were enrolled in some kind of liberal arts program (social sciences or humanities) and to me, a maelstrom for teaching college applications was forming.

Roughly two years on, and the proof is in the pudding.

Aside from the sheer glut, I found the findings a bit disheartening as well. As mentioned, applicants with math, science and technology backgrounds are finding greater success in being accepted to teaching colleges as well as getting jobs – a reflection of the current economy, according to a source in the study.

The University of Toronto, one of the largest education schools in the country, is currently enlarging its numbers in those “high-priority subject spheres,” at the expense of liberal arts positions, the study said.

But will this lead to a reflection worth seeing?

Although not as tangible as say, a bridge or medical research, the social studies provide us with equally valuable ends – history, culture, context and purpose are things that a society can not easily function without as much as bricks and mortar, adequate medical care or broadband communication.

My personal relief that I didn’t choose to throw my lot in with the recent graduates facing a problem that isn’t likely to dissipate in the near term, is in part replaced with a bit of anxiety. I find the waning of esteem for subjects like history, English and other social sciences disquieting.

However, there may be a silver lining for both the poor folks left at the gates, as well as the disciplines in decline within Ontario’s education colleges.

The report also said that the current situation is the opposite of what was happening a decade ago when there was a dearth of teachers and the humanities held a more prominent place in the curriculum.

There is hope than, that it may just take a bit of time before both problems resolve themselves.


-JS

It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated. - Alec Bourne

Editorial: Web works -- I've got a job

Roughly six months ago, I set out to establish some kind of presence on the Web in order to attract prospective employers, and eventually get a job. I landed on Google's Blogger on the advice of some friends, and several postings later, guess what?

It has worked.

I'm thrilled to write that I've been hired as a journalist/photographer by the newest publication to enter the Greater Toronto Area's media milieu, the GTA Business News.

The GTA Business News is a recent start-up news service that will cater to the thousands of small businesses and individual entrepreneurs across the Greater Toronto Area that are the nuts and bolts of Ontario's economy.

The organization plans on publishing a print version bi-weekly beginning April 20, as well as develop a dyanamic online presence that will be updated regularly.

I'm cognizant of the fact that I'm straying a bit from the mandate of JS 2007 with this post, I'm not in the habit putting up the type of personal fare better reserved for a journal or something. However, it's a justifiable lapse to anyone who may have taken a moment to read the earliest postings on the site (found here and here) .

When I started this in October of last year, my explicit goal was to develop an online resource that editors (or any person looking to hire, for that matter) could access easily in the hopes of getting me a job. Twenty-five weeks later, the blog has delivered admirably.

But more than this, my experience serves as a guidepost to anyone entering the media field(s)--the print era for news media is ending; any organization beyond the most marginal of community newspapers has begun the transition from print across the digital divide that will one day (sooner rather than later) see the complete disappearance of print news in any significant way.

It's not particularly alarming or surprising to many, I know, but I'm a little disquieted that (a) there isn't more emphasis on being prepared for this transition at the j-school level, and (b) more young journalists (at least where I am) aren't developing a great deal of Web-familiarity (as producers, not consumers -- i.e. maintaining web logs, or are familiar with the standard caveats of Web2.0) .

At any rate, the link for GTA's own website will be up soon--once the site is functioning; you can be sure to find it here.

-JS

Nothing endures but change.

- Herclitus

World/Opinion: Gore to the fore (a call to arms for Al Gore)

On why Al Gore should be the next president of the United States

An op-ed piece written for an assignment (read: not published), but worthy of being blogged -- and it's my blog, so I can do that kind of thing (which is pretty cool, right):

Al Gore, left, at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. (CBS)

An epochal opportunity has come to the fore in recent weeks for both a man, and by extension, the world.

Al Gore, the effusive champion of climate change awareness, has before him the chance to win the next United States presidential election in 2008, and in turn, spearhead international efforts to defuse humanity’s looming climate crisis.

For both Gore and the planet, the portents are numerous that the 2000 presidential candidate should try his hand again next year.

The former vice-president has become the indisputable icon of a reinvigorated green movement, after his global warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, won best documentary honours at this year’s Oscars in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Even more dramatic is Gore's Nobel prize nomination on Feb. 01.

He is one of the most popular figures in America right now, while his political adversary in 2000, President George W. Bush, is a lame duck that will leave office in roughly 100 weeks with a legacy history is sure to punish.

What’s more, any Democratic candidate for the presidency in ‘08 will surely benefit from an American electoral mood that seems likely to treat Republicans the same as it did in the mid-term elections last November –- by handing them their pink slips --according to the British magazine, The Economist.

For the planet –- or at least the parts of it we humans value most –- a President Gore could mark the first step in a doubtlessly long and labourious process of recasting current industrial models along less pollutant and more sustainable trajectories.

With clear evidence of polar melting and weather distortions now, it’s become an international imperative (this week marked the beginning of the “broadest scientific investigation yet” into the implications of polar melting, according to a Reuters report, involving 60 national governments).

Global warming is no longer the overwrought fears of altruistic scientists -- it has become the central issue for several governments; the next federal election may hinge on the issue here in Canada.

The threat of submerged cities (like Tokyo, New York and Amsterdam to name a few), and increased frequency of destructive weather patterns like Hurricane Katrina (that leveled New Orleans in 2005) has forced even the most titanic emitter of all, America, to say that it must find substantial energy sources beyond oil, as Bush himself suggested in the last State of the Union address.

It says here that the Democrats should be vehemently urging Gore to run again.

He is the party’s ideal candidate: he’s the figurehead of the most pressing issue of the coming decades, is riding a wave of unparalleled popularity, and still has plenty of political capital in Washington, DC, as a former vice-president.

It too, would be a mistake for Democrats to believe enough American voters are progressive enough to elect the party’s other leading candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama (Ohio polls indicate Clinton is favourable there, but what of even more traditional swing states?).

What’s more, as president, Gore could be a powerful trigger for the rest of the world –- including China and India -– to take necessary measures to overcome the gravest threat civilization has ever faced outside of nuclear war.

For the sake of the planet’s inhabitants, it’s an opportunity we hope he accepts.

-JS

"Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line."
- Warren Bennis

Feature: The Long Tail and the new media marketplace

Rest assured, things have been happening since the previous post, just not online.

Allow me to introduce you to the Long Tail, the underpinning idea for the feature article I'm working on currently for Humber's Mag World:

Think back to your first memories of the Internet, around 1995 or '96. Remember the rigid formatting, neon backgrounds and absolute lack of functionality found on the average abomination passing itself off as a website? Me too.

Nowadays, everyone is well aware of the mammoth progress the Web has made in becoming the revolutionary force it was hailed as during its ascent into the mainstream in the mid-1990s.

We do so much online that the Internet no longer merely augments the the real world, large tracts of our physical activities have moved into more virtual environs. Think about the amount of people that bank online now, or get their news; the Web almost certainly factors into even the most conventional person's media sources.

The chart to the left (courtesy of Economist magazine) shows how many blogs have burst forth into existence since they began tracking this in 2003 - 25 million at the beginning of 2006!

As you may or may not be aware, Technorati is now tracking over twice that volume -- 55 million active blogs. This isn't an isolated phenomenon, its a revolution (er, or is that evolution?).

Blogs are but one example of how the so-called Web2.0 is reshaping media demand, as it intices consumers to stray further from mainstream content toward a world of niches.

The problem is, how best to conceptualize this new structure of demand. Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired, provides some clarity: The Long Tail.

Anderson articulates the concept of the Long Tail in his book, which you'll find a link to on the righthand side of the screen. Or you can check out Anderson's blog for some background.

In the article, I'll try to shed some light on how the dynamics of the Long Tail hold deep implications for magazine publishers (as well as the rest of Old Media). I've only begun trawling through my research, and haven't vetted my notes enough yet to give an in-depth explanation here.

But briefly, the Long Tail idea says that with the broadening base of non-traditional information and entertainment sources found on the Web, old guard media is in decline (think YouTube vs. Warner Bros., or Rolling Stone vs. a hundred blogging superfans also at the same concert).

Major media firms are losing marketshare to these medium, small, and mirco-competitors that comprise the lower end of the product demand curve, or tail (see graph below).

Through the democratization of the means of production and distribution (because costs continue to fall through tech. advancement), these smaller players are increasingly siphoning off the bread and butter of Big Media -- consumer eyeballs and the ad dollars chasing their wallets.

In aggregate, Anderson shows, there is an almost equal amount of value in the tail, comparatively, with the head. What's more, demand is increasingly shifting away from the head, down the tail, as these niche players improve content and gladly offer it up on the cheap, even freely (motivated by the 'reputation economy,' a buzzword for a later post).

I contacted National Post media critic Warren Kinsella two weeks ago to bring my article closer to home, and he's managed to succinctly cobble together the idea better than I in his column from Feb. 15.

Kinsella was working on a similar story (the Spin interview) when I contacted him with the idea, which then found its way into his column; he gave me my due props during the interview, crediting it to "some weird ESP thing happening," (or maybe media folks are collectively beginning to click in?).

At any rate, it's a work in progress that I'm pretty excited to polish up and get into Mag World. Alongside Mr Kinsella, popular culture prof. Mark Federman at the University of Toronto has aided me immeasurably, and I'm looking forward to an upcoming interview with Naomi Angel, senior editor of Capital Mag -- one of those 'tiny giants' Anderson says will thrive in the new media marketplace.

Like I said, the wheels are turning ...

Check back around mid-March for the finished product.

-JS

“Almost anything is worth offering on the off chance it will find a buyer.” -
Chris Anderson and a maxim of Long Tail economics.

Editorial: UK education reform is a step forward

Spectre of domestic terrorism prompts Britain to reform education toward creating a greater national identity

This week's op-ed piece written for the Humber EtCetera:

By James Sturgeon
02-02-2007

An epic struggle is currently underway in the United Kingdom that Canada's education policymakers should observe closely.

At root, it's a struggle to mend and unify a population that has become, according to British Education Secretary Alan Johnson, increasingly fragmented and disenfranchised.

The most recent manifestations of this occurred two weeks ago, with the arrest of nine suspects in raids on Jan. 31 in Birmingham, England on charges of conspiring to kidnap and publicly murder a British Muslim soldier.

The suspects are alleged to be Muslim extremists exacting revenge on a “traitor,” according to a website reported by the BBC.

The raids took place a mere five days after Secretary Johnson announced the completion of a report calling for a deep and comprehensive redesign of what is being taught in that nation’s classrooms – starting with a greater emphasis on an inclusive national history, compulsory until the age of 16.

The arrests illustrate the crux of what the education reforms are trying to fix: Britain’s multicultural society has no clear identity of itself, or a collective vision for its future.

In such a diverse environment, divisive angst – most acutely felt towards government and its role in Iraq and Afghanistan - has filled this vacuum.

The effort by the British to create a national identity through a shared and common history is the best measure yet by a Western government to quell these anxieties – not just from British Muslims, but from all uncertain Britons.

There exists a myriad of problems that confront the liberal-democratic state in the twenty-first century, but chief among them is the integration of a growing kaleidoscope of vastly different cultural groups who have different worldviews, values and social expectations.

Johnson's report may represent a (nascent) solution to the inherent friction such differences typically cause.

The program, called “Identity and Diversity: Living together in the UK," is a bottom-up approach that aims to generate a culture every member of society holds an equal stake in.

This may sound like a rehashing of an old idea, and indeed, it is. The education system is designed to normalize individuals into society.

But this is the first attempt since the attacks of 9/11 by a Western state to use a method beyond bludgeoning its will for security upon those who are subversive to stability.

It’s an attempt to knead out those inflammatory elements, not incite them.

This may also be disagreeable to those who would say that their own history deserves separate recognition - not a role in a multi-faceted one.

But than where does unity and cohesion come from?

On some level, we must share something in order to peacefully co-exist, and history is an excellent starting point.

The fruits of the reforms will be greater integration and opportunity for all.

Canada can also learn something from Britain’s struggle.

The arrest of 18 young adults in Toronto last June on charges of plotting to bomb several targets in Ontario is an ominous example that even our seemingly tolerant society is capable of breaking down in similar fashion.

In an age where disgruntled and terror-minded groups can operate easier than ever before, nations must not fail in unifying all elements of society to ensure mutual security.

Creating a common story that all lawful people hold a place in is the first step in doing so.

- JS

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
- Charles Darwin

World: The economics of happiness

As the global economy soars, human happiness sags, according to Economist

© economist

An interesting article in the latest Economist magazine takes a look at economic growth at the expense of general well-being. Here's my own article I submitted to the Et Cetera:

THE ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS
by James Sturgeon
01-03-07

If you've found your mood to be somewhat under the weather lately, you're not alone.

At this time of year people tend to feel the bite of the season. Whether it's post-holiday credit card bills, the affect of seasonal blues or simply the realization that it's time to get back to work, in some way, an emotional drop-off in January affects many.

As the second semester begins and the pressure of assignments builds, students are as susceptible as anyone to feel the strain.

But is this just a seasonal issue? A recent article in the Economist suggests not.

The timely article takes aim at why we of the modern developed society experience grave unhappiness despite a world of material affluence and seemingly boundless forms of leisure.

According to the article, since 2000 the developed world has experienced it's greatest economic boom ever , eclipsing the growth of both the roaring 1920s and post-war decades of the 1950s and 60s. To many folks, not just economists, that spells good times.

Alas, "A rising tide lifts all boats, but not all spirits."

The article states that human happiness hasn't trended upward alongside the brilliant economic conditions. Drawing on "copious survey data," it says, "From America to Japan, figures for well-being have barely budged."

In fact, despite our collective prosperity there are now more people in Canada, the UK and America receiving government or corporate aid for stress and depression than ever before - numbering in the millions.

In Canada, half a million Canadians reported experiencing depression severe enough to impact their jobs, according to the most recent figures from Statistics Canada – no less than four per cent of workers between 25 and 64.

The article offers two illuminating if unsurprising reasons for this.

The first is that an ultra-competitive society now increasingly demands bigger workloads of everyone, not merely the motivated. A capitalist system of cutthroat competition not just between corporations, but individuals, is pressurizing society, continuously chewing deeper into our free time and mental contentment.

According to StatsCan, night shift work, irregular hours, and occupational stress topped the list of job-related contributors to depression and discontent.

The second reason is that people are increasingly stuck on a "treadmill," working ever harder to pay for more things that yield little genuine happiness - or at least a brand of happiness that fades rapidly after a short period of time (think ring tones).

The article does not criticize the economic model of market capitalism as the generator of human discontent, however. To the contrary, capitalism, it offers, "leaves you free to be as unhappy as you choose."

It's a sobering thought for college students about to enter the workaday world. Competition and workloads for new jobs will certainly be demanding, yet ultimately, we are responsible for creating our own contentment.

The magazine is available on newsstands until Jan. 5.

-JS

"Few people at the beginning of the ninteenth century needed an adman to tell them what they wanted." - John Kenneth Galbraith

Book Review: Black captures transcendence of FDR, if at length

Clocking in at over 1,100 pages, Conrad Black's biography on FDR eclipses the previous title-holder for the largest book I've ever read by about 50 pages.

It's no small feat when one considers that it was the Penguin single-volume History of the World.

At first glance, that the sum of all events across human civilization's twelve-thousand year odd history can be recounted on less paper than the 63-year-long lifetime of United States president Franklin Delano Roosevelt seems grossly disproportionate.

Yet if the reader of this grand epic accepts Black's opinion that FDR was not merely the restorer of America from the economic and psychological vagaries of the Depression - remaking the state apparatus in the process - but the absolute saviour of Western civilization against the mortal threats posed by a barbarous Nazi Germany and imperial Japan during the Second World War, its easy to justify the book’s length.

In Champion of Freedom, Black unearths the intimate details of Roosevelt’s personal and public life against the backdrop of the epochal events of the first half of the twentieth century.

Once into his presidency, Black retraces FDR’s New Deal platform throughout the 1930s. He incisively recounts the stages of the FDR administration’s magnanimous agenda, crediting the president and various members of his staff for virtually invented America’s welfare system from scratch.

He captures in detail the skillful – in his words “feline” – dexterity FDR possessed in masterfully navigating through domestic politics. All the while guiding American foreign policy through the country’s most tumultuous times since the Civil War.

The dense wording and complexity of some of the more detailed elements of the book are challenging to be sure. However, on balance, Black manages to capture and illuminate the incredible significance of FDR's impact on America and the world.

Roosevelt's peer and friend Winston Churchill eulogized in 1945 that there is born only one man of FDR's caliber and ability in a generation. However, it's difficult to contend that there will ever again exist a figure at such a critical time in history who commanded such prescient determination and sufficient resources to make the world a better place as FDR did.

His leadership in such difficult times was and remains awe-inspiring.

With this realization, it's little wonder why Black may have found it difficult to put his pen down.

-JS-

To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift. - FDR

Feature: 'New Philanthropy' all sizzle so far

Current perception of a national philanthropic reinvigoration is largely that, a perception

By James Sturgeon
11-28-2006

Any casually-informed person who has read a newspaper this past year has likely become aware of something on the rise. A movement that first appeared on news headlines across the world, but soon gained homegrown interest here in Canada.

In early June, U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett sparked massive attention by donating three quarters of his personal fortune to charity, while in September, U.K. industrialist Sir Richard Branson attracted the international spotlight with his pledge of a few billion to help curtail global warming.

Here in Canada the story continued - albeit on not quite the same scale, but still unprecedented.

Ontario real-estate developer Larry Tanenbaum donated $25 million to Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital in July and another $50 million to a host of other charitable causes. In August, mining executive Peter Munk pledged $37 million to Toronto General Hospital – the single largest medical donation in Canadian history up until then. Add to these sums Vancouver entrepreneur Michael Audain’s recent $2 million gift to the National Gallery in Ottawa, and one may surmise that some kind of movement was forming.

Since the colossal Buffett donation, philanthropy has been seemingly ubiquitous. National headlines have trumpeted “Canada charity comes of age,” while heralded “The nouveau philanthropy.”

As momentum in the media has built, two more elements have joined the story of an apparently reinvigorated philanthropic spirit in Canada. One has been the much-discussed transfer of wealth to baby boomers – on the cusp of retirement - from their frugal parents. The other focus is a purported shift in corporate philanthropy toward a more engaged role in the nonprofit sector as Canadian bluechips like EnCana corp., The Toronto-Dominion Bank and Royal Bank have recently rolled out comprehensive philanthropic strategies.

Alongside the mega-donations, a myriad of coverage has recently adorned both developments.

Yet despite the generous picture being developed through glowing media reports, critics and nonprofit executives are only tentatively allied in their agreement that Canadian philanthropy has been emboldened of late, while opinion is convoluted on why this is happening and even questioning whether the purportedly effusive movement is good for the state of philanthropy at all.

Lisa Hartford, media communications director for Imagine Canada, the country’s largest agency for philanthropic research and advocacy, believes “this is happening." Yet Hartford is quick to note that Imagine Canada’s reports haven’t caught up to what she feels is occurring right now, “It’s all anecdotal - it’s what you read in the newspapers.”

Julia Moulden, Toronto-based author of The New Radicals: How Boomers are Reinventing Their Work to Help Save the World is more certain. “Oh yes, absolutely, there’s definitely been a revitalization,” she says, “It’s been evidenced by all kinds of things.”

Ken Wymen, program coordinator for Fundraising and Volunteer Management at The Humber Institute of Advanced Learning and Technology, also agrees, “Certainly, there have been some amazingly large gifts that are totally unprecedented,” he says. Yet Wymen cautiously adds “there are several factors at play,” and that there remain several issues “not being sufficiently addressed.”

Much of this guarded optimism stems from the attention paid toward the tens of millions of dollars that have poured forth to institutions and nonprofit organizations from Canadians this year.

Alongside the gifts mentioned above, other notable donations have been real-estate development brothers Joseph and Wolf Lebovic, who trumped Munk’s donation in October with a $50 million commitment to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, while Publisher Ken Thomson posthumously willed $50 million to the Art Gallery of Ontario last June.

In fact, according to the Globe & Mail, there have been no less than 120 multi-million dollar donations since the beginning of 2005.

“Certainly attention has been paid toward the major donations,” Wymen says, “That is mostly a good thing.”

Wymen likens this year’s major donations to a philanthropic ‘arms race’ among the rich, “If that person can get their name in the media by giving away just a few million, I can do that too,” he says.

But the current outpouring begs the question, why now?

Interestingly, both Wymen and Hartford point toward a fact that has played a dominant role in the recent run of enormous donations, but has remained outside of most media coverage – the elimination of the capital gains tax for nonprofits.

The measure, from last May’s Federal budget, allows for a tax-free transfer of public securities and other non-monetary donations to charities, who can then liquidate those assets without any taxation.

“That has clearly stimulated $50 million or more in giving.” Hartford adds that it “was quite a successful win for the nonprofit sector.” It was also a win, however, for wealthy Canadians looking to lower their taxable income. The facts behind affluent donor levels might not be as laudable as current events could lead one to conclude.

“The downside is that some people who are more generous in giving as a percentage of their income are not being championed as much as the people who can give spectacularly large gifts,” says Wymen.

In fact, the latest report from Imagine Canada indicates that the lowest-income households ($6-19,000) donate on average close to two per cent of their personal income while the most affluent ($100,000+) give a significantly lower 0.42. Wymen concludes that the current largesse witnessed among the rich “may not be as generous as one might think.”

Yet, to be sure, the current philanthropic ‘arms race’ among affluent Canadians is a positive and praiseworthy development – even indicative of an emergent ‘golden age,’ as some media have touted. But the attention paid toward these generous acts masks a disquieting issue in that the least fortunate Canadians routinely give more to the common good than the most affluent.

It’s a fact that has received little attention in the face of the more spectacular donations of late.

The second element being cited in this unprecedented period of giving is the story of how baby boomers are winding down their careers while simultaneously on the cusp of collectively inheriting over $1 trillion from their frugal, Depression-raised parents.

What does this mean?

It means that the largest demographic in Canadian history is at the peak of its earning potential and is about to receive the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth ever, just as the boomers are about to trot off into retirement.

Last year a Hamilton Spectator report labeled this phenomenon “the future of philanthropy,” while the Toronto Star this summer said the trend signaled “boom years” for the nonprofit sector.


“Boomers are waking up and saying ‘I’m not going to live forever,’ and have this sense that ‘I want to do something more,’” says Jula Moulden, who’s book is scheduled for release in early 2007.

She notes a subject in her book who ran a consulting firm until last year, when in his late-50s, he converted the entire business into a nonprofit firm focused on sustainable development. “There are so many examples of this,” Moulden says. In terms of donations from boomers, Moulden adds, “The number (of boomers) is huge, so there are many groups (benefiting).”

When ask if the boomer phenomenon was positively impacting the current uptick, Wymen’s response was “Clearly it does.” He adds “Many boomers have discovered over perhaps the last decade that they have more money than they ever imagined, and have started to think of what to do with it.”

Recent data shows that Canadian donations are indeed up, totaling over $7.8 billion last year, growing by just under 14 per cent from 2004.

Yet the number of Canadians who actually donated moved up by less than one per cent in the same survey, meaning virtually the same number of donors simply gave larger donations.

What’s Hartford’s opinion on the injection of boomer dollars into the nonprofit sector?

“I don’t know if the numbers reflect that,” she says. “We have fewer people giving to charity, despite that on average, they’re giving more,” that’s “a very bad thing,” citing that while more people are in a position to give, data isn’t reflecting that they are.


Hartford cautions, however, that it’s probably “far too early” to understand the effects of the boomer phenomenon. She says that Imagine Canada is seeking funding to exam the boomer affect on national philanthropy in its next report, which is scheduled for release in early 2009.

Aside from the claims of a reinvigorated generosity lauded upon the affluent and boomer demographics in this new philanthropy, there is a third issue of dubious authenticity.

In July a National Post article followed the story of 600 Toronto business leaders who took time out of their busy workdays to help build a new playground in the city’s poor Lawrence Heights neighborhood.

“Being good is the new citizenship,” it read, “particularly in the corporate world.” Other media have echoed this sentiment, reporting that a shift has taken place in the last couple of years toward “social investments,” and an emboldened corporate philanthropy.

Hartford agrees, “There’s a change happening in the last few years,” she says, “There’s much more of a true sponsorship and collaboration between business and its nonprofit partners.”

Hartford uses Imagine Canada’s Caring Company program as an example. In the program, companies pledge one per cent of their pre-tax profit to community programs outlined and developed through Imagine Canada.

In its first year of operation corporate giants like EnCana corp., Telus corp., Toronto-Dominion Bank, Shell Canada, ltd., and RBC have jumped on board.

Wymen agrees that there has been a corporate shift, but believes it isn’t a positive one. “Philanthropy is when corporations do good things because they are good. Corporate sponsorship is where (companies) do things that might happen to be good, but are primarily good for the corporation – like public relations.”

He warns “charities are now expected to deliver more marketing bang for the buck.” Wymen explains that this is leaving many less glamorous causes vulnerable to neglect, while inflating the visibility of corporate philanthropy.

But perhaps the most startling fact in light of this charitable awakening is the issue of funding. Imagine Canada’s own statistics reveal that despite the current perception that corporations are doing more, they’re not.

The latest figures reveal that fully one half of all nonprofit funding is attributable to various levels of government (and in turn, the taxpayer), while corporate Canada on average chips in an almost incomparable three per cent of nonprofit funding.

“It’s a growing program,” Hartford admits.



In June, the U.S. magazine Forbes predicted that “It’s Only Just Begun,” for an era where mega-donations, boomer support and corporate largesse would lift international philanthropy to lofty heights.

Canada has mirrored this story in kind, with a flurry of reports and stories exalting a ‘new era’ of generosity in this country, and indeed there have been some optimistic developments that deserve attention - the Federal tax measure, the unprecedented donations and overall growth in donor dollars.

However, before a ‘golden age’ can be declared, opinion must be stronger and reinforced by even stronger evidence. The most comprehensive report on the current climate will not be available until early 2009, where perception will give way to fact and a true measure of where philanthropy in Canada sits now will be revealed.

Politics: US right ebbs, will Canada follow?

As I sit here typing this, the Democrats have just captured a majority in Congress, securing both the House and Senate in the American mid-term elections.

It's about time.

Whether or not neo-conservatism ebbs in North America will largely depend on whether the the 110th American Congress can build enough national support for the Democratic party over the next year (and the following) to oust the Republican party from the White House.

This will largely depend on how the country perceives it's fortunes to be in 2008, and who is responsible for them. The Democrats must tread carefully here, for now that they effectively hold half the responsibility for what happens before the next presidential election, they are not absolved of the problems they now inherit. Come 2008, a strong Republican candidate (say, Sen. McCain) could use this election to their advantage.

At any rate, to the chagrin of many Canadians now, the spectre of neo-conservativism is currently haunting Ottawa as well. Despite a dip in public support for the Conservative party recently, they still narrowly lead in support against the centre-left Liberal party.

Here's an article that I wrote in mid-October for the Et Cetera during the final leadership debate for the Liberals, at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto:



GRITS JOUST EACH OTHER, JAW HARPER
by James Sturgeon 10/15/2006

TORONTO -- It was a raucous affair at Roy Thompson Hall Sunday afternoon, as the eight candidates for the federal Liberal leadership exchanged barbs in the final debate before the party elects a new leader six weeks from now in Montreal.

The format – eight randomly-drawn debates between the candidates – allowed the leadership hopefuls to lay down their positions on a range of topics, from Canada’s role in the NATO Afghanistan mission to domestic matters such as the need for greater participation by women in politics.

Although all the televised debates were lively as candidates fiercely jostled with each other, the biggest highlights undoubtedly came between front-runner Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae. The two butted heads on a range of issues, as they kneaded the weaknesses of each others arguments, most notably over Canada’s engagement in Afghanistan.

“Early on, you said you would vote against the extension of this [Afghan] mission, now you’re saying something different. I actually don’t know where you stand on this issue,” Ignatieff said. “You certainly do know. For a guy that’s changed his mind three times in a week with respect to the Middle East,” Rae shot back, referring to Igantieff’s flip-flopping stance on last July’s violent Israeli-Lebanese conflict.

After the debate, Ignatieff accused Rae of “stirring” things up between them, to which Rae said “well, this isn’t a tea party.”

While Ignatieff is still considered to be the front-runner, Rae has been gaining support as all three of the latest candidates to withdraw from the race have thrown their sides behind the former Premier of Ontario.

Rae is now expected to seriously challenge Ignatieff’s chances at the party’s so-called “Super Weekend” leadership vote on December 2nd.

Rae wasn’t alone in his open criticism of Ignatieff. Stephane Dion, the Chretien-era minister was vehement at times in his criticism of the Harvard academic-turned-politician. When Ignatieff stated that the Liberals could have done more for the environment in the previous administration, Dion shot back “It’s all very well to come forward with [Ignatieff’s proposed sustainability act] but you need to pay tribute to what the government was doing.” Dion continued “we will be back, and we will do the job,” to boisterous applause from the audience.


One area that did not elicit strong disagreement was opinion amongst the group toward Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative party agenda being pursued in Parliament.

All eight were resoundingly – almost personally - critical of the prime minister. Girard Kennedy said that Harper doesn’t have “five priorities, he has one, his reelection,” referring to the Conservative five-point platform from last January’s national election. Ken Dryden called him “the great divider.”

All said that the current climate in Ottawa is becoming increasingly divisive, and dangerously mirroring the American Republican party agenda in Washington, DC.

Rae called for a fresh “voice” of leadership, while accusing Harper's policies of being “an echo” of the developments south of the border.

During closing remarks, moderator Dominic LeBlanc asked the partisan audience for a “democratic renewal” for the Liberal party in the run-up to the next federal election. And in addressing the national television audience, asked for a similar renewal for the nation.



-JS-

"No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor." - Tacitus

A&E: Still the same ol' G(eorge)

About a week ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with CBC's heir-apparent to uber-anchor Peter "the Bridge" Mansbridge, fellow Humberite George Stroumboulopoulos.


In addition to him graciously accomodating an interview after a presumably long day around CBC studios in Toronto, Stroumboulopoulos was an incredibly cool person to talk to. Here's the article from this week's Et Cetera:

THE MAN OF THE HOUR
by James Sturgeon 11/09/2006

One of Humber’s own collected not one, but two trophies at last week’s Gemini awards. George Stroumboulopoulos (radio broadcasting, ’92) took home the Gemini as best host of a general interest and lifestyle series, while his show, CBC’s the Hour, won best overall series in the same category.

Stroumboulopoulos is one of the college’s most well-known graduates, joining the CBC in January 2005 after six years as a popular VJ on Much Music, a national music television station.

The prestigious awards recognize the best in Canadian television programming as voted upon by industry members across the country.

“I didn’t think I was going to win,” Stroumboulopoulos said after a taping of the Hour last week in Toronto, he then conceded “ well, I thought about it sure. When you’re nominated there is a chance you could win but if you don’t, its not ‘oh no you don’t like me.’”

“You know who the Geminis are nice for?” Stroumboulopoulos breezily added, “they’re nice for my mom, they’re nice for my sister. They’re nice for the people who work on the show.”

The show, which began its third season at the beginning of October, has become a cornerstone for the CBC network, averaging 100-thousand viewers nightly.

Yet Stroumboulopoulos was hesitant to pigeon-hole the Hour into the award category it won for. “We do newsy stuff but we’re not a newscast, we’re not a comedy show but we do funny shit, we’re not a music show but we talk music” he said. He then added “we don’t do a lot of lifestyle stuff in the tradition of lifestyle."

"I don’t makeover rooms.”

Director of community relations, Orangeville Campus, Joe Andrews was Stroumboulopoulos’ instructor during his time at the school. “The way that George presents himself is no different than how he is. Raw, in-your-face, yet totally knowledgeable and researched,” Andrews said.

He has “become a spokesperson for our school (and) brings tremendous respect and cache to the (broadcast) program. He has done it his way and we are so proud of him.”
When asked if the latest accolades were beginning to go to his head, Stroumboulopoulos said “it’s never about me. All I’m striving for is to be good company at 11 o’clock.”

“I just want to be good company.”

-JS-

Mission Statement: "Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own."

Thanksgiving 2006


My goal is to become a paid member of the media at some point in the (very) near future.

My credentials? I hold an honours degree in history from Queen's University, and currently I attend Humber college's post-graduate journalism program here in Toronto, Ontario. And if you've read the previous post ("Adapt or perish, right?"), you'll know about my brief tenure with the Toronto Star.

I could go on about my zeal for worldly affairs, on how 'newsy' I am, or how I possess a "piercing sense of criticism that cuts to the bone of anything its runs over," but I will spare you the hyperbole.

Yeah, I firmly believe I have the tools to work in the fourth estate, but so do a lot of other people. Any good liberal humanities education inherently instills this, no?

So, what to do to get some attention, to separate oneself from thy competitors?

Answer: Start a blog.

Well, it may not be revolutionary, or even ahead of the pack (say, somewhere in the middle) but I look forward to publishing things on this site, and if it captivates - okay, merely interests - a potential employer for long enough to garner an interview or a chance at one, it's done its job.

Talk to you soon,
JS

"I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am a prod." - Winston S. Churchill

On Why: Adapt or perish, right?

What's up everyone… This bit here inaugurates the birth of my online blogging life. The genesis for this endeavor came from an academic assignment on writing a how-to piece on something of interest, and I instinctively orbited toward creating a web log as my subject.

Why?

Ever since the brief eight-month stint I was privileged enough to have worked at the Toronto Star last year (2005), I've been following the so-called decline and fall of the traditional newspaper. The passing conversations with my editor over the Star's strategic push toward broadening its media formats beyond the traditional daily, struck me as an imperative for all newspapers the developed-world over. The ubiquity of the internet and proliferation of niche news sources (the so-called Long Tail theory), I would begin to learn, were shattering already-declining subscriptions across North America and Europe, not to mention drawing off significant advertising revenue.

It was a two-front assault and print news organizations in 2005 were grappling to reinvigorate their marketshare.

We're rapidly approaching 2007 and guess what? They still are.

Last month's leader in Britain's The Economist magazine, "Who Killed the Newspaper," is further proof that the threat to old media, and its ancillary stakeholders (i.e. me) is real.

As I've learned to live with the knowledge that I'm entering an industry very much in flux, where jobs are changing dramatically or are being eviscerated outright, I've realized I need to react, and converge with the behaviour of the organizations I'll be relying on for my livelihood.

Adapt or perish, right?

To start, a rudimentary, service-hosted blog will hopefully suffice. My focus is stated in the mission statement at the top of the screen under the flag (read: broad). Feel free to post and comment anything you deem relevant, any and all contribution is welcome.

JS

“Just as everybody has an e-mail account today, everybody will have a blog in five years. Journalism won’t be a sermon any more, it will be a conversation.”- Sabeer Bhatia, creator, Hotmail.com