“UNITY: JOURNALISTS OF COLOR” TO BE AUCTIONED OFF ON eBAY

October 24, 2013 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

McLean, Virginia- At its prime, UNITY: Journalists of Color was the world’s largest organization of ethnic journalists, drawing its members from four national journalism organizations in the U.S. – the National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Asian American Journalists Association and Native American Journalists Association. UNITY held conventions once every four years, attracting as many as 9,000 attendees beginning in 1994.

Two years ago, however, the black journalists left the coalition over disagreement on UNITY financial and organizational issues. Soon thereafter, the predominantly white National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association was admitted to the coalition and the name was changed to UNITY: Journalists for Diversity. This week, the Hispanic Journalists voted to leave the coalition as well over similar issues, leaving just two journalists of color organizations and the lesbian and gay journalists.

Acknowledging that the name “UNITY: Journalists of Color” will never again apply to the crumbling UNITY organization, the board of directors of UNITY voted unanimously to auction off the old name on eBay. The starting bid is $1,000 dollars with a “buy it now” price of $3,000. A UNITY board member who spoke to The Adobo Chronicles on condition of anonymity, said that if the auction raises the full $3,000, the amount will be divided equally among the remaining member organizations, each receiving $1,000.

Rumors are spreading on social media that some black and Latino journalists are pitching in to raise the $3,000 to buy the UNITY: Journalists of Color name so that they can start a new organization that is truly representative of an ethnically-diverse coalition of journalists. The smaller Native American Journalists Association and the usually quiet Asian American Journalists Association will be invited to join the new organization but it remains unclear if the lesbian and gay journalists will be invited as well.

At last check on eBay, the auction has not generated a single bid.

International

PHILIPPINES BANNED FROM MISS UNIVERSE ONLINE VOTING

October 22, 2013 Pol Pinoy 20 Comments

Moscow, Russia – Since the Miss Universe organization first implemented public online voting for Miss Photogenic and “fan favorite,” the Philippine candidate has always been among the top candidates, if not the winner of the special award — thanks to 30 million Filipinos who have Internet access, not to mention multiple email accounts. That’s almost a third of the Philippines’ total population of about 100 million.

The Miss Universe organization knows how passionate Filipinos are when it comes to their beauty queens and that they will do everything they can to ensure their candidate’s victory. The organization, however, feels that online voting results may not totally reflect the true merits of the competition, equating the results to a “hometown decision.”

Because of this, the Miss Universe organization announced that the Philippines has been banned from online voting in this year’s pageant to be held November 9 in Moscow, Russia. It said Internet votes emanating from the Philippines will be automatically blocked.

The announcement angered Filipino netizens who felt that the ban would diminish the chances of the Philippine candidate, Ariella Arida, in winning the Miss Photogenic or fan favorite award.

Despite the ban, beauty pageant experts and enthusiasts have placed Miss Arida in the initial circle of favorites to win the title, which would potentially give the Philippines its third major beauty title this year, following the victories of Megan Young as Miss World and Johanna Datul as Miss Supranational for 2013.

Business, International, Politics

PAYBACK TIME FOR U.S. REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS

October 17, 2013 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. government shutdown has ended, but the damage to the economy has been done.

The ratings agency S&P has cut the annualized U.S. growth rate closer to 2% from 3%, saying that the shutdown has taken $24 billion out of the U.S. economy. The agency also cut 0.6% off of the yearly fourth quarter GDP growth.

Upon the recommendation of his top financial advisers, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order that would restitute what has been lost in the economy because of this nonsensical shutdown strategy orchestrated by the Republican and Tea Party leaders.

The EO mandates that the Republican legislators pay back the $24 billion lost because of the two-week shutdown. Each of the 46 Republicans in the Senate and the 232 Republicans in the House of Representatives has been asked to pay the U.S. government $73 million. The deadline for the restitution is November 1, 2013. The Obama administration has denied requests from the Republican legislators for an installment plan.

The Adobo Chronicles has learned that the country’s largest banks have offered the legislators unsecured personal loans to enable them to meet their obligations under the EO. The banks, however, are charging the legislators enormous interest rates ranging from 24.9% to 36.8 %.