Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 27, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba THINK TANK COMMENT EDITOR: RUSSELL WANGERSKY 204-697-7269 ● RUSSELL.WANGERSKY@WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A9 SATURDAY JULY 27, 2024 Ideas, Issues, Insights Harris’s track record worth reviewing O N this scorcher of a Saturday in July, we can chronicle that the hottest political story of this week was U.S. President Joe Biden removing himself from the Democratic presi- dential ticket and endorsing his vice-president, Kamala Harris. I will offer analysis of Kamala Harris’s politics on a different day. My focus now is on her roots. If elected president, she will be the very first with Asian heritage. Her mom, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in India in 1938. She met her future husband, Ja- maican-born Donald Harris, in the United States. Both were academics. He was an economics professor. She was a cancer researcher. Harris’s parents had two children, Kamala and her younger sister Maya. Kamala was only five when her parents divorced. She said “it was real- ly my mother who took charge of our upbringing. She was the one most responsible for shaping us into the women we would become.” Her mom encouraged her to pursue law. She took her mother’s advice seriously and she wasn’t wrong. Kamala Harris became a popular figure in San Francisco as a tough prosecutor. She was elected district attorney in that city. She went on to win three statewide races, two for attorney general of California and then as a U.S. senator. She was chosen by Joe Biden to be his VP running mate four years ago. Recently in the Wall Street Journal, a scholar born in India, Tunku Varadarajan, wrote about the success of his ethnic group in the U.S.: “Indi- an-Americans have the highest median household income in the U.S. by ethnic group. One in every 20 doctors here is Indian, as is one in every ten students entering medical school.” It’s not breaking news to anyone that people of Indian descent have a higher than average level of economic and professional achievement in many countries outside of India, including the one we live in. You don’t have to be a member of the Indo Canadian community in Manitoba to observe the self-evident. But none of this is about racial supremacy. It’s about strong values and good habits. It’s not a nature argument. It’s very much about nurture. Many of us who have experienced similar nurtur- ing have seen excellent results. I was not born in India. My birthplace is Hungary. But my father’s idea of nurturing was not terribly different from what Kamala Harris learned from her mother. Mike Adler’s house rules never changed. And I’m confident Kamala Harris’s mom would have approved. These are the top three rules: always value education. Always pursue a profession, vocation or business enterprise where you can excel. And most important, always outwork everyone else. Long before I had my first class at university, it was crystal clear that my father was 100 per cent right. By the time I was in my second year, after having discovered the radio station on campus, Radio McGill, I knew that I would start earning a shot at economic independence very soon. I just needed to find the opportunity to turn on a professional radio microphone. Fortunately I found one in Western Canada. I was 19 years old and hosting an evening show in Calgary when my first professional goal was realized. I wasn’t making big bucks. But it was enough for food, shelter and fuel. Only one week after my 20th birthday I was turning a professional mic on in Montreal, on the road to half a century of success at radio and TV stations in two countries, hosting national shows in both Canada and the United States. If my father had his way, I would have chosen the Kamala Harris path — law. He wanted his son to become a tough-as-nails prosecutor. In light of the devastation that came to his family in the Holocaust, he thought the most ap- propriate place for his high-achieving offspring was the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, where I could prosecute war criminals. Throughout most of my professional life, I believed my nurturing father was deeply disap- pointed with my choices. But after he passed of Alzheimer’s, I learned from his Filipino Canadian caregivers that Mike Adler was indeed proud of the son he nurtured. This the final weekend in July. We’re on the doorstep of August, only eight days away from the finest multicultural festival in Canada — Folklorama. Many ethnic cultures get a chance to share the best of who they are, with a powerful emphasis on the best of their cuisine. Bon appetit. Charles Adler is a longtime political comment- er and podcaster. charles@charlesadler.com News avoidance: worrisome but not a crisis A STILL relatively small but growing percentage of citizens in Western democracies are intention- ally avoiding reading, listening or watching news about the public affairs of their societies. News avoiders feel they do not have time for news, find it irrelevant or emotionally draining, do not trust the media, and/or many other reasons. My introduction to the concept of news avoid- ance was the discovery of the recently published book Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism by Benjamin Toff, Ruth Palmer, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (Columbia University Press, 2023). Using surveys and in-depth inter- views, the authors offer insights into the extent to which the public in three countries (U.S., U.K. and Spain) deliberately engage in news avoid- ance. The authors drew on the Reuters Institute Digital News report for 2023, which surveyed 93,000 readers in 46 countries. More than a third of respondents said they often or sometimes intentionally avoided the news. This is probably an underestimate because there is a strong social expectation that people will take steps to inform themselves so there is probably a reluctance to admit disinterest. The book led me to dip selectively into the rapidly growing, wide-ranging literature on the topic. It is safe to say there is not full understand- ing or agreement on the nature, extent, causes, types, significance and appropriate responses to the avoidance trend. Ironically, people are consuming less news at a time when there are more information sources and channels of communications than at any time in the past. Avoidance can be complete, occa- sional or selective. In general, news avoidance tends to be more common among young people, lower socio-economic individuals and women. In terms of politics, there seems to a growing divide between the “gladiators “ who are intensely en- gaged and avid consumers of news and “apathetic spectators” who are largely disillusioned with politics and avoid news entirely or selectively. Many people feel overloaded and express fa- tigue with the unrelenting deluge of news, much of it negative in content and involving matters beyond their control. News focuses on situations involving conflict and controversy and there has been no shortage of such events in recent years. During the pandemic, many people found the steady stream of scary news unsettling and anxiety inducing. To protect their mental health they stopped or reduced their news consumption. Some people are turned off by the repetitiveness of the news. Distrust in mainstream news sources is an- other factor. Among the countries examined in several studies, mistrust was highest in the U.S. Countries with the lowest levels of avoidance had higher levels of trust in the media, which seemed to be related to a strong public broadcaster pres- ence in the media environment. People find it difficult and time consuming to engage with multiple potential news sources and to make sense of contending perspectives. In a more polarized political culture, more people are turning to news sources which align with their ideological and other outlooks. Conversations based on the news have become more difficult and sometimes unpleasant, even within families, contributing to a decline in news consumption. Young people adopt the approach that “the news will find me” by relying on social media news alerts and seeking news less actively. For them, the instant availability, less demanding and more engaging nature of online news makes it more attractive, even if it lacks depth and/or objectivity. In democracies, there is an assumption that the media plays a crucial role in helping the public to make informed political decisions, like casting votes and holding political elites accountable. So, is it a serious problem if a a growing number of citizens say they actively avoid the news and even larger share say they rarely follow it? My answer would be that there is not a crisis, but there is a worrisome trend which deserves a response. I conclude this for a couple of reasons. First, if people limit their exposure to news on certain topics and certain perspectives, but still consume a significant amount overall, I do not think this pattern should be classified as avoid- ance. Second, the research finding in the book named above was that selective avoiders often re- mained as informed as those people who engaged more consistently with the news. Addressing the causes of news avoidance would require actions on too many fronts to be discussed here, so my final brief comment will relate to the media. There is undoubted public dissatisfaction with the content (lack of practical relevance) and format (negativity and sensa- tionalism) of the news. Selective avoiders have expressed a strong preference for constructive, more solution-based content. With the privilege of writing here on the Think Tank page, I have tried to offer informed analysis and constructive ideas. No doubt many potential readers have avoided my efforts. Paul G. Thomas is professor emeritus of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba. Simone Biles changed America ONE of the hardest jobs at the Olympics is commenting on Simone Biles’s performanc- es. The normally chatty announcers can’t say anything except “Wow!” “Incredible!” “Unbelievable!” I get it. I’ve been an armchair gymnastics fan since I was a kid in the 1980s and ’90s. Biles soars higher than anyone else in the competition. She performs more difficult routines than any other woman. Heck, her vault is so hard that almost no men in the world can land it. And she’s doing all this at a gymnastics “grandma” age of 27. If she wins the most coveted gymnastics prize in Paris — all-around gold — she will be the oldest woman to do so since 1952. I’m rooting for Biles to win it all, not just because she’s the best, but also because she has changed the sport of gymnastics — and her country. Who can forget what happened at the last Olympics in Tokyo? Biles stunned the world by dropping out of the team competition af- ter a fluke vault. She wasn’t visibly injured. There was no limping or screaming. But she was hurting mentally. Had she kept going, she might have died. Her brain was telling her body to fly and twist, but her body wasn’t complying. When she tried to explain this, the internet labeled her a disgrace, a traitor, a quitter. She went from “GOAT” to scapegoat for an angry world still largely locked down. Her career seemed over. Yet here she is — back and better than ever with a new tattoo on her collarbone: Maya Angelou’s “And Still I Rise.” Her actions in Tokyo spurred a shift that affected the world well beyond sports. Suddenly, it was OK to talk about and prioritize mental health. Biles says she wouldn’t have returned to the Olympics without her family — and her therapist. She is transformed. She’s smiling more. And she’s leading her sport. Her parents opened a gym in Houston that has become a haven for Biles and many other elite gymnasts, including France’s Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos and Team USA’s Jordan Chiles and al- ternate Joscelyn Roberson. When Olympian Suni Lee was struggling at the U.S. national championships competition this year, it was Biles, rather than Lee’s coach, who gave Lee the pep talk that made the difference. Biles has transformed gymnastics from a girls’ to a women’s sport. In the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s, female gymnastics champions were extraordinarily young and thin. Their coaches yelled at them so much, it amounted to borderline child abuse. It took the story of widespread sexual abuse of gymnasts by team physician Larry Nassar to bring the situation into the open. But the brutality wasn’t limited to sexual abuse, especially not in the era when head coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi constantly criticized the girls’ weight and appearance, and urged them to compete while injured. Kerri Strug’s infamous vault on an injured ankle at the 1996 Atlanta Games, as Bela Karolyi yelled “You can do it!” from the side- lines looks alarming to the world today. “You literally had one job and you couldn’t protect us,” Biles said of USA Gymnas- tics in 2019. She refused to continue with Karolyi-style training camps. She testified before Congress about the trauma she suffered. In her new Netflix documentary, she says she still struggles with flashbacks when she arrives at big competitions. But she has found her voice and pushed for change in her sport. Her new coaches put mental fitness first. Her gym has pioneered new training methods. Biles even helped change Team USA leotards — from girly pink to patriotic colours with higher necks and a more ele- gant, mature style. She’s also helped diversify the sport, inspiring young gymnasts of all back- grounds to compete. Biles’s personal story is powerful: she lived in foster care until her grandparents adopted her. She had overcome a great deal well before social media trolls criticized her hair, her clothes, her dance moves and even her husband. Today, there is a calm about her. She lets her flips and turns, scores and medals do the talking. China has boasted that the men’s team it has sent to Paris is the most decorated, with 37 Olympic and World Championship medals among its five stars. Biles has won 37 med- als all on her own. America loves a good comeback story, and they don’t come much better than Biles’s. I’m rooting for her to win — for herself, for America and, most of all, to remind the world what a strong woman can do. Heather Long is a columnist and member of The Washington Post’s Editorial Board. CHARLES ADLER PAUL G. THOMAS HEATHER LONG ERIN SCHAFF / THE NEW YORK TIMES VIA AP, POOL Vice-President Kamala Harris speaks at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., July 22. ;