China | Society Matters

Sinking to new depths

by Alan Mairson on May 16, 2013 8 Comments

The latest cover of National Geographic
featuring James Cameron
is
(a) Photoshopped
&
(b) beyond depressing:

James Cameron, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence

Read the whole interview here.

Hey… here’s an idea:
Why don’t we put this sad, soulless man
on the cover of the Magazine
and pretend that his values are ones
our Society — and society — should embrace?

(If James Cameron is the new face of National Geographic,
then our Society is in bigger trouble than I had imagined.)

If only he cared more about cheetahs

by Alan Mairson on May 15, 2013 2 Comments

Meanwhile, at our Society:

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson shake hands with our new publishing partners in the People’s Republic of China (2007).

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson celebrate NGM’s new publishing partnership in the People’s Republic of China. (2007)

_____

More than 20 years ago in National Geographic magazine
(long before any local language editions were launched):

Why John Fahey’s decision to do business in China was a huge mistake for the National Geographic Society

by Alan Mairson on April 26, 2013 6 Comments

Meanwhile:

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson stand tall with our new publishing partners in the People’s Republic of China (2007).

Chris & Terry shake hands with our new partners.

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson celebrate NGM’s new publishing partnership in the People’s Republic of China. (2007)

Objective Nonsense (part 31)

by Alan Mairson on April 16, 2013 2 Comments

Remember the claim made by Chris Johns, Editor of National Geographic, that the Magazine has “no agenda”? It was part of an Editor’s Note in which Chris insisted that in “a world of shrill voices and agendas, we at National Geographic are committed to an unbiased presentation of facts. … It’s what we’ve been doing for more than 120 years.”

In our ongoing rebuttal to Chris’s unsupportable claim, we present this excerpt from “Yellow Fever: A hundred and twenty-five years of National Geographic,” an essay by Adam Gopnik that appears in next week’s edition of The New Yorker:

{ The full version is behind a paywall here. }

Given that our Society has promoted this “agenda” for more than a century, why would Chris insist we didn’t have an agenda, and say so on such a public stage? Why would he distance himself, the Magazine, and the Society from its own history? Why pretend?

Because pretending opens the door to China.

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson celebrate NGM’s new publishing partnership in the People’s Republic of China. (2007)

_____

Postscript: In this video from Russian TV (below), Terry Adamson admits what Chris Johns won’t, but you can tell Terry doesn’t like saying it out loud and in public. Listen for: “… it may have been somewhat the case.” (Adam Gopnik has no such doubts.)

Here comes our Society’s new membership platform

by Alan Mairson on April 6, 2013 Leave a Comment

{ click to enlarge }

Dear Catherine,

Thank you for your warm welcome. I’m delighted to be part of the National Geographic Society’s team of explorers, and honored to be considered a colleague of yours.

As I looked through your body of work, I was especially impressed by this social documentary project:

The Agent Orange story is obviously one that’s of great importance to you. My particular interest is the oppression of political dissidents in China. I’ve blogged about it quite a bit here. And as you probably know, National Geographic magazine once took subjects like freedom and human rights very seriously.

I’d like to share my work with other Society members who have joined our new community of digital explorers.

How might I do this? Where may I post my work on the NGS website? How can I get in touch with other Society members who also care about human rights, freedom, and democracy? Does the NGS site have tools that enable people to find one another based on common interests? And how can we take these virtual communities that are beginning to form and bring them alive in real life?

Because I firmly believe in what you say in your message (above): “Working together, we can discover more and make a bigger difference.” (I said very much the same thing back in 2009.)

Looking forward to hearing from you — and to working with you.

all the best,
Alan

Watch our Society look the other way

by Alan Mairson on January 16, 2013 Leave a Comment

Read the whole thing here.

_____

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson celebrate NGM’s new publishing partnership in the People’s Republic of China. (2007)

Read about Chris Johns’ firm belief in our Society’s lack of “agenda” here.

_____

Turning our back on “the most important product of American culture”

by Alan Mairson on December 31, 2012 Leave a Comment

Here’s Nicholas Kristof on the role Americans should play in China:

Here’s a counterpoint from Chris Johns, Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic magazine, who evidently considers it a virtue to be a consistent advocate of nothing:

In a world full of shrill voices and agendas, we at National Geographic are committed to an unbiased presentation of facts. … It’s what we’ve been doing [at National Geographic] for more than 120 years.

This “unbiased” stuff is nonsense, of course. National Geographic has always had a bias — a predisposition either for or against something.

The only thing that’s changed in the past 15 years is that National Geographic would have once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ai Weiwei and Nicholas Kristof. But now we go to Beijing and do stuff like this:

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson shake hands with our Society’s new publishing partners in the People’s Republic of China (2007).

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson celebrate with our Society’s new publishing partners in the People’s Republic of China (2007).

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson stand tall with our new publishing partners in China (2007).

“Let your project go”

by Alan Mairson on December 15, 2012 11 Comments

“Working against the very cause of freedom
is something that you need to approach very delicately….”

The Society’s project
once meant championing the very cause of freedom:

NGM, February 1976

NGM September 1987

But then we let The Project go:

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson celebrate NGM’s new publishing partnership in the People’s Republic of China. (2007)

_____

Yu Jie, John Fahey & “the frontiers… we must protect”

by Alan Mairson on October 20, 2012 1 Comment

TO: John Fahey, Chairman & CEO of the National Geographic Society
RE: Taking your own words seriously

Did you see this news item?

{ Read the whole article here. }

Given your recent public statements about freedom of expression and the First Amendment …

… don’t you think Yu Jie’s online project is a perfect fit for the National Geographic Society?

After all, Yu Jie:

will be based in Virginia (just across the Potomac River from your office).
shares your passion for freedom of expression and human rights.
embraces the values that enable our society (and Society) to cohere.

We have some great ideas about how National Geographic could become a partner in Yu Jie’s project, which will not only help Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, but will also help you build a secure and sustainable future for the National Geographic Society.

If you’re interested in learning more, please get in touch, or let us know in the comments below.

Green (adjective): environmentally aware, ecologically friendly; also: unworldly, simple, amateurish, naive

by Alan Mairson on October 11, 2012 Leave a Comment

Terry Garcia goes to China
and delivers a speech that leaves us
(almost) speechless.

Did you know that people in China
prefer locally grown food?
And live near “their usual destinations”?
And embrace renewable energy sources?
They also love bike-sharing!

It’s all true, says Terry,
citing the Greendex,
National Geographic’s sustainability survey.

“Can China go green?” Terry asks his captive audience.
The answer, he says, “is an emphatic yes.”

In other news:

{ Read the entire report from Freedom House here. }

{ Read the full BBC story here. }

(All these evictions no doubt move Chinese citizens
closer to what Terry Garcia calls “their usual destinations,”
which is great news for the Greendex… and The Planet.)

_____

Chris Johns & Terry Adamson celebrate NGM’s new publishing partnership in the People’s Republic of China. (2007)

Sinking to new depths

The latest cover of National Geographic
featuring James Cameron
is
(a) Photoshopped
&
(b) beyond depressing:

Hey… here’s an idea:
Why don’t we put this sad, soulless man
on the cover of the Magazine
and pretend that his values are ones
our Society — and society — should embrace?