Urban News Features

U. S. Millions Committed for Ebola but a Paltry 25 Beds Yet to Arrive

Sept. 21, 2014

U. S. Millions Committed for Ebola but a Paltry 25 Beds Yet to Arrive

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Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

(TriceEdneyWire.com) –Between $100- and $180 million have been committed to the fight against the Ebola virus in West Africa – an amount considered way too little and reaching the needy way too slowly.

A 25 bed unit pledged by the Pentagon for Liberia, noted the international president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), would treat only health care workers, not the broader population. Further, it may not be delivered for another month. The slow U.S. response to the crisis has been sharply criticized by infectious disease experts.

New isolation and treatment facilities must be built quickly and on a large scale,” insisted MSF chief Joanne Liu, “in days, not weeks or months.”

Other shortcomings of the U.S. response include the limited number of hygiene kits, containing disinfectants, gloves and other materials that can prevent spread of the virus among family members. The U.S. will deliver only 50,000 in about a month while 400,000 people live in highly infected areas of Liberia, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“The U.S. can do better than this,” wrote the New York Times in their Saturday editorial. “Even with its increased responsibilities in the Middle East, the Pentagon surely has enough logistical and technical resources to greatly augment aid to the Ebola-stricken countries.”

Liberian Pres. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in an urgent note to Obama wrote: “I am being honest with you when I say that at this rate, we will never break the transmission chain and the virus will overwhelm us.”

Meanwhile, a pledge to send 165 doctors and nurses to Sierra Leone from the island of Cuba was announced this weekend. It would be the biggest commitment of personnel to the health crisis so far by any country, said Margaret Chan of the World Health Organization. The new team, now receiving specialist training in Cuba, will deploy in the first week of October and will stay six months.

A Liberian ex-pat, highlighted in a recent news feature, appears to be having success with a different strategy that uses “zones” much as was done during the war to ensure that everybody received food and other vital supplies.

“Dr. Mosoka Fallah has taken the situation in West Point as if he were living here,” said an organizer in the West Point neighborhood. “We can say openly: Had he not been here, things would have gotten far worse.”

In a related development, the U.S. government gave $24.9 million to replenish the exhausted supply of ZMapp, an experimental drug. President Obama will travel to Atlanta this week for an update at the Centers for Disease Control.

Veteran Journalist Leads Richmond Free Press News Operations

Sept. 21, 2014

Veteran Journalist Leads Richmond Free Press News Operations

Bonnie V. Winston

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) She is Bonnie V. Winston, a veteran journalist with 35 years of daily newspaper experience in Richmond, Boston and Norfolk.

“Welcoming Bonnie Winston as a part of our newsroom is an important step to keep the Free Press a viable and strong voice for the Richmond community,” said Jean P. Boone, Free Press president and publisher, in announcing her appointment as the head of news operations. “Her core values are aligned with the Free Press. The entire Free Press team is made stronger by her presence.”

The 57-year-old Richmond native took the helm of the newsroom Monday as the successor to the late Raymond H. Boone, the founding editor/publisher, who died in June.

“I am honored and humbled by this tremendous opportunity,” Ms. Winston said. “The Free Press has played a vital role in informing the community for the past 22 years. I pledge to do all I can to maintain the newspaper’s high standards in working with Mrs. Boone and our talented and hard-working staff.

“I plan to build upon Mr. Boone’s legacy while continuing his mission in our news reporting and commentary, guided by a commitment to quality and the values of truth, integrity, robust debate and justice,” she said.

“I invite our readers to share their thoughts on the news and issues facing our community as well as comments on our coverage,” she said. “I look forward to your feedback at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..”

Ms. Winston, who was educated at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, comes to the Free Press after serving two years as development communications manager for The College of William & Mary.

She began her career in 1979 as a general assignment reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also served as a Richmond stringer for The New York Times.

Ms. Winston later reported on legislative affairs for The Boston Globe before returning to Virginia to cover the General Assembly for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk.

In subsequent positions, she served as an assistant metro editor at the Times-Dispatch and an editor at The Virginian-Pilot, where she oversaw a team of reporters and also was involved in General Assembly coverage.

She also spent a year at Stanford University after being awarded a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship.

Her work as a freelance writer from 2004 to 2012 appeared in the Free Press, Bloomberg News and The Crisis magazine, among other publications.

Ms. Winston has received numerous awards for her writing and also has taught journalism classes at Hampton University, University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Silicon Valley Must Embrace Diversity by Marc H. Morial

Sept. 21, 2014

To Be Equal

Silicon Valley Must Embrace Diversity
By Marc H. Morial

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “The industry that bills itself a meritocracy actually looks more like a mirrortocracy.” Mitch Kapor, co-chair of the Kapor Center for Social Impact

While the number of African American, Latino and women consumers of Internet and broadband products and services is rising, their numbers at the major Silicon Valley companies continue to lag way behind. After years of resisting disclosure, tech giants including Apple, Facebook, Yahoo and Google recently released their employment diversity numbers. As we’ve long suspected, they show a striking lack of inclusion.

According to published figures, at Google, 3 percent of its staff are Hispanic and 2 percent are Black. Both Yahoo and Facebook reported that Hispanics and Blacks make up 4 percent and 2 percent of their workplaces, respectively. When Apple makes an announcement, as in last week’s introduction of the iPhone 6, it usually wants the world to stand up and take notice. This was likely not the case with the release of its diversity numbers last month, which showed the company is 55 percent White, 15 percent Asian, 11 percent Hispanic and 7 percent Black. In his statement upon release of the report, Apple CEO Tim Cook candidly admitted, “I’m not satisfied with the numbers on this page.” This acknowledgment is a first step, but the question for Cook and his Silicon Valley counterparts is – What are you going to do about it?

For years, Silicon Valley has used the specious claim of being a “meritocracy” to explain the lack of diversity in its ranks. It has never been true that African Americans, Latinos or women are somehow less able to excel at high tech jobs. It is true that communities of color and women continue to be underrepresented in the attainment of science and engineering degrees. The National Urban League is working to increase those numbers with efforts like Project Ready STEM, which is supporting 10 Project Ready STEM sites across the nation. The sites are successfully operating STEM programs for nearly 300 middle or high school students, with the goals of ensuring that urban students have the necessary supports and opportunities available to them to succeed in STEM-related class work and exposing students to STEM-related careers. But as Freda Kapor Klein, co-chair of the Kapor Center for Social Impact explains, “The reality is that most of the barriers are structural…our sector is permeated by biases, both subtle and not so subtle.” Her co-chair and husband, Mitch Kapor, the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, adds, “Even as companies scramble to find workers in the most competitive hiring market in recent memory, most are continuing to bring aboard people who look like they do.”

It is not enough to lament the numbers; Silicon Valley must be more intentional about increasing diversity. The industry would do well to follow the example of some of the large telecom companies, which have taken proactive measures in recent years to increase diversity within their organizations. For example, AT&T’s Workforce Inclusion website states, “We know that diverse, talented and dedicated individuals are critical to our success, so we look for people from various backgrounds and give them opportunities to grow…we serve our customers better when we build diversity into all we do.” Verizon has also made great strides in both employee and supplier diversity. According to Verizon Chairman and CEO, Lowell McAdam “A diverse workplace is one of Verizon’s biggest strengths as a global innovation leader. Our employees’ unique backgrounds and perspectives are key to our success in delivering technology solutions that create value for our customers, shareholders and society.”

Silicon Valley companies must not only make similar statements, they must make similar commitments. They can begin by developing comprehensive diversity plans to cover hiring, procurement, governance and philanthropy. As major consumers of technology, people of color and women should also have a fair share of the jobs and wealth that Silicon Valley generates.

Strengthening Apple’s Core by Jesse L. Jackson

Sept. 21, 2014

Strengthening Apple’s Core
By Jesse L. Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In a highly choreographed, tightly organized presentation, Apple has rolled out the new I Phone 6 and IPhone 6 Plus. With the spotlights on and a global audience, Apple paraded a line up of six white men to present its new products. Even the entertainment – U2 – was all white.

What’s wrong with this picture? Women, American Americans and people of color are major consumers of Apple products: the Iphone, Itunes music, Ipod music players, Ipads and more. Apple had a huge opportunity to demonstrate to millions around the world that it is committed to be as diverse as its customers are. It clearly didn’t even think about it.

After an appeal by the Rainbow Push Coalition, an increasing number of Silicon Valley firms have agreed to publish their diversity data. Last month, Apple joined in. Data shows that most companies have just 1-2 percent Black and 2-4 percent Latinos in their tech workforce. Apple’s numbers are not as dismal as the rest of the industry. Yet CEO Tim Cook announced: “As CEO, I’m not satisfied with the numbers on this page. They’re not new to us, and we’ve been working hard to improve them.”

As Apple and other companies who have published their information are quick to note, there is much work to be done. At its best, technology can be a tremendously positive change agent for the world; at its worst, it can repeat old patterns that exclude people of color and women from opportunity and advancement. Silicon Valley and the tech industry must transform itself to resemble the America it depends upon for talent and customers.

African Americans and people of color “over-index” as users and consumers, but “under-index” in their representation and inclusion in the boardrooms, and executive suites, the workforce and as business partners.

Diversity and inclusion are good for business. African Americans, Latinos, and women represent money, market, talent and location. Inclusion is the key to growth, and when there is growth everybody wins.

Technology companies that are serious about moving the needle must put a real plan in place: set goals, targets and timetables regarding diversity and inclusion on their Boards, their c-suite leadership and their general employee base. They should partner with African Americans, Latinos and people of color and women in mutually beneficial, reciprocal, fair trade. This includes not only the technical workforce, but the areas of financial and professional services, marketing and advertising, and procurement. Treat inclusion and diversity just as you would any serious, business line of a company, and measure it. Then create a plan to meet real goals.

Rainbow PUSH will be issuing a Technology Diversity and Inclusion report card, and will convene a public forum this fall to engage companies and communities to identify strategies and solutions to move the needle and truly “change the face of technology.”

The federal Employment Opportunity Commission and Office of Contract Compliance should be proactively investigating to ensure that the technology companies are in compliance with all equal opportunity and affirmative rules.

Diversity and inclusion should not be a default position. As the optics of Apple’s all-white male production last week, it takes action to break old patterns and reaching out to open closed doors. And the time for action has come.

Domestic Violence Month - None Too Soon by Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

Sept. 21, 2014

Domestic Violence Month - None Too Soon
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) – October is Domestic Violence Month. When we set aside a month, a week or a day for certain occasions or issues, we tend to give a lot of attention to it, but I’m afraid October is not big enough to cover all the problems being thrown at us! We’ve been consumed by it—more than by the wars that are raging around the world.

As I’ve seen the parade of Black men in the news, I’ve felt pain, humiliation, disappointment, shame, sorrow and lots of other unpleasant feelings. As bad as all those things are, I must add racism. As smart as many of these media people are, I know they have the ability to research and find that more than Black men are guilty of not only domestic violence, but many other forms of violence. Where are they? I’m by no means making excuses for the behavior of these Black men, but crime is not unique to our community and certainly not unique to men in the National Football League.

While we’re on this subject of domestic violence, with Domestic Violence Month coming up, why don’t we examine all the cases and deal with the subject overall—not just to talk about it, but to really do something about it?

If these abusers need therapy, let’s force them to get it. If they need incarceration, arrest them and isolate them from women until they’re no longer a threat. Setting up a committee of white women won’t get us where we need to go. What about Latino, Black, Native and Asian women? Shouldn’t we have something to say about what we’re seeing on the news? It’s clear that we need to be in the mix when policies are decided for the NFL and any other group of abusers where it is projected that the majority of the abusers shown are non-white?

Just as the NFL seems to have turned a blind eye to the abuse of women for so long, it has now turned a blind eye to diversity for resolving it. If the NFL is serious about resolving this problem, wouldn’t it make sense to include women of color to help develop policies since we are such a large part of victims and survivors?

With that in mind, I wrote a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to make the suggestion of bringing in women of color. Thus far, I have not even had an acknowledgment of my letter, but I am holding out hope that the Commissioner hears the voice of women who can add value to any discussion on domestic violence and what can be done about it. Our voices need to be heard.

People need to hear that all Southern mothers do not beat their children. All Black mothers do not beat their children, causing their sons to behave the way we see some behaving toward women and children. Many Black mothers have worked very hard to keep their sons out of trouble. They have sacrificed a lot to get their sons to where they are today. These mothers do not deserve to be denigrated for the behavior of a few renegade men who seem to be offering childhood beatings or domestic violence in their childhood home as an excuse for their bad behavior. As a survivor of domestic violence, I have a personal interest in resolving the problem of domestic violence and ending this horrific practice. Many of us love football and want to believe we are safe around players and coaches in all sports, and in all of society. Our voices must be heard, and women of color must rise up and insist upon being heard—even if major media just ignores us.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is National President/CEO of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788.)