There are immigrant issues all over the world to consider, as the same debate takes shape here in the United States. In Australia, like so many contries the world over, the issue of immigrants 'fitting in' to a new society is the hot topic of discussion. 1,100 people were arrested in raids at work sites around the U.S. in recent weeks. There have also been demonstrations across the U.S. this past week that continues to keep the issue out in the public discourse. Here is a piece from the land below. An immigration story that many of us may not be aware of. We thank a special correspondent, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, for this contribution.

Guest worker scheme may be better Pacific solution for both Australia and region

By Hamish McDonald Asia-Pacific Editor
April 22, 2006

ALREADY accused of dragging workplace relations back into the 19th century, it's understandable that John Howard may not want to go down as the prime minister who reintroduced "black-birding" to the Australian labor market.

But there's an element of willful blindness to history and geography in the Howard Government's refusal to give the idea of a seasonal guest labor scheme from the South Pacific more than perfunctory study and instant dismissal.

The scenes from Honiara this week emphasize the dangers to government in the region from young populations with high unemployment rates, sending idle young men into the towns ready to jump onto any excitement being stirred up.
The governments in the Pacific Islands have been urging Canberra to begin a guest labor scheme that would allow unskilled workers to come to Australia for a few months each year in jobs like fruit picking.

Ironically, as researchers Nic Maclellan and Peter Mares note in a study for Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology, some ni-Vanuatu descendants of the original "blackbirds" - the thousands of Melanesians brought to the Queensland canefields as indentured labor between 1863 and 1904 - see a guest labor scheme as part of Australia's "restitution".

Howard's response at last October's Pacific Islands Forum in Port Moresby was simply to say this was not the way Australia handled migration, which was based on permanent settlement.

Yet in submissions from all over Australia to a current Senate Employment Committee inquiry, fruit and vegetable growers are begging for a trial, pointing out that produce is being spoiled and expansion plans shelved for lack of workers to pick and process. "Few resident Australians are willing to perform this type of work," said the Riverland Development Corporation.

It's also apparent, from many submissions, that seasonal farm work such as fruit-picking is now being carried out anyway by a kind of guest worker - the young "backpackers" from rich countries given 12-month working holiday visas.

This was not the scheme's intention, as applicants have to show the means to support themselves whether or not they get jobs, but it has now become a component of our farm workforce. The Immigration Department has tacitly recognized this, by allowing these holidaymakers to extend their visa for a second year if they do seasonal work for three months. Meanwhile, its officials raid farms and orchards to deport Third Worlders working illegally.

This is skewed opportunity. Australia might provide only a few thousand seasonal jobs, but this would make a significant difference to prosperity and skills in the Pacific Islands.

Currently our billion-dollar aid budget for the Pacific tends to benefit ourselves directly. The experts we employ are mostly Australian and other ex-pats, and the majority of professionals we help train in some island countries end up working here or in other advanced economies.
The couple of thousand dollars taken home by an unskilled fruit picker would feed back into better housing, education, health and small enterprises in his Pacific village, which rarely gets formal sector employment.

The impact may be relatively small for the largest country, Papua New Guinea, with a 5 million population, but noticeable in the other Pacific countries, whose combined population is only 2 million. As many of the Polynesian or Micronesian states enjoy migratory rights to New Zealand or the US, it would be best for Australia to focus on Melanesia.

Howard and his ministers, together with a strange ally - Bill Shorten, of the Australian Workers Union - raise the potential problems: over-stayers, the employers or labor exchanges who try to cheat, who pays for the travel and recruitment costs, the tax threshold, the pension and safety questions.

Yet Maclellan and Mares cite the successful scheme run by Canada for seasonal workers from Mexico and the Caribbean, which has limited visa-jumping by selecting workers with a obvious stake at home and offering the incentive of return working stints. Australian horticulture regions already have labor contractors qualified to handle the paperwork.

The Pacific Islands Forum secretary-general, Greg Urwin, has also pointed out that unlike our usual migrants, many islanders would be content with work visits rather than permanent settlement, given that they share in land ownership, extended family groups, and have traditional status in their societies.

Blackbirding was an ugly business, but perhaps the ugliest part was sending most of the islanders back home, whether they were settled in Queensland or not. A new guest labor scheme might be a modest way of making amends, building human ties between Australian farming communities and Pacific islands, and spreading opportunity to villagers on the fringes of normal economic development.



On a VERY different note......



Here is something to think about and that will give you a few laughs.

Guess which group this is! I am not going to offer a prize, but this is a hell of a survey.


Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics?

36 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71, repeat 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 currently are defendants in lawsuits. and
84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year
Can you guess which organization this is?
No, it's Not the NBA! Ha!


Give up yet? . . . Scroll down, citizen!

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress.

The same group of Idiots, some would say, that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.


-Source Congressional Record 2005


Have a great weekend to everyone around the globe. Thanks for logging in and checking in.

See you back here, same time, same station.

Hello again! Recovering from an emotional week, as I attended the funeral of a close relative, and a friend and fellow colleague in the news business. Two funerals in one week has been taxing, to say the least. Both men, my Uncle Martin Joseph Brown, and Dennis Duggan, I talked about in the last Blog of recent days. But, as both men would tell us all, life goes on...... and so it does.

Below is a story about a discrimination case lodged against CBS News here in New York that caught my eye. It was sent by a close friend who happens to work in the News Division at another local televison station here. She will remain un-named, but this under-reported story has legs for many reasons. Fact is, there is a dearth of so-called minority representation in both local and national news organizations here in America. This is seen up-close, especially, in America's media capital. The number of hires, and currently employed personel of color, at local magazines, radio and television stations, even at Internet firms, is appalling. Last hired, first fired.

In January of this year the New York Observer newspaper, a highly respected weekly broadsheet, ran a story about the lack of minority representation at locally based but, national magazines. In scores of interviews of editors, reporters, fact checkers, researchers, and support staff at a dozen-odd magazines, the article described a shocking trend of fewer Black, latino, and Asian presence in key editorial positions. It was also the same at the reportorial levels. Those in charge of hiring at said magazines, had the usual response that, in fact, they were doing all they could to bring in a more diversified staff. Baloney! Those lucky enough to be working 'in the business,' or in the know, know better. Numbers are down, and there are nubers and surveys that support that perception. No joke.

I wrote a letter to the editor that said what is true for publishing, is also true for the broadcasting side, at least here in New York. Having worked in New York since the mid-1980's I have seen this with my own eyes. Here you have a city that is nearly seventy per cent non-white yet, the number of those actually working in the news media is no where near the per centage of non-whites in the city. One glaring example is: No Blacks or Latinos, male or female, on-the-street at any of the All-News radio stations in New York. My letter to the Observer was not published. At the same time, the response to the article in the Letters-to-the-Editor section over subsequent weeks was substantial. The letters just keep on coming. They bore out what a lot of folks in 'News Biz' already know, and that is, there is a substantial lack of diversity in the newsroom.

I remember a piece in the the televison section of Newsday some years ago that was written by Marvin Kitman on this same lack of diveristy. In it, Kitman wrote that in REAL NUMBERS over the course of the last 30 years in New York televison news rooms, ( given the expansion of several newsrooms in the city on the televsion side in recent years) that the number of black reporters, especially, were down. He said, rather tongue in cheek, that it is the case of "THE BLONDE LEADING THE BLONDE."

Earlier this April, the Reverend Al Sharpton held a town hall-like meeting addressing the subject at one of his National Action Network forums. Brian Williams of NBC-TV's Nightly News, and Naya Arinde, of the New York Amsterdam News, were among a panel that discussed the matter. It was even broadcast nationally on C-Span, the public forum cable network seen in the United States.

Since that forum, we now have this headline..............................

Bias Complaint at CBS News

April 10, 2006; updated April 11, 2006


Fired Producer Portrays Bob Schieffer as Bigoted

An African American producer who had been at CBS News for 13 years is attributing her March termination to racial discrimination, noting that "not one of CBS News' eight broadcasts is in any way directed, influenced, or shaped by an African American or any minority holding a senior position on that broadcast.

"There is not one single African American person holding a rank above producer on any of CBS' eight separate broadcasts," states a complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed by Raylena
Fields, 52, who said she earned $185,000 a year.

"In the last eighteen (18) months, at least five African American women were, in one way or another, forced out of their jobs at CBS News," said Fields.

"Only one African American male has been promoted to a producer position at CBS News in the last decade."

Her complaint, which her lawyer told Journal-isms was filed March 30 at the EEOC offices in New York, paints an unflattering picture of "CBS Evening News" anchor Bob Schieffer, who has won praise from critics and viewers for his avuncular, folksy style since taking over from Dan Rather 13 months ago.

"My termination is also retaliatory," the complaint reads. "It came almost one month to the day, after I filed a complaint that CBS Evening News anchorman Bob Schieffer asked me to answer his phones, something a
veteran similarly situated Staff Producer, would have never been asked to do. When I responded that I would find someone to help him, Mr. Schieffer raised his voice at me in front of his guests and said, 'Well, if you can't be bothered!' I chose not to be intimidated and ran down to the newsroom and found an entry level person to handle Mr. Schieffer's phones until his secretary got in.

"Bob Schieffer has a reputation for bigotry," the complaint continues. "Mr. Schieffer frequently and publicly refers to a newsroom assistant as 'Brownie' due to the complexion of his skin.

"I personally witnessed Bob Schieffer address a veteran African American correspondent as 'Hey, Boy. '"I wrote an official complaint about Bob Schieffer's actions toward me to Linda Mason, Vice President, CBS News, and Rome Hartman, Executive Producer, CBS Evening News. Neither responded. Less than a month after the Schieffer incident, Mason and Hartman called me into a meeting and terminated me."

[/Added April 11:/

CBS spokeswoman Sandra M. Genelius issued this statement Tuesday morning: "We strongly deny these allegations. Ms. Fields' employment was terminated for completely lawful reasons connected to a reshaping
of the CBS EVENING NEWS under new leadership."]

The complaint comes just as CBS is winning kudos for appointing Katie Couric as the first woman to anchor a prime-time newscast solo during the week, and a week after it named Russ Mitchell, who is African American, as its Sunday evening news anchor.

In expanding on her claim that her firing was partly in retaliation for complaining about racial matters, Fields wrote, "in January 2006, I complained that I was troubled by the reporting and tone of a story done by Washington correspondent, Gloria Borger regarding the questioning of Judge Sam Alito," who was successfully nominated for the Supreme Court. "I stated that the tenor of Ms. Borger's piece was that Democrats questioning Sam Alito on issues of race and gender, and possible bigoted behavior, 'crossed the line' because it made his wife cry. Somehow the wife crying trumped this critical line of questioning.

"In February 2006, I prepared a story relating to a black death row inmate in Louisiana, who was exonerated due to the intervention of a group of attorneys from England and Australia. "I was told by Senior Producer Reid Collins that talking about race in the story was 'veering off point.' I argued that 72% of all the people incarcerated in Louisiana are black and that you can't discuss the American criminal
justice system without discussing race. Mr. [Collins] declared that our viewers were not going to like my story."Without my knowledge, Reid Collins telephoned one of the characters in my story, questioning my
reporting. This was an unprecedented departure from standard policy.

Similarly situated veteran Staff Producers are not subjected to the same treatment."

Spencer H. Lewis Jr., director of the New York District office of the EEOC, said commission rules prevent him from confirming or denying that a complaint was filed. A copy was provided by Fields' lawyer, Gregory R. Preston. Lewis said the commission typically asks the accused to respond with a statement and any supporting evidence, and presents the option of resolving the dispute by mediation. If that option is rejected, a commission investigation lasting perhaps 10 months takes place.

In 2000, the commission announced it had settled a major sex discrimination lawsuit against CBS Broadcasting, Inc., for $8 million in financial compensation for approximately 200 female workers. "The suit charged CBS with subjecting a class of female technicians to a pattern and practice of discrimination in regard to salary, over time, promotions, and training; creating a hostile work environment that included sexual harassment; and retaliating against female employees for complaining about the discrimination," it announced in a news release .

Fields joined CBS after having been at ABC, where she had been acting senior broadcast producer for "Good Morning America's" news segments and director of talent recruitment and development at ABC News.

At CBS' "60 Minutes 2," she said, she was "the only black producer on staff, and the only producer that the show frequently required to work without an associate producer." One CBS producer, who joined the "CBS Evening News" in January, accused her of low production on both shows, Fields said. She argued that "terminating me for purportedly not doing as many stories as other Staff Producers, while ignoring the fact that I produced many more investigative and enterprised stories than my peers, is evidence of a pattern and practice of disparate treatment of me and of the disparate impact that CBS' policies have on African Americans.

"Twice, on stories relating to Osama Bin Laden's family, and following the trail of the 9-ll hijackers, my investigative work resulted in major 'scoops' which excited senior staff. Each time, however, my bosses insisted that those 'scoops' be turned over to other producers who were white."

The complaint also alleges that terminating her contract violates the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

"The enormous stress due to discriminatory treatment I received at Sixty Minutes Two, brought on a condition diagnosed as Cervical Ridiculitis. I had to take several weeks of full medical leave and undergo physical therapy over a two-year span.

"At times, I came to work at the Evening News while taking prescribed narcotic painkillers, wearing a neck brace, and using heating pads to cope with the pain," the complaint said.

Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said tonight, "We are deeply troubled by the assertions in this CBS complaint. NABJ is in contact with Ms. Fields and [we] are looking into the allegations."

Okay, there you have it. I don't know what it is like working inside of CBS News. I do know what I see. What are your thoughts? I would be interested in hearing your view on this state of affairs.

ON STADIUMS, IMMIGRANTS AND THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN SOME AFRICAN COUNTRIES

This is what I wrote and read recently on New York's Pacifica Station, WBAI-FM. It was aired on the EVENING NEWS program, where I am a featured reporter. Listeners tuned-in heard the following:

"Have to say that it is rare for me to take a position on any issue publicly, as most of you know me as the cuy who chases cops and robbers here in the Big Apple. Besides, as a reporter I normally don't do commentary.

Yet, in looking at the sweetheart deals both the Yankees and the Mets are getting in building new stadiums, well here, I take exception.

First, I am a native of the Bronx.

Born in Morrisania Hospital in the early 1950's, I grew up for most of my childhood on Tinton Avenue. It is in the district known the world over as The South Bronx.

Baseball in the house I grew up in was pretty important, as most of my relatives were either Giant or Dodger fans. When both teams left for California in 1958, there was deep sadness in the Wallace household. My granddad was a rabid Dodger fan. Like many New Yorkers of his generation, he became a fan of, and rooted for those loveable losers, the Mets.

Now years later, The New York Metropolitans, along with the Bronx Bombers, are among the two richest teams in Baseball. Both teams want new stadiums, and will likely get them in the next five years.

Baseball is our country's national past time. It has been a game for everyone, especially the working class.

Season tickets, Box Seats, and parking, in the main, was the mode of choice and the exclusive preference of our mainly richer neighbors. Most people traveled by public transportation to see a game. The decision to go was made the day of the game. So-called 'walk-up' purchases was the order of the day. That is, until recently....

Now going to a Baseball game is guaranteed to dent your wallet. Just last week I joined an old boyhood buddy of mine named Dennis, to a Mets Game a few Sundays ago. Dennis brought along his son, Jason, and I brought along a recent convert to our great game, Carole, my companion, who hails from Australia.

We sat in the Right Field Level Boxes. Each seat costs 38 bucks. Parking cost my friend, Dennis, another fifteen. One thing that stands out in my mind is the cost of food, once inside. Four slices of pizza and two small cokes cost a whopping 30 bucks! That's more than three times the amount one would spend for the same food out on the street.

Dennis said it cost him an average of $130.00 bucks to attend a game at Shea Stadium. A pretty hefty price when one kicks-in game programs, pennants, team yearbooks, and the good old fashion peanuts and crackerjacks. It has all become prohibitively expensive to take a family of four to a Baseball game. Something that was not the case not-too-many years ago.

Now, on the subject of new stadiums....

What gets me is that the new facilities will be smaller than the current ball parks. The original House That Ruth Built, Yankee Stadium, sat upwards of 67 thousand fans. The re-modeled Yankee Stadium currently seats 56 thousand. Shea Stadium sits about the same number of seats, roughly 55 thousand. Why is it that both the Yanks and the Mets insist on building new stadiums that will each seat just 45 thousand fans, in a city of nearly nine million people?

Both teams drew well over two million fans last year, with the Yankees drawing a record four Million to the Bronx. Both teams are, again, the richest in all of Baseball, and serve the largest city in these United States. Why build a facility that seats less than what you've already got?

Will New York Baseball now become a sport that serves, and entertains just the wealthy? And what about those old Baseball stories that unites families over the generations? What does it it all mean, and what will it mean for generations of New Yorkers to come when trying to understand the meaning of civic pride, coming of age, and local sport myth?

Yankee Stadium is a rich and storied building in our city, and not just for Baseball. It remains the most significant arena in all of the Americas. Shea Stadium, too, had its moments. Both teams, and both buildings, whether one likes sport or not, help to define what a New Yorker is.

I have to say, while still a Baseball fan, and a son of this city, this reporter is not happy with the direction of American sport in general, and losing two buildings so much a part of who we are.

In the weeks, months, and years ahead, the momentum to tear down these two historic buildings will be felt, and will have as much impact on us, as when the old, beautiful, and grand, Pennsylvania Station was torn down in 1962.

That's my two cents.

I'm Eric Williams."

On the matter of Immigrants.......

In recent days of this posting, officials from the Homeland Security Agency raided a number of private firms scattered around the U.S. They arrested more than 1,100 people, and plan to deport them in the coming weeks. This action followed days of protests in recent weeks where literally millions of undocumented immigrants, and their supporters, had protested in numerous cities, including in the New York area, a slew of punitive immigration reform bills now before the U.S. Congress.

25 thousand People hit the streets of Newark, New Jersey on April 23rd protesting the arrests, and the debate still underway inside the so-called 'Beltway' in Washington.

The old Gil Scott-Heron Latin rythum influenced Song, 'ALIEN, says it all. That is, it tells the story of those seeking to have a better life, and leave the misery they left behind to get here. It is a story that many forget......

HOLD ON TO YOUR DREAMS!

Some words to the song 'Alien'

'Midnight near the border trying to cross the Rio Grande

running with cyotes where the streets are paved with gold

diving underwater when you hear the helicopters

knowing its all been less than worthless if you run into patrols

hiding in the shadows so scared that you want to scream

but you dare not make a sound if you want to hold onto your dreams

hold on!

It may not mean a lot ,

but you hold on!

because you know its all you got

not matter the consequences,

or the fear that grips your senses

You have got to hold onto your dreams

Chorus:

Hold on!

It may not be a lot.

Hold on!

'Cause you know that's all that you got.

Hold on!

No matter the consequences,

Or the fear that grips your senses

You have got to hold on to your dreams.'

Besides, immigrants, no matter how they got here, they help to make America stronger, and a better country in the long run. It is one of the reasons INTERNATIONAL ACCESS NETWORKS was formed. That is, to help explain the changing world around, and about us.

Now, here are some sobering words from two recent publications about folks on the African continent. Thanks to Neva Wartell for sharing this with us....

The East African Standard (Nairobi) NEWS April 10, 2006

By Eliud Miring'uh

Nairobi- A cultural festival attended by Maasai women from Kenya and Tanzania ended in Nairobi on Sunday with a call to the community to shun outdated practices. Hundreds of women delegates attending the two-day event, at the Bomas of Kenya, spoke in favour of educating girls and condemned marrying off underagegirls. The event was organised by Reto Women Association (RWA), a group founded in 1986 to bring together the Maa speaking communities of Kenya and Tanzania. Former president Daniel arap Moi appealed to the Maasai to embrace modernity for the survival of the community. The event also attracted prominent politicians including Narok North MP William ole Ntimama, Kajiado Central MP Joseph Nkaissery, House Speaker Francis ole Kaparo, veteran politician John Keen and former Cabinet minister Julius Sunkuli. Participants spoke of injustices committed against the Maa community including land alienation, insecurity, rape and land mines.

They also spoke of the need to educate girls. The RWA chairperson, Mrs Rachel Ntoyai, said time had come for the Maasai to abandon harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and, marrying off young girls to elderly men. Speaker Hellen Nkaissery paraded several girls who, she said, had abandoned school due to poverty. She asked well wishers to assist RWA finance education for the girls. Another speaker, Mrs Peris Tobiko, accused politicians of fuelling the land problem among the Maasai."This problem is political as leaders, especially in Kajiado District, are keen to displace the Maasai," she said.

Some Final words on significant passings....

On Thursday, April 20th, long time New York Newsday columnist, Dennis Duggan, died after a long illness. He was a man who 'owned the streets of the city of New York.' He told those often untold stories of people who help to shape the city. Think in terms of noted writers such as Pete Hamill, Les Payne, Ellis Henican, Juan Gonzales, Red Smith, Truman Capote, and Jimmy Breslin.

There are loads of celebrities who make New York City home, and who end-up in the news, or in the gossip columns of tabloid newspapers. What Dennis Duggan was interested in, primarily, were the views, and lives, of the so-called ordinary, or REAL New Yorker. The cabbie, the waiter or waitress, The loudmouth movie buff. The Christmas super, who comes around only at tip time. Also, the legendary 'man in the street,' whose opinions are solicited eagerly, and then promptly ignored. It was his 'New York Diary' that gave voice to characters, writes Ellis Henican, who had never been written about, but who give so much color to the city. He also took aim at elected officials both locally and on the national scene. One example from his first column back in January 17, 1983:

"Up until a few weeks ago, when he (New York Mayor Edward I. Koch) attacked the ethnics and even some "West Side ideologues" for opposing an incineration plant in Brooklyn, a shelter for the homeless in Harlem and a prison in Chinatown, Koch seemed to be walking under a cloud so dark that, in the words of the great Jazz pianist Earl (Fatha) Hines, "even his feet seemed sad."

It was that kind of focus, and view that grabbed the attention of millions of New Yorkers, and those not from this city, to look at issues twice.

Dennis Duggan wrote for such newspapers as the storied New York Herald Tribune, the Hearst-owned New York Daily Mirror, and later, the New York Times. In 1967, he joined Newsday, where he worked until his death.

I met Dennis Duggan in the 1990's when I first covered City Hall and, worked for WLIB-AM 1190, and it's sister station, WBLS-FM 107.5 Dennis was the guy who made me feel at home, and was not among those print reporters who look down their noses at those of us who work on the broadcast side of journalism.

He won a number of journalism awards, including the coveted Pulitzer Prize in 1992. He later became president of the oldest writers group in America, known as the Society of the Silurians. It is a prestigous group, and he invited me to join in 2004. Wow! Imagine that. Geeze! He said he wanted me to be a part of this group. So, I am now a proud member of that circle of authors, writers and journalists that includes among its past members noted writers like, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemmingway, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, and Maury Allen.

Check it out: www.silurians.com

I am going to miss Dennis Duggan. While not a close friend of his, I am lucky to have known him as one of many reporters I have met 'out in the trenches.' He was 78 years old.

On a personal note. While slowly recovering from the death of a professional colleague, the following day, more bad news. I learned that a close relative of mine, an uncle, had died, too, following a long illness. His name is:

Martin Joseph Brown

Martin Joseph Brown was born on June 9, 1921 in Baltimore, Maryland to Martin Joseph Brown Sr. and Mary Sample. After graduating from high school in 1938, at 17 years old, Martin told his parents that he wanted to see the world and asked for their permission to enlist in the Navy. For 13 years, he proudly served his country fighting in WWII and the Korean War.

Martin began another chapter of his life in 1944 when he met his wife-to-be, Isabelle Wallace. After meeting at a party, Martin fell in love and he and Isabelle married on September 10, 1944. After only four months of courting, the two entered into a marriage that blessed them with three children and lasted 61 years.

A loving husband and devoted father, Martin was often characterized by his friends and family as being a small man in stature but a giant in his ways. Never one to raise his voice or anger easily, Martin was always the source of reason that kept the family calm during times of angst. Even after completely losing his sight in 1970, he never complained or allowed his disability to deter him from taking care of his family.

Martin went home to be with the Lord on Friday, April 21, 2006 at 1:25 pm and is survived by his wife, Isabelle Brown; his three children, Charmaine Brown, Martin J. Brown Jr. and Carmen Wood; his eight grandchildren (six of which are living), Edward Jaundoo, Elyse Wood, Martin Brown, Nadira Brown, Mardi Brown, Frank Wood III, Christina Wood, and Joyetta Foster; his eight great-grandchildren, and a host of family and friends.

Have to say that before my uncle lost his sight, he was an avid listener of radio. It became even more so after 1970. Also, he and my aunt helped to raise me in the 1960's when my immediate family disintergrated. What they gave me was huge. In many ways he was like a father to me, and I will miss him greatly. He was, as the former NBC-TV News Anchorman Tom Brokaw wrote in his famous book, a part of 'the greatest generation.'

Don't want to leave here on such a sad note. But know this, both of these men would want us to move on, and to help make a better world for the next generation. Both believed that tomorrow will be better than today. For my uncle Martin, I dedicated my career in radio and television to him. Still do, even more so now.

Thanks for spending time here. Have a great week ahead. Catch you here again. Same time, same station!

All the best,

Eric K. Williams, Executive Director

A Memorable Broadcast, with lessons for the 21st Century

Edward R. Murrow Verses Joseph R. Mc Carthy, Wisconsin U.S. Senator.

It was March 9, 1954. America was gripped with the fear of the unknown. Uncertainty, and the paranoia of an invisible enemy. Then, it was Communism. Today, it is terrorism. Hear the words of those who were there during a memorable afternoon of recollections.

Featuring Don Hewitt, then CBS-TV director of the landmark television program called ‘See It Now.’ Hewitt is also the creator of the internationally acclaimed program, CBS-TV’s ’60 Minutes.’

Producers Joseph and Shirley Wershba, not only worked on ‘See It Now,’ but were key consultants to the critically acclaimed hit movie, GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. Winners of the Society of the Silurians Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Hear the moving words of noted CBS-TV producer, and later, Columbia University Journalism School lead Professor, the late Fred Friendly, as read by the woman closest to him, his wife, Ruth.

See the movie, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, now available on DVD. Visit their website: http://www.goodnightandgoodluck.com/

Buy the CD and hear this historic recording. Listen to what a select group of journalists had to say about a dark time in American history. It’s the perfect addition to the film making headways in a time, some say, we are witnessing today, in post-9/11 America.

Available from I-A-N. Check the website http://www.internationalaccess.org/

Or E-mail: eric.williams@internationalaccess.org