Simplify

As the line between personal and professional gets increasingly blurred, I've decided it's stupid to have two blogs. Please head over to http://karhoff.wordpress.com to read the latest. Thanks!

Supermodel's 'Survivor's Guilt' Pushes Her to Make Film on Mothers' Health

Trailer: No Woman, No Cry

Supermodel Christy Turlington Burns has made her directorial debut with the film "No Woman, No Cry," which premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday.

Turlington Burns was inspired to make the film after the birth of her first child, in which she experienced hemorrhaging. "I had ... survivor's guilt," Turlington Burns, who is an advocate for maternal health for humanitarian group CARE, told Reuters. "I was fortunate, but think of all the women around the world who aren't."

According to the World Health Organization, the main causes of deaths related to childbirth are hemorrhage, infection, high blood pressure, unsafe abortion, and obstructed labor.

Improving maternal health is one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. To show that the goals are achievable, experts have pointed to Bangladesh, one of the countries featured in the film.

In Bangladesh, abortion mortality fell by three quarters over the past three decades. A massive decrease in maternal deaths occurred because women now have access to safe abortion services and emergency obstetric care, a study by Carine Ronsmans from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine showed.

"No Woman, No Cry" also features the stories of a Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States.

Check out other solutions for improving maternal health or to participate in the global call to solutions, please visit Healthy Mothers, Strong World: The Next Generation of Ideas for Maternal Health. www.changemakers.com/maternalhealth

INTERVIEW: 'Sex in the South' Author Suzi Parker on Rejection, Persistence, and Bill Clinton

As a perpetual-wannabe freelance writer desperately in need of career advice, I happened upon this piece on Suzi Parker. I thought, "I want to know more"... so I cold-emailed her, and lo and behold, she wrote back! Gracious AND informative. I present to you, the text of the interview:

KH: First of all, the boring and obvious one: How did you get your start in freelancing?

 

SP: It was in 1997 and I wanted to cover politics. Bill Clinton was in the White House and I lived in Little Rock, Ark. – his hometown. I had always wanted to freelance so I took the plunge I had a couple of invaluable contacts at a few magazines and I used those to land a gig in The Economist writing about Clinton’s presidential library site. From then, I just pushed hard to get assignments wherever I could. I always made sure to think outside the box to national and international outlets and not just the weekly newspapers in my own backyard. I also didn’t pigeon hole myself with just politics. I wrote about any topic that sold including football for a college football magazine. And I don’t even like football.

KH: What were some of the hurdles you faced while finding clients?

SP: Mostly just rejection on story ideas or editors not emailing back ever after I sent an initial query. I think that is just rude. How long does it take to fire off and email that says “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Sometimes you may think you have the best idea in the world for a story – and it may be a great story – but an editor somewhere just doesn’t see it. Don’t take it personally. I was once rejected seven times on seven different ideas for The New York Times Magazine in the same day. The eighth pitch sold.

KH: How did you make contacts at big-name publications like The Economist and The

Christian Science Monitor?

SP: With The Economist, I had a friend who had written for them. He knew they were looking for a correspondent in the mid-South, especially Arkansas. I emailed an editor there with the Clinton library pitch and it sold. I was lucky in that regard. With The Christian Science Monitor, I blindly emailed an editor and explained my qualifications especially the fact that I was based in Clinton’s home town. I can’t remember what my first story was for them but once I landed it, I just never quit pitching.

KH: What was your schedule like as a full-time freelancer writing a book on the side? How'd you keep it all going?

 

SP: It’s hard to write a book when you write all day for a living. It’s especially hard if you cover politics as the influx of information and political tips never stops. The phone rings all day, the email pours in. When I wrote “Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt,” I balanced all the research trips and writing with covering the Wesley Clark presidential campaign. It was pretty tough. For the second book, “1000 Best Bartender’s Recipes,” I wrote it on the heels of covering the 2004 election and the opening of the Clinton Library. I pretty well hibernated for two weeks and worked day and night to meet that book’s deadline.

I did take some time off from many news stories and magazine pieces when I was in the depths of my novel. It's just too hard sometimes to switch from creative fiction to hard news in the same day. Now I’m in the editing phase of the novel as well as covering the 2010 mid-term elections and honestly, it’s pretty hard to balance both. It’s like a circus clown juggling balls without the cool costume.

KH: What are you working on now?

SP: I’m covering the 2010 mid-term elections, covering breaking news stories, editing my novel, and working on the next issue of SuZine, my quarterly zine (well, it’s suppose to be quarterly but I don’t always meet the self-imposed deadline.) And catching sleep when I can. I also teach writing workshops when time allows.

KH: What do you wish you'd known when you were just starting? What would you have done differently?

SP: I don’t think I would have done much differently. I had read volumes on freelancing and felt ready to give it a shot. I created concrete goals and tried to reach them. For instance, I wanted to be in The New York Times Magazine so I kept pitching until I got the assignment. Freelancing is a huge risk and gamble. You’ve got to have perseverance and be able to take rejection often on a daily basis.

There were a few times I wrote for publications and didn’t get paid. That’s never cool. So always ask about payment and always read the fine print in any contract. 

 --

THANKS SUZI!

(WJC painting photo credit: cliff1066)

Hostage rescue, bombs, and presidential race

Colombia news roundup, via Plan Colombia and Beyond:

• If all goes according to plan, Brazilian helicopters will pick up two soldiers who have been held by the FARC for years. The guerrillas are releasing Josué Daniel Calvo Marín on Sunday and Pablo Emilio Moncayo. Moncayo, whose father has become famous in Colombia for his campaign to free him, has been a FARC hostage since late 1997. He was 18 when the guerrillas took him after a battle in Patascoy, Putumayo; he is 30 now.

• The head of Colombia’s armed forces, Gen. Freddy Padilla, told reporters that according to “high-quality intelligence,” the FARC are planning a campaign of high-profile attacks between now and the May 30 presidential election. This week saw several FARC attacks in southwestern Colombia: Cauca, Huila, a car bombing in downtown Buenaventura believed to be the work of the FARC, and a package bomb unwittingly delivered by a 12-year-old boy in Nariño.

• Meanwhile violence attributed to “emerging” paramilitary groups escalated in the northwestern department of Córdoba. Seven people, among them three teenagers, were massacred in a bar in Puerto Libertador. Radio journalist Clodomiro Castillo, a critic of politicians tied to paramilitary groups, was gunned down on the front porch of his house in Montería.

• The two pro-Uribe candidates lead the polling for the May 30 elections.
  • Gallup March 20-22: Juan Manuel Santos 34.2%; Noemí Sanín 23.3%; Antanas Mockus 10.4%; Gustavo Petro 6.4%; Germán Vargas Lleras 6.2%; Sergio Fajardo 6.1%; Rafael Pardo 5.1%
  • Datexco March 20-23: Juan Manuel Santos 34.1%; Noemí Sanín 21.7%; Antanas Mockus 8.9%; Gustavo Petro 7.1%; Germán Vargas Lleras 6.6%; Rafael Pardo 5.5%; Sergio Fajardo 4.4%
  • Both polls were taken before the first televised presidential debate, which took place the evening of March 23.

"I thought white people were all stiff"

My high school in Florida was a public arts magnet school. Students "majored" in different departments -- visual arts, music, communications, etc. One day on the Tri-Rail train home from school, a dancer told me she could tell I wasn't a dance major just by looking at me.

I mean, she was right -- I was a clarinet-playing band geek -- but still, ouch.

Today, after a class in Afro-contemporary dance, a girl from the class happened to sit next to me on the bus. Halfway through the class, this girl had wanted to leave because she couldn't follow the steps, but the teacher and students convinced her to stay. I said, "But you followed them perfectly!"

"Well, I watched you and the girl next to you," she said. "You guys did everything right."

She added, "You know, I thought white people were all stiff, but you move really well!"

So there you go, bitchy high school dancer. There you go.

And score one against racial stereotypes!

(FYI, if anyone in Bogota wants to come to classes, check out Adradanza.)

Invisible Sounds: Documentary on Afro-Colombian music

Just came across this film "Los Sonidos Invisibles (The Invisible Sounds)" by Ana María Arango. It's about the music of Colombia's Choco region. Super interesting...

http://www.antropologiavisual.net/2008/los-sonidos-invisibles/

(Photo Credit: Quiltro Elemento)

Tomorrow: Pasto Culture in the Botanical Gardens

My friend Emmerson sent me information on this cool event tomorrow, the first "District Meeting of Pasto Culture." 

According to the poster the event will feature traditional Cuaspud dance, a show of gastronomy, and an exhibit of the work of invited artisans.

Emmerson says it goes from 4pm "till you drop." I will be there... come check it out!

Maté coca

Maté coca
Originally uploaded by Karen Hoffmann

Found some coca tea in a natural-foods store in Bogota yesterday. It comes in tea bags, not fresh leaves like this cup in Peru, but it takes me back...