Last week marked a year since I launched Geopolitico as a means of demystifying how politics, economics and culture intersect in shaping the world. A big thanks to all those who have subscribed and others who have engaged with the content and helped me finesse it over the past year.
Most of the questions are workoutable, peppered with hints that lead you to the answer. It’s all about piecing together the solution. Background knowledge that identifies the context certainly helps. The answers should never be the end and my intention is to spur a quest to know more about the issues underlying the questions.
This quiz is another round of journalistic scoops with wide-ranging local and global ramifications, returning to the theme of my first quiz. You can read the Scoops quiz from August 2020 and its answers here.
Questions
1) The death of Thomas Moss in the U.S. city of Memphis in 1892 prompted Ida B. Wells, co-owner and editor of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper to write a series of investigative articles. Wells travelled across the American South over several months for her reports. What did she focus on? (Hers was the most extensive documentation of the issue at the time)
2) In 1933 Gareth Jones was one of the first foreign journalists to interview Adolf Hitler after he became Chancellor of Germany. But he is now remembered for a clandestine trip to a part of another country. He revealed his undercover findings through a press release in Berlin that was picked up by newspapers. But prominent journalists and intellectuals such as George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells refuted Jones’ account and attacked his credibility. What Jones revealed is now recognised as a genocide by 18 countries. What happened and where?
3) a) E.D. Morel was a clerk at a Liverpool shipping company who also wrote for British newspapers about the West African trade. In 1900 he published a series of articles on unfair trade practices through the use of forced labour, after observing that weapons and chains were repeatedly shipped from Europe while rubber was coming in. From where? Morel left his job and became a journalist and activist for this cause.
(b) Supplementary question on E.D. Morel - he opposed the First World War and was briefly imprisoned for his Pacifist activism. After the war, Morel ran for the Labour Party in the 1922 UK parliamentary election and stunned a cabinet member and prominent figure in the war effort. Who did he defeat?
4) Noted travel writer and historian Jan Morris was earlier a journalist responsible for two major scoops of the 20th century. The first one for the Times of London was as part of an expedition in 1953. The second for the ManchesterGuardian concerned a conflict in 1956. What were the scoops?
5) The journalist and editor Harold Evans who died last year led the Sunday Times for 14 years, an era of trailblazing scoops. The biggest expose concerned hundreds of children. The newspaper fought a legal battle for years in English courts, as an injunction granted by the House of Lords prevented it from writing on the issue. The SundayTimes eventually won the case at the European Court of Human Rights in 1979. What was the issue?
6) In September 1964, investigative journalist James Ridgeway’s article ‘Car Design and Public Safety’ was published by the New Republic magazine. A major focus of the article was General Motors’ Chevrolet Corvair. The main source for the piece was tailed and harassed by private investigators, which was first revealed by the Washington Post and subsequently in an extensive article by Ridgeway titled ‘The Dick’ for the New Republic. The President of General Motors eventually apologised. Who was the source who was tailed?
7) Freelance journalist Seymour Hersh managed to speak to X at Fort Benning in the U.S. state of Georgia and obtained details of a classified charge sheet. Life and Look magazines refused to publish Hersh’s expose. A little-known news agency, the Dispatch News Service, ran the story on November 12, 1969 and several newspapers picked it up. Who is X and what did Seymour Hersh expose?
8) He gave his first interview to journalist Anita Pratap, which was published in India’s Sunday magazine in March 1984. He was featured on the magazine’s cover wearing military fatigues. It was the first publicly available image of him as an adult. Who?
9) Starting in September 1982, Rajkumar Keswani wrote a series of articles on hazardous chemicals over a period of two years, warning that his city ‘stood on the edge of a volcano’. But his warnings were not heeded. What did he write about?
10) The first story in an investigative series by the Boston Globe was published onJanuary 6, 2002 and focused on John Geoghan, who was later jailed. More than 600 articles followed on the same theme. What was revealed?
11) In 2018 an undercover team led by the investigative journalist Anas broadcast video of senior football officials accepting bribes. The documentary Number 12 resulted in FIFA banning the country’s football chief. Several referees were also banned. Which country was at the centre of the expose?
12) In 2010 the online news site ElFaro published an interview with a former military captain who admitted being part of a death squad behind an assassination, on the 30th anniversary of the killing. Alvaro Savaria, who spoke from an undisclosed location said the order was given by a senior military figure turned right-wing party leader. Which country and who was assassinated? (Hint: Latin America)
13) Jan Kuciak was investigating an Italian crime syndicate’s activities in his country, its efforts to fraudulently corner European Union farm subsidies and potential ties to ruling party and government officials. Kuciak and his fiancee were murdered in 2018. The subsequent outcry and public protests led to the Prime Minister’s resignation. Which country?
14) She relentlessly accused politicians and government officials of corruption in her blog Running Commentary. Her allegations linking her country’s Prime Minister to tax havens (Panama Papers scandal) led to the PM announcing early elections (he returned to power). The journalist described as a ‘one-woman WikiLeaks’ was killed in a car bomb attack in 2017. The PM had to step down in 2019 after his close associates were implicated in the murder. Name the journalist and the country.
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2) Not Armenian massacre/genocide. That started in 1915. Think of who or what the likes of Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells would have been starry-eyed about
3) b) Well guessed on Winston Churchill
4) Yes - Jan Morris (then James Morris) revealed that France and Britain were directly involved in the Suez war against Egypt and not just Israel.
Regarding the other answer in 4 - think of the biggest event in travel in 1953
2) Armenian massacre/genocide began in 1915 and not the 1930s. Think of who or what Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells would have been starry-eyed about. Also the topic of a recent online and political debate in Kerala with some typically indefensible posturing
3) a) Correct on Congo
4) Correct on Mt Everest. Not Korean war though. Think of a conflict in 1956 with huge geopolitical ramifications
5) Correct
7) Not Pentagon Papers but the revelations by Seymour Hersh are connected with Vietnam
8) Correct on Prabhakaran
9) Correct
10) Correct
12) Che Guevara was killed in Bolivia in 1967. Think of someone who was assassinated in 1980. Even bigger clue: Connected to the institution in Question 12
1. lynching of Black people
2. Armenian Genocide, Turkey and Armenia
3. b - Guessing Winston Churchill
4. The attack on the Suez Canal by Britain and France
6. Ralph Nader
7. My Lai massacre at Vietnam
9. The Union Carbide factory at Bhopal
10. The Catholic Chutch systematically covered up cases of sexual abuse
14. Daphne Galizia, Malta
1) Correct
2) Not Armenian massacre/genocide. That started in 1915. Think of who or what the likes of Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells would have been starry-eyed about
3) b) Well guessed on Winston Churchill
4) Yes - Jan Morris (then James Morris) revealed that France and Britain were directly involved in the Suez war against Egypt and not just Israel.
Regarding the other answer in 4 - think of the biggest event in travel in 1953
6) Correct on Ralph Nader
7) Correct
9) Correct
10) Correct
14) Correct
5
Scoops Part 1 & 2..both hard editions for non- journos, though I will try
1.
2. Soviet famine...Ukraine region
3.
4. Everest conquest?
5.
6.
7.
8.Velupillai Pirabakaran
9.Union Carbide -Methyl isocyanate gas storage.
10. Priests child abuse
11.Ghana
12.Che?
13. Czech Republic?
14. Malta. Daphne not sure on surname Cariza... something
As a dabbler in the underbelly of the media industry, you qualify on the 'journo' front! Very much a മാധ്യമപ്രവർത്തകൻ
2) Correct on the Soviet famine. Coincidentally lot of online chatter in Kerala recently about Joseph Stalin with some 'cyber comrades' deep in denial
3)
4) Correct on Everest
8) Correct on Prabhakran
9) Correct
10) Correct
11) Correct on Ghana
12) Not Che. Che was killed in Bolivia in 1967. The person assassinated in 1980 is connected to the institution in Question 10
13) Close but not Czech Republic - we covered the story
14) Yes. Daphne Caruana Galicia
😀 🙏
2) Yes that famine was one the several counter points @ a lot of Malayalam online chatter on Stalin recently.
4) Was a lucky guess based on the year and the 'expedition'. hint.
12) Salvador Allende.was my 2nd guess, wrong though with the Catholic Church clue. Dead end.
1.
2. Armenian Genocide, Turkey
3. a. (belgian) Congo
4. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary's ascent of Mt. Everest; Korean War
5. Thalidomide children
6.
7. Pentagon papers; Elliot something
8. Velupillai Prabhakaran
9. Union Carbide in Bhopal
10. Child Sexual Abuse in Catholic Church and its coverup.
11.
12. Bolivia and Che Guevara
13.
14. Country is Malta, cannot remember the name of the brave journalist.
2) Armenian massacre/genocide began in 1915 and not the 1930s. Think of who or what Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells would have been starry-eyed about. Also the topic of a recent online and political debate in Kerala with some typically indefensible posturing
3) a) Correct on Congo
4) Correct on Mt Everest. Not Korean war though. Think of a conflict in 1956 with huge geopolitical ramifications
5) Correct
7) Not Pentagon Papers but the revelations by Seymour Hersh are connected with Vietnam
8) Correct on Prabhakaran
9) Correct
10) Correct
12) Che Guevara was killed in Bolivia in 1967. Think of someone who was assassinated in 1980. Even bigger clue: Connected to the institution in Question 12
14) Correct on Malta
12. Exhausting my knowledge of SoAm assassinations. Archbishop Oscar Romero and El Salvador?
You got it! Well worked out
For 12 - the person who was assassinated is connected to the institution in Question 10. Noticed the earlier typo just now