• BBC coverage
• On The World: President Obama’s Afghanistan plan
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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World.  The battle for the Afghan town of Marjah has not yet begun, but just about everyone, NATO forces, Taliban militants and Afghan civilians seems to know what’s coming.  NATO is planning an offensive in the southern Afghan town. Taliban fighters say they are digging in for a fight and hundreds of civilians are fleeing.  The stakes are high.  Marjah is the biggest community in Southern Afghanistan under insurgent control.  The BBC’s Frank Gardner is 90 miles east of Marjah in Kandahar.  He’s embedded with the command center for the operation in southern Afghanistan.  He says the generals are deliberately publicizing what’s coming.

FRANK GARDNER: What they want to do is minimize civilian casualties, so in a way they’ve conducted a kind of information operation before they start the shooting war, the shooting part of the battle.  They’ve prepared a load of leaflets; in fact I’ve got one of them in front of me here.  “It says [phonetic] mustarak, the combined force and the people will defeat the insurgents and bring a better life.  Where will you stand?  Help us.  Report enemy activity on the following number.”  So these are being prepared to be air dropped.  That’s coupled with radio messages and what they’re trying to do, essentially, is to split the Taliban away from the local population to convince the locals that in the argument over who to side with, the Taliban or the government, they’re better off being with the Afghan government.  It’s a big ask because a lot of these operations have resulted in a lot of destruction of civilian property and also they have left a security vacuum afterwards because NATO, up until now, has not had the troops to be able to hold the ground.  So this time, what they’re saying is they’re going to have the troops; more particularly they’re going to bring in Afghan policemen and others to guarantee security.

WERMAN: So presumably those pamphlets part of the hearts and minds war.  What is the goal of, if it should come to it, of a shooting war in this operation?

GARDNER: Well they’re hoping not to have a shooting war.  I think realistically they know that the hard core will probably oppose them because they are that they’re going into is one that has been known as opium central. It’s a major opium production area where a lot of money is at stake.  I don’t think the Taliban are going to relinquish, and indeed other insurgents and drug lords are not going to be happy to relinquish this area easily.  It’s perfectly possible that the Taliban will have used this period to sew a crust of IED’s, of Improvised Explosive Devices, down all the routes that they would expect troops to advance to this area.  But the goal is to have minimum casualties and maximum security.  To that end what they’ve done is to essentially try and plan this operation backwards so that they’re looking at the political situation a few months or weeks down the line.  They’re bringing in extra police and they’ve trained up, or sort of worked up a government in waiting, as it were, to move in to this area.

WERMAN: How many troops are involved in this one and how does it compare with other operations like this in the recent past?

GARDNER: We’re gold 15,000 troops all together are taking part in this.  The lion’s share will be American.  There will be several thousand Afghan troops.  There will be a few thousand British troops and there will be much smaller numbers of others as well.

WERMAN: And Frank, a final question before we let you go, the name Operation Mustarak, what does that mean?

GARDNER: It means joint or together or shared.  It’s actually an Arabic word, but it’s the same in Dari and the whole emphasis on this is saying that this is a joint Afghan coalition operation where the Afghan commanders, who are now getting quite a lot of battle experience, have taken part in the planning.  They were the ones who presented the plan to President Karzai.  He was happy with what they presented to him.  So the political will, I think, is there at the moment, but let’s see if it remains there.

WERMAN: Certainly more culturally appropriate name than Operation Cobra’s anger.

GARDNER: Yes.  Although beneath all the good intentions of good civil government and so on, make no mistake there is an absolutely awesome amount of fire power being amassed for this should the Taliban resist.

WERMAN: The BBC’s Frank Gardner will leave it there.  You’re in southern Afghanistan at the command center for Operation Mustarak.  Thanks very much for your time.

GARDNER: You’re welcome.

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(Photo: Alex Gallafent)

• More of Alex’s photos from the Brooklyn school
• From the NY Times: Will Americans Really Learn Chinese?
• The World in Words

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.  Learn a foreign language.  That’s what many parents tell their children.  The government needs linguists, so does business.  But most Americans don’t heed the advice.  The latest figures show that many schools are cutting back, even shutting down their language programs.  There is, though, one big exception, Chinese.  Across the U.S., from kindergarten to college, Chinese programs are starting up.  One place that Chinese has taken hold is Medgar Evers College Preparatory School.  That’s a public school in Brooklyn, New York.  Most of the students there come from low income families, about 90% are eligible for free or reduced lunches.  The student population is made up of Americans and immigrants alike; most are black and 400 of them study Chinese.  The World’s Alex Gallafent reports.

ALEX GALLAFENT: Meet sixth grader Clayton Williams.

CLAYTON WILLIAMS:  In my opinion, a very honest opinion, Chinese is the easiest second language that I can learn.  And trust me when I say, it’s way easier than Spanish.

GALLAFENT: Just a regular kind in FC103.  That’s code for sixth grade Chinese at Medgar Evers College Prep.  Ms. Wu puts the students through their paces.  They’ve only been learning Chinese for a few months, but they’re into it, at least if you believe one of Clayton’s classmates, Lauren Mighty.  I asked her if she always did her Chinese homework.  She said.

LAUREN MIGHTY:  Yes.

GALLAFENT: All the time?

MIGHTY:  Yes.

GALLAFENT: Really?

MIGHTY:  Yes.

GALLAFENT: You get extra credit?

MIGHTY:  Yeah, because I do Chinese heading.

GALLAFENT: What’s Chinese heading?

MIGHTY:  You write Ms. Wu’s name in Chinese characters and then we put the date in Chinese.

GALLAFENT: The lesson is filled with songs including this one from the Beijing Olympics.  Assistant Principal Jean Adilifu directs the language programs at Medgar Evers.  She’s even started Chinese lessons herself.

JEAN ADILIFU:  It is developing.

GALLAFENT: And as we leave the sixth graders and head to the elevator, she marvels at their progress.

ADIILIFU:  And this is since September, with no previous exposure, background and all of that.  When you get into the songs you’re learning words, and it’s painless because the songs are so engaging.  I love the Beijing song.  You know the song from the Olympics?  Its one of my favorites.  Ms. Perry, can I get number five please?  Okay, thanks.  Because if we have to analyze it as adult learners, oh the tones, oh the nuances, oh the characters, it’s like oh, we get overwhelmed and it’s so difficult.  But for them, they love it, it’s easy.  We’re not going to tell them it’s hard.  Let’s just get in there and teach them.  Let’s go ladies, gentlemen, let’s go.  You got a class here?

GALLAFENT: The approach Medgar Evers is taking to its language learning is refreshing says Chris Livacarri.  He runs the Chinese and world language education programs at the Asia Society in New York.  We talked in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, a stone’s throw from the school.

CHRIS LIVACARRI:   They have done what few schools have, which is to start a Chinese language program and make it much more than just a class in a school building.  They’ve made it a core part of their school culture and they’ve really embraced Chinese as a way for helping their students become more globally competent and having a stronger vision of the world outside their borders.

GALLAFENT: Indeed, Jean Adilifu told me that rooting lessons in things like ordering food in Chinatown or celebrating the Chinese New Year is a big part of building that kind of real life context for students.  Here’s another sixth grader, 11-year-old Giselle Ashby.

GISELLE ASHBY:  It’s easy because the way that the teacher teaches and that we have certain materials and we get to learn fan dance and all of that.  My parents came here and they were impressed of how we learned so much in this little bit of time.

GALLAFENT: What would you say if your teacher wasn’t standing right over there?

ASHBY:  The exact same thing.

GALLAFENT: The Asia Society is offering some direct help too.  It’s building a network of 100 schools across the United States.

LIVACARRI:  We have urban schools, we have rural schools, suburban schools.  We have independent, charter and public schools.

GALLAFENT: And Chris Livacarri hopes those schools will act as models for other schools.  To that end, the Asia Society is pairing up places such as Medgar Evers with partner schools in China and launching an online knowledge sharing community for teachers.  It’s also offering those hundred schools a small amount of financial support.  But Livacarri stresses that all this isn’t about jumping on the China bandwagon.  Simply pushing Chinese into high school because it’s likely to have more and more utility in the global work place.  That happened before with another language.

LIVACARRI:  If you remember, 15, 20 years ago everyone in this country was rushing to learn Japanese.  And if you look now, there aren’t that many Japanese programs that are out there anymore.  But if you do find some, these programs are extremely dynamic.  So even though Japan has faded from the headlines, the programs continue because people recognize that this is a wonderfully engaging experience for students.

GALLAFENT: Livacarri acknowledges that Chinese is the language to be learning right now and that the United States needs more Chinese speakers.  But he says the broader agenda for the Asia Society is to develop language learning in general as a means to help students simply be more effective global citizens regardless of what the future holds.  Jean Adilifu at Medgar Evers agrees.  Staking out a position in some China dominated future isn’t important, at least for the school’s young learners.

ADILIFU:   For the sixth graders that’s so far away.  The immediacy of the actual real life experiences is really more of what we have for them.  But we are a college prep school and we make no bones about it.

GALLAFENT: This is Medgar Evers advanced placement class in Chinese Language and Culture, a college level course for high schoolers.  It’s the first year the class has been run.  Adilifu says this group of tenth graders will be well positioned in the global economy.

ADILIFU:  They can run any business here in China and still remain in Brooklyn because of the technology.  They can convey it, it opens up their clientele base, it opens up the markets for them, it opens up a whole array of options for them.

GALLAFENT: And ambition is not in short supply at Medgar Evers.  Here’s one example; 15-year-old Akeem Noble.  He thinks he might continue with his Chinese studies after he leaves the school.

AKEEM NOBLE:  For me, maybe Chinese as a minor in college, but definitely not a major because I’m planning to become a medical doctor, so maybe it will help me to interact with some of my patients that are of Chinese descent.

GALLAFENT: Before all that comes a trip to China.  Some of the advanced placement students will head there on a short immersion course later in the year.  For The World, I’m Alex Gallafent in Brooklyn, New York.

WERMAN: For pictures from the Medgar Evers School and to check out our podcast on language, The World in Words, go to the world dot org slash language.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World.  The police in the Spanish city of Barcelona recently raided a suspicious looking dry cleaners.  It was late at night and something fishy was going on.  People were going in, but they weren’t coming out.  It had all the makings of a front for some illegal business.  It turns out it was a front, but the cops didn’t find anything nefarious, just people enjoying a pleasant dinner.  The World’s Gerry Hadden explains.

GERRY HADDEN: The Dontell dry cleaners hints at nothing culinary.  Clothes hang on hangers in the windows and there’s a price list for shirts, dresses and so on.  On a recent Friday night an elegant couple goes in.  They walk straight to a curtain alone one wall and push it aside.  Then they press their index fingers to some sort of scanning device and a secret door slides open.  They disappear inside and I follow them.  But to get pas that sliding door, you first have to register, get your own fingerprints into the system.  Then to the wall scanner.  The door opens again.  At the end of a long hallway, past the DJ booth, you reach a hip little restaurant; maybe 15 tables.  Everything high end design, the whole place lit up in bluish light.  A young couple, Joan and Leina, are just paying the check.  Ever since we met says Joan, we’ve been looking for original places to eat out, whether in Barcelona or wherever.  That’s the magic, finding places with charm.  I seems like people don’t know about this place, Leina adds.  You pass it on the street and you wouldn’t say hey, let’s eat here tonight because it doesn’t look like a restaurant.  Joan and Leina heard about Dontell from a friend which is how it’s supposed to work says Dontell’s manager, Christian Rodrigues.  He says for the price of a normal meal you get to come to a place that no one else would ever bring you to.  The idea was to create a secret, a sort of gift.  Secret, exclusive and part of a small trend.  Over the past few years clandestine eateries have been popping up in cities like Amsterdam, London and Berlin.  Dontell is one of at least three in Barcelona alone.  Did you write that down?  That password exchange gets you into another secret bistro called, literally, the Speakeasy.  It’s hidden behind a swank martini bar, but you enter through a separate service door.  You walk down a hall past boxes of stacked vegetables and the kitchen and you emerge into 1920′s Chicago.  Owner Javier de las Muelas says when he bought the martini bar this area was the store room.  One day I put a table back here, then the wine racks he says.  You can see that they’re all from the 1920′s.  We wanted to pay tribute to the era of prohibition in America, which gave rise to hidden bars or Speakeasies.  The Speakeasy is dark, cozy and posh.  Businessmen lunch here.  Politicians cut deal.  Like Dontell’s, it aims for an air of exclusivity, but it is a business, so they will give the password to anyone who asks.  Catarina Toscana says she’s a regular.  She says for me it’s not really clandestine anymore, but it is, without doubt, the best restaurant in Barcelona. The menu is great and always changing.  In other words, secrecy as a concept doesn’t work if the food stinks.  But there is one restaurant in town that puts its’ hidden nature above the menu.  It’s called Dans le Noir, or into the dark, and that’s what you do.  You got into the dark, the total dark.  This French chain wants you to know what it’s like to be blind, at least for one meal.  On a recent night just before one group gets led into the pitch black dining room, another group comes out gasping.  One diner got a bit nervous says owner Maite Sutter.  He has a heart condition, she says, it’s better that he came out.  Once inside, things do get unnerving.  I’ll abandon my fork and immediately begin eating with my fingers, because otherwise, I’d have been wearing my entrée.  It’s chilly and utterly devoid of light.  I feel like some eyeless cave dweller scrounging for lichen.  My fingers touch something leafy.  But the time it’s over, I’m exhausted.  Dans le Noir doesn’t expect many repeat customers, but the owners want the experience to stay with you.  A Barcelona student named Joan says he won’t forget.  I’d even say it was a little boring, he says.  I mean, after a few minutes you’re like okay, now what?  But I suppose the point is to make you think.  If you make it to all three of these restaurants in Barcelona, but you still want more, you won’t have to wait too long.  The owners of Dontell dry cleaners plan to open another place with a fake business out front.  This time, a hair salon.  So if you happen to pass a barber shop open very late and no one is getting a haircut, your next dinner could be just a fingerprint scan away.  For The World, I’m Gerry Hadden in Barcelona.

WERMAN: You can go inside a few of Barcelona’s clandestine restaurants with Gerry Hadden and the rooms are lit.  He sent us a video to go with this story.  You can find that at the world dot org.

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• Watch a video of Karine singing in our studios
• www.karinepolwart.com/

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MARCO WERMAN: NATO troops in Afghanistan are increasing efforts to train the Afghan National Police but the obstacles to transforming the Afghan Police into a credible professional force are substantial.  The CBC’s Derek Stoffel is embedded with the Canadian military in Kandahar.

DEREK STOFFEL: There are currently about 96,000 Afghan Police officers.  The goal is to bolster the ranks by 30,000 by the end of next year.  It’ll be a tough target to meet, but slowly new officers are entering the force.  A police graduation ceremony was held last week just outside of Kandahar city.  Four of the new officers prayed that they’ll be able to help keep Afghanistan safe.  The officers saluted as they accepted a certificate that welcomed them into the Afghan National Police.  348 men, including Amir Jan were sworn in.  Jan says it is dangerous work, but I want to serve and protect my country.  But these new police face many challenges.  Most patrolmen cannot read or write.  That makes recording a simple license plate number a difficult task.  One in five recruits tests positive for drug use and General Nasralah Zarifi admits that corruption remains widespread.  Zarifi is in charge of training new officers in southern Afghanistan.  General Zarifi says the police leadership is committed to take on corruption.  He cites a local case.  A senior police officer at Kandahar’s main jail was accused of taking bribes.  Zarifi says that officer will face prosecution.  Another serious issue faces the police; desertion.  Two rows of officers stood at attention at the graduation ceremony.  They’ll get paid $165.00 a month, but they can make up to four times that if they leave the police and go work for a private security firm and that’s a thorny problem, says Canadian Major General Michael Ward who is in charge of NATO police training.

MICHAEL WARD:  Its one that I think is a difficult challenge because so much of the international community relies on personal security companies for their immediate security.

STOFFEL: The Afghan government wants to stop the poaching of police officers by private firms.  It’s implementing new rules aimed at blocking those companies from luring new officers.  After all, in the struggle to build up the Afghan National Police Force every officer counts.  For The World, I’m Derek Stoffel in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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MARCO WERMAN: The last time Ukrainian politician Victor Yanukovich won an election, there was a revolution.  That was in 2004.  Protestors denounced the election as fraudulent and the Orange Revolution brought a pro-Western government to power.  Yesterday Ukrainian voters expressed their disillusionment with that government.  Victor Yanukovich defeated one of the leaders of the Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoschenko.  Mykola Riabchuk is a senior research fellow at the Ukraine Center for Cultural Studies in Kiev.  He says that despite the results of the election, the legacy of revolution is alive and well in Ukraine.

MYKOLA RIABCHUK: Ukraine five years ago became free country.  Ukraine avoided flight toward [phonetic] tyrannies which is the case of majority of post-Soviet republics.  And the very fact that Yanukovich benefited from this is another proof of democracy.  Unlike five years ago, today he won in free and fair elections.

WERMAN: Mr. Riabchuk, were you in the streets of Kiev in 2004 during the Orange Revolution?

RIABCHUK: Yes, of course, as most people in Kiev.  Not only I’ve been in the streets, but there were dozens of people who passed through my apartment.  Many of them had to sleep on the floor.  We hosted many people.  I remember that atmosphere which was really great and very good order.  I couldn’t expect that Ukrainians could behave in such orderly way, actually.  So I believe that if these people managed to prove they are civic culture, at least within two weeks, there is good reason to believe they would be able also eventually to prove civic behavior within a longer period, maybe permanently.  So, still I believe you can have good chances to become a functional democracy, but of course this is a very difficult period because we have old habits which die hard and we have all this Soviet legacy which is not only totalitarian, but also colonial legacy and it’s very difficult to overcome.

WERMAN: So, if you were essentially part of the Orange Revolution in 2004 and you hosted these other protestors at your home I’m wondering how you feel about this election.  Are you disappointed in the results?

RIABCHUK: Yes, I’m disappointed in the results, but I did not expect that Tymoschenko would become a great candidate, great President.  Probably she would have been lesser of two evils.  She’s more charismatic, she’s more active, she’s more ambitious and she’s more Europe oriented.  But you know, my major disappointment was not with the result of these elections, but with the failure of Orange leaders to deliver their promises because the entire Orange team failed to introduce rule of law in the country.  This is the main thing which should be done in Ukraine.  Any new leader should start with this.

WERMAN: So Mr. Riabchuk, what will change now in Ukraine?

RIABCHUK: Well I believe we have to improve our performance and this is not only politicians, but also it’s a requirement for the entire society.  So we have to pass this very painful and painstaking way of development.  But basically I believe Ukraine is going in the right direction despite all the zigs and zags.  I like formula of my colleague Alexander Motyl who says that Ukraine is muddling through.

WERMAN: Muddling through.

RIABCHUK: But after the revolution I would put the emphasis on the word through.  Not on the muddling, but through.  We have free society with real political competition, free mass media and basically people like this.  So I believe that revolution is alive and well despite some failures.  I believe that even Yanukovich, maybe he’s not a new person, but he is a person who is in a new environment.  He came to understand that winner Ukraine would not get everything.  That politics in Ukraine is not zero-sum game.

WERMAN: Mykola Riabchuk in Kiev, Ukraine senior research fellow at the Ukraine Center for Cultural Studies there.  Thank you so much.

RIABCHUK: Thank you.

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MARCO WERMAN: Ukraine plays a less political, more comic role in the 2005 novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.  British author Marina Lewycka was nearly 60 when that book, her first, was published.  Now she’s backing a British campaign to encourage older people to join book clubs and even write their own novels.  The so-called Bookbite project will offer advice and competitions through its’ website and magazine.  Lewycka says writers in her age bracket have an advantage over their younger counterparts.

MARINA LEWYCKA: When I was young I was totally earnest.  I wanted the change the world and my books were rather dull and worthy and gloomy an existentialist and introspective.  I think one of the wonderful things about being older is your sense of humor improves and you lighten up.

WERMAN: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is based in part of some of the experiences Marina Lewycka’s parents had in work camps during the Second World War Lewycka learned some of those stories from her mother before writing the book.

LEWYCKA: I still get a lot of emails from people in Ukraine and all over the world who have had similar family histories.  I always say well write them down, write them down before they get lost.

WERMAN: Marina Lewycka has some other advice for older writers; be prepared for rejection.  Lewycka tried to publish two books before she hit the mark.

LEWYCKA: The one before the Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, I have 36 rejection slips for and each one is like a dagger in the heart.

WERMAN: Silver Scribblers you’ve been warned.  Bookbite launches today in Britain.

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MARCO WERMAN: If karaoke is more your style, then this is a song you probably know pretty well.  [music] Well maybe not that version.  Here, this is probably more familiar.  [music] Whatever you think of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”, in the Philippines, it can get you killed, that’s if you sing it karaoke style.  The New York Times reported about this over the weekend.  Karaoke is very popular in the Philippines and people get very passionate about it.  Apparently several Filipinos have been killed over the years because of how they sang their version of “My Way”.  Popular culture specialist Roland Tolentino, at the University of the Philippines told the BBC the killings are often alcohol related.

ROLAND TOLENTINO: You’d get a lot of drunk men, elderly men, who would go into an argument over another person’s singing of “My Way” and some of these things do lead to very violent endings.

WERMAN: Another problem, according to Tolentino, is that the song emboldens the singers because of its triumph over adversity theme.  But in the end, this being karaoke we’re talking about, how you belt out the song matters too.

TOLENTINO: It’s also the singing because “My Way”, at least in the Philippine context, is like the recap song.  It’s the last song of the karaoke activity so by that time a lot of elderly men are already drunk and probably emboldened, then would go into fierce arguments and probably pick up guns or something.

WERMAN: Now, try and remain calm everyone, don’t get aggressive.  Here’s the Gypsy Kings doing it their way.  [music] It’s not the final curtain.  The day’s top news stories are next on PRI, Public Radio International.

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MARCO WERMAN:  Researchers at the University of Leeds in England have just published a study on the links between excessive internet use and depression.  The World’s technology correspondent, Clark Boyd, is here.  Clark, so if I’m online I must be depressed.  Is that what the study is telling us?

CLARK BOYD:  No Marco, it’s not quite that dire.  What they did was they sampled more than 1,000 people and tried to get a handle on what their level of internet use was, and see what their level of depression was and see whether there was a link between the two.  They did this through a fairly standard survey.

WERMAN: Right, so what kind of question were they asking?

BOYD: Well, I’ll let the lead researcher ask those questions.  This is Dr. Catroina Harrison of Leeds University.

CATROINA HARRISON:  Does being online interfere with your family relationships?  Does being online interfere with your working life?  Do you look forward, anticipate going online?  To what extent do you anticipate it?  When you go online do you spend longer online that you’d intended to?

WERMAN: I’m ticking off too many of those signs Ms. Harrison is listing there.

BOYD: I was too.

WERMAN: Maybe I’m addicted.

BOYD: Well, Catroina Harrison was quick to put things in perspective here.  She admitted that obviously we all spend a lot more time online and probably more and more every day, shopping, with social networking, with all these different things that we do online now, it’s really becoming a part of our lives and she said by and large they found that most people adapt to it.  They’ve made it a part of their lives and they made it a healthy part of their lives.  She found in their sample that just a little more than one percent of those surveyed would be classified as severely addicted.  Those with severe addiction also had high levels of depression.  Here’s Dr. Harrison again.

HARRISON: By our data what we can conclude is that there is a very strong relationship between levels of addiction and levels of depression.  More addicted people are more depressed, that’s no doubt.

WERMAN: Okay, so Clark, I guess what I want to know, are more people depressed these days because they’re going to the net or is the net actually making us all more depressed?

BOYD: Well this s the chicken and the egg million dollar question that Dr. Harrison wants to answer.  She said that’s not what their study was designed to do.  She said if you really wanted to get at that chicken and egg question, I’m depressed so I go online, or I’m online so I’m depressed.  Probably the answer is not really a simple one way or the others.  She speculates that people who might be naturally inclined to be a little bit depressed maybe go online because they don’t have anybody to talk to and then being online further reinforces their feeling of isolation and makes them feel more depressed.  But she cautions against speculating too much about that.  She said the next step of their study would be to develop some sort of long term way to track people over time to get a better handle on that.

WERMAN: Interesting quandary and interesting study.  Listeners can hear a longer version of that interview on the latest tech podcast, right?

BOYD: That’s right; we’ve got the full interview with Catroina Harrison.  All you have to do is come to the world dot org slash technology and download it or find out how to subscribe to the weekly tech podcast.

WERMAN: The World’s Clark Boyd, thanks for stopping by.

BOYD: You’re welcome Marco.

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