Jurek Martin



Profile:


Full name: Jurek Martin

Area of interest: America

Journals: Financial Times

Email: [mailto:onohana@aol.com onohana@aol.com]

Website: FT.Com / Jurek Martin

Blog:

Agent:

Networks: LinkedIn



Biography:
Education/Academia:
 * Royal Grammar School, Worcester; Hertford College, Oxford: Modern History
 * Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow at Grinnell College

Career: Joined the FT in 1966, working in US. Was twice Washington bureau chief, also head of the New York office, over that period covered six presidential election campaigns. Became Far East editor from 1982/86, based in Tokyo. Also served six years as foreign editor, based in London. Moved back to full time writing in Washington, notionally retiring in 1997, but accepting the invitation to return to write a column

Current position/role: freelance columnist

also writes/has written for:

Other roles:

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: TV/Radio:

Controversy/Criticism:
 * Criticized former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz for the promotion/pay increase he gave to girlfriend Shaha Riza at the State Department (ref: Conference on world affairs: Inequality alive and thriving – 14th April 2007)

Awards/Honours: OBE (1997) for services to international journalism, especially in the USA; British Press Awards: David Holden foreign correspondent of the year, for coverage of Japan

Other: Married to Kathleen Newland co-founder of Migration Policy Institute ..."independent, non-partisan, non-profit think-tank dedicated to the study of the movement of people worldwide"



Books & Debate:

 * A redefinition of American foreign policy priorities: with special reference to Europe OCLC59923460, 1991

Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate:



Financial Times:
Column remit: America, its policies and its people

Section:

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:onohana@aol.com onohana@aol.com]

Website: FT.Com / Jurek Martin

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity: Varies

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2011

 * centre-stage as a jilted left looks on'' - The president’s sharp rise in public approval suggests that any challenge from progressives angered by his pragmatic response to the midterms would be quixotic in the extreme - 26th January
 * unions swim against the tide'' - Organised labour has to find a new way forward - 8th January



Articles: 2010

 * year to bring fresh enmity in Washington'' - Anybody who thinks that the bipartisan co-operation that has broken out in DC recently is a harbinger of better governance in the new year is likely to be disappointed - 23rd December
 * Edge: An actor’s good opinion is easily lost'' - Politicians should rely on their own thespian gifts, writes Jurek Martin - 18th December
 * in a new world of compromise'' - America’s tax cut extension deal between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans was not exactly popular with Democrats. They must get over their pique - 9th December
 * dispatch from Oblikistan'' - A disgruntled US ambassador e-mails home, lamenting his likely fashion faux pas in carrying a Beretta when all the other wedding guests are toting Kalashnikovs - 5th December
 * politically cold turkey for Thanksgiving'' - You don’t mess with the traditional American Thanksgiving meal, from the turkey and stuffing down to the dessert pies. But it can be tasted with a political palate - 27th November
 * divided over next steps'' - Obama must abandon diffidence and offend his party - 17th November
 * blood bank’ of JFK'' - Ted Sorensen, John F. Kennedy’s celebrated wordsmith, was much more than the author of memorable sentences that still resonate half a century later. He was also the US president’s ‘alter ego’ - 7th November
 * must roll with the tide'' - In the past 46 years there have been two unstoppable political waves, like the one that washed over Washington this week - 4th November
 * Edge: The curious case of the missing deerstalker'' - Jurek Martin on the slaughter of the largest red stag in Britain - 30th October
 * degraded public debate'' - NPR rightly sacked its reporter, but the reaction shows a media in crisis - 27th October
 * subpoenas strain at the leash'' - If the Republican party gains control of either house of Congress in next month’s US midterm elections, the Obama administration can expect to be hounded as was Bill Clinton – only worse – while the real problems facing the country are largely ignored - 19th October
 * Edge: Franzen’s focus puts others in the shade'' - Can a pair of glasses really be worth $100k - 9th October
 * Democrats should ditch their leader'' - Harry Reid should lose his job. By that, I do not mean as the US senator from Nevada, because his defeat by Sharron Angle, the Republican Tea Party darling, in November would be an insult to the intelligence of all with half a brain - 28th September
 * Edge: When pigs flew and bears fled'' - Barack Obama book for children, ‘Of Thee I Sing’, could read something like this - 18th September
 * wisdom and Obama’s chances'' - Americans are mad at Washington because the economy will not recover fast enough, which means the Republicans will capture Congress thereby crippling the presidency - 14th September
 * we see Woods for the bunkers and trees'' - His playing peers all agree it is not a technical problem. His swing may be off, and he may have fired his swing coach, but no fatal flaw has been detected - 14th August
 * means and a wellspring of power'' - Dan Rostenkowski was one of the truly great chairmen of the House of Representatives ways and means committee, who ended up in jail for fiddling congressional allowances. His death on Wednesday prompts Jurek Martin to consider the perils and pressures of the post - 14th August
 * has its beer – but tribalism belongs to soccer'' - Supporters are segregated at soccer games but fan intensity and rivalry in baseball are generally lower than in other sports - 7th August
 * on Venus as Mars muddles on'' - August is the month when everybody is supposed to take a break. In Europe that actually happens. Stakhanovite Americans would do well to take note - 5th August
 * mayoral battle is refreshingly local'' - The contest revolves around the complex attitudes and power structures of Washington’s black community - 24th July
 * new world for America’s sporting couch potatoes'' - The quality of the television commentary on distant sports such as Wimbledon, the World Cup and the British Open has gone through the roof. Could this be a permanent improvement in awareness - 17th July
 * Edge: Say it ain’t so, sumo'' - Scandal has struck Japan’s national sport - 10th July
 * in the News: Larry King'' - The CNN host is the latest of his generation to make way for a new breed - 3rd July
 * competes with centre court'' - The Supreme Court confirmation show must go on, even if the outcome is totally assured - 30th June
 * in living with the stuff that just happens'' - In America it is fashionable to be angry – about almost anything. In this climate, Jurek Martin has been on a hunt for grace and civility - 17th June
 * consumed by angry noises'' - All sorts of tempests are raging - with civil discourse mostly honoured in the breach and the media invested in the phenomenon of the Tea Party. It's a problem for Barack Obama, an eminently civil man - 3rd June
 * Carolina Tea Party fails to take off '' - If the populist US movement is an insurrection in the making, it was not taking place last week in sunny Georgetown - 24th April
 * in the News: Tiger Woods'' - The golfer returns with a twin mission, rehabilitate himself with the public, and revive the sport - 3rd April
 * rage at the tenacity of hope'' - The bill’s passage might allow cooler heads to prevail - 24th March
 * is the car for me'' - Three pedals and a gear stick – the essentials in any new car - 8th March
 * you’ve been framed'' - Language is a two-edged sword, even for Republican strategists - 6th February
 * could work for Obama'' - Bill Clinton’s tactic of 15 years ago involved borrowing ideas from left and right, leaving the triangulator (the president) in the non-partisan middle, cannily above the fray. It is an option for today’s president, too - 3rd February
 * can turn to 1994 for a silver lining'' - That electoral year was also a debacle for Democrats but it thrust Newt Gingrich to the forefront of national life as Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives. Just as Newt overreached, so may Republicans now -21st January
 * to sort the chaff with a tweet'' - Jurek Martin reflects on a recent discovery that Twitter makes a good filter for trawling the internet, with tweets from reliable correspondents saving much time and effort - 8th January



Articles: 2009

 * the season to put a sock in it'' - The Senate might resound a little less to Joe Lieberman, Tom Coburn, Charles Schumer and Ben Nelson were my Great Aunt Edith’s favourite Christmas gift put to good use - 22nd December
 * yourself for Palin-Dobbs'' - Lou Dobbs, who resigned as America’s chief prime-time xenophobe last week, is hinting that public office beckons. Perhaps - 18th November
 * can read too much into an election'' - Forthcoming US elections, including two governorships, one House seat and a handful of mayoralties and referendums, will be scrutinised for what they imply for mid-term congressional elections a year from now. But beware the ‘narrative’ - 3rd November
 * Edge: When presidential siblings go rogue'' - None of America’s leaders has been an only child - 31st October
 * right to bear grudges'' - In the land of the free, there is no prima facie reason why anybody should not own a sporting team, but it is pretty obvious that Rush Limbaugh was black-balled because of his politics - 21st October
 * is alive and well in America'' - There is a lot of conditioning in America these days – from the laughter of the Letterman audience to the politicians on Capitol Hill - 9th October
 * libertarianism is dancing to the shock-jocks'' - Outspoken peddlers of socialist-and-worse conspiracy theories on US television and radio are stealing a veneer of unearned respectability - 26th September
 * Edge: Health and hot air on the sabbath'' - On Sunday morning, Barack Obama goes on five TV shows, probably a record, and on Monday he is on David Letterman’s late-night show, where gentle evisceration occasionally occurs. The US president’s calculation is that healthcare reform demands no less - 19th September
 * can afford to take the pain for now'' - I’m a political not an economics junkie. But I know that if an American president takes an economic hit early in his first term, he will be re-elected; if he takes it late he is a goner after four years - 26th August
 * out the cranks and conspiracy theorists'' - It is arguably better to let all this rubbish out because the oxygen of publicity will reveal to anybody with half a brain who the nut cases are - 8th August
 * is right about racial profiling'' - A few injudicious words aside, the president’s reflections on the arrest of an eminent black Harvard professor in his own home were spot-on - 29th July
 * Court circus rolls into town'' - Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings began on Monday but she has little to fear if she keeps her head - 15th July
 * only live once, except in America'' - Lost in the wash of all the obituaries this week of Robert McNamara as architect of the Vietnam War was the fact that he recreated himself as president of the World Bank for 13 years, arguably its most successful period ever - 11th July
 * Edge: Presidential par for the course'' - Obama is the latest in a long line of presidential golf addicts - 27th June
 * re-emerge from the shadows'' - As legislative crunch time looms for the reform issues at the top of Barack Obama’s longer-term agenda, special interests that were lying low during the first five months of his administration are back with a vengeance - 17th June
 * shared taste for political corruption'' - American corruption is mostly about money securing access to power, while in the UK it is much more about politicians feathering their own nests than influencing legislation - 5th June
 * by a conservative cacophony'' - Parties need a face. But one of the key problems for today’s Republican party is that it has far too many of them - 20th May
 * hundred days lived in parallel'' - Everybody and their grandmother is already writing about Barack Obama’s first 100 days as president, so I thought I’d take a different tack: to compare his with mine (last, of course, not first) and see what happens - 29th April
 * Edge: One nation, under tea – or not'' - Americans seem to be developing a taste for tea - 18th April
 * rumblings in Boulder'' - The University of Colorado’s annual conference on world affairs, 61 years old and going strong, remains mostly a conclave of the left. If discontent exists with Barack Obama, then it should be echoing back from the soaring Flatiron rock faces - 14th April
 * escape from the Washington bubble'' - By skipping an annual dinner for the US political and media elite, Barack Obama showed his priorities are in the right place - 26th March
 * restaurant reviewer’s guide to the South African political scene'' - There is no lack of talent trying to find a way of cracking the ANC’s monopoly on political power but this is far from the early days of democracy - 12th March
 * of Obama shifts'' - The new president wants to try to change the ways of Washington and that may be the toughest nut of all - 12th February
 * plays politics as the nation burns'' - No stimulus bill is worse than a bad, or imperfect, bill. That does not quite seem to have sunk into the Republican party’s collective head - 3rd February
 * to Abe'' - New volumes written for Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birth anniversary explore the source of his mastery over both words and men - 31st January
 * second coming'' - This is a country which cannot wait to boot out the ancien regime and usher in the new, as it inaugurates man of colour, and hope, as president, amid a palpable sense of national buoyancy - 20th January
 * will not stay sheathed'' - In hearings for Obama’s nominees on Capitol Hill, the Senate has shown itself at its preening worst - 15th January
 * Washington gets ready to party - Jurek Martin offers practical tips for visitors coming in for Obama’s inauguration - 10th January 2009
 * I will miss about the Bush administration'' - 3rd January 2009



Articles: 2008

 * P.S. - The final work of late oral historian Studs Terkel may constitute just fragments from a substantial body of work, but they are special nonetheless - 15th December 2008
 * Richardson’s opportunity - The new US commerce secretary designate may have a better chance than his predecessors to make something of the job - 5th December 2008
 * A Republican field day for dentists - The way is clear for Republicans, if they can lift their heads from their hands - 18th November 2008
 * America’s staggering capacity for change - Obama’s genius in the campaign is that he threatened almost nobody not already threatened by his very existence - 31st October 2008
 * off your butt is best'' - There was a time when the US media would get out of the Beltway and out around the country - 31st October 2008
 * of the anti-socialist anthem'' - McCain’s campaign has revived the anti-socialist, anti-American anthem of the 1960s. It is not to its credit - 22nd October 2008
 * low will presidential campaign go?'' - The real test of Republican restraint in the campaign will be whether McCain plays the race card against Obama - 8th October 2008
 * Edge: No other word for it but a bail-out'' - For centuries, the name of the political game has been to dress up the unpalatable with grand euphemisms - 4th October 2008
 * A country for old men? - McCain’s age is generally considered to work against him, but the financial crisis has changed the dynamics of this election - 25th September 2008
 * Obama and the conservative backlash against Palin - As conservative commentators turn against Palin, Obama has a choice to join them in the mud, or switch the message to America’s economy - 17th September 2008
 * McCain opts for light entertainment - The choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate says troubling things about the American electorate - 2nd September 2008
 * Denver, as seen from Maine - If the old saw ‘as Maine goes, so goes the nation’ is true, the signs are good for Obama - 28th August 2008
 * Edge: Apology never too late'' - There are serious corrections that mean real egg on the face for a newspaper - 16th August 2008
 * A glamorous Texan in the Court of St James’s - Anne Legendre Armstrong, who died last week of cancer at the age of 80, was born into comfort and created a career in US politics - 8th August 2008
 * The return of the Nixonian campaign - Republicans are going back to Nixon’s tactics to try to persuade America’s silent majority that Barack Obama is not really one of them - 5th August 2008
 * Obama and the foreigners - Not quite every European is in love with the Democratic candidate. The overseas media in the US have always had a difficult time in presidential campaigns - 23rd July 2008
 * Gingrich is to blame - A poisonous absence of bipartisanship has debased the currency of US political debate over the past generation - 8th July 2008
 * Political cold turkey - A confession is in order. I often only skim-read the political columnists these days; I frequently miss Matthews and Olbermann on MSNBC; I don’t check in daily with the better political blogs - 25th June 2008
 * The European end of the telescope - I might have been on the wrong continent last week when Barack Obama clinched the Democratic party’s presidential nomination - 10th June 2008
 * The strange silence on illegal immigration - Here is a conundrum. The issue of illegal immigration, white hot six months ago, has disappeared below the national political radar. Yet, across the country, crackdowns against illegal immigrants at the local level and documented examples of the darker side of immigration enforcement grow apace - 19th May 2008
 * Do not let Limbaugh pick the president - I had been thinking for some time that more attention should be paid to Rush Limbaugh – not to what he says, because it is pretty much the same old rightwing bombast he has been selling for 25 years, but to what he has been urging his legion of 20m similarly inclined radio listeners to do - 7th May 2008
 * Blood-letting could damage the Democrats - T he big winners at the Oscars were No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood, prescient choices for what happened in Tuesday's presidential primaries in the US - 6th March 2008
 * Why Democrats must ensure a good, clean contest - The riveting contest for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has often been characterized over the last six weeks as one between his momentum, reflecting his personal magnetism, and her machine, the product of 35 years in politics - 13th February 2008
 * Bill: still a cause for hope? - It is necessary to write about Bill Clinton but I crave a little indulgence for a preamble to how I arrived at what I am going to write - 31st January 2008
 * Tennis beats Michigan’s primary - I gave a speech in Tulsa this week, could not sleep afterwards, which probably happened to the audience because they had snoozed well when I was talking, and spent the night channel flicking between the Australian Open tennis (good) and the analysis of the Michigan primary (depressing) - 17th January 2008
 * New Hampshire delivers a reality check - What a difference tears can make over the years. In 1972, Ed Muskie, the heavy favourite from neighbouring Maine, semi-wept on a flat bed truck in the snows of New Hampshire over newspaper insults to his wife and, suddenly, was dead politically. On Monday, Hillary Clinton allowed the hint of tears in a diner and put herself back in the race for the White House - 9th January 2008
 * Bush, forgotten man of 2008 - Everybody’s thoughts may be on Iowa, so maybe it is appropriate to spare one for George W. Bush, entering the last year of his presidency. In so doing, there is no reason to be charitable - 3rd January 2008



Links:

 * Wikipedia bio