Journalist Richard Behar will give Jan. 26 Thompson Forum lecture at UNL

Award-winning investigative reporter Richard Behar will give the next lecture in the 2009-10 E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He will speak at 7 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St.

The theme of this year's forum is "Encountering China." Behar's lecture will examine China's relationship with a number of countries in Africa. He will describe how Europe's rapid colonization of Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was known as the "Scramble for Africa" and will ask if China's involvement in Africa is the 21st century version. From Algeria to Zambia, from aluminum up the resource ladder to zinc, Behar will discuss an economic model that is at once formidably efficient and tragically flawed, and how China's new "scramble for Africa" is interlocked with America's economy.

Behar has garnered 20 journalism awards over a career spanning 25 years. He was called "one of the most dogged of our watchdogs" by the late syndicated columnist Jack Anderson. He spent nine years with Fortune magazine, preceded by six years at Time and six years at Forbes. Prior to that, he was a stringer/researcher at The New York Times. Behar has also done assignments for BBC, CNN, FoxNews.com, Fast Company and PBS.

Behar's lecture is free and open to the public, however the event is ticketed. Tickets are free and guarantee a reserved seat. Those interested may reserve tickets by contacting the Lied Center at (402) 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231. Tickets may also be picked up in person, or ordered by downloading a form from the Thompson Forum Web site, http://enthompson.unl.edu.

The lecture will be available live on the Web (www.unl.edu), Lincoln Time Warner Cable Channel 21, NETSAT 104, UNL campus Channel 8 and UNL's KRNU radio (90.3 FM). Live satellite broadcasts through the Nebraska Humanities Council and follow-up discussion will be available in Scottsbluff, North Platte, Kearney, Wayne, Columbus and Omaha.

For 21 years, the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues has brought a diversity of opinions on international and public policy issues to UNL and the citizens of Nebraska, in order to promote understanding and to encourage debate. The forum features forceful speakers who are committed to the issues they address, and seeks balance over the range of programs rather than in each presentation. The forum does not endorse the views of the individual speakers, nor limit their freedom to express their points of view. The Thompson Forum is a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation, the Lied Center and UNL. In 1990, the series was named in honor of E.N. "Jack" Thompson (1913-2002,) a 1933 graduate of the University of Nebraska, who served as president of the Cooper Foundation from 1964 to 1990 and as its chairman from 1990 until his death.