Til Soon Lisbon

Flying back to the Netherlands on the middle of the night flight.? Regular production will resume momentarily.

Economies and Plants

During my lunch break on Myesonday I made my way over to a plant store near Olympic Stadium, here in Amsterdam.  Usually working past the time places stay open, I thought it best to buy my spring plants during my work day, plus I’d seen this shop several times since starting my new job, seemed like a good place.

I choose my spring flowers and bring them inside to pay the extremely tall, grey haired gentleman with the glasses. As I pay him I look down at the pansies and ask (in Dutch), I’m from the New York area, where normally pansies don’t make it once the weather gets warm; I’ve always wondered, does that work the same way here, or do they last longer since its slightly cooler weather here?

The man looks down at the little plants and begins to explain using alot of hand motions: We’re on a very similar level compared to New York, on the globe relatively speaking.  So the same, technically, applies, you only get flowers for a few months and its over.

From there the man seemed to jump into a larger conversation:

It is all related. Plants in the US, plants in the Netherlands. Mortgage crisis in the US, mortgage crisis here.  Whatever happens, his tone gets louder, in the US, we will always feel the effects here. Then he looks at the ground, although, I think we’re better equipped to survive the crisis, as people don’t use credit to but things the way they do over there. But mortgages, oh the mortgages, these prices in this country have been out of control for too long, it had to stop. Again he returned to his earlier statement, I think we can survive it, we are a small country and people can be very smart about not borrowing and not getting into debt schemes, I hope we survive it with minimal damage.  But again, it is all relative. Pansies, economic crisis….. US, Netherlands.

Have a nice day and good luck with the planting, he waved to me as I stepped out of the shop.

Good Postal Ideals

Ever notice all the overnight delivery-parcel company planes at the airport? They’re everywhere. Taking off, landing, filling the sky, spanning the globe.. to get your packages to you fast.

Rarely does anyone talk about the world of express delivery and the ever-growing fleets of planes in that industry, and their effect on our planet.  Why even within distances between cities only a few hours away from each other, the fastest way is said to be by plane…  so naturally there is yet another plane flying from one city to another, adding some more pollution to an earth that is begging for some relief.

As I think about this, I read the news out of France; TGV trains handling mail! Yes indeed, they called person who proposed this idea crazy at first, but in a country where high speed trains make long distances seem like nothing, with modernized and plentiful connections, France has the right circumstances to provide fast mail transport without having to fill the skies with more planes. And they’re really doing it!

Of course they have their share of problems once they want to go beyond France. Der Spiegel talks about problems that connecting German rail lines aren’t prepared for this plan. I know here in the Netherlands, the high speed rail lines are still few and just barely completed.

However, the point is that here we have a great solution for a problem that few nations are willing to talk about or seriously try to solve.  Cut down on unecessary flights, including those dedicated to postal delivery.  France wasn’t just born with this infrastructure… they planned rail transport properly some 50+ years ago .. and now not only can their businesses benefit, but so can our environment, with less emissions coming from rail transport.  With the new AGV trains, we’re talking EVEN less emissions.

Just because some countries, be it here in Europe, or anywhere in the world, don’t currently have the infrastructure to do this.. doesn’t mean this is the time to simply give up.  Investments should be made, elected officials should be working for such innovations, and citizens should demand this kind of solution.

The F Word

Remind me to visit the staff of Radio Netherlands and buy everyone at The State We’re In a drink. Week in and week out the crew produces excellent audio programs on topics related to human rights and human wrongs.

In their latest program they hit yet another homerun with a segment that just reached out and grabbed me; forgiveness.

While I was raised in a fairly religious family, I myself don’t have a religion, nor do I want one.  But one of those lessons many religions seem to try to teach people, is the importance of forgiveness.  Throughout the world there are so many terrible conflicts… and when these conflicts end… if they are really to end.. forgiveness seems to me a very essential stage.  Yet after many conflicts you don’t often see that many truth and reconciliation processes.

In their latest program, The State We’re In speaks with someone from the Forgiveness Project, which is all about understanding and inspiring forgiveness. And later in the program they go to a park in South Africa, know as Freedom Park, which is dedicated to the idea of forgiveness; a place where people (victim or perpetrator) can tell their stories and make amends.

I highly recommend you listen to this segment, and the program in general. If there’s one thing the world could use more of, it is forgiveness.

bm246 Podcast Sources

During my recent appearance on Yeast Radio I was asked about where I get my information, in terms of podcasts. In an effort to recommend and share my sources for reporting about the world and a wide range of issues, this program is a list of what I listen to and why.

The links to these podcasts can be found among my podcast links in the blogroll, which can be found in the menu bar to your right. Remember these are not just the podcasts I listen to, they are those that I look to for reporting on issues that have a global impact. Below are a few that I mention that are not in my blogroll.

International Herald Tribune Audio News

Americablog Podcast

On The Media

Mixed Greens

The State We’re In / Amsterdam Forum; from Radio Netherlands

Hispanorama from RNE

La Bas Si J’y Suis

TSF Pessoal e Transmissivél / Sinais

Deutsche Welle

ABC Radio National’s Background Briefing / All in the Mind

Uprising

Dutch Parties Shrinking

I’m fascinated by associations, groups, unions, fanclubs… well maybe not fanclubs.  But if there is a group of people dedicated to something, and they have meetings and membership cards, I’m interested in learning about them.  And it is even more compelling if they’ve been around for awhile.

Here in the Netherlands, for example, It seems there has been a tradition of people being not only supporters of a political party, but actually card carrying members.  I realize this happens in many countries, but it is not often that I hear the numbers or that someone comes forward and says “Oh Im a card carrying member of the Sloth Party.”

Today I read about how membership numbers for political parties in the Netherlands is shrinking.  A very interesting, though not at all surprising, development.   As with every passing election voters grow tired of one party and turn to another, and then grow tired of that one and turn to yet another, or they go back to the previous one maybe.  And despite all their voting efforts, these parties continue to disappoint and generally do things that people don’t agree with.. even their own party members.  So why continue to be a member of a party that never seems to represent you and they said they would.

The numbers in the Netherlands are as follows:

  • Christian Democrats (party of the prime minister) – 69.200 members
  • Labor Party  – 59.327
  • Socialist PArty – 50.238
  • Liberal PArty – 36.832
  • United Christians – 27.683
  • Green Left – 21.901
  • Animal Party (yes!) – 6972

Note that I skipped a few parties because I don’t feel like describing them, though they would be located at the bottom of the list.  Furthermore the populist-far-right Freedom Party has no membership, yet you can bet plenty of people vote for them they would just prefer not to have any evidence linking their vote back to themselves.

In the end I think the way people think of elections has changed.  Instead of wanting to be a member of a party, and going to meetings and trying to influence party policies, it starts to resemble a menu in a restaurant… you choose what looks like it would be good. And if you dont like it, you spit it out, or choose something else next time.  Unfortunately there is no equivalent, besides leaving the country, of “going to another restaurant cause this one is bad”.  Then again like so many citizens, you could go on a hunger strike.