It is now official. As of September I will be moving back to Oude Schans (Center of Amsterdam). This means that I won’t have to change the background of my blog just yet, because I’m still living on the ground floor of the white building you can see just to the right of these very words. I’m very pleased to be returning to the center of it all, the heart of tourism and canal life. I’m guaranteed a place there until January as my comrade is off to Bolivia to seek wisdom and other stuff you can cram into a thesis.
Actually on the subject of Bolivia, I’ve been trying to decide how I personally feel about the recent vote on expanding their natural gas exportation. The result of the vote was a YES, but as usual I’m very skeptical of liberal democracies. I’ve heard reports that the US and other foreign gas companies where heavily in favor of and pushing a YES vote. Furthermore I’ve read that the questions that were voted on were far too difficult for citizens to understand.
On the other hand I’ve heard this result means that the government will have more control over national resources, instead of foreign companies.
I think I’m starting to see the bigger picture: the president and his government want to make the big bucks and so do – more importantly – the big corporations. But the people might rebel and physically remove the government in the face of such a decision, as they pretty much did to the last president. So they devise a so-called democratic referendum which no one really understands, thus – down the line citizens won’t complain because they technically asked for their natural resources and countryside to be plundered in the name of progress.
The way that Doc Searls pays tribute to his family members via his website/blog is truly admirable. I hope that one day someone in my family will do the same. And I’ve decided to start working on a similar site for my grandparents on the Rendeiro and Fonseca sides. Photos, biographical info, stories. Placing them on the internet is as good a tribute as any, and for me – quite inspiring.
Note the Google Search function in the toolbar of this blog. This allows you or I to search my blog for certain subjects. I already started entering random words to see what weird shit I talked about.
Today’s Music: The Rasmus – Dead Letters