bicyclemark

NOLA Pain Continues

I’m pondering a trip to the US in the coming 6 months. Hoping money and the moons all align so that I might be able to go over for a bit longer than the usual 2 weeks.

One place I hope to be able to get to somehow is New Orleans. I know it was probably media cliché.. but it has also become an under-reported and poorly reported subject. What happenned to that city is not a tragedy, but in fact, one of the biggest crimes of the century. Actually two crimes, as the government and business leaders have pretended not to know anything about climate change and the dangers it involves. And yet no one in charge was arrested, and hardly anyone resigned. More criminals and mass murderers at large in Washington DC.

How much reporting are the toxic trailers getting? Over 200 thousand people living in FEMA trailers that are known to have high levels of toxicity and cause all manner of resperatory diseases to so many.

Following the recent terrible tornados that hit the city, I went over to NOLA dot com, to see what people are talking about in the forums. I happenned to click on Gentilly forum, and there i read a sad, tragic, and almost poetic proclamation by a resident by the name of LowDownLou:

New Orleans has had more destruction due to weather since Katrina than it has had within the last 10 years before Katrina. How many Tornadoes have actually hit New Orleans in the last 20 years pre-K?

You all remember that song: If It Aint One Thing Its Another?

Astronomical Insurance rates—–

Crime is totally outta place——

People lookn for a place to stay——

March on City Hall searchn 4 a betta Way—–

Called my local congressman beggn 4 relief—–

But my local congressman was only a Thief—–

It’s a Shame 2 C the Cresent City in such waste—-

We need to get on our Knee’s and beg 4 a betta DAY……

PEACE Out…….

My Future Kids

If if never said it before.. I fully intend to have some children some day. Yup.. some youngins… and my dear Krizu predicts Ill have those youngins relatively sooner rather than later in my life.

Which brings me to today’s topic: Im pregnant!

(watching to see if my readership suddenly increases with Soap Opera like news)

OK no. BUT. I do wonder about what country is good for raising a child. And while I can hear my mothers voice as she reads this saying “it isnt about the country.. it is about the family and how the family raises the children”… I would still like to examine some other factors when it comes to good places to raise children. (besides a barn)

So who better to look to than UNICEF. If they know anything… its kids. And when they released a study entitled “Child Well Being in Rich Countries” I was impressed to see the Netherlands in first place, followed by Sweden and Denmark. I was also interested to see the UK in last, and the US in second to last. For anyone who cares, Portugal was around 17th, as you can see in the graph.

The study looks at factors that I admit I dont understand how theyre measured.. child well being, relationships with parents, material well being…

Still it goes well with my own surface research; whenever I see the huge number of parents waiting to take their kids to lunch, standing outside the schools with their bikes, on break from work. I think to myself — hey.. thats how it should be! In Newark we just went to the basement for lunch and were allowed to run around in a small square called the playground, and if a parent visited that would mean we were in big trouble. So while I don’t know exactly how great Unicef’s study is, and I haven’t lived the experience.. so far.. all the signs point to the fact that Im in the right city to raise me some youngins.

Test

Test bloging using my mobile phone. Could come in handy when im out and and about.

Resonating in my Ears

Working very very late on some upcoming podcasts, from Afghanistan, to Guinea, to Liberia.. there’s alot coming up.

But in the meantime, as I did my research for the day, which always includes almost 6 hours of podcasts daily, two in particular had me captivated and hitting rewind to hear words again.

The first was Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who most people in the Netherlands would be quite tired of hearing from, but in this case she appeared on WBUR Boston’s On Point, to discuss her new book and of course… the usual condemnation of islam. I must say, I don’t agree with her on many things, but I always tune in to interviews with her.. she has an interesting style and she handles debate quite well.
But in this particular program what is striking is her descriptions of both her and her brother being forcefully circumcized back in Somalia when she was a child. Each word of her sentences made me shutter. And even more captivating are the callers from around the US that call in to either condemn her.. or mostly to praise her in very strange ways.. including reminding her of how great it is to live in the US and having Jesus watching over her. AN INSTANT CLASSIC.

The other program that Ill never forget was Monday’s democracy now, featuring an interview with one of my hero’s and citizen journalist-colleague… Josh Wolf.. on the phone from prison. You should really hear what he has to say about what has happenned to him and the country. Among other things, it reminded me of how dangerous it is for individual… independent journalists making their own media without the backing of corporate or government forces, to do what I do within the United States. As far as Im concerned it could happen to me or any other of my wonderful friends out there doing our own reporting. Josh is an inspiration and a hero…. they should be learning about him in schools everywhere!

Portugal’s Yes

I was on the phone with mom earlier this evening and I asked if she’d heard about the results of the referendum. “NO I haven’t!” she said.

Portugal held a referendum yesterday on the question of abortion. While I was there in December I did see a scattered few billboards in Lisbon urging either a YES to legalize abortion or NO to keep abortion illegal. While I did get to ask a few people about it, i don’t remember much conversation on the topic, but I was definitely watching the results come in last night as Im sure many of my Portuguese friends were.

The result is that the Yes vote got 59% of the vote. A very loud statement that the voting citizenry of the nation were tired of seeing women being incarcerated for seeking abortions or fleeing to other countries in order to get one. Unfortunately less than 50 percent of elligible voters actually turned out, which I believe doesn’t make the referendum fully binding… but it looks like this will provide the necessary push for lawmakers to change the law.

I watched the annoying coverage on CNN last night; its Portugal so you can’t expect more than 2 minutes with 30 seconds of video… cut to commercial for Dubai or some other wealthy play ground apparently Im supposed to consider visiting based on their ads.

The graphic under the brief video read “most of Portugal is catholic.” I read the graphic and kept thinking… GREAT. They should have added a graphic, “Portugal may have citizens who think for themselves and don’t look to the vatican for instructions on how to run a country.” I realize many do look to the vatican, but I still think the graphic and the image that Portuguese are so completely tethered to religion is a somewhat out-dated assumption. Somebody get me the church attendance numbers.

All in all, an interesting milestone in the history of Portugal as the nation evolves and democracy matures. If you accept that this is how a democracy matures; declining voter turn out, struggle with religious traditions… sounds fairly typical.

Stay tuned for a podcast related to this topic in the coming week, as I just realized Women on Waves is in my neck of the woods.

bmtv38 Video Flashback to Belgrade

Click To Play

As usual after returning from a journey it takes time to make use of all the video Ive recorded. The following is Tim and I reporting from Belgrade, Serbia on the day we gave a talk at REX. Pardon the harsh editing.. I’m sleepy after some ridiculous speed dating experiment. Much thanks to my co-host and travel companion Tim on this one.