I’ve been spending time with my 2 year old nephew, known to the internet as A-Ren. Sometimes the boy decides he needs to do something and well… watch the quickie film.
Author Archives: bicyclemark
JetLAgged
Hit me today while watching the Cobert Report.. Jetlag with a Vengence. Where am I.. who am I.. what year is it. Must.. go .. to .. sleep.
Ive noticed Soda everywhere. Everyones drinking soda. Terrible Terrible High-Fructose Corn Syrup and Phosphate whats-it-called and all the tooth decay and the pestisides… why do these soda companies do this to people? And why do people volunteer to ingest this crap?
The Soda wars continue in India. The US needs some Soda wars of its own. Starting with the childen.. keep soda out of the hands of children.
Flew Past The Big Apple
I’m just in off the KLM flight from Amsterdam. Badly in need of sleep, and what better place to sleep then the bed which I basically grew up sleeping on, not including the new-er mattress.
Before I head off to jet-lag-sleep-land, I wanted to mention something I noticed as the tanks rolled through Bangkok earlier this week: Josh Wolf, the very active citizen journalist, who you may have heard on Democracy Now last week, is heading back to jail. Once again the authorities want him silenced and used as an example for all citizen journalists to be afraid when it comes to doing their work. Josh gets my utmost respect for the way he has gone to jail and does not run from the idea of having to go back. Myself I imagine I would be finding ways to fly off to some safe haven country somewhere, out of fear of incarseration.
So watch his video, and like the man says… talk about this on your blog, at work, etc. Spread the word and do not let such battles go unnoticed.
A Nice Coup of Soup
Much has been made of the announcement of a coup in Thailand. Some people use that word that I find hard to spell: pusch. Although at first I was a little concerned for Thai people, at the idea of military driving around and squashing their civil rights, I’ve since formed a more solid opinion based on observation.
I watched the fun today through various video sources, as the king appeared on TV and the military publicly apologized for carrying out a coup. What A Country! They apologized!
It is one of those moments where I’m glad to have Thai blogs to explain to me what is really going on. Of course, Thai friends also help, but a look at the blogs like Bangkok expat mama or Thai Blogs dot com, where this guy writes about the lighter side of the coup, it all helps me to better get the feel of things and reach my own conclusions.
The BBC just ran some footage where teenagers and coming up to soldiers and handing them flowers. Reminds me of Portugal 1974 in some ways. Not too many ways.. but some.
Don’t Mourn, Organize
Those were Joe Hill’s final words. And he’s a hero of mine.
I thought of him tonight as I sat at the MacDocMan’s place watching the latest episode of the Dutch investigative report program, Tegenlicht. The episode was about union organizing in the Netherlands, and also how the American Service Employees International Union (remember Janitors for Justice) are sending representatives around the world, to help organize workers, especially cleaning staff, at these multinational corporate offices. In itself, an interesting subject, especially taking into considering the Joe Hill in me.
But more interesting still, was the fact that as I sat there watching it, the director of the piece was sitting to my left, watching very intensely so as to not miss a moment or a sound of that which she had worked so hard on. There were demonstrations, confrontations with angry security officers, cleaning people who had immigrated from all over the developing world, and the occasional funny moment between the corporate reps and the organizers. A compelling piece, all in all, especially when I think about the decline of unions in the US, not including what is happening with Service Workers International in places like LA and Las Vegas. Some of it is actually in english, so you may want to watch it online.
Afterwards we sat and talked about it. I tried to keep quiet observe how the family members discussed it. They explained that first you have to present all the criticisms, so they did. And then you can give compliments, which is where I chimed in.
The final thought of the evening, that I will leave you with, actually comes from the Docman himself, talking about the goals of the American Unions to organize workers in the Netherlands. He said something to the effect of, Why are American Organizers being sent here to teach us as if we don’t have unions. This country actually has some amazingly strong union traditions, which were developed without any teaching from American labor unions.
Not his words, of course. But it was the point that I understood, and I felt it a good question.
I Must Swing
Some fairly big news in my life, and what better night to announce it than a sunday when you’re all off doing more important things. I’m fairly certain that as of early October, I will no longer be employed by the university. That is… at my current job, my contract is up and won’t be extended in any way. I’ve got many other jobs, mind you, but they are all freelance. Which means more free time to work on my real passion, citizen journalism. The money part I will figure out, with help from my fantasic network around the world.
I was thinking about how life will change, while boat riding around town with Brooke the other day. Yup, the Brooke is back as a resident of Amsterdam… amazing how life works in circles, sometimes in a good way. And as we boated around, we came upon these children hanging from a rope off a very tall bridge:
Watching this somehow put things into perspective for me. As the children swang back and forth, hanging on as long as possible, before letting go of the rope and jumping in the canal. Then came the next group, again swinging back and forth.. almost as if they didn’t want to make the jump too soon; a familiar feeling.
One thing I decided right then and there: especially considering that I’ll have more freetime this year, I’m climbing up that bridge and swinging on that rope. Because it looked dam fun to jump in.