bicyclemark

Berlin Really Is Addicting

I know some of you are waiting for me to talk about CocaCola and denounce them for their human rights violations in various countries, not to mention their questionable economic practices. But to be quite honest, I´m too busy enjoying the city and learning all I can from the good people I know here. Do me a favor and don´t load up the comments with links because at that point you should just blog it, plus, there is a means to an ends my white friend… a means to an ends. So be patient.

Meanwhile my friend Tim continued the mission today, based around the one question he asked when I arrived–what do you want to see? And of course, I asked for Leftover East Berlin Shit, and sure enough… I’ve seen lots of wonderful bullet-hole riddled buildings as well as eclectic squat-looking apartments that would make Amsterdam blush.

When I walked into the CCCB on Sunday, I asked the wonderful hackers who were hanging out, “Isnt Berlin experiencing gentrification just like all the popular cities of the world. Aren’t squats going to be evicted to make room for fancy condos?” Their collective answer was — NO. Because: Berlin has lots of room. There is enough space for expensive fancy houses and eclectic affordable housing.

I was surprised at the time, perhaps because in Amsterdam and even back in New York City, I have long heard and seen the tales of former artist communities and cheap improvised housing being bought up for the higher income brackets to buy their own ticket to coolness. But walking around over the past few days, and only having seen the tip of the iceberg of the former East Berlin neighborhoods, I understand more about their answer. Moreover, in many ways, this city could outdo some of the things I love about Amsterdam.

Shocking. There may be better cities out there. I may need to learn German.

THIS JUST IN: Look for me in the crowd of the Angola-Iran game in Leipzig… Ill be sporting black and red.

Radioactive Policies

Rain has cooled things in Berlin, hopefully that includes excessively jubilant Spain fans. And while the cool air blows through the apartment, I’m digging around into certain issues from the past week. One of which involves Canada, where the province of Ontario has decided to build new nuclear powerplants, the first North American plants in three decades, following years of financial, political, and safety crises.

This plan gets the support of the conservative Prime Minister, of course. And it certainly rings true with the rhetoric of his neighbor to the south. But the way pro-nuclear lobbyists and the big companies behind them refer to this as a nuclear “renaissance” is disturbing. Be it in Canada, Berlin, Japan, or Brazil… the world still has not figured out how to store radioactive waste in a safe way. Better yet, we don’t even know IF that can be done at all. In Nevada they want to put it under a mountain. In Europe they seem to pass it back and forth by rail between Germany and France. In Japan… what do the Japanese do with their waste?

So instead of taking the focus off nuclear, since it is simply not viable if you value human lives and health, they’ve decided to just keep going.

I was considering all this in the context of an article I was reading in the Courrier International about the WIPP radioactive waste storage project in New Mexico. Here’s the aspect of the project that I find ponderous: They’re trying to devise a system of warning that will be understandable for future civilizations. Think about it — the radioactive material is still dangerous in 250,000 years. So by that point, language as we know it will not exist… at least not in its present form. So how do you alert people not to dig there? That this is deadly waste we left behind because we needed energy and it was good business for a few important individuals.

Got Any Flags

I have indeed arrived safe and sound though constantly hungry… here in Berlin. (watch this video for proof) The famous Tim is sitting to my right and most of the blog house has gone to sleep. I’ve no clue where I’m sleeping, so I’ll wait for everyone else to go to bed. Cept that some people are drinking like it’s 1999 and some teenagers just showed up at the door… so who knows when that will be.

Nevermind the shallow details, this blog is still about issues, regardless of how good the US plays or how awesome Ghana is.

I just pointed to an article in the Spiegel, about there being a run on German flags at all the shops. There have been quite a few podcasts recently covering the issue of the world cup and german nationalism. Interesting listening, for example, at Radio Open Source. Tim says this sort of thing was unheard of before this year. Normally someone running around with a German flag attached to their car would be socially cut-off… or scowled at.. or some sort of ostracizing.

A few berliner guests at the party tonight talked about this subject. They said it is pretty strange. Lots of mixed feelings about this new trend of being proud. I’ve heard Americans say its fine and good. But Americans are the last nationality I want to listen to about how much national pride is acceptable.

I digress. I’m in berlin for the first time in my life. Some of my favorite vloggers made the trip with me from Amsterdam and that makes it extra nice. Meanwhile, outside.. people drive around with flags attached to their cars. Beep beep beep.

bmtv10 Twas the Night Before Berlin

Click on the Photo below to be directed to my vlog about the journey that is about to begin. (this one is not in my feed for all those who hate video in my regular rss feed.)

More when I arrive in Berlin at some point tomorrow. Yeehaw.

Future Movers and Shakers of America

The semester is over, yet the fishtank spilleth over at work these days. A neverending wave of American and international students are here to participate in the plethora of summer programs that are offerred. The groups I notice most of all are the American ones.. boston university, nyu, minnesota… you can’t miss them as their discussions are at a volume louder than everyone else’s, at least according to my ears.

As I tried to get through this final day of work before the Berlin, I took extra notice of their conversations. Each table in the cantina was filled with a different group, who apparently were working on projects related to a class on conflict resolution. The terms kept repeating from table to table.. over and over, “peacekeepers”, “training”, “democracy”, “free elections”, “war crimes”… it was like being in a room full of future Bush speech writers.

Of course they’re much better than that, but after awhile the topics began to annoy me. Each person trying to outdo the other with bigger words and mentioning as many acronyms as possible. They spoke about democracy like a group of doctors collectively dispensing medicine that will heal the world. On and on and on… democracy democracy democracy. The cynic in me wanted to ask if when they were finished, they could find the first world some salvation from the terrible so-called democracies we’re locked into.

But why nag them for wanting to save the world, that at least is a noble wish that even I can support. The truely disturbing part about listening to the great minds of some of the countries top universities, is their obsession with themselves. The deliberate practice of trying to shmooze other professors while one-upping their classmates. I guess it’s practice for the future, when they intend to get into important jobs that could potentially help the world… and then proceed to focus on making themselves real famous and important.

In other news, Trinidad & Tobago deserved to win.

Ch-Ch-Changes

I’m fiddling with new looks this morning. Shield your eyes.

***Update*** That went terribly wrong. Nevermind.