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Heroes Often Turn Villans

Lots of random artifacts come out in the mainstream media that once belonged to Gaddafi. Today I watched a home video where he sits on a couch and kids around with his grand children. There he is, grandpa Muammar who clearly loves his grandchildren, same guy who ordered the mass murder of political prisoners, same guy who thought it was a good idea to start the African Union. The Dutch newspaper ran a series of photos of the Colonel, from his rise to power as a young charismatic military man to his last few years looking like the political Michael Jackson. This is was no monster. Yet he did monstrous things.

José dos Santos in Angola has been president for 32 years. He is, behind all the political pageantry, a dictator. But once upon a time, his party was the voice of reason under the brutal Portuguese colonial system. They helped liberate the country and went on to fight a civil war against what may or may not have been a madman (Jonas Savimbi). But here they are, 2011, the enemy of human rights and the antithesis of a party that was supposed to improve the quality of life for all Angolans.

Fidel Castro. Robert Mugabe. The ANC in South Africa. Bad comparisons? Perhaps. But the list of leaders and movements that started as heroes and later became something other than good to their fellow citizens is long. Whats more, it is often not possible for these leaders to recognize what they have become. They honestly seem to believe they are still doing what is right and fighting the good fight. Later some of these people are called monsters for the crimes they commit during their reign. But in reality, monsters are just people. Grandpa Muammar was Colonel murderer, and everything in between.

What we the observers of this world and the reporters that try to explain it all need to do, is not turn everything into some easy to swallow version of the truth. The truth is not black and white, it is grey. And by pretending it isn’t, we make it more possible for the same scenarios to keep playing themselves out. Yes, you might be the hero today, and that is wonderful. But remember, years later when you still think you’re the hero, you probably aren’t.

Incapable

The images from my home state of New Jersey the days following hurricane Irene featured flooding like few had ever seen before. The images also showed one re-occurring theme: Infrastructure collapse. Chunks of highway collapsing, a struggling power grid, and rivers rising up and swallowing entire communities. Things growing up in the suburbs of New York City, even to this day, many people never imagined could happen. But this lack of imagination is no excuse for ignorance regarding a looming crisis. There is no shortage of research and reports, as well as examples over the past decade, all of which point to the fact that all over the United States (theyre not alone of course) infrastructure is stretched and strained to its limits. The glorious promise of privatization leading to improved services has resulted in just the opposite. Lack of significant investment under a whole list of economic and social excuses has left millions of people on the edge of a crisis, many of whom don’t even know about it. Or perhaps, they don’t want to know or will never understand.

There is a phenomenon that didn’t start with this generation or this era, but has very much been perfected in our time: the art of knowing but not wanting to know. That mobile phone we all carry can poison your body – but how could we be without our phones? The computer we type on is made from toxic chemicals and will one day poison our soil – but how can we not have these essential machines? Cod Fish is on the verge of extinction – but it tastes so good! And of course on the macro scale – our global way of life is destroying the earth at a dangerous rate – but how can we not live the way we live?!

Eddie Izzard, the great comedian and life philosopher, used to do a bit about mass murderers and genocidal maniacs. He said something to the effect of “When you murder someone, we know what to do with you, we put you in prison… but over 10 or 20 people.. we can’t deal with that, we invent things like house arrest and hope no one ever goes in that house.” Though he was joking I find a great deal of observational wisdom that I apply in present day situations like the crumbling of our infrastructure. Like having to deal with genocidal maniacs, we are once again in a situation that is too hard for many to process. You can present facts and even wait for terrible things to happen which confirm the problem, and still people find a way to ignore it. Perhaps it is simply a mass coping mechanism. Otherwise everyone would so into either a deep depression or a dangerous panic. That or, they might try finding solutions and taking action to better prepare for the future. Regardless of what the economists or the politicians say.

Meanwhile many keep telling themselves that its only a few roads and a few parts of the country that had problems. Keep repeating that line about how these events are rare. Whatever it takes, I suppose, for us to collectively cope and keep doing (or not doing) the same things we always have.

Summer of Pakistan

Boats of Karachi — Harbor in Karachi /photo by eutrophication&hypoxia

One of the finest and most extensive audio journalism series’ I’ve heard in all the years podcasting has existed, is being produced this summer by Chris Lydon’s Radio Open Source. His focus has been Pakistan, past, present, and future. As part of his series, “Another Pakistan,” he has spoken with a cross section of people from politics, industry, activism, entertainment, immigration and more. In a country that is so important on the world scene, home to cities with a larger population then some countries in Europe, the information contained in these programs is not only interesting, it is vital. When it comes down to it, what you can learn from such a thorough series is better then anything you’ve learned in high school or that one class on South Asian politics/history you may have taken many years ago.

My favorites out of the series:

1- The Fisherman of Karachi

2 – The Peace that Could Save Pakistan

3 – Pakistan’s Revenge of the 40’s, The the 80’s

Chaos Communication Camp 2011 Vlog

A video of 5+ minutes is in no way sufficient to explain 5 days of non-stop creativity that was CCC2011. But in an effort to give people who weren’t there a glimpse of this unique event, I present to you a video entry about hacker camp. Note that it comes with no soundtrack other then exactly the audio that was captured with each video snippet. This is because I believe there is no need to try and add to the energy already present in these wonderful and perhaps strange moments. Enjoy!

Gathering that Changes the World

Half awake having just brushed my teeth, I stumbled back towards my tent, past a few retired green Mig-21 jetfighters when I heard the familiar sound of Portuguese being spoken. I greeted the two gentlemen, and learned they were from a prestigious Portuguese newspaper, attending hacker camp to produce content about open leaks. Open Leaks is a new initiative for facilitating leaks online, created by a former frontman of wikileaks. These two gentlemen were not alone in their quest, as the five days of lectures, workshops, parties, and general randomness went on, I met several mainstream journalists who told me of a similar goal, to write about leaks. Each time I met such journalists, I was compelled to tell them about the scale and breadth of the 3,000+ community attending this event, as well as those who attend virtually. I spoke about the people who build things, the people who take things apart, the people who travel around the world in an effort to use their knowledge to solve problems, and the people who stay home trying to do the same. My big wish by doing so, was to make sure journalists understood that our world is not just about wikileaks and anonymous, though they have surely played a part. Our world is massive and more diverse then perhaps the media is prepared to understand. Our interests and specialties are endless, and worthy of any article or report about this event.

Of course sometimes it is not for any one person to tell someone about this, as they have experience it for themselves. But as the days went on I noticed them sitting with different people, observing different events and random occurrences that so often make up the average day at hacker camp. Walk around and you might stumble upon someone building a tesla coil or a crepe machine, sit in one place and a 6 propellor drone might land next to you. Whatever you choose to do at camp, you would have to be tied up and wrapped in a sleeping bag to not experience a unique energy and overload of creativity. Nothing is impossible here. Nothing is uninteresting here. Everyone has something to offer, whether they know it or not.

And so the Chaos Communication Camp 2011 came and went. Some never wanted it to end. Some needed it to end for their own health . It was exciting, it was tiring. It was inspiring, it was maddening. Whoever you are, journalist or hacker, or even neither, if you were there, you lived one of the most amazing times of your life. Even if you haven’t realized it yet.

Observe and Report Brixton

It is the second day of violence on the streets of London. Seems like something from a novel or a news report from 1979, but this is going on right now in 2011. I’ve never been fully in tune with what is happening on the streets there before but in times of crisis like this I get reports and information not from the mainstream media but via trusted contacts in that region. If you are concerned about what is happening and seeking information, OR – if you’re there are you have something to report, I recommend doing so using the crowdmap for Brixton that is up and running. Go there, follow the simple instructions for reporting, and you’ll be helping not only to tell the world what is going on, but also to get more accurate information that might help those most immediately at risk.