It has been a year since he died. And a year since I wrote this. But no matter what day, month or year it is, his influence and presence in everything I do, carries on.
Author Archives: bicyclemark
Busiest Town in America
As I pushed open the big red door at the back of a very average looking church, I made my way quickly up the stairs to avoid questions from security or random people in the hallway. Several steps and doors later, I see the sign I’ve been looking for: HacDC, Washington DC’s first hacker space. As I reach for the door I picture a huge room with computer parts everywhere, funny robots designed by creative minds, and a few people hanging out on a Thursday afternoon typing away on their laptops. But after attempting to push he doors opened and knocking, it became obvious not only that the place was locked, but that no one was home.
A text message from my friend from HacDC: I’ll be right there.
Rushing over from his job, he’s glad to see us and unlocks the doors, turning on the lights and revealing a good sized room with a long table, and indeed, plenty of computer and machine parts scattered in different corners of the place. He explains to us what usually happens on the average week at HacDC and that there aren’t typically people hanging around working on projects during the day. “We don’t have students, unemployed or self-employed people like you might see at other hacker spaces in the US or in Europe. Here in DC all our people are very busy with their jobs and they don’t hang out much unless for a specific event.”
I thought about those words and what I had seen of the DC world over the few days I was in town. As someone who visits here only every other year for the past decade, I’ve long noticed that people in this town are among the busiest people I know. Even when they’re relaxing in a café or chatting at a party late at night, they’re talking about what they are busy with during the day. A pretty big different from other cities I know where people work as freelancers or consultants and take time during the week to do something completely different or simply relax in the middle of the day.
While I watch all the busy Washingtonians getting on the metro with their heads already buried in their smart phones, I think about the Climate Change Conference going on in Copenhagen at that very moment. Here we sit on a comfortable and efficient metro system, while out the window I can see traffic jams and parking lots. Hardly any of my good friends in DC have cars, and if you ask them about the Climate Conference, they’re concerned and quite informed. But as I watch everyone inside and outside the train, busy in their hectic work worlds that seem so demanding, Copenhagen and climate change seem pretty far away.
Writing this several days later, I now know about the “deal” world leaders reached at Copenhagen. Naturally, opinions on what the results are worth, vary. The critical and experienced voices on the ground at the conference are talking about the deal as coming up well short of what is needed to stave off the severe effects of climate change in the near future. We needed a strong and comprehensive deal, that goes for those us on the metro in Washington or those working the fields in Thailand, but our leaders came back with something less than what we needed.
Lot’s of reasons can be and are being listed to explain why they came up short in Copenhagen. Myself I think back to my Washington visit, and all those busy people. Surely I don’t know everyone’s story and I can’t know what they’re really worried about. But when it comes to the Climate Conference of 2009, like many places around the world, the nation’s capital that I observed seemed to have its focus elsewhere.
Restoring Links in the Balkans
I arrived this afternoon in Washington, DC, opting for the more affordable bus over the railroad. It had me thinking about the news this week out of one of my favorite regions in the world, the Balkans. The rail link between Belgrade and Sarajevo, broken ever since civil war over 18 years ago, was restored. After almost two decades without direct service, people will now be able to take the train between these two nations who were both part of the former Yugoslavia.
Observers are calling it a largely political gesture, as most people either don’t travel between the two cities or take the bus instead. Yet be it political, commercial, or whatever they want to call it, the result at the end of the day, is the restoration of a once vital and treasured connection between two great cities. Or as they put it in the international press, another small step towards reconciliation.
When I finally do return to that region, one of my main goals will be to ride that train, and record my observations to share with those who can’t be there, and would like share in the experience.
Our Unwilling World
It was just over a week ago that I was catching a connecting flight out of Paris CDG. A massive airport serving the world as one would expect from such a renowned city. As the plane taxied by various runways and hangars, I noticed the familiar site of the Concorde, stuffed and mounted near one of the terminals like a museum piece. It struck me, although I remember when the planes were decomissioned in 2003 after 1 accident and big financial problems, that this plane on display like some relic of the past, is to this day the fastest commercial airliner to ever have functioned regularly. Hopping over the Atlantic at less then half the time of the average commercial planes. In essence I was looking at an advancement, the future of flight, only the future of flight was declared too expensive and abandoned.
This odd juxtaposition reminded me of other scenarios we see every day in this world: where we should be moving forward, planning for the future, daring to find solutions to problems and sometimes taking risks in order to achieve those solutions. Yet where we often don’t do it, or choose to stop short of actually trying something new or difficult in the name of playing it safe, not risking whatever it is we have now.
Some would call it, being realistic. Like when a nation announces that, despite the immenent and extreme damage we know the planet will suffer thanks to global warming that we helped cause, they won’t strive for big reductions in the production of green house gases. Instead making symbolic or more modest promises, which even if they are achieved would still fall short of what is needed to really make real progress in the struggle to slow if not hault the rising sea levels, the extreme melting of icecaps, etc.
This is of course what New York City Mike Bloomberg called it when he announced the city would not be implementing an aggressive campaign to reduce the amount of energy that large buildings use. He gave in to the pressure applied by building owners who were outraged because of the costs the reform would have involved. Once again, instead of taking the difficult path in order to move forward and implement some serious changes, building owners and Bloomberg decide its too risky.
Maybe they are being realistic, but I keep thinking of that Concorde, sitting there mounted in the take off position, a fitting metaphor for how this world functions, so much potential and ability, pointing towards the sky, but nailed to the ground.
Youth Minutes
Another quiet evening in New Jersey and Im browsing the site theoneminutesjr.org , one minute videos made by youth from across the globe. Supported by the European Cultural Foundation and UNICEF, this project embodies much of what we videobloggers were always hopeful about – that through making and sharing their own videos, people (in this case kids) all over the world could better communicate and understand each other.
Seems like a great project with more meaning than your average video up on youtube of cats falling off chairs or someone singing along to their favorite music. Not that all that has no meaning, it just seems that oneminutejr says alot more about culture and life in very simple and diverse ways.
Plane is Boarding, Good Films
As I type this I can see the people lining up for my flight to Newark via Paris. Yes it is that time of year again, time to float off to the US and A. In the days leading up to my departure, I had the chance to see several documentaries at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. For whatever reason, my person theme this year was the internet-spam-inspiring world of so-called sexual disfunction.
I use the term “so-called” because 20 years ago this condition did not exist. So of course neither did the now famous blue pills and their descendants. This fact was one of the main points underlined in both Michael Schaap’s hilarious and informative film “The Erectionman” (aka The Viagraman in the Netherlands) and Liz Canner’s Orgasm Inc.
Michael’s film focuses on the male universe as it relates to the erection. I’m sure some people squirm at the topic, but it is no secret that since the dawn of time human behavior and human history has been highly influenced by that all-important phenomenon. Indeed during this film Michael takes us back in time to how different civilizations related to erections and generally the occurrence of impotence. Eventually it brings us to the present where even the word impotence is now taboo. Replaced by the pharmaceutal industry and doctors affiliated with the industry, by the term erectile disfunction. Why the new term? For both marketing and regulatory purposes. The marketing part should be obvious, there is plenty of embarassment connected with the term impotence, so if you make a more scientific name there will be more willingness to come forward.
The regulatory function of inventing a new condition is the most interesting aspect of both of these films. In the case of erectile disfunction, in order to market their famous blue pill Pfizer and other pill makers needed it to be approved by the FDA. However the FDA will only approve the drug if it treats an actual condition. Enter the multipronged communications and marketing strategy by the big drug companies. With their legions of doctors and funny ads that make people believe that there is a condition involving men’s erections that plagues society and can be cured with help from their pills.
Liz Canner completes the equation of this manufactured industry, by looking at the development of female viagra. She again looks at what companies are doing in their quest to develop a drug that will enable women to have orgasms who have until then been unable. The name of the new condition in order to justify the development of the drug – Female Sexual Disfuction (FSD).
Surprisingly at the conclusion of the film we learn that female viagra, known specifically as Intrinsa, got rejected by the FDA in the US. Yet somehow the drug has been approved by the European Union, though it has only been used in some very specific and extraordinary circumstances.
Perhaps my favorite conclusion that in many ways applies to both films was put forth by Michael as he lamented something like “.. at some point I realize I’m entirely dependent on commercial entities in order to have pleasure… “