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bmtv92 VlogEurope in Budapest

This is a not a vlog about a global problem or unreported issue.? Instead its a quick highlight film as part of a video entry for vlogeurope 08, which took place over the weekend in Budapest, Hungary.? Initially it was a Budapest A to Z film, but I scrapped that Idea around the letter P.? I think.

Being at the 4th annual vlog europe, an interesting and relaxed conference I’ve had the pleasure of attending since the first edition in Amsterdam, is always a great source of inspiration and affirmation of how far we’ve come as a community. The highlight of the conference had to have been the global online meeting where vloggers on 3 continents took turns speaking about their projects, their successes, their failures, the situation in various parts of the world, and of course – cracking some jokes.

Back to regular programming tomorrow.

Steal Back Your Vote Investigation

In an effort to get this investigative report out there, I’m posting Greg Palast and Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Steal Back Your Vote Comic. YES, it is a comic, and YES it is an eye opening investigative report. If you do download and read it, also consider sending a contribution to them on their website. I sent them a few bucks as I feel their work is essential if the American election system is ever to really become a democracy.

En Route to Hungary

European Youth Media Days conference in Brussels is now over for me, and now making my way to Budapest. Regular blogging and podcasting will resume once I’m settled in over at VlogEurope HQ in Hungary. Also you’ll be able to join vlogeurope live via streaming video and ask questions and all that fancy shmacy real-time virtual participation action.? Info on that on the vlogeurope site.

-More Soon.

So Long Agricultural Free Trade

In a few hours I head to Brussels where I’m participating, for the second year in a row, in European Youth Media Days.? This year I’m helping coordinate and speaking as part of a workshop on Food Prices and the Media.

In preperation for this event I’ve been stepping up my own research into the global food production system over the past 100 years and the current breakdown it is experiencing.? Although the conference is Europe focused, I’m finding alot of useful and I would argue, applicable examples and analysis from North American news sources.

My hope is that one thing young journalists at this event will think more about is what lay behind the story of food prices. I have no interest in the typical commercial media exercise of finding a person-on-the-street and asking how they feel about prices. A more useful exercise would be to look at who benefits from increased food prices, and even before that, how was the global agricultural system organized that it could fall so hard, so fast.? From there the connections should be made to climate change, CO2 emissions, the lack of emphasis over the last decades on growing local and crop diversity. All these things happened for a reason, and if we’re to solve this problem as a society, we need journalists to do more than just point to the price tags and stick a microphone in front of consumers.

bmtv91 New Jersey Voter Fraud Alert

Attention all who are concerned with voter fraud and/or New Jerseans: this video involves you.? IF you want your vote counted this election, you’re going to have to you absentee ballots. The voting computers they use throughout the state, especially those in Union County, have not met necessary requirements. Your vote may or may not count if you use them.? To quote the Joanne Rajoppi, Union County Clerk, “seriously consider” using absentee ballots.

Watch this video for more details, YES it is out of sync.. my computer was doing too many things at once, time for a memory upgrade.

National Self Esteem

There is no shortage of blog posts and online commentary about the US elections right now.? Despite being dedicated to under reported news, today I’m going to add just a little more to this excessively covered, global concern.

There is this long tradition in the United States that during presidential elections, candidates constantly play the patriotic card and use variations of these slogans:

The US has the greatest workforce in the world.

The US is the greatest force for good in the world.

The US is the greatest country in the world.

Yet anyone who studies history or labor statistics will find plenty of evidence contrary to these statements. Actually you don’t even have to study anything, regardless of country, when you read those statements you should recognize they aren’t true.? Yet election after election, the two mainstream ruling parties say these three over and over.

Watching speeches and debates between Obama and McCain or Biden and Palin, all of them make sure to spew these empty lines as if they’re trying to appease some segment of the audience that despite all logic and facts to the contrary, want to believe this is true.

Thankfully there are countries in the world were candidates don’t do this. Smaller countries, older countries that have weathered mass destruction and extreme poverty, they don’t bother repeating mantras about being the best and the greatest in the world.? Even the Finnish national anthem is about being one nation among many great nations of the world.

I wonder if I will live to see a major candidate in the US that finally stops pandering to jingoism and a mass superiority complex.? Besides being inaccurate, these types of statements help validate and continue destructive and failed policies and practices. I also hope this tradition doesn’t spread further in the world. Of course nationalism is not simply an American phenomenon and it isn’t going to disappear. But this rhetoric of we are the best, we are always right, everything we do is good; if a country is ever going to get better and a candidate make a real change, this practice will have to end.