bicyclemark

Great MLK Talk

It has been some time, since the show changed format, that I was blown away by an episode of Radio Open Source. They’ve been doing alot of arts related interviews, they being Chris Lydon, and I’ve felt the show has lost its global conversation feel. But nevermind that, today I was riding my bike from the University of Amsterdam and I almost forgot where I was… as the interview Chris did was really that powerful.

His guest is a gentleman named Michael Haynes, who had a special relationship with Martin Luther King Jr, and founded a church with him in Boston. The man has tremendous insight into MLK and his philosophy. Often times, when someone starts on about what MLK would say about the state of the US today, it is almost cliché…. and empty. But not in this case… Haynes had me rewinding and listening again and stopping just to consider what he said.

I strongly recommend you take some time from all that is so important in your daily routine, or maybe just pop this onto your mp3 player instead of that Radiohead album you’ve been listening to over and over again. In fact, if you happen to be a teacher, make this one a special lesson this week. It is better than any history book, I can promise you that.

bmtv72 Guam Under Siege

This vlog entry is about the US military buildup in Guam. The government is moving its forces from Japan to this tiny island over the next 6 years, and the place already has problems supporting the military bases it has. Of course its much more complicated that this, watch the vlog.. its a start.

Click To Play

On This Oz Day

January 26th is Australia day, and what a good year to talk about the land down under, where changes are taking place that have caught my attention in a positive way.

Prior to his election, I confess I didn’t know much about the new Australian PM Kevin Rudd. Observers in and around Australia said that he was different, a man who would shake things up… they even called him an environmentalist.

Obviously time will tell how much he is or is not the real deal when it comes to an Australian leader who challenges the status quo. But in the last month he has already gotten my full attention, especially when he formally apologized and re-enforced the plan to pay reparations to Aboriginal people in Tasmania.

Throughout the 18 and 1900’s, aboriginal people of Tasmania were subjected to diseases and sicknesses brought over with European settlers. Between 1800 and 1833 their population decreased from 6,000 to 300. Later other attrocities would take place, with children of aboriginal people being taken away from them by the government, or when a christian missionary promised a safe place to live on another island for the remaining people, and when they arrived they were left to their own devices, once again facing starvation, disease, and death.

Which a history like this, seems rather insulting to celebrate Australia day. But what I’d like to do instead is celebrate some overdue positive steps in Australia, towards coming to grips with history, as well as the present. Not to mention, finally electing leaders and adopting policies that reflect an compassionate, forward thinking, and mature society.

Talking Environment and Culture

Instead of working on a podcast today, I was a guest on Yeast Radio live. I highly recommend you listen regularly to Madge Weinstein’s Yeast Radio, unless you’re afraid of an opinionated, possibly insane, angry womyn with a y. I don’t mention her program enough, perhaps because I don’t give my audience enough credit that they wouldn’t understand what is both, enlightening and just plain fun about her podcast.

In this particular program we talk about some of my sources for audio on the internet, what is wrong with all the candidates currently seeking the nomination in the United States, and the environment or lack of discussion about the environment by the media and the candidates themselves. Of course in between all this there is constant feedback from the audience in the chat room, and plenty of Madgisms that even Madge herself cannot explain.

Civil Rights, Now

Only recently did I learn about the film Freeheld and the story of Laurel Hester, a NJ police officer with a terminal sickness, fighting so that her wife and partner could receive her pension, just like heterosexual partners do. Somehow I hadn’t heard all the details of the struggle in Ocean County, where I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the past few visits to the US, as the elected officials of that country refused to recognize a gay couple as having the same rights as heterosexual couples.

I’ve watched the trailer several times, not to mention the interview recorded with Laurel before she died in 2006. I’m moved and speechless as I watch her health deteriorate and I listen to the itensity of the demonstrators standing before the county officials demanding justice. It is beautiful and outrageous at the same time. Surreal that such a thing happens, and awe-inspiring that people with such strength exist.

Further research informs me that indeed, before her death, Ocean County finally granted her partner full benefits, just as any other couple would get. And beyond that, in December of 2006 (an event I do remember) NJ Governor John Corzine signed the bill recognizing all domestic partners as civil unions, with rights that indeed include pensions/benefits for partners. A critical eye reveals that this bill still doesn’t give 100% equality to gay couples, so despite some good steps forward, my state of birth still has some ways to go. After hearing this story, seeing the images, and without having yet seen the film, it is once again frustrating to see that it was only a couple of years ago that a state as diverse as NJ was still in the dark ages… and indeed, still today – not yet fully enlightened.

(trailer is highly recommended)

Innovative Heat

Spending all day scraping paint at my squat office leaves me with a great chance to listen to a long list of podcasts will my full attention. One of the podcasts that was especially interesting today was the latest edition of Deutsche Welle’s Living Planet. This is the German broadcaster’s environmental program, recorded in English. The specific topic was a short item about the Stockholm train station, where soon they will make use of the heat generated by people, to heat an entire building. Yes, they will use body heat to warm water that will then be piped into a new office building next door that will also have a hotel.

As I scraped paint off the walls today alongside other members of our collective, I listened to this program, and then glanced at the windows. All fogged up. Three of us scraping paint can heat a room. A station full of people, who pass through everyday, generates alot of heat. What a simple but examplary idea.

While the French president runs around the middle east trying to convince nations to buy French nuclear technology, even though they have no real idea what to do with the waste in the long run. While the Bush administration uses oxymoron terms like “clean coal” to justify the building of new coal power plants in the United States. While big power companies continue to promise the people of India lots of energy if they will just let their rivers be dammed. Some clever people in Sweden see a simple and ingenious way to heat buildings. And while it may be small scale, it is an example of the kind of thinking the world needs to get inspired by.