bicyclemark

Latest From New Orleans

Making the rounds on several of my favorite NOLA bloggers, I was especially captivated by Ray’s post a few days ago on a specific house that several bloggers had helped to gut. He featured a video which I wanted to include on my blog as well. Its 8 minutes or so long and contains the first visit to the house after the storm and you see the very grim pictures as they remove everything from the house that no doubt looks nothing like it did before the storm.

I recommend you read Ray’s entire post, the struggle and the pain continues down in the Big Easy.

Arrived in Berlin

A few days in Berlin, among other reasons, to spend time with my dear friends, and to attend BarCamp Berlin.. which is neither a bar nor a camp.. just a nerd convention. Naturally there will be several podcasts and vlogs coming up related to issues here in Germany and beyond… I’m especially curious to discuss the experience of a new parent in Germany, what support the government gives you and that sort of thing.

For now, I require sleep.

Selling Death

It is a pretty well known fact that the US is the global leader in arms sales. Some will also have heard that Russia is second. But in fact, if you put together all the European Union numbers, in terms of total arms sales in the last 10 years, they come very close to tying the US. Somehow its not a very publicized fact, Europe sells almost as many weapons as the US.

And who gets those weapons? Which countries in the world? Better yet, which groups in the world? Places where there is civil war? Dictatorships? Or civil wars yet to come? I think of all those child soldiers in the world and wonder where their gun came from? USA? France? Probably both.

Global warming gets a fair amount of play in the media these days. There is even some, though surely not enough, mobilization to do something about it. Yet all over the developed world in all these lovely places with people that are so highly educated and experienced, people are engaging in the arms trade. Making money selling weapons for people to kill each other with. Trading stocks and benefiting while people arm themselves and carry out mass murders in the name of the latest cause or call-to-arms. Even in the US now, the favored presidential candidate Hillary CLinton has become the number one choice of weapons manufacturers… and yet people believe she will bring change and restore some sort of self respect for the nation.

With each passing year that arms dealers post record profits, more people die needlessly in the name of business and strategic defense. If that isn’t a threat to our world, I don’t know what is.

Toxic Chemicals Again

Beautiful night here in Amsterdam that I managed to get out and enjoy, spending some time with a new friend and catching jazz at ye old bimhuis. As I set out on my bike in the direction of centrum, On Point (one of my favorite podcasts) was on, doing an episode on a topic I often come back to that is highly under-reported, the toxicity of regular things all around us. Plastics, personal care products, even the finish they use on your ikea desk… once you start digging below the surface you’ll find that we’ve been lied to and in many ways slowly poisoned for decades.

Most importantly today I recommend you listen to this episode, especially to the first guest that talks about the inequality between the standards and testing of consumer products in the European Union versus those same products in the US. The fact is the EU has higher standards, to the point that many items that appear on the shelves in the US are not allowed to be sold here due to their links to all sorts of health problems.

I don’t mention this to gloat or even praise the work of EU officials, to me they are doing what should be the standard job and should probably be even more strict as more and more items are manufactured in places where standards are almost non-existant. It should be unacceptable what is going on with things like children’s toys and makeup in the US.. the entire FDA should be investigated, fire whomever is corrupt and unwilling to do their job, and get people in there who can enforce some real standards comparable if not MORE STRICT than the EU.

With all the useless garbage discussed at the so-called presidential debates in the US, how often has this issue come up? It should be right there in the top ten list of issues to grill candidates about and if they have no plans to improve things, boot them out of the running right now.

Lastly here is an excellent website for anyone concerned about consumer products, including my personal pet-peave: children’s toys. It is an excellent resource, bookmark it; use it. Don’t sit back and accept the poison they’re trying to sell you just because it looks nice or the price is right!

Retired Leaders

I remember a few years ago when Joaquim Chissano, president of Mozambique, decided not to run for a third term. I remember because I already thought he was a fair guy from his good speeches and the fact that under his watch, the nation had managed to move passed the long era of civil war. But when he decided not to run for a third term, even though he could, I thought – hey, there’s someone who isn’t obsessed with power.

Indeed Kofi Annan confirmed my observations when he and the Mo Ibrahim foundation gave Chissano the honor of a good governance award. On a continent where certain leaders seem to hold on to power until it is pried out of their dead hands, he seems to indeed be a good example.

Speaking on The State We’re In last week, the foundation’s namesake, Ibrahim said that his award involves giving money to that person so that they can continue to do good work through organizations and campaigns to improve lives in Africa. He spoke about how in the west, leaders seem to make good money after leaving office (foundations, think tanks, book deals, etc).. yet in Africa, he said… leaders often sit in office making themselves rich in order to stay rich once out of office. This way, in his view, they can say to leaders, just do your job as an elected leader, when you’re finished, there will be this money for you to continue to be the champion for your cause, don’t worry about not having funds.

Interesting idea….this Ibrahim gentlemen is on to something.

Brad Will, Compañero

Riding home from the train station today, feeling the cold wind of the sudden winter that has gripped Amsterdam, in my ears I’m listening to the cries of a friend who I never knew… he has been shot…he is dying. And I’m on my bike in Amsterdam, but I can see the barricade in my mind, I can feel Brad Will dying again…

Those cries were recorded one year ago in a place called Oaxaca. Brad Will was a journalist. There are many kinds of journalists in this world, some write blogs, some attend demonstrations and report about what is happening from remote parts of the world. Some do all of this and more. Brad Will dedicated his life to the cause of the forgotten, the voices that have been forced out of the mainstream, paved over, and declared marginal or unimportant. He did things with indymedia that directly or indirectly inspired many of us in this movement of global citizens committed to speaking out about events unfolding in our name.. injustice wherever it may be, no matter how many people would rather not pay attention.

I rode my bike and listening to those final moments of Brad’s life, as the shots rang out… I wondered which hit him. I wonder if the officer that shot him looked him in the eyes and realized what a ray of light he had just dimmed. And what was Brad thinking; could he have known that throughout the world, people like myself would be listening.. a year or even years later… carrying on his work and remembering his death..

Well today as I listened.. I remembered Brad Will’s life and death… and his spirit lives on.. throughout this world of ours.