bicyclemark

Tradition

If you should browse the current.com website, which belongs to the people behind currenttv (American cable channel founded by Al Gore), you’ll find a growing amount of content from yours truely. And as I posted a link to an article about the new French requirement that immigrants who wish their family members to join them in France must take a DNA test to prove they are really family, I received some interesting comments, and I say that not because several people agreed with me.

In discussing this topic on that website and amongst friends here in Amsterdam, one common concern that people bring up to defend the policy sounds something like this: “Using DNA will ensure that immigrants aren’t lying about who is family.”

I realize many people agree with this, on the surface it is a simple request, that people not lie. But when I hear this comment, my mind travels to the past.. to who I am and how I got to be where I am.. or better yet.. how I got to be at all. Or beyond me, what about all the people all over the world, who are the children of immigrants or the grandchildren of immigrants… what if they had had DNA testing?
The idea that people would not have been able to lie in any aspect of the immigration process would have basically changed the entire face of the western world, destination for many immigrants over the past 300 years. The midwest of the United States, with its huge Scandinavian population… imagine they had not been able to lie about who is who’s cousin or daughter.

I realize, there are immigration laws, there is a process, and it isn’t going away. I also realize that no matter the rules, if humans want to go somewhere, they will find a way, they will break or bend the rules, because it is a question of survival.

When it comes right down to it, history teaches us that there is a long and glorious tradition of lying for the sake of moving your family.. your hopes.. your dreams. It is a tradition that deserves our respect… it should be honored.. not disrespected with DNA tests that few migrants could ever afford anyway.

There are of course, numerous other criticisms of this policy that governments should take note of. But for right now, in this particular post, I just wanted to show my respect by defending the rights of immigrants.. of humans.. to not be DNA tested because they want to try and make a new life.. a better life.

Yellow Cakes

As winter has suddenly come upon us here in Amsterdam, many of my friends and I talk about energy. Heating, electricity, all the costs involved with sustaining our lifestyles, especially at home. And as I peddled to the university this morning to go speak in BlondeButBright‘s class, what would be more fitting to come up in my podcast rotation than a program about the new push for nuclear. More specifically, a program about what is happening to a country like Niger when so much of the world is clammering about building new nuclear powerplants, powerplants that require uranium.. which is something Niger has alot of.

According to the investigation and interviews conducted by Australian public broadcast program Background Briefing, the first world’s demand for access to Niger’s uranium deposits is already impacting the country in a very negative way. Populations being pushed off their land, opponents being arrested or simply eliminated, internal divisions being deepened by those who want to keep the country from being united.

The issue of new or more nuclear energy has deservedly attracted lots of criticism. Commonly for the fact that the world still does not no how to handle nuclear waste, or cope with large scale nuclear accidents, and the overall effect of such power plants on the environment. But the fact that an entire country, like Niger, could be torn apart because nuclear power wants a renaissance, isn’t mentioned.

I highly recommend you listen to this most excellent program as you go about your day. As you flip that lightswitch. As you plugin that laptop. If we’re serious about building a viable future with more sustainable energy sources and socially responsible solutions… nuclear continues to fall short as a solution.

bmtv60 Fisheries and Fish Choices

The latest report on the state of the world’s fishing stock doesn’t get much press. Despite the fact that the extinction of various fish species would be an ecological disaster worldwide, people seem to just go about their regular fish eating practices. This vlog is about the report and its connection to invidual choices that have global implications.

The Guardian Article I refer to.

The agency (ICES) that does the research.

Click To Play

Quality Media from India

There are few projects on the internet, that make me stand up and say — see.. this is what videoblogging is for! And while I’ve mentioned this particular one before, as I watched their latest video I was once again reminded of how great they are.

The project is called Swajana, a videoblog which started around the time of Jay and Ryanne’s visit to India. It is about people in India. More specifically, people and their jobs. What they do, why they do it, how much they make, how they manage their lives, their hopes for the future, their hopes for their children, their concerns in general. It is a fantastic collection of snapshots, video capsules of life in cities like Pune, India.

Watching the tailor and the tailor’s wife and the tailor’s son, I’m reminded of what life is like outside of this first world disneyland known as Amsterdam. I love living here, but the standard of living is so high, It makes me need to have reality checks, reminders, of how a majority of the world lives. That means poverty. That means jobs that many of us would not do. That means struggling for the bare essentials. While I often say I struggle, my struggle is nothing in comparison. And in my humble opinion, this is the true power, the true significance of what videoblogging and personal publishing could be used for when it comes to global understanding, reporting about reality, and learning from each other. So on this fine friday, I recommend you re-check out and subscribe to Swajana.

Marshall’s Plan

Last week my friend Caroline got us tickets to see Naomi Klein here in Amsterdam. Some of you will have heard about her new book, the shock doctrine. It is all about how the government, in this case I believe the US government, uses traumatic events and tragedies as an opportunity to push their agenda’s of privatization and private contracting for the benefit of the corporations that support them. We can surely talk about the doctrine itself in a future post, my focus is slightly different today.

Over drinks at the bar, following the talk, there were people everywhere debating the shock doctrine and who agrees or does not agree with Klein. One particular guy walks up to me, recognizing me as the guy who raised his hand but was not called on, and strikes up a conversation. During that conversation he mentions the Marshall plan.

What about the Marshall Plan? It seems like it was a huge success? In the four years following WWII, the US spent some 14 billion to support many European countries in their rebuilding. Four years later almost all those countries had managed to kickstart their economies to a higher level than ever before.

Yet nowadays we have the shock doctrine. We have blackwater shooting innocent people. We have disappearing palettes of money. A post war rebuilding that never seems to really rebuild anything. What makes the Marshall Plan so different? This is something I want to look into and I would actually like to speak with someone that knows the plan well.

In her talk Klein talked about how what happens after a major traumatic event depends not only on money but also, ideas that are lying around. What were the ideas lying around in post war Europe, and how do they compare to the ideas lying around in Iraq? Or are there more powerful forces than ideas on the ground that prevent a new Marshall Plan from being laid out?

Until I can answer these questions, I’ll keep searching. I’ve also got some audio of George C. Marshall speaking in 1947 at harvard. Perhaps it will help.

Survey Question

Quick question to all readers, frequent or infrequent… do you find the comment system to be adequate? I’m considering switching to the native wordpress comments, which means some additional features that would be good for me and you, including being able to respond to individual comments as a sub thread.. that way you know whos talking to who.
If I do it, you wont see the old comments anymore. I have them saved, but the public will not see them.

Leave a quick comment to say if you think the current comment system isn’t good.

UPDATE: OK, Ive now moved comments to the wordpress native system. Unfortunately several years of spam were sitting on the system. Now cleaning them up and losing many hours of sleep to them. But from now on you can not only comment directly below, you can also respond to individual comments OR leave a comment to the original post. watch below and you’ll see an example.