bicyclemark

Here Til Its Gone

Lost Highway — Photo by NCDOT Communications

I’m sure many of you, like myself, have spent time over the past years watching either a TV series or a film involving an end of the world type scenario where our systems fail and people have to cope with the new reality. There is this mix of fascination with the possibility and concern with reality, that seems to be one reason why we watch those psy-fi dramas.

Here on the podcast, we have had guests who explain how in real life, system failure happens and can happen at an even greater level than we have seen so far. But when a major disaster hits and the possibility becomes a reality, even on a small-temporary level, the connection is seldom made that in fact, it would not take much to shut down the infrastructure that we are so accustomed to, and very little is being done to improve those structures.

Rare is the city or rural area where new drainage or power capacity is installed. De-centralized power generation continues to be a small movement with numerous obstacles to keep it from expanding. Services get bought, sold, and re-sold, prices go up, but few improvements get made. All sides claim a lack of funds and promise improvements for another day.

Instead of these more complicated and expensive discussions, most content spit out on the internet is about when its getting turned back on. Or, what political party will allegedly keep your house from being washed to sea. Massive deficiencies in the working of our beloved infrastructure are ignored in favor of the quick fixes and consumer level complaints.

Meanwhile we watch the zombie apocalypse, the end of electricity, and entire nations becoming submerged under water on our screens. Somehow, if its on a screen and the characters are good looking, its just a fun escape to help us ignore the fragile, rotting system beneath our feet.

Fresh Eyes, Ancient Place

We are a little over two weeks from the beginning of the North Africa/ Middle East journey lovingly titled “Arab Artists in a Revolution.” As with any great journey, the preparation also raises questions about how to approach our conversations and media creations in the best way possible. The term “best way” is particularly tricky in an era where it’s difficult to capture and retain the attention of any audience, though Im pleased to be starting off with you my listeners and readers, not to mention the Radio Open Source audience who have clearly shown their desire to see this project become a reality.

But here’s another aspect that makes missions like this one a special challenge. My history as an independent, make-it-up-as-I-go-along blogger turned journalist turned media producer or whatever I’m defined as these days. I’ve been working on topics that interest me (and hopefully sometimes you) for more than 10 years now, and throughout my tenure I’ve only occasionally stopped to look around and ask – what do the people want? That was, for me, the major point of being a personal media- citizen journalist type, I don’t just try to entertain or capture your attention, I first follow my heart and learn about topics, people, and places that capture my attention. With any luck my interests intersect with yours, that’s when it feels extra special.

This particular journey begins with a unique partnership, two guys from different generations with different experience, setting off for a land they have -until now- only read and talked about. A region the entire everyone seems to have an opinion about after it re-captured the world’s attention last year. So the question I have for myself is, how do I make sure this one is not only a pleasure for me, but exciting for you as well? To what extent should I be listening to the opinion and experience of others, as opposed to doing what Ive always done, following my nose and relying on my global network to guide me to the fantastic stories of real life? How do you keep your mind and your heart open when you’ve done something one way for so long?

One thing I realize beyond any of these questions, is that it is good to try something new and challenge my own traditions. Thankfully I set off next month with someone who’s work and friendship have taught me a lot about what is possible and what I’m capable of. And of course, I set off with all of you along for the ride, via this daily noise machine known as the internet. So all in all, the fundamentals are in place. Everything else, as always in life, we will figure out and make it great.

Unpack those Expressions

Restored Vietnam Photo by Alexandra Nicole Photography / flickr

It is perhaps surprising to some regular readers/listeners of my work, but I don’t much care for the way elections and campaigns are carried out in several countries including the United States. But don’t stop reading assuming this text is about elections, it isn’t. It is about the words and experiences of someone less well known internationally who happens to be running in an election in the US. Words that I think should echo throughout the world and be truly understood.

His name is Bob Kerrey former Senator from Nebraska, not to be mistaken with the more well known John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts and former presidential candidate. After a hiatus of several years, he is now once again running for Senate in the upcoming election, which is part of why I got to read a recent interview he gave and couldn’t help but re-read a few times, his experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War. There is a contreversial story involving a mission he had some authority over, where through a series of events his team wound up gunning down a village full of women and children. Kerrey, along with members of his team, did not speak publicly about the event for many years afterwards. But when it did come out, the former governor did not deny the story. He came out and painstakingly explained what had happened and including how the women and children had been murdered. Some argued that he gave the order, while a member of his own unit said that is not the case, but indeed he did not use the power he had to put a stop to it.

The long term result of this horrible event is that today Kerrey is staunch critic of any governing official of any party that speaks of going to war as an acceptable approach to handling disagreements between nations. He seems to take any and every opportunity to remind us that military action means terrible things for all sides, the civilians and soldiers who lose their lives or are forever scarred by what they experience. The cost, and not just in the money sense of the term, of war.

This comes as nowadays so many voices, especially in positions of power, talk about going to war with a nation like Iran, as if it is an option to be used within the foreseeable future. Like choosing something to eat off a menu, they talk about “options on a table” and “having no choice.” What I find admirable about Kerrey is that here we have someone who has carried out war. He has done horrible things based on strategies and what some see as “acceptable” means to solve problems. Yet all these other powerful people, who’ve never lived the reality of being a soldier or a citizen who’s home is under attack, they will claim they know what is best and what the risks are, and that war is still something they will use when they feel its necessary.

Myself I’ve never been a soldier, a victim of war, or a politician. So I listen to someone like Kerrey who speaks from experience and is honest about things that are more complicated and horrible than I could ever imagine. Those aspects of war that few people can handle really talking about, much less fix in its aftermath.

Small Groups, Loud Actions

A suicide bomber attacks a vehicle traveling on the airport road in Kabul yesterday. 14 people are killed, people throughout the city are once again confronted with a major act of violence and destruction. Throughout the world millions read the headlines and chalk it up to another blow in the already (presumed) failed story of the new Afghanistan nations around the world have worked to help stabilize. Despite the fact that millions of Afghans went about their day, working, socializing, living life, it is the suicide bomber and the 14 victims that become the latest symbol for the nation.

Groups of angry protestors around the Middle East and North Africa (and beyond at this point) take to the streets and attack their local US embassies as an angry reaction to a poorly produced video clip that presumably insults their most important prophet and religion. In one case a group of militants in Libya take advantage of the chaos and attack; the now infamous story that ends with the murder of several people including the American ambassador. Throughout the world, especially in social media circles, people express their anger at the violence and the stupidity of the protestors for a long list of reasons. Further conclusions are drawn about what has happened in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, in places like Egypt and Tunisia where many now presume angry fundamentalists have new found power and will continue to carry out these types of acts and worse.

Again, millions upon millions of Libyans, Egyptians, Yemeni’s, Tunisians, etc did not take to the streets and attack innocent people and set fire to American buildings. But those people don’t make headlines, the bold criminals who take advantage of a situation and are led by blind rage, they’re the ones we base our judgements on. Like so many moments in the history of the world, even in the era of so much information and the possibility to hear from so many voices, small groups of people willing to take action (in this case for destructive, criminal means) are the ones who shape perceptions of reality.

This is not to say such groups aren’t dangerous. Or that recent events involving mass protests and violence aren’t significant. But it is to point out how, as always, be it 82 million Egyptians or 6.5 million Libyans, regular people in far away countries get painted with the broad brush, and we’re convinced the image we’re given must be the whole picture.

A Call To Action: Arab Artists in a Revolution

To all my readers, listeners, viewers, followers, friends, family and random acquaintances from across the planet, I bring you some significant news. This fall, together with the great journalist, broadcaster, listener and my friend Christopher Lydon, we have decided to embark on a journalistic journey to North Africa. Egypt and Tunisia specifically, to seek out the storytellers. We want to hear from the heart and soul of the revolution, beyond the politics, beyond the expert analysis, there are those who create, challenge and observe culture, who can give us the long view of what is such an ancient and inspiring part of the world.

In order to do this, we’re calling on our audiences to support the project. There are many kickstarter projects out there these days, but as the marine saying goes “this one is ours.”

That’s where you come in, as the people to whom we answer to, without need of advertisements or institutions telling us how to do our work, your financial support is vital. Go check out the kickstarter page, where we hope you would be a part of this experience by backing us and getting us ever closer to the financial goal. Those funds will take care of travel, shelter, and communication costs on a shoe string budget, as has been my specialty for the past 10 years as a traveling new media reporter. From there we will bring you the voices as podcasts and radio programs, as well as some video and photo reports. The stories we intend to get will be both insightful and inspiring, in ways no conventional media would bother trying to do in this era of fast and shallow journalism.

So there you have it, if ever there was a time to take action, if the work on this site or the fantastic body of work Christopher Lydon has compiled through the course of his long career has ever spoken to you, then let this be the project you really join us on. Get involved, help us reach the goal, and this fall – enjoy the results you helped produce!

Progress Rumbles Through Your Yard

The lower Normandy that I’ve come to know is an amazing world of deep green fields, breathtaking skies, and a silence I have never heard before. The few houses you pass are modest and functional. They can be found between the long stretches of corn and the grazing land where content cows and sheep seem to have all the time in the world to eat and relax. One of the busiest metropoles in the world is 3 to 4 hours away, but out here it may as well be on another continent. Still, people here are busy, building things, cleaning things, working the land in one form or another. Some grew up here and continue a family tradition of agricultural work. Others come from different parts of the country, even foreign countries, to live the healthy, calm, and satisfyingly simple life they always wished for.

Looking out over the mystifying landscape one night, a friend shows me with great disappointment, massive new structures on the otherwise beautiful horizon. With their feet planted firmly in concrete, towering high above the corn and fruit orchards, are massive high tension power lines. “They just put them in, stretching from the power plant that isn’t online yet several hundred kilometers away,” my friend describes with an alarmed tone like someone talking about an oil slick or a forest fire swallowing up his neighbors. “The power company is planning to use these lines to sell electricity to Spain, all the nearby farmers protested, but the company built it anyway.” He went on to describe the extensive campaign to fight the power company and how they are able to seize land for installing power cables and towers regardless of what the nearby community thinks.

I stepped back from the situation and thought about how often scenario’s like this take place. The massive dam projects in India that displaced thousands of people with little to no consultation. The coal power plant right next door to the city of Ulan Bataar in Mongolia, bringing electricity and horrific air pollution to hundreds of thousands nearby. Throughout history and including today, projects are pursued for different reasons, some to improve lives, some just for the sake of profit or prestige. And regardless of their purpose, sometimes those same projects wind up harming the very people they set out to benefit.

These same questions will still be asked about major decisions and risky initiatives long after all of us have left the planet, when is worth it and when is it not worth it? Innovation and development that improves quality of life for more people on this planet – who could argue with that? But innovation and development for the sake of profit for a tiny few while harming a larger part of the population – why should that be acceptable?

A different issue but yet somehow related, I’m reminded of Mario Savio’s speech in 1964: “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”