Podcasting since 2004; Conversations, conflicts, adventures and monologues from around the world.
This vlog was put together before I left Berlin yesterday. It concerns last week’s gay rights demonstration in Moscow, where once again we see what kind of police state the entire country has become. The rampant homophobia, not only among the authorities but also among regular people, is horrifying. I used the footage from EURONEWS, their podcast which i strongly recommend to everyone.
Here in Germany it seems like the G8 meeting protests are all the buzz in the media. And the meeting hasn’t even begun! Hows that for a powerful protest!?
The organizations involved with organizing shadow conferences and alternative events to express their opposition to these meetings are plentiful, but apparently – to busy to answer my email requests for interviews. I would stay in Berlin and try to find them in person, but the truth is.. I’ve killed my meager budget and it is time to head home to Amsterdam.
Still I do recommend you follow the fun… hopefully they do have some fun out there. As one of my most favorite professors, Dr. George Gregoriou used to say, “We used to go to all the demonstrations because it was like going to the best parties”. At least I think he used to say that.
Stay tuned to Indymedia.de (including live radio streams), and maybe Attac and a few other websites. PErhaps even mine if these guys ever get back to me. This could be a very interesting season of G8 protests here in Germany and it all kicks off tomorrow.
As part of being in Berlin this week I attended a lovely hacker conference-party by the name of PH-Neutral. Perhaps the best part of this get together was that I met two very fun new friends, K and F. (maybe they dont want their names used, who knows)
K recognized me from the talk I gave at the congress back in December, she gave me a big smile and told me how much she enjoyed my talk. Turns out K is Estonian but has moved her life to Berlin. She and her boyfriend took me out on the town last night, exposing me to some of the nightspots where other revolutionaries gather. And throughout the evening we discussed education, culture, the internets, and much more.
One very interesting thing I learned from K about what is going on in Estonia, was about how fearful Estonians are that their culture will disappear. With only around 1 million citizens, she explained that the very common political and social discussion is about how things like culture, language, and especially music, must be preserved and passed on. This is, of course, while Estonia also has a very significant Russian minority that has lived in the country for several decades. The conflict she pointed out was that Russia being so huge and right next door, is seen as a force that could erode Estonian culture… and as an extension of that.. there becomes a struggle between the Estonians and the Russians in Estonia regarding language, culture, and from what Ive read – rights.
So then comes the very typical discussion that you here in various countries… the classic question of how minority groups should interact with the so-called national majority.
K and I agreed that neither of us supports the forcing of anyone to be anything. But I understood that the average citizen in Estonia doesn’t share our opinion. Instead it sounds like typical rhetoric about how minority groups must do this and that in order to be good citizens and get “intigrated”. Still it is hard to compare what happens in Estonia to say.. the US or even Germany. Small place. Few people. Unique situation.
I wandered over a few blocks from where Im staying here in Prenzlauerberg (Berlin), to take part in the latest eipisode of Küchen Radio. The people sitting around the kitchen table were great fun and I loved answering questions and observing their style of running a show.
By all means click and give a listen, you’ll here me talk about media, money, growing up Portuguese-American, some very personal issues, and much more… if you can stand one hour of me and the Küchen friends.. go for it.
Otherwise all is well in Berlin. Many stories to tell and issues to bring up. Also if certain organizations would please return my dam emails, I could continue doing my crusading journalist work!
All the critics are up-in-arms at the shocking development last week, that congress voted to give the GWBush his war money. Obviously they’re outraged because the party they were convinced would represent their opposition to the war, did not do what they were elected to do.
Yet the disappointment doesn’t end there. Because this was all part of “making a deal”. According to this deal, if congress votes to give billions to kill more Iraqi’s, in exchange, they will get their minimum wage increase (though I don’t know many adults who can actually live on 7.25 an hour). They also secure alot of money to finally fund the Road Home Program which was supposed to help post Katrina recovery until the program ran out of money. Oh and there’s even a little help for small businesses in the form of tax breaks. All lovely and necessary things I suppose, and I’m sure many good intentioned people will point to that and say; well at least we got that!
But my rhetorical question is: what does one have to do with the other? And what kind of sick government attaches essential money for sufferring citizens in places like New Orleans, to the money needed to fund the occupation and subjugation of another country? Those two projects have nothing to do with each other, and their funding should not be used as some kind of leverage or bargaining chip.
Reading through the texts of these bills, all included in this shameful “deal”, I again return to the conclusion that the US government and the political system in general are broken in the most fundamental way and these two parties are responsible.