bicyclemark

Nuclear Juntas

Can’t quite finish the vlog I’m working on tonight so instead I wanted to bring up Burma. Or Myanmar, same difference.

What strikes me as odd and worthy of attention about Burma is that over the past 6 years they’ve managed to come in completely below the diplomatic and global media radar. Besides the international sanctions applied years ago, rarely does any politician in any country make a concerned speech about a country ruled by a bunch of military thugs. They periodically arrest political dissidents and are conducting their own insane slave labor project of building a new capital, mostly funded with the help of Dick Cheney associates of the oil industry. I guess that detail helps to explain some of the silence from the diplomatic side.

Today I read about Russia’s deal to supply them with a nuclear reactor. Naturally the Russian government, having long shown it doesn’t care much for human rights, see’s no problem in doing such big business with a cabal that the world likes to not think about. And irritatingly enough, compared to all the noise about Iran, or the scary stories spread about North Korea, one would have to work very hard to find criticism of this deal from any powerful government out there.

For the time being, I’ll look to the Burma correspondents of global voices online, who normally provide a good snapshot of happenings in the isolated country.

Tomorrow I’m coming out of academic retirement and participating in blogwalk Amsterdam. I think I’ll take the boat, hopefully parking won’t be bad.

Prepping Child Care Workers Show

Currently researching, in between doing some projects for trippist.com, the order by the governor of New York that Child Care Workers be allowed to organize and form labor unions.

As I seek out guests, I’m thinking alot about the whole industry, and how it works. Those people who take care of the children, often its the type of job that gets paid under the table, isn’t it? Perhaps many immigrants as well, who often fear what risks may be involved with organizing, or perhaps they aren’t aware of their rights.

What I’m most curious about are the next steps. Once this decision goes into effect, suddenly all these people have the right to demand some basic standards of work. Will big unions take the lead and recruit them or teach them how to do things? Will smaller locals of child care workers emerge around new york state? Will many somehow get fired for trying?

Sorting through the questions while sorting through the interview possibilities. It is hard to believe that they didn’t have the right to organize to begin with. I wonder how that was possible for so long. And what about this Elliot Spitzer, a few months on the job and he’s already more competent than most governors in my brief lifetime.

Podcast, including all these questions and concerns, in the coming days…

Pain of Potential

It feels like May, to me, when frisbee season is in full swing and I’m playing three times a week or more and I run and throw for hours without noticing. It also means that new people join the our league here in Amsterdam, and that inevitably means all those questions that I can never answer properly about what I do.

What do I do? “I’m an internet journalist.” “I’m a podcast journalist.” “I’m a freelancer.” “I do a little of everything.” “I’m under-employed.” Or my personal favorite “I drive a red boat around town.” No doubt it has scared away a potential date or two.

And so this evening I’m reading up a bit on the wonderful Portuguese blog written by Antonio Granado about journalism and the internet. Recently he pointed out some facts about the online application known as twitter. If you’ve no idea what twitter is, I can summarize what you’re missing – Potentially great, amazingly useless.

Why so bitter? It is like many things in this life and on these internets, the power to harness creative energy and people through revolutionary communication…. used to broadcast complete nothingness.

Picture it, you go on twitter and you have a small collection of friends, a common thing with all the internet applications these days. And whenever you easily and quickly type in a 2 line message, all your friends can see it in a real time chronological list. NOW, ideally, this could be used for say… a group of journalists… or say gardeners.. writing brief updates about a project, problem, or pressing issue that collectively, the group could certainly benefit from hearing about and responding to it. The same has always been said for how blogging or lots of different online applications could be used.

So I joined twitter many months ago, loaded it up with 20 or so of my favorite videobloggers, podcasters, and those I consider internet activists.. concerned about understanding the world around them. I purposely do not add another 40 to 60 people, most likely some very nice people who I suppose want to hear my little messages, but whose messages I just do not want to spend time reading.

But whether it is on my list, or someone else’s list, most of what is happening is simply garbage. Occasionally I find that even I join in and write some useless garbage like “trying to figure out where the socks get lost in the laundry process.” Just one more in the pile of messages about who is bored. Who is eating. Who is watching TV.

So much potential in the hands of we who somehow don’t take advantage…don’t manage to get passed ourselves and our provincial thoughts or activities. And then we hear about how twitter is growing and how amazing it is and wow what an application.

Amazing indeed. Some guy just announced he’s going to sleep while another one is about to watch the latest Sopranos. Rest easy world, today’s internet user is highly complex and concerned about the problems of this world.

Puppet Government

Recently I was watching some footage of the IRaqi parliament. An institution that I have to wonder about from the beginning as, to me, it wasn’t a truly elected (odd list system) and is basically a symbolic body to go along with a puppet government.
As I watched, the speaker of the parliament as well as all these guys sitting around him were laughing as a female member was passionately speaking about an issue that concerned her. The more she spoke the more they laughed…. at her. And others joined in.. and she kept trying to be heard over the growing laughter. Many people stood up and walked out in protest. It was an extremely sad sight.

I do remember when not so long ago a fist-fight broke out in that same parliament, one member apparently slapped another and it went on from there.

The only reason I bring it up is that I find it to be a testament to how ridiculous the entire adventure in Iraq has been, especially the thinking that you can force democracy on people and it will flourish.

Also interesting, as Juan Cole recently pointed out, the parliament passed a resolution that the seperation wall the US military is building in Baghdad must be dismantled. Of course, they won’t do it. Just a friendly reminder of who really makes the rules in Iraq.

Note: Podcasts and vlogs are delayed as Im struggling to complete a little freelance job and yet exhausted after a big ultimate competition in the south of the netherlands today.

Dr. M Goes Swedish

Longtime blogreaders might remember my good friend Crazy Dr. M., Californian turned Amsterdamer years and years ago. And after many wonderful years and countless barbecues, the good Dr. is taking a job up in Umea, Sweden. Home to another good friend. (remember when I went to visit in 2005?)

As we celebrated his departure today, he began telling me of an upcoming trip to a place called Sergipe, Brazil. (pronounce it, ser-jee-pee) He asked me if I knew anything about it, and until tonight, I didn’t.

Apparently Sergipe is a pretty untouched state, lots of savannah is nature in general. But as Dr. M was telling me, they’ve got plans to build new cities and other development. Which eventually led us to another discussion that I’ve often heard in the last year: A state like Sergipe produces sugar cane. If Brazil and other countries of the world start to push for ethenol/fuels that are made from sugar, that means more sugar cane plantations will be needed and more land will be cleared. IRONIC. In an effort to do something responsible for the environment, this would serve to destroy more natural habitats, forests, jungles, etc. And from the way the bigshots like the presidents of Brazil and the US seem to be talking, this is exactly what will happen… big money for sugar and corn based fuels.

People always say, well, we have to try something. I’m all for action, but demand some serious analysis and more responsible policies.

Researching Gold Crimes

For the past week I’ve been researching the activities of gold mining companies around the world. I’ve narrowed my focus to two places, Chilé and Romania. In both places it is one mining company above all, that is focused on extracting gold despite whatever risks to the environment or communities that may involve.

In the coming weeks I intend to have a few podcasts on both places and on this topic. Eventually I may hitchhike my way over to Romania in the coming months and see things with my own eyes, make some video entries about it.

But at this point I wanted to start the conversation about the practices of mining companies, and specifically the gold mines. Barrick Gold is a Canadian company, which of course, tarnishes my naive hopes that all things Canadian are considerate and kind. This company is one of the largest mining operations in the world; in Chilé they are set to mine under glaciers, insisting that the exact spot where they are mining, no glaciers will be harmed even though the area has several. As if the world was so brimming with glaciers that it would be no big deal to go and destroy one in order to extract gold. In Romania they’ve been trying to buy out an entire community and create Europe’s largest open pit gold mine. Unfortunately for them, many of the people living there do not want to sell their land and let it be cut open. As you would expect, some are very ready to sell and to hell with whatever happens to their former home. While surrounding communities are concerned about the amount of pollution they will suffer because of that type of mining going on near them.

Of course there is much more to all these stories, and I’ll get to it. But right now, what bothers me most of all is that so much of this destruction is done for getting…. gold. Gold that does what for people exactly? Does it even power anything or help build something useful for human life? A friend of mine called it “free money”. Of course it costs money to actually mine it, but still… all this destruction and conflict because this mineral is so valuable in some bullshit in-humane place called “the market”.