Category Archives: Text

Lake Como Is Down There

Well Well.

Unexpected turn of events, I took an offer to stay over here high above Lake Como, or some Lake that might be Como. I think this town is called Lecco.

I’d like to enter into a “how fast can you learn italian” marathon, I bet it would take me 2 weeks, nonstop studying, and Id be fluent. Than my french and spanish would be ruined, and my Portuguese would be jealous. My english would just hang out with my Dutch, they need not know whats going on. In the meantime.. I do so love the language cause it is so famliar.. yet different.

The discussion on yesterdays post is still going and I like it alot. We don’t have to have the answers, we can just compare stories, experiences, facts.. if anything I get lots of help forming my own opinion… and in the end.. its a personal blog, so hahaha I win! I mean.. yay knowledge.

The vloggers are mostly at the node101 apartment in Milano. I’m here with a few other cats that are staying at the great Deirdré’s house, which overlooks alot of things from way up here on this mountain. On the floor to my right.. there’s a vlogger named Andreas… further over from him.. a vlogger named Anders. Danish I believe. Good men they are, me thinks.

My one wish… vlogger ladies. More of them. Crazy creative and perhaps single ones. That’s my wish.

Time for cliché italian words since I’m a dumb tourist: buona notte amici.

Drug Prices

The lil suitcase is packed for the grand open ended journey through Northern Italy, Slovenia, —– (fill in your own following destination).

Prior to packing for the journey, I was watching a PBS Frontline Special entitled “The Other Drug War”. I believe it’s and old program, last updated (according to their site) in 2003, but the torrent just fell in my lap the other day. (transcript anyone?)

By the other drug war, the title is referring to perscription drugs for seniors in the United States. All those pills that control cholesteral, blood pressure, depression, asthma, etc etc… they cost senior citizens mounds and mounds of cash. And of course, the catch is, because they need many of these drugs to go on living, they are at the mercy of the drug companies.

In the program itself, we see seniors in Maine organizing bus excursions to Canada, where drug prices are fixed by the government in order to keep them affordable for seniors. (and I guess the poor too) During the bus ride, the people talk about how angry they are at companies for being so unreasonable with prices, and with the government for not intervening. Later the program explains that the state of Maine, as well as a few other states have actually passed laws that will control the price of drugs for seniors.. which of course has been met by huge resistance by the corporations, who have taken the states to court.

On the other side, you also hear from the companies themselves. Mostly from a few reps and many many lobbyists, since apparently pharmaceutical lobbies are the biggest and most powerful in Washington, DC. They explain that the government musn’t control prices or else their profits will suffer, and as a result, they won’t be able to invest in new life saving drugs. They claim that the high prices are because research is so expensive, so the pill costs nothing to make but you’re paying towards future drugs. If the prices lower, the expected response from the company will be to cut down on research. There’s even a French CEO of some big US pharma company (Eli Lilly)who explains that in France the government fixes the prices and therefore France lags behind the US and other countries in research and development. (number 5 in the world apparently, at that time)

And so I the viewer, with some help from the internet and perhaps life experiences, sit here and evaluate the situation for myself. Whats more important… research and development, or access to the existing drugs.

In the end, everyone will have mixed answers. Put yours in the comments. Here’s a brief version of mine:

With most products in this type of capitalistic system of ours, which does not necessarily believe in fostering competition in many areas thought many claim it does, i can understand setting a high price for the cost of making something or researching it. Technology for instance.. computers.. cars.. you want the cool stuff.. you pay more. But when I look at medicine, I see something more than just a product making business. While it may be a business, it effects lives… more specifically.. it can effect if someone lives or dies. While its surely important for research to be properly funded, I’m not convinced that the healthiest way for a society to do it is to run up the profits for pharmaceuticals while making the seniors pay the price. I think a drug, however great it may be, is useless if people can’t afford it anyway.

I said this earlier today and Richard, who’s just arrived here and has worked for many years in hospitals, says that it is the other way around. That controlling prices limits the work of pharmaceuticals and hurts medical advances.

Your turn.

3 Videos Since Milan is Coming Up

Since I know yee good people have things to catch up on and I can’t keep writing mountains, today I’ll simply recommend three videos and be gone. Friday is the journey to Milan for vlogeurope, so video is the name of the game for the immediate future.

First: A New vlogger on the scene. You may recall I had a group of students I was tending to from Minnesota… well wouldn’t you know it.. one particular Rachel has started a vlog that has this great energy.. a certain je don’t know quoi.

Second: I’ve recently been writing for Richard’s news vlog, the Eclectic Newsbrief… news you won’t find in the mainstream and presented in a unique way. (see if you spot the societal critique)

And Lastly: A wonderful artist, my friend Hollye Davidson has a great understanding of how people relate to art. She even helps me to see my own art, which I often forget. Watch her latest vlog on dogs and art… i learned alot.

How High’s The Water

As I got on the international train from Brussels to Amsterdam, I knew it would be packed and bursting at the seams with people returning home from their weekend in Belgium. And this day was no different, with people huddling in the space between train cars, struggling to find a spot just to stand and read their magazines in peace.

I’m an international train veteran, so I used my secret methods for getting myself a seat. And as luck would have it, the person sitting next to me was a gentleman heading to the Hague on business. Not just any business… urban planning to deal with rising water levels! Who did he work for, as I surely asked, the government of London!

Amazingly before I knew any of this, we started chatting casually in between his soduku and my final chapters of 4th of July, Asbury Park. He was asking about the train, and what time it actually arrives in the Hague. It eventually evolved in how the city is layed out, and more generally, the ol’ “how the dutch have built the country in unorthodox ways.” We spoke of the taking land from the sea and building below sea level. And it was right around there where he smiled and said “Enjoy while you can, because things will certainly change.” And right there we got into the rising sea levels and the struggle to keep water out; he then explaining what he was doing for the city government of London.

Among the interesting things he pointed out to me, were the cases of London as well as New York City, both of whom are in need of plans to deal with sea levels that are definitely rising. Apparently his work was to address the problem for his city’s context. And I wondered aloud about what New York City could possibly do to protect against water rising up and swallowing its streets.

He wasn’t big in offering me solutions. It was, as he said, the purpose of his meetings in places like the Hague. I asked if he would be heading to New Orleans, he said he very much wanted to:

“That’s really what the future is about… mass movement of people, away from situations where they must leave in order to survive. Cities must all get into planning for it… how and where to move mass amounts of their populations.”

Eventually we got to the Hague and he wished me goodluck with my journalism endeavors.

When I got home I went right to my boat and started taking the water out of it.

Heading North Thru BENELUX

Few words today, it’s sunday and I’m catching up on the American Football.

Eventful train ride back from Brussels, which I’ll talk about tomorrow. During the ride I heard all about how Ed Bradley (of 60 mnutes) had died. Very sad to hear it… he was my favorite reporter on that program. Television news needed him.. the public needed him… out of all the old people working on the program, hadn’t figured he would go anytime soon. Thanks for your work Ed… made a difference in my life.

Blogging and Friendship

Couldn’t sleep last night. And I don’t sleep much at night anymore since crossing over into the world of freelancing. A mix of too many things on my mind and too many concerns about what the future will hold and how life will be.

But last night there was one fundamental reason: my best friend.

We used to call each other “my heterosexual life partner” because ever since our first year of college up in North Jersey, that’s how it was. As we progressed through college we both found ourselves knee deep in the political science department, both admiring similar professors and strategically ending up in the same classes. It used to be my task to bring candy just in case the man needed a little boost during class. And as those years progressed, we always lived somewhere near each other.. on campus, off campus, never a dull moment with my boy D.

As college came to end we both went to europe for a semester. Him, interestingly enough to Amsterdam, and myself down in Aix-en-Provence. Naturally we visited each other and took turns showing our respective international student worlds. Not soon after we both finished our student life in New Jersey and the man ended up working for a very prominent human rights organization in DC. Myself I worked as a waiter in NYC, with aspirations of either being a freelancer for the then-still-alternative Voice or flat out taking off to live in Portugal. Portugal won that contest.

It was around that time, 2001/2002 that I launched this here blog. It was a place for my opinions on current events, as well as for telling personal stories… like this one. And underneath it all, it was the perfect way to continue the daily conversations and debates that D and I always had have. In a time when no one had heard of a blog and certainly not this one, he was there commenting… sometimes the only one.. and in my eyes the most important one anyway. Years went by.. and this blog changed.. I changed.. moved to Amsterdam.. and he also made big changes.. climbing the DC non governmental ladder (or thats how I saw it). Every year I’d go back to Jersey…. and he’d offer to pay my ticket for me to come down to DC and spend some days with him. And so it has been.. year after year.

But last night threw me off.. tho perhaps I should have been more aware of things. As lately I’ve been attacking those that celebrate the results of the recent US elections. I try very hard to stick to very strict expectations for the country of my birth, obviously you’ve noticed that I hate stopping to celebrate anything when in my eyes.. things are so disappointingly far behind where they could and should be. Somewhere in there I forgot some things.. most importantly my buddy who has been working very hard on a campaign in Virginia. Yesterday it was finally announced the candidate for which he had worked so hard for had won. And here I was, making my heavy statements, denouncing the entire outcome… I hadn’t (and should have) considered that in doing so I was insulting his hard work. It’s easy to insult strangers in vague sweeping statements, and I certainly do it, but last night I got to thinking about D and what Id been saying lately. Nevermind arguements and values and words… I was utterly depressed to read the angry and condemning words of the man I still think of as my partner in this life.

So here I sit in Brussels. Took the long train ride to come see family and feel loved… because I was hoping to find answers or at least clear my head. But I couldn’t NOT write these thoughts and these feelings. If you read the comments yesterday than you’ll see the statement that he won’t be reading this anymore. I don’t know if its a coincidence but he hasn’t responded to any emails either. While I can picture him yelling at me for writing this and being so dramatic… I’m willing to take that risk just to have this out there and stated.

Having already said too much Ill stop here. The point of this is not to make someone like me more than him, or justify anything Ive done. The point is for me to write how sad I am because I may have just alienated one of my oldest friends and a constant source of inspiration.