Category Archives: Text

Law & Order in the Whitehouse – Criminal Intent

The discussion surrounding what or who has caused the United States to head in the direction it is going, is neverending and often yields little agreement. Someone always starts by saying W. Bush is the problem and once he’s replaced with a democrat things will improve. Others argue that it isn’t one person, but in fact a whole group of people running the country, who’s values and worldviews are steering it in such a way. Then of course there are those who say its the regular people who actually like what is going on and applaud all the government’s decisions over the past 6 years.

Those are only a few of the arguements I most frequently hear in the comments of this blog and elsewhere. And while I sometimes feel there is an excessive focus on Bush and his cronies, when I read about some of the administration’s actions and attempts at changing national and international law, it becomes very clear that no matter who’s fault it is, the current government in the whitehouse stands head and shoulders above any previous administration when it comes to criminal intent and attempting to ignore or abuse law.

The latest action that prompts this post was last week’s revealing that the Bush administration is trying to amend the war crimes act in order to “prevent prosecutions of US personnel for humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees in the war on terror. “ A familiar theme from the past years, the idea that US military and other secret personel who are involved in torture, they should be given a free pass and a garuntee that they will never be held accountable for having committed what is a crime according to the war crimes act of the US, not to mention international law.

I’m sure it sounds like old news. No big deal, some will say. Amazing how if they just keep doing it, changing laws or kidnapping and torturing will both become common practices that cause every newsreader in America to yawn and turn the page.

Just in case you’re somehow still unconvinced that the government and the military should have the protected right to not be subject to the war crimes act, maybe you’d like to read the Amnesty Report.

And whatever you believe to be the cause of the terrible state of affairs in the US, surely the current squatters in the white house have some significant role in it all.

Dr. B On the Move

A little over 2 years ago… I send an email to a then little known but highly contreversial blogger by the name BitchPhD. At the time I was compelled by her stories and opinions which included family stories as well as commentary on current events with a particular focus on feminism and reproductive rights. I emailed Dr.B to say hello and also to help with a technical issue since I was, at that time, a masters student with plenty of time on my hands here in Amsterdam.
From there I remember Dr. B responding in a very positive way and from there we exchanged lots of emails and frequently caught up with each other via IM. Yet another one of these instant friendships that I’m sure many of us have experienced since the dawn of blogging.

I mention this because I hadn’t thought about it in awhile until I was riding through Portugal reading my favorite newspaper – O Público. Their magazine pullout section had a special article on feminism and blogging. Many of the blogs were in Portuguese, which of course didn’t surprise me. But to my surprise, right there on the first page of the article in big letters, a link and a description of BitchPhD’s blog. Instant smile on my face to see the good doctor getting recognized, even in Portugal.

So of course yesterday I emailed her to let her know and catch up a bit. She was happy to hear the news and I passed along the bibliographic info. We talked a bit of her upcoming adventures that I had read about on the blog. That brought back memories of when we first became friends long ago when her blog and my blog were still young. Speaking of age, here’s one of my most favorite of her posts from this summer, entitled: 40 is the New Fuck You .

Citizen Journalists Are Targets

I’m a citizen journalist.

Why?

Because I said so. It’s just about that easy.

That and… I always carry either a recorder or a camera on me for the express purpose of capturing events that unfold around me that I feel need reporting and I am comitted to doing that reporting myself. Sometime ago, about the time I started this blog, whether I even knew it or not, I stepped into a new role for the average joe. I went from guy with lots of opinions and who reads too many newspapers, to citizen journalist.
Clearly some days are more citizen reporter whereas other days are simply me giving my opinions or personal analysis on topics of my choice. Regardless of what I choose to do on a given day, I’m disseminating information on a mass scale. To you sitting in your office after a great vacation, or you sitting home thinking about how you don’t want to get another job and you’re going to enjoy this time off.

I’m stating what might be the obvious because the concept of citizen journalist is often abused, overlooked, ignored, or simply unkown to many people out there. They still see the big, well funded, household name media outlets as the official reference points for information and those are the only people who get the sacred title of “journalist”.

Those days are obviously on the way out. But there’ still much to be done.

Take the current situation with Josh who videoblogged the events that unfolded at a San Fran g8 demonstration earlier this year. I’ve taken some time to finally mention this because I’ve been so stunned and disappointed at how badly things have gone for him.

Briefly, the police discovered that Josh had videoblogged the demonstration and the clashes between police and protesters, they believed he had unpublished material containing evidence about who hit who. They demanded he hand it over. He refused citing the same rules that protect journalists from revealing sources or handing over material to authorities. As a videoblogger, he is, after all, a citizen journalist. But of course, a courtroom is the last place to expect modern thinking or knowledge of any concept like that. And even worse is the the federal government that is somehow persuing this case and rejects the idea that he is a journalist and deserves such protection.

That’s only a quick summary.. for more you can listen to the recent ON THE MEDIA which covers it well. Also there’s Josh’s blog which now seems to be run by his mom as he is now in jail. (yes.. its come to that point)

I’m watching this case and I’m horrified and glad to not be in the United States as an active citizen journalist. Actually the question comes to mind, could such a thing happen to me here in the Netherlands? I shamefully have no idea, my only strategy to this point is to stay the hell away from cops and give them as little information about my self as possible.

Dark days for the citizen reporter. But evil do-ers and governments beware… we’re out there.. we’re everywhere.. and when all is said and done, there are more of us then there are of you. I think.

Thanks Ryanne for reminding me that this issue needs to be blogged about.

Air Travel Moves Further Back in Time

Turned on the TV this morning as I finished packing. I had left myself only an hour to take care of last minute things and head to the airport for my flight back to Amsterdam via Munich. I’ve been doing these types of flights for years and years, I’m pretty good with timing and predicting problems at the airport. But man oh man.. I was so angry when I watched the news this morning.

The annoying British accent-guy on CNN international was going on and on about how New Scotland Yard just foiled a terrorist plot. Bla bla blah…. flights to the US from the UK.. bla bla bla a legitimate threat. I paused during my packing to occasionally turn to the TV and tell him to go fuck himself, him and hus smug “I understand terrorism and airtravel” reporting.

It was too late to try and get to the airport earlier. Not enough time. When I arrived the lines were longer than I’d ever seen, and it seemed like no one understood what was going on. Guess they don’t have time for the news when they wake up.

The line for checkin is long and full of people being turned away for flights to the UK. The people are very annoyed, and slowly start to ask each other what is going on. My own flight leaves mysteriously on time, though I didn’t know it at the time as I was stuck on the line the simply wouldn’t move. I looked up and down the terminal and enjoyed the surreal moment; at every desk there was an airline employee on a phone… waiting.

As I got shuffled from line to line, counter to counter, seemed like no one wanted to give me an alternative flight to my darling Amsterdam. Finally I found someone and pleaded my case, determined not to pay any penalties just because allegedly New Scotlandyard caught some terrorist plot.

I had to stand there and wait for quite a long time. As I stood there I pictured the CNN guy, still babbling along about what a huge deal this is and what a huge threat the UK and the US face today, and how the whole world will suffer. What a bunch of heresay and bullshit.

Think about it. They come on television, the authorities backed by the reporters the repeat verbatim their ever word, and they tell us a terror threat has been averted. They even go on to say it is likely to be a affiliate of Al Qaeda. ( I love how AlQaeda is painted to be like a radio station, like NBC and its affiliates. ) We the viewers, the citizens, are supposed to believe it. Hell, we automatically believe it. If its in the news and its reported by our authorities, it has to be real. And as a result, we all have to be punished of course… longer lines, stricter requirements, etc. As if they finally figured out how to stop terror this time, they’ve finally got the formula. Who doesn’t understand by now that this war on terrorism is the most inexact science / guessing game the world has ever seen? It’s all about acting like they know what’s going on.. and the public believing them. They follows panic at the airports, further stress on citizens who already have to deal with their budget cuts, taxes for their crusades in the middle east and beyond, losing family members to manufactured wars, and no garuntee of any kind of pension after a lifetime of paying for it.

Oddly enough, as I’m waiting for my new flight, which has now been delayed for 2-3 hours, a security guy starts talking to me. He had just found out about the UK situation, he told me. I mentioned that it happened early this morning, but that the truth is we really have no idea if anything happened. His eyes open wider and he leans in with his terrible breath, “I tell you what I think, and I know people don’t like to hear it, but I believe the US government had something to do with 9/11, and they love having these situations to get more support from scared people.”

I looked around a little before responding, as it felt like a setup. In my mind’s eye I could picture me taking the bait and saying “yes, I think so” and then his security buddies jump me and I never make it back to home-sweet-home. – I didn’t see any other security people around, so I quickly responded, “It’s certainly possible, regardless if people agree with you, it would not be impossible.” And I added one more line before trying to get out of the path of his terrible coffee breath, “But really, it doesn’t matter who did it anymore. What matters is what people believe and how they write it in the history books.” With that he gave me a knowing secret-society nod and went back to yelling at frustrated passengers who dared to move the little designated area rope.

I guess I’ll make it to Amsterdam today. But I’m pretty fed up with air travel and global logic regarding terrorism. What’s the point if we can’t really fly as free humans anymore. We can’t carry our things anymore. We have to get on the plane naked. Actually I take it back, that would be interesting. But barring the charm of nudity, I don’t see how the terrorists haven’t in fact won. We may still be alive, but the question becomes, with all the lines, fearmongering, half-truths, and heresay.. how are we really living?

Leaving the Lisbon

The digital thermometer on the wall reads 32 degrees celcius. Needless to say, I’m very glad my visit to Portugal has come to an end. As much as I love this city, my Lisbon, and travelling around the country with my family, I’m ready to get back to Amsterdam and the cool weather and the rain and back to doing my life’s work — observing the world and being a watchdog for injustice…. like the three amigo’s only I don’t have the uniform and I’m only one.

My time in the south of Portugal was a very disconnected time, hence the first 48 hour lapse in posting in… I don’t know how long. I’m also still catching up with the latest reports and developments in places besides Lebanon, the UK and the US. (tv news only seems to give me that)

As I warm up and get back into podcasting/blogging form, I have a few links to share: first, there’s my former professor, mentor, and friend Steve Shalom who wrote a piece related to Lebanon-Israel on ZNet.
then there’s Rupert Murdoch who’s made some big deals in Italy and Turkey and still seems bent on taking over the world’s media.
And finally, on a non-news related note… the beloved Della and her man have arrived in Korea, and you can follow the adventure of another in the growing number of expats out here in the world.

Catch you when Im back in amsterdam.

The Portuguese on Lebanon

Since this blog is written in English, I’m going to guess at least some of your other media consumption is also in English. And I’ll go out on a limb a little further and guess that perhaps you don’t often hear what the Portuguese people (nevermind the media) think about the sad state of affairs in Lebanon and Israel. Well I have had the privledge of spending many days with constant contact with the Portuguese elderly of my family; grandparents, cousins, great aunts and uncles, and occasionally after all the pleasantries have passed – they express strong opinions on what is happening.

Before I head in to what they say, I should first point out why it matters. To me, it matters because the elderly of Portugal lived most of their lives under a dictatorship. Beyond that, most of them also lived and fought in the nightmare of wars in Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea-Bissau of the 60’s and 70’s… where a still unknown and vast number of people were killed, frequently in gruesome ways. Those wars eventually ended in stalemate and eventually withdrawal by the Portuguese, returning home to a country that had been extremely impoverished and who’s population had dwindled thanks to the government’s obsession with fighting those wars.

I kept all of this in mind over the past days, as relatives and friends in their golden years, spoke about their disgust with what they understood to be happening in Lebanon. My great uncle in particular, who served in the military during colonialism and had even settled in Mozambique until war drove him from his home, he had a particular sadness for the images on the news. I had expected him to support the action of the Israeli military… self-defense, as they call it. I figured he’d support that.

Instead he looked on in frustration:

“There’s no real goal. They have no real goal, and thats obvious from the evidence we see before our eyes. All this destruction and death; They just drop bombs and make war with these unattainable objectives. I’m no fan of terrorism or murder of any kind, but this military strategy is crazy. And of course, (he turns away from the TV to look at me now) you know who makes lots of money on this, don’t you? Besides all the parties involved, it’s the companies that make bombs and tanks and planes that cash in on this. Now they’ll have lot’s of new orders and plenty of money. And the American government is very good friends with these companies, you know BM?”

Of course you can write him off. He’s old. He’s not your great uncle. And surely he’s not a first hand observer, or Israeli or Lebanese for that matter.

But I listened with special attention… because of the life experience he has had. A man who knows all about what military sactioned violence has done and can do. Sure terrorism is terrible, and attention should be given to its causes and to reduce terrorist acts. But clearly if we look to history and those who lived it, there is much to indicate that the stategy of the Israeli military is more dangerous and misguided then noble or necessary.