Text – Page 123 – Citizen Reporter

Preparing for a Coal Show

I’m presently preparing for my next program about the coal industry in the US and the world over the past 50 years. Maybe 50 is too much… at least the last 15. The minute I heard about this mine accident I immediately started to think about the push by the Bush administration and associated senators, to encourage the building of more coal plants and focus more on using coal. “Clean Coal Technology” was the oxymoron the megamoron president would keep repeating. Over and over. And of course, he got his way.

>I’ve been looking over the numbers, and worldwide, especially in China and the US, coal is growing and growing. Seems so strange to look at the year – 2006 – and then look at the fact that modern nations still use coal, despite the extreme air pollution, the mercury that contaminates most everything in the area of a plant, and the extremely dangerous conditions that miners work in. Is this the modern answer for a modern world? Seems more like the good ol’ boys trying to make good’ol money the good’ol way.

The usual channels that claim to bring you news are filled with sob stories, sound bites, and sad faces. Have they bothered to start asking real questions about what’s going on with coal? How is the coal industry effecting these communities? Is the focus on new coal plants and more coal a sustainable and healthy one for a country… hell… for a planet? As much as Im also concerned for other countries, especially China which is the biggest coal producer ever, I look extra critically at the US, cause as an American, I know the country is capable of much better; more creative, innovative, and forward thinking ideas. Not this old fashioned and dangerous obsession with filling our lungs and our lives with black soot in persuit of the mighty dollar.

More on my next podcast, which will come to you from Brussels… Im hitching a ride in 4 hours.

Movie Going Recovery

Happy 2006 dear readers! While I shold be recovering tonight from last night’s partying, the truth is, I’m recovering from seeing one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. It was so terrible I won’t use its title and I’ll stop talking about it after this next sentence. My only wish is that I could one day meet Peter Jackson and skowl at him for making this piece of shit Ape movie, when he could have taken all those millions and built a hospital – ANYWHERE – its not like the world doesn’t need a new one.

Speaking of world health crises, though I’m sure it’s a downer to start off the year this way, there are to many downers to ignore on this here blog; so to kick off the year, note that the French government is surprised to discover that 30 years of nuclear testing in French polynesia, the area is contaminated to the teeth. 600 new cancer cases per year, 250 deaths, and all this after the gov. did a whole compaign way back when insisting nuclear testing is fun for the whole polynesian family.

Time for some charges of crimes against humanity against some old rich white guys rotting away in the French parliament. Lets go… drag their old bones up here and let’s have the truth about this cover up.

Presidents Should Cut Their Own Salaries

Some might call it purely symbolic, but if you’re a newly elected president, or even one who’s been sitting around for a few years, and you claim you’re going to change things and reduce corruption and injustice, in my eyes a great start is if you cut your own pay. And that’s just what Bolivia’s new president has done: 50% pay cut for him and all members of his movement to socialism party which made huge gains when he swept into office last month. That means his salary will actually be 1800 american dollars per month! I hereby REALLY like this man.
Plus he has called himself a “nightmare for the United States,” and you know how Im a sucker for that kind of rhetoric. I love picturing Georgie Bush sucking his thumb in bed at night tossing and turning because most of Latin America is tired of eating his shit and staying quiet while the US government dictates how things are going to work down there. Sure they still live under the economic thumb of the US, but electing leaders like this sends a message. Economic intiatives that focus on Latin American unity and self-reliance, like MERCOSUR also stike me as a strong statement. Maybe the Willing Warrior is on to something and we expats should consider floating over to Bolvia, Chile, or Brasil. I know my friend Ditta is certainly enjoying life close to the equator.

Speaking of the developing world, the Lounge Chicken is still recovering from a nasty leg injury, and even on painkillers, his accounts of the domestic wildlife in Malawi are very entertaining and informative.

It was snowing in Amsterdam all day. Film at 11.

DC taxicab Wisdom

In an effort to write something interesting from my DC visit on Tuesday and Wednesday, may I present, the transcript of a conversation I had with a cab driver at 2am in the morning:

BM: 12th street, I forget the number…
Driver: Is it the Shlomo building? (names and numbers changed for security purposes)
BM: It is actually, how did you guess that?
Driver: You’re talking to a human GPS, plus no one is left in this town and thats the only building that might have people.
BM: Everyone went home for vacation? No one lives nearby?
Driver: Man, you are talking to the only guy you’ll meet during your entire visit who is actually DC born and bred. Nobody is actually from this town.
BM: So they come here from all the corners of the country, why? the romanticism of being the nations capital?
Driver: It’s jobs. JOBS. This place is an economic engine on a scale you won’t find anywhere else.
BM: But there are unemployed people, right?
Driver: You’d have a hard time staying unemployed in this town, there’s simply too much work available. Even those who want to start their own business, this is the place to do it.
BM: So twice a year this place empties out and you’re left alone here?
Driver: I tell you where my place is, I save up vacation time, and I go directly to Rio de Janeiro, that’s my place. And I ain’t talkin days or weeks, I go for months at a time, I do it right….. well here’s the shlomo building…
BM: Thanks man. And hey, enjoy Rio when the time comes.
Driver: I will. And you should get down there soon, if you’ve never been.
BM: Absolutely. Cya.

Brotherly Love Spilleth Over

Blamo – I’m in Philly. Blogging probably reads like teleportation. Amsterdam – beep beep beep – New york – beep beep beep – AC beep beep beep Philly.

What’s going on in Philly? I wouldn’t know.. I’m mostly indoors finishing work from Amsterdam that followed me here in my beloved powerbook. But I can tell you it’s loverly in this town. I think Jamie recently said to me: Philly is the new Brooklyn, meaning this place is becoming a destination for young hipsters yearning to leave swamps of Florida or the corn fields of Nebraska. For those who long to wear knitted scarves, corduroy blazers, and argyl socks. Oh wait, I just described all my friends and old professors.

The Leah, who’s café Im currently sitting in as the Death Cab plays on the stereo, said to me on the bike ride over here, that philly reminds her of Amsterdam in different ways. I never felt that in my brief visits, so I’m taking extra long looks at everything, trying to see it through her eyes and then visualizing the DAM. Slowly I can see some of what she’s talking about: Last night, after ice skating with some of the most beautiful ladies I’ve seen all vacation (no offense all ye other lady friends of mine), I marvelled at the fact that we rode away, all 6 of us, on bike! A peleton in Philadelphia, and we’re not even Team Discovery Channel. We then met up with other hilarious and wonderful guys and femeninas at an ice cream parlour. Thats right.. ice skating and ice cream, these people are either alternative to the bone, or secretly 10 years old inside.

Whatever the reasons they’re here, the people I’ve met here in Philly (Nocoin’s friends) are different in a great way. I wouldn’t call them MY PEOPLE as Im forever an outsider, especially living so far away. Still, they’re great, and I repeat: attractive, well-rounded individuals with a sense of community. Whether its brotherly love or sisterly love you seek, come to philly my friends, bm recommends.

Strike Strike Strike Say the Transit Workers

I love a good strike. Not so much when I need to take a train or a bus somewhere, but still- I love a good strike. And as of right now, supposedly, the NYC Transit workers are on strike. Now many of you might say –boo, i have to get to work/school! But please, won’t you join me in celebrating one of the last labor unions in the country that still has some goddam pull around here!

I’m telling you, it’s exciting, you just have to look at it from a different point of view. Nevermind that its raining, icing outside right now, and nevermind that its that silly pagan holiday coming up and you need that pay check to buy the kiddies their pine tree for the living room. Ignore all those seemingly earth shattering things, and marvel at the power of people’s collective power when they are organized. I love it! Hell, I wish I could be a transit worker for a day, cause you must feel truely alive when you stand up to the authorities, risking everything because you demand certain standards and respect. I even heard there’s a law that says transit workers can’t strike? Psshhhaw, if every transit worker stands arm-in-arm on the streets of NYC, they could never arrest you all. Hmm.. unless they call you terrorists, then they can just shoot you and ask questions later.

So after meeting with Michael and Jamie at what was allegedly my listener/reader meetup in the village, we had some dinner at Yaffa’s, discussed vital social issues (and stuff), and we each headed towards our designated underground transport. As the PATH train took me back to New Jersey and the wonderous Hoboken train station, I kept wondering how Jamie and other New Yorkers would react to the transit strike. Somehow I doubt they’ll be as big a cheerleader as I am, sleeping in and watching it all unfold on the internet.

JUST WOKE UP UPDATE: A limited strike? Whats this world coming to? Joe Hill is turning over in his grave…. limited strike… @^%#$^#.