Text – Page 14 – Citizen Reporter

Remembering a Defiant Old Woman

Hanna Braun. In early 2006 this name was recommended to me by an enthusiastic listener who said something to the effect of “you should really interview her.” I did some reading and learned a bit about who Hanna Braun was, an stubborn old lady who had grown up in Berlin during the rise of Hitler, then moved to Palestine when it was under British control, and then lived the creation of the state of Israel. However the real story of Hanna Braun is one of resistance and speaking out – as she witnessed injustice run rampant in this newly created state. Beyond injustice, Hanna explains what few people are old enough to recall – this was not the original plan, the dream of a secular inclusive state was co-opted and would never be realized.

I had the great privilege to speak with Hanna for 2 fantastic hours for this podcast all those years ago (including during the most recent Israeli military incursion into Lebanon). We spoke about her life and the lessons learned from all that she lived through. We spoke about the beautiful moments and of course – her life’s work – exposing the injustices and the suffering in Palestine that deserve the world’s attention. Hanna was dedicated not only to speaking about it, but taking action herself; organizing projects and participating in demonstrations, conferences, meetings and more. She was an inspiring figure who taught me more about history than any school book in high school ever did.

Hanna died just over a week ago at the age of 84. I hadn’t spoken to her in a few years, but I have thought of her often whenever someone asks about my most favorite interview. I was very much looking forward to having her back on the program and hear more from her all these years later. Instead her voice as well as her words will have to suffice. Her memoir, “Weeds Don’t Perish – Memoirs of a Defiant Old Woman Author” was published just 2 months ago. I intend to read it, pass it on to my loved ones, continue to pass on the message, and carry on speaking out, just as Hanna did.

This Bus Goes to Kosovo

The border crossing looks new and partly unfinished. In different corners there are exposed wires and lamp fixtures that will probably soon find their permanent place. It is the middle of the afternoon on a quite holiday afternoon, the border guard in his nice new blue jacket and pants saunters onto the bus looking at each person’s passport. As he approaches a few other western passengers seated in from of me, I notice the nice blue patch on his arm featuring the yellow outline of the country, “Its your first time in Kosovo?” he asks each of us, “Just visiting?”

The whole process takes less then a minute and soon we’re passed the customs area, passed the 4 construction workers staring at an open hole in the ground, and back on the two lane highway. The mountains here are steep and drenched in red, yellow and orange autumn colors. Occasionally we pass a little hamlet and I notice a newly completed bridge or road, even the lonely single track railroad seems to have been recently renovated. As we drive into the heart of this infamous part of the world, I can’t stop thinking of how much it reminds me of mining country in Eastern Pennsylvania.

The towns we passed may have some new pieces of construction, but they don’t look like happy places. The typical unfinished houses look vacant and what becomes even more clear as we get nearer to Prishtina, is that there is an overabundance of empty office space in Kosovo. One after another we pass shiny new warehouses and storefronts that look abandoned before they could ever be occupied. This one would probably be good for selling tractors, that one over there looks more like a furniture outlet, neither has a single sign of life. We drive on slowly, passed the Greek KFOR military base, the speed limit reads 60kmph, I find myself thinking of how different this place is from my dear Portugal, where no one respects such speed limits on country roads.

The beautifully vast and empty horizon finally changes after what seems like an hour, there is clearly a city up ahead, and I think it is Prishtina. The two lane highway becomes 4 shiny new lanes, and the slow pace speeds up some. On either side of the road its a mix of motels of small scale commercial operations. Each one making heavy use of the following flags in this order: Albanian, Kosovar, American, followed by a hodgepodge of European Union member state flags. The favorite seems to be the French followed closely by the German flag. “Made in Germany” several of the advertisements for machine parts along the road read in smaller print. Pulling into the quiet bus station and it seems like the entire city could be on vacation. “Prishtina is quiet” is the first uncontrollable conclusion I make in my head. I could not have been more wrong.

7 Roads to Macedonia

I arrive in Macedonia just in time to enjoy the last bits of sunlight as the airport taxi whirls into Skopje. In a nation of just over 2 million people, its capital is a tiny place with a lot of history. And who’s their favorite historical figure? – Their very own Alexander the Great. And just like I observed at Mongolia’s Chinggis Khaan airport last year, Macedonia has also named their “Alexander the Great Airport” after their most famous citizen of all time. Coincidentally just this summer I was in another important site connected to this same historical juggernaut – Herat, Afghanistan, city that Alexander ruled back somewhere around 330BC. Herat would eventually be destroyed by an invasion by none other then Chinggis Khaan. Another reminder of just how connected the world is.
Talk about connected, this land locked nation borders Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia. Looking at the map and discussing travel options with a taxi driver, I suddenly had the urge to pop over to Albania for a day, then up to Kosovo for another day, and on and on… with all these nations nearby, it becomes clear that Macedonia continues to be what it has historically been, a place where many roads lead.

Thailand’s Oppressive Media Law

It was the summer of 2008 and I was in Bangkok, Thailand, on a then work related trip that left me enough spare time to look around and do some reporting. My focus included alternative media, and lucky for me, a good friend introduced me to Jiew, editor of the alternative magazine Prachatai.com. We did a very interesting and informative podcast about the situation in Thailand, which included a discussion of the limitations on press freedom in that country.

During the interview we touched upon the “Lèse Magesté”: extremely oppressive laws that govern how you can or cannot talk about the royal family. As a journalist, you are not allowed to criticize the royal family in publications. Doing so would constitute a serious offense and while I can’t remember what the average sentence could be, I remember it was bad. Jiew was extremely well versed in what a reporter or media channel could and couldn’t do in their work, even an alternative source. To my surprise she even asked me to turn off my recorder when we got to the part about the laws regarding media and the royal family. She explained off the record how it works and the risk that one ran by publishing anything considered critical the exalted king. It marked, still to this day, one of the few times in the 7 year history of my program, that I’ve had to turn off a recorder for legal reasons- even just to hear a seemingly harmless explanation of the rules.

Over the years Jiew and I have of course remained in contact, whenever there’s something (and there always is) going on in Thailand or SouthEast Asia, I know I can ask her for help with information or perhaps a good source to better understand what is happening.

Unfortunately, and to my great shock and disappointment, the Thai government is now pursuing a case against her. Claiming, I believe, a violation of the Royal Family criticism laws at her publication; they are seeking a jail sentence. As many watchdog groups have reported, the government is clearly afraid of someone so committed to reporting what is really going on behind the dog-n-pony show Thailand puts on for the tourist masses.

And so an excellent journalist, a friend of this citizenreporter.org, and someone who has dedicated her life to making the world around us a better place faces the looming threat of being convicted of a crime that should have long been stricken from the legal books in favor of real universal human rights. All the more reason for us to help Jiew beat this bogus charge in any way we can, so she can fight twice as hard next time to keep this from happening ever again.

(To be continued, trail posponed to February)

Not Yet A Report from OccupyAmsterdam

I’m reluctant to write anything yet about the #occupy movement, specifically my local occupy Amsterdam. On the one hand it seems like everyone has already heard about the actions nearest to where they live, in the US, Europe, Asia, South America…. all over the world. Which makes me think perhaps all the minds have already been made up. One role I don’t want to have when it comes to “occupy” is the one where I try to convince people of something and they try to argue counterpoints against me. I don’t want to convince anyone to follow along, come on down, or anything like that. Yet each day I still run into friends and strangers who have no idea what occupy wall street is, or here in our own city, what occupy Amsterdam is. So I write, or at least, start to write, even if I’m not actually ready to write about everything I’ve seen and think from daily visits to this burgeoning community nestled on the former financial center of this city so famous for international trade.

We live in a world of categories. On websites. On forms. In our minds. You fit here, you fit there. Don’t fit, we’ll make you a new box if you’re lucky. Even with alot of disorganization among us, we try to organize. You’re either this kind of person or that kind of person. Your action is either good or bad, in between is confusing and hard to process. And when it comes to our protest activities, when it is about using or not using time, energy and resources towards a certain goal… the public tends to evaluate as quickly as possible and render their verdict if the cause is worth it.

Enter the occupy wall street actions- which are taking place all over the world. The average person looks, reads/watches briefly, and makes their decision. Few visit, but many write or talk about it. Based on images, sounds, text and other material coming from these epicenters, people make their judgement. They condemn, they approve, they ignore or something in between all these. We still live in a world where you can ignore a lot and keep going about your life; war, corruption, injustice, the environment… few of these topics have stopped the general public, so it should come as no surprise that sustained demonstrations against the status quo would be any different.

And still they are out there, building something together. People ask “Are there still people down there?” They’d probably not believe me if I told them the truth – there are more everyday.

“But what do they want!?” – I knew you’d ask that.

Workers in Indonesia Rise Up Against Freeport

Here’s what we know:

Freeport MacMoRan is the world’s lowest-cost copper producer and the largest gold producer in the world. Producer is a funny term, they pull it from the earth. I suppose the production label comes from everything they do to the stuff they take from the earth.. the processing.

The company is almost 100 years old with its headquarters in Arizona, but of course its operations are located all over the world. Freeport operates the largest copper mine in the world, the Grasberg Mining Complex in West Papua, a province of Indonesia.

West Papua has long been the stage for conflict, where the Indonesian government uses whatever means at its disposal to keep the independence movement down. For many Papuan people the mine is a major part of that conflict, due to the massive environmental damage it causes on their territory, the lack of financial benefit or return to the region, and the use of notorious elements of the Indonesian Military to handle security. Since 2002 there have been several incidents involving the shooting deaths of workers at the plant.

For the past two months workers at the mine have been on strike, demanding better wages. According to Reuters, their current payrate is $1.5 to $3 an hour. They are now demanding that it be raised to $12.50 to $37 an hour. Recent demonstrations by the workers have attracted crowds numbering around 8,000. According to the Jakarta Post, during one of those demonstrations police fired into the crowd and killed 2 workers. The paper also reports that Freeport had been trying to fire all the workers and have them replaced, a tactic an Indonesian Minister said would be a violation of their labor laws.

Freeport is number 136 on the Forbes Fortune 500 list, with over $4 billion in profit for 2010. They have been heavily criticized by human rights organizations and corruption watchdogs for their payments to the Indonesian Government and the Military in an effort to maintain the status quo and quell labor disputes at their mine. The millions of dollars in lost revenue are often mentioned in the media for every day their mine is shut. What does their copper go into? The list is massive and touches on many aspects of our everyday lives in the western world.