Category Archives: Text

Crazy New Jersey Beaches

Having been born and raised in New Jersey, I often take time to read through the Asbury Park Press feed, to have a look at what is goiong on in my homestate in the US.? And if you’re reading the Asbury Park Press, you’ll surely run into stories about the beaches of New Jersey, the subject of many a pop-culture reference, the “Jersey Shore”.

Among the things that fascinates me about the Jersey Shore in relation to the rest of the world, the issue of paying to use beaches – why should we and why shouldn’t we?

In some countries highways do not have tolls, they are paid for solely by your tax money, and that is how it is.? In many more countries, beaches are smiliar… kept clean and surpervised with the help of your tax dollars. Just as the street lights outside, the garbage collectors, the street sweepers, it is all publicly funded and accessible.

Yet the Jersey shore, being both a very free market American phenomenon, and also having strong roots in very extremist christian religious values (many beaches were founded by religious communities who wanted to create perfect little oasis communities following their interpretation of a book or a god), you either get communities that value free beaches and all the benefits they provide. Or you get those who believe strongly in the tradition of paying for using the beach, seeing beaches as an extra cost, a special circumstance, not to be compared with roads or garbage collection or other municipal services.? They also see beach fee’s as a way to raise money for cities and towns that are only able to make real profits a few months out of the year.

And so it goes that as you drive (and of course you have to drive in that culture) the Jersey coast, you will encounter all of this. Besides the free beaches, the cheap pay beaches and slightly more costly beaches. On all sides there are town leaders and citizens both complaining and praising.

Stepping back from that region of the world, you consider the other beaches of the US and the world. I’ve seen a decent number of places, well off and poor, and in either case you rarely hear talk of a beach as being somehow seperate from other public resources. Sure there could be private beaches belonging to hotels or clubs, I’ve seen some examples of that.? But otherwise it is a very interesting and perhaps concerning tradition in that part of the US – where people are raised to see a beach not as a public place, but as something more private or simply an extra that one must pay for.? While politicians and citizens look at access to the beach as something they can control and profit directly from.

And that is just one piece of the tattered and beloved Jersey shore puzzle.? I think I’ll go give it a visit next week.? My flight leaves in a few hours.

Tony Schwartz on Audio

He walked around with a recorder in a little sidebag, recording the sounds of everything. Kids in the playground, a conversation with a taxi driver, personal life histories… the list goes on and on.? He also contacted other audio recorders in his day, people who had bought the same recorder, and would send them his audio by post… all over the world.

Tony Schwartz was a podcaster before there was internet.. before there was podcast.? He understood the value of everything, and dedicated his time and energy to capturing audio glimpses of everything around him, and sharing them with complete strangers or friends alike.

Up until a week ago, i didn’t know who Tony Schwartz was.? Now, I think of him as an audio idol, with a style and a mission that I can relate to and hope in some way to be emulating.? No I don’t record the sounds of everything, but Tony’s spirit and drive, I feel a lot of that with what I do here on this blog.

To hear about Tony Shwartz’s life and also hear his beautiful audio recordings, i recommend two podcasts this week:

1 – On the Media dedicates much of their latest program to his story. If you like what I do, I think you may love what he did.

2 – My friend Chris Lydon over at Radio Open Source, sat down with a documentary film maker who’s film Guerilla Media, is all about Tony. High recommended listening.

As for Tony Schwartz, my new audio idol, I’ll be shopping around for his work and soaking it in.? I may not have known him or known about him when he was alive, but I’ll sing his praises from now on whenever someone brings up the sounds of life.

Work on the Candidate

Many of you know I’ve lived outside the United States since late 2001.? If I were trying to seem poetic or sentimental I would mention that it was 2 months after 9/11.? Or I would bring up the extreme difficulty and hostility I experienced trying to do research as a freelance journalist into the disappearing immigrants of Arab descent.? But thats not really it either, the reasons I left are more complex and less dramatic.

Still throughout the last 7 years I’ve often wondered if a change of president would make it more appealing to live once again in the US.? But I can also tell you that one thing I’ve figured out for myself is that the president is not what is wrong with the United States.? No the problems go beyond the white house and beyond politics.? So a change of president does not equal a change in culture… things don’t happen that quickly or easily.

Speaking with one of my most valued friends back in NJ today, he said to me “Obama mania is sweeping the nation man… its going to be great.”? To which I responded “Just because there is Obama mania does not mean things will be great.” Which is the response I feel I need to give more and more these days.

Like his profile? Sure why not. Plenty to like about that life and family history.? Like his speaking style? Most of the time, although if we’re honest with ourselves we know that 75% of the time he’s not really saying anything, just using the talking points and the slogans like advisors tell him to.? Like his politics? Im not sure about that anymore either. From Free Trade, to Middle East policies, to Criminal Justice, Barak Obama says less and less that I can actually agree with or that differs with the same old populist politics of the last decades.

Obama mania is sweeping the nation.? It starts to sound like any one progressively minded should lay down their arms and embrace the man in the name of getting him elected.? Yet I propose.. hell.. I demand something else.? I demand that you hammer this candidate with questions. That you scrutinize his proposed policies, his staff choices, his voting record, and the details of the lofty promises or the shady relationships with questionable forces. Don’t jump on the bandwagon, stand up and ask your candidate to explain himself.? Run him through the ringer, before its too late, and we end up with a man that owes favors to the same old powerful interests and politics we never actually wanted.

Respect to Stonewall

On June 28th 1969 NYC police raided the Stonewall Inn. That night police arrested and beat numerous people, especially transgendered and gender non-conformist people.? Outraged and tired of the oppression, people from the community gathered outside the Inn while the people inside tried to barricade themselves, and eventually a fire broke out.

But that’s just my summary of an event I wasn’t alive to experience. With this post I encourage you to reflect on, remember, or perhaps learn about the Stonewall Riots, if you haven’t already.? Naturally I also wish to show my solidarity with LGBT friends throughout the world, who to this day have still not had many of their rights recognized and respected, as humans and citizens.? The struggle continues and I hope very much that like those brave people at Stonewall, and well before Stonewall and long after, I too can help advance the cause of equality and justice, regardless of sexual orientation or gender.

Being Pride Month

This is pride month and I realize I’m yet to do anything related to LGBT rights and focus on related situations worldwide.? Actually I’m surprised to not yet have heard reports of violent and disgusting attacks on participants at Gay Pride festivals throughout Eastern Europe. Seems as though every year I’ll catch images of Moscow police beating gay citizens for carrying signs or participating in nonviolent demonstrations. Or I’ll read the reports from Romania of marchers being beaten, or the banning of pride celebrations in Poland.? No, this year I haven’t been talking about the issue all that much, but the month isn’t over yet – so I will.

But to perhaps begin to talk about some of the pride events taking place in the world, and yes, to have a laugh as well, I wanted to recommend the great and potentially insane Tim Can’t Reid’s latest video entry where he recounts his experience at Gay Pride in Spokane, Washington.? I’ve never been to Tim’s corner of the US, but it is almost like being there just by listening to Tim and watching the images.

The Quintessential China-US Debate

I’ll start the week by pointing you to a very excellent edition of On the Media, one of my absolute required-listening podcasts each week – Journalism with Chinese Characteristics. And the subtext of the post reads as follows:

There is real investigative reporting in China, it?s just not done under a free press flag. Instead, practitioners mind an unstated set of rules, keeping themselves safe by employing tactics like using excessive jargon and exploiting government rivalries…

The program itself doesn’t present particularly new facts or opinions about China.? If anything, in the last few years, there is no shortage of Chinese voices in international media talking about how China isn’t what you might remember from the movies or old stereotypes. That the country is modernizing fast and people have alot of new freedoms that are comparable to whatever you have in the west.? That said, OTM provides a nice group of voices who communicate their experiences and opinions in a manner worthy of listening to.

What gets me about the interviewees in this podcast is that they come back to the classic China-US comparison talking point: The freedom criticism.? So they point out how strange it is that there are “free Tibet” protests on the streets of the US, and yet the US occupies Iraq and has guantanamo bay.? To which there are no protests on the streets of China saying “Free Iraq.”? The arguement brushes over the well known hypocracy and goes right for some kind of lack of reciprocity.

My response would simply be as follows, once and for all let it be said, that it is our right and responsibility as human beings on this earth, to protest and engage in some form of acknowledgement whenever and wherever human lives are being destroyed and opressed.? Moreover, that you might be American and on the streets protesting what takes place in Tibet, does not mean you automatically believe your own government is doing just fine and you support the occupation of Iraq.? Hell, you probably attend those demonstrations as well.? But protesting human rights violations in another country does not require that you live in a country where human rights are perfectly respected and it shouldn’t result in silencing dissent anywhere in the world.

Just because you have the capacity to repeat all the terrible mistakes and crimes of the western world, dear China, does not mean you should.