Category Archives: Text

Economies and Plants

During my lunch break on Myesonday I made my way over to a plant store near Olympic Stadium, here in Amsterdam.  Usually working past the time places stay open, I thought it best to buy my spring plants during my work day, plus I’d seen this shop several times since starting my new job, seemed like a good place.

I choose my spring flowers and bring them inside to pay the extremely tall, grey haired gentleman with the glasses. As I pay him I look down at the pansies and ask (in Dutch), I’m from the New York area, where normally pansies don’t make it once the weather gets warm; I’ve always wondered, does that work the same way here, or do they last longer since its slightly cooler weather here?

The man looks down at the little plants and begins to explain using alot of hand motions: We’re on a very similar level compared to New York, on the globe relatively speaking.  So the same, technically, applies, you only get flowers for a few months and its over.

From there the man seemed to jump into a larger conversation:

It is all related. Plants in the US, plants in the Netherlands. Mortgage crisis in the US, mortgage crisis here.  Whatever happens, his tone gets louder, in the US, we will always feel the effects here. Then he looks at the ground, although, I think we’re better equipped to survive the crisis, as people don’t use credit to but things the way they do over there. But mortgages, oh the mortgages, these prices in this country have been out of control for too long, it had to stop. Again he returned to his earlier statement, I think we can survive it, we are a small country and people can be very smart about not borrowing and not getting into debt schemes, I hope we survive it with minimal damage.  But again, it is all relative. Pansies, economic crisis….. US, Netherlands.

Have a nice day and good luck with the planting, he waved to me as I stepped out of the shop.

Followup On Newark

In keeping with the issue of what is happening in the city of my birth and childhood, I noticed Ken over at the DailyNewarker has just posted an interesting podcast.  It is an interview with someone who works for the Ironbound Community Corporation, the Ironbound being my community.

During the interview Ken builds on what we talked about in our podcast together, just before they closed St. James hospital, about the impact of closing medical facilities on a community.

For my part I will continue to track the closing of hospitals in not only Newark but anywhere in the US or the world.  For now, click over to the Daily Newarker if you want to hear more details about what is happening around the issue of community hospitals and financial constraints.

On a slightly related note, I thought to also mention that for the first time in my lifetime, there will be no Portuguese parade in Newark this summer.  Why? -No money.

Corporate Influence in EU Governments

It is that feeling that never really goes away. No matter how often you might look around at how things work in Europe and admire things, there is the ever present feeling that politics, business, and everything in between is heading in the same direction as the United States.

Yet another piece of evidence to that effect appeared in the Financial Times recently, in an article about the intricate role of business executives within the German government.  In a story that sounds identical to what has been going on in the US for decades, one German executive from a hedge fund was said to be working in the ministry of justice in the area of hedge fund policy. Another classic example, reminiscant of the Reagan years, executives from BASF (the chemical company) are working in the ministry of environmental protection, also in the area of policies – of course.

But the infiltration of government by business experts from large corporations goes beyond the national level. As the article points out in its conclusion, within the European Commission there is also a strong presence of corporate experts working in the area of policy and regulation.

Just as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, for all the reasons we might admire Europe, there are plenty of reasons to worry about a continent whose governments are allowed to repeat the kind of dysfunctional corporatist capitulation that we saw in the United States over the last 30 years or more.

The Audience That Wasn’t There

My presentation about the problems facing citizen journalists and citizen journalism today. PArt of my talk given at Re:publica’08 here in Berlin. Lots of podcasts being prepared as part of this event, and later I might have video. For now as I continue visiting with my favorite citizens of Berlin, I give you my brief presentation (minus the Wire clip about doing more with less.)

| View | Upload your own

Re:publica Day 1

Arrived in Berlin on 2 hours sleep.  Happily spending time with good friends, as well as making a few new ones here at the Re:publica conference.  Talk and other things coming up. Regular content will return shortly.  Here’s a photo of Baghdad Brian from Alive in Baghdad.

Media, Blogging, and Rosen

I started reading blogs back in 2002 I think. At least thats the year I remember I started reading what seemed to be blogs at the time, people like Camworld and Rebecca Blood.  Haven’t said those names in years.  Around that same time, I believe I started reading Press Think… Jay Rosen.

Rosen focused his writing on the media, and how the media was or was not adjusting to the world of not only the internet, but the world of personal publishing and what today gets that annoying cliché label web2.0.  As a young fledgling journalist and internet publisher, I liked what he had to say sometimes, and disagreed with him vehemently other times.  At some point, after 2 good years or more, I think I stopped reading him altogether.  But sure enough his name would once again come up in my masters thesis research on the sociology of alternative journalists… why they do what they do and what do they think of their own work; Jay Rosen’s What are Journalists For  was at the top of my reading list.

Perhaps one of my big problems with Rosen, that would often cause me to stop reading him for a period of time (I needed a break apparently) was that he was so focused on the mainstream. I can appreciate the unique and important contribution of mainstream media at times, as well as a few mainstream type bloggers.. often referred to as the A list for their dominance in terms of audience and the nature of their fairly conventional issue selection.  I felt, as I still feel, that the world of alternative reporting, alternative in style, values, topic, and operational norms, was where the real change making, system challenging journalism was going to come from. As it so often did in the hayday of the Village Voice, The Nation and others. (very American centric today, hang with me)

So when I heard that Jay Rosen was a guest on Radio Open Source, I knew there would be alot of talk of those same old blog names, the ones that cover the same topics as the major media; I can easily count those tired old names on one hand.  And I admit, I didn’t want to like the interview. But the truth is, now more than ever, Rosen has seen the evolution of all this and been in the blog trenches since early on.  He may not say everything that I like or talk about all the issues I want him to, but this interview that Chris did with him, is excellent. From what is happening and will happen to newspapers, to why certain big blogs had success and what makes them so great… Jay is great to listen to.

As I board my train to Berlin in a few hours, preparing my talk for the Re:publica conference, I strongly recommend you give this interview a listen if you’re at all concerned about how we get our information online, and just what is happening to blogs and our relationships with them.