bm259 Fingerprinting the German Government

The German minister who famously believes in law and order and high security and knowing as much about citizens as possible, has now – himself- been fingerprinted. Whats more, the fingerprints are being distributed all over the world as part of a very strong statement and critique of what is supposed to be such a safe and secure method of identification.

This podcast is recorded at the CCCB in Berlin, and it features the participation of some very kind and socially conscious hackers. As we sat around assembling the magazines, finger prints and all, I took out the recorder and asked them to explain how it is they got hold of the German interior minister’s finger prints and what the larger meaning of this action, will be.

By the end of the recording they realized we hadn’t spoken in detail about many of the OTHER examples of what the German government is trying to do when it comes to data retention and privacy. Below is a list of links they recommended I include for better details about what is going on.

EU-Wide implementation of the data retention

German minister defends ‘Trojan horse’ spy tactic as needed to fight terror

Schäuble: Facts Obtained Through Torture Should be Used

Oh and as a bonus, the Finger Print story in Wired.

 

Yesterday’s Butchers Today

Part of coming to Portugal and visiting my grandparents means taking them to a supermarket. With my help they can pick up all the supplies they need to last them a month or more, that way they don’t have to ask help from friends or neighbors.

Living in a tiny town in what I like to call the middle of nowhere, we tend to go to the nearby bigger town to frequent their supermarkets. In the last decade the amount of supermarkets has mushroomed from 1 to as many as 4 or 5.

As I push the cart down the aisles, and my grandparents struggle to take a good look at the type of meats behind the meat counter, I  take a few minutes to watch the people behind the counter.

Sharpening his blade, I watch a gentleman who must be in his late 60’s, joking with one of the other employees behind the meat counter. His white coat full of blood stains, I noticed the ease and skill with which he does his work. It became clear that this man had been a butcher for most of his adult life. Yet the supermarket has only been there for 6 or 7 years, so where was he a butcher before?

My mind continued to wander, 7 years ago… hell.. 14 years ago.. he was probably a butcher in a local butcher shop, now long since closed down. As I glanced at the back of the store, I watched the fish lady tending to customers ordering fish. Here again was someone who knew her job well, and before the days of the supermarket, had surely done her job in a local fish market, many of which have been scaled down or simply closed.

Both the fish lady and the meat man seemed to be doing ok on the job, here at the big supermarket. I could speculate that their wage is probably pretty small and the amount of rules and regulations they’re subject to, would have to be greater. But the question that kept coming back to be is this: Are they better off? Are we better off as a community and a society, with this brave new world where our local shops and specialties are replaced. From the wages to the working conditions to the human connection of feeling like your job is valued and valuing your work, is this new way sustainable?

As we collected our things and made our way out of the shop, I took one more look at the butcher. He was explaining to a younger kid how to properly chop some kind of meat. I wondered about what his job used to be like… the changes he’s seen.. the life he leads.

bmtv82 Stasi Museum with BaghdadBrian

During my recent visit to Berlin, BaghdadBrian and I visited the stasimuseum and recording this videoblog entry. It also features the most excellent tour guide who not only gave tremendous insight into what life was like in the GDR and the activities of the Stasi, but also gave these great personal stories of how she felt and what she remembers. Oh and here’s the museum website.

Videos from Jersey

Having missed my flight, waited a day for another flight, and then arrived here in Lisbon only to have my luggage misplaced for the rest of the day, there was lots of time to catch up on podcasts and especially new video content.

So while I try to figure out where the leak in my roof is coming from, I wanted to recommend one of my favorite new video podcasts (new to me): tvjersey.com.  Not only does it provide excellent segments about things happening in New Jersey, it does something unique… using photos instead of video, with audio to put those photos into context. In effect, these are news slideshows.

One of the lastest video-slideshows that I enjoyed was about a homeless-assistance center in Hackensack that is being shut down.  The images and the sounds from that center, and the voices of the people who work and go there, I get a real sense of what it means to them and what a dramatic turn of events it is that the city is pushing to close it down.

If you’re remotely curious about a unique audio-visual way to report news and tell a story, watch tvjersey.com, as you may find something about it interesting and educational.

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.

bm258 Alive in Baghdad and the New Berlin Wall

As the producer of one of the best information sources coming out of Iraq, BaghdadBrian is passionate about raising awareness about what life is really like for regular Iraqi’s living under occupation. While attending the Republica Conference last week, he and I had a chance to walk around Berlin and even do some tourism. Just as you’ll hear us comparing in this podcast, we often found ourselves comparing the divided post war Germany days to the situation in Iraq today.. specifically when it comes to dividing a city with walls.