Sustaining Paris

Greetings from Paris, where I’m spending a few days to have a few meetings and mainly, to attend a conference dedicated to sustainable investment and corporate social responsibility. Ha.. some people are thinking “those are buzzwords!”… you might be right, which is part of why I came down to see for myself.

Travelling down here by hitching a ride with friends and co-workers, I’m once again exposed to the huge elephant in the room for Europe (among the other elephants): automobiles. Everywhere I look, from the Netherlands through Belgium, and into France.. it is so painfully obvious that this part of the world is living beyond its means… it cannot sustain this many cars, and yet people keep right on driving. Some of the best train systems in the world, and they keep driving. Traffic jams everywhere, and yet they keep driving.

They love to point to the United States and say, “Americans and their cars.. ha!”… but when one looks around Central Europe.. especially this region… it is the pot calling the kettle black. And symbolic carbon trading, token political speeches, or pointing a finger and holding a nose towards the US… that isn’t going to solve what has become a cultural problem.. the culture of the car.

Of course I will try and bring this topic up as part of a few podcasts I intend to record from the conference. Many attendees are so-called experts, which might be interesting to talk to but as a podcaster, I’m as interested in the regular conference go-er working to make companies act responsibly as I am to speak with some CSI rockstars.

As an added bonus, I happen to have arrived in Paris during the largest labor struggle in a decade, *film at 11.

*=old American TV expression.

Drowning Torture

Waterboarding is one of those words that is pushed on the public in order to distract or mislead people from thinking about the actual crime it involves.

On the latest edition of On The Media, they did a fantastic job of exploring the manipulation of this word and what it means. At one point, a high-up military official comes on and says that actually the name waterboarding is incorrect, the real name should be Drowning Torture, because that is what it is. Later in the program some people argue about the semantics of what drowning is and can you drown if you don’t die, but nevermind that. The point that was made should render all following arguements moot… stop calling it Waterboarding.. if someone uses the term Waterboarding when talking about what United States soldiers are doing to prisoners, correct them – IT IS drowning torture… and it always has been.

After World War II, in 1947, the United States actually convicted a Japanese soldier of “Waterboarding”.. Drowning Torture. He was sentenced to 15 years hard labor.

More than 50 years later… it is about time that the individuals responsible for ordering and carrying out Drowning Torture get sentenced to some hard labor of their own.

Not Satisfied

“Alot of people would be jealous of your life”, one of my best friends said to me via instant message yesterday. It was a response to my complaining, as another year of my life passes by, that I haven’t done the things I could have done by now.

People message me on Facebook, skype, myspace, gmail, twitter, and even in the offline world. They say things like “you’ve been travelling alot!”… or “You life seems like an adventure.” They’re probably right, but I confess that half the time I forget about the aventure and get worried about the choices I’ve made. The choice to live where I live. The choice to do the work that I do. The choice to be dedicated to blogging and podcasting. Yet somehow, these things feel like more than choices. Especially this blog and the podcasts that I do… I like to refer to them as my calling in life, just like priests always say about joining the priesthood… this medium, writing these words, and having you read them; this called out to me many years ago before I could fully understand why. And while I understand better today, why I do this, I still come to crossroads and moments where my critical nature causes me to question all these activities.

I happen to have alot of older friends that are close to me. When I fret about turning 28 and feeling like I’ve missed out on some of the wonderful things that I should have experienced by now, they laugh and say I’m young. Those that are younger than me say nothing. But in the end it is my own opinion that matters most, and by this age I had wanted to be further along with everything. Why haven’t I touched African soil with my hands? or seen Cuba and what life is like there with my own eyes? why haven’t I walked the streets of Tokyo with my good friends there? why haven’t I done the kind of reports that make a bigger impact throughout the internets. The kind of journalism that penetrates and resonates so far that it triggers real change.. change that I can see.

I’m sure there are people coming to my site for the first time being confused at such a post. If this site is about under-reported news, why is he writing about his own regrets and thoughts? But my readers and listeners know me a little better. And you know that the person in personal media does not need to be hidden; on the contrary, when I feel the need.. I write something more personal. Thats the difference between this and your old newspaper. The journalist that believes the individual has no place in their writing. Personal media, to me, is about being up front about who you are, as well as bringing forward information and arguements that have stifled in the world of popular culture.

I’m still forming thoughts and plans in my head… but as of right now.. I’ve pretty much decided that my 28th year on this earth will be one where I stop putting off life. Where I throw caution to the wind in the name of experience and education. Even if it means financial ruin or some other extreme inconvenience… things are about to change for this podcast journalist.

(PS – No it is not my birthday yet and YES I do realize many of you have and continue to support what I do)

bm233 DNA and Immigration in France

The French government, under the guidance of its new president, passed a bill to require the use of DNA testing in certain immigration cases. Is this the will of the French people and what are the implications if more of these types of policies are put into effect?

My guests:
John Mason, Prof. of Political Science at William Paterson University (NJ)
Jessica Reed, blogger; OpenDemocracy.net

We discuss:
– The state of the state
– Who supports Sarkozy?
– His policies and his background
– Where the French public falls in all this
– Eastern Europe
– Africa and former colonies
– Labor and birth rates
– How do fight back against xenophobia

 

bmtv62 Inside the European Parliament

This was done on the fly as many people gave me dirty looks during a recent work-related morning at the European Parliament. Blogging and podcasting have taken me many places and brought me many benefits, but it is funny to consider this is the second time this year and I’m sitting in one of the chambers of the parliament as part of a blog related project. Oh and since I was feeling the pressure to turn off the camera, my point never really got off the ground. Alas… here’s the vlog anyway.

Click To Play

Shame on Jan

Greetings once again from Brussels, city of long work hours and dreary office work.

Today’s item that has me pretty disappointed involves the Dutch government and the iron fisted oligarch that runs Russia. They’ve struck a deal so that the Dutch gas company now controls a higher percent in the Russian state controlled Gaz-Prom.

Some might say its just business as usual, but after all the outcries about how the junta oppresses people in Burma or how Mugabe is starving his own people, it still bothers me that so-called human rights respecting governments make deals and allow their companies to make deals with known war criminals and political assassins. Not that Mugabe or the Junta deserve a free pass.. its the consistency when it comes to respecting human rights, that I’m calling for.

Later this week I shall have a return guest to talk about another political figure in Russia, the very interesting Gary Kasparov. So keep an eye out for that show, as Kasparov seems much more complex than I had originally thought.