Dishwasher Pete and Personal Politics

Last night was one of those classic Amsterdam nights that involved a whole lot of things to do, places to be, and people to spend time with. The kind of night that helps to remind oneself why oneself lives in this place.

The highlight of the evening was attending a reading by my friend Dishwasher Pete, who’s book is flying off shelves everywhere. Over at the American book store, Pete treated the crowd to free artisan brewed beer and an opportunity to ask him questions, get your book signed,and of course – hear him further explain some of the adventures included in the book.

While it is probably often considered comedy or travel if you look it up on some Amazon type site, I see this book as something far more important – political. By political I mean personal-politics, the most important politics one has.

As I read this book it was his personal politics that jumped off the page for me, at least the way I read it. The idea that a job is not the most important thing in your life. Or even beyond that, that no job that makes you miserable should be kept. The power of your feet, to walk out, walk away, and walk on when some force threatens to destroy or damage your mental or physical quality of life. Typical societal values would call such a philosophy “lazy”, but then again, typical society is miserable, in debt, uninspired and hoping to drag everyone else along with them.

Nowadays many of us live the reality of this “new economy”, which is a fancy name for a world where jobs come and go, and people have hardly any employment security or financial guarantee in the future. Hopping from 6 month contract to 6 month contract, accepting low salaries in exchange for the empty promise that it will significantly increase.

Yet being so disposable brings some of the very benefits that Dishwasher Pete realized more than a decade ago; the freedom and power of using your feet. Just as jobs use todays workers, todays workers are learning how to use jobs. They are no longer paranoid of losing their longtime jobs, instead often looking forward to an upcoming resignation. For those that understand and believe in their ability to find something else when needed, like the dishwasher, todays workers can also say goodbye to the irrational or incompetent boss. And of course, there are more and more of us that love to find ways to steal naps or wander off during the day.

My point today is more of a theory. And as I live my day-to-day, I see a connection between Pete’s marvelous thoughts and wisdom, and personal politics of today’s young “professional.”

Or maybe I should just replace the term “young professional” with “ME”.

Fading Language, Losing Culture

I’m sitting in the Portuguese Consulate in Rotterdam today, for what is always an entertaining adventure. While there isn’t an enormous amount of Portuguese flocking to live and work in the Netherlands, there are still enough so that someone is inevitably standing in front of the little teller windows at the consulate trying to work out some complex paperwork issue. And of course, no matter what it involves, everyone winds up sitting around waiting for extended periods of time while things get processed.

My time is used by scanning the waiting room and piecing together the stories. That man has a newborn baby that needs its Portuguese papers, you can tell by how happy yet tired he is. This couple next to me is speaking in English, hers is Dutch accented and his is Brazilian accented; clearly a match made during some temporary situation where he was either studying or working in the Netherlands, now trying to find some citizenship loophole because of his Portuguese grandparents, hence the very long wait and the frustrated look.

The case that gets most of my attention is that of the father and his teenage son. Dressed up like any 16 year old emo boy, this one comes complete with studded belt and carefully messed hair. His father seems resigned to handling the details for his slacker son, going through each paper and filling in the info. Apparently his ID was stolen, now comes the painstaking task of proving who he is. But thats not the interesting part… what gets me is that his father is speaking only in Portuguese, as do most people who frequent the consulate. While the son, he keeps answering everything in Dutch. At some point the man behind the glass asks the father “doesn’t he speak Portuguese?” To which the father gives a tired answer, he can, he’s just lazy.

Oh how I remember that. In many ways I was looking in the mirror, only it is a different generation and we’re definitely not in the United States. The boy looked ashamed to be in this room with us. He also seemed like a fish out of water, constantly responding to Portuguese questions in Dutch. Again… the reminders of my own teenage years.

I turned to have a look at the bulletin board and try to stop focusing on this father and son. There I see information about the local Portuguese school. Further down, information about all the different levels of Portuguese language exams. As I read everything over, I realize — I’ve done all these things. I’ve taken all those exams and received the diplomas to prove it.

A feeling of relief and pride came over me. Looking back at the boy I thought to myself, maybe one day he’ll go back to speaking Portuguese. Maybe this is the natural cycle of how a culture lives on and the language of one’s heritage is passed on.

At that moment, I promised myself that if I one day have children here, I too will bring my slacker son or daughter to the teller window, and I’ll answer questions in Portuguese, while he-she will rebel and answer in Dutch….. and it will be ok.

bm212 Reading Howard Zinn on the 4th

Howard Zinn, historian and war veteran, has dedicated much of his life’s work to telling the FULL history of the United States. This means including the dark and often upsetting truths of how the nation and its government has carried itself since its inception. In this special brief podcast, I read Zinn’s text entitled “On July 4, Put Away the Flags”.

Also audio from Utah Phillips and a fantastic statement from Joe Strummer.

 

bmtv51 Publicly Funded Internet Media

Click To Play

Engagement Over Isolation

Well my dear Portugal has taken over the EU presidency, and there is quite a buzz about their inviting Zimbabwe’s elected dictator Robert Mugabe to the upcoming Africa summit.

The UK and associated countries are upset, since there has been an ongoing travel ban on him and members of his government. Portugal is reportedly doing this because the African Union insists that every country be treated equally. But really this comes back to a classic debate in life, politics, you name it.

Isolation or engagement? Do you try to engage in dialogue with those you disagree with or those that have done something terrible? Or do you try to shut them out and find ways to punish or limit their capacity to act. And if you do either of these, what are the risks?

One of the common reference points is always the late Saddam and sanctions against Iraq. Then again there was also Qaddafi in Libya, which turned out quite differently.

At this point, taking into account this travel ban and the tactics adopted by governments critical of Mugabe, there doesn’t seem to be much change in terms of suffering Zimbabweans. He still does as he wishes and uses his office to carry out destructive policies and practices.

So maybe this is more than just pressure from the African Union. Maybe it’s time to try something else, including inviting the dictator you don’t like to some meetings; engaging in dialog. After all, he certainly wouldn’t be the only tyrant from Africa attending the meeting, and if you invite him, he has one less excuse during the next speech about how the “whole world wants to destroy him and the country”.

Mark D on Media Work

Struggling to recover following my panel discussion gig at the European Parliament, my speech at the international school here in Amsterdam, and the last 3 days of nonstop ultimate frisbee filming during our gigantic tournament/circus known as Windmill Windup.

Thanks to all this, I was not able to meet up with my friend and thesis supervisor back in my University days, Mark Deuze. Mark was in the Netherlands visiting from his new home in Bloomington Indiana. You may recall his appearance on a previous podcast talking about trends in journalism. Throughout my “career” as a crusading podcast journalist, I’ve remembered alot of lessons that I learned during those school days, especially my many conversations with him. Just this past week at the EU, as I stepped off stage, several people came up to talk to me and often said “you seem to know your stuff” (referring to media and the media landscape). I thought to myself, well… Ive been milling over these issues for years, I do believe I know some stuff.

I digress, still not functioning at 100% after all these activities, but I wanted to post a link to Mark Deuze’s new book “Media Work” which focuses on exactly what it sounds like; the work of people in media and what is happening therein. Read the book and of course, subscribe to his blog.