Fear of Losing Estonian-ness

As part of being in Berlin this week I attended a lovely hacker conference-party by the name of PH-Neutral. Perhaps the best part of this get together was that I met two very fun new friends, K and F. (maybe they dont want their names used, who knows)

K recognized me from the talk I gave at the congress back in December, she gave me a big smile and told me how much she enjoyed my talk. Turns out K is Estonian but has moved her life to Berlin. She and her boyfriend took me out on the town last night, exposing me to some of the nightspots where other revolutionaries gather. And throughout the evening we discussed education, culture, the internets, and much more.

One very interesting thing I learned from K about what is going on in Estonia, was about how fearful Estonians are that their culture will disappear. With only around 1 million citizens, she explained that the very common political and social discussion is about how things like culture, language, and especially music, must be preserved and passed on. This is, of course, while Estonia also has a very significant Russian minority that has lived in the country for several decades. The conflict she pointed out was that Russia being so huge and right next door, is seen as a force that could erode Estonian culture… and as an extension of that.. there becomes a struggle between the Estonians and the Russians in Estonia regarding language, culture, and from what Ive read – rights.

So then comes the very typical discussion that you here in various countries… the classic question of how minority groups should interact with the so-called national majority.

K and I agreed that neither of us supports the forcing of anyone to be anything. But I understood that the average citizen in Estonia doesn’t share our opinion. Instead it sounds like typical rhetoric about how minority groups must do this and that in order to be good citizens and get “intigrated”. Still it is hard to compare what happens in Estonia to say.. the US or even Germany. Small place. Few people. Unique situation.

bm205 Global Shipping and Its Pollution

The typical mainstream discussion about global warming contains mostly conversations about political deals, automobile usage, and where they’re putting a new wind farm. Yet one area that rarely gets written about is that of the shipping industry, where most of the world’s goods are transported. What kind of pollution risks does the industry bring and what are ship designers saying about it? Damian Tatum joins me from New Orleans to discuss this and more.

COmmon Dreams Article on CO2 emissions from shipping
Friends of the Earth Press Release also related

We Discuss:
– What ships are built on the gulf coast
– What kind of pollution to ships generate
– Who regulates the ships
– Are there steps that ship designers are taking to address climate change needs
– Why isn’t it discussed?
– Is there need to worry
– What Companies are involved
– Will the public get concerned?

 

Kitchen Radio Berlin

I wandered over a few blocks from where Im staying here in Prenzlauerberg (Berlin), to take part in the latest eipisode of Küchen Radio. The people sitting around the kitchen table were great fun and I loved answering questions and observing their style of running a show.

By all means click and give a listen, you’ll here me talk about media, money, growing up Portuguese-American, some very personal issues, and much more… if you can stand one hour of me and the Küchen friends.. go for it.

Otherwise all is well in Berlin. Many stories to tell and issues to bring up. Also if certain organizations would please return my dam emails, I could continue doing my crusading journalist work!

Congressional Pork Crimes

All the critics are up-in-arms at the shocking development last week, that congress voted to give the GWBush his war money. Obviously they’re outraged because the party they were convinced would represent their opposition to the war, did not do what they were elected to do.

Yet the disappointment doesn’t end there. Because this was all part of “making a deal”. According to this deal, if congress votes to give billions to kill more Iraqi’s, in exchange, they will get their minimum wage increase (though I don’t know many adults who can actually live on 7.25 an hour). They also secure alot of money to finally fund the Road Home Program which was supposed to help post Katrina recovery until the program ran out of money. Oh and there’s even a little help for small businesses in the form of tax breaks. All lovely and necessary things I suppose, and I’m sure many good intentioned people will point to that and say; well at least we got that!

But my rhetorical question is: what does one have to do with the other? And what kind of sick government attaches essential money for sufferring citizens in places like New Orleans, to the money needed to fund the occupation and subjugation of another country? Those two projects have nothing to do with each other, and their funding should not be used as some kind of leverage or bargaining chip.

Reading through the texts of these bills, all included in this shameful “deal”, I again return to the conclusion that the US government and the political system in general are broken in the most fundamental way and these two parties are responsible.

bmtv49 The Remains of Centralia
More than 40 years since an underground fire began burning, the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania has all but disappeared. Leaving behind only grave yards, dead trees, empty plots of land from former houses, plumes of smoke from the fire below, and of course.. the few Centralians who have stayed put. This video blog entry was recorded last month, during my visit to Centralia. It features both my and my brother’s testimony, as we surveyed the few traces of a once vibrant community and the fire that still burns underground.

Click To Play

Reality Based Language

Greetings from Berlin. As I sat down for breakfast with Tim this morning, the term faith-based community some how came up. Naturally, this was followed by the term reality-based community. He loved the both and laughed through much of the meal.

As he read through the wikipedia entries for both these terms, I started talking about Frank Luntz.. do you know that name? Well you should, because he is and was a key figure in manipulating YOU. (by you im talking mostly to Americans right now)

Yes all those terms you think nothing of these days… insurgent, death tax, culture of life… these are the types of terms this man helped make part of the public conversation on issues. His specialty is taking something, especially a government policy or a proposed policy that would normally upset you and changing it into a name that makes you feel safe and comfortable. Examples: Logging = Healthy Forests Iniative, Drilling for Oil = Responsible Energy Exploration, and apparently Global Warming = Climate Change.

As I sat there going over the art of manipulating the truth and people, that familiar frustration came back. Did this really happen? Did this guy, working for the government, really take words that describe bad practices and policies and twist them into something more acceptable? Even now, it is hard to believe, but he did.

Here’s a link to a video illustrating some of his work.

Many have praised Luntz for his ability to do this. I consider him an accessory to mass murder and various other crimes.