Pain of Potential

It feels like May, to me, when frisbee season is in full swing and I’m playing three times a week or more and I run and throw for hours without noticing. It also means that new people join the our league here in Amsterdam, and that inevitably means all those questions that I can never answer properly about what I do.

What do I do? “I’m an internet journalist.” “I’m a podcast journalist.” “I’m a freelancer.” “I do a little of everything.” “I’m under-employed.” Or my personal favorite “I drive a red boat around town.” No doubt it has scared away a potential date or two.

And so this evening I’m reading up a bit on the wonderful Portuguese blog written by Antonio Granado about journalism and the internet. Recently he pointed out some facts about the online application known as twitter. If you’ve no idea what twitter is, I can summarize what you’re missing – Potentially great, amazingly useless.

Why so bitter? It is like many things in this life and on these internets, the power to harness creative energy and people through revolutionary communication…. used to broadcast complete nothingness.

Picture it, you go on twitter and you have a small collection of friends, a common thing with all the internet applications these days. And whenever you easily and quickly type in a 2 line message, all your friends can see it in a real time chronological list. NOW, ideally, this could be used for say… a group of journalists… or say gardeners.. writing brief updates about a project, problem, or pressing issue that collectively, the group could certainly benefit from hearing about and responding to it. The same has always been said for how blogging or lots of different online applications could be used.

So I joined twitter many months ago, loaded it up with 20 or so of my favorite videobloggers, podcasters, and those I consider internet activists.. concerned about understanding the world around them. I purposely do not add another 40 to 60 people, most likely some very nice people who I suppose want to hear my little messages, but whose messages I just do not want to spend time reading.

But whether it is on my list, or someone else’s list, most of what is happening is simply garbage. Occasionally I find that even I join in and write some useless garbage like “trying to figure out where the socks get lost in the laundry process.” Just one more in the pile of messages about who is bored. Who is eating. Who is watching TV.

So much potential in the hands of we who somehow don’t take advantage…don’t manage to get passed ourselves and our provincial thoughts or activities. And then we hear about how twitter is growing and how amazing it is and wow what an application.

Amazing indeed. Some guy just announced he’s going to sleep while another one is about to watch the latest Sopranos. Rest easy world, today’s internet user is highly complex and concerned about the problems of this world.

Puppet Government

Recently I was watching some footage of the IRaqi parliament. An institution that I have to wonder about from the beginning as, to me, it wasn’t a truly elected (odd list system) and is basically a symbolic body to go along with a puppet government.
As I watched, the speaker of the parliament as well as all these guys sitting around him were laughing as a female member was passionately speaking about an issue that concerned her. The more she spoke the more they laughed…. at her. And others joined in.. and she kept trying to be heard over the growing laughter. Many people stood up and walked out in protest. It was an extremely sad sight.

I do remember when not so long ago a fist-fight broke out in that same parliament, one member apparently slapped another and it went on from there.

The only reason I bring it up is that I find it to be a testament to how ridiculous the entire adventure in Iraq has been, especially the thinking that you can force democracy on people and it will flourish.

Also interesting, as Juan Cole recently pointed out, the parliament passed a resolution that the seperation wall the US military is building in Baghdad must be dismantled. Of course, they won’t do it. Just a friendly reminder of who really makes the rules in Iraq.

Note: Podcasts and vlogs are delayed as Im struggling to complete a little freelance job and yet exhausted after a big ultimate competition in the south of the netherlands today.

Dr. M Goes Swedish

Longtime blogreaders might remember my good friend Crazy Dr. M., Californian turned Amsterdamer years and years ago. And after many wonderful years and countless barbecues, the good Dr. is taking a job up in Umea, Sweden. Home to another good friend. (remember when I went to visit in 2005?)

As we celebrated his departure today, he began telling me of an upcoming trip to a place called Sergipe, Brazil. (pronounce it, ser-jee-pee) He asked me if I knew anything about it, and until tonight, I didn’t.

Apparently Sergipe is a pretty untouched state, lots of savannah is nature in general. But as Dr. M was telling me, they’ve got plans to build new cities and other development. Which eventually led us to another discussion that I’ve often heard in the last year: A state like Sergipe produces sugar cane. If Brazil and other countries of the world start to push for ethenol/fuels that are made from sugar, that means more sugar cane plantations will be needed and more land will be cleared. IRONIC. In an effort to do something responsible for the environment, this would serve to destroy more natural habitats, forests, jungles, etc. And from the way the bigshots like the presidents of Brazil and the US seem to be talking, this is exactly what will happen… big money for sugar and corn based fuels.

People always say, well, we have to try something. I’m all for action, but demand some serious analysis and more responsible policies.

Researching Gold Crimes

For the past week I’ve been researching the activities of gold mining companies around the world. I’ve narrowed my focus to two places, Chilé and Romania. In both places it is one mining company above all, that is focused on extracting gold despite whatever risks to the environment or communities that may involve.

In the coming weeks I intend to have a few podcasts on both places and on this topic. Eventually I may hitchhike my way over to Romania in the coming months and see things with my own eyes, make some video entries about it.

But at this point I wanted to start the conversation about the practices of mining companies, and specifically the gold mines. Barrick Gold is a Canadian company, which of course, tarnishes my naive hopes that all things Canadian are considerate and kind. This company is one of the largest mining operations in the world; in Chilé they are set to mine under glaciers, insisting that the exact spot where they are mining, no glaciers will be harmed even though the area has several. As if the world was so brimming with glaciers that it would be no big deal to go and destroy one in order to extract gold. In Romania they’ve been trying to buy out an entire community and create Europe’s largest open pit gold mine. Unfortunately for them, many of the people living there do not want to sell their land and let it be cut open. As you would expect, some are very ready to sell and to hell with whatever happens to their former home. While surrounding communities are concerned about the amount of pollution they will suffer because of that type of mining going on near them.

Of course there is much more to all these stories, and I’ll get to it. But right now, what bothers me most of all is that so much of this destruction is done for getting…. gold. Gold that does what for people exactly? Does it even power anything or help build something useful for human life? A friend of mine called it “free money”. Of course it costs money to actually mine it, but still… all this destruction and conflict because this mineral is so valuable in some bullshit in-humane place called “the market”.

Intelligent Urban Planning

The city of Louvain-la-Neuve is located less than an hour south of Brussels. I had long heard that it was a major University City for the Franch-speaking Belgians. But what I never fully understood is the story of why and how the city was built, only 40 years ago, in a very unique manner.

So today, accompanied by my cousin, we headed down to LLN to see the city and how it all works. As we rode the train into town, I knew we had arrived when suddenly everything went dark and the train went into a neverending tunnel.

This is not only true for trains, but for cars as well, all traffic circulates underneath the city. As we got off the train and climbed the stairs up to street level, you look around and see people walking in every direction, the occasional bicycle, and only the sounds of people.

It was pretty amazing to see, a city who’s construction began only in 1968. And even back then, they understood that to create a truly vibrant and healthy city, you should find a way to have NO cars on the roads. Voila, you never see the cars because they are underground. Occasionally you run into a stairwell or an elevator to the sub-level street where there is parking. But otherwise, you see nothing but college students in their early 20’s, a beautiful site in such a calm environment.

A place like this amazes me when you consider the terrible cities that exist in this world. Obviously most of them were not properly planned and are so old that extreme circumstances led to some aspects getting out of control. But still.. then you visit Louvain-la-Neuve, and while it may not be the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen, it is still wonderful… especially when you think to yourself… people can create and live in a place like this.

bm202 The Case of Jailed Egyptian Blogger Monem

Since blogging began we’ve seen people throughout the world, jailed for writing their opinions. And while many countries claim to be democratic and free, many bloggers have experienced quite the opposite. Today on the program, with the help of Mary, we talk about the case of Monem and the free Monem Campaign.

Useful Links:
Mary’s Blog
Free Monem site
Reporters Without Borders Petition

We Discuss:
-Who Monem is
-His work
-The Muslim Brotherhood
-The Arrest
-Other jailed bloggers in Egypt
-Danger of Torture and mistreatment
-Campaign’s focus and strategy
-Answering the critics
-Media and Violence
-Tools for helping free a blogger in Egypt