Friendship Express Rolls On

Last week, as I was doing the usual middle-of-the-night TV news network watching, the story of the train bombing aboard the Pakistan-India Friendship Express came up. Initially they called it a fire, and the details were few. I sat here, uneasy, as Im sure many observers did… that this was more than a fire and worst of all.. this was an attempt to break the peace process between the two countries.

It almost seemed typical. In my minds eye I could see India blaming Pakistan, and vice-versa.. then the train would be cancelled forever as would other travel links… and then it would be back to testing missiles and living on the brink of human annihaliation. As the next few details appeared on the television, I was already low on hope.

In fact that is NOT what happened. At least it doesn’t seem so, one week later. The Pakistani dictator-turned-president condemned the thing and vowed to keep working for peace. The Indian Prime Minister said the same. People mourned the tragedy, but in the news articles and editorials that I read, they didn’t call for blood. Which is some small way, seems encouraging.

Normally in the world, history repeats iself. Over and over. No lessons are learned, or at least, not enough lessons are learned by the people making decisions that can end or enhance human lives. Yet every now and then, I think we’re seeing an adjustment, a change. And in this case, I wonder if it isn’t a true change for the better… for peace between two longtime enemies.

Don’t Praise the Kids

Arrived some hours ago from Brussels, after a very enjoyable weekend exploring neighborhoods I hadn’t gone to in years with my cousin and meeting up with my buddy Tim.

At some point the topic of child care came up, probably because of my imaginary children that you know, I’m always talking about and concerned about how I’m not raising them since they don’t exist.

But a great subject of discussion became praising, not praising, and over-praising one’s children. Though it was a theoretical discussion in our case, we each spoke a bit about how best to do it or not do it. Makes me remember alot of kids I knew that were praised for every little nothing that they did… and wonder where they are today.. did all that praise properly prepare them for life.. especially when things don’t go right even though others once told you about how great you are? I really wonder. Then again, if you were almost never praised, maybe you’re constantly unhappy with your actions; miserable in effect.

All this is the topic on a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED episode of On Point last week. Whether you have kids or not, I recommend listening. There are even some reasonable tips about what to do if AT THIS VERY MOMENT you realize you’ve been praising your kid too much… what to do now?

In closing I’d like to say to myself: “dam you did a good thing going to brussels this weekend, BUT, you should work on cleaning your room and fix your sleeping pattern.”

Unexpected Brussels Encounters

As you can read below, I chose to blog from my mobile that I was on my way to Brussels. I very self-absorbed thing to do, admittedly.. then again so is blogging so ha.

But talk about practical; just as I’m crossing the NL-BE invisible border, Tim calls and says — I just read that you’re on the train to Brussels.. well Im about to get on the train from Berlin.. TO BRUSSELS. Et voila.. here I sit at some kind of tech conference for open source people.. Tim sits to my right chatting away about the Chaos Communications Camp to inquiring minds this summer.

My point is. Voila the power of blogging and new tech/communication devices. It may be quite simple and very first-world centric, but it is a great thing when you can write something and minutes later on one side of the world your mom knows where you are and on the other, a friend realizes he’s going to be in the same city as you for the weekend.

Or maybe you find none of this special. FINE. I give you a photo instead.

Oh air travel

Captain’s mobile blog: Here i sit @ gate for ams to ewr flight. Thanks to trusty TvBGone ive turned off annoying tvs throughout airport. Yay. Airport security is 75 percent useless, i like telling different lies to each authority figure. Ok, time 2 go

Dinner and WW1 Mines

You know its a good dinner conversation when we break into European History thru revolutions and wars. Shouldn’t be much of a surprise since in our spare time we also look up who the last King of the Austro-Hungarian empire was.

But this evening Krizu alerted me to something I actually had no clue about and am quite shocked to learn: They are de-mining Belgium from World War 1! I repeat.. WWI (1914 to 1918), there are still mines scattered about certain parts of Belgium that were put there around 90 years ago!?

This isn’t just a matter of fascinating tidbits of knowledge, this about a terrible war, so long ago, still able to claim victims. Apparently the Belgian army has a whole specific unit dedicated to finding these last land-mines. Obviously I now want to meet these guys, they must have amazing stories.

Beyond this I didn’t realize, and she pointed out, that only a few hours south, down there in Belgium, there are still plenty of old trenches and craters in the earth leftover from WWI. Why am I surprised? I guess I expected everything, beyond the occasional memorial or museum, to be cleaned up, renovated, built upon… in effect.. erased.

This gets me to thinking of other wars, including the current occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. What about the landmines? (several nations, including the US, refuse to stop using them) Or even the craters. How many generations later will still see these scars and live with the risk of potentially blowing up because of a landmine left behind, for another war that allegedly will end all war (or terror).

bm187 Poisoned and Forgotten, Katrina Survivers 2007

Some people might imagine that a year and a half after Katrina, life for many survivors might be improving as the rebuilding process progressed. But what if the rebuilding process was not progressing? More than that, imagine hundreds of thousands of people still living in FEMA trailers that are actually poisioning them? While the mainstream press turns its corporate back, an unbelievable crime is taking place along the gulf coast… again. In this program, with the help of people working for the recovery effort, we lay out the agonizing facts.

Guests:

Becky Gillette, Co-Executive Committee Chair – Mississippi Chapter Sierra Club
Ashley Tsongas, Oxfam America

We discuss:
– FEMA Trailers and the toxicity levels
– Health problems being reported and underreported
– FEMA’s response
– The Trailer Companies and the building of the trailers
– Options for trailer residents
– Next steps for Sierra Club and Katrina
– The delays of the rebuilding process
– Causes and those responsible
– The poor and housing in the NOLA area
– Lack of coverage of the issue
– plus much more, so please listen.

Nation Article on this topic