Open Source Anniversary

As I write these words, the internet’s most beloved Lesbian and former manager of the Grrl Band Goddess Riot Juice is flying over the atlantic on route to Amsterdam. She’s no doubt scrunched into a coach seat, cursing the polyester clad stewardesses, and complaining about the small portions of food. As soon as she lands, she’ll no doubt buy a bag or 20 of stroopwafels and make her way over to my neighborhood. It feels like the night before a big holiday…especially since we’ll have a houseguest and we’ve tried to fill the fridge.

If you’ve never listened to Madge, I don’t know what more to say to you. Some might say it’s an acquired taste, not for the easily offended or those who get caught up on certain words that embarress or challenge the average media language you’re used to hearing. Unless of course you listen to satellite radio or podcasting, then you know better than to get hung up on words.

But I digress, I feel like I’m selling what doesn’t need to be sold. I’m excited to see my friend and run around the city we both love.

Lastly today I got a mass email from Chris Lydon at Radio Open Source, which in the last year put out 200 shows. They’ve added audio comment options to their blog and I fully intend to use that option from now on. Maybe I’ll add one here someday too. Happy Birthday to Open Source, one of the biggest inspirations to me in the podosphere.

**Update — Not sure what the weather is doing in New York, but the flight has been delayed. So the fun begins on Sunday.

There was this French Teacher

Cold Thursday nights in late-May Amsterdam are a goodtime for watching the LOST season finale and taking a stroll down memory lane.

Back when I worked for the Dharma Initiative….. ha, just kidding; the internet does not need more TV blog posts. I’ll start again.

Back in 2001, right around the time the WTC towers fell, I was enrolled as a happy night student at New York City’s Alliance Française. This is the French cultural center and language school that you can find in most major cities all over the world, funded by the French government, I do believe. I was there to make use of my favorite language, after my time in southern france and all my new francophone friends in Lisbon, I needed something to give me a place to have conversations and improve my weak spots. The alliance seemed like the perfect place and of course I hoped to meet some great people there or a nice girl… either is always a welcome thing.

So as the rubble was sorted through, the country was going anthrax crazy, and the government prepared to bomb Afghanistan, I was making the commute to class and sitting for a few hours each week chit chatting away and enjoying the vibe. But time passed quickly. Most of the other classmates, especially the nice girls, didn’t seem preoccupied with hanging out with me, which I grew to accept.

Instead however, I did make friends with someone else in the class: the teacher. Gilles was from Paris, if I remember correctly. He was a calm and hip dude in his early 30’s (i think) who seemed to be caught in between loving new york, but being sick of the US. I’d hang a little longer after class and sometimes we would chat. I remember he liked my plan to move to Portugal… he was a big supporter of it, and expressed that he intended to move back to France or Europe at some point.

Thats pretty much how it went. Semester ended. I moved to Portugal. Gilles kept in touch… infrequent emails saying hello. Still in New York. Still plotting his exit. And well, you know how it goes… time passes..

And then today I got an email: A familiar name announces a new book; a novel. He probably doesn’t remember that I’m on his mass email list. Still, seeing the name in my email brought back good memories. My time as a night student, working on my french, while the city wrapped itself in American flags, and the government bombed a country to dust.

bm131 Tapping, Trolling, and Data Collecting in the EU

Over the past few weeks, the focus and criticism on the Bush administrations Wire Tapping Practices has been widespread and intense. First and foremost for being illegal, but also for its ineffectiveness, its intrusiveness, and more. Meanwhile in the EU, it is quite difficult to find any recent information on the data retention law passed last December. What did this law involve? Who is effected? And what about the reactions and responses to this legislation? Listen in as I give it a go.

Useful Links:

CNet covered it
The old petition against it
IHT’s article 

bmtv8 Religion versus Wealth

With this vlog I intend to begin a series focused on questions of poverty, religion, education, health and more. Somehow these things are all inter-related, and I’m going to look into the numbers around the world.

This episode deals with Religion versus Wealth. Using the data from PEW’s 2002 study, we can see the level of religiousness in both wealthy and poor countries. But the conclusions don’t come easy, so I’ve got much more work to do.

Watch the Video

PS — Yes, you may notice I make several guesstimates that are somewhat incorrect in this vlog. I was speaking only from memory, so forgive me. The numbers are still there for you to see for yourself, thats the important part.

An Excellent Way to Settle Disputes Between Iran and Israel

Let me just preface this post with one thing I want to be clear on: I’m not being sarcastic on this one. Matter of fact, remind me not to use sarcasm as a regular method of blogging, it’s a lazy cop out I occasionally fall into. I digress, here’s the headline from the BBC today:

A group of Israeli diplomats wants to sue Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide.

Incitement to genocide is what it sounds like. And under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, it is a crime. Nevermind the punishment, I’m not here to worry about that. What interests me is the method this group of Israeli’s have chosen to use to combat the statements and the potential implications of those statements by the Iranian president. This is what I called civilized. Not bombs or soldiers or threats, legal action on an international scale. It’s how it would work in my slightly more idealistic version of the world.

But this interests me for another reason. During my days as a masters student here in the Amsterdam, I had a professor who was very involved with the UN and particularly concerned about the role of media that incites genocide. Think Rwanda, for example, where radio was the tool used by Hutu extremists to first incite more and more hate and eventually culminating in violence which, if I recall correctly, was coordinated by use of radio programs as well.

So my professor had this idea for the creation of a monitor under the UN umbrella. It would be a media monitor, and its function would be to watch media (all types) to proactively detect if and when it is being used to incite genocide. Now, you might already be asking “then what” but like I said before, one step at a time; and it would be a very important step to be able to catch these things BEFORE they happen.

It has been some time since I sat and talked with that professor, and this is all reminding me of his plan. And although this situation with Israel and Iran is slightly different, and I don’t claim to know if the Iranian president is guilty or not-STILL- I have the utmost respect for any government or group of citizens who put together a case to be presented before the international court and before the eyes of the entire world, pointing out the violation of a very important treaty, and when a leader could be inciting violence on a mass scale.

So we’ll see what happens. And whatever happens, the symbolic value, the example such an action represents in the form of using non-people killing methods, is big in itself.

Who Gave What to New Orleans

Catching up on news from the past few days, I found time to look into some details until now I had not seen. As I read the list of who gave what for the Hurricane Recovery from around the world, it’s really interesting to see how the world can be. Take a look for yourselves:

  • Kuwait: 500 million (makes sense considering what the US spends on Kuwait)
  • Qatar: 100 millon, including 17.5 mil to Xavier University
  • Saudi Arabia and UAE: 100 million each
  • India and China, 5 million each
  • Bangladesh: 1 million (I’m impressed.)
  • Sri Lanka: 25,000
  • Cyprus and Dominican Republic: 50,000 each
  • Ghana: 15,000
  • Denmark: An oceanliner docked in Baton Rouge which houses evacuees

Of course there’s alot more. Some is direct, but much is actually through organizations. Lots of donor countries, especially the EU, didn’t do the direct money thing, probably because they’re well aware how many can be mismanaged. Hopefully that doesn’t happen in Louisiana… but considering how corrupt the national government and the shakey record of the local government in places like New Orleans.. everyone should keep on eye on this.

Speaking of eyes on New Orleans and hurricane recovery, I’m subscribed to miss B. havens vlog, and you should see their place down there.