130 Million Indian Voters

130 million people voted… and the elections were only in five states.. that’s how cool India is. If you consider voting cool, I mean, which is debatable. But I digress; the left parties romped in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh. Not interested? Those five states alone have more people then the entire United States. – Just thought I’d mention that.

One of the most fascinating cases among these states, is that of West Bengal. This state is actually home to the longest running democratically elected communist governments in the world. It has been in power for 26 years, and just got re-elected.

This makes me wonder what they’ve done to earn such a long run. Obviously there is a long established tradition of voting for the Communist Party of India-Marxist in the state, but what does this tradition consist of?

A brief search around the internet taught me a few things. One of the most interesting- every member of the CPI-M pays monthly membership fees. I also read about the very important agricultural industry of the state, yet also the big manufacturing and IT hubs they have. This tells me there’s alot of economic acitivity, but doesn’t really tell me what it is that the CPI-M does for its electorate.

Regardless of the reasons, the Indian Left has made some big gains in the last few years, and this latest gives them more influence over the national government. Which means maybe less of these pro US type deals, as we saw recently with nuclear technology cooperation. And hey, more opening up to and talks with Pakistan will likely continue. So hooray for that!

Turning to the other side of India, Dilip is in Goa.

Even CNN Can’t Hide Reality

I have a tendancy to stay up til 2am. Actually I tend to stay working on things til 2am, and then I flip on the TV and catch up on either BBCnews, France’s TV5, the occasional Dutch NOVA program, or yes.. like last night – CNN.

My excuse for CNN watching is that its low on the channel list and I can only surf channel up or down. Plus I’m mesmorized by the fact that Larry King has a show that people watch, cause he is perhaps the most useless man on television.

So it’s 2h30am last night… and I’m starting to fade, and the good-looking british-thai anchorwoman tells the audience to be careful, as the following report would have images that might disturb us. – I perked up. Disturbing? On CNN? Would could it be?

The segment was spending a “day” (5 minutes) in an Army hospital in Baghdad. And on this day, injured soldiers with bloody hands and feet and yellow skin were being helicoptered in one-after-another. The doctor would talk to the patients and honestly tell them he may not be able to “save the leg”. There was a good amount of pain sounds; moaning, crying, shouting. All the while I kept thinking — this is on CNN?!

Earlier I had read that the Baghdad morgue was reporting 1,000 deaths per day. And as I rode to frisbee practice, Radio Open Source had journalists working in the “green zone” talking about how everynight there are gunbattles and kidnappings, and every morning you see the bodies in the streets.

I know people compare this to vietnam sometimes. I know other people hate comparisons. However you choose to look at it, I watch reports from all over the world, including from inside Iraq, and what’s going on is truely sad and could have been avoided. Like parents so often (at least they used to!) teach their children, violence is not the way to solve problems.

bm127 Pfizer experiments on Nigerian Children *Fixed*

Anyone who watched the film The Constant Gardener is familiar with the theme of a pharmaceutical company pretending to give free vaccines in Africa while secretly testing drugs on the public. Well the real thing happened, almost 10 years ago, and only now is the truth coming out. *fixed for annoyingly mysterious reasons that keep me up half the night*

AudioCommunique #127 (mp3)

Useful Links:

Washington Post recent article exposing pfizer
Worldpress.org article
2003 article about the case in the US
Declaration of Helsinki

Music:

Fela Kuti – African Message
Fela Kuti – Yellow Fever
Fela Kuti – Army Arangement
Final Fantasy – He Poos Clouds

——
podcast made possible by you the listener and also Springheeljack.net

Second Life May Have Some Use

Ok I promise this won’t be an excessively frequent topic on the blog. At some point I may actually get completely tired of it and you’ll never hear me mention it again. But until then, I have now become a pretty frequent participant in Second Life.

Not to get into all the explanation of what it is and whether its a waste of time or not, it is basically an online world, filled with people doing things, building things, socializing, and generally existing in an isolated yet fairly creative space. And the appealing part for me, has been that on SL I get to walk around and hang out with listeners and fellow podcasters. Simple examples: I hung out briefly with Adam in front of his Curry Castle. I’ve stood around Madge’s Casa Del Bloat as she tries to build a truely lesbian home. And I’ve walked around from place to place with Mikeypod, laughing about what we find and who we run into. It may sound lame, but these are experiences that wouldn’t be phsyically possible since we each exist in a seperate country, if not continent.

Then last night I experienced another potential benefit to this second life world. I had noticed the Comic Strip Blogger’s platform, next door to alot of the other podcast related buildings, and I decided to go over and see who was there and what they were up to. As I flew over (yes, you can fly) I immediately noticed that CSB himself was sitting at a proper desk, looking like an invited speaker at a seminar. Surrounding him, seated in a semi circle, was a collection of podcasters, listeners, and random second lifers. They were discussing technology, which was no shock to me.

I eventually found a seat, and since the conversation had died down, I brought up a topic Im working on for a upcoming show — Genetically Modified Food and the Tests taking place in Europe. To my surprise, a number of people chimed in, some of which worked in related industries (organic farming, genetic engineering). It was exciting to see people sitting down together and airing opposing opinions and asking questions of each other. All in a virtual world, yet a virtual world made up of real people.

May seem like a waste of time, or a video game, but I’ve seen signs of something more. I still wish I didn’t spend my time wandering around Second Life, but I’m encouraged by some of the interesting and hilarious experiences I’ve had there in my first week.

ps– yes, as you can see, both a guy in a chicken suit and a guy in a fox suit participated in the conversation. all are welcome, regardless of species.

Bradley Whitford for President

Combination of lots of time on the boat and working on boat related creations involving wood and hammer, visitors from different parts of Northern Europe, and Second Life, have made me fall very behind on all things blog.

Photo Hosted at Buzznet.comI could tell you about my upcoming podcast focusing on crazy or not so crazy charles taylor of Liberia, as Pauline sent me a great email, having just returned from Liberia, that inspired me to ask her back on the show ASAP. But I’ll save the rest for when the show is ready.

What I would like to bring up relates to the show the West Wing, which if you don’t watch it, you may recall me occasionally mentioning it as a program I very much enjoy and secretly wish the American government was really like.

But I’m not here to discuss specifics of who did what and why. Instead I want to discuss the appearance of the actor who plays Josh, Bradley Whitford, on Bill Maar’s show recently.

It was stellar. It was inspiring. It was just – the epitome of articulate and passionate and intellegent. Maybe years of playing a character that works for the whitehouse requires you to do alot of research and you come to understand how the government should work and why it doesn’t. He seems to have a fantastic sense of what is the truth, what is manipulation, and what is wrong with the US. Among my favorite moments of the show, Whitford turns to the former Virginia govorner to his right and asks “you’re a christian, right? — And you’re for the death penalty? But the bible says not to kill? So doesn’t that strike you as a problem?” (something to that effect.)

Of course the guy defended himself with some catch-all about the “right time” to kill someone who “deserves” to die. But Whitford was excellent, no hollywood fakeness, he came right out and spoke his opinion and observation. Especially when he got into how terrible the government has helped make the image of the flag and americans around the world. He spoke about the classic move we all know about, attaching a Canadian flag to your bags when you travel. The former Canadian prime minister lady was sitting next to him, and said it was – unfortunately – a good idea. She was good too. But it was Bradley Whitford who completely won me over. Any show he’s ever involved in from here on in, I’m going to pay extra attention to. And if he gets into politics, as so many actors love to do, I’ll have my eye on him.

Go find this episode, use bittorent, if you don’t know what bittorent is, read about it, then join the millions of people, try mininova.

bm126 Focusing on the Global Terrorism Report

The State Department’s annual terrorism report has been partially hidden away and kept from the public. Yet even the information they did release reveals some cold hard facts that bring real questions about the “war on terrorism” and how it is being carried out.

AudioCommunique #126 (mp3)

Useful Links:

The Report
Washington Post Article
CNN’s Version
and from the IPS

Music:

Bruce Springsteen – Mrs McGrath
Morrissey – You Have Killed Me
Bright Eyes – Theme From Piñata
Stars – Celebration Guns

——
podcast made possible by you the listener and also Springheeljack.net