Watching Todays Students Reminds Me

It was January of 2000, and as I looked out the window of the plane, I could no longer see the Alps. For the past few hours I had been staring at them, occasionally looking away to say something to my new friend B. He was also from New Jersey, Fair Lawn to be exact, and we somehow we figured out back in Zurich that we were both heading to the same university for the semester. And so I looked out the window towards the city lights and the sea and I pictured myself walking amongst the Marseillaise, it was finally happenning, my study abroad in France had begun.

My host lady was coming to pick me up, while B’s was not so kind, so when he found the general direction towards the trains, I wished him luck on his first night and said – “see ya at school.” As I glanced left and right from the entrance of the little airport, i noticed everyone had melted away and it became oddly quiet. The silence gave me a moment to picture how I’d handle the introduction; I had taken a few years of French in high school and done fairly well, Dad was also quite good with the language, though he rarely practiced with me, and I had committed myself to reading LeMonde online every morning from 1997 to 2000, it was my training for this moment. And as Florence and her boyfriend Michel got out of their tiny car to greet me, I realized that while I could tell them how I think the Jospin government will fare or what I think of the rise of the far right party in southern France, I couldn’t do much with casual chats. But it didn’t matter. It is in this moments of panic that things just work for me… and that was no exception.

At some point during this first night in Aix-en-Provence, I blacked out. I mean my memory blacks out, I don’t think I did. I’m known to have a very bad long term memory, but I do remember being squeezed against my French Horn case in the back of the little Peugeot… and Michel would ask lots of questions. My responses were slow and usually in the affirmative. “Oui. C’etait bien. Je suis fatigue.” Most of the responses came back to this central theme. When I wasn’t sure of a sentence I would take it from Portuguese and magically transform it into French. Not sure how great it sounded, but it worked very well. Later I’d properly learn to speak the language and that strategy would still save me sometimes. We arrived at the block of flats that seemed indistinguishable from one another, home sweet home. I was shown to my room, and as I walked in I wondered how many other international students, be they American or Canadian or Italian, how many had come before me, and repeated this same proccess with these similar thoughts. It was my first night of an experience that would change the course of my young life forever.

Or maybe not. But I like to say it that way cause it sounds inspiring. I’ve been spending lots of time with new arrivals from the US here in Amsterdam. Young, inexperienced, inquizitive, ignorant, motivated, open-minded, ready to take on the world… they arrive. Sometimes it seems like torture to have to see it keep happenning over and over, like Groundhog’s Day. But mostly it unlocks memories that I thought I had lost, and takes me back to the night that started it all.

More Opium for the Masses

Danish cartoons… Danish cartoons... Danish cartoons.

I bet Denmark never felt so important as they do right now. Apparently it’s the new center of the universe.

Lots of blogs will be writing about it. Newspapers certainly won’t shut up about it. And unemployed, poor, angry, irrational, passionate, religious people have been driven to violence over it.

Danish Cartoons.

Thing is, it’s not the cartoon I want to comment about. It’s not how we should intepret the Koran or what free speech is either.

What disappoints me, besides the fact that, sorry my Danish readers, Danmark isn’t the spokescountry for me or the rest of Europe. Nevermind that. But when I look at how passionate, how driven, and how in-a-frenzy many people are over these comics, which depicted a religious figure in an offensive way… and then I think about how the American public barely reacted, when their government lied to them about going to war, planted a spy at the new york times to promote their policies, outed a CIA agent.. all using the media…

Part of me wishes the West had such energy, such passion. Instead of the misplaced anger and hatred always revolving around religion and images… I wish people took to the streets in overwhelming numbers in the US.. and stayed there, boycotting, marching, refusing to get back to life-as-usual. But no. Instead… it’s not in the US. It’s in the middle east and amongst certain muslim populations. And it’s not about life and death and lies and manipulation. It’s about cartoons and religious images. DANISH cartoons. ho-hum.

ps – If it were charicatures of figures from the Jewish religion they’d be declared an anti-semetic newspaper. If it were Catholic’s being maid fun of, an apology would have been issued before you can say Pope Benedict. Every religion is chock full of angry idiots, the double standard just makes it worse.

bm101 Still They Ride

The co-producer and co-director of the documentary Still We Ride joins me to discuss the history of the critical mass movement and in particular, the Republican National Convention 2004 in New York City where cyclists have become the target of a police campaign.

AudioCommunique #101 (mp3)

Discussed:

Emmanuel from Off the Hook’s experience at RNC 2004, audio
The events of the weekend of demonstrations around the convention
Andrew Lynn, Still We Ride the movie.
The Bicycle Defence Fund and the court cases cyclists still face
The past, present and future of Critical Mass

Music:

The Strokes – NYC Cops
Jurassic 5 – the game
The Smiths – This Charming Man

February Feedbag

It has been awhile since I last gave some credit to the great and dedicated comment leavers on this weblog. And naturally there are plenty of gems that I’m going to repost here and share will all of you… specially since I’m exhausted from 3 days of non-stop guiding 30 or so American exchange students through their first few days in Amsterdam. Oh the questions…. the neverending questions… I forget what a confusing place Amsterdam could be to some. Anyway, here come the comment highlights:

Ectropy on the Democrats present at the State of the Union address:

Yeah like they should’ve worn a t-shirt that says “2245 Dead. How many more?” Under their suits and then opened their jackets when they got into the speech. Oh wait, they would’ve been arrested. What a coincidence that the police dropped charges. Guess Bushie got his wish of having Sheehan out of the SOTU.

Aaron W, on the Saddam trial:

About Saddam, International courts are just a glorified conduit for victors justice. There are plenty of people who deserve to be taken to court for committing the same types of crimes as those Saddam is no doubt guilty of.
I’m a big fan of Romanian style “overthrow the dictator, drag him out of the palace to a waiting ‘court’, where you can instantly sentance and execute him.” It is impossible to fairly judge a head of state through any type of “process”, if you are going to have a puppet court you might as well make it quick and efficient and get on with it.

LeMarie on the electoral success of Hamas:

Thanks for pointing out the hypocracy that erupted after the Hamas victory. It seems as if some people do not understand what democracy means. The Palestinian people voted for the party they wanted and they won. That’s how the voting thing works. Doesn’t matter if you(non-Palestinians) don’t like the party, it’s what the people want. The world is acting like democracy is only ok when the “right” people win. I say, good for you Palestinians! I wish you the best with everything you do, because we(the West) should not be allowed to impose our ideologies on you.

The great Sarah on what deserves a Wikipedia entry:

i still want to know– how much buzz does a person need to get into wikipedia?

Of course there are plenty more, but these are my choices for tonight, naturally i love you all and you certainly don’t have to agree with me.. .ever. And here’s a videoblog of my bedroom coverage of the State of the Union address.

His Eyes Are Blood Thirsty

After wrapping up show 100 last night, since it was 3am anyway, I decided to catch some of the state of the union address. Course I could neither stomach or stay awake to watch more than 20 minutes of it, but I still had enough time to catch the war-criminal-in-chief’s Iran segment. And thought I was drowsy, it really hit home….

The man wants to invade Iran. The man wants to bomb Iran into the stoneage. I could see it, for some reason, this look I hadn’t noticed before. This dillusional rich-boy-turned-world leader actually believes it is an option to use war to get Iran to behave the way he thinks they should. And with the potential backing of the EU, China, and Russia, it suddenly occurred to me – he’s crazy, disconnected, and careless enough to order it. What difference does it make to him how many innocent Iranians would die, how many more soldiers would die, and all the remifications of invading a country as strong and proud as Iran.

I usually am not surprised by revelations in the realm of politics and conflict, you can usually see them coming, no matter how bad. But this one is a particularly tough one for me to swallow. I’m already thinking up actions that a podjournalist and an activist can take, to try and expose the stupidity and futility of using large scale violence to subjigate yet another nation in the name of “freedom”.

bm100: State of the World Address

A train wreck? Maybe. But its my 100th show and as an alternative to the state of the union address which says almost nothing year after year, this is my State of the World address.

AudioCommunique #100 ! (mp3)

Too many podcasters mentioned to link in this post… they are all in my blogroll (list to your left).
Beyond that, I jump from continent to continent, thanking those who have inspired me and pointing to issues that illustrate the state of things in 2006.

Music:
Clash – Guns on the Roof
Waldemar Bastos – Paz, Pao, Amor
Dresden Dolls – Coin Operated Boy
Talib Kweli – Rush
Billy Bragg – In Between the Wars
Bloc Party – Blue Light