Amstel Heaven


Yet another endearing Amsterdam factoid – you’re never more than 30 minutes from total nature. And by total nature I mean lush green fields, old men fishing, stinky fat sheep, and endless bike trails without petrol powered monsters.

I’m involved in a top secret internet related project in a town called Ouderkerk on the Amstel (pictured). All I have to do is ride south along the Amstel river, for about 45 minutes, and I see the cityscape turn into farmscape. In the blink of an eye its cow paddies everywhere. Hell, even that repulsive smell is charming; I kind of lose myself in a blend of nature and podcasts as a cruise down there on my two-wheeled grey goose.

Occasionally you run into tourists on those open roads. I act like I don’t see them, because that’s part of my snobbish – Im a local – attitude Im working on.

A Peruvian Trap

You know how it goes when you’re a world citizen blogger. One day you’re talking about Poland, then Frisbee in Amsterdam, and before you know it, it’s time to talk Turkey. Or as we say in Portuguese “Peru” .

Not sure how much you know or the world’s media tells you, about Peruvian history and politics, but myself – I’ve been watching the events unfold for the last 6 years with great frustration. Let me catch you up:

From 1990 to 2000 there was a most terrible president by the name of Alberto Fujimori. A tyrant and dictator who used all kinds of violence and secret tactics to maintain power and oppress oppositional groups. But fortunately in 2000 his ass got chased out of Peru and back to Japan (where he is also a citizen). The country slowly started a process of investigating the crimes of the Fujimori administration, eventually arresting one of the major murderous assholes- Vladimiro Montesinos, who was the head of the secret police during that time, and was also very talented at profiting from drug smuggling. Unfortunately they still haven’t gotten their hands on Fujimori, because Japan refuses to hand him over.

So now there are elections coming up, and Fujimori – even while hiding in Japan – says he will run for president again. And having heard about this, I have a plan for Peru:

Being that it is necessary to deal with the past in order to face the future. And being that Alberto is responsible for a whole lot of human rights violations during his time as el presidente, I say he must be captured – in a clever way. Therefore – I say tell him he is running for president. Tell the whole country to “make pretend” .. and then pretend he wins.. and when he arrives at the airport with that smug “I killed lots of you the first time and youre stupid enough to elect me again” look on his face, ARREST HIM! YAY! Then comes the trial and people can throw tomatos and poof.. national reconciliation mixed with justice and even a bit of fun!

bicyclemark72: Manipulating the Public, Part 1 (fixed)

AudioCommunique #72(mp3)
29min+, 80kbps, 16Mb+

Too much to mention, but the discussion involves :

    The documentary: Century of the Self, by Adam Curtis
    The Father of Public Relations, nephew of Siggy Freud – Eddie Bernays
    Freud’s theories on the nature of people and psychoanalysis
    Corporations and the US government get into the business of understanding how to manipulate people
    Making it acceptable for woman to smoke
    WWI and WWII and the parallels with Nazi propaganda
    Buying Stocks, Cars, Clothes… buying an image
    Creating a link between Democracy and Business as well as The good of the country and business
    United Fruit’s PR campaign and war in Guatamala
    Bernays Fake News Agency and Propaganda machine
    The neverending parellels with Iraq and virtually everything today

Frisbee Champions

Since Ms Thingk told me to talk more about Amsterdam life, especially the personal details, this is going to be an exciting update to my fledgling ultimate frisbee career here in the Netherlands.

As many of ye readers well know, I’m a very active new member of the Amsterdam City League, and I practice with the team known as Crunch, one of a few great teams from Amsterdam which play around the country and the continent (i think). Normally I avoid the weekend road trips to god knows where, simply because I treasure my weekend time, especially for podcasting. However this past weekend I joined the Crunch-3 squad in the final games of the outdoor season, in Arnhem. What followed was a whole series of firsts in my life:

The first time I played ultimate frisbee outside of amsterdam.
The first time I joined the team Ive been practicing with for months.
The first time I played on state of the art new fangled almost grass-turf.
The first time I scored a whole lot of points against a Wageningen team that just could not control me.
The first time I collapsed midway through the third match of the day with violent leg cramps and was carried off the field.
The first time I watched the amsterdam red lights play live.

And sure enough, for the first time ever, I was part of a team that won the Netherlands 2005 Division 5 outdoor league.

It’s pretty incredible to see how seriously the Dutch can take frisbee. So many players of so many different ages (the old guys intimidate me). So many teams with so many funky names like the B-Frisbee-2’s or IceyDykes. While there may have been lots of international people present, I really felt like I had entered into a secret dutch sect of frisbee worshippers… and I kind of liked it, despite the sharp pain in my legs.

And YES, Frisbee Girl fans, she WAS there… and she still gives me those looks and I still feel light headed when we talk.

Speaking of flying discs, look- a ninth planet!

Cronyism Stinks

You do me a favor, I do you a favor; thants something I often heard growing up in New Jersey. It’s often a cliché reserved for mobsters, owing someone a favor, but the truth is that type of thinking and manner of relating with humans dominates our western society. Anywhere you look, at all levels, it is all about who you know, what you can get from them, and how you’ll eventually repay that favor. Sometimes it’s an honorable trade off used to reasonable means. But overall, I truely believe it’s alot of bullshit.

Think about it, you look at the whitehouse, and you see a sub-par lawyer get nominated to the supreme court by a sub-par president who has surrounded himself with unqualified people because they have been loyal to him. And he returns and rewards those favors, in oh so many ways.

But this isn’t purely political. You probably know a guy (more often a guy than a girl!) who has a sweet ass job, who is totally not qualified or simply does nothing. The thing is – he knew someone and maybe they owed him one. Cronies. Cronyism. I won’t bother looking it up in the dictionary, it’s all about giving people privledges simply because they have ingraciated themselves to you.

I can’t help but think if there were less of this in western culture, or generally, throughout the earth, the world would be a more fair and functional place.

bicyclemark71: The Dutch War Problem and Relationships in the Netherlands

Join the Mindcaster and myself as we sit in my garden and tackle cultural issues, especially relationships and civil unions in the Netherlands. (experimenting with a microphone… hence the odd sound)

AudioCommunique #71(mp3)
28min+, 80kbps, 16Mb+

Topics Include:
The Misuse of Public Funds by the Bush Admin
The Dutch government won’t share their intel on the Iraq War
Relationships, Living Together, and Civil Unions in the NL
The progressive aspects of culture here we forget about
Privatization of Electricity
Ryanne’s Video Blog is mentioned

Music Includes:
João Donato – Bye Bye Brasil
Bill Frisell – Perritos (Intercontinentals)
Lali Puna – Alienation (from Remixes and B-Sides)
Jay Unger – Ashokan Farewell
Lenin and Zelia Duncan – Naturalemente (from the João Donato Song Book)