I can explain

Sometimes.. though very rarely, I like to mention my activities in fantasy sports leagues. Some might consider this useless information, but I would suggest otherwise.

Of course, if you don’t know, fantasy sports leagues are where you sign up with someone like yahoo, and you get a team, and you draft a group of players, and then depending on how they do, your team does better.

You might recall my non-American basketball team, the Stoned Tourists; made up only of players from other countries. we did terribly, but it sure was fun. Currently my baseball team, the Amsterdam Junkies, are in the playoffs, we’re very good, thanks to some the finest pitchers in the league. And lastly, I’ve high (pardon the pun) hopes for my fantasy football team, the Amsterdam Sexworkers, though most of my players are either washed up, or wounded.

The point of this post is not merely to talk about my love for fantasy sports leagues, but to further explain what function it serves a Portuguese-American who worries about the state of the world. And that function is very simple; it reconnects me with my childhood. Back when I would read the sports page every morning with my dad. Before I learned about the inequalities of the world, when memorizing facts about sports players seemed important. While I don’t have the desire to move back to the US, I do want to stay connected through various ways, and fantasy sports online do the trick for me.

Plus, I love naming my teams after cultural aspects of Amsterdam.

Throw Down

I’d love to talk more about expat life, dynamic international females who hypnotize me, other world issues, etc. Trouble is, the New Orleans thing is still and will still be nagging for a long time coming.

But instead of repeating my points from the past few days, or telling you what you already know about the relief effort getting better, I direct you instead to mr Holywriter and mr Pierce who use words as weapons in the quest for a lil justice and common sense. Both of whom, for those taking notes, do not consider themselves progressives or leftists… actually I think they’re both admirable ciritcal thinkers.

But before I leave you tonight, I’d like to send a warm good riddance to old useless rubbish… goodbye chief justice ren. How dare I cheer for the death of a public servant, you ask? Because he was a greedy old man who hurt his country by not being honest with himself and retiring years ago. If I sit here and start to think about all the work that did not get done because the chief justice denial just HAD to keep his post. My only wish for him was that he would have retired long ago, let someone qualified take his place, and he could live out his days sitting comfortably in his enormous mansion. Not so such luck. Seems that this generation of leaders do not believe in letting go of power; even when they make mistakes that cost lives or when a nagging thing like DEATH lingers.

New Place

Goodbye Bicyclemark ranch… hello to the Bicyclemark HS. why HS? cause that’s what it says next to my postcode… and it stands for huis. which, shockingly, means house in dutch.

Amsterdam for non-Dutch means constant moving. This is apartment number 5 or 6 for me in the span of three years. Every six months is my average, and for an expat.. that’s not atypical. We exist on the cusp of society. In a shadow world, where housings costs more, and reading dutch contracts is nervewracking. So we don’t read them… I think.

So I must say goodbye to the ranch. Where I lived in three different apartments in the span of 1 year and a half. Goodbye to the garden where Ive raised begonias, impatients, and a flock of angry pigeons. Goodbye to centrum amsterdam, where every morning there’s a bum on your doorstep sparking up.. and bidding you a good day. Ah the memories. Perhaps Ill one day be a centrum kid again, but for the forseeable future, BM is an Oud West kid. Where turkish bakeries are plentiful, gardens grow in the back AND the front of the building, and the list of available wi-fi networks is mouth watering.

Responsibility

Soon the comments on this blog will require peacekeepers or national guard troops to keep things from getting out of hand. Obviously I sparked some emotion yesterday, and all I can say is — if you’re not angry.. then you’re not paying attention.

If there’s one person I look to for alot of information and understanding of what’s going on in New Orleans, it’s the mayor. Prior to this tragedy, I knew nothing about him. I still don’t know what his politics are.. .and honestly.. I don’t care. His behavior has gained my respect and attention. I just saw him on the BBC literally calling the response from the federal government Bullshit! He also comdemed all the media and politicians (read-theprez) flying over head and snapping photos instead of actually getting to work and assisting in the relief effort.

Speaking of the Beeb…. I’m a trained media critic, and I must say – I never expected – the coverage of the BBC has been excellent. What makes it excellent? They’re asking REAL QUESTIONS. Instead of just regurgitating white house press releases or the usual media mantra of infotainment, Ive heard several BBC reporters ask US officials the following great question:

Is this a case of the United States having been so obsessed with fighting terrorism that they neglected to address the basic needs of the country?

— ding ding ding—- EXCELLENT QUESTION.

And besides that the BBC has been openly critical of the bad preperation and known problems with Lousiana’s coastal infrastructure. And for that, I highly recommend you use them as a source for information instead of the pathetic CNN and whatever else shows you pretty graphics and exciting music.

Oh and one final point. There is something very wierd about watching a president who spends billions upon billions on invading a country, ask people to send cash donations. I’m not saying its bad to donate, I’m saying I get a wierd feeling in my stomach when I watch him do it.

On the Bayou

You may start to see a familiar theme running through my posts lately, but this stuff is festering inside my brain and its often a point of view that I think is completely absent from public dialogue.

Sure enough today we’re talking hurricane K and nightmarish conditions in New Orleans and Alabama. – Now the way the big media companies paint the picture, it’s basically a huge disaster and lots of people need help and if you could dial bla bla bla and donate to red cross dot bla bla. And that’s basically the tone of the reporting; show images of people on roofs waving… pleading for help, show brave pretend reporter in front of pile of rubble, switch to gwbush struggling to read the statements they wrote in crayon for him. The whole time you can tell he wishes it was a war speech cause those are the only lines he knows by heart.

And so that’s it right? Nothing else to do if you’re the media and the public. WRONG.
It is more than time to ask WHY. Since they didn’t investigate before this happened, the fact that the state of Louisiana had its emergency funds and infrastructure funds cut to help pay for the Iraq quagmire, needs to be exposed. Not to mention the fact that between 35 and 40 percent of the Alabama and Lousiana national guard is in Iraq distributing freedom by the barrel of a gun. This is not just a freak act of nature, this is a deliberate and criminal camapaign by the federal government and their insane crusades around the world, which leaves the nation unprepared for emergencies.

Oh, and just one more note, as you channel surf and watch all the bullshit reporting.. take note who is most effected by all this. The POOR. Look at the people standing on their roofs, I don’t see rich white people standing ontop of their mansions… no.. it’s poor people who are normally completely ignored all year long. Well, except when they appear on one of those COPS shows. And then they condemn the looting. If my family has no water or food, and no sign of being rescued for days.. you can bet I’ll be looting my local supermarket as well.

Here’s one blogger’s angry take on it. And here’s another worth checking out.