Tag Archives: UK

New Jerseans Abroad

B has been in Amsterdam this week, visiting from Paris. He’s been living in Paris for something like 5 years now, along with his fiancé. B and I go way back to the days where we studied together in Aix-en-Provence, down in the sleepy south of France, 2000. As cosmic forces would have it, we are both from New Jersey, and for the last 6 years we’ve managed to meet up fairly often in either the US or Europe. I must say it is extremely comforting to hang with an old friend and someone who can relate on so many levels as an expat from new jersey with an additional european nationality, living in a third country. Sounds a bit like jupiter aligning with the pluto or whatever your favorite unlikely scenario.

We’ve spent a good amount of time comparing life and work in the Netherlands versus France. Naturally we’ve touched upon the demonstrations in the streets of France and the CPE law which effects the employment of young people. B expressed mixed feelings about the demonstrations, especially considering their timing – only after the law was passed did people take to the streets. He remembered reading extensively about the proposed legislation back in November during the street battles in the Parisien suburbs. Somehow at that time the type of collective action we see now did not occur. A bit late, is what B seemed to be saying.

Practically speaking, whether you live in France or Bolivia or wherever, it is indeed frustrating when people only get concerned about laws after they are passed. Even if there is a good amount of information available and decent warning from all the different types of media available these days, many seem only capable of ignoring it and then later when it’s much more difficult to change something, they get angry. It is, in basic terms, a bad habit. But a typical one of the type of democracies many of us live in.

Colonialism in North America

As I tend to stay up most of the night working on all kinds of blog reading, article seeking, audio collecting, and video editing – sometimes my eyes play tricks on me. Sometimes I think I see things wrong or I must be way too sleepy. That’s the feeling I had when I saw the headline yesterday that citizens of the US island of Puerto Rico were denied the right to vote in presidential elections.

photo by flickr member lynnifer

Puerto Rico, the commonwealth of the United States for almost 100 years. Who’s people are citizens of the United States. People who were drafted to fight in all the wars the country has waged since the 1st world war. Good enough to die for the country, but not qualified to vote for the so-called democratically elected leader of the free world. Doesn’t seem so free if you’re sitting in Puerto Rico. Probably seems ironic if you’re walking the streets of Baghdad peering around every corner to avoid being shot or blown up, and you’ve got an American flag sewn onto your arm, and you salute sir-yes-sir to some commanding officer from a state that can actually vote. Maybe when the Iraqi army is ready they can go liberate Puerto Rico. Until recently, the military used to test weapons of mass destruction in Puerto Rico. Good enough to test bombs, fight in the wars, pay some taxes, and salute the flag… but still not good enough to vote for president.

Freedom is clearly on the march. Colonialism is thriving too.

Seeking Belarus Sources

Alexander Lukashenko is pretty well known as the last dictator of Europe, that is if you don’t count Tony Blair. His ability to remain in power while most of the continent, especially Eastern Europe, moved towards a more open and liberal-democratic system, is pretty impressive. Despite the mixed results in the Ukraine, where the orange revolution seems to have gone sour somehow, it seems likely that the people of Belarus want change, beginning with the president.

Or at least that’s what it seemed before these latest results came out. Though the opposition claims fraud, no clear evidence of fraud has been presented, which means it is quite likely that his 82.6% of the vote is legit. BBC says even if the election were redone, it is very likely that Lukashenko would win easily.

So what to make of all this? I’m going to read up on Belarus bloggers and see if I can’t learn something and get a guest for the podcast this week. Could it be that he’s not an evil dictator that I’ve so often heard about? Maybe things in Belarus are going great? Or is it that culturally, perhaps people aren’t so into the idea of changing horses; instead they prefer to stay with the same president for as long as he lives. Or maybe it’s just well executed corruption. Hard to tell right now.

Personal Media to Increase Understanding

Last night at the “little” Dutch Vlogger Meetup, I rehashed a topic that I began talking about during the bloggers in Amsterdam roundtable a few weeks ago. The topic involves a personal belief of mine that producing personal media: blogs, podcasts, vlogs, photoblogs; and sharing them with people around the world, increases incultural exchange and therefore decreases the likelihood of using violence to resolve international disputes.

Did I lose you? It’s pretty basic, and some people might label it as naïve or wrong, but I simply believe that by reading blogs, for example, from people in Iran, we are getting to know Iranians on a very personal level. By knowing them and reading their thoughts and work, this helps defeat any propaganda that might be pushed by a government or a media that wants to sell you the idea that, say – Iranians are dangerous and tyrants and the answer is to bomb the shit out of the country. Readers, listeners, and viewers of Iranian pesonal media would immediately dispell such fairy tales, and insist that whatever methods are used to resolve a disagreement, violence is not an option – EVER.

When I brought this up, asking if the bloggers believed in this possibility, I think it was Ezra or Amanda, who saw it as unlikely, stating that for every Iranian blogger that might blog about peacefully resolving a conflict, the a warmongering Iranian blogger in the US or wherever, would emerge to support the opposite.

Amongst others last night, Gabe was an especially outspoken supporter of this idea, that if more people watched vlogs and were consumers of personal media across borders, the less propaganda that promotes violence, mistrust, and hatred would ne believed.

I think the biggest disappointment factor in all this is that we are still a long way from this being a reality. You reading this post are still a small fragment of the world’s population, as is the case for all personal media – most people still don’t understand or use it. Despite the fact that we may have the key to more peace in the world, we’re not even close to being able to save any lives.

For more on Iran in particular, I like to read Juan Cole. And of course, the granddaddy of the Iranian blogosphere – Hoder.

Echoes of ’68

One weekend of being nearly disconnected from the world and man oh man did alot happen in the world in the last 72 hours. I want to start with the one that has me most alarmed as trusty Portuguese TV news has been showing tons of footage from it: the student strikes at the Sorbonne.

First of all fuck the French government, especially Sarkozy since his signature of iron fisted police aggression is all over this one. Prime minister Villepin has also proven to be a complete coward who consistantly fails to represent people who never elected him in the first place. (the man has never run for public office!)

Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself condemning leaders instead of explaining what has been going on, for those who weren’t informed. Basically France passed a new law that allows youth (under 26) to be hired for 2-year contracts during which companies will be completely free to fire them at any time without any explanation. Apparently the idea is to enourage companies to hire young people without fear of having to keep them. Students, naturally, do not like this idea, and as a response, have gone on strike. To which the government has responded with brute force in the form of scores of riot police busting skulls.

Now depending on where you live, you’re probably thinking – so what, lot’s of us young people get fired after 2 years, or even 1… that’s life. Indeed it is a reality I have seen in various countries. But for the government to actually pass a law sanctioning this practice – that’s basically spitting in the face of every student who’s working hard to get that degree and build a career. For that reason alone, I say build the barracades, close the Sorbonne and all the universities in France, DO NOT ALLOW BUSINESS AS USUAL.

Last time I checked the Sorbonne had been forcibly evacuated. I saw police beating up students, many of which were either running for their lives or trying to defend themselves by whatever means they could find (rocks, bottles, etc.) It reminds me of the stories some of my old professors at Willy P used to tell, from the student strikes in Paris, 1968. Those strikes began with the students and soon spread throughout the country… maybe that is what this government needs in order to remember who it works for.

Off I go to sing Les Mis songs in the shower.

The Pumphouse

Greetings and good evening from Lisbon, Portugal. Capital of this funny little country my family hails from. People park on the sidewalk, dogs poop everywhere, random construction projects are everywhere; this is Lisbon as I know and love it. Cept that cars on the sidewalk, thats just annoying. Oh wait.. lots of things are charming to some while annoying to others, nevermind.

what I wanted to tell you on this my first of five days in Portugal is about my friend Elsa and the pub she works at – the pumphouse. Anyone who’s ever come to visit me in Lisbon has certainly been to the pumphouse. It is THE bar for me in Lisbon. It is where Mr. Anteater.org.uk and I used to play chess on our days away from teaching the good people English. And it is ALWAYS my first stop when I get into town, just like today – I go there directly from the airport.

But I never go at night. This because I don’t go to the pumphouse just cause I like their ice tea and Liverpool loving owner. Não. I go to see someone who is basically one of my oldest “family” members in this city. I’ve been coming here for years, since I was 17, each summer I’d stay right here in this apartment and take classes at university. And every single one of those summers you could find me, a few times per week, sitting in the pumphouse talking to Elsa. I always walk in and give her kisses and sit next to her and ask about her son, and then we talk about Amsterdam, and then she talks of travelling and projects that she hasn’t got off the ground yet. She’s a beautiful woman, so usually I fade into the background as the usual guys walk in and start talking up a storm with her. I give her kisses and head up here to my nest… thats the tradition.

I was thinking about how its been 4 years since I lived and worked right here. And then I started thinking its been double that long that I’ve known Elsa. On my way out of the pub this afternoon, as we said goodbye, I paused and said to her “it’s always good to see you, you’ll my family in this city, you know that?” Busy with costumers and probably more important things on her mind, she smiled and said “I know.”

Oh and I think I saw George H Bush today being led away from the presidential innaugeration by motorcade. You just can’t slow down those ex-presidents, they’re everywhere!