Recommended links: Students for a free tibet and of course, Alive in Baghdad.

Music:

Pharoahe Monch - Welcome to the Terrordome
The Clash - Innoculated City

The Netherlands is working on something I believe is very logical and necessary — planning how to manage rising sea levels and global warming in the coming 100 years. They’ve planned in the past (1950’s) to manage the sea and their bodies of water in such a way that people are safe and can also enjoy the fruits of their water.  But as has become very apparent, the plans made 50 years ago are insufficient when you consider what we know now about the increasing speed that these changes take place. So instead of waiting for a major disaster, they’re devising a plan and dedicating big money to preparing NOW.

For the real details I recommend mr. Amsterdamize himself, who does a good job of laying out, in understandable terms, what the government is doing so far and what the ultimate outcome will be. Like myself, I think Marc finds it a strange contrast, going from watching the news about the gulf coast of the US scrambling to get out of the way of storms to reading about the Dutch government, planning for any storms or water disasters in the next 100 years.

Now we watch Gustav pass over the Gulf Coast, it isn’t Katrina in many ways, but the truth that Katrina confirmed, once again shines through — the money hasn’t gone where it should have, the recovery has still not been properly carried out. Levees in places like the West Bank aren’t finished, while others are simply too small.. and in either case, these are known facts. In other words, criminal acts where individuals have failed to do their essential jobs - planning, funding, and carrying out the work that is needed.

As I write this there are levees over topping and spilling over into neighborhoods around New Orleans. Authorities are quick to point out this damage is no problem and that in some cases the rebuilt levees are just barely managing to hold.  All this from a category 2 hurricane and storm surge. What would happen with a category 3 or 4? Would the city’s flood protection system be able to handle such storms that will, of course, come eventually? No.

There’s money for political party conventions and sending everyone a check for a few hundred dollars. There’s even money somewhere in Louisiana, set aside for Katrina recovery and properly rebuilding infrastructure, but none of this money goes where it can do any good, towards preserving communities and saving lives.

The storms continue and the criminals, they carry on as if they’ve done nothing wrong.

Among those that got in touch with me, Greenpeace Netherlands asked specifically to be on my program and if I would like to come to their headquarters here in Amsterdam.  And so yesterday I made my way over there and spent some time with Farah Obaidullah, Oceans Campaigner with a world of knowledge and experience related to Mauritania and the ocean floor. She also explains in detail what this fishing practice does to an ecosystem, and exactly who is doing this and how.

Also for background reading, from Greenpeace, here’s the document entitled Holland Shelfish - Strip Mining Mauritania’s Seafloor.

Music:

• Arcade Fire - Ocean of Noise
• Eddie Vedder - Society

While inside it is all smiling faces, boring pre-written speaches, and picture perfect pageantry, outside the convention- people are standing up, sitting down, marching, and engaging in all kinds of demonstrations related to issues of ending wars, restoring rights, and a long list of other issues todays mainstream politicians would like to keep quiet.  Of course we can’t rely on the corporate media to inform us about these demonstrations; but thankfully we have the net roots to provide information about what is going on OUTSIDE.

No it won’t result in much when all is said and done.  The game will go on and the next convention will soon kick off with even more people marching outside, with an even longer list of grievances.  But when I turn on the television and I see the political show with its long and boring cast of characters, it brings me great comfort to know I’m not alone… my people are right outside.

Apparently the amount of international pressure demanding their early release was quite significant and may have been a factor in these events unfolding as fast as they have.  I’ve been told that the story of Brian/the Beijing 6 had spread through the internets and to several high profile major media outlets.

Whatever the cause, I’m relieved that my friend and colleague is safe and out of such a dangerous place for journalists. Though still and always concerned for those who remain incarcerated regardless of their nationality, held for exercising basic universal human rights which the Chinese government claims to respect.

Music:
Phil Ochs - I’m Going to Say it Now
Utah Phillips - Ain’t it Grand

The topic of these emails was a reaction to my podcast with Pauline last week, regarding some of her work in West Africa over the last year.  In that program I brought up the topic of Mauritania, as I remember she had been there to look into the fishing industry and a controversy surrounding the selling of rights to fishing their waters to EU based companies, (including a Dutch company that uses bottom dredging, though I did not ask specifically about that technique).  One of the major sides in this struggle, as Pauline mentioned, is Greenpeace, who are acting to stop such fishing in Mauritania and throughout the world, due to its extremely destructive impact on the world’s ocean.

During the interview Pauline discusses things that most journalists in the mainstream will not tell you. The background to what she was thinking as she made her way around Mauritania, and how her observations influenced her opinion about what she was seeing.  Although I wish mainstream media would do more of that, instead of pretending to be so neutral and perfect, I recognize that alot of people and institutions out there, expect their journalists to behave as the mythical impartial news reporter.  Again, it is why I think podcasts can be of greater value if we really want to understand how and why the world is as it is; that vital understanding that no information is perfect, but by being a critical and engaged audience, we can not only be informed, we can understand that there are many sides worth keeping in mind, to an issue or disagreement.

So Pauline explained the side of those who see the practice of selling fishing rights to outside companies, despite the environmental risks, as worth it.  It should come at no surprise that regardless of where you stand on such questions, plenty of people on the ground in poor nations like Mauritania, will want to take the deal in the name of having jobs and boosting an economy.  YES, even to their extreme detriment in the long run. That doesn’t make it right, it is simply a fact that I felt Pauline communicated quite clearly in our interview.

In today’s emails, many people expressed their outrage that anyone would suggest that bottom dredging is ok and good for Mauritania.  They spoke critically and angrily at Pauline’s writing in the Dutch newspaper, and used my interview as some kind of evidence supporting their critique.  Greenpeace Netherlands have now asked to appear on my podcast to clarify there side in this. Obviously I’m glad to have them on, and eager to hear more about the situation in Mauritania. It is an issue, not to mention an important organization, that I’ll be proud to have on my program. But one thing I can say right now, none of this changes the respect I have for Pauline and the value I give to her work.

Expect that interview in the coming week

He explains:

• Living situations in the Ironbound of 1960
• The many cultures in the factory
• Social clubs and sport clubs
• Federal Pacific
• Seton Hall University
• Night School and the student strike
• The big corporations of Newark
• The airport before it was THE airport
• The Radio Program; The Voice of Portugal
• Portuguese Construction Workers
• The uprisings of 67
• The Italian Militia
• Bringing Portuguese music to the community

Music:

• Deolinda - Ai Rapaz
• Chico Buarque - Tanto Mar
• Vozes da Rádio - Os Índios Da Meia-Praia

Meanwhile there is this very expensive and theoretical project known as missile defense, which this blog has been focusing on ever since it was founded. You remember, the missiles that would be positioned all over the globe in order to protect the United States and so-called allies from Rogue States and terrorist groups who might launch missiles against them.  This system would supposedly knock out the other missiles.  Tests have long proven either failures or inconclusive, but that hasn’t stopped the huge amounts of funding from the US congress.  Meanwhile the among the nation’s who would allow these missiles to be stationed on their soil there are, once again, Eastern European nations that go right up to the Russian border.  And yet again, it is nothing against the Russians, the US government tells us, it is merely a coincidence that missiles are installed in such places.

Now we have this pathetic situation in Georgia, which I’ll leave the explanations to more experienced sources out there. But now the threats grow louder and less concealed, the US says don’t do that and lines up with Georgia, for the first time in a long time painting Russia as the aggressor and enemy. - Immediately the issue of who is in NATO comes up, specifically by the very desperate and politically savvy Georgian president.  And then, coincidentally, the issue of missile defense is on the front page of the major newspapers.

If you are in the weapons manufacturing business, which includes the people who make missile defense, this is all very convenient.  The governments, the media, and the public, are finally falling into step with the type of scenario where you can get EVEN MORE funding for your missiles and maybe cash in as nations very easily slip back into cold war logic, which so many of them have wished to go back to anyway. (the good old days for some)

My more simple point: Pay attention not just to what is happening in Georgia. See the larger picture of who benefits and just what is being set up here.

Highly recommended, as always, her blog from West Africa

We discuss:

• Types of news in demand in west africa
• What is the profile of a spam maker
• How do they make any money
• How do they rationalize what they do
• How did Pauline manage to get them to talk to her
• Mauritania, the circumstances of her visit
• Fishing rights, who has them
• Environmentalism versus Generating Income
• Quality of Life in Mauritania
• The European Union and Fishing Regulation
• and much much more…

Music:

• Waldemar Bastos - Kuribota
• Eyuphuro - Othiawene
• Henri DiKongué - Bulu Bo Windi Tenge

While in the United States I usually watch a bit of television and I definitely spend time listening to the radio.  One thing you’ll have no problem encountering on both of these mediums: ads that include the phrase “ASk Your Doctor About…” and then some perscription drug to help some ailment.  Apparently the public should then go to their doctors and tell THEM what drugs they want.

In the European Union this practice has long been banned. No ads with senior citizens strolling on the beach recommending that you ask your doctor about some brilliant new drug.

However, this October the EU will roll out new pharmaceutical policies that are intended to, in their words, “Modernize” the rules for the pharma industry.  One of the provisions they’re putting forward will allow the pharma industry to provide “additional information” to the public via the media.  Which of course would make it possible for some sort of television ad within Europe that presents viewers with what the industry seems additional info, whatever that means in the end.

Various medical organizations throughout Europe as well as Ministries of Health, are sounding the alarms, concerned that this is one step towards the US style onsluaght of ads suggestion you need to ask your doctor about this and that drug in order to happily walk through the forest.  The industry, meanwhile, insists that they would have no interest in that type of information campaign, and would instead want this to free them up for internet based info that people can request, rather than have it pushed on them.  Meanwhile, advocates of the changes insist that there are many other useful policies included in the package, and that there would be some oversight as to what would be deemed suitable additional information.

This change sounds like the first of many on the road towards a US style system where pharmaceutical companies treat people more like customers than patients. Beyond that, makes medicine ever more like a business than a service. Is it too late to stop them? I will try to find out.

Music:

• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Emily Jean Stock
• Mercedes Sosa - Pampas del Sur

This topic is fresh in my mind as I recently subscribed to my old public radio station in Newark- WBGO’s Journal podcast. One of the segments, which you can subscribe to seperately, is called Lost Jersey.  The host, in a very TV anchorperson type voice, visits mysterious or forgotten NJ places each week. Giving the history as well as the cause of the eventual demise of these sites. And sure enough, one of their visits was to Greystone, just as several of the old hospital buildings were being torn down.

One thing I’m reminded of, as I look through photos of the eerie boarded up hospital buildings, is that when I was a kid I believe my mom - as a college student in social work, had some type of internship that required her to visit Greystone on occasion.  But I don’t remember her descriptions of the place.

Next week I will join her in Portugal, so I’m thinking Greystone Park and Mental Patient Care in New Jersey might be a good topic for us to explore together. In the meantime, highly recmmended - Lost Jersey podcast.

Eating green bean soup (made my mom’s style) and discussing Barcamp Munich in October, VlogEurope Budapest in November, and the larger issue of California’s Agriculture ceasing to produce significantly in the coming decades. That according to several reports about the environmental impacts of the large scale farming going on in certain regions of CA, as well as the global food market which will leave the state an unviable place in terms of costs and profit.  But this is just the initial glance, more research and reporting to come…

Topics Discussed –

• Soy
• West Africa
• Lebanon
• Guests
• Talking to Corporations (the trouble with)
• HOPE
• Gay Pride Amsterdam
• and more.

Music:

• Conor Oberst - Milk Thistle
• Johnny Cash - Mercy Seat

One ongoing saga over the past decade, that involves so much human suffering and not much international media attention, is the detainment of asylum seekers in Australia.  Long before there was the torture prison at guantanamo, or extraordinairy rendition made the news, the Australian government was carrying out a policy of imprisoning anyone seeking refuge from war, political oppression, or any such cause that would force someone to flee their country.  These people, of all ages (that is: including children) were kept in prisons located on small pacific islands, which is how the program came to be named “The Pacific Solution.”

Started in the 1990’s under a labor government and then carried out in a big way by the Liberal government that allied itself so closely with the Bush administration, these imprisonments led to hunger strikes and demonstrations, as well as condemnation by international human rights organizations.  Yet still one would have been hard pressed to find much space dedicated to the issue in many of the world’s most popular news outlets. Even more rare was hearing any criticism or pressure from world leaders for the Australian government to change its policy.

And so it has taken many years and much suffering, as well as the election of a new prime minister, but finally this policy is changing.  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government has announced that they will stop imprisoning asylum seekers and end the Pacific Solution.  A look at the details reveals that children will no longer be detained, and in some “more extreme cases” people might be detained but their cases will be reviewed every three months. It may be too early to celebrate, but this announcement already seems encouraging…  full credit not to the Australian government for finally doing something to end the suffering, but to all those who sacrificed their own well being in an effort to make this change come true.

Comments on the internet, especially on published work (personal or otherwise), have long been the source of a lot of promises, praise, and condemnation.  The idea that anyone can write what they think, be it an angry gut reaction or a well thought out respectful criticism, or of course the occasional praise… it can all be a part of what you see on the site and what the content producer has put out there.  Its arguably the key ingredient of what makes a blog special. Arguably the future of this internet we’re all a part of.  Despite many sites out there deciding against comments or having to turn them off eventually do to some extreme or minor problem that could relate to harassment, what some people call hate speech, or just general irritance…. still a huge amount of sites, this one included, have managed to chug on.. comments and all.  Moreover I often think that my comments section is a good place, a mostly open and welcoming space where you can add to, comment on, or argue with something I’ve said or done.  Some just use it to say hello or make me laugh… sometimes a very uplifting occurrence.  Sometimes though, I’m bothered by a comment, by disrespect, or even by something I said without thinking something through.  Still.. the comments section rolls on.

This was the topic on the most recent episode of On the Media (3rd segment in the show), questioning what good comments have done news sites and blogs, versus what difficulties they may have brought. As usual I could have though of some better voices to have included in this segment. Especially net natives and freedom fighters like my friend Tony Pierce of the LA Times and the Busblog, who could have told them the beauty and occasional horror of the comments section. I would have also told them to talk to my dear Bitch Phd, another seasoned veteran who has (what I would call) a very special relationship with a VERY active comments section.

I digress, I do recommend the latest edition of OTM specifically for the focus on comments.  Even beloved/behated NPR voice Ira Glass tells of his experience.

Maybe you have your own take on news sites or blogs and how they manage comments.  Or perhaps, about the comments on my site.  If so, you know what to do…