Thursday, 29. March 2007, 20:47:00
politics, environment
(If you are too tired to read through my rumblings please jump right to the end of post and read the linked articles. This is way too important to miss.)
I'm not much of an ecologist, which is I don't believe that ecology alone is a theory that may be used to successfully change society. I find ecology as part of a broader political theory much more viable. To say it simply, I'm not the first to yell "close that fucking stinking factory" because I'm well aware that this factory gives food to it's workers and their families and if it closes down there will be a huge humanitarian problem (unless you care more about wildlife than humans which is a totally respected view but it's not my view (yet)).
What I'm trying to point out is that our world is a far cry from being simple or even linear. You think that you have a solution for a problem but you may be inches from creating a worse problem. Simple to predict but totally obscured under your rush to solve the problem at hand.
So. You may have heard of biofuels. Simple and ecologic idea. We can make diesel out of plants. And this process won't add up to the global warming problem because we won't be freeing extra carbon - just the carbon that the plants used to develop. So, in a simple move we get clean gas which we can feed our cars without having to reside to fancy technologies.
In fact this idea seems to be so good that USA and Europe are rushing to make it happen. It's not placed somewhere in the distant future. It's actually being deployed right now.
I too, thought of it as a nice idea. Funny how short an engineer's view may be sometimes.
See, let's follow this scenario. Biofuel gets momentum. Larger and larger still areas are being used to grow plants solely used to get fuel out of them. Yet, demand for fuel still rises and now we have tied eatable crops with the energy economy which means that food starts to cost more. To meet growing demand enterprises buy more land mainly from underdeveloped countries. They, in turn, start to sell land that happen to host say the Amazon forests. Meanwhile poor people start having problem in buying food... More forests gone, more people starve, etc.
Looks more like hell now than a solution, doesn't it?
If you want to get a much better analysis on the subject please read the next two articles.
Feeding Cars, Not People by George Monbiot
and brand new update
A Lethal Solution by the same journalist.
(Btw, the man kicks. I'm really sorry I was so late to discover his blog.)
Monday, 12. March 2007, 21:27:25
Greece, politics
I'm not a reporter and my writings are not a professional recount of what's happening. So, I'll just try to give a rough description of what's been going in Greece for the past few days.
A HUGE STUDENT FIGHT AGAINST YET ANOTHER NEOLIBERAL EDUCATIONAL REFORMATION.
That's the big picture to me and certainly that's the big picture to thousands of students, teachers and professors that took part in a HUGE march against the law last Thirsday.
It was like a huge concert. Great music. Way too many people. Rythm and vibe all over the place. Peaceful but powerful. And somewhere in the crowd a man was showing his middle finger. And once cameras discovered him he was all over the giant screens. And then police stormed in and hell's gates opened. And then there were more like this man. And few of them lit fires and those fires were now on every screen and no screen was showing police brutality against people that showed no finger and no screen showed police arresting people that lit no fire. And then one of the angry men burned the flag of a sacred rock band (say Led Zeppelin) and screens all over the world were showing this and no screen was showing the tear-gas that had drown all the other concert watchers nor the filthy cells where the arrested innocents were thrown in...
And no fucking TV screen bothered to notice that at the backstage, left all alone -like leprants- only the edge majority of the party that's on power -with closed windows to keep away the tear gas that they released- were voting the law.
But all fucking TV screens were showing again and again the idiot(?) who was burning a sacred place.
Screens had their fireworks and were able to concurrently justify the law, hide the police violence and forget about the student movement.
Meanwhile, the macho minister of law and order, like cowboy was yelling that he would "get down on the street and kick the asses of anarchist hooligans". Law and order is his trademark. But it was mostly (if not only) students whom their asses were kicked. No hooligans. But either way he had to maintain law and order. So, a CRS-like police force were constantly present on the edge of a historic city territory renowned for it's extreme left habitué's. (They, as I learn by reading their broadsheets, are overly pissed off because comrades of them are being held in prison against the law and some of them are on hunger strike. (Strange but even an apathetic like me would be pissed off with this shit.)
I'd passed through that vigilant point some months ago (btw, great bars with sensible prices are located in the area) and looked at the policemen on duty then. I'm not anything of an extremist but nevertheless I feel a certain amount of fear when seeing 12 policemen with helmets and all. Yet, I'd swear that I saw some fear in the eyes of their leader. Something like the fear of a man used as a bait.
And I forgot about it until yesterday when I heard the news about a team of 50 anarchists who assaulted the policemen on duty at that point and lead one of them in hospital with serious injuries. It seems like Law and Order feeds on young men these days.
I don't really understand Mr Law and Order and his government anymore and I doubt if they understand their selves. What the fuck do they think they do and where is all that shit leading? Some say that they used anarchists anger to provide a justification for hitting educational movement. Others claim that they just try to control the whole thing according to their conservative ethics (i.e. police, police, police). Meanwhile violence escalates and media attempt to hide the big issue (i.e. the educational reformation) is futile. Students seem to resist better than ever and people KNOW that that's the big issue and not flaming a sacred place...
...After all, stupid media, a place is sacred because of what symbolizes and what symbolizes lies in people's hearts and no one (except maybe for you - fucking media) is able to burn down peoples' hearts.
CU
PS 1: Btw, I'm using my favorite word -fuck- too much to be member of the week so let me at least rejoice it as much as I want. FUCKING STUPID MEDIA SCREENS.
PS 2: No, I don't belong anywhere politically. I'm just trying to maintain my sanity.
PS 3: FUCKING STUPID MEDIA SCREENS.
PS 4: I, like others, need a reasonable honest explanation as to why young men and women (policemen included) have to see the internals of hospitals and prisons for a law that addresses none of the problems in education but will only allow bussiness to grep a pie of educational market. But I'm asking too much, ain't I?
UPDATE - 20 March 2007:
There was another massive march today. Due to lack of molotov coctails, fires and the like you won't hear much on your TV but people report that it was HUGE 
.
HYS (I do).
image here
Thursday, 1. March 2007, 21:49:22
Greece, politics
I don't have much time. I work and work and work. Overtime after overtime. I can't say no. Maybe I forgot how it is spelled or maybe I have no alternatives. Fact is that this whole thing does leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I wasn't always like this.
I remember I was different when I was at university. I did say no. Many of us did. These times weren't much different than the current ones. The fuss was about yet another "educational" reformation that, at least the way we saw it, would result in bringing public universities and our diplomas to their knees. Then both would be easy prey to private interests. (Unfortunately, my present working status as well as the working status for the majority of my generation, suggests that we were right back then.)
Anyway, I remember us saying NO. We didn't really hope to win the game. It was mostly our sense of dignity that was driving us. (Dignity - that's a hard word.) We were saying NO when they were trying to convince us with stupid arguments. We said NO when they claimed that the reformation plan was voted (as if we were expecting something else) and our fight was pointless. We said again NO when they tried threats about the semester. Then NO again at the final call about our semester. Then we said NO to police and after that we repeated our NO to some paid bully boys.
...
We almost forgot that when authorities start using violence it usually means that they are about to fall.
...
And so it happened. And we won (even partly). And we almost couldn't believe it.
...
If any of the fighting Greek students comes by this post I'd like to:
1. Express my admiration for her(*) courage and my wholehearted (albeit useless) support to her fight
2. Remind to her that she is not supposed to save the world but with this fight may very well have claimed her self respect back which is already a big personal and communal victory
3. Good luck from now on - whatever you might decide - my heart and my mind is with you.
4. You remind me of the movie 300 and more accuratelly of the real 300 story(**). "You want the university? Come and get it."
HYS
(*) Normally I'd started the politically correct him/her, he/she blah, blah, blah. I'm bored with this shit Okay? So if all that fuss is about making women feel equal (as if they'll feel equal with some shitty slashes and extra pronouns) I'm going it a step further and totally omit the male pronoun from now on.
(**) But you are many more than 300.
...Gee man. I need some sleep.
Tuesday, 16. January 2007, 21:36:43
terrorism, politics
I guess you've heard the news about the terroristic hit at Athens US Embassy. The story in short goes like this. Last Friday morning unidentified (at least officially) terrorists shot a rocket against the embassy. It was said that they were aiming at the Embassy's emblem (which means this was to be a symbolic blow) and it was also said that instead of it they partially hit some toilets (I'm still wondering whether this is symbolic too).
...And that was it. My small, albeit beautiful and heavy on history, country was again in the center of the world (which proves that we can do it with many more ways than just hosting the Olympic games). Many remembered the "inherent" Greek Antiamericanism. Others were quick to register us as yet another terroristic country and so on and so forth. I'll dismiss such hateful and stupid comments and attitudes for now as they deserve a post on their own and I'll stick with what I believe is the core matter of all the fuss.
At the very next day some were quick to emphasize on the need of using the C4I system that was installed for the Olympics (and cost a fortune to Greek people) for urban surveillance. (As for now the system is used for traffic surveillance - or so they say.) Other witty conversations on police surveillance and the need of more antiterrorism laws soon spun off. Little by little the Big Brotherian think tank realized that this is an enormous chance to get thinks done their way and started working. See, when the blow is hot and a superpower is pissed with us there isn't much resistance to be anticipated. Just look at USA, Great Britain and the like. Every terroristic blow initiated reformations that took away some more of personal freedoms in return for safety (I still wonder how safe can you feel when somebody is constantly watching your every step and thought - and by someone I don't mean the God).
Of course there are a lot at stake. Government has to deal with real problems that drive people on the road and is expecting a certain turmoil. This wouldn't be a problem if there were real solutions under the table but if not...then there is only the solution of suppression and "antiterrorism" laws, surveillance systems, cutting out personal freedoms, cultivating fear are great tools if your plan to suppress people and continue to exploit them economically and politically. Just remember how many times you voted for the least evil to see how powerful weapons the afore mentioned are.
That's my humble opinion and I'd really appreciate if you could correct me or prove me wrong. But I would never appreciate it if you started peeping through my life in order to fight terrorism. If you want to fight it then start by solving the problems that create it, not by creating more.
As for the impact of the terroristic action on USA politics, about 100 people are still being killed in Iraq every single day (UN statistic) in spite of the broken toilet. It is just uncertain whether shit will flood Athens.
HYS (I'm not)
Monday, 8. January 2007, 22:01:54
politics, Iraq, education
Wednesday, 6. December 2006, 19:58:56
politics, great people, poems
Would I do it?
No. Not in my right minds.
I don't hate this world that much,
I don't LOVE this world that much.
What did he hope to succeed?
It was clear that the news
would be buried under tons of
pussies, stupid songs, stock rates and soccer.
Pain is confronted by a greater pain,
old men say.
Was that he was after?
A greater pain to forget?
Somewhere on Earth,
there's an open wound
square miles of blood.
Could he feel so far away?
He was an artist they say.
Weird people artists are, I hear.
Big eyes, big ears they have,
catching what escapes the rest of us.
They love trees, colors, life.
They can go as far as loving other human beings.
Weird people they are, indeed.
The way they love the light.
So, could it be the darkness
that covered the world
whenever he looked
over the past years?
...
I'll go with that last theory.
It's more sane than blaming insanity.
I'd say he wanted us to see
by shedding some light.
Written for Malachi Ritscher who set himself on fire and burned to death in Chicago in protest to the ongoing war at Iraq. Why he did it is plainly explained here by himself.
So long there has been nothing in the Greek media (or in any international media that I'm aware of) about this man. That seems funny because media carrion-buzzards would kill to sell such a painful story. Yet, Mr. Ritscher cannot be sold in any evening news show because he would inevitably remind to everyone that countless lives have been lost and a country is totally sunk into violence and terror for no good reason.
Thanks again to the Danish newspaper that brought this up and to Allan for relaying it here.
Spread the word.
Wednesday, 18. October 2006, 18:59:33
politics, techmurmurs
Have you ever lived in a small house with lots of other people? If you've been in the army you know what I'm talking about. Yet, even in the army one has a personal space to keep his things, may that be a travel bag or a locker or something alike. Moreover he's able to keep a diary that no-one else has the right to read, that is he has a right to privacy. Even higher officers have to go through certain formalities to look at his writings. In practice most higher officers would consider such tactic at least cheap and wouldn't bother unless big troubles had arose.
What I'm trying to get at, is that even in such a controlled system as the army, there are certain boundaries that define a limited personal space and privacy for the people involved. Yet, few of those who served their duty aren't annoyed by how small these two notions seem. Most soldiers hate to give note on their whereabouts at their officers and hate the fact that under certain circumstances they may have to reveal personal things in front of their fellow soldiers, as would be the unfortunate case of having to take a leave due to family problems. So, for people that are in the army it seems like personal space and privacy is something very limited.
There is a hidden comparison in this feeling. Those people feel that they enjoy less privacy than civilians do...and they used to be right.
...
Technology is a Pandora box. Anything might come out of it and society has no control upon that. Nuclear weapons and X rays. Drugs and medicine. Communication and isolation. Easy transportation and pollution. Liberty and enslavement...Technology is like very strong and very wild horses. Society can't control their birth but it may be either their grass or their rider.
When you sit in front of your computer, watching its silk TFT screen and surfing a network full of knowledge, insanity, thoughts, propaganda and almost everything that your mind could possibly imagine (or crave), you possibly assume that you are the rider of what commonly goes under information and telecommunications technology revolution (or just IT). You (and I) are like those first car owners that pose in some retro images full of joy, pride and admiration for the monstrous capabilities of their automobile. Some years later there are many that own a car and they curse stuck in traffic jams. They are disappointed because the promise of automobile technology was to get them fast and safely wherever they wished but they realize that it would take less if they just walked.
IT made a broader and more mental set of promises that all boil down to the availability of information and communication.
Information about anything you can put in your mind...
You don't know when the next train leaves? Just go to the train company's site. You want to learn what's the weather like in Peru? Just go to a global weather site. You want to know how much your tax deduction will be? Just run the relevant program. You want to find new origami sketches? Just google it. The list goes on and on and it covers almost anything a human mind may ask for. Even things that few human minds would admit they cared about. Want some examples? Sex is a good one. You want to peek into fantasies that you haven't even told your spouse about? Google them. You got to be really absurd not to find something relevant on the net.
And communication with almost anyone, no matter where he/she is located...
A sociology teacher in USA that maintains a blog. An Australian astronomer that hits one or two words at a messenger program while looking at stars. A housewife in Iceland. A teenager in Argentina. A mechanic in Russia. An activist in Nigeria. A silly programmer in Greece...And you can say whatever you want with any of these people claiming to be whoever you want. You can discuss latest news, commend on a movie, ask for directions, get info about the way a company treats its workers or exploits nature, have sex.
And all that while you comfort yourself on your chair and look at this silk TFT screen and most importantly by staying anonymous...
This has always been an inherent promise of this technology. Anonymity where it should be. It was a way of transferring the notion of real life privacy over the new technology. In real life you demand privacy when fucking. On the net you demand privacy when cyber-fucking. In real life you expect privacy when reading a book about the gay community. On the net you expect the same privacy when you google “gay community”. In real life you talk privately with people you trust on how to overthrow a tyranny. On the net you use a private IRC channel to do the same thing.
...
But cars did get stuck in the traffic jam and privacy is not a promise to be kept. Never was. The tools to eliminate it were there all the time. Whenever you crawl the net you leave crumbs behind you. How you do it is a technicality. How they can be assembled and serve to draw a very good image of who you are and what you long for, is also a plain technicality. Technology was always there as a capability. Of course technologic evolution helps but what sets this part of IT to work isn't a new technological leap but rather a social step backwards. After 9/11 your real life privacy has been shrinking. Propaganda about terrorism was like a dirty rain that made surveillance cameras flourish. Every day that you walk downtown dozens of cameras record you and your story. Your personal data are recorded and even sold by companies that serve this very purpose of assembling personal data. These companies thrive at an environment where privacy is considered an obstacle for the “anti terrorist” war. You can safely assume that its really easy to reconstruct your whole life story by joining information like where you went, whom you were with, what you bought (remember your credit card?), where you studied etc. Your real life privacy and anonymity is fucked up.
Cars got stuck because everyone got one and almost everyone got to live in the big city. Automobile technology couldn't keep its promise because the priorities changed. The horse run extra wild and society became the grass.
IT is just a technology like automobiles and similarly to it, it can't (and doesn't) keep its promise because priorities changed. Your anonymity and privacy are not revered. They are at stake. Horse runs extra wild and I'm afraid that its rider is already flying in the air. There is one chance that he gets control before being the grass. He must answer the question about how negotiable privacy is and according to my notes there is only one right answer which goes like this. “Nonnegotiable and this question should never be asked again.”
If you find this answer a bit hard just think that the soldiers, we were talking about, do enjoy far greater privacy than most of the civilians out there right now.
Your life is your life and your life only. What happens in your mind or what you do as a result of this is yours by default. No-one has the right to peep in it or anyhow reveal it to others. You and you only should be the daemon guarding the gates to your thoughts and your private space. Looking inside your mind and your life wasn't the way society dealt with its problems a decade ago and I was there to testify that things were much better back then than today.
Privacy is the oxygen that your mind breathes. Attack against it, is the most basic step towards fascism and if that's where we are going I'd like to move out of this planet.
Out and Over.
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