My only agenda is to bring attention to otherwise ignored and shunned lives.
Jim Goldberg
Hope you all had a nice end of the year/beginning of the new one.
I will be focused on my work with music and on finding out of what is going to happen in my life, as the
situation is quite open, at the moment.
So, there is lots to do, let us start immediately. I had a long and dancing night, have done my part on the
fun side and now I am ready to begin 365 days of challenges.
What is this month's theme about? Well, an agenda for what is most important to prioritize this year,
some suggestions about things to change, things to start, positive improvements, initiatives, campaigns.
My point is: people has lost focus, there is no doubt about that.
Practically all we do is driven by subliminal messages, guided like puppets by marketing strategies,
commercial interests, cynical politicians , religious and cultural false prophets.
You think you are free, you are not. Your freedom is only the passive ignorance of how limited and
controlled you are.
Provoked by this? If it wasn't true, why are all those controlling people I mentioned not unemployed?
If they weren't successful, they wouldn't survive, but they do, and they do at the cost of your true life.
Time to wake up, don't be a sleepwalker, the first days in a new year are the best setting for that.
Don't know what new year's wishes you have expressed at this symbolic end of the year and beginning
of the new one. Hope you will keep your promises and be satisfied with that, no matter what it is about.
From my side, I really need some changes, I am not satisfied with the status quo.
I have started playing guitar much more. I realised how little I have been playing it in the last times,
mostly out of depression hearing all the trash that is played around. What am I practicing so much for,
when it is rubbish that is listened to out there, is like if my hands said to me. As a consequence,
I was really close to loose my routine in practicing all my songs regularly. Starting again,
the pleasure is high, I still enjoy very much to play my own songs, unimportant if I might be the
sonly one to feel so.
So, what is the first to do in this new year, according to my agenda?
Stopping for a while, every single day, and asking oneself if this is the life one wants.
This is really the most important single thing you can do in your life.
The courage to look at yourself in a mirror, every single day, and be honest with yourself.
Am I happy? Am I satisfied? Is my life full of worthy acts, pleasures, simple moments and peak
experiences, meaningful content, satisfactions, values, honesty, generosity?
If the answer is yes, great, keep on working for your good life.
If not, what are all your struggles worth if you are not happy?
Are you doing all what you do for yourself or only for the spectators in your life's reality show?
You can start now making some changes in your life, toward better times.
Some change their life completely in one day, and take a fresh start.
Some others need to take it easier, with small but steady changes every day.
No matter how, try to walk at your tempo in the direction of a better life.
We are all different, but I will try during all this month to provide some common goals and priorities,
so that our precious individual changes and the sake of common welfare will meet in the most harmonious way.
Before I forget: changes in the
Fruit
section. Now all fruit files are united in one, with the exception of Fruithealing and Fruitnutrition(really too big to be joined). This way we got a massive single file, but on the other side it is now
simpler to navigate.
So, did you reflect about your own life?
It is always better to do it routinely and actively, rather than being reminded the hard way.
There could be at least a positive aspect even in this infinite tragedy of the tsunami in Asia.
How many of the victims were good people? Or even very good people, extraordinary good people,
unique good people? How many of them were rich, powerful, successful, self-confident? How many were
middle class, ordinary people, used to think that nothing ever happens to them? Or that not being
interested in what happens in the world, not caring, minding your own business is the normal way of
living? How many of them were sitting in lotus position, on the most beautiful beach on earth,
completely happy, in bliss and with absolute faith in the future?
All that to say: it is true that we are the masters of our own life, but that is only generically true.
Life is statistics not absolute safety. Life is order and chaos, strength and sudden frailty.
Life is bliss and evil. Life is moderately predictable and absurd.
So, let's forget about some New Age simplifications, you have been filled up with in the last many years.
You are not Superman, no one is. We are all dependent, we are all on the same boat, and the world is one.
We are all responsible and all in the hands of fate.
The best and most compelling change you can make in your life is to shift the focus from your own little
belly into opening up to the rest of humanity.
The point here is, and it will be all this month: do get free from all ideologies that affect you and
lead you away from your own individual path and true life.
Not to be an isolated, paranoid, selfish individualist, that would be only the opposite side
of the same coin.
It is a fact that the processes of massification, simplification and reductionism are very heavy in
these modern times, and the risk of annihilating your own personality is becoming certainty, just floating
in a word where the agenda is always ready and scheduled by others.
Who is filling the cells and items of your agenda, unimportant if it is a paper or electronic one?
Simply said: all systems, all cultures, all religions, all media messages, all ideologies.
Be it nationalism, or your own culture, or your religion, or your gurus, or advertisements, or whatever else,
all can be a super-structure annihilating your own direct perception of reality, and substituting a
ready cooked package of norms to your own sensible judgment.
Why do people want to change you?
Because they need to use you, sell things to you, or even sell you, exploit you, sexually exploit you,
direct you to where they want you to go to, have power on you.
You are not of any use when you are a free, liberated, independent individual.
So, governments, corporations, sects, organized religions, gurus, marketing societies, military institutions,
you name it, need to change you from top to toe.
And the worst in all this story is: you let them do it.
You have got used to accept that that's the only way to get what you need, for surviving and eventually
live a good life.
It is not the only way, we can change it, we have all rights to change it, we ought to change it.
What is the first to do then as a free individual?
The tsunami in Asia should finally have taught us what I have been keeping saying all my life:
think about other's life. Let it breath in in your lungs, fill your heart, let the beating of their
heart being the tempo of your hands and feet. The other people's well-being is the alpha & omega for your
own well-being.
It is a completely reverted and naive ideology the one telling you all the time that you have only to think
about yourself. Egoism never pays in terms of a good life.
Who says that doesn't have a clue of what it means to live, or simply is dishonest,and what will you learn
from them other that some dirty tricks that will only fool yourself and not leading you anywhere?
So, first thing is to do whatever you can to let this world be the best place to be for everyone.
Most of the time you will be able to achieve that enhancing your own life at the same time.
Some other times you will need to let it stand by for a while and dedicate it to others, and, so what?,
would you ask your ego questions if you were one of the survivors of the tsunami and the people around
you desperately needed help?
You would just do it, you would help, you wouldn't hesitate.
Just do the same in every day's life, every single day, and you will have the key to happiness and dignity.
There is really no difference between catastrophes and every day's life. The world is a continuous emergency.
In the time I have been writing this blog some people, probably children, have been dying somewhere.
There will always be a priority as long someone is dying of hunger in the world.
Would you like to keep an eye on what the big boys out there are deciding in the international gatherings
and institutions?
Well. this is supposed to be an agenda, so here are some appointments with the world's events.
JANUARY 2005:
9. Palestina:
Elections of the Palestinian President.
10. Italy: Smoking ban in public places starts.
13. Germany, Frankfurt: European Central Bank 's meeting.
20. Washington, USA:
the squatter George W. Bush will occupy the office of the presidency
for four more years
26-30: Davos, Switzerland: World Economic Forum (Davos Forum)
with the theme: "Taking Responsibility for Tough Choices"[gosh, would like to know what they are thinking about].
26-30: Porto Alegre, Brazil:
as an alternative to the previous, the
World Social Forum will take place, reviving the slogan "Another World is Possible". [last year the forum was attended by 80,000 people from over
130 countries and 2,660 organizations]
30. Irak: Elections?
[will there be any politician alive to be elected?]
30. Wien, Austria: OPEC (Petroleum Organization)
will meet and decide the price of oil, same day as elections
in Irak [peculiar coincidence. Anyway, forget about all the previous guys, these are the real
rulers of the world].
Continuing with the Agenda for a globally conscious world citizen.
From the Nouvel Observateur, one of the most authoritative French magazines, a definitive
consecration of the role of the
bloggers, a phenomenon exploded in 2004 (and the definition "journalists in pajama" is somehow
appropriate to me, as I always end up writing at bedtime).
“Internet : 2004, l'année du blog
Qu'ils soient hommes politiques, stars de cinéma ou parfaits inconnus, les "bloggeurs" sont devenus
la coqueluche de la galaxie internet.”
But it wasn't that what I wanted to write about, actually. In the same magazine, a list of the 25 most remarkable
thinkers in the world has been published. Here it is, in alphabetical order:
Amartya Sen, economist, UK (from India)
Axel Honneth, philosopher, Germany
Candido Mendes, intellectual, Brazil
Carlos Maria Villas, intellectual, America
Charles Taylor,, philosopher, Canada
Daniel Innerarity, philosopher, España
Giorgio Agamben, philosopher, Italia
Ian Hacking, philosopher, USA
Jaakko Hintikka, philosopher, Finland
Jon Elster, philosopher, Norge
Jose Gil, philosopher, Portugal
Kwame Appiah,, philosopher, Ghana
Marrha Nussbaum,, philosopher, USA
Michael Walzer, philosopher, USA
Nestor Garcia Canclini, anthropologist and sociologist, Argentina/Mexico
Peter Sloterdijk, philosopher, Germany
Philip Pettit, philosopher, Ireland
Richard Rorty, philosopher, USA
Simon Blackburn, philosopher, UK
Slavoj Zizek, philosopher, Slovenia
Souleymane Diagne, philosopher, Senegal
Stanley Cavell, philosopher, USA
Sudhir Kakar, psychoanalyst, India
Toni Negri, intellectual, Italia / France
Vladimir Kantor, philosopher, Russia
Voilà, there is a lot to read during this year.
By the way, couldn't find my name in the list. I don't think I might have a chance next year either,
not even if I took my pajama off... :-)
It's Sunday, and I am supposed to be good, as usual.
Then only positive news today.
I won't mention that... and... and... no, I really won't. Tomorrow.
A baby hippo (hippopotamus) was saved from some floods in Kenya. Brought to a wildlife sanctuary
in Mombasa, it has been adopted by a tortoise, 100-years-old.
They are now inseparable. What a nice couple.
And that's what I call solidarity.
A peace agreement has been signed in Nairobi regarding Sudan, hopefully ending a civil war
that has been killing about 2 million people in the last 21 years.
Now, let's hope the situation in Darfur will also get better.
At least the coral reefs in Thailand and neighbor seas seem not to have been damaged as much as feared.
The coral barrier reef off Australia and Indo-Pacific ocean is the longest in the world, more than 2,000 km.
Well, I can't find more positive news today, see you tomorrow.
In some countries there is a tradition for throwing all the old objects that are not useful any more
out of the window, at New Year's Eve.
They really do it, even with heavy stuff like television sets, washing machines and God knows what more.
It is so dangerous and uncivilized, but the idea is good enough.
Well, it is a much better solution not to buy stuff than throwing it out later. Still, it is good to
think about all that is unnecessary and get rid of it.
Not to substitute it with something new, but to simplify one's own life.
Now it has even become trendy as "simple living", "clearing" and the like.
You can try to do it yourself, eliminate all that is old, unnecessary, superfluous, or that belongs to
the past and is binding you to it.
What about myself? It is nearly impossible for me to do that, as I have already practically nothing.
There is really not so much left to clear.
But I am trying to give a few things away anyway.
The ideal for me is always to have only what can be packed in a backpack and maybe a baggage more,
and I am close to that.
People who knew the Indian spiritual philosopher
Jiddu Krishnamurti
can tell he was usually traveling without any luggage. Obviously it was provided for him anywhere he was,
but he had nothing of his own when moving (well, apart from a paperback crime thriller...).
An interesting first hand story about this peculiarity here: "A Sort of Philosopher" {dead link} [update: being the previous link expired, at the same site you can read another personal account,
and lots of other stuff about him, here:]
Meeting Krishnamurti
One very good thing to do this year is surely to calculate your ecological footprint.
Based on a few simple questions, these tests calculate how much you consume in your life, and how
many planets we would need if everyone else was doing the same as you.
I am sure you will be very surprised, if you think you are about 'green'.
Even I, being a champion of ascetic life, need more than one planet to live as I do.
Mostly because I live in a city at the moment and I am not self-sustaining.
You can try one of these tests, there are some different in different sites, but you can follow the
link in my Ecopedia [now Ecology] section:
The Ecological Footprint
and then promise yourself to modify some polluting and resource-wasting habits, of course.
Beside training your body for a fitter life, it is more and more necessary to train your mind also,
in a world where lies are the rule.
Most of what you usually think is based on lies, that is, no truths, half-truths, perversions of the truths,
and plain false statements.
The role of the mass-media here is decisive, but no one else is free from the poisoning conventional lies.
The credibility of the media is different, according to how much they try to tell some miserable truths or
just to dope the public.
But they can't undermine their own source of subsistence, that is money, the fact that they survive only
when people buy their services.
So, they have not to discomfort their readers and reassure them that they live in the best of all possible
worlds. Or that they are so smart, cool, damned different, alternative or whatever they feel distinguishes
them from the inferior ordinary people.
Again: they cheat you and you let them do it. That's the real founding deal of our modern society.
It is not an error, it is not an accident, it is not randomness, it is a deal. You let the media cheat you
because you know inside yourself (read hypocrisy) that the truth will challenge you and be
uncomfortable for you.
I will make some examples of that tomorrow
I am actually writing this today (Sunday), but I promised some examples yesterday and I wish to keep my word.
The fact is, I have had such a glorious night and day, and I am still trying to keep up with what I had to do.
What happened? Just a dancing night in a club in Copenhagen with one of those persons that make you love
life again.
Do you meet a wonderful, smiling, happy, intelligent, energetic, caring, woman every day?
Well, I don't, so I do appreciate.
And when I came back home after dancing, at 4. o'clock, a surprisingly nice mail had arrived
(I actually do receive many emails and positive, but again...).
This is not out of theme, as it is about giving a turn to one's life, profiting of the symbolic change
of the year. I was too sad and depressed last year, at times, so it is only good to smile like crazy for once.
Now to the famous examples!
It was about how the media respond to the the same logic of abstaining from telling truths,
and forging a mass of lazy believers.
If you want to get an idea of what I mean, you can just find the book or the video about and with
Noam Chomsky:
"Manufacturing Consent".
A classic.
What is even more interesting is that many newspapers comment about Chomsky using the same dirty tricks
he revealed and documented. How naughty can they be?
To quote what I know best, some Danish ones, they are usually nearly pathetic. Jyllands Posten (2002-10-09) for ex., a champion in void demagogy, criticized the book "9/11"
only by repeating some standard (and always the same) accuses about Chomsky being a fanatic paranoid extremist
communist, very much hated in USA and comparing him to Bin Laden and Hitler. References to the content
of his book? Only two and even wrong! That's the standard usually.
The role of the press is to be critic. To be a counterbalance to the political powers in a country.
A critics based on facts, on independent search for the truth.
In the previous example though, and in many others I could quote they act as just the partners
of the economical interests financing them, and of the political parties protecting them and being
their ideological frame.
That's a miserable offense to their role, but that's the way it is.
Another way of cheating the readers is to make big titles telling something, while the article
tells completely another story. It is very unfair, as many people, not having much time, will only read
the big one, and then they will go to sleep knowing something wrong. Don't think this happens rarely,
it is very, very common.
Finally, if you pick one any day newspapers, you will practically find the same news in all of them,
no matter if left or right or center.
They don't even check what they are writing, they just copy it.
One example: every time Berlusconi opens his mouth (usually farting) all Italian newspapers come immediately
out with huge titles. Even laRepu+bblica, which should be the major opposition newspaper,
but which in reality loves Him more than anyone else. Usually only a couple of small left-oriented newpapers,
like l'Unitá for ex., have the courage to write: "Berlusconi has farted again" and explain why,
by simply confronting the ridiculous lies he tells all the time with factual truths. The funny is, if you went
to a randomly chosen bar in any little city in Italy you would hear the typical comment from a typical Italian:
"What the f... is that buffone saying again?"
So, even an ordinary Italian can tell he is lying, while the major pompous and intellectually elite
newspapers from the big North keep thinking they have to cheat their readers, as they are notoriously
mentally at the level of a not even quick 11 years old boy (what Berlusconi stated about his own
electors).
The final example: some time ago Berluscazzi met with the Spanish prime minister Zapatero.
At the end of the meeting Berluscoid came out and met the press, telling it was an incredibly
positive meeting and they agreed completely about changing the too rigid economical criteria of
the Mastricht treaty.
The major Italian newspapers just wrote that as if it was true, not controlling it at all, despite the
fact that Berlusquino always lies systematically. I DID IT, for God's sake! I found the Spanish newspapers online (El Mundo,El Pais),
it took me five minutes, and, guess what, they told completely another story of the meeting.
Zapatero did not agree about changing the Mastricht criteria as Berluscoioni affirmed.
So, never believe a world of what you read, unless you have checked it yourself.
Sorry for all the deformations of His Majesty's name, just a personal reward for doing my humble job,
while people paid a lot of money don't do a damn.
Today is Sunday, time to relax and be good.
Read the blog from yesterday in stead, if you missed it, that was much more beefy.
I am going to sleep in five minutes, and dream it's Friday night every day :)
It is not by chance that I was so sharp with the role of the press and the use that some politicians do of it,
last Saturday.
There are really lots of very dirty maneuvers that are going on in lots of different countries, at the
political level, at the moment.
The general tendency is to determine that politics has not a value in itself, but it is only the way
economical interests achieve their means in a "democratic" way, that is: officially legally, without
open criminality, and violence.
Practically all forces have been adapting to the new times, when it is not possible any more to use
weapons and threats to obtain power. They have to use subtler methods now, and they do mostly through politics.
This is the case with Mafia, to mention one of the most powerful criminal organizations.
Right two days ago, a report from the Italian top of judges stated that the Mafia is not dead at all,
it is just using new methods. They live a still life while some politicians and entrepreneurs do the
practical job for them.
I am all the time insisting that the democratic institutions have to be changed and reformed, they are
weak in themselves.
But even if poor, they are what we have to guarantee a minimum degree of social justice. The attack to
them is so strong now, and the corruption of the democratic system is nearly complete now. The politicians
in power just distort all rules and do not care at all about the responsibility they have toward
those who elected them.
The message is: we have got the power and we are going to use it, we don¨t care about democracy.
A real priority this year will be to fight against this shameless tendency. Time to wake up about that.
This disgrace of democracy is not tolerable any more.
Apart from USA and Belarus, where you never know who has really won elections, or can¨t really vote at all,
we still have the right of voting.
In Spain, they did last year, and they kicked José Maria Aznar off and elected
José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. He is deeply reforming Spain, has hold the electoral promises,
and has elaborated a very important moral codex for politicians and institutions.
A rare model for everyone, and the proof that I do express my appreciation, where there is a seldom chance to.
No need to say, Zapatero is practically never mentioned in the international newspapers.
So, we truly get the politicians we deserve, as a majority, it's simple like that, provided we are informed
as any democratic citizen must be.
I don't know you but, with all these electronic media, I am reading less and less from the good old
paper books, magazines and the like.
It is actually the direction I have been working for, in order to achieve paperless cultural exchanges.
To save trees and other matters and energies, simply.
The downside being: my eyes are getting squared in the long run.
It will be interesting to see if the fact that the Chinese people are becoming the most part of the
world population will be even stronger than that squaring force. In other words: how will our eyes look
like in year 2100?
Here our Agenda is expanding across the borders of 2005, but that's not a bad idea. Imagining the future
sis also a necessary priority, as doesn't the present get meaningless without knowing where we are going to?
On the theme of conserving our most precious resource, trees:
The Fourth Pan Amazonian Meet
has opened today in Manaus, the capital of the northwestern Brazilian state of Amazonas,
Brazil, gathering about 8,000 people from the Amazonian countries, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador,
Peru, Bolivia, Guiana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
Best wishes for the results of this meeting.
So, there will be political elections in Denmark, on February the 8th.
The Danish Prime minister decided to call for them long before the natural period of 4 years is expiring,
and that only because the opinion polls are very favorable to him.
Do notice the dates as well: yesterday it was the 19th. and the elections will be on the 8th.
Twenty days only for a national campaign. All this is clearly ridiculous, a very funny joke, a farce.
But it is not a surprise, Denmark has evolved to a banana-republic in the last years, especially due to
this shame of Prime Minister, but not at all exclusively because of him.
It is the all nation that is at shame. Some people has become greedy, careless, racist, selfish, arrogant,
I could continue and the list would be long. There is really no excuse for this, as Denmark is one of
the richest countries in the world, and it had become one of the less corrupted and efficient ones also.
Now, everything is being devastated by a mix of hypocrisy and resignation.
People show a superficial discontent, but they do nothing about it, mostly because in reality they don't
care about who is suffering because of this situation, and they in-confessedly enjoy some tax freezes
and other (apparent) economical improvements.
Basically they have sold their soul, ideals, their worthy life and nation for a few dimes.
Minorities in Denmark are daily offended and humiliated, in a style that is indistinguishable from
the nazist one. Racism is officially a politics of the government, as its parliamentary majority is
granted by a party that wants to eliminate the international conventions on human rights, and that
has made the oppression and aggression of foreigners as its way of life.
When a well-known politician from the premier's own party got enough of that, she protested and asked
him to stop this. He stopped her instead, and expressed his solidarity to the leader of the racist-like party.
So he is a racist too.
This Danish Premier, Anders Fogh Rasmussen is also a disgusting liar and populist.
A very coward person, always hiding behind his court of incompetent and hopeless followers, some of
the most ridiculous ministers and politician ever seen on earth.
There have been hundreds of scandals, many very serious. Nothing is happening, he just denies and uses
his power and majority to stop any investigation and action.
A person with a complete contempt for the rules of a democracy.
He comes often to the question time in the parliament without having prepared the answers, without
answering at all, or just telling ridiculous lies, or starting attacking the opposition in an arrogant
and really violent way, as he was a demagogue and not the elected of a whole nation.
That's his real nature, while the people is ingenuously fooled by his elegant appearance and completely
faked behaviour and codfish-smile, as suggested by his spin-doctors, always at work to make him up.
He unashamedly misused the recent tsunami too, when he spoke live to the nation as if he was a hero,
in stead of resigning because he had cut dramatically the help for developing countries and the environment.
First stating it was such a tragedy that anything else was unimportant, just to call for the elections few days after.
Facing all that, you would expect a society in uproar, protests, demonstrations, activities of all kind
to change that.
Nothing, zero, nothing of nothing, really.
There has been no one single demonstration against the politics of this grotesque government for years.
The newspapers are practically all in love with this evil nullity of Premier. The opposition parties are
sleeping.
I have honestly never seen anything like this.
I am not eager to change the content and scope of this Agenda for 2005.
It was meant from the beginning as a stimulation and remainder of all the things we can change, when we just
take some time to work with ourself, to assess what is important in our own life and when we look forward and
wider and farther, making our self-development coincide with the wellness of the whole planet.
So, I am not going to change it, in the ten days left.
We live also in a local dimension though, and that's what we can change right now.
There are these unworthy elections going on here, and I need to try whatever I can to avoid one more disaster,
after the reelection of Bush. I decided to open a new page then, where the Danish speaking people can be amused
and informed by my own personal political campaign. As usual, it probably won't change the reality of a nation
going to the dogs, destroying itself in selfishness, immorality, stupidity and carelessness.
But I have to try, not doing that I would become exactly as the people I criticize...
The page is: Valgkampen 2005.
I didn't want to talk so much about these elections in Denmark, but the situation is so serious, I can't
really avoid that. I want to give you a real picture of what is happening here, and why I am talking about
a 'banana-nazi-dictatorship'.
Today, on one major newspaper, a shitty one but major anyway, Ekstra Bladet.
An article: "Pia K. - nu med neger" ("Pia K. - now with negro") [update: the article has disappeared; I have found only a couple of sarcastic comments
about it, like this one:]
Frisk pust over valgkampen
about a candidate whose, do listen carefully please, "great-great grandmother was negro".
Yes, I am not joking, first of all they consider a scandal that a candidate's mother of the mother of
the mother of the mother was 'negro'.
Yes, they call her like that: "neger" (not 'sort', meaning 'black'), that is translated as
"negro" but that does sounds more like "nigger", in practice.
My spell-checker obviously doesn't recognize that word, and puts a red line under it.
Just to underline that it is not a polite word.
Furthermore, they write that, being this candidate's party the one that is trying to expel as many
foreigners as possible, they would now "risk to get nigger-blood".
The candidate himself, Hans Kristian Skibby, after saying that he is proud of it, and that he
has no prejudices about foreigners, he then adds:
“It lies in the genes.
And I got to know that we, even up to 1/32 part,
can get children with negroid features.
But I don't think I can feel it in my blood.
I am very healthy.”
Sometimes I really would like to disappear in space, not to feel this shame about humanity. Consider that
kind of articles are on newspapers every single day. And no one takes a distance from them.
This is not the same in all Scandinavia, in Sweden you couldn't dream about things like that.
There is a Swedish writer, Jan Guillou, who has tried many times, in interviews and articles,
to shake the Danish (so called) intellectuals and politicians to react to this unbearable situation,
but with no result.
There are a few people, that are not like that, I do not want to generalize and be unfair to them, but
where are they?
Why is my voice always so isolated here?
In which century are they living? Do they have any consideration for human beings, any sense of respect?
This is so racist, so disgusting, so far out, so really vomiting.
I have not much left for this nation that I loved so much, I want to go away as soon as possible.
They are horrible.
Don't think I am getting paranoid. But, in the middle of the Danish elections campaign, one major
newspapers disappears.
It is
Information,
a little but very significant newspaper, often frustrating elitarian and intellectualoid, but often also the
only one really saying something interesting, and analyzing the state of our society in a penetrating way.
For many days now, it has been impossible to read it on-line. Lots of people is wondering how this can happen,
but no answer is coming, and no other newspapers or media are giving any news about it. Very strange.
Media desaparecidos.
About my yesterday's blog: yes I am still very angry about that rough, primitive, tribalistic, racist way
of thinking (if it is thinking at all).
One very important exercise and practice to include in the Agenda for 2005 (and the rest of your life):
next time you meet a person, no matter who he/she is, stop this vulgar habit of thinking about him/her out of
boxes, gender, nationality, social status and so on.
Do just look at him/her as a person, an individual, a human being. Finished.
Much easier, much more relaxing, much more human and worthy.
Sunday again. Day of magnificent positive proposals, as you know.
For the Danish readers: my humble campaign for the elections continues. See the updated Valgkampen.
For all other readers.
Do you need a real Agenda for 2005?
You can't imagine how important it is to write down all the tasks and wishes for your life. Often I ask
myself: why haven't I done that very important thing yet?
Well, most of the time the answer is: I forgot it!
Can't believe that, very stupid, but it is simple. We do forget about things, even the most important ones,
the things that could change our life completely.
Usually lost in this neurotic rush they call life.
Do stay in focus instead, write down all the important tasks of your life and stick to them. Don't let
others distract you all the time.
If you need an electronic calendar, you can use the browser Firefox or the e-mail program Thunderbird.
Then add a calendar plug-in and you are all set.
The maker of these programs, Mozilla is also working at a standalone one: Sunbird, still in beta.
You can find all these very good, free and open-source programs at
Mozilla's site.
There are a lots of interesting things I would like to comment today, but I am back from work, it is
quite late and I am going to bed soon.
Anyway: the most important news for this global agenda is one more report about global warming.
Greenhouse effect is going to give us big troubles already in 10 years. Do you realize that? In 10 years,
if we don't do something serious about that.
We are talking about real catastrophes here, I haven't got the time to tell more about it, but you can
read the article, obviously at the Independent site:
“Countdown to global catastrophe”.
I think it is enough for today, see you tomorrow.
Now, it is clear the media are not embracing my thoughts about learning to prioritize this year, and
telling about the most important things, not the insignificant ones.
Honestly, if I got a paper like that, the one I wrote about yesterday, I would keep it as the main title
for months.
What is written in the report is very serious.
The authors of the report are not small fishes, rather: Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK,
Centre for American Progress in the USA, and the Australia Institute, with the chairman of the
UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, as scientific adviser.
An interesting thing is Dr. Rajendra (not Rakendra as written in The Independent) Pachauri is
the successor of Dr. Robert Watson, who was voted out of chair of the IPCC, because he was
getting 'too political', read: telling a truth the USA especially didn't want to hear about
climate changes.
In reality he was just doing his job, as he told BBC in an interview:
“We have to continue to press the case that climate change is a serious environmental issue,
both for developed and developing countries [...]
I'm willing to stay in there, working as hard as possible, making sure the findings of the very best
scientists in the world are taken seriously by government, industry and by society as a whole.”
So, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri was probably considered 'safer' by the US administration and some
other countries.
Now he has spoken, and told us clear and loud that we have to act now to avoid the catastrophes,
not on ten years or more.
The international newspapers, one day after, have already forgotten about the most important challenge in
our life.
A title in a Danish newspaper (Jyllands Posten), today:
“Flere svin i Danmark ved borgerlig valgsejr”
(“More swines in Denmark if the right-wings will win the elections”).
Well, what shall I say, I am tempted to interpret that title my own way...
No, it means that the government in charge wants to give farmers the possibility to extend their
swine-farms even more.
Now, there are five and a half millions inhabitants in Denmark, and 30 millions swines!
Most of them are raised in horrible conditions, many suffer, get sick and die, after living a miserable life.
The liquid manure is a pestilence for the people living close to the farms. If you haven't smelled it,
I can promise you it is disgusting. And the leaking of that is one of the most serious polluters of the
ground water (the one we all drink) and other natural resources.
Knowing me, some people is surprised I am not talking so much about animal rights here. It is only because
it is so natural for me, that I forget to mention it, directly at least.
But all what I wright takes that into account.
Do not doubt any violence and exploitation of animals has a very high priority in my agenda, even more
in this one for 2005.
A day for remembering.
This agenda is about the future, but it doesn't mean forgetting about the past. It is fundamental
not to repeat the monstrous mistakes of the past, and there is really no reason for that, as we have
all the possibilities, in this modern world, for knowing, and knowing better.
I wrote in the song “Forgetting and Remembering” from my album
“Refugee” (1993):
“...I will remember all I have to forget...”
It's one of my typical paradoxes, and today I will remember also not to forget what I have to
remember.
60 years after Auschwitz.
The Nazi concentration camp was discovered by Soviet troops this day in January 1945.
One of the darkest periods in history. We should all know about it, but today is a good chance to pay
a visit to Auschwitz, either to the real place in Poland or on the net: Auschwitz. [I tried a few minutes ago and I could not get through, good sign somehow, it seems many
are doing the same],
The nightmare is not over. As millions of people were persecuted, maltreated and murdered, the same is
still happening every single day, now.
This is even worse than Nazism, we are truly the Nazis of our times. This is really a mystery to me.
How we can be overwhelmed, as it has to be, by the images of the people in the concentration camps,
and be so indifferent to the camps of today.
A day for remembering and reflecting.
A few days left for filling the Agenda with priorities and commitments.
In these days two quite opposite gatherings are going on in the world:
On one side the World Economic Forum in Davos.
No doubt they are powerful and have the world in their hands.
As usual the amount of power is not necessarily a measure of the IQ of the participants at the meeting.
The fact they are talking about reintroducing nuclear plants in the energy politics is a clear
indicator of that. The old world shows clear signs of dementia.
Anyway, as usual, there are also decent people in between.
Check it out yourself at
World Economic Forum's site.
On the other side, the
World Social Forum in Porto Alegre.
Global call to action against poverty, water resources, fighting corruption, taxation of speculative
financial transactions, and many other debates.
You can read about this on Znet [update: as the original article is not available any more I have linked to a
later (2009) interview addressing my concerns from 4 years earlier in the following sentences]:
"Interview with Michael Albert about the WSF and Reimaging Society"
It seems like this global no-global movement is making a lot of progresses, still my personal agenda
calls for concrete action, this year 2005.
It is time not only to talk and discuss about an alternative to this absurd word, but to build it.
Not to be heroes in gatherings and closed circles, and then forget about all that in every day's life.
It is about time we make another world not only possible, but real.
First of all with our personal example.
Yesterday I wrote about personal coherence.
Today, the clearest example of that. There is a difference between people behaving correctly and people not doing that.
A Danish newspapers called five politicians and offered them money for the electoral campaign,
with the demand of staying anonymous. This is forbidden by the law, it is illegal indeed.
Well, guess what, all three politicians from the right-wing parties accepted without problems,
and even suggested some methods to cheat the law better.
The two from the left-wing refused to accept the money.
One more evidence that right-wing politicians are basically a bunch of criminals. They have no ethics
and ideals, it is all about money and power (and ignorance most of the time).
These are the names of the potentially illegal politicians:
Helle Sjelle (Konservative: Conservatives)
Kenneth Kristensen (Dansk Folkeparti: Danish People Party)
The Danish readers can read the article at Politiken: "Borgerlige politikere sagde ja tak til ulovlig støtte" [update: dead link and not to be found anywhere anymore, how come all these danish articles
disappear?]
My electoral site Valgkampen is still being updated, featuring an interview with the film-instructor
Lars Von Trier, one of the few Danish intellectuals speaking clear and loud about the
misdemeanors of the Danish government.
Sun-day?
Might be, but here is very cloudy and gray and the temperature just around 0 Celsius. Can't complain about
the weather when you live in Scandinavia.
And don't worry about the coming climatic apocalypse, the Danish Prime Minister has promised there
will be no problems, that what all the international community of scientists has stated are only
"exaggerations", and if he says so...
Some years ago a comedian run for the elections promising there would be following wind for all
cyclists in Denmark, if they voted for him.
Guess what, he got elected with a huge amount of votes..
Tomorrow will be the last day for this Agenda, I will make my personal wish-list of priorities
for this year, and reveal the next month's theme (big suspense).
My global Agenda for 2005 is going to close today, together with the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre.
And together with this scandal of the mainstream media not covering this very fundamental forum for
a hope and an alternative to the status quo of this sick commercial world.
Yesterday they were visited by the Venezuelan President Ugo Chavez.
Just imagine he copied me! He talked about a "world social agenda". Anyway, I am not jealous,
he is also one of the few leaders in the world that is doing something against the liberalistic terror.
I don¨t know the Venezuelan situation thoroughly enough to discover if he is also doing bad things,
but there are many positive aspects in his government.
I don't think I really need to make a list of all the proposals I have made during this month,
things to write down in your personal agenda and to do this year, to make this world better.
You are welcome to reread this month's blog.
So, now to what you have been waiting for with greatest expectation, next month theme will be: Economy
Yes, you read it right. Luca really wants to get into the evil root of all our (and his in particular ;)
problems.
Economy is the basis for everything else, I will make the definitive pitiless critics of our present
economic system and will seek and propose other and better ways of living.
See you tomorrow.
source?