It's madness.

During the last days I have tried to get an overview of the India/Pakistan situation, and indeed, it is almost impossible to know what is going on, why it is going on, and what the issue is really about.

It's the same situation in globalism, the oil industry, the weapons industry, religion, politics, terrorism, and so on and so on.

Sometimes I think that it is the globalisation to blame, as well as the internet. Yes, you heard me right ;) Globalisation + internet = literally millions of sources, and to even try to get a fair overview of just a "small" situation like Burma, leads me to countless different websites/books by different authors of who many have different opinions, different sources and so on.

Heck, even a picture today isn't to really be trusted (thanks to wonderful photoshop). What is reliable? What is true?

Of course, my frustration right now is mainly a result of trying to get an overview, and not just stick to topics like The Simpsons (you can actually find out just how many episodes of The Simpsons there has been made, altho it might take some time finding that info), or Soccer (oi, even soccer has become politics now).

Well, I am just a simple guy trying to find my place in the universe, and gosh, it is confusing :)

The situation in the conflict between India and Pakistan has become (and been for some time) quite serious..

"
Pakistan says no new sacrifices to avoid war
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, said that Pakistan would
not make any further sacrifices of the country's "honour and dignity". But in a
one-hour interview with the Financial Times, Gen Musharraf flatly denied that
there was any cross-border terrorist infiltration of India's portion of
Kashmir.
"

Yesterday Pakistan tested another missile, the latest in a series of three missile tests recently.

Both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers, and a fourth (?) war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir might have some devastating effects.

Personally I have no sympathy with either the Indian or the Pakistani leadership, consisting of hardliners who like to talk of terrorism and how to "response to terrorism". :(

Pax Humani!

all of you have heard the phrase "All your base are belong to us!" - to me, this kind of phrases, and the accompagnying video game graphics are quite the nostalgia. it's almost as bad as the "classic" version of Tetris with the russian flag and the kinky backgrounds.

when I grew older, I turned to MUD's, more specifically Valhalla which is running on its own MUD engine called VME, a mud engine of the DIKU mud family. (Diku being datatechnological institute, university of Copenhagen). For those of you who know MUD's, this was text-based adventures, no flashy graphics, and boy I didn't miss it. I played Valhalla from spring 1996 untill well, I still pop in sometimes to see how things are going in the clan I am in, and what major changes the mud is undertaking (always changes in that world). Games-wise, I then in 1999 went from text-based to First Person Shooters (FPS), more specifically Counter-Strike, a game almost as famous as Doom these days. I played CS more or less until january this year, when I moved from Bergen. I co-founded a CS clan in Bergen called .net (www.dotnet.nu), which lasted about a year. It was great fun, a perfect way to end a day at the office: some headshots! *im a nerd, I know*

when I was in Bergen earlier this may I checked out Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast a wonderful game in which I get to wear a lightsaber and use The Force! *spit running down my chin* (and no, I'm not really a Star Wars fan)

Games are wonderfully non-sense ways to waste some time. Far better than watching Ricky Lake on the TV at least.

now why do I now feel stupid for not writing about the poor children who suffer from Aids in South Africa in this update, but write about some stupid computer games? (I went to a lecture with Nicole tonight where a doctor who has been working in South Africa for years showed us some slides and told her some stories - it really made me sad to hear of so much - - nonsense down there. Mbeki truly disappoints me!) Heh, I guess I need to stop pretending to myself that I am always the guy who want to save the world and only want to focus on that. Movies are great, so is music, and I am a big fan of graphics. anyone have any links to great demo pages? you know, the old-fashioned demos with music and some graphics in a sweet mix.

:D

today i went out and searched for an information office on Munich. I wanted to find some NGO's or other organisations in which I could get involved on a local level. Taking it local so to say. I found a flyer advertising an exhibition on "Kunst gegen Aids in Südafrika" (art against Aids in South Africa) which is held in "EineWeltHaus". I later found a thick booklet which was all about volunteer organisations in Munich(!), and I read there more about the EineWeltHaus (literally OneWorldHouse). The place is a multicultural haven in Munich, and their homepage shows that the place is quite nice. I will go there later this afternoon and check it out.

Earlier today I had a talk with Nick, and he mentioned an idea which Jennifer had proposed about having a Travel Section on TIG, where people could upload travel journals, and get more information about what is going on in that country/city. I really like that idea! :) Maybe one could then get a TIG guide to X country of one's own :)

Well, Munich is surely a nice city, and I could write some about this city, if I had a computer at home, with a connection, scanner and some photo-editing tools. Oh well, one must start somewhere.

Now to check out that OneWorldHouse :)
(it is a local agenda 21 project - ever heard of it?)

After having a discussion about it here on TIG, pixiestix and myself will be hosting a chat event here on TIG. The date has not been finalized yet, but it will be within the next 2 weeks.

The topic of discussion will be "The War Against Terrorism" - altho the topic will be more specific. More information to follow!

Questions:

What is a terrorist?
What IS terrorism? i.e. what falls under the terrorism label?
How effective is terrorism in contemporary society? What is the sociological, economic and political effects of terrorism?
What causes terrorism? Hatred? What causes hatred?
Isn't terrorism best fought by force? Or is there other options as well?
Who should get involved with stopping terrorism? Single countries? NATO? the UN?

---

Quotes:


"We've all seen these police inspectors explaining that they "dismantled another important network of contraband, thus dealing a hard blow to drug trafficking", while proudly displaying for the cameras their latest harvest of plastic bags filled with cocaine and machine guns and revolvers. Of course, the chief inspector invariably informs us, if the police had a bigger budget and greater powers, they could fight more effectively and catch all the other smugglers and we would get rid of this social problem once and for all."
...
"Even if bin Laden and his accomplices are killed, others will take their place and the war against terrorism will continue, so long as the conditions will be in place that lead millions of Arabs and Moslems to see us as their oppressors and enemies. And in a few years, if this pessimistic scenario comes true, we shall doubtless regularly see on our TV screens generals announcing that the army "has destroyed another important terrorist cell, thus dealing a hard blow to the enemies of our free and democratic society". That is, of what will remain of our freedom and our democracy." -

---

Links:

Overview website @ umich.edu

Alternative resources on the U.S. "War Against Terrorism"

The Propaganda War and the War on Terrorism

Le Quebecois Libre Editorial - "We are losing the war against terrorism"

terrorism.newstrove.com

The Weapons Industry

Federation of American Scientists (FAS) page on America's War on Terrorism

The White House Response to Terrorism

Noam Chomsky on the new war against terror.

GNG 9/11 response



- dltq

ok, here for something hilarious. I guess you have heard about the legal case where Anna Kournikova and Judith Soltesz-Benetton were mixed up by some poor guy who thought that the girl sunbathing was Kournikova, and he sold the tape to Penthouse Magazine. Now he is in court defending himself, and how on earth he could believe that Miss Benetton was Miss Kournikova.

The funny thing is.. When asked about how he found out this or that about Kournikova, he keeps on saying "I found it on the internet".

"
Q: You said "She was wearing a shirt with strawberries on which I later out are her favorite fruit"?
A: Yes
Q: When did you find out that her strawberries are her favorite fruit?
A: Doing my research on the Internet.
Q: Where did you find out?
A: On the internet.
Q: Just some Internet site listed Anna's likes and dislikes?
A: I believe it was her own site that her own people are behind ...
"

This case is hilarious in my point of view. Hilarious also because of it being another proof of how dubious information "on the internet" can be.

heh some months ago, when I visited my girl-friend in Konstanz (a city in southern germany, near the border of Switzerland), we went out walking by the Bodensee lake one day. We came to an outdoor swimming pool institution, and then we saw some people walking in front of us, and my girlfriend said "hmm he looks a bit like Michael Schuhmacher" and I looked at him and well yeah he definitely looked like him. He even wore a stupid caps with Ferrari on it or something. He was together with a elder lady and another woman. We went quite excited about it, and she called her brother who is an avid Formula 1 fan and he did some research online and found that according to internet sources Michael Schuhmacher surely was on vacation now, and he lives somewhere in Switzerland, and well, it fit together, it really looked like him and the woman looked like his wife etc.

If we were a bit more stupid, we would have taken pictures of him swimming in that outdoor swimmingpool and sold the pictures to some bogus german tabloid.
But the thing is -- hmm - we humans are not very good at recognising people (i don't refer to family and friends, but in general, for instance think about witness testimonials ...) and this caps-wearing guy could be just any other person.

silly story really, but heh, i feel sorry for this guy who mistook some other sunbather for being Kournikova. But then again, he deserve it I think.

:)

I found the www.tolerance.org homepage today, it is quite good. There is also a page which lists 101 tools for tolerance.

I will quote some of the tools they list there.

Ideas for yourself:

1. Attend a play, listen to music or go to a dance performance by artists whose race or ethnicity is different from your own.

2. Volunteer at a local social services organization.

3. Attend services at a variety of churches, synagogues and temples to learn about different faiths.

4. Visit a local senior citizens center and collect oral histories. Donate large-print reading materials and books on tape. Offer to help with a craft project.

7. Ask a person of another cultural heritage to teach you how to perform a traditional dance or cook a traditional meal.

12. Imagine what your life might be like if you were a person of another race, gender or sexual orientation. How might "today" have been different?

13. Take the How Tolerant are You? A Test of Hidden Bias. Enlist some friends to take this "hidden bias" test with you and discuss the results.

16. List all the stereotypes you can — positive and negative — about a particular group. Are these stereotypes reflected in your actions?

17. Think about how you appear to others. List personality traits that are compatible with tolerance (e.g., compassion, curiosity, openness). List those that seem incompatible with tolerance (e.g., jealousy, bossiness, perfectionism).

18. Create a "diversity profile" of your friends, co-workers and acquaintances. Set the goal of expanding it by next year.

...

Nice page, good perspectives on the tolerance issues :)

I read today on VG (norwegian tabloid) that The Statue of Liberty in New York is in danger and that the US minister of defense fears that "the terrorists soon will use atomic weapons". This is quite bold/scary statements, so I went to explore the story a bit online.

On state.gov I read a Notice to the Press, issued may 17th, that Colin Powell would make a statement on the Annual Terrorism Report 2001 on May 21st, 2002, which was yesterday.

The 2001 Report is quite gory reading sometimes...

What IS certain is what if US Intelligence (CIA) finds that there is an overwhelming threat of terrorists getting hold of nuclear weapons? On the abovementioned VG article it said:

"The American minister of defense claimed that Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and North Korea is developing such weapons for mass destruction, and will make sure that the terrorists can get hold of them" (my translation).

Rumsfeld further said that the terrorists would not hesitate to use these weapons of mass destruction. Mentioned was also regular "suicide bombers"

What would be the US response to this intelligency? (and no pun intended to any american, but I have absolutely no faith in the CIA. They have been involved in so many suspicious operations in the past that it is incredible that they are still highly regarded by the US population as a source of reliable information) Would this intelligency be answered by attacking Iraq? Syria? Repeating the "success" in Afghanistan (they still have not found Bin Laden, but the US oil companies sure got some nice deals now with the afghani officials, mmm) by attacking other real or imagined (imagined: The Phillippines, in which there are currently US military, in a conflict which is Clearly (to me) more complex than just an issue of renegade terrorists) targets around the world?

I still get choked by thinking about the US putting in a major ground troops attack on Iraq. Might we get a Vietnam all over again?

I am very well aware of some of these issues being very complex. Of course, that is the nature of global politics! :) But nevertheless, I get frightened about all this talk about atomic bombs. Especially when I know that the current U.S. president has laid down fairly new guidelines to the use of atomic weapons. "Surprising military development". Ever seen the movie "Thirteen Days"? What if the people involved (including the president Kennedy's brother) were more triggerhappy? More paranoid? I begun reading the book about the event written either by the president himself or some other person with the surname of Kennedy - but I never got to finish it. In either case.. the question is:


What might happen if we become fearful, overly suspicious of others, and afraid that if we don't act Now, it might be too late?

(Surely the US administration, or the people, do not want another September 11th attack - maybe they would even forgive the fact that thousands of people might die in Iraq in a possible attack IF this just helped avoid another 09/11)

I feel afraid. A bit, at least.
:/

Here is a small eye-opener, got it from a mailing list I am member of, and have quoted from several times.
- dltq


From refconstandard@yahoo.com Wed May 22 08:35:53 2002
Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 20:02:36 -0700
From: Alan Levy
Reply-To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
Subject: Re: [GKD] Launch of Digital Opportunity Channel

This is a classic example of where ICT infrastructure money goes... to
another one of countless channels:

"To amplify our power, there is the blendability of the new digital
technologies, the multiplying power of networks, the interdependability
of human beings - and, most important of all, the boundless power of
goodwill."

What does this mean? It means nothing, and for reason. What is their
goal? Visibility. For what purpose? To qualify for funding.

What are they offering? Nothing, save one more website talking about
collaborating to learn what they should be talking about. But it places
them in the forefront of funding. For what? More talking. The idea
being that, through talking, we can make the world better. Of course,
someone better figure out what those grandiose words mean first... and
maybe even learn a little ICT too.

And with luck someone will figure out you actually need networks.

Talking won't cure the divide, nor marginalization (nor hunger). This
is not a mysterious disease. There are certain technical requirements,
and political requirements. Nothing more. And the problem isn't
technical.

I monitor listservs dealing in digital divide issues. The Benton
listserv is quite illuminating... its small group of regular
participants have posted how to (1) extend grants even when there's no
need, (2) create a false appearance for aid applications, (3) support
political causes and candidates, and much more high fare. At least one
of the people posting such dubious information was a recognized divide
figure... from academia, and an early elite group honored by the UN.

There's a fine art to collaboration, if there's a legitimate goal. This
is how the digital divide dollars are (mis)spent. Governments promised
millions for digital divide infrastructure initiatives... where's the
money? You need only one sustainable network. Where's the network?

And puhlease don't shoot the messenger. India already has top-shelf
research, a proactive government, and busy universities and foundations
genuinely working on real ICT access issues.

This is more about money and power than the divide. And the buzzwords
that long ago lost their sincerity are now losing their meaning. Read
it again.

What year is this? What year are we supposed to "learn" to discuss
which applications should be minimally universal? When are we supposed
to "learn" to demand unrestricted deployment of VoIP? Or, to "learn" to
discuss funding for infrastructure? Or, to demand governments provide
spectrum to non-profits? What else is needed?

Learning is so much fun... why you can just never finish! This isn't
education, but only an ever continuing remedial class that achieves
nothing more than a false appearance.

The incumbents who are successfully lobbying to restrict ICT deployment
are the same ones funding these "talk" forums... instead of
infrastructure. Why? Ahem.

Alan Levy
Mexico, D.F.
refconstandard@yahoo.com


Kanti Kumar wrote:

> Digital Opportunity Channel , a Web portal
> and online community focused on information and communications
> technologies for global sustainable development, launched here today on
> UN World Telecommunications Day.
>
> Digital Opportunity Channel is a joint initiative of OneWorld
> , the online sustainable development and human rights
> network, and the Benton Foundation , the
> Washington-based non-profit organization that works to realize the
> social benefits made possible by the public interest use of information
> and communications technology (ICT).



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im in munich, feeling restless, want to Do something, ok, focus, learn chinese, but apart from learning chinese hmm want to get involved with local society here, not just be with my gf or stay at the local netcafe. so if anyone happen to know some cool people in or around Munich Please let me know =)

i want to finish the manual for scholarships and grants opportunities, that is, the draft version of it.

i want to get more involved in TIG somehow, perhaps by helping pixiestix with her topic chat project. and well, I think that is enough for some weeks :)

but i really feel restless today. i want to DO something.