Jim Shultz of the Democracy Center in Cochabamba is a really smart guy. A few days ago he wrote about his meetings with Brazilian citizen groups and their optimism. And he said the following, which is exactly the sort of thing I've been trying to articulate about Venezuela's Hugo Chavez:

Some like the swagger of Chavez in Venezuela, but ignore the authoritarian instincts that are evident in his governance as well. He is also a one man show. Lula is the visible face of a movement that has been building here for years and will survive long after Lula leaves office.

Check out also, more recently, his reporting from more recent days in Bolivia. There is intense stuff happening once again in El Alto and elswhere, as mi companero Luis G

My brother Allan sent me a mix CD with a bunch of music I'd never heard before, since he's been in Germany getting all into German music. One of the songs is by Rammstein, who I've known about for awhile but never really gotten into, I think because I thought up till now that they were just another industrial band in the lineage of Ministry or KMFDM and not much new.

But this song "Amerika" was something that really stuck in my head. Then he told me about the video and I also looked up a translation of the lyrics and it really revealed itself to be a scathing song. I found the video online and, I'm not quite sure why, but it moved me so much I actually started to cry. I think it's because the song and the video are just really dark and sad and, in a way, true, showing the whole world, from Kalahari Bushmen to Tibetan monks, eating hamburgers and pizza and sitting on Santa Claus' lap and singing along with the song like puppets. Meanwhile the band plays the song on the moon dressed as U.S. astronauts and fumble around trying to set up the U.S. flag.

an excerpt of the lyrics:

When there's dancing I want to lead
even if you're whirling around alone
Let yourselves be controlled a little
I'll show you how it really goes
We're making a nice round dance
Freedom is playing on all violins
Music is coming out of the White House
and Mickey Mouse is standing in front of Paris

We're all living in America
Coca-Cola, Wonderbra
We're all living in America
America, America

It's just so fucked up how my country is fucking the whole world up so bad, and the video just reminded me of that.

So in this article on indybay it is reported that Arnold "declared a state of emergency and announced that he was going to take away California workers' lunch breaks."

How surreal. I mean, just from a media standpoint, to see story like that. I'm sure it's very real to the workers who are fighting it.

For the past couple days I've been just outside of Shellsburg, Iowa, at the house of my father and stepmother. It's a comfortable place, and I'm looking foward to relaxing and also getting lots of things accomplished, most importantly getting my Juarez documentary finished, or mostly finished.

Above is a photo from the large backyard, looking past my father's robotic telescope observatory (not quite finished) up the hill to the house. When the observatory is done, he'll be able to remotely control a telescope and take photos of the sky, via wireless internet. He started putting it together last summer, but didn't quite get it working before the weather got bad.

Is it any wonder why I'm so geeky?

Anyway, so I've been trying to get "organizized," to quote deNiro in Taxi Driver. I've started trying this new method invented by David Allen, called simply "Getting Things Done." A friend gave me some audio files of Allen doing a presentation about the whole method. It's pretty exciting because he seems to really have a handle on how our minds work and how to be more productive and less stressed-out.

One interesting tidbit he mentions is that people who are intelligent, creative, and sensitive tend to procrastinate more than others. Which makes total sense - people who can clearly visualise how difficult something will be or the possible failures involved will be scared off and delay doing that thing, whereas dumb oafs who can't imagine anything but simplicity will just blunder on ahead. I definitely know several people in both categories...

A Washington Post story tells of a former elite force of anti-drug commandos in Mexico, called the Zetas, are now working for the drug cartels. In their periodic news and analysis mailing, the Mexico Solidarity Network adds that the leaders of the Zetas were trained at the School of the Americas in the U.S.

The Post article mentions again the State Departments warnings to U.S. citizens about Northern Mexico and the various abductions, as I wrote about a couple weeks ago. In my interview with Bill Conroy while I was in Austin, he stressed further the idea that the drug cartels don't do anything if it doesn't earn them money, and kidnapping gringos is not a big money-maker.

I just had a great idea. What if Mexico simply disbanded all of its law enforcement agencies? No one trusts or relies on police anyway, there, it seems. Why not just make an announcement that there is now no such thing as a Mexican cop? No more corruption, since you can't corrupt something that doesn't exist. No more drug thugs impersonating cops. If you're dressed as a cop, that would prove you're a criminal. Unrealistic, I guess, but an interesting thought experiment.

Perhaps of general interest is an entry to the other blog I write for over at Detritus.net, in which I detail what I was doing last Friday and some related events concerning intellectual property issues.

Lots of videos available from this Venezuelan public television organization. They contacted the Portland indymedia video group with a request for some of our stuff, including about 4 pieces that I worked on. I love the idea of working with them - trading videos and increasing connections. I especially am excited about their offer of translating en espa

Today I uploaded a bunch of media related to the Indymedia Conference: photos, audio documentation, and even a little video clip.

I'm in Iowa now, having arrived a few days ago at my mom and stepfather's place in Bettendorf. They have only dialup access to the Net, so I haven't been getting online much. It's just too frustrating trying to deal with such low bandwidth. Wow I am spoiled. But today I rode a bike down to the public library, which is pretty close. There's free wireless access there, so I'm uploading stuff and giving some long-overdue attention to my blog.

I've been thinking about the Indyconference on the train ride up here and in the last few days as I captured a bunch of the audio recordings I made. I think the conference was an amazing and wonderful thing...

It's absolutely beautiful weather today here in Austin, which is perfect because I'm now done with sitting in conference rooms all day. All during the Indy Conference is was overcast and even a little rainy, but that was fine. If it was as nice as today, I would have been tempted to skip out on some of the conference and go outside.

here's a photo i just took of my friends' pack porch where I'm sitting.
I'm exhiliarated by the weekend and now the weather. The conference wrapped up last night rather late because of an extended closing discussion that turned very heavy. Then there was much eating and drinking, till I got tired at about 2:30. I'm sure the partying went on till the early hours because some people had to be at the airport at 6 or something, so they were planning on just staying up.

Anyway, I can't write more, its too nice, but i'll blog more about the conference and stuff later.

This is a nice little flash slideshow thing that give statstics for various things that happen around the world every 10 seconds. Deaths, births, money, food, etc. You probably know it, in general, already but it's a poignant reminder.