informage

Marianne Böjer, one of my Pioneers of Change colleagues, asked me to write a comment on her article 'Changing the Game' (429kb PDF file).

The idea of 'Changing the Game' is that we live in systems governed by old games played according to old rules, 'finite' games involving winners and losers. In Pioneers of Change we believe that we can change the rules of the game, that we can instead play win-win 'infinite' games. My comment considers free software to be one of these new games.

Indymedia have frequently clashed with the authorities, it's an inevitable consequence of what they do. Recently they had two servers seized in London and no-one will tell them why or even who they were seized for. The FBI was responsible for the seizing but they're not talking, the UK government won't say if they even knew about it. The whole thing is creepy as all get out.

Salon have a decent article about the seizure which also acts as a mini-history of Indymedia's legal battles (subscription or daypass required). The perenially useful wikipedia has an informative entry and of course there's Indymedia themselves.

I wasn't at any point convinced that Kerry was going to be anything particularly inspiring, except in being "not Bush" and the slight difference in tone that would bring. Historically Democratic administrations have been at least as belligerent in their foreign policy, if not more, than Republican administrations, and as a non-US citizen this has to be my primary area of concern. (I recognise that for US citizens the difference may well have been less superficial).

I believe that there is a fairly consistent belief amongst those I regard as peers that the change we are looking for is on a much more profound level than the change from Republican to Democrat, from Bush to Kerry. A US ruling elite that believes it has the right to violently impose its will on both its own citizens and the citizens of the world is unacceptable to me. Unacceptable whether the figurehead appears to be an incompetent monkey or a sophisticated technocrat.

This article I regard as relevant because it highlights that a leader like Bush is a consequence of the systemic pressures on the politics that governs us. I don't believe too much blame can be laid at the hands of the people that elected him when their cultural context demands that they judge individuals as either worthy or unworthy of the mantle 'president' on very superficial criteria. When I try and 'redirect' to the kind of assessments the average middle American is making, I can see why they vote Bush. They know who he is, they understand him, they are familar with him.

So, although there is a feeling of defeat and depression around what seems a reactionary election result, I don't believe and don't feel that we should be too demoralised in the struggles and projects we are dealing with day-to-day. I believe they have the same chances of success as they had a week ago, and that those chances are high.

As I should hence be known. I discovered that 'lagasek' is the Cornish spelling of my surname. Varying translations have it as 'big-eyes', 'starry-eyes' and 'stary-eyes'. Oh and one source even stretches this to 'goggler', although I prefer to play down this interpretation unless there's a typo there involving an incorrect distribution of 'g's and 'o's (c.f. St Cloud Trivia and my mad googlin' skillz).

My good friend Adrian pointed me at this article by Rian Malan. He's a wonderful South African writer, whose memoir 'A Traitor's Heart' is an authentic account of growing up as both the relative of one of apartheid's architects (DF Malan) and a rebellious journalist. Whilst I can't claim that my experience of Cape Town exactly matches Malan's as described in his article, there's a whole lot of resonance there. St James and Kalk Bay are very beautiful, and for some time they have been on my short list of Cape Town neighbourhoods in which to live.

Get Your Mars On - especially the penultimate panel.

Bush In 30 Seconds - big news now but I like the understated tone of the winner a lot.

and if I manage to steal a few hours from the codeface then I'll write about Mozambique, Idlelo and rock climbing at Peer's Cave

I'm officially thirty now. So I haven't been posting. I guess I've been assimilating this new stage in my life. I have a mixture of feelings - I feel ready to be a fully fledged adult, and I'm happy that my twenties were fat, fun and feckless. It's still a shock though.

Anyway I'm about to go off on a delightful christmas break to Mozambique, so look forward to a fresh flood of blogging upon my return.

(This blog entry was brough to you in part by the letter 'F')

Two of the funniest things I've seen on the Internet (or at all for that mattter) in a long time. You'll probably want broadband and you'll need Windows Media Player for at least the first:

Japanese Matrix ping-pong (literally had me rolling about)

The 118118 (new UK directory enquiry service) parady of Honda's 'cog' ad. My UK readers (both of them) might well have seen this. You have to go to the 118118 site and click on the picture with the tractor wheel in it.

The last one ain't a video, but it's certainly relevant to the medium in hand (courtesy of Colleen, Shannon's sister).

I made the rash promise some time ago that I would write something informative about Landmark Education and its courses. Rash because I find it difficult to sort through the myriad opinions and emotions that the subject evokes in me. Doing the forum and subsequent courses formed a significant part of probably the most transformative period of my life to date, albeit a period laced with other formative elements: graduation from university; many stages in a deep intimate relationship; drugs; my first (and to date only) full time job. You get the picture.

Anyhow in lieu of a deeper analysis than that, I commend this article by Traci Hukill. Whilst not particularly intellectual, her take on it just works for me.

it didn't make me think something was right with The Forum as much as it made me realize something is terribly wrong with the rest of the world. It's so sad, I thought, that the most intimate and intense experience these people have had is one they paid to have with a group of strangers. The more I think about it, the clearer it seems that too many people are cut adrift from the organic necessities of love, family and community. In an age when people leave their hometowns as a matter of course, the ties that bind are dissolving, and people are looking for pretty new ribbons to replace the old familiar cords.

Yesterday Shannon and I signed a notarial contract, Shannon spills the beans