There is No Border Here

Recently a good friend of mine gave me a picture she took in Havana. On the picture (seen above) you see yellow tape that's made to look like police tape, this was placed somewhere in Havana as part of the Bienal art festival and it reads: There Is No Border Here.

This picture, what it says, what it represents and the friend that gave it to me all make me think of one thing that I remember hearing for the first time back in 1994 (even though it was written in 1986, by +++The Mentor+++)... It makes me think of two paragraphs of the Hacker Manifesto which read:

"We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is
that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me
for."

And it gives me chills, both the Manifesto and the picture. Even though I am not a hacker, I am still a netizen, a citizen of the internet, as is everyone else who reads, comments or posts here. Everyone with a facebook, with a blog, with a myspace or anyone who has contributed to forums or websites. We are all the same. This place, this cyberspace, provides us with a borderless world, the true global village; it gives us a place where color, age, race, location and religion don't really matter.

Oppressive and regressive governments try to limit access to cyberspace because they see it as dangerous, but the more they say no the harder we push to hear yes. It might seem like something simple and insignificant to some of us, but for those living behind the walls of aggression cyberspace is their gateway to a world they've never seen and a place to say things that people would otherwise never hear.

So this post goes out to everyone who fights everyday to exist in this global community and to have their voices heard among so many others. This post goes out to anyone fighting and writing for their cause and for the cause of others. This post goes out to everyone who tries to make a difference.

Remember there truly is No Border Here.

Muchacho Enfermo

Punishment from the US and the UN?

So I'm going to go ahead and miss the boat on this one and I'm going to post something completely off-topic, well maybe a little bit off-topic... you be the judge

I was reading this article this morning: 2 U.S. journalists on trial in North Korea from the Associated Press. While reading the article and thinking of how to post about it, a sentence really jumped out at me and made me veer off the topic of the sad story of these two journalists. First here's the sentence:
"As discussions continued at the United Nations and in Washington on how to punish the regime for its defiance..."

Wow... the US and the UN are trying to find a way to punish North-Korea for its defiance? It's really easy for the UN and for the US to try and tell a small essentially bankrupt nation what to do isn't it? And when they don't listen the world gets all upset and scolds that country the way you would scold a 4 year old for drawing on the walls of your kitchen.

But when a big country like China jails people for supporting Tibet before the Olympics or bans hotmail or jails local journalists for having opinions the UN and the US would never EVER dream of imposing sanctions or punishment on them... I wonder why?

Or when a small country close to them like Cuba has political prisoners and more jailed journalists per capita than any other place on earth (according to Reporters without Borders) all they do is keep the embargo and don't demand anything else.

Or when in Burma bloggers are jailed for 58 years and the opposition leader awaits trial in her hospital room because an American swam to her home/prison thus forcing her to violate the terms of her house arrest; no one says anything.

So what makes North-Korea so damned special? Why does anyone care? Oh yeah: nukes! They've threatened to attack the US... that's what makes them special. That's what warrants the UN's attention. Threatening the world largest and most powerful military (that could probably destroy NK in like 17 1/2 minutes) is definitely something that is infinitely more important than the defense of the innocent people that live in these countries that are jailed, tortured and starved on a daily basis for being different.

Not that they'll listen to me but here's my message to the UN: If you want to be taken seriously start taking action and demanding justice for ALL innocents jailed and tortured and living under repressive regimes that ignore Human Rights. And please PLEASE kick China and Cuba off your Human Rights Council. Seriously it's just shameful that they're there...

Muchacho Enfermo

June 4th 1989 Remembered

20 years later and the Chinese government still refuses to release the number of those its army murdered on Tiananmen Square.
20 years later and mothers of the dead are prevented from leaving their homes for a candlelight vigil.
20 years later and the same party rules over the same country.
20 years later and the people are still fighting for freedom of thought and expression.
20 years later and the people still wait for democracy and the freedom that they were promised.
20 years later and that famous photograph, the one on top, still gives me goosebumps.
20 years later and China is rich and powerful.
20 years later and nothing has changed... except the money.

In 1989 there was global outrage at the massacre, the international media was talking about it for days. I was only a 10 but I remember it very well. I remember the footage, I remember getting angry and not understanding why.

I'm a man now, 20 years later, with lots of knowledge and a much greater understanding of the world... but this massacre, the fact that China won't acknowledge it and the fact that the rest of the world just forgets it happened because everyone wants China's billion person plus market: that is and I hope will always be, beyond my comprehension.

My heart goes out to the families of those who lost their loved ones that day. My heart also goes out to the people of China who still live under this oppressive regime. My heart goes out also, to those in China who still believe that a better future is possible without change, because one day they will also walk blindly into a park and be trampled by an army hell bent on the status quo.

Muchacho Enfermo

17 Drunk Driving Convictions and Still Driving.

Actually it's 18 drunk driving convictions now and a total of 114 convictions for Roger Walsh, a repeat (and repeat and repeat) offender who has pleaded guilty in Québec court of hit and run causing death, impaired driving causing death and violating a court order from a previous conviction that barred him from drinking.

This is after he was driving (drunk of course) and hit a girl in a wheelchair killing her instantly. The only reason he even stopped his car is because it went off the road, 8 kilometers later.

The prosecution is now seeking a dangerous offender status for Walsh, stating that if he can't respond to therapy and other court imposed sentences than the courts have to protect the public from this reckless and moronic man. (I added in that last part, but you get the point)

I have no problem with the courts labeling him a dangerous offender. My problems lies with the way the courts handled his previous 17 drunk driving convictions. His latest sentence was that he was barred from drinking. Whoopty-doo... Good job boys, I love seeing my tax dollars at work that way. Whatever happened to tough love? Couldn't you stop him from driving or owning a car? Couldn't you slap an ankle bracelet on him? Couldn't you lock him up for a long long time? Oh yeah I forget this is Canada... More so it's Québec.

We're so lenient with our sentences and our jail time that it makes my stomach turn. While this guy is driving on the road and killing handicapped children, the police seems more concerned with giving me a 48 hour notice for my burnt out brake light than making sure idiots like this aren't anywhere near the road.

So to the courts, the police and the politicians and all those bureaucrats behind the scenes: do your job, keep maniacs like this off the road and stop them from killing our children. Then maybe, just maybe I'll fix my brake light, file my income tax and stop threatening to call my lawyer everytime I get pulled over.

Muchacho Enfermo

Writer's block

So I’m back after a two weeks absence, I thought I’d have a bunch of things to say and a million things to write. Turns out I really don’t. I had planned on making some kickass post with a whimsical rant but I just can’t bring myself to do it. There’s just so many things that are wrong with the world today that I’m having a hard time putting my finger on something specific I want to talk about.

I’m still trying to catch up on what’s happened in Canadian politics while I was gone and what happened to GM even though they got all that bailout money. I’m trying to read as much as I can about what happened in Burma and how the civil war ended in Sri Lanka and about what’s been going on with North Korea. I’m also trying to get a handle on everything else in the real world, such as grocery stores with food in them, and restaurants with toilet paper and just regular everyday normal things.

So today I don’t have a rant, or a complaint, or something silly to write about. All I have is what is in my mind: I feel that the world’s problems are much bigger than me and are much too big for me to write about today. So I’m at an impasse, I have writer’s block.

I apologize to the few people who were waiting for me to post again with my regular brand of idiocy and simplistic explanations for the complex problems we all face. It seems we might have to wait until tomorrow… or maybe later this afternoon after my 8th coffee, for me to come up with something worth reading.

Muchacho Enfermo

Mobilization

I couldn't decide which image to use... So I used them both. The first one is mine, the second one if from Octavo Cerco.

ETECSA

Hello everyone!

I'm back from my two weeks off and I'm rejuvenated and ready to get going all over again. So many things have gone on in the news while I've been incommunicado that I'm trying my best to catch up. I just figured to get back into the swing the things, I'd add another government that is apparently randomly checking my blog.
This time, it's ETECSA, the Cuban telecoms Ministry. I know I didn't log into my blog from Cuba that day and as far as I know no one else did and certainly not for 47 minutes...

From the past:
The US State Dept
The Canadian House of Commons

It's good to be home!

Muchacho Enfermo