Monthly Archives: October 2004

Bad Microsoft!

Friday, October 29, 2004

So, according to the folks at The Lancet, over 100,000 people have died because of US action in Iraq (more). Now, maybe that's not that high but it's still a lot of people that didn't need to die. How many people needed to die for this you ask? My best estimate: zero.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Bush Cabal chose several times to not arrest Zarqawi before the war, even though they had several opportunities to do so (more). Why would they do that you ask? I don't know, but I can tell you that by not doing it, the corporations involved are making a lot more money due to the increased violence. Private mercenaries and reconstruction efforts don't come cheap.

Remember those weapons that Bush claimed were gone before the war, and how he attacked Kerry for “jumping to conclusions”? Well, it turns out that the Al-Karar Brigade claims to have them (more) and promises to use them against the US. In a series of events that sounds very similar to Bush's WMD scandal, video footage exists of the explosives after US troops were there (more), and both Iraqi (more) and UN agencies (more) specifically warned the US to watch them. That said, those 400 tons of high explosive are only the tip of the iceberg of weaponry that's passed into the hands of insurgents and terrorists since the US occupation began (more).

The reasons for the weapons losses can easily be the same as the decision to let Zarqawi go — it's highly profitable. Sure, a lot of Iraqis and Americans die and become impoverished because of it, but that 2% at the top making the decisions becomes fabulously wealthy. Now, you may want to ask yourself, did this happen because of evil or incompetence? I don't see that there are any other options, and neither is fit to run a nation, let alone a superpower nation.

Maybe Microsoft is evil. They broke my TV, didn't they?

According to Dr. Robert M. Nelson, senior research scientist at NASA and JPL, “an international authority on image analysis” who's currently analyzing photos of Saturn's moons to determine their shape has some interesting things to say about the “bulge” on Bush's back during the debates (more):

“I am willing to stake my scientific reputation to the statement that Bush was wearing something under his jacket during the debate. This is not about a bad suit. And there's no way the bulge can be described as a wrinkled shirt.”

But hey, what does some egghead from NASA know about science. Bush is our buddy, he'd never betray the world… Well, time to go memorize the Bush pledge now (more), seeing as the latest GOP polls predict him winning 99.7% of the popular vote… Anyway, I'm off to the tattoo convention.

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More travel notes

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Rachel was feeling wiped out so while she was having a nap I decided to go for a walk. I'm not really a brave fellow and don't tend to go places I shouldn't, but at the same time, I'm not known for common sense — as I was leaving, half asleep she said to me, “if you get hassled, just say 'No tengo ningn valor como rehn. Nadie me desea.'” I'm not sure what that means. Her Spanish is a lot better than mine. That said, I think I could become fluent within a month of being here; with my French, German, and English there's a surprising amount of overlap.

I was meeting Havve at 21:00, so I knew I had to be back for 7 PM — two hours to do about a 10 km walk if I'm guessing the distances right. Here are a few photos from along the way.


This is the city just before I left for my walk. I still can't get over just how big this place is. I think my only complaint — the level of air pollution — is in part a byproduct of this, along with cars and busses with less smog control than they probably should have. Of course, I live in the most air polluted region on the planet — the lower great lakes basin — so I'm in a bit of a glass house on that one.


Cables are strung everywhere, and as far as I can tell they're “official” since they're fuelling traffic lights and so on. Or I'm seeing them backward, and people are lifting power from the lights.


One of the new condo developments down by the waterfront. Those of you who live in Toronto may find it disconcerting just how familiar this looks. There are a lot of similarities between Canada and Argentina I think… when Rachel was buying shoes yesterday, we mentioned we were from Canada and the sales guy commented as well about how similar Canada, Australia, and Argentina all are.


A really funky little house down by the shore. I can't believe I said “funky”. I wish I'd taken more shots from other angles, it was a very funny building.


Ducks in a canal. On the other side of the palms is the ocean.


I took a wrong turn down what looked like a nice alleyway. When I'd walked about four hundred feet and noticed people suspiciously glaring at me, and then almost tripped over a dead pitbull, I decided I should probably choose an alternate route. I guess it was a little shanty down — sorry to keep drawing Toronto comparisons, but it reminded me of “tent city” that used to be down by the Toronto waterfront.


A modern bridge crossing one of the canals, and a tall ship behind it. The main avatar I've got up right now is a picture I took right in front of that bridge as well.


Come on — you must be seeing the Toronto parallels by now! The waterfront area really was disconcertingly similar in areas. As long as you keep the palm trees out of the shots, I'm sure there are photos one could take that would easily fool Canadians into thinking it was a local photo.


Yes, it's a TGI-FRIDAYS. Aparently those are more common in Argentina than they are up north.

Anyway… I know these travel entries are a little lame (and because of editing them on my laptop, the pictures may not look so great) and I'm not much of a travel writer — really, there's not much ranting involved, and I'm best when my revolutionary fires are ripping my brain to shreds — but I hope some of you are finding it at least marginally interesting.

But really, you've got to do this as well. I dread travelling every time before leaving, but almost always enjoy it once I'm there, and I'm definitely enjoying Buenos Aires so far. There are things you learn about the world that you can not learn by any other method than going out and travelling.

Oh, and while I was gone Rachel kept having dreams that there was something wrong with the clock. As some of you may have clued in to, 21:00 is 9PM, not 7PM, so I rushed back for nothing, and felt a little dumb after Rachel pointed it out — after we'd sat in the lobby for half an hour waiting!

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Skyline

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Well, we're at a new hotel now. This one is super swank — we knew we had a good one when we saw that this is where all the international pilots stay — and the price is still a fraction of what our room in Vegas cost. That said, the high speed internet access is broken so I'm actualy connecting through a WebTV type device.

I did manage earlier to upload a picture of the skyline view from our window. Buenos Aires is a truly monstrous city, perhaps even dwarfing Los Angeles or NYC. It's kind of embarrassing that us North Americans are almost totally unaware of what a vibrant and modern culture exists to the south of us. Click below for a big zoom:

For a guy that doesn't really like travelling, I've got a lot of places I want to go… I definitely want to spend a few more weeks in Argentina, as well as the rest of South America… I keep hearing more and more good things about Namibia and really want to check out Africa… And Eastern Europe… And Australia… And Rachel has her eyes on Japan also…

But Namibia is where my head's at right now. I'm so utterly convinced at this point that things in city life are not going to magically correct themselves. When the US, a nuclear superpower, finds itself without fuel, and Russia is sitting on what's left, I don't really want to be in the path of those ICBMs… I keep having fantasies that will get people “Jim Jonesing” me a bit too much about buying a 6,000 acre ranch in Africa and just inviting anyone here who's willing to work the land to come and escape.

It's probably a pipe dream, but I haven't stopped thinking about it since I first proposed it three or four years ago…

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Sad news

Thursday, October 28, 2004

I'm very sad to write that friend Bboy, founder of the Eunuch Archive passed away. I knew him as a friend and as an “aligned” publisher for I think about eight years, and during that time he worked tirelessly, along with Talula and others to provide vital support for the eunuch community. I don't really know what to say, so I'll just repost Talula's message (more on his page and on EA) until I can compose something appropriate. He was too young and too loved for this to happen, but I suppose that isn't always enough.

I am having a very hard time typing this.

Bboy has passed on.

The doctors did some preliminary tests, decided there was no point in going on, and his folks decided that it would be better to let him pass in peace rather than to let him stay on.

From all that I understand, they unplugged the machines that kept him alive and he slipped away from us very quickly.

This is not a good day.

talula

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October 28, 2004

Thursday, October 28, 2004

OK, worst hotel ever. Even though we're a little down the hall from it, the elevator beep volume is deafening, and the plumbing is malfunctioning so there's literally something that sounds exactly like and is as loud as a fire alarm going off periodically. Oh, and there's construction and jack hammering outside our window as they rebuild the courtyard. So there's not been a lot of much needed sleeping. We're checking out today and going to a different hotel.

After that I think we'll take a walk down by the old harbor, so I'll post those pictures later today if I can.

Other than that, Sy Hersh has a quote on why it's so hard for Kerry to get a lead on Bush (more) which sort of echoes the studies on how Bush supporters are highly disconnected from reality and have far less understanding of science, history, world events, and so on in comparison to normal people.

“I think one thing you have to face up to is the fact there are roughly 70 million people in America who do not believe in evolution - and those are Bush supporters.”

One of the fundamental failings of democracy is that for it to work, you really do need an intelligent and well informed voter pool. If not, you end up with Iraq, which is ready to vote in an Islamic government, or America which is still in favor of Bush, although the tide is slowly turning. In the shadow of Amnesty International pointing out that the US has not changed it's pro-torture stance (more), Hersh has also been talking more about the tortures he's seen (more). Some excerpts:

So orders came down from the generals in Baghdad: We want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And, as [the soldier] told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, “Stop!” And he said they just shot them one by one. He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts…. And the company captain said, “No, you dont understand. Thats a kill. We got 36 insurgents.”

The women [at Abu Ghraib] were passing messages out saying, Please come and kill me because of whats happened. And basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children … the boys were sodomized, with the cameras rolling, and the worst above all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking. That your government has, and theyre in total terror its going to come out.

Other than that, Rumsfeld admits that the US had no plans on how to deal with insurgency (more) — even though they'd started planning the war in the late 90s (more). Both US (more) and Iraqi (more) officials are debunking the various spins on where the missing 380 tons of explosives went, including the notion that Russia did it (more). The fact is, a convoy of 40 to 60 trucks moving 380 tons of explosives isn't going to be missed in a tiny country under constant air and satellite surveillance. The US government should know perfectly well where it is, no matter how many times Bush comes up with a new reason (more, more) — sound familiar?

Anyway, this computer is missing some of its keys so writing these entries is a pain in the ass. If you'd like to stay up to date, here are three great resources:

Metafilter is also pretty good at posting relevant links, although the above three my favorites.

All that said, it's really the 2008 election that's going to be interesting… After all, with the US having as little as four and a half years of domestic oil supplies left, if hostilities between the US and the rest of the world continue to rise, it will be forced to go to all out war, probably nuclear, simply to keep itself fed (more). Welcome to the apocalypse (more, more, more).

They say hurricaines are a symptom of global warming. Maybe that's why almost 60,000 absentee ballots in Florida just went missing (more)?

Thought you might like Bush's “one fingered victory salute” to America (his quote on it). Of course, I think I can say with some certainty that this video might even help Bush get re-elected… sad.
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Some pictures

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

I'm enjoying this city a lot so far, but the police baracades at the government buildings and the big lines of cops are a little disconcerting. But I suppose I've filmed riots in Toronto, so I can't say what its larger meaning is. Anyway, since us North Americans tend to assume that the rest of the world is a shanty town, I wanted to post a few more pictures.


Malls look the same everywhere in the world

As I wrote, this is a very diverse city that reminds me of a lot of places. But these two pictures from the pedestrian shopping district really reminded me a lot of Amsterdam.

There's a lot of nice older architecture as well, although it does seem a little beaten down both by age, and judging by the amount of anti-government grafitti on them, I suspect that to some extent it has a political connection to previous (or current) regimes that are none too popular.

Finally, these last two pictures are from the Plaza de Mayo (like a central town square).

As far as getting around in English, I'd say it's about as easy as getting around Toronto in French… Definitely do-able, but I'm guessing about 10% of people speak English well enough to have a conversation (and it's not really hard to navigate the rest of it gesturally when it comes down to it). Pricing seems to be about 40% to 90% what it would cost in Canada or America. I wish we were able to stay longer; I'd love to travel farther south, but that'll have to wait until next year.
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First impressions

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Flying over South America I was really struck by how wet it is. At least for the parts where it was daytime, there were rivers and lakes everywhere. And the occasional thing on fire.

The weather is quite nice here, probably about the same as Toronto around a month ago. Cool, but bright and sunny and warm at the same time. Argentina, at least from here on south, reminds me of Canada geographically quite a lot. So far Buenos Aires is a funny mix of every city I've ever been to; there's a bit of Toronto, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Montreal, and even a bit of Caribbean flavor — incredibly diverse and cosmopolitan at first glance. It's pretty run down though, you can definitely see that while a lot of wealth has flowed through this nation but that it's been hurting for some time financially.

Those are just a couple quick pictures of the (under construction) hotel courtyard. Other than that we just went out on a pharmacy run, as Rachel has some mystery disease. If it's worse tomorrow we're going to have to seek out real medical care.

Thanks to la negra and Javier for picking us up at the airport.

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