We're going to turn an area in front of the factory into a playground for the local kids. We, or I. A few people said they would help, but it's been pretty much all me so far. Last week I built a small tree house, using just the limbs that were trimmed from the same tree awhile ago. Now I want to improve and expand it ( Read more... )

Saw two cool Brazilian films yesterday in the cultural center La Cucha (The Doghouse), where they screen free movies every Sunday night.

The first was Carandiru, a 2003 release based on the true story of a doctor working in the Brazilian State Penitentiary called Carandiru. It details the brutal conditions of the horribly overcrowded prison ( ( Read more... )

After watching The Corporation I wrote a critique of capitalism that summed up some of the arguments of the film, all based on attacking the corporation as a fundamental institution of capitalism. Martyn (who's getting married!) pointed out that non-corporate capitalism is possible. I asked him what it might look like, and he sent me an article ( Read more... )

A lot of people in the radical post-left are less than friendly with technology. Recently I came across the term "anti-democratic technology" for the first time. The article I was reading described the personal automobile as "anti-democratic" because it's impossible for everyone who wants one to have one, and if everyone did have one, the results ( Read more... )

I just finished reading El Libro de Amores Ridículos, by Milan Kundera. I read it a couple years ago in English, The Book of Laughable Loves. I like the English title better than the Spanish, and the difference makes me want to learn something about Czech to know what Kundera originally wrote. The book is a collection of short stories, all ( Read more... )

Sometimes I feel like this:
I'm Doing My Inconsequential Part For The Environment

Hanging out with Marta, a cool Spaniard visiting Tucuy Paj, made me realize how much I miss a certain kind of people - people who have read interesting things that I haven't read, who introduce me to new ideas and challenge my ideas, who have sophisticated concepts of gender and sexuality, who have travelled. To be honest, I don't meet a lot of ( Read more... )

The New Standard reports: Immigrants Demonstrate Power through Strike, Boycott, ProtestsInteresting that it's immigrants that have to organize a May Day event in the US. What happened to America's labor movement, to our social consciousness? May 1st is celebrated by workers the world over because of the original 1886 Chicago May Day strike, ( Read more... )

About a month ago, in Dictators and Anarchists, I wrote about a march in memory of the 1976 coup d'etat that led to the Videla dictatorship. At the time, I didn't exactly understand the point of a march in memory of something that everyone obviously already remembered quite well. Recently, talking with Cristina, I asked what ever happened to ( Read more... )

Late summer and early fall is such a wonderful time of year for vegetarians. There's a cascade of fruits and vegetables coming into season. Right now grapes are at their peak. They sell for a peso fifty per kilo which works out to about twenty cents US per pound. And they're fantastic ( Read more... )