RE: Ground Zero Extravaganza

Beautifully put, Eric. Hats off.

As a non-American with no personal WTC experience i still like to give my totally insignificant view…

I would have to agree with Ink. The utter act of defiance IMHO would be to rebuild the Twin Towers, or at least make a new building to look the same. I don’t think there is a better way than that for telling the whole world something like “Hey, you can try to screw us, but when the mourning and vengeance is done, you won’t have achieved a bit.” Creating a park or a dedicated memorial site IMHO is like admitting defeat, and an agreement with the fact that the terrorist tore the heart out New York’s business area/smacked the teeth out of Manhattan/… No! Defy!

And although i absolutely love Gaudi’s designs, including the parabolic skyscraper, i don’t think his organic shapes fit well into Manhattan.

RE: Your thoughts on Globalisation?

If economic globalisation will eventually turn out to be some kind of vanguard for political and social globalisation, i’m all for it. In that sence i absolutely agree with Eric: those self-proclaimed leftists who get beaten up in anti-globalisation protests seem to forget long-term consequences, and how nicely they fit into Marx’ theories of global unification. Arise, ye supressed workers of the Earth 😀

And i do think that economical globalisation will eventually have beneficial effects on the world’s social and political climates. No matter what you think of it, companies like McD (yuk, i prefer BK) or CC do offer global opportunities for the creation of a middle class: small shopkeepers, franchiseholders, stuff like that. A solid middle class is what prevents the world from either going into extreme capitalism (basically your everyday African or Latin-American cleptocracy) or into extreme leftism (Communism). A solid middle class is also an excellent base to form a democracy on.

Nevertheless, i do despise it when large multinationals take abuse of their often monopolistic positions. While most Western countries have various anti-trust laws and regulations, these don’t exist in many other countries which almost always leads to abuse, both on the labour side (Nike’s exploited shoemakers) as on the trade side (unfair coffee prizes). To prevent this i would like to see some kind of a global anti-trust organisation (details of which have to be worked out 😉 ) – which will of course be a nice step further to political globalisation as well.

Oh, and which idiot stated kvas is a “Coca Cola substitute”? That’s the biggest nonsense i’ve ever heard: kvas is a proto-beer made from fermented rye bread. It is absolutely delicious and very refreshing and it’s dark, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Coca Cola. Kvas is also a few thousand years older, for instance…

RE: alternative browsers

I used Opera for about a year, when IE was in it’s 4-something days. I rather liked it back then, but i hardly remember why now 😀 I do believe it made it was the separate ‘channel’ for streaming media it had somewhere, so i could listen to the radio on-line without going for a definate blue-screen-of-death with the explicit deleted real audo.

I HATE REAL MEDIA! BAH! GO AWAY!

RE: Quotes

Thanks ad0nis. There were a few new ones in that… the story continues… and i’m beginning to hope the guy gets re-elected }>

RE: Is war with Iraq neccesary?

Unfortunately another misconception in your interesting essay…

In the absense of a strong central goverment in Iraq, the
resulting vacumn of power would be filled by Iran whose
majority is ethnically related to the majority of Iraqi
citizens.

Iraqis are (mostly) Arabs, while Iranians are Persians. They are ethnically not related to each other. There is a rather large group of Shi’i muslems in Iraq (mostly in the South), but those are Arabs and not Persians like the Iranian Shi’i.

Interestingly, Saddam’s rule is probably the most secular in the whole Middle East, including Israel. Did you guys know Tareq Aziz is a christian? The number of christians in Iraq is quite high btw, mostly of the assyrian minority which have their own kind of catholicism.

RE: Mobile phones.

iMode is available here in the Netherlands nowadays in just the obnoxious marketing campaign you expect: hand out the phones for almost free, have the first few months of the contract very cheap, in order to get people hooked. After which you can pay through your nose. I have no experience with it myself, but i don’t really see the use of it apart maybe for obnoxious jokes.

I did hook-up a cell-phone to a laptop once in a while, to send an article i had just written to the editors. Not really a big deal, but i did it through a direct linkup and not via internet or email.

RE: What Do You Eat And Drink At Airshows?

Ah, the essential preparations for a nice outing…

Well, if the airshow isn’t too far away it’s likely i did have a few beers the night before, which will mean i won’t feel like preparing food the next day. On such days i usually have to hurry anyway, so in such cases i get some snacks at the airshow itself, usually some gross hamburger or hotdog (i sold them once myself at Gilze airshow in 1997 or so) but if available something more ‘local’ (waffles in Belgium or sausages in Germany for example).

Another option is when it’s a bit further away, and i find myself in a car long before dawn for a one-day or weekend trip. If that’s the case, i hopefully prepared some massive omelet (with mushrooms, bacon, the lot) sandwiches which i usually stuff down on the way to the airshow. At such airshows (like in France) there isn’t always time to start an eating binge because ‘there is work to be done’, but i usually try to eat something local-ish. Polser-hotdogs in Denmark for example, or an excellent self-saucing saucisse merguez in France.

However, i will never ever ever take food to Geilenkirchen open house. Since all participating members of the NAEWF like to present themselves gastronomically too, that’s really an experience. Shall i have another Canadian mooseburger again? Some more paella at the Spanish joint? But the Turkish kebab was delicious too, as were the Keftedakia the Greeks cooked… if all’s well i won’t be the driver on such a visit since i like to swallow it down with a beer or so as well.