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When former minister of education of East Germany, Margot Honecker, received a medal for her help here in Nicaragua in the literacy campaign in the 1980s as part of the celebrations of the revolution on July 19th, I tried everything I could to get an interview with her. I also got through to all the officials and the spokespeople of president and ministry. Unfortunately though, in the end she declined.
Nevertheless, my search for possible questions cause enough stir around my friends in Germany that I was contacted in connection with this group trying to find their old class mates from a cadre school in East Germany. The Nicaraguans who had participated had for security reasons not used their real names and had never talked about where they where from.
Poster currently hanging around most of León
Nevertheless, my search for possible questions cause enough stir around my friends in Germany that I was contacted in connection with this group trying to find their old class mates from a cadre school in East Germany. The Nicaraguans who had participated had for security reasons not used their real names and had never talked about where they where from.
Poster currently hanging around most of León
Hey everybody. It's not like I'm not experiencing anything. I've been studying in London, went to Belfast and interviewed representatives of opposing but leftist/socialist parties, I went all across the States from Portland, OR to Miami, FL, stopping by in Berkley/Oakland, CA, Douglas/Tucson, AZ and NOLA (all by land) while meeting tons of people. And I've started fieldwork here in Nicaragua where I meet and talk to everything from open source software students (explaining to them all about LAMP) to hardline Sandinistas involved in land occupations, backpackers of all types and intellectual elites.
Johannes -- thinking
I started writing a number of texts, but I just can't get myself to finish anything to be published. Maybe I'll do sometime in the future, but don't count on it. I don't really think I'm obligated to tell anyone why, but it's just how it happens to be. If nothing else, it was getting boring having a constant deadline waiting for me just around the corner.
If you really want to know what I'm doing, it's probably best to send me an email or contact me on Facebook (email: j.wilm (a) gold.ac.uk), and I'm sure I'll tell you something or other, depending on who you are.
PS: If you are from Denmark/Norway (or feel close to those countries), check out the national campaign websites for these countries to get their soldiers home from Afghanistan that I've created recently: Norway & Denmark.
Johannes -- thinking
I started writing a number of texts, but I just can't get myself to finish anything to be published. Maybe I'll do sometime in the future, but don't count on it. I don't really think I'm obligated to tell anyone why, but it's just how it happens to be. If nothing else, it was getting boring having a constant deadline waiting for me just around the corner.
If you really want to know what I'm doing, it's probably best to send me an email or contact me on Facebook (email: j.wilm (a) gold.ac.uk), and I'm sure I'll tell you something or other, depending on who you are.
PS: If you are from Denmark/Norway (or feel close to those countries), check out the national campaign websites for these countries to get their soldiers home from Afghanistan that I've created recently: Norway & Denmark.
So, you haven't heard from me in a while. Well, the past three weeks I have been studying Spanish at the Xinabajul Spanish school in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Although Huehuetenango is really untouristy (and full of traffic), I really saw no point in describing experiences that probably are 100% alike of those all other language students in Guatemala have.
Nevertheless, besides camping in Mexico city and studying Spanish here, I have also been helping to get the latest version of the Norwegian social anthropological yearly journal Betwixt and Between edited, written, layouted and printed. I don't know if articles I have been editing are representative of the entire collection (220 pages in total), but at least as far as what I've seen, the articles tend to be of a more activist nature in that it's not just all about describing things using the most advanced version of the Bourdieu-analysis-toolkit, but rather it is to actually try to point at some real problems/issues out there. (Un)fortunately, almost all the articles this year are written in Norwegian (one in Swedish) and few in English. While I understand the point of writing articles for those who do not know English (or any other language of size, however not in order to just keep Norwegian around as a museum type artifact), the problem is of course that writing an article in Norwegian severely hinders the spreading of the knowledge gathered specifically for the article.
Nevertheless, besides camping in Mexico city and studying Spanish here, I have also been helping to get the latest version of the Norwegian social anthropological yearly journal Betwixt and Between edited, written, layouted and printed. I don't know if articles I have been editing are representative of the entire collection (220 pages in total), but at least as far as what I've seen, the articles tend to be of a more activist nature in that it's not just all about describing things using the most advanced version of the Bourdieu-analysis-toolkit, but rather it is to actually try to point at some real problems/issues out there. (Un)fortunately, almost all the articles this year are written in Norwegian (one in Swedish) and few in English. While I understand the point of writing articles for those who do not know English (or any other language of size, however not in order to just keep Norwegian around as a museum type artifact), the problem is of course that writing an article in Norwegian severely hinders the spreading of the knowledge gathered specifically for the article.
I had promised to give some news updates here as to what is happening at the AMLO camp in Mexico City. Unfortunately, the organizers have decided that from now on, all news have to go through the PRD office and no person at the camp is allowed to speak to any kind of media directly. AT lkeast one interview that I had planned can therefore not be conducted, at least not currently. In general though, I can say that at this time the camp is growing. It has been more than 40 days of camping now, and so a lot of people had to go home and several tents were only manned sparely during the time that I have been here. However today, the first busses with people attending the conference next weekend have arrived. In contrast to those who have been here up until now, these seem to be more traditional party activists. The last few days it has been my experience that many are actually here because they do not actually have any other home. Several of them have also asked me as to what chances there are for them to obtain poilitical asylumn somewhere in Scandinavia, once "all this is over," because they fear repressions under president Calderon (PAN) and many "don't like Anglos [people from USA, Canada, UK]." Anothe rgorup that is present, although to a small degree, is people at student age, who have been able to take off for some time. I will be back with further updates, and I hope that the news ban will be lifted soon.
The camp of the leftwing Mexican president candidate AMLO has much of the same feeling as many of the anticamps of the intercontinental governmental conferences: no-one quite know how many protestors will come, no-one quite knows whether the police or military will react violently and turn it all into a bloodbath. But most of all: no one quite knows whether one will make a difference, or at least stop or hinder some of the meetings behind closed doors.
The AMLO camp in central Mexico city
The AMLO camp in central Mexico city
01/09: Leaving Douglas
So this is it. My third stay in Douglas is over. Tonight I will be taking the bus to Chihuahua where I will hopefully arrive by tomorrow morning. And I am leaving alone. I am really not sure about where I am going other than that I am going south for now at least.
Last night I spent with Robert, the son of the librarian who comes to town every once in a while and otherwise lives in Tucson. I tried to update him on recent events and rumors on what I had heard and witnessed in Douglas over the last two and a half weeks, and that was when I once again realized the enormous relative size of conspiracies here in town. I am quite sure that I have been involved or witnessed more of those during two and a half weeks of Douglas compared to 1.5 years previously in Oslo. But Robert charged me with maybe not really understanding what is going on: "well, I just can't imagine that you know these people here very well... you have been here like six months, and then been back twice over the past two years?" Well, true enough. According to all rules of probability, it is highly unlikely that I have much of a clue what is going on here....
leaving Douglas -- am i allowed to feel at home here?
Last night I spent with Robert, the son of the librarian who comes to town every once in a while and otherwise lives in Tucson. I tried to update him on recent events and rumors on what I had heard and witnessed in Douglas over the last two and a half weeks, and that was when I once again realized the enormous relative size of conspiracies here in town. I am quite sure that I have been involved or witnessed more of those during two and a half weeks of Douglas compared to 1.5 years previously in Oslo. But Robert charged me with maybe not really understanding what is going on: "well, I just can't imagine that you know these people here very well... you have been here like six months, and then been back twice over the past two years?" Well, true enough. According to all rules of probability, it is highly unlikely that I have much of a clue what is going on here....
leaving Douglas -- am i allowed to feel at home here?
29/08: On the Margins, 2nd edition
After months of proofreading and editing, the second edition of On the Margins" is finally available at lulu.com. Online stores should be updating their version within a few days. Strangely, this comes somewhat synchronously with me leaving Douglas once more after having spent the last few weeks here. Douglas is still a site of much (personal) drama which also I have a hard time staying away from, at the same time as it seems to exist somewhat independently of time and space around it. Besides having grammar fascists and people unfamiliar with Marxist theory run through the book again and again until they could not find any more unclear passages (thanks, Edwin M. Basye!) , also some of the names have been changed in order for them to be more realistic, and new pictures have been added (by filling out white space and not adding any extra pages at all).
the border, version two, and me
Also, it seems like there is a whole genre of books on scandals in Douglas. One of the recent books is The Reaper's Line, which, according to those supporting it, reveals quite a bit of the corruption that is going on in Douglas. The author Lee Morgan is a former drug enforcement agent and his language (goddam, fuck, ...) reveals that he tries to be a real redneck. The interesting part is that he is naming all the various people he is accusing of being corrupt. Other Douglasites however claim to have been present during some of the instances he describes and they say that since the description of those have little to do with reality, they doubt that the rest holds much water either.
The Reaper's Line -- truth or fiction?
One argument I've heard against Morgan even seems to originate in the Scandinavian cultural conduct code "janteloven": He thinks he is somebody, and that they'll put him on all the TV shows... whereas really "all of us" (that is all Douglasites + me) really do not matter to the world.
"In Douglas live the most beautiful women in the state," one Tucsoniantold me some years ago, and others have confirmed that it is a common conception. And the third book is called Beyond Betrayal --- One woman's journey through infidelity and can, to my knowledge only be bought at the Gadsden Hotel in downtown Douglas. In it a seemingly nymphomanic former school teacher describes her various sex escapades in Douglas. "She looked real attractive and so everybody wanted a piece of her," one Douglasite tells me --- and seemingly they all got what they wanted. Her husband decided to get involved with a girl in Agua Prieta though, and although they have moved far away by now, it is said that he still comes down here to see her.
the border, version two, and me
Also, it seems like there is a whole genre of books on scandals in Douglas. One of the recent books is The Reaper's Line, which, according to those supporting it, reveals quite a bit of the corruption that is going on in Douglas. The author Lee Morgan is a former drug enforcement agent and his language (goddam, fuck, ...) reveals that he tries to be a real redneck. The interesting part is that he is naming all the various people he is accusing of being corrupt. Other Douglasites however claim to have been present during some of the instances he describes and they say that since the description of those have little to do with reality, they doubt that the rest holds much water either.
The Reaper's Line -- truth or fiction?
One argument I've heard against Morgan even seems to originate in the Scandinavian cultural conduct code "janteloven": He thinks he is somebody, and that they'll put him on all the TV shows... whereas really "all of us" (that is all Douglasites + me) really do not matter to the world.
"In Douglas live the most beautiful women in the state," one Tucsoniantold me some years ago, and others have confirmed that it is a common conception. And the third book is called Beyond Betrayal --- One woman's journey through infidelity and can, to my knowledge only be bought at the Gadsden Hotel in downtown Douglas. In it a seemingly nymphomanic former school teacher describes her various sex escapades in Douglas. "She looked real attractive and so everybody wanted a piece of her," one Douglasite tells me --- and seemingly they all got what they wanted. Her husband decided to get involved with a girl in Agua Prieta though, and although they have moved far away by now, it is said that he still comes down here to see her.
Interrailing is great fun and despite low air plane tickets these days, there are still many reasons to engage in interrailing. For example, the fact that you can decide on the spot whether to stay in a place or leave to the next city. Once you hook up with some other interrailers, it can quickly mean that you trash your entire pre-planning and instead just decide to hang around with them instead.
Interrail map -- leaving out parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Marocco and Turkey
Also, interrailing is something entirely different than driving around Europe with a car, even though you might have borrowed the car from a family member and are leaving cheaply in all other ways, simply because you don't really meet your fellow travellers very much. And when you do, it is somewhere at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, with both cars heading in different directions. Meetings like that seldom last beyond just a few minutes.
Interrailers however meet mostly in trains between two transportation hubs (which usually are cities) or when they try to stay overnight in some town, preferably without having to pay for it (which usually can be done either in some park close to the train station by simply rendering the local police out of control by outnumbering them heavily in some of the main hubs or somewhere on the outskirts of cities, where no-one has thought about putting up a sign saying that you're not allowed to sleep under someones balcony). In both cases, they have many hours on them during which they can (and usually do) engage in discussions on all kinds of topics, though at least I end up talking about mid-term (between long- and shortterm) European politics (Is it better or worse in Poland now after the end of the soviet era? Did singer with the extremely deep voice who some Swedish travellers have on a CD just not become big because he was European and not American? etc.), sites one needs to have seen that no-one knows about, or experiences with control freak border guards.
I guess taking one of the far distance buses comes the closest in that they meet one another either while travelling between or within cities (a setup which I believe also comes closest to the experience people had during the early modernization period when trains connected inner-cites with one-another, before they were largely replaced by cars that are impossible to park in inner cities and instead suburbs, gas stations and interstate/highway restaurants and motels with one another). And often I do have some of the same conversations in the bus between Oslo and Copenhagen that I would have while interrailing. However, it is generally harder to move around in a bus and although a few bus pass systems exist now, they are few and probably due to another few reasons I haven't thought about, it all just ends up with contacts made on a bus breaking off immediately upon arrival, whereas interrail contacts often continue into finding a common place to stay, etc. .
Interrail map -- leaving out parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Marocco and Turkey
Also, interrailing is something entirely different than driving around Europe with a car, even though you might have borrowed the car from a family member and are leaving cheaply in all other ways, simply because you don't really meet your fellow travellers very much. And when you do, it is somewhere at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, with both cars heading in different directions. Meetings like that seldom last beyond just a few minutes.
Interrailers however meet mostly in trains between two transportation hubs (which usually are cities) or when they try to stay overnight in some town, preferably without having to pay for it (which usually can be done either in some park close to the train station by simply rendering the local police out of control by outnumbering them heavily in some of the main hubs or somewhere on the outskirts of cities, where no-one has thought about putting up a sign saying that you're not allowed to sleep under someones balcony). In both cases, they have many hours on them during which they can (and usually do) engage in discussions on all kinds of topics, though at least I end up talking about mid-term (between long- and shortterm) European politics (Is it better or worse in Poland now after the end of the soviet era? Did singer with the extremely deep voice who some Swedish travellers have on a CD just not become big because he was European and not American? etc.), sites one needs to have seen that no-one knows about, or experiences with control freak border guards.
I guess taking one of the far distance buses comes the closest in that they meet one another either while travelling between or within cities (a setup which I believe also comes closest to the experience people had during the early modernization period when trains connected inner-cites with one-another, before they were largely replaced by cars that are impossible to park in inner cities and instead suburbs, gas stations and interstate/highway restaurants and motels with one another). And often I do have some of the same conversations in the bus between Oslo and Copenhagen that I would have while interrailing. However, it is generally harder to move around in a bus and although a few bus pass systems exist now, they are few and probably due to another few reasons I haven't thought about, it all just ends up with contacts made on a bus breaking off immediately upon arrival, whereas interrail contacts often continue into finding a common place to stay, etc. .
18/07: Summer Holidays
Due to the summer holidays there are no updates to be expected in the near future. Also, I will be leaving for Hermosillo, MX taking off from Copenhagen, DK on August 11th, so updates will be scarce also in a somewhat longer perspective. In the last few days, I have been converting the clip on the Danish minority to another (and larger) format and transferred it from te commercial "Windows Movie Maker" to the free for use AVISynth. FOr those of you who had problems reading the subtitles on the previous version, the upcoming version should bring relief. Right now it's stuck in the Google Video approval system, but I'll update all links once it's up and running.
I am just about to finish another visit at my parents and so I'll be heading back to Oslo for now in order to help with the Afghan refugee actions, before I'll go to Berlin to visit my friends from highschool and take the IEALTS (English test) on July 29th, and from there on to Schwaan to participate in the Solid youth camp (watch the video from last year) up until August 6th. After that I'll hang around Zealand, Dk until I am to leave this continent.
Now you might wonder why I participate in a youth camp...
I am just about to finish another visit at my parents and so I'll be heading back to Oslo for now in order to help with the Afghan refugee actions, before I'll go to Berlin to visit my friends from highschool and take the IEALTS (English test) on July 29th, and from there on to Schwaan to participate in the Solid youth camp (watch the video from last year) up until August 6th. After that I'll hang around Zealand, Dk until I am to leave this continent.
Now you might wonder why I participate in a youth camp...
07/06: To anyone who thinks...
that I can not greet royals in a more traditional way, I present the following picture I found when visiting my grandmother today:
In German: "The children greeted the Danish queen with the Danish flag." (Grätsch, Wochenschau, 1 April, 1992) I am on the far left and it says "Denmark" on my forehead
I actually remember a few things from that day...
In German: "The children greeted the Danish queen with the Danish flag." (Grätsch, Wochenschau, 1 April, 1992) I am on the far left and it says "Denmark" on my forehead
I actually remember a few things from that day...
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