Citizen Reporter

As I travel around the Northeast of the United States, I am also struggling to keep up with events unfolding in Spain. Disturbing events as protesters throughout the country suffer the wrath of a police force out of control. While millions throughout the country assemble in city squares demanding political and social reform, their story goes mostly unreported and downplayed by many international media outlets.  What is going on in Spain? On today’s podcast I talk about the situation, while also giving an update to several themes from recent podcasts.

As a designer, at some point David Kousemaker became interested in finding where our old phones and electronics in general end up once we in the western world throw them away.  His interest took him to parts of Indonesia, China, Brazil and Thailand, among other places. There he observed not only how things like mobile phones are broken down, recycled, rebuilt etc, he also saw how entire industries and ecosystems form around these practices.

Through his photos and blog entries you can follow his travels and see some of the highlights.  David Kousemaker met up with me here in Amsterdam to talk about how he got into this subject and what he learned from the journey about just how big an impact our love of gadgets is having on this world.

All over the world our transportation systems, food production systems, and overal infrastructure are being pushed more than ever before. With the onset of financial crisis and the reality of having less resources dedicated to repairing and renewing these systems, the reality of a multi-level failure, a crisis beyond what is now called a crisis, may very well be in our immediate future.

Eleanor Saitta is a researcher, hacker, artist, designer, and writer who has been looking into and speaking extensively about these issues around the world.  In this podcast we will talk about the facts that have her concerned and that what perhaps can still be done… as well as what we are too late to do.

This is the story of how the painting came together, and how LV would file a lawsuit against Nadia. Demanding that she not show her artwork which contains images of their bag, and calling for her to pay an expensive penalty (€5,000 per each day the painting is shown) if she doesn’t take down her work.  The case is pending a decision in early May. In this podcast interview, we discuss the case as well as Nadia’s work in relation to Darfur.

Nadia’s website which includes info on her Darfur initiatives which you can be a part of,  as well updates about the case.

In post Katrina New Orleans, prisons and the justice system suffer from a long list of problems, many of which were there before the floods. They’re also the subject of a battle being fought by community leaders to change and fix how crime is addressed in a city fighting to rise again.

My guest for this podcast is Jordan Flaherty, a journalist and community organizer based in New Orleans, where he works on an impressive list of social issues. His book, Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena 6 focuses on the struggle of people in New Orleans, the stories of community and culture that do not often reach the mainstream media.

Several weeks following our initial interview with Matthew Dons following the Earthquake-Tsumani and subsequent Nuclear Accident in Japan; we’re back again to do an update. Together we discuss the Japanese media, food supply, the rescue-emergency workers, and the behavior of the nuclear industry since this disaster.

Once again you can support the work of Tokyo Hackerspace in Tsunami relief, go to their website and learn more.

Citizenreporter.org’s West Africa correspondant isn’t too keen on walking the streets of Abidjan these days and she has to watch what she says, as the country is sharply divided by a political standoff. The standoff is between two presidents and their supporters. One the incumbent with his own dedicated citizenry, the other elected several months ago, internationally certified and recognized. How long can this standoff last? What can be done or is being done to resolve it? In the meantime, what does daily life consist of on the streets of Abidjan as well as for a longtime correspondant in her own neighborhood.

Joining me online from Abidjan, international journalist and prolific West Africa blogger, Pauline Bax.

Her work on bloomberg.com

Natasha Ezrow, Director of the International Development Studies Program at the University of Essex and author of Dictators & Dictatorships: Understanding Authoritarian Regimes and Their Leaders, has written about the important differences between dictators which we now see being played out by how they handle calls for reform.  She also lays out criteria for why types of leaders might flee a country before anyone is harmed, while others would stay til their last breath.

In the following podcast he describes his experience and the concerns going forward.  He also goes into details about his survival preparations and options on an island where many people face difficult choices in the aftermath.

Follow Karamoon on twitter

Listen to the Learn Japanese Pod

And just now I received an update, Tokyo Hacker Space is taking action for quake relief in Northern Japan but they need your help. (link has been down occasionally today)

While here in town I went over to their offices and sat down with Danilo Ballotta, Principal Policy Officer – Epidemiology, Crime, and Markets Unit, to ask him about what the agency does, what the biggest problem areas are for Europe, and what we know works when it comes to drug treatment.  We also get into Portugal and how this country has managed to become a world leader in the area of drug treatment.