Christina

I learned the term “gender reassignment” at law school within the study of European labour law and its rules on discrimination. Also while I was at law school, a woman named Nadia, who had previously been a man, won the reality tv show Big Brother in the UK.

Last night, while out with Monkey and Dalibor, I met Christina, an enchanting young woman who is in the middle of having her gender reassigned. Christina is pre-op, which means that she still has a willy, but she has been taking the meds for a while and so has grown breasts and developed a more womanly figure, among other things.

Christina is interesting, intelligent, multi-lingual and absolutely lovely. We spoke at length on many topics, amongst them language learning, the difficulties and rewards of living in various countries, people’s attitudes in different places towards foreigners and our own experiences with all of the above. When Christina left the bar to go home, we agreed that we would meet again.

Later in the evening, Monkey, Dali and I discussed the whole thingy of gender reassignment. My conclusions were that it must take a lot of courage for someone like Christina to make the decision to do it and that it is a wonderful thing that the medical know-how is available to people that have the need to change their gender. It is an unusual thing simply because most people are comfortable in the gender they have been from birth, but there is really nothing “weird” about choosing to go through the process.

Max's own Rorschach test

This is the water stain on my ceiling. The girl upstairs had a flower pot blocking the drain on her balcony and the snow melted into my flat.

What do you see?

7 random things I learned from the BBC today

1. One in ten Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed.
2. Giant squid eat each other – especially during sex.
3. Jimi Hendrix pretended to be gay to be discharged from the US Army.
4. One in six children in the UK thinks that broccoli is a baby tree. Cute, huh? Stupid little fucks.
5. One in 18 people has a third nipple, but it is often disguised as a freckle or mole.
6. The Spanish Flu of 1918/1919 was known as French Flu in Spain.
7. The Japanese word “chokuegambo” describes the wish for more designer shops in a given street.

Mad No More

This post is a follow-up to my post of 14 August 2005: Mad Max on the Peace Corps “Military Option” http://cheekymax.blogspot.com/2005/08/mad-max-on-peace-corps-military-option.html.

Today I received the following e-mail, which contains actual good news.

Dear Peace Corps Community:

This past Friday, President Bush signed into law the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006".

Included in this legislation is a provision supported by the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) that removes references to Peace Corps in the "National Call to Service" (NCS) military recruitment program.
[emphasis by Max]

The NPCA wishes to express its sincere thanks to Senators Chris Dodd (CT) and Ted Kennedy (MA) and Armed Services Chairman John Warner (VA) for introducing an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to de-link Peace Corps from the NCS program.

We also wish to thank House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter (CA) and Ranking Member Ike Skelton (MO) for advancing the legislation by agreeing to the Senate amendment.

A special thanks also to Congressman John Kline (MN) for introducing House legislation to address this issue, and to the bi-partisan list of 38 other House members who showed support for this measure (go to the thomas.loc.gov website for the entire list), including RPCV Congressmen Mike Honda (CA) and Sam Farr (CA).

We are also grateful to a bi-partisan group of former Peace Corps directors who provided advice and support on this effort, including Carol Bellamy, Joe Blatchford, Richard Celeste, Nick Craw, Kevin O'Donnell, Mark Gearan, Donald Hess and Mark Schneider.

Last and certainly not least, thanks to all our members who took action through letters, emails, faxes and phone calls. Your actions provided an important citizen voice for this change, and helped protect the safety and security of volunteers and Peace Corps' independence.

For more information on the NPCA and background on this issue, please visit our website at http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org .

With very best wishes,

Kevin F. F. Quigley
President
National Peace Corps Association

Vacuum

Amos Oz is a celebrated novelist, journalist and writer of non-fiction. He is a peace activist – one of the founders of Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) and one of the first people to advocate a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he has been doing since 1967. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on his novels and he is one of my heroes. I also lived in Arad, in the Negev, where he lived and still lives now.

Amos Oz published an article in 1967 in the Labour newspaper Davar called “Land of our Forefathers”, from which comes one of his most famous quotes: “Even unavoidable occupation is a corrupting occupation.”

More recently, Amos Oz has spoken about Ariel Sharon:

He is leaving us, taking with him the answers to two great mysteries. Why in the autumn of his life had he suddenly converted so radically? And what else was he going to do in the direction of peace and reconciliation?

The demise of Ariel Sharon has left a vacuum in Israeli politics.

The platform of the party that Ariel Sharon recently founded, Kadima, is not perfect, but it is progressive and it has offered the Israeli people hope that a two-state solution can be reached. The party has brought together former rivals from the right and the left who seem to be determined to bring peace to Israel and Palestine.

Israel has a general election scheduled for the 28^th of March. Before Sharon’s stroke, which has almost certainly removed him from politics, Kadima was well ahead in the pre-election polls. There are 120 seats in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, and it was projected that Kadima would take 42 seats, which would then be enough to form a coalition government.

Last Friday, the newspaper Yediot Achronot published the results of a poll, which showed that Kadima, with Ehud Olmert leading the party, would still take 39 seats, with Labour taking 20 and Likud 16.

The newspaper Haaretz together with Channel 10 conducted its own survey and found the following:

Kadima with Olmert at its head would take 40 seats;

Kadima with Tzipi Livni at its head would take 38 seats; and

Kadima with Shimon Peres at its head would take 42 seats.

But analysts are not trusting the polls at all. The general consensus is that it is too soon to tell.

Joshua Teitelbaum of the Moshe Dayan Centre and a professor at Tel Aviv University:

As far as polls go I think you have to take them with a grain of salt. I think what you have now is a bit of a sympathy vote. It may be that they lose support in a couple of days or weeks. This Kadima Party was really Sharon's party in every way, so without Sharon I think you will see it lose support after the sympathy vote dissipates.

Even the members of Kadima have admitted that a lot could change between now and 28 March. The first question is whether support for Kadima has really been for a centrist party or if it has been more for Sharon. The second question is about Shimon Peres: Will he stay in the party without Sharon? If Peres goes back to Labour, Kadima will very likely fall apart. Labour and Likud have both sent out feelers to see if certain people would return to their former parties with Sharon out of the picture.

And Bibi Netanyahu, an extremely dangerous man, is lurking, waiting for his chance to jump back in to fill the vacuum that Sharon has left. I am afraid that Shimon Peres is too old to stop him and there is no one else on the Israeli political scene that has the stature and charisma to keep Bibi away from centre stage.

The timing of Sharon’s stroke could not have been worse. And as Amos Oz has suggested, we will never know what might have been.

Happy Birthday, Monkey!!

Have a weird and wonderful day.
Big big love
Your Max

Fuck you, Microsoft

New York Times: Microsoft Shuts Blog's Site After Complaints by Beijing

BEIJING, Jan. 5 – Microsoft has shut the blog site of a well-known Chinese blogger who uses its MSN online service in China after he discussed a high-profile newspaper strike that broke out here one week ago.

Basically, Microsoft and other technology companies, including Yahoo, have been kissing the Chinese government’s arse because China is a big important market. But their means of doing so involves assisting the Chinese government in its suppression of free speech, which is not acceptable.

Microsoft say that they “must comply with local and global laws,” but that is a bullshit excuse. I do not know much internet law at all, but Microsoft’s blog servers are in the US and I do not think that China can do anything to Microsoft unless it wants to resort to a boycott of some sort. Microsoft is just acting in a cowardly manner.

And in case you don’t give a shit about free speech in China, think about what could come next.

The shutdown of Mr. Zhao's site drew attention and condemnation this week elsewhere online. Rebecca MacKinnon, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, wrote on her blog, referring to Microsoft and other technology companies: “Can we be sure they won’t do the same thing in response to potentially illegal demands by an overzealous government agency in our own country?”

I think we all know the answer to that question.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/technology/06blog.html

My day so far

I got home from U Zpěváčků last night just before 1 a.m. I checked the news before I went to bed and saw that Ariel Sharon had had a massive stroke. I am not particularly fond of Sharon as a person, but I think he has lately represented some stability in Israel, and I am afraid of what may come next, i.e. Netanyahu again. I went to sleep at about 1.30.

The Kid, who had been staying with me for the past week, came home at about 3.20 a.m. and I got up to hang out with him and to make sure that he had his shit together and ready for the taxi that was coming at 4 a.m. to take him to the airport. He was a bit drunk and sentimental. I also checked the news to see whether Sharon had died.

I helped The Kid get his luggage downstairs to the cab at 4 a.m. I did not wait to wave him off but I did hear the cab drive away once I was back upstairs and getting into my bed.

I did not sleep well, which is unusual for me, and I only managed to get out of bed this morning 50 minutes after my alarm had first gone off. I texted Katka to let her know I would be an hour late into work, but with instructions that she need not inform anyone else.

I got into the office just before 10 and since that time have dropped off to sleep in my chair at least six or seven times, once long enough for me to have to log back in to my computer when I woke up. I started to wish that we had beds in the office, but then realised that would be a very bad indicator of far too much overtime. I don’t really fancy the prospect of being discovered taking a nap on a couch in a partner’s office, and I have briefly considered the floor space under my desk. I think instead I will go for a walk and hope that the cold air will wake me up enough to last until I can go home.

I opened a gmail account this morning. Not because I wanted to or because I don’t already have enough other e-mail accounts, but because Kitty Killer does not know how to downsize photographs and swears that gmail can handle her 1.4 MB monsters. I did not have the energy to argue with her last night and so promised to use the invitation she said she would send me.

Beware, Citizen

Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation of 17 January 1961 is famous for warning Americans to guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

But Ike warned us of so much more:

In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.

Internet2 is currently being developed and used by a consortium of over 200 US universities, private industry and government. Internet2 is better, stronger and faster than the internet most of us use every day. And the most marked difference between our internet and Internet2 is that Internet2 is controlled absolutely.

The United States has become a police state. Civil liberties have been dispensed with, surveillance of citizens is widespread and there is no longer a place for a free press. Being that practically all of our traditional media are controlled by five corporations, the internet has obviously become the only arena for opinions and dissent, and it must therefore be eliminated.

Servando González, in his article “Kiss Your Internet Good-Bye”, presents a theory that the US government will come up with an excuse, no doubt related to terrorist activities, to shut down the internet as we know it. They already have Internet2 to fill the void for those who are granted access.

Internet 2 will be fully controlled by the state. In order to access it, or to have e-mail access, you must be a member of, or be affiliated to, any of the government-authorized organizations and have a sort of security clearance. Internet 2 will be out of the reach of the general public, and every person trying to have unauthorized access to Internet 2 will be charged with terrorist activities, and severely penalized.

http://www.rense.com/general36/inter.htm

González is a crazy Cuban, and he may be paranoid, but he is not the only one who thinks that Internet2 is being designed to take the internet away from the rest of us. Forget Internet2 for a second – just think about the practicality of taking the internet away from the people who do not agree with you – it just makes sense – especially if you are a totalitarian government.

Paul Joseph Watson offers his version of the same scenario:

…it is more than likely that this is part of the movement to destroy the existing Internet and replace it with Internet 2, a government regulated and controlled version whereby state approval to even own a website will be required and in the short-term future, only citizens with a 'green' color code security level on their national ID card will be given permission to use the Internet at all.

Of course, with most of the population being obedient boot lickers this won't affect them at all and they will happily comply.

But for the rest of us, those who are still able to engage their brain and question world events and government policies, the Internet will cease to exist, under the pretext that 'terrorists' can use it to shut down the global economy.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2006/030106aol.htm

It’s been nice knowing y'all…

Happy Birthday, LA Dude

You know who you are.
Lots of love
Max