Video from Guardian on Refugee Camps on the Syrian Iraqi Border

Here’s another interesting tidbit from the Guardian – about the refugee camps on the Iraqi Syrian border. Actress Romola Garai (she was the grown-up little sister in Atonement, for example) made the video.

 

Be an Illegal Immigrant for a Day

So – speaking of illegals. This is odd – a little report from the Guardian on a town in Mexico where tourists can pay to go through a simulated experience of being an illegal immigrant crossing into the U.S.

First reaction was to roll my eyes.

But in the video the man running the program presents it as a tribute to all those who have given so much to try to improve their lives – often losing those lives in the process. If it truly is done with an eye to educating people, really showing them the hardships people endure, kudos to them.

The videos on the Guardian are normally very spare and this one is no exception. One would of course, like a little more info – perhaps a chat with the person who organized it, whose idea it was, reactions of some of the other participants. Sadly, Guardian video usually leaves one asking for more like that.

 

Illegal L.A. on VBS.tv – iiiiinteresting…..

So I stumbled across this vbs.tv thang when a friend sent me a link to a doc on Naples (will get to that in a sec) and one of the programs they’ve got is on illegal immigrants in L.A. Of course, of interest to moi. So embedded below is the first clip in the series, click through the link above to see the rest.

 

List Fun – top travel websites!

Here’s the Independent’s list of the top 50 travel sites on the web. Wow, 50 – that’s a lot of web-trawling for whoever did this article. Kind of annoying they don’t just have a print list though – you have to flip through all 50 items in their slide show to see them all – anNOYing!

#7 – couchsurfing!

 

Karina Video!!! – Burial of the Sardine in Madrid! – Up on Gadling.com too! Yay!

So we did this little vid a couple weeks ago – about one of the more bizarre madrileño carnival traditions. (Article about it here in In Madrid). And we were quite pleased to have it go up on Gadling.com, one of the top travel websites (#2 according to Technorati).

Enjoy!

 

Videos you need to see: The Story of Stuff

I’ve posted a few vids up on Facebook and have been meaning to here as well. They’re not particularly new, but if you haven’t seen them you should, and then you should send them to everyone you know.

First up – The Story Of Stuff. (better resolution vid at the site).

Phenomenally well done, well explained, well conceived, well executed, well everything video about the chain of production, consumption and disposal that is destroying much of our planet, our societies, our health, and our future. So clear and so simple it’s genius.

 

How Progrssive Are You? I’m “extreme” :)

A little quiz for those of you who (like me) obviously have too much time on your hands, and who for some reason need a transparent internet quiz to tell you what you probably already know.

The Center For American Progress has prepared this quiz so you can tell how progressive you are! They’re all fairly obvious questions about (mainly) US policies and general social values.

I scored 352 out of 400, “extremely progressive.” Not a surprise. Average score for Americans is 209.5.

On their little graph of different groups along a progressivity (I know that’s not really a word but I don’t care) scale, the highest group was Liberal Democrats with an average of 247.1. Wow, I guess I am extremely progressive, for my country. Just one more illustration of how I feel there’s no political group or movement that really reflects my values in my home country. Sigh.

I would be interested to see how people from other countries score on this. So if you’re a non-American and you take it, let me know your score!!

 

Whoohoo! I can blog again!

Nice. For the past week or so, I haven’t been able to access my blog! Nothing would load, I’d get repeated error messages after long attempts. Not even the support page for WordPress would load (though their homepage yes) so I couldn’t email anyone about it.

Anywho, had other things to be worried about but glad its back up, was getting worried, having nightmare thoughts about the entire blog being mysteriously lost to cyberspace. Gulp. Made me think about backing up!

 

Video – Slightly Delayed Announcement – España No Me Quiere, Oficialmente.

So, as explained on Vimeo I meant to post this on Thursday before I left for Barcelona – just an informative thing – but logistics were against me, I was running late for the bus, so I didn’t get around to it till today. It’s not purty – wasn’t really supposed to be – just some news. (with of course, my own, obligatory literary digression)

[Sorry, BTW, to anyone who got to this and the video's not up yet - Vimeo tells me I've got another 100-something minutes to wait and I'm exhausted and its way past my bed time- so if it's not through the queue yet, come back in a bit - thanks]

 

Photo of the Day – No Human Being is Illegal

This was part of the Independent’s regular round-up “week in photos” bit. I just liked it. I want to scream it at the top of my lungs sometimes, but people would just think I was being melodramatic. Anywho. Go chick with the cardboard sign! I like her glasses