Why I Just Can't Hate Amtrak

As I'm writing this, I'm making the quarterly trek up north to the family homestead. Naturally, I am doing this sans car as car ownership in San Francisco is suicidal. In the past, when it has been more than one person making the trip, it is more cost effective, although not environmentally sound to rent a car. It seems that recently, because gas is $4-5 a gallon, the rental car companies think that they need 25% more in rental cost for their vehicles despite the fact that fuel costs don't affect them in the least. Needless to say, it has made the trip by rented car far too expensive when compared with taking Amtrak.

Most people in the US despise Amtrak and even go along with the premise from The Bush that for some moonshine-induced reason, Amtrak needs to be a public transportation company that is self-sufficient, i.e. running at a profit. I happen to not be one of these people and I think that it should actually be more heavily financed by the government and built up a great deal more. For those who aren't aware, Amtrak was basically a freebie tossed to the commercial rail carriers to spare them the burden passenger travel which was quickly becoming a loss due to the burgeoning air travel sector in the early 1970's. But, I refuse to look at it as a handout and to view it as more of a public project that could have so much potential to change the US view of transportation at a time when we've needed it more than ever.

To all its detractors, I understand the points. Yeah, it can smell funky here and there. Sure, you have to interact with your fellow human beings, which some people find like totally icky. Yeah the elderly fellow across the aisle from me with the pneumonic cough is less than appealing, but I will be stronger for absorbing his airborne germs. And things on the train don't always work like the door between the next car and mine that keeps opening and closing on its own. But, I think what really kills people with Amtrak is the delays. This train that I'm on was 20 minutes late in arriving. Thankfully the bus connection up to the homestead waits for this train otherwise I'd be stuck in Sacramento for the night.

I admit the delays can be maddening, especially when you're taking such a short, a two hour train. But while Amtrak bears the brunt of peoples' ire when it comes to this, it is absolutely not their fault… most of the time. You see, they don't own most of the rails that they use and thus, they don't have priority usage. The freight carriers that they unfortunately bound to lease them from get to bustle their trains down the rails firstly with the frustrated people coming in at a distant second or even third in priority. The net result is that you get a lot of people mad about what is actually an amazingly huge and relatively good system, yet is not viewed that way.

I've been trying to figure out for a long time how we can deal with this problem short of forcing imminent domain on all the rails in the country, which should have happened a long time ago. I still believe that this is what is ultimately needed, but the railroad lobbies are so incredibly powerful that there is no way American citizens can force this immediate change, especially given the very pro-corporation government we so dearly enjoy at the moment.

The change must be small. It must be focused. It must be gradual. It must happen on a grassroots level to tackle such a huge problem. I believe that yes, the solution lies in the blog. As cheesy and digitally ridiculous as this may sound, hear me out. If people used a focused blogging initiative to document the situation with Amtrak, we could actually build a wealth of information that would mean something in time. And I'm not just talking about pissed off riders complaining about being late. I call on the conductors and engineers of Amtrak to write about their experiences and collate what they know about the delays, who is causing them, where the biggest offenders are and then bring small, governmental campaigns to purchase the rails in the areas where Amtrak suffers the worst. They can blog anonymously if they have to, but cutbacks to Amtrak affect the employees as much as they affect the public, whether they want to realize it or not.

Sure, I admit that all of this could get ignored and we could still be in the same situation that we're in, but when it comes to actually having the power of focused information as opposed to random spiraling whirlpools of hearsay, Americans actually will do something. If it affects people on a local and personal level (and having this information at hand will show those who it does affect) people get motivated. It's a small idea and maybe it's shortsighted, but it's food for thought as I just realized that the Sacramento River Wetlands are passing by and this is my favorite part of the trip.

31 07 2008      1 comment

Tags: amtrak, trains, us america

Introducing the Ford Plague

There are times when things just don't translate well or those in marketing at a company don't bother to stop drinking their Starbucks for five minutes to realize that there is a big world out there with a lot of languages. Most people are aware of the blunder in calling a car the Chevy Nova, which while an actual word in Spanish can also mean, "no va" as in, "it doesn't go". Of course, that's not nearly as bad as the Mitsubishi Pajero which most people in the US will know at the Montero because "pajero" means "wanker" in Spanish and while a fitting name for your typical SUV driver, it didn't do much to sell the vehicle in Spain.

Now things have taken on a Slavic twist. As was initially reported in East Ethnia (which is a great read for Balkanophiles), Ford has come out with this car called the Kuga. I'm not exactly sure where they came up with this word, although I think it's one of those things that a computer spits out for them like the Altima. Maybe they thought it was a very 'urban' way of saying 'cougar'? Because, the unfortunate thing about this name is that without any change to the word, it means, "plague" in BCSM. If you don't believe me, check out the Wikipedia page for this thing. I mean, it's only a market of some 25 or 30 million people, but still, it's a bit of an oversight.

28 07 2008      4 comments

Tags: cars, language, marketing

It's Time to Ask the Hard Questions

27 07 2008      1 comment

Tags: hudin, internet

A Review of the Bradt Congo Guidebook

Sometime back, when preparing for my maiden voyage to DR Congo, I wrote about the Bradt Congo guidebook. It has the distinction of being the only recently-printed guidebook on Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as the Republic of Congo. It's also the only one in English that is current, being that Lonely Planet's 'Zaire' guide is a bit out of date. Now that I am back from gallivanting around DR Congo, I can give the book its due.

The author, Sean Rorison has done a fine job of covering a massive area with poor transportation and next to no infrastructure. As I mentioned in the previous article, he doesn't mess around when talking about the situation there. He goes in to great detail of all the restaurants, hotels, and history really well. The background provided in the book is a great summation of the history and current situation of DR Congo that prepares the traveler for what they are about to experience once setting foot in the country.

Of course, DR Congo it's not for the easygoing traveler who thinks that Prague is really crazy to visit because it's "scary" Eastern Europe. Unlike a book on say, Hawaii, Rorison doesn't work to sell the reader the destination but actually prepare them for the trip. In essence, it does what a lot of guidebooks are missing the point of doing these days (I'm looking at you, Fodors).

It lays out pretty much everything that's touristic to see in any of the towns, which is not that much. It also gets in to the practical aspects of getting around the country, which are not easy. This is one point that might need to be developed more in a future edition (if there is one) is that one of the only airlines that was safe to fly on, Hewa Bora, has not really ever been that safe to fly on and got a whole lot less safe in April and should not be flown on if one enjoys living.

Other basics are covered well, including hospitals (try not to go), women travelers (not advised to go solo), embassies (register with yours there), and Article 15 (a remnant of Mobutu times that is an unstated law essentially allowing mass corruption). That being said, there are a few things that could be done to spruce the book up a bit. One thing is to go in to better detail on budgeting. While costs are always changing (getting more expensive), I can't see how you can survive in a place like Kinshasa on $40 a day. A hotel that's at a high enough level to avoid getting scabies is a minimum of $70 a night. Food can be cheap, but one must be willing to adventure a little.

There really needs to be a bigger section on the N'Djili Airport in Kinshasa. That's a wacky place that's not the easiest thing to navigate. While getting better, it's still not like any typical concept of an airport that most anyone from the US or Europe will be used to. Additionally, just getting to and from it is an ordeal that isn't given enough print in the book. The same should be said of the airport in Bukavu, although to lesser degrees.

Another thing that would really help is to lay out itineraries in the various areas. Congo isn't like European destinations wherein spare time can be filled by just wandering the city. It takes a long time to get anywhere and do anything there, so you really need to be pretty anal retentive when making plans, unless of course you just want to sit around in cafes watching the hustle and bustle, which will inevitably happen even if you don't intentionally plan it.

Obviously, one can't cover everything and it's good to see that Rorison mentioned Patisserie Nouvelle in Kinshasa, but he missed the restaurants of Surcouf and Chantilly which are great spots. And while the coverage of Uvira is far too short, he does a good job with Bukavu and an even better job with Goma, as well as an entire section just on the Ruwenzori Park. I really enjoyed the sidebar on, "Where t-shirts go to die", which is a good read and very true if you're ever curious as to where your donated clothing ends up in the world.

The one gleaming thing that is nearly not covered at all are the expats. I assume that this must be the author's and the editor's decision, as it's an aspect of DR Congo that is unavoidable. The book doesn't really get in to how the UN (as well as other NGO's) blanket the country and you will most definitely run in to expats as there are literally thousands of them in the country. I can understand that when writing a guidebook to a country that you want to talk more about the country than those who outsiders to it, but unlike expats in Spain, those in Congo are really part of the whole writhing mess that is Congo. They can also be a good source for local information for first timers to the country as well.

But in closing, despite my small nitpicks, this is a great guide to the Congos. Rorison and Bradt could have easily have done a half-assed job since they're heading in to a region that has next to no competition, but in the end, they produced a very worthy guide that is a gleaming example of what Bradt does best in that they cover regions that are undiscovered.

27 07 2008      0 comments

Tags: books, dr congo, in to africa, travel

The Issue of Private Mass Transit in San Francisco

We all hate taxis. Even people who love the convenience of taxis, hate taxis. They are the devil and they're pretty much god awful in every corner of the world like Tim Clancy pointed out in Sarajevo where people are getting charged 15€ for a ride of about 700 meters. Of course, there are always alternatives to taxis in the form of public transportation, except in the US where, as all of us who live here know, our public transport system is severely lacking.

So, what do we do? Do we put our vote and dollar in to fixing the ills of public transport here? No. We put our faith in the corporation to do the right thing and take up the slack. The biggest example of this is Google and their Shuttle service throughout the San Francisco Bay Area which picks up employees and drives them the 100km or more to Google's offices. It's a great thing that they do as it eliminates cars from the roads as well as allowing those onboard to use internet the whole ride so that they can work if they wish. But it begs the massive question of, why do we need this?

For the case of Google, it's because there are no public transit lines directly from San Francisco neighborhoods to their offices. But in the case of my most despised entity in San Francisco, the Academy of Art, it just so happens that beyond the fact that San Francisco is quite compact and walkable, there are bus lines that run between all their buildings that spread forth across the city like herpes. Despite this, they run their own bus in San Francisco. There is no need for this. It is redundant and clogs the streets with buses that should only be public buses.

It doesn't matter if it's Google of the Academy; the creation of private mass transit lines is preposterous. The energy taken to create these systems should have been better spent in policy changes to build better public transit lines. In the case of the Academy, their constant spread and disregard of San Francisco communities at large shows that they are very tight with whomever they need to be tight with in order to do what they need doing. Thus, how could they not get the city to run additional bus or metro lines for their needs that we could all use? And in the case of Google, they have more money than god and I'm sure if they had the will, they could run BART up to their doorstep. Now that would be newsworthy. And let me emphasize that there are countless other private entities that have this mentality as well such as the hospitals and hotels in the area.

But the core problem is we the citizens. We put our faith in the private entity more than the government and I don't know why. Despite Google's, "Don't be evil" slogan, their shuttle system isn't just out of the goodness of their hearts. They can control when their workers arrive and they can get them to work more by having internet access on the shuttles. For the Art Academy, it offers then the ability to show the parents of children dishing out $25,000 a year in tuition that their children will be specially treated and won't have to face the "dangers" of the city. It works as a selling point as we all know how many murders and rapes have happened on public transportation in San Francisco: none.

Besides the fact that we are creating dual systems that are wasteful and discriminatory as they are not for the public, there is the issue that the corporation and private entity is fickle. Take for instance Razor Sharp Cutlery. They are a knife shop located directly across from what used to be the Culinary Academy. That Academy moved across town and now this shop is just stranded there having lost their main customer. It makes me wonder as to what will happen to all those who purchase homes along the Google Shuttle route at higher prices because of the Google Effect in that a Google Shuttle Stop makes an area more desirable. If Google changes the route or stop it altogether, won't these homes lose value? It would seem to me that buying a house in the new transit village that has been built around Fruitvale Bart as that Bart stop isn't going to go anywhere, anytime soon. But then again, I just think this way as I'm against the privatization of public transit.

25 07 2008      2 comments

Tags: cars, san francisco, transit

Where the Hell is Andorra?

It would appear that the State Department lost sight of where Andorra was:

I think my favorite part of the whole thing was the map of Africa that they used. It is so, so true.

24 07 2008      1 comment

Tags: in to africa, media, the europe, us america

¿Dónde Diablos Está Andorra?

Parece que el Departmento de Estado ha perdido de vista dónde esta Andorra (el video es en inglés, perdón...):

Creo que mi parte favorita de todo es el mapa de África que usan. Es muy cierto.

24 07 2008      1 comment

Tags: in to africa, media, the europe, us america

Of War Criminal Websites and Default Statements

So for those who are really, really not reading the news, super duper, incredibly wanted, biggest butcher from Bosnia, Radovan Karadžić has been captured and is being prepared to stand trial in The Hague once his extradition hearings have concluded in Belgrade. Of course, there are a number of bizarre twists to all of this. For one, he was living in Belgrade, in the center, and working with an assumed alias. You can read all about this story everywhere as well as see the massive beard that Radovan was sporting to hide his true identity. What's even a good deal more amusing is the website: Dragan Dabić. This was the alias that Radovan was using in Belgrade and some smartass went and set up a website to appear as the good fake doctor's personal site. For everyone who thinks that this was Radovan's real site, let me emphasize that it most definitely was not. When you do a WHOIS lookup on the shebang, you see that it was registered July 22, 2008, which was one day after Radovan was taken in to custody. For those not good with math, this means it was registered yesterday. It's as fake a site as was Radovan's psychiatric care he was providing some people in Belgrade.

On another note, I have a request to make of all future war criminals that are most likely going to eventually stand trial before the ICTY which is: stating, "I am not guilty and I don't recognize the legitimacy of this court" is not original. It's so incredibly Milošević and most likely not even his to start with. I mean, yeah, we get it, you think you're not guilty and that this UN court is a sham. It doesn't matter because they're going to try you for genocide nonetheless and put you in their illegitimate jail. In the future, please just say, "Yeah, what Slobo said." or "Default Sentence #1. Default Sentence #2." when arrested and extradited. It would save me two redundant sentences in the news that I read and I need all the time that I can get as I'm a very busy man what with drinking tea, reading the news, sleeping, and waking up and all.

And for those interested, you can read a Croatian blog roundup of reactions to this event on Global Voices.

22 07 2008      0 comments

Tags: internet, the balkans, war

DR Congo and Ben Affleck are this Summer's Fashion

It's not a lie that DR Congo is a fashionable tragedy story as of late. Celebrities and others have latched on to it as a way to get their name out as doing good in the world by bringing light to the issues there. Well, add to that list one Ben Affleck whose reportage appeared on ABC last month.

In all fairness, Ben's work is pretty good when taken from the perspective that an American was responsible for it. If you want to judge for yourself before reading more, you can watch Part 1 and Part 2.

Finished watching? Okay, good because I wanted to say that there is something of an honesty to this piece that he spearheaded. You get the feeling that he is a person with the means to do pretty much whatever he wants and he was curious about DR Congo, so he went there to actually try to understand, which is something most people don't do. He covers the country (mostly the east) from the viewpoint of what he sees. He even tries to put a positive message at the end by saying that there is hope, which of course there is, because there is always hope.

That being said, this report says nothing new. Much like the flood of redundant coverage of Panzi Hospital, Affleck is treading on a path worn deeply by those who have come before him. Maybe this reaches out to Americans somehow as Ben is a big name and he might appeal to the everyday person more than someone from academic or NGO circles. But the one really big point in all of this and why it is so unabashedly American is that the subjects of the video are not allowed to speak in their own voices. Ben becomes a mouthpiece for them, guiding we the viewers. Much like Lisa F. Jackson, no matter what good intentions he may have had when starting the project it comes across as Ben Affleck wanting to show what Ben Affleck can do and what place Ben Affleck went to. At one point, he even seems to me to come across as falling prey to the, "I'm here to save African babies!" syndrome that many who visit the region do.

I do respect what Ben is trying to do, but it's a shame that some of these things happened. I don't know if he watched work like Lumo or Darwin's Nightmare before going, but there is a lot to be learned from films like these. They allow the narration and story to happen from the subjects of the film and thus, it's much more engrossing and powerful work.

There are other little bits that I didn't like in how this story was presented, but they are quite subjective, so I won't get in to them unless people feel like commenting. I just really wish that people could get Bernard Kalume's job title correct though. Bernard is the fellow helping Ben with translations out in the bush. He is not a "contractor with the UN". He is a fulltime employee with the UN who friends of mine know well and I would have met had he still been in Bukavu and not up in Goma. I'm told that he's a great and extremely capable guy who speaks English, French, Swahili, and Kinyar Rwanda. In short, he's very smart and does his job well. Yet, he never gets credited as being a fulltime employee. The only reason that this must be the case is because it would paint the UN in a light that was less than negative and we just couldn't have that now, could we?

21 07 2008      0 comments

Tags: dr congo, film, media

Reintroducing the Apple Tool

So, do you remember that iPhone 3G launch about a week and a half ago? Something of a big deal for techie people who wanted the latest gadget. It was such a big deal for one goober that he waited in line for 36 hours to be the first to get the phone in San Francisco. Well, he got his 15 minutes of fame and was indeed the first. You can see him below. I realize that he's quite a catch, but sorry ladies, he's taken, although his wife was unavailable for comment as to his waiting for 36 hours to buy a cellphone. Once again proof that Apple is just as much a cult as the Moonies or Scientology because really, one's Mac is better than your God.

Fast forward three months just for kicks.

20 07 2008      0 comments

Tags: apple, mobiles, san francisco