Hello Mr. President,

I thought I'd send you this story, because I find it an absurd plan to purchase 3000 new fighter jets when the current war against terrorism won't be won in the skies. It will neither be won by tanks and troops. The terrorists live amongst us, and until an agreement is reached with them (not by beating them) will they stop attacking us.

Please re-consider the spending of $200 billion on these jets. That much spending could end world poverty & hunger, and bring fresh water to every town in Africa.

Sincerely,

Derek Martin

read yahoo article on jets here: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011026/pl/arms_fighter_dc_2.html

Does anyone in Toronto want to make a blues band? I can play harmonica, but I don't know any other musicians yet...

On another note, yesterday I was walking down the street and a homeless guy said hello have a nice day... didn't ask for change or anything and i walked bye... then i though, i have some change, i should give it to him... and so i turned around and walked back towards him and he curled up into a ball with his hands over his head...

Then when i handed him some change, he apologized and said sometimes when he says hello people kick him in the head... He was happy that i didn't kick him in the head, and said thanks a lot...

what kind of messed up city makes people think they're about to be kicked in the head! Jeez.

7 Friday and Saturday

I¡¦m now on our Lufthansa flight on the runway in Vienna ¡V retrospective on yesterday and today.

Yesterday I thought we¡¦d slept in until 11! And was freaked out. I phoned Martin¡¦s room and told him to get it because it was already 11am. Many of us drank a lot at Branislav¡¦s the night before, so it seemed logical that we¡¦d slept in. Then he informed me that his watch said 8:20am. Oops. My 6 day old watch battery had died!

So, we all got up for breakfast anyway. Omeleta so syrom again ƒº, Cappuccino, Pomerancove dzus ¡V Mmmm. 65 Slovak Krowns ($2.10). We tried to go shopping, but found that there were no stores (post-communist country) ¡V only things like clothing places, and grocery stores. So we bought some coins at a coin shop ƒº Vanessa and I briefly went to a little art gallery, and it had this weird impressionistic yarn-art. Neat.

Then we went 380 feet down one of the old gold mines (shaft 4) in Kremnica (the heart of Europe, known for its gold mines in the middle ages). Kremnica was the first city to have a (hydro) electric lighted street. It was the Heart of Europe for Gold. It is now 6000 person town. The mine is the only one still producing in Kremnica. Usually they don¡¦t give tours as it is not open to the public¡K but for Canadians they made an exception ƒº

My hometown, Petrolia, was the first city to have a (oil) lighted street. It was the Center of Oil (black gold) for the world. It now a 4200 person town.

Then we went to a lookout point in the hills around Kremnica. Beautiful. Then we drove a bit to see the SCEI Keystone in a nice field near an old old medieval church/monastery. Then we walked through a forest where there was a collapsed mine that had killed 800 men (all the men in the town) and the town stopped mining for 100 years because of the tragedy. You could see holes in the side of the hill where parts of the mine had been before the side of the mountain fell off. Scary.

Then we had a break and hung out at the new office. Maria went home unexpectedly with the people from the OSA (very kind!!) because apparently I¡¦d mixed up when the flights were. I thought we were all leaving the next afternoon, but Maria had to leave super-early so had to leave the night before ƒ¼ Sad. Sorry Maria.

That night we went to a 1600s underground club. The bill for 12 people including food, champagne, wine, mixed-drinks, coffee, and beer was about $80 Canadian. Wow. Cool. Maya¡¦s dad had so much energy! We all left at 3am, but he stayed until 4!

-------

Saturday

Got up at 6:15 am and had a quick breakfast at the Hotel. Then we drove back to Bratislava to return the rental car. Then we drove to the airport in Vienna with Branislav¡¦s son. Caught our flight to Frankfurt, and then caught our connection to Toronto. On the flight we watched Cats & Dogs & Cats, and The Score with Edward Norton! Sweet flics ƒº In Toronto I caught a bus to Kipling Station, then a subway back to Christie station, and a taxi home. Got back to my house in Toronto a slim 21.5 hours after leaving the hotel in Kremnica ƒº Whoa. A trip & friends to remember :)

The photo on the right is of the above-ground part of mine shaft 4 in Kremnica :)

5&6 Wednesday and Thursday

Due to the fact that the “Minister of Somethingorother” wanted to stay at the hotel we were at, and they were booked solid, they asked me to share a room with Nick. No problem, just odd.

I didn’t do an entry last night because I was so tired that I fell asleep in my clothes watching German MTV. Yesterday we got up really early to do 2 workshops: the first one was at the Bratislava University of Technology and it was great/nuts. What we did was introduce ourselves and talk about TIG and its programs. Then Martin worked the projector while I taught about 30? people in a computer lab how to make a basic html page with links, images, headings, and image-links, and then how to create a geocities website and upload it. Great success! A faculty of architecture member even gave me his card after and we had a chat in his office because he’s very interested in partnering with TakingITGlobal in some way (testbed for TIGed?).

Then Georg and I hurried to rent a car for our upcoming trip to sKremnica. Then we rushed to a high school for another workshop.

We were given a large classroom with 30-50 students varying in age from 16-18 while Maya translated. Most knew some English but were too shy to use it. They would not talk. Very frustrating & intimidating as a workshop leader. So we spoke about what TIG is and how we got involved and why  also about the Slovakia Team and Slovakia.TakingITGlobal.org BUT we had NO computers or internet, so it was very hard. We didn’t know ahead of time what the workshop was to be on – turns out “IT Technology” was supposed to be our topic. Hard without computers.

We did some ice-breakers though (smile & copycat) and eventually did get them interested in TIG & SCEI. One student suggested an “essay post” area. Pretty cool. They all had fun. I noticed that after the smile game, the person who was my partner spoke more. It made her more comfortable.

Trip to Kremnica. Booked into the hotel, then went for dinner.

We had dinner at a fish restaurant with bears, badgets etc on the walls. I had some crazy turkey, chicken, and hotpepper sauté thing! Yummy! Vanessa had a whole fish! Yuck! Also, I “accidentally” had 2 stroberman 0.5 Litre 12% beers. I was looped. Fell asleep to German MTV again.

Woke up early and had an omeleta so syrom (cheese omlet) and some pomerancove dzus (orange juice) and kava (coffee) at the restaurant in the hotel. We walked a bit and saw Maja’s house. We then went to the TIG/SCEI office & galler. HUGE!!! Impressive. Awesome! Wow. The ideal TIG office. Better than the one in Toronto.

Then we planned the workshop. WOW OK! So, like 150-200 people showed up, ages 60-80. Incredible. Georg introduced SCEI & TIG. The Mayor of Kremnica was there and said a few words (which I couldn’t understand). We then introduced the ideas of TIG to them. I said something like “I see a lot of people here, and that makes me happy because it means your community is strong. Community is an important thing, maybe the most important. The great thing about communities is that people help each other when they need it. So that’s what we want to do with TakingITGlobal – connect many communities together to form a larger community that we’re all part of. So that we can help our global neighbours, not attack them.”

We showed the flash intro, did personal stories and how to join the site (using the projector) and how to do an update (they loved seeing their town on TIG Spotlight on Slovakia and Maya’s updates). The newspaper was also there. Sweet. The teachers showed great enthusiasm to Georg.

After that 1.5 hour session, we had a 5 minute break to stretch and re-arrange the room… getting all the benches and stuff out of the way for a workshop. What I haven’t mentioned is that for the whole time, we had much translation:

English->Slovak
Slovak->English
English->Slovak->Slovak Sign Language
Slovak Sign Language->Slovak->English

Of the 40 students who stayed for the workshop, about 30 were deaf. Holy language barriers Batman! BUT they were THE MOST insightful! Maybe because people rarely listen to their concerns and help them, so they saw this as “a big chance”. We did 2 icebreakers and talked about others’ interests and about what we can do together.

1st-> translate workshop kit to Slovak. 2nd ->create Slovak story page. It was a good way for them all to meet Maya. Yes they were quiet a lot but Maya said that was because no one ever asks students what *they* want – so they had to understand that we *really* did want to know what they wanted and help them achieve it.

After we had dinner, then we went to an organ concert at the big church/castle on a hill in the center of Kremnica. During the piece there was a pause and some people started clapping (incorrectly)… I thought Georg & Cherry were gonna die! They had to try so hard not to laugh out loud  Then we went for drinks and food at Branislav’s cottage, 10 minutes from Kremnica. It was such a beautiful place!

Also, I had time to develop a nice crush… Distance is a bitch.
When we left I gave her a nice hug, and one of those euro-kisses on the cheek.

Idea: TIG re-invigorates local physical communities through group interaction and cross-pollenation of ideas via the web. TIG strengthens communities and their futures by investing in youth.

The photo to the right is of us standing by the SCEI keystone in the countryside.

Day 4 -- Tuesday, 2:45pm

Breakfast 9:30am, shopping 10:30-11:30, conference 11:30-1pm, lunch 1-2pm, conference 2-4:30 -- I spoke briefly about virtual versus actual/physical. Heard ¡§Office of Subversive Architecture¡¨ „³ Very cool. 4:30-5:30 head home and change/shower. 6-7:30 dinner at the winery at the president¡¦s castle with the Canadian Embassy¡¦s 1st secretary and her secretary (from CIDA). She was interested in TIG & SCEI.

8-10 pm drinks, pizza & absinth @ bar
10-11:15 coffee outside under the laser beam!
11:30-1:45 workshop brainstorm (on video!)

Issues The Night Before Our Workshop:
We don¡¦t know what they want/need. They didn¡¦t request the workshop, so we¡¦re not filling a need per-se.
We don¡¦t have a clue as to how many people will attend.
We don¡¦t know what the space will be linke.
We don¡¦t know how we were advertised & what they expect.
Their English isn¡¦t stellar / doesn¡¦t exist.
We don¡¦t speak Slovak.
They might not have net access for us to present our website.
We have no net access to prepare using our online workshop kit or to download TIG photos for powerpoint.
Turns out the laptop tv-out (NTSC) was incompatible with their PAL projector.
No floppy disks for file transfer.
No example workshops (maybe for different grade levels? Different self-consciousness factors?)
We didn¡¦t know what to do when no one spoke (need a ¡§tips for silent rooms¡¨ section on the site ƒº)
Low-bandwidth but huge graphics on TIG requires a text-version. Can we write a server script to ignore all graphics, because creating dynamic text only version?)

Maya & Petra were AWESOME translators¡K we think¡K but we couldn¡¦t understand, so we don¡¦t know ƒº
Absinth was STRONG and bad, but then SWEET and YUMMY when I chased it with some cola!

This is a photo inside Branislav's cottage near Kremnica. He is roasting chicken on his open fire! Awesome! Georg is sitting chatting it up :)

Conference Day 2
Check out www.virtualhouse.ch

I made a comment at some point about an important distinction that should be made between the “virtual” world and the “real” world. The opposite of virtual is *not* actual, but “physical”. Virtual things and spaces actually do exist on a non-physical plane. Online relationships are real, with real emotion. They just aren’t physical. We cannot “un-exist” something. We cannot create anything that cannot exist. So, if we can see it or touch it or smell it, it is actual, not virtual. Come to think of it, I can even picture ideas in my head, so what is “virtual” anyway? Hmmm.

An observation: “Virtual” things will largely be used to augment/enhance physical things, or to extend abilities. It cannot replace physical things which require physical contact that cannot be replicated with a GUI representation (unless we get a holodeck). Example: a “virtual” chair would be useless.

Notes on the Office of Subversive Architecture (OSA) Presentation:
Methods: Analyse the situation exactly. What is there? How can we do something we haven’t done before? Can we implement some *new* communication? We should not just build objects, but we should start processes. By telling stories we should think out scenarios so that the we can create something that will continue on by itself. We should make desperate places engaging. We should change the way people look at things. “Subvert” the obvious/traditional/boring/un-engaging.

A thought I had: Nature and chaos and all environments are networks of interacting systems. Systems are also networks. So, really the world is also an “internet”, composed of meat, and protein, and fibre, while the “virtual world” is composed of bits, and electrons, and fibre-optics. Neat-oh.

A man made this comment: Up until about 1600, man was in harmony with nature. The 1600s brought with them industrialization and dis-harmony. In 1800 the world had a population of 2 Billion people. By 2001 this had reached 6 Billion, and it’s expected to reach 10-14 Billion by 2010. So, how do we divide space between nature and humanity? Humans need nature but nature does not need humans. How do we cope? Stop pollution? Is it possible to co-exist with nature again, in peace? It *will* require the cooperation of all sciences.

Accompanying this update is a photo of me and two beautiful ladies who attended our workshops. If you are reading this, please email me at Derek@TakingITGlobal.org I'd like to keep discussing the additions to the site you recommended! It was great to meet you :)

Someone else’s speech was about “Problems with Education via the Internet”. Here are some keypoints:

$ & skill requirements are too high (both creation and maintenance)
Inspiring and interaction is hard.
Hard to get net-ed programs accredited
Requires imagination of students BUT imagination is HARD to get/use on the net.
Decline in ability to communicate verbally & in writing  decrease in creativity!
Derek says “no decrease in creativity”, just a refusal to work linearly. Now work hypertextually!

Why are essays/papers hard to write? Because people don’t think linearly. They think hyper-textually, linking (thinking) from one idea to another in no particular sequence. Using the net has freed them from their linear prison. They are not uncreative. They are “hyper”.

TIG helps people work together to create things. This counteracts entropy in the world (acting as entropy). Entropy: the 3rd law of thermodynamics. All systems (things with process) tend towards a state of non-motion or inactivity. Neg-entropy: works to counteract entropy. Creation is the prime example of negentropy. Other forms are cooperation, collaboration, activity. TIG helps the world wind-up, instead of grinding to a halt. Teaching each other spreads knowledge and skills and helps build a stronger, livelier economy.

Monday Night:

The day is over, and it was great. We went to the conference today and heard a lot of great ideas about how the net can be helpful and also other ideas about how it is too inaccessible, or is too hard to maintain. We had lunch (paid for by Fac of Arch) at a nearby restaurant – very good pork, potatoes & rice. I bought all 7 people at my table each a drink, and it came to $3.02 Cdn. The prices here are friendly to the Canadian dollar  In two days I have spent *maybe* $10 Cdn, yet I have eaten well and had much to drink. Anyway, the conference….

We were the last speakers of the day, and after some initial technical difficulties, everything went smoothly. Everyone listened *very* attentively and no one walked out  As I was speaking, the moderator slipped me a note that read “1 minute left” and I was amazed at how time had flown, so I finished up and gave it over to Vanessa, Maria, and Martin who did *very* well. I forgot to mention that we had a nice quiet breakfast at a café on the way and Vanessa (vegetarian) got “meat-toast” by accident  tee hee!

Also, Georg videotaped our presentation at the conference, and it’ll be interesting to watch later on 

Afterwards we all slept for a bit at the residence and then had a chat/wine/desert with Branislav and his wife, and Flavio back at the Faculty of Architecture. Trying to understand the Slovak situation (high unemployment, not a lot of cash, free underfunded education) and maybe how we can help. Then we went drinking (more) and we were all “gone” after $8 of alcohol between us all.

Tomorrow we will have breakfast and go shopping. In the afternoon we will attend the conference and at night have dinner with the Canadian Ambassador in a huge castle! Cool! Then Wednesday morning we’ll do a workshop or two and be off to Kremnica.

With this entry is a photo of Petra (our compassionate translator & friend) and Nick (our friend & colleague from Nation1.net in New York) sitting on a very tell rock-bluff in the countryside near Kremnica (on day 6).

Day 1 ¡V Sept 29th, 2001

In the air. Air Canada Boeing 747. Just watched the news ¡V mentioned the trade tower crashes ¡V how comforting¡K Also, just before liftoff the flight attendant had to re-jig/fix the undone emergency exit!! Also very comforting¡K

Just watched Shrek, and now Searching for Bobby Fischer. Great movies!

It¡¦s dark out over the middle of the ocean. Darker than I have ever seen, outside. Only starlight, like hope. The rest as dark as a spirit without dreams.

Idea: Structures reflect and demonstrate our history, but also affect our present moods and thoughts. In affecting our thoughts now they influence the directions & choices we will make and indoing so alter how our future will manifest itself. Without my gradeschool study desk, no university, & no TIG & no ¡§me in slovakia¡¨. Space is crucial, therefore let the new TIG space reflect both what you have been and what you now are, in addition to what you dream of becoming.

Georg said ¡§we should encourage uncommon ideas. Otherwise, the system will be dead.¡¨

Crucial points about TIG: dreams and hope are enough to start; if you want something done, take charge and get it started; believe in yourself; have faith in the future; TIG is a hope engine & we must keep it going.

Day 2 ¡V in Bratislava „³ We did it!

I am in Slovakia! After arriving in Frankfurt we convinced the airline (thank goodness Martin spoke German) to let us miss our connections to Prague (because we didn¡¦t have required visas to enter the country) and catch an Air Austria flight to Vienna where we met up with Georg and Maya. Catch: we couldn¡¦t find Maria, who¡¦d taken a different flight. Lesson #1) Make sure you arrange a meeting time and place ahead of time. Turned out she¡¦d gotten there about 3.5 hours earlier and headed downtown to shop a bit and pass the time. Just as we were announcing her name over the PA system, she found us ƒº Yay!

Then we drove for about an hour, crossing the border from Austria into Slovakia, where we went to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The place they¡¦d arranged for us to stay was great! It cost about $12 Canadian / night, and the rooms were a good size and we each had our own washroom with super great showers, and televisions and stereos! Wheee. Excellent.

Then off to Faculty of Architecture at the University of Technology to see the Lecture Hall we¡¦ll be presenting at, and meet Branislav and Catia. Out for dinner with Maya and Catia to get to know them, then we were picked up by Georg and his wife (Cherry/Cherie?) for drinks and coffee. We saw a lot of Bratislava at night walking around. Beautiful!!!

The Canadian dollar is very strong here! Wheee. $6 for a meal that would easily be $20 in Toronto. Spent from 10:30pm „³ 2am planning what to say at the conference with Vanessa, Maria, Martin. Frustration „³ Vanessa & Maria still feel we lack focus (TIG), while I don¡¦t think that¡¦s the case and this is not the time to bring this up.

Odd feeling flying to Frankfurt. All I knew about Germany was from textbooks and war footage and family stories. My dad¡¦s father fought against the Germans „³ now I¡¦m in Germany, but have never been to the UK. So, I have an odd un-based bias yet right now everyone is just ¡§people¡¨, like you and me. All signs are even tranalated to English here in Germany „³ unexpected!

Insights? Show people that you¡¦re just an average person like he/she is. Have fun. Plan. Sleep. Pre-arrange where to meet!

Vanessa has great jelly-pens! ļ

Conference Day 1: ideas I had about TIG during the talks

Can we babelfish the site?
New knowledge is needed to grow as a person, but so is community.
Education can be fun and provided to everyone if we can teach each other. Requires a strong feeling of community and sharing.
ADD the SCEI to our org database.
Emphasize adding to education, not replacing it „³ this *is* still a university after all.
University and College are good for getting the solid fundamental foundation, but funding $$ often doesn¡¦t¡¦t allow it to be state of the art. This is another area where teaching one another can be very beneficial.
Using technology to bring worldwide ideologies & interests together.

Flachbart „³ ¡§How do we make ¡¥doing good things¡¦ attractive?¡¨
„³ ¡§how do we get people to act at all?¡¨

First, the net was for sharing military research. Then it was for brochures and non-interactive sites. Next e-commerce. Now it¡¦s about community, work, play, and personal growth. We are using tech to bring together the world¡¦s ideas and ideologies and activities. We can exploit knowing this pattern to develop solutions for other countries before they develop through these stages.

In some places access is low, therefore need for local centers. Low tech human interaction and community CAN compensate for low tech infrastructure and bandwidth.

The photo accompanying this is us hiking in the countryside around Kremnica, Slovakia :) It's beautiful!

More journals to come...

Hi Everyone! Wow, my trip to Slovakia was amazing! The people there all rocked. So helpful and sincere. I am too tired to think at the moment though, so I hope to do a full update tomorrow :) 20.5 hours ago I was in Kremnica, Slovakia... shortly thereafter, Bratislava Slovakia... then Vienna Austria... Frankfurt Germany, and now I'm back in Canada with only 1 piece of baggage lost at the airport... our TIG Banner! (luckily though, they said they have found it in germany and will deliver it to my house tomorrow)

In the picture, the 3 beautiful women are (from left to right) Petra (Bratislava, Slovakia), Maria (Toronto, Canada), and Maya (Kremnica, Slovakia). What a great time!

Talk to you all soon,
Derek

Hi everyone... well, I arrived a-okay in Bratislava. Excellent trip. The city is beautiful and everyone is very friendly and I'm having a great time. We presented at the conference today. Excellent :) More soon... (have to run right now)...

Derek