When our governments insist with all their propaganda tools that speaking out against Israel is antisemitic - conflating antizionism with antisemitism - we can’t be surprised that some angry teens in Amsterdam - furious about an ongoing genocide - make the same (stupid and dangerous) mistake.
Fighting the latter, implies fighting the former.
“We only have to internalize the externalities”.1 That’s what “environmental economists” say. For example by imposing a tax on the production/consumption that damages the environment, or by requiring producers/consumers to buy tradable emission rights.
But there are some fundamental issues in their way of thinking:
This blog post first appeared in February 2024 on the website of OpenTech(AUC).
Normally, when you feel you’re getting the short end of a stick, for example when the supermarket sells you expensive mushy cauliflowers, or when the organization you volunteer at treats you disrespectfully, you go and find what you need somewhere else.
This ability to “defect” to an alternative when you feel you’re not getting a good deal, is an important “power” that helps you get reasonable deals.1
Our little apartment in Medellín is on the 7th floor. But that doesn’t prevent nature from doing its thing.
The food chain starts with a banana. We cut it up and put it on a wooden feeder. So far, we have been visited by Guacharacas (see video), Mieleros, Bichofues, Candelarias, Azulejos, Verdulejos, Mayos and today even a Carpintero.
No matter how hard these birds try to scrape the last piece of banana from the feeder, there is always something left. But it doesn’t go to waste! Because, believe it or not, ants find their way up to the seventh floor. And they feast on what is left of the banana.
I was today years old when I learned why the nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots of legumes tend to be red when you open them. It has to do with the Great Oxidation Event, which happened around 2.5 billion years ago, and is directly connected to the reason why our blood is red.
(This article also exists in Spanish: link)
Nitrogen is naturally scarce. It might make up the bulk of what we call “air”, but this nitrogen exists as N2, and most organisms have no clue what to do with that. “Most organisms”, because there are a few bacteria that have evolved the capacity to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere, and turn it into molecules that are biologically useful, like NH3.
The shamelessness with which gringos in Medellín relish in their financial advantage puzzles me.
“I worked hard for the money I’m spending.”
I’m sure you did, but not even close to as hard as you make your Colombian counterpart work for it.
“But I’m helping people by spending my money here.”
If you are serious, stop trying to 1. find the cheapest way to 2. satisfy your preferences and desires, and find ways to make your undeserved comfort alleviate other people’s undeserved discomfort.
Warning: This post contains some spoilers about the movie “Coherence”.
Imagine that, right now, through the door that is closest to you, someone walks in, and it is… you. A complete, full, physical double of yourself. This other you is as perplexed as you: similarly shocked to find a complete, full, physical double of itself.
If you think this would merely be interesting and cool you probably have not seen the movie “Coherence”.
I read this book with some friends. Someone had recommended it, and we felt that it was an appropriate time to reflect on what antisemitism has meant in the past, to better understand what it means in the present.
At the start I was a bit sceptical about this contemporary relevance: after all, a lot has happened since Sartre wrote this book (written in 1944, published in 1946). For example, to just mention something, the founding of the state Israel (in 1948). But after reading the book, I was surprised how helpful some of the arguments still are (at least to me).
Today I was accused of “tokenization” in sharing this powerful essay by Masha Gessen on Mastodon (see the reactions under this post).1 Because of the character limit of a Mastodon post (at least on my server), I decided to turn my response into a little blog post.
In short, the principle that I was accused of violating looks like this: as an outsider to a community, I should not share/boost the view of a minority of that community, when that view disqualifies the concerns that are held by the majority of that community.