BasBasBas.com

Category: economy

  • Yaarrr

    You might have noticed it’s gone a bit quiet here. That’s because I’m busy as communication manager for the Dutch Pirate Party which is aiming to get multiple seats in parliament with the June 9 election. More or less every moment of my day is spent doing things for the Pirate Party.

    Most of the regular readers know me as someone who’s quite involved in the music industry; these readers probably also know that the Pirate Party aims to drastically reform copyright (and other intellectual property laws). I believe the Pirate Party serves the needs of music creators and fans/consumers better than the current industry lobbies and with reforming laws, it will do a much better job facilitating ‘music 2.0’ and the recording industry has (see: Spotify, imeem, Pandora, Last.fm or all those other struggling music 2.0 initiatives).

    More important than that, is civil liberties. We live in an age of digitalisation; an age that has made copyrights impossible to maintain without seriously infringing on the rights of civilians and destroying the openness of the internet. We have a choice. Either we jump into the digital revolution and safeguard our liberties, or we let the big corporations convince the government to ‘industrialize’ the digital. The industrial revolution is over, it’s time for a new reality.

    To further understand why I’m involved in this worlwide movie, check out the video below and the website of the Dutch Pirate Party (in Dutch).

    Uppsala Declaration
    http://int.piratenpartei.de/Uppsala_Declaration
    Important instruction for all pirates
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUe-Ebe8dWU
    Pirate Manifesto parties at a glance
    http://int.piratenpartei.de/Pirate_Manifesto_parties_at_a_glance

    Edit – Oh yeah, and I’m also a Pirate Party candidate for parliament 😉
    http://twitter.com/Spartz

  • Tom Peters on Educating for a Creative Society

    This guy is PISSED OFF. What he says is amazingly true though. By the way:

    • In 2007, Tom was voted as the Second Most Influential Leadership Professional by Gurus International in an independent internet study. (source)
    • He’s a best-selling author and an expert on business management practices and problem-solving.

    This post is really all about this video though, so check it out:
    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_w4AfflmeM]

  • Bulgaria and the ‘euro’

    After a big row about the spelling of ‘euro’ in Bulgarian, finally a compromise has been found. Bulgaria, which does not yet use the euro, will spell it as ‘eur’ even though their request to spell it as evro. It’s simply ridiculous that this was turned down. In Cyrillic spelling, the Western ‘u’ is spelled as a v. ‘Auto’ is spelled as ‘avto’, Europe as Evropa and there are a lot more examples. If I understand the language well enough, ‘eur’ would be pronounced as separate vowels instead of the ‘eu’ sound that we know.

    Not allowing Bulgaria to use their own spelling is really quite foolish. Bureaucrats.

    More:
    Rel over euro opgelost (nu.nl – The Netherlands)

  • Bon appetit!

    Anyone else have the feeling that society’s crumbling?

    Dollar hits new low against euro (BBC)
    The US dollar hit a new record low against the euro as investors sold the currency after the Federal Reserve’s hefty interest rate cut.

    Soaring prices add to Afghan misery (BBC)
    As the residents of Kabul prepare to break their fast at the end of the day, the street markets in the centre of the city are as busy as ever. But this year, during the holy month of Ramadan, there is a real struggle to make ends meet.

    The price of basic food and fuel has soared in recent months, putting enormous strain on consumers.

    Burmese monks in pagoda protest (BBC)
    On Wednesday, hundreds of monks marched through Sittwe, Mandalay and Rangoon. They want a government apology for the violent break-up of a recent rally, triggered by protests over price rises. There have been persistent protests across Burma since shock fuel price rises last month, which have led to a sharp rise in the price of consumer goods.

    Gazans stock up after Israel decides on sanctions (AFP)
    Gazans stocked up on food and fuel on Thursday as Israel faced a barrage of criticism over its decision to brand Hamas-run Gaza a “hostile entity” and possibly cut its basic supplies.

Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin