Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Flak photo
I submitted one of the photos I took at the inauguration protests to the estimable webzine Flak's online Photo Blog, and they "published" it online today. Pretty cool.
Monday, February 07, 2005
Map of the Modern World
In October 2003 I was invited to a conference sponsored by the 21st Century Trust, a really cool British non-profit that brings interesting people from all over the world together to talk about interesting stuff a couple times a year. The week-long session I attended, for example, was on "History, Policy and Identity," and discussion ranged from the Cultural Revolution to Canadian aboriginal rights. The Trust just sent me a CD-ROM with a directory of past conference participants and trust fellows, which included this explanatory note:
Geographical Designations
As one way of helping users to find people listed in this directory, each individual has a "geographical designation" - some have several. In most cases this is his or her country of nationality. Because, in some circumstances, issues of nationality and borders are matters of controversy, the designation of each individual in this directory is that which the person in question wishes to have, rather than a commentary on the political or legal situation in any given country. Indeed, some of the designations are for entities which do not even claim statehood. By using these terms, the Trust makes no assertions about the relative merits of any political dispute. It only claims to attempt to describe the person in the way he or she would like to be described.
From the directory, I'm guessing "Palestine" and the "Republic of China" are two of the hotter buttons, but there are plenty of possibilites out there.
Geographical Designations
As one way of helping users to find people listed in this directory, each individual has a "geographical designation" - some have several. In most cases this is his or her country of nationality. Because, in some circumstances, issues of nationality and borders are matters of controversy, the designation of each individual in this directory is that which the person in question wishes to have, rather than a commentary on the political or legal situation in any given country. Indeed, some of the designations are for entities which do not even claim statehood. By using these terms, the Trust makes no assertions about the relative merits of any political dispute. It only claims to attempt to describe the person in the way he or she would like to be described.
From the directory, I'm guessing "Palestine" and the "Republic of China" are two of the hotter buttons, but there are plenty of possibilites out there.
