Chris Brauer Media Project [BLOG]

I think everybody can understand that we don't control our birth, that this is either the domain of divine creationism or genetic science, or maybe a combination. So each of us shares a common humanity with each other. It is but the twists and turns of fate that positions us to start our lives as infants in the arms of our lot in life. Each of us could be anyone else. Although idiosyncratic, it seems even more so when someone shares your name. Google notified me when the new pages were put up on the Internet including reference to 'Chris Brauer'.

It is with that in mind that I take a moment of silence for the passing of Christopher "Kit" Brauer in Black Hills, South Dakota near Rapid City. Quite majestically tragic Steve McQueen in a way, hurling off the highway into a tree at 6am on October 23, 2004, possibly fueled by a speeding car and alcohol.

It could have been me. But although I can handle myself on a mountain bike I'm not ready to teach spinning classes. That's another Chris Brauer. Thirteen years older but also a lover of outdoor adventures and tennis. Never met the man but have known him forever. He sounds like a beautiful guy. Rest in Peace. From one Chris Brauer to another.

It's almost unbelievable that the Ukrainian presidential election ended up as rigged as everyone though it might (listen to NPR's audio broadcast last week). It seems that no amount of pre-coverage threatening a rigged election could impact the actual outcome. For those who follow global politics the results of the Ukrainian election were under the microscope, an epic battle between Russian-oligarchy-State Media powers embodied by Viktor Yanukovych (already announced the winner by Vladimir Putin, enemy of the free press and democracy) and the western candidate Viktor Yushchenko who is only considered Western because he is moderately progressive.

How about the reported 96% turnout in Eastern Ukraine, home to the most crooked election committee! It's not over yet but it is terrible to see these kind of shenanigans in the modern world. We are in the modern world. Give us a break!

Labels: politics

Strange and bizarre happenings in the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) region of Europe and a far cry from 'Gezelligheid', the famous Dutch word for feeling the unique experience of coziness, of a comfortable, relaxing time and place that Dutch homes and cafes seek in their decor and atmosphere.

The tolerant image of this region has been badly shaken in recent weeks following the murder of outspoken filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and subsequent charge of a Muslim suspect. Since his death on Nov 2 there have been over 20 arson attacks on mosques and churches in tit for tat violence. And now a popular Dutch politician is calling for rejecting immigration from non-western nations. Geert Wilders has formed his own right-wing political party, the Wilders Group, and opinion polls shows his popularity soaring. Predictably videos have been released on the Internet calling for his beheading as a path to the reward of Paradise. Wilders has gone into hiding but continues to communicate with the media. Muslims make up about 6 per cent of the Netherlands' 16 million people. As often happens during times of inflamed emotions it is the radicals on all sides who are dominating the debate ... "No more Muslims in our country!" ... "Off with his head!" ... that sort of thing.

Meanwhile in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, the most popular national political party in recent opinion polls has been banned by Belgium's appeals court. The Vlamms Blok was banned for violating anti-racism laws and campaigns for forcible repatriation of immigrants and promotes fear of Muslim citizens. This is the most popular political party with over 25% support in opinion polls?? With a radical far-right agenda so deplorable as to find itself banned by a court of law for prejudice!

There is a lot of righteous conflict going on in the world today, negotiations increasingly marginalized to be replaced by war, terrorism and more conflict. Maybe it is extending beyond the soldiers in these conflicts to the streets of the world's cities where a common sense of shared humanity is increasingly elusive. Game after game is currently going by in Spanish football (soccer) at the national and club level with fans hurling racist chants at black players and joining together to brazenly make monkey sounds when these players are in possession of the ball. Where is the silent majority in all this, the ones who will not stand for these kinds of abuses in the name of tolerance and a fundamental understanding that all we share is our humanity? In the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, "when you demean the other, you demean yourself".

Labels: politics, sociology

It really is a wonderful world in which we live. It seems that everything has a way of equaling itself out. Take Telus Communications Inc -- motto 'the future is friendly' -- for example. If you are a Canadian customer of this corporate giant you don't need to look far for the culprit behind annoying (friendly?) telemarketing calls to your home or business at anytime of day or night.

Telus repackages telephone directory listings (your white pages listing, or even unlisted contact details) into CD-ROMs and machine-readable-lists and sells them to telemarketers, charities, political parties, and basically anyone else who will pay cash for your info. It has always been a personal irritant of mine that Telus refuses to tell customers when they sign-up for services that this is what they intend to do with the information supplied. I suspect many customers remain unaware that Telus is the source of their telemarketing grief. This is wrong on all kinds of levels. It is an infringement of the privacy of Telus customers because they don't ask for consent and it is dirty economics when a company sells your information, making a profit that rightfully should go to the owner of this information, should he/she choose to trade some telephone harassment for dollars.

Well all that is about to change thanks to the noble and persistent efforts of Matthew Englander, a non-practicing Vancouver lawyer who is waging a one-man war against the telecommunications giant, and winning. A Canadian federal appeals tribunal ruled unanimously last week that Telus Communication Inc must go to greater lengths to get its customers' approval before reselling their personal information.

The telco now has 60 days to offer suggestions for revamping its policies to bring them into compliance with the privacy law. Predictably Telus is squirming in the face of responsibility, already insisting that the ruling should only apply to new customers and considering appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Well we never expected that they would actually do the right thing but it is impressive that we have a system that rewards the just, even if it takes a little time, and even if the truant corporation refuses to recognize the error of their ways. And bravo to the brave Matthew Englander who stuck with his pursuit despite some early pessimism and setbacks and at considerable personal cost and risk. He is so good he has surpassed Jerry Seinfeld as the greatest defender of the public good against the evil telemarketing scourge.

Minutes after the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) was enacted on Jan 1, 2001, Englander became the first Canadian to lodge a formal complaint to the federal privacy commissioner under the new law. Almost four years later we've won the right to stand up and just say NO to the dirty information thieving buggers. What a wonderful world.

Labels: business, canada

For background on the comical domain name registration policies in Canada see this earlier post. But what else would you expect from a board of directors made up of Internet activists who ignore the plight of Canadian businesses through policies that often serve to support spam and trademark infringement.

Let me give you an example. CIRA offers a domain name dispute resolution process to resolve, well, disputes over .ca domain names. So let's take a scenario. You own a business and have trademarked the name "Alliance Construction" in Canada. I register the domain name allianceconstruction.ca with a CIRA certified domain name provider and when you contact me, I offer to sell you the domain name for $500. You now have two choices. Pay me the $500 and I will transfer the domain name or undergo the domain name dispute resolution process and recover rightful ownership of trademarked material. Seems like the process is the way to go? Not unless you are interested in paying the $4300 tariff you (the complainant) must pay to undertake the process. And if you win you have no recourse to recover that tariff fee. So now you are faced with a choice of paying me $500 and obtaining ownership of the domain name or paying $4300 to undertake the process where you can only hope for the same outcome. And what is my risk? $0. Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Like I said. CIRA sucks!

Labels: canada, internet, politics

Am I the only one who was at least a little surprised when the US Presidential election came and went and Osama Bin Laden wasn't miraculously found?

Not to be another conspiracy theorist but anyone who has experience behind the scenes of orchestrated electoral campaigns understands that in this cynical, opportunistic and secretive world absolutely all options are in play on the road to victory. See the Watergate hotel for reference.

It just seems too absurd that the wealth of technical, financial and human resources being devoted to his capture keep coming up empty handed. How long do you think you could elude this armada without limits? How many of your friends would turn you over to authorities anonymously for $25 million?

So here's the rub. One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.

Ask yourself this question: If you were a member of one of the richest families in the world who could live any life you choose without concern for cost, with access to the best of the best at all times, for what would you give it all up? Honestly? Do you have enough conviction in any philosophy to eat simply when you can eat gourmet, to live in caves when you can live in mansions, and to risk your life over and over again on behalf of others and philosophical conviction?

It's time to admit that if Bin Laden is crazy he is crazy like a fox. He certainly holds a crazed vitriol hatred, primarily aimed at Israel and America, fueled by anti-semitism, radical interpretation of The Koran and years of raw experience in one of the world's most gruesome war conflicts. But among all those he confronts on the battleground Bin Laden is infamous for leading by example, his deeds passed on by his followers, quietly hypnotized by stories of his selfless bravery and valor in Afghan battles, and if they are lucky, by his level gaze and steady voice in rare personal appearances. That's not something we hear much about, Bin Laden the war hero, shot countless times and a survivor of poisoned gas attacks. And crazy doesn't keep you hidden from the man. If values won the US election for George Bush than surely we can recognize the same qualities in his arch-enemy and followers. Whether you agree with these values is irrelevant, only that you respect their existence, for like Bush, he sticks to his guns without compromise, and he pursues his enemies relentlessly.

For better insight into the character and convictions of the world's most wanted man turn off the endless senseless, sensationalism and uninformed chatter of network TV and start with these three stories:

ABC reporter John Miller interviews Bin Laden personally in 1998
How Bin Laden got away in the Afghan hills at Tora Bora
PBS Biography from anonymous source

Labels: politics

There's a part in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 (a nice piece of partisan editing but little more) where soldiers on screen admit to listening to the Bloodhound Gang's Roof on Fire (Burn Motherfu**er Burn) while shooting to kill Iraqi soldiers that I assume is meant to shock us that soldiers should behave in such a fashion. For those who have read Michael Herr's masterpiece Dispatches this is pretty tame stuff. Herr, who also wrote the screenplay for Full Metal Jacket, takes you inside the fray of fear, fire and fufilment that is the bloody hell of war like no other.

"Two hundred meters away, facing the Marine trenches, there was an NVA (North Vietnamese) sniper with a .50 caliber machine gun who shot at the Khe Sanh Marines from a tiny spider hole. During the day he fired at anything that rose above the sandbags, and at night he fired at any lights he could see. You could see him clearly from the trench, and if you were looking through the scope of a Marine sniper's rifle you could even see his face. The Marines fired on his position with mortars and recoilless rifles, and he would drop into his hole and wait. Gunships fired rockets at him, and when they were through he would come up again and fire. Finally napalm was called in, and for ten minutes the air above the spider hole was black and orange from the strike, while the ground around it was galvanized clean of every living thing. When all of it cleared, the sniper popped up and fired off a single round, and the Marines in the trenches cheered loudly. They called him Luke the Gook, and after that no one wanted anything to happen to him."

Imagine not wanting anything to happen to someone who is trying to kill you day and night, trying to give you some. There is nothing simple or straightforward about being a soldier at war. Pick up a copy of Herr's war correspondence to catch a glimpse.

I must admit I am not the first to trumpet this underappreciated text. In the words of John Le Carre, it is "the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time". And no less of a trubadour for the 60s than Hunter S Thomspon admits: "We have all spent ten years trying to explain what happened to our heads and our lives in the decade we finally survived -- but Michael Herr's Dispatches puts all the rest of us in the shade."

Read about Daytripper and lucky Orrin, Mayhew and the standoff against 40,000 invisible VC, lots of tracks going in, none coming out. Spend three weeks trying to take a hill where you believe 4,000 enemy are battling, take the hill and find four spooky bodies on the top. I'll let you read the rest.

Warning: Not for the feint of heart or the easily indignant.

Labels: film, literature

Why is the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) above the law?

Industry Canada has completely fumbled the oversight of CIRA current administrator of the .ca domain space. As anyone who has tried to put their business online knows the domain name space of .com, .net, .org, .biz and whatever other god-forsaken extension is a farcical wonderland where it is virtually impossible to protect your brand without extensive investment in lawyers and dispute resolution processes.

That's why it is critical that national domain extensions be protected in the interests of businesses operating in the country. For example you must be a Canadian citizen or operate a business in Canada to apply for a Canadian .ca domain name. That much makes sense. But for Industry Canada that is the end of sense and the beginning of senseless.

Basically CIRA permits certified registrars to lease trademarked or copyrighted materials to anyone who wishes to acquire these materials (If you want to register www.microsoft.ca and it is available you can do it). The expectation is that the owner of these trademarked materials (in this case microsoft) will then initiate a convoluted and legal dispute resolution policy through CIRA to recover the rights to these trademarked material. And who pays for this process? The complainant (microsoft) must pay the tariff for these arbitrated proceedings with no cost recovery even if their complaint is determined to be valid!

How did they get it so wrong, particularly when Industry Canada also oversees the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) who protect Canadian trademarks. Why not simply perform the same name checks Corporations Canada does when registering a new federally incorporated business? In other words when someone tries to register microsoft.ca, you perform a name check and inform the applicant that this is protected by a Canadian trademark instead of putting the onus on the business who has already invested considerable time and money in establishing the trademark to protect a brand in the marketplace.

How does it make sense that organizations certified by CIRA are allowed to lease trademarked materials when no other organization in the country has the same right? A registrar trades money for the right to use a domain name that they have no right to sell because it is trademarked. And Industry Canada looks on approvingly. Very strange.