Stories from the front lines?

Hi Guys, as the first discussion thread, I just wanted to see where you guys all were exaclty, and if anything interesting happened to you?


Im in Seoul, Korea right now. Nothing too crazy has happened to me besides me meeting and conversing with various North Korean defectors. More often than not, theyre stories are pretty amazing.

When you start interviewing them, just remember to conduct a systematic interview using the same set of interview questions for each one so that you have a basis for comparison.


Oh, sorry, I just realised that this sort of comment doesn't below in this thread

Thanks Mario Broccoli. Thats makes a lotta sense! Right now I got kicked outta my apartment. Although it wasnt my fault, My landlord fought with my roommate. Anyways, Im back on the streets. so I suppose Im gonna have to rearrange my research plans for this week

So, now you, too, can feel what it's like to be a refugee. When living on the streets, the most important question is: what's the weather like? If it's not wet and cold, you can live in a box or under a bridge. Make sure you take pictures of your experience as a "bag lady." I'd like to see that.

looks like its back to performing on the streets for money... as hollywood robot!

Okay true story from the front line. Went with the NGO to the head officer of gendarme yesterday to file a complaint. A man had been arrested because his goat had caused a car incident and had to pay 50 euro bail. :S You cannot arrest someone because his goat caused an accident so now he does not have to pay bail and can go back to his goats. Gotta love Africa!

Cameroonian wrote:Okay true story from the front line. Went with the NGO to the head officer of gendarme yesterday to file a complaint. A man had been arrested because his goat had caused a car incident and had to pay 50 euro bail. :S You cannot arrest someone because his goat caused an accident so now he does not have to pay bail and can go back to his goats. Gotta love Africa!

haha great story. But theres no way of knowing whether the goat knew what he was doing!

Would it be any different if the man's under-aged child accidentally burnt down a kiosk at the market? He'd still be responsible by law, whether in Africa or here in the Netherlands. The only difference is that we here in Holland have insurance for that sort of thing--and I've never heard of a Dutch goat causing that kind of traffic accident Those African goats are notorious for their road rage!

Speaking of fronts, I just entered mine. Today I landed in Manila. I had arranged that some people associated to BAYAN (leftist political alliance) would pick me up from the airport. Unfortunately my flight got some delay, making me shitting several colors, because I didn't know if these people would wait for me. Thank god they didn't mind wasting 2 hours at the airport to pick me up.

What did we do next? We bought a mobilephone for me and they arranged a place for me to stay. I will spend the night in some sort of congresscentre that has several rooms with showers... don't see any other guests (or people in general for that matter), but the showers worked fine and the beds are okay. It's strange though that I appear to be the only one in the entire building... apart from a little boy riding a little bike, whining about redrum, redrum...

Anyhoo, this first day I already met 2 interesting persons: a former rebel of my age and someone from the houses of Parlaiment (or whatever they call it here), who invited me to visit her to meet the representatives of several leftist movements. Could be very interesting. Looking forward to that!

To continue this little update (for those that are interested): tomorrow I will meet my contact inside BAYAN, to create a schedule with things I want to see (mainly hacienda's and slums). Great places to meet interesting people for my research. Next to date, I arranged a trip to the state prison to meet some rebels who got caught.

It seems everything is working out fine... apart from the fact that I'm all alone in a soaking wet (it's raining like ass) dirty, smelly, sweaty city that never sleeps (read: highway + subway next to my room). But, I saw a cat without a tail, so that made my day.

TTYL, ciao,

Niels

Awesome Niels! Hope your butt doesnt get too swampy.

Yeah, careful you don't get "trench butt," a common ailment afflicting bureaucrats in the jungle during WWII.

And what is "redrum"?

How the heck can I upload photos, like what Davey did with his street performer?

Broccoli wrote:Yeah, careful you don't get "trench butt," a common ailment afflicting bureaucrats in the jungle during WWII.

And what is "redrum"?

Redrum? That's from the Shining if I'm not mistaken... don't tell me you didn't see that movie? It's about this guy becoming insane when he spends his vacation together with his wife and son in a empty hotel. His son always whispers "redrum, redrum": murder, if you turn it around... a little joke, don't worry, there is no need for a rescue team yet

Ah, got it. Sure, the "here's Johnny" film. I missed that tiny detail with the kid.

I agree. No need to panic until the kid starts mumbling "dekcufer'uoy"!

By the way, I hope you don't believe in ghosts. There's lots of them in the Philippines, and I believe that the conference centre where you're staying at has hosts the ghosts of a couple of construction workers who were killed while building it. The bodies are supposedly buried under the concrete foundation of the building. Don't worry, though. They're harmless. Just leave out a "balut" for them, and they'll stop bothering you.

Anyhoo, have fun

Broccoli wrote:How the heck can I upload photos, like what Davey did with his street performer?

Mario check your private messages on this forum! Its on the main bar at the top (green)

yes, I have done so, and it is empty and says 'no new messages'

To inform those interested: today I joined two protest marches in Manila, tomorrow I will visit the urban poor area (slums). There is a lot of fuzz about these areas, because the government wants them to be removed so it can build even more shoppingmalls (seriously, how many shoppingmalls does a city need?!). Anyhoo, the people are thrown of their lands without proper compensation. However, more and more urban poor unite themselves to oppose these plans. Tomorrow I will meet some of the of heads of these groups. Very interesting. Especially since I already saw several signs in these slums, asking where the NPA is now and when the NPA will help them. Looking forward!

Favorite picture of the day, taken during the protest rally at the Presidential Palace:

BEYOND COOL!!

Niels, your stories sound awesome! Amazing how fast everything goes as well!

I haven't really encountered anything exciting yet. My laptop died on me though, but luckily I could still get it fixed by replacing parts of which I don't know the name.

Alicia wrote:Niels, your stories sound awesome! Amazing how fast everything goes as well!

I haven't really encountered anything exciting yet. My laptop died on me though, but luckily I could still get it fixed by replacing parts of which I don't know the name.

Wow, wouldn't know what I would do without my laptop... hope everything is working okay now. Btw, I will not bother you guys with all my stories, but I just want to share that probably next week - or the week after that - the shit will hit the van here: today I visited this huge urban poor area, housing over 9000 persons. In the coming days/ weeks, the government will remove these people of their land to make way for a new business centre: armed government forces against an angry mass of 9000... and that right in front of my room... could be interesting. I'll let you guys know when the bullets start flying.

This is Neils, from Quezon City, the Philippines... back to you

Broccoli wrote:yes, I have done so, and it is empty and says 'no new messages'

hmmm... sorry. well when you post a reply, on the option squares with little icons in them, you have to click the one that looks kinda like a little polaroid. I dont think this forum itself can host images seeing how bandwidth can be limited in a free forum. So you just post the URL of the picture and surround that url with IMG tags.

it would look kinda like this.
(img)www.photohostingwebsite.com/mariosuperpuking(/img)

Not really a front-line story, but, I went to two villages yesterday, one was called 'Nobody', the other one 'Last Hope'. Gotta love South African's sense of humor!

Just got back from a weekend of luxery in Douala. I can really recommend it. Just take a weekend off, go to a place with airconditioning, eat good food (nice/healthy food in Kumba is a challenge) and recharge that battery! Just eat, sleep, eat, sleep and you are ready to go on for another month. You will feel soooooo much better.

Jelena wrote:Not really a front-line story, but, I went to two villages yesterday, one was called 'Nobody', the other one 'Last Hope'. Gotta love South African's sense of humor!

LOL

Yesterday over 5000 people joined in on a 5 km walk from Quezon City to the Presidential Palace in Manila. It was amazing to see so many people from different organizations and sectors united for a single cause (see Facebook for pictures).

Even though it was a march organized by the legal movements, several times I saw the following texts - either on banners or painted on bridges: "Sagot sa kahirapan digmang bayan" and "Makibaka! Wag matakot!" After asking what it meant, people told me it means something like: "the only solution is people's war" and "Struggle! Do not be affraid!".

I thought it was really interesting to see that on a legal rally, some people called for people's war and people's struggle. Not sure though what these people really mean by "war" (i.e. if they really want war with guns and stuff or that it is just used as a metaphor or something), so I will explore on this some more. Furthermore, it was interesting to see that not a single person in the rally held signs with these words. They could be only found on bridges etc. and were taken away by the police as soon as possible...

Anyhoo, what I want to say - but of course you already know this - is that you really have to look around, keep your eyes and ears open, instead of just talking to people. Drawings and signs are extremely important.

And for a quick update (unrelated to the above): tomorrow I have an interview with a guy of my age who was abducted by the military some 4 years ago. His brother was believed to be a rebel. In order to get him out of the bush, they captured his little brother and kept him in a small pig pen for 5 months. After that he was transported to a secret prison were he was tortured for another 7 months and was witness to the most gruesome things being done to the other inmates. Luckily he could escape. At the moment he is active in the legal social movement. I have heard several stories like these. Terrible as they are, however, they can be very important for my research.

Anyhoo, that's all. Back to the field