Despite the fact that P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) looks a bit like Steve Urkel’s BMW Isetta I got to say that I really love the concept. I completely understand the rain of negative comments that appeared all over the net after General Motors and Segway announced that they teamed up for PUMA Project. Without any doubt the safety of the vehicle is definitely an issue to consider. Mainly if  you realize that its speed is 3 times higher than that of original segway and that it is expected to run alongside more traditional (bigger) vehicles.

I do understand all that moaning and reasoning! But still!  P.U.M.A  is  a great alternative to traditional vehicles for two reasons:

1.It protects the driver from exposure to weather conditions (Well not yet, but I believe soon we will get a machine looking more like the original  concept and less like a dune buggy), unlike other car alternatives like Bicycle and small motorbikes.

2.Segway works! And you can moan and argue as much as you like to, but I just can’t see all that flashy urban mobility vehicles around our towns and cities as much as I do see segways.

To go around the question of security of this type of vehicles forever is frankly getting trapped in chicken and egg situation. We cannot have lighter, more practical and more ecological vehicles, becouse there is no infrasturcture and safe roads to drive them. And there is not enough infrastracture, becouse there is not enough lighweight  vehicles. So what’s  next?

PUMA is a nice concept adding to ever increasing  spectrum of similar personal mobility solutions and unlike many others it is not just a CAD animation, but a working machine.

And talking about the security; “Do you prefere to be hit by a traditional car or by this little thingy?”

A fresh new initiative of Alternative Channel TV and the organization committee of  2009 China Europa business convention.

TV China Europa is a new web TV about sustainable urban development launched in English, French and Chinese. The web 2.0 platform offers reports on urban sustainable developments, energy, automotive,air, waste and water management.

In their own words; “Designed as a web 2.0 video platform, China Europa TV is an interactive and participative web based TV, which enables Internet users to suggest their videos related to urban sustainable development and participate in the debate on sustainable cities of tomorrow.”

http://www.china-europa.tv

The International community is staying divided and so are the Arab countries. With only Syria,Iran and Qatar taking a hard stand. So not really much change to the situation before the Israeli 22 days long massacre. The European leaders are quietly waiting for the new American policy of Mr.Obamas administration. And Mr.Obamas “It will be the first thing I will do after I take the office”, turns into first thing he promised to do and he didn’t. Well, it looks like Israelis picked a very good moment for their “final solution”.  There is no doubt that the timing of the offensive during the Mr. Bushes long good bye and Mr.Obamas long Hello was not purely accidental.

So the only real outcome of  Israeli offensive are more than 1000 victims of the conflict. Hamas is staying more or less untouched. Keeping the control over the Gaza and probably with more support than ever before. The main official objective of the offensive, to stop the Hamas launching the rockets on Israeli (?) ground was an absolute failure. With more than 40 Palestinian rockets falling on Israel on Saturday,the last day of the offensive.

So no victory and no solution for non of the participants. Just  hundreds of innocent victims and a big loss for  international community and the UN closing their eyes . It may be looking like the conflict is over (as the “reality show” of News Channels is), but it should not be over for us, if we want to live in the world ruled by the law and order and not  by the dictation of  “rogue” states, that are having more power over our own governments than  the UN itself.

The Israeli offensive is over, but I hope the overall public disillusion with Israeli actions is not, and that finally there will be consequences.

Al Jazeera launched an experimental  website based on Ushahidi platform to track and aggregate information, about the Gaza conflict. Ushahidi is a cross-platform mash-up that allows to aggregate geotagged information via sms, e-mail,twitter and web-forms and position it in Microsoft Virtual Earth. Ushahidi is an open-source initiative started by Kenyan bloggers during the escalation of violence in Kenya and it was also successfully deployed in conflict in DR Congo.

I was looking for this kind of platform for a long time, as it not only allows to position the aggregated information on the map, but also in timeline and it generates news categories. I’m only a bit disappointed about the circumstances. This kind of platforms are definitely a way forward to a new breed of citizen journalism and activism and can be used to support many different causes.

I would like to see a facebook plug-in developed in the future and mash-up the service further with facebook groups.This would allow not only to track the real-time-real-place information on ground of the conflict, but for example also to organize the protests around the world as well.

Check the AlJazeeras War On Gaza service here

or go directly to Ushahidi.com to find out more about the platform. Click here

As the body count of the Israeli operation in Gaza grows we have to start asking, “What  will be consequences for Israel for his brutal violation of human rights and international law?” Is this conflict going to be forgotten, like all the previous Israeli operations against the Palestinian population? Is the state of Israel going to annex another small piece of Palestinian  territory, without the following  intervention  of  UN? Are the Zionists going to postpone the peace process leading to two state solution for another generation ? Exterminating not only their blood enemies on the other side of the Gaza frontier, but also their biggest enemy: “The rule of international law!”

As I’m going through the many on-line articles and forums , I am being (not so) surprised by the sheer scale of public support for the Palestinians. Even after the constant brainwash policy   of  ” War on Terror  ” that has been put in effect by most “Westworld”  mass-media  and the general subsequent anti-muslim and anti-arab moods, there is no doubt that the support of the world public is today with the Palestinians. You really have to fuck-up hard to achieve this kind of results  in the current socio-political climate and it is exactly what Israelis achieved! A total loss of support for their causes on international scale!

I am far from describing myself an antisemitic, as I am coming from a part of the world that was hit very hard by the Holocaust and the Nazi rule. I grew up listening to the stories of my grandmother, about her Jewish friends that were one day concentrated on the main square of our small-town and stuffed in the stock wagons to never return back.  The tragedy of the Jewish nation is without any doubt the biggest humanitarian catastrophe ever, and I do not blame the early Israeli settlers that they refused to return to their old neighbours, after what they’ve done to them. But I always believed that Israel was the first big mistake of United Nations,as it was imposed on the Palestinians by the very international community that than failed to protect them from their new rulers.  The history of Israel is a History of the suffering of Palestinian people and current events are only an evidence of that claim.

The State of Israel has been created as a safe-heaven for the Jewish Diaspora which have been afraid of another Holocaust after WWII, but Israels claims on “right to defend themselves” are just sounding so inappropriate today. After bombing thousands of innocent Palestinian citizens and killing hundreds, after targeting UN compounds and suppressing the freedom of press, after violating tens of international agreements; “Israel has never been closer to an absolute catastrophe and the security of it’s citizens has never been compromised in the same way as it is today.”

For every Hamas terrorist killed during the operation (and for every innocent citizen), five new will grow. Israel surrounded by millions of his enemies will now face bigger danger than ever.  Not due to the international antisemitism, but due to its own actions. The eventual short term security improvements for Israeli citizens will be very soon outgrown by the long term consequences of these actions. The Gaza attacks are water on mills and a blessing for terrorist recruiters, not only in Palestine but elsewhere and they are a complete disaster for moderate Muslim leaders.

The only way to reverse a very unfortunate fate for Israel and a sad legacy of its actions for the rest of us is to impose  the Palestinian State on Israel, the same way as the Israel was  imposed on Palestine. It is the only way to restore the UN credibility as well.  Israel is playing a lot these days. Undermining the credibility of the very organization separating it from its terrorist roots (Lehi)  and giving it a legal right to exist.

Lehi

I just hope the pace of the international politics will finally turn around and this will be the last fiasco of UN, which managed to completely destabilize the international politics with the Kosovo’s doubtful independence and the subsequent Russian actions in Georgia. I just hope we will soon remember about the Raison d’être of the organization called UNITED NATIONS and about the circumstances of its creation.

Today I joined a facebook group about human rights campaigning. Even-thou the group has been set up to promote gay,lesbian and transsexual rights now it looks like it’s scope is a bit more general, after more than 33. 000 people joined the group.

Human Rights campaign (facebook group)

I found some horrible photos of the Gaza conflict at the site, that make me feel so little enthusiastic, about what I’m trying to achieve with my blog.  Even after the horrors I saw in TV during the last two weeks, I believe this pictures must lift everybody from his computer-chair. Are we still living in the era of barbarian rulers, who are free to kill at their will, without ever seeing the consequences of their actions,or are there going to be consequences for Israel? We have to realize that Israel  is not some fragile African dictatorship or a jungle guerrilla Warlord ruled pseudo-state. The state responsible for this atrocities is widely recognized by most developed world countries.  Why is Venezuela (with its controversial leader) the only country that expelled the Israeli diplomats by now? The UN and International community just failed to solve this kind of problems so many times . I just don’t understand how can be basic human rights still violated in such terrifying way by a recognized state, without the Security Council taking any decisive action.

I was not about to go “live” with my blog yet, as there is still a lot of work to be done, but I just can’t  resist the idea of doing something. If not to elevate the suffering of the Palestinian population, than at least make it hell for Israeli diplomacy all over the world. Giving a message to other governments elsewhere, that “THEY CANNOT  solve their problems in such truly barbaric way”. By now it looks  like THEY CAN!

Today I will create my own facebook group. And Yes; I will bother all my friends with those nasty images, because next time it can be them. If you have a facebook account yourself, please join my protest on:

STOP ISRAEL

http://www.alertnet.org