The web finally waking up against SOPA

It has taken (too much) time already but the anti-SOPA movement is finally coming up to speed. We all know that there is absolutely nothing wrong with honoring coppyright and protecting the works of authors but this SOPA initiative clearly is a bridge too far. It kills the mosquito by using a cannon. Yesterday ZDNet's Zack Whittaker announced 'Geeks 1- Congress 0', indicating the SOPA proposal, although not dead yet, was badly wounded. Congress decided to shelve it, in order to reassess and take into consideration voiced concerns over the proposal. Zack closes his blogpost by claiming, and I quote: "Geeks, it should be known, spread far and wide, almost single-handedly helped save the web as we know it." Does it mean SOPA won't be coming back quietly or under a different name? Off course it doesn't. Let's keep our eyes and ears open. Meanwhile, Wikipedia makes a point today, to underline the importance of the SOPA case:

Use 2012 to prepare great 2013

One major Good Resolution for the much awaited year of 2012, which starts in about 8,5 hours, is to be more active on this blog again. But why not throw in a few other good resolutions? To be less cynical. To be more optimistic. To spend more time with the kids. To love the loved-ones even more. To listen. To see. To think before speaking. To speak out. To be a better person. To take care of my back. To cook great dinners. To read more books. To be more open. To be there for others. To make it a year to remember.

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17-6-2010 to 17-11-2011

It all started on June 17th, at the start of the summer of 2010. Was it a nice summer? I don't remember. We always seem to think our summers were worse than they actually were. Then it continued all through four seasons, up to the next summer. Now that one definitely was a bad summer. Which we spend in Greece. A country in trouble but not so much in trouble that our mixed Belgian-Greek friends living in a small, charming village called Lafkos, would be considering rushing back to Belgium 2 months later. It still continues till today, November 17th. 17th. 17. 17 months of unending political negotiations. Europe's on fire and we are now fighting over taxes on company cars and first class airline tickets. If these are the luxuries we fight over, we do not yet know the meaning of the word crisis. And those that fight taxes on company cars are the same people who claim that the unemployed are the Great Mass of Parasites and the only way to kick them back to work is by cutting their unemployment benefits in time. But don't we need jobs for the unemployed first, if we want to do that? And if we tell everyone we will have to work longer (which we should, provided we are able to physically) or that the existing pre-pension systems used to help companies restructure, will be dispensed with (because, yes, 54 is too young to retire), are we not pushing a lot of people out of unemployment and into social welfare and real poverty? And then I consider myself: imagine losing my more-than-averagely-paid job. Too old to find something else, no pre-pension arrangement possible and after 2 years a lose my maximum unemployment benefit which will be less than 30% of what I earned before. I will have worked all my life, with a great carreer, and I will end in poverty after selling my appartment and eating up any savings I will have left. Too bleak a picture? So let's not negotiate company car taxes. Let's try and focus on what's really important?

#OA is a long way off from #OWS

Last Saturday, Antwerp had its own Occupy Antwerp event. For those of you who don't know Antwerp or have never been there: walk around in the center of town on any given Saturday and you get claustrophobic (at least I do) from the masses of shoppers occupying the streets. I had to do some shopping myself this weekend, I only go to the center of town if I really-really-really have to. And when I do I try to do my shopping in a record time, avoiding and evading the crowds. In the afternoon Occupy Antwerp gathered some 500 people. The contrast between the thousands of shoppers and the hundreds of Occupyers was embarrassing. We are living in a country where 'economic crisis' seems very far away, with politicians claiming 'everything is under control' and 'nothing as bad as Greece of Portugal could ever happen here'. So let's all go spend money buying stuff we don't need instead of thinking about what is happening in the world out there. We should be indignado about thàt.