Jakobo.net

I really wanted to meet Mandela… How could Saddam kill him?

(se newest post below this video)

So, too long since my last post. Many things have happened:

Classes are now rolling like the night train- no stops, so you better hang on. So far I enjoy the Prof. in conflict resolution sharing his experiences from mediating in Colombia and getting the nitty gritty detalis of how and why states can breake free or ‘merge’ into one. Economics… Not so much.

BIG DEAL: Peter Singer, world famous philosopher, came by Columbia a week ago. I went to see him with Sahil. He spoke about the rich world’s responsibilty towards the poor worlds. Random facts about the terrible state of the world are always thrown out like rice for the pidgens in front of the Danish churches, but he mentioned one that actually caught my attention (and stayed there): 28.000, yes twenty eight thousand, children die EVERY DAY due to completely preventable and treatable diseases. Because their parents don’t have the money for medicin. Is it really fair, then, that we in our part of the world, spend money on luxury good every day? Even I, who am supposed to be an indebted , poor student, do it. Singer argues we should donate the money we don’t spend on necessities to aliviating extreme poverty. It’s our responsibility. I hated my ridiculous shirt with the little polo player on it..! Really, think about it, though. How is it we justify our consumerism? It is not just an imaginable trade-off: for the money we spend on something, anything, people’s lives could be saved. It’s that easy. So let’s start channeling our bad conscience into the NGOs we trust.

Here are the ones Mr. Singer recommended:
Oxfam
Unicef

Of course, I would recommend Amnesty, but that’s a little different…

Ok, last note on Peter Singer: If you’re interested in such moral issues as abortion, infanticide (yes, the killing of infants), vegetarianism, euthenasia and more, definately check out these short videos on youtube. You wont regret it- he’s veeery interesting!

Ok, that’s it. I will definately try to block again soon as a certain Mr. Ahmadinejad comes by Columbia to speek on… Hm, human rights? Homosexuality? the Holocaust? Israel? Time will tell, and I’ll tell you here afterwards. Wow!

Enjoy this sunny Sunday (probably more so if you’re in NYC than Copenhagen).

Allright, I finally got to go out and taste the American lager (according to my cousin Martin, it’s similar to the American coffee and both are similar to having sex in a canoe; f*cking close to water). However, it had the desired effect and I found myself with what the cool kids call hangover this morning. Really nice night out with Danish friend Jonas, and Clea and Merry from SIPA! I feel kinda cool when in the lower W.

Went out for Ethiopian the other night with my new amigo Sahil (I believe he’s been introduces to the site before), Clea and Teodora- all from SIPA. Someone raised an interesting question: If you were to categorize yourself by one -ism, which one would it be? (yeah, you think about that!)

I have probably been playing the longest football match in world history today, so am close to falling a sleep in this very moment. I love football (soccer for the Americans reading:). I love it!

I don’t love it so much that my girlfriend is not here. Or my friends and family. I guess these are the choises you make when you wanna become a successful man and make milions of $$! (did I mention that I checked the employment statistícs from SIPA the other day? So, the people who go out to work in human rights upon graduation are the people who make the least money over all. Great!)

My life is mostly reading added reading these days, so the abovementioned events have been nice break-aways! That was it- now back to the real life that involves int. law, int. pol., conflict resolution and no football nor beer!

Goodnight

Things are good in the city that must someday get tired from never sleeping! I’ve had my first classes and it truly feels good to observe my brain starting, slowly, to absorb knowledge after two years away from educational institutions!

On a very different note:

A lot of my friends are doing really cool cultural stuff at the moment (certainly not a reflection of my own capabilities). I thought I’d give them some free adds here:

Benny is in a band called Waking Life. They recently won a big ‘talent competition’ in Denmark, and I think they’re awesome! Check them out

Søren is a painter (and a lot more). I have one of his first master pieces in my bedroom (in CPH, that is, so Elly’s bed room for now, really) and am expecting it to make me into a milionaire one day. probably not until Søren dies… See his works here

Thomas, as Benny, is a skilled drummer and can bang faster than any other dude in town. His band is called Mia Mirror and they are releasing something soon. It’s indie; it’s noisy; it’s cool!

Laura is arranging (managing?) a tremendous project involving a wide variety of people from CPH. But most importantly, it involves a wide variety of music. It will all end up in a biiiiig koncert (that everyone in CPH must attend) and a film (which my friend Jonas is shooting). I believe one can go to the rehersals in ‘Huset’ on Magstræde (Oh, KBH I miss you already). See more here

Ok, that’s it. I actually do have a couple more friends who do cool, cultural stuff, or who have cool (sometimes also cultural) blogs, but they haven’t given me permission to ‘publicize’ them yet. So keep tuning in- they might be up soon.

Keep it rockin’

Went to the country side today w/ my land lady. Cute little place an hour north of NYC. The most exciting thing, though, was that we passed the garage from the film Smoke. The place where the kid sits and waits for his father for a whole afternoon, remember? It was exactly as in the movie. Veeery cool!

Yesterday, had dinner with Sahil and Clea, two new cool SIPA-friends, and Ellen (who’s also cool). This night Grethe and Morten had the pleasure of dining with me and for the second consecutive night I took advantage of the fact that one can embark in great sushi for less than $10 i this country!

So, classes start next week. Am a little ambivalent about Econ (am doing a math-test this weekend to establish whether I’m absolutely retarded in that regard). But especially conflict resolution should be great! Maybe after that course, I can settle and become a marriage-counselor…

Before classes start, tomorrow is devoted to the beautiful game of fodbold. Playing in the park with new SIPA-friends and listening to Brøndby beating the cr*p out of Odense on the radio! Can’t wait!

Today when I came up from the subway on 157th, my iPod (which was on shuffle) played ‘under the bridge’ for me, and though I think it was originallt intended for LA, I felt it right in the heart. Taken back to my teens, I felt a certain connection with this new city of mine. The city she loves me!
On that muscial note, I passed the Chelsea Hotel yesterday. Apparantly, when Leonard Cohen sings of a woman who’s “giving me head on the unmade bed, while the limousines wait in the street”, it is no other than Joni Mitchell he’s serenading about..!

Shalom Salaam

Have been ‘busy as an ant’, as we say in Denmark (or something close to that, at least). This week has been quite hectic; trying to (re)learn math at a frantic pace, only to realize I just am not a math genious. Very far from it, in fact. Also, choosing courses has been the thing to do this week. I ended up with

-Econ. Micro and macro
-Conceptual Foundations (mostly international politics, I think)
-Professional development (learn how to get a good job)
-International Law (I think it’s a tough course, but am looking very much forward. Finally, I will know something and really, really know it
-Theoretical Overview of Conflict Resolution (I will do a whole program in confl res)

Am quite happy with that! I really am going back to school!

It’s a funny feeling to suddenly be here in the midst of it all. When I walk my way from the Columbia University subway stop to SIPA, through the impressive campus, I sometimes stop to think “Wow, there’s no place I’d rather be!” (but there are a few people I’d rather were here).

The surroundings, resources, profesors, fellow students, courses, concentrations, attention is all exeeding anything I’ve ever been academically in touch with before. I like it. A lot!

Ok, no more rambling. Am planning for a few drinks this weekend. Soccer! Going with my landlady to her countryside-house and help with some stuff and just enjoying New York, and enjoying that I don’t have ‘homework’ for the last time i months!

Now, will embark in either Shalimar or Journal of Int Affairs. Doesn’t really matter: exhaustion will probably close my eyes soon.

Hakuna Matata

I’m thinking, in the process of going to bed now, about how to get Elly, my girlfriend, to come to NYC. Maybe I’ll start collecting signatues. If we collect, say, 500,000 I hardly think she could resist! Will dream up a scheme..!

If you’re bored or have extra time, check out this awesome dude: enter

So, I’m back.

Thanks for also coming back- or maybe visiting for the first time.

I’ll try to now keep the postings flowing, nice and smoothly. And try not to make them too long. Just to let anyone interested know how life is in this giant apple they call Nueva York (at least where I live).

in Bullet points:

-For reasons explained below, I had a lot of time for reading while travelling here. I finished Garcia Marquez’ Memories of My Melancholic Whores. Disturbing but/and recommendable! I wanna go to Columbia! The country, that is. Have now started Shalimar the Clown by S Rushdie. Also disturbing so far. Beautiful language! (maybe more will come on this in a later post) And then I read Applied Statistics. Beautiful language! Disturbing!

-My flight was delayed from Copenhagen to Heathrow; barely made the connecting flight to JFK. My luggage didn’t, so I had to wait three hours for my precious suitcases upon arriving. Which meant that I got to spend time in the queue (is that how you spell it?) with a professor from NYC Uni. Among other things, he told me how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (don’t ask how we got into that subject at what was, for my inner watch, 3 am!) simply can’t be discussed in American classrooms. If you, as a teacher, mention something like ‘a future Palestinian state’ or if you are slightly critical of Israel’s policies, he told me, you’ll get fired. Apparantly it happened to a teacher at Columbia not too long ago. I honestly know nothing about this issue and don’t know what to believe, but am looking forward to learning more the coming years (comments from anyone who does know are very welcome!)

-So, I temporarely live with a friend of a friend of a friend in a big apt filled with approx 10,000 books, glasses, tapes, chairs and tables and boxes. It’s charming, the woman is extremely nice and it’s quite cozy, I reckon. Was walking her dog today, which must be around the same age as this city itself. Emba; cute little girl!

-I felt a little sad walking down Broadway this morning. All alone in a new (and humongous) city. Then, however, I fixed my phone and reconnected with Denmark. And then I invited Tom Waits to play on my iPod. And then I found myself strolling in my new city quite enjoying the prospects of the next couple of years! I live in New York!!

-Visited Columbia and the International Affairs building. Recalled how I visited two years ago and began to think how cool it would be to go there one day. I gues some dreams do come true Am very exited to start (apart from the Math tutorial!).

-When I walked home this afternoon, I found that the area where I live (click for map) is veeery hispanic (rep. Dominicana). There are small walls where people hang out and create an atmosphere more reminiscent of the Malecon in Havana than what I would have expected from NYC! I get to practice my espa~nol! (and eat mofongo if I please)

-Met up with Morten and Grethe, who have a nice apt close to campus. Nice! Lovely cinnamon roles, Grethe Am looking forward to be spending time with good friends from the mother country!

-Bought a $76 monthly card for the subway. Made me think how I’m practically bankrupt before I even pay my obscene tuition. My parents’ bleeding hearts (and wallet) will save me from starvation!

So, I think that’ll be it. I could expand vastly on my thoughts, feelings, and doings of today (had 8 hours on my own), but will let you go.

As said, I’ll try to keep posting; maybe even put up some pictures now and then (don’t expect more Borat outfits, though).

Thanks for visiting, feel free to leave a message in whatever language you wish (preferably one that I understand) and do come and visit here. It’s pretty and pretty fun!

Thor bless,
Jakob

Long time no write- I know. I apologize and recognize that if I want any readers on this page, I have to keep postin’… So here goes a long post with several issues:

HUNGARY DEMONSTRATIONS: In October, demonstrations broke out in Budapest, Hungary. The demonstrations were triggeres by the release of some tapes revealing that the Primeminister admitted to have been lying (click here for more detalis). My friend Mezõsi wrote me an email from Budapest, giving his own, first hand perspectives on what happened when the riots broke out. It’s a story of police using violence. Just as we thought the country washeading the right direction, doing well in the EU and everything. Mezõsi says that his country has lost the battle of democracy, but let’s instead hope that the demonstrations were a sign of exactly the opposite. Read his short letter here.

BORAT
By now, I assume everyone should be familiar with Mr. Sagdiyev. I went to see the film the other day. Needles to say, it left the whole theater laughing their behinds off. I thought it lacked a little of the political savviness of the episodes which can be found here , but who can resist the picture of two men with excessive body hair wrestling? I found some clips of deleted scenes from the film- check ‘em out here

US MIDTERM ELECTION.
On Tuesday the 7th, it will be decided whether the US of A will have two more years of Republican ownership of both the House, the Senate and la Casa Blanca. I have talked to a lot of people on the other side of the ocean and they are all very optimistic. If we all cross every finger, the Dems could actually win back both the House of Representatives (where I was doing a fellowship until recently. Click here for more info) . My good buddy Jesper is doing a really good job of blogging home from DC about his endeavors in conquering Pensylvania and campaigning for the Dems. The site’s in Danish, but for those who understand this funny little language, check out this very cool and informative site here.

Bueno, the reson why I haven’t posted much lately is that I’ve been busy with a couple og things:

-Finishing the campaign at Amnesty (which had the result of some 15,000 new members in Denmark)
-Preparing to take the GRE test (is there anything more boring in this world?)
-Preparing for DANMUN. It’s the first socalled Model United Nations held in Denmark. The deal is to gather a bunch of uni students from all over the world (Europe in this case, I believe) and make a simulation of the Security Council of the UN. I will represent the UK, and out topic will be the situation of the Kurds in northern Iraq. I expect a great deal of fun, discussion and polishing of diplomatic skills. for more info on this concept, visit www.nmun.org.

This will all be cramped in between a HIA reunion in Amsterdam (am looking forward to seeing everyone!), so I really haven’t had much time (or energy) for blogging. I will try to keep it coming more fluently from now on. Thanks for stopping by.