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Back, sort of...

I'm back in Copenhagen and back online, sort of... There are a couple of demands on my bandwidth that are keeping me from answering the huge stack of mail, or writing at length about the trip to Florida (which turned out pretty well, all things considered).

First, I was summoned away from vacation back to work, in a (futile, I suspect) attempt to stem a rising tide of panic and overwork in my team. Second, I've been pounding away at an idea for my book that hit me over the Atlantic on the plane back to Denmark. I need to do a lot of research on very low frequency communications systems to get it right though. No time, no sleep. But it feels like it's working...

More soon.

Another hop

Off to Florida in the morning. I'll be in Clearwater/Tampa for a week visiting family, old friends, and keeping myself amused. Feeling weird about it as usual. Not so much like anxiety as much as... complexity...

I'll leave a trail of breadcrumbs, come back with pictures.

Danish Election Insomnia Shocker!

I was up late last night watching the Danish national election come in. The results were historic, by Danish standards, but the end result leaves the ruling coalition still in power, comparatively little change in the political balance, and most likely no substantial changes in either foreign or domestic policy.

But before I get into it, I need to explain Denmark's bizarre political taxonomy. There are ten "serious" political parties, but I'll just explain the major ones. The biggest party, at 29 percent of the vote (before this election) is called Venstre, which in Danish means "Left." They are also known as the "Liberal" party, but the thing to remember is that despite the name, they are actually politically center-right!

Then there is the Konservativ (Conservative) party, with 10 percent of the vote. They are generally more fiscally conservative but socially liberal than Venstre. The Venstre and Konservativ parties are sharing power right now in Denmark's ruling coalition.

The policies of the coalition, with one big exception that I'll get to in a minute, would probably be politically closest to the Clinton administration. Well, maybe a bit to the right of Clinton and many shades to the left of Bush, but they are considered to be the farthest right governing coalition Denmark has had in a long time. They stand for the privatizing of many state assets and utilities, and for trying to cap social spending. Their most powerful fiscal policy though is the "skattestop" an arbitrary end to the rising of taxes across the economy, and a rollback of taxes in certain areas. They may be on to something good here… the top income tax rate--63 percent!--kicks in at below the median income in Denmark. That means that more people are paying the top tax rate than not, which seems to defeat the purpose of a progressive tax system.

The main party on the left is the Social Democrats at 26 percent. They were the strongest party in Denmark since the 1920s, but are now in decline (Social Democrats used to run most countries in Western Europe in the 1990s but now seem to be on the run everywhere). Politically, the Social Democrats are substantially to the left any government that has ever been voted into office in the US, even FDR. They were the architects of the Danish society as it has existed for the last half-century. Very high taxes, free education, free medical care, high social spending, and virtually no poverty, homelessness or violent crime. The Social Democrats have a lot to be proud of.

The next biggest party on the left is the Radikale Venstre (Radical Left) at 9 percent, which in typical Danish fashion is actually more of a center-left party further to the right than the Social Democrats. And on the far left are the Socialistisk Folkeparti (Socialist People's Party) at 6 percent and Enhedslisten, a "Red-Green" union of the former Communist party and environment-friendly Green party, at 3 percent.

I've left out a couple of smaller parties, but the joker in this deck, and the reason for the big exception in Danish politics that I mentioned before, is the far right pack of xenophobes that call themselves the Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People's Party). These guys, disturbingly, got 13 percent of the vote in 2001 on a strictly anti-immigrant ticket, and became Denmark's third largest political party overnight. The party's public website exclaims proudly that "Denmark is not, and never has been, a multicultural society." And once, on the floor of Parliament, Pia Kjaersgaard, the party leader, said she believed that "Islam is a terrorist religion." This is who we're dealing with.

Now here's the rub... if you do the math, you can see that the representation of the ruling Liberal-Conservative coalition adds up to only 39 percent. In 2001, they needed to get that extra 11 percent to make a majority from somewhere, so that they could vote through the national budget. Rather than compromising with the Social Democrats or Radical Left (as has been a tradition in Danish politics), they cut a deal with the devil--and got the votes they needed from the Danish People's Party.

In return, the coalition agreed to pass rules that make it exponentially more difficult for refugees or immigrants to live in Denmark. They succeeded. In the last four years, the number of new refugees and immigrants has plummeted. The rules are intended to keep out poor immigrants with few skills (and, some would say, dark skin). But because UN human rights laws make it illegal to target specific national, racial or religious groups, the rules also make it less attractive for highly trained people to live here.

Move to a country with some of the highest tax rates in the world AND a policy that intentionally makes it unpleasant for immigrants? Wow, where do I sign up?! (All I can say is that it's a good thing Cecilie is drop-dead gorgeous or I'd have some serious doubts about this place).

The Election

Of course, the election! How could I forget? So what did happen last night?

The headline news would be that the ruling coalition is the big winner. The Liberals lost 2 points but are still the largest political party in Denmark, and the Conservatives gained a little more than a point. So even though there was a net loss of seats in Parliament, the coalition government still has a comfortable position at the head of the government, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen will stay on as Prime Minister of Denmark for the next four years.

The Danish People's Party cashed in on a continuing anti-immigrant feeling in Denmark (which they have been doing everything they can to incite), and gained a little more than a point. Some of them are making noises to be included in the coalition now, but though the coalition is willing to jump into bed with them when they need to, they're not quite ready to disgrace themselves completely by asking them to move into their house.

The big losers were the Social Democrats, which suffered the worst defeat in 30 years and lost more than 3 points. Mogens Lykketoft, the current leader of the party and a fixture in Danish politics for decades, took responsibility for the defeat in a moving speech last night and resigned from the leadership. His parting line was, "Kennedy said once that victory has many fathers, but defeat is parentless. But it's not that way here. It is I that had the leadership. I did as well as I could, but the result is far from good enough. And that I give myself responsibility for." Classy goodbye speech from a politician with some dignity. (My apologies to Kennedy if I mistranslated his quote from Lykketoft's Danish).

But there was another winner last night, though the victory was subtle. Remember the charmingly-named Radical Left? They took the biggest gain in this election, at a full four points, to a little more than 9 percent now. That is only *just* short of the number they would need to put the coalition's share over the top, if the coalition would choose to cooperate with them instead of the Danish People's Party. There is a strong opinion that the coalition--especially the Conservatives--would drop Danish People's Party in a New York minute if only they were given the opportunity. It's a pity this election didn't present that opportunity.

And there is one final reason to be cheerful. The Radical Left and the Danish People's Party are vicious political enemies. Such a strong gain for the Radical Left could be read as a protest vote against Danish People's Party, from the majority of non-xenophobic Danes who are sick of having their country's formerly benevolent reputation destroyed and replaced by a reputation for harboring closet fascists.

This election was not as spectacular as many were hoping. But it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, and the signs seem to be heading the right way. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have no despair about the future."

Conet goes public

Wow, weird synchronicity today. I was working from home and was listening to the Conet Project all day, because I didn't have any housemates or workmates to tell me to turn it off. I like listening to it while I work, I find that it helps my ability to focus.

Then I was on Jeremy's page earlier tonight and saw this story about the whole Conet codex being put online for download. Check it out... The Conet project is a series of recordings of numbers stations broadcasts over the last 20 years. Numbers stations are used by the intelligence agencies of other countries to communicate with agents overseas. They transmit random series of numbers, which match up with "one time pad" code books used by the agents.

The way it works, overseas agents are given a "one time pad" with a series of messages, linked to numbers at the top of each page. The agent, using a standard shortwave set, tunes into a prearranged frequency at a prearranged time. He or she hears the number being broadcast, matches it up with the right page, and reads the intended message. Because there is no information besides a random number sent out in the broadcast, there is no way for the enemy country to discover what the message is unless they actually capture the agent with the one time pad (which does happen sometimes). From a cryptology standpoint though, one time pad systems are unbreakable.

So, many years ago, some amateur shortwave enthusiasts realized that someone, somewhere was sending strings of random letters or numbers on unused frequencies and strange times of night, in different languages. Something weird was going on. They began recording these broadcasts when they found them, and the result was half a dozen CDs of these messages released under the name "Conet Project." The codes are unbreakable, but you can listen to these voices in Russian, German, English, French, Spanish, and imagine that these are real broadcasts that were sent globally, but intended for one desperate spy, hiding in a basement somewhere, writing down the numbers and consulting their one time pad to learn the next assignment.

Need time

It hit me today in the shower, I think I need to start off this book I'm writing with more of a bang. The way it reads now, it starts off with culture and background, and then gets more political and dangerous the further on you get. Thing is, I'm not sure how many people will bother hanging on through the slow bits at the beginning.

So I have an idea now of what I can do, but it will change the whole feeling of the first part I've written so far, and I think it might make irrelevant some of the things I want to do. I want my character to get involved in a cultural and only marginally political underground in Crimea when he arrives. There's a bunch of stuff on obsolete Soviet-era electronic music devices I want to put in (Theremin himself was a Soviet, originally). I'm not sure that stuff will still work, if I start off with panic and horror.

Now I just need time to work on it.

I'm listening to a bunch of ten year old Bill Laswell "Material" stuff... Can't sleep again and am slightly loaded from some really nice Merlot Cecilie fed me before going to bed.

Material recorded a lot of William Burroughs spoken word tracts... the best stuff before he died. A bit from Road to the Western Lands which I haven't heard for a long time.

"Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape. Don't intend to be there when this shithouse goes up. Nothing here now but the recordings. Shut them off, they are as radioactive as an old joke."

Find new music

Here's something I've been playing with for a few weeks. I was bitching to Jeremy about being cut off from the new music scene here in Denmark, and he turned me on to this thing called AudioScrobbler...

The idea is, you go to this website and download a plugin for whatever music software you use. Your machine will then track all the songs you listen to and send it to the audioscrobbler website. The website keeps statistics on what you are listening to and matches you up with others who have similar music tastes. You can press a button called "Network" and see others with similar playlists--and here's the cool bit--find out what they are listening to that you have never heard of before.

Let's say you're a big electro fan and listen to a lot of Ladytron, Adult., and Miss Kittin. You look at your network on AudioScrobbler and that someone else who is also into those bands listens to Alpinestars, who you've never heard of. It is likely then, that Alpinestars may be similar to those other bands you like and may be worth exploring. (Note that this only tells you the names of groups and songs and it's up to you to track them down on Epitonic or wherever--it's not some kind of peer to peer music thieving machine).

Good things about AudioScrobbler: it's free, it works, and it's fun to look at your own statistics. Best of all, you don't have to be social with other people on the network unless you want to. The basic tools involve zero contact with others.

Bad things about AudioScrobbler: it's technically spyware, and while your recently played songs appear instantly, your statistics only update about once a week.

Look on the upper right where I have a new "Playlist" link. If you get on AudioScrobbler, my alias is Eurotrash00 (I know it's gauche, forgive me).

Springtime in Saint Petersburg

Some pics from Natasha in Saint Petersburg. These brought back some happy memories. (Click to expand)

A picture taken few weeks ago when it was very warm. (the Neva in Saint Petersburg)
And Dostoevsky-style place near my office.

I've become so instantly nostalgic over certain cities... Saint Petersburg and Budapest hit me the hardest. Then Paris, Moscow and New York. San Francisco, London, Brussels, Chicago and Tallinn. I've been lucky.

I know I'm incredibly naiive of course--I willfully ignore everything that isn't just electric so I can let myself fall in love with a place. The more cities I've seen the more I'm aware of my own tactics. It's not so much a weariness I'm feeling now, as much as an expression of experience, a kind of veteran angst. It's like a recognition of the things that are common in all these places. A common humanity, most strongly expressed as desperation, I think.

This is brought on by a piece I read in "V.," by Pynchon, last night that really explained the feeling to me better than I could have explained it to myself. This bit takes place around 1905--a retired, well-traveled British agent is suddenly outcast and hunted, and tries to find a way to get out of Florence and disappear in the Italian countryside.

He turned right and headed toward the Duomo. Tourists sauntered by, cabs clattered in the street. He felt isolated from a human community--even a common humanity--which he had regarded until recently as little more than a cant concept which liberals were apt to use in making speeches. He watched the tourists gaping at the Campanile; he watched dispassionately without effort, curiously without commitment. He wondered at this phenomenon of tourism: what was it drove them to Thomas Cook & Son in ever-increasing flocks every year to let themselves in for the Campagna’s fevers, the Levant’s squalor, the septic foods of Greece? To return to Ludgate Circus at the desolate end of every season having caressed the skin of each alien place, a peregrine or Don Juan of cities but no more able to talk of any mistress’s heart than to cease keeping that interminable Catalogue, that non picciol’ libro. Did he not owe it to them, the lovers of skins, not to tell them about Vheissu, not even to let them suspect the suicidal fact that below the glittering integument of every foreign land there is a hard dead-point of truth and that in all cases, it is the same kind of truth, can be phrased in identical words?

Under the glittering integument, a hard dead-point of common truth? Yes. Pynchon is right.

But it doesn't make these places any less grand, it doesn't stop the breath any less. We can keep the fragile Thrall intact. Just look at those pictures of Saint Petersburg. Thanks, Natasha.