All research is specific, whether you conduct ethnographic or questionnaire research, the first thing you do is describe a process or investigate a relationship among some variables in a population. To get from description to
theory is a big leap and involves asking " What causes the phenomenon in the first place?" The question I posed fellow students is; how far can we take the Freedom of Speech? And what is child pornography?

My purpose is also to show you the danger of using children as sex objects, and the general apathy or acceptance American and Dutch culture has toward these sexual portrayals of children through literature, art, and erotica. Art is not the core issue of my research, but this is a way to soften public resolve. Sexual portrayals of children are common in bookstores, sex shops, video stores, and in private collections, even museums, which may at times be described as art and thus legal. Because of the liberal stand the Netherlands takes on matters of sexual issues, as described later, there could be questionable material concerning young children and adolescents sold directly to anybody in sex shops or video stores anywhere in the country, or on the Internet, internationally, affecting all of us and our children.

It was important to see what was being done in the country about this subject because of its international impact on child sex trade. There was some questions raised to me about the validity of this research because a non-government organization (NGO) is not ‘scientific”. In fact I found that they are the one of the only sources that take an active role in combating the child sex trade, whether it be in a democratic “Western” country or poor country and their resources are based upon fact, and detailed research. As a student doing this solo research project in two countries I also faced obstacles such as funding, and professors willing to work with me on this subject.

Permission was granted by Dutch International NGO’s to conduct interviews, but was denied by GWAK, a new special police force in the Netherlands to combat child sexual exploitation, although I did interview a new special Child Pornography Unit on the telephone. The NGO’s that I have interviewed from were; ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes), Defense for Children International, Terres des Hommes, ChildRight, and a government supported scientific institute in the Netherlands; the Verwey Jonker Instituute. Almost all of these groups are a part of international organizations that work along with the United Nations as well as the Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands, and especially with the Convention of the Rights of the Child. I think it is very important how each of these NGO’s look into the problem of child exploitation, namely child pornography in the Netherlands.


Feelings about the Subject

I have found in doing research many uninformed democratic citizens believe in the idea child pornography is protected by the Freedom of Speech. Child pornography is not protected by the Freedom of Speech, as children must deal with the permanency, longevity, and circulation of the record of the crime long after the act (106th Congress, 1996). This I also feel is true as in one case, that is close to me, the charges were dropped and the thousands were never found of one "collector" pedophile, who was never held in jail for using 4 female children for his own purposes.

In cultural anthropology, unobtrusive observation includes all methods for studying behavior where informants don't know that they are being studied. My methods involve unobtrusive questions or observations of American students and Dutch students at New Mexico State University, and in the Netherlands at Leiden University from August 1997 through May 2001.

Student reporter, Sylvia Carlson asked New Mexico State University students how they felt about child pornography on the internet and the accessibility of it. Some students felt aggression and anger and formed a group to block “censorship.” About five hundred students, the President of NMSU, and the Board of Regents openly expressed how they supported the accessibility of child pornography on the internet at NMSU.

Although my questions aimed at Dutch students were not printed in a school journal, their answers I feel remain important. Do Dutch citizens believe the number of children used in exploitation in Holland is a small number, and is this an important subject to them? When I moved to the Netherlands, my new Dutch housemates and I exchanged ideas about the problem of human rights that are violated in their country, namely child pornography. What follows is a summary of a heated discussion between us that provides an example of a typical social reaction about this subject;
Many of my housemates asked, “Why did you decide to come to the Netherlands?” My answer was, “Well, two years ago while doing research about the problem of child pornography in the United States, I discovered there was an amazing amount of child pornography coming from the Netherlands”.

My roommates replied, “You have been misinformed! There is no one in the Netherlands that is interested in child pornography. It is illegal here! You won’t find any child pornography here if you tried. You are wrong. Now don’t go back to the United States and print lies about our country”. Not to mention violence and aggression, on their part. They felt targeted.

During many discussions with fellow students and professors and while reading academic research in the United States and the Netherlands, I discovered several interesting opinions from democratic students/citizens besides persons with empathy for victims, I would like to share with you:

 The person researching the nature and extent of child pornography is actually interested in it for himself/herself!

 Children cannot be harmed by child pornography, it can actually benefit their sex life later as adults! "What about PTSD, depression, suicide, and the like?"

 Why didn’t I study in Belgium or Thailand? It is not a problem in the Netherlands. "Doesn't happen in my backyard?!Only a third world problem?"

 NGO work is not scientifically proven research and therefore not acceptable to use as a resource in an acedemic paper. "Hmm, really? Then get some scientists to work on it."


 Child pornography is not an acceptable topic to discuss and there are no classes that teach students about this topic. "Thats why there are 6 million images on the internet, because no one has a clue. Why can't we talk about it? Fear, anger, apathy?"

 If the Dutch were to make a hard rule about child pornography, the people actually interested in the material would riot and cause too many problems for the government.
"What about the victims? Don't you think they suffer? Don't they deserve justice?"

 People interested in child porno are the same as the people interested in members of the same sex (homosexuals or lesbians)! "Says, what official source?"

 The child pornography that is available now has not been recently made, but it is from the 1960's. "Then why does the Department of Justice say there are 6 million images of child pornography online today? People just stopped after 1969? Not in the cases I have read about and personally am affected by."

 Child pornography is protected by the Freedom of Speech. "Oh really. Tragically many people believe this. The sad case is trying to be made that child pornography is a human right of certain folks who "need" such things to keep them sane. Very dangerous thinking, indeed."


The nature and extent of child pornography is difficult to understand due to the lack of scientific data.Due to the lack of scientific data about the extent of child pornography in the Netherlands, or we may use the term, the commercial sexual exploitation of children, all of the complexities about this issue cannot be answered. This could also be said for the United States.

You may ask yourself if you stumble upon something questionable; is the photo is this child pornography, or adolescent pornography? Did this adolescent make a mature decision about her employment? Could she have been manipulated? Is this legal? I discovered typical photos found in the advertising sections of a popular adult magazine and teenage porn sold in magazine shops in the train stations in the Netherlands. My purpose will be to show the nature of erotica and child pornography and how difficult it is to define.

The United States also needs to take an example from the Netherlands and sign the Convention of the Rights of the Child. For such a large country there are such few places to report child pornography, and few police organizations that work specifically on the issue, as well as research centers for students who like myself, want to end this crime against our children and children's children.

When Jeremy fell through the ice,
George put a gun to his head,
Erica overdosed a floor above me,
Darrin lay in my arms with white lips,
It could have been me.

Full of moot,
It could have been me, dead,
long ago.


The phonecalls, the threats,
the fists, and heavy voices.
Intimidations,
loose doorknobs and moot,
It could have been me.

Am I ready?
I don't know when I will go,
or where it will be,
full of moot
because it could have been me.

*m.t.*

World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (WCPRC)
Honouring three individuals or organisations for outstanding contributions on behalf of the rights of the child. The election of finalists is structured as a worldwide educational and empowerment process for the rights of the child and democracy and gives the world's children an opportunity to present the prizes that are awarded for outstanding contributions on behalf of the rights of the child.

Deadline: 1 March 2009
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/13120

World Summit Youth Award
Recognising youth-led projects that encourage the active participation of young people in the emerging information society. The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is intended to be a global 'youth for youth' initiative for selecting and promoting best practice in e-content and technological creativity, demonstrating young people's potential to create digital opportunities. The WSYA lies within the framework of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS); the winners will be celebrated at the World Summit Award Gala at the WSIS.

Deadline: 28 February 2009
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/12900



[Source: The Communication Initiative Network]

Carbon footprinting--a topic that I didn't know much about until a few months ago--is getting some serious mainstream attention. Everyone wants to know: just how many greenhouse gas emissions are generated in order to make the products we consume?

Take Apple for example. Want to know how many kilograms of greenhouse gases are emitted from your iPod nano? Check out the environmental performance report that the company posted last month. The MacBook Air itself might weigh less than 2 kg, but by the time it ends up in the recycling depot, 340 kg of greenhouse gases will have been emitted in order to make it, ship it, use it, and discard it.

Apple's not the only one who's started following their carbon footprints. The UK's Carbon Trust would like companies to start labeling products to reveal the footprint of different goods and services. Think of it as a nutritional fact label for the environment.

What else can you learn from carbon footprints? Quite a lot, according to the Wall Street Journal. Tesco learned the recipe for a low-carbon load of laundry (liquid detergent, cold water, and don't touch the clothes dryer); Patagonia found that its largest footprint was the polyester in its jackets; and Aurora Organic Dairy discovered that cows are gassy, gassy beasts.

Following carbon footprints can also help you figure out how to be a low-carbon consumer. For instance, around 70% of the carbon emitted over the life-cycle of a Toyota Prius comes from the fuel used to move it. That means that driving less frequently, more efficiently, or buying a smaller car with even better mileage can make a big difference.

But if you are thinking of trading in your old computer, think again. Since most of a computer's emissions are from the manufacturing of semiconductors, it's best to get as much life out of your PC as possible before retirement. Of course, if you can power it with renewable electricity, all the better.

Dear Mr. John Flanagan,

'Children are like that one beautiful woman who men pursue in order to deface' and that is why i am here. Since 1997, I have looked into the nature and extent of commercial sexualization of children, in other words, child pornography and child trafficking. On a positive note; it is great to have met such good people around the world that have offered encouraging words that have kept the fire burning. The goals of my project are: 1) find and seek information that the public and victims need in order to combat child porn more effectively. 2) find and seek present attitudes about the commercial sexual exploitation of children 3) find others to work with, as well as victims to interview, that want to work on this issue 4) discover the differences of how each country combats child porn, in their NGO work and legal codes, for future change and collaboration.

Yes, I write, and quite often most often in books that I keep on my shelf. Mr. John Flanagan, your title does not appeal to me. You call yourself a judge, but you are nothing to me, nothing but another animal on this planet, after his own selfish intentions. You ask me lists and lists of questions which I answer for you, honestly. I traveled quite a distance to talk openly about a subject which is very important to me, which deserves attention and that is child pornography.

You work for yourself and my opinion I think you do not like what I have to say. You may think that because you are a judge, you are somehow better that everyone else, that you can slide documents under the rug. You are mistaken. LIght shines upon everything that is hid, eventually. Even if you try to hide something, it will be revealed.

I am glad that you asked me to come and speak with you, and that you came and talked with me. Your purposes are still unclear, even though I believe that it is only to keep me from speaking, only when a person like you tells me no, it only makes me do the opposite. So keep saying no. I am sitting here smiling. As a child victim and a witness, wouldn't my words be of interest to you?

Do you know what Social Anthropology is? You say I have abandoned the topic of archaeology. Clearly you have read nothing that I have sent you. I want to see what how people handle this subject in the courts today, in countries today, yes in the past, in the arts, and in the arts now, but how are we handling things now, how do we protect our children now? You are a unfair judge and no matter what you say, I will write about child pornography as long as possible, and tell the only story I know.

Goodday, judge...professor...whatever you are.

The sun was setting as we said goodbye, knowing that we had a good 2 hour journey in the dark ahead of us. I wasn’t too concerned. [...] I think I was smiling the whole way.

Though my frustrations about the project still stand, they’ve been tempered by my sense of hope. [...] The cooperatives can still meet their targets. There are people like Tangson and Kennedy who want to see it succeed. So this thing we’re trying to do…there’s a chance it just might work after all.

Thulasy Balasubramaniam, a friend from Calgary, is working with Engineers Without Borders in Zambia. She is assessing the suitability of a market for sorghum--a drought and heat resistant alternative to maize, the staple food crop in Zambia.

Her job hasn't been easy. Heavy rains and flooding damaged the sorghum demonstration crops: farmers have reported losses of 50 to 80% this year. Along the way, Thulasy has struggled with feelings of powerlessness and frustration.

I worked very hard alongside my hosts, trying my best to keep up and realizing all along that not only have my muscles atrophied from under-use but so has my mind. The abundant world in which I was raised has actually limited my ability to conceive of what is possible, of what my body is capable of, of the elegance in simplicity.

There is so much we can do.

At the same time, here is always a kernel of hope in Thulasy's posts. Through patience and guarded optimism, she has been buoyed by examples of success. At the same time, she's uncovered a deeper understanding of life in rural Zambia, and the incredible people she now calls friends. And did you know that they make Gouda in her town of Kalomo?

Whyson, my co-worker, says that when outsiders see images of village life or drive through in roaring white land-cruisers, they say, “Oh, these people are suffering.” Yes, one cannot deny that there is a fair bit of suffering in rural Zambia. But what visitors fail to see, Whyson says, “is that these people are living.”

Thulasy is entering her second year of life in Zambia; I wish her all the best and look forward to hearing more of her stories. Especially if they involve moonbows!

We ran through the spray of the Falls in darkness, chasing moonbows as if they were pixies, trying to touch them with our fingers and toes... We screamed at the top of our lungs, giddy from enchantment (but also ridiculously cold from the Fall’s spray). We marveled at the beautiful circle in the sky as its light fractured into a spectrum of colour, made sparkles of the billowing mist, and all the while, lifted our spirits.

Usha and me are heading to Barry Island.

Last October, we released a report: "Factor of 2: Halving the Fuel Consumption of New U.S. Automobiles by 2035". The piece got some attention from Joe White at the Wall Street Journal just a month before the U.S. Energy Bill increased fuel economy standards for the first time in 20 years.

The report details design and sales mix changes that could halve fuel consumption (measured in liters of fuel consumed per 100 kilometers) in the average new vehicle sold in 2035. This translates into a fuel economy of roughly 50 mpg by 2035--a target that is nearly as ambitious as the 35 mpg by 2020 requirement in the Energy Bill.

The report is available on our research group's website. Check it!

One of the things on my mind these days is finding a job. A career arc I never considered:

"This what becomes of reformed gangsters: they leave the life to become mathematicians. But Smiley was not one of those studious types who disappeared into hermitage or exile. He was an exhibitionist who slept naked and solved theorems while the glass from the overhead sky-light magnified his derivations and graphs".

From Salvador Plascencia's The People of Paper.

A friend of mine developed a website that shows energy use in buildings on the MIT campus. The graphical interface lets you browse through the years, tracking the evolution of energy use in total energy, electricity, steam, chilled water, or gas.

Can you spot the most energetic building on campus? (you'll have to switch to watts per square meter--it's tiny!)

A friend, in a letter from Mozambique, writes about 2 years of life in Rwanda, Zambia, and Malawi:

I have been silent for close to 340 days. This is not that I did not want to share, but I think it is because I felt that I had nothing worth sharing. When you live in a place for a number of years, the strange becomes normal, the amazing becomes ordinary, and the unusual becomes common place.

Meeting after meeting I met people who themselves were passionate for development and the benefit of people in their own countries and communities:

• a man in Northern Malawi who had operated a food security program in 5 districts for 8 years without any funding
  
  
• a husband and wife couple in Central Malawi who had given up civil servant jobs in the early 1980’s to start a community based farming project and have transformed their valley from a dry, infertile wasteland to a 20 hectare oasis;
  
  
• a group of gentlemen in central Zambia who were in the process of setting up a small corn grinding mill and vegetable garden to generate money to run several development projects in their community

And these stories represent only a small sample of people I came into contact with.

How could I not love this place?

How could I not have hope for the future?

You can read more about his work here.

the two last photos were of an old friend of mine. shortly i will be writing in my blog about his letters to me because they are about something everyone wants to run away from. He was convicted and is in prison until the end of this month. I don't agree with what he has done and think his story is worthy of telling.

Well, the secret's out. Here's our opinion on how to get more miles per gallon:

"Engine and vehicle technologies have improved steadily in the past 20 years, and vehicles have become more efficient. But without either a push from CAFE standards or a pull from soaring fuel prices, the higher efficiencies are routinely offset by the increasing size, weight, speed, and performance of many vehicles.

"The unsettling result is that in the last 20 years the average fuel consumption in new vehicles has not changed.

"But there are ways to lower the cost and the burden of relying solely on regulation. Measures that could stimulate consumer desires for fuel economy would ease both the costs and uncertainty borne by manufacturers."

(P.S. Not that it was a secret or anything.)

Douglas Engelbart thinks that improving the way we relate to information can solve urgent problems in the world.

In a talk to the Technology and Policy Program here at MIT, Engelbart shared how his personal goal of boosting the human capability for coping with world problems drove his careear.

Most notably, he spoke on how it's not enough to match the fit between tools and human factors--on a more fundamental level, it's also essential that both work effectively with basic human abilities. Accroding to Engelbart, these include: sensory, perceptual, motor, and mental skills.

This seems very appropriate coming from the creator of the mouse. Engelbart has a broader vision about how navigating and displaying information can improve out abilities to cope with big problems. He's got specific ideas: Collective intelligence, open hyperdocument systems, and a project called HyperScope.

Engelbart seems bang-on with a number of these ideas, which relate to his work with hypertext in the past. Some of these ideas echo existing applications. For instance, I've always thought it was cool how the New York Times website supplies definitions for any word you double click on in an article.