Monday, June 29, 2009

The Stupidity of Acceptance

The modern world is in so many ways ugly
houses without proper ventilation
constant noise from machines
crowded spaces

life is not pleasant

But this ugliness seems to be invisible to most people

i don't accept that to enjoy the company of friends I must spend two
hours traveling to and from a house in the suburbs

two hours witnessing ugly urban sprawl
two hours with my knees crammed up to my chest because someone designed
a car that won't really allow four people inside, but has created the illusion that
there might be four people there by providing seats

this is all bullshit

I have wasted countless hours of my life riding in the backseat of
someone's car, being uncomfortable, witnessing the urban
wasteland.

But this ugliness is invisible, and unspoken.

It is not just the price we have to pay.  This ugliness is the result of decisions by other individuals—that we will build cars that can’t really seat four, but we will put tiny seats in the back….that we will allow buildings and roads to spring up with no thoughts about how they will result in congestion.


No the world is not beautiful.  But it doesn’t have to be so ugly.

And yes, I live in the richer half of the world--richer, but still uglier than it need be!

Wien's Lack of Culture

I have decided that all of the things I hate about Wien..
noise 
stupid noise
cars
people shouting in the streets
the noise of bottles breaking --something I hear for hours where I currently live
(I don't know why. )
The crowding.
the way our living spaces do not provide proper ventilation
the fact that you open your window and see another window and someone else looking at you

all of this ugliness
(and I've hardly listed all of it)

is 
not
inevitable

how are our cities designed?
according to what principles?

one principle is:  maximize profit for the ruling class

a better world is possible

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Austria Worse than Slovakia

Im sick of people saying "Oh Wien must be better than Bratislava"

people who have never lived here.

goddamned people on the other side of the street are playing "their" music loud again
tonight

egotistic bastards

I have to listen it

There's no way to know which of 24 windows it is coming from

And, by the way, in the famous Petrzalka suburb in Bratislava, the one built
by the communists and consisting of tall concrete tower blocks, the buildings
are NOT as close together as mine and my noisy neighbor's.....

Wien not a place I like....

why don't you leave?  well, my friend, that takes money, and a job!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

nicht angenehm

how many ways can a city be annoying and unpleasant?

Tonight it would seem that my neighbor downstairs is having a party.

my neighbor on the ground floor has been playing music for about three hours.

it is now 11;28...

NICHT ANGENEHM

why the hell should I have to listen to this shit?

Wien.... a cultural capital!  indeed

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Are your sprach trainers cranky?

Are your teachers cranky?  Moody?  Were they that way when you hired them?

Probably, they weren’t born that way.  You should consider the possibility that their working conditions contribute to their mood.

 

You can start by performing the following self-diagnostic test:

  1. Do your sprach trainers have paid vacations?
  2. If a trainer is sick, is he or she paid?
  3. Do trainers have to pay for their own medical insurance?
  4. Do trainers receive two salaries in December and June?

 

If you answered “no” to any or all of the above question then your trainers have a good reason to complain—You are asking them to work in conditions below the Austrian norm.

 

Other factors which can influence a trainer’s mood:

 

  1.  Do you ask your trainers to work 8 in the morning,

and then again 8 at night on the same day? --And, in that case, would you expect a trainer to teach until 10pm, and then teach again at 8am the next morning/

 

  1. Do you ever tell trainers what they should teach?

 

3.  Do you expect your trainers to travel one hour each way to lessons?

Are they paid for travel time?

 

Notice that if trainers are paid hourly, every unpaid hour of travel represents

lost money.  It also puts a cap on how much a trainer can earn in a given week.

And time spent in travel can also be very tiring.

 

4.  Are your trainers paid for preparation time?

 

5.  How democratic is your workplace?  Are trainers allowed to contribute to the decision making process?  Or, do you expect them to keep quiet and follow rules?

 

6.  Do you expect trainers to agree to teach at any time and any place and any sort of person?  Or do you accept “no” for an answer when a trainer is offered work.

 

7.  Are trainers always paid in a timely fashion?  Or do they have to wait to be paid for their work?  (One school I know of pays their trainers for the previous month on the third week of the next month.)

 

These are some of the factors that contribute to a trainer’s mood. They are factors which the management and owners of a given school or “institute” can change…


Note: this was in response to an ad which appeared in Vienna Online

http://www.virtualvienna.net/career/ads/june_16_1_2009.html

The ad ended with the words:

"If you are grumpy, bored and tired of training English, then please walk across the street and get on the next bus heading nowhere. "

so much for the idea that workers have more rights in Europe!!! 


Monday, June 15, 2009

wage slavery

WTF!!!!

my employer takes money out of my pay
this is not indicated on the pay stubs I get

my employer seems to be taking out 20 percent or more from my paycheck

And on top of that, I have been told that I must pay income tax?

Are the taxes in Austria really more than 40%???

For someone who makes between 1000 and 1200 Euros a month???!!****

Saturday, June 13, 2009

What I Hate in Wien

the Gurtel:  noisy, aggressive cars, noise, noise noise

bike lanes:  aggressive bicyclists who regard pedestrians as things  who are always in
the way....well, excuse me, on Argentinier Strasse if you've got two fat mommies with
their baby buggies side by side in the pedestrian lane, they force you into the bike lane!  
not to mention along the danube near Urania where there is no clear bike lane and the bicyclists are
fast and aggressive....

noisy neighbors--the sort who decide to reconstruct their flat with
power tools at 9 in the morning on Saturday...

not to mention:  shit on the sidewalks, and shit, and petrified shit, and shit particles.

I thought people mainly let their dogs do it on side streets, but yesterday there
was an enormous pile in the middle of a pile on a main street....
how culturalll.......


the U-bahn:  rude people, crowded trains, loud trains, cold waiting areas underground.....

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Slavery?

Should the US gov't pay reparations to descendants of slaves?

Yes, of course.

What of the argument that Africans sold other Africans into slavery?

Well, some Europeans collaborated with the Nazi's.  That doesn't make Nazi crimes less atrocious.

A relevant text is Zinn's "A People's History"...

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

truly a cultural center

truly a center for culture and plumbing....

Today I finally have a free morning.
I don't have to rush to the U-bahn where I will experience pushing and shoving.

So, I thought I might do a little reading, writing, and thinking....

I thought...

But my neighbor has called in the plumber.

Who begins the day by shouting for twenty minutes before he turns to the job at hand.

And his favorite tool is....

can you guess?...

YES, the HAMMER!

Wien!  Truly a center for culture, shit, and plumbing!!