The city that never sleeps…

is obviously Bucharest. Especially when it comes to innovation and technology.

Green Horizon, the quarterly magazine of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) in Budapest runs an interesting story about the revival of public transport in Eastern Europe:

“In Bucharest, for example, the city’s bus operator, RATB, has begun implementing sophisticated global positioning system (GPS) technology to enable more efficient and consistently scheduled service. The city also hopes to effect an integrated ticketing system between RATB and the separate company that runs Bucharest’s metro service.”

What a wonderful idea. Unfortunately it is doubtful that this will have any impact in a city that lacks the minimum of public transport structure such as timetables, recognizable bus stops, friendly drivers or a coherent metro map, let alone ticket machines or a user-friendly website.

The right to buy four slices of bread

Being in Brussels, I obviously find myself exposed to a lot of EU stuff. Of course I cannot agree on everything, but in general I believe in a bright future of the EU. Nevertheless, I am amused but also concerned about the ongoing British EU scepticism. This excellent and hilarious comment by J Clive Matthews (aka Nosemonkey) is yet another example of a typical Euromyth in Great Britain.
“A new Euromyth – born from the EU doing its job exactly as it should”

Also another example for DG Communication to include in its list of press mistakes as previously reported in this blog.

SAVE THE DATE: 24-hour online demo against internet censorship on 7 November!

Join “Reporters without borders” in a 24-hour online demo against internet censorship on 7 November 2006. For details how to participate check out this article.According to ‘rsf‘ 61 people in 13 countries are currently in prison for posting “subversive” content on a blog or website.

I also look forward to the slogan of the campaign that was developed by . They even managed to get Margaret Thatcher and Boris Yeltsin in office, so they must know their business.

This also goes along with an amnesty international (by the way: another client of Saatchi & Saatchi…) campaign on Fighting for human rights in cyberspace. According to ‘ai’ we are dealing with a new form of human rights violation:

The internet is the new frontline in the fight for human rights. The initial grace period in which internet-users enjoyed complete freedom, while the authorities caught up with the technology, has ended. Governments are increasingly monitoring web, email and blog use, censoring and prosecuting their citizens for expressing their opinions online.

A never ending story….

from advertising slogans to yogurt….and the press got it all wrong

Interestingly, British examples make up the vast majority of the list. Even though this does not come as a surprise, I cannot help thinking that this is planned negligence with a clear intention to misinform the public and reinforce prejudices. So who profits from this situation?

Anyway, what happened with the fame of British mass media, known for qualitative and independent journalism? Besides the low quality of EU reporting in the biggest selling papers, Great Britain only ranks 27th in the global status report on press freedom issued by ‘Reporters without borders. Are the tabloids really taking over?

“The whispering may hurt you, but the printed word may kill you!” (Morrissey)

what a first blog entry… 😉

Even though I highly doubt that this blog will become an inspirational source for many people I decided to share my thoughts with the world out there.