back to wesport, just put laundry in the dryer, end of an amazing time, beginning of another
:<)
Archive for the 'Kevin Wallen' Category
my welcoming speech delivered through the net at the launch of SET in Ascot Highschool, Jamaica.
ascot-speech-2-23-09
ABRAHAM_OBAMA POKER PARTY wednesday night at GALLERYXIV
exciting news. at our ABRAHAM_OBAMA party wednesday will be andrew brokos, my best living proof next to howard lederer that poker is a game of skill, known online as foucault, the poker philosopher. who is currently playing in the world series of poker. he is returning to boston on monday and will come to our party. it’s a great opportunity for us to hear his stories and celebrate his achievements at the tournament. if you know anyone who would be interested in meeting him or playing poker please invite him or her to join us at galleryXIV 450 harrison st in the south end at 7pm on Wednesday JULY !6 2008. fern and i will provide wine beer snacks. and hopefully music. please respond with thoughts suggestions contributions of any sort and please try to attend. we’ll have a lot of fun.
i want to thank everybody for coming here today and especially the people who were here from the beginning
eric wiseman
tom smuts
dave marglin
jon zittrain
john perry barlow
larry lessig
alex and wendy
myles berkman
fern and eric saltzman
we are here to talk about the future of the net.
my vision of the future of the net is the same as the vision i enunciated ten years ago.
cyberspace is an integrated media realm of stories told and shared by digitally connected and enabled hearts and minds.
WE are the Future of the Internet. We have good stories to live and to tell.
let us make our stories represent our values of
open code
open access
open talk
open education
let’s bridge the digital divide
let’s build the commons of the net
i am listenting to rubin in the morining live from tower street general penitentiary, kingston jamaica, FREE FM signal coming from the SET lab at tower street through FLOW to a UNESCO Caribbean portal to my machine and to my earphones. rubin is an inmate, the pastor of SET. SET is an inmate-driven rehabilitation program which is being embraced and supported by staff and administration.
give thanks with a grateful heart
respect and thanks to Jamaica Correctional Comissioner Richard Reese and his team
to rise with many targets of attention yet to be drawn ineluctably to pain. do you soothe it do you stretch it do you work it out. first i pee then i shit then i take care of sammy. win or lose you pay your dues. do you give in to pain do you surrender.
attached see pics of the black law students association black and white ball sponsored by aiken gump for the benefit of children. i look at the image as i compose this picture for you to see . alex diane antonia fern and me.
whose dress is more beautiful? vote all. how can we?
aiken gump gets a double thump from me.
time for stretch and cup of tea
in the spirit of universality
life as we sometimes live it seems great to me
moment by moment one by one
all of them one present
stretch and behold
suppose there is one spirit above the rest
a spirit in us embracing
let mind go with recursion
last night in second life saw mandelbrot
after the verdict in josh wolf trial came in
beer around the table later
thanks ken and aaron, giselle and joel, mathew and becca
bits in the can with chris
waiting to come out
missed seeing tree throw out the first pitch
at the red sox yankees game
please send a link to the video
:
SET Radio 88.9 fm is up in gp kingston. the revolution has begun. feel it catching fire. on the phone i could feel excitement. inmates and officers of every color shirt. here is kevin’s report.
I woke up this morning feeling like today was going to be a great day, and it was. I went to bed last night excited to bits about what was to happen today and I can’t tell you how much I could not wait for the time when I would make it happen.
For the past three years Charley and I have been talking about the possibility of setting up a radio network within the prisons in Jamaica. We saw it as a way that we could get the message of rehabilitation and restorative justice across to the entire prison system, we saw us being able to facilitate discussions on all levels, we saw it as us creating an environment where everyone in the prison community could get together and discuss issues which are of importance to them. We were worried that if we don’t have total buy in from all the relevant parties then we would have problems but then we started having talks with the Commissioner of corrections, who with the assistance of his team helped us to strategically put things in place so that both officers and inmates would have a stake in the process. We took his advice and then went to the officers first, explain to them our thoughts on this medium and then sought their opinion. So after going on a sensitization campaign speaking to both officers and inmates we selected a compliment of ten inmates and five officers to train for the purpose of operating this radio station.
We built a radio studio with funding from CIDA we also received funding from UNESCO to provide training as well as equipment for the studio.
For the past months we have been conducting training sessions with both officers and inmates, to which they have responded quite well, however they questioned weather or not this thing was really going to happen. They did not see any antenna’s going up or anything out of the ordinary happening plus they were being asked questions by their fellow inmates about when this thing was going to happen so to put everyone’s minds at ease I decided to do a test today. Set up the equipment spread the word around the institution telling folks to tune their radios to 88.9 fm.
So today was the day to make it all happen. I told everyone that I would be at the prison at 10am to set up the equipment and that we would be on the air at 12pm. When I woke up this morning I would not wait to get to the prison so I could do this. As a matter of fact I packed up all the equipment from last night and placed them in my vehicle so this morning I could just go down and make it happen. I checked my clock every few minutes waiting for the time when I would go and pick up Wayne and then head out.
Finally it was time, jumped in the van picked up Wayne, the entire journey all I could think about was the look on everyone’s faces when they actually herd themselves and their colleagues on the radio. By the time we got there everyone was waiting on us. Within twenty minutes we were set up and ready to go. And with the flip of a switch we were live. SET 88.9 FM was a reality; Tower Street Radio was finally on the air. The excitement was too much. The environment was filled with laughter officers were coming in to make sure it was for real not to mention the inmates. At one point I looked around and for that moment there was nothing that separated anyone in that room but, they were joined together by one thing, Radio. The sense of unity was unbelievable, unity, solidarity, togetherness. In a prison, between keeper and kept, wow.
The programs which were presented were done by both officers and inmates there were no distinctions. Everyone had a role to play and they played it well. Some members from the Department of Correctional Services admin staff was there and you could see the sense of pride on their faces. In the round up discussion after the test I could not did not want to critique at that point I really wanted them to know just how proud I was of them. It was most amazing. To be on the radio for the first time and do that well is simply amazing. The name of the programs were
HEALING TIME
How can all the parties in a situation where a crime was committed heal? How can they make peace and move on.
CHAT BOUT
What do inmates care about what are some of the things that are of interest to them? When its lock down time and the lights are off and the security personnel are not in direct air shot of what is been said, what do inmates talk about?
POSITIVE CHANGE
So you have been in prison for a while, each day is a different day; things are constantly changing around you, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Do you grow or does everything remain the same? It’s a choice but we chose to make a positive change.
MY EXPRESSIONS
I don’t always say the right things and I don’t always do the right things, but every day that is my quest. As a Student Expressing Truth I want to express my self. I don’t want to tell you from my thoughts I want to express it from my being. First I become then I express my self.
jamaica is the biggest little country in the world. let’s hear it for bob marley as national hero. let’s hear it from the twins.
just found this post in my unpublished draft, as far as i can tell it’s kevin in london with me at a conference some time back, just as it came off his fingertips first time.
As i sit here in London England as an international Blogers confrence i wonder what this really meas to jamaica. and as a result i have been haveing conversations with indivduals i have met oter the past few hours. the thing i am getting out of all this is that there is a great interest in jamaica however people really want to see Jamaica better represented on the internet. after having that conversation i started wondering to my self exactly what it is that the world is seeing of Jamaica on the web and the first thing that came to mind was “you are in tuned to the thinking man’s talk show, Perkings on line on power 106” and then when you tune in there is just this huge amoung of redoric and it is always the same . now i start to ask myself the question if that is what is up there and that is what the world is heartin and seening on a daily basis how can jamaicans get to where they want to do. so far we have done ok by having other peoople tell our story however i think it is time that we tell our own story. we need to find the positives and get them out there. with bloging through the Jamaica Express we are creating a different and unique kind of news paper, with pod casting we are creating radion
what if we could get agrop of Jamaicans who have the same ideas that we have, the idea of wanting to make a difference, by becoming the change they wish to see in the world thus creating the world that they would want to live in. so rether than haveing to listen to Perkings Online they could listen to something that made more sense. In the prison in Jamaica we have seen where the inmates have made a change, they have first change the way they view themselves then proceded to change the way they view they ones closest to them and now they are better equiped to make a meaningful contribution to Jamaica.
Jamaica’s story is being told, who is telling it and who do we want to tell it. there is also the thought that Jamaica’s story is worth something and that is the level of interest that others seem to have and nothing else, as a result we find ourself in a situation where people are taking from the land and planting nothing in return in some case they are destroying the earth so nothing else can be planted on it and as a result there is not much for the people to benifit from.. What would it mean if we put ourself in a position where we can recognize what is happening and some how position ourselves to better take advantage of the products that comes out of Jamaica without taking anything away from the people, sensoring or supressing the people.
she’s coming. what would you think of seeing if there are women who would help organize a gathering of women law students and their friends to talk with annie duke and perhaps with others in the evening of april 24 in a venue like langdell south about the plusses for women in playing poker. i believe that women law students can hardly get better training to win in the professional worlds of law and business than to learn to hold their own and win at the poker table.
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when appropriate (in my judgment) to an open project and not sensitive (in my judgment) in terms of privacy, i may post email to my blog. all privacy requests respected.
we are all maroons
wayneand wax
real time in reel time
rhombus mix
Should Jamaica recognize Bob Marley as a national hero?
video recording by Roberto Mighty
MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY
1887-1940.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey stands out in history as one who was greatly committed to the concept of the Emancipation of minds. Garvey who was born in St. Ann became famous worldwide as a leader who was courageous and eloquent in his call for improvement for Blacks. He sought the unification of all Blacks through the establishment of the United Negro Improvement Association and spoke out against economic exploitation and cultural denigration. He spent many years in the United States pursuing his goal of Black UNIFICATION.
is2k7
stands for
Internet & Society 2007
stands for
UNIVERISTY