Bloggle

You have, no doubt, heard by now that Starbucks has closed its store in the Forbidden City. You may also have heard that Starbucks’ exit was fomented by a massive online campaign in China, sparked by a — wait for it — a blogger. Who knew bloggers had such power? Well, when you’re a blogger backed by the state’s own media arm… but that’s another story.

The story here is that, for Starbucks — one of the most iconic brands in the known universe — to lose the Forbidden City — one of China’s singular historic icons — well, that’s gotta smart. Even given the store’s low-key presence in the 600 year old Imperial Palace, it was an important symbol for Starbucks, and for China.

For Starbucks this landmark location was an anchor in the shifting tides of modern Chinese culture and a (relatively) safe harbor against China’s deep-seated ambivalence to Western-style capitalism. Quite simply the Forbidden City was an icon for an icon, a touchstone of Starbucks’ international ambitions.

For China, Starbucks’ presence was symbolic of nationalist China’s embrace — however adolescent and awkward — of Western commercial interests. It was a sign of the times seven years ago. It is — ominously — a sign of the times again, today.

To be clear, it was a rocky relationship from the start. When Starbucks opened the Forbidden City store — with a wary nod from Palace Museum officials — it was greeted with something less than open arms. Starbucks’ siren logo was quickly relegated to the interior of the store, only, to better placate concerned Beijingers. Starbucks so carefully camouflaged its presence, in fact, that enterprising folk were known to fleece tourists by guiding them to the “hidden Starbucks in the Forbidden City.” I suppose that’s a cultural exchange, of sorts.

Advocates for Starbucks’ expulsion from the Forbidden City have argued China’s right and responsibility to be stewards of its historic, national treasures and cultural history. Noble ideals, certainly… but ideals that are frequently couched in language that speaks of a growing nationalism fueled by China’s growing wealth and power in the global market.

Starbucks, which now has some 200 stores in mainland China, has set its sights on 20,000 stores internationally — thousands in China, alone. Given China’s mercurial moods, Starbucks may find that to be a daunting, even a… well, a forbidding task.

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Green Mountain Coffee gets a little greener still with the ribbon-cutting today of its new biodiesel fueling center. I’m currently waiting to see if Vermont’s legislature can get its act together and pass new legislation supporting clean diesel in the state (Vermont currently bans the sale of new diesel passenger cars of all stripes) before it’s time to get a new car… it’d be pretty handy to fill up with the biodiesel tap that’s now steps from my office door.

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In the very early 90’s my brother Ken and I sysop’ed a Bulletin Board System (aka, a BBS.) It was a simple dial-up affair (I should be clear… *all* BBS were simple dial-up affairs back then) and ours consisted of a single (anemic) IBM PC, two phone lines and two modems… a 2400 baud Hayes Standard and a wicked fast 14400 baud U.S. Robotics beast. We were stylin’.

Despite the fact that our little BBS was in a small town in the middle of Missouri — where the cow to computer ratio was alarmingly high — that system ran almost non-stop. There was nearly always *somebody* dialed-in, and often as not both lines were in use. And it wasn’t just local folk connecting, either. We used to review the traffic logs to see who’d come in from where, and we were frequently astonished to see folks from not only one end of the country to the other, but international dial-up visitors, too, at what had to be significant cost to them… long distance service wasn’t cheap.

If you’d ask me why people dialed into our little system from all over the place, I’d have to say it was simply because they *could*. Having a PC and a modem was like having your very own ticket to the whole wide world. Our BBS had a FidoNet link, and FidoNet had a connection to Usenet, and — if you were patient — you could have a conversation with people on the other side of the planet.

That is, of course, if your phone company would let you. Those modems ran on plain old telephone service (or, POTS) which was, the telephone man would tell you, designed for voice-grade — not data-grade — service. You wanted to pick up your phone, dial somebody and have a conversation? You bet! In that case the connection was 99.999% reliable. If, however, you wanted to zoom zeros and ones across that line at breakneck speed… well buddy, all bets were off. Maybe it’d work, and maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe you’d get your full-duplex, high-speed connection, and maybe you’d connect at a bit dribbling rate of 1200 baud or so. ‘Course… you could always pay for a “data-grade” connection at, oh, five to ten times the price of a voice line. But it wasn’t anything different, at all! It was just another POTS line… albeit one all shiny and new. Hooey!

Just a few short years this side of the BBS’ heyday, the Internet began its inexorable rise. And with it, the local ISP, and flat-rate dial-up services, and broadband connections. And — I’d like to say — it changed everything. And it did. With a (relatively) cheap, local service you could connect with people all around the planet in completely new and exciting ways: voice, data, video streams, the Internet didn’t care. Use any service you like â€â€? watch an online video, listen to a podcasts, send instant messages â€â€? anytime you choose. The Net had arrived as our new common carrier.

And there is where this story should end. But it doesn’t. ‘Cause the phone companies and their new coopetition — the cable companies — have borrowed a page from their old playbook… and it’s the “data grade” scam all over again.

The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies â€â€? including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner â€â€? want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won’t load at all.

They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. They want to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services, and streaming video � while slowing down or blocking their competitors.

These companies have a new vision for the Internet. Instead of an even playing field, they want to reserve express lanes for their own content and services � or those from big corporations that can afford the steep tolls � and leave the rest of us on a winding dirt road.

The big phone and cable companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to gut Net Neutrality, putting the future of the Internet at risk.
–SaveTheInternet.com

And so, for the first time ever, Bloggle is sporting an ad — a PSA spot, if you will — in support of Net Neutrality. I encourage you to lend your voice in support, too. No-one — no government, and certainly no corporation or cartel — should be able to impede the free exchange of ideas or the access to information that the Internet has made possible, today, much less what the Net may offer us tomorrow.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, my brother and I had a modem and a dream, and it proved our ticket to the world. The Internet is your ticket to the world, now. Don’t let anybody take it from you.

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When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security….

Does any of this ring a bell?

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You’ve been counting the days and it’s finally here… today is World Fair Trade Day!

What? Whatd’ya mean you never heard of it? Why it’s… it’s Big! It’s HUGE! It’s on everybody’s calendar, right? No? Well… I hear it’s big in Japan.

I guess it’s understandable you’ve never heard of it. Heck, until just a week or three ago even TransFair USA was a little confused about just where to find it on the calendar. And even today TransFair sends visitors seeking resources about World Fair Trade Day to a third-party web site that offers little more than empty pages and empty promises of world-changing stuff to come.

Really, now… that’s just embarrassing.

Despite the apparent cone of silence surrounding the day, there are about 50 events in honor of World Fair Trade Day in the US and Canada… perhaps you can find one near you. (Yo, Vermonters, there’s an event at the Brattleboro Farmers’ Market if you’re so inclined.)

Oh! And while on the subject of upcoming events, don’t forget that Sunday is Mother’s Day. I bet *that* one’s on your calendar!

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When Michelle Incanno ordered her venti-house-blend-nonfat-two-Splenda at her Springboro Starbucks last week she got more than she bargained for… and more than she could stomach. Printed on the cup was this —

“Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure.”

The quote isn’t Starbucks’ own, but instead another customer’s… part of Starbucks’ “The Way I See It” collection of viewpoints and conversation-starters than have graced their cups for some two years now. Regardless, it didn’t play well in Springboro… at least not with Incanno. She’s vowed never to darken Starbucks’ door again.

“As someone who loves God, I was so offended by that. I don’t think there needs to be religious dialogue on it. I just want coffee.”

This doesn’t appear to be a case of someone not understanding that the message on the cup isn’t the opinion of Starbucks itself. She understands. She just doesn’t care. Which is a shame, of course, but also much more.

Let’s move beyond this specific message itself for a moment and examine the underlying principle at play here. The way *I* see it, these United States are now largely populated by folks so tightly bound-up in their own ideology and narrow philosophy that they bristle at, vilify and reject any point of view that differs demonstrably from their own. Heaven forbid they engage that point of view and explore it. More, such folk are more than willing to paint with a brush so broad it daubs and splashes both the author of the message and its publisher equally, as though they were one and the same. This is, at best, a spurious argument… at worst, it’s the stuff that our daily discourse has ground down to: demagogy.

Maybe I underestimated what Starbucks was up to with their The Way I See It series. Me, I thought they were simply looking to start conversations in the coffee house. Perhaps, instead, they’re trying to teach us how to have a conversation again. ‘Cause it sure enough appears we’ve forgotten.

I have issues with some of Starbucks coffee purchasing practices. I have issues with some of their employment practices. But I have new found respect for Starbucks’ effort to play a role in fostering conversation and community… even when it means printing a point of view that doesn’t play well in Peoria. Or Springboro.

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