Europe Trip 2012: I am a Berliner

Beer here is cheap and nowhere serves water. I'm possibly becoming an alcoholic.There are no rules about carrying beer around so everyone wanders around the city carrying beer. Even when there are domonstrations the police don't take away the protestors beer, they just give everyone little cups for their beer so they don't throw bottles.

There is an incredible class struggle going on here. It's a battle between the commercial expansion and the squatters and punk kids who live here. Corporations like BASF (which from what I'm told, drills for oil, makes GM food, kills hippies, drains rivers and cuts down rainforests) have moved in and are chasing out the lower income families. It made quite an impression on me to see how the corporations have left the surrounding area to fall apart.
The people here are mobilized against corporate takeover. There are loads of lots where construction began and couldn't be finished because it was getting destroyed every night. The art also is largly anti-corporate. They even paint in places where they need boats to reach.

We saw some art by Blu, whose youtube videos I've been watching for years. I was thrilled to see some of his work as he's kind of a street-art celebrity. He does pieces that take up entire buildings.

At Burble's suggestion we explored an abandoned building where every wall space was covered with greffitti. Through the windows you could see the office buildings and luxury hotels. It was like overlapping of the worlds. The artists have made a stand in this space and put so much love into their art. They have made this place into a drawing board even though you can see the threat of development approaching.

In the distance where ever you are in this city you can see the TV Tower or (Fernseh Turm), which is apparently a TV station and a restaurant. It helps to orient yourself but it has started to symbolize to me the ever increasing need here to do away with the old and bring in the new.

I am so impressed with the squatters here. They have a defined idea about what they want to happen in their neighborhood and they fight for it, sometimes violently. I keep listning to the strories about how they got rid of this McDonalds or stopped that development and I try to think how we can use these techniques for Occupy in America. The problem is that the youth here have a culture of activism and they don't stand for things they feel are wrong. This mentality hasn't been seen in America since the 60s, and I don't know if we can get it back. The people I know in America are so set in their lifestyle and don't want to go out of their way to fight against the problems that have taken over our country. We're all effected by this constant need for money and the need to crush everyone under us on our way to the top. Americans don't care enough about anything to make any kind of resistance whatsoever. It fucking drives me insane. I don't know how I can go back to a normal life after this trip.

These friendly creatures were kind enough to let us thake their pictures. Everyone here is so nice.

My brother let me braid his hair tonight to the great amusement of out hosts. He played the guitar and sang the Beatles so the Germans could appreciate a hippy from Berkeley. They were thrilled.

He didn't want pictures.