Monday, January 22, 2007

beinghad.com…

The new logo
I am taking a break from building pages for the new .com. It is a tiring effort really. It has taken me much, much longer to get this thing up than I originally thought it would. This has not been laziness on my part but rather a logistical problem due to the size of the thing. I guess that last sentence sounded like I was bragging; I wasn't, I just have so many things I want to say and show, that it has grown to about three times the size of what I had originally intended. I am probably going to try and get at least the frame up when it is all at least a functioning skeleton as soon as I can. I hope it is going to be cool.

The basic premise though is that there really are many things left to say that have not really been brought out in the blogs. Certainly I haven't really dealt with reform of the Polish judicial system in my current format. I have gotten some letters showing me that there are some new organizations that have opened, but I am sure I could be a much better resource for both this sort of information as well as a place where people who feel they have been wronged by the Polish system to come and have a voice. I actually don't know why I have not been more of an advocate before now. I could make excuses and explanation I guess, but the truth is I simply haven't and I believe that this has been a mistake.

And in addition to this fairly basic point, there are also a ton of things that can be said about Belarus, this from a tourist perspective, a political perspective, business, economics, and message boards for people trying to make contact. I feel I have done a rather poor job of really showing the positive sides of Belarus and this is also something I am looking forward to doing more about. I mean, Belarus is a great place. Certainly could be better in a lot of ways, and yea, she just got thumped over New Years, but regardless of this Belarus is a singularly interesting and different sort of place and I think I would like to show how this is so.

I have a friend who is involved in this project and has invested in it as well. He has had the idea that I should focus more on Belarus than on things from the past like the case or on bikes and biking, another part of the site I hope to build upon. Perhaps it had never occurred to him that bikes have been a real part of beinghad all along; I mean the entire case was about a biker (bikers, eventually) geting attacked by corrupt cops in Poland. In his opinion I should just build on the BHTimes blog and maybe simply create a more wide ranging on-line journal. But I don't know. I like the format of the BHTimes just as it is and I really think that these other issues are real and necessary components that should be built upon rather than simply restating what is already on the web. True, things like the bikes and Belarus travel were not what the blogs were about per se, but they are and have been a part of the ethos that has kept the blogs and the BHTimes going. I have no intention of stopping The STORY or making BHTimes or the Polish Corruption Page, I simply believe I can do more and have more to say.

So I really think that this is going to be both a step up and a step in the right direction. I think I would like this .com to be something that people could be proud to participate in, for sure it is going to be about much, much more than Adam Goodman and how his tomatoes are doing over on the dacha. I mean, I am living in Belarus and we do need (from necessity) to work on the dacha, but at the moment I do have the resources and time to expand things away from simply talking about how it is to doing something about it. I really want that this thing will become something I could be proud of as well.

So there is a bit of a lag; we are not yet on the web simply because there are a lot of things that need to be put together before the site will be ready to go up. I am not apologizing, I am just saying that it is a bit of a logistical problem both keeping things organized and making sure that I am covering the field as best as I can. All things need their pooper time. I am hoping that in the end this being late will simply be remembered as a little extra time taken for proper preparation.

So stay tuned: We got some interesting stuff on the way!

More soon…