This week's catchy song (12)

This week I offer you a song from the Scottish band Travis. They are a rather average band, with good albums but nothing particularly extraordinary. As every album, each release by them has a few enjoyable moments of quality, but soon they lose themselves in their ordinary pop. Last year they released Ode to J. Smith, which is a very consistent album. I particularly like the first two songs of the album, which are terrific openers. This week's catchy song is indeed the second song of the album.

Please enjoy J. Smith, from Travis:

Skype and futureless countries

I was just reading that, once again, it has been discovered that the Colombian Intelligence Agency (DAS) has been illegally intercepting communications of key opposition members, journalists who do not praise the current right-wing administration, main members of courts in charge of processes against the government, and many others. The DAS also kindly offers its interception services (which use advanced equipments sold by the US) to drug cartels, left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary armies. The services --which include phone and email interception-- may cost from 30000 to 50000 euro, depending on who and for how long you want to follow someone.

First I felt kind of frustrated about the political use of this agency. Then I thought of what those so-needed, dissonant voices in the Colombian political spectrum could do to keep doing their opposition job. And I remembered a story that appeared in an Italian newspaper some weeks ago. It turns out that the part of the Italian police that is after big mafia bosses is highly discouraged by the fact they're increasingly using Skype to avoid intelligence spies on them. The technology Skype uses to cleverly distribute the data packages that represent voice makes it impossible to intercept communications. Skype conversations leave no trace whatsoever on computers, thus making any interception attempt futile. Needless to say, since Skype is based in Luxembourg, it is not covered by Italian laws and is not obliged to cooperate with the Italian police. (Read the full story, in Italian, here.)

I think this is a very interesting --but ironic-- consequence of technology. The same communication technologies that are allowing mafia bosses to run their business in the futureless republic of Italy could be the only option for those defending (what is left of) democracy in the futureless republic of Colombia.

You might like to follow the links

Today the sun shines again. I want to express that I am very glad to see how fine things are these days in Italy. Let's see: there's a popular government composed of capable and innovative leaders; there's a strong party system which supports an active and united opposition; the judiciary system works like a charm --it handles the rare cases of corruption completely and efficiently; the state-owned companies and public services have reached levels of quality rarely seen in the past. All of this you can perceive this in the people's spirit: even with the crisis, ordinary people find alternatives for living, and the percentage of employed ones with temporary contracts is rapidly decreasing. For young people, studying and doing research is truly a life option. The immigrant population has been gradually embraced by the state and its protection. It is touching to see how citizens are enthusiastically taking this issue on their own hands, as evidenced by multiple everyday episodes. Some of them even organize warm welcome events to immigrants in some cities' neighborhoods (they call these events ronde notturne, or night rounds). Finally, a recent episode has reminded us how remarkable the relationship between state and church in Italy is, and has seen prevail the elemental principles of tolerance and respect towards non-Catholics and non-believers.

No wonder why Italy is a modern, first-world country.

This week's catchy song (11)

The Rascals are a British band with frontman Miles Kane, one third of The Last Shadow Puppets (a group I have extensively praised here). Last year The Rascals released a fine album, entitled Rascalize. From that album, this week I offer you Freakbeat Phantom.

Enjoy:

This week's catchy song (10)

Beth Gibbons is the frontwoman of Porthishead, a group you should know (and shame on you in case you don't). This week I offer you a song from her solo album, Out of Season, released in 2002.

So, please enjoy Tom the model:

This week's catchy song (9)

This week I offer you a catchy song from a group I know very little about. All I know is the following:

• The band is called Babyshambles;
• In 2007, they released an album called Shotter's Nation, which I can recommend;
• The band's frontman is called Pete Doherty, who is or was involved with Kate Moss, a noted supermodel and drug addict.

Without further information, it is my pleasure to present you Deft Left Hand: