"The internet is far from done when it comes to changing the world. This is just the beginning. It really comes down to one thing, the empowerment of human beings with unlimited information." Taken from Guardian Comment
The net has some unique features, including the fact once information is online it's near impossible to get it offline.
If false information is put online, it may have some negative impact but the means to negate this is very swift and overwhelming.
Expect data on all the worlds wrong doers, very little they can do about this, enabling peoples formulate effective strategies to fight back.
Powerful software enabling humans to optimize their behavior and crucially spending power to achieve common goals. That is what is going on in the Middle East has happened far earlier than I thought possible, but I was always confident it was going to happen. Be same story in Africa sooner or later. But the mother of all revolutions is when consumers turn on the corporate giants and are empowered to do so in collectives by the power of the net.
No where to hide! Grassing has never been easier in the history of mankind. Before the net, if you wanted to be a whistleblower you had several problems to overcome, including convincing folks powerful enough to do something about it to believe you, and also keeping safe. Now all you need is a laptop, net connection and some concrete evidence. You can do this anonymously fairly easily.
The end of data suppression. By smashing the global media monopoly on what is commonly known, the internet enables any user to be a voice as big as CNN if the data they have to share is important enough.
Loads more than this to come. When you have eventually billions of humans all connected via this powerful medium, when you factor in, though the global media would have us believe something else is true, that the vast majority of these humans are both decent and fair, the overwhelming power to achieve planet changing projects without the need or approval of the elites offers no small amount of hope that we are creeping towards true global meritocrats.
Anywhere globally something exceptionally good, or profitable happens all the data can be beamed across the entire planet enabling others to share and gain.
This is just the beginning of a era that will redefine the meaning of human collaboration, and there's not a darn thing the elites will be able to do about it to shuffle the cards in their own favor first and foremost as has been the case up to this point.
Up til now humanity has never achieved it's true potential, as the giant foot of obscenely rich has slowed down progress in this global economic racket falsely described as capitalism.
The music industry never saw it coming, neither did the film industry, these dictators clearly never saw it coming, and you can bet your bottom dollar nor will the corporate giants wastefully raping this planet for all it's worth.
Wednesday 23 February 2011
Saturday 19 February 2011
Saudi Arabia - the revolution
This Saudi woman blogger says the revolution could well be coming to Saudi soon, unless the ageing king makes some drastic changes. How likely is that?
These are the demands of the fast growing Facebook protest group:
The People want to Reform the Government Campaign
To support the right of the Saudi people and their legitimate aspirations:
1 – a constitutional monarchy between the king and government.
2 – a written constitution approved by the people in which governing powers will be determined.
3 – transparency, accountability in fighting corruption
4 – the Government in the service of the people
5 – legislative elections.
6 – public freedoms and respect for human rights
7 – allowing civil society institutions
8 – full citizenship and the abolition of all forms of discrimination.
9 – Adoption of the rights of women and non-discrimination against them.
10 – an independent and fair judiciary.
11 – impartial development and equitable distribution of wealth.
12 – to seriously address the problem of unemployment
These are the demands of the fast growing Facebook protest group:
The People want to Reform the Government Campaign
To support the right of the Saudi people and their legitimate aspirations:
1 – a constitutional monarchy between the king and government.
2 – a written constitution approved by the people in which governing powers will be determined.
3 – transparency, accountability in fighting corruption
4 – the Government in the service of the people
5 – legislative elections.
6 – public freedoms and respect for human rights
7 – allowing civil society institutions
8 – full citizenship and the abolition of all forms of discrimination.
9 – Adoption of the rights of women and non-discrimination against them.
10 – an independent and fair judiciary.
11 – impartial development and equitable distribution of wealth.
12 – to seriously address the problem of unemployment
Who are the real benefit claimants?
According to someone who knows, these are:
largest groups of benefit claimants I have met in my work:
I'm old/ We're old /I'm old and widowed.
My husband left me and the kids after the business collapsed/he had an affair/he left me for another woman/he left me for another woman and then i found he'd remortgaged the house 3 times over. I wasn't working 'cause I have two toddlers/he preferred a non-working wife/I care for my elderly mum.
My husband/wife died.
I'm 53 and got made redundant, started drinking, and the wife kicked me out when I got too much to handle/ I'm 18 and my parents kicked me out because they can't afford me/we had a row/ mum's new partner hates me/beats me. Now I live in a hostel.
I had an accident/got sick/developed something debilitating/had a breakdown
I got made redundant
I work but can't pay my rent anymore as it's now higher than my total income from working 48 hours in Primark.
I have a disabled child who needs 24 hour care and don't want to put him/her into care
I live an hour's bus journey (and £5 return) away from any work, and my child is at primary school and I can't find anything to fit in. (That one tende to be temporary and often allied to one of the above reasons)
Smallest groups:
drug addicts/alcoholics (and many of these would have started using to medicate against mental health problesm)
genuinely feckless single mothers - there are actually very few
benefit claimants who work in the legal or illegal economy
people who could work but don't AND who claim benefits - most adults get fed up with £60 a week to live on. I've met plenty of much better-off people happy not to work - they have (or have partners/parents) who support them.
non-existent groups:
people who do well on benefits alone. I lost count of the numbers who got by only because friends and family helped out in emergencies, or who were carrying thousands in debts run up to pay for what are commonly called 'essentials'.
people who can afford to move house when their left-over income after food and rent and bills is about £3 a week.
largest groups of benefit claimants I have met in my work:
I'm old/ We're old /I'm old and widowed.
My husband left me and the kids after the business collapsed/he had an affair/he left me for another woman/he left me for another woman and then i found he'd remortgaged the house 3 times over. I wasn't working 'cause I have two toddlers/he preferred a non-working wife/I care for my elderly mum.
My husband/wife died.
I'm 53 and got made redundant, started drinking, and the wife kicked me out when I got too much to handle/ I'm 18 and my parents kicked me out because they can't afford me/we had a row/ mum's new partner hates me/beats me. Now I live in a hostel.
I had an accident/got sick/developed something debilitating/had a breakdown
I got made redundant
I work but can't pay my rent anymore as it's now higher than my total income from working 48 hours in Primark.
I have a disabled child who needs 24 hour care and don't want to put him/her into care
I live an hour's bus journey (and £5 return) away from any work, and my child is at primary school and I can't find anything to fit in. (That one tende to be temporary and often allied to one of the above reasons)
Smallest groups:
drug addicts/alcoholics (and many of these would have started using to medicate against mental health problesm)
genuinely feckless single mothers - there are actually very few
benefit claimants who work in the legal or illegal economy
people who could work but don't AND who claim benefits - most adults get fed up with £60 a week to live on. I've met plenty of much better-off people happy not to work - they have (or have partners/parents) who support them.
non-existent groups:
people who do well on benefits alone. I lost count of the numbers who got by only because friends and family helped out in emergencies, or who were carrying thousands in debts run up to pay for what are commonly called 'essentials'.
people who can afford to move house when their left-over income after food and rent and bills is about £3 a week.
Thursday 3 February 2011
Expect the unexpected
A revolutionary must expect the unexpected - in fact the whole point of a revolutionary viewpoint is to question the orthodox position and look at the world through new eyes. If we want profound change, we should not cut our cloth to the narrow expectations of our elites and 'realistic' views. Plan for the day when the impossible becomes possible. Egypt shows the way. Egypt also shows how the so-called democratic politicians of the west show so much fear of what the revolution may bring. The one thing the establishment fears most is a real revolution. The examples of France, Russia, China and Iran show that revolutionary terror and a new caste of authoritarian bureaucrat can take over a popular revolution and the dream of freedom can be lost. But also, those historic revolutions deprived the global powers of dominance and threatened the foundations of imperial control of resources. That is what is at stake now - the protestations about Islam and extremism are the same ones we have seen in all previous revolutions. Popular revolution overturns the status quo and we will hear constant refrains about the dangers of the Egyptian revolution, while they will also claim they support the people's fight for freedom. The truth is that they support only what doesn't threaten the interests of the great powers. But be certain that the change has begun.
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Egypt - cable from the revolution
Bliss was it that dawn to be alive / But to be young was very heaven ... Wordsworth
My friend Louis in Alexandria sent this email five days ago:
9:32 PM Louis: No SMS
No twitter
No Facebook
9:33 PM Using live rounds in suez please spread
Last night the Egyptian Army said it would not fire on the "great people of Egypt" This is a turning point and surely marks the triumph of the people's uprising. I wanted to find a famous quote from Shelley or Byron on the French Revolution but found this wise one:
Change is certain. Peace is followed by disturbances; departure of evil men by their return. Such recurrences should not constitute occasions for sadness but realities for awareness, so that one may be happy in the interim.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Then I found the one I wanted, from Wordsworth - "Bliss was it in this dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven." No revolution is the same and the hopes of the French revolution were in some sense lost in the bloody Terror and the rise of Napoleon. Then again, as Chao En Lai said in 1976 when asked about the significance of the French Revolution, "It is too early to tell". Apparently in China today they have blocked online searches for Egypt as they try to stop news of the revolution reaching its citizens. Of course this will not work. Perhaps the occupation of the central square raises memories of Tiananmen Square 21 years ago. Then the soldiers did shoot.
It appears Israel is afraid too - they have for long painted themselves as a democracy in a sea of Arab tyranny. But what happens when the Arabs stand up and seize freedom for themselves? After all, the Gazans elected Hamas, and Lebanon voted for Hizbollah. Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said he was concerned that Egypt could end up with a regime as radical as that of Iran. "Our real fear is of a situation that could develop … and which has already developed in several countries, including Iran itself: repressive regimes of radical Islam," he told reporters after meeting Germany's Angela Merkel. Does he really mean that Israel cannot accept the right of its neignbours to freely choose a government to represent them - in other words, democracy?
My friend Louis in Alexandria sent this email five days ago:
9:32 PM Louis: No SMS
No twitter
No Facebook
9:33 PM Using live rounds in suez please spread
Last night the Egyptian Army said it would not fire on the "great people of Egypt" This is a turning point and surely marks the triumph of the people's uprising. I wanted to find a famous quote from Shelley or Byron on the French Revolution but found this wise one:
Change is certain. Peace is followed by disturbances; departure of evil men by their return. Such recurrences should not constitute occasions for sadness but realities for awareness, so that one may be happy in the interim.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Then I found the one I wanted, from Wordsworth - "Bliss was it in this dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven." No revolution is the same and the hopes of the French revolution were in some sense lost in the bloody Terror and the rise of Napoleon. Then again, as Chao En Lai said in 1976 when asked about the significance of the French Revolution, "It is too early to tell". Apparently in China today they have blocked online searches for Egypt as they try to stop news of the revolution reaching its citizens. Of course this will not work. Perhaps the occupation of the central square raises memories of Tiananmen Square 21 years ago. Then the soldiers did shoot.
It appears Israel is afraid too - they have for long painted themselves as a democracy in a sea of Arab tyranny. But what happens when the Arabs stand up and seize freedom for themselves? After all, the Gazans elected Hamas, and Lebanon voted for Hizbollah. Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said he was concerned that Egypt could end up with a regime as radical as that of Iran. "Our real fear is of a situation that could develop … and which has already developed in several countries, including Iran itself: repressive regimes of radical Islam," he told reporters after meeting Germany's Angela Merkel. Does he really mean that Israel cannot accept the right of its neignbours to freely choose a government to represent them - in other words, democracy?
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