THERE IS REAL POWER IN “WE”
AS THE WORLD SHRINKS, LESS “THEM” MORE “US”
AS THE WORLD SHRINKS, LESS “THEM” MORE “US”
WE ARE A
GLOBAL COMMUNITY
(Monday October 15, 2012 –
Blog Action Day) Our world has shrunk
dramatically. In less than 20 years we
have truly evolved, largely for the better, into a global community more intricately linked than anyone
could have anticipated not that long ago. Technology has
given us all access to an amount of information, knowledge, ideas, and data of
every conceivable kind fostering exchanges among us - no matter how far flung we
might be from each other geographically - to begin to close racial and ethnic
divides, to bridge religious misunderstanding, share perspectives and
perceptions, opinions and ambitions at a volume and frequency never fully
anticipated when the World Wide Web emerged as a novel new media in the early
1990’s. The “Information Super Highway”
has been the cyber conduit creating networks and communities while allowing
events occurring in remote locations on our planet to be shared with the wider
world in “real time”.
Yes, globalization has its
detractors and has had some unintended consequences but overall has, at least
its social networks, information and news sharing component, proven
tremendously beneficial. Those of us of
a certain age, born and raised in the pre- information age world, marvel at the
technology and its capabilities and implications. We have seen over and over the value of an
individual with a phone camera and an Internet connection capturing for all the world to see a heinous crime or injustice. Borders, boundaries have eroded; despots, and demagogues
have fallen. There is no way to
understatedly express the profound impact of the technology that has
significantly increased our proximity to each other.
Everyone participating in this
year’s Blog Action Day is a testament to how our world has changed and will
continue to change ever more rapidly.
Once we were lone voices; perhaps concerned citizens, politically
active, advocates for certain causes who may have written a letter to the
editor of the local newspaper and had to be content with that. Now we can write and share our causes and
advocacy, find like-minded individuals and communities and we are no longer
simply lone voices lost in the winds of current events and held captive by the
corporate owned “main stream media” who have no vested interest in reporting the
truth, allowing alternative opinions to be heard, and are nothing more than tools of
governments and moneyed interests who became their masters.
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Let’s concede the fact that
there exists a dark, malicious, and inherently dangerous side to our
interconnectivity. For the purpose of
this discussion we'll look only at the upside, taking stock of the infinite benefits our shrinking world allows us,
for the first time in human history, to exploit as a means to wield real power as “we”. The examples of the good social media has
done, the light it has cast into dimly lit shadows, the fresh air of new ideas
that has blown through windows now open, that had long been closed, grow in significance virtually every 24 hours. Secrets are harder to keep; oppression more difficult to hide, crimes against humanity less likely to be concealed. Famine and deadly outbreaks of disease become news in the never ending always ravenously hungry 24 hour a day news cycle. Satellite phones allow lone physicians in the farther recesses of the Congo and Amazon basins to communicate with colleagues in France, Spain, Paraguay, the United States collaborating from afar for a common purpose. Time has been reduced by technology, this reduction in time has saved lives, brought much needed aid to refugees and those in desperate need with stunning rapidity.
From the “Arab Spring” of 2011 that toppled repressive regimes to exposing the atrocities in the American run prison, Abu Ghraib, in 2003, “we” are slowly but surely changing our world, demanding transparency from our governments, able to mobilize like-minded people where ever they may be to draw attention to a cause be it disease or disaster, hunger or human rights violations, no issue or event need necessarily transpire in the vacuum of isolation any longer.
From the “Arab Spring” of 2011 that toppled repressive regimes to exposing the atrocities in the American run prison, Abu Ghraib, in 2003, “we” are slowly but surely changing our world, demanding transparency from our governments, able to mobilize like-minded people where ever they may be to draw attention to a cause be it disease or disaster, hunger or human rights violations, no issue or event need necessarily transpire in the vacuum of isolation any longer.
A CASE IN POINT : MALALA
YOUSAFZAI
Just last week the world learned
of a horror that may have never been known outside the harsh, rugged confines
of the Swat Valley in Pakistan. On
Tuesday October 9, masked Taliban gunmen attempted to assassinate a 14 year old
school girl simply because she dared to dream, to want an education and to speak
out against the vicious militants who cannot abide by such ambitions from a
girl. Two of her classmates were also
injured in the attack on the van serving as a school bus.
At the age of 11, Malala
Yousafzai took on the Taliban by giving voice to her dreams. As turbaned
fighters swept through her town in northwestern Pakistan in 2009, the tiny
schoolgirl spoke out about her passion for education — she wanted to become a
doctor, she said — and became a symbol of defiance against Taliban subjugation.
[1] While
all three survived, but late on Tuesday doctors said that Ms. Yousafzai was in
critical condition at a hospital in Peshawar, with a bullet possibly lodged
close to her brain.[1]
A Taliban spokesman,
Ehsanullah Ehsan, confirmed by phone that Ms. Yousafzai had been the target,
calling her crusade for education rights an “obscenity.”
“She has become a symbol of
Western culture in the area; she was openly propagating it,” Mr. Ehsan said,
adding that if she survived, the militants would certainly try to kill her again.
“Let this be a lesson.”[2]
As of earlier today the
courageous young women was transported to the United Kingdom for specialized
care via a specially equipped air ambulance provided by the United Arab
Emirates. Ms. Yousafzai has demonstrated
strength of character and conviction, as well as a depth and breadth of courage
that belies her tender age. There have been spontaneous public demonstrations
across Pakistan where the people of Pakistan have voiced their outrage at this atrocity. Yes, it occurred far away from where “we” sit
but “we” knew about it within hours. We
all should pray, offer our intentions, thoughts or express our support as we each
chose to for this brave member of our global community clinging to life.
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The statistics feature of
Blogger allows us to not only track our audience but also see how they find our Blog, what links and search engines bring them to us,
and where they are located. We have
readers in the United States and our neighbor to the north, Canada as well as
in Russia, Turkey, England, China, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Belgium,
Estonia, and Australia, just to mention a few in no particular order. If there is not tremendous untapped energy
and power from this interconnectivity than we all might be missing the point.
The United States exports
elements (good and bad) of our culture and, in return, the free flow of ideas
and thoughts, the establishment of cyber relationships becomes a self-perpetuating
series of intertwined feedback loops.
We have come a long way yet we need to travel so much further. All we have are each other. We are not governments or regimes. We do not occupy seats at the United Nations
or command militaries or militias. Nor should we want to. But we each have a voice and together, our
voices uniting for various causes, from diverse and disparate places, making connections never
before possible, we can enact change. We
can be heard. We must be heard. We will be heard.
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The Brooding Cynyx thank the organizers of BLOG ACTION DAY
2012 and all who have taken the time to participate. We are immensely proud and feel privileged to
have been a part, albeit a small, small part, in this movement far larger than
anyone one of US. It is all about the
POWER OF WE!
TAGS: BLOG ACTION DAY
2012, THE POWER OF WE, OUR SHRINKING WORLD, THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY, MORE “US”
LESS “THEM”, SHARING IDEAS, OPINIONS AND KNOWLEDGE, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIAL MEDIA
[1], [2]; Compliments of New York Times
[1], [2]; Compliments of New York Times
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