This article and accompanying Bertoon appeared in today’s edition of The Malta Independent on Sunday (21.06.09).
From the point of view of a Maltese citizen living in Luxembourg, this week’s most newsworthy event happening in Malta was undoubtedly the expensive day-long blackout. Smart Malta still being in the process of being dragged kicking and screaming into the century of the iPod was plunged into a well of darkness. Shop shutters slammed shut, office workers strolled out of their hot cubicles and business came generally to a standstill. It was an eerie feeling to be able to perceive all this from a window on the net.
You see the main effect on the net of an island without electricity is the silence. I don’t mean an audible silence (or should that be inaudible) but a dearth of activity of the trawlers of the ether, of the netcombers, trolls and elves who have now begun a permanent fixture in the as yet not so diverse constellation of the Maltese corner of the Internet Universe. Us expats probably only got to know about the “darkness” in real time thanks to a generator or two and the few comments that were still turning up throughout the day came from laptops still seeping the last few drops of energy out of their batteries.
Veil of Ignorance
“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.” (Terry Pratchett) The day Malta’s energy grid went flat allowed me to reflect on the “silence” that this produced. It was like that silence that ensues when the persistent jackhammer that had gone on all day suddenly goes quiet. You suddenly become aware of all the “noise” that had almost begun to form part of the background (even giving you that beginning of a migraine). The chatter and the twitter of the internet is also the result of a very public and immediate interaction at many levels.
The truth is that this twitter and chatter is also a form of empowerment. Whether we like and agree with what many of the people say is not the issue. The issue is that there is this new outlet for expression and that it is there to be used. J’accuse has already documented elsewhere the wariness of governments on the power of the internet. Without donning the cap of a conspiracy theorist in Dan Brown style one can safely say that even the most libertarian of governments is tempted to regulate and control the newfound levels of freedom that the internet and the tools used to propagate it afford.
Which brings me to the Facebook revolution. It could easily have been a Green revolution that followed the Orange, Velvet and Red (not necessarily in that order) but the primary characteristic of the very popular uprising that is going on in Iran is the ubiquitous presence of internet tools. The uberpopular network “Twitter” postponed a scheduled system upgrade in order not to disrupt the uprisings in Iran. Here is the statement from NTT America – the host of the Twitter network:
“Down Time Rescheduled: A critical network upgrade must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter. In coordination with Twitter, our network host had planned this upgrade for tonight. However, our network partners at NTT America recognize the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran. Tonight’s planned maintenance has been rescheduled to tomorrow between 2-3p PST (1:30a in Iran).”
The network maintenance was originally scheduled for what would be mid-morning in Iran. The Twitter network was immediately flooded with messages about how this would be a bad idea and thankfully the maintenance was rescheduled. It was not just Twitter. Facebook, normal blogs and anything the Iranian opposition could get its hands on suddenly became the tools of the revolution. Ahmadinejad and his men could refuse to renew the visas of visiting foreign journalists but the flood of information, high resolution pictures and messages could not be stemmed so easily.
On Friday, the Ayatollah Khamenei ordered an end to protests and took an official position backing Ahmadinejad. The twittering began soon after. One supporter of Mousavi posted this message on Twitter in answer to the cancellation of a protest march: “I have one vote. I have (given) it to Mousavi. I have one life. I will give it for freedom.” At the time of writing the Green Facebook & Twitter Revolution is still alive and kicking. By the time you read this article the planned protest march might have still taken place with dire consequences for the protesters. In all probability any atrocities committed on the protesters will have been beamed and transmitted around the world faster than the speed of light spreading the flame of a technology assisted revolution.
As I type (5 minutess ago) the BBC has intensified its infombardment on Iraq by directing two more satellites on the country. BBC has been broadcasting in Farsi for some time now and the redirection of two more satellites is a countermove to jamming by the Iraqi government. I would not be able to give you this information were it not for twitter updates. Constant, unstopping, unbroken twitter updates. In Iran, even in times of violent revolution, the energy supply seems to work without fault.
Dark Ages
Iran is not the only country where the internet and its resources are hitting the headlines. Sweden’s Pirate Party managed to elect a representative to the European Parliament. The Pirate Party was born as a reaction to anti-piracy laws. Piracy in this case is not the conventional high seas business that has recently become trendy in the Indian Ocean but rather the obtaining of data normally covered by proprietary rights without paying the dues to the author. Hands up anyone who has never downloaded an mp3 or film from an internet website. Yeah right.
It all began with that advert making you wonder about how you would not steal a car or a tv so why would you steal an album or movie. It’s a bit hard to feel criminal when you push the download button on your torrent manager and are within a few hour’s (soon minutes – in Japan already seconds) reach of the latest blockbuster. No worries. President Sarkozy is here to the rescue of the international artistic community. I am quite convinced that a large amount of pillow-talk lobbying went into Sarkozy’s latest effort at regulating piracy in France. Madame Bruni must have hoped that the HADOPI law would prevent further proliferation of her artistic works without her receiving a rightful share of the dividends.
After an early first rejection of the Bill and its controversial three-strike procedure, the law was eventually passed in May 2008 by the French National Assembly. Fortunately, the Constitutional Court “struck down the central, controversial, portion of HADOPI, that would have allowed sanctions against internet users accused of copyright violations (as opposed to being convicted for same), ruling that because “the Internet is a component of the freedom of expression” and “in French law the presumption of innocence prevails”, only a judge can impose sanctions under the law.” (Wikipedia)
Entre ce temps across La Manche the UK High Court was also busy giving a ruling about bloggers and anonymity. The Court ruled that a man who had blogged pseudonimously under the name NightJack could not have a reasonable expectation to have his anonimity preserved. Blogging, according to the High Court, is a very public activity and therefore a blogger could not “reasonably expect” privacy. I am quite sure this will in time be extended to cover some of the invertebrate posters of cowardly comments who all too often are hiding behind pseudonyms. Too true. The story will definitely not stop here.
Beacons of Decency
The internet is a very public place. Many people new to the net make the mistake of believing that the internet falls outside the domains of the rest of the public sphere. More worryingly they seem to believe that the internet and the relative anonymity it allows provides for a platform of unbridled lack of restraint where everything counts. What they fail to see is that, as in society, standards of decency and taste can count for something. If anything standards on the net (that very often mirror society’s standards) allow for rational and intelligent exchange of views without the need of descending to base levels of ad hominem arguments.
The darkness of ignorance is the worst of all darknesses. This week we had many examples on the net that led us to worry that our worst of fears is fast becoming a reality. Much earlier than expected. What I am referring to is of course the final culmination of the race to mediocrity. The race to the lowest level long nurtured by the tribal warfare has now probably reached its culmination point. When you see comment after comment on the net vindicating Labour’s empty opposition to a nauseous Nationalist government you can clearly outline the beginning of the end.
Most exchanges with Labour sympathisers end up with their admission that they prefer to be conned by Joseph Muscat than by Lawrence Gonzi. It is distressing that in the age of efficient vehicles of expression when the people under the most totalitarian of governments are revolting, the two peoples of this land engage in the national sport of the race to absolute, unqualified and unsustainable ignorance.
Lights Out
Darkness and ignorance is also what leads to ridiculous comments following the death of a dark-skinned foreigner at the hands of Maltese. A handful of NGOs still organise protest marches. As others did all the way to Bahrija to protest against a development within an ODZ. The MEPA shambles continues, despite the government and in spite of the government. It gets tiring commenting on these issues as you get to feel like a broken record.
Throughout the MEP campaign J’accuse brought you the very best of its conceited and pompous repertoire. Some of that ego-loaded repertoire was also used to participate in a Europe-wide Blogging competition organised by the European Journalism Centre (as I believe I had announced on this very column some time in February). Well, this not so humble columnist is pleased to inform his readers (and Charles Cauchi) that he has been awarded a prize called “The Quality Blogger Award”. It sure feels good to know that your work is appreciated by a panel of experts in the field of journalism and their qualified, refined tastes.
That’s my trumpet blown. Before I go there’s a few net-related pointers I thought I should share. First of all iPhone users would do well to upgrade their OS – there’s some smashing and nifty updates waiting for you at the end of a never-ending update session. Second of all I would like to point you all to the site www.zoho.com – a brilliant agglomeration of online utilies that will probably rival such great sites as the Google panoply.
Speaking of internet cloud – the switch from notebooks to netbooks is more than just an impression. More people are switching to basic, tiny netbooks that depend more and more on the internet cloud than on the hardware inside them. CD’s, DVD’s and HDDs will very soon be replaced by internet space. Apple users will already be familiar with MobileMe.
Finally, an interesting observation from Atlantic.com. It seems that the newsweekly journal is to be no more. The net might have just left another victim in its trail. Magazines like Newsweek and Time are drastically reducing their circulation because of a lack of demand for that kind of weekly. The only one to survive (and actually go stronger) is The Economist. No wonders there – although the UK based journal may have a few faults of its own it always gave the impression of being a comprehensive and reliable source of analysis rather than a short pill full of pictures.
That is all for now. I log out safe in the knowledge that thanks to modern technology I am never really away from it all. On second thoughts that must be one of the saddest thoughts ever… I have a good mind to drown my iPhone in the tourquoise Sardinian sea for good measure. Unless I hang on to it in case I need to stun an errant Man-o-war!
Jacques has been busy pointing out the nuances of netiquette to internet and blogging newbies at http://www.akkuza.com. Is your ego big enough to keep up with the pace of the discussion?
