Print media is dead - let's give it a decent burial and move on. It's confounding to me that daily newspapers still exist in this day of instant information. How can a daily printed newspaper possibly hope to deliver any relevant information when the news is already old by the time the presses are fired up to START their run?
I have a live blog feed from Al Jazeera updating about every 5 minutes on my iPhone with truly current events happening in the Arab world (which is kind of important right now), and another feed from CBC for local and world events that updates about every hour. I have read, understood, Tweeted, Facebooked, blogged, and shared it with 50 friends by the time my local daily newspaper sets the type in the press for *tomorrow's* print run. How can they possibly feign relevance?
I'm not saying newspapers need to stop existing, just that they need to stop wasting paper and wake up to the fact that the entire world - yes, even your 80 year old grandmother - is plugged in, hooked up, connected, fully wired… and they don't want to wait for the morning paper to get the news.
A new world order is about to emerge, fuelled by the youth of this planet who see the news as it happens. They communicate across borders and have formed communities that transcend politics. If Facebook were a country it's population would be larger than Brazil and would deserve a seat at the UN. That community is filled will people who live globally, not within the confines of physical borders and they certainly don't contain them selves to the politically controlled, day-late, printed word. In a day when you can Tweet a revolution, there is no room for the time-wasting, tree-eating antique that is the daily newspaper.
The news organizations that have embraced instant information (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Flash news feeds, etc) will survive and thrive if they do it right. The ones that truly understand the concept of "social networking" will become dominant. Those who continue to provide me with fire-starter will ultimately fail. Even the large news organizations that "get it" will need to watch their backs because this new generation that feeds on instant news is turning to non traditional sources like blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and special interest webs to gather their information - and they are definitely not killing trees to do it.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
So… You say you want a revolution…
Egypt is Free. Long live Egypt. I salute the people who stood their ground, and fought for their right to govern their own lives. This is what democracy is all about - not the politics and process, not the trade and commerce, but the sheer willpower of a group of people to voice their opinion as a majority over a power hungry clique. Now that Mubarac's rule is at an end, and after that angry mob has a chance to recover from their victory, they will need to start the process of rebuilding their country and their political structure. Now the interesting part begins.
When I was young, there were essentially 2 sides on this planet - the communists and the democratic free world. One side was represented by China and the U.S.S.R. - for you people under 20, that is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and was basically everything East of Germany. The other side was represented by the United Kingdom and its colonies and allies including the US, Canada, and Western Europe. Unfortunately, stalinist communism is not particularly fair to the common citizen and that political structure eventually fails, typically through revolution. When the Soviet Union began to fall apart in the late 1980s, it lost control over its individual republics and in the final collapse in 1990 it was clear that the entire region had fallen into chaos. After the dust settled, they survived and thrived, even though it took many years and a great deal of struggle and compromise, they survived - and Egypt will too.
In late 1989 The Berlin wall fell. Rather it was torn down - smashed with sledge hammers and ripped apart by the bare hands of the people it contained for nearly 30 years. This was not a violent revolution, but rather an effect of the sheer will power of a group of people to overcome oppression. It started as an official political gesture, but was quickly hijacked by the German citizens who had been fighting for freedom since being locked behind the wall in 1961. The wall was actually opened willingly and no governments were toppled by coups in this case, but that was only because the standing government knew it was time to give in.
later that same year, tension in Romania between the Dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and the working class populous came to a head. Students in Timișoara protested against unfair treatment by staging a protest against the government. The military was ordered to fire into the crowd of protesters killing many of them. That act was the last straw for a country full of desperate, oppressed people and lead by the students in Bucharest, sparked a revolution that toppled the ruling socialist government in a matter of days. The megalomaniac leader and his family were forcibly removed from power and publicly executed by the raging mob. I think Mubarak maybe took a lesson here and left while he still could.
I was in Romania less than a year after the revolution and I can tell you it was no picnic there. The country struggled with the political challenges of a new emerging democracy. There was little food and less clean water. Corruption was rampant, law and order was a variable concept and access to anything "secure" was available in exchange for a carton of cigarettes. A loaf of bread cost a day's wages and auto fuel was unobtanium. And yet there was growth and people were happier and did not hesitate to explore the new opportunities available in the free and open democracy. Today, Romania is thriving and like Germany, the pain of the revolution that bought that freedom is a 20 year old memory.
The people of Egypt have a new day ahead of them that is full of promise and opportunity, but also the spectre of chaos, corruption, and confusion. There will be some dark times ahead when the revolutionaries realize one government order will take the place of the other and that prosperity is not achieved overnight, but this is the right first step on the road to recovery. This is the right thing for these people and for the world at large. It is a victory for the common Egyptian citizen, but also for all people of Earth who believe in the power of truth, human rights, equalization of wealth and the universal common good.
This is one of those rare moments in time that you will be able to look back 20 years from now and tell your children or grandchildren about. It also offers us in the democratic free world to take a moment to appreciate the freedom we have, but also to remind ourselves of our responsibility to challenge our governments to be honest and to truly represent the will of the majority. Democracy is powerful and fragile at the same time. It is easy to lose it if we become complacent and let the business of politics replace the process of democracy. Regardless of where you live, or what your income is or what god you pray to, don't be afraid to stand up and be counted among those who fight for freedom every day, be that with stones and protest, or with words and leverage.
Be Awesome - change the world!
When I was young, there were essentially 2 sides on this planet - the communists and the democratic free world. One side was represented by China and the U.S.S.R. - for you people under 20, that is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and was basically everything East of Germany. The other side was represented by the United Kingdom and its colonies and allies including the US, Canada, and Western Europe. Unfortunately, stalinist communism is not particularly fair to the common citizen and that political structure eventually fails, typically through revolution. When the Soviet Union began to fall apart in the late 1980s, it lost control over its individual republics and in the final collapse in 1990 it was clear that the entire region had fallen into chaos. After the dust settled, they survived and thrived, even though it took many years and a great deal of struggle and compromise, they survived - and Egypt will too.
In late 1989 The Berlin wall fell. Rather it was torn down - smashed with sledge hammers and ripped apart by the bare hands of the people it contained for nearly 30 years. This was not a violent revolution, but rather an effect of the sheer will power of a group of people to overcome oppression. It started as an official political gesture, but was quickly hijacked by the German citizens who had been fighting for freedom since being locked behind the wall in 1961. The wall was actually opened willingly and no governments were toppled by coups in this case, but that was only because the standing government knew it was time to give in.
later that same year, tension in Romania between the Dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and the working class populous came to a head. Students in Timișoara protested against unfair treatment by staging a protest against the government. The military was ordered to fire into the crowd of protesters killing many of them. That act was the last straw for a country full of desperate, oppressed people and lead by the students in Bucharest, sparked a revolution that toppled the ruling socialist government in a matter of days. The megalomaniac leader and his family were forcibly removed from power and publicly executed by the raging mob. I think Mubarak maybe took a lesson here and left while he still could.
I was in Romania less than a year after the revolution and I can tell you it was no picnic there. The country struggled with the political challenges of a new emerging democracy. There was little food and less clean water. Corruption was rampant, law and order was a variable concept and access to anything "secure" was available in exchange for a carton of cigarettes. A loaf of bread cost a day's wages and auto fuel was unobtanium. And yet there was growth and people were happier and did not hesitate to explore the new opportunities available in the free and open democracy. Today, Romania is thriving and like Germany, the pain of the revolution that bought that freedom is a 20 year old memory.
The people of Egypt have a new day ahead of them that is full of promise and opportunity, but also the spectre of chaos, corruption, and confusion. There will be some dark times ahead when the revolutionaries realize one government order will take the place of the other and that prosperity is not achieved overnight, but this is the right first step on the road to recovery. This is the right thing for these people and for the world at large. It is a victory for the common Egyptian citizen, but also for all people of Earth who believe in the power of truth, human rights, equalization of wealth and the universal common good.
This is one of those rare moments in time that you will be able to look back 20 years from now and tell your children or grandchildren about. It also offers us in the democratic free world to take a moment to appreciate the freedom we have, but also to remind ourselves of our responsibility to challenge our governments to be honest and to truly represent the will of the majority. Democracy is powerful and fragile at the same time. It is easy to lose it if we become complacent and let the business of politics replace the process of democracy. Regardless of where you live, or what your income is or what god you pray to, don't be afraid to stand up and be counted among those who fight for freedom every day, be that with stones and protest, or with words and leverage.
Be Awesome - change the world!
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