ItSeemstoMe

I am a Globalist

A thought came to me sometime today.  I am a globalist. Not in the sense of favoring huge, multinational corporate powerhouses, although I have no inherent problem with them as such.  But I am a globalist in terms of people. As a blogger, I speak with people in three, occasionally four continents every week and I just love it.  I love seeing how much we have in common on so many levels.

There's a combination of factors that have been going on this week, all kind of blending together into this thought.  I've been reading Thomas L. Friedman's marvelous The World is Flat. An elderly Jewish person I care about is growing uncomfortable with the influx of Afghani Muslims and Indian Hindus into her neighborhood. A guy in front of me in the bakery line told me that all of America's problems could be solved if we built walls around our borders to keep all outsiders, well, out.  A client was telling me about the amazing transformations going in Bangalore.  My friend Ivan let me know that the Singapore Library system would be buying 22 copies of my book.  My email repeatedly failed to reach a friend in China who had voiced objections to the government's suppression of a blogger. A pair of Christian evangelists came to my door, and when I told them that I was Jewish they smiled and said we're all God's children, when I suspect they thought I was really destined to burn in Hell.

I am a globalist, because I feel kinship with people all over the world. Because we share similar ethics, interests, passions, knowledge.  Sometimes I don't feel that kinship with my own neighbors. I think one of the great miracles of the Internet and blogosphere is that we can find people we share kinships with all over the world--at least if their governments don't get in the way.

I may not ever belong in a business larger than my home office can accommodate, which means my wife, my dog, cat and myself, but I have truly become a globalist.

China's Cute Internet Cops

Once again through Rebecca MacKinnon, comes a story of how China is intimidating Internet users to keep in line. A south China city introduces to lovable cartoon cops to let people see the police are watching citizens as closely online as they do offline.

Questions to the World #19-World Peace

Question # 19

How do you think we can achieve peace on Earth andor good will toward humankind?

Questions to the World #1

We bloggers love to tell the world what we think.  Collectively, we are sort of this humungous global op ed page, with opinions spilling into all sorts of stuff. It dawned on me that it might be interesting to turn it around and ask the world what it thinks.

So, I'm going to start asking open-ended questions, one at a time. I am not going to enter my thoughts.  I am not going to comment on yours. You can tell us as much or as little about yourself as you wish, so long as you do not respond anonymously or in excessively bad taste. Your comments will endure in the blogosphere from this point forward.

Over time, I hope to have some very lengthy commentary.  I haven't a clue what it will prove or disclose--but here goes with my first question to the world:

From where you are, what do you think the world will look like ten years from today?

Canada's Move to Suppress Bloggers

Recently, I've been feeling envious of America's Northern neighbor. Canada has better schools and health programs than we Californians have.  They have a diverse, growing and active blogging community, and oh yeah, they seem to have wisdom on what wars to stay out of.

Now, my friend Curt over at the Committee to Protect Bloggers, says that all Canada's decency will not extend to bloggers. An op ed piece soon to be published in Montreal's French language press next month, Canada has introduced legislation designed to allow authorities to act with impunity against bloggers and others writing online.

This month Bill C-74 was introduced to Canada's parliament. If adopted, the legislation would do away with the need for warrants and would force internet service providers to hand over subscriber information including names, addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers and cellphone numbers, on the written request of any law enforcement official.

Please note that at this point, this is proposed legislation.  It has not been passed, and I have no idea if it has any chance of it. In the U.S., every year, Congressional representatives introduce all sorts of lame ideas that get spiked by the wisdom of the Congressional crowd. Of course some of it becomes unjust new laws.

I hope this is not the case in Canada.

Scoble, Bush & Jailed Journalists

Lately, my friend Robert Scoble has given me more plugs in his blog than I had in my old Schwinn Bike’s inner tube. But in Robert’s brilliant Corporate Manifesto , he advises against posting when depressed. For that reason, I have been less than prolific lately. Much of it has to do with the recent election. Hell, I'm not crying because Kerry lost. I didn't think much of him to begin with. It’s because George Bush won and that really scares me.

Much has occurred in a few short weeks to confirm my dark fears that the Bill of Rights is under assault—except maybe the gun control part. The First Amendment appears to me to be in the crosshairs of harm’s way. I love the flagship amendment's wording: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” I love its clarity. You’d think “no laws,” meant just that, but, it’s been a struggle to maintain its integrity since its inception, and now the dangers of losing all or part of it are mkost threatened.

Today in America—not the Ukraine or China—today, there are 12 reporters facing imprisonment for simply doing their jobs and refusing to rat out confidential sources. Two reporters have been sentenced, but remain free pending appeals. Jim Taricani , a TV reporter for WJAR TV in Providence, RI, faces up to six months in jail, after he was convicted Nov. 19 of criminal contempt. His crime: refusing to disclose who gave him a FBI videotape showing a city official taking a bribe.

If Taricani’s story scares me, the ongoing travails of Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter is downright chilling. She’s accused of writing nothing at all, but of having talked to a few people regarding the outing of Valerie Plame , the wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson , 2003, who was revealed to be a CIA operative by conservative columnist Bob Novak who-you guessed it—“cited confidential sources.” Her situation is uniquely Orwellian. “I’m facing jail for something I never wrote,” she has been quoted as saying. The government wants to her to name an alleged source that she never quoted, and if she loses her appeal next week, it can be the slammer for Judith. Ironically, it does not appear, from what I’ve read, that Novak has been asked to reveal his source in the original story, although there is a national movement forming to “Bust Bob.”

It seem to me ironic that Bush and his supporters are the ones who complain about “activist judges .” If Congress can make no law to abridge free press, who empowered judges to do so? I think we are all endangered by the loss of one reporter’s freedom to ask back-channel questions and we all need to fear a government that watches too closely who speaks to whom and listens too closely to what was said.

I wonder if 48 months from now, I'll still be able to publish words like these without repercussion and I am not optimistic.

The Result of Bush-bashing

Through a comment on a David Weinberger posting, I was pointed to this eloquent, moving anonymous letter from "Sad American." I thought David's posting was funny. I thought Sad American's was important.

Election Reflection

Some of my best friends are Republicans.

None of them are right-wing religious fanatics. Nor, from what they tell me, do any of them favor the repeal of Roe v. Wade and, to varying degrees, they share my concerns over Patriot Act provisions, prisoner treatment at Guantanamo and a repugnancy over Abu Ghraib prison. I would guess they share my belief stem cell research in the US should accelerate. None has an NRA slogan sticking to his bumper.

My Republican friends, as well as my fellow Democrats, even agreed in this last election that all those issues were dwarfed by two over-riding larger issues: terrorism and extricating the U.S. from the lobster trap that is Iraq. On those, we disagreed, often with passion and acrimony about which candidate was the wiser-or less bad--choice. Privately, both sides conceded they didn’t think very highly of their candidate. They just feared the other guy worse.

Our central argument, on reflection, could be boile down to: “My jerk is better than your jerk.” Okay sometimes the language was stronger than that. In the end more people went with their jerk.

Winston Churchill said that in a democracy we always get precisely who we deserve. It seems to me that America and the world deserved better than either party offered us.

Maybe next time, we'll do better. Maybe not.

How Bush Won

Jason Kotke writes with wisdom and eloquence about how Republicans and Democrats get sucked into cheer leading for "our sides," how each side gets sanctimonious about its virtues and the others vices.

"Half the country is not stupid. We're all stupid. We're convinced several times a day to do things that aren't in our best interests. We work too hard. We're drinking, eating, medicating, and smoking ourselves into early graves. We overextend ourselves on credit. .."

http://www.kottke.org/04/11/how-bush-won

http://www.kottke.org/04/11/how-bush-won

Post-election Commentary

Bummer...