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Carl Quinto's Friends
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WWF Study Says Climate Change Could Displace Millions In Asia's Coral Triangle
About this category: Environment
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Catastrophic Loss of Coral Predicted for World's Richest Reefs by End of Century, Threatening Food, Livelihoods
WASHINGTON, DC, May 13, 2009 -- Coral reefs could disappear entirely from the Coral Triangle region of the Pacific Ocean by the end of the century, threatening the food supply and livelihoods for about 100 million people, according to a new study from World Wildlife Fund.
Averting catastrophe will depend on quick and effective global action on climate change coupled with the implementation of regional solutions to problems of over-fishing and pollution, according to The Coral Triangle and Climate Change: Ecosystems, People and Societies at Risk , a WWF-commissioned study presented at the World Oceans Conference in Manado, Indonesia today.
“This area is the planet’s crown jewel of coral diversity and we are watching it disappear before our eyes,” said Catherine Plume, Director of the Coral Triangle Program for WWF-US. “But as this study shows, there are opportunities to prevent this tragedy while sustaining the livelihoods of millions who rely on its riches.”
The report offers two dramatically different scenarios for the Coral Triangle, which is comprised of the coasts, reefs and seas of the countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste. The Coral Triangle occupies
Just one percent of the Earth’s surface, but is home to fully 30 percent of the world’s coral reefs, 76 percent of reef-building coral species and more than 35 percent of coral reef fish species. It is also serves as vital spawning grounds for other economically important fish such as tuna.
“In one scenario, we continue along our current climate trajectory and do little to protect coastal environments from the onslaught of local threats,” said Queensland University Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, who led the study. “In this world, people see the biological treasures of the Coral Triangle destroyed over the course of the century by rapid increases in ocean temperature, acidity and sea level, while the resilience of coastal environments also deteriorates under faltering coastal management. Poverty increases, food security plummets, economies suffer and coastal people migrate increasingly to urban areas.”
The report also highlighted opportunities to avoid a worst-case scenario in the region through significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and international investment in strengthening the region’s natural environments, solutions that would help to build a resilient and robust Coral Triangle in which economic growth, food security and natural environments are maintained.
“Climate change in the Coral Triangle is challenging but manageable, and the region would respond well to reductions in local environmental stresses from overfishing, pollution, and declining coastal water quality and health,” Hoegh-Guldberg said.
Even under the best case scenario however, communities in the region can expect to experience dramatic losses of coral, rising sea level, increased storm activity, severe droughts and reduced food availability from coastal fisheries. But effective management of coastal resources would mean the communities would remain reasonably intact and more resilient in the face of such hardships.
WWF officials said world leaders have a role to play in helping Coral Triangle countries strengthen management of their marine resources and through international action on climate change.
“We must forge a strong international agreement to bring about sharp reductions in greenhouse gases at the UN Climate Conference at Copenhagen in December,” Plume said.
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10 reasons why there is genuine hope for the Philippines
About this category: Culture
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A blog post in www.inquirer.net (May 4, 2009)
By Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan
Senate of the Philippines
1. We are strategically located at the heart of East Asia.
Northeast Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) and Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos) combined makes East Asia. We are only at most four hours away from every major city in East Asia. If the Philippines were a real estate venture in a commercial area, ours is a location to die for. We can be the shipping and air transport hub of East Asia. We can be the top tourist destination of the region. We can be the cultural center of the region for performing arts.
2. We are No. 1 in aquamarine resources worldwide.
“We have the most diverse aquamarine ecosystem in the entire world which, if managed properly, will feed not only our hungry people but will be a source of huge revenue coming from a world in dire need of aquamarine resources such as fish, seaweed, and other similar products. We can be the seafood basket and aquamarine resource center of the world, the aquamarine resource powerhouse of the world.
3. We have a huge tourism industry potential.
Our people are by nature extremely friendly and hospitable. We only have some 3 million tourist visits every year, while our neighbors are doing 4 or 5 times more with 12 to 15 million tourist visits annually. It has been said that other countries in the ASEAN are doing so much more with so little in terms of natural wonders and beautiful sites while we are doing so little with so much. With the right infrastructure such as highways and airports and seaports in place, we can be the number one tourist destination in ASEAN if not Asia.
4. We are now No. 2 in the BPO industry worldwide and can become No. 1.
We are, I am told, currently second to India in the business process outsourcing industry. I am told as well that this industry expects 30 percent growth this year despite the worldwide recession as foreign companies look aggressively to lowering costs of doing business and therefore look to business outsourcing.
5. We are extremely creative and artistic people.
We have been called the songbirds of Asia. Our reputation as performers is legendary throughout the world (although we have never been boastful about it). We can be the center of performing arts in Asia wherein millions would visit the country annually to marvel at our cultural performances and our artistic productions.
6. We have the emergence of a new generation of progressive and results-oriented public sector leaders.
Since the restoration of democracy in 1986 and the passage of the Local Government Code in 1991 (or some 20 years now), public officials have began to work with new resources (40 percent of national taxes are now plowed back to local government units compared to less than 10 percent in 1986) made available by decentralization. Today a new generation of public sector leaders is emerging, one that is empowered, that is vision driven and results-oriented. This explains why we have successful local government initiatives in Marikina, Makati, Naga City, Davao City, Iloilo City, Cebu City, Calbayog City, and General Santos City, among others. Hence from a generation of public sector leaders that by and large was corrupt, lacking in vision, creativity, and innovation, we now have the emergence of a new generation of public sector leaders with integrity, with proactive leadership, and with a commitment to reform and genuine change. New governance models and templates that are solving age-old problems in the field are being forged, being tempered as we speak. A new brand of political leadership is emerging focused on solving age old problems in governance. The old, failed methods utilized by the trapos will soon be crushed and defeated.
7. Information and communication technology advancement is enhancing our sense of nationhood.
Rather than a country of many languages and many islands, we are fast becoming one nation, connected by information and communication technology. The ethno-linguistic barriers that used to keep us divided are being shattered by the interconnectivity of information technology. Today an entire generation of Filipinos fully understands, and can connect with, the Filipino language because of two decades of television news in Filipino (all TV news used to be English until 1986). The three elements of nationhood are: common language, common territory and common economy. We are now becoming a nation because information technology is breaking the barriers that have prevented us from becoming united as a people. It is also now reconnecting some 10 million Filipinos overseas to the motherland. We are becoming one nation and one people.
8. We have a re-emerging middle class mindset.
After over three decades of the OFW boom, we now have a new generation of citizens steeped with modern ideas coming from the highly successful host nations like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Sates. Europe too has become host to hundreds of thousands of OFWs. The OFWs who have experienced life in these highly developed nations can now compare and contrast these experiences with the experiences in the motherland. In highly developed nations there is, to a greater extent, a greater sense of accountability and a greater sense of justice and fair play. Our OFWs bring all that back home and having been enlightened by the experience will demand greater of their leaders back home. People are beginning to say enough is enough and are actually doing something about it.
9. We are a young nation.
Close to 30 million of our 45 million voters are 18 to 35 years old. Very young. If harnessed effectively, these young voters can usher in the political and electoral change that we need to happen for genuine political and economic reforms to take place.
10. We are a people who love to laugh, who love our families.
We are a resilient people. We can draw unimaginable strength and fortitude in times of difficulty in order to move ahead. We know how to survive despite so much pain and suffering. We know how to cope. We are willing to sacrifice so much of ourselves in order to provide for our family, our loved ones. This strength will not only bring us out of the mess we are in but will ensure that we are able to reach greater heights in our collective desire as a people to have a better life for those we truly care for, for those who mean the world to us. Our resilience in the long run will not only make us survive but will also ensure that we will triumph in the end.
We have enough reason to hope. We have, as a people, enough reason to act on these hopes and when we do, the genuine change we all seek will finally see the light of day and yes, by all means, in our lifetime.
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Earth Alert!!! Ice Bridge Holding Antarctic Ice Shelf Cracks Up
About this category: Environment
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A 25-mile-long section of an ice bridge holding the Wilkins Ice Shelf in place collapsed on April 4, sending large masses of icebergs into the sea. The bridge, which snapped at the narrowest point, was intact for hundreds of years, leading scientists to fear the possibility of a broader collapse linked to global warming. "It's amazing how the ice has ruptured. Two days ago it was intact. We've waited a long time to see this," said David Vaughan, a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey.
The map of the Antarctic Peninsula, also called the frozen continent, is steadily shrinking, as nine other shelves have receded in the past 50 years. Temperatures there have risen by up to 5.4 Fahrenheit during this time, which is the fastest rate of warming in the Southern Hemisphere.
For more information about the British Antarctic Survey, visit www.antarctica.ac.uk
(from The Climate Project)
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"Why we all must blog*"
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Happy Easter to everyone!
If there is one single word that will forever be associated with Easter then that would be the word "RISE." Easter is therefore a good timing for me to RISE once again and update this little blog of mine.
My work in the office and my other engagements have really kept me away from the opportunity to write something and share with my "online friends" and with the rest of the digital world.
The long weekend, stretching from Thursday to Sunday(here in the Philippines) for the observance of the Holy Week could have been the best opportunity for me to write tons for this blog. It was just unfortunate that I was not connected to technology during those days.
Now, that I am back in the office, I have to face the reality that my time is once again not enough for the meetings I have to coordinate and attend, proposals to write, and class lectures and materials to prepare (this is for the Call Center Class that I am facilitating in a local school here in Dipolog; will write about this sometime in the future), among other things.
For this post, I'd like to share a blog article that was carried by www.inquirer.net (of Philippine Daily Inquirer). The blog was written by Niña Terol ( http://longliveblogging.wordpress.com/)
Here it is... Again, Happy Easter!
Lifted from www.inquirer.net
WHY WE MUST ALL BLOG
04/12/09
By Niña Terol
(Editor’s note: Originally posted on author’s blog)
1. For writers and other creative souls, blogging is practice. Participants of my Freelance Writing for Dummies class know this: I cannot stress enough the importance of blogging, especially for an aspiring freelance writer. Blogging offers a free platform for writers and other creatives to test out their ideas, hone their writing style, explore various subject matters, and begin developing a relationship with an audience.
Writing is very serious work, and anyone who wants to become a writer—whether full-time or part-time—must treat it with utmost respect. It is a demanding art-craft that requires the reader’s full attention once the page is opened, so the writer must ensure that the written material is worth the ink, the space, and the reader’s time.
Blogging, then, is like the rehearsal before the actual performance. It allows the writer to flex those critical writing muscles and get into character so that once “real writing” is needed, the audience won’t be disappointed.
2. For public personalities, it is an avenue to connect with their audience using more than their on-cam persona. Ours is such a media-inundated culture that it’s sometimes difficult to tell which is real and which is reel. News is often biased, sensationalized, and “telenovela-d”; reality shows are sometimes “gamed” and are often part of the celebrity-manufacturing machinery of our ratings-hungry networks; and there is hardly any time or space for public personalities to just let themselves be. While blogging by celebrities is one more way of extending their media reach and, therefore, of expanding their popularity, it can also be a good venue for them to show the public what they’re really made of.
3. For politicians and other public servants, blogging is one way to connect to their constituencies and have an alternative forum for feedback-gathering. My principal knows this, which is why he tries to update his blog, Facebook, and other social networks as often as he can. Blogging is a great way to test out ideas, solicit instant feedback, and continue a two-way dialogue with constituents that is just made impossible by mainstream media. US President Barack Obama harnessed the power of blogging and social media to the max; other politicians from around the world have learned from his example and are trying to follow suit.
A note for politicians though: don’t use blogging and social media merely for grandstanding or to win an election. Use it, too, to improve on current projects, update your constituencies about your projects, ensure transparency in all your operations, and provide a forum for the public to air their grievances. Like reading on a page, reading a blog requires the audience’s full attention, so please make sure that your words are worth our time.
4. For organizations, blogging is an über-cheap alternative for reporting to stakeholders and constituencies, rallying support for a cause, expanding one’s constituency base, or announcing events. If your organization doesn’t have the budget to maintain a website or produce newsletters or annual reports, put up a professional-looking blogsite that can store your updates, photos, advocacy materials, and event announcements. In this age of free blogging platforms (I like WordPress and Blogger), free widgets, and even practically-free documentation courtesy of camera phones and low-priced digital cameras, you now have no more excuses to not have your org information and updates online.
Oh, and if you want to fund raise online too, blogging will NOT give you the platforms for online fund-collection, but it CAN give you avenues to begin a conversation with your constituency, build relationships, and “raise friends.” Then the money can start flowing in.
5. For artists, musicians, and other creatives (again), blogging is a free platform to promote your work and nurture a fan base. For years before he finally put up his Multiply site, I’d been bugging my fiancé Paul to have a venue for connecting to potential clients and audiences online. Now that he has a Multiply site and is also on Facebook, he’s enjoying the process of putting some thoughts down, choosing photos and videos to upload, making contacts, and meeting “online buddies” from different parts of the world.
For creative souls in search of inspiration, blogging is also a great way to call out to the Muse. So is reading others’ blogs. Who knows what images, words, rhythms, and ideas can arise while reading someone else’s words, commiserating with someone’s pain, or sharing someone else’s joy?
6. For companies, blogging is a great way to reach out to a certain segment of your target market. One brand-built blog that caught my attention is Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, which featured real blogs by real women. It made real Dove’s brand proposition that beauty is not only the domain of models and celebrities, but of everyday women living everyday (but not necessarily ordinary) lives.
According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008: “Brands make up a major part of bloggers’ online conversations. More than four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews, and blog about brands they love or hate… Companies are already reaching out to bloggers: one-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates… Bloggers are most open to receiving marketing messages from other blogs. Even non-blog web content is more influential among this group than traditional media sources for brand information.”
If you see that blogging would complement your overall brand strategy, then there shouldn’t be any reason not to try it.
7. For families, blogging is a great way to document and share precious family moments that can never be replicated. More than just sharing photos and videos on your social networks, it’s also great to capture the feelings and the conversations that were all part of the experience. Whether it’s a momentous occasion such as a birth, a wedding, an anniversary, a graduation or a “non-event” such as making pancakes with the kids, taking the pet out for a walk, having an “adult-like” conversation with a toddler, or practically anything else under the sun, blogging is a way to make sure memories don’t just fade away.
I’d also recommend good ol’ scrap booking, but for busy parents who don’t have the time or the patience to artfully lay out photos and other mementos, blogging is the way to go. (Blogs can also be set as private so the whole world won’t have to see what’s meant only for your family and friends.)
8. For individuals, you actually don’t need a reason to blog. Some people blog to share recipes, others to share lyrics and quotable quotes. Some use their blogs as online journals and share their thoughts and feelings with the world; others use their blogs to comment on social events and be engaged spectators in a world that’s constantly shifting. Some write lengthy prose that seem like magazine articles; others write catchy one-liners. Some have an audience of millions; others have an audience of 10. But it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) matter. As long as you’ve got something (non-violent and non-offensive) to say, then you should be able to say it.
What is personal is universal
If you think about it, never before in the world’s history have we been given a chance to document the world’s collective consciousness. Now, thanks to blogs and other social media, the Web has become just that—a repository of the state of people’s consciousness at any given time.
What were people feeling when the United States elected its first African-American president? The blogosphere gives us a clear snapshot of that through people’s blog and micro-blog (e.g., Twitter) entries. How are people coping with job loss and financial instability? We can find out at any time, too. What went through your head the moment your crush told you that, yes, he wanted to be with you too? If you blogged about it, then you can revisit that time, too.
More than self-promotion or self- flagellation, blogs and blogging allow us to understand ourselves and our world better. Brands and politicians alike tune in to the blogosphere because, here, they are able to capture real, instantaneous thoughts and feelings that don’t have the normal editing or censure processes of traditional media. Through micro-blogs like Twitter or Plurk, we’re able to capture “The State of My Nation—Right Here, Right Now”.
The world is constantly changing, the Web is constantly changing, WE are constantly changing. But thanks to the introduction of blogging and other forms of social media engagement, one thing that will never change is our desire and our ability to connect to other human beings—even if it’s just through flickers of words or images on a computer screen.
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Niña Terol is a self-proclaimed Communicator, Enabler, and Organization-Builder, using the power of vision, words, and connections to inspire, empower, and motivate others around her. She is a political communicator by day, a freelance writer and poet by night, and an advocate for reform in Philippine governance 24/7.
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Adrenaline, stat!
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It starts in the gut, quickly radiating outwards, down your legs and along your arms at the same time. Creeping up your neck, you hold you breath in anticipation, waiting for the rush. A momentary pause, time stands still, and then like the Norwegian Blue, voom!
Listening to the hockey game on the radio, I’m completely absorbed in a surreal experiment that engages my imagination. Names and described action fill my imaginary rink as the team wins and loses. It’s not quite synaesthesia, but the sounds create a different reality that exists outside of television.
But live, now there’s the rub. The adrenaline takes you higher when the roar of the crowd shakes your very core. The amplifiers thunderous, the mosh pit energetic, the light show fantastic, the body electric. The ringing in your ears echo the experience, keep you coasting just a little bit longer.
Or perhaps you prefer your excitement in a more subdued doses, like an IV drip that sustains a romanticized vision of the perfect relationship, the perfect job, the perfect world. Layer upon layer, we follow the yellow brick road to our deepest desire, constructing the rationale that lets you sleep better at night. This is living, you mutter to yourself.
Live for those moments where you revel in joy. Moments where you’re left awestruck by fantasy, where you can genuinely smile, for the company of good friends. And live for those moments, where like Icarus, you come crashing down. Cause it’ll make the trip back to the top, that much more satisfying.
     
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Serial Madness
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And so it came to pass that two of the greatest modern pieces of popular art came to an end in the first few months of 2009. Accuse me of hyperbole, but that’s the bottom line with Battlestar Galactica and 100 Bullets. I stand before you accused of being a nerd, evidenced by my consumption of comic books and sci-fi. I humbly plead guilty.
To quickly catch up those in the dark: BSG is a sci-fi TV show that starts off with humanity facing extinction at the hands of their robotic creations. When looking into the deep dark eyes of Despair, how would we respond? The show has been heralded for its commentary on contemporary polarizing issues – the motivations of suicide bombers, the uneasy alliance between religion, military and government, or the hatred that fuels blatant racial discrimination. Producer Ron D. Moore presented such a nuanced view on what drives people to act in desperate situations that he (along with some of the cast) recently shared their opinions at the United Nations.
100 Bullets is a comic book series that began with a simple premise: if you’ve been wronged and have irrefutable proof that someone was responsible, what would you do with a gun, 100 rounds of ammunition and carte blanche? If a mysterious man gave you absolute power and control over someone’s life, what would you do? Writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso takes this concept and sends the reader spiralling into a shady world of conspiracies, crime families and shifting morals. A hundred issues later, a complicated story leaves me wondering about responsibility, the consequences of your actions and the notion the true colour of society is grey.
I really wanted to write about how sinking your teeth into either of these long-running serials will shatter your perceptions on the potential of sci-fi and comic books, about the unique ability of a storyteller to create fictional worlds that exist on the edge of reality, of the communities that sprout and inject new layers of understanding and knowledge. I’ve got pages of half-started thoughts and unfinished sentences as I struggle to extract some deeper meaning about the media that I have spent days of my life reading, watching and analyzing.
But you know what, sometimes a TV show about a rag-tag space fleet and a comic book about revenge just entertains, allowing you to escape into the mindscape of master craftsmen. At the end of the day, it’s really about losing yourself in some serious storytelling.
     
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| March 27, 2009 | 11:03 AM |
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And the beat goes on…
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My previous post ended with the question “So what does the digital medium give us?” Based on the continuum Okrent proposes, I believe it gives you a pulse on reality.
I think this becomes clearer when we try to answer the other question cited, “What’s the definition of the news they want?”
Basically, news is recent historical information that contains two components: facts and analysis. The facts are descriptions of events: gang violence leaves 4 dead, Les Habs win the Cup, President speaks at global forum etc. Facts are the basic ingredients; analysis is what gives each recipe its unique flavour. Analysis addresses the age-old question: “Why?” Connections between the facts uncovers a deeper meaning. Motivations of the actors involved laid bare provides perspective.
The traditional model to deliver news relied on a broadcast system where the flow of information went from the select few to the mass public. The newspapers & magazines, TV & radio stations controlled the information we consumed. They provide just one perspective - their analysis of the facts.
What’s important to understand is that analysis is the means to comprehend reality. Facts + Analysis = Understanding; understanding of the world, of the way people are, of what makes us tick. And the very act of consuming the “news” is an act of analysis itself. By accepting their analysis as another piece of information, it transforms into a fact, which becomes a part of my personal analysis. I can draw my conclusions based on the conclusions of the reporter.
Furthermore, what the Internet and digital media has done is eliminated the barrier between the few who possessed the means to provide news, and the many who wanted to consume. All of sudden, the facts are being collected via cellphone cameras, Twitter, and Google Earth, while anyone can provide analysis (this blog is proof enough).
Consequently, there’s a smorgasbord of information available for each of us to paint a picture of how we perceive reality. I’m continually constructing a paradigm to understand the world, modifying my equation with new pieces of information that challenge or confirm. Each of us doing this: creating our understanding of reality. Mine is no more right than yours, because my analysis is based on all of the facts I have encountered, which are different from all of the facts you have encountered.
Reality is the collective analysis that we’re conducting. Information is the blood that circulates the system of human experience, capturing our knowledge and understanding, and when digitized is stored in the ether of the Internet.
That’s the pulse of reality. It’s the heartbeat of the system called society.
     
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We want information… information… information.
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So here’s the scene: I’m sitting in a cafe in Kuala Lumpur’s airport last summer, waiting for my flight to Bangkok, and I’m reading William Powers’ essay Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal which dives into the numerous reasons why paper continues to have a firm grip on how we experience information. Of course, I’m flipping through this 75-page PDF on my laptop. Go figure.
Fast forward to a couple of days ago, I’m scanning the CBC mobile site on my iPod Touch when this headline pops out: “Print industry to worsen before any improvements: experts.” The train of thought that Powers had started in his piece continues here: while the tangible nature of paper is what allows us to focus solely on the information presented to us, it is fast becoming a less viable medium for newspapers, whose struggles are only more exacerbated with the overall economic downturn we’re experiencing. The death knells are tolling louder.
A comment that stuck out for me came from Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank who asks “The issue, it seems to me, is not so much ‘Do people want newspapers?’ as ‘Do they want news?’ and ‘What’s the definition of the news they want?’” A similar sentiment was echoed in David Carr’s column in the New York Times in January, as he calls for an iTunes for news. Which is what Amazon’s Kindle 2 is supposed to achieve…eventually.
But I want to dig deeper into the 2 questions that Cruickshank raises, which I think are central to the existential dilemma that the media (used in its broadest sense) faces every morning as it stares with haggard eyes into the bathroom mirror. The first is easy to answer in my opinion: yes, people want news. We’ve been collectively fed a steady diet of what’s the latest breaking thing to hit the airwaves and streets. We’ve accustomed ourselves to accept this idea that with tomorrow’s dawn, something new will be waiting for us - shoes, video games, news.
Essentially what we’re craving for is information - in whatever shape, size or colour it arrives in. And that’s why the second question is a tougher nut to crack, and deserves a blog post all of its own. But I’ll leave you with a beautiful line to ponder from Daniel Okrent’s Digital Journalist editorial from February 200, titled The Death of Print?:
“A newspaper gives you timeliness, a magazine perspective, a book lasting value. “
So what does the digital medium give us?
     
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Muddled mob metaphors
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Oh my god, I’m back again…and I’ll do my best to keep the pop culture references to a bare minimum. So much has happened since we last danced, so I’ll try to keep pace with all of this change.
I attended Volunteer Toronto’s free screening of Us Now, a quaint UK documentary about the effectiveness of the latest iteration of mob rule thru technology - crowd sourcing. Collective decision making and moderation by a community of like-minded individuals are demonstrated to have some measure of success, so naturally, can the same work for government?
I use the word “quaint” because of the inherent failure of documentaries trying to capture the new, fast paced media of online social networking tools. It’s like pre-fab Top 40 pop songs - it has a hook that pulls you in slightly, but you quickly realize that there’s not enough substance, not enough meat to sink your teeth into. Like Heraclitus’ river, things are constantly changing and it’s nigh impossible to adequately capture the zeitgeist of the information age in an antiquated media format.
(Disclaimer: I love documentaries as an art form, but they work best for me when I’m detached from the subject matter, or have at least a superficial understanding of the topic. Like base jumping, Antarctica, or Iran’s underground culture.)
But back to the question: are we ready for the beta launch of Government 2.0? Don Tapscott certainly thinks so, but where I differ from him is that social media doesn’t put it within reach. In order for a reality where every citizen places value in their ability to contribute to decision-making, we need to upgrade the operating system. I’m talking about a full blown, rewriting of the basic underlying software that governs our social interactions.
Our code is buggy, a patchwork of faulty logic covered up with security updates, where inputs rarely result in the right output and where hackers are gaming the system. I’m no programmer, but I see the system we have now akin to the Windows OS - it works just enough so that everyone who uses it is mildly satisfied.
It’s here that I agree the basic argument that the film makes - that trust in your peers is the building block for smart decisions that place the common good above the individual. I trust that your contribution is a sensible one, that you’ve based it on measured thinking and your thought through the eventual impact of your actions. By thinking of everyone, I help myself.
A new social contract has to be written, to reshape our attitude towards one another. Once that is done, only then can we begin the Government 2.0 project. And it is possible - in the world of capitalism, thinkers like Peter Barnes and Umair Haque are charting out a roadmap that might haul us out of the quagmire we find ourselves in. The application may be slightly different, but the sentiment is still the same - the rules are changing, and if we don’t respond in kind, humanity = FAIL.
     
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First!
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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
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| February 5, 2009 | 12:24 PM |
| November 20, 2008 | 11:11 AM |
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Remember, Remember…
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I find myself reflecting on one of my favourite seminars at McGill - History and Memory. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my notes, so it’s apt that I’m pulling the cobwebs to remind myself of the power of memory and how it impacts our study and understanding of history. About how our individual and collective recognition of events distorts or perhaps improves the truth. About how we selectively censor specific happenings, or inflate the importance of others.
Remember, remember the fifth of November - the little ditty once used to “celebrate” the failed efforts of home-grown religious-fueled terrorism will have its meaning modified in 2008, where one man could wake up with the satisfaction of changing the legacy of the 43 individuals before him. Will this date be marked in the annals of our own memory? Where we were when Kennedy was shot, when Canada won hockey gold? Will some iconic image resonate so deeply as it did on 9/11, when the Berlin Wall crumbled, at Tiananmen?
And if a specific individual does win, I have the suspicion that the porcelain mask of Fawkes might become more en vogue as a form of protest, especially if people had the notion reenact a certain scene only found in the movie adaptation of V for Vendetta. The parallels drawn between Alan Moore’s original story (itself a reflection of Thatcher’s policies) and today’s world are a stretch at best, but no doubt the sentiment and attraction for anarchy will be sown, especially if this election is suspected of being stolen.
Regardless of who wins, my only hope is for record turnout at the polls come Tuesday. It can’t get any worse than the pathetic showing we had here only a few weeks back! Oh, and the only other thing I wish for is that the winner does not play this as a victory song. Please?
     
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| November 2, 2008 | 3:11 AM |
| October 31, 2008 | 12:10 PM |
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Blog Action Day 2008
About this category: Human Rights
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My parents moved to Canada when I was just entering senior kindergarten. I’ve grown up with clean water, a bed and electricity. I’m lucky. When I was in grade 6 I went to the Philippines, where my family is originally from, and I saw people who are not so lucky.
We were riding along in a jitney, a colourful cross between a taxi and a bus, and I am just minding my own business when I feel a rough cloth scrape across my foot. I looked down to find a small child, who was maybe 5 or 6, cleaning my sandals. At first I was surprised and then I just started to feel awkward. I felt awkward because this kid was cleaning another kid’s sandals, my sandals. Then I started to feel guilty, I wanted to give him anything that would take that look out of his eyes but my 11 year old self had to settle with having my parents give him a few pesos so that he could carry on his way.
I think that was my turning point in life when I realized that those kids you see on TV are real, they are in the streets, they are cleaning shoes, they are eating left over McDonald’s fries left on restaurant tables and they’re just kids- kids who are just minding their own business, just like I was minding my own business on the jitney.
I believe that the first step to alleviating poverty is through understanding. An understanding that we are in this world together; after all we all feel the heat of the same sun, all gaze up at the same stars and sleep under the same moon so why can’t understanding and overcoming poverty be something we all do together? It's time we open our minds and realize that poverty affects us all.
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| October 15, 2008 | 5:30 PM |
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