I took some solace from Clay Shirky reminded me today that by the time governments shut down the internet or its services, it has so far been too late: the protestors are organized. I tweeted that and someone responded that the lesson for tyrants is: take care of the internet first, the protestors second.
The chicken-egg debate about the credit the tools of the internet and publicness deserve in Iran and Tunisia and now Egypt is rather pointless, even offensive. These tools were stolen from the public by a government trying to forbid them because they are a means of shifting power. They do not belong to government. They belong to the public, who are using them to claim their rights as the public.
I am in Davos where, in 1996, John Perry Barlow wrote his Declaration of Independence for Cyberspace. It becomes only more relevant:
Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor do you possess any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear.
Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. You have neither solicited nor received ours. We did not invite you. You do not know us, nor do you know our world. Cyberspace does not lie within your borders. Do not think that you can build it, as though it were a public construction project. You cannot. It is an act of nature and it grows itself through our collective actions.
At a session here at Davos on governance in a new-media world (their words) we discussed the inevitability of greater transparency through these new tools and the need for principles to govern those who would govern it. (I'll write more about that later.) This is why I am working on my own suggestions for such a set. (Here is the most recent version of a constantly changing list; I no longer call it a Bill of Rights but instead a set of principles and, again, I ask for your help in framing the discussion).
The first and most fundamental principle is that we have a right to connect. Egypt violated that principle -- that human right -- today.
We, the people of the internet, the citizens of this eighth continent (as the CTO of the U.S. VA calls our newly discovered world) must stand in support of the disconnected of Egypt. I don't have the eloquence, passion, and credentials of Barlow, so I will not pretend to be able to respond to the call made by @jwildeboer proposed on Twitter just now: "Will Netizens at #WEF publish support statement for #Egypt? Or are they too busy talking to Tycoons? cc @JeffJarvis"
Yes, such a statement of support should come from each of us, particularly those of us here in Davos. This is mine. Yours?
Follow Jeff Jarvis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeffjarvis
Simon Johnson: Davos: Two Worlds, Ready or Not
Richard Grenell: Obama-Biden Support Mubarak, the Dictator
Ida Lichter, M.D.: Tunisian Revolt Could Threaten Women's Rights
Eboo Patel: Egypt, Tunisia and the Youth Revolt in the Middle East
A much more clever, and pernicious approach is what the Chinese government is doing. They are using tens of thousands of people , and a lot of software and hardware to construct an elaborate filtration system. Some of the people involved are technically savvy, some are trained to spot any online activity that might pose any threat to the status quo.
Given that the US has assembled maybe the greatest homeland security infrastructure ever, could such a program ever possibly be carried out here?
You Betcha!
I remember the first time I visited Egypt. We met Mohammed, a father of three. We got to know him over the course of a couple of weeks. He invited us to his home, where met his family and had tea. In comparison to the West, they were desparately poor, but this was, we supposed, a "normal" standard for Egypt. We in the West sometimes try to disguise our guilt by telling ourselves, "They (outside of the developed world) won't miss what they don't know". But we're wrong. All people have aspirations. Egyptians want the same fundamental things that Americans or Europeans want. Education and opportunities for their children. A basic standard of living. Freedom of conscience and expression. The dignity of work. I don't claim to know the protestors' motives, but I can imagine. Hosni Mubarak has had 30 years to deliver, and he has failed spectacularly. Whatever happens, he must step aside and allow somebody else to try.
We hate China not because they are inhumane. We do because we do not profit from their crimes against humanity. THEY do. - BAAAAAAD chinese.
American corporations are so deep in bed with this dictator that our politicians will be telling us how evil the demonstrators are and how they are terrorists and communists. Because that is the job they are paid for since WWII: make the most vile dictators look good to us because they make profit for the richest of us. It is the job these richest pay them for. And pay them well.
This is a real Sophie's choice for me... on the one hand, an oppressive dictator motivated by money.. on the the other the possibility of an insane theocratic takeover that will plunge Egypt into Islamic fundementalist hell.
hopefully, there will be a large enough middle to prevent both outcomes.
.. if, during this process, a chaotic or anarchistic envrionment continues, the group supplying the peace and security will win out... that my friend, could easily be the Muslim Brotherhood.
Ask yourself this question.. why is this unrest seemingly limited to the Arab countries that are relativfely friendly to the US .. e.g. Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan??
More fundamental than the right to eat, breath, have children? Ridiculous. Life in the US was wonderful in the 1890s before there was any electronic media or direct connection between people. It is very debatable how much all our wonderful technology improved it. Techno types are great at self-aggrandizing. I know, I was one, worked in computers starting in 1972, in Silicon Valley and 128. Big deal, people can write code, and most of it bad :-)
of the truth of this matter . With that , I bid God speed and good will to all lovers of freedom .
The one thing a country with a large, impoverished population fears the most is for it's citizens to realize there are other options. Information is dangerous to some, enlightenment for others. Maybe if we minded our own business more and others less... America and the world would be a better place.
Thanks to Ben Bernanke debasing the world's reserve currency with QE (quantative easing i.e. printing money) food prices around the world are in hyper-inflation.
Naturally people will blame their government, even if they tolerated his authoritative, Anglo-American backed regime for decades.
To suggest that people are rioting because they can't 'go online' is to indirectly promote Google and Twitter and for what? When I go hungry, I don't 'go online', I go to the supermarket.
To minimize the riots in such way means that we are secretly desiring more chaos in these countries.
Let's confront the real fundamental problems with these countries:
- Egypt, Israel, Tunis, Pakistan, others receive so-called U.S. 'aid'.
- QE (quantative easing) is making that paper money in aid ineffective by hyper-inflation in food.
So where is the Federal Reserve headquartered? in the US.
That means Ben Bernanke must be stopped, forced to step down and Glass-Steagall restored to stop QE.