Internet
and other mans of communication are controlled by Governments, and
are even censored in some countries. To fight this censorship, the
Chaos Computer Club, a German group of hackers, which is even against
anti-piracy laws because they undermine online freedom, is planning
to create its own satellite system, in order to allow a safer and
more independent access to Internet...
But, putting a satellite
in stationary orbit turns out to be difficult for these hackers as
they have a low budget and they do not have the high-tech know-how to
send up their satellite! Some people fear that this new grid, free
from any control, would allow illegal communications.
The final, and very
ambitious, goal of these hackers is to send a civilian to the moon
within the next 23 years...
Given their limited
means, their grandiose ambitions would appear a little Utopian!
North
Korea is mourning the death of its “Dear Leader”, Kim Jong-Il.
According to North Korean State media, millions are weeping in the
streets and crying out their loss. This may seem a bit strange
knowing that Jong-Il’s arrival to power in 1994 was quickly
followed by a famine causing around 2 million deaths and that today
there are still daily food shortages and very poor infrastructures.
Kim Jong-Il’s death
could mean a new hope for this country, but his successor is none
other than one of his sons, about whom we don’t know much beside
the fact that he is in his early twenties. He is maybe a bit young to
take on the task of improving the lives of 23 million people...
In 1948 George Orwell wrote 1984. He
describes a man's life in a totalitarian regime. Has our world become
like the one described in this novel?
In 1984, the Government is always
keeping an eye on the population. An ordinary citizen simply can't
escape from video cameras, they are almost everywhere, even in his
home. And what is happening today? Videocameras in shops, in most
public places, on top of your computer screen, even on your
television set if you have kinect, a camera that detects your moves
for some videogames. Of course, these video cameras are said to be
there to guarantee our safety, just like in 1984, in which huge
posters in the streets remind you that "Big Brother is watching
you". He is watching after us and watching us at the same time
in order to better control us... What is worse today than in the
novel, is that we are not even aware of the fact. Governments can
keep an eye on people thanks to satellites, cell phones or GPS. There
is Internet too of course ; what you do on it can never be erased and
can be scrutinised by the powers that be and by big firms that
analyse computer data on consumers' behaviour and attitudes (in order
to better influence our choices).
What about the "thoughtcrimes"
in 1984, the fact that people have thoughts against the Party? In the
USA, the House of Representatives voted a bill against "thought
crimes", ostensibly to condemn politically incorrect motivations
(e.g. racism) for a crime, but the law is probably more a means of
restricting free speech (Hate
crime article on the Web). The Fouth Amendment to the United
States Constitution which guards against unreasonable searches and
seizures has been trampled by the Patriot Act (voted to fight
terrorism) ; the Federal Government has used this law to conduct
witch hunts against anyone who does not entirely agree with it... The
Occupy Wall Street protests are a sign that people can still think
and act for themselves against the pensée unique of neoliberalism,
but for how long? In China, independent workers' unions are not
allowed and strikes are violently repressed by the Party (BBC
News article). There are unfortunately plenty of other examples
of the restriction of freedom (of thought) by Governments... And, if
you replace the "Party" with "Multinational Firms",
is behaviour against the hegemonic globalised consumerist system
(which relies on the propaganda of advertising) not tantamount to
thought crime, i.e. "dangerous" anti-conformist thought?
Another way to control the population
in 1984 is to give the people someone to hate. Every day, "two
minutes of hate" sessions consist of propaganda movies and
pictures of the nation's ennemies ; people have to express violently
their hatred of the enemy. There are even songs of hate. What about
us? Nearly every day, we can see on the news people who talk about
terrorist groups, murderers, big dogs, the latest pandemic, Blacks,
Muslims, Jews, etc. And people often hate and fear these so-called
dangers vehemently, irrationally, and then can't do anything else,
like think for themselves... Isn't there some sort of manipulation by
the media going on here? And, think about it, does France's national
anthem, the Marseillaise, promote peace?
"Who controls the past controls
the future. Who controls the present controls the past" is one
the Party's slogans in the book. Manipulating information is a means
to control people. Modifying documents is easier than it was in
Orwell's time, thanks to software like Photoshop. The plathora of
information available today and the confusion that the virtual world
of Internet instills actually makes us doubt about what the truth
(about the past or the present) actually is ; people therefore
tend to accept simplistic explanations, which suits those in power
rather well. They have succeeded in making us control our own
thoughts ourselves, which is something even Orwell had not
imagined...
In 1984, the Party tries to limit
people's ability to think through Newspeak, a language that expresses
things in the most basic way, and in which a lot of notions no longer
exist, especially those against the party. It is a simplification of
language to limit intellectual potential. It is a means of making
people think that black is white (that for example "freedom is
slavery"). Nowadays, in France particularly, a lot of people use
words awry, and there are a lot of propositions to simplify French
spelling. Poverty of language means poverty of thought...
I think that TV contributes a lot to
making people more and more narrow-minded ; it is now a part of
nearly every person's life (at least, in countries of the North) and
therefore a good tool to manipulate public opinion and control
people's minds. It is also useful to make people concentrate on
things that are not important like the lives of celebrities, and in
this way turn their attention away from real problems. The TV does
not look at you like in 1984, but it is nonetheless a means of
control...
The few totalitarian regimes that are
left in the world are simply tacky and will disappear sooner rather
than later, replaced by material wealth and sophisticated means of
communication. But, are we any happier or do we care for one another
more than in a totalitarian world? We let ourselves be manipulated,
we are still fearful and ignorant. We are not in 1984, but perhaps
2011 is worse because we have no excuses for the world's misery. And
we are living with the illusion of freedom...
In their article dated 25th
November 2011, Randap
Ramesh and James Ball, two journalists from The Guardian, write about the NHS's reshuffle by the British
Government.
The changes risk harming patients because Hospitals
will have to reduce choice of medical treatment, and doctors will not
receive any money for needy patients.
As far as I am concerned, the NHS
reform proposition is outrageous. The British Government has decided
to destroy people's rights to health care. Isn't this against the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union ?
"Article 35 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union : Health care. Everyone has the right of access to
preventive health care and the right to benefit from medical treatment under the conditions
established by national laws and practices. A high level of human health protection shall be ensured in
the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities."
Even the USA has (now, thanks to Obama)
better health care ! What are the British up to ?!
The media today is very fast, thanks to Internet and new
communications technology, making it omnipresent; is this not dangerous ?
The media is supposed to
be objective but frequently it is not! It influences people's
judgement and people have trouble thinking for themselves...
The news is often
negative: wars, natural disasters, poverty and politics, etc. Why is there so little positive news ? The media contribute to the gloom of our daily lives...
The lives of the rich and
famous, and even the lives of ordinary people sometimes, are revealed to the world; journalists do not respect people's
privacy...
On the website of
the Guardian, in a news item dated 1st December 2011, we learn that,
after the Arab Spring, the Islamic parties have done very well in the
elections... The main Islamic party, the Muslim Brotherhood (founded
by Hassan al-Banna in the 1920s), has obtained its first electoral
victory in Tunisia (Ennahda). The Muslim Brotherhood has also won the
elections in Egypt. Its influence has increased in Libya and in
Morocco. The USA and Europe are worried by these results. The
dictators in those countries for a long time used the argument that “the autocrat
you know is better than the extremist you do not”. Today, the Islamic parties have formed transitional governments with liberal and
secular parties, like in Tunisia. But, are they really a threat for
their people ?
The Arab Spring
surprised everybody. The Muslim Brotherhood is now the main party in
North Africa. The countries where it is already in power like Saudi
Arabia or Iran are not democratic. To my mind, the North African
countries have to be very vigilant to prevent theocracies like in
Iran. It could really become a threat for their people and for us...
Some of the homeless
people you go past in the street have really creative - humorous -
signs to gain your attention. They laugh about their own dire
situation, thereby showing that they have a little dignity left...
They are demonstrating the humanity giver and taker have in common.
It's often an efficient technique to gain alms ! In a sense you, the giver, are paying for having had a good laugh; you feel good about giving because you are not too embarrassed.
There are those who tell passers-by the disarming truth : they need money for drugs, alcohol,
whatever. It's a kind of desperate, aggressive, black humour...
Others try to gain your
pity. They tell you they need money for their family, their children
or for someone else. You wonder if you should believe them, and by
the time you have found the answer, you have walked past the
problem...
In some countries,
beggars do not speak at all, they supplicate on their knees, face
down, hands shut tight in front of them. Sometimes they are even
prostrate on the ground... How humiliating !
Older people may not be
so out-of-touch with Information Technology after all... Meet Sophia
Petrillo, IT advisor!
The artist Chacho Puebla
photographed her in his latest project "the advice of
Grandmothers". With her big glasses and mop of grey hair, she looks like the perfect
grand mother. Sophia gives advice full of common sense about
Web sites and social networks, and contributes to the Mashable Web site.
Louise Tickle, in her article for The Guardian dated November 18th 2011, deals
with the use of computers in education. Do computers help or hinder
our kids' education, do they help them be more creative?
I think computers have
their use, but they are only a tool, not an end in themselves. The
danger is that computers make kids lazy and their mastery is
certainly not the purpose of education. Children need to discover
first hand our landscapes, heritage, literature, art, and the rest,
actively, with others, not through a machine, via virtual means, in a
sterile fashion.
Numerical books for
example destroy the osmosis between the reader and a real book,
because a book isn't just a text but also a thing to touch and even
smell. Each line of a book needs to be savoured. Books die if they
are not there in your hands... Culture is a tactile, senses-based, learning
experience, in real 3-D, to be shared with others, from an early age.
“Honey
pack your things we’re going to see the world before it goes BOOM!
I’ve sold the house, the kids and even the dog...”
“WHAT?!
Are you dumb? Oh, why did I even marry you? 2012 was just a joke!”
Some
years ago a bunch of scientists discovered a stone tablet with Mayan
hieroglyphs which predicted a so called “end of the world” in the
year 2012. And then the press got a hold of it and then everyone
started to freak out as usual. Everyone keeps on saying that
everything will end but I don’t want to believe it. For all those
who are having panic attacks just thinking about it, do not worry,
have no fear, the end of the world is not
nigh...
A German expert after
studying the tablet a tiny bit more carefuly was able to understand a
bit more: the tablet would in fact predict not the end of the world
but just the beginning of a new era. The tablet predicts the coming
of a god which the Mayans would have to prepare for. Since they are a
tiny bit extinct, they won’t be able to prepare a room for him,
he’ll just have to go to a motel and I don’t think they do
charity...
This article goes to show
just how silly some people become when they hear of a so-called end of
the world. The world also ended in 2000, remember? So, I hope that
people will not freak out when yet another end of the world
prediction pops up!
