Liberating Spaces

Having done some research work on Middle East politics (including a Masters in Middle Politics) and being academically, professionally and personally connected to what the Internet is doing to politics, it is amazing how I haven’t commented on what’s happening in Egypt yet. I want to write a longer article on young people, revolutions and communication. But for now, I’ll have to be satisfied with a bit of free time I have found to write a short note on Egypt twit-face-wiki-jaz revolution. A short note, because I just want to point towards a couple of interesting sources, on internet or non-internet related factors in relation to the Egyptian revolution.

First I should mention the unavoidable Evgeny Morozov (@evgenymorozov) and his article “The dark side of Internet for Egyptian and Tunisian protesters“. Not that he says much more than his usual (see his book The Net Delusion)): new communication technologies help democratic and non-democratic revolutions alike, dictators also use Internet to repress, there are more reasons behind a revolution than the Internet. But it is also interesting to have a powerful critical voice out there, pointing these (rather obvious?) facts.

Then there is one of my favourites, Patrick Meier (@patrickmeier). He has interesting articles on his blog iRevolution about the use of crisismapping – particularly Ushahidi – for mapping the Egyptian protests.

Two articles analysing the situation in Egypt. First about the first US reactions (on Foreign Policy), and, second, in the context of a possible Middle East awakening (on openDemocracy). And a collection of articles on Foreign Policy magazine about the options and consequences for US diplomacy.

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It is 1 am in Barcelona. I’m listening to The Doors’ Riders on the Storm on Spotify. It makes me think…

During the Vietnam War, many young and not-so-young people rebelled against a system that was waging a war for the interests, the values and the ideas of a few. Later, some have tried to deride this movement as the crazy craze of a group of drugged hippies with long hair. But among many other things, it was a rebellion against domination. Power does not need a gun to control people’s behaviour. It suffices a discourse, and institutions disseminating this discourse to make believe to people things that are not in their benefit, but in the benefit of the few. That rebellion was also a cry for freedom against these discourses and institutions.

Then, the 1980s and 1990s came. It seemed that history had ended with the so-called liberal system winning the match. The so-called “pensamiento único” seemed to be the only way of looking at reality. But the fight was still there. Covered up by the same institutions, but not removed. As Manuel Castells explains in his latest book “Communication Power“, domination is based on the communication of these discourses that offer the different values and ideas to individuals that decide accordingly. In the same line, Yochai Benkler in “The Wealth of Networks” explains how a closed communicative system allows the same structures/institutions to survive, controlling the possible alternatives of life of the people living in them.

At the end of the 1980s, I was dreaming with a network of computers, where we could find all knowledge and be connected with other people. A network in which we could find solution to our problems. Today, we have this and much more than I could imagine back then. The Internet is breaking the discursive, the story-telling barriers that had trapped us within domination institutions relatively easily controllable by the few. Now, the world is changing, and these powers that be feel threatened.

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“We are all made of stars” is a song of Moby. It starts with these words…

Growing in numbers
Growing in speed
Can’t fight the future
Can’t fight what I see
People they come together
People they fall apart
No one can stop us now
‘Cause we are all made of stars

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I am not entirely sure whether this comes from the journalist or from the conservationist. But the BBC has posted a news article titled “Internet threatens rare species, conservationists warn“. We should really be careful of this guy called Internet. He looks like a tough, ugly, evil man (or woman). Be careful kids!

OK, to be fair, it seems that it is mostly the BBC’s interpretation of a warning from the International Fund for Animal Welfare concerning animal trade facilitated by the Internet.

“The internet is becoming the dominant factor overall in the global trade in protected species,” said Paul Todd of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

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A group of journalists, bloggers, professionals and creators want to express their firm opposition to the inclusion in a Draft Law of some changes to Spanish laws restricting the freedoms of expression, information and access to culture on the Internet. They also declare that:

1 .- Copyright should not be placed above citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy, security, presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression.

2 .- Suspension of fundamental rights is and must remain an exclusive competence of judges. This blueprint, contrary to the provisions of Article 20.5 of the Spanish Constitution, places in the hands of the executive the power to keep Spanish citizens from accessing certain websites.

3 .- The proposed laws would create legal uncertainty across Spanish IT companies, damaging one of the few areas of development and future of our economy, hindering the creation of startups, introducing barriers to competition and slowing down its international projection.

4 .- The proposed laws threaten creativity and hinder cultural development. The Internet and new technologies have democratized the creation and publication of all types of content, which no longer depends on an old small industry but on multiple and different sources.

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