Break Week #1

Mikito Ozeki / Cut Out from mikitoozeki on Vimeo.

Here's a little video for you all to relax to, i found it sort of memorizing in a calming way. Something to take your mind off of all the world's problems.

Indian Workers Strike

So I think I've established a pretty predictable routine here. I'll post about either the middle east uprising or Occupy Wall Street and if something really big gets to my activist core then I'll post about that too. *cough cough* SOPA *cough cough* But today I feel the need to talk about something beyond the realm of either of those two (three) aspects. Recently while browsing Reddit, I stumbled across this article. Basically these factory workers are being mistreated and work under horrible conditions and when the police/management cracked down on the first group to protest the whole factory went on a rampage and killed the company president as well as besieging the police headquarters and torching cars. Very scary stuff. But this sort of backlash is slowly becoming more prevalent in India. The caste system still having its grip on the country means most of India works for poor wages in disgusting and dangerous conditions and lives in small shanty towns. Protests and strikes happen from time to time but rarely result in anything due to the sheer amount of "I-don't-care-and-neither-do-the-police." given by the management. So when things like this happen, catapulting the conditions into the  spotlight, its definitely something. And it is, mob murder of a company president? How despicable! But look closer into and you see how these people were pushed to the breaking point before they did this.

Activists from the Indian Workers Union march to parliament in New Delhi.

After an initial strike coordinated by their union leader, these workers went on the rampage they did because of the brutal crackdown by the police. The union leader was killed by police forces, beaten to death by the very people who are supposed to protect. But India doesn't work that way and repression of this kind of stuff is key. As M. Murali Mohan led a group of workers to disrupt the morning shift, they were interrupted by policemen in riot gear wielding lathis, a baton on roids. This development led to numerous injuring and sadly Murali Mohan died of his beating on the way to the hospital. The fact that he was beaten to death is appalling to me, as all he was doing was standing up for his rights and then he dies from one of the most terrifying ways to die in my opinion.  So what do the workers do? They get angry and march to the police headquarters, demanding the policemen responsible be charged with homicide. A reasonable request don't you think? Being denied this they went about torching cars and in the end eight workers were injured and hundreds arrested and police once again took action. However the workers did not have enough and went on a rampage basically, destroying factory property and eventually invading the company president's house and killing him. Overall, a very dismal look at how India's society is right now.

In fact, this reminds me of Cory Doctorow's For The Win, a book following many different characters in Asia as they deal with government repression. Set in china, the US, India, and everywhere in between, the book exposes some of the conditions and child labor taking place and one of the story lines (the Indian one) is actually remarkably similar to this one. I would recommend it, even though its about gaming half the time (its related, trust me) and is fiction, its definitely worth a read. 

Occup Oakland gets Rowdy

How bout that Occupy movement huh? Oh wait, I haven't heard from them for months now. What happened to those guys, they just fizzle out or something? Well as it turns out, throughout the last few months Occupy Wall Street is still going and the occupation in New York as well as many other cities has continued. Just recently though have they started to get back into the spotlight. This weekend sure got them there. If you haven't heard, which is quite possible, Occupy Oakland decided they hadn't had enough action in awhile so they went on a little trip. A trip to an abandoned building so that they could re purpose it  as a "social center, convergence center and headquarters of the Occupy Oakland movement." So sounds nice enough right? Some hippie activists going to turn a place into a hippie epicenter, right? Well thats not the case here, as things quickly deteriorated. The tear gas and smoke bombs came out and joined the riot gear and batons in an onslaught on the protestors. But this time things went somewhat differently. 

( Michael Macor, Associated Press / May 29, 2006 ) Police deploy smoke and tear gas to stop Occupy Oakland protesters as they march through downtown streets.  ( Michael Macor, Associated Press / May 29, 2006 ) Police deploy smoke and tear gas to stop Occupy Oakland protesters as they march through downtown streets.

Protestors met the police forces with some violence of their own, with reports of protestors openly throwing bottles, rocks, flares, and allegedly improvised explosive devices. (in other words firecrackers) This display of violence aimed back at the police is something that has been observed before, especially with the Oakland branch of Occupy. It must be the Raiders fans or something, but Oakland has been a very hostile environment for these protests.This time things seems to really take a riot-ey turn when protestors unleashed their secret weapon: corrugated metal. Yes that's right folks, Occupy Oakland has learned how to use shields and it is oh-so-terrifying. 

“The shields are becoming stronger, larger and more mobile,” Watson said. “We’re in a dangerous area for law enforcement.... We are being assaulted, and when we react to those assaults, we can’t penetrate shields like this.”

 Rocks and bottles and a freaking bicycle these guys can handle, but a shield? No freaking way man, not possible. Its not like they have had shields this whole time too or anythi- ... oh wait. But seriously, this random "riot' has become somewhat of a norm in America now. And that's something to think about. If this keeps going on, which it has a possibility of doing, since neither side wants to give any ground, then riots could be a bi-weekly occurrence. "You see last week’s riot? Yeah it was a doozy." could be the new phrase at the water cooler. Even though this would greatly liven up water cooler conversations, riots would no doubt be detrimental to America's stability. Look at the riots in London from last summer/fall. Those conditions aren't that different from the ones we have here in the states. Imagine that for a second, an America so accustomed to riots and protests that weekly occurrences are the norm. Surreal isn't it? But maybe not for long. So right now is pretty much the make or break point. Elections are coming up, summer is coming back. With that, occupy will gain more strength, it’s obvious. So the battle of wills between the government and Occupy Wall Street will commence. Who will win??? You decide!      <=(Dramatic ending)

It's Never Over

SOPA and PIPA are dead. Essentially. A major victory has been had against the background deals and the censorship of our rights. Support for these bills has withdrawn and they are no longer going to be voted on. Success right?

Wrong.

Its called the Protecting Children from Online Pornographers Act and its potentially worse than SOPA and PIPA combined. While the purpose of the act is honorable in and of itself, wanting to be able to better enable the government to locate and prosecute online child pornographers and pedophiles, its methods to do so are...draconian. With all of its morality and basic good vs. bad mentality, it hides the fact that it would allow the government to track internet users personal history. That's right, they could keep tabs on every citizen in the U.S. online, essentially disrupting all senses of privacy online. Not only is that wrong and against basic freedoms guaranteed by our constitution, its also fairly reminding of a certain book...

That's right, I went there.

While this is certainly frustrating, as it seems more and more bills just keep coming at us, its not the first time. Congress consistently uses this method of naming bills in a certain way to make any opponents look bad. Examples?

• Patriot Act- Oppose this, you hate America, you commie.
• No Child Left Behind- Think of the children!
• Protect IP Act- Are you for piracy, huh? You want to leave us defenseless?
• Stop Online Piracy Act- You just want every hardworking American to lose every hard earned cent to foreign pirates??? 

This tactic is tried and true, and devious one at that. It makes sure that the interests of big business and politics get what they want with little bother from the mainstream public. The fact that so much opposition was had against SOPA and PIPA was due to the level of awareness raised about the possible harms stemming from the bill. This time those harms are much, much worse. Picture yourself after this bill is passed. Soon the FBI is in control of enforcing it and they have the ability to track anyone they deem a potential threat. They could view everything and anything you do online. Every website visited, every Facebook post posted, every video watched. Tracked and recorded. What's next after that? They going to start putting up cameras and bugging buildings? I've had enough of this behind-the-scenes legislation and the overall corruptness that plagues modern-day politics. I agree with Senator Lofgren when she tried to rename the bill the "Keep Every American's Digital Data for Submission to the Federal Government Without a Warrant Act." Will the internet be able to put up another fight? Or has our element of surprise been used up already? Time will tell, as opposition builds against yet another harmful act.

Blacking out the Web, Blacking out SOPA

As many of you may have heard, Wednesday the 18th was the Blackout day. Hundreds of websites participating in blacking out, censoring, or raising awareness about the ongoing struggle against the SOPA and PIPA bills. Sites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, Tumbler, Wired, BoingBoing, and many many more censored their websites and linked to information about the bills. Millions of people signed the online petition and millions more were affected and learned more about the destructive potential of these bills. It was absolutely thrilling throughout the day to keep updated with all that was going on. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian testified in congress against the bill with many other experts and physical protests also took place in New York City:




All of this came together throughout the day into something that has never really been done before. An internet blackout was achieved and it was successful in raising awareness. Millions of average citizens learned about the bill and came out against it, as did many congressmen and women.

The power of one day without a small portion of the internet. 

As the day wore on you could tell things were looking up. The number of representatives and senators dropping support grew every hour and soon coverage of the day began to grow on mainstream news sources. In fact it was pretty funny the way some of them covered it, as many had no coverage of the bills beforehand. This sudden interest in the movement was pretty transparent as an exploitation of a popular topic, but it was satisfying nonetheless. Public awareness is these types of bills worst enemy. Large networks like CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and others had coverage of it, many finally giving out the basic information on the bills to the millions that would be affected by it. But behind it all was an eerie sense of this-isn't-quite-right. These major news corporations have their hands in the pockets of congressmen and women throughout the government. Large corporations give out huge campaign contributions in order to lobby their own ideals. The fact that these corporations covered this phenomenon lends to the fact that this was a HUGE deal. They can't just ignore something if it gets too big, people would wonder where their priorities are, what their real agenda is. So when it gets to the point where they HAVE to report on it, you know that we've made progress. And fortunately we have thanks to this blackout!

Since the blackout both PIPA and SOPA have been shelved indefinitely and Lamar Smith has withdrawn them from the committee. This was a major blow to corporate and bureaucratic interests as the internet has flexed its muscles for the first time. No longer is the internet a place for simple, annoying DDOS attacks or meaningless petitions. Now the internet is a place for action, a weapon against censorship and corruption as well as a meeting place for those who want to make a difference. The future has many more obstacles in the way of free speech and only time will tell whether or not the internet can rise up against to create such a level of awareness.

Something Extra:



One of my favorite reports on the blackout today, Rachel Maddow covers the blackout and the impact on SOPA/PIPA, as well as the hypocrisy plaguing the supporters. Entertaining to watch as well as detailing events of the day, this segment was definitely a cool highlight of the blackout for me, and ended the day well. But remember people, the internet is just a big series of tubes.

Blackout day gets personal

As Jan. 18th rolls around, I was left with no Reddit, no Wikipedia, and even no Rhett & Link! It was hard, but I made it through due to the importance of the cause. I somehow was able to make it through the day without Reddit, which is something previously unthinkable. Reddit also had in my opinion the best informative censorship of all the sites. I'll categorize all the sites into two different types: Informative and Censor-Shock. Informative is easy enough to understand, as the website blocks out its usual content and replaces it with information regarding the cause, including videos, links, and other information. Censor-Shock is more along the lines of Wikipedia, Google, and Wired. These sites as well as others simulating censorship with black bars and Wikipedia had a ominous all-black page. Both of these worked well in unison to create a shocking and thought-provoking surprise to regular visitors, leading to their action against the bill. Hopefully this interruption of millions of people daily routine will create an impact on this legislation.

Explanatory SOPA Videos

A good long video that explains SOPA in a simple, visual way. Sometimes reading about it can only help so much. Sometimes analogies really help in conveying the overall idea of a topic, and in this case I think he does a pretty good job in explaining SOPA.



PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
This video is short and to the point, covering the main aspects of SOPA, its downfalls, and the overall consequences. It looks nice, professional and would be a great introductory video to anyone you're trying to convince.

Act out against SOPA

With the new bill SOPA rearing its ugly head you may be wondering what there is to do about it, what actions been taken, and how you can help. Have no fear, the internet is here! Lately many campaigns against the legislation have been targeted at its supporters, and well as campaigns to raise public awareness. Both of these are key in order to beat SOPA. And there is no lack of things to do. I've found Reddit to be a prime source of information, discussion, and action. There they have their own SOPA subreddit, a sub community where thousands of people discuss the bill, ways to stop it, and any news relating to it. I've found this one of the easiest and most reliable ways to stay informed. Also, Reddit is holding a blackout on January 18th from 8am–8pm EST. At this time Reddit will be displaying a message alerting all visitors about the act, linking to relevant information, and streaming the live house hearing on the bill, where Reddit co-founder Alexis "kn0thing" Ohanian will be testifying along with other internet experts and representatives. Reddit has also proven to be lending a major handing in compiling all these different groups and organizations that are taking action against SOPA/PIPA. One such site, americancensorship.org, has been effectively organizing meetings with senators and representatives about the act, as well as advising people on how to go about convincing their government representatives of the grave implications of the act. Due to this outpouring of concern, many representatives have changed their minds about the act after hearing from their constituents and have signed this letter against the act. This works, representatives cannot ignore thousands of phone calls, letters, and emails expressing concern about one act. And the more we spread the word about this act, the more people will act against it. Time is of the essence as the house and senate have set up the bill for a quick-pass. Do your part and act out against it before it is too late. Contact supporters of the bill whether they're corporations or politicians. 

• List of supporting corporations
• Contact your representative
• Stay informed: 1      2
• Spread the word on Jan. 18th!

 
 


 

SOPA: Hypocrisy at it's Finest

Lately you may have heard some buzz around a new bill in congress. Or you may not have, if you get your news from the main network providers. But if you don't, and instead stay up to date by roaming the internet, then there's no doubt that you've heard of it. The ultimate censorship bill, SOPA has created quite a stir by effectively promising to create an internet blacklist and using that to block sites based off copyright terms. But the funny thing is, SOPA won't really be all that effective against piracy. Piracy on the internet will always find a way and the measures the bill proposes would not be all that effective against it. However, they would be effective against many large, popular sites that people visit everyday. Sites like YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, Google, and more would be immediately affected. Why? Because all of these sites would be host to at least one copyright-infringing document or video or picture. This would be enough for, if a suit was filed (Which a suit can be started just due to a complaint), then these sites would be blacklisted. This means basically any social media-sharing site would be subject to censorship by the government. While sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and more may be large enough to put up a decent defense, other smaller sites would not be so fortunate, and would either be censored, or have to pay substantial legal fees in order to challenge a suit. 

Even large sites would not be totally invincible from the act. Links anyone would post on any media-sharing site would have to be processes and then censored if deemed as 'copyright-infringing'. Email providers would start censoring emails for these infringing links, and would remove any found. That cute cat video that you were going to send to your grandma? Too bad sonny, that's technically owned by this one website, so there's no way granny will ever see it. Ultimately the implications from this bill are even worse. Ad traffic would be significantly affected, and if any website was censored in any way, the ad revenue for that website would immediately drop. Websites would start going offline because they weren't making profits, and any new startups would think twice before trying to set themselves up in that kind of atmosphere. That means SOPA would get rid of potential jobs. Oh my, the all-mighty J-word. And we all thought politicians loved that. 

But one of the things that really bothers me about this bill is the pure hypocrisy behind it. For years the US has been in support of those in repressive countries and has aided them in getting around these regime's controls. In the Arab Spring the US government fully supported protestors and helped them to bypass these regimes firewalls to get their message out and voices heard. We even support programs that allow people to bypass these types of censorship, and one of the most notable causes is in China. The Great Chinese Firewall, as it is called, has long been the bane of internet free speech for Chinese citizens, and the US does not support it due to this fact. So why do so many of our politicians support this bill which shows remarkable similarities to China's own internet censorship?

It may be due to the fact that many of these politicians show an anti-internet bias, which is nothing new. These are old, white men we're talking about, many of whom see the internet as a place where people post everything illegally and where it is a lawless pit of despair. No wonder the bill is the way it is then, as it was written in such a way to be so legislative-languagey that normal citizens and businesses would have a hard time understanding all the legalese. To add to this, the bill shows a disturbing lack of understanding when it comes to the internet, both in its fundamentals and specifics. The case against SOPA is huge, the bill poorly written, and the consequences enormous. But the backing of it by those in power has kept it alive and well. Hopefully this time those in power will be thwarted before something drastic is achieved.

Old School Debate

Although most of my sources on news in the Middle East and other current events come from online, the fastest news source, today I'm going old school and using The Gazette. Not for another informative about a protest being violently repressed, or news of occupy protestors getting tear gassed. No, today the Gazette has bestowed upon my an interesting opinion piece on the effect of the Arab Spring on U.S. interests and foreign policy. One of the Gazette's Pro/Con pieces, the article is answered by Lawrence J. Haas, part of the American Foreign Policy Council, and John B. Quigley, professor at Ohio State University. Their opinions are both on either side of the political center, Haas being more right-oriented, Quigley to the left. However, though I must say I usually find my self leaning to the left, both of them give well thought out answers and raise important points when discussing the impact of the Arab Spring. 

Haas starts off stating that the US has short term goals and long term goals in the middle east. Short term we want to reduce terrorism, protect allies, and support regional stability. A tall order. Long term we want to encourage freedom and democracy in order to gain allies, reduce threats, and expand opportunity for millions of people as well as investments. I would agree with these points. But Haas then goes on to state that the recent uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, etc have given way to Islamic radical groups that challenge everything we're working for. Groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Nour Party in Egypt. He states that these groups interest in restoring Sharia and imposing radical Islamic beliefs is a threat to the US and the Middle East. This I would agree with to a point. It is certainly true that radical groups pose a threat to both outsiders and others of the same faith. Many Muslims are not radical and do not in fact welcome strict Islamic law. This is also true of many other radical groups among other faiths as well. Radical groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood CAN pose a threat to the stability of the reason, but maybe not to the extent that Haas has us believe. Basically, he is arguing these anti-western Islamic radical groups are going to fill the power vacuums left by the dictators and create a new Middle East that is totally against us. While that could happen, I'm pretty sure that's a worst-case scenario, as many of the protesters and public want freedom, something not always synonymous with restrictive Islamic fundamentalism.

Quigley takes another look at things and instead of pointing towards the radical groups as the source of problems, he instead points to the US as the instigators of these problems. He argues that because of US involvement in the Middle East, we've done more harm than good. By being inconsistent in our policy and often intervening when we shouldn't have or not doing enough in other places, we have brought these radical groups on ourselves. While this may be true, and he does a good job of stating specific examples, this may be another point of blaming everything on America because America just sucks. As always we have to take these with a grain of salt; radical groups are a potential threat, but singling out Islamic ones will only further increase their animosity towards us. Also, it is not always  America's fault, although we have made our share of politic blunders when it comes to the Middle East. As long as we can find a middle ground, stay consistent with a policy, and not meddle too much, I think the Arab Spring could be beneficiary to the US.

Syria: Observed

Recently in Syria the Arab League has sent in a team of observers to monitor Syria's uprising and the regime's promise to stop violence. However, many are not satisfied with this opportunity for observation as the regime is leading it, and many fear that they are misleading the observers into believing that it is not as bad as it seemed. Reports have surfaced of the regime planting supporters in hostile areas, changing street signs, and disguising military vehicles to make it seem like things are not as bad as initially thought. After over nine months of protests and violence, over 5,500 people have been killed according to the UN. And now it seems that Syria is trying to hide all of that in this recent visit. 

Arab League monitors check Daraa, Syria, on Tuesday. SANA/AP

            Hiding the crimes of the regimes is nothing new, as we've seen it before in Egypt, Libya, and even farther back to Hitler's Germany and the Soviet Union. It is expected to have regimes hide their intentions and actions. No regime would blatantly kill civilians and admit to it, the reaction from the international community would be swift and forceful against them. No, regimes will do everything in their power to quell any uprising, and even more so to keep their actions against such a thing quiet. So it looks like it is no different in Syria, where the regime is employing the "Act like nothing wrong and invite them to take a look to make it seem legit" plan. However, they will have to keep this act up as recent news has announced that the monitors will continue to stay in Syria and observe what they call 'mistakes'. In what could very well end up being a dangerous situation, these monitors will have to evaluate the atrocities of the Syrian government with the Syrian government breathing down their necks. Obviously this conflict of interest could result in retaliation against the monitors, but I feel that would be unlike what the Syrian government has shown so far. Based off of Assad's attempts and other government actions, I feel the Syrian government is trying to play it off as not something as important as most thought. Doing anything radical against this foreign observation would go against their stance of "openness" to the international community, and would definitely ruin their act of "Everything's alright."

An Arab League observer takes photos of anti-government protesters on the streets in Adlb on Dec. 30, 2011. (Reuters)

However, it seems Syria will have a hard time convincing the Arab League observers that everything is A-OK as violence continues to boom. Killings continued on Wednesday as observers were still there, with 12 reportedly shot dead by security forces. This continued violence has left some in the Arab League wary and some calls have been made to take the observers out of harm’s way, but they will continue to stay. However, the main reason may not be for collecting data, but rather their presence alone has resulted in heavy arms being removed from the cities as well as thousands of prisoners being released. The Syrian government has to try to hide what they've been doing, and the longer the observers stay in Syria, the longer the Syrian government has to put up this facade.Even though, violence against peaceful protests has continued and activists are skeptical about how big of an impact the observers are really having on the regime. The big question however, is what the observers will find, and what they will do with it.

Google's Doing it Right

Thought I'd share this cool new feature that Google now has. If you go to Google and type in Google elections (or just go to google.com/elections) it will bring up a page dedicated to news about current elections with sidebars on all the candidates, theirs parties, and the issues. But if you go to the drop done menu you can choose Egypt, where it gives you up-to-the-minute coverage of the elections going on in Egypt right now. I though it was very cool and hope to use it to it's greatest extent.Check it out!