Murder on the media

We are back on track... for a bit.

I can not stop thinking about what young minds think of what they see on TV and on internet with regards to the attack to Falluja. Do they realise that people, innocent people (American or Iraqi) actually die? And that death is the end? Not like in a videogame?

I know that many have discussed the vilification of death on tv - the fact that it makes it "normal", still as I was watching the bodies in the Mosque some in body bags some not, I could not stop thinking and being angry at the fact that "this is it" for them. No more blogs, no more mobile phones no more friends, no family nor love.

And I feel sorry for the soldiers that have to make these killings. Must leave some fairly deep wounds - not as deep as those they killed though.

So the question is - is the ubiquitous coverage good for young minds? Those that will take over eventually?

Very sad in the cyberspace...

Will history repeat itself? Hopefully not.

Another excursus off the techology track. I apologise, it must be all the sea food I ate over the weekend.

I was discussing this over the weekend with some friends of mine in France - so I will blame France for the audacity of the thought itself.

The last two wars on terror conducted by the US and the one conducted by Russia have all got one common tread, let's see if you can spot it.

Afghanistan: The war in Afghanistan was aimed at getting rid of the Taleban because of their support to the 9/11 terrorists and possibly to capture the mastermind of those attacks. Now the question is where do the Taleban come from, where and how they got so organised that they took over a country? Were they not "freedom fighters" sponsored by the West back when USSR invaded Afghanistan? Wasn't it the west that financed and trained them to fight the Soviet invasion?

Iraq: The first and second war in Iraq were aimed at getting rid of Saddam Hussein, now the question is again where does he come from? Now was he not the champion of the West back in the seventies and eighties and really the last barricade against the growing fundamentalism of Iran? Who was sponsoring Saddam back then?

The tread, in case you did not work it out, is that every time the West intervened in foreign countries especially in the middle east – to look after its current interests - it planted the seed of the next (and bigger) threat to the West itself.

So here is what I am concerned about. Are we sure that we are not making the same mistake again? By that I mean we (the West) are arming and training local governments in Iraq and Afghanistan empowering them without really representative elections. We are arbitrarily giving them a dream and the (fire)power to achieve it.

At the same time traditional weapons and nuclear materials are going disappearing in those countries.

Are we comfortable that either the new current leaders or indeed those that will be elected in the future (or the current leaders once their dream is shattered) will not eventually turn against us (again) - for whatever reason - but this time with stock piles of weapons and the latest western military training?

You know history repeats itself...

PS please note that I did not even mentioned oil and gas... ;-)

Learn a new level of communication

What I quickly realised with regards to writing on a blog, is that contrary to most daily communications where we express our thoughts in somehow controlled environments, what you write on a blog is available to the whole world. With the possibility that someone will respond in a "hostile" or even abusive manner, something that may or may not be used to.

This means that one needs to develop a new level of communication where you share only those thoughts that you are prepared to be questioned and possibly "abused" and/or develop the ability not to get too hanged up about it. I suppose this is what a "political communication plain" would look like where if you are a politician addressing a mixed audience, it is likely to bump into someone that would loudly and possibly not gracefully disagree with you.

This is the very point that fascinates me about technology and its power to change people behaviours... and vice versa of course, for people real and maybe hidden needs to drive technology developments.

En arche en 'o logos

This is my first attempt with a Blog, please be patient...

Four More years!

Here is what I do not understand, when folks say "Four more years!", what do they mean, four more years of what?

Si lavora sodo