As 2011 ends, its time to take stock. Perhaps more is at stake today than ever before. Our world is changing monumentally. From the Kyoto Accord to the EU split, from the Arab Spring to austerity protests in Europe, the world seems topsy turvy.

Though I do not pay much heed to it, I have to also mention TIME magazine’s declaration today that their Person Of The Year is The Protestor.

I think that this glamorous title needs some perspective. Why is it that this is the year of the protestor. How is it that 2011 came to be that year, and what do we take away from it?

I feel like I may be reverting back to my rhetoric of old when I say that it is clear that our world is coming apart at the seams. We are the cusp, or perhaps we have already jumped of a mountain. Does it not seem that everywhere we look, everywhere we turn, there are people who are expressing their dissatisfaction with the state of affairs? Have we had enough? Have we truly been pushed so far that we leave the comforts of our homes and march down streets in numbers never seen before to declare, Basta! Enough!

From Athens to London, Cairo to Tunis, Aden to Damascus, Ben Ghazi to Tripoli, New York to Moscow - people are rising up. Sure, its not everyone. Sure, its not even even one sixth of the global population, but in doesn’t take much. It didn’t take much. What army can hold back such a show of force? Who can challenge the might of the people?

2011 gave us a clear answer- use that pepper spray, use those bullets (rubber or otherwise), use your tanks, your water pipes, your servicemen or your merceneries - all methods are welcome, because all methods are useless. We are here, we are fighting, in our own ways, on our own terms, and we will bring change.

This is not the year of the protestor. This is the year of the awakening. The system stacked against us is faulty, it is bleeding us dry, it is mincing us raw, and we have been pushed far enough now to push back. I will bring my child to the protest, I will invite my grandmother too.

Viva la revolucion, bitches.

… 21st century style. The darling of western governments deposed. Running away because his grip on power is gone. Air traffic controllers giving live updates on a fleeing president’s whereabouts, modern day exiles returning home triumphant, police officers and protesters hugging and crying together. Arabic-speaking elderly women shouting at the top of their voices: OUT OUT OUT! YALLA, OUT! Interim unity governments broken down within hours. Arab governments left pondering matters quietly. TV stations left amazed at unfolding events. Tyrants, dictators and corrupt leaders everywhere glued to their screens watching this moment hoping to look into their own futures. Domino theories resurrected. Fear of all-out rebellions placated. Murmurs of uprisings in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Libya, and Algeria. North Africa left contemplating its future. Snipers on top of government buildings. 78 Tunisians dead. Twitter and social media used as weapons. History professors crying at the top of their lungs, “This is history, this is happening now, this is unprecedented, this will be written about, this is a milestone, this could be an impetus, this is a precursor…”. All words seem pale. Tears of joy and screams of ecstasy. Red flags waving high. Fingers stretched proudly to form a V. The hope, the want, the need for freedom- fulfilled. Amidst the cacophony of screams, news reports, tales of woe and joy, amongst it all, one word screamed louder than all others, one word echoing from the hilltops and into homes everywhere. Revolution.

Watch out. Its coming to a neighborhood near you.

One fine morning sometime in 1996, a copy of Khaleej Times’ weekend supplement, Young Times, landed on my doorstep in Doha, Qatar. On the cover was an image of a highway with a cars whizzing by so fast that you couldn’t see the cars themselves but only the lights that tailed them. Emblazoned on the cover was the curious phrase ‘Information Superhighway’.

I read through the edition’s various articles on this highway’s emergence and realized a few things right off the bat. In no particular order, these were: ‘Information Superhighway’ was a terrible name; this could help a lot of people share information immediately, that it could change the way we live; that if I got on this highway, I could stay in touch with my friends even when I moved away in a few months; and lastly, I need to get on this highway, why hadn’t someone created an exit off to Doha yet? 

The internet began much before that of course but in my corner of the world, the glad tidings of its emergence reached later than many other places. And indeed, since then, it has changed the way we live. 

From Hotmail to Napster, from ICQ to MSN messenger, from Gmail to Torrents, from 24-hour free online news content to Youtube, from Twitter to Tumblr, our lives have changed irreversibly since those first years when the highway moved a lot slower, and people would bump into each other because they didn’t know where to go. But over the last few years, while everyone has been focusing on web 2.0 and online sharing and the explosion in blogging etc., a quieter, different kind of revolution is taking place right in front of our eyes. A revolution which has just landed on our doors without anyone realizing it. This one is a game changer too. And its vanguard, or bodhisattva, if you will, is WikiLeaks. 

Suddenly, its as if WikiLeaks should always have existed. Suddenly, imagining a world without WikiLeaks is impossible. Suddenly, its the talk of the town, being hailed as the most important website in the world. Its keeping your politicians up at night. Its forcing spy agencies to set up specialized teams to deal with its content released. Its shedding light on what has been the secret domain of governments for eons on end. You weren’t supposed to see this, you aren’t supposed to know it exists, that you do know is a threat in itself, that you can see the lies plain in front of you is a testament to its need, its brilliance, its utter importance. That it doesn’t make judgements and just lets you come to your own conclusions is a kind of journalistic standard that has rarely existed and almost never persisted. This is new. This is important. This is now officially a highway ride with dirty laundry being waved at you from the skyscrapers, plain for everyone to see and smell. 

WikiLeaks has just changed the game. And that game was information. Even today, information is vetted, manipulated and fed to us in a systematic, timely manner, to control our emotional responses, to temper our reactions to the information and influence our actions resulting from them. This game was begun long ago. It was perfected over decades. It has borne fruit time and again, resulting in a compliant, moldable, dumbed down populace, unaware of the great swindle, unwilling to doubt the official line and circumspect of anyone who chooses to question it. 

But WikiLeaks is changing all that. For now it may just be documents about far away wars in far away lands and memos detailing corruption in Africa, but it won’t be long till your local city’s mayor’s aides decide that he is a megalomaniac and needs to be put in place. Now, there is a way and a system, a system that provides an alternative route to spread information. 

The game has changed my friends. And I for one am glad that it has. It was getting too boring, you know, being lied to all the time. Now, at least once in a while, I can download a few documents that will tell me the truth. At least now I have a different source that is showing me in plain sight that there is a great fraud afoot, that is plagues our society and requires us to fight it in unconventional ways. And as far as that fight goes, WikiLeaks has landed a debilitating first blow. 

Must read article of the day. Period.

The sheer number of entertainment shows geared towards music, singing, dancing, comedy etc. is nauseating. Relaity shows take up 18 hours of daily broadcast time on each channel. Close to half of these consider kids one their major audience segments and some are geared towards children exclusively, both as viewers and as “contestants”. 

Its absolutely disgusting.

So many inspirational stories come to mind when one thinks of South Africa. This is just another example.

herzundseele:

warispeace:

Today in History: On June 5, 1989, a lone man stood in front of tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The incident came a day after the Chinese government cleared the square of protestors who had been there since the beginning of April to protest the policies of the Communist government in China. On June 4, violence erupted in the square as the military attempted to clear the square. Then on the morning of the 5th, as tanks rolled into the square, a man stood in front of them. The tanks attempted to go around him, but were unsuccessful. The Unknown Man then got up on one of the tanks and talked to the driver. After this, he stepped down and remained standing in front of the tanks. At this point, two men came and carried him off. His identity is still not known to this day. 

One man and a row of tanks trying to go around him. Awe-inspiring. I remember watching this on TV with my dad- possibly my first memory of political action by the people, for the people.

Ultimate respect to the man who came to be known as the Universal Soldier.

The Resistance Carries On!!

(via bradleynapier, banksystreetart)

omerm:

otherhiphop:

babyimanihilist:

bollockszine: