Posts by Stephen Judd
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The point I took away from the blog post I linked to is that electronic communication other than mobile and landline voice calls is restricted to a small minority of well off people who wouldn’t normally mix with other parts of society. Yes, if a minority have good comms, and they’re evenly distributed in the population, I can see that they could co-ordinate mass movements, but if that minority is a small class mostly talking amongst themselves, then I guess that word on the street and old fashioned voice calls* are probably still the main means of organisation.
*although I personally would be anxious about secret police eavesdropping if I was ever involved in subversive activity and would probably be having face-to-face meetings in noisy venues.
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This pours cold water on the influence of internet and smartphones and Al Jazeera.
Excerpt:
O: Tayyib good. But honestly I mean 40 % of this country is living below the poverty line and a large chunk above that is barely surviving and then you have middle class doctors and lawyers etc and then you have you know rich people like me yaani…I mean it is true that cell phone penetration has improved very much…you know they even say that maybe 60 million have cellphones…you know…but its like those basic yaani really basic mobiles…nothing fancy…no internet bullshit for example…I can tell you that the majority of Egyptians have no idea what Facebook is or what Twitter is! I mean you ask me this everyday—but its true yaani…and look at this… a very basic mobile is from 180 Egyptian pounds…a fancy internet capable phone like an Iphone and that Droid thing or the blackberry cost around 3000 pounds…and I will just talk about the so called middle class for a second…before revolution they said they would increase the minimum wage to 1200 pounds a month…right now it is about 800 pounds…800 pounds to feed a family of 4 maybe more? And then you go and buy an internet enabled phone which costs more than 3 months of your salary?.
Me: So how and why is this whole narrative evolving?
O: You mean all this internet stuff…well before he shut us out on Thursday…there was vibrant communication between a certain and very small class of society in terms of relative numbers…this is the class of people who have ALWAYS been absent and apathetic from the suffering of the Egyptian majority…the poor people…you know that was good…so maybe a little bit through twitter and all the apathetic students and professional class started communicating for the first time…
Me: True..I have been saying that---someone in Zamalek is not tweeting at a Zabaleen you know…they tweet to each other…in their nice apartments with AC and stuff…
O: yes true…but I know it played a good role for maybe the first day and half of Thursday…but if you are saying that it is pivotal to the revolution or the lifeline of the revolution then you are not doing justice to Egyptian people, man or even to the functionality of this specific tool…its like calling a hammer a screwdriver and this is a huge danger for the future…because in other Arab countries for example…you will misinform people about this twitter/Facebook tool—you will overstate its importance…and misguide people who want change in other places and its biggest weakness is that it can be cut off—and you are saying Mubarak is doing that even more tonight, right…so there you have it…if anything dictators like Mubarak use all the publicity about this twitter nonsense to say OK lets cut off the internet…Talking about tweeting all the fucking time gives him the perfect excuse for shutting off the internet even though the majority of Egyptians would not be online even if there was a f-ing internet…
Me: I know I have been saying that…some of the greatest revolutions in history happened before the internet…and 4 days now after he cut you guys all off…well 99% of you all off anyway…it grew bigger…more people…and they were not tweeted to come there…
O: Yes…listen…its not about all this at all. It is one tool…some people can use it and they should and its great! But our bigger tools are posters, fliers, pamphlets, the shoes on our fucking feet man! If someone wakes up in Cairo tomorrow after having slept through the last 6 days…and don’t know where to go…they just need to walk on the street Parvez…and follow everyone else…But let me say this…for educated kids like me atleast…we can communicate faster and more effectively than our parents ever could right? Our parents generation was more apathetic I feel…so yes we can communicate…but WE HAVE SOMETHING TO COMMUNICATE ABOUT…the peoples revolution! And in any case this concern of people sending messages to the outside world is secondary…we don’t think it is our function to report this to the world…as an Egyptian citizen protesting everyday…that’s not my job…reporters can do that…you can do it who talks to me everyday…we need to stay focused on what we need to do inside the country…our weapon is not social networking and email…our weapon is our focus on what we know needs to be changed…
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Sam F,
Hence the word "bitextual."
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I thought, that can't possibly be what he meant to say ...
Can't it? It is perfectly possible for respected, intelligent, educated people to say and mean things we wish they wouldn't. I find it hard to put any other construction on what Campbell said.
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Sacha: I'm pretty unhappy with the Campbell's implication that Key is, by virtue of his mother and the acclamation of the Jerusalem Post, acting out some sort of traitorous solidarity with Israel, rather than being his typical ill-informed self.
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So why did the regime block Twitter, Facebook and then any connection to the rest of the internet?
It seems pretty clear that Facebook groups in particular played a significant role in the initial momentum of the protests.
Someone suggested that cutting off internet and phone service actually drove the protests, as people went into the streets and talked to their neighbours to find out what was happening. Once you're on the street anyway, and there's a crowd, why not join it?
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To return to the topic of the Herald's celebrity obsession -- apparently the most newsworthy thing about Egypt right now is that Frank Bunce is there.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Sacha,
There has been a fair bit of construction near my workplace in recent months. every day I see hard-hatted labourers lining up at Fuel along with the suits. My local Pak'n'Save has a large range of grounds and beans. If Gingercrush believes that an interest in nice coffee is a elite phenomenon, then I'd say it's Gingercrush who's out of touch.
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I just realised I forgot to actually link to Bryce Edwards on asset sales.
Gotta say that Bryce's blogging has really been speaking to me in the last year. All our parties, not just the left-wing ones, are lacking ideological backbone, lacking sincerity, lacking the commitment that comes from a base in the world outside Parliament. And he is dissecting that lack of commitment in a steady and very readable way. Love it.
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Gabor: actually, I suspect a lot of the markup for roasted vs green beans reflects how perishable roasted beans are. As soon as you roast, you've taken something that's good for at least a year and turned it into something that must be sold within a few days. As for the price of coffee in beverage form, rent and labour are the big contributors.