Schrapnel

Last april photohrapher Tim Chivers recorded the accidental death of a rebel fighter (Advice: GRAPHIC), caused by schrapnel that hit him. The schrapnel was released after inexperienced fighters fired a recoilless rifle (i would say, BIGASSgun) at very short distance, while the weapon was ment to hit tanks far away. Schrapnel flying around hit the man, causing a fatal injury. He bled to death.

As i wrote in an earlier post, the rebels are a group of disorganised  and untrained fighters, only bound together by the common goal of removing Colonel Ghadaffi from office.  They have learned some hard lessons on the way, like not firing such weapons in small crammed areas.
And hard lessons are ahead: People already say that if Lybia wants democracy, it will need to learn some hard lessons on the way to becoming it. Democracy is an ongoing project, it spans many years.

But if the common goal of removing the enemy from office is achieved, which has more or less happened at this moment, then whats next? How will those lessons crystalize into democracy?

Historically the rebels face a big challenge. Lybia is a tribal country, lots of differences: East en West, Nationalist vs Islamist, tribal disputes within those groups….It is not certain that all those differences will dissappear once the smoke has cleared over Ghadaffi’s compound.

To keep the fatal mistake on that april 24th in Misrata as a metaphor: Lybians must understand that the power thats currently in their hands can cause some nasty collateral damage.I hope that those hard lessons that the transitional government has to learn will not result  people dying because the schrapnel of history hits them in the back..

Time will tell.

Internet back on track in Libya: Sign of liberation?

Funny CNN article today: i quote CNN-correspondent Doug Gross writing about the re-emerging of Internet / Twitter in Tripoli last week:

“Internet service was, indeed, returning Monday to Tripoli and other parts of Libya. In a digital age in which the free flow of online information is credited with everything from helping topple dictators to abetting riots, that could be taken as a signal of emerging freedom almost as strong as the rebel forces advancing on Gadhafi’s last stronghold.”

So, let me break it down: The fact that internet is back online is not simply due to some rebel official unchecking the ‘lock ‘ button on some probably western made internetblockingdevice. Furthermore: we can forget that the rebels have send Khadaffi’s forces running without a proper internetconnection as a communication tool for what, the last 6 months? NOOOO, Its a sign almost as strong as the guys with AK47’s rushing for Tripoli in geared out Toyota Pickups. DEMOCRACY IS ON THE WAY, WE CAN USE TWITTER!

Eh, yep.

Well, if thats the case, then i hope you dont mind me stating that the internet is comparable in another way as well: Without central coordination even the most enthusiastic group of internet-users will not succeed in using internet and social media properly. It will end up in a cacafony of twitterchatter. Just as? Excactly; the same problem the rebels have: all of them very enthusiastic, but they lack central coordination and planning. The rebels are basically a mess and would not have had the current succes without NATO help. 

The internet played no role of importance in Lybia up until know, so what signs almost as strong as the rebel forces are there here excactly?

Im curious, since a seriously have no idea.

Handige twitterapp toont onvermogen sociale media

Tot zover de kracht van sociale media. Al een paar dagen is er geen berichtgeving mogelijk vanuit Libie. Waarom? Omdat meneer Khadaffi er voor zorgt dat dit niet kan. Dit toont aan dat sociale media ondanks alle grote woorden rondom het medium afhankelijk is van externe factoren, zoals een labiele dictator, om succesvol te zijn.

Ook china bereid zich al voor op problemen via sociale media en ook Iran is momenteel bezig om zich te wapenen tegen onruststokers op de digitale snelweg.  Het is niet het prachtige revolutionaire middel that it claims to be.

Opnieuw is aangetoond dat sociale media een prachtig medium is voor groepen om te communiceren ,maar dat dit niet werkt als dit medium niet langer als een overheid of een sterke machtsfactor besluit om de bedreiging voor de eigen positie de mond te snoeren. Net als radio, televisie, telefoon, kranten. Wat dat betreft is er nog weinig veranderd.

Tegelijkertijd biedt een handige App  realtime informatie  over dominerende onderwerpen op Twitter.  Wat is bedoeld als handig middel om actuele discussies te voeren maakt ook pijnlijk duidelijk dat in Libie maar ook in andere landen Twitter niet wordt gebruikt als middel voor sociale verandering. Het is vooral het Westen en westerse landen die Twitter gebruiken. Wellicht projecteren wij onze euforie over het communicatiemiddel teveel op anderen?