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Saturday, November 30
Sloppy finger-pointing? [SocioPolitico]
As a student I went through a period when I was a reasonably active letter-writer for Amnesty International, and I still have a lot of sympathy for the aims of the organisation and the objectivity of their analysis. Seeing reports this week of their newest report, on internet censorship in China, it was distressing to see them claiming Sun was part of a group of corporations conspiring with the Chinese government to remove the liberty of citizens, either to access the Web or in some cases totally. One never wants to work for an 'evil empire' (another story some time...), so I decided to investigate on what they base their claim that:Foreign companies, including Websense and Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Microsoft, have reportedly provided important technology which helps the Chinese authorities censor the Internet. Digging up a PDF of the original report they cite as the source, it seems the connection is tenuous. Although Sun is named in the report, it is actually not in connection with providing internet censorship capabilities - instead, it's in connection with a different government contract. Of the other companies named, each has merely been the original source of standard technologies which have been turned to the end of censorship. I'm not sure John Leyden in The Register actually went back to the sources and checked them, but his comment: And how much control do vendors have over the use of their technology? Much depends on whether the Chinese are adapting general purpose technologies for questionable ends or whether vendors are actively courting repressive regimes by developing Big Brother features in their products. echoes the same sentiment from the Nortel spokeswoman in the SCMP article.
So what's the agenda here? Is this a case of Amnesty taking side-swipes at the easy targets - the big, evil corporations who make stuff that the oppressors use and must therefore be culpable - or is there a basis in fact of suspecting a lack of ethical foundation at work? Personally I find it far from proven from the hearsay evidence Amnesty cite in their report, but I'll watch for hard evidence as I travel. I admit I had thought better of Amnesty than to rabble-rouse with hearsay, though.
posted at 4:03 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far)
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Friday, November 29
Thursday, November 28
Wednesday, November 27
Tuesday, November 26
Monday, November 25
Scarlet's Walk [AudioVideo]
 The last few weeks as I have been driving around America I have been listening to the latest album by Tori Amos, "Scarlet's Walk" [US|UK|CA] and finding it pleasant, quirky - echos of Kate Bush in places ("I can't see New York" in particular). Much more enjoyable than the samples I have listened to before. Her diction is pretty curious and I'd not been able to dig into the words very much, and her web site has few insights. As I've explored the lyrics, I have gradually realised there's more than meets the eye. The reviewer at Rolling Stone doesn't get it. He's missed the spiritual unity of the album, listening only to the melodies "Scarlet is all about Amos and her many musical personae, both as a singer and a keyboard player." But one of the comments to his review has caught the drift - see the one from 'veg2491' "This CD contains the most intelligent, complicated, subtle, and artistic post-9/11 reflection on America that I have encountered." Returning to the lyrics with that insight, suddenly the layers underneath the obvious click into focus and it's all there - the confused ghostly voice in 'I can't see New York', lost friends and innocence (now we too can see "through the eyes of Laura Mars") in 'gold dust', and more. The VH-1 interview gives more pointers - especially watch the video clip after the second question as it gives the tone of voice in which to understand the whole thing - even the porn star "Amber Waves" is a metaphor for the fallen grace of the nation (see the second clip). The MTV interview doesn't add much more beyond confirming the origins of the thoughts. If all you hear is the single ("a sorta fairytale" - which has a firefly glimmer to it) you may think it's a loved-and-lost album like the other reviewers.
As I listen I am caught up more and more in the album - an exploration of the spirit of the nation of America, of the emotions and experiences following September 11, 2001. This is the first work to come out of that event that leaves me with insight into the people and the place rather than with a sense of a person scrabbling to build a response and coming up instead with misplaced patriotism or a warmongering rage. Listen carefully to "Scarlet's Walk" and in amongst the strangeness you may hear, as I have, the outline of a soul's response to 9/11.
posted at 9:46 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far)
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Hawai'i has always been known as a friendly place, but you can imagine my surprise in Hawai'i to see signs everywhere advocating "Mink for Congress". Not something I had actually prepared myself for, I investigated further to understand whether I needed to prepare for a move from the auditorium to the House.
Finally I have reached home and I hope to be able to stay here (barring day-trips) until maybe February. It's been a busy three months - of the last ten weeks I've been home for two, so the family were using press photos to identify me when I came in through the door. In the midst of all the travel I have seen some beautiful things and some terrible things - you'll need to trawl the archives to see more - and even in flight some of the views were staggering, as I hope you can see from these photographs.
People often ask me why I need to travel so much in this era of the internet and of a massively connected society. The best answer I can provide them is to refer back to my experiences with collaborative conferencing in the early 90s. Our experiences showed us that the most effective person-to-person meetings (electronic - that was the name of the product) followed face-to-face meetings (physical ones). And indeed, the five hours of telephone conferences I have had today only worked in my opinion because all the parties involved well understood each other from physical meetings.