The Role of Blogs in International Armed Conflicts (part 2)

Take the killings in the Jihad Quarters of July 2006[1]. The author of Baghdad Burning shares her pain of losing a close friend during the massacre. She recounts how a thing as routine as finding someone to repair the generator can turn into a man’s last act. It shows the vast difference between her routines and that of millions in other countries. Yet, it also speaks of the thousands of similar experiences shared by those in the middle of armed conflict.

Baghdad Burning has been running for the past three years, the first entry being posted on August 17, 2003. It begins by saying “A little bit about myself: I'm female, Iraqi and 24. I survived the war. That's all you need to know. It's all that matters these days anyway.”

It has gained quite a following, even launching a play inspired by it which ran at the Edinburgh Festival[2]. The expansion to other media such as the stage proves its appeal not just to the online community but also to the general public. The author, undoubtedly, presents compelling material and her blog has made it possible for people to access such material which makes up her life.

Blogs from people inside war zones continue to remind the readers of the situation in such countries. It is not limited to Iraq. Blogs from those caught in the middle of the conflict in Lebanon have also appeared overnight. Siege of Lebanon (http://siegeoflebanon.blogspot.com) is one such blog.

Run by a group called Friends of Lebanon, it chronicles the changes brought about by war in the cities of Lebanon. The blog contains entries of such poignancy the loss felt by the authors of things that once were in their country is palpable[3]. Just as Burning Baghdad did, this blog gives an account of events as they happen to individuals who are most affected in a war-torn country.

Siege of Lebanon goes even a step further with its latest entry[4], as it tries to explain the manipulated photos of the Lebanese crisis floating around cyberspace. It goes on to answer criticisms hurled at the Lebanese quarter regarding the manipulation of war photos to make them appear worse than they actually are. The point made by the author in this last post was if CNN, which reported the doctoring of photos by Lebanese bloggers, was willing to report Arab manipulation of the photos, it must also report how the Israelis may have done the same.

In this last entry posted on the Siege of Lebanon, we see how the blog can become a powerful tool to repudiate claims made by the media giants such as the CNN. We see a faster response from those affected by news items shown all over the world through cable television, printed in the dailies and broadcast over the radio. The blog presents an alternative to the traditional letters to the editor which, in most cases are filtered by the same editors who chose which stories to run in the first place.

Blogs have also been put up calling for the stop of all armed struggle. It has provided those who wish for peace a venue for signature campaigns[5] for the release of political prisoners to fund raisings for peace[6].

With the convenience with which blogs can be accessed, it has become a veritable source of information. However, as with all types of media, the reader must be wary of which blogs to trust. As with the problem of accuracy and verifiability faced by the traditional sources of news, the same problems persist in the blogging world. One must be constantly aware that the blog, with its ease of use and wide availability can also be used as a tool for propaganda to sow seeds of misinformation. As with any other type of medium, the blog-reader is enjoined to have a discerning eye in ferreting out the truth from the blogs coming from all over the world.

---

[1] http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_riverbendblog_archive.html

[2] The play of Baghdad Burning ran at the Edinburgh Festival from 5-28 August 2006.

[3] http://siegeoflebanon.blogspot.com/2006/08/what-i-knew-of-dahieh.html

[4] http://siegeoflebanon.blogspot.com/2006/09/siege-of-lebanon_09.html

[5] http://www.friendsoftibet.org/global/campaigns.html

[6] http://www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar.php?calid=17405

The Role of Blogs in International Armed Conflicts (Part 1)

There was a time when armed conflict used to isolate an entire people or country. During the Desert Storm, first hand accounts from people living in Kuwait were rare. The world often had to rely on “ingenious” news reporters who managed to smuggle into the war-torn area and get an exclusive. Things have definitely changed since the first George Bush launched that attack.

In the recent attacks against Iraq, more and more firsthand accounts from the middle east has reached the rest of the world through personal blogs. The modern technology equally available in Iraq and in the rest of the world has allowed those in the middle of armed conflict to reach out and give their side of the story. Baghdad Burning (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com), is one such account.

The blog is written by a woman who describes it as a “Girl Blog, let’s talk war, politics and occupation”. It is a firsthand account of her experiences in the streets of Baghdad from the start of the American war against terrorism up to the present “reconstruction” of Iraq. Daily experiences such as wearing a hijab have been given new meaning by the author.

Baghdad Burning gives the reader an insight of what the war has done to the regular Iraqi woman. It gives an intimate portrayal of the fears and thoughts of a woman caught in the midst of armed struggle. An average woman in the Philippines would be worried about which bag to carry. The author of Baghdad Burning is worried about carrying her Kalashnikov.

It talks of a woman’s fear of leaving her house without a hijab, the traditional garb worn by a Muslim woman over hear head. The presence of the Americans have driven even the most fearless of women into donning a veritable symbol of Muslim faith—regardless of her belief in the religion.

The blog is only one of many that has mushroomed since the beginning of the assault on Iraq. These modern-day Anne Franks provide an accurate and disturbingly real picture of how life goes on despite frequent rounds of mortar shells. Indeed, the power of blogs has reached new heights by bridging the gap between the world and a war-torn Iraq. It has given the ordinary man in Iraq an avenue for self-expression, an escape from the daily life in a country ravaged by war. No one can claim total isolation anymore. Be it by choice or by default, isolation has almost become a thing of the past. The world indeed has become smaller. Even the traditional barriers to communication have somehow ceased to exist.

But it goes beyond being just an avenue for self-expression. The blog has enabled the rest of the world to get a glimpse of life inside a war-torn country. To experience the effects of war with fresh eyes, reliving the stories as told by those who are affected the most—citizens of such a country and not by the foreign media who are often saddled with motives of angle and story-selling.

a client for an events company i started with my friend put me in a bind recently, triggering a near-heart failure in the middle of a crucial study session. the incident involved a missing final layout for a job we urgently needed to send out to the printer. she was dumping all the work on me and there was absolutely no way i could study for two exams, wing a meeting with another supplier, prepare for a production meeting AND layout a new design. so i went home fuming and close to tears, which meant i absolutely had to rant. good thing a friend of mine was online. he could barely get a word in as i poured out all my frustrations regarding the lost layout and the seeming unreasonableness of the demands of the client.

after telling me things will be okay, my friend told me he would do the layout for me, which involved rendering a new artwork for the design. he managed to do this while attending to his day job as a trainer. it was close to eleven pm and he was slaving away on this new design while i studied as hard as i could under the circumstances. of course it was only 3 pm on his side of the world. you see my friend lives all the way in wales.

by the time 1 am manila time arrived, he had a new layout ready for me to present to the event's producers. as i was toying with spins for the new layout, a thought entered my head: the layout was created in wales, was transmitted to the philippines via instant messenger and is intended to be used in the philippines. i wonder, which laws would apply, that of the philippines or that of wales?

in this day and age of easy transfers of creative works, artists and client rarely stop and think of such things as which laws will be applicable. and this becomes important in light of determining who owns the copyright to the work since welsh and philippine laws may provide for different terms of ownership.

hopefully, my client does not end up using the layout for anything else other than what it was intended for or that even if she does, my friend would not take offense and think of it as infringement of his rights. otherwise, i would be in a very tight bind.

Thank You For Sharing

I am a big fan of Japanese animation, or anime, as it is more popularly called. I have been since I was in grade school, watching Daimos, Voltes V, Astroboy, and other popular afternoon cartoons we were bombarded with during the latter part of the Martial Law era and the late 80’s. This was my rite of passage to anime “geekdom”. As my appetite for this kind of entertainment grew even more, I found myself hunting for lesser known anime and manga (Japanese comics) in obscure little shops and would go so far as watching those shown in the Chinese and Japanese cable channels, without understanding a thing since none of them were subtitled or subbed in English. Discovering new and exciting anime always gave me a feeling of satisfaction, not to mention a certain amount of pride. Anime has brought me so much joy, it’s embarrassing. But I’m not writing this piece to rant about the wonderful world of anime, which could go on for more than a hundred pages or so, rather, I would like to expound on the virtues of torrents and my eternal gratitude to whoever came up with it.

Being an anime enthusiast, I used to spend so much cash buying or renting anime VHS tapes and later on, CD’s. It was an expensive hobby, although it shouldn’t have been. A sign would always come rolling by on the screen “Free subs! Not for sale or rent. If you paid for this, you’ve been duped!” or something along those lines. Clearly, these were free and I’ve definitely been duped. The problem is there was no other way to get them for free at that time. Most of these ever zealous and amazingly generous people, who subtitled these shows out of sheer love for them, were an ocean away and I had no idea how to get them. Nothing comes for free after all. At least, in those days. Now, anyone who has internet access can download just about anything. For free (but yes, of course you have to pay for an internet connection).

It started with Napster, and I remember just how much happiness that program brought me. The idea of “sharing” music files with virtual strangers through the net was perfect for audiophiles like me. But with copyright problems that forced Napster to change its policy, I thought I’d never get to download music again for free. Then came Kazaa, Limewire and other similar programs, which created an even broader range of files to download – from music to movies to programs. How cool was that? Now, there are torrents, which have made downloading multiple files much faster, especially if there are many users downloading the same file/s simultaneously. The more peers downloading, the merrier. Hoorah for sharing!

Yes, some would call it illegal, again with issues of copyright involved. But then one could also look at it from another perspective – that is, programs like these are just a channel for people to share their files across the globe. Admittedly, this is a simplistic view, but it works fine for people who would like think of this as fair use. Aren’t we just spreading our joy of the things we love? Altruism breeds true in us. Or so we tell ourselves, to erase any guilty feelings (if any) when downloading.

Wired

i have a confession to make, the past couple of months, i have been making do with a humiliatingly slow connection. yes, dial-up connection still exists and i have been on it since november. it was slow. it was frustrating. it was limiting. "slow and steady wins the race" my bum.

but it was steady. remember the earthquake that cut off the asian region last december? while the rest of asia was plunged into information darkness (the quake knocked down most lines of communication, killing internet and some digital phone connections), i was slowly and steadily crawling my way through cyberspace. the stone-age technology of dial up allowed me to creep into the internet, finding detours in the wrecked fiber-optic thoroughfare.

however, i am not at all sad to let my dial up go. it's time it said goodbye and took a much needed rest. i can once again surf and stay online--- while using my landline. i have missed the landline. yes, people, you can now call me and someone would answer the phone. not because they want to, but because THEY CAN!

of course getting this dsl connectoon was not without troubles. and at this, i shake my fist at the giants in PLDT who offered that crazy smart BRO wireless broadband crap. and yes, it is crap. signal from their smart cellsites is at its best intermittent, often dying on you just when you remember the title of the song you have been trying to download for the past couple of days. the crappy wireless service from PLDT forced me to switch to dial-up before ultimately shopping for a new dsl provider. i found one in BAYANTEL, whose offices is just a stone's throw away from my house. since i already had a bayantel-provided landline, i decided to get the cheapest connection they were offering... and much to my surprise and glee, it even got cheaper since the good people at bayantel bundled the dsl connection with my existing bayantel phoneline. yay to bayantel!

but that was a month ago. it took them a month to finally get around to installing my dsl. i played phone wars with their customer service agents for days to no avail. they said their network was saturated and i had no other choice but to wait while they upgrade in order to accomodate me. at this point, i was already resigned to a lifelong reliance on my dial-up. i already abandoned dreams of dowloading the latest songs from paolo nutini, of seeing the who's who at the upcoming awards shows. and to add insult to injury, i accidentally yanked my television cable from the wall, splitting the cable and sending me into total entertainment news abyss.

i guess everything happens for a reason. the slow dial-up connection gave me time to ruminate and reflect as i wait for a particular webpage to upload. the downtime gave me a chance to clean my laptop keyboard. and the never-ending wait made me appreciate my brand spanking new dsl connection even better. yay! so yes, aside from my daily mmorning caffeine fix, there is now something else that is keeping me wired. see you online! :)

Heroes and Pirates

My favorite new tv show for this season’s got to be Heroes. It’s a story about certain individuals who, during the course of the series, discovers that they possess special abilities. It’s an eclectic mix of characters: the naïve Japanese drone who can teleport, the addict who can paint the future, the invincible cheerleader, the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde “like” mom, the dedicated cop who can hear thoughts, and the idealistic kid brother who, like his ‘kuya’, could fly. On the surface, IMO, it’s a revival of the X-Men plot. But who doesn’t like X-Men? (Personally, I know no one who fits this category.) I think for the most part, our fascination with this type of story is the seemingly remote possibility that anyone of us, mere mortals, can possess such awesome abilities and be able to save the world. (Not too shabby, huh?)

Not too long ago, cable tv was the only medium that allowed us to watch American, British and other imported tv shows. And usually, they’re shown a season later or, if you’re lucky, just several episodes later. DVD copies of tv shows were just too darn expensive and hard to find. But that was before the dawn of Bit torrents.

Bit Torrent is the name of a peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution protocol, and is the name of a free software implementation of that protocol. Users only need to download their desired torrent and open it with a Bit Torrent client, e.g., BitComet, Azureus, uTorrent, etc.. As an innovation, Bit Torrent is an excellent distribution network for digital materials. Many users declare that only by using BitTorrent technology, with its dramatically reduced demands on networking hardware and bandwidth, could they afford to distribute and share their files.

However, the current stigma around Bit Torrent is that bit torrent is all about piracy. There are innumerable torrent sites in the Internet today which provide torrents for copyrighted and licensed materials. Torrents for music, software, film and videos, games and any other media type are aplenty online. Not to mention that it doesn’t take a genius to use bit torrents.

And while Section 33(b) of the E-Commerce Act provides that piracy or the unauthorized copying, reproduction, dissemination, distribution, storage, uploading, downloading, communication, making available to the public, electronic signature or copyrighted works including legally protected recordings and phonograms or information material on protected works, through the use of telecommunication networks, such as, but not limited to, the internet, in a manner that infringes intellectual property rights, shall be penalized by fine and/or imprisonment, I wonder if the Philippines is fully equipped to implement this particular provision. Undoubtedly, downloading an episode of Heroes through bit torrent is a violation of the aforementioned section. But does the NBI or the agency tasked to monitor such violations possess the sophisticated equipment and enough manpower to completely put the fear of god to all amateur pirates out there?

That remains to be seen.

Cybercrime and the Trojan Horse

My pc caught a Trojan horse virus today. Trojan horse. Witty. I’ll give it that. But since it’s my computer that was infected, I can’t say I appreciate the humor of calling it after the Greek gift/trap. I’m no computer geek, so it’s very very frustrating when my pc gets any kind of virus. The technical mumbo jumbo of computers leaves me glassy-eyed and dumbfounded. No matter how simple it is to take out, I get nervous at the idea that my computer has a virus lurking somewhere, ready to wreak some form of havoc. And I get even more nervous when I realize I don’t know what to do. Although I think my computer is fine now after having Googled for a remedy, I wasted the whole day searching the net for some answers to my problem and following whatever advise I thought would help cure my ailing computer.

Almost everyone has experienced having his or her computer infected with a virus. In an internet forum, one guy revealed that he got it several times a week and it was routine for him to purge his computer of these buggers. This is something that, for years since the emergence of the internet, we’ve had to deal with. We’ve been so used to these viruses that we don’t automatically see virus dissemination as a criminal offense. Yes, it is offensive. But a crime? We easily associate crime with traditional ways of committing theft, fraud, assault, and other illegal activities, wherein direct physical contact is present between the offender and the complainant. A virus seems too petty or commonplace to have to relate to crime, not to mention that those who instigate this are nameless faceless strangers whom an ordinary person would find hard to track. So we tend to dismiss it as simply part of the risks of owning a computer. Once we find that our computer is infected, the first thing we do is look for a solution: maybe ask a friend for help, get a virus scan or call a computer technician. If we lose some data in the process, then it’s just too bad. We get on with our lives. We don’t go reporting to the police of a crime committed against us, even though it is a violation of one’s property rights as it involves unauthorized access to our property – the computer.

Although we now have Republic Act 8792, also known as the E-Commerce Act of 2000 (thank you, “love bug”), which penalizes such conduct and a cybercrime law in the works, availing the law to bring the hacker to justice is still too bothersome for many internet users who are victims of these viruses. Unless the virus is such that it infects a great number of computers, whether in a national or global scale, to the point of destroying many files and programs and impairing business or government productivity – as in the case of the high-profile “I love you” virus – victims would not turn to the law for help. In the first place, problems of identity (of the offender), jurisdiction, criminal investigation and enforcement arise when addressing this crime under the law. Since cybercrime law is relatively a new field, there are many loopholes in the legal process which require much study and discussion. Until we come up with the proper rules and procedures to adequately and effectively set an environment that can promote security in online communication, users would have to rely on themselves and make do with remedies that are readily available.

Let’s just hope I’m virus-free for the next couple of months.