Revolution Comes via Text Messaging

Technology trumps repression

As http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3511’s “Great Firewall” may soon seem like France’s doomed bulwark, the Maginot Line. The 2008 Olympics will test China’s mettle in controlling dissidents, and democracy.

During the 2007 protests in http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2616, the media reported that the opposition was coordinating their protests by text messaging and getting video out of the country through wireless internet connections.

These tactics were so successful that the government limited international internet access; it later shut down all wireless connections for a period. Eventually the government was forced to restore service, as the shutdown incapacitated government forces as much as the opposition. We have now seen similar such phenomena in Tibet, China, and Kenya.In most of the third world before the coming of wireless connection—the internet and the cell phone—there were very few telephone lines, mostly to government officials and a few wealthy individuals. Service was poor, with frequent outages and poor line quality. Costs were exorbitant.

Waits for installation of new telephone lines were typically measured in years, not days, even for the wealthy and well connected. The telephone company was usually a government ministry or parastatal noted for its corruption and inefficiency. This made even the overseas telephone call beyond the reach of the average citizen and a long-distance call within the country something of an event.

There was normally one television channel, state owned, which broadcast to the capital city and a few other urban areas. Every newscast, everyday began as follows: “Today the president of the republic, His Excellency (insert local dictator’s name here) (show picture of dictator) reviewed/met with (cut to film of local dance group, tractor factory, etc.) to the sounds of the cheering citizens.”

The radio stations were of a similar ilk, but at least you could normally dance to the music. Anyone with any wealth or interest in the truth listened to the shortwave broadcasts of the BBC, Voice of America or Radio Netherlands (or, for French speakers, Radio France and the French versions of the BBC etc.). Newspapers were normally a little more informative about overseas news, but they were easily shut down if they began to annoy the local politicos.

http://speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=14838

2008-03-24