Information empowerment
Radio Netherlands reports from Zimbabwe on an inventive means of getting around Robert Mugabes new media censorship laws. While much journalism continues on shortwave radio outside of the country, one group of broadcasters continues to ply its trade within the city of Bulawayo in the south of the country.
Bulawayo Dialogue is now distributing its broadcasts around the city in the form of thousands of cassettes. The programmes, covering music, interviews, and political discussion, are described by the makers as information empowerment. Mugabes broadcasting law made no reference to the use of audio cassettes, and the group hopes it has avoided breaking the law.
Bulawayo Dialogue is one of the foreign-financed organizations prohibited from broadcasting within Zimbabwe. It is funded by the Open Society Foundation of South Africa and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Germany. The cassettes are being distributed twice a week in Bulawayos residential districts.
In the run-up to the Presidential contest next month, openDemocracy plans to run a series of pieces covering the story of Zimbabwe. Keep your eyes peeled.
openDemocracy on Air
The participants in openDemocracys great globalisation debate, David Held (London School of Economics) and Paul Hirst (Birkbeck College, University of London) will be appearing on BBC Radio 4s Thinking Allowed on 27 February. In conversation with Laurie Taylor they will be revisiting the arguments in the light of Davos and Porto Alegre. UK listeners can tune in at 92-95 FM at 4-4.30pm (GMT). Those outside the UK can listen in via the internet on the BBC website.
Stoning the philosophers
The BBC reports that the worldwide bestseller Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone has once again come up against the scissors of the censors. This time Harry and his Hogwarts pals have been banned from private schools in the United Arab Emirates. The charge against the little sorcerers is opposition to Islamic values.
Oddly, it is only the public schools, littered with ex-pats, that have received the ban. You can still buy Rowlings books in the shops, and watch the Warner Bros. film in the cinema. The fans, as everywhere else, flock in their thousands.
The book joins a prestigious line of banned texts in the UAE. The BBC offers a couple of examples, bizarrely summarizing one as, in which pigs see themselves as superior to other animals, and drink alcohol. Anyone who knows to what book they can possibly be referring, please contact the diary immediately. We assume such an Orwellian book is only available in the UAE.
Dell du Jour
The following message was sent to the openDemocracy World Diary.
Searching for a new printer for my computer this morning, I came across these questions in an online order form from a large IT supplier [Dell].
From the Dell order form:
Q2. What is the intended use of these product(s)?
Home
Commercial
Government / Civilian
Government / Military
Q3. Will these product(s) be exported to other countries?
Yes/No
If YES, please specify country or countries.
Q4. Will the product(s) be used in connection with weapons of mass destruction, i.e. nuclear applications, missile technology, or chemical or biological weapons purposes?
We say its good to know that International Terror is subject to such strict intelligence gathering.
Net.gov shenanigans - make your voice heard
Some of you may remember our interview with Esther Dyson about democratising the governance of the internet through ICANN, and her responses to the openDemocracy network's questions on that topic. The story has developed. It seems the nominal number of publicly elected directors is to be reduced from 9 to 6 (although only 5 were ever in practice directly elected).
ICANN is now consulting over ways to create a durable constituency of internet users. It's seeking expressions of interest from organisations who might be willing to get involved in this. The call went out more or less unannounced, to the frustration of various net.gov media (ICANNWatch, the ICANN Blog), and with a deadline of 1 February. That deadline is now extended to 15 February.
Curiously, ICANN began to survey individual constituents only on 1 February, with a deadline of 28 February for responses (go ahead, answer away).
They've got a lot to learn about democracy yet. But efforts are being made. Esther clearly gave the staff member responsible a bit of a push to send some emails on 30 January, and has just written a New York Times Syndicate article about why individuals should get involved. For a less policy-oriented but more amusing corner of the net's public sphere, try ICANNWatch's 'ICANN Monopoly Song'.
Quotes of the Week
'It is humiliating and demeaning if we feel we have to go and get our homework marked by Dick Cheney and Condi Rice. Weve got to stop thinking that the only policy we can have is one that doesnt get vetoed by the United States.
EU Commissioner for External Relations, Chris Patten
'Europe has a double responsibility: to teach America wisdom and to keep away from the damaging consequences resulting from US policies.'
President Saddam Hussein as quoted by the official Iraqi news agency after his meeting with Jorg Haider.
'It isnt really a sissy pretzel.'
First Lady Laura Bush appearing on the Jay Leno show, telling the nation how her husband was floored by a man-sized pretzel, and holding up the knock-out evidence.
Contact the Diary editor: dominic.hilton@opendemocracy.net
