Watching the protests and mounting unrest in Egypt, it suddenly struck me, that indeed time has disappeared. Everything is happening simultaneously and there is really no way for any government or controlling agency in the world, to keep a lid on things. Yes, they can turn off the internet in a country, but they cannot keep people from comunicationg with each other and they cannot contain a wildfire from spreading across the border. Not surprisingly, Al Jazeera, the Quatar based satellite channel is playing a pivotal role in propelling insurgent emotions from one capital to the next. In fact, one could even say that the events of the past few weeks would not ahve been possible, without Al Jazeera.
This is not to take side of Al Jzeera, which certainly is not unbiased or impartial, but it seems to operate with less constraints than any other Arab outlet and it is a highly popular source of information. And this is what it does so well – provide information to the people, with a surprisingly broad coverage of world topics, certainly broader than the US networks offer their customers.
This is to direct our attention to the fact that everything that is happening in this moment is affecting everything else. What Obama says in his state of the union, directly affects the unrest in Tunisia, a protester in Cairo affects the farmer in Idaho, my own blogging contributes to the way my readers make their decisions to go about their day. Can you see it ? Thanks to the new media, we can even observe this phenomenon real time, and acknowledge with awe, that indeed time – the ally of the one who wishes to separate, hide, conceal or control – has gone.
We are observing the New Earth rising.
Seizing a Moment, Al Jazeera Galvanizes Arab Frustration
The Living Room 
New Earth?
That remains to be seen. Maybe in ten years we will know if anything has really changed.
I doubt that very much.
I also have my doubts about the new media. From my own experience I know that it is difficult to really understand what is really going on in an other country were people have a very different culture.
Well, we will see…but would you have ever believed that the iron curtain would disappear ? That Romania would be part of the EU or Latvia adopting the Euro ? That we are suddenly all intimately connected by microprocessors and fibre-optic ? That you can store 20,000 songs on a small ipod and take it on vacation ?
Fact is, the world is changing – and it is changing fast. Time does disappear indeed…
I don’t know Michaela. In a way you are right when you say that our world looks very different then a 100 years ago, a 1000 years ago, etc. And yes… we experience the world as being a lot smaller then it used to be. (It certainly isn’t flat anymore 😉 )
On the other hand…
Long time ago the Vikings were all over Europe and they were not known for there friendly behavior. The same can be said about many peoples. The Jews liked to throw babies of the cliffs, the Inca’s and Aztecs had some very unhealthy rituals, and I am sure we can find many other examples of barbarian human behavior in our History.
What is changed ?
How is life in Sudan? In Afghanistan? In the Palestine region? Any many countries in Africa? How free are people in China and Russia? Is it all so much different?
How free are we really?
Maybe I am just in a pessimistic mood. 🙂
Wait and see… 🙂