USA Gives India a Warning About Trade

Modern day Imperialism at its finest. Isn't it lovely that in this modern day where freedom is said to exist a large world power is telling a country who to trade with or else? It just goes to show that absolutely nothing has changed since Columbus landed in the Caribbean in 1492, except for the states which exploit. Instead of Britain, Portugal and Spain, it is the United States who imposes power on the weaker states.

Kony 2012 and It's Impact

Over the past 2 weeks people have been going insane about Kony 2012 and how we must all "Make Kony famous to the world" so that he can be captured.
Video here:

So I am all for taking down someone who kidnaps children and forces them to fight in armies and become sex slaves and initially I was on board retweeting, tumblring and facebooking all this information about Kony 2012 and then it hit me... do I really know anything about this Kony, about the Invisible Children Organization and about Uganda's situation other than what was fed to me in the video? No I didn't and with all the hype and outrage surrounding this Kony 2012 issue I didn't even bother to question what was under the surface and what is the real agenda behind this video. Interestingly enough I found out that this organization does collect donations but only 34% actually goes towards the actual cause. The rest of profits goes towards staff, and to making movies to promote themselves. Also there is the issue of where is Kony? There are rumors that Kony's army hasn't struck in over 5 years and that a lot of the footage shown in the video is over 5-10 years old. It brings forth the question of how much we intake from the media without truly questioning it's content and what is behind the message. This Kony video proved two things, the large impact of social media on social action and how powerful "group think" is in this modern world. We do not question, we just allow these hegemonic forces to impact the way we think, without thinking for ourselves.

According to this video Kony is not even in Uganda anymore...

The Coverage of the 99%... Oh wait, what coverage?

The Occupy Movement has grown into a global movement thanks to the impact of social media and globalization. Persons from the United States to Japan have taken to the streets to protest the growing gap between the poor and the rich; the 1% rich vs the 99%. I became interested late last year when these protests picked up steam and I have been following it ever since but I have noticed something. The occupy movement is no doubt huge and something that is imposing and showing change in the way people think so with something this huge you'd think it'll be all over BBC and CNN and any major news station but guess what... Nothing. I mean absolutely nothing is being covered on this occupy movement. No footage is being shown of the protest, police brutalities and the fights for equality. Why?
Maybe because some of the main themes of occupy are things like this:

 Or this:

All themes that attack major corporations and question who owns the power. This brings into question, who owns the media? Who has the power here to decide that this movement which is questioning and criticizing large corporate powers, is not important enough to receive worldwide coverage. After all if something is not covered by the media then it does not exist. CNN is a large, international news network which is owned by Ted Turner a media mogul who also is affiliated which television channels like Cartoon Network and TNT. He is no doubt part of what occupy refers to as the 1%. Why would the media cover any movement which threatens to question the dominant powers when media itself is part of these large corporations which people are ranting and raving about? That's right, they won't. It is not part of their agenda and the media itself is one of the socializing agents of society so they won't air material that allows for the questioning of society's set social structure. The media itself can be used to inform but also to censor and twist things to suit the agenda of the elite. Remember the videos which came out about Guantanamo Bay and the torture prisoners went through which was not aired in the US until a long while after the controversy had exploded? Why was it not aired, because the media itself is owned by persons who are in high positions in society and if they want to make something none existent to the public they can simply not cover it, like the occupy movement.

Media consumption....

For the course of exactly 13 hours I monitored the media I took in from 7:00am to 8:00pm. Initially I thought it to be nearly impossible due to the overwhelming amount of mass media that surrounds me everyday, yet somehow I managed to keep a record of these.


7am to 8:30am 
Twitter. Through twitter I was linked to the ACTA Bill and the ACTA petition website.
Tumblr: images and information about the ACTA Bill and its effects.

8:30am to 12pm
iPod Music (on the way to school)
Youtube.com- Matrix clip where persons analysed the movie in terms of post modernism
                     - Clip of the Matrix movie
                     - US Campaign of the Gulf War: Use of technology in air warfare
12pm to 5pm
Music on iPod once again
Facebook.com-Various comedic images
Twitter.com
The Huffington Post- "Elinor Sauerwein, 96-Year-Old Millionaire, Lived Poor And Quietly Donated $1.7   Million"
RT.com- A news story on how the US arrested someone over threatening twitter posts
Tumblr.com- religious posts.
                   - Image and story of a Thai male who married his dead female lover.

5pm to 7pm
iPod music again
Radio playing music 
Billboard advertisement


Throughout this entire exercise, what was observed was the lack of local media consumed within the twelve hour period. All of the media mentioned within this post originates mainly from the United States, this is especially so with the news stories.

In terms of the news stories consumed especially the one which reported on the person that got arrested due to twitter messages which threatened the United States Government, one could view this as a way of RT.com displaying to its readers the control that the United States government has over internet services and it also shows the fact that the government may in fact be monitoring and tracking things that are posted on popular social websites. Therefore it helps to reinstate some sort of control over the internet and what persons may post about.

The experience itself was quite interesting, especially since I found myself hyper sensitized to the world around me. It therefore goes to show that it is almost impossible to go any amount of time without consuming anything mass media related and honestly if I were to try I think I'd go mad.

A raid on TnT media sending out a message...

So imagine you're sitting in your office calmly and peacefully and then "blam" police enters your building with weaponry, yanking open drawers, shuffling through your papers, asking questions they have no right to and  oh gorsh, seizing those precious articles that you took so long to write? Well Hey it's just another day in TnT! According to the Express Newspaper:

"A police team comprised of nine officers from the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau (ACIB) and led by Senior Supt Solomon Koon Koon, searched the desk of senior reporter Andre Bagoo allegedly in relation to an article written by him on December 20, 2011 about a row between Integrity Commission chairman Ken Gordon and deputy chairman Gladys Gafoor."

Thus far this action by the ACIB is being condemned not only by the public, but also by public figures who have attempted to remove themselves from the situation completely. This raid is being viewed by the public and also by myself as a direct threat to the media within Trinidad and Tobago. It instills fear and may send a message to persons in the media that nothing unfavourable should be reported or else their basic safety, privacy and the confidentially between journalist and his or her sources are threatened. The content is also threatened as journalists may not feel the need to express freedom of thought and to expose issues, especially those relating to government issues, for fear of being harassed and later silenced. What really gives the right, for this Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau to blatantly invade someone's privacy and condemn someone for doing their duty? Ironically enough doesn't this raid make their actions seem corrupt in the end?

Ha, well yes. People of the media, it is time to go back to the days of writing under pseudo names for protection of yourself and for protection of your sources. After all, no one wants to get raided.... 

Google to Censor Blogs.....

Google has followed in the steps of Twitter and will take steps to censor its blogging service, Blogger. According to the article on RT.com (http://rt.com/usa/news/google-starts-censoring-blogs-375/) Google will censor  messages on blogs based on country restrictions in order to comply with the country's local laws. This could be seen as a method for Google to protect themselves from various lawsuits but it could also be seen as government censorship from various countries.

The internet is seen as a powerful tool for social action and protest and with the censorship of social media such as Twitter and Blogger, one could see this as an attempt of the governments of the world to hinder social action, protest and free speech. This could be applied to the Marxist theory where one could view this as the elite attempting to protect their established position in society by crippling tools that facilitate social change. As seen with the revolution in Egypt and the on going Occupy Wall Street Protests, social media has become a huge driving force in expression on various opinions and in organizing rallies and protest. However with these services being regulated by government laws and being blocked due to a country's local laws, action against the larger powers are hindered. Questions arise when I contemplate this coming change...What does Google determine as being a violation of a country's local laws? If non violent movements are seen as  violating a government's law, will they be shushed and blocked from the public's views in an attempt to stop these movements all together? Can this itself be viewed as Google's partnership with powerful Government powers to hinder free speech on the internet?

Image from: Info Carnivore