Feb. 6th, 2011 09:48 pm
What do you want on four hours sleep?
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muckefuckJust got off the phone with my Bahraini friend Blondie. It was a very successful call in that it ended up working as a pep talk for the both of us. There's enough uncertainty about the events in Egypt (even if a Tiananmen scenario has basically been ruled out due to US pressure, there's still far to much scope for a Iranian-style governmental-victory-through-attrition) that we're both struggling to hold back our emotional investment, but on the other hand we can both identify enough portents of positive change in the Arab world that we're able to keep our cynicism at bay.
He's a fervent Pan-Arabist and sees more health in that movement that at any time in ages. Satellite television and the Net have done more than undermine the narratives imposed by the individual authoritarian regimes, they've given those opposing the status quo a common language for voicing their grievances. (One example he gave was that crowds in Egypt were singing the words of a Tunisian poet on the power claiming control of one's own destiny.)
A lot of our chat was about globalisation of information, particularly our disappointment that the "long tail" hasn't yet achieved what's been promised due to more to legal barriers than technological. (He mentioned iTunes, with its lack of "zoning" as being a prominent exception.) Although, as mentioned before, the current upheaval in the Arab World irresistibly reminds of Eastern Europe c1989, one thought I was left with was that I might find a better model a bit further back in the South American wave of democratisation. (Just an idle thought at this point until I look closer at the aetiology of that.)
I know I'm rambling; that's what the conversation was like. "I wish you were here," he said, "we could go out to dinner and talk about these things, drive around, hang out." Until then, we can make use of the same channels that have Gulfis talking to Lebanese, Tunisians talking to Syrians.
He's a fervent Pan-Arabist and sees more health in that movement that at any time in ages. Satellite television and the Net have done more than undermine the narratives imposed by the individual authoritarian regimes, they've given those opposing the status quo a common language for voicing their grievances. (One example he gave was that crowds in Egypt were singing the words of a Tunisian poet on the power claiming control of one's own destiny.)
A lot of our chat was about globalisation of information, particularly our disappointment that the "long tail" hasn't yet achieved what's been promised due to more to legal barriers than technological. (He mentioned iTunes, with its lack of "zoning" as being a prominent exception.) Although, as mentioned before, the current upheaval in the Arab World irresistibly reminds of Eastern Europe c1989, one thought I was left with was that I might find a better model a bit further back in the South American wave of democratisation. (Just an idle thought at this point until I look closer at the aetiology of that.)
I know I'm rambling; that's what the conversation was like. "I wish you were here," he said, "we could go out to dinner and talk about these things, drive around, hang out." Until then, we can make use of the same channels that have Gulfis talking to Lebanese, Tunisians talking to Syrians.