"We are tired of the World Media being dominated by the West"

what's your point,western media allows freedom of speech & expression as some of the worst critism of war has come from west.

if you really want to understand the true meaning of freedom of expression than ask salman rushdie.
theo van gaugh lost his life for criticizing islam.

newspapers of muslim countries(which constitute large part of asia)don't even know what this freedom of speech is.

go and ask tasleema nasreen.even west bengal has banned her book.

inspite of all these example you selectively single out western media for not allowing freedom of speech.

what is that which is stopping you from criticizing freedom of expression in muslim countries.afraid of a fatwa???

this is nothing but hypocrisy mr. shekhar.

why did you change the heading from 'Freedom of Speech ? Freedom of Expression ?' to 'blog. or the end of ....'.

sorry sachin, u are quite right, i was in the middle of writing the blog when I accidentally pushed the post button. The blog is now tempered BUT :

I have often and openly criticized lack of freedom of expression universally and openly. In newspapers, at public forums. And no I am not important enough to be afraid of a Fatwa. I am just part of millions all over the world that do that.

And I do openly say that the freedom of expression is lacking in countries all over the world - and this blog is directed not at at the US but my own country.

I do believe that the world is too dominated by Western Media and therefore a singular point of view. But I do believe that it will change now. I do believe there will be a struggle for the hearts and minds of people world wide.

I do, for example,thank the editors of Al Jazeera channel for bieng there. I was at a forum where the head of homeland security was in discussion with the editors of Al Jazeera/CNN - and in reading out statistics of programming, it was obvious that Al Jazeera tried much harder to bring in all points of view than most Western TV channels did.

Shekhar

Shekhar & Sachin: I missed where the connection is about "Western media" stiffling our voices....
since the vertical integration of media conglomerates, well Shekhar, you know better than I since you have to "butt heads" with the "swamp marketing" of....anyway...

...but, I did get the fabulous notion of what this blog is pointing directly at; the near-total inability of any individual or institutional power to be able to govern the input/output happening worldwide--via the Internet!!!!

It is truly staggering in that countries like Cuba and North Korea, previously unstoppable in their power structure's abilities to utterly control their peoples, and "silence" any dissenting voices therein--are now the entities experiencing the stranglehold-of-expression on their suppressive and oppressive regimes.

Now, wherever there is oppresion, repression, suppression of anyone's innate desire to communicate with others--there is the Internet popping up, with it's "invisible lines of communication," and piercing the silence-of-restraint, and all the "muzzled voices," with the Portal-of-Expression, in its place.

And No One, and No Institutional Entity(s), are/have been able to stop this most uniquely and uncontrolled of mediums.

And no matter how vehemently we disagree or insult each other through this medium, no matter how provoked to defend or attack, no one can be directly physically injured or killed here, for what is said!

That is both new and different in the annals of human affairs!

Thanks for the inspirational reminder Shekhar, of what the "freedom of speech and press" truly might become, not just on the American stage that experiments with this notion--but the world stage as we feel our way into to exploring this most unlimited "non-local" domain! Dave

Shekhar,
Sounds really neat. Except that, when everyone starts blogging, and talking about things - it is going to sound a bit like chaos, and sensible, directed voices will be drowned out by the not-so-sensible voices.
In fact, I have a hard time finding anything with substance (IMHO) in the chaos of blogdom on the internet.
To give a forum to everyone to speak their thoughts is a great idea. Yet - if you do not specifically promote the ones that are worth hearing over the ones that are not worth hearing, then the resulting information-overload/chaos will be as good as the situation of there being no forum to speak out.

And what is worth promoting can only be decided by the promotors, obviously...

Ergo, every popular forum must eventually have a direction/agenda, or drown in the ocean of inumerable, discoherent voices.

But, perhaps, you have taken care of that by making sure that one can blog here only by invitation? or am I mistaken?
- Atracus

Yes, Atracus. U r right about the chaos. But perhaps when there is oppression, for example, you will find that the voices will become fairly singular in standig against it,

and,

the idea is to create platforms. This is what we are trying in this Blog. To create a platform on which people can voice their thoughts in the form of intelligent and forceful discussions. not sure where this will go, but I think it will create it's own voice and platform ultimately. As will other blogs.

Not quite there yet, but as Deepak Chopra says "we co-create each other". So I am looking forward to Co- Creating this Blog

Shekhar

Also, Shekhar, I am not sure if blogging (or signing petitions while sitting in front of the TV, for that matter) is a real medium of social change.
I think its entertainment, fun and informative -
Why can't we leave it at that, instead of wanting to believe that we have found a way to change the world?

Do you think gandhiji could have changed the world faster if he had blogged?

Perhaps, the description of the critic could also be applid to a blogger "Those who can do it - do it. Those who cannot - blog about it"
This is not to run down blogging - at the end of it, its great entertainment - and I personally think its one of the most powerful tools of social documentation. Centuries later, historians will look at blogs to determine the character of an era.
People wil read up the blogs of their great-great-great grandfathr to find out what kind of an animal he was, to share his moments of sorrow, joy and triumph.
In these ways, blogging is a brilliant idea.

At the most its one way of talking to the world - yet, a blog is unsubstantiated. There is no way to know that the info presented in a blog is credible or not. Credibility is, at the best, shaky.

So, an important question to you - how much will you trust the content of a blog?

And what is the position of a medium which has zero credibility in anyone's eyes?

I have always felt bemused at my friends who sent online petitions to be signed, who felt that the petition was any kind of a contribution to the world, or that it would effect any change. A means to feel good about oneself? Sure. (a la "Hey, I helped the tsunami victims by starting an online petition urging the government to look into the matter. Thats my good deed for the day. Now lemme see whats the cricket score").

You've heard of "Think and grow rich", or "how to make millions while sitting at home" or "Lose 30 pounds without dieting or exercising".
Only, this time the line is "Change the world without moving from your PC".
Thats all for now,
Regards
- Atracus

Shekhar,

Appreciate you sentiments

Can envision the future of the internet as a potent unifying force

Can estimate the surge of will towards the common goal

yet not finding the motivation

the word purposelessness cropping up

maybe a case of too-good-to-be-true

or too steeped in passivity!!!

NEED HELP

Atracus : Ofcourse blogging is for entertainment - for those that want it so. I blog because I revell in the idea of sharing ! The word is Sharing. Someone out there is sharing my thoughts, my guilt, my Desires, my passion

shekhar

shekhar: Very invigorating post ..seriously it's a revolution and it's already there!! the need of the hour is to make it available to people at large and celebrities like you be the torch -bearers of this revolution . I also think stalwarts like T N seshan, Naipaul , Amartya Sen should at least be requested to be part of this.No matter how busy they are, if they can find some time, a few words from people who have "been thare,done that" ignites a terrific spark in the consciousness of common populace and in time not too far "collective consciousness/collective will" won't be a far cry . Thanks for your efforts at igniting minds...

David: very well put.. "no matter how vehemently we disagree or insult each other through this medium, no matter how provoked to defend or attack, no one can be directly physically injured or killed here, for what is said!"
This forum gives chance for the conscious self of one to interact with that of another..what a beautiful thing it is!! You don't know how I look, how I dress ,how my outer paraphernalia looks like but you are just getting to interact with my invisible conscious self which people normally miss out when dealing with in personal meetings and discussions. So here is the best opportunity for any cognitive soul to bare his doubts,apprehensions and ideas open to all,listen to others ,agree to agree/disagree with others and move towards achieving a better conscious-self which in turn would be yet another brick in the wall though BUT with a difference...rough edges smothened and more in harmony with the rest.. awesome man!!

regards
Kamlesh

kaveeta, purposelessness is not as purposeless as u think. It is the idea of germinating. Hey, but u blogged - right ? You shared - right ? Shekhar

Since this blog is about blogs, (and I spoke about the credibility of a blog in an earlier comment) I am writing this to check whether the authorship of my comments is protected on this site.
I have written my name as Shekhar. If the name is protected, and my input is rejected, then everything is fine.
If not, then, someone else can spoof my name or Shekhar's name and then there's a basic problem, because then I cannot trust that a comment from someone calld Shekhar is coming from Shekhar Kapur, or something from atracus is really originating from atracus.
Lets see what the author-name of this comment shows up as.
- Atracus

Yes .But truly I think I responded more to your enthusiasm, I could almost see the gleam in your eye and the hope in you heart and that struck a chord. I guess honesty of purpose is contagious.

atracus
u are right, authorship of posts is not protected. never thought of that ! guess we have to assume that the posts are honest - u were !

shekhar

Shekhar,
Since you have taken so much effort to create this forum and put in your valuable time, I think its worthwhile to also add ways to protect the IDs of your blog-authors (and if possible, also of the those who comment).
See, internet content is all about credibility. If you don't protect it, you leave the door open for all kinds of things.
Also, on the internet, my username is my Brand. My ID, atracus (or your ID, or blog-author's) has a certain brand-equity and value attached to it and you should make a lil bit of additional effort and protect it.
Of course, you would know how many spoofs happen on the internet, for the sake of creating mischief, or for pulling someone's leg, and even for purely malicious reasons.
I hope you shall kindly look into this - its quite important to protect against impersonation, by taking simple precautions.
- Atracus

@Shekhar: a very valid point..about the authorship of the comments...I think it can be done by not allowing anonymous comments ..to be able to leave a comment a person must give his/her own blog account-details or mail account-details (to be checked with

Kamlesh: I've enjoyed you're posting name--phippogriff--any relation to something like "Potter's Hippogriff," from the Harry Potter series--or is that a coincidence of my mind???

In any event--it sparks a good feeling! Dave

"For they are about to loose the one thing that gives them their Power.

The Power over your mind. The Power over the collective mind."

Shekhar,

Well thank you sir for this space it's my first blog site. I now understand what you meant in your question to me of whether I thought the internet is a great leveller. Tubelight!! Yes I see it now.

Personally I can relate with almost all that you have said. On the very positive side, exposure to different views and the tremendous advantage of being able to share first hand experiences and happenings all over the world and almost in real time, is what makes this a marvel for me.

I am sure over time we will realise what a wonderful chance it gives us to understand each other; individuals, nations and cultures and we can make it the engine to bring about positive change, understanding and peace.

My one slight regret, at times, is that I wish I could put a face to all the wonderful people I come across and reach out to them or give them a hug or slap them on the back.....................orjust slap them!!!! :)

@ David: Thank you David!
Phippogriff is a legendary creature, now almost inaccessible to either knowledge or belief. The reason for its great rarity is that griffins despise horses, which they regard with the same feelings a dog has about a cat. The hipp

As Atracus has pointed out, protection of identities should be a simple bit of programming and should be done.

Atracus has also pointed out to the possibility of chaos resulting from the ultimate freedom of expression and sharing that blogging represents. The internet is easily the most democratic place on earth. Quite clearly, internet democracy is still in its infant stage. Hence, an apprehension that the most democratic place can be a most chaotic place is a trifle scary.

I doubt if any of us is capable of handling a totally democratic place. I equate a totally democratic place to a place devoid of any kind of authority. If I am right about this, are we actually capable of sustaining such a world?

Shekhar, it's true, the internet is a fantastic tool and gives us a whole new freedom of expression.

But there is one thing I'd like to comment on: my freedom of expression is not limited by states, governments, religions or corporations- it is limited by myself. You are speaking about a revolution, and want to rebel against the propaganda of those in power... dear Shekhar, the power is YOURS and has always been. You don't have to paint an enemy you can rebel against if you accept that your mind and its content is your responsibility and not someone else's. TV channels, newspapers, etc. cannot take or limit your power, they are just mirroring your old beliefs and showing you what you have created. Don't separate yourself from what you have created as a human being, don't avoid your responsibility, projecting it out there, on that terrible, evil, formless mass called media, religion and politics. WE have created religion, media and politics, and they represent us. WE are changing and want our media, religion and politics to represent us. Perfect. But don't project the responsibility out there together with the power, understand that the change, the revolution have to happen inside your own mind, if you want freedom. The responsibility is yours, and only your own mind is limiting you.

With love,
Aurora

Shekhar,

Sorry to be forthright here(ok, I'm using the freedom of expression here:-); but the power of Internet (& that of Blogging) is already known to most of us. ..Might be, for the celebrity bandwagon, it is like a new toy found so this euphoria!

But one thing I truly admire of all you celebrities here: You are amazing in your time management.. no wonder you find time (& have inclination)to be on line for blogging!

I don't know about others (I guess most of them are an elite bunch with personal interaction with you/Deepak et al) But for a lesser mortal like me, this blog provided a medium to be in touch('real time' in geek language, or call it e-touch) with you guys,which does give a kinda new high!

Shekhar and Sachin - It is absolutely accurate to say that the media is dominated by the West. Anyone who speaks english, and grows up on english books in India literally echos the voice of the west (even the criticisms are squarely within the boundaries prescribed by the west). Even Japan and Korea echo the western voice with glee. It is only China that is holding its own, albeit in exchange for a repressive regime. And the western media (and the education system) is in turn manipulated by a few powers who present the western Grand Narrative as they see fit. We have a long, long way to go before freedom of speech finds true expression. Yes, the internet is heaven-sent and blogs are the icing on the cake.

Shekhar & Peter Pan,

I'm kinda new to blogging, but I can see where it could be quite addictive. We all want to be heard and blogging gives us another voice.

The identity thing needs to be figured out, though. Perhaps the solution is as simple as running the entries through a filter that matches the name on the entry to the registered email address. The entry is rejected if the name on the entry does not match the registered email address. I'm no geek, but this would seem a good first step, anyway.

The potential for blogging is very powerful. I see it as a unifying force in the world and creation in one of its rawest form.

Thank you, to the creators of intentBlog.

Bo Wise:

About the identity-
Did not the bard famously utter "What's in a name?" :)

Secondly, 'what is said' is more important that 'who said it'.

Thirdly, when you are wearing a mask, you can be direct, there are no fears of 'how-this-post-will-be-taken' & 'what-will-people-react' etc.

The true test of character lies in using the mask & still not using any foul language/personal attacks etc.

Shekar,

I wish i were half as optimistic as you are about blogs. Its just people hooking up with the same bunch of people they hang out with.

Look at yourself, its a group blog by you and your friends. Tends to be a self-glorifying, peer pressure pseudo-intellectual conversation. Driven by fads instead of passion.

Its like masturbation..its fun but its not the real thing!

Btw, I saw a news report about Nandita Das blogging and followed links to get here.

Shekhar,
Hope I am not too late in this discussion. But amidst all euphoria, let me remind you of the current reality in India. Out of the 1 billion plus population, 17 million have computers. Among these, 5.5 million have Internet connection and 530,000 have broadband. Not to forget the illiteracy/language issues. In other words, a vast majority of those who genuinely want their voice heard are neither blog's audience nor are they contributors. Traditional media such as the newspapers, TV, movies etc are still the main source of information/protest in India.

Of course, those who participate in Internet world can be a representative of the majority. However, to have a true change, we need to wait until Internet penetration picks up.

In the meantime, we need to develop an interface between the traditional media and blogs for wider dissemination of facts and ideas. I am sure that the existence of this very blog and your participation is an excellent example of that interface. Hope you and your colleagues find enough inspiration from this to create movies or other media that represents the issues of the Indian masses, and get their voice out into the real world.

Jay,

i beg to differ. Most people that are blogging here are passionate and active writers, film makers, actors, envoirmentalists etc.. Stay with us and u will find out - or don't stay - that is fine too. We all have active day jobs.

In any case, optimism leads to hope, hope leads to passion and passion leads to action. Cynicism leads to inaction. Maybe u are right, but how about he philosophy, " I may never get there, but I am going to die trying ?

shekhar

@Shekhar : How profound man..."I may never get there but I 'm gonna die trying" reminds me of the line from Shawshank Redemption "Hope is a good thing may be the best of thing and no good thing ever dies."
Shekhar you inspire.
regards
Kamlesh

way to go Shekhar..you sure do inspire

Shekhar - Atracus's point about authorship is an extremely important one. On the yahoo groups each person registers with their own email ID so people know it is at least the same person speaking each time. It makes no difference what name you choose, whether you are anonymous or not, as long as no other person is using the same name.

I am very excited to be here and to be able to experience Intentblog. I do believe it can be a catalyst, or a medium for change on a much larger scale. I also hope that eventually it will become a forum where we can all have intelligent discussions or disagreements and refine our ideas about the world and ourselves.

All the Best!

So. . .

As a unified oppressed collective, let us vote the U.S. government out of power, hold a truly democratic election, create a Constitution that we need no paper for, becasue the two sole precepts are; 1) do unto others as ye would be dome by, and, 2) eradicate money entirely, aka, no private property.

A constitution of the mind predicated upon simply loving your fellow human being; beautiful, simply beautiful. . .

You may be thinking what!!!, "nothing to call 'my' own, then what would 'my' life then be like?" Good question, and the possibilities are unimaginable, awesome, and truly liberating. We might actually even put the needs of others before our own personal wants and desires. . .

O my God! You mean something like actually loving your fellow man, instead of trying to make a profit by the other.

Let dispossession free us all, and open the way to an age of peace. . .

We can do this my comrades in life, my fellow human beings, my friends: we CAN do this. . .

Read this entry from the CommonBlog and judge for yourselves if the media in any way shape or form came even close to this level of critque. Sure they criticized, but it was a shallow critique and did not bring out the level of the callousness of the system.

Hurricane Katrina - Our Experiences

By Paramedics Larry Bradsahw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky September 6, 2005

Two days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the Walgreen's store at the corner of Royal and Iberville streets remained locked. The dairy display case was clearly visible through the widows. It was now 48 hours without electricity, running water, or plumbing. The milk, yogurt, and cheeses were beginning to spoil in the 90-degree heat. The owners and managers had locked up the food, water, pampers, and prescriptions and fled the City. Outside Walgreen's windows, residents and tourists grew increasingly thirsty and hungry.

The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and the windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters. There was an alternative. The cops could have broken one small window and distributed the nuts, fruit juices, and bottle water in an organized and systematic manner. But they did not. Instead they spent hours playing cat and mouse, temporarily chasing away the looters.

We were finally airlifted out of New Orleans two days ago and arrived home yesterday (Saturday). We have yet to see any of the TV coverage or look at a newspaper. We are willing to guess that there were no video images or front-page pictures of European or affluent white tourists looting the Walgreen's in the French Quarter.

We also suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the "victims" of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we witnessed, were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the working class of New Orleans. The maintenance workers who used a forklift to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who rigged, nurtured and kept the generators running. The electricians who improvised thick extension cords stretching over blocks to share the little electricity we had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking lots. Nurses who took over for mechanical ventilators and spent many hours on end manually forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients to keep them alive. Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators. Refinery workers who broke into boat yards, "stealing" boats to rescue their neighbors clinging to their roofs in floodwaters. Mechanics who helped hot-wire any car that could be found to ferry people out of the City. And the food service workers who scoured the commercial kitchens improvising communal meals for hundreds of those stranded.

Most of these workers had lost their homes, and had not heard from members of their families, yet they stayed and provided the only infrastructure for the 20% of New Orleans that was not under water.

On Day 2, there were approximately 500 of us left in the hotels in the French Quarter. We were a mix of foreign tourists, conference attendees like ourselves, and locals who had checked into hotels for safety and shelter from Katrina. Some of us had cell phone contact with family and friends outside of New Orleans. We were repeatedly told that all sorts of resources including the National Guard and scores of buses were pouring in to the City. The buses and the other resources must have been invisible because none of us had seen them.

We decided we had to save ourselves. So we pooled our money and came up with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the City. Those who did not have the requisite $45.00 for a ticket were subsidized by those who did have extra money. We waited for 48 hours for the buses, spending the last 12 hours standing outside, sharing the limited water, food, and clothes we had. We created a priority boarding area for the sick, elderly and newborn babies. We waited late into the night for the "imminent" arrival of the buses. The buses never arrived. We later learned that the minute the arrived to the City limits, they were commandeered by the military.

By day 4, our hotels had run out of fuel and water. Sanitation was dangerously abysmal. As the desperation and despair increased, street crime as well as water levels began to rise. The hotels turned us out and locked their doors, telling us that the "officials" told us to report to the convention center to wait for more buses. As we entered the center of the City, we finally encountered the National Guard. The Guards told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome as the City's primary shelter had descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole. The guards further told us that the City's only other shelter, the Convention Center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked, "If we can't go to the only 2 shelters in the City, what was our alternative?" The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us. This would be the start of our numerous encounters with callous and hostile "law enforcement".

We walked to the police command center at Harrah's on Canal Street and were told the same thing, that we were on our own, and no they did not have water to give us. We now numbered several hundred. We held a mass meeting to decide a course of action. We agreed to camp outside the police command post. We would be plainly visible to the media and would constitute a highly visible embarrassment to the City officials. The police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the City. The crowed cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation and wrong information and was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, "I swear to you that the buses are there."

We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the bridge with great excitement and hope. As we marched pasted the convention center, many locals saw our determined and optimistic group and asked where we were headed. We told them about the great news. Families immediately grabbed their few belongings and quickly our numbers doubled and then doubled again. Babies in strollers now joined us, people using crutches, elderly clasping walkers and others people in wheelchairs. We marched the 2-3 miles to the freeway and up the steep incline to the Bridge. It now began to pour down rain, but it did not dampen our enthusiasm.

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans.

Our small group retreated back down Highway 90 to seek shelter from the rain under an overpass. We debated our options and in the end decided to build an encampment in the middle of the Ponchartrain Expressway on the center divide, between the O'Keefe and Tchoupitoulas exits. We reasoned we would be visible to everyone, we would have some security being on an elevated freeway and we could wait and watch for the arrival of the yet to be seen buses.

All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the same trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be turned away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no, others to be verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the City on foot. Meanwhile, the only two City shelters sank further into squalor and disrepair. The only way across the bridge was by vehicle. We saw workers stealing trucks, buses, moving vans, semi-trucks and any car that could be hotwired. All were packed with people trying to escape the misery New Orleans had become.

Our little encampment began to blossom. Someone stole a water delivery truck and brought it up to us. Let's hear it for looting! A mile or so down the freeway, an army truck lost a couple of pallets of C-rations on a tight turn. We ferried the food back to our camp in shopping carts. Now secure with the two necessities, food and water; cooperation, community, and creativity flowered. We organized a clean up and hung garbage bags from the rebar poles. We made beds from wood pallets and cardboard. We designated a storm drain as the bathroom and the kids built an elaborate enclosure for privacy out of plastic, broken umbrellas, and other scraps. We even organized a food recycling system where individuals could swap out parts of C-rations (applesauce for babies and candies for kids!).

This was a process we saw repeatedly in the aftermath of Katrina. When individuals had to fight to find food or water, it meant looking out for yourself only. You had to do whatever it took to find water for your kids or food for your parents. When these basic needs were met, people began to look out for each other, working together and constructing a community.

If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water in the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the ugliness would not have set in.

Flush with the necessities, we offered food and water to passing families and individuals. Many decided to stay and join us. Our encampment grew to 80 or 90 people.

From a woman with a battery-powered radio we learned that the media was talking about us. Up in full view on the freeway, every relief and news organizations saw us on their way into the City. Officials were being asked what they were going to do about all those families living up on the freeway? The officials responded they were going to take care of us. Some of us got a sinking feeling. "Taking care of us" had an ominous tone to it.

Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.

Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated or congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of "victims" they saw "mob" or "riot". We felt safety in numbers. Our "we must stay together" was impossible because the agencies would force us into small atomized groups.

In the pandemonium of having our camp raided and destroyed, we scattered once again. Reduced to a small group of 8 people, in the dark, we sought refuge in an abandoned school bus, under the freeway on Cilo Street. We were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely, we were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law, curfew and shoot-to-kill policies.

The next days, our group of 8 walked most of the day, made contact with New Orleans Fire Department and were eventually airlifted out by an urban search and rescue team. We were dropped off near the airport and managed to catch a ride with the National Guard. The two young guardsmen apologized for the limited response of the Louisiana guards. They explained that a large section of their unit was in Iraq and that meant they were shorthanded and were unable to complete all the tasks they were assigned.

We arrived at the airport on the day a massive airlift had begun. The airport had become another Superdome. We 8 were caught in a press of humanity as flights were delayed for several hours while George Bush landed briefly at the airport for a photo op. After being evacuated on a coast guard cargo plane, we arrived in San Antonio, Texas.

There the humiliation and dehumanization of the official relief effort continued. We were placed on buses and driven to a large field where we were forced to sit for hours and hours. Some of the buses did not have air-conditioners. In the dark, hundreds of us were forced to share two filthy overflowing porta-potties. Those who managed to make it out with any possessions (often a few belongings in tattered plastic bags) we were subjected to two different dog-sniffing searches.

Most of us had not eaten all day because our C-rations had been confiscated at the airport because the rations set off the metal detectors. Yet, no food had been provided to the men, women, children, elderly, disabled as they sat for hours waiting to be "medically screened" to make sure we were not carrying any communicable diseases.

This official treatment was in sharp contrast to the warm, heart-felt reception given to us by the ordinary Texans. We saw one airline worker give her shoes to someone who was barefoot. Strangers on the street offered us money and toiletries with words of welcome. Throughout, the official relief effort was callous, inept, and racist.

There was more suffering than need be.

Lives were lost that did not need to be lost.

- Paramedics Larry Bradsahw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky
Note - Bradshaw and Slonsky are paramedics from California who were attending the EMS conference in New Orleans. Larry Bradsahw is the chief shop steward, Paramedic Chapter, SEIU Local 790; and Lorrie Beth Slonsky is steward, Paramedic Chapter, SEIU Local 790 in California.

You are very right Shekhar and the old systems born of ego and dependant on ignorance stand ready to collapse.

Ego has lost it's dominion.

Adapting an old meme and wisdom to the current times…

The keyboard is mightier than the sword. The general population is armed and dangerous to that which would oppress people.

The other truth here is that the Internet hides the source of the word. So that those that would target the source and as and enemy cannot see it and because ti is not centralized they cannot find it.

The number of sources becomes exponential and those that would seek to control are powerless to stop it.

The light spreads unabated.

It becomes chaos - Atracus

It would appear that way but that is not what happens. I have written a paper on it but haven't published it yet but I will touch on it here.

I bet you can figure it out.

It is the "Crème Principal" you know how crème (the best part rises to the top) by "word of link".

The Internet provides natural mechanisms by which those things deemed worthy by popular vote are raised up. There is no special interest determining what is important we are collectively deciding.

We determine by each individuals vote what is of substance and intelligence what is propaganda and ignorance.

Not only that as we do right here many minds merge as one evolving and refining concepts and ideas, improving them. The power of many minds compared to one mind. I call it snowballing intelligence.

Guess what that sounds like?

An expression of the collective will.

~Richard Thomas

richard - Creme' Principal sounds like a wonderful concept - let us know when and where u publish it. Shekhar

duh

Definitely blogging has brought in a big change to the way we express our thoughts. I do agree that too many voices leads to chaos. But you can always find order in chaos. It is the way the world works. It is the blogging world which brings together Deepak, Shekhar, David, Divya, Curious, myself and many others together. This wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Having said that, I am not sure if blogging has brought out complete freedom of expression. You cannot fully express yourself through blogging without facing the wrath of the company you work for or the govt. for that matter. There are many people who got fired because of their blogs. There are many people who are put behind the bars because of their blogs (some of them deserve to be behind the bars though), there are many people who had come under the scanner of law enforcement authorities because of their blogs. So I wouldn't say that blogging has given people the freedom of expression. I would say that it has just given a medium of expression for many people who otherwise wouldn't have had a chance to express their views.

I fully agree with Atracus about protecting the name. I don't care if my name is my brand. But I care that someone doesn't use my name and post a view that I don't subscribe to. I support his idea related to the above protection. However, there should be a way for people who don't want to register to post anonymously or to use anything they want (like the current system). If you don't offer that, you are curtailing the freedom of the person who want to remain anonymous or just post with some name without registering/logging in.

I'm sure this same enthusiasm over Blogging was once given to the printing press, radio, television as well as 'your own webpage!'
When the first two humans found they could communicate with grunts I'm sure they soon had a grunt that ment 'Revolution!'

Hello Deepak and Shekhar,

Mr. Shekhar.. I am in total agreement with your
message:

"The Internet is bubbling with such free voices"

"The Power over your mind. The Power over the collective mind".

I would like to invite you and everyone to come
and join "the Virtual Peace Cell" where everyone
will be able to participate and bring their voices via the "Virtual Peace Cell Forum"

We invite you to be one of our moderators
as we embarking on creating the "Peace Cell"

please join and register at www.anhglobal.org
and be part at the Conference in Puerto Rico
December 8,9,10 and 11, 2005.

peace and love on its way

Ashie

"Have fun while you change the World !!" ~Shekhar Kapur

Beautiful!

Yep ... that's about the way it works :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

fyi: Mallika - Deepak C has the user name protection option set up with one's eMail address on his website, so maybe something like that will work on this program?

Blogging is the new internet addiction now but with one major difference. I think people are making connections and perhaps, we may see more unified thought patterns emerge as people can express their minds and communicate freely like neurons in a giant 'collective' mind.

So, although one poster claimed that this is actually 'chaos', what is not chaos I would ask, when you observe the world around you. Everything happens chaotically and it is a few like minded individuals who bring order and purpose.

What is the one thing that most people are dissatisfied about Katrina? It's not even the disaster anymore but weak leadership and a perceived lack of organization.

Blogs are here to stay and we need purposeful blogs driven by strong creators, who will give order and purpose to these chaotic thoughts.

Should we stop blogging? Certainly not. It is like a chain reaction and we piggy back on top of each other, like a chemical reaction or an endless chain of thoughts that slowly become clear with each bounce back from one human mind to the next.

I think it's all good and should continue. We may see some radical new ways of thinking emerge but when, where, who is the question. I think this is the unpredictability factor as that spark of genius could strike anywhere, at random, when all of our thoughts are somehow connected or fused into a kind of melange or soup. I don't think we can fully comprehend or categorize these yet but at some subconscious level (as we use so little of our brains), something must be brewing.

Will it produce a monster or a masterpiece? I think that with positive thoughts and positive energy, it will be more inclined to the latter.

I have seen some overtly negative posts, including personal attacks and name calling. I don't think this is the appropriate forum for it as it is extremely distracting. For example, Gotham's post calling Mitt Romney a 'masshole' may be correct from his viewpoint but is a distraction here and seems childish.

9-15-2005

A new Google speciality search engine sifts through the internet's millions of frequently updated personal journals, a long-anticipated development expected to help propel blogging into the cultural mainstream.

The new tool, unveiled on Wednesday at blogsearch.google.com, focuses exclusively on the material contained in the journals known as web logs, or blogs.

Google, the internet's general search engine leader, first set its sights on blogs with its 2003 acquisition of a small startup called Blogger that makes software to publish and manage the journals.

Since that deal, Google had been expected to build a blogging-focused search engine - a mission finally accomplished by a group of developers in the company's New York office.

"There really has been a need for a world-class search product to expose this dynamic content to a worldwide audience," said Jason Goldman, who came to Google in the Blogger deal and is now the company's product manager for blogging search.

Over the past two years, blogs have become an increasingly popular vehicle for sharing opinions and information, sometimes breaking news and more often prodding the mainstream media into reconsidering how it has handled some big stories.

Just how big is the so-called 'blogosphere'?

A few people have been able to make a living largely off their blogs, or parlay them into book deals. Blogs also have been a source of embarrassment and angst, resulting in the firings of several workers, including a Google product manager, who angered their employers with revelations posted on their sites.

No one knows for certain just how big the so-called "blogosphere" has become. Technorati, the niche's top search engine so far, says it indexes 17.1 million sites spanning about 1.5 billion links.

Goldman declined to disclose the size of Google's blogging index.

Despite blogging's steady growth, its appeal has remained narrow, skewing primarily to younger audiences and technological trendsetters.

But given Google's broad reach, its speciality search engine is expected to provide blogging with additional momentum. Google's tool would allow searches not just for blogs written in English but also in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese and other languages.

Yahoo and Microsoft could follow

I think you guys are using Moveable Type, in which case ....

Accept comments from unregistered visitors
If you allow comments on your site, you can allow them from registered visitors, from unregistered visitors, or both. See COMMENTS.
This option determines whether you accept comments from visitors who haven't authenticated themselves using an outside authentication system like TypeKey. These visitors may be completely anonymous or you may require them to supply a name and email address, but there is no guarantee of such a commenter's identity.

Require Name and Email Address Information
Check this box to require commenters to supply a name and email address of their own at the time of commenting. Unchecking this box allows commenters to comment anonymously.

Enable unregistered comment moderation
When comment moderation is enabled, comments from unregistered users will not be displayed on the site until you as the weblog owner approve them. This moderation applies to individual comments.

Accept comments from registered visitors
This option allows you to accept and manage commenter identity information from an external authentication service. Enabling this option does noot prevent unregistered visitors from commenting; to do that, uncheck the option ``Accept Comments from Unregistered Visitors.''
To enable this feature, be sure to enter a ``TypeKey Token'' below. This is the identifier that identifies your site to the TypeKey authentication service.

Caveats: If your weblog domain is different from the domain of your Movable Type application, commenters using Internet Explorer 6 may have trouble logging in to comment on your site. This is because Internet Explorer 6 doesn't allow your weblog to fetch your cookie information from Movable Type, which contains the logic to decode it. For example, this situation would arise if your weblog was at www.joesjournal.com but you log into Movable Type at http://www.my-hosting-company.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi

When configuring your TypeKey settings at typekey.com, be sure to enter the URL of your Movable Type application, as opposed to your weblog URL. To continue the above example, you would need to enter http://www.my-hosting-company.com/ into your TypeKey preferences at typekey.com. It is not necessary to enter the path information (e.g. cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi).

Enable auto-approval
When commment registration is enabled, you can choose to deal with those registrations in two ways. When this option is checked, a new user's comments will go into a holding tank until you manually approve that individual. Subsequent comments from the same recognized commenter will be posted immediately. When this option is unchecked, commenters will be auto-approved; but you can still ban any commenter later on.
To approve a new commenter, log in to MT and use the ``Commenters'' button at the left side of the screen. Once you've located the commenter, hit the ``Approve User'' button. This will display all of that commenter's pending comments, and future comments by that individual will be posted immediately. If you instead click the ``Ban User'' button, that commenter's pending comments will be deleted and the commenter will be banned from your site unless you later approve that individual.

Clicking on ``Ban User'' when a commenter is new has the effect of deleting all of that user's comments to date. However, if you have ever approved a user, clicking ``Ban User'' on that individual will not affect any exsting comments. ``Approve User'' and ``Ban User'' only affect the user's existing comments if you have already approved or banned that user.

``Auto-approval'' only applies to registered commenters.

Require email addresses from TypeKey
Normally, if you are requiring comment registration, the email address of a commenter is not passed to your weblog. This protects the privacy of the commenter, and yet you can still identify that person by using their TypeKey identity page.
If you prefer to ask TypeKey to pass each commenter's email address to your site, check this option. Upon signing in, the user will have the option to pass his or her email address, or to keep it hidden and cancel the comment attempt.

I like typekey, and it is free for everyone.

Richard: Great information--especially for "computer illiterates" such as myself.

I liked the information your "InfinitePlay" site has about Australia's Aboriginals and Uluru.

Have you read "Mutant Message From Down Under," by Marlo Morgan?

Your site is so extenisve that it will take me some time to learn to navigate it, but....thanks for sharing it. Dave

words bubbling over -
yet I only hear the click
of my mouse

David,

I had not read that book but just checked it out along with comments on Amazon.com, interesting.

Yes, I find Dreamtime fascinating along with it correlations to say Vedic philosophy. Yet they are on separate continents.

For everyone wondering...

The Dreamtime, also called The Dreaming, is the central, unifying theme in Aboriginal culture. Australian Aborigines are thought to have the oldest continuously maintained cultural history on Earth (50,000 years or more); the Dreamtime explains the origins and culture of the land and of its people.

Most Aboriginal people believe that all life as we know it today (human, animal, or plant) is part of a vast and complex single network of relationships which can be traced directly back to the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime.

In the Aboriginal world view, every event leaves a record in the land. Everything in the natural world is a result of the actions of the metaphysical beings whose actions created the world. The meaning and significance of particular places and creatures is wedded to their origin in the Dreamtime, and certain places have a particular potency, which the Aborigines call its dreaming. In this dreaming lies the sacredness of the earth.

Shekar,

If you have blogged with the same 5 people reading your posts..u'd know what i mean.

But I have to agree with you about the internet changing the way the world functions.. Its has changed mine..

Will watching this space for sure..and didnt intend offending you guys.

I like visible email addresses as it allows one the opportunity to discuss things off-list with certain individuals. People can still maintain their anonymity.

I notice you have Anil Dash as one of your contributors. He's one the gurus of blogging technology and know-how. Perhasp he may be able to suggest a good set-up.

Visible Email Address = More spam.

Also, for those who want to remain somewhat anonymous...if you use your first and last name here, anyone who googles you will see your posts here....

~joanie