I used to watch a telly program called ‘You’ve Been Framed’. It was basically a collection of home video clips that were funny. Until, that is, they ran out of new clips, and it just became a series of people falling over. After not too long, I stopped laughing and started to actually feel sorry for the poor people who slipped, fell, had a piano land on their face, etc.

Then there was the presenter’s commentary.

In order to escape this commentary, we invented the web and waited patiently for YouTube to arrive. Which is fine as long as you ignore the comments. (Why can’t I can’t ignore the comments?)

Finally, today I came across an example where the commentary actually helps make it funny. I think the trick is to use it to tell the story behind the clip.

We like stories. And the best comedians tell stories rather than jokes.

Have a read and listen.

(I really do hope he doesn’t make it a ring tone.)

(If you don’t think kids are funny, try dads)

It’s a rather upsetting fact that my government are equally as nosey. But I’m certainly not going to go out of my way to have a government look through my private files.

With the US elections now in full swing, I have to wonder if any of the candidates support freedom.

It’s sad. I liked the United States when I last travelled there. It would be nice to return one day.

Click the image.

From the Lynn News (my emphasis):

THREE West Norfolk police officers risked their lives to make a dramatic riverside arrest linked to the armed robberies at households and businesses across the area.

[...]

The male passenger ran into nearby marshland near the River Delph, hotly pursued by a firearms sergeant and a police constable based in Swaffham and a specialist police dog handler from Lynn.

The dog handler said: “As the tracker, I went into the water first with my dog and the other two followed behind. I thought it would just be up to our knees so I jumped in and ended up in thick sludge up to my neck.

“We thought that would be as bad as it would get but for most of the way we were wading through water full of algae and mud up to our necks and getting cut to bits.

“It was freezing cold and our protective clothing and belt rigs were weighing us down and there were a few times we thought we were in trouble, but the adrenalin took over and we were determined to find him.”

[...]

After 55 minutes in the freezing water and struggling with the onset of hypothermia, the three officers found the man holding on to a tree. As he passed out, they had to drag themselves and him out of the water.

[...]

The suspect and three officers were all taken to Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital to be treated for hypothermia and were later discharged. The officers, who do not want to be named, were back at work on Sunday evening.

Thank you.

There any many conflicting reports as to the extent of the killings over the Burma protests, but there was enough blood spilt to make the international community take notice…

The Telegraph writes:

At the height of the government’s brutal crackdown last week there were widespread rumours that some troops in Rangoon had refused orders to fire on unarmed protesters. Rumours also suggest that Than Shwe was sufficiently worried as the street protests grew to send his family to safety in Dubai.

An online awareness campaign is set to take place on the 4th October. You can get involved here.

Although highly suppressed, protests are still occurring (from Mizzima):

Despite the Burmese military junta having imposed night curfews, residents in parts of Rangoon protested by putting their lights off for at least 15 minutes last night.

Residents in North Okklapah said, many of the residents in ward (2) switched-off their lights at 8 p.m. (local time) for 15 minutes as token of dissent.

“As there is tight security preventing us from marching on the streets, we are doing this as a symbol that we the people of Burma are being kept helplessly in the dark,” a local resident of ward (2) of North Okklapah township told Mizzima.

Another petition here

The boycott of the Beijing Olympics continues to be mentioned again and again.

Personally, I have decided I will be boycotting the Olympics, unless China stands up to its responsibility.

In the meantime, I feel it is my duty to get better informed about human rights abuses around the world.

These days I mostly read my news via the internet. It’s becoming a totally different experience to consume the news in this way rather than through traditional means. Today I scanned through the Daily Mail to find just one report on Burma, buried deep within the paper. It had a full page, but it was hardly front page news. On the Internet, however, I have about 20 articles coming through every day. It’s a completely different weighting.

On the other hand, these reports tend to swamp news of other issues.

The reason is that I am have more control. I can choose to follow one issue in particular and follow other stories less so. It is becoming more customisable.

One part of that is my recent adoption of Google News. I googled ‘Burma’ a few days back to try and get some back story and Google News was the top result. I clicked on it, and found a stream of news stories covering the issue. Most importantly I could subscribe to the RSS feed, directing this stream into my feed reader.

Now, everyday, I’m receiving news reports from a wide variety of publishers each with their slightly different take on the subject.

Currently it is a little overwhelming, since there are so many reports. And it tends to drown out other reports. But it is a great way to get up to speed on an issue and stay committed to following it.

I’ve just signed up to the Darfur feed too.

Zipcar.

Join.
Are you 21+, just apply online today. It only takes a few minutes.
Once you’re approved, you get your very own Zipcard. Are you eligible?

Reserve.
Reserve one of our many Zipcars – for a couple of hours or the entire day. Do it online or use a phone. We’re easy.

Unlock.
Walk to the car, then just hold your Zipcard to the windscreen.
The doors will unlock, and it’s all yours!

Drive!
Drive away… and return to the same reserved parking space at the end of your reservation. It’s that simple. And remember, fuel and insurance are included too. Plus we pay the London congestion charge!

I had this idea about 8 months ago; and like most my ideas I soon found it already exists. That’s the world we live in. And I’m glad of it!

The only difference was that I proposed that you wouldn’t need to return it to the same parking spot. You could drive from London to Manchester, say, then get the train home. Or drive to the pub, have a few drinks, and get a cab back. But that’s something which might need a threshold of customers to make work.

I think the idea is great though. If public transport is good enough (which it can be in a city), and you can easily hire a car it gives you far more freedom. If this is a good system, and I end up moving to the city (my plan), I will be looking at this service before I look at buying a car.

I don’t want to own a car. I don’t want the hassle.

I’m sold by their promise. I hope it lives up to my expectations!

And by the way, I don’t want to own a house either. Imagine Zipbuilding!

Seriously.

A large number of nations and companies with economic interests in Burma are defending their moral position. If they were not there, they say, others would take their place (and in some cases they declare this would make the situation worse). If this is indeed the case, we should support them. However, for organisations that are supposedly doing good, they are suspiciously quiet on the matter. Are these organisations negotiating more rights for their workers? Are they offering them pay above the poverty line? Are they protecting them from the fear of persecution, rape or execution?

What exactly are they doing?

If a government or company is doing good in Burma or any other oppressed company then I think they should be proud of that, and report on their effect. Label me a naysayer, but I have a feeling their silence isn’t about modesty.

Silence, or statements that are spun into effective silence, are no longer good enough.

In this 21st century, the first world populace no longer has an excuse to be ignorant. It is our duty to learn the effects of our consumption, and to hold each other to a higher standard.

I am as guilty as anyone of sitting back, and being idle.

And most of you are are guilty of letting me.

Is it better to put pressure on a corrupt ruler through sanctions, or to continue doing business for the good of the common people?

Not only is China receiving pressure to impose sanctions on Burma, but individual companies dealing with Burma are also being put under pressure. The Independent reports:

Paris, and the company, argue that Total’s presence is, on the whole, a force for good. Withdrawal would allow carte blanche for Chinese or other companies which would be “less respectful of ethical issues”.

“Our departure would threaten a worsening of the situation for the (Burmese) population,” Total said ina communiqué.

But if this is true, why are they also urging a freeze on new investments in the area? From the same article:

President Nicolas Sarkozy has also drawn criticism this week for urging French companies to “freeze” new investments in Burma. No other French company operates in the country. Total, as the President presumably knew, has not made new investments in Burma for years.

A French diplomat told the newspaper Liberation off the record yesterday: “Annoucing a freeze of what is already frozen is hardly revolutionary. It allows (the president) to surf on the notion of a French ‘new deal’ for human rights, while protecting French economic interests.”

The Australian government is coming under similar criticism:

Greens senator Kerry Nettle said Prime Minister John Howard has rejected trade sanctions against the south-east Asian country because Australia did not “have a lot of trade with Burma”.

“We now find that there is a Liberal Party-linked company that is doing business with the Burmese military regime in oil and gas exploration,” Mr Nettle said.

[...]

Senator Nettle called on Prime Minister John Howard to ask his “Liberal Party friends” to discontinue their investment in Burma until human rights conditions in the country improved.

“For Alexander Downer to say China isn’t taking action (against Burma) because of their trade relationship with Burma, at the same time as his Liberal Party family are making money out of their relationship with the Burmese military dictatorship, is great hypocrisy,” she said.

The arguments for investment in the country are not without merit. However, it is difficult to take them seriously when actions point more towards economic interests back home than the good of the Burmese people.

Politicians have a habit of ruining good arguments with too much spin. The latest report on Bush’s campaign for the Iraq war is a particularly worrying example. Even minor offences of this should be brought to account and challenged.

Straight talking and honest politicians? Almost makes the bid for world peace seem trivial.

World Changing has an article titled ‘How Mobiles and Blogs Don’t — and Do — Help Human Rights‘. The author, Emily Gertz, writes:

In the world of online activism, expectations have not inflated to the level of a few years ago, when a wave of techno-utopian optimism swept the activist ‘net that maybe a “technical intervention,” that is blogging, could stop the mass killings in Darfur — an effort which, on those terms, failed.

I think the mistake here is to believe that one story will suddenly change the world — and if it doesn’t it means failure. Change happens slowly, but each story raises awareness and gets people talking and thinking about it. One particular trait of the Internet over traditional media, is that it is active; and becoming much more so. It’s easy to move from story to story on TV news; with the sport or weather sticking as the last thing in your head. But the way we engage with the Internet (comments, Facebook groups, our own blogs, and even hyperlinks) encourages more of us to actively engage with it.

Meanwhile, globalisation is becoming ever more important; meaning every country that depends on it must think about the economic consequences before doing so.

It is difficult to make solid predictions based on Darfur or other historical events, because so much is different. Although it is a good reminder that we can sometimes get a bit carried away with our optimism.

Heading back into their archives, I also discovered this excellent interview with Ethan Zuckerman from mid-2004, discussing technology and the developing world. A few quotations:

In Ghana in 2000 we had a pretty critical presidential election. The leader who’d taken power in 1979 was stepping down. For the first time an opposition had a chance to stand and there was widespread fear — for good reasons — that there would be election fraud and intimidation.

The coping strategy that everyone came up with was fascinating. It basically involved cellphones and talk radio. What happened is guys would go out to polling places with their cellphones, they’d see someone obstructing access to the polls, and then they’d call a talk radio station and describe what was going on. That put enough pressure on the police that they had to show up and investigate. It proved remarkably effective.

and

It’s pretty hard to expect technology to turn non-democracies into democracies. Where I think technology can make a huge difference is where you have a young and fragile democracy. In those cases, I think what helps is finding ways to empower individuals.

and

It’s corruption when you’re a shopkeeper trying to get your shipment of widgets in and the guy won’t let them through unless you pay him a thousand dollars under the table. But it’s not corruption when you’re a farmer and you’re trying to buy a piece of land and literally no one knows who owns it. That’s just incompetence and bureaucracy and the challenges of dealing with legacy systems. In many developing nations, those challenges are at least as substantial as the problems of corruption.

Well worth a read.