Madness

     People were recently freaked out by the case of Cheryl Miller being toted off to St Ann's against her will. "Can they do that to me too?" was the general question that made people interested in the case. Cheryl Miller was a ministry employee for 24 years. Her co-workers maintained that she was quite sane after being dragged off to St Ann's after an office dispute. After all the public outcry it was not surprising that the opposition of the government chose this opportunity to speak out against the treatment of this woman. Amery Browne stated that sending her to St Ann's was supposed to silence her. Miller has now become a political tool and not just a victim. It is also of note that Fitzgerald Hinds chose to represent her in court. Even the Public Service Association has gotten involved. Watson Duke and several executive members have helped Miller get legal representation. We must ask, do any of these people really have Miller's interest at heart?

     An article by Atillah Springer describes accurately what Miller has become, a bobolee in that she is representative of so much more. All of us can now focus our energy on Verna St.Rose-Greaves as the bad guy. But Springer points out that we are all Cheryl Miller in some way, overworked and frustrated people who think we deserve more. But we are also the minister at times, making decisions that are wrong because we have convinced ourselves it is the right thing to do. We are reminded of the humanness of both the minister and Ms. Miller here. Mental health is a taboo issue in Trinidad and this situation has thrust the discomfort of many with it into the spotlight. Perhaps that is the true reason why people care. It makes us squirm so we follow the story closely to ensure the matter and thus our minds are put to rest.

Censorship and Copyright

For many of us it may simply be known as an annoyance. We head over to YouTube, following a link that appeared interesting when suddenly we get that mocking chagrined smiley staring at us accompanying the message "Sorry this video has not been made available in your region". It is irritating to us when it is just a music video we were dying to view. However it isn't always something so trivial. This can be because of two main issues, copyright and geographical restrictions.
In the case of copyright the poster of the video must have the rights to the video or the owner can report them to YouTube and the video can be removed or blocked. The owner has the rights to the distribution of their own property. They also control the location restrictions on their videos. YouTube and other video hosts probably use the common Geo-IP look up to track the country that their users are in through the network address of the server of the users.
In the case of geographical restrictions the content could be damaging or controversial in certain countries. Luckily there are now ways to get around this censorship. You can now add on an IP blocker which hides your location, or download additions to your web browser which alter your location to one where the video is allowed such as this one for Firefox taken from http://brokensecrets.com/2010/09/27/how-to-watch-blocked-internet-videos/


Install this Firefox plugin: http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/967 (requires Firefox browser)
In Firefox, Go to “tools” > “modify headers”
From the drop down box on the left select add
Then enter: “X-Forwarded-For” in the first input box without the quotation marks
Enter one of the following IP addresses in the second input box without the quotation marks (choose the country where the content is accessible from)
USA – 12.13.14.15
Canada – 207.245.252.27
UK – 193.35.131.194
Leave the last input box empty, save the filter, and enable it (should look like this: http://imgur.com/Feb4.png )
Click the “Configuration” button on the bottom right then proceed to check the “always on” button.
Close the Modify Headers box, restart the Firefox browser and visit the intended website.

Methods such as this one can be used to access information which would have been hidden by those in authority otherwise. Anti-government and other such controversial information can be viewed and the ordinary citizen can now have the two sides to a story. This leads to a less biased view and a more educated, media literate public.

Clarence Uses His Boarding Pass

     Express columnist Clarence Rhambarat has written a column fraught with annoyance at the Prime Minister and her choices. He states the opinion of many in saying that she has established a pattern of entitlement. Of course, if we bring in the issue of who owns the media here, it is clear to see why they are able to publish such an article. The Express is owned by One Caribbean Media which means that they have the freedom to speak out against the government without fear of retribution. Thus he calls out the government on poor judgement covered by self-justifying excuses.
    Rhambarat clearly questions the ethics of the Prime Minister with statements like "politics is still the easiest way to get rich. To keep track, somebody better write all the PM's family name on a piece of paper for me." He points to much more than just the unpopular appointing of her sister as her personal assistant. He noted that she is paid in her benefits alone more than a public servant will receive in gratuity after more than 30 years of service, putting the injustices of the Prime Minister into perspective for the readers. Rhambarat also calls her spending Kardashian-style, pulling in popular culture references to get through to the everyday reader.

     Excerpt: "Those relationship-based decisions which stand out are the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) appointment; "temporary" appointments to the CEO positions at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG); veto of the nominee to head the Financial Investigations Unit and insistence on a personal choice; "temporary" appointments at various State entities; and diplomatic appointments now becoming controversial" Rhambarat goes on to explain that the country is simply not getting the best returns for their investment in her. Such blatantly negative statements about the government would never have been tolerated coming from a state-owned company.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/commentaries/Boarding_pass-143432616.html

Saving Asa

Social media and social movements appear to go hand in hand nowadays. Social movements which originate about Trinidadian topics seem to be impossible for those in authority to control. Facebook and other independent media are being used by marginalized groups to bring attention to causes. In Trinidad, an online petition was started to put a stop to quarrying which was dangerously close to the Asa Wright Nature Centre. The petition insists that business would have been affected, in addition to the flora and fauna.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-quarrying-near-asa-wright.html

Surprisingly despite the petition only having over 700 signatures, the Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine has ordered National Quarries Ltd to stop the quarrying and went so far as to order immediate reafforestation.
 Their explanations for halting must be taken with a grain of salt as the government would not do things against their own interest. The number of signatures does not seem to be enough to sway a government. Outlish magazine even recently published an article about how Trinidadians are unwilling to take part in social movements and posted it on Facebook under the heading:

How can we make protests to stop the quarrying near Asa Wright Nature Centre sexy, and get more people involved? 
Check out Brendon O'Brien's article in this week's Outlish for inspiration.

http://www.outlish.com/wheres-the-sexiness-in-the-struggle-for-social-change/  

So what is the real reason for stopping the quarrying? I am not sure in this country that a couple of signatures and Facebook groups protesting could bring about such a change. I can't help but notice how this change conveniently coincides with the government looking as though it is responding to the cries of it's people.

Grammar Nazi

     I used to think that most Trinidadians who spoke dialect online would be able to switch to Standard English whenever necessary. Unfortunately social media has no shown me that this is not so. Of course no one can get it all right and I don't expect them to. Things just seem to be getting a little ridiculous. I won't get into spelling or Wr!+inG lyk ThIs though, because that is a whole other issue. As the world looks on, our grammatical errors like the embarrassing mixing up of 'their' and 'there' (really people?!) just make us seem unintelligent. With online dictionaries and our best friend Google just a click away why not look up the difference between the two words? Even people who call me a Grammar Nazi and try to write at a passable grammatical level on my wall on Facebook or when Tweeting me, often fail. 

     Dialect is beautiful and makes us unique. The problem is that it seems to be getting used as an excuse for bad grammar. Confront any person on social media and this is usually the response. To me this is giving us and our language a bad reputation especially as we are introducing ourselves to the rest of the world online. With globalization condensing us all into one consciousness, how can we defend the origins of the lack of proper usage of apostrophes on dialect? Here is an actual instance of a friend on Facebook being confronted by someone who is on a totally other level of communication.  

     With KONY bombarding us from every corner of social media, it was only a matter of time before the skeptics would get beneath the surface of this phenomenon. Invisible Children is said to be manipulating facts  in order to get the public on their side. In an article published by the Council of Foreign Relations they insisted "such organizations have manipulated facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA's use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony -- a brutal man, to be sure -- as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil. They rarely refer to the Ugandan government atrocities or those of Sudan's People's Liberation Army, such as attacks against civilians or looting of civilian homes and businesses, or the complicated regional politics fueling the conflict." As Agenda Setting theory tells us, the media tells us what to think about by the prevalence they place on issues.
     On social media websites we have compounded this effect to the point where the issue of KONY was thought to be something new by many people. This is not so as the LRA has existed for many years before the video which shot Kony to stardom was created. This incident just shows the power of the media as Invisible Children is centred around advocacy and not aid, a fact which is earning them much criticism. Debates can be seen pervading throughout Facebook as to how sharing a video is ineffective. However they do have a link to donate on their website, without clearly stating whether the donation goes towards aid or campaigning. On the part of Invisible Children, when does the actual aid start rather than just raising awareness through media campaigns?

Also, is it because the Western powerful countries are speaking out against KONY, that the rest of the world must now follow suit?

Statement by the President on the Signing of the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-signing-lords-resistance-army-disarmament-and-northern-uganda-r

Still some on social media websites are making light of the situation as they always do. Here are some humorous pictures from Facebook and Twitter which have been covering my homepage. 

The Antecedent Post

     As I begin this spying on myself accompanied by the befitting guilt, I will try to approach this research with as little bias as possible. I feel my rich media consumption to be no cause for alarm, though I understand why it would be for some.
     Queer how even in writing about my media consumption, I am consuming media. This may prove more difficult than it looks. So my readers, it is Monday at 8:00 am, and I have opened this Pandora's box. Let's see how this will go.


8:00- Utilised PowerPoint to add slides to a group presentation after having received new information from a group member via email. Facebook open during all this to help with, um, concentration.


9:00- Completed write-up for group project while consistently checking Facebook for anything interesting. Read a couple news stories on random sites. All while the radio played music in the background.


11:00 Stream a pre-planned movie with a friend streaming simultaneously from another location, while chatting about the highlights of it using Skype and Twitter.



2:00 Listened to old calypso via radio against my will in the maxi on the way to school. This lasted for two whole hours -_-


5:00 Accessed the previously done PowerPoint presentation on the Tablet of a group member in order to add the part of a tardy member. This was done on campus once some of that ever elusive wireless signal could be found.


8:00 Back on Facebook. Sign in to Skype to complain about the horrible group member. Streaming shows until bedtime and tweeting about them.