the internet has turned me into a one-click activist. all i need is connectivity, a kind of name, an email address. i don't have to leave my room, i don't even have to get up from my chair, i don't have to experience or touch or smell. all i need to do is see through an interface, read and have a split second think. then insert my name and click.

today, i received an email that called for a petition to boycott an artist - Guillermo Vargas "Habacuc"- from representing his country at the Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008. I'm not sure what the event is, apart from being some kind of art exhibition.

he definitely caught a stray dog from the streets, leashed it with a rope inside a gallery in nicaragua last year as his art piece for an exhibition entitled 'Eres Lo Que Lees' - 'You Are What You Read'. The title is written on the wall with dog biscuits while the stray dog walks nearby, just out of reach, tied with a rope around his neck.

it caused outrage, understandably, and pictures were released and sent over the internet that showed the dog gradually starving to death. the gallery owner insists that the dog escaped and it was only tied for 3 hours during the exhibition, before which the artist fed the dog with food he brought himself. other petition sites pulled quotes from him here and there and concluded that he admitted to starve the dog to death.

whichever way the truth, there are currently more than 2 million signatures in support of the move to boycott this "animal-hating" artist.

on the flipside, the “One Million Signatures" campaign organised by Iranian women's rights activists since 2006, demanding for changes in laws that discriminate against women has to date only managed to get slightly more than 7 thousand signatures.

so let's see. artist drags stray dog to be exhibited as art, disputed intentions and conclusion of actual death, 2 million supporters. whole populations of women and men in a country facing clearly documented discrimination, violence and suppression, 7 thousand odd supporters.

so the one-click activist is not only lazy in terms of activism, but also lazy in terms of analysis.

give me some pictures, clear visuals of a starving dog, easy to understand terms, and i'll give you my name.

give me an actual complex reality of shit happening in the world, where i have to actually do some search because even information is clamped down, campaign sites filtered and blocked, people struggling to get some small measure of truth out in the open, i just can't be bothered.

too difficult. time is passing on too fast. hyperlinks are waiting, and only those dished out ready to be served with cute buttons and easy navigation.

give me a story, full of drama, heart-rending pictures, moral outrage and digestible ethics. i'll give you my name.

*click*

I just got my own handphone phone. It was quite an exciting period. Mobile phones weren't super cheap then, or subscription rates affordable. Pre-paid was only starting to be introduced. But I had a number to my name, and a device that meant anyone could get in touch with me, and me back, without having to go through 'gatekeepers'. I grew up in a pretty dense household. Grandparents, god parents, another aunt, 5 cousins, 1 brother, kids that my grandma and godma used to take care of for extra income, neighbours... there was always people around and simultaneous conversations making a kind of comforting background noise.

The only telephone in the house was next to the television, and the television was right next to the main door in the living room. There was almost zero-chance of having a private conversation.

So now, with my very own handphone, I could have a heart-to-heart with a friend even when I was having a pee. It felt really liberating. My own space carved through a rectangular, flip-cover, plastic black Ericsson.

I got an SMS one day. By a number I didn't recognise.


How strange. Who is this person? What does s/he mean? A friend I forgot to key into my phone?



What the fuck? I'm starting to feel a little creeped out. Who is this person? How the hell did he (no mistake now) get my phone number? Heard from where? From who? Suddenly, I didn't feel alone anymore, safe to shape my world, my space. Everyone I could have encountered became instantly dangerous, carrying a risk of ripping apart the skin I have made between myself and people I trust. I couldn't take it. I needed to know who this person was. I needed to establish some kind of knowledge, identity, name, space, context, something i can identify and remember. My handphone became a strange object, rattling with quiet fear. It took me some time, but I finally decided to reply.


Now I am angry. Pissed off beyond belief. How dare you intrude my phone, intrude my space, intrude my life, insinuate all kinds of shit, solicit me for sex, hide behind the cowardice of anonymity, spoil my beautiful day, my awesome week!! 

It was the first time anyone I knew had ever encountered this. I didn't know how to respond to it. I didn't know what I could do. How palpable is the danger? Is this person stalking me? Is it someone I know? Is someone watching me when I am not looking? Am I going to be raped? What is happening?

I was working in a domestic violence shelter at that time. I answered counselling calls, and I knew the law. There were no laws against sexual harassment or stalking, and there still isn't. Even if there was a law, it doesn't mean I will be protected. I know how toothless laws can be. How full of gaps and decay. But I'm still not taking this. I refuse to have one fuckwit spoil my experience and what having a handphone has meant to me. And if there is one thing I can't stand, it's assholes who choose to exert their power through sex. I spent 2 years of my life in primary school terrified of this guy who was threatening to rape my best friend - and me by proxy - for some unknown reason. Hanging out near our school, coming to the canteen when no one was around and saying the same disgusting things over and over. I had nightmares about him for years, dreaming of his death so the threat would end. I still remember his face. I'm not a child anymore. I should have told someone, made a report, kicked his balls. Done something. Anything. No more. I refuse to be paralysed by fear and shrink my already small space any smaller.

And they simply stopped. I still have his number, and phone numbers of all other similar stalkers who have made dodgy sms to my friends. I'm saving them up for a class action suit one day!

technorati tags: takebackthetech

this is just so i wont forget, and in case there are some unfortunate souls like me.

had to reformat harddisk (win XP) and so lost all thunderbird profile. but my mail was intact in a separate drive (partitioned: all programmes in c, all mails somewhere else)

i did a backup with mozbackup but it didn't want to restore. said it wasn't a valid file. which drove me fucking bonkers.

tried to do all manner of things. eventually found this thread. even though it was for a mac, decided to give it a go.

installed thunderbird. recreated new accounts.

created a new profile & deleted existing profile (no risk since it's basically a fresh reinstall). copied all my mail folders and file into "Local Directories" folder in "Mail" in the drive where my mail is.

didn't work.

luckily, i found a super old profile (sometime middle 2007) and copied all the files into the new profile folder.

although some of my settings still worked, i.e. accounts and passwords are there, but still couldn't detect my mails.

checked local folder settings in account settings, and saw where my global inbox was located. moved all files and folders there, pasting/replacing over everything.

it works!

the moral of the lesson is, back up firefox and thunderbird profiles!

* how to manage profiles

Just tried clicking on the map. Hopefully it works!

technorati tags: takebackthetech

and it begins...!

the sun has risen, my tongue is burnt,
i can smell yesterday's sweat trying to squirm
into tomorrow.

16 days of manic blogging!

***************************
ka-BLOG! TAKE BACK THE TECH!
www.takebackthetech.net
25 Nov to 10 Dec
***************************

ka-BLOG! Calling all bloggers to contaminate the blogosphere with activism on VAW for 16 days.

ka-BLOG is a 16-day blog fest for the Take Back the Tech Campaign. It is open to anyone and everyone - girls, boys, everyone beyond and more -- who want to share their thoughts on violence against women, and how online communications can exacerbate or help eliminate VAW.

---------------------------
What is the campaign about?
---------------------------
Take Back The Tech is simply a call for every person– women and men, who uses information & communication technologies, e.g. mobile phone, internet, radio etc., to use them for activism against VAW (violence against women). Unequal power relations lie at the heart of VAW, and this is apparent from the streets to online spaces. So we are saying technology should be used for equality, not to perpetuate violence.

---------------
How to ka-BLOG?
---------------

1. *commit*: commit yourself to 16 days of blogging about violence against women and technology.

2. *email*: email jac AT apcwomen DOT org, with your blog address & name/handle/nick
OR register yourself at the campaign website: http://www.takebackthetech.net/user/register
If possible, before 25 November. If you don't have a blog yet, this will be a great place to start! Email us, and we'll send you links on how to start your own blog :)

2. *identify*: make it known by putting a takebackthetech icon on your blog — create your own or grab a few icons from our Campaign Tools and Materials.

3. *post*: post one thing a day from 25 nov to 10 dec on this issue

4. tag it: add the "takebackthetech" tag your posts; just cut & paste the following code to to the bottom of each post:

<!-- technorati tags begin --><p style="font-size: 10px; text-align: right;">technorati tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/takebackthetech" rel="tag directory">takebackthetech</a></p><!-- technorati tags end -->

5. link back: send in your bloglinks and and we'll rss your posts to the campaign website throughout the 16 days

6. expand: widen the campaign to your readers by linking your blog to the campaign site.

-----------------------
What to ka-BLOG! About?
-----------------------

Anything as long as it's about violence against women and gender relations,and their connection to technology. We've come up with some questions for exploration because we know can be difficult and exhausting to think of things to write about for 16 days! If you have any ideas, share it with us through email, or blog about it. We'll find your post and add it to the list on the campaign website.

1. Do role playing games or communities promote sexual violence?
2. Are webcam girls victims or sexually empowered?
3. Is online harassment really harmful?
4. How can right to privacy coexist with right to expression?
5. Is sex online ‘real’ or just harmless ‘fantasy’?
6. What does it mean to take back the tech when 5 billion people in the world have no internet access?
7. The State can’t even get serious about domestic violence, how is it possible for something like cyberstalking to be a public safety issue?
8. The internet is for… (porn?)
9. Should internet service providers like Yahoo! have a right to my data since they’re free?
10. Is internet censorship the only way to deal with violent or sexually degrading content?
 
But also, feel free to skip any of these and blog about anything that's on your mind :) It does not matter if the blog entries come in the form of jokes, limmericks, poetry, short stories, blurbs, graphics, pictures, articles, creative narratives.

We welcome bloggers in different languages!

So ka-BLOG! with us!

For more information on ka-BLOG!, go http://www.takebackthetech.net, or email jac AT apcwomen DOT org

[FYI. In Filipino slang, "ka-BLOG" would mean someone you blog with.]

technorati tags: takebackthetech

haven't blogged in awhile, and i think i've forgotten how to write.

spent tuesday night at a vigil, held in protest against continued detention of revathi masoosai aka siti. checked the definition of vigil, and it basically means a period of deliberate wakefulness and watching over something.

i guess in this context, it makes sense. making a public statement that the whole politicisation of religion is being watched. and crowding at merdeka square locates the issue as something related to our freedom to shape the idea of nation and citizenship.

but standing there, holding a candle, watching the TV and news crews catching quick soundbytes, preferably passionate and full of dramatic tension, it was strange. the affair was peaceful, and peaceful protests are wonderful. but i can't help thinking...

who died? why so few of us? who is this dude passing around a neat flyer interpellating everyone as greedy christians? is this more of a social networking event for people to catch up? why isn't there a buzz about the issue? how am i supposed to know what the issue is unless i subscribe to malaysiakini or msian-ngo? is that why the cops just hang about, no choppers above our heads trying to drown out speeches or freak out tourists? is it because it's 8pm on a tuesday night at a street where few people go to unless there's siti or football on the giant screen?

a little hungry for more.

---
a really good friend asked me to join facebook last week, so i did.

i have been resisting all these social networking platforms cause they freak me out. everyone being connected, voluntarily giving out personal data, able to be surveilled and tracked down to the smallest detail, happy heaven for advertisers and other corporations who can save money on market research...

it just makes me want to scream privacy is a sacred thing!!!! which makes me check their privacy policy.

in short, if you want an account, you have to give:

• your full name
  can be masked - just give a silly name, although it kinda defeats the purpose cause no one can find you unless you go around using a silly name, which means you're track-able anyway
• your email address
  can create a dummy by using gmail, yahoo mail, or any other free webmail services. but also means you'll end up with 1 email account per sign up of any of these things, which means you'll be spending a lot of time checking multiple emails!
• your birthday
  can be masked - just give any random date as long as it makes you more than the legal age as understood by the service provider. which makes me wonder about the intended security (it covers their ass, as in the kid lied, we didn't know, we did everything we could. but is there another way?). which also means you'll have to jot it down somewhere in case password is lost at some future date and you need verification (like yahoo!). 
  
• your school
  can just select none of the above.
  

and so on. but the whole point of joining these things is to put down an identity to yourself that is real, and connectable to real people who have encountered you in the past no? i found some uni friends in the space, and it did make me quite happy. but then... i dont forsee myself spending lots of time hanging out with them over facebook. or is this usually the case? i have no idea. what is the pleasure of these things? the number of friends or fanny-tastic testimonies in the www?

i should stop thinking. or writing. it hurts like crazy.

is it? is information about sexual behaviours, relations, actions and fantasy everyone's right? if there is a right to information, and information enables active participation in social, cultural and political life, through dissemination of knowledge, promotion of individual and community content creation and exchange, about stuff that matters to people, then why not porn?

if people of diverse sexualities have a right to be recognised, and has a history of acceptance that is only recently embedded in a taboo of shame and secrecy, how similar is this to porn?

not sure about the veracity of the information. malaysia is mis-spelled (to malayasia), and i wonder where the other 4% of porn comes from (japanese hentai?). so an entire country is mis-spelled, it makes me wonder about the rest of the stuff.

either way, the treatment is interesting, especially since the actress is named, and puts herself forward as a conscious individual involved in this whole ecosystem -- with a knowing smile accompanying her plug at the end. at least she's not another victim, but at the same time, something is a little unsettling.

the comments after the you tube video is the thing i'm most interested in :)

sometimes the push towards digital communications tech is a little annoying. sometimes the automatic counter against the ICT4D hype is radio. how it is more accessible. more user-friendly. and somehow, just a little more towards the 'authentic'.

it's true in many ways. i guess i embrace digital tech because it is increasingly assuming everyone as producers and users, whereas it's a little harder with radio, when users are an anonymous, disembodied mass (actually, maybe not that different from the internet, bar IPs & pseudonyms ;)), and producers are those with a working studio, mikes, recorders, editing software, transmitting devices etc. oh, and irritatingly, djs with american or australian accents.

i went to an art exhibition some years ago, and the featured artist did an installation on free-ing airways. being a radio pirate, and how simple it was. quite a literal take on art pushing boundaries of socially constructed realities. but still pretty cool.

not sure where i can locate myself in this whole thing, except as a supporter of all kinds of opening up of spaces for discussion to level of power relations. but this nalaka dude has good things to say.

received this in inbox today:

Protecting the spectrum for media freedom
By Nalaka Gunawardene

On May 3, the annual World Press Freedom Day will once again be observed worldwide, focusing public attention on a multitude of threats to freedom of expression through the mass media.

But amidst the extremely relevant and necessary slogans, we are unlikely to hear this slogan: Hands off our spectrum. Yet saving our spectrum is critical for ensuring media freedom.

The electro-magnetic spectrum has been called the ‘invisible wealth of nations’, and all broadcasting using the airwaves relies on the fair, equitable and sound management of this common property resource.

( more - protecting the spectrum for media freedom )