Few Things Wholly Evil, or Wholly Good

The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject anything, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good.  There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good.  Almost everything, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.  On this principle, the president, his friends, and the world generally, act on most subjects.
From a Speech in the US House of Representatives on Internal Improvements (June 20, 1848)

Source:
Lincoln on Democracy:  His Own Words, with Essays by America's Foremost Civil War Historians. (New York, NY: A Cornelia & Michael Bessie Book, HarperCollins Publishers, 1990).  Eds. Mario M. Cuomo, & Harold Holzer, p. 39.

I Have A Dream

I Have a Dream*

About One Day

When “Walking While Black Is Not a Crime”**

I Have a Dream

About One Country

Where One Shall Not Be Treated

Differently

Because of One’s Skin Color

I Have a Dream

About One Country

Where Every One Is Judged

Fairly and Equally

Before the Law

I Have a Dream

About One Country

Where "Different" Groups Would Rather

Sit Down for Talks

Than Rely on Violence

To Resolve Conflicts

And for “Self Defense”

I Have A Dream

About One Country 

That Has No Place for Arms

For the Armed and the Unarmed

Are Like Drivers and Pedestrians

Doesn't the Law say

It’s the Driver, NOT the Pedestrian,

That Is Responsible

For the Harm Done?
Once the Harm Was Done

Could It Be Undone?

This Time It Was Trayvon
Next, You Are Gone!  

------
* Dr. Martin Luther King's famous statement
** One statement on a protester's sign against the jury's verdict in the Trayvon Martin case

Technology and Revolution

...for all that communication technologies can do to transform revolutions in ways that tip the balance in favor of the people, there are critical elements of change that these tools cannot effect.  Principal among them is the criterion of first-rate leaders, individuals who can keep the opposition intact during tough times, negotiate with a government if it opts for reform, or run for office, win and deliver on what the people want if a dictator flees.  Technology has nothing to do with whether an individual has the attributes to fill the role of a statesman. (pp. 128-129)
...large numbers of ...people, armed with little more than mobile phones, can fuel revolutions that challenge decades of authority and control, hastening a process that has historically taken years.  It 's now clear how technology platforms can play a prominent role in toppling dictators when used resourcefully.  ...it's also clear that it's the people who make or break revolutions, not the tools they use.  Traditional components of civil society will become even more important as online crowds swarm the virtual public square, because while some of the newly involved participants (like activist engineers) will be highly relevant and influential, many more... will be little more than amplifiers and noise generators along for the ride.    (p. 129)
Future revolutions will produce many celebrities, but this aspect of movement-making will retard the leadership development necessary to finish the job.  Technology can help find the people with leadership skills --thinkers, intellectuals and others --but it cannot create them.  Popular uprisings can overthrow dictators, but they are successful afterwards only if opposition forces have a good plan and can execute it. 
Otherwise the result is either a reconstruction of the old regime or a transition from a functioning regime to a failed state.  Building a Facebook page does not constitute a plan; actual operational skills are what will carry a revolution to a successful conclusion. (p. 129)
...............
The downside of an acceleration in the pace of a movement is that organizations and their ideas, strategies and leaders have a far shorter gestation period.  History suggests that opposition movements need time to develop, and that the checks and balances that shape an emergent movement ultimately produce a stronger and more capable one, with leaders who are more in tune with the population they intend to inspire. (p. 130)
...............
Successful leaders with ties to the diaspora will be the ones who adopt a sort of hybrid model, whereby the desires of the virtual and physical constituencies are both addressed and somehow reconciled.  Winning over and making use of both of these groups will be a challenge, but it will be critical  for sustainable leadership in the digital age. (p. 135)


Source:
Schmidt, Eric & Cohen, Jared.  (2013).  The New Digital Age—Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business.  (Alfred A. Knopf, NY), pp.129-135.

The Dalai Lama on Religion and Happiness

RELIGION

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

Everyone can develop a good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion.

I feel that the essence of spiritual practice is your attitude toward others. When you have a pure, sincere motivation, then you have right attitude toward others based on kindness, compassion, love and respect. Dharma practice brings the clear realisation of the oneness of all human beings and the importance of others benefiting by your actions.

Religion does not mean just precepts, a temple, monastery, or other external signs, for these are subsidiary factors in taming the mind. When the mind becomes the practices, one is a practitioner of religion.

HAPPINESS
Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

True happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion and elimination of ignorance, selfishness and greed.

Human happiness and human satisfaction must ultimately come from within oneself. It is wrong to expect some final satisfaction to come from money or from a computer.

China in Africa

China has been remarkably successful in extending its footprint into Africa, trading technical assistance and large infrastructure projects for access to resources and consumer markets, in no small part due to China's noninterference policy and low bids.   (p. 110)

Tanzania, a former socialist country, is one of the largest recipients of Chinese foreign direct assistance.  In 2007, a Chinese telecom was contacted to lay some ten thousand kilometer of fiber-optic cable.  Several years later, a Chinese mining company called Sichuan Hongda announced that it had entered into a $3 billion deal with Tanzania to extract coal and iron ore in the south of the country  Shortly thereafter, the Tanzanian government announced it had entered into a loan agreement with China to build a natural gas-pipeline for $1 billion.  All across the continent, similar symbiotic relationships exist between African governments and big Chinese firms, most of which are state-owned.  (State-owned enterprises make up 80 percent of the value of China's stock market.)  A $150 million loan for Ghana's e-governance venture, implemented by the Chinese firm Huawei, a research hospital in Kenya, and an "African Technological City" in Khartoum all flow from the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a body established in 2000 to facilitate Sino-African partnerships. (p. 111)

Source:
Schmidt, Eric & Cohen, Jared.  (2013).  The New Digital Age—Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business.  (Alfred A. Knopf, NY), pp. 110-111.

Education in Evolution

The most important pillar behind innovation and opportunity –education– will see tremendous positive change in the coming decades as rising connectivity reshapes traditional routines and offers new paths for learning.

…schools continue to integrate technology into lesson plans and….replace traditional lessons with more interactive workshops.  Education will be a more flexible experience, adapting itself to children’s learning styles and pace….learning will take place employing carefully designed educational tools in the spirit of today’s Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization that produces thousands of short videos (the majority in science and math) and shares them online for free.

 ….educators in the United States are increasingly adopting its materials and integrating the approach of its founder, Salman Khan, modular learning tailored to a student’s needs. 

Some are even “flipping” their classrooms, replacing lectures with videos watched at home…using school time for traditional homework….Critical thinking and problem solving skills will become the focus in many school systems. 

For children in poor countries,…kids with access to mobile devices and the Internet will be able to experience school physically and virtually.

Today numerous pilot projects exist in developing countries that leverage mobile technology to teach a wide range of topics and skills, including basic literacy for children and adults, second languages and advanced courses from universities.  In 2012, the MIT Media Lab tested this approach in Ethiopia by distributing preloaded tablets to primary-age kids without instructions or accompanying teachers.  The results were extraordinary: within months the kids were reciting the entire alphabet and writing complete sentences in English.

Sources:

Schmidt, Eric & Cohen, Jared.  (2013).  The New Digital Age—Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business.  (Alfred A. Knopf, NY), p. 21.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Khan_%28educator%29

The State and the Internet

Censorship or “filtering” depends on a country’s policies and its technological infrastructure.

In some countries, there are several entry points for Internet connectivity, and a handful of private telecommunications companies [that] control them (with some regulation).  In others, there is only one entry point, a nationalized Internet service provider (ISP), through which all traffic flows….Differences in infrastructure…, combined with cultural particularities and objectives of filtering, account for the patchwork systems around the world today. 

In most countries, filtering is conducted at the ISP level.  …governments put restrictions on the gateway routers that connect the country and on DNS (domain name system) servers.  This allows them to either block a website altogether or process web content through “deep-packet inspection.”   ….special software allows the router to look inside the packets of data that pass through it and check for forbidden words, among other things….. Neither technique is foolproof; users can access blocked sites with circumvention technologies like proxy servers (which trick the routers) or by using secure https encryption protocols (which enable private Internet communication that, at least in theory, cannot be read by anyone other than your computer and the website you are accessing), and deep-packet inspection rarely catches every instance of banned content. (p. 84)

  The most sophisticated censorship states invest a great deal of resources to build these systems, and then heavily penalize anyone who tries to get around them.

A “balkanization of the Internet” national filtering and other restrictions would transform what was once the global Internet into a connected series of nation-state networks.  The World Wide Web would fracture and fragment….all coexisting and sometimes overlapping but, in important ways, separate.  Each state’s Internet would take on its national characteristics.  Information would largely flow within countries but not across them, due to filtering, language or even just user preference….The process would at first be barely perceptible to users, but it would fossilized over time and ultimately remake the Internet  (For more information read Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World by Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu, 2006).  (p. 85)

Three models: the blatant (China), the sheepish Internet filterers (Turkey), and the politically and culturally acceptable (South Korea, Germany, Malaysia…).  …activists will pray that the third approach becomes the norm for states around the world, but this seems unlikely; only countries with highly engaged and informed popuations will need to be this transparent and restrained. (pp 86-89)

Source:

Schmidt, Eric & Cohen, Jared.  (2013).  The New Digital Age—Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business.  (Alfred A. Knopf, NY).

Egypt –Summer 2013

Hosni Mubarak

—dictator of 30 years

Muhammad Morsi

—first freely-elected president
after 30 months of revolution
 

Ups and downs

More or less

The same

Friends vs. foes

Supporters vs. protestors

The rich vs. the poor

The Fundamentalists vs. the Liberals

The religious vs. the secular

The armed vs. the unarmed

A chaotic and unknown destiny

Awaiting Egypt

Ups and downs

More or less

The same

Awaiting the World!

Identity in the Future (cont.)

…We are not just ourselves anymore.  Each of us has a new, statistical self living in databases around the world.  It’s those selves, uniquely identified bundles of behavior, that marketers target and companies try to reach.  These are remarkable, distributed portraits of what we read, what we eat, and where we sleep.  When it comes to our statistical selves, the difference between the NSA and private companies such as Facebook or Google or Amazon.com lie in what the government can do with the data it collects.  It’s building that giant index so that, if it needs to, it can actively cross the line between your statistical self and your real, physical self.  It’s the difference between “would you like to receive local coupons for business you love?” and “why is there a van in front of our house?” (p. 9)

Source:

Ford, Paul. “Getting to know our numerical selves.” Bloomberg Businessweek, June 17-June 23, 2013.

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