Wen Jiabao shoe protest
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPQM47rqUNE[/youtube]
Twitter: your partner in panic facilitation
The vast potential of social networking technologies to aggregate people and effects is something that we’ve been interested in for a while now here at Global Dashboard. In the blue corner: Linux, Wikipedia, anti-FARC protests organised over Facebook. In the red corner: insurgents in Mumbai using Twitter to help them to co-ordinate their attacks.
Well, the last two days have brought another couple of examples. As David noted yesterday, one of them is the current spate of wildcat strikes in the UK, where strikers have been using bulletin board sites like BearFacts and informal text messaging networks.
The other was to be found yesterday on Twitter. As the strikes gathered pace and as heavy snowfall brought much of the UK’s transport system to a standstill, one Twitter user whose updates I subscribe to posted this:
I can confirm that the Co-Op in Forest Hill is out of stock of Heinz Tomato soup #uksnow #blitz #panicbuying
Now, if you’re not familiar with Twitter, then you won’t be aware that the practice of putting ‘#’ in front of a key word is designed to help users to search rapidly for all tweets related to the same topic. So during the Mumbai attacks, for example, you could immediately gather all tweets on the subject simply by searching on #Mumbai.
Image Author: Flickr user ~Molz~
What was interesting to me about this particular tweet was the fact that it was the first on the subject. The user who made the post was not commenting on an existing subject of chatter on Twitter, nor merely observing that tinned soup was moving fast at his local supermarket, but intentionally turning his observation into a new meme designed to spread infectiously.
UN’s John Solecki kidnapped in Pakistan
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edQ8bT3ZWig[/youtube]
China – still dodging on climate
In an interview with the FT yesterday, Wen Jiabao sets out China’s negotiating position in the run up to the Copenhagen climate negotiation. Three main points:
- Green stimulus as part of the response to the financial meltdown.
- Domestic action to increase energy intensity by 4% a year (“We failed to meet the targets in the first two years of the five year period, and we succeeded in meeting the target in 2008.”)
- No quantified emissions targets for China – the country is still at an early stage of development and “in terms of per capita greenhouse gas emissions, we are certainly not the biggest one.”
How strong is China’s position? Not very, I think. China is obviously right to expect the rich world to do more, but if they accept tough targets and China refuses to, then there are two consequences. 450ppm stabilization becomes impossible – and it’s the rest of the G77 that will end up with a highly inequitable deal.
High noon in Darfur
UN officials always describe their nightmare scenario as “another Srebrenica”: peacekeepers standing by as civilians are massacred. Their dream scenario is, of course, for the presence of blue helmets to ward off violence. Last year’s fighting in the DRC came dangerously close to the nightmare: thinly-spread UN troops remained on their bases as thousands of civilians were forced to flight. But there were no large-scale massacres (none that made the media anyway), so the UN survived to peacekeep another day. Now there’s news of a courageous stand by the UN in Darfur:
Peacekeepers have refused to leave a rebel-held town in Darfur, despite warnings from the Sudanese government that an attack is imminent. About 5,000 civilians took shelter at the UN-African Union base after the government said the army was preparing to take Muhajiriya from rebels. A spokesperson for the peacekeeping force – called Unamid – said they would not leave civilians unprotected.
Mediators are talking to both sides to try to prevent more fighting.
The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) seized Muhajiriya two weeks ago, sparking fierce fighting, including air strikes.
“We are not going to leave while there are thousands of displaced people around our camp,” Unamid spokesman Noureddine Mezni told Reuters news agency. “The Sudanese government should be aware that their actions are endangering civilians and Unamid.”
On Sunday, Khartoum had warned peacekeepers to leave the town. “We are not ordering them around, we are asking them,” said Akuei Bona Malwal, Sudan’s ambassador to the African Union. “It’s sort of like informing them: ‘Something will be happening here,'” the AP news agency reports him as saying.
Meanwhile, Tahir al-Feki, of the Jem rebels, said they were expecting “a large attack.”
“They [government forces] are bringing tanks so they must be preparing to pound the town,” he told Reuters.
This may augur the organization’s redemption – or a catastrophe.