An Australian Jew goes around five non-democratic countries. 3 in the middle east – Iran, Syria, Egypt and two others: China & Cuba. Talks to limited people connected on the internet there. Double checks the facts and opinions stated by the western media. And then meets his fellow Jews in each of these countries and writes about his experiences and observations. The title page of the book The Blogging Revolution mentions India too. But the author did not visit India, at least not for this book or related research. I think that was included in the Indian edition of the book but in my honest opinion is misleading the Indian reader.
Author has tried to find the alternate voices in the countries he visited. Equally from both the genders and from people on the fringes. He talks to people who have been blogging. Especially on the political scene of the country. He looks at the way their blogs have been received. If they have been accepted as voices, if they have been ignored or if they have been seen as a threat. He quotes many cases where the blogger’s voices were suppressed by law. But he also shows a lot of action that the blogs have generated.
Chapters are structured very well, beginning with the brief history of the country and its political scenario. And its relationship with the west. Then moving on to the few bloggers whom the author met during his visits and then a bit of himself through his visits to Jews in each of these countries. This makes me think – can you really separate religion from your psyche? Do you not always bond with those who are connected to you through a common religious thread? Many authors time and again have re-iterated this even when they publicly claim to be an atheist.
He talks about the blogs in local languages. And the impact of it as English is not as widely spoken in most of these countries. He also analyzes the view of western media on the blogging in these countries. As they only refer to English blogs that are just a small percentage of the total blogs and maybe the ones not really creating the impact. A common observation that he has is that young people in all these countries want a change, want democracy. But not really in the way west thinks they should have.
They want their country their way. They definitely want more freedom of expression and more participation within their own countries. And more engagement with the world outside. They want change but are not really as unhappy as the western media claims them to be. They have found their own little world online and offline. And they are doing their bit to bring in the changes that their Society needs.
He also looks at the censorship of the Internet, especially in China. I was surprised by one of the comments in the book that says censorship of the Internet is increasing in India. I have not felt it. They have been talking about it. But I do not know of any sites that are banned in India or any keyword filters that have been placed. An interesting counterpoint though is that people always find ways to work around filtered keywords. They will have pseudo words which everyone seems to know except the filtering agencies. They will use proxies to access the information that is filtered. Makes you think if the Internet in its present form can really be tamed? They also mention a case of Yahoo where they leaked information to government from a private conversation and how this breach was handled.
The Blogging Revolution is quite an informative read. Especially for someone who may not know too much about these regions. As a blogger, you suddenly realize how much the community is spread out and the potential of this medium to make an impact. Read The Blogging Revolution to know the offline impact of online revolutions.
You may buy this book – The Blogging Revolution by Antony Loewenstein at Amazon.
