Mr. Internet, Tear Down That Wall!

The Aspen Institute held an event in Washington today entitled, "Digital Statecraft: Media, Broadcasting and the Internet as Instruments of Public Diplomacy in the Middle East." Elie Khoury, Chairman and CEO, Quantum Communications, a leading advertising and communications firm in the broader Middle East; and Chairman and CEO, M&C Saatchi, Middle East & North Africa made the trip from Beirut to discuss modern public diplomacy.

He led with a comparison of the Berlin Wall - a symbol of East-West divide for so many years - to today's East-West relations, though today's "East" is the Islamic world. On September 11, 2001, a wall of separation was erected that senselessly divides our species.

When talking about public diplomacy, we have to ask, are there enough tools to make it successful? Do these tools work with Islam? Do we have to wait another half century to see successful results? Does television reach enough people? Radio? The internet? Can Western media play a public diplomacy role?

Mr. Khoury said, "All can reach one, one can reach all."

Even with censorship, quality and pertinent information will eventually get to people thanks to new media. There are 65 million internet users in the MENA region despite the fact that only 1% of online content is in Arabic.

Khoury added that of all websites that are run in the Middle East, only 20% of them are related to Islam, contrary to what the West might think. He lamented that a few psychopaths (my word, not his) have hijacked Islam and use the Quran as a substitute for the Communist Manifesto. See, we all dream the "American dream," no matter what our nationality. You have to remember Americans come from everywhere else. Aside from a tiny minority, most human beings want control over their own destinies, a safe place to raise a family, and the freedom to pursue whatever makes them happy. But there is an imbalance in the world, between haves and have nots, and once when Adam Smith was the promise of having, then followed Marx, Lenin, and Nasr. Arab socialism failed the Arabs, and some have turned to radical Islam.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

New media, social media, whatever you would like to call it, gives us this amazing, amazing opportunity to skip government run public diplomacy and have direct interaction with each other. Isn't it time we start talking TO each other rather than passively-aggressively complaining about each other?

A Blackberry Eye for Lebanese Democracy?

Last week, the UAE and Saudi Arabia decided to block Blackberry services due to what they cited as security concerns. India, which had been considering such a move because Blackberry is what the Mumbai terrorists had used to communicate, decided against such a move. Blackberry’s encryption technology is such that users actually have privacy when communicating with Blackberry devices.

Both UAE and Saudi Arabia are non-democratic regimes and have strict censorship laws, so it is understandable that they would seek to block any communications service they can't intercept. It’s just quotidian life in most of the Arab world.

But Lebanon?

Today the Lebanese Telecommunications Ministry announced it would review Blackberry services over “security” fears. This comes on the day that the U.S. State Department released its 2009 Country Reports on Terrorism, in which seven designated terrorist organizations were mentioned along with Hezbollah.

Do we really believe these considerations are for “security” purposes?

The Blackberry “discussions” are just the latest in a series of anti-free speech developments in Lebanon. These include the recent passage of an e-transactions law that creates an all powerful governmental body to oversee internet transactions and the arrest of four people who posted anti-Sleiman messages on Facebook.

This is not to mention Lebanon’s woefully inadequate internet infrastructure, which also affects Blackberry information services. The government has paid lip service to infrastructure improvements, agreeing in principle to buying more bandwidth but somehow finding a way to keep that bandwidth from reaching people.

Yet, I find it difficult to believe the Lebanese government is motivated by the same authoritarian impulses of its UAE and Saudi counterparts. No, Lebanon may have just a shadow of a real democracy, but the Lebanese government is not really seeking to control the communications of its citizens. Rather, it seeks to control the flow of money resulting from its citizens needs and desires for information and communications technology. It does this by passing go and collecting its $200 again and again and again and again.

We can only hope Research In Motion, the company that makes Blackberry devices, does not cave in to non-democratic regimes across the world and alter their devices so that governments can monitor the lives of their citizens. We all know how Google, Yahoo, and other tech companies have succumbed to the dictatorial commands of such authoritarian regimes as China (fortunately, Google changed its mind early this year.) Hopefully in the Blackberry case, human rights will triumph over the Almighty Dollar.

The Skype's the Limited, Part II

So it's true. The Lebanese government is set to pass a very bad e-transactions law that gives the government unchecked authority over e-commerce. Remember when we wondered if Lebanon would ever HAVE a government after it took ten thousand years to form one? Perhaps it'd be better if they'd never formed it.

Remember back when the old Phoenicians made the land now known as Lebanon the center of trade and commerce for the world? Ok, maybe not. That was a long time ago. (Some of the dinosaurs in the current government may remember...) The thing about Lebanon is that it has always been a center for trade. Commerce is why the country managed to survive its 15 year long suicide attempt. Commerce is why the country continues to function even as the government drowns in its own nepotism and corruption.

But allowing the monopolistic telecomms corporations and its governmental cronies to restrict the freedom of people to talk to each other is not commerce. It's corporate fascism at its finest.

This law runs contrary to every principle of democracy and free market economy to which Lebanon claims to adhere. Passing this law would be a major step backwards in the country's democratic development.

Around the interwebs:

SMEX says ACT NOW: Stop the E-transactions law.

Qifa Nabki's Missed Call Nation.

Lebanon is stifling your freedom: Daily Star article.

Maya Zankoul nails another one.

Beirut Spring

Identity Chef

Independence 05

Trella

Beirutiyat

Sarahilal

Jad Aoun

Stop the E-transactions law Facebook page.

Al-Akhbar article

Life in Slow Motion.

POMED

@stopthislaw Twitter account

We will keep you updated on the developments...

The Skype's the Limited

Well now, this is disturbing. The Lebanese government seems intent on keeping Lebanon in the stone age when it comes to technology. This week, it activated equipment to block Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

Congratulations, Lebanon! You join such healthy democratic societies as China and UAE who block VoIP.

While Skype is still functional at the moment, it is in violation of the telecomms law, and if the shortsighted telecomms policies are fully enforced, Skype could go at any time.

So, who benefits from this law, anyway? Why, it's none other than Alfa and MTC, which have a virtual monopoly on the telecomms market! And don't forget the government can collect all of those taxes that wouldn't be collected when people use VoIP for free or reduced rates!

And what do the Lebanese people think about all of this? Do they even know? Probably not. The Daily Star asks:

Where do civil society groups stand on this core issue? Are they still busy creating awareness about how to lobby local municipalities for water and decent roads? This is not necessarily a call for telecoms privatization, it is high time for a digital user protest and concerted lobbying efforts by consumers, entrepreneurs, and activists alike.

I found that second question odd. I mean, are they saying that water and decent roads are not worthwhile ventures?

The truth is, many Lebanese civil society organizations are not well-versed in the art of advocacy. How are they supposed to tackle such a convoluted issue as VoIP, when most people don't understand what is VoIP?

iLebanon

It was like some exclusive place in Soho back when Soho was cool, but there was an ocean between it and New York, a tumultuous ocean full of the wrath of winter. Concrete ceilings, water spots, black walls that probably receive a regular dose of paint, and art, much art, a red-faced Warhol and Superman Obama and marvel comics on canvas, an explosion of popart was right there on the walls of a warehouse bar in Beirut on a winter's Friday night.

The future of Lebanon socialized inside those walls, a mix of programmers, bloggers, photographers, musicians, social entrepreneurs, Twitterers, and civil society activists, all of them recognizing that in natural resourceless Lebanon, human resources are the way to progress, building a knowledge society through technology and ideas.

They called it Geekfest.

They had come out from behind computer screens to prove they are real, that they aren't just avatars but living human beings whose ideas are as real as they are. Lebanon could be a leader in tech, but its telecommunications infrastructure prevents it from being so. Instead, tech investment goes to Amman, and young Lebanese are left in the dark. Will the new government make good on his promise to bring Lebanon into the twenty-first century, or will corruption and ineptitude keep these "geeks" mired in the past, their ideas fading with each advance made by the world around them?

There are so many great initiatives in Lebanon, so many skilled developers and talented individuals, and most of them attended Geekfest at Art Lounge on Friday night. I wish them luck in their endeavors and hope we develop long lasting partnerships for the betterment of Lebanon's civil society.

SMEX post on Geekfest.

Fake Plastic Souks post.

fadynammour photos

Civil society issues in Lebanon

Last week, the Daily Star reported that in 2009, despite unprecedented stability in Lebanon, civil society failed to achieve any significant reforms.

Here are some issues that Lebanese civil society needs to deal with to be more effective:

1. Lebanese civil society organizations largely fail to understand how to use technology to spread awareness about their activities. There are many organizations doing great work; however, no one knows about it. This results in a duplication of efforts, wasted resources, and unnecessary competition for precious funding.

If you click on many of the links in our sidebar, you will encounter many websites that have not been updated in awhile. This happens for several reasons:

a) The organizational website was set up under one particular grant, and when that grant ended, so too, did updates to the website.

b) The organization pays a company to maintain the website and the company charges for every update.

c) The organization doesn't understand how important it is to update a website.

All of these issues are easily rectified, especially in a country as tech savvy as Lebanon.

For the first point, many grants - including all US government grants - require sustainability of projects before they are awarded. Simply put, an organization is not fulfilling the commitment it made when signing its contract if it stops updating its website. When writing proposal budgets, organizations should always include website maintenance as a line item.

On the second point, companies who charge for every update should be fired and replaced by a company who values service and commitment to its clients. The company should offer the software that allows organizations to update their own websites. Organizations should understand that paying for this software is worth the cost.

The final point is the most difficult to overcome, yet it is still rather simple to rectify. Civil society organizations simply don't know the value of or don't know how to use technology to promote their causes. Groups like Social Media Exchange are working hard to help civil society understand the importance of technology. Organizations should take advantage of training programs on how to use technology to promote their activities and accomplishments.

An organization's website is the primary means of electronic communication. Social media like Facebook and Twitter are good tools to promote your organization, but they should not be the primary means of spreading information. Your website should do that. Your website should include frequent updates on your organization's activities and accomplishments. Websites are especially important to overseas funders who want to know if your organization has enough experience and knowledge to be awarded a grant.

Up next, the second reason why reforms were lacking in 2009: organizational egos...