Ejovi Nuwere

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Finished up at Personal Democracy forum, the most enlightening revelation at the forum was when someone asked Congressman Anthony Weiner why he refused to blog, to which he stated quite honestly “I don’t need to, I have town hall meetings”. My question, “aren’t all the people that attend town hall meetings senior citizens?” and Congressman Weiner’s response was “Yes! Those are my bread and butter, they will vote for me.”

The Congressman’s honesty is probably why most congressman and senators have web pages that look like they were written in 1999. The internet doesn’t get you votes, going to senior citizens homes, shaking hands with people at churches and attending rallies. That gets you votes. On the local level the internet won’t make or break most campaigns, not yet. What the internet does do and does well is it invites people to participate in our democratic process. The internet says to the disenfranchised “I want to communicate with you too!” Dean showed that there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who feel left out of our democracy, when Dean embraced the internet he embraced those unheard voices and encouraged them to speak up, that was democracy at its best.

However Dean and Gore showed us that democracy doesn’t always equal winning. Unfortunately for most politicians winning often means voter suppression. In politics, campaigning and governing is very different. The fact that it is common to suppress a large percentage of the population in order to win, under the assumption that when you take office you will still be able to represent those same people has me deeply troubled. Is this democracy or is it hypocrisy? Call me an idealist but if a politician’s job is to promote democracy and equality they need to start promoting those ideals from day one! This means using all means available to reach out to those they are supposed to be representing, it means embracing technology that allows you to reach everyone you represent not because you have to but because you want to.

I hope the internet changes campaigning in America. I will rejoice at the day when it will be considered normal, even on the local level for voters to load up web browsers with each candidate’s voting history and position papers to compare them side by side. The day when town hall meetings are held in person and online simultaneously, allowing parents working two jobs, students struggling to make it through college to also participate. Maybe then everyone will have equal representation and equal say, otherwise its politics as usual.
Continue reading ‘Politics vs Democracy’

Despite all the news about pictures of Iraqi prisoners being abused and Americans being murdered, a small community has quitely built up among American and British solders in Iraq who publish personal pictures from Iraq on a daily basis, often with commentary.

Using mobile phones soldiers have taken hundreds of pictures, sometimes graphic images, though mostly harmless that give amazing insite into the life of a soldier in Iraq.

Here is a small list.

I managed to convince my co-worker, who also happens to have a band, enemies of enormity, of the value of blogging as a self promotion tool, not that I would personally know anything about that. Any how, he now has a pretty cool blog that gives an interesting insight into the mind of a musician.
Continue reading ‘Music Blog’