DOES LIFE JUST CARRY ON ?

Those of us living in the ‘West’ have watched with utter amazement at the developments in North Africa and the Middle East over the last 6 weeks.   The subject of :  - many a dinner conversation,  a chat at the water cooler, in the coffee shop or even an exchange of e-mails – was the resilience, the fortitude and the patience of the Egyptian people who for 30 years have suffered under a dictatorship (that most of us were oblivious to) and following Tunisia - realized that their future lay in their own hands.  And they grasped the nettle with incredible courage. 

What are the lessons we learn from their actions ?  

First and foremost we need to understand that we don’t actually know or understand just how the majority of our fellow global citizens actually live their lives.   That the political systems in most Arab states are not Western liberal democracies – that political control is wielded by a small elite who rule by fiat and the co-option of one or other of the security services.   The same applies to Iran and it is interesting that there too the masses emboldened by events in North Africa made the celebrations of the 1979 revolution a less auspicious affair than the Supreme Ruler or President would have liked.   I suspect that this time the authorities will brook little dissent and the ghoulish statistic of one execution every 9 hours since Jan 1 will give any aspirant Green Revolutionary pause.  (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657104576142162930424884.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)

Some have proclaimed that this was the Social Media revolution.   That if it was not for Twitter and Facebook and SMS’s then it would never have happened.   I tend towards this camp.  There are others led most notably by Malcom Gladwell who dismiss the power of Social Media.   They proclaim that such revolutions took place before social media and that the underlying causes were there for a long time.  What such naysayers forget is the extent to which Social Media acted as the spark that lit the fire.  The underlying sentiment was tinder dry and ready for a conflagration – but it was the flint of social media that ignited the fires of revolution. 

Despite the relatively low Internet penetration in Egypt the power of ideas spreading at the speed of light through digital networks  - Internet, Mobile and TV – become an irresistible force building like a Tsunami.   Who knows where these forces show up next ?  – there have even been street protests in Italy with placards denouncing Berlosconi as our ‘ Muburak’.  !

As matters of the digital revolution occupy our minds this week with events like the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the RSA Conference in San Francisco we should consider for a while just how powerful these technologies have become and how they are shaping our world in the 21^st Century.   Do we carry on life as normal or do we think carefully about the role of the technologies, that we have helped to create, implement and perpetuate, in making the World a better place.  

I believe that there is no turning back.   We have no choice but to embrace the new technologies and use our ‘practical wisdom’ in using them in mankind’s best  interests.

(http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_using_our_practical_wisdom.html)  

Thank you.