Letters to the Art System

Seven Million Hondurans Under House Arrest as Micheletti Writes of "Democracy"

Posted by Al Giordano - September 22, 2009 at 1:52 pm

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3444/seven-million-hondurans-under-house-arrest-micheletti-writes-democracy

By Al Giordano

Hondurans in civil resistance surrounded the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa yesterday to greet their returning president. This morning, coup regime troops attacked them violently, sending 24 wounded to hospitals. D.R. 2009 Mariachiloko, Chiapas Indymedia.

The Honduran coup regime’s 26-hour martial curfew upon the entire country effectively places 7.5 million Honduran citizens – men, women, children and elders – under house arrest. They are prohibited from going to work, to the store, or to walk down the street to visit a neighbor. Anybody on the street is subject to arrest, for violation of the curfew.

If this happened to you, what would you call it?

The stated pretext for this heavy handed maneuver is nothing more or less than that the regime, its “president,” and its security forces have been embarrassed before their countrymen and the world. Yesterday morning’s claims by coup “president” Roberto Micheletti that news reports could not possibly be true that legitimate President Manuel Zelaya was back in town, that the regime’s intelligence forces had his every step followed and “knew” he was “in a hotel suite in Managua,” became egg on Micheletti’s face when Zelaya appeared from the rooftop of the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa yesterday to greet a multitude of citizens that want their elected president restored.

Facebook and MySpace Users Are Clearly Divided Along Class Lines

By danah boyd, AlterNet

Posted on September 3, 2009, Printed on September 3, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/142356/

This talk was written for a specific audience -- the attendees of the Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference on innovations in social networking, technology and politics. This audience is primarily American, primarily liberal-leaning, primarily white and primarily involved professionally in politics in one way or another. Keep this audience in mind when I'm talking about "we" here.

Good morning!

Many of us in this room have had our lives transformed by technology. Some of us have grown up with tech, while others have embraced it as adults. Many of us have become enamored with tech and its transformative potential. And because of this, many of us have become technology advocates. We've worked our way into different institutions, preaching about new opportunities introduced because of the Internet.

Furthermore, many in this room have been active in transforming politics through technology. We've leveraged technology for fundraising and getting out the vote. We could go on and on about political events that have been shaped by technology, from the Obama campaign to the post-election Iranian protests.

All of this is brilliant and powerful, exciting and motivating. But I'm also worried. I'm worried about the rhetoric we use when we talk about technology.