Anti-corruption: Where the rebels have a cause.

For some strange reason, the first word that comes to mind when I here the word "corruption" happens to be "POLITICS"! (Pshh, as if there is corruption in politics, right?) 

(http://www.haitian-truth.org/prebendes-commissions-ou-pots-de-vin-a-l%E2%80%99oavct-des-compagnies-de-construction-de-la-rep-dominican-dom-toujours-a-la-affiche/corruption-2/)

 

Throughout history, corruption has just seemed to be trending every decade by people that are stereotyped as powerful, greedy, selfish, arrogant (do I carry on?). These are the people that will do anything to get to the top or are people who are hiding something that is almost way bigger than life, where if it were to get out, it could essentially destroy their lives and reputation. It does seem, however, that corruption is definitely becoming far more harder to control by the 'corrupt-ors', as the information a part of the corruption could be leaked for the world to find, thanks to the internet and social media.

(http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/14926/i-want-to-be-part-of-the-corruption-brigade-dont-you/)

Any information on any computer that is connected to the internet immediately faces the chance of being hacked by online, well, hackers. Although its quite a scary fact, I don't think anyone and I mean anyone would imagine this happening to them. Take Rupert Murdoch for example; his media firms were caught hacking into celebrities mobile phones about who they talked to, who they messaged and what their conversations were about. Most of the information that was basically stolen off of people was used to create stories in the tabloids that Murdoch's empire runs. These stories usually consisted of things that really didn't matter but, let's be real, we all wanted to know any inside scoop about celebrities. 

Someone who was a born hacker is Julian Assange. Assange is a Queensland-born owner of one of the most outlandish and notorious websites, WikiLeaks, that basically reports and presents the TRUTH behind what those in higher power than us, like the government and massive business empires, do behind closed doors to get away with immoral and most likely illicit actions. But does this make WikiLeaks a detrimental website that aims to inflict harmful and negative claims on people? The answer is simply, no.

(http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/julian-assange-leads-time-magazine-person-of-the-year-poll/story-e6frf7lf-1225967642823)

In my eyes, WikiLeaks is paramount in anti-corruption, where it aims to inform the public about the corrupupt acts that these groups and individuals are doing in confidentiality. It aims to find the truth about what is happening in this world and the crazy, unjust things that people are committing at the risk of so many innocent peoples lives. 

In 2010, Julian Assange and the team at WikiLeaks released a video, where we saw an innocent Iraqi family in Baghdad getting fired at and killed by the U.S. military, where two of the children within that family got badly injured. We also see other innocent by standers in the city getting shot and killed as they were trying to help the injured. You can bet that the U.S. government would not have been pleased about this and they tried to keep this video hidden from public eyes. It's leaks like these that make everyone thing, "what on earth are governments doing to this world!?"

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0)

Social media is one of those outlets where people express a lot about what they feel about a topic and provide their own opinions on matters in the world. So, in this case, it most definitely helps spread awareness about things like this and makes it go viral. Social media itself has the power to bring people together to fight for what's right. To see such a sad turn of events happen to people around the world due to the war, really puts in perspective about what we should do to help stop this nonsense and create as much peace equality throughout the world.

This video leak had put Julian Assange in a lot of problems that led to legal battles for him. But what's worse, is that people where questioning about who this man was and hated him for what he did. But, what did he do?

Show the world how untrustworthy the U.S. government is, fighting battles in the middle east with innocent people who are unarmed?

Get on to WikiLeaks and look at the facts. You might be surprised when you have a look at what's going on in the "real' world.

Digital Activism

The world consists of more than 6 billion people across the continents and hemispheres that suffer from the extreme struggles such as homelessness, to the unthinkable wealth that many of us can only dream about. With that, there comes every persons opinion for what they believe is right and what should be forbidden. In the 1960s, when the hippie revolution came about, thousands of protestors would march the streets and challenge the government for freedom and peace. Their long locks and rebellious actions, against a pro-war government and closed-minded society of judgmental and conforming citizens, would be seen singing together about love, not war, carrying the signs and banners with a message to spread as far as they can across the world.

(http://www.boomerslife.org/protests_rally_iran_neda_agha_soltan.htm)

It's great to see that people still have a passion to fight for rights and have petitions against the immoral propositions that are likely to move ahead (like fighting for the legalisation of gay marriage and protesting against animal cruelty to name a few). Although many of the traditional techniques of protesting and activism continues in the current time, the use of social media and technology has increasingly helped the ways in which we can all take part in fighting for a cause. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, you name it, we can do it. 

It's a new world of digital activism where one can make a Facebook page and share it to the cyber world to get 'likes' and raise awareness of the issues that are actively persuading on the world to make a change. We find that on Twitter, people displaying an example of digital activism by hash-tagging their cause, such as #PrayForBoston after the unfortunate bombing in Boston on the 16/04/13, during the city's marathon as a memory of the 1 year anniversary to the Boston massacre.

The beauty of digital activism is that it helps raise global awareness with the possibility of rapid effects. People posting photos, videos and petitions about what is going on in their part of the world and how it effects their life (whether it be for educational, economical or environmental reasons), can be spread to us and we can all help by signing their petition and spreading their cause, no matter how big or small. Lets take Kony 2012 for example. Do we all remember the campaign that was release on YouTube and shared across social media websites to make the world aware of the kidnapping head of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Rao Kony? As soon as that video hit the online community, it went viral across the world within 48 hours, and we even saw celebrities playing as activists to find Kony. Straight away, everywhere you looked in the streets, you'd see signs and graffiti saying 'Kony 2012'. The link below is a clip that shows what the Kony 2012 campaign was used for.

http://www.news.com.au/world-old/its-all-over-the-webs-but-what-is-a-kony/story-e6frfkyi-1226292956990

(http://dayumn.com/2012/03/should-we-be-critical-of-kony/)

(http://cmcforum.com/opinion/03092012-defending-the-kony-2012-campaign)

One of the most successful examples of digital activism is change.org. Change.org is a website that enables digital petitions online that any person with a cause can start up and run their own petition throughout the world wide web, by sharing their cause and the link on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and anything else that you can think of online. Change.org has an outstanding 13 million registered users signing into the website and signing petitions and taking part in activism.

(http://www.change.org/en-AU)

In the end, I think that it's great that we can all take part in making a positive difference in our world through the possibilities of digital activism.

What are your thoughts? 

Is digital activism opening a new world of opportunities, or is it opening windows to more problems and disagreements?

Have your say.

Privacy is a thing of the past.

Do you remember a little thing called privacy?

It seems to be something that was respected and understood way back, when people had what we called a life. This was long before mobile phones and the internet were a part of our lives altogether, let alone in the palm of our hands, on our smartphones and tablets. Now, the world can catch up with our lives in an instant and get our own itinerary of where we are, who we're with and what we are doing. But lets face it, we've all put ourselves in this situation by making it the worlds business and shoving, what we're eating for breakfast and the new pair of shoes we bought online, down peoples throats. As we speak I'm clicking on my phone to check if there are any Facebook notifications on my page and flicking through the latest photo uploads on Instagram.

 (http://tbonecafe.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/a-month-of-letters/)

The advanced mobile technology we have become so immune to (this includes all smartphones and lets not forget about tablets) has become one of the biggest reasons as to why there are problems in social media, it can be reached anywhere, at anytime. These include all smartphones and tablets that have become so advanced within the past decade, that we can manage all phone calls, text messages, emails, social media, music and photos on one simple and compact device, and lets not forget about google-ing our queries instantaneously.

When mobile phones where first introduced with an in-built camera, all over the media, we kept hearing about perverts taking photo's up women's skirts on trains or as they were walking past, without the women's acknowledgement. Ten years later, I find it funny how we've all become unwilling to accept the fact that this issue still continues in our society, and that we still crave that the technological evolution only grows greater and stronger. What's worse is that we allow people to check us out and in a certain way, want them to see the best of us, by uploading outlandish photo's of us in swimwear, selfies and (if we're confident enough) selfies in front of the mirror wearing barely anything, except out underwear.

(http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/the-evolution-of-cell-phone-design-between-1983-2009/)

In Aprill 2012, the team at Google started testing their new product, Google Glass, a new eyepiece that wears like your everyday glasses, but with innovative capabilities that can start google-ing at your voice command or take a picture and video when you tell it to. 

(http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/google-glass)

                               A clip of how Google Glass works and how it feels.                              

 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v1uyQZNg2vE)

Although Google Glass seems like an AMAZING and life changing concept (I have to say, I actually got goosebumps just watching the YouTube clip above), how are we all going to feel with everyone wearing them in the streets? With a simple "record" anyone could be recording us eating in public, strutting the street or (if we ever dare to) giving our partners a passionate kiss goodbye. With Google Glass, privacy will well and truly be over. We'll constantly have to be hyper aware of who and what is around us. Are we safe to talk about private issues with friends at the park? Are we going to make a fool of ourselves when we've had one too many wines at the bar? Google Glass gives people the ability to photograph or record anything they want without being obvious, no more sneaky sneaky shots with with their phones at the risk of being caught!!

                                          (http://www.memecenter.com/search/google%20glass)                                             
(http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3omz3t/)

  How do you feel with social media and its mobility? 

 Are you craving for more? Are you begging for less?

Are you immune to it, or do you feel it effects your life?

At the end of the day Google Glass is coming soon and you never know, our reality may be exactly like the picture below.

(http://www.memecenter.com/search/google%20glass)