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Monday, March 27, 2006
Moving at Live Speed 
| | Suddenly the percentage of phone calls and emails about The Live Web is hockey-sticking. |
| | So now I'm sitting here near the door between a Barnes & Noble and a Starbucks in West Covina, east of Los Angeles, thinking about What It Means, when I get a note from Don Thorson, pointing me to what he wrote here. This is bigger. The live web changes everything. |
| | I think it does. And that it's not Web 2.0. Because it's not about versions. It's about... |
| | Driving home. Wife and kid are ready, and I have to get off-Web and on-road (dodging the red and yellow spots along the 10 here). See ya later. |
Making identity personal
The Relationship Economy
| | In fact, the new world is one of insincere businesses (even ones made up of sincere individuals) trying to figure out how to listen to - really listen, not just collect data from - their customer. From some pundits' point of view, heartless businesses are finally being forced to give individuals due respect. |
| | Meanwhile, their supposedly loyal customers are short-term, scattered-attention cynics, flitting from one (virtual) place to another in search of real human attention. They want the world organized for their convenience. I'm an individual and I absolutely want suppliers to give me what I want in exchange for my money. But at the same time, I'm not sure that merely being an individual makes me a holy being. I can be short-tempered, demanding, selfish and dismissive of the concerns of others. In other words, we want to empower the powerless, but once we give people power...will we really like the results? |
| | I think we'll like the results if we're willing to relate, and not just transact or converse. Even if I'm entirely selfish as a customer, I'm more willing to buy goods from a seller I'm used to dealing with, and who has a history of providing me with good service, and improves offerings and services based on good intelligence gained by actually relating to customers, than just by selling stuff to them. |
| | In other words, what matters in The Intention Economy, beyond the readiness of customers to buy and of vendors to sell, is relationship. I'm not talking just about warm-and-fuzzy stuff here, but rather respecting something that assures better intelligence on both sides, and results in repeat business. |
| | This would have to go far beyond what is contained in any company's current Customer "Relationship" Management (CMS) system; and I'll bet it would result in better competition and better business all around. Especially for the companies that pioneer it. |
War in pieces
| | Today the similarities between Vietnam and Iraq are hard to ignore. (Though for some, still easy to dismiss.) |
| | Then we were fighting communism. Now we're fighting terrorism. Then we had guerillas who often senselessly killed their own people. Today we have insurgents who do the same. Then we were bringing democracy to a country that had hardly ever experienced one. Today we are doing the same. Then Vietnam was a "strategic" square in the world's chess table. Now that square is Iraq. |
| | Yes, the differences are huge. Including the number of casualties on all sides. Vietnam was far worse. |
| | But the bottom line on Vietnam was, we lost. (But did Vietnam win? How? What? And what about the rest of the region... Cambodia, Laos, China? Could we have predicted then what would happen over the next forty years in any of those places? Like, that democracy and capitalism would win the Cold War 1.5 decades after we were defeated militarily in Vietnam?) |
| | Can we see the end yet for our mission in Iraq? I've been looking on the Net for clarity, and I can't find it yet. Maybe I never will. The voices are many, and hardly a chorus. |
| | I can tell you that it's very sobering to look outside a line of concertina wire and think about what could happen to you if you walked outside without a security escort. That kind of risk assessment has to color your thinking about everything you see and do. |
| | Many nights I have watched the sunset fall in this land of turmoil. I have seen the beauty here and I have seen the hope of the people. We have a very long road before the sun will set in peace here. I sometimes think as the sun goes down what will become of this place. Long after we do leave here, will these children make a difference or fall into the same footsteps of their fathers, brothers or uncles before them? I would only hope that the children I have seen will persevere. With any luck they will build their squander huts into houses. They will cover the holes of their kin¹s death devices. I would hope that they will respect their woman as we do in America. |
| | I read in the news about the things happening in the US and I think that the subtle bickering that the left and right is miniscule compared to the issues that Iraq has right now. Will there be a day when the Iraqi people will have nothing better to do than argue about the things that we as Americans have so much time to debate about? |
| | The enemy is all around. They are the ones that look at you with such hateful eyes. They are the fathers of the children who love you. They lurk in shadows or are the ones that will sell you Chai. They will fight you with masks or without. After the fight they will go back to their order of business just as we do. They will regroup just as we do. They will prepare for another day of fighting just as we do. What are we truly fighting and why I ask myself? I am sure they feel the pain of loss just as we do when we lose a fellow warrior. Make no mistake about it, I am not putting them on the same level as US Soldiers but they must think in a similar fashion when the fight is done and the sun finally sets or rises for that day. |
| | I sit here in the middle of a dangerous land and the familiar sound of a chopper coming in to deliver yet another casualty not to far from my room. I hope that soldier will be ok. You never know but it is a reminder of the war just outside the wire. |
| | While the details of the raid are being sorted out, the fact that Iraqi troops led the fight against Sadr's forces is a far more positive development, as this indicates there is backing at high levels within the Iraqi government for this particular mission, and perhaps for the dismantlement of Sadr's militia. The next few days and weeks will be telling. Will Sadr actively resist a full scale effort to disarm or destroy his militia, if such an effort is in the offering? Or was today's raid a warning shot? Sadr must be quite concerned, as must be Sadr's Iranian masters. |
| | Yesterday, as I was watching a program on "Al-Iraqia" T.V. dedicated to the anniversary of the start of the war on Saddam, one caller said something that is very revealing. How I wished then that the whole World could listen to this man. There was much discussion and many views expressed regarding the situation and the pros and cons; then this ordinary man of the people protested with passion and anguish in his voice, that he was a prisoner in Saddam jails for 16 years, that his father and two brothers were executed; then he started to recount some of the horrors that he had seen in jail (which I do not care to repeat); then he said this: "God has willed that Saddam commits the blunder of invading Kuwait, which brought upon him the punishment by President Bush to whom I am personally indebted and grateful, because had it not been for his heroic soldiers of liberation (these were the exact words used by this man of the people to describe the American troops), I would still be in jail today. |
| | And yes, this summed it up. The ordinary people never forget. Never mind the fuss, never mind the fog, never mind the confusion; the psyche of a people is something fearfully profound. The American people too, should not forget the fundamentals of the situation. It was right, it was just and it was ordained by God; that a murderer and tyrant should be overthrown. The blood and sacrifices by the American soldiers and people will never be forgotten; the Iraqi people and history will always remember these "heroic soldiers of liberation" and honor their memory. |
| | Three years later and the nightmares of bombings and of shock and awe have evolved into another sort of nightmare. The difference between now and then was that three years ago, we were still worrying about material things- possessions, houses, cars, electricity, water, fuel... It¹s difficult to define what worries us most now. Even the most cynical war critics couldn't imagine the country being this bad three years after the war... Allah yistur min il rab3a (God protect us from the fourth year). |
| | Please don't ask me whether I believe Iraq is on the verge of civil war yet or not. I have never experienced a civil war before, only regular ones. All I see is that both sides are engaged in tit-for-tat lynchings and summary executions. I see governmental forces openly taking sides or stepping aside. I see an occupation force that is clueless about what is going on in the country. I see politicians that distrust each other and continue to flame the situation for their own personal interests. I see Islamic clerics delivering fiery sermons against each other, then smile and hug each other at the end of the day in staged PR stunts. I see the country breaking into pieces. The frontlines between different districts of Baghdad are already clearly demarked and ready for the battle. I was stopped in my own neighbourhood yesterday by a watch team and questioned where I live and what I was doing in that area. I see other people curiously staring in each other¹s faces on the street. I see hundreds of people disappearing in the middle of the night and their corpses surfacing next day with electric drill holes in them. I see people blown up to smithereens because a brainwashed virgin seeker targeted a crowded market or café. I see all that and more. |
| | Don't you dare chastise me for writing about what I see in my country. |
| | The question keeps ringing... |
| | Was it the right decision to remove Saddam? |
| | I say yes, and that's what most Iraqis said and still say even if they became divided over what happened later... the truth is that virtually no one wants Saddam back. |
| | I will just ignore the weepers, whiners, teenagers and half educated naïve people and their silly rallies as I don't want to waste time on people who can do nothing but blindly oppose everything without thinking. |
| | I will ignore them and focus on the more important goals we want to reach here... |
| | Life stopped and time stopped when Saddam ruled Iraq, actually that totalitarian regime was moving backwards and dragging us with it and nothing could stop the deterioration that began the moment Saddam came to power. |
| | We had to accept the change and live with all that would come along with it whether good or bad. |
| | The democracy we're practicing today in Iraq is the exact opposite of what we had for decades and until three years ago. This democracy carries the essence of life, the differences, the dynamics and yes, the failures but also the seed of a better future. |
| | Before the liberation we were suffering and we had no hope, now we are also suffering but we have hope and I see this hope even in the words of those that are cynical about the outcome of the political process; who say they hope things will be better in four years or eight years |
| | When Saddam was here we didn't have any hope and we could expect nothing good from a dead regime that cared only about its absolute existence. |
| | Yes. We are facing enormous and dangerous challenges and this is not unexpected because the old will not easily step down and accept the loss; the old will fight back fiercely and the old here is not only Saddam and the Ba'ath, the old can be found among many of our current leaders and the mentality they carry that belong to the same generation that bred Saddam but I believe they will melt away as well because no one can go against the direction of time and the clock cannot be forced backwards. |
| | The green bud looks weak and is buried in the dirt and surrounded by a tough shell but it will break through this covering, pierce the dirt and stand on its feet to announce a new era. |
| | We will not be defeated and orphans of the dark past will get what they deserve and our sacrifices and the sacrifices of those who stand with us shall not go in vain, our sacrifices will pave an easier road for those want to follow us when they decide it's time for them to change. |
| | And yes... Iraq will be the model. |
| | I'm going to go through more of the blogs listed in the blogroll there. Maybe some of you can too. And maybe a clear picture will emerge. I sure as hell don't have one yet. |
| | I often wish I could match the certitudes of certidudes like Frank and Andrew and Michael and Charles. But I can't. Deep down I'm a pacifist, but just as deeply I'm a libertarian too. Go figure. |
| | I think one of our countries greatest losses since Vietnam has been the loss of an understanding of proper governance, the loss of a willingness to entrust public policy to good people who serve us as elected officals and civil servants. |
| | And Doc's a libertarian. "Go figure." No offense Doc, but we need a better answer than libertarianism. |
| | Actually, I'm not offering either as an "answer". I do think war is usually a bad answer to the wrong questions, which are usually more ideological than rational. (Michael Polanyi called ideologies "fighting creeds", and I think he's right.) The pretexts for our current Iraq war were also no less specious than those that manifested in the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. But we're there now. Some things are better. (There's a new democratic government, an increasingly autonomous and capable Iraqi security force, and a few other causes for hope.) Some things are worse. (Sectarian violence and terrorism are rampant, and cause much despair.) |
| | I lose no love for the Bush administration, which I think is hurting the country terribly in many ways (in addition to this war, which we never would have started if its costs had been clearly forseen by the electorate). |
| | I believe too many of us have come to confuse yelling heads on TV and AM radio with real debate, and I agree with Frank that we've lost our sense of what Good Governance is. In the midst of our prosperity, I feel a deep sense of ennui in the country, not unlike what I sense might follow a coup d'etat. In fact, many of us have never gotten over the sense that something very like a coup happened when the Supreme Court sided with Bush on the ambiguous Florida results in the 2000 election. That was a constitutional crisis, right there, and it was resolved in a creepy kinda way. Meaning, it was never resolved. I think it left the nation with a form of cancer. Maybe it's benign, but I don't think so. (By the way, I don't say any of this because I'm coming from a political party. I'm a registered Independent, which is how I tend to vote.) |
| | I'm still against it. But I'm also against easy answers about how to fight it or how to get out of it. I don't think there are any of those now. |
| | Maybe I'll feel differently after I read a few dozen more sources. |
| | Baghdad Burning is a visceral first-hand account of how the war has destroyed the lives of ordinary Iraqi citizens. |
| | The author, a twenty-something university graduate who writes under the pseudonym Riverbend, chronicles the "three years of occupation and bloodshed" the city has endured and calls on the US to withdraw. |
| | While I've considered Riverbend an important and honest voice since the first time I read her (she's a helluva good writer), and while I've probably pointed more often to her than any other voice from the region, I've had the sense for a long time that she is, at least to some degree, a Saddam sympathizer.* Maybe she's said something critical of Saddam along the line somewhere, and I've missed it. Meanwhile, posts like this one and this one make me wonder. Others have wondered for some time as well. In this interview, the interviewer mentions Saddam twice; Riverbend not once. |
| | So, make with that what you will. There's still much to appreciate. |
| | * A reader checked with Riverbend and obtained a correction, which I posted here. |
A turn in the tide
Next step, teleportation
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