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Archive for 09/01/2011 - 10/01/2011
Will The New Facebook Profile Make “Nostalgia” Disappear For Ever?
Last week Facebook started
rolling out the much anticipated updates which were to follow their substantial
revamp aimed at catching
up with Google+. The timing was just right to create the necessary uproar
and interest among its 800 million followers and the rest of the world and make
them ready for the quantum leaps Mark Zuckerberg was
about to announce during F8, the annual conference of Facebook developers.
In fact Facebook went ahead and
implemented the change to its news
updates a few of days back which in itself drew wild worldwide reactions.
Though there seemed to be wide
support (more than 2000 likes and 100 tweets as received by this innocuous
comment, which raised the author to a HuffPost Influencer status) for the
changes, there were also avalanches
of protests from disgruntled users who objected to Face book’s arbitrary
choice of what the user should see in the status update timeline. One survey
showed disastrous results.
The main changes announced
concerned how News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper, and how
you won't have to worry about missing important stuff. Because all your news
will be in a single stream with the most interesting stories featured at the
top.
The other
most important feature was a new Twitter-like timeline called Ticker with real
time streaming of friends' activity like “likes” of an update, comments on a
post or subscribing to a page.
Though these innovations looked
nice, especially visually more appealing with larger photos and suited those
with a large number of friends or those who visited Facebook less often to
check friend’s updates, they seem to have incurred undue wrath of loyal
members, threatening to switch to Google+
The protests were surely
following a now familiar pattern:
“In the
history of Facebook changes, the pattern has typically been that users complain
loudly at first and threaten to
leave the site but then eventually learn to live with, if not
like, the new approach.”
However, Facebook has announced seven
important updates in the conference, of which the changes to the Profile
page seem to be the ones which will have far reaching consequences.
In a nutshell, the Facebook
Profile page is becoming your life story, your illustrated autobiography, a
chronicle in which everything you chose to appear right from your birth day,
everything you posted on Facebook reflecting your daily life and interaction
with those around you will be available to anyone who is allowed an access. The
whole information will be nicely indexed, year wise and moth wise for easy
access.
The social impact of such a
feature, available on the 800 million members and possibly billions who will
eventually join the network is, at the minimum mind boggling! We may bid good by
to “Nostalgia”, or the simple joy of
discovering a lost picture, for ever, because nothing is hidden farther from a
mouse click!
Article first published as Will
The New Facebook Profile Make “Nostalgia†Disappear For Ever? on
Technorati.
The Big Indian Fascist Farce of Fasting
Why is it then people, who have
no track record of generating national wealth of even one rupee, are able to
hold India to ransom by the farce of self denial of food? A farce India
should be truly ashamed of because pathetic emaciated human carcasses nearly
dying of hunger stalk the busy streets of its cities, completely ignored by its
speeding upward class.
Mahatma Gandhi invented fasting
as a tool to fight against a cause; to send the British occupiers back home. He
knew that he can get millions of hungry
people to realise fasting can kill the only leader they have to stand up to the British and they
have no choice but to stand behind him. But even he discovered its limitation
when it took several days of fasting before a national indebtedness towards him
for getting rid of the British, just about worked to stop the sparring Hindus
and Muslims and bring about a feeble truce.
But none of the declarations
to fast which have been recently made in fast succession, including the
latest one by the Gujarat Chief Minister Modi seemed to be worthy of a death
by food deprivation, in a country where
people die of hunger as a routine and least of all worthy of causes like the
one stated by Modi.
"The
mission is to unite, not divide. Gujarat is my family, the six crore Gujaratis'
happiness and grief, dreams and aspirations is mine”
What makes the farce of fasts even more despicable is the fact that
they are merely motivated by easy publicity abetted by topic hungry media who
is willing to put up any story as long as they get the eye balls and ratings
and conducted with exorbitant five star comforts and security to get maximum
footage for the event.
But the real danger seems to the
creeping in of hidden fascist elements in the whole process. Gandhi’s fast had not even a remote semblance to the fascist
elements which seem to be the driving
force behind the fasting farce of post
Gandhi era.
Whether it is an ex military truck driver who runs a village through its own court where whipping by an army belt may be the right punishment or a physical Guru who is an epitome of manly strength and wants to build an army of armed supports but had to be whisked away from Police in a woman’s garb by women or a chief minister who had to be reminded by the country’s prime minister that he can’t act Like A Nero in a burring Rome, it looks like there are serious and disturbing fascist strains in the veins of the proponents of modern fasting In India.
Whether it is an ex military truck driver who runs a village through its own court where whipping by an army belt may be the right punishment or a physical Guru who is an epitome of manly strength and wants to build an army of armed supports but had to be whisked away from Police in a woman’s garb by women or a chief minister who had to be reminded by the country’s prime minister that he can’t act Like A Nero in a burring Rome, it looks like there are serious and disturbing fascist strains in the veins of the proponents of modern fasting In India.
The definition fascism include:
“ radical, authoritarian nationalist political ideology
that seeks the mass mobilization of a nation through indoctrination, physical education,
to purge forces, ideas, people, and systems deemed to be the cause of decadence and degeneration, and to produce their nation's
rebirth based on commitment to the national community based on organic unity,
in which individuals are bound together by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood.”
It may be worthwhile to
examine which of these characteristics
fit each of them
Article first published as The Big Indian Fascist Farce of Fasting. on Technorati.
Article first published as The Big Indian Fascist Farce of Fasting. on Technorati.
The 9/11 Memorial, A Pilgrimage Of A Different Kind
If for the two thousand nine hundred
and eighty three unfortunate souls their lives were tragically robbed on 9 /11
in the cruelest way, God has bestowed the kindest of mercies in death. For each
one of them, there can’t be a more serene and happier place to rest than the
wonderful memorial built for them.
In God’s wisdom, the 9/11 memorial has
turned out to be a most beautiful place where the departed souls will rest in
eternal peace, yet always be in the company of their loved ones and millions of
others from future generations who will stroll by, sharing the same love,
compassion and heroism they have come to uphold in their death.
Conceptually, the memorial is
nearly perfect, preserving the sanctity of ground zero for eternity and the
hopes and aspirations of the lives, which were never really lost, in the gentle
streams of water flowing down the walls of the massive ponds ever reminding the
immensity of the tragedy that happened. The memorial has certainly achieved
everything described in the words of its President Joe Daniels and much more:
“Our mission is twofold: to create a Memorial at the
very site of the attacks, where people will come to honor those who died on
September 11 and reflect on the compassion and humanity evidenced in the
aftermath of the attack, and to create a Memorial Museum where people will not
only examine “what happened” on 9/11, but also the questions of “why” and “what
does this mean for our future?”
Collectively, the Memorial & Museum will remind us
of the powerful and binding connection we share with one another. A connection
that eclipses politics, race, economic class, and geography.”
What makes the 9/11 memorial unique and even more special is
the manner in which the names are engraved in marble, in a way everyone can
physically touch them, kiss them and embrace them, which in fact make a huge
difference .
The power of this simple but unique architectural feature
rendering natural ways to communicate with the lost ones possible was evident during the memorial ceremony not only
for the loved ones of the departed but also for millions around the world who
watched sharing the same feelings, with tears swelling in their eyes, with each
name being read out.
The great men and women who conceived the memorial certainly
understood the needs and aspirations of the people who lost their lives more
than anyone else, which were reflected in the commemoration speech of President
Obama.
"Decades from now, Americans will visit the memorials to those who were lost on 9/11. They will run their fingers over the places where the names of those we loved are carved into marble and stone, and they may wonder at the lives they led.
And they
will know that nothing can break the will of a truly United States of America ."
Over time, the
9/11 memorial will no doubt become a centre of pilgrimage of a different type, a rare heart rending and touching experience,
the meaning of which will take years and generations to fully understand and
appreciate.
Article first published as The
9/11 Memorial, A Pilgrimage Of A Different Kind. on Technorati.
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