At the beginning of this 'diary - blog' was a segment about repression in Cuba. In that country the Dictators government does not want the general public to have access to the Internet, and possibly as an island it may be more able to protect its borders from democratic freedoms, than the communist regimes of Eastern Europe who failed. These factors come in TV Radio and now Internet access; showing what freedoms and opportunities others have.
A nations greatest assets are its people, and if the people have access to the innovation, and the vehicle of communication that has been adopted in almost all developed nations; they have the means of production and imagination combined. This is how a society moves forward. The debate regarding the Digital Divide, the haves and the have nots, the emerging technical and financial elite etc., has been covered in the news, the press and the Internet itself.
democratic governments encourage Internet access as an education tool, in the knowledge that nations that do not embrace this world-wide communication network will inevitably find themselves on shores that the tide has gone out from.
Access to Free Internet services, we believe is inevitable.
In nations with dictators or nations without the finances to use modern Internet technologies because of understandably more pressing needs: first prioritising a need to feed or provide utility service infrastructures, such locations will not benefit currently from public access Internet .
Its more ironic then, when a city such as Aberdeen, a developed city in a developed nation; the prosperous oil capital of Europe has a significant pessimistic population that feel that providing free Internet services in its streets, will fail due to the anti-social behavior of a small section of the city population.
These people, who attack and destroy public services have become 'little dictators' whom we have allowed the freedom and human rights to walk all over us. The Cubans have no choice, but how have we allowed our society to degenerate towards a similar result?
When installing the Umbrellas in Aberdeen's streets our installation team were constantly harangued by the public; mostly the over forties who objected to the service because they believed that the street drunks and the street junkies would destroy it.
A few said the service was a waste of money - a waste of money to provide modern digital service for Free, for all the cities people and visitors and especially those that are socially excluded with no digital access at home....
The questions we asked between ourselves, were how come such a large part of the population were so pessimistic. Our conclusion is that most law abiding people see the things they value trampled down by a small amount of people who appear to have no common or community decency. The law abiding folks have seen a constant erosion of the values they were brought up with and in frustration at constant stories of perpetrators of crime getting away with it, they have become very pessimistic indeed. The vast majority thought the infrastructure we were installing was a good idea, especial those with children or grandchildren who told them about the 'Web', but all said the street people would wreck it.
This state of affairs tells us something about ourselves and our society. In a common struggle you have society values, when you have enough and no struggle for common bettermen, self seeking takes over as individual freedoms override a commitment to the community.
Should we allow a small minority to hold such sway over us just like the dictators who keep their populations down by repression, are these people armed with their knowledge of the law of getting away with it; going to rule us?
And yes,
Yes they did attempt to wreck the Umbrellas.....
