Satellite Imagery of Zimbabwe Relocations
Via Ogle Earth comes news that the American Association for the Advancement of Science has released aerial imagery showing evidence of the Zimbabwe government’s alleged repression of political opponents. (Ogle Earth picked up the news from Ethan Zuckerman and Jason Kottke.) This is something we envisioned at the Metaverse Roadmap summit, where it sparked some heated discussion. At the time, I agreed with the critical voices who held that merely recreating such scenes in virtual worlds would not be as effective as other means of communication (and I still do) — though I disagreed that it was useless or even counter-productive. But the AAAS imagery is exactly the kind of information-dissemination that we said might help do the job better.
The problem, of course, is obtaining the information and imagery in places where repressive regimes hold sway and where there is little connectivity to be had. In this case, as Zuckerman points out, the AAAS had to purchase the images from Digital Globe, which produces such imagery for a variety of vendors, including Google Earth. Is there a case to be made that such images should be provided for free or underwritten by governments interested in promoting human rights? Quite possibly. (Stefan at Ogle Earth also has good comments on additional information that could help in the task.) In any case, although the situation in Zimbabwe at this point remains the same, it’s a good example of how 3pointD techniques could in fact help change the world.
Feeds
It’s never for lack of information or imagery that the world’s powers fail to act to stop or prevent crimes against humanity; it’s for lack of political will. Virtual worlds don’t fix the problem with political will.
> It’s never for lack of information or imagery that the world’s powers fail to act to stop or prevent crimes against humanity
I think it is for lack of information and imagery (especially imagery) that people don’t do more. I look forward to millions of people watching Google Earth for real world events and getting feeds when they happen almost the same way some people watch Wikipedia for updates. So if you care about a certain country, you get realtime imagery and associated news fed to you (say you set your feed to alert you every time there’s a violent conflict). If something bad happens, you scream and show and shame people who won’t help. When the whole world can run in near realtime in the corner of your screen I think we’ll get these World Watchers and I think they’ll help fire up some political will.
Jerry, as I already replied to you on Ethan’s blog, people had the satellite photos showing the “before” and “after” of Darfur; eventually this helped NGOs call the US government to account to investigate and then declare a genocide; this hasn’t helped stop it. The mass killing and rape continues. You’ve got to go back and read your Auden which I already cited. Trust me, you can flood people with information and pictures of the worst sort, and there’s almost an inverse proportion to how bad the news is and how much they absord and *act upon* it. If any, the Global Village 24/7 news cycle for atrocities has made people only “dully walk along” even more. Believe me, I’ve been in the show-and-shame business longer than you’ve been on this planet. All that will happen is that new industries of media manipulation and forgery will spring up to counter the real news. It’s better to have more news and keep trying, of course, but I’ve really got to deliver you a reality check. The atrocities streaming in the corner are tantamount to disaster porn, they instill callousness, they don’t move to consciousness.
“Musee des Beaux Arts
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully
along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the plowman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
— W. H. Auden”