My sleep-befuddled brain produced a weird analogy at around 4am today. For some reason, I thought of the politics running rife in the Big Brother household.
With the world order shifting even as I write these words, there is immeasurably more at stake than a mere million rand.
Basheera Khan, journalist, ITWeb
What with machinations to curry favour with all and sundry, the overblown and unnecessary displays of force, the attempts to dominate all areas of operation and a number of people learning the sickening truth that they`re not as popular as they thought they were, or that their arguments don`t hold as much sway as previously believed, it`s startlingly similar to the state of the world today, with political alliances being drawn and redrawn as events unfold.
Of course, that`s where the analogy screeches to a halt. With the world order shifting even as I write these words, there is immeasurably more at stake than a mere million rand.
I won`t comment on the politics of it all; there are other columns out there that handle the topic with more acumen and greater diplomacy than I am capable of. Instead, I`ll look at the tech angle in news dissemination, and the way in which the Internet is currently facilitating the recovery process in the US, and around the world.
Ongoing implications
The Poynter Institute for Journalism (www.poynter.org) leapt to the fore with its guidelines to news associations; by Tuesday evening our time, it had sent out an e-mail detailing a number of early story ideas, ongoing implications for immediate coverage of the event, ethical guidelines for the coverage of terrorism, and a guide to the information readers would need in the aftermath of the attack.
PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) sent out its update of professionals able to comment on various ongoing aspects, and Alternet (www.alternet.org) in turn distributed its list of articles providing an insight to the other side of the coin, to ensure balance in the force, as it were.
The World Trade Centre Web site (www.wtc.com) now hosts the contact numbers for a number of aid organisations, as well as the option to make monetary donations online. All these sites update their information regularly.
Of course, if the US does indeed strike Afghanistan, there will be the intensified need for relief in that already ravaged country. For those who`d like to see aid evenly distributed, try a visit to Afghanistan Relief Activities (www.afghanrelief.com), Care (www.care.org) or ReliefWeb (www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf).
For those who have family or friends still unaccounted for, Prodigy Communication`s I`m Okay Message Centre (http://okay.prodigy.net/) may help - at the time of writing, there were 6 200 entries on the list.
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