The Free Speech Not-So-Special

Yes! Seven people participated directly in the poll thingy whatever invitation to participate I threw out into the e-pond a couple of weeks ago. I think that's... oh, wait, it's not a record for the blog. Between us, may I confess that I am proud of how dependably poorly these Mikocheni Report Polls perform? It's like a perverse love letter from the silent readership. Bless y'all.

So, the results: three of you think there might be something to some decent policing of the online dialogue. Two of you think it's a horrendous idea to even bring up and another two of you are dedicated fans of the domesticated bird. Finally, and most importantly, nobody voted for actual regulation of free speech online, not even for fun to bait this cranky liberal. Either that means you guys all rock, or it means the blog is only read by seven folk who have a liberal bent- both of which options spell happiness with a capital Freedom.

Erm... oh yeah, the caveats and other stuff. The poll on the right there is not statistically representative of anything at all except perhaps an abiding love for chicken. Live long and prosper. Also: special smushy kisses of gratitude to the folks who sent healing vibes my way. Y'all the reason why I occasionally get cool free stuff thrown in my direction. More about that next post, neh? Mwah.

Think Out Loud: An Online Experiment

Folks, life dealt me a bit of a bad hand about ten days ago which means that I am currently confined to the couch/bed until I can heal some broken bones. I had all these plans to spend the time thinking and writing and being productive- because that's what Capricorns do, obsess about work- but this hasn't materialized. Thing is, having learned the hard way that sometimes life wants you to stop and change directions, I listened this morning to The Quietness and It said to me: "Hey, blogging is about dialogue, right?" Right..." I answered. "Well then," said That Inner Voice Which Sounds A Lot Like Morgan Freeman*, "Stop being a one-woman showboat and try to get some dialogue rolling why don't you?"

Okay.

As I said on Mgahawa** this past weekend, one of the challenges of blogging is the near-lack of reaction or feedback from the readership- which makes the dialogue aspect of this work somewhat one-sided. I have had about four years to think on this issue and I understand some of the limitations. Some of them are mine, most assuredly: blogging in Engrish-is-not-Home isn't conducive to a broad discussion in Bongo. That said, this blog has benefited immensely from those who have reached out and written or reached out and spoken on various topics covered herein***.

So I would like to try something with your help, folks. I want to throw a question out there for you to answer whichever way you want to do it. It's a question whose answers might touch on issues of technology or globalization or policy or even political ideology. Email, video, graphics, audiofile, fingerpainting, anything is allowed. I will even put up a polling thingy on the right side of the blog for the week's experimental question. You can use the comments section or you can email me direct at elsieeyakuze at gmail dot com with instructions (do you want to be edited or not, posted or not, that kind of thing). Let's see how this goes, eh?

I have free speech in mind. To bring up Mgahawa again, one of the questions Omar posed was whether or not we should explore a way to control how people enter public dialogues online. This was particularly relevant in the Olympics this year, and affected the performance and in some cases the careers of several athletes. I want to hear from you: should we or should we not censor or attempt to control for the quality of public dialogues online using popular platforms?

*Listen, if you're going to hear voices in your head you can do worse than Morgan Freeman. And before you ask, my CT scan came out clear. :)

** A weekly program hosted by Omar Mohamed who is (finally!) on his way to becoming the broadcaster the universe intended him to be. Check it out, it's a good show.

*** Oh ye Facebook stalkers, you orators, you email correspondents of note whom I have so underserved: can I please, pretty please, post some of your excellent, humorous and thought-provoking musings on the blog? Please write. You know you want to.

Just Desserts

Yup, that was the sound of my government flushing yet another decent civil servant down the toilet. And to imagine there's former ministers who are still MPs, walking around with the temerity to claim that they are innocent and... wait for it... "misunderstood". I beg to differ: no one is more misunderstood than honest public servants, all three of them. Heh.

Before Tido Mhando joined the national broadcaster, there was TVT. To say that it sucked would be to heap far too much praise on it. What it did, in fact, was embody the worst aspects of a captive party mouthpiece with tricks employed by the likes of Mobutu in the 1980s. Although Mobutu's propaganda machine had some pretty unbelievable craziness* going for it which made things interesting. The only thing TVT had going for it was access to archival footage.

Then Tido came home from a long stint at the Beeb, got hired by The Establishment and apparently decided to put the Public back in our public broadcaster. He's had a four-year run. It has been glorious, each year better than the last. So you can imagine, I have been laboring under the impression that the Kikwete administration is genuinely media-friendly.

Which doesn't mean that The Establishment feels the same way. I suppose it was only natural that it punish Tido and team by firing him unceremoniously. TBC's election coverage was too focused, too professional, too non-partisan, too bloody detailed and well-researched. If I was a zealous apparatchik, I imagine I would fire him too for having the audacity to do his job.

If this firing thing really sticks, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens next. I certainly look forward to making fun of his successor. If we're lucky, perhaps Tido will stick around to teach aspiring Tanzanian broadcasters how to do their job, because lawd knows we could do with some standards.

What's the lesson here? Work for this here government at your own peril. Unless you're a kleptomanic "misunderstood" "socialist", in which case you'll feel right at home.

*Like, the daily broadcasts would start with an image of Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku wa Zabanga and all his titles descending from the skies to the strains of the national anthem. And at night, naturally, at the end of the broadcast he would ascend again into the heavens. It has to be seen to be believed :)