Tech Crunch: Humans are the routers

Shervin Pishevar, a dear friend of Invisible Children, is creating the tools for the next generation of revolutions around the world. He has become a lay-journalist-celebrity because of his passionate commentary and coverage of the recent Arab world revolutions. Here is his latest article from Tech Crunch detailing his endeavor to enable the subjected peoples of tyrannical governments to communicate freely in the event of censorship. Talk about turning ’success into significance,’ Shervin is a perfect exemplar of global citizenship and cross-continental compassion.  - Jedidiah

From Tech Crunch:

Editor’s note: Guest author Shervin Pishevar is the founder of the OpenMesh Project, SGN and an active angel investor.

On January 7, 2010 I was ushered into a small private dinner with Secretary Hillary Clinton at the State Department along with the inventor of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google and a few others. We were there to talk about technology and 21st Century Diplomacy. As we mingled I noticed next to me the small table that Thomas Jefferson wrote the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence. I was inspired by the history around us as we discussed the unfolding history before us. I was sitting in front of Secretary Clinton and when she asked me a question I said, “Secretary Clinton, the last bastion of dictatorship is the router.” That night seeded some of the ideas that were core to Secretary Clinton’s important Internet Freedoms Speech on January 21, 2010.

Fast forward almost exactly one year later to January 25, 2011—a day that shall live in history in the company of dates like July 4, 1776. Egypt’s decision to block the entire Internet and mobile telecommunications network was one of the first salvos in a war of electronic munitions. In this new frontier humans are the routers and armed with new technologies they can never be blocked or silenced again.

I was staying up for days sharing and tweeting information as they happened. I had two close personal friends of mine in Egypt who were passing me information when they could. The day Egypt blocked the internet and mobile networks my mind went back to what I had said to Secretary Clinton. The only line of defense against government filtering and blocking their citizens from freely communicating and coordinating via communication networks was to create a new line of communications technologies that governments would find hard to block: Ad hoc wireless mesh networks. I called the idea OpenMesh and tweeted it.

Within hours through crowdsourced volunteer efforts the OpenMesh Project was alive complete with domain name, website and forum. One volunteer, Gary Jay Brooks, a tech entrepreneur from Michigan, stepped up to lead the effort as a volunteer Executive Director. Another company from Canada volunteered to donate their specs for a tiny mobile router, that could be hidden in a pocket, and would cost only $90 per unit for us to make. Another well known communications pioneer stepped up to donate some important patents in this space. (more…)

Pledge to do good: Go volunteer

This is awesome. GOOD and Hyundai created an interactive transparency that visualizes the number of hours people volunteer for the cause they choose.

Click on the picture to the left and pledge a few hours to the cause of your choice and then go do. Who knows, maybe Hyundai will give you a brand new car for doing some good. – Jordan

Video: One millon bones – Join the movement

The world said, “Never again.” Never again would we let another genocide blemish the face of humanity. But the truth is, it’s been happening right before our eyes in Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, DR Congo, Pakistan, and Burma. Our friends at One Million Bones are creating a visible movement to increase global awareness of these atrocities while raising funds needed to protect and aid survivors. Watch this video from One Million Bones and join the movement. – Jordan

Newsweek: Kony’s children

Newsweek released a moving slide show of victims that have been terrorized by the LRA. The merciless campaign of terror the LRA left on the people of northern Uganda can be seen on their faces. These powerful images were taken by Marcus Bleasdale and they speak for themselves. – Jordan

Marleine Solange Yagasourma, 16

Captive girls give birth in the bush, where many die in childbirth. Newborns will grow up within the LRA, often becoming fighters themselves. “It was my first child, so I didn’t know what was happening. I started having pains early in the morning. I was in labor for two days. I thanked God once it was over, but I wondered how I was going to march in the bush with that baby and what I was going to do if there was an attack.” In southern Sudan, Marleine escaped during an ambush and returned to a family who were simply happy to see the return of a daughter they’d believed dead. Neighbors, however, said she should have left her child in the bush.

Teresa Bela Mbolikia, 18

Marie Mboligele, 31

Abducted and now confined to a hospital ward, Mboligele has been taken from her kids. She says, “They cut off my lips and my ear. All I could do was pray and stay silent.” Mutilations are regularly carried out by children.

Merci Mbolingako, 14

The LRA often disguise themselves in the uniforms of local armies and police to infiltrate villages and abduct civilians. In May of last year, rebels appeared on the road near Lolo, Merci’s village in northern Congo. Moving from village to village, they were dressed in the uniform of the Congolese Army, and some even spoke Lingala, the military’s lingua franca. Some villagers even came out to greet them. Suddenly they were told to lie down. They were tied up. Thirty-four villagers were taken, but many managed to escape when the LRA stumbled upon a Congolese soldier and a firefight broke out. Mbolingako was one of 10 children that were held by the rebels. He was freed a month later when the LRA base where he was kept came under attack from the Congolese Army.

Possible scenarios for Libya and the future

Invisible Children is committed to the idea that a connected planet affirms our nature as an empathic civilization. We know that technology and media have made us closer to ‘the other’ than we ever have been before. And now, an online meeting place with no articulated idealistic values (called Facebook) has been the key tool in changing the history of the Arab world forever. This is the manifestation of a truth: when people are free to share there stories, pain, plight, and strength with others, empathy is aroused and action is taken.

I, along with much of the world, have been completely immersed in the unfolding history in North Africa and the Middle East. We are observing monumental coup-d’etats, the struggle for fundamental human rights, and the common plight of humanity writ large across every major news source in the world. We are all watching. And still, the world seems substantially powerless to stop a mad man from killing his own people. We at Invisible Children have dedicated our lives to answering this problem, and the problem of a global community still populated with conflicting national self interests.

Thanks for being with us.

Ok, now that I’ve got that off my chest, read this great analysis of what’s (probably) to come in Libya (for the entire article, click here).  - Jedidiah

From BBC, by Dr. Omar Ashour:

Col Muammar Gaddafi’s continuing defiance limits his options as well as the future scenarios for the crisis. How far will he go and how will the West respond?

“I am a glory that will not be abandoned by Libya, the Arabs, the United States, and Latin America… revolution, revolution, let the attack begin,” Col Gaddafi said on Tuesday.

The rhetoric was typical of the self-declared King of African Kings, Dean of Arab leaders and Imam of all Muslims, who has ruled Libya for 42 years.

But Gaddafi’s tactics have boxed him in. Should he be defeated, finding refuge abroad, as Tunisia’s former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali did, will be difficult. And internal exile, such as that currently afforded Hosni Mubarak, will be impossible.

(more…)

ONE Campaign helps spread the word about our Protection Plan

The ONE Campaign featured us and our new Protection Plan Video on their blog. Check it out here. Thanks ONE Campaign for helping us get the word out. We’re all in this together. If you haven’t seen the video, check it out in the link about and post it to your facebook. We want the world to see this thing and know how they can help. – Jordan

Better World Books: we say thank you!

We just found out that our partners at Better World Books awarded us their “LEAP”  (Literacy and Education in Action) award which will fully fund our Reciprocal Teacher Exchange Program. Thanks to Better World Books, Ugandan teachers will now be able to come to the United States, each from a different Schools for Schools partner institution, and teach with a host teacher in a selected school in America. This remarkable experience not only makes a huge impact on the students and staff but the school’s community as well. Thank you Better World Books for believing in our programs and enabling us to do good work.

To learn more about the Reciprocal Teacher Exchange Program go here and also check out the “LEAP”awards at betterworldbooks.com.

A New Chapter: Early Warning Radio Network

Between December 14th and 17th 2009, the LRA carried out horrific attacks in the Makombo area killing more than 345 civilians and abducted 250, including 80 children. In response, we are expanding a High Frequency Radio Network that will connect towns to security forces and surrounding villages, limiting the LRA’s ability to fluidly move from town to town undeterred. Help expand the HF Radio Network in Congo and sign up for the 25 event.

A New Chapter: Early Warning Radio Network from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

A message from our CEO about Libya

As you know, the situation in Libya is terrible and warrants strong international action. Libya’s dictator is committing horrible atrocities against his own people with no sign of letting up.

Therefore, I want Invisible Children to support the efforts of our partner, Genocide Intervention Network, and participate in their letter writing campaign to UN Ambassador Susan Rice. Everyone should take a moment and send this email.  (see links in below message from GINet)

Our Government has virtually done nothing except make some “strong” statements condemning the violence. They need to do more. But they won’t, unless they hear from enough of us.

Thank you.

Ben Keesey.

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Dear Supporter,

As the world has witnessed the horrors of genocide in Darfur, you’ve made a difference by raising your voice to help stop the systematic violence perpetrated on Darfuris.

The situation in Darfur remains dire. But today there is a crisis in Libya that calls us to act swiftly – to call on our government and the international community to stop mass atrocities unfolding before the eyes of the world.

Libya’s dictator, Colonel Qaddafi, unleashed security forces armed with machine guns while fighter jets and helicopters fired from above at civilian protesters. Hundreds are confirmed dead and thousands reported wounded as Qaddafi took to the airwaves declaring “I will fight until the last drop of blood.”

Tell Ambassador Susan Rice to take immediate steps to push the United Nations Security Council to stop the massacre.

Our staff is meeting with the US Mission to the United Nations about the situation in Libya at the end of this week. We need your voice in the room with us as we call on our government to lead the international community in protecting the people of Libya.

If world leaders feel the heat from you and thousands of others, they still have time to prevent the slaughter of innocent civilians by creating a no-fly zone over Libya, enacting an arms embargo, freezing the assets and placing sanctions on Qaddafi and his henchmen, and referring the likely crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court.

Failing to act now tempts other strongmen in the region to adopt similar mass violence – a “Libya option” – to quell peaceful demonstrations in their own countries.

The courage of the Libyan people has been inspiring. Top Libyan diplomats around the world have resigned their posts and Libyan fighter pilots have either defected to Malta or crashed their jets rather than fire on their fellow citizens. Jabril Hewadi, the chief radiologist of the Al Jala Hospital in Benghazi called for us to act, “You have to help us. Where is the world? Where is the United Nations?”

Time is short. Act now to stop the Qaddafi regime from expanding the slaughter of its own citizens and we’ll deliver your message in New York.

Thank you.

Martha Bixby
Genocide Intervention Network/Save Darfur Coalition

Who is packaging all those 25 event action kits?

Answer: every single person in the office. It’s a well-oiled machine and all hands are on deck folding boxes, shirts, and letters.

We built this event around the idea of collective silence. We knew 25 hours of silence would be a tall order, and many people wouldn’t be bold enough to do it. But you guys are showing us that we were wrong, and you’re pretty much all willing to take the challenge. It’s totally inspiring us here at the office, and so every one of us is workin’ it trying to keep up with demand. (you can see some of our designers, almost our whole art department, our Vice President of Business Operations, movement interns, I.T. staff, and our CEO in the pictures below) Big things are going to come from this event. Sign up for the 25 Event and purchase your action kit here. Do it… now. – Jordan