Blog Action Day "Power of We"

Individuals form groups and "I" becomes "We" in a common goal and activity.  There is 'strength in unity' as the Aesop fable wisely advises in the 'Father and His Sons' using a bundle of sticks to show that they are harder to break than a single stick on its own; the sons represented by the sticks would be stronger together than apart.  There is usually a common goal that can be the basic reason for forming such groups as:  associations, unions, charities, organizations, teams, neighbourhoods, companies, etc.  Any goal that could benefit individuals in a group can unify that group in accomplishing it together.  There are groups with the insiders and groups which include the outsiders to accomplish their goals.  Most individual insiders who join a group usually do so from this basic benefit, wherein all benefit from the goal and activity, such as with unions, associations and companies.  Members join for that purpose that they all benefit together. But sometimes insiders include outsiders for support because their goal has some benefit to society at large, such as with charities and non-profit organizations that fundraise for donations to help homeless, poor, and hungry.  Although the generous outsiders will not benefit from helping, the insiders and their beneficiaries will gain from the outsiders donations.  The helpless beneficiaries are unable to do it for themselves, to solve their own problems, so often a charity will have to do the work with a few paid staff and many volunteers.  Some examples of groups of insiders which gain together:  the People Power EDSA Revolution in the Philippines in 1986 when millions of Filipinos went to the streets for the common goal of achieving democracy by ousting the dictatorship of President Marcos who had used martial law to control political power, the Arab Spring movement in Muslim countries with people going against their dictatorship governments to gain democracy for their countries, and online groups such as Meetups and Poetry.com where in members meet and share a common activity they are interested in.  Examples of groups of insiders which include outsiders to help beneficiaries:  Avaaz which promotes global awareness of issues and problems by online campaigns and fundraising to the general public and emailing world leaders for support, Greenpeace which campaigns for environmental protection, Amnesty International which supports freedoms and helps imprisoned advocates who criticize governments of corruption and dictatorship, and Gawad Kalinga which fundraises to build houses for the poor and homeless in the Philippines.  However, not all groups have good goals in mind, and the tragic death of Aesop at the hands of furious Delphians who forced him off a cliff due to argument over gold, shows that a group can also use its strength for evil.

Groups and Networks with Common Goals I Joined:

Philippine Press Club Ontario

Poetry.com

Meetups

Avaaz
Greenpeace
Amnesty International

Westcoast Domestic Workers Association

Refer to Blog Action Day
Refer to Aesop's Fables
The Father and His Sons or Bundle of Sticks 
Woodcut of Death of Aesop (Wikipedia)
Refer to EDSA People Power Revolution
Refer to Arab Spring
Refer to Gawad Kalinga




From Woodcut of Death of Aesop



On Countries with Dictators & Terrorist Rebels

Reading the news while in Canada on Syria and other Middle Eastern and Eastern countries experiencing civil wars and terrorism, and chatting with an online correspondent friend who escaped from Syria into the UAE, I realized how deep and complex terrorism is globally.  The epiphany of seeing its meaning in dictatorship led countries, where the political leader remains in power using military force even civil war or martial law on their own civilian people and eliminate elections which empower civilians to choose their own leader, it is an important link that keeps them in their positions, but which causes some civilians to become terrorists and rebels against their own government!  Dictators were one of the causes of creating terrorists!  Terrorists are anti-government which are often led by dictators using military force to kill civilians and the opposition parties who then become terrorists and rebels, and are sometimes even funded by foreign governments assisting them in the push from power.  Sometimes nationalism and internationalism interact within and without these countries and civilians escape the threat to their lives and become refugees in another country.  Other foreign governments and civilians assist inside and outside to help civilians escape temporarily.  After realizing all this, whenever I see the word 'terrorist' or 'rebel' or 'anti-government', I understood the root cause from the 'dictator' who triggered this effect.  Coming from the Philippines where it took a 'people power revolution' to oust a President dictator, the necessity of having regular democratic elections was clear even while watching the news in Canada where we had already immigrated into because of martial law.  People choose their President and should not be forced into it!  Recent examples of this cause and effect  in Syria, Libya, and Iraq made me glad that Canada and USA have regular political elections, which keep these countries stable and their civilians empowered by choice of vote for a leader. 

Refer to Wikipedia Modern Dictators

Importance of Words

Doing videos actively since 2007 of events, places and people and sharing them online in the video webhosting sites such as Video.ca, Vimeo.com, Youtube, blip.tv, Veoh.com, UStream, Torontotv.net, has accumulated to an online collection of 400+ videos!  A picture and video are worth a thousand words and lets the viewer sees reality reflected through the mental viewpoint of the videographer while forming their own viewpoints too as viewers.  It allows more fairness for all to share a video without putting too much bias on it.  However, the importance of words and sharing a biased viewpoint can help influence (or hinder) the reader depending on the background of the author.  As neutral and fair as some media and authors try to be, we all eventually form a viewpoint based on our background biases and one subject may be seen by others in many ways, even conflict with our own limited viewpoints.  Words are more biased than video but a blog (weblog) could also reflect on a vlog (video log) and either add or detract from it.  Keep this in mind when reading or viewing that it is shared but biased and each reader and viewer should develop their own opinion and viewpoint based on their own backgrounds, no matter how influential a blogger or vlogger is.  As for how truthful an opinion or viewpoint is?  It depends again on how close it is to our limited backgrounds and biases, whether it matches or not.  Sometimes, people will try to agree or disagree with someone else's but is it appropriate to agree with another when it goes against our own background?  In a public and shared event, multiple opinions, viewpoints will piece one event together creating a collective consciousness.  Since the internet and introduction of free blogs and comments online, traditional media opinion, often an elite educated background, has been balanced with the readers turned writers multiple opinions.  The masses now have a voice via blogs!