When Worlds Collide #70: Sailing the Stormy Seas of Social Media

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday broadsheet newspaper on 9 June 2013

Image courtesy i4d magazine, India

“Don’t we need permission to blog?” asked a bright and eager grassroots development worker during one of my new media training sessions in Sri Lanka a few months ago. When I assured her that none was required, she still didn’t seem convinced.

All her young life, she had played by our society’s hierarchical rules and looked for somebody’s consent (parent, teacher or boss) before expressing herself. She couldn’t believe it was now possible to do so online without any!

Indeed, thousands of Lankans already do, and our blogosphere – cyber space made up of all blogs and their interconnections — is alive with the voices of people from all walks of life (more diverse than you’d think).

Lankan bloggers regularly speak their mind, and discuss all sorts of issues both profound and mundane. They use English, Sinhala and Tamil – and sometimes hybrid lingo. They don’t let technology or language get in their way.

Oh sure, it’s a highly contested and contentious space – but isn’t that what ALL media is supposed to be? In reality, some of our most interesting and intense social, political and cultural debates are now unfolding on the web, while our self-censoring, deferential or indifferent mainstream media watch from the sidelines.

As Internet spreads in Lankan society – currently estimated to be used by around 20% of population – people are turning to dozens of platforms and applications.

Blogging is just the tip of the social media (SM) iceberg. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…these and other forms are fast evolving. They have become key outreach and engagement tools for business.

With over 1.5 million Facebook accounts and an estimated 14,000 Twitter accounts in Sri Lanka (and counting), social media now occupy a significant part of our public and private discourse. The success of youthful satirists like Jehan R – the most popular Lankan on YouTube – indicates how individuals can leverage these with imagination and innovation. New brands and campaigns are being built in unlikely ways.

Riding the Wave

How can social activists, researchers and development workers ride this wave for their awareness raising, public education, advocacy and campaigning purposes? Which SM tools offer the best outreach and engagement potential in the South Asian and Lankan contexts? What should be the key elements of a new media strategy for development and social sector organisations?

We just spent some time discussing these and other questions at a three-day workshop that I was involved in running last week in Colombo. Titled “E-Outreach and Engagement: New Media for Strategic Communication in Development”, it was organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) India and TVE Asia Pacific.

For development communicators, we agreed, SM tools are means to a greater end: how to spark off good conversations and interactions between people. In this context, ‘media’ can mean anything digital — words, sounds, pictures, video, or any combination — shared via the web.

The challenge for advocacy groups and activists is to find the right mix of tools, engagement methods and messages to inspire social change. Given Sri Lanka’s analog-digital co-existence, they must straddle the two spheres of old and new media. Relative emphasis depends on intended audience.

Their first challenge, however, is within: to shed intellectual baggage. Many development activists are still sceptical – if not outright suspicious — of new media. At best, anything to do with computers and web still evokes some hesitation, usually from people on the other side of 40 (‘Digital Immigrants’). Obsolete statistics are being cited in discussions on the ‘digital divide’.

Yes, the web can be cacophonous, confusing, distracting and even frivolous at times. But then, so is the real world! We need discernment both online and offline.

Actually, you CAN say a lot in 140 characters!

Colonising the Web

Lankan-born Anuradha Vittachi, a pioneer in tapping the web’s power for social activism and community building, recalls the time when the web first rolled out in the early 1990s. It was seen — and quickly branded — as a place for geeks, paedophiles and the military.

Instead of complaining, and without getting trapped in endless debates on the digital divide, Anuradha moved in to ‘colonise’ the new medium with relevant content and created a space for discussion and sharing. In 1994-95, she co-founded OneWorld.net, the world’s first portal on human rights and sustainable development. Others quickly followed.

And if the original web during the narrowband era opened up new vistas, the rolling out of broadband Internet in the mid 2000s unleashed much more potential. Collectively called web 2.0, the second generation web tools and platforms have spawned many and varied social media. The end is nowhere in sight.

These SM enable easier networking and content sharing, and, most notably, spurs collaboration among users. For those in development, humanitarian and social sectors, they offer the potential for not just outreach, but sustained engagement.

The development community has long wished for more interactive and participatory communication methods. That wish is now within reach.

But be careful in what you wish for. Like a tsunami, the new media wave can sweep away much in its path and flatten structures sooner than hierarchies would like or organisations could adapt.

What’s to be done? The only coping strategy: to learn by doing.

Beware of those claiming to be new media experts, I told the Colombo workshop, for everyone is climbing the learning curve and surfing the new wave. Everything is experimental. No one has all the answers.

In this new and uncertain world, we need to be daring and adventurous, perhaps a bit like Sinbad — the legendary sailor of Baghdad. As he did, we too must take our chances and venture into the unknown, relying on our guts, ingenuity and intuition.

I’ve been blogging for over six years, tweeting for three, and am still trying to make up my mind about Facebook (is it the shallow end of the SM pool?). I learn something new every week, while making mistakes that rather amuse my ‘Digital Native’ daughter, 16.

The American academic and writer on Internet technologies, Clay Shirky, describes how he has to do ‘more weeding than planting’ – spending more energy trying to forget the irrelevant than learning about the new.

Intolerance Online

For the open-minded activist or researcher, meanwhile, social media offers many opportunities for learning, exploring and influencing. They can collaborate across time and space, solving problems or promoting reforms.

Change is a slow process, and digital tools aren’t a magic wand. Each society must define its own course and narrative in today’s always-on, endlessly-chatting world. The new tools come with their own nuances, complexities and contradictions.

In post war Sri Lanka, those promoting a progressive, egalitarian and equitable society confront the formidable forces of entrenched feudalism, state authoritarianism and new forms of extremism. For simply holding a different point of view, they can experience not only verbal threats, but often violent physical attacks.

In recent months, such intolerance has spilled over into social media. Racists, religious bigots, conspiracy theorists and assorted rabble rousers have taken cover behind the web’s anonymity and pseudonymity to indulge in widespread vilification and demonisation. Facebook, in particular, has become a space for spewing venom and hatred.

Those advocating rule of law, respect for human rights and clean, transparent government have been particularly targeted. Simply marching – or having a candlelight vigil — for racial harmony has elicited dire threats to citizens peacefully expressing themselves.

In such a charged setting, Lankan activists must carefully choose their words, images and platforms, and stay their course while ensuring personal safety, online security, systems redundancy and exemplary conduct.

They have been here before, even if the cyberspace dimension is somewhat new.

In January 2009, as the Lankan war was in its final stages and shortly after newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge was brutally killed, I wrote in my blog: “Whether they are active online or offline, committed activists in Sri Lanka have their work cut out for them…More work needs to be done in strategy, unity, networking and technology choices. The old order needs to pause, reflect and change their ways. If they can’t or won’t, at a minimum they must get out of the way…”

After all, I added, harmless, herbivorous dinosaurs also went extinct.

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When Worlds Collide #69: Public Trust in Times of Global Pandemics

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday broadsheet newspaper on 2 June 2013

How should we respond to a rapidly spreading infectious disease like a particularly virulent form of influenza? What precautions are essential to safeguard ourselves? When do preventive actions go beyond the reasonable to disrupt social and economic systems? How to avoid run-away panic?

There are no easy answers, and we can only learn from experience. As the prospect of new influenza outbreaks looms on the horizon, some media discussions have recalled what happened with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) a decade ago.

Public health professionals define a pandemic as “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people”.

Some pandemics, like HIV/AIDS, build up slowly over time. Others, like various types of flu, spread much faster. SARS was a good example of this latter kind, where the World Health Organisation (WHO) and public health authorities of affected countries found them running a deadly race against a new coronaVirus that first emerged from China’s Guangdong province.

The first case of this infectious illness was detected there in November 2002. As it spread during that winter, local officials tried to downplay it, which allowed it to become a countrywide health emergency within weeks.

It was only in February 2003 that China finally admitted to the extent and nature of the problem. That ultimately failed cover-up cost the mayor of Beijing and the minister of health their jobs. But by then, the virus had spread beyond its borders.

Race Against SARS

At that time, WHO’s current Director General Dr Margaret Chan was in charge of Hong Kong’s Department of Health. On 12 March 2003, she alerted the global health agency about the new, flu-like illness detected and being treated in her territory. In the days that followed, cases were reported from Vietnam, Singapore, United States, Canada and elsewhere.

“By March 15, it was clear that the first new disease of the 21st century was spreading explosively along the routes of international air travel,” she recalled in a recent op-ed essay.

WHO named the new disease as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. They also defined characteristic symptoms and asked all air travellers to be alert and vigilant.

What happened in the weeks and months that followed has been well documented. While some governments – such as Singapore’s — quickly took control of the situation, others underestimated the threat or were overwhelmed by the pace of events.

US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) SARS Response Timeline

As Dr Chan sums up: “In the four months following the March alerts, SARS closed schools, businesses and some borders. Air travel to Hong Kong and other severely affected areas seemed to halt overnight. Tourism dried up. Consumers stayed at home. Economic losses mounted… By the time the outbreak was declared over, on July 5, nearly 8,500 people had been infected and nearly 800 had died.”

While these casualties were relatively low compared to past pandemics, economic impact was enormous. Within weeks, airline and tourism industries had lost billions of dollars due to public fears. Some airlines and businesses declared bankruptcy.

One estimate of global economic costs from SARS placed it around USD 40 billion. The World Bank put it at USD 54 billion, much of it in lost tourism income. Clearly, the cost of panic was high.

Each time media reports about new types of influenza emerging, we are reminded of SARS. This year, to mark the 10th anniversary, the lessons have been revisited in various academic and policy meetings.

As Margaret Chan reflects, “SARS taught the importance of meeting an emergency with whatever tools are at hand. SARS was a 21st century disease in its mode and speed of spread. But it was eventually defeated using the 19th century tools of case detection, contact tracing, isolation and infection control.”

Boston Globe Cartoon during the early stages of SARS outbreak in 2003

Lessons of SARS

Effective public communications was part of the public health response in most affected countries. Governments found out that, on balance, it was far better to disclose information early – even when they didn’t know everything – than to allow rumours to fill that void.

SARS experiences have fed into on-going discussions on the role of information and communication during disaster and humanitarian emergency situations.

During the past decade, the world’s humanitarian and disaster management communities have acknowledged the central and crucial role of information and communication — not just for public outreach, but as a frontline activity and an integral part of response.

On the policy and regulatory front, one key development is the new International Health Regulations (IHR). Adopted in 2005 and in force since June 2007, it is a legal instrument that binds 194 countries worldwide to report to WHO any severe, new disease that has potential to spread beyond borders.

A key document that came out around the same time is WHO’s Outbreak Communication Guidelines (2005). Drafted at an international expert meeting in Singapore in 2004, the guidelines are intended for both public health officials and other crisis managers.

These guidelines formed the backdrop to an Asian broadcasters’ workshop that I facilitated this week during Asia Media Summit 2013 held in Manado, Indonesia.

The workshop, titled “Be Prepared: Managing Your Organisation through a Global Pandemic”, was organised by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD). Both are professional bodies that network public and commercial broadcasters (radio and TV).

The guidelines recognize that communication, mostly done through the media, is a feature of a disease outbreak environment. It adds: “Unfortunately, examples abound of communication failures which have delayed outbreak control, undermined public trust and compliance, and unnecessarily prolonged economic, social and political turmoil.”

Marking a sea change in thinking, it says: “WHO believes it is now time to acknowledge that communication expertise has become an essential outbreak control as epidemiological training and laboratory analysis…”

Trust the Public

These guidelines, provided to all member state of the inter-governmental agency, underline the value of authorities communicating with the public “in ways that build, maintain or restore trust”. This is true, it says, across cultures, political systems and level of country development.

It cautions, however, that trust building measures are often counter-intuitive. For example, acknowledging uncertainty, or avoiding excessive reassurances. Similarly, it stresses that that the benefits of early warning outweigh risks.

In short, if authorities trust the public, chances are that it will be reciprocated. Of course, past track record of an agency or government would also play a part.

The 2005 document was certainly a leap forward, but eight years on, the web’s expansion and rise of social media have changed the dynamics of emergency communications.

This is the point that communications scholar Dr Rohan Samarajiva and I made in a global op-ed published by SciDev.Net in February 2013: “The controlled release of information is no longer an option for any government. In the age of social media and 24/7 news channels, many people will learn of distant hazards independently of official sources.”

Read full text: http://tiny.cc/CryW

We were talking about rapid onset disasters like tsunamis and cyclones. But the generic concerns can apply to pandemics as well.

We added: “The proliferation of ICTs adds a new dimension to disaster warnings. Having many information sources, dissemination channels and access devices is certainly better than few or none. However, the resulting cacophony makes it difficult to achieve a coherent and coordinated response…”

Crying wolf in the global village has become a lot easier. Perhaps we should revisit those 2005 guidelines.

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When Worlds Collide #68: Imagine That! Analyse This!

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday broadsheet newspaper on 26 May 2013

Sir Arthur Clarke – photo by Shahidul Alam, Drik Picture Library

Imagine and innovate to honour Sir Arthur C Clarke!

That was the central message in an op-ed I wrote in March 2009 to mark the first death anniversary of the late author and visionary.

Having worked with him for over 20 years, I know for a fact that Clarke never sought grand edifices in his memory. When a visiting journalist once asked him about monuments, he replied: “Go to any well-stocked library and look around…”

He knew his place in history was well assured by his ideas and imagination expressed in over 100 books, 1,000 essays and short stories, as well as numerous radio and television appearances. He achieved iconic status not just in literature, science and technology, but also in popular culture –- the latter largely thanks to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In December 2007, on the eve of his 90th birthday, I helped Clarke record a short video message on his life and times. In just nine minutes, he looked back at his “90 orbits around the Sun” and cast a wistful look at the future of his island home, planet Earth and the universe. (It turned out to be his public farewell, available online at:
http://tiny.cc/ACC90
).

Towards the end of the video, he briefly touched on posterity: “I’ve had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer — one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.”

Thus, monuments of brick and mortar — or even of steel or silicon – are superfluous for such a writer, I argued in my first anniversary tribute.

I added: “Instead of dabbling in these banalities, we should go for the ‘grand prize’: nurturing among our youth the intellectual, cultural and creative attributes that made Arthur C Clarke who he was. In other words, we must identify and groom the budding Arthur Clarkes of the 21st century!”

Nature or Nurture?

Easier said than done! The debate is still on whether such persons are born with innate genius, or promising young minds can be trained to think big and creatively.

What roles did family, education, peers, travel and social interactions play in producing the distinctively Clarkian combination of sharp wit, irreverence and playful humour? Above all, where did his vivid yet realistic imagination stem from?

There is now an Arthur C Clarke Centre for Human Imagination (ACCCHI) to study — and hopefully, understand — this wondrous yet quirky phenomenon in its many forms and dimensions.

The new venture is a collaboration between the University of California San Diego and the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, a non-profit entity that promotes Clarke’s vision. I was part of its public launch in San Diego from May 20 to 22.

Arthur C Clarke Center for Human Imagination – logo

The centre plans to work across many disciplines such as technology, education, engineering, health, science, environment, entertainment and the arts. It hopes to bridge science and arts – separated for too long by the ‘Two Cultures’ divide — in trying to harness imagination for human progress.

A key plank in the new centre’s research will be to probe how our brains work in terms of creativity. What is the neurological basis for creativity? How does imagination occur in human societies? And in what ways does it vary from culture to culture?

The impetus for probing human imagination came from the field of cultural research, says Sheldon Brown, a professor of media arts at the university who heads the new centre.

As we heard, UC San Diego has produced more science fiction writers than any other university in the United States (speculations are rife on why). Taking advantage of this, it has been bringing such writers and other experts together to explore the interface between science, technology and society.

This suggests that the new centre would likely go beyond the traditional (and crusty) intellectualism common in academia.

Clarke would have approved. He supported evidence-based decision making and the free flow (and interplay) of ideas. Such rigours are essential for imagination and innovation to be rooted in the real world; if not, we can get carried away by fantasy.

Sheldon Brown, Director of Arthur C Clarke Centre for Human Imagination, speaks at opening on May 20 – photo by Nalaka Gunawardene

Necessary, not sufficient

Imagination is certainly necessary – but not sufficient – for human advancement. It needs to be tempered by healthy scepticism, abundant optimism, ethical considerations and compassion.

Runaway imagination without scepticism can be dangerously distracting or outright delusional. This is what sustains the multi-billion dollar cottage industry of conspiracy theories ranging from alien abductions and Bermuda triangles to the globally pervasive myths about ‘end of the world’.

We South Asians are grandmasters in this dubious art, conjuring the most bizarre ‘explanations’ for everything that goes wrong in our societies. I often wonder which among the eight South Asian countries is the most paranoid. Current evidence points to Pakistan, but Sri Lanka isn’t far behind. (To take this to its next level, I’ve proposed South Asian Conspiracy Games; winners can receive ‘foreign hand’ trophies.)

Imagination sans optimism, on the other hand, can take us too far in the direction of hopeless dystopias where technology and tyranny collectively hold humanity hostage (or worse). Think of the Matrix trilogy.

Despite some misgivings about technological wrong turns, Clarke remained an optimist to the end, as he often said, “if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy”.

Imagination unrestrained by ethics and compassion can endanger our whole civilisation. Many modern technologies – such as artificial intelligence, robotics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology – present moral dilemmas and ethical challenges.

Classic science fiction – such as George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 – has long tried to caution against such scenarios. Bradbury once defined his genre’s societal role saying: “I don’t want to predict the future; I want to prevent it!”

Group Imagination?

We are now living in the future envisaged by science fiction writers of the past century. In some respects, reality has been more surprising than imagination.

When Clarke chronicled the wiring of our planet in How the World Was One in 1992, he talked mostly about telephones and communications satellites. The web was still in its infancy.

In just two decades, that has changed dramatically. With 2.5 billion people (a third of humanity) regularly going online, new communities and forms of collaboration are constantly emerging and evolving.

Today, social media enable disruption and co-creation where scattered individuals come together to develop cultural products. What impact is this networked reality having on human imagination?

A good example is Internet memes — cultural phenomena that spread like a virus when shared via Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. Memes include jokes, urban legends, viral videos, funny pictures or contagious music.

Many memes are funny while some are outright cheeky and critical of authority. Political, religious and other social figures are mercilessly lampooned. As they spread, memes morph and mutate. Local variations or imitations pop up.

What roles do irreverence, defiance and dissent play in nurturing imagination? And how do different political and economic systems inspire or inhibit creativity?

I hope the new centre would address some of these big questions from a cross-cultural perspective.

Clarke used to caution how closed economies and restrictive cultures stifled innovation. He was more scathing about archaic education systems – both in the West and East — that stamp out the spirit of inquiry and sense of wonder that all humans are born with.

Studying imagination is hard enough, but fighting for its preservation will be a bigger struggle in the coming century.

Tedson Meyers, Chairman,and Monica Morgan, Executive Director of Arthur C Clarke Foundation – Photo by Nalaka Gunawardene

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When Worlds Collide #67: Star Trek to Utopia: The Journey Continues…

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday newspaper on 19 May 2013

Star Trek – the original series cast

“Hey Mom, Look! There’s a negro woman on TV — and she ain’t cooking dinner!”

So exclaimed a young Whoopi Goldberg when she saw an unusual kind of TV show which started airing on US network television in late 1966.

It featured a black woman character named Uhura in a technical position – as communications officer — on board an advanced starship exploring the universe in the twenty third century. This was unique at the time when minority women, if they appeared at all, were shown doing domestic work.

That show, named Star Trek, was well ahead of its time — not just in the technologies it featured, but also in the utopian ideals it projected.

Years later, Goldberg thanked the show for inspiring her to take to acting. Mae Jamison, the first black woman astronaut (September 1992), has also acknowledged how Star Trek influenced her to pursue a career in space.

Measuring the social and cultural impact of a media product is never easy. Yet Star Trek is widely regarded as one of the most culturally influential TV shows of all time, and has enduring global appeal. It’s probably the most consequential science fiction show ever aired.

The latest Star Trek feature film, Into Darkness, released this week is a reminder that the franchise is still going strong, nearly half a century after it started beaming visions of a wildly optimistic view of humanity’s future.

USS Enterprise: Star ship of the 23rd Century

Cult following

The original series, which ran on the NBC network from 1966 to 1969, wasn’t an instant hit; it was cancelled after three seasons due to poor ratings. But during the 1970s, re-runs became highly popular, and Star Trek gained cult status with fans mobilizing themselves through conventions and campaigns.

Gene Roddenberry, the former airline pilot and police officer who created the show, responded with a feature film in 1979. It grossed enough at the box office to spawn several more films during the 1980s and 1990s.

After 10 movies — some more memorable than others — the franchise was rebooted in 2009. The latest one is the twelfth, and follows on in a new, alternate timeline started by the last (‘origins’) film.

Meanwhile, the TV show returned in 1986 with a new cast and improved production values. Star Trek: The Next Generation ran for seven seasons (1986 – 1994) and has been followed by three more series. Along the way, there have also been an animation series, hundreds of novels, toys and other derivatives using the same characters and settings.

But serious fans feel that the original, low-budget series — comprising 79 episodes – had the finest stories. I share that view, even if I experienced them as re-runs a decade and a half after they were made.

I’m exactly as old as Star Trek, but because we grew up on opposite sides of planet Earth in the pre-Internet era, our worlds didn’t collide until we were well into our teens. I have vivid memories of that first encounter, which changed my outlook and worldview forever.

Sometime in 1981, Sri Lanka’s then one and only TV channel started airing Star Trek original series episodes. It had the faded Technicolor look and feel of content made in the 1960s. The sets were basic and special effects very simple – computer generated imagery (CGI) was not yet invented.

But what Star Trek lacked in looks, it more than made up in storylines. The scripts were entertaining and mind-stretching, frequently carrying concepts distilled from the finest in science fiction literature.

Some of the genre’s accomplished writers were involved in writing stories for the series, e.g. Robert Bloch (of Psycho fame), Norman Spinrad, Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon. The characters were strong, diverse and played by actors who soon developed global fan clubs of their own.

They blew my mind away. Every week at the appointed time, the United Star Ship Enterprise and its intrepid crew took eager young me roaming across the vast universe.

I sat awestruck watching the adventures of Captain James T Kirk (William Shatner), First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), chief engineer Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Communications Officer Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and others.

Utopian Future

The series introduced TV viewers to many ideas which later became common in science fiction films: warp drive, teleportation, force fields, wireless hand-held communicators and scanners, directed energy weapons, desktop computer terminals, laser surgery, starship cloaking devices and computer speech synthesis.

These had been written up in pulp science fiction magazines for years, but they were new to the small screen.

The stories appealed to me as much for insights into the infinite possibilities of life, technology and power at a cosmic scale, as they did for the glimpses of the near-Utopian human society in the 23rd century.

In retrospect, Star Trek has bee described as an attempt to soothe the American society’s nerves at a time of great tumult. The original series explored major issues of the 1960s, including sexism, racism, nationalism and global nuclear war.

As space historian Dwayne Day has written: “Although today critics often ridicule the original Star Trek for its plywood and styrofoam sets and campy acting, they often fail to recognize that the show was groundbreaking television at the time…Star Trek was the first television series aimed at adults to tell sophisticated morality tales and to depict a paramilitary crew on a peaceful mission to explore the galaxy.”

Gene Roddenberry: Master of the Universe

Reality Catching Up

At a time of despair, Roddenberry offered hope. Star Trek presented a positive image of the future when the news was filled with stories of racism, social strife, and war. During the height of the Cold War, he had a multi-national and multicultural crew working peacefully together three centuries into the future.

The crew, daring at the time, included a black woman, a Scotsman, a Japanese American, and most notably, an alien: the half-Vulcan and half-human Mr. Spock. In the second season, Roddenberry added a Russian crew member. Blacks and women were also shown as scientists and doctors among the rest of the crew – again, rare if not unprecedented.

In a tribute to Star Trek on its 40th anniversary in 2006, Sir Arthur C Clarke wrote: “Appearing at such a time in human history, Star Trek popularised much more than the vision of a space-faring civilisation. In episode after episode, it promoted the then unpopular ideals of tolerance for differing cultures and respect for life in all forms – without preaching, and always with a saving sense of humour.”

While Roddenberry’s Enterprise was roaming the galaxy and meeting new alien beings every week on prime time, the US space agency NASA was desperately competing with the Soviet Union in the ‘Great Space Race’. In the event, the Apollo programme landed a dozen astronauts on the Moon (1969-72) – all of them white males.

It took many years for reality to catch up with Star Trek‘s vision, and then, only just.

Although a Russian (Valentina Tereshkova) became the first woman in space in 1963, Americans took another 20 years to send one up (Sally Ride, June 1983). In August that year, Guion “Guy” Bluford, Jr., became the first black American astronaut. Multi-cultural crews appeared only in the late 1990s, when the International Space Station became operational.

We can only hope that the remaining Star Trek ideals would also be realized, one by one. Chief among them: a world without war, poverty and disease, and where the accumulation of knowledge – not money – is considered wealth. And a world at ease with itself — and the cosmos.

But I’d hate to wait for 200 years to get there.

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When Worlds Collide #66: Indian Ocean: Wild West of the 21st Century?

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday newspaper on 12 May 2013

Bluefin Tuna (Photo credit: NOAA marine photobank)

Tuna Wars are hotting up in the Indian Ocean.

At stake are the jobs of tens of thousands of fishermen, and nutrition of hundreds of millions of people living in Indian Ocean rim countries.

Last week, as government officials, scientists and fisheries managers from these countries converged in Mauritius for the annual meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), environmental groups again cautioned that overfishing is driving these fish stocks close to a collapse point.

Greenpeace, the most vocal among them, claimed that IOTC was not doing enough to control fishing fleets and prevent illegal fishing. The activist group reiterated the need for stricter controls to protect remaining tuna stocks.

IOTC, an inter-governmental body, covers the catch of 16 tuna and tuna-like fish species in the Indian Ocean. Their annual harvest, exceeding one million tonnes, adds up to a quarter of the world’s total tuna catch. IOTC estimates this ‘very roughly’ to be worth USD 2 to 3 billion (without counting any value-added products).

So we’re not talking about small fry. In fact, tuna are one of the most commercially valuable fish in the world. They are highly cherished in Japan, and fetch good prices across many markets.

This demand sustains a large industry which now risks overdrawing the renewable resource on which it depends.

IOTC is mandated by a treaty to promote cooperation among member states to ensure the conversation and wise use of tuna fish stocks. But researchers and activists question its efficacy.

“IOTC management is currently so poor that there is no clear idea how many boats are actually fishing in the Indian Ocean. Wasteful and destructive tuna fishing techniques — such as purse seining with Fish Aggregating Devices — continues to expand unchecked,” says Oliver Knowles, Greenpeace oceans campaigner, who recently sailed the Indian Ocean on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza.

French purse seiner vessel Trevignon hauls a catch of Skipjack and Yellowfin tuna in the Mozambique Channel.

Pirate Fishing

Thousands of multi-day fishing craft traverse the Indian Ocean. Not all of them come from countries that border it.

Knowles wrote on the Greenpeace blog: “Wealthier, distant-water fishing nations such as France, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, China and Korea are supported more by current [IOTC] management than many local fishermen, who very often struggle to make a living. Waters are poorly controlled and policed meaning there is a significant amount of illegal fishing taking place across the Indian Ocean.” (Full text: http://tiny.cc/IOGP)

For a while, the fear of Somali pirates – rather than any respect for international law or IOTC regulations – kept greedy trawlers away from southwest Indian Ocean.

But overfishing isn’t just by vessels from far away. Sri Lanka’s multi-day fishing craft have also been implicated for highly damaging or illegal fishing practices.

In October 2012, another Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, sailed from South Africa to Mozambique, Mauritius, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Inter Press Service (IPS) reported how they (Greenpeace) found Lankan vessels fishing in the Chagos marine reserve, in the central Indian Ocean — the largest ‘no-take’ marine protected area in the world.

The same month, the European Union warned Sri Lanka and seven other countries that their inaction to prevent illegal fishing could mark them as “uncooperative partners” in the global fight against unlawful marine practices.

Tuna species make up close to half of Sri Lanka’s total fish catch. Skipjack tuna is locally known as balaya, while yellowfin tuna is called kelawalla.

The ‘tuna wars’ illustrate the difficulty of balancing local livelihoods, international trade, respect for international laws and conservation needs. Regulation is made harder by not knowing the exact state of Indian Ocean tuna stocks, and the real magnitude of fish catches.

Dr Barbara Block, photographed against bluefin tuna at Monterey Bay Aquarium. Photo courtesy Rolex Awards for Enterprise

Oceanic Wild West?

“Indian Ocean is one of the least known and most unregulated oceans in the world,” says Dr Barbara Block, a leading marine biologist in the US, affiliated to the Stanford University. “It’s like the Wild West: people are taking whatever resources as they wish!”

Dr Block is a global leader in scientific research to understand life within the oceans through computing and telemetry — an automated process of data collection and transmission to a central repository. She has been studying how large pelagic fishes use the open ocean environment.

Her team attaches smart electronic tags to large fish and other sea creatures, and analyse the data-stream revealing their lifestyles and travels in the high seas. Call it spying on fish.

Tuna, among the predator fish being studied, are called ‘Ferraris of the ocean’. They are sleek, powerful and their torpedo-like bodies allow rapid movement through water.

They also love to travel: some born in the Gulf of Mexico have been found to cross the Atlantic Ocean, feed off European coasts — and return home to breed.

Is something akin to this happening in the Indian Ocean? Nobody knows. Compared to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, little is known about the life and times of Indian Ocean tuna.

Barbara Block, whom I met last November in New Delhi when she received the Rolex Award for Enterprise 2012, says the Indian Ocean is one of the hardest regions to study because so many nations are involved – some from Asia, and others from Africa.

“Unless we find out where the fish are and what the current status of their stocks is, it’s possible that other nations (from outside the region) might take away the resource before those around the ocean realise what is available,” she says.

Urgent research needed

She has been urging one of her former PhD students from Sri Lanka to start an electronic tagging programme for tuna in the Indian Ocean.

That student, Dr Nishad Jayasundara, is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University, USA. He fully agrees on the need to fill the large gaps in knowledge about Indian Ocean fish stocks.

Dr Nishad Jayasundara

“Countries like India, Sri Lanka and Maldives should take an initiative in leading the research to understand: where do our tunas come from? Where, when and how often do they breed, and how many are left?” he said in an email interview this week.

He added: “We are just starting to learn about complex migratory patterns of tunas around the world, but know almost nothing about the Indian Ocean. The technology to study these fish is there; we can use cutting edge techniques like next generation sequencing and satellite tagging to better understand our biggest source of protein as a nation.”

Research is needed to develop historical and current population estimates, understand their genetic structure, and develop the fishing industry around that information.

Dr Jayasundara further said: “Tunas are a very important part of the ocean food web, so understanding their role in our ocean is imperative to making predictions about what we can fish now and what we would be fishing in the future.”

From a pure scientific perspective, too, there is much to learn about these highly active large fish living in warm waters. For instance, how do Indian Ocean tuna tolerate warmer temperatures compared to their sister species in cooler parts of the world?

Given the current state of overfishing, research, regulation and conservation efforts must move on parallel tracks.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), which is campaigning for more sustainable tuna fisheries, notes: “As the methods of catching tuna have improved over the years, the conservation and management of tuna has not evolved as quickly.”

One big challenge marine conservation faces is that excesses and abuses happen far out at sea — out of sight for most of us. Which is why one WWF campaign advert shows tunas asking: “Would you care more if I was a panda?”

WWF Tuna Campaign advert

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When Worlds Collide #65: When Making Fun is No Laughing Matter…

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday newspaper on 5 May 2013

Paper paper shining bright...but for how long? Cartoon by Mike Luckovich

May 3 was World Press Freedom Day – a misnomer in this multimedia age, but nevertheless a cause worth celebrating and defending.

There are various indicators of media freedom including direct and indirect censorship, diversity of media ownership, and physical attacks on journalists and media organisations. A growing concern is how governments and large corporations are trying to control freedom of expression on the web.

Another useful barometer of media freedom can be the level of satire in a society. Satire and parody are important forms of political commentary that rely on blurring the line between factual reporting and creative license to scorn and ridicule public figures.

Political satire is nothing new: it has been around for centuries, making fun of kings, emperors, popes and generals. Over time, satire has manifested in many oral, literary and theatrical traditions. In recent decades, satire has evolved into its own distinctive genre in print, on the airwaves and online.

While providing much-needed comic relief for an over-stressed world, satire serves two other critical functions.

First, satire offers an effective – though not always fail-safe – cover for taking on authoritarian regimes that are intolerant of criticism, leave alone any dissent. No wonder the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc inspired so much dark humour…

Second, satire is now compensating for a worldwide decline in serious and investigative journalism. Many mainstream media outlets have become too submissive to authority, or simply indifferent to safeguarding the public interest.

Journalism Deficit

Stepping into this ‘journalism deficit’ are two different groups: citizen journalists, who wield information and communications technologies (ICTs), and political satirists who specialise in getting under the skin of those in authority.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about these trends. Old school media teachers and practitioners still can’t believe how anyone could produce good journalism without formal training, institutional affiliation or any payment. Such cynics, dwindling in number, are rightfully labelled as mediasaurus…

Then there are purists who complain that political satire blurs the traditional demarcations between news, commentary and entertainment.

So what?

For sure, serious journalism can’t be fully outsourced to satirists and stand-up comics. But comedy and political satire can play a key role in critiquing politicians, businessmen and others whose actions impact the public. I would much rather have satirists taking on serious topics than news anchors trying out comedian acts.

There is another dimension to political satire and caricature that isn’t widely appreciated in liberal democracies where freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed.

In immature democracies and autocracies, critical journalists and their editors take many risks in the line of work. When direct criticism becomes highly hazardous, satire and parody become important — and sometimes the only – ways for journalists get around draconian laws, stifling media regulations or trigger-happy goon squads…

Little wonder, then, that some of Sri Lanka’s sharpest commentary is found in satire columns and cartoons. Much of what passes for political analysis is actually gossip.

Over the years, we have had talented and indomitable political satirists like Tarzie Vittachi (who wrote in the 1950s as Fly-by-Night), Sirilal Kodikara (creator of Ranchagoda Lamaya) and Dayasena Gunasinghe (who wrote multiple satirical columns before his hasty departure).

Continuing this tradition in more turbulent times during and after the Lankan war has not been easy. Only the bravest have succeeded in staying above party politics and other divisions.

Three Princes of Lankan Satire

Today, I want to salute three of my favourites.

Sundara Nihathamani de Mel, one of the most versatile Sinhala language journalists, is best known for his long-running satire column, Manige Theeruwa (Mani’s column). It now appears in Sunday Lakbima newspaper where he is chief editor. In a first person narrative of typically 300 words, he ridicules and lampoons all around, but with malice towards none.

Across the media spectrum in Ravaya newspaper, its features editor Wimalanath Weeraratne writes the award-winning Wimalege Colama (Wimale’s Column). Every week, he takes off from a current news event and builds an entirely plausible scenario that is both hilarious and provocative.

Both writers are equal opportunity bashers of ruling and opposition politicians. Weeraratne, in particular, regularly parodies the President, while also taking on leading artistes, intellectuals and businessmen. He always names names, and doesn’t spare the men in khaki and those in saffron — two institutions that most Lankan media treat with too much deference. In short, no Sacred Cows for this satirist!

Cartoonist Camillus Perera, meanwhile, has been blasting inflated egos for nearly half a century. He started drawing newspaper cartoons 1966 with the Observer, then under private ownership. Over the years he has created many popular characters, including wily Siribiris, prankster Gajaman, fashionable Dekkoth Pathmawathie, smart alec Tikka and sporty Sellan Sena.

These characters are very ordinary and very real, inhabiting an undefined yet familiar place that most Lankan newspaper readers can relate to. A bit like R K Narayan’s fictitious Malgudi…

Now in his 70s, Camillus is still at it with the Sunday Rivira, where he draws my favourite character, Siribiris, who is Everyman personified: poor, misled by politicians, exploited by businessmen, hoodwinked by corrupt officials, and always struggling to stay alive. He is down — but not out. He hits back with the only ‘weapon’ available: his wits. The irrepressible Lankan spirit in action!

Nalaka Gunawardene (L) chats with cartoonist Camillus Perera, March 2010

Courageous or Foolhardy?

I don’t know if these satirists self-censor their self expression, but they sure push the limits. Reviewing Weeraratne’s first book of satire columns in 2010, I wrote: “I can’t quite decide whether he is extremely courageous, or completely foolhardy, to take on these topics and characters week after week.”

There is no argument, however, that their satire fulfills a deeply felt need in contemporary Sri Lanka for the media to check the various concentrations of power — in political, military, corporate and religious domains.

Do these and other satirists prove that there is sufficient media freedom in Sri Lanka? To the contrary, it is highly revealing that they are often the only ones doing serious political and social commentary in the mainstream media.

Satire is not an easy art at the best of times, and it takes extraordinary courage to practise in times and lands like ours. The cacophonous Lankan blogosphere and the increasingly crowded Twittersphere have yet to produce distinctive satire brands.

However, some green shoots seem promising. Banyan News Reporters on Groundviews.org uses satire to raise awareness on corruption, war crimes, impunity, censorship, civilian displacement, abductions, torture, extra-judicial killings, human rights violations, national security and humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, a growing number of Lankan memes are being released on Facebook.

Oh, while at it, let’s also salute an early act of reader defiance that mocked authoritarian rule long before ‘citizen journalism’ was defined. One day in April 1974, an innocuous (paid) obituary notice was printed in state-controlled Daily News. It announced the death, under tragic circumstances, of a certain D. E. M. O’Cracy (beloved husband of T. Ruth, father of L. I. Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justice)…

This appeared just after the then government had banned political rallies, sealed a newspaper group and imposed other Emergency measures. It was many years later that the writer – Dr Riley Fernando – revealed his identity.

The spoof was emulated in The Times of India in June 1975, and later printed in Reader’s Digest. The incident also prompted all publishers to insist on death certificates for carrying obituaries.

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When Worlds Collide #64: Good Governance for Clean Energy

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday newspaper on 28 April 2013

Cartoon by Ron Tandberg

One of my favourite cartoons on energy is one drawn years ago by Australian cartoonist Ron Tandberg. It shows two men standing on a bare land, looking down at the ground. One says to the other: “There must be a source of energy down there!”

Overhead, meanwhile, the sun looms large and blazes away.

As we reel from the latest energy shock – delivered by the state owned electricity monopoly, the CEB – I wonder whether all 20 million of us have become like those two narrowly focused men.

How can our tropical island plug into the sun, wind, trees and the ocean to meet more of our energy needs? Why don’t renewable energies produce a larger share of our energy mix? Who or what are the bottlenecks?

Such questions pop up each time there is a hike in oil prices or electricity tariffs. We must not allow the quest to die down after a while.

The main — though not the only — reason for hiked electricity tariffs is our heavy reliance on petroleum to operate thermal power plants that generate a lion’s share of grid energy.

Imported fossil fuels power several different sectors: transport uses 50%; power generation 28%; industry 8%; and household and office 14%.

In 2012 Sri Lanka spent USD 6 billion importing oil. Asoka Abeygunawardana, Executive Director of Energy Forum, an advocacy group, points out that this was 1.5 times the total export earnings from tea, rubber and coconut in 2011. The Rupee’s depreciation in recent months has made matters worse.

Despite recent prospecting, we have yet to find our own oil deposits. In a recent analysis, Asoka cautioned that oil import costs could ‘at least double’ in the coming decade. Political or climatic disruptions can also disrupt supply of foreign oil.

Energy independence

All the more reason to work on ‘energy independence’ by developing home-grown renewable energy sources as well as improving energy use efficiency. Achieving these twin goals require the right mix of policies, regulation, technologies and investment.

The National Energy Policy and Strategy (NEPS) of 2006 set a goal of at least 10% of grid electricity to be generated from non-conventional and renewable energy sources by 2015. It’s not clear if this target could be achieved.

Sri Lanka’s total installed electricity generation capacity in 2011 was 3,141 MegaWatts (MW). Peak electricity demand was 2,160 MW and the annual electricity consumption was 10,000 GigaWatt-hours. Two thirds of this is thermally generated.

But every household is not on the grid. Despite political slogans promising electricity for all by 2012, some locations are just too remote to be connected to centrally generated power.

And there is no need, either. The global trend, especially for domestic and small scale electricity users, is towards decentralized and distributed energy systems. In this scenario, users generate power on site, tapping into renewable sources available locally, says Lalith Gunaratne, a pioneer in off-grid domestic solar power in Sri Lanka.

He adds: “However, it has to move this way along with SMART grid technologies where the energy mix will be decentralised with technologies such as solar, wind, small hydro, biomass and biogas (waste to energy), ocean based technologies and geothermal complementing larger thermal technologies.”

Of all the renewable energy types, the simplest is solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. Off the shelf modules have been on the market for over a generation. Catching sunlight on a rooftop requires no permissions of any kind.

In the late 1980s, three entrepreneurs – Lalith Gunaratne, Viren Perera and Pradip Jayewardene – pioneered local assembling and marketing of solar PVs. Their company, named Power & Sun (Pvt) Ltd, offered simple, easy-to-use solar units for rural homes not yet connected to the grid.

Branded as SUNTEC, their basic solar unit ran five light bulbs plus a radio and a black and white TV. It sold for LKR 7,000 in 1988. Bulbs and battery were extra.

Grassroots Revolution

By reaching out to the grassroots through innovative marketing schemes and tech support, the SUNTEC team ushered in a quiet revolution. They not only provided clean, safe and cheap energy but in that process, raised aspirations and inspired dreams. (Read their story at: http://tiny.cc/SunTec)

During the 1990s, other companies — and non-profits such as Sarvodaya and SoLanka — entered the domestic solar market. The World Bank infused funding. Thanks to these efforts, over 100,000 homes adopted solar PV within a dozen years.

Sir Arthur C Clarke with Sri Lanka’s solar PV pioneers from SUNTEC. L to R: Ajit Chanmugam, Viren Perera, Clarke, Mahes Perera and Lalith Gunaratne. [Photo courtesy Lalith Gunaratne]

While the solar market still has room to grow in villages, a second solar revolution is urgently needed in cities and towns. Higher consuming homes, offices and other buildings in Sri Lanka don’t have simple and affordable solar energy solutions.

Self-generating electricity from renewables is slowly picking up, partly encouraged by the introduction in 2009 of net metering. This allows private individuals or companies to “sell” their surplus power to the national grid (the transaction happens in kind, not cash). A two-way electricity meter enables this process.

But harnessing the Sun can almost cost the Earth. For example, a 1 kW solar system is currently priced around LKR 700,000.

“Considering the cost of individual PV panels sold in the market and those of the net-metering inverter systems, there is a wide price difference. The vendors seem to be fleecing the customers,” says physicist Dr Janaka Ratnasiri.

In a recent article, he urged state research institutes involved in electronics to locally produce inverters and help bring down costs.

Energy security

Ensuring energy security and independence will take some serious investments. While initial costs are high for most renewables, their running costs are much lower. In the long run, the investment can be more than recovered.

“Sri Lanka has to kick-start both renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies on a long-term and concessionary lending scheme,” says Asoka. He estimates the cost to be around USD 30 billion.

At first glance, it seems a massive price — but is only five times the 2012 oil import bill. Over time, the avoided oil and coal import costs would be much greater.

Renewables are not a panacea for all energy problems. Some limitations apply, such as cloudy days that reduce sunshine intensity. Their contribution to the grid needs to be balanced by power from more conventional sources. At least until storage systems get better…

“Renewables have an important role in any developing country energy mix as a part of the national energy supply security strategies,” says Lalith. “Yet, thermal energy technologies like oil, coal and gas will not go away in a hurry. Most of them, unless we have large hydro, will provide base load power from large centralised stations for two or three more decades.”

Sri Lanka’s large hydro potential is now almost fully tapped. Actual hydro power generation varies from year to year depending on rainfall.

Governance crucial

The energy sector can quickly become a sink for large volumes of public and private funds — unless there is an effective regulatory process.

“Countries like the Philippines have developed a sound regulatory framework — they have encouraged private sector to develop solar and wind farms, waste to energy and geothermal projects, which the utilities buy at reasonable prices,” says Lalith, who has worked across Asia and Africa as a renewable energy specialist.

He adds: “They have also created a transparent spot market for the purchase of a certain percentage of their electricity needs…The important issue for Sri Lanka is to create a long term vision for the energy sector based on integrity. Consumers pay a huge price for lack of governance and transparency, and for corrupt practices rampant in the sector.”

Good governance as a precondition for clean, affordable energy? Now that’s something to dream and strive for!

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