Technology these days is truly amazing. In these times of busy and stressful schedules, it allows us to access information quickly and easily. But most importantly, it allows us to express our own opinions with the option of anonymity and a guarantee of a substantial number of audience. On opinions that the government consider as seditious, the technology of the Internet, especially its use in online forums and blogging, is particularly useful.
Whereas in television, a person expressing his beliefs can easily be a target of prosecution; but in blogging or joining internet forums, a person may just browse the internet from a discreet internet cafe that now litter our towns and say whatever he wants in the secrecy of his own computer unit. Blogging is a great tool and augments our already diminutive outlets for our freedom of speech and expression. Here, we could rant about our discontent about the government, the rising oil prices, or PGMA’s crappy hairdo.This is just the thing for our country where the murder rate of journalists is particularly high and newspapers are being seized for publishing not so pro-government articles. The only problem is here in the Philippines, only the well to do could easily access such information – not the people in the slums, the people on the streets, not the people of far-flung communities or the indigenous people in the mountains.
The ones who can readily access your opinions are the ones who are mostly indifferent to the issue because the implications of the issue affect them only slightly, sometimes even benefiting them. That is why the internet is not the thing when it comes to reaching out the marginalized citizens of the Philippines. Television, radio or directly going to these people might do it but in terms of efficiency and anonymity, internet blogging would my preference. Also, if one uses TV or radio to express his dissatisfaction with the government, he could be accused of just being nagpapagwapo or nagpapasikat.This form of expressing opinions would not be that safe for the one posting his opinions should he post pro-American propaganda in China or Islamist radical opinions in the U.
S. These countries’ intelligence networks could easily track these posts to where they came from, and, with the help of their other agencies, arrest the perpetrator. But here in our country, you may say asa – you may very well blasphemize the government’s name and still go home without fear of being apprehended. Hurray for our inept government.
