StigmergicWeb

Heather Ross has posted her nutshell version of Bill Clinton’s speech in Saskatoon this evening. Bill Clinton Talks Social Capital

• It costs a lot less to make sure every child on the planet gets an education than it does to pay for even a small war.
• Countries, working together, are successfully fighting AIDS, TB, malaria, and other similar illnesses around the world.
• We all need to protect the environment or we will all suffer the consequences.
• We need to begin at home by working in our own communities to build respect for differences.
• The Internet is making it possible for individuals to make a difference in ways such as donating even small amounts of money, online, to relief efforts in Indonesia, Kashmir, and New Orleans.

Such simple yet powerful ideas. I would add to the last point that the internet also makes it possible for individuals to exchange ideas and share points of view in an unprecedented way. For example, I wrote a couple of sentences on this blog today, and less than 8 hours later I have a response from someone I’ve never even met (although we have connected and communicated, in this sublimely bloggish way) who is geographically about as far away from me as it is possible to be. I find that to be mind-boggling, yet also affirming at the same time. There is some core connection, some thread of commonality that I share with others around the world (and I can even find out where some of them are on the edublogger Frappr map).

I just read on scripting news that Viktor Yuschenko, prime minister of the Ukraine, has a blog. Not being able to read Ukrainian, I can’t tell if this is real blogging or something that someone in his office is writing. I think that the most successful politicians of the 21st century will be the ones who can genuinely connect with the populace, and I think weblogs will be an important part of that process. The early attempts have been insincere and pretentious - Paul Martin’s blog before the last Canadian election springs to mind as an example - or misunderstood by the media, as was Howard Dean’s Dean for America blog. Politicians take note - there is a lot of cynicism by many people not only about your sincerity and motivations, but increasingly about the political process itself, notably among youth.

Does anyone know if there are any Canadian politicans who are genuinely blogging - that is, not having a staff person write it for them?

Whew - what a year. I’ll refrain from my own personal observations of the passing year, and give this space for a few words from Stephen:

The events of this past year and especially of this past week have shown us not only how fragile is our existence on this planet, but also how great is the power of our coming together. … There is so much promise in the air, and yet so many of us fall to war and famine, natural disaster and disease. Those few people who have had the good fortune to be in a position to make things better have an obligation, a duty, to extend as much of themselves as they can to do so. The future of our civilization depends not on how high the greatest of us soar but on how far the weakest of us fall. We are together, all of us, one, or not at all. To all my friends around the world: Peace, and long life.

Peace and love, everyone; I’ll write to you again in 2005!