ButtUgly: Main_blogentry_220407

In Soviet Russia...

New York Times says: 50% Good News Is the Bad News in Russian Radio:

MOSCOW, April 21 — At their first meeting with journalists since taking over Russia’s largest independent radio news network, the managers had startling news of their own: from now on, they said, at least 50 percent of the reports about Russia must be “positive.”

In addition, opposition leaders could not be mentioned on the air and the United States was to be portrayed as an enemy, journalists employed by the network, Russian News Service, say they were told by the new managers, who are allies of the Kremlin.

Oh crap... Here we go again.

The good thing in the cold war was that when there was one clearly "evil" country, you could distinguish yourself from it by touting your own positive sides: freedom of information, travel, etc. In the past few years, when the "evility" has washed away from many countries, and the enemy has become something abstract, the waters became muddled and it became hard to see what is freedom and what is not. Nationalism is replaced with corporatism, and even in the western world, citizens rights are infringed more and more in the interest of safety against an unseen enemy. Maybe that's why it's been possible to do, because there is no clear "opposite" side, and you cannot take pride in being different, and better.

Well, to conclude this broadcast with positive news, here's a picture of Prince Albert of Monaco, whose security guards I managed to startle. Greetings to people I met at the WIMA conference, including Daniel. It was good to meet you guys, and to see the energy with which people are embracing the NFC technology!