A Small Cultural Window

Over the past few years, Muchmusic has broadcast footage of Europe's largest music festival, Glastonbury. I had always wanted to go, but because the festival is halfway around the world, the Muchmusic staff was reluctant to discuss (on air) how a foreigner such as myself would go about attending. I thought it was reasonable that the producers would not waste valuable airtime explaining this. However, I sent dozens of emails and even one letter to Muchmusic requesting information about Glastonbury 1998. I grew extremely angry with the staff since not one of my attempts at comunication was answered. I also searched fruitlessly for Glastonbury information on the Web and found only hobby sites set up by people who had attended past festivals. I began to get fed up with Muchmusic's utter lack of humanity and, after sending a vicious string of hatemail (ironically, all of this was answered), I resigned myself to the fact that I would never witness Glastonbury in person. Shortly afterwards, a remarkable thing happened--lo and behold, some two months before the festival began, a site appeared. I could hardly believe my eyes. But there was a site published by the festival promoter, offering telephone numbers for ticket outlets and a comprehensive section directed towards foreigners coming to Glastonbury complete with ticket and travel details. Within a week I was officially attending Glastonbury 1998!

Watching the Gatekeepers

It is sad and ironic that in Matthew Friedman's book Fuzzy Logic, he titles the section discussing the Internet as a tool that can be used to spread information and to throw off the shackles of oppressive regimes 'The Streets of Belgrade.' If only he could have known the fate of Belgrade less than two years later, he might have chosen a different example. Nevertheless, despite Solobodan Milosevic's strangulation of free speech and human rights, Friedman makes a good point. It is an increasing trend among small, repressive and politically volitile nations to have an online newspaper or newsletter. These sites are usually published and maintained by people who are openly (and anonymously) vocal in their opposition to their ruling government.

Yemen is a small, violent and unstable nation in the Middle East. Following a rash of kidnappings in late 1998, a friend of mine (who has been working and living in Yemen for years) gave me a fascinating source of information called The Yemen Times. The Yemen Times online is exactly the kind of information source that Friedman claims will change the world. He writes: "The new reality of politics in the information age is that private internal affairs are now distressingly public and that, on the Internet, the whole world is watching".

Politics, music, cultural events, books and a myriad of subjects and stimuli are available online. Just as in the world outside cyberspace, a tired old cliché is still appropriate: "to each his own". While I find online porn and special interest chat rooms cripplingly boring, I can easily spend a half hour pouring over National Hockey League players' statistics. I will read about the drunken exploits of Hunter S. Thompson or the drug-induced nightmares of Irvine Welsh. I can read about and listen to the pop stars I like, or I can angrily complain about and belittle the pop stars I hate. While my time online is admittedly brief, I feel it is as diverse as the world we live in.

So, here are a few links that may help you determine what Chris Laundy's problem is. Don't spend too much time here, because there is more to life than your computer!