The Internet, Blogging, YouTube and Warts and All

Daw Phyu was not impressed by blogging when it first appeared. She also did not like chatting when internet chartrooms first appeared decades ago. She did not like to share her innermost thoughts with strangers; at the same time, she did not want to talk about others too. She was, of course, aware of the power of the Internet when she was introduced to Janet for sending and receiving articles for two very serious magazines that she worked on in mid 1990. However, for the next two decades, she was dismayed to witness many abuses of the Internet for propaganda, false information and bullying. Digital divides among people and among nations worsened the situation for decades. The worst crime was that SOME self-seeking, dim-witted twits _ endowed with generous grants from well-meaning liberal-minded institutions _ have been allowed to rewrite or distort SOME histories and preach millions of the gullible and the equally stupid. They were/are as bad as spin-doctors from despotic regimes.

However, millions others are now fully enjoying digital renaissance. Ordinary people from almost all corners of this world are now allowed to do what the privileged few have been doing for decades. More and more people are talking about themselves and about others. Daw Phyu is happy to see so many truly intelligent and wise bloggers as well as commentators, especially from her old country and beyond. There are not only sponsored voices on the Internet. Many with divided opinions are discussing political, social and economic issues noisily and openly among themselves. The others are presenting the world whatever research they are working on; it is no longer the priority for many students to collect or buy just degrees or diplomas. This is the time to share others with how much they actually know. Many students are actually learning. Daw Phyu who is an ex-teacher, is full of joy. And many old and young people are also expressing whatever they like freely and openly. The Internet is truly coming of age.

Readers are now allowed to send online comments with a lightening speed on almost all what they have read on the Internet. A false report about the fall of a city in a conflict zone will be rebutted immediately by a resident in the area with a smartphone. If this false report is repeated several times, the credibility and the integrity of its source will be damaged beyond repairs. Now the power of the Internet is truly in the hands of ordinary decent folks, most of whom were silent for years. The source, no matter how powerful it is or how much it is protected, cannot erase its unprofessionalism and deviousness forever; some readers may already have printed its false report before its deletion; digital footprints are also stored in several servers all over the world. If any false report causes an escalation of a conflict resulting in massive loss of life and properties, people now understand that the source is guilty of the crime against humanity as much as rival warlords. The only way to restore the source's integrity is to apologise the readers at least A HUNDRED TIMES for its professional foul _ in THE LARGEST PRINT for at least a month to prevent further bloodshed and to remove these reports from the brains of infected readers or viewers. It is also recommended that those who are responsible for this internet media weapon of mass destruction be removed from office for good.

Despite her harsh recommendations, Daw Phyu fully promotes freedom of speech on the Internet. Daw Phyu no longer fears mass-brainwashing from all sides. She does not like to see the deletion or censorship of some comments on some media sites or YouTube sites. Some are worried that these comments will incite hatred or violence. What are the criteria to assess which comment is to be deleted and which is to be allowed? It is OK to show the same footage of causalities in a conflict _ hundreds of times within a few days, possibly resulting in a further vicious circle of extreme violence among divided peoples; at the same time, some comments should not be allowed while some are as long as they are NOT made public.

There should not be any censorship on the Internet. Any attempt to whitewash or coverup false reports or images when its duplicity is made public or to snub out true reports should not be encouraged. At the same time, do not police the others while you cannot police yourself! You may commit professional fouls as many as you wish if you are not ethical enough. This will allow the public to see what you really are. Let the public see what others are like too. So do not delete false images and false reports uploaded by dimwits and the devious. The increasingly media-smart public have the right to see warts and all (of you as well as of them)!

A robot

The nature of Daw Phyu's work (even as a casual worker) does not allow her and all her colleagues to express their opinions or to take sides of the hugely fragmented world. It may even be a criminal offence if she and her colleagues are directly or indirectly linked with any unlawful organisation acting under the disguise of a media organisation or a kind of campaigning group.

She has been acting like a robot for nearly two decades. However, this robot is not completely passive like a mindless hoover. Its memory chip has been silently storing massive amount of data for years. It is burdened with data deliberately fed for conversion which is its main function. For effective future conversion, its overactive neural network has also been relentlessly searching for new data and sources in all the veins and arteries of this planet. Moreover, it has been quietly processing complicated calculations and analysis on these data just to amuse itself.

However, this robot is NOT designed to delete old data or new irrelevant data like coughing up rotten mucus from painful overworked lungs. It is ALSO not allowed to let anyone to retrieve these raw data or to admire its analysis or calculations. So, it is just patiently waiting for the day when it will be relieved of this huge burden of being omniscient but not being allowed to be omnipotent. That will be the day when the robot dies naturally or be allowed to become a human without any concern or restrictions.

Unfortunately, for the last two years, this robot has also been detecting defects of some newly recruited "robots" and some of their "sellers or providers". Some of these "robots" break all rules in the books and their defective systems are allowed unlawfully. So the neural network of this carbon-based robot with this new kind of toxic data is dangerously overheating.

Enigma of History

Daw Phyu lost her voice ten days ago. She could not talk to friends on Skype or Google for she had to rest her vocal cords. The persistent cough and acute pain in her lungs were irritating. She could not sleep. She could not read. And she could not watch even television. She fell asleep or probably "lost consciousness" during short periods of respite from coughs and pain before television documentaries finished.

Fortunately, the pain eased slightly last night. And she was coughing less. Yet she could not still speak; and she should not go out in this cold weather. So on Saturday morning, she started watching all BBC documentaries that she missed for the last three weeks.

The first series that she watched was "Ancient Worlds" by Richard Miles. She had already watched the first programme and another unrelated program titled the Delphi. So she needed to catch up the next three programmes by Richard Miles. And these programmes were broadcast at the right time for Daw Phyu who explored Greek archeological sites only a year earlier.

To her delight, the riddle of the Phoenician disappearance was solved by this documentary. Since she was very young, she wondered what had happened to these people. All the books she read many years ago could not give plausible accounts about the "disappearance" these once hugely successful maritime entrepreneurs; maybe Daw Phyu must have missed very good history books. She was also delighted to have been reacquainted with the history of Assyrians, Persians, ancient Greeks, Egyptians and the Jewish people. {WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY, IF YOU ALSO WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS}

Then she started watching documentaries under the current BBC German season. Daw Phyu felt like as if she had hit the jackpot twice. On the same day, she discovered another great enigma of Frederick the Great! Oh! yes, he was not just the head of the German-Prussian military machine that inspired Hitler and his Third Reich, but also a philosopher king who was a patron of culture and free thinkers. It was also a delight to see historical places in Germany that she visited only a few years earlier. She never went to places like France, Germany or Greece for idle shopping. She had to be there to walk where historical figures had walked and breathed! {WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY, IF YOU ALSO WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE ENIGMA OF FG}

History has been rewritten again and again by winners and thugs (and also by brave academics or champions of the truth). Ancient historical figures, their writings and monuments were defaced, destroyed and resurrected again and again in Europe, in ancient Egypt and in other parts of the world. Whatever has been defaced will be reconstructed and rebuilt. Whatever has been destroyed will also be resurrected. Whatever has been lost can be found again. So Daw Phyu is quite optimistic today about the enigmatic history of the lost worlds.