Mumbai, Twitter, Hatred & Gandhi

For much of the past two days I have watched with horror  and sorrow as events unfolded in Mumbai. Mostly I have watched through Twitter. Some of what I have seen at #mumbai--where 10s of thousands of posts from people all over the world have gone up in a realtime river of information and opinion.

For the most part, what I have read there has reconfirmed my belief that the worst of times brings out the best in most people. All over the world people are contributing thoughts of outrage and compassion. On the ground, Tweeters in Mumbai have contributed some real time valuable and accurate information. But there are not that many citizen-journalists and the traditional media has been uneven in the quality and responsibility of their coverage.

A year ago, Andy Carvin speculated that Twitter can be used to save lives. In fact, it's possible that during a couple of natural disasters in the US, it may have already done so. But over the last couple of days. I kept hoping that someone, locked in a room in a Mumbai Hotel, or under a bed in a children's hospital would get a message out and Twitter  could get the right kind of help in. That did not happen this time.

Unfortunately, Twitter will have another chance. The world is filled with people whose warped thinking and strange concept of a God says that it is a good thing to kill people based on the origin of their passport. Mumbai, in its own way, in its newly choreographed use of terror equals in India what we in America experienced in 9/11. I fear something will eclipse both. Perhaps Twitter will play a role that time. Unfortunately we will probably find out.

I am more certain about that because of a vociferous minority who showed the ugliness inside them on the Twitter stream over the past few days. There were those who jumped in to accuse Mossad, the Israeli special ops force of somehow teaming up with Muslim fundamentalists to attack a Jewish Community Center in India. There were those who believed that all 1.7 billion Muslims, more than 1/4 of the world's population were in cahoots. There were those that called for India to respond by immediately attacking Pakistan. There were those who believed they knew better than the commanders of the India National Security Guard (NSG) about how to save the lives of those taken hostage. In fact, the Twitter stream was filled with people who were trying to outguess authorities and terrorists on what to do next, as if this were some sort of reality TV or sporting event.

All this made me sad. All this made me believe that world was no closer to ending the tribal hatreds that lead to people killing people in the name of God and national borders. And that is something that Twitter cannot help, I am sorry to say.

All day long, I keep hearing the voice of Mahatma Gandhi, the assassinated father of modern India, "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

 

Comments

[naveen]

its gandhi

[shel Israel]

Sorry. I corrected the spelling.

[Shrisha Radhakrishna]

Appreciate your thoughts, Shel. I think Sambit Bal, a prominent cricket writer said it best yesterday: "I have watched a city of a million dreams held hostage by 20 or so men who have purged from their souls every trace of humanity - let's not confer on them the dignity of a religion - and I have felt the blood drain out of me."

[shel Israel]

Shrisha, That's the best quote I've heard so far on this topic. Thanks for sharing.

[Amrita]

Thank you for being a voice of reason during this horrible event. You are right that Twitter is a tool that allows us to communicate; sometimes that communication reveals the worst of people, other times it shows our humanity. As an Indian woman I was touched to read your Tweets and those of other non-Indians who understood that what is happening in Mumbai could happen in many places, and that we all suffer from these acts whether they are happening in our backyard or around the world.

[dr.avinash w.manwatkar.]

shel, your thoughts are very narretive the feeling of the situation bound person.
but i would like to give some quote from bhagvat gita that will explain how people behave in any situation. i):nasti budhir yuktasa ,nacha yuktasa bhavana,
nacha bav taya shanti, ashantism kutas sukham.meaning( it requires complete and great knowledge in ones mind to understand emotions of other person,without this {knowledge}on can not have emotions.without emotions there is no peace at mind and self.and finaly without peace there is no happiness.)

[dean guadagni]

Shel,

So true "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

Maybe we need to learn how to use twitter, like an Amber Alert, correctly during crisis. I agree that twitter has most certainly saved some lives but it can't teach us to love.

Interesting that there are some American Police Dept utilizing twitter--why not a national security system? Ex Scottsdale, AZ PD.

Thank you for the well written article.

[Lhasa Tibet Traveller]

Hope this horrible event will not happen again. Hope we can all find the peace in our heart.