Jakartass Persons Of The Year

If you haven't got the time to download the front page of Time, then consider this to be a time saver.

YOU are the person of the year. Wow, wonderful, you cry, but why? Apparently it's because you're reading this.

It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

It's not ME though, because I live in Indonesia. In fact it's not about the vast majority of US here because very very few have access to this new-fangled thing called Web 2. Yep, it's about YouTube, podcasts, MySpace and Friendster.

Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment, and like any experiment worth trying, it could fail. There's no road map for how an organism that's not a bacterium lives and works together on this planet in numbers in excess of 6 billion. But 2006 gave us some ideas. This is an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person. It's really a revolution.

Sounds great, eh? But this is one area where a great deal of 'trust', or perhaps faith, is required.

It's a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary. Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.

I would like to access archived materials, to watch TV from around the globe and to feel part of the Global Village, one in which I get to choose my neighbours. I'm sure YOU would too. Being dependent on the local media is not that beneficial for an emerging democracy. If only the vested interest of the shareholders in our telecommunications providers were not seemingly of greater importance than the customers who pay over the odds for an appalling outdated service.

So, here are a few Jakartass Persons of 2006.

1. The electors in Aceh who have not only rejected the candidates sponsored by Jakarta but in so doing have rejected the religious fundamentalism being imposed. Acehnese have chosen choice.

2. Suciwati, the widow of the assassinated human rights activist, Munir.

Suciwati's intent has been to build international awareness of her husband's case before a verdict is handed down. She has also helped turn her late husband's case into a litmus test of Indonesia's ability, under the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to face a sometimes gruesome past and establish a credible judicial system.

3. All new bloggers in Indonesia, in whatever language is used. The mere act of writing and exposing one's thoughts to the world at large is an act against entrenched attitudes, the notion that Father knows best. Hopefully in 2007 we can work together, be a collective force for change, whether it be against corporate incompetence and lack of social responsibility or for improved public transport.

The choice is ours to make.

4. And finally, a good friend back in Blighty might like to know that some folk think that 2006 has been the Year Of Bacon (even though the Year of the Pig is next year). This is because: