The Globe and Mail's Elizabeth Renzetti has an immaculately written editorial on the Russian government trial of a girl punk rock group for "hooliganism". What they did was made a very funny video, taking on both Putin's thuggish censorship and the complicity of the Russian Church.
It's really far better than anything I have to write about today. It can pass as something silly, but Renzetti makes it clear that in the age of communications, a belly laugh can topple a dictatorship. Laughter grants us immunity. The more dictators try to stamp it out, the more attention they draw, and the faster the sparks fly.
Since Russians are already wired by television and internet, Putin can't take away the devices that people watch funny stuff upon. In African dictatorships, they are very afraid of display devices - very afraid. And the fear has far more to do with potential for a tinderbox of laughter than with witches brews of toxic wires.
It's more important than today's chicken sandwich. Give Renzetti a read.
Here's BBC coverage of the controversial Russian punk band on trial.
It's really far better than anything I have to write about today. It can pass as something silly, but Renzetti makes it clear that in the age of communications, a belly laugh can topple a dictatorship. Laughter grants us immunity. The more dictators try to stamp it out, the more attention they draw, and the faster the sparks fly.
Since Russians are already wired by television and internet, Putin can't take away the devices that people watch funny stuff upon. In African dictatorships, they are very afraid of display devices - very afraid. And the fear has far more to do with potential for a tinderbox of laughter than with witches brews of toxic wires.
It's more important than today's chicken sandwich. Give Renzetti a read.
Here's BBC coverage of the controversial Russian punk band on trial.
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