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Organized Online, Students Storm Gov't. Buildings In Moldova
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Apr 07, 2009 09:23 AM
from the no-emoticon-for-what-I-feel dept.
from the no-emoticon-for-what-I-feel dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Reacting to allegedly fraudulent election procedures, students are storming the presidency and parliament of the small eastern European country of Moldova. It is reported that they used Twitter to organize. Currently twitter and blogs are being used to spread word of what is happening since all national news websites have been blocked. If the 1989 Romanian revolution was the first to be televised, is this the first to be led by twitter and social networks?" Jamie points out this interesting presentation (from March 2008) by Ethan Zuckerman about the realities of online activism, including how governments try to constrain it.
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Submission: Students use Twitter to storm presidency in Moldov by Anonymous Coward
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Technology: The Net — Democratic Panacea Or Autocratic Tool? 204 comments
Alex writes "On April 6, 10,000 protesters organized in Moldova against the nation's Communist leadership by utilizing new media like Twitter and Facebook, demonstrating the ever-increasing potential of the Internet as a democratic and liberating tool. But in the current Boston Review, Evgeny Morozov critiques the view that the internet will inevitably democratize autocratic regimes like China, Russia and Iran. He argues that the Net's democratic effects are not inherent, and that autocratic regimes have been successful in controlling electronic media to disseminate their ideology. Will the net ultimately spread American democracy, or just American entertainment?"
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Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
...So Twitter is *occasionally* filled with useful material. :)
The revolution ... (Score:5, Funny)
will not be televised, but apparently it will be twittered.
Re:The revolution ... (Score:5, Insightful)
pitty any future historian who will have to dig thru all the LOLs to follow historical events
Parent
Re:The revolution ... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
LOL! ... sorry. I had to!
Fax, Internet, Same Thing (Score:5, Interesting)
The Soviet Union was crushed by fax machines. Twitter is just sort of a chickenshit fax machine for people who like to run their mouths.
BTW, good for the students.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The Soviet Union was crushed by bad economic policies; everything else was a consequence, not a trigger. The collapse began before fax machines or copiers became common.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
"Chickenshit" modifies "fax machine," not "people." As the fax machines are not storming government buildings, it is perfectly appropriate.
Re: (Score:2)
Skyfax.
Twitter (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe after this, twitting will sound a little less stupid.
Maybe.
Twitteriffic! (Score:5, Funny)
Tomorrows CNN: "According to Twits from the Moldovian front...." Maybe after this, twitting will sound a little less stupid. Maybe.
Somehow I doubt it. Somewhere, the twits will be twoted as twaying something or other about how these tweettacks are a violation of their twitful rights...
But don't twote me on that...
Parent
Re:Twitteriffic! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Wow (Score:5, Funny)
I'm really surprised they managed to send so many messages without Twitter displaying the Fail Whale.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I must officially be an old, curmudgeonly luddite now, since I didn't know what the Fail Whale was before today.
Or wait, since we like bashing social networky things here, does that make me cool? I can't tell.
What's the story here? (Score:5, Insightful)
People use communication tools available to them to organize and carry out tactics?
Oh, it's because it's twitter it's a novelty.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
The story is their communist government cut down the communication tools. Cellphone coverage is off and all media "shutdown" early in the day. The radio / television employees all went home and the buildings are surrounded by the military.
The story is they were left with the internet. Here's a good read [foreignpolicy.com].
Europe... (Score:5, Interesting)
From my time in Moldova with native students, all they want is to join up with the rest of Europe and get the show on the road. They're really frustrated at "the Man". There's the Romanians who don't want to reunite the countries (since Moldova is poorer), the Russians who keep feeding the border conflict with Transnistria (fascinating read about that tin pot narco/weapons state: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria [wikipedia.org] ), there's the EU that doesn't even want to consider Moldova as long as there's an unsolved border conflict, there's the communists in power, and so on. Doesn't surprise me much that they're going the same way as the Orange Revolution in Ukraine -- which was much the same circumstances.
Totally OT: Moldova has the BEST wine and the CRAZIEST Nightclubs. Gotta believe me on that one ;-)
Not again! (Score:2)
How many more countries are going to sprout out in that area? I already went broke replacing all my atlases when the USSR broke up, Yugoslavia broke up and reorged a couple of times, then Kosovo went independent... sheesh! I wish there was an atlas with a bunch of scrapbook-style cutouts for the most likely countries to secede next :)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
1. Buy a geographical atlas, with no countries marked at all,
2. Write "world" on it,
3. Tell everyone else to do the same.
Re: (Score:2)
Solves a handful of problems and creates many more. Pass.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
To anyone who understands anything about economics, this statement, honestly, looks like a troll. It's like reading someone saying "I thought Windows was better? Isn't that what 95% of businesses use?" or something like that. Yes, there are many, many people who thought (and perhaps still think, although OS X and even linux have made tremendous inroads into the public consciousness now), for example, that it was "
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Doesn't surprise me much that they're going the same way as the Orange Revolution in Ukraine
What - you mean financed and organised by the US government?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You can also see how fucked Ukraine is now. The government is not functioning, the presidend and the prime minister (former best buddies and orange revolution heroes) are now bitter enemies.
Re:Europe... (Score:4, Informative)
Russians work as peacekeepers in Transnistria.
Also, you should try to read Wiki article you're quoting:
======
On August 31, 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR adopted Moldovan as the only official language, with Russian retained only for secondary purposes, returned Moldovan to the Latin alphabet, and declared a shared Moldova-Romanian linguistic identity. As plans for major cultural changes in Moldova were made public, tensions rose further. Ethnic minorities felt threatened by the prospects of removing Russian as the de facto official language, the possible future reunification of Moldova and Romania and the ethnocentric rhetoric of the Popular Front. The Yedinstvo (Unity) Movement, established by the Slavic population of Moldova, pressed for the equal status given to both Russian and Moldovan.[73]
Soviet symbols are still used in Transnistria
The nationalist Popular Front won the first free parliamentary elections in the Moldavian SSR in the spring of 1990[citation needed], and its agenda started slowly to be implemented.
=======
That pattern was repeated several times during the USSR collapse (in Georgia and Armenia). Russian peacekeepers were able to stop these conflicts before they turned into full-scale civil wars.
Also, Transnistria's reputation as a drug haven is exaggerated.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"Russian peacekeepers"....
Russia's presence in that area makes the problem persist. The reasons they're there is not to keep peace, but to maintain a conflict.
They need it because it is to their benefit to keep some troops here and there, "just in case".
Re: (Score:2)
And don't forget that Transnistria has official relations with the Kremlim much like South Ossetia does.
Igor Smirnov [wikipedia.org] (the head of Transnistria) just recently had a cordial meeting with the Russian President.
Re:Europe... (Score:5, Interesting)
Let me put this clear for you: Romania and Moldova used to be the same country until WWII, The Republic Moldova is just a part of the historic region of Romania called Moldova(since 1359), a big part of it still lies in Romania. The USSR performed ethnic and cultural clensing there, the comunists even went so far as to trying to forbid the teaching of the Romanian language.
Since before the ellections, Romanian citizens woren't allowed to enter Moldova, and now Moldovan citizens that are currently in Romania aren't allow to go back into their own country !
There is probably going to be a millitary intervention this night, since the students even assaulted the national television while the president was there in the studio.
In Romania we went trough something simillar in 1989, it started in the city I'm studying in, Timisoara. A simillar student protest ended in the millitary shooting in the mass of students and killing not only students but everyone who was on the streets. It was a real horror show troughout the country.
If something simillar happens in Moldova I can only hope it's going to come to a millitary intervention from Romania or NATO. The revolution in Romania ended with over one thousand dead and thousands wounded, most of which wore students. I really hope other countries won't just stand by and let the same thing happen again. It's only come so far because romanian officialls allways wore big cowards afraid to say anything that would upset their Moldavian counterparts, or anyone else for that matter. If they won't do anything this time eyther, we're going to start protesting in the same manner.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Bullshit!
Most of what the AC said is true. For any westerner, Moldavia's history is convoluted and here it's not the time or place for history lesson, however, any person in their right mind would agree that the Moldavian is the same as the Romanian language (despite Moldavian-Romanian dictionaries nonsense).
Also, I have not come across any Romanian who would not supp
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There are several ways in which they could cheat, doing this before or after the elections.
An observer can only see the same person walk in and out into _the same_ office to vote several times, or see a person using several voting ballots.
What an observat can't see:
- the same person voting in different voting offices
- how people were prevented from entering the country in the pre-election period
- how voting offices were not set-up in some parts of the country
- how someone shows up and uses the identity of a
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
there's the communists in power, and so on. Doesn't surprise me much that they're going the same way as the Orange Revolution in Ukraine ...
Totally OT: Moldova has the BEST wine and the CRAZIEST Nightclubs.
So they party like it's 1984?
Re:Europe... (Score:4, Informative)
You can't speak for everyone else. I'm from Moldova and I can tell you that there are a lot of people here who are still able to reason clearly.
The people want it, but the leaders find it against their "business interests". It is not _us_ who came up with the stupid Moldovan-Romanian dictionary, it is not _us_ who told the Romanian government to "keep out of our internal matters", it is not _us_ who don't even speak Romanian nor bother to learn it.
What happens now is that the people are trying to get rid of these incompetent leaders.
I am ashamed every time I watch the news and see how our politicians refuse to cooperate with the Romanian government - which has tried numerous times to offer us a hand of help.
In this context it is evident why there are people in Romania who don't see Moldovans as "brothers" anymore.
Parent
The riots of 2005 in France we're powered by blogs (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like a plan to me.
It isn't the government that needs to be stormed though... it is the Federal Reserve Bank.
People hear so much about the government borrowing money to give to businesses and lower banks, but where does it come from? The Federal Reserve? People would have you think it is coming from China and other foreign investors, but when THEY aren't investing, where are those dollars coming from? Ah yes, the Federal Reserve... the private bank that has exclusive right to print and distribute c
Re: (Score:2)
I can't say that the money supply would be any better off in the hands of Congress
Maybe you can't, but a lot of smart people pointed that out. (The Founders) Mind you, they weren't talking about a congress full of corrupt incomptent idiots... or maybe they were, and they still thought it was better than bankers.
Re: (Score:2)
You believe that do you? This is an armed and violent attack on the government. The government can deploy troops with heavy caliber machine guns with armor piercing rounds. Those rounds will go through two or more people. Bring in tanks from the rear. Now you have a squeeze play, with the rioters trapped between machine guns in the front and machine guns on tanks advancing towards them in the back. Lets not forget white phosphorous
Example Tweet (Score:5, Funny)
Alright, we've got to overthrow those assholes running this country. And we've got to do it in 140 characters or less. So I want everyone to
Re:Example Tweet (Score:5, Funny)
brb rvltn
Parent
Darn! (Score:2)
Moldova is on my short list of places I want to visit in this world before I die. I'm happy to go places that aren't exactly tourist-ready but any place where "students are storming the presidency and parliament" is just too unstable to contemplate.
Cross Moldova off the list for now. Maybe in a couple of years, though.
One small tool (Score:2)
Re:Is this the first? (Score:4, Funny)
If it isn't, Slashdot ain't doin' its job.
If Slashdot was doing its job it would be the FRIST REVOLUTION!.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps "lead" as in what bullets are made of is accurate?
it is after all a form of rebellion, in an eastern european country, no less.
Re: (Score:2)
tldr
Re: (Score:2)
tldr
Too Lazy; Didn't Revolt?
No. Tweeter Leads: Do Revolt
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
You will not be able to stay home, brother. You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out. You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip, Skip out for beer during commercials, Because the revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox In 4 parts without commercial interruptions. The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be brought to you by the Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia. The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal. The revolution will not get rid of the nubs. The revolution will not make you look five pounds thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother. There will be no pictures of you and Willie May pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run, or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance. NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32 or report from 29 districts. The revolution will not be televised. There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers in the instant replay. There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers in the instant replay. There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process. There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving For just the proper occasion. Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and women will not care if Dick finally gets down with Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people will be in the street looking for a brighter day. The revolution will not be televised. There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock news and no pictures of hairy armed women liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose. The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb, Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be right back after a message bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people. You will not have to worry about a dove in your bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl. The revolution will not go better with Coke. The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath. The revolution will put you in the driver's seat. The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised, will not be televised, will not be televised. The revolution will be no re-run brothers; The revolution will be live.
Burmashave
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Once you have stopped/destroyed "the machine", what will replace it?
Re: (Score:2)
I suppose they stood outside the White House holding blown-up printouts of Goatse.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Just take a look http://unimedia.info/ [unimedia.info] ! These guys are serious...