Dafni Leef's Facebook Protest

Dafni Leef put up a tent in one of the most expensive neighborhoods of Tel-Aviv in June of 2011.  This came as a result of having to leave her apartment and learning that rents across the city were sky high.  By mid-July, she used her Facebook page to create a fantastic movement.  She simply posted that she would be sleeping on the street of Rothschild Boulevard and that anyone was invited to join, in protest to the country's cost of living.  Within hours of her post, the streets began filling up with tents from other people in the middle class who are angered also.  PBS reports that 87% of the people are supportive of this demonstration.  In September 2011, there are plans in process for a 3 million person march to occur, and Israel only has a population of 7 million people.

The Prime Minister has formed a committee to try to stave off the inflation, with an economist (having a really good reputation) as the leader of the group.  Israeli Parliament also has called a special session during the summer break, although this is viewed as more of a symbolic move.

Not in a million years would I have expected so much to come from a Facebook post.  Of course I realize that if the upset was not present in the masses of people, Dafni would have been tenting all by herself.  However this story is one for the history books.  How powerful just one voice can be!

I am a generation Xer.  From the time I was little I was told that each voice is powerful and can make a difference, but I never really believed that.  It always seemed that someone else was talking louder than I was... but Dafni has broken that belief for me.  I am completely in awe that a result to her post, people are demanding change.  Her peers are conglomerating with her.  Her government is acting (appearance-wise, anyway) in response to the masses. 

A whole new spectrum of possibilities has been opened and seen by the entire world, and that, in itself, is a huge change for many of us.

For further reading and a couple of stunning pictures, check out Psychology Today or PBS.

New Media and Politics, Introduction

For quite some time I have been curious about how new new media is changing the world of politics.  When I refer to new new media, I am not referring email or non-interactive websites.  I am actually referring to the blogs, videos, podcasts, wikis, and rss feeds that will be explored.

I do not currently have much experience with these newest forms of social media, so I look forward to exploring them while noticing and documenting political details in the process.  Last evening I signed up for Twitter and was a little confused and overwhelmed by the organization of the site.  To make matters a little more confusing I started to follow too many different people/organizations and unfortunately, was subjected to more spam than I anticipated.  In the future I plan to narrow this window down to make wading through the information a little easier to digest in an effort to get a clearer picture.

Thus far, I tried to delve into the developing race for the Republican presidential candidate.  Yesterday, however, I heard that Hilary Clinton may give President Obama a run for the Democratic candidate for the next presidential campaign.  So, I do plan to proceed on by checking in on Mrs. Clinton's Twitter feed also, to gather information on whether or not this is true.

One detail I was able to zero in on was the Midwest tour that President Obama was on that went through Minnesota.  Over the radio waves yesterday, Rush Limbaugh mentioned that Obama actually only rode a few miles at a time in the bus.  He flew in Air Force One and actually flew the busses also, reportedly trying to save miles.  True or not, I do not know.  The folks on Twitter last night were engaged in much debate about this detail.  Mr. Limbaugh, of course, struck up more debate with his repeated comments that the bus tour was a fake because Obama flew instead.  I was not able to find any statement from the white house regarding the flying busses.  I do look forward to see how this plays out and how big of an online debate this turns into.  It is difficult for me right now to determine how normal any conversation is because I have no history with the site.