thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

We live in extraordinary times when it comes down to proganda and information becoming somewhat interchangeable words. The really extraodinary part of this is that widespread distrust of the current US government is not diminishing but increasing if the overall trends are correct.

What we need is governments that we can trust.

The massive leak from wikileaks to the “More than 250,000 dispatches reveal US foreign strategies” in the Guardian, NY Timers and other papers.

My skeptical side says that none of the material is that surprising and that we should assume that at least some of the content is intentional misinformation given that the source “Sipdis” which is

“part of a programme under which selected dispatches, considered moderately secret but suitable for sharing with other agencies”

I’m all in favour of more open government but not entirely convinced that the case for dumping all of this information in public is the best outcome for freedom of information and democracy.

There are always going to be unintended consequences from this type of news coverage.

On the other hand. It does show up some very hamfisted and wrongheaded thinking by government officials. For example if Ahmed Zia Massoud really did take $US52m out of Afghanistan – then we should know about it.

I’d say though there is another news story – already in the open- but entirely sure anything much is being done about this

“AFRICA is losing in excess of US$300 billion annually through corruption, an amo-unt higher than donor and aid inflows, the African Development Bank (AfDB) says.”

from yesterdays’ Post in Zambia. I got that link off Transparency International website

I think there is always a case for clear and open transparent government but what about when the other team does not play by the rules?  I’d guess that for any accounts of dealings with Robert Mugabe and Commodore Frank Bainimarama in Fiji it would better for many citizens in Zimbabwe or Fiji to go “off the record”.

For NZ I’d challenge anyone to make sense of the current leadership in Fiji. Typically we are led to believe that the Commodore is completely out of line but not surprisingly on the Fiji government website present situation is described as the coup to end all coups.

What is the truth? We can be sure that in private the NZ and Australian governements will be having private negotiations to improve dialogue.

In a wikileaks world we should just make all of those discussions public. I don’t think so.

The video below is a perspective from Daniel Ellsberg on the earlier leaks but parallels can be drawn over the longer term view.

I’m all in favour of more transparency in government especially in foreign policy but I do think care should be taken by editors. As the Guadian says..

“There are some cables the Guardian will not be releasing or reporting owing to the nature of sourcing or subject matter. Our domestic libel laws impose a special burden on British publishers.All the publications involved have given early warning to the US government of our intention to publish. Government officials, who are aware of the general subjects we intend to cover, have not disputed the authenticity of the overall material.”

There are arguably enough breaches of common sense plus outright corruption in the public domain that maybe it is time to stop with the blanket all or nothing approach.

The US government is wrong to assume that all of its discussions and documents should be private but what is in the greater good is up for debate.

Down to the wire is an archive project for NZ internet*. A new competition launches on Nov 11 so enter if you would like to be part of that. Watch the video below for more details.

*Down to the Wire is a permanent resource for New Zealand that tells the story of how the Internet has shaped Kiwi lives.

Not just over the past 21 years, but in the future too.

We look forward to evolving both past and future chapters with your contributions. So let’s start with 2010, which we will launch on 24 December.

As it happens I have been working on some music archiving ideas and projects and so I’m very much looking forward to see how this complementary project unfolds.

I’ve worked with musicians all my life and ironically some of the current opportunities that are coming up for musicians are because the “music industry” doesn’t understand that curating a culture is very different and much better than trying to simply exploit it.

Granted not all music business people are the same and there are legal rights issues galore but I’m positive about the future of NZ music and related cultural history.

For more information on the music project follow the deleting music website and a very fine related post by Simon Grigg over here called A Trillion Shades of Happy.

Much of our recent cultural history is disappearing and we shouldn’t let that happen.

“Just to make the point stronger, the following albums, from 1974 onwards, all important musical landmarks (and some are rather good too) are either unavailable or only out there in shitty first generation CD issues with appalling sleeves:

• Car Crash Set
• The Dance Exponents (the Mushroom albums are in print but almost unlistenable, the Ze Disc one has never been on CD)
• The Body Electric
• Grace (wonderful sweet soul from the Ioasa Brothers)
• Fuemana (parts of it are on Amplifier)
• The Deepgrooves Double” etc.

Watch this space as they say. There are a number of music collectors, journalists and other stakeholders who all see a future where contemporary and historical music / culture should not be lost.

Finally – if you are interested in NZ music 1918 to 1960 something go get a copy of Chris Bourke’s book Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964:

Graham Reid has a great Lost Dawn summary over here .

Now if I was able to I’d say something dramatic like  – “I’m off to the bookshop – I may be some time…” but its back to work for me.