DigiActive.org

Campaign: “No More Than 24!” Cabinet Ministers for Kenya

President Mwai Kibaki (l) shakes hands with Prime Minister Raila Odinga as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan looks on. The power-sharing deal produced an expensive extended bureaucracy.

Description: In an effort to create a coalition government after the turbulent elections, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreed in April to increase the Kenyan cabinet to 40 members. However, many Kenyans believed this was an unwieldy number, which only increase bureaucratic deadlock. There was a campaign to limit the cabinet to 24 members, a more reasonable figure.

Digital Activism tools: SMS, e-petition

How These Tools Are Being Used: There were two online elements of this campaign, but it is unclear whether they are connected. Mzalendo.com, “eye on the Kenyan Parliament,” promoted a campaign by Kenyans for Peace and Justice to send SMS messages to political representative urging the 24 member limit. The Mzalendo site hosts a list of 59 MP mobile phone numbers for people to use in the action. “Given the current impasse, there is still an opportunity to urge OUR elected representatives to stop being selfish and to put the nation’s interest before their personal interests,” states the site. “It adds strength to your sms if you personalize it by addressing the MP directly,” the site recommends. “e.g., ‘Mr. Saitoti, Kenyans want a lean, clean cabinet.’”

In addition to the SMS campaign there was also and online petition being promoted by the African human rights organization Fahamu, via their news service, Pambazuka News. The petition, which demands that the grand coalition government consist of no more than 24 ministers, was signed by 170 people. “As your employers we oppose the looting of our public coffers and demand that these monies go towards development of our schools, hospitals, infrastructure and post election reconstruction efforts,” reads the petition.

Outcome: Not successful. Earlier today, the cabinet met for the first time since being sworn in three weeks ago. There are 40 ministers and 52 deputy ministers in the coalition government. The cabinet is the largest in the history of post-independence Kenya and salaries alone for these new ministers will cost the Kenyan taxpayer $1.5 million a month.

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Tactic: Facebook used in tracking war criminals

Description: Anti-genocide group Aegis Trust created a campaign using the social networking site Facebook to find alleged war criminals in Darfur.

Tools used: Facebook, Google Maps and e-petition

What Are They Doing: Aegis is asking Internet users to provide updates on their Facebook page about the whereabouts of suspects – Sudan’s Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Harum and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb. The International Criminal Court has indicated both men for over 40 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

Aegis Trust is also using Google Maps to track the last-known movements of the suspects. Users can also go to Aegis’ “Wanted for War Crimes” webpage to sign a petition that will be automatically emailed to members of the United Nations Security Council.

“The men on the watch list are suspected of hundreds of thousands of murders,” said Dr James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust in a recent statement. “Someone, somewhere, knows where they are. They shouldn’t be allowed to live out their last days in luxury. Their futures lies in a courtroom. That’s what their victims deserve.”

Campaign: E-petition Saves Rainforest in French Guiana

Description: The French government was scheduled to start gold mining in a nature reserve in French Guiana, but an email campaign started by a concerned scientist and his student made all the difference in saving the ecosystem in this South American protectorate. The duo started the campaign with organization Ecological Internet weeks before the French Government gave the final contract to Canadian gold corporation Cambior.

Scientist Pita Verweij and her student Liesbeth Fontein researched consequences of gold mining, like deforestation and water pollution and took action.

Digital Activism tools: website, e-petition campaign

How These Tools Are Being Used: An action alert was post on Ecological Internet’s website in September 2006, describing the detrimental effects of industrial mining on the area’s environment and indigenous people. Below the action alert is space for activists to co-sign their names to a pre-generated protest letter that would automatically be emailed to then French President Jacques Chirac.

Outcome: According to Verweij, tens of thousands of protest mails were sent to the French government. The project stalled in October 2006 due to the volume of emails. The government finally decided not to grant the contract and cancelled the project in February 2008.

“The world needs to stop looking for easy answers to failing global ecosystems; and commence radical, even revolutionary, means to protect our atmosphere, land, water and oceans,” said Ecological Internet president Glen Barry in a statement.“The Earth and humanity’s very survival — being — depends upon protecting and restoring intact ecosystems, ending burning of fossil fuels, reducing human population and consumption, and other sufficient actions to avert global ecological collapse.”

Campaign: “Justice Now!” for a Girl in El Salvador

Description of Campaign: In 1999 a 9-year-old girl named Katya (also Katia) Miranda was raped and murdered. Charges against the suspects, all members of the country’s military elite, were dismissed in 2000 and there is a feeling that judicial corruption was at play. Now bloggers are taking up the cause in order to bring the case back to court before the 10 year statute of limitations runs out.

Digital Activism Tools: digital images, blogs, YouTube video, count-down timer, e-petition, offline action

How These Tools Are Being Used: This campaign uses a range of digital activism techniques, some more familiar, and other more creative and unusual. Among the more familiar tactics, supporters of the campaign posted a YouTube video in which Katya’s mother explains the details of the case. There is also an e-petition demanding that attorney general of the province of La Libertad, where the murder occurred, bring the case to trial again.

The campaign also uses images effectively. They have created a logo for their campaign (image above) which bloggers can post to show their support. The graphic is well-designed in that it is simple yet has a clear emotional message, showing only a picture of Katya with the words “justice now!” below.

The campaign also uses some more creative and unusual techniques. The campaign is also asking people to take a picture of themselves in their town or city with a picture of Katya. These images will be used to create a “virtual mural” to be posted on the causes official web site (which I could not locate) and will be presented with the attorney general via CD. Participants are asked to send these images to the e-mail address comunica.idhuca@gmail.com with name and location in which the photo was taken.

text reads “time remaining to prosecute the Katya Miranda crime”

Another creative element of the campaign is a count-down timer which marks the exact time, down to the second, before the statute of limitations runs out on Katya’s case (see above).This is a particularly pertinent to this cause because of the critical element of time.The campaign must succeed before the clock runs out, or Katya’s case cannot be brought to trial.

Significantly, the campaign also includes offline action, a “Day of Roses”, Read more »

Con: “Nothing Can Substitute for the Street”

Although this site is about how technology empowers activists on a global scale, we must not be blind optimists or think of digital activism as a panacea. For this reason we include thoughtful criticism of digital activism. If we want to make truly meaningful change we must address the Pros & Cons of digital activism.

The following quote is from a profile in the New York Times of Jessie Cagan (pictured above), the leader of the anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice. She is talking about the use of the Internet in protesting the Iraq war.

“On the one hand, it’s a terrific tool,” she said. “We are able to get word out to massive numbers of people like that.” She snapped her fingers to make the point. “But the downside is that some people think that if they sign an online petition, that’s it.”

Whether one is for or against the war, nothing can substitute for the street.

“When you do something online, you do it in your home or your office,” Ms. Cagan said. “It’s not public.

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Campaign: Online Anticorruption Movement in Azerbaijan

Description of Campaign: In 2004, a group of students in Azerbaijan decided to create a new web resource to speak up against corruption in the education sector. At Azerbaijani universities, it is not uncommon for students to buy grades and for the admissions process to be influenced by connections over competence

Digital Activism Tools: Website, petition, digital photographs, discussion board.

How These Tools are Being Used : On the web site, www.rushvedeyox.de (which translates to “say no to corruption” and has since been taken down), an online petition section served to collect petitions and submit to government officials on behalf of students. Within few weeks, thousands of students signed the petition. A section of the website included information about negative effects of bribery for students, for their future careers.

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Campaign: Help Fouad Mourtada

Description of Campaign: On February 5, Moroccan Fouad Mourtada was taken into custody for posting a joke profile of Prince Rachid (the King’s brother). Two weeks later, he was sentenced to three years in prison and fined over $1000 on a false charge of document identity fraud. The goal of this campaign is to reverse this sentence, which is horribly out of proportion to the offense committed.

Digital Activism Tools: YouTube, web site, G-Chat, Skype, Facebook, digital video, digital photography

How These Tools Are Being Used: First there was the official web site, www.HelpFouad.com with an e-petition asking for Fouad’s release. Members of the campaign both inside and outside Morocco communicated using G-Chat and Skype. Then there was the Facebook group, Help Fouad Mourtada. Through the Facebook group and offline social networks, rallies were organized this past Saturday at Moroccan embassies and consulates in 8 cities around the world (Rabat, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Washington DC, Montreal, Madrid, and London). Digital video and photographs were collected from these rallies made into a video to promote the cause (see below).

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Action Alert: Sign the Petition to Free Fouad Mourtada

What? e-petition protesting the 3 year prison sentence of Fouad Mourtada, who posted a joke profile of the Moroccan King’s brother on Facebook.

When? Now!

Where? on the Help Fouad web site at http://helpfouad.com/7437/index.html

How? go to the above URL and sign the e-petition
Why? to show the international opposition to this injustice

Who is organizing the action? The Committee to Help Fouad

Action Alert: Avaaz Calls for Mediation in Kenya

What? Kenya Crisis: Support Kofi Annan Campaign
When? now!
Where? on the Avaaz website
How? Send a message to your government to show Kenya’s leaders that the world supports mediation (the total number of messages sent will be published in a full-page ad in the East Africa Standard in Kenya.)
Why? To stop the violence in Kenya.
Who is organizing the action? international digital advocacy organization Avaaz.org

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