The Digital Bridge

The thought came to my mind as I was pondering over an interview given by Amitabh Bachan, (known as the 'Big B' of Bollywood) that I had watched a day ago. I remember back in the early 90's in the US, when people would make fun of Bollywood movies - of the couple running around trees, dancing and this included my own wife. Now Mr. Amitabh Bachchan correctly points out that the West no longer sees it as this. In fact, Bollywood is huge in the West, and especially the States where south east asian communities emulate Indian customs mostly influenced by Bollywood movies and songs in their wedding socials. Bollywood has given an identity to those without one. I know for example of Sri Lankan girls that do not even speak Hindi yet consider it cool to hang around their Indian mates, while emulate quite a bit of their contemporary customs. Now this reminds me of Ibn Kaldoon, the great Sociologist's words of wisdom, "the weak always imitate the strong..". He said this in relation to nations.

Here is the interview by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan - impressive eh!
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/07/14/amitabh.bachchan.bollywood/index.html

Now to expand on the title here, I think that the digital revolution has significantly contributed towards the social progress outlined above, which in my opinion is positive. A misunderstood culture has now come to be respected and emulated. So what is this digital revolution? The development of digital media has connected all parts of the world to where one can easily and cost-effectively get access to elements of a far away culture, as in music, film, speeches, events, documentaries, distance learning, political developments as they unfold as we have seen lately in Iran, etc. The internet remains the backbone of this marvel. First came the introduction and proliferation of compact discs (CD's) followed by successive development of portable media such as flash drives. The free internet remains the propeller of this revolution. I remember missing the old days of the world as seen through memories of my grandfather. I started getting on the internet and stumbled upon old Hindi movies, the golden age of Indian cinema as it is rightly known. I downloaded songs that melted my heart and this ultimately led to my fluency of the Hindi and Urdu languages! Imagine someone from a totally different country gaining the ability to speak fluently like its inhabitants, now isn't this unity? What a great case in defense of the internet and its positive effects on society!

I remember years ago, some of the Muslim clergy used to claim that mobile phones were a tribulation and a bad innovation. I found in the UAE for example, that some of the imam's of mosques had better phones than the one I owned! Positive innovations change our lives and our opinions follow. This is almost always true especially when the applicable opinions are negative at first. It would be foolish to think that opinions are rock solid and carved in stone. Opinions are in reality (and should be) progressive, and evolve with our knowledge, experiences and broadening of horizons.

There was an imam who in my opinion is 'cool' in the true American sense. He was in Tampa, FL and positively used his influence with the youth of the community and his sermons on Fridays were filmed to be published on his web site. Most people did not know about this but I knew the man was headed towards positive territory yet to be appreciated by the masses. He ultimately moved to another community in Texas and now runs his own blog, complete with audio, video and very useful information to all. In fact, I give him credit for mastering the art of blogging way before I got into it. I am not sure if I can share this blog with you right this moment for I have not consulted him, but trust me when I tell you that this is a success story I am happy to share to say the least.

I am glad and elated to share and declare that technology and the internet have contributed towards better understanding and love among people. For a moment in my IT career I was wondering if I was headed the right direction, studying abstract information that was far off from social sciences and day to day human life. Now I have a reason, a good one to continue unabated. Most of what we do fits into the big picture of social progress, prosperity and peace - at least let us strive towards this, right?

Life is a little more than each of us selfishly clinging on to partisanship and opinions. What about getting to know the world and broadening our horizons? Welcome to the age of digital bridges, you are now able to do exactly this, right from the comfort of your desk at home.

Broaden horizons and become a better global citizen. Wisdom is the key and it only comes through observation and this is directly related to one's access to information and phenomenon.

Television, CD's, karaoke, internet, computers, flash drives - all of it come under the concept of digital bridges, like the leaves and branches of a tree where the tree itself is the internet that runs to the roots of KNOWLEDGE, open-minded sharing of opinions, studies, research and exploration. Power to the world! Let us remember the inventors and celebrate the inventions of technology, right from the days of semi-conductors, transistors to all that became catalysts of the digital bridge - a great place to take a regular stroll.

Peace!