Recently I have been having a look at a list of blogs that a colleague gave me, all of which have links to RSS feeds. This means if you download RSS software off the Internet you can automatically receive new posts in your Reader from the blogs that you subscribe to. Most subscriptions are free to read, as people generally would basically like to communicate and share their ideas with others. The particular list that I have is focused on blogs that ranked highly in both Google’s page ranking and Alexa’s ranking of how many visitors come to a site. Well, the first blog on the list was called ‘How to save the world’ and is found at blogs.salon.com/0002007 or http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/rss.xml for its RSS feed. Scrolling down through this blog’s latest posts (journal entries) I came across one on July 17,2005 entitled ‘There is no justice’ which caught my attention causing me to subsequently read onwards. Although the writer is obviously intelligent and went to quite a complex depth in his analysis of peace and justice (or lack thereof) in the world, I was simply impressed by the reason for this blogger’s writing in the first place. They want to help the world.

This blog stands as an excellent example of intelligent dialogue coupled with the incorporation of simple photos, graphs, quotes, and links to other sites to give the writing more substance, credibility, and relationship with other people and organizations. As well as within the text, on the side of the blog is a huge list of other blogs that this person reads as well as lists of recent posts, personal essays, a biography, and multiple categories differentiating topics discussed so the visitor/reader needn’t have to search for the content that they are interested in.

As for whether or not we can save our world, whether or not you feel it needs to be saved, and the question of peace and justice in society, I’ll let you read the journal where you can leave a comment for the rest of us to ponder over. Just to give you an idea of the International basis of blogs, let me tell you that this blog’s author is from Canada, he quotes and has links to speeches from a famous Indian writer in Australia, the piece is based around US political policy, the Iraq War, and he uses relevant examples from Northern Europe and France’s social systems. There is no doubt in my mind that blogs, vlogs (videoblogs), and podcasts (audible communication files) are just the beginning in a new era of human interaction giving voice to both minorities and the individual in a world where the power of nation states and corporations have often resulted in the ‘normal, average person’ feeling unheard and disconnected with their fellow brothers and sisters of the human species.

By Jesse S. Somer
www.m6.net
Jesse S. Somer is an individual voice amidst the cacophony of opinions that bombard us all everyday. Won’t it be a better place when everyone has a chance to speak, and to be heard?

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