Thomas Edward Gordon, Lake Victoria, Great Pamir, May 2, 1874
This is my vision for an operation curating news and engaging in critical discussion, through "Different Stans" and my related blogs "Minding Russia" and "Wired State".
I want to cover critically the Eurasia Region in the period of the withdrawal of US combat troops along the Northern Distribution Network military route, and supposed establishment of a New Silk Road. I want to create a least a small space of alternatives.
Existing news sites are either commercial mainstream media, which has limited space and attention for the stories on human rights and social and political issues in this region; or they are nonprofits and think-tanks funded by foundations which tend to have a certain political line, depending on their origin, or they can be cautious and/or silent because they have staff in the region. There are so many people who are silent about this region, for one reason or another -- they are dealing with classified information; they are government contractors on non-disclosure agreements; they fear oppression. I want more opportunities for voices to be heard from and about this region.
I want to try and see if news can be funded not by commerce, not by foundation grants, but by individual donations through a program like Kickstarter.
I have 30 years of experience living in and writing about Russia and traveling in the region. I also had a particular focus for many years on Belarus, and in the last five years, I have been writing mainly on Central Asia.
I see a need for more alternative approaches to try things differently and try to use social media to achieve this. I'm critical of social media and new media -- they have inherent limitations; Twitter revolutions are a flash in the pan. But I do think we can use these platforms to find like-minded people to accomplish shared goals, to make new and lasting connections to, and I always have.
Stage I
Via blog posts and news curation tools and Twitter:
o gather and publish more original interviews with people in the region (in translation), more background stories, i.e not just scenes narrated by Western reporters or British English-speaking reporters at Al Jazeera or RT;
o cover Central/South Asia together, so that the human rights problems of Uzbekistan are not seen in isolation from the human rights problems in Pakistan or India -- curation of human rights/humanitarian news from the regions together; yes, they are areas with very different pasts (Soviet, Western colonial) but they have many shared issues around the war in Afghanistan;
o cover terrorist attacks not only from the government/military/militant leadership approach but from the victims' perspective and the social factors that lead to extremism; to not be afraid to take a critical look at extremist ideologies and also see the authoritarian regimes' generation of extremism through their repression of society;
o cover multilaterals like the UN and OSCE from a critical perspective and "end-user" interpretation;
o curation of news on the topic of the Northern Distribution Network and New Silk Road that cuts across the headlines of delivery issues, logistics, terrorist attacks, war casualties, political developments, etc. that affect this route; and critical examination of whether you can really convert a military cargo lane into a route of business prosperity
o critiques of government, establishment blogs and government/foundation news/views on the region
This stage would be enough -- I'm committed to doing this on a volunteer basis for a time and will look for small donations to enable me to spend more than an hour a day translating/curating, and to payfreelance journalists and photographers. I'm looking for other volunteers to post and curate.
Stage II
This stage is more ambitious, but a small, doable version of it could start just by meeting once a month at an Afghan restaurant in New York, Bamiyaan -- something some of us already do. I would use Meet-up and Facebook to organize larger meetings (say 30 people tops, with maybe even informal speakers if someone interesting is visiting town or has a project to discuss.)
o Creation of a network of people who follow and care about this region who do not need to raise money (or at least, very little for very specific things i.e. "pay for plane ticket to go cover X event or conference") and who are not in silos bound by their jobs in academia, nonprofits or governments or who can at least reach across those boundaries, even with a pseudonym to enable more open discussion
o For the purpose of organizing regular discussions and information and news exchange to understand what is happening in the Eurasia region, which will likely be affected by the US pullout and other conflicts in the region.
Stage III
This is only theoretical now, and is at least as much about finding out whether a new kind of organization is possible in the world as it is about the content of that organization.
o Eventually establishment of a virtual organization of sorts that does not require government or foundation funding (which wastes a lot of time of nonprofit organizers) but which can help people create connections -- to make trips, to write stories, to start small businesses, to study abroad, and so on. Something that is like an email discussion list, or a club, or a bulletin board, or a self-help union but actually none of those things, but more open.
Instead of a closed, prestigious organization like the Council on Foreign Relations, or a closed influential business group like the Eurasia Group or the American Chamber of Commerce in Uzbekistan, or groups that constantly need funding and permissions and mandate-vetting like Human Rights Watch, I am thinking of something more versatile, flexible, open and transparent. Something that functions as a resource but doesn't need hierarchical leaders and management of boards and such (usually all related to fiscal responsibility).
The goal of this network/organization would have to be very simple and versatile like "sharing news" so that it is not tugged this or that way by interest groups.
I think nowadays many costs that hobbled nonprofits can be dispensed with and jobs can be accomplished online for less -- but always, I am looking for a way for the Internet to help people make livelihoods, instead of having the Internet destroy livelihoods.
