Lisa Smith wrote: >I had similar misgivings about this piece. It does seem a bit >to simple, which is probably why it's so compelling. > > It is. And it is.
>I also feel it turns Gandhi into a commodity to be used by >this telecom company, Telecom Italia. I don't think >they made it to promote awareness of the digital divide, either >I think they made it to sell dsl subscriptions. > > That's obvious, but the reasoning implied for selling the service is one that relates to the Digital Divide, I think. >If I'm wrong on this I would like to know but I don't >like the idea that after their death we can turn important >people into unwitting spokesman for whatever. > > It happens anyway. That's what most history books do - turn important people into unwitting spokespeople for whatever. That said, I don't think Gandhi would have approved of the commercial use of his words and likeness in such an advertisement, and especially the changing of his words. But the message that Gandhi was sending in the original speech was not too different from the one that is in the advertisement. What's funny here is the effect of the advertisement. I've watched that advertisement at least 30 times so far, and I just realized that I cannot name the company that is being advertised. That's probably why advertisements of this caliber rarely make it to a viewing audience; they are too effective at grabbing attention and do so at the cost of the company being advertised. That said... Can you imagine a world where Gandhi could have had a weblog, a webcam, perhaps a few podcasts? In the original speech, Gandhi speaks of the great men that came from Asia, and ended up becoming one of them. And the great men and women of our time... and the future... will have these tools. To balance it, so will the lesser men and women. -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxgazette.com http://www.a42.com http://www.worldchanging.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
