Google Earth Highlights Darfur

jc42 writes "Google Earth, in cooperation with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum now presents details of the growing disaster in Darfur. They give a virtual tour of the area, with details of events in many villages in the words of local residents. So in addition to their "Do no evil" motto, they apparently now have a policy of exposing evil. Needless to say, the Sudan government didn't exactly cooperate with this project."

Comments

Amazing

[Kleokat]

I spent some time surfing the Darfur area.
It speaks it's own language.
I'm not good enough at English to find the right words (English is not my primary language).

However, this is an amazing tool, which other could use to document the horrors of history. Study the Scandinavian history 500 years ago, and you can make a similar map over the southern tip of present Sweden. Check it out for yourself: http://www.scania.org/facts/poster/index.html

Maybe som Palestinian group can make a similar map over, what Israel did to many Palestinian villages from 1947 until today. That would start up a *real* debate, and hopefully we can end the bloodshed there, that once raged Scandinavia.

Re:"Do no evil"

[Criffer]

The motto isn't "Do no evil" in the wise-monkey "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" sense.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

-Edmund Burke (almost)

The Weasel Rule

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Carl Sagan [warning. PDF]did a piece on various "rules", like the Golden Rule, Silver Rule, Iron Rule, etc. Essentially showing that the Golden Rule, "Treat others like you would like them to treat you" is unworkable. It lacks a reward-punishment mechanism. Then the silver rule, "treat them like they treat you", is a very stable, good strategy. But it leads to endless feuds. A little, but not too much of, forgiving is needed. The Iron rule is be a jerk to every one. That is known to be very bad.

Sagan then defines, what he would call, "The Weasel Rule". Be nice to strong people and be a jerk to weak people. Google caved in easily to strong governments like China and is currently exposing the evil in Darfar. So looks like, Google's motto is "Follow the Weasel Rule" not "Do no evil".

Re:"Do no evil"

[Southpaw018]

Disagree. Injustices cannot be corrected by ignoring them, or even passively allowing them to continue. Neither you or I should simply ignore what is happening in Darfur. In fact, we have a responsibility to understand what is going on, even if we as individuals sitting somewhere far removed from it can do next to nothing about it (save our governments considering involvement themselves or vis the UN, in which case we could urge our representatives to make that happen).

Google is doing good by raising awareness of the atrocities being committed in Darfur. Yes, they do evil. They're a friggin' corporation and they exist to make money; no one is a saint. But they are doing some good here.

Re:Darfur

[de_valentin]

Do you actually have ANY idea what is going on there???

maybe genocide is the wrong word but hundreds of thousands dying and even more fleeing for their lives and living in refuge-camps is not something that is pushed by western governments.
There never was a reason to televise some Africans kill other Africans (in fact one party consists of muslim nomads)
To be specific the whole Darfur crisis is allready several years old most people don't give a damn because there is no oil.

I'm not saying Bush should have led the world in an war in Sudan but it would have probably been more usefull (not counting the oil) and saved more lives.

I'm sorry for not being very eloquent.
But the bottomline is this, the more people know what is going on out there the bigger the chance that something gets done.

Yahoo

[Threni]

Is Google about to show where the prisons were the Chinese torture people who try and spread democracy?

Re:Yahoo

[flyingsquid]

Damn you nailed that one.

I'm a centrist Democrat, but I was cautiously in favor of the Iraq war. I didn't believe that Saddam was a threat, or that he was linked to Al Qaeda, but I believed that, where possible, American military power should be used to make the world a better place. I figured, if invading resulted in fewer Iraqi deaths than not invading, then even if the reasons for going to war were bullshit, it was arguably the right thing to do. I don't buy into the knee-jerk liberal sentiment that war is always wrong: intervening in Kosovo, for instance, killed a lot of people, but otherwise it probably would have been a bloodbath. There was even a term for people like me: "liberal hawk", leftists who were in favor of using American military power abroad, where it had the potential to make things better.

But Bush and his hacks have basically discredited that idea. They've given ammunition to the far left, who maintain that war is always the wrong option (war is always a bad option, but sometimes not going to war is worse). They've given ammunition to the isolationists to the right, who say that even though we have the power to change the world for the better, we shouldn't try. He's destroyed the U.S. army, such that even if we wanted to intervene in places like Darfur, we'd have a much harder time. And for the next generation, any time the U.S. tries to apply pressure to human rights violators, they'll look back at us and say, "what about Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo? Who are you Americans to lecture us about human rights and due process?"

Censorship

[LarsWestergren]

Google Earth (and all similar satelite imagery tools) are just amazing... How long before, for instance, China bans its citizens from using it you think?

In a similar area, Slashdot posted before about maps overAmerican strip mining. Others have collected other links to deforestation, coral reefs, etc.

Re:"Do no evil"

[Goaway]

Participation in the Darfur media circus IS exactly EVIL.

On what planet does this statement make any kind of sense? You're really going to have to back up that reasoning if you want anyone to take you at all seriously.

Re:"Do no evil"

[Goaway]

Wait, never mind. I read your other posts, and you are raving lunatic. Carry on.

Re:Darfur

[Rob the Bold]

Even if it is some pointless war, someone should put an end to it, because the government there is obviously not willing to do it.

If you've got a plan, you should share it. But for a lot of people, it will be a tough sell. Pretty much everyone is aware of what happened when the US intervened in Iraq. Many people still remember Somalia. Why would this turn out differently if "someone put an end to it"? That's a serious question.

Re:"Do no evil"

[qwijibo]

I think the implied joke/dark humor is that the free market would enslave all of these people. The problem right now is that there is no market effect of genocide. If these people were made someone's property and worked for the man, the man would send merceneries to kill the people who want to kill his slaves. Either that, or he's suggesting that the market has determined that these people are non-essential, or even worse, non-consumers, and need to be removed to make room for future consumers.

Re:"Do no evil"

[AlecC]

On the Chinese problem: at least they mark their pages where censorship has occurred, unlike Yahoo and MSN who do it silently. And censoring the pages of google.cn was the only way they could get inside the Great Firewall. The Chinese language version of google.com is uncensored - but residents of China with insufficient net-fu cannot see it. IMO, the path Google chose was the least evil in an evil world. Either Google with censorship visible, or other search engines (particularly including Chinese government ones) with censorship hidden. At least the Cjhinese paople can wonder what is being hidden.

As for collecting data: it is not evil until they use it for Big Brotherish purposes. Like fire, data is neutral. You can use it to warm yourself, or to burn heretics. If Google start selling personal data, or using it in house for intrusive purposes, they are not guilty of evil. Not all people who buy guns do so to shoot their wives.

are you a human being?

[circletimessquare]

then it is your responsibility

why care about rwanda? why care about iraq? why care about tiananmen square? why care about auschwitz?

why care about any human tragedy? better to just say "not my problem", right?

solves the problem, doesn't it? just stop caring, "not my problem"

"I am not going to adjust my life just to make a few people with bleeding hearts feel better."

good for you. enjoy your life. remember your statement above, when you ask anyone to care about anything you think is important. society is predicated on the fact we look out for each other. if we don't, those who mean ill will succeed: they pick us a part, one by one

so you better care, now, when it is starving people in a third world country being butchered. tomorrow, it is something happening in your neighborhood

poverty and suffering breeds and spreads. it must be fought in all of it's forms, now, today, or that means you only fight it tomorrow, when it is a larger problem. it does not go away on it's own, the sort of problem plaguing darfur. it grows, and spreads. you WILL deal with it, one way or another. when it is small and distant, now, or later, when it is huge and at your doorstep

we live in a world where what happens in kandahar matters in downtown manhattan. what did you learn from 9/11?

Re:"Do no evil"

[antikronos]

Despite their undoubtedly noble intentions, Googles' rather naive and geekish management does not realize that in fact, by logging and storing everyones personal details, behavior and habits they have created the ultimate foundation for the next Holocaust. The reason why the identification of Jews in some European countries like the Netherlands was so effective and fast, was because of the quality of the (paper)archives with personal records. With the electronically available and very detailed records that Google maintains, identification of people to be prosecuted will be a matter of days, not years. No matter if it is about Jews, Arabs, 'terrorists', anti-republicans or any other group of people that share characteristics that are disliked by the people with power. Assuming that future governments or hackers can be fully trusted to respect current copyright and privacy legislation is a complete denial of history. Larry and Sergey, maybe it is an idea to sit down in your library and read this book that you have scanned yourselves: 'National Identification Systems: Essays in Opposition'

Re:the biggest lie in this world

[DeadChobi]

Dear sir, or madam,

I am writing to inform you that you have infringed on my Patent #1120395830A, How to Be A Complete Asshat Over The Internet. I hereby request that you cease and desist at once or face legal action. Please note that part of the methodology outlined in my patent covers laughing at people, as well as not bothering to pass links to information so that they can educate themselves.

Cease and Desist infringing my patents, immediately.

Thank You,
Chobi

But I do care

[SmallFurryCreature]

Just not in the way you think. Muslims and blacks are fighting and killing each other. So?

It is extremely hard to see why a white european should care OR for that matter even if he cared what the fuck he could do about it.

Who exactly do you propose we shoot?

Because that is the only way to deal with this kinda situation, go in and kill the most agressive party and basically enforce "don't fight or we will kill you".

At the moment some claim that it is the black population that is receiving the worsed of it, so are you saying, in 2007, that the US (because the EU is to chicken shit) should start another war against muslims?

Even americans aren't that insane. *me looks at the americans*

Well, they might be that insane but they can't afford another war that you can't win.

Because the sad fact is this, you CANNOT end a force by conflict UNLESS you use extreme force and that is no longer acceptable. If the US intervenes and just one muslim child is claimed to have been killed (it is well known that muslims claims in this area are about as trustworthy as ANY propaganda claim has been in the whole of human history) the shit will hit the fan and it will face the exact same problems as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The website you linked to reminds me an awfull lot of similar sites urging the western leaders to save the poor koerds. That went awfully well remember? Do you promise this time to remember what your bleeding heart cried out today when next week a US plane drops a bomb and some photographer show the corpse of a child (and again at another bombsite, several days later?)

No you won't and western leaders know this. They rather take the short, easily forgotten critisim of doing nothing. Because they know people like you, can't be counted upon to accept what needs to be done.