It didn’t take long for me to be completely offended by this biassed article about Twitter use in Guatemala and Iran. I usually don’t write people to give them a piece of my mind, but this time the author -Elizabeth Lazar- crossed the line. I share with you my e-mail:
Dear Elizabeth:
As a fellow writer and guatemalan citizen (not to mention part of that evil cyber community), I’m trully distressed by the statements included on your article Is Twitter Really a Tool for Democracy? Clearly, you have not lived in Guatemala, or are aware of President Colom’s poor handling of our nation’s finances (the last campaign he lost, about 4 years ago, included soft money donations from corrupt officials of the Portillo administration… to which he pleaded complete ignorance), and of how the “poor farmers’s” support is rallied by local councilmen. The corruption of our current government is all around… ask people who work at culture state institutions, who are asked to “volunteer” part of their monthly wages to “The Party”, and who are basically forced to attend demonstrations in favor of Àlvaro Colom, if they want to keep their jobs. I suggest you start reading some of the guatemalan press and get your facts straight.
P.S. And as far as a political agenda of the cyber community… I doubt there is one, beyond the public display of outrage with this administration’s complete lack of interest in solving the crime and lack of security issues that have taken the lives of thousands of guatemalans -Rodrigo Rosenberg included- in about 18 months and counting.”
Update: Liz was kind enough to reply a couple of times to this original e-mail, here’s the last of her responses:
“Given how inflamed things are in your country and how much is at
stake, I understand your frustration.
As far as I’m concerned, outrage is a much preferred state to apathy”.
duffboy
A blogger formerly known as Duff Boy 