Petitions....eish. Online petitions...double eish!
Instead of simply signing an online petition, there are ways that we can petition the government online. By 'petition' I mean writing to bodies of influence, such as MPs, political parties, ICASA, Comp Comm, the media and even Telkom themselves. There more requests these bodies receive for REAL change in the sector, the more likely change is to come about. Twenty or thirty letters to such bodies is going to do nothing. Two or three hundred might make some people sit up and take notice.
I receive emails from Labourstart. This is a worldwide labour union organisation that makes use of the internet to assert democratic pressures on relevent bodies. They have been enormously successful with their email campaigns. A recent email from them stated that one company on which Labourstart had unleashed their power had requested Labourstart to inform them every time a new email campaign was launched against them. This company said that the emails went to so many different addresses, and disrupted the normal functioning of the company. The guy from Labourstart laughed. The point of an email campaign IS to disrupt normal functioning in an effort to get the company to listen to them!
Maybe we could explore ways we can use the internet, as Labourstart has, to make those in power notice? Personally, I am very much in favour of emailing political parties with our requests. I sent off an email to a particular party a few weeks ago saying: My next vote will be based on whichever party speaks out the most about the need to reform telecoms in SA. Low and behold! I got a reply, and continue to receive emails from this party every time they do speak out about telecoms.
Hmmmmm, lets think about it.
