Thursday, August 25, 2016

Social media in the Gaza elections

Now that is interesting! Palestinian elections are knocking on Gaza's door, and Hamas the party that rules the strip has deployed a social media campaign with the hashtag #thank_you_hamas - I purposely took shots from the movie showing women as I thought it was interesting. Do note that, coming from the Middle East, I refrain from judging anyone who elects anyone else - no matter who that elected person is. The reason is simple, whereas Western nations want to apply democratic principles to the region, whenever the outcome is not what they wish for, God knows what would happen!
But the case of Hamas working on social media, a place where criticism can easily be placed, and where a counter-campaign has already started and is spreading already - which of course raises a big question when it comes to how willing is Hamas (and Fateh for that matter, their archrival) to engage in open dialogue about matters at hand away from propagandist electoral youtube videos.
I must at this stage repeat, what some nations or populations deem as normal, others do not see it so. In an article I read about women driving in Saudi Arabia, there were many female voices not too enthusiastic about driving for many reasons ranging from how men should service women, to the difficulty of changing tires on the side of the roads and all else. So whereas it is easy to criticize our skewed socio-political systems, let us remember that perhaps this is how the populace wants them to be, and if this is not democracy - then I wonder what is!