My family is from Bogota, Colombia, so this story obviously hits close to home. Facebook can not only connect old friends together, hold tons of pictures, and offer a million applications, but it can also put saving kidnapped individuals lives on its resume. On February 2008 The Associated Press put out an article about how one facebook group produced massive rallies leading to the release of several Colombian captives.
"BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Colombians wearing white T-shirts marched in their homeland and abroad Monday to demand the country’s largest rebel group stop kidnapping people and release those it holds. The idea of the protests against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, was born less than a month ago on the social networking Web site Facebook, and nearly 100,000 people in 165 cities around the world confirmed their participation.”
Thousands joined this facebook group and within a matter of time there were marches in Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay, The United States of America, France, Spain, and many others. The FARC have reacted by releasing some of the captives and I can imagine that they can only continue to do the same.
If a social networking site can release captive prisoners to a rebel group controlling a nation, what else does it have the capabilities to do? It is amazing that the individual who started this group made a SIGNIFICANT difference in the world. It is amazing what one person can achieve with the help of a simple group invite online.
Marching is a great way to participate politically, and not only is it for a good cause but it engages citizens to further participate in local and national political rallies, marches, and causes, and makes them more politically aware of their current environment. In this case the marches drove the point straight to the FARC and very real and impressive results were seen. I anticipate the next article like this one, maybe a facebook group could finally free Tibet?
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