Google dabbles into politics
Remember that famous before/after picture of Dahieh which used Google Earth to expose Israeli brutality in the Lebanon war? That picture was an example of how users of Google Earth can use the program for political purposes.
The news now is that Google itself wants to point its users to international trouble spots, starting with Darfur.
Now, after logging in, users of Google Earth will see fire icons scattered all around Darfur (see picture above). When they zoom into these icons, they will see clear views of villages burnt by government-allied forces, in addition to pictures and stories of survivors and witnesses.
The purpose of the praise-worthy enterprise is to raise awareness among the 200m Google Earth users of the genocide taking place in Darfur.
But questions remain about Google's policies.
Would it for instance feature satellite images of bombed areas in Lebanon if heaven-forbids, another war with Israel took place?
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