Goodbye Multiply!

Just got this note from Multiply...did you?

Hello. Stefan here, writing you from Multiply HQ in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

As most of you are probably aware, Multiply's mission has evolved over the past year and a half to become the biggest and most beloved ecommerce marketplace in two very exciting markets, Indonesia and the Philippines. As our focus has shifted, we have reviewed all of our operations, and made some decisions that will affect everyone here.

• From December 1st, we will unfortunately no longer be able to support Multiply in its current form - notably we will be removing the social networking and content sharing part of Multiply (photos, videos, blogs, social messaging, etc.). We have decided to discontinue providing and hosting these services, as we have concluded that other Internet sites who are committed to social networking services will do a better job serving you than we can.
• For our existing users of social networking features, we will be providing easy ways for you to either download your stuff (photos, blogs, content, etc), or migrate it to other online services. We'll announce the precise details shortly. It will be your choice whether to download, migrate or just let your content lapse (and get deleted).
• For our existing ecommerce users (both buyers and sellers) in Indonesia and the Philippines, there will be no action required.
• Regarding any existing Multiply Premium subscriptions we will refund any unused balance, and apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. Please contact customer service to request a refund. Note that this is for Multiply Premium, not the ecommerce related Multiply Trust product.

I am aware of how disruptive this news may be, and understand the disappointment that it may cause. Ultimately this was a business decision, critical to our to success moving forward. Instead, we are excited to pursue our own mission to give the 350 million consumers in Indonesia and the Philippines a great way to buy and sell items online. Our singular focus now is for Multiply to retain its status as a vibrant e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia in the years ahead. 

I suspect that many of you will not like this news, and am sorry to have to deliver it now. I hope that you will be able to understand the reasons for our decision and thank you for being a part of the Multiply community over the past eight years. 

Stef 

The Ostrich Syndrome

BEFORE YOU READ:  Don't feel you have to comment, particularly if you have nothing constructive to say, or can't take constructive opposition to your views, or get hot under the collar and forget this is not your page!  I'll delete, without notice, any comment which I find to be offensive to me, and that can run the gamut from trying to belittle me or my opinions to doing the same to anyone who chooses to respond here.  Take the chip OFF your shoulder before you begin to read, please, or else give this one a pass!  Thank you!

You know, every now and again, people make my blood really boil, especially when they spout prejudice while pretending to themselves and others that they are being entirely reasonable and objective. My impulse is to argue with them, to pick apart their "reasonableness", but in the final analysis, what's the point?  Some people choose a side and stick to it no matter what, and I've discovered that the older we get, the less tolerant and the more bigoted we become.  We have just learned how to mask it better and pretend better that we are listening to others and entertaining their point of view. It's a sham, believe me.  None of us older ones is really listening to anyone else, and the only ones who are probably even HALF listening are the young people, whose extremism is NEVER hidden, but who swing more easily from one extreme to another.

Maybe it's the human condition to be that way, eh? We begin life as "out of the closet" bigots/extremists, and evolve into closet ones, to further our agendas, whatever they may be.  I find myself as intolerant of these people's views as they are of mine and others'.  I am more than a little bit tired of them and of their negative energy.  They're a drag, man!  Seriously!

This isn't a rant about racism, per se (though what I've said here may be related to it), but this song is as good as any other for exposing an ugly truth about us human beings.  And there's no plausible deniability ... just a terrible fear in some of us to be exposed as bigots.  To quote from the song, "It's a touchy subject! Bigotry has never been exclusively white!"

Marked

Welcome to September 11, 2010!

If you're expecting the usual platitudes, recriminations, vituperation, invective...you'd better move on.  

This is not going to be bitterly outraged anger against the infidels who committed such sacrilege against a defenseless and unprepared benevolent nation.  Nor will it be a bitterly impassioned review of the multitudinous and egregious sins of the US against poor and unsuspecting countries.  It will certainly not be a free-ranging condemnation of anything and everything American, or of American xenophobia, or other such excoriations.  And it will definitely not be a maudlin and sentimental memorial to the thousands of undeserving innocents who died at the hands of the rabid and pitiless bastards of an alien and murderous religion.

This is a marker, plain and simple.  

It marks an important date in the history of humanity.  Not just Christian or Muslim humanity.  Not just American or non-American humanity.  ALL humanity.  People who felt their cause was just, and people who felt the weight of that justice. People who embraced violence as a means of protest and retaliation, and people who abhorred violence as a means of solving the problems being protested.  People who loved and hated - each other, and most others.  People who were lost, but thought they had found the answer.  People who were angry, alone, frightened, desperate.

This is a marker, plain and simple.  

What happened nine years ago on this date has marked us all - the lovers and haters of America, the lovers and haters of Iraq.  It has marked all the rest of us, too. Those who try to steer a middle course between rabid nationalism and rabid imperialism, between an irrational fear of the infidels and an irrational hatred of the oppressors.  

What you choose to do with the mark that remains will say a lot about you as an individual. Don't assume that because you weren't there, or weren't touched personally, or have no love for the US, or no love for Iraq, or are a peace-nik, or whatever your reasons for distance may be, that you are unmarked.  Every global event marks us all, because we all participate in the event called being human.  Your anger is a sign of that mark, no matter who you're angry with. So is your sorrow. So is your glee.

How will you "celebrate" your humanity on this date that has marked you?

Welcome to September 11, 2010!