And what should I be doing from now on?
by Pedro Meyer
If there is one thing that is clear to me is that almost
everything around me is changing faster than I can process.
This was not always the case. Let see, all of a sudden
the entire world seems to have jumped over a financial
abyss. It's not like at other times, when one would hear
that an economic crisis took place in a specific country;
or that of a continent, such as Asia or Latin America,
for instance; or in a certain zone, like the euro. Now
the entire planet is involved and it all happened in the
batting of an eyelash.
This comes to bear because we have come to a point when
we no longer are surprised by very much, be that, that
the largest car manufacturer in the world, General Motors,
has declared bankrupt, or because in Ireland the Catholic
Church finds itself mired in yet another sex scandal as
those that it has already had in many other parts of the
world. We wake up one day, to find we have a world wide
outbreak of influenza, or that all our savings are gone
due to bank frauds.
But
don't think that such frauds are local or on a small
scale by some fast talking charlatan, these frauds originated
at the very epicenter of world finance: Wall Street, and
such abuse heralded by many of its major institutions.
If one of the biggest banks in the world, Citibank, can
collapse in a matter of a few months, there is little left
to surprise us, of what is possible that can occur. [To
put things in perspective when in 1995 Mexico, a country
of 100 million people, got a bailout, it was to the tune
of 20 billion dollars. While Citibank, has received 300
billion from US taxpayers so far, and this is only one
bank and the full story has not even ended. — (references)]
thus there is little left to surprise us of what might
happen when even such erstwhile solid institutions thought
to be there forever, simply go bust.
We wake up each day to the news of how new technologies
are changing at an ever faster pace. The music industry,
cinema, the printed press, publishing industry, television,
etc. all without exception have seen their usual operations
overturned and they have had to adapt in order to operate
differently today.
Just
imagine that amidst this ocean of uncertainty, we find
ZoneZero after a decade and a half of existence. Aside
the questionable merit of just surviving, which in this
day and age is no small feat unto itself, when as we have
seen literally thousands of online projects have come and
gone with the passing of time, we also adapted and changed
time and time again, not only the content but also the
form in which it was presented. One thing remained constant
however, our mission statement? "from analog to digital".
In
making an internal review with our staff here at ZoneZero,
of what we have accomplished over these years, we concluded
that this stage of taking photography from analog to digital,
has been mainly accomplished. We believe that ZoneZero
did contribute to the dialogue and debate around this topic
on a global scale. The question now is, what follows? Much
as every young person has to deal with as they grow older, "what
should I be doing from now on? "
We are in the process of changing the design yet again,
and we would like to invite you to write and tell us your
thoughts about where you would like ZoneZero to be heading
towards. After all if ZoneZero is to be understood as a
community, then such a decision has to involve all of our
readers. Share with us your thoughts if you will, in what
is our search to find that voice and destiny in these very
turbulent and chaotic times.
Pedro Meyer
Mexico City, Coyoacán
June 2009.