The monks in Burma have no idea. No idea that people all over the world — from Seoul to Vienna — are holding rallies to support their cause. Connecting through Facebook, they are now getting ready to approach Chinese embassies the world over because they believe that China can have the most direct influence over solving Burma’s internal chaos.

This is how it works: once the news of monks rising up against a dictatorial regime was out, people were appalled. But when the news that the Burmese government had censored the internet and media came out, people really started paying attention. To do something. Bloggers in arms. Those who live and breathe the internet.

But why? It’s fair to wonder why someone sitting in Greece (probably basking in the sun) even cares what happens halfway around the world. It all starts with the freedom of expression.

I’ll illustrate: I’d read a few accounts of China and others blocking sites on the internet, but it didn’t quite strike me the way it should have. But the day a friend of mine called me from Pakistan to say, “I haven’t read your blog in ages. Pakistan has blocked it” — it took on a whole new meaning. Of course, it wasn’t me alone; blogspot in its entirety was blocked. But the next time I came across a forum discussing free speech, I spent some more time there.

So what, one may ask, so what if you spend time online? How does it even translate into doing something in the real world? It does, to my mind. The online world is a hook. For many of us, post-materialist, comfortable in our homes, on our laptops, there could almost be no reason to look beyond MTV and soundbites. But people do.

... contd.