Two days earlier, on the 5th, we arrived in New York from Montreal. It was a gorgeous, sunny Sunday, not a cloud in sight and rather warm. The cab driver was great, an Italian who was all thrilled we were going back to his hometown. We had come to get on board the Cristoforo Colombo that would move us from North America to Europe. The destination port was to be Naples so I imagined all the Italian immigrants, like our cabby, heading home to visit family after years away. Who knows what they would be bringing from America for their relatives? My father chatted him up in his broken Italian and told him if he wanted a nice fare, to pick us up at the Hilton on Tuesday morning at 7AM. He agreed.

The Cristoforo Colombo (29,083 grt, 700 ft. long) was the sister ship of the Andrea Doria. She entered service in 1954. She was sold as an accomodation ship in 1977 and scrapped four years later. But on that day, she was the most majestic sight a child on his way to the glorious old continent could witness.

Fast forward to the 7th. In the words of many who lived through it, "it was the big one." Indeed, as we woke up at the Hilton just south of Central Park, my mother mentions the 'smog' to my father whose pilot eyes quickly realize this is not smog but a major snowstorm. Down we come from the 20th floor to find a lobby filled by stranded travelers. The lobby was simply packed and paralyzed. The trip, we assume is off. We also find out that the dock hands are on strike so we'll have to carry our trunks up the 200 or so steps at the dock by ourselves. But who are we kidding, we're not leaving the hotel today, not with 20 inches of snow outside. But my dad, with his usual cocked smile, pipe in his mouth, tells mom, sis and I to stand by. He walks to the front. Sure enough, there are loads of people trying to figure out a way to travel to the train station, port, business meeting, whatever. Not a cab in sight, the occasional snow plow, the rare daring car with chains inching along. It's now 7:10 AM. A few moments later, as my father is still puffing on his pipe, I walk up to him anxious to go see this snowstorm, and what do we see pulling into the covered drive way? Yes indeed, the yellow cab, with our Italian cabby apologizing for being ten minutes late.

To this day I imagine how long it took him to get to us. I figure he did not live in Manhattan but rather in Brooklyn, Queens or another borough. On a day like February 7, 1967 it must have taken him hours to get to us. What time did he wake up? Was it just for the fare my dad had promised? Was it because we were traveling to Naples? To this day I think it was because my dad and him spoke the same language of trust. The story does not end here. In fact, much more happened on this trip to Italy that reinforced my conviction that fundamentally, we are tribal brethren. When we got to the docks only to discover that the strike really was on, the cabby did not hesitate to help my dad with the trunks, all the way up those steps which I later went back to count, there were 280! I believe there is in each of us the ability to be kind, helpful and bound into a bond of solidarity. Unfortunately, many of these have been lost in the haze of a complex and chaotic social system. May we find our way out of the snowstorm soon.

Just for the record, dad kept his word and dropped him a c-note! In 1967!

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Images Courtesy of Héctor Cicero from the Björn Larsson collection and taken with rights to do so from here.

There is no doubt about it, with social networks news travels faster than ever before. Twitter brings a new meaning to the saying “a little birdie told me...” and world news channels have turned to the online community to bring an interactive element to their coverage and reach out for first hand accounts. CNNlive used facebook connect as a discussion platform during the Obama inauguration and BBC world service “World Have Your Say” has an active facebook account. Are individuals taking advantage of these online communities to encourage social change too?

The answer is yes. Amongst my facebook “friends” I have seen many a plea and link to donate to the Haiti earthquake appeals. And, during the Obama presidential campaign social networks were full of it. I was impressed by the outpouring of heated discussion (often from people I know to be normally disinterested in politics) when right-wing extremist Nick Griffin, of the British National Party, controversially appeared on political debate show ‘Question Time’ in October 2009.

One power of the immediately vast online community is to regroup people who share a common view. Members can unite for or against a cause in a way that will spread far faster than an old-fashioned petition. But can these groups really lead to action? One such group, created by your average British couple, became the UK’s most trafficked and historic facebook group when it campaigned for users to unite to prevent the winner of talent show X-factor from reaching number one in the singles charts at Christmas. The talent show giant has had a ‘pop monopoly’ hold on the all-important christmas top-spot for the past four years. Admittedly this ‘success’ does not really demonstrate social change but it does show the power of such a community when people unite.

On a much more serious note social networks have had a huge role in bringing people together to share information. In the wake of the Haiti earthquake, facebook has been one of the key communication tools connecting people worldwide. Within 24 hours the group “Earthquake Haiti” had 209,000 members and it has been used not only to promote the aid effort - with links to online donations - but quite simply as a practical tool for information sharing. This group contains emergency contact numbers, latest updates and information about missing people. This really shows the online community functioning with purpose.

But does this effective and functional use get lost amongst the insignificant and mundane. Does claiming your affiliation to a cause, using a chain status update to ‘raise awareness’ or showing the power of ‘the people’ to go against the expected, amount to the same thing as publicizing the fact that you are a fan of “flipping the pillow over to get the cold side”*? Does it do an important cause justice to be publicized alongside a group entitled “If 20,000 people join, I will legally change my name to biscuit”*?

I still believe social networks really can be used for good, especially for raising awareness and as a call to action. Maybe what is necessary is an online community dedicated entirely to “causing change.”

But would it reach the masses? Those who wouldn’t proactively search for an such an information source...? Sadly, the answer here is probably no. But, maybe if such a thing were to exist we could spread the news on twitter. Or perhaps start a facebook group.

*(genuine page/group on facebook)