Looking Ahead!

Lest my last post make you think I am a defeated pessimist, let me clearly state that I am an optimist beyond belief. If there is anything I have unshakeable faith in, it is Humanity. Although it has many blots on its landscape (Hitler, Stalin, Zia, Bush to name just a few scattered apart) but, in the end, its spirit has always triumphed.

As Faiz said: Chand roaz aur meree jaan - faqat chand hee roaz.

The past may seem to have been full of tragedy, but the future will be brighter ... as expressed in this beautiful and uplifting piece by Suroor Barabankvi.

The story so far ...

Nazm karnay ko qaum kee taareekh

Müjh say kahtaa thha ayk din koee;

Baa adab maeñ nay arz kee keh müjhay

Naheeñ aatee hae marsiah-goee!

-Abi-

FUCK CENSORSHIP!!!

QUOTE
Reporters Without Borders / Internet Freedom desk PAKISTAN


Twelve websites, including blogger.com, blocked for posting cartoons

Reporters Without Borders [along with zillions of bloggers - Z] is concerned about the decision of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), to block access to twelve websites which posted the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed which appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. The PTA on 28 February ordered Internet Service Providers to block the website blogspot.com (or blogger.com), taking down thousands of weblogs hosted by this tool.

"We believe that the decision to ban a website should only ever be taken by a judge, at the end of a fair trial. It is moreover unacceptable that the order to block a site should go through the PTA, which while apparently aiming at one blog hosted by blogger.com, led to the filtering of all websites sharing the same domain name," said the organisation.

This order from the PTA comes around ten days after a petition calling on the government to ban the spread of "blasphemous content" through the Internet, was submitted to the Supreme Court. The court, on March 2nd, formally asked the government to take such a step. The bloggers network Global Voices, which revealed the case on its site (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org), has been posting information about campaigns launched by bloggers to condemn the filtering (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/03/05/pakistan-blog-o-block/).

Local access providers have applied the PTA decision by blocking access to all sites whose URL incorporates blogspot.com, that is all sites hosted by this service. It is however technically possible to ban access solely to a blog causing a problem. Go to Reporters Without Borders' Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents, that gives practical advice about how get round Internet filtering.
UNQUOTE

Khirad ki sham'a jalaao, ba∂aa andhayra hae

Zanjeer khayaalat peh? Yeh kyaa haé himaaqat?

Pahray kabhi lagtay haeñ havaa par kisee soorat?

Samjhaanay ki khaatir koee jaaé to kahaañ jaae ...

Aulaadé Abu Jahl ho gar sar peh müsallat!

A netraking friend informed me that KO is hosting a discussion on one of the forums. Found the support for the ban interesting.

Maybe soon I will have to alter the last line of the above qat'a to read: Aulaadé Abu Jahl hae har ghar meñ musallat!

WTF!!!

Note: This may not affect the many who are stuck with that shittiest of ISPs, Weirdcall. [When I'd signed on for that service, I had no idea Go for Bullshit is what their slogan meant.]

As if the fact that the Son-of-a-Bush was soiling our soil wasn't sufficiently depressing for many of us in Pakistan, we now have some enlightened rectoid in the seat of power who has decided that Islam would be best served by moderating (read: blocking) Blogger.

Where does one even begin to start a discussion on the Freedoms of Expression-Speech-Press with Big Brother? If you are a blogger and are lucky (or frustrated) enough to host your blog on another site, NOW may be the time to shift your content.

It's going to be more difficult to block access to blogs strewn all over the place. You can still continue to use Blogger for posting, of course. Once you are hosted on your new blog site, or have used some method to get around this stupid act and accessed your current blog - strongly recommended to show the assholes in power, everywhere, that the Internet spells the end of censorship - you may wish to add a protest banner. For others, protesting through the Letters-to-the-Editor columns of national and international papers is suggested.

We Don't Need No Education

Horrified by the Education System?

In order to build a better system we need to know all that you think is wrong with it.

Come ... Join Roger Schank and me in our Jihad against schooling as it stands today.