The Real Reason Behind the Website Ban

Remember the Matrix? Remember how the whole world you lived in, which you believed was real, was in fact completely made up? Just a mirage?

That's probably what the internet is in Bahrain. The internet was all a mirage created by the Bahrain government, to let you think that you're connecting to the outside world, when in reality we are kept very isolated from everything and everyone else. All the sites you've ever visited were set up by creative individuals in the Ministry of Information; every single one. There's a guy who writes the CNN website, and makes up the world news, another guy who writes the BBC website. It's sort of obvious that they're sitting next to each other when doing this; the news is almost exactly the same on both sites...

Then there are the global forums; the government obviously pays people to sit all day and just reply under multiple nicknames, to give us Bahrainis an impression that we are talking to the outside world.

Google, Facebook, YouTube? Yup, you guessed it, all created here. Some of the videos are purchased from other countries and uploaded to the YouTube servers right next to the Bahrain TV studios.

This whole internet thing has been fabricated in Bahrain, in the back offices of Batelco by their chief engineers; it doesn't exist outside the country, it's all one big facade. Imagine leaving the country one day, flying to another country, checking into a hotel and asking if they have internet, only to be replied with the words: "Interwha'? What's that?"



We've been living a lie. The new website bans aren't really websites being 'blocked'. It's actually a side effect from the Global Credit Crunch, where the Ministry has had to fire a large number of employees because of a shortage of funds, and couldn't sustain as many websites as it used to. Therefore the ban.

Very simple.

Can't Hold Us Down

(following from my last post...)

The Ministry of Information has went from being a minor pain in the ass to just totally infuriatingly outrageous. Besides blocking politically affiliated sites, they've blocked proxy sites, translation services, art & culture websites, archives, and much more.

MINISTRY; HERE'S A SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR YOU. YOU CAN BLOCK A DOOR, YOU CAN BLOCK TWO, BUT YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO CENSOR THE INTERNET, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. THERE ARE A MILLION AND ONE WAYS TO GET AROUND YOUR BLOCKADES, AND YOU'LL NEVER KEEP UP WITH THEM. GET WITH THE PROGRAM.

Besides the numerous politically affiliated websites, proxy sites, as well as adult and gambling websites, there is a number of ridiculous bans we don't understand (Why?!?!?!?)

www.DeviantART.com (Art/Culture website)
www.Demonoid.com (Private torrent tracker)
www.askmen.com (Online Men's publication)
www.google.com/translate (Online translator)
www.allposters.com (posters site. WTF?)
www.4chan.org (imageboard service)


Want to read more about this? Here's a list of bloggers/newspaper articles dealing with the blockade.

English:
Yacoubs Dome
S as in Saudi
Silly Bahraini Girl
Gulf Daily News #1
Gulf Daily News #2
Another Day
Eyad
RedBelt
Al Singace
Ali Abdulemam

Arabic:
Suad
Marhoons
Ali7
Khalid Bahrain
Hayat

FaceBook Groups:
Article 19 of Decree Law 47!! :S
The website Ban in Bahrain is BULLSHIT
You may take our porn... But You will Never... Take... OUR FREEDOM!
The Ministry of Culture/Info Should Stop Blocking Websites

And i'm pretty sure there are a lot more out there. If you know any, add them in the comments below and i'll update the list. We won't stop till these stone-age minded big brother tactics are lifted.

Country of Disinformation

The Ministry of Information in Bahrain has never really done much of a great job; their role in the country is quite varied, dealing with the running of the Bahrain TV channels (which are still stuck in the 80's), the Bahrain radio stations (which usually feel more like amateur efforts than serious radio stations), to having a hand in everything that the has to do with the media, from magazines, newspapers, films, and the internet.

Being the Ministry of "Information", you would expect them to be knowledgeable about most things, especially those that they deal with.

Unfortunately, that isn't true.

A little over a week ago, the Ministry decided to come up with a directive for all internet providers in the country to block a number of websites (somewhere between 20-30 sites; i'm not sure of the exact number). These included a number of forums, blogs, and information websites, mainly because of their political content. Of course, even when a website is blocked, users can access it through anonymous browsing/proxy services. So oops, let's block those too. Oh and guess what, you can also enter any website address into Google Translate, and get a translated version of that page, bypassing any blocked content. So guess what? That gets blocked too.

Okay; so the Ministry want to block certain information from coming in. Last time I checked, we were living in the Information Age. Not the Industrial Age, not the Nuclear Age, not the sticks and stones age. THE INFORMATION AGE. Information will get through, whether you like it or not; if you block a website, there's a proxy. If you block a proxy, there's a million more proxies that are available. If you block every single one of those, there are services like Google Translate that will bypass the blocked sites. If you block those, there are a million other ways to get past blocked information; through blogs, through email, through new forums, through Facebook, through messages, through pure old photocopied papers, through SMS messages, through phone calls, through satellite TV channels, through gatherings in someones house, in a coffee shop,
etc...
etc..
etc.

There is no such thing as a complete block for information nowadays, and especially when it concerns the internet. Information is not a one way street, you can't block it and expect that people will give up and go to sleep. Nowadays, there is ALWAYS a way around it.

I'm really not for or against what is being blocked; I honestly couldn't care less about different peoples' political agendas. What I completely and 100% oppose is the restrictions of free speech, of which a law has recently been granted in Bahrain. And even then, this isn't what i'm here to talk about; my point is that you cant block the internet. But let's leave this on the side for now and go back to what's being blocked.

Google Translate?

ARE YOU FRICKIN' KIDDING ME?! This is probably one of the most useful tools on the internet today, giving us access to knowledge and information from all over the World! It gives us a chance to communicate with people from other parts of the globe, do commerce with people from other countries whose language we can't speak, and opens up a multitude of opportunities.

But nooooo... MOI decides it has to be blocked because you can bypass their blocked sites with it, which tells you one thing; it doesn't really bother them how many benefits something has, as long as it sparks one negative issue for them. This means there's no real limit to what they can block. What's next, Gmail? Hotmail? Facebook? MSN Messenger?

There are still a million other ways around the blocks, which renders their whole effort useless, just makes us more mad, and brings down the levels of freedom in this country. From the actions of the past few days, it's not really far-fetched that someone from the Ministry of Interior comes across my website, sees how i've put-down their whole blocking charade, and decide that ammaro.com needs to go too. (Speaking of which, if they do block my site, my posts are distributed by email, they're on feedburner, they're on BahrainBlogs, they're on Facebook, they're everywhere. Don't worry, you can still get your regular dosage of ammaroness; your world will not end.)

Just today I got a message; it seems they decided to start blocking anything with porn in it, as well as online gambling sites. Now that's just stupid; porn is everywhere, from downloading it on peer-to-peer networks, getting it through email, as well as satellite channels which every household has nowadays. And gambling? Well you could start by stopping that BD50 win-a-car lottery thing in the airport Duty Free, because if that isn't gambling, I don't know what is.

Ministry of Information; PLEASE WAKE UP.

(PS. Just to give you a sample of how BAD a job they're doing, even with trying to block sites, check this out:

Try going to http://google.com/translate, and you'll get a blocked site notice.

Want to bypass it? Then just go to http://translate.google.com/. Apparently their Head Blocker Engineer (blockhead?) doesn't realize that there are different forms of domain name that can lead you to the same website. Duh.)

Arab Unity

The two day joke of a summit is over. Apparently set up as the first Arab Economic Summit, the main topic of discussion was, as expected, the situation in Gaza.

We keep talking about Arab Unity, but is there really such a thing? Considering there are totally opposing positions from different countries, mainly pushed forward by Saudi and Egypt, who are looking for a peaceful solution with Israel, to Syria and Qatar who totally oppose any form of peace with them, there was no apparent agreement in sight. So what is the result of two days of full discussions between 23 Arab countries?

About zilch.

Saudi Arabia pledged 1 billion dollars of aid (actually according to the Saudi King, it was 1000 million, hehe) to help reconstruct Gaza, which just goes to show that they're willing to drop money in, without actually directly helping the situation; just passive donations. The other countries also hinted at giving money to Gaza, but no one really came up with a direct figure. By the end of the summit, there was no specific fund set up..

In terms of actual economic issues; an Arab Development Fund was announced to help develop initiatives in the region, a push for a customs union by 2015 and a common Arab market by 2020, a call for a program to reduce Arab poverty, and improving water security. Mostly talk, calling for resolutions and so, with nothing really fixed being set.

Oh, and the divisions over the Gaza situation came up again and again keeping things tense.

Meanwhile, in another part of the World, a new president took up his position, and called on his people to unite and work together in pushing their nation forward, to the cheers of millions. Total contrast.

Arab unity; sure.

Can't... Open... This... !

Shopping is a regular activity for most of us; you go to a store, shop, market, or wherever, hand over your hard-earned cash, and get something in return. Simple. Now assuming you pay for something and all, it becomes immediately yours, correct? Thus, you should be able to enjoy the benefits of whatever you purchased straight after buying it;

Examples:

1- You buy a jacket, you can wear it straight away.

2- You buy a mobile phone, you put your SIM card in and use it straight away (assuming it's charged. If it isn't you plug in the accompanying charger and use it straight away).

3- You buy a banana, and you can eat it straight away.

4- etc.

However, there are some electronics and gadget retailers who obviously think that shouldn't be the case. Why should the consumer have it easy, right? Why shouldn't they pay for their product, then actually put in a bit of effort to have to use it? Wouldn't they appreciate the product more after working to get to it?

Case in point; there are a number of products out there being sold in almost impossible-to-open-packs. I'm sure you've come across them sometime or the other:


Yes; these ridiculous, hard plastic, industrially sealed shut packages are pretty much impossible to open with plain hands. Now me, being the fan of gadget and electronics, come across these quite a lot; flash drives, card readers, etc etc etc etc.... And I don't think i've ever gotten into a situation where I could just 'enjoy' my product there and then. Sure, I bought it, and I had it in hand, and I could see it clearly in front of my eyes, but somehow it was there behind an invisible forcefield of evil. Bluh.

Yesterday I managed to buy TWO items sitting in their evil packaging. I wanted to use the flash drive straight away to copy some files off my friends laptop, so I tried to open it with my bare hands. Of course, it took a good 10 minutes of strangling, twisting and trying anything to just manage to get the tip of the package open...


Of course, during this process I was covered in scratches and looked like I had just gotten in a bit of a row with an angry cat. Seriously? Is it really necessary to make it this difficult? Anyway, it wasn't about trying to get the flash drive out as much as it had become a personal vendetta against the package manufacturers. I had to rip this little @#$%&* open! It took me another 3 or 4 minutes from there to rip the rest of the thing up...


It was a downhill process from there. Total time, approx 14 minutes.


Although i'm totally against the idea of having to use scissors to open your new presents (after all, the awkwardness of opening the first package, mixed in with sharp objects doesn't sound like a great idea):



Total time? About 20 seconds. Plus I managed to cut the warranty card.

I don't get this obsession with hard-to-open packs. What's the deal? Are they cheap to produce? Or are the manufacturers worried about theft? Or what is it?! PLEASE make us some easy to use packaging that doesn't end up giving the consumer multiple injuries trying to open it, and doesn't need sharp objects used!