UPDATE!!! @ 5 pm>>> Blogspot is back!! 7 and 1/2 hours since I wrote the post (@ 9:30 am 20th July 2006) below...5 days since I discovered blogspot was inaccesible...2 days since my interview with NDTV...and not to forget sooooo many emails / forwards / protests online and in the media (print and TV)....it's back!! :-) I'd like to think all the noise we created made this difference...democracy is not dead here ppl!
Thanks Keshi , for speaking up against the ban. I read your post today morning and in it you’ve put across my sentiments too. I felt as though you were reading my mind and heart. It’s not a fair question at all “what would u miss if u didn’t have blogs?” Why must I answer that question when I know the people asking that question have no clue what it means to me be here blogging. However that doesn’t mean that I have nothing to say to these people, I do and I will.
And the post you wrote today is brilliant too. I can't believe someone would make a statement like that "stop using pkblogs coz it's of pakistani origin...coz it disgraces India!"...it's this kind of intolerance that we need to speak up against too...it's important for people to understand that you cannot hold an entire community / country responsible for a handful of people who want to destroy peace...if we think that people in our country are also completely innocent and that we don't have trouble makers here, we're fooling ourselves! Sensible and peace loving people like us need to shun this kind of intolerance and keep speaking for peace....for harmony...for unity!
Before I go ahead and put up what I wrote yesterday about this whole ban, I must make a mention here that sadly I don’t see many bloggers who are otherwise quite passionate about blogging speaking up against this ban. I don’t understand this complacency and laid back attitude. And more so the whole “hah we can get past this ban using proxies and other links!”…Understand this guys, it’s not about out-smarting the system! It’s about questioning why you have to be subjected to such a gag at all. Also the question I’ve got from some is “What difference would it make anyway?” This kind of attitude surprises me! It does make a difference…every voice and every opinion counts. How do you think changes take place in this world? It’s by forming opinions and initiating changes. Sitting back and waiting for things to happen will get us no where!
Having stated that…Read on…
“What’s with banning blogs? Don’t give me the argument that some fundamentalist / terror / extremist groups’ somewhere are using blogs to propagate their cause! I fail to understand how banning blogs is going to help. How does that stop them from going on with their mission to destroy peace, plan and execute more such devastation! And where does this stop…what next?
I’ve been blogging for almost a year now and have through blogging made a lot of new acquaintances all over the country and the world. Blogging is not restricted by any national / international boundaries. The blogging community is beyond regional differences.
My space is about my personal life…thoughts etc. This is the same with my network of friends and fellow bloggers. Yes we debate about issues and we’ve had our fair share of arguments. Topics have ranged from family, movies, books, politics, sex, religion, childcare….You name it and it’s been blogged about! It’s all about expressing your opinion and learning from other’s opinions.
We don’t blog to endorse or advocate terror, religious bias or carry out anti-nationalist propaganda! And if there have been instances of any kind of intolerance, we’ve been there to raise a debate and moderate voices have spoken for what’s right and at times even managed to settle issues within blogs!
If certain groups want to abuse this forum, figure out a way to stop them but don’t interfere with my right to express myself! What’s with putting a blanket ban on a site like blogspot or any other blog hosting site? And if there are sites that need to be banned, then ban those particular url’s
It takes a couple of minutes to set up an account and not necessarily an exceptionally smart person to start a blog…how many sites is the govt. going to ban? For every site it decides to ban, it would take fundamentalist / terror / extremist groups’ minutes to set up another or several blogs to go on with their propaganda. Does the solution lie in censorship?
In the process of shutting out extremist voices, they’ve just gone ahead and shut out all the moderate voices that stand for peace and harmony!
Will a terrorist outfit publicize its blog? I doubt it. And will a fundamentalist group stop its propaganda? I don’t think so! Will people who want to know facts and seek information stop looking for it? No. Will people stop questioning the Govt.? No.
Terror groups obviously already have a network that is strong enough and invisible enough to go ahead and plan destruction…the real action happens underground and not in open forums like blogs (esp. blogs accessible to the world at large)!
If non tech savvy people like me can manage to figure out a way (with the help of other tech savvy people) to access and view blogs, then what’s the whole purpose of imposing a ban like this? Why must I be forced to resort to such measures when I know that viewing my blog and writing in it is of no threat to anyone?
The papers today have written about how the Govt. ban is restricted to certain blogs (around 13 in the list available to the media) and according to Govt. sources it’s the ISP’s that have goofed up and instead of blocking a particular blog; they’ve ended up blocking access to blogspot.com totally. Now if that isn’t sheer stupidity then what it is? The Govt. official stated quite clearly that the problem can be rectified in the case of sites using blogspot (I’m sure others who watched the story on NDTV heard that too). Fine presuming that these are the facts and now that the ISP’s know these facts, I’m hoping they’ll fix this whole problem using their limited intelligence instead of showing off their obvious ignorance to the whole world!
I for one have been calling my ISP and asking them to ensure only those sites named on the list are blocked and not the entire blog hosting site! And as far as I understand, I am not wrong in doing so. And if the Govt. plans any other additions in that list, I hope they will be open about it rather than keeping us all in the dark about this! Thank God for the Media in India…that keeps us INFORMED and a chance to be heard!!”
Ps: the song playing is the same as before "where the streets have no name" by U2
Thanks Keshi , for speaking up against the ban. I read your post today morning and in it you’ve put across my sentiments too. I felt as though you were reading my mind and heart. It’s not a fair question at all “what would u miss if u didn’t have blogs?” Why must I answer that question when I know the people asking that question have no clue what it means to me be here blogging. However that doesn’t mean that I have nothing to say to these people, I do and I will.
And the post you wrote today is brilliant too. I can't believe someone would make a statement like that "stop using pkblogs coz it's of pakistani origin...coz it disgraces India!"...it's this kind of intolerance that we need to speak up against too...it's important for people to understand that you cannot hold an entire community / country responsible for a handful of people who want to destroy peace...if we think that people in our country are also completely innocent and that we don't have trouble makers here, we're fooling ourselves! Sensible and peace loving people like us need to shun this kind of intolerance and keep speaking for peace....for harmony...for unity!
Before I go ahead and put up what I wrote yesterday about this whole ban, I must make a mention here that sadly I don’t see many bloggers who are otherwise quite passionate about blogging speaking up against this ban. I don’t understand this complacency and laid back attitude. And more so the whole “hah we can get past this ban using proxies and other links!”…Understand this guys, it’s not about out-smarting the system! It’s about questioning why you have to be subjected to such a gag at all. Also the question I’ve got from some is “What difference would it make anyway?” This kind of attitude surprises me! It does make a difference…every voice and every opinion counts. How do you think changes take place in this world? It’s by forming opinions and initiating changes. Sitting back and waiting for things to happen will get us no where!
Having stated that…Read on…
“What’s with banning blogs? Don’t give me the argument that some fundamentalist / terror / extremist groups’ somewhere are using blogs to propagate their cause! I fail to understand how banning blogs is going to help. How does that stop them from going on with their mission to destroy peace, plan and execute more such devastation! And where does this stop…what next?
I’ve been blogging for almost a year now and have through blogging made a lot of new acquaintances all over the country and the world. Blogging is not restricted by any national / international boundaries. The blogging community is beyond regional differences.
My space is about my personal life…thoughts etc. This is the same with my network of friends and fellow bloggers. Yes we debate about issues and we’ve had our fair share of arguments. Topics have ranged from family, movies, books, politics, sex, religion, childcare….You name it and it’s been blogged about! It’s all about expressing your opinion and learning from other’s opinions.
We don’t blog to endorse or advocate terror, religious bias or carry out anti-nationalist propaganda! And if there have been instances of any kind of intolerance, we’ve been there to raise a debate and moderate voices have spoken for what’s right and at times even managed to settle issues within blogs!
If certain groups want to abuse this forum, figure out a way to stop them but don’t interfere with my right to express myself! What’s with putting a blanket ban on a site like blogspot or any other blog hosting site? And if there are sites that need to be banned, then ban those particular url’s
It takes a couple of minutes to set up an account and not necessarily an exceptionally smart person to start a blog…how many sites is the govt. going to ban? For every site it decides to ban, it would take fundamentalist / terror / extremist groups’ minutes to set up another or several blogs to go on with their propaganda. Does the solution lie in censorship?
In the process of shutting out extremist voices, they’ve just gone ahead and shut out all the moderate voices that stand for peace and harmony!
Will a terrorist outfit publicize its blog? I doubt it. And will a fundamentalist group stop its propaganda? I don’t think so! Will people who want to know facts and seek information stop looking for it? No. Will people stop questioning the Govt.? No.
Terror groups obviously already have a network that is strong enough and invisible enough to go ahead and plan destruction…the real action happens underground and not in open forums like blogs (esp. blogs accessible to the world at large)!
If non tech savvy people like me can manage to figure out a way (with the help of other tech savvy people) to access and view blogs, then what’s the whole purpose of imposing a ban like this? Why must I be forced to resort to such measures when I know that viewing my blog and writing in it is of no threat to anyone?
The papers today have written about how the Govt. ban is restricted to certain blogs (around 13 in the list available to the media) and according to Govt. sources it’s the ISP’s that have goofed up and instead of blocking a particular blog; they’ve ended up blocking access to blogspot.com totally. Now if that isn’t sheer stupidity then what it is? The Govt. official stated quite clearly that the problem can be rectified in the case of sites using blogspot (I’m sure others who watched the story on NDTV heard that too). Fine presuming that these are the facts and now that the ISP’s know these facts, I’m hoping they’ll fix this whole problem using their limited intelligence instead of showing off their obvious ignorance to the whole world!
I for one have been calling my ISP and asking them to ensure only those sites named on the list are blocked and not the entire blog hosting site! And as far as I understand, I am not wrong in doing so. And if the Govt. plans any other additions in that list, I hope they will be open about it rather than keeping us all in the dark about this! Thank God for the Media in India…that keeps us INFORMED and a chance to be heard!!”
Ps: the song playing is the same as before "where the streets have no name" by U2
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