The Seeds of Five Years Gone

Did we make a wrong turn somewhere, or is this still five years gone? Big Brother looking over seems to be the name of the game by every government in the "free world".

"the front-lines of contemporary wars not on isolated battlefields but where people live."

James Nachtwey, stream, download

The Current is all about Squeeze the Virtual Turnip and quotes the unlawyer and the philippines' national telecommunications center:

If the proposed rules are approved, all firms in the loose VAS provider industry - from mom-and-pop ventures to those owned by large multinationals - would have to register with the regulator…

Services covered by the proposed rules include messaging, audio and video conferencing, voice mail, e-mail, information services such as road traffic and visa application data, gaming services except gambling, applications services such as mobile banking, content and program services such as music and ring tones, audio text, domain name hosting, fax, IP multicasting, virtual private networks, and PBX hosting.

i can't put it better than what mlq3 wrote: "Imagine Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez armed with such a list, and on a bad quote day. Jeepers Creepers."

Of course, this isn't just in a lowly 80+Million nation. In America, the New York Times writes on Spying on Americans:

Mr. Bush’s motivations for submitting this bill now seem obvious. The courts have rejected his claim that 9/11 gave him virtually unchecked powers, and he faces a Democratic majority in Congress that is willing to exercise its oversight responsibilities. That, presumably, is why his bill grants immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated in five years of illegal eavesdropping. It also strips the power to hear claims against the spying program from all courts except the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which meets in secret.

i wonder if there was ever a time, a government was never an idiot?

these people probably have never heard of twitter or skype (or maybe they did).

In an Age of the Everyman, a single point of failure arises when you stifle innovation, and kill dynamic discourse of matters of importance like the whole recent discussion on education in the philippines. that was democracy in action and far from the idiotic news of the day like matters of politics and the life of actors on television. how about technologies, best practices like this evangelization of test driven development in php, or philippine gps users, or blogs that talk about how great it is that dell goes ubuntu? Doesn't the Internet and access to it spreads knowledge and innovation?

just imagine the whole world of information people will be missing out of like why whale waste is extremely valuable!

are we just going to miss out on funny or die?!

The Landlord

How about this whole hoopla on digg and hd-dvd?

Seriously now, the sad part of all this is that Security Experts make get such idiotic ideas they don't think of it's consequences. The British bombers were home grown dissidents. They killed their countrymen, people who they grew up with, shared a nation with. Put in another way: they felt our differences divide us and are worth more than our diversity.

Does that explain terrorist cells in rich Singapore (Seeds of Terror, Maria A. Ressa, Chapter 8: Singapore Al-Qaeda's Plan A) for example?

Having cameras in banks, across street corners or other important places is one thing. these places are important because we need to know what is happening. These technologies allow us to monitor against threats in a passive way and not just terrorists but more importantly: crime. getting people to register for guns and being strict about who gets licenses are great for everyone. just as effective as a driver's license or a professional license like that for doctors and lawyers.

Some people believe that inspecting cars and shoppers entering malls protect us. Banning just about every item on an airplane, that is kinda idiotic too and a knee jerk reaction that doesn't really help. i say it creates the opposite: it creates a sense of panic, a shroud of fear and mistrust. when you think about it: if someone really wanted to kill off many people, suicide bombers have their creative ways. we'll never stop their likes playing defense.

The world has already invented The Perfect Weapon for the Meanest Wars. What else can we come up with next?

The battle that will win the war against terrorism will be the battle that wins hearts and minds. When we make a world where Child Soldiers don't exist, when every child gets an education, and enjoy childhood, when the strength of our diversity and not our differences makes us united: it won't be a perfect one but that'll be a more peaceful and just world.