Desicritics Author: KO

Internet Censorship the Pakistani Way

KO — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 09:02:48 EST

On March 2nd 2006 the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority to block 12 websites. This list was in addition to the hundreds of thousands of websites which Pakistan already blocks. Up till now, most internet users in Pakistan had never really cared to speak up about this censorship, but this new blacklist caused millions of personal websites hosted at Blogspot to be banned. There are hundreds of Pakistani websites hosted at Blogspot, so this action by the government led internet users to form an action group against this ban.To understand what exactly it means to block a website on the internet, one has to first understand how the internet works.The Internet is a strange beast. Many of us use it every day - not just when sitting in front of a computer, but every time when using a credit card, filling fuel, sending a SMS, taking a flight - in short just about every modern activity depends on the internet. The use of the internet is spreading everywhere, even to the most surprising places - some farmers in India receive current market prices for their crops on internet enabled cellphones, and the early warning system for tsunamis being developed after the 2004 ocean quake works through the internet.

The internet is a gigantic 3 dimensional spider web, where every intersection is a computer which is connected to every other computer on the internet - regardless of its location. The Internet is not built by design - it grows organically as computers and networks join it as they please. It is hard to visualize what the Internet has grown to now just 30 odd years after starting with a handful of computers. The map above represents just a partial view of the Internet. The amount of computers on the Internet is staggering - recent estimates puts the figure close to a billion computers, and growing fast.

For the lay person, the internet generally means the world wide web. The internet is actually the underlying platform on which the web runs. The internet is made up of computers and cables - the computers send packets of information to other computers on the Internet through these cables, and the beauty of the Internet is that these packets can go through any path. Put up a packet with a correct address anywhere on the Internet, and it will arrive at its destination, usually in a few milliseconds.

The way the internet works is very simple. Multiple independent networks of rather arbitrary design are all connected to each other. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address, so when you send a message to another computer on the Internet, the underlying software breaks the message up into data packets, puts the destination address on every one of these packets, and sends them on to the next computer it’s connected to. As the packets arrive, each receiving computer looks at the address, and if it’s not addressed to that pc, sends it onwards. This process happens over and over again until the packet arrives at its destination. Each packet of data takes the best possible route available to it, which will vary even over the milliseconds the sending computer takes to send out each packet.

The internet was designed from the ground up to resist damage - and censorship is just another form of damage to the internet. If the data doesn’t make it through to its destination, then another route will be automatically tried, until all possible routes are exhausted. So if one computer, or a whole bunch of them, decides to block certain types of data, then they will be automatically bypassed.

Pakistan has 3 major internet links to the world, which consist of two submarine fibre optic links and a few satellite links. All of these are controlled by the Pakistan Internet Exchange, or PIE, which monitors all incoming and outgoing Internet traffic from Pakistan. The primary purpose of PIE is to filter content as the Government deems fit. A secondary purpose is to keep track of all incoming and outgoing e-mails, which by parliamentary order are kept for a period of at least 3 months.

If the government controls all outside links to the world, then one might think that it should be a simple matter to censor the internet. Yet this isn’t the case, for the current filtering system in place is very crude. There is a list of banned addresses which the computers installed at the Pakistan Internet Exchange look at, and accordingly block requests by users to the computers on the blacklist. This is where the internet comes in - for if an address is blocked, than all you have to do is go through another, unblocked address. This computer is called a proxy server, and it acts as a man in the middle between you and the blocked computer. Any computer on the Internet can do the job of a proxy - so potentially, there are a billion ways of bypassing censorship!

Many of the top universities in the world like Duke, Stanford, MIT, Harvard and Princeton (to name just a few) have set up such proxy systems to enable users around the world to bypass censorship. Besides universities and individuals acting on their own to protect the freedom of speech, there are many government and privately funded projects set up specifically for the purpose of allowing users to bypass any form of internet censorship. The rise of peer to peer networking means that every single computer, even home PC’s formerly not thought of as servers, can be used to serve up content to any other PC.

The second, slightly harder to bypass form of censorship, as implemented in China, is to have a list of banned words, and censor those on the fly. As users in China request a web page, the incoming page is first inspected by government servers, and blocked if a banned term like democracy is present on that page. Human censors are also actively looking at what people browse on the internet, and actively block websites as they see fit. This method is also easily bypassed by connecting to a proxy server which scrambles the page as it sends it to you. Take a look at the links listed at the bottom for many other ways to bypass internet censorship, or just do a google search to bring up a few hundred thousand websites which will tell you how.

So, what exactly does it mean to block a website? Can it even be done with today’s technology?

Simply put, with current technology the only way to restrict information on the Internet is to ban it all together. There is no middle way - the technology is just not there today. One good example is China, which spends billions of dollars, and employs over 40,000 full time government employees in Beijing alone to monitor and restrict Chinese usage of the internet. The Chinese government tries to control and restrict access to a wide variety of topics, such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Falun Gong, Tibet, Taiwan, pornography or democracy. Despite the most sophisticated filtering system in the world, China has failed miserably at its attempt to censor the Internet..

The Supreme Court and Government of Pakistan have obviously an extremely limited understanding of the Internet, and do not grasp what exactly they have done. They are still thinking along the lines of traditional media, made up of books, newspapers and magazines, and probably think they have blocked certain ‘bad’ issues, and that everything else will be accessible as usual.

Most, if not all people savvy enough to operate a computer are easily able to bypass any technological blocks the govt. puts up. At best, the various censorship solutions the government will implement over the next few years will discriminate between the technological haves and have-nots.

It is sad to see Pakistan walk down that same road. At best, attempts to censor the internet will give the censors a false sense of security that they are doing something, while slowing down the internet for the entire country, as well as further degrading its image throughout the world.

The internet, although a network in name and geography, is a creature of the computer, not the traditional network of the telephone or television industry. It will, indeed it must, continue to change and evolve at the speed of the computer industry. Trying to impose artificial barriers on the internet is akin to building sand castles on the beach - sand walls can’t stop the spray of information coming over the walls, and the next wave of technology will completely overwhelm the entire castle.

In the future, technology will enable governments to control the creation and flow of information. The slippery slope to George Orwell’s 1984 starts here, when we allow governments control of what we can see, read and watch. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and once the censorship drive to ban all bad things starts; it’s a hard animal to stop.

The Pakistani Taliban Types - Rural Hospitality, Urban Indifference

KO — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:05:52 EST

Article being worked on

Human Rights for All: The Nature of the Beast in Pakistan

KO — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 09:14:14 EST

Rights rights and more rights… it seems there are never enough to go around. Pakistan has a particularly bad track record on human rights. There has been so much written about this already, as a quick glance at the links below shows, that it seems useless writing more about it. Most Pakistanis’ indeed, have given it up as a lost cause and regard the current state of affairs as what is, and what will be in the forseeable future.

Everywhere you turn, its all gloom and doom. Karo Kari is on the rise, minorities are being increasingly persecuted, religious intolerance is once again rearing its ugly head, and a large percentage of Pakistani peasants/farmers still live in the medieval age. The local newspapers and magazines are full of violations left right and center. On the other hand, a vast number of NGO’s have sprung up all over the country committed to increasing human rights awareness and bettering the situation. While many of these NGO’s have been vilified in the press and in popular opinion, they are doing a much needed job which the state seems to have abandoned completely.

So, where do we stand now? Alongside the feudal system, which in itself is extremely repressive, Pakistan has developed a very class conscious society which gives the rich and powerful a lot more ‘rights’ than the ‘common citizen’. Like the Soviet Union, some citizens are more equal than others. Hereupon lies the problem, for those who have the power to bring about change consider issues like human rights a luxury which a third world country like Pakistan cannot afford. (Along with clean drinking water, hospitals… the list goes on).

China for example, is killing its environment in the fastest industrialization in history. They too, like Pakistan, cannot afford to waste time and money on the environment just right now. I wonder, by the time every Chinese owns a car and a living space full of upteem gizmos all consuming energy, what will they think then? What about Pakistan? While we are in no danger of destroying the countryside with our limited industrial base, are we slowly destroying the human spirit of millions who live in slums and shantytowns all over the country? There is no Pakistani dream which can act as a relief valve to the pent up fustrations and longings of millions. We are turning into a deeply polarized society, and I do not see much improvement in the next few decades.

It is true, that with the limited resources at its disposal, the State cannot provide basic needs like quality education, medicine and drinkable water. These come with time with the economic growth of a country. What the State can do right now is to provide a more humane front to its organs which deal with the public. Right now it is not even doing that bare minimum, and in the process demeaning those which it is meant to serve. Go to just about any government organization in Pakistan and try to conduct whatever business that organization is supposed to be doing. It is an excercise which starts by stripping one of any dignity and then proceeds on to lower levels. Dignity is an essential human right, and one which the state can provide for free by cleaning up its act. [ of course if one drives up in a big car one gets a slightly different treatment ]

How does a country like Pakistan improve it’s human rights situation? Third world countries suffer from leaders with over large egos who take themselves too seriously These are the most dangerous ones, as they can write off all the suffering they see in their land as secondary to more ‘pressing needs’ of national security and other matters of such great importance that the common man would find hard to comprehend. Such good work these leaders do! It is common amongst Indian/Pakistani politicians to pat themselves on their backs a lot harder than politicians in the developed world do. It is a strange cultural phenomenon. Maybe they have to make themselves feel important enough to be able to justify to themselves all the hypocritical actions (and nonactions) which they take concerning their populace.

So, what now? The issue of human rights is not something which requires a genius to come up with a solution and implement it. The issues are obvious, and so are the remedies. We must strive, each is his own way, to bring about what change we can. It is ironic that we have to fight the hardest enemy of all, Man, for his own betterment. Still, at the end of the day, Arundhati Roy said it best:

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

Links to Actual Information on Human Rights in Pakistan

Pakistan Institute of Human Rights
Human Rights Commision of Pakistan
Human Rights Watch: Pakistan
US State Department Human Rights Reports: 2002 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997
US State Department Reports on Religious Freedom in Pakistan: 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999
Amnesty International Pakistan
Business and Human Rights Resource Center

The Problems With Cricket

KO — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:19:21 EST

The United Kingdom gave up on cricket a long time ago, but sadly this so called sport still persists in the Empire's former colonies. Its a terribly elitist and clubby sport. For the British army officers posted to the middle of just about every forever back during the days of the Empire, cricket served a vital purpose. They could form their little cliques and clubs and spend whole ~~days~~ weeks just passing the time away. It can be argued that there is nothing like a mind numbingly boring and totally pointless activity to while away the times, and cricket fitted the bill so well that someone would have had to invent it during the days of the Empire if it hadn't already existed.

Every now and then one of them would trundle up to the pitch to chuck a ball, and a guy from the other team would try to hit it. This was all secondary; they could have been throwing bats and trying to hit them with a ball, it would have made no difference. The main idea was not going bonkers and having something to talk about, and cricket did that brilliantly. When the natives came to stare and whispered amongst themselves about the mad englishmen, the Englishmen could scoff at them for not understanding the game of cricket.

Cricket involved a set of rules and morals which were to be followed at all costs - else one could be cast out from the clique. (ed: sounds similar to those teenage gangs one hears about these days). There were quite a lot of them, along with a ton of silly names for just about everything else. Half the fielding positions start of with 'Silly' something or the other - evidently even back then someone realized how absurd the whole thing was.

In today's day and age, where no one has the time to read a book or do even half of the things they have to do any particular week, cricket is a throwback to an age and time long dead and buried.

Some of the Major Problems with Cricket:

There are twenty two men playing. At any given point only two of them are actually engaged in the proceedings. The rest are just standing around. That hardly qualifies it as a sport.
It's excruciatingly slow and takes way too much time.
There's not much physical exercise in cricket. See the first point. Despite cricket being Pakistan's most popular sport (its a lazy sport for a lazier nation) the Pakistan Armed forces have banned cricket. Standing around on a field all day doesn't make one fit. The dictionary definition of 'sport' includes the words 'physical exertion' for a reason. People who play actual sports gain from it. You can tell a soccer player - he's bound to be fit. Cricket players no matter how much they play never get fit. Just look at the Pakistan team. The only reason the Australian team is fit because they play other sports to get fit.
It's not a spectator sport. Watching a normal game of cricket is as exciting as watching paint dry. The 2004 Pakistan India Cricket Series was exciting, but that excitement had nothing to do with cricket.
It is the same damn thing over and over again. That's true of many sports, but with cricket even more so. The slowness of the proceedings makes it that much more agonizing.
Cricket is not democratic. The better players enjoy themselves a lot more - as they bat longer without getting out, and also bowl more overs. The other players are shit out of luck. Other sports like basketball and soccer are a lot more democratic - even the worst player on the team is involved in the game. In street cricket at least half the team is just the support cast, and basically does nothing at all the entire match.
The rules are mind numbingly complex. Even professional cricket players after a lifetime of playing don't fully understand them. See the Pakistan cricket team once again for many shining examples of this.
There's a whole bunch of other reasons which I'll post later.

not even cricket fans can justify cricket. Ask one about the virtues of cricket and they'll be clean bowled.