Actress Nisha Adhikari made a new record of becoming the first actress to climb Mt. Everest. Although the government might not be interested in giving her the credit, she has made a history. The first film artist to climb Everest, Arjun Karki, had also reached the peak a day earlier making him the first Nepali film artist on the peak.
Due to excessive charge to Nepali citizen to climb the Everest, Nisha and Arjun had to register themselves as climber’s support staffs, high altitude workers. They each saved (and the government lost) about Rs. 2 million (US$ 25,000) in registration fees.
Nepal Telecommunication Authority has implemented new guidelines which requires ID card to be presented to surf internet. The cybercafes in Nepal should start taking records of their customers within three months (before Dashain festival).
The record should include:
Identification card (Nepali), or Passport (foreigners)
Name address
Entry time
Duration of Internet surfing
The computer used
Let’s analyze why it won’t work:
1. Privacy – opens a black market to sell personal information
The cybercafe can sell such personal information to make easy cash.
2. Criminals don’t need to record everything
Suppose I am a cyber criminal. I will go to one of the cybercafe and make a deal, to pay Rs. 100 per hour (if regular price is Rs. 20 per hour) if they don’t record my personal information. The guy will make eno
ugh profit to bribe any police officer if they happen to find about the incident.
3. Software and logistics
I am sure the government will not provide the software and other logistics to record such details. The owner of cybercafe will need to invest extra in hardware and manpower. The extra cost doesn’t motivate the owners to keep the record. Most of them will try to fake the record.
The government doesn’t know how to deal with internet. They have failed to control VOIP and sex websites. This is another example of short-slightness of our government.
Yes, there are a lot of of other reasons the new regulation won’t work. Please comment what you think in the comment section. (Photos collected from various online sources)
Here are some of the posts I had written about Nepal Government’s previous unsuccessful attempts to block websites:
Dev Gurung, senior leader of the Unified CPN (Maoist) has said that his party will accept a new government under the leadership of CPN (UML). In the current situation, it does not seem like the other political parties will accept a government led by Maoists. Therefore, his party (CPN Maoist) is ready to accept a new government led by CPN (UML).
Though his party should have the first claim for leadership in the country by the virtue of his party being the single largest party in the constitution assembly, Maoists are ready to accept the chairman Jhala Nath Khanal as the new prime minister of Nepal.
The Maoist politburo, however, will defeat the candidacy of Poudel by voting ag
ainst him if the candidacy of NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel for the post of prime minister still stands.
The government has ignored the internationally acclaimed CNN Hero 2010 winner and social worker, Anuradha Koirala, during her arrival in Kathmandu after receiving the award. It was not only the government, none of the political parties thought of sending a representative to congratulate and welcome the Hero.
Everybody must have laughed their hearts out while going through the first list of blocked websites in Nepal. Then came the second, updated list.
While going through the first 10 websites in the list, I found 6 out 10 sites were wrongly listed. You can guess what the rest of the list might look like (and, it is the second updated list)! I will do the remaining review later.
Second website in the list – is a parked domain. Hey, it is full of ads and nothing in it and it is blocked because the domain name is not decent-enough!
It was much easier in the olden days when the Government controlled everything. The equation has changed drastically with the recent advancement in communication and electronics. The phone, newspapers, radio, movies, television, post letters were much easier to control. In this internet-age, although all of these services can now be embraced in a single device, a computer; it is much more difficult to control.
There are always problem when government seeks control on one of these communication media. Countries like US and China are effectively controlling these media but, when it comes to the poor countries, like Nepal, it is not that easy.
The recent attempt of the Nepali government to control internet can be seen as one of the desperate attempts to control communication of its citizen. The only, and the most palatable front to start internet control was "public decency and courtesy" issue. They know, society can digest the argument and there will be less resistance on such control. The idea however is not original, and was widely practiced during the 1980s feminists and conservatives’ attempt to raise the issues of morality and public safety. Their argument, hard-core erotica promotes sexual violence against women, was proved to be flawed! In a paper (download pdf) presented at Stanford Law School, Clemson University economist, Todd Kendall, suggest that p0rn sites help potential rapists to relieve their sexual urges and do less crimes. Meaning, such sites actually decreases sexual violence.
In response to our post Explicit websites blocked in Nepal, an international research group has shown interest on monitoring the website blockage in Nepal.
It’s very important that we work to preserve the Internet as a medium of Free Expression and the first step is exposing and stopping governments from engaging in unlawful censorship.
The quote above is taken from an email from the research group. We will talk about it in details, with their permission, in future.
When talking about nudity and explicit contents, these things were never foreign to the people in Nepal. Many temples in Nepal have such carvings of people and animals engaged in sexual acts. These age old carvings were always open to public and the people were proud about the openness.
The Nepal Government’s has decided to block all websites containing explicit content and nudity. Now onwards, nobody is allowed to view or host such websites in Nepal. If anybody is found to be violating the order, the person can be fined Rs. 100,000 and/or 5 years in prison.
Last week, the news about the Government’s plan to play a parent’s role came out and I gave 5 reasons it might not be successful. After the official announcement of the government, I still think it is not a good idea to start a complete ban. They could have started informative campaigns or education programs. In this contest quoting a post in a Facebook Group, protesting the Government’s ban seems relevant.
The final of World Cup2010 started on Friday and our Prime Minister, Madhav Nepal, has found a perfect opportunity to take revenge of his defeat in the election – by imposing added load shedding during the games.
In other countries the government is accountable to the people it rules – as the government is run by the leaders elected by the people. Our country is an exception, with majority of the cabinet members defeated in the election. All of them should be searching to take revenge with the people who didn’t vote them in the election.
Yesterday’s news implies the same:
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has increased load-shedding hours from 42 hours to 54 hours a week, with effect from Monday.
Update: The news turned out to be a fake one. Somebody created a fake press release and dcnepal.com had based the news in it. Posted below is the so-called press-release. (It is strange how can a person consider such a crude photo authentic.)
The Home Ministry of Nepal Government has asked Facebook users not to post fake pictures of Nepali ministers in Facebook Wall. According to dcnepal.com the government will identify the people who post the photos and will punish if they don’t remove the photos.
The Government has given the Facebook users a time frame, of 5days, to remove such fake pictures from their Facebook account. The government will punish the users if they don’t comply with the Government directives.
