Blocking Blogger

Met: I’ve been to China. I’m planning a trip to India soon (probably in September).

> I’m planning a trip to India soon (probably in September).

Welcome. Business or pleasure?

Robert -

What places do you plan to visit in India. I am sure you will blog more about it later, just curious

Mihir, what places SHOULD I visit.

This will be for business. Got invited to speak at a conference.

There are lots of good places to visit. The obvious ones are Taj Mahal, Red Fort, India Gate, Qutub Minar, and other historic places in North India (near New Delhi).

Mumbai (west coast) has some great places as well – again most of them are historic. Elephanta Caves and Gateway of India. Just remember not to say the word ‘Bombay’ if you see anyone carrying saffron flags around If you are fond of coffee, don’t forget to visit Barista, Cafe Coffee Day, and Cafe Mocha – they are coffee chains in India, and you will find them in most cities.

I have never been to Hyderabad and only been once to Bangalore (for a business trip), but I hear that there are lots of cool stuff there. Not to mention, you will see Microsoft India and other IT/software/tech companies there as well

Don’t forget to visit Goa – it is a beautiful beach city! Lots of foreign tourists visit Goa. Casinos are beaches make a good combination I guess!

For shopping, Mumbai and Delhi are great. You will find almost everything in these two places (likely cheaper than U.S. too).

Kerala (South India) has some really good places. Coconut Lagoon is a hotel in the middle of a river- very very beautiful and calm.

I am sure other readers have more places to add. I am from Mumbai, and I know tons of good places to visit there. Do add photos and videos from your trip here

Robert, the U.S. House passed H.R. 4411. This makes it legal for the government to order any ISP in the US to block certain domains/sites.. I wonder if this only meant for gambling sites or will the law be abused too -

there so much for freedom of speech and the NSA controvsery !!

Robert, I’m not saying people don’t immigrate because of the freedom the US affords them. I’m not suggesting it’s a two-valued proposition. I’m simply positin that economic freedom is likely the major primary driver for immigration to the US. The freedoms we have in the country allow for more economic opportunities than those in less free societies. I don’t think people immigrate here simply because we allow them to freely speak their mind. I’m sure you don’t think that either. Nothing is more liberating than being in control of your own economic destiny. (Just ask anyone that has been on welfare)

Hey,

Now blogspot and other sites are working fine here. Thanks to all blogers and media support

ps: I heard a 2nd Barcamp in Bangalore is on its way. You may consider particiapting barcamp too

I heard from friends that its working for only few ISPs…Sify has’nt lifted the BAN yet.

http://www.pkblogs.com/anjanaram/2006/07/blogspot-other-blogs-banned-by-our.html

Now that the bans are lifted by some ISPs in India, let me give some more food for thought. Read this:

What is common between U.S. Army and Al-qaeda? They both kill people! This sucks. Not sure what we can do about this?

Did this sound chiche? This is how baseless the comments were. The questions is – what is the motive? If you remove motive from the action, the actions sound equivalent. The motive of U.S. army is to curtail terror, while that of Al-Qaeda is to spread terror – NOW that sounds better, doesn’t it?

Similarly, the motive of the Indian government was to curb terrorists group from communicating. That does NOT suck. If the motive was to curtail freedom of speech and open dialog, that would suck. China, apparently does not allow blog sites to disallow open dialog (I can not personally speak for Pakistan, since I do not know). So blocking blogspot is just as common between India and China, as killing people is between U.S. and Al-Qaeda – you make the distinction.

**** Please read ****

Government issued statement that particular blogs are being kept under survillence as Mumbai incident creators used this mode of communication (so Govt says). The whole problem erupted when Govt instructed ISPs to monitor and identify physically the location of people accessing the specific blogs. ISPs in turn blocked all the blogs under blogspot.com instead of ones specifically. Why blame the Govt if our own IT guys played black hand. When things were sorted out, most of the blogs under blogspot.com came out of ban. When media asked aboutwhich blogs are banned/kept under survillence, Govt refused citing people accessing will be forewarned. Makes sense it to me. I am willing to give up my freedom for few days. Atleast its not censorship or heavy handedness in my humble view.

Indian ISPs are now lifting bans on domains like blogspot.com typepad.com (see http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/19blogs.htm) although there still 17 websites being blocked.
The rediff.com report has details about the sites.

Well cyber censorship is not an *Asian* only.Many news are not accessible on American media and they are being censored.For instance recent Lebonan-Israel conflict.

Few of my friends who are in India do happen to blog and these days they are not been able to even post because blogger itself is blocking diffrent blogs