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Iran Caps Net Access to Keep West Out
davidwr writes "The Guardian reports that Iran has banned high-speed internet access to attempt to curb the west's influence. In addition to seizing satellite dishes and filtering more websites than any country save China, Iran is now capping Internet speeds to 128kbps in order to keep out Western influences." From the article: "The latest step has drawn condemnation from MPs, internet service companies and academics, who say it will hamper Iran's progress. 'Every country in the world is moving towards modernization and a major element of this is high-speed internet access,' said Ramazan-ali Sedeghzadeh, chairman of the parliamentary telecommunications committee. 'The country needs it for development and access to contemporary science.'"
Of course, the intelligent citizens will know that they can just split the downloads amongst themselves, essentially bandwidth-pooling. Maybe we need to educate the government.
Palm trees and 8
The country is effectively a theocracy. The country does conduct votes and such, but it ultimately doesn't matter as the Ayatollah have the final say on everything. It is a highly oppressive in many ways. For example in the 2004 election the hardliners won a major victory. You might think this was the people's wish, but in fact the simple matter was the Council of Guardians disqualified most reformist candidates, including many incumbents. As for information access, well I'll quote Freedom House:
"Freedom of expression is limited. The government directly controls all television and radio broadcasting. Satellite dishes are illegal, though widely tolerated, and the authorities have had some success in jamming broadcasts by dissident overseas satellite stations. The Ministry of Culture must approve publication of all books and inspects foreign books prior to domestic distribution. The Press Court has extensive procedural and jurisdictional power in prosecuting journalists, editors, and publishers for such vaguely worded offenses as "insulting Islam" and "damaging the foundations of the Islamic Republic." The authorities frequently issue ad hoc gag orders banning media coverage of specific topics and events. The government systematically censors internet content by forcing internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to a growing list of "immoral sites and political sites that insult the country's political and religious leaders.""
Iran:
Literacy: Definition Field Listing definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 79.4%
male: 85.6%
female: 73% (2003 est.)
GDP (purchasing power parity):
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$561.6 billion (2005 est.)
United States:
Literacy: Definition Field Listing definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% (2003 est.)
GDP (purchasing power parity):
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$12.36 trillion (2005 est.)
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Pretty selective with your facts. How about these from the CIA World Factbook, where you got your info, comparing Iran and the US.
GDP per capita
US $41,800 (2005 est.)
Iran $8,300 (2005 est.)
Unemployment rate
US 5.1% (now less then 5%)
Iran 11.2%
Population below the poverty level
US 12%
Iran 40%
Inflation rate
US 3.2%
Iran 13.5%
Many other numbers are not published, as Iran doesn't want them public. Iran sells lots of oil, but the citizens don't see much of the money. Too much is being sent to Siria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places to support their biggest export, their religious philosophy.
Make no mistake about it, Iran has more poverty than they want you to know about. Then again, if you live in Iran, what are you going to do, protest? BANG! One less person in poverty.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
I'm curious to know what a 'fundamentalist secularist' looks like.
completely opposed to religion in any way, shape, or form. one of the basic idea is that belief in any form of religion is a sign of mental illness requiring treatment.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Oh my god! I *can not* believe how such stupid rumors get started and even published in the media!!! Yes the ICT ministry has asked ADSL internet service providers to stop giving high speed (higher than 128kbps) to their users. However, being the totalitarian regime that they are, this one had nothing to do with censorship! The ICT ministry announced that this is a *temporary* limitation which will be removed *within 4 months* and that it has to do with the gradual implementation of the new structure for ISP companies (which are going to be divided into several different categories based on their type of activity and the amount of bandwidth that they are allowed to provide). And forget this post, didn't any of you think how stupid it sounds to *censor* the internet by just reducing the speed to 128kbps which is actually quite a fast connection for a home user in this part of the world (because of high price of internet bandwidth). It just doesn't make sense. source: http://www.iribnews.ir/MainContent.aspx?news_num=6 5777
I don't consider myself pro-Israel, but honestly, check your facts*. There have been Jews in the Middle East pretty much continuously since there were Jews, admittedly in small numbers, but they never entirely went away. Western history as typically taught tends to follow the story of European Jewry, not unreasonably, since most Jews today are of course of European ancestry. But that doesn't mean Palestinian, Lebanese, Iranian and African Jews ceased to exist.
*On this subject, particularly, I don't know if it's even possible to find factual information that is entirely free of political agenda, but this page seems to be fairly free of BS. Can't vouch for the rest of the website, just that particular page.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.