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Why Has Cameroon Blocked the Internet? (bbc.com)
It has been over three weeks since English-speaking parts of Cameroon, a country on the west coast of Africa between Nigeria and Gabon, has had no internet connectivity. Residents believe, according to a BBC report, that the government is behind it. From the report: The two regions affected, South-West and North-West, have seen anti-government protests in recent months. Just a day before services disappeared, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued a statement in which it warned social media users of criminal penalties if they were to "issue or spread information, including by way of electronic communications or information technology systems, without any evidence." There has been no official comment about the internet since then (or any credible reports of technical faults) leading many Cameroonians to conclude that the severing of services is part of government attempts to stifle dissent. In criticising their government, some Cameroonians have also taken aim at the mobile phone companies who provide the services through which many access the internet. These firms may not have been able to prevent the outage, since they all rely on fibre-optic infrastructure provided by a state-owned company, but nor have they been objecting publicly about the interruption to their services.
Block internet ==> I now know you are not a government worthy of honor or power.
The ruling politicians sent their political opponents out to investigate the issue, but they never returned for some reason...
America should take a stand here.
Sounds like we should send over some Freedom(tm)
This can mean only one thing! Invasion!
Their citizens deserve a voice! America should take a stand here.
This idea that America needs to try and help every country in the world when we have our own problems is what gets people like Trump elected. "America First" isn't just about foreign labor.
Not every country. Just ones that have exploitable resources and where puppet governments can be installed.
Shame on you, ex-British Prime Minister David Cameroon!
This is why Mesh networking protocols are so important, we need to get ahead of this here in the U.S. because:
DT:I can't be live they insulted me on the internet, I want to get rid of that thing. ... ...
Sir you can't just 'get rid' of the internet
DT:sure I can, I'll just shut it off.
Sir, there is no way to sut off the internet.
DT:Do it, shut it off now, it's a matter of national security.
click.
IDK if we have all that much to spare these days...
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
So it's working then?
This idea that America needs to try and help every country in the world when we have our own problems is what gets people like Trump elected.
Standing up for human rights worldwide does not diminish our ability to deal with our own problems. A far better argument is that efforts to "fix" other countries have been futile and counterproductive. Look at North Korea and Cuba. We have isolated and embargoed them for decades, and their oppressive regimes have lasted far longer than any others. The Castro and Kim dynasties would likely be long forgotten if they had been unable to blame their economic incompetence on foreign devils, and unable to accuse their opponents of being American stooges.
I should laugh about Cameroon's government censorship and feel sad about people affected by it, but then again, just today I heard about some moronic politician in Brazil trying to pass a law that has some extremely broad lines like penalties and fines for anyone who tries to spread "false information" on the Internet... dumbfucks are just everywhere.
Wait. That is not the Cameron you are talking about right?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Not the Norks. They'd be threatening their neighbors with nuclear annihilation if the US never existed.
I wonder if we could convince NATO or some other group to provide free Internet (I guess via satellite, though people would need equipment...) that could help citizens under these oppressive regimes.
More importantly, sanctions don't hurt the dictators, they hurt the people..
Decreased trade impacts the people, while those in power continue their black market trading, and reduced communication makes it easier for such regimes to control the flow of information to the people.
If anything, increased trade and closer relations with such governments would be far more effective.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
You aren't using much, so there must be a big stockpile somewhere.
When I say big, I mean yuuuuuuge.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Standing up for human rights worldwide does not diminish our ability to deal with our own problems.
Yes it does. People will only expend a certain amount of their time and effort on their jobs -- this goes for our elected representatives, too.
Human and monetary resources focusing on improving situations halfway around the world are not available to be focused on domestic issues.
In other words, politicians are going to be ignoring the U.S. while focusing on trade sanctions, diplomatic relations, or military actions to fix problems that frankly are none of our business.
I'll just wait here for someone to call the Cameroon government right-wing, or start making comparisons to the Trump administration.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Just as easy to block.
Ah, that may be the falling point. They're not so good on puppet governments. They don't like foreigners barging in and trying to tell them what to do.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Actually, the Cameroonians I've known have been very nice and happy people.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
How would you circumvent it? In the cities, you'd get you internet from the national telephone company - whose routers would seem to have been switched off. Or you'd go to your mobile phone, which goes to the phone company's routers and then to the same switched off routers. Got satellite equipment? Ah now you've got an option.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Wireless mesh, ad hoc networks. Even with all its latency it's still faster than the pony express...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"I have a plan for solving this immediate problem after a half decade or so of work" is not a terribly helpful solution for an immediate problem.
Is there actually a single working example of such a system being deployed "in the wild"? The cafeteria of a university with a large computing science department not being "in the wild". A town of 50000 people being more like an "in the wild" example.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
It should have been developed a long time ago. The problem has existed for quite a while. The people with the money and talent have other priorities I guess. And like with good encryption, obstruction is probably the biggest cause of the delay.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
And no government is going to want multiple interfaces to the outside world. To quote a manager of mine in a former life, "I want to be able to walk into the radio room, and with one blow of an axe know that the only person talking to my Boss is me". (The next day he banned mobile phones from being brought to the site at all. They had to be left onshore.)
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
And no government is going to want multiple interfaces to the outside world.
Precisely... They want control. And don't conflate standardization with monopolization.There is no such thing as a 'natural' monopoly. All monopolies require protection by force, in other words, obstruction. Let's not forget who the government serves. All the antitrust regulation is a sham. Transportation, energy production and communications are perfect examples
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Themselves.
YOU might have a constitution that says differently, but I'm sure your government themselves want to change that inconvenient truth.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Maybe you misunderstood. I was saying that the government serves the biggest 'contributors' and most lavish lobbyists. It will regulate/tax competition (which would include ad hoc networking where running an open wifi is prohibited) out of existence. It must, or the money will go to the 'opposition'. That is how a monopoly prevails. The constitution is just a piece of paper. It hardly merits any consideration in the discussion.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”