When Your Government Is Clueless
Saturday
Sep 8, 2007
The Boy Bastos issue:
It’s obviously just a case of clashing personalities. I doubt if there will be any basis to charging Mr. Boy Bastos in our legal courts, aside from the potentially libelous inclusion of a certain senator’s name on the boybastos.com domain registration info.
I also doubt Mr. Mark Verzo himself produces the pornographic content on his website. And in all likelihood, his web host is located off-shore (in US soil, perhaps?). So does the Philippine legal system have jurisdiction? I’m not sure. I haven’t checked the e-commerce act lately. But I would think that references to geographic location of data would be murky at best. We are, after all, still in the stone age of information technology.
(Why Stone Age? Think of the ZTE broadband deal. Incidentally, having worked in government for three years, I’m aware that the current administration has “fast-tracked” some deals with the Chinese government for some ODA projects. So that means even with government checks and balances, it only takes just a word from the higher-ups to get people to “approve” projects. So gov’t reviews and negotiations just become ministerial, in effect.).
It’s the intarwebs people! Web 2.0! User-submitted content. I wonder what the authorities will book Mr. Verzo with. And I wonder why they had to confiscate equipment (maybe they can charge him with running pirated software?).
Remember the Netopia lobby to censor the Internet? What about the congressman who blamed porn proliferation on 3G and broadband?
We need new blood in government. Maybe I’ll run in the next elections.
Update: Second thoughts on Boy Bastos (and Why Government needs people like us).
Cracking Down on Internet Use
Sunday
Apr 16, 2006
The Chinese government seems to be cracking down on all forms of free Internet use, free meaning freedom to do, read, or write anything. First they shut down “unlicensed” Internet cafes. Then they wanted everyone who runs a website to register their real identities with the authorities. Now they’re requiring everyone with email servers to register for a license first. Of course, they continuously ban potentially sensitive websites and blogs (even the entire blogspot and other domains are banned).
Techdirt was correct in worrying about the costs to the bureaucracy. It must be a nightmare for Chinese officials to have to do every bit of censorship and monitoring big brother wants to implement. And I think it’s pretty silly and downright stupid for a government to suppress the flow and exchange of information.
So ban me, China!
U.S. bomb strike in Iraq kills civilians
Friday
Jan 6, 2006
The world’s remaining military superpower, with all the technology in the world to accurately plan and execute air strikes, manages to screw up.
Sad thing is that civilians get caught in the crossfire, and are treated as collateral damage.
From CNN.com: U.S. says bomb hit wrong house in Iraq
A bomb that killed six civilians Monday near Baiji, Iraq, missed its target by 65 feet (20 meters) and hit the wrong home, military officials said.
…
The strike flattened a family’s home, killing six of the family members and wounding three others, said a spokesman for the Salaheddin provincial governor’s office. A father and daughter survived with only minor injuries, he said.
The bomb had “successful effects against the insurgents,” the statement added
…
[The White House] emphasized the U.S. position that its military “goes out of the way to avoid civilian casualties.”
Somehow I’m not convinced.
Search Engine Optimizers attack the Philippine Gov’t. The Administration strikes back!
Thursday
Nov 24, 2005
Activists are now bringing their fight to the Internet. Young Radicals,
a blog featuring “radical youth’s views, activities, debate, ideas,
reviews and literary works” called for a Google Bomb featuring the
profiles of some of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s cabinet officials as sinungaling
(liar), sira ulo (crazy), and bugaw (pimp). This is pretty much similar to the Google Bombing of U.S. President George Bush as “miserable failure.”
The group has likwise succeeded in directing queries for “pekeng pangulo” (or fake president) to President Arroyo’s personal website.
You can try it yourself. Key in “sinungaling” on Google, and the first result is Office of the President Website – The Cabinet – Ignacio “Toting” Bunye. Key in “miserable failure” (even without the quotes), and you get Biography of President George W. Bush. And of course, there’s the query for “pekeng pangulo” which directs users to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Website.
The Administration has found a way to make it seem that the Google
bombing backfired by redirecting readers referred by Google to the
Young radicals blog. So a user who clicks on the first Google
result (or clicks “I’m feeling lucky” instead of “search”) will think
that the top result for sinungaling or liar is actually the Young Radicals page. Inq7.net even reported about this in an article entitled “Google Bombing on Arroyo Officials backfire”. Check out Migs Paraz’s post about the incident on Pinoy.tech.blog.
When the user clicks, he is sent to the Young Radicals page, apparently
by Google. But is actually the Office of the President’s web server
that was set up to do it. It checks if the user was sent by Google
using the Referrer header. (Mispelled as “Referer”).
But the Young Radicals site claims that the battle hasn’t been actually won by the Arroyo Camp.
Apparently, the government’s set of computer experts and
its rich resources were no match to the overwhelming anti-Arroyo
sentiment now engulfing the country and the internet.
True, the Google bombing incident is now talk of the Pinoy blogosphere
and techie and political e-groups (at least those I’m part of).
And when the blogosphere talks, there’s no stopping what can be said or
done. The best way for the Administration to combat these attacks
is not to resort to their own cyber warfare tactics.
IMHO, it’s best to be part of the discussion themselves.
There is a pseudo-President Arroyo blog over at kgma.wordpress.com. I think it’s high time for President Arroyo to set up a real blog of her own.
Keep your traffic violation tickets: LTO could scam you!
Tuesday
Oct 25, 2005
Got this via email. Apparently, some employees of the Philippine Land Transportation Office, with all its computerization projects, have found a way to perpetrate yet another corrupt practice–this time in the light of having ICT facilities to aid their work.
The scheme basically involves the LTO personnel not deleting your violation from their databases after you pay the fine. You end up paying for your violation twice!
So keep your receipts!
And we thought computerization projects were designed to curb such practices!
If ever you get caught for traffic
violation, please keep the receipts for the penalty you paid until such time
that you renew your license again. With the 3-year renewal period of licenses
and the LTO’s computerization system, their personnel
may have developed a new racket.
This morning, I renewed my driver’s license. The LTO office in
Binan refused to renew it because they said I have an
outstanding traffic violation. They told me that I got caught for reckless
speeding in February 12,
2004 and I failed to settle it. They
showed me a computer printout to this effect. I infomed them that I already settled it, otherwise, I would
not have my license back since, it was confiscated.
They said I might have dealt with fixers
in taking it back. I told them that I never deal with fixers. I also
told them that if they acknowledged that I might have dealt with fixers then,
someone inside the LTO must also be involved since I was able to get my license
back. They said if I really settled it, then I should show them the
receipt and they would delete the entry in the computer — they said maybe they
just missed to delete it.
Of course, I have no receipt to show
them. That was almost two years ago.
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