Are these people really sharing the same planet with us, or are they a visitation from some alternate bizzaro universe?
Other than kicking-down the doors of everyone that has a phone, how do they plan on carrying out their edict? The ISPs are all in Pakistan, and the phone lines all run into Pakistan, thanks to the utter lack of modern facilities in Afganistan. I don’t doubt that the Taliban is willing to do a door-to-door search, but they’ll have to basicly burn every modem in the country to enforce this one.
Well, regardless of how much sense the edict makes, as to how they plan to enforce it, two points:
Would anyone be willing to risk being caught/informed upon? The fear factor alone might very well cause people to just stop using it - that’s not a regime that I’d be crossing lightly.
“Thanks to the utter lack of modern facilities” - that very statement leads one to believe that the universe of potential houses to search is relatively limited.
You’re talking about the same folks that banned paper bags, their reasoning being that said bag could be recycled, and could contain pieces formerly part of a Quran. Banning the internet, by comparison, is an achievable goal set by lucid individuals. These are people that believe beatings are required if you trim your beard, and that women are not deserving of medical care. There are quite a few problems before we even get anywhere close to censorship laws. Additionally, you could probably count all the significant concentrations of computers in Afghanistan without taking your shoes off. When you’ve also got control of ISPs, phone lines, and every other goddamn thing, it’s not even an effort.
Ah, but they don’t have control over the phone lines and ISPs. Those all are located in, or originate from, and are supported by, Pakistan. I suppose they could just cut the lines, but then they’d lose the use of telephones as well. The ban includes computers belonging to Afgan Gov’t agencies and international relief organizations, and I suspect that there are more computers than one would expect in Afganistan, albeit nowhere even close to what one would see in the industrialized world.
Essentially the only way to enforce this, that I can see, would be a house-to-house search.
The point about it being rational compared to the paper bag thing (which I hadn’t heard of before) is well taken, and I realize that this is far short of their worst abuses, but the thought of how much time and resource they’re willing to waste hunting a 'Will ‘o the Wisp’ is stunning.
I think pakistan should be very concerned. With their fervor, the Taliban could follow up their ban by ruthlessly invading pakistani territory and knocking out Internet-enabled telephone lines going into Afghanistan.
I shudder at the thought of another American intrusion…
but really I think we’re looking beyond the largest injustice brought about by the Taliban…THEY DESTROYED 70% OF THE WORLD’S OPIUM CROP! Now I’ve gotten shoot up my heroin from god-knows-where.
I suspect Semtex is easier to get there. And a much more efficient alternative anyway. Crap! Now I’m going to be monitored by Echelon for the next thirty days…
Do you have a cite(s) for these? It’s not that I don’t believe you–I do–but I want to tell a few people about that and it’s easier to point to something than say “someone on a message board told me…”
Are these the same guys who blew up the ancient Bhudda statues a couple of months ago? They certainly keep busy.
Control freaks like the Taliban won’t be content with making life miserable for the people within their borders. Eventually, they will find a way to majorly piss off their neighbors and their rule will end. It’s too bad that ordinary Afghanis will have to pay the price.
–DW “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good torment us without end, for they so do with the approval of their own conscience.” - C.S Lewis