Ethiopia is Blocking the Internet Again To Stifle Unrest in Its Troubled Eastern Region (qz.com) 34
Ethiopia's government has regressed to an old habit: shutting down the internet. From a report: Reports show the internet has been blocked in the eastern cities of Jijiga, Dire Dawa, and Harar following violence and simmering political tensions. Over the past weekend, federal troops were deployed to the eastern Somali regional state, leading to a standoff with local police, lootings, and death. The region's leader Abdi Mohamoud Omar, better known as Abdi Iley, was forced to resign and replaced by his finance minister Ahmed Abdi Mohammed. Following the unrest, officials cut off internet access to the region, with no explanation from either the ministry of communications or the sole mobile operator and internet provider Ethio Telecom. The move is indicative of an old Ethiopian government trick, blocking the internet or access to specific social media sites like Facebook and Twitter during anti-government protests or unease.
A time I agreed with Trump (Score:2, Interesting)
Ethiopia and Somalia are examples of shit hole countries.
I don't care if it is politically incorrect but the fact is they are shit hole countries. There is a big Ethiopian community where I live and they left because is sucks over there. Wonderful people and awesome food! See, the good people emigrate and leave the assholes behind to kill each other and fuck up the country some more.
When someone is a meth addict, you don't pussy foot around and say that he's a developing sober person.
You call him a fucki
Re: (Score:3)
It's dictatorship. You need the people to be economically free [juliansimon.com] to generate wealth and progress for all. Without having to bend the knee to a hundred local officials, corrupt or otherwise, to do anything, free people can respond to and meet needs amd wants, and do so faster than shortages can become serious or chronic.
But dictatorship, with little chance of economic success, myriad "additional costs", and the omnipresent fear of falling afoul of someone in power, most say to hell with it, and there's the "
Re: (Score:3)
See, the good people emigrate and leave the assholes behind to kill each other and fuck up the country some more.
There's your mistake. It's not the "good people" that get out, leaving the bad people behind; the people that get out are the people who can get out. There are plenty of factors that keep people in their home country that do not preclude them from being good people. And quite often the people who have the means to get out are the assholes killing people because they've taken from other people.
I have a basic understanding of African history and what the Europeans did to them, but fuck'in A; they are gone now and have been for decades. What's the problem?! Why so many failed states?
The problem is twofold: first of all, Europe fucked up Africa enough that it still hasn't recovered (same with th
Re: (Score:3)
The problem is twofold: first of all, Europe fucked up Africa enough that it still hasn't recovered (same with the Middle East).
The second part is that quite often their own government screws them over.
Let's assume for the moment that I agree with you. Let's assume the problems with Africa started with European influence, and the governments in Africa are inefficient and corrupt. So, how do we fix it?
Do we fix this by allowing waves of immigrants from Africa into Europe? How does that resolve the problems? Seems to me that allowing refugees to leave these shit hole nations might be a good means to resolve the immediate problem of people being mistreated, but so long as these corrupt governments are al
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's the curse of resource-rich economies. For a short term thinker -- which includes most politicians and businesses -- it's so profitable to just dig and sell that nobody with the resources works on doing anything else. Why waste your time trying to convince a company make a long term manufacturing investment when you have companies begging to pay you huge bribes for resource ext
Re: (Score:2)
4) Still haven't recovered from the colonialists pulling out
I'm still not clear on why the only industry for most countries is resource extraction. Do they manufacture ANYTHING in Africa?
They don't manufacture much in Africa because they still haven't recovered from the colonialists raping their countries and then pulling out. That's left unstable situations behind that discourage investment. Still, various automakers are saying that Africa is going to be their next manufacturing hub, because it's the last place on the planet with cheap labor and virtually nonexistent labor law.
Re:A time I agreed with Trump (Score:4, Interesting)
they still haven't recovered from the colonialists raping their countries and then pulling out.
This is not supported by evidence. The countries where colonialism was longest and deepest (e.g: South Africa, Ghana, Kenya) are doing the best, because of strong institutions, rule of law, and economic ties to the wider world. Countries where colonialism was shortest and weakest, and tribalism left intact, are doing the worst.
The Germans occupied Norway for longer than the Italians occupied Ethiopia. Blaming Ethiopia's problems on "colonialism" is absurd.
By any objective measure, Africans that gave up tribalism and adopted western ways, are doing relatively well. If you look at income, infant mortality, maternal mortality, violence, longevity, nutrition, literacy, health, sexual abuse, alcoholism, or any other measure of human welfare that you can think of, traditional tribal societies are at the absolute bottom.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm white, but I like Ethiopia and Ethiopians. I'll tell you why. First, they are not Muslims, they are majority Christian and have been for so long there is a myth that their former emperor (Ras Taferi also known as Haile Salassie) claimed to have lineage going back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. I'm Atheist, but I find stomaching xian bullshit is easier than Islamic bullshit, since there is less "cut the head off the infidel" stuff going on (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beheading_in_Islam).
At what point... (Score:2)
...does shutting down the internet just lead to more unrest? Wouldn't a better strategy be, "Eithiopia is footing the bill to make Netflix free during peak protest hours"?
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking something very similar... blocking the internet is just going to agitate the issue.
Re: (Score:2)
...does shutting down the internet just lead to more unrest? Wouldn't a better strategy be, "Eithiopia is footing the bill to make Netflix free during peak protest hours"?
Loss of the internet can mean several things. Maybe it's the government shutting things down, or maybe they just got their internet from Sprint or Mediacom. Blaming this on the government could be dismissed as rumor if the communications are disrupted, because verifying anything over the usual communications channels is impossible. This is especially true if such disruptions are routine. I don't know how reliable their internet might be in Ethiopia, but if it is so fragile that the government can shut
Sounds reasonable (Score:2)
Halo droppable Comlink anyone?? (Score:2)
How hard would it be to design an airdroppable package that had a SatLink , a wifi hotspot and Solar? power (with battery backup)??
If you want to err "Church it up" a bit you could have aid supplies form some of the packaging.
In fact SLASHMIND CHALLENGE TIME
lets see what y'all com up with
Re: (Score:2)
How hard would it be to design an airdroppable package that had a SatLink , a wifi hotspot and Solar? power (with battery backup)??
The only people with a clear motivation to do this are the Eritreans or Somalis, both of whom have enough of their own problems. Eritrea is on the brink of economic collapse, and the last thing they want right now is to rekindle their border war with Ethiopia (basically, two bald men fighting over a comb). Somalia is politically and militarily fragmented, so helping their kin in the Ethiopian borderlands is not a priority.
The ethnic Somalis in this region have ties to al Shabaab, which is considered a ter
starlink is coming (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No need for a prefabbed hidden antenna. Just cover it over with white vinyl attached to a 1/2" PVC frame or similar. Disguise it as something else. That's what they put over microwave dishes that makes them look like kettle drums.
Shutting of the internet would CAUSE unrest (Score:1)
...in most of the world. You know, the parts that have ever actually had the internet.