Monday, March 24, 2008

Freedom of Speech: America and Dubai

Dubai seems to be a quite charming part of the world. I've posted about some of the remarkable architectural projects there in another blog.

But, all things considered, I'd rather deal with Minnesota winters, than Dubai's benevolent dictatorship.

I learned that FLCKR is banned there: and that at least part of GO! Smell the Flowers got banned. The GO! ban might have been in China, though, since the 'objectionable' material involved Tibet: or "Xizang," as China likes to call the 'province' they conquered in the fifties.

Related posts, on censorship, propaganda, and freedom of speech.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi from Dubai!

As 2 brits living here we have adjusted to the East meets West vision and having studied on the West Coast of the U.S (Cal Poly) and love travelling this was a no brainer for us to come and smell the flowers here...

HOWEVER - it is a dictatorship we live in - by no means a Saudi Arabia (there are a few hundred bars here as part of Hotels here and its a relatively safe n crime free place to live) which is about to go through major change with the population bulge...

Rumours are the with oil going up again Dubai may depeg from the $ if this stops =we'll have to see...

Oh it turns out our site is fully accessible in dubai - flickr isn't - neither is the ENTOURAGE application on facebook.....no consistency in what is banned and what is not...

Anyway - we'll keep you posted...

GO! Smell the flowers

Brian H. Gill said...

GO! Smell the flowers,

Thanks for the comments, and insight.

And, I'd certainly appreciate it, if you'd keep me (and this blog) posted.

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Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.