Jailhouse block
Fly away for a couple of days and return, straight back into the Stone Age.
Exhibit I: The courts manage to jail a female tourist for seven weeks without trial for having legal prescription drugs in her blood. Codeine in the form of a paracetamol-based painkiller: a pill available prescription-free in any normal chemist in any normal western country, where informed and educated medical people set the rules for science and medicine.
Very happily, the story has made the international media, in the UK Telegraph, Sun, BBC, as well as newspapers in Egypt, India, Italy, South Africa, Bahrain and others:
"It is understood that Ms Wilkinson, from Balcombe, West Sussex, was then asked to provide a urine specimen which was found to contain codeine and temazepam given to her by her GP in the UK.
[...]
"Ms Wilkinson, who was on holiday when arrested, told The Sun that the authorities in the UAE had refused to let her go despite her GP sending a letter saying he had prescribed the drugs.
"They just won't believe me. I've had reports from my doctor sent over but they say they want them translated to Arabic."
Seven weeks to get a few words translated into Arabic? Hardly. This whole incident is an appalling fuck up, and the wealth of bad publicity and damage to the "western, tolerant" tourism-friendly image of the Emirates is thoroughly deserved.
Exhibit II: Etisalat has blocked IP telephony provider Skype. Despite IP telephony being legalised from 2005, the Big Golf Balls apparently couldn't bear that people might be able to communicate with overseas loved ones at a less than extortionate rate:
"When the New Year comes, residents here may start making international phone calls via the internet without the fear of being penalised, industry officials said."
Exhibit I: The courts manage to jail a female tourist for seven weeks without trial for having legal prescription drugs in her blood. Codeine in the form of a paracetamol-based painkiller: a pill available prescription-free in any normal chemist in any normal western country, where informed and educated medical people set the rules for science and medicine.
Very happily, the story has made the international media, in the UK Telegraph, Sun, BBC, as well as newspapers in Egypt, India, Italy, South Africa, Bahrain and others:
"It is understood that Ms Wilkinson, from Balcombe, West Sussex, was then asked to provide a urine specimen which was found to contain codeine and temazepam given to her by her GP in the UK.
[...]
"Ms Wilkinson, who was on holiday when arrested, told The Sun that the authorities in the UAE had refused to let her go despite her GP sending a letter saying he had prescribed the drugs.
"They just won't believe me. I've had reports from my doctor sent over but they say they want them translated to Arabic."
Seven weeks to get a few words translated into Arabic? Hardly. This whole incident is an appalling fuck up, and the wealth of bad publicity and damage to the "western, tolerant" tourism-friendly image of the Emirates is thoroughly deserved.
Exhibit II: Etisalat has blocked IP telephony provider Skype. Despite IP telephony being legalised from 2005, the Big Golf Balls apparently couldn't bear that people might be able to communicate with overseas loved ones at a less than extortionate rate:
"When the New Year comes, residents here may start making international phone calls via the internet without the fear of being penalised, industry officials said."
24 Comments:
Big Golf Balls, I like it! I think the point about VOIP and Skype here is that BGB will only allow it if they get revenue from it. The Skype model clearly cuts out the payment aspect, and so Etisalat block it. Etisalat will indeed be encourqaging the use of VOIP, but on their terms - you will have to pay for it (even though it could theoretically be free) - probably at similar price levels to POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service), and Big Golf Balls will make even bigger profits!
I can't test at the moment, as my Skyped-computer is currently out of action, but have they managed to block the app from working as well?
I can't test it either, but there's really no way they can do anything to software that you have installed on your computer.
Skype.com comes up with
'Network Error (tcp_error)
A communication error occurred: "Operation timed out" '
rather than the usual Big Golf Balls filthy pervert message.
I Googled and found some high end techie stuff about how an ISP could (theoretically) block the Skype app, but if it went over my head you can well imagine it flew straight over the BGBs as well.
I'm getting "timed out" errors too for Skype.com, which is a little odd. I was definitely getting the "cultural and moral values" crap before.
You can still download the latest version from a Dubai / UAE ip address using another mirror other than skype.com. Google for "download Skype 1.3.0.51" which is the latest version that includes video. Use the page from www.softpedia.com which is http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Fax-Telephony/Skype.shtml
Shouldn't be a problem. Happy skype.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I don't agree that Etisalat employees suck. On the contrary, I have found the ones I have come into contact with exceptionally helpful and intelligent. The IT support guys, for one, are all amazing, and available 24/7 to sort out even the dumbest problems.
And nearly all the senior execs oppose censorship and the proxy, but are forced to run it because of federal law.
I do think they have issues with accountability: but they have been a monopoly for a long time so this is no surprise. They need to discount people's bills when massive outage occurs, and they need to be more informative and more responsive (there should have been a recorded message immediately on the helpline about the cable, for example) but they are improving.
The problem is that from what I can work out, the number of users is surging at a rate the proxy server capacity can't keep up with, hence the appallingly slow http browsing all the time. If you download via P2P (obviously when the cables are in one piece) you can see that you are in fact getting the full bandwith you pay for, but surfing http even with broadband feels like a 28k dial-up much of the time.
Sorry, I'm going to have to censor the post two above, because I also don't want refererrals coming for that phrase either. Here's the post with one line removed:
martijn said:
Don't you get fed-up with a provider that shamelessly blocks traffic to clearly non-adult sites?
The idea was that Etisalat would filter anything that is 'bad' / 'naughty' or 'dangerous' because apparently you can not decide for yourselves..
Instead you even get banned from windows update, orkut, MSN, skype and just about every other 'community' site. Imagine, people might start to communicate!
I do not understand how a whole country puts up with this...
Etisalat probably removed skype.com from their DNS servers, if you try and ping it, or somehow resolve it you will find its IP address, add /index.php or /index.html or /index.htm you should be able to access it once more.
Even if you get to download skype, you won't be able to use it. Down with the BGB!!!
Even if you get to download skype, you won't be able to use it. Down with the BGB!!!
Is this person referring to Skye to Skype, Skype Out, Skype In, or what?
I've heard that Skype does work in the UAE, you just cannot recharge it. I also heard that Oman lifted its ban. Any comments?
At this point (5Dec) you can use skype, the program; you just can't connect to skype.com BTW, if you want to download the program just go to download.com The main thing you can't do with skype is the skypeout service, where you buy credits from skype for a quite reasonable call from your pc to a phone. Otherwise, pc to pc skyping is still able to happen. (although stay tuned -- they're talking about nixing that too!)
So, Etisalat is now overstepping their authority. They blame the VOIP on TRA. They have just removed download.com from their DNS server, so you can't download any software period!
I have a suggestion for Etisalat. Please block the entire Internet. I think people will get the message loud and clear. First of all you charge us an arm and a leg - $75 for a decent internet connection at home. Then you strip the engine out, give us the 4 tires and a steering wheel controlled by you and call it the Internet.
I hope that Etisalat blocks every site imaginable. Everyday, you are making businesses turn away from considering UAE and those already here are being asked to pack up and leave. Let's see who wins this battle - the Businesses or Etisalat
Down with UAE
We were just about to purchase a family appartment in Dubai. That's over. Finish. I can't cope anymore with this "country".
Blocking VOIP and preventing us to call our family in Germany is clearly NOT acceptable.
Dubai wants to play in the big players' courtyards, but they are acting like North Korea.
No investment from our side. Etisalat: you lost.
Still waiting impatiently for Corsair's fix to the SKYPE problem.
Any progress?
I arrived in Dubai yesterday morning and spent most of the day trying to get Skype working. I tried various methods found across different forums but in the end I decided to bite the bullet and part with $39.99 for personalvpn from WiTopia, http://www.witopia.net. The setup takes about 10 minutes and I have to say I'm very impressed. Skype now working fine and all "restricted" pages are now available. I'm no expert but I think it's pretty good value for money if you're spending time in Dubai. Up until this morning I didn't even what a VPN was so it's been an education. Guess there's a postive in somewhere! Thanks Etisalat...
I am raged with anti-Etisalat Feelings! or whoever responsible for this stupid censoring. *UCK YOU MOTHER *UCKERS!!
It is really sad for people in UAE.
Etisalat are really going be a pain..
Dont Expect anything from ETISALAT...
ETISALAT dont provide service... they provide... problems...!!!
Hi, ORKUT was working just fine till yesterday night. all of a sudden Etisalat blocked it.I wrote to Etisalat, Gulf news & report it to google...see what happens.. lets start a campaign for Orkut. .and if some body is calling it a dating site or whatever they should block mobile phones.. because these phones are the worst X rated device the modern world has ever seen. .if you know what i mean.
why have they banned orkut.. the last resort to get in touch with your folks and friends is over.. is du offering internet services?
Well there Are A Few Ways To Unblock Everything Free As well As paid
if Intrested Mail Me At
unblockuae@gmail.com
Rgds
If You want to Unblock Orkut,
Skype and Any other voip or blocked softwares, then visit this blog today and it
will solve all of your problems... http://skypeuae.blogspot.com/
Hello,
I use Witopia personnalVPN to call with Skype and to access censored contents when I am in Dubai or in China.
It works very good and is very easy to use.
You can download it from the Witopia personnalVPN Homepage.
Contact me by email if you need more informations : info@helpnote.net
I find it bizarre that I cannot access any site that might be by some stretch of imagination be called a "dating" site while in Dubai, but if I wanted I could go to one of the five-star hotels and have a choice of the hundreds of prostitutes working there! There's a lot more whores in Dubai hotels than I have ever seen in Europe, apart from the red light area of Amsterdam! What a bunch of hypocrites they all are, and it has put me off ever wanting to live there.
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