the Internet in Egypt

Without broadband, the Internet in Egypt

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | January 31, 2011, 8:28am

When Egypt cut the Internet off for the vast majority of its citizens, the Egyptian government did a frighteningly good job of turning off the Internet. But, despite their efforts, in the days that have followed, Egyptians are reaching out to each other and the world with a mix of old-fashioned dial-up modems and satellite Internet.

Make no mistake about it, the Egyptian government did what they intended to do: They’ve cut their people from using the modern broadband Internet. Using cobbled together technology, however, Egyptian Internet users has continued on.

Thanks to dial-up modems, some Egyptians are able to login to international modem pools outside the government’s control. Internet activist groups like Werebuild and Telecomix are publishing lists of international modem-dial up numbers. While, there are several Egyptian ISPs that offer dial-up, but these, at best, still keep their users locked in Egypt, and I’m told by sources in Egypt that they often don’t work even for connecting with other Egyptian sites.

Relatively few phone lines, however, can dial out of Egypt. Some voice mobile phone services, but not texting, aka Short Message Service (SMS) or data services, are back in operations in a few areas. This has opened the door, though, to using mobile phones to dial into international dial-up modem pools. Once, there Egyptians can use Bluetooth-equipped phones to connect with computers for a cobbled-together modem Internet connection. Full instructions on how to do this can be found on this blog site.

In addition, a few well-off users have been able to connect to the Internet with satellite Internet services and phones from companies such as Thuraya, which appears to be the company that Al Jazeera uses to keep its continuous Egyptian news coverage up; Iridium; and Inmarsat. All these companies offer direct satellite Internet coverage as well as voice.

None of these solutions, even the modems, are cheap however. It costs Egyptians several dollarsa minute just for a 28Kbps (Kilobits per second) dial-up connection.

In the meantime though Egypt’s reigning government is staggering. Perhaps one of the first signs we’ll see of it falling-if it falls-will be the restoration of Egypt to the full world-wide Internet. Just as the broadband Internet took only minutes for the government to take down, it may take little more time to bring it up again.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/without-broadband-the-internet-in-egypt/632?tag=nl.e550

They're asking for trouble cutting access to the internet. If there's anything that's likely to cause riots, it's depriving Egyptian men of a means to chat up Western 'whores'.

BecMacFeegle wrote:They're asking for trouble cutting access to the internet. If there's anything that's likely to cause riots, it's depriving Egyptian men of a means to chat up Western 'whores'.

I don't know what point you thought you were making there cable but it is not "anti muslim hate". Have you ever been to Egypt? BecMacFeegle and I have and there is an attitude that western women go to Egypt, not to experience the culture and see the monuments, but to have sex with as many locals as they possibly could manage in a week or two.

And it isn't limited to Muslim Arabs.

Did a post get deleted? I'm confused.

That "anti-Muslim hate" comment is exactly the kind of thing cable would say, but I don't see where he actually did say it.

No, this was his comment when he reported the post by BecMacFeegle. Though no doubt I will be accused of showing favouritism to my own wife. Either way, his report was unjustified.

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:No, this was his comment when he reported the post by BecMacFeegle. Though no doubt I will be accused of showing favouritism to my own wife. Either way, his report was unjustified.

Wife or no, it was not a justified report. And Bec's observation of that cultural phenomena was damned funny too...

I thought it was funny too. Where's your sense of humor cable?

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:I don't know what point you thought you were making there cable but it is not "anti muslim hate". Have you ever been to Egypt? BecMacFeegle and I have and there is an attitude that western women go to Egypt, not to experience the culture and see the monuments, but to have sex with as many locals as they possibly could manage in a week or two.

And it isn't limited to Muslim Arabs.

yes I have.. sex tourism is not limited to Western Women nor are all Western Women tourists after sex.. come to that the same can be said about Western Men tourists, not all are after sex.. would it be funny if we made jokes about Western Men having sex with Egyptian children ???

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:No, this was his comment when he reported the post by BecMacFeegle. Though no doubt I will be accused of showing favouritism to my own wife. Either way, his report was unjustified.

dblboggie wrote:Wife or no, it was not a justified report. And Bec's observation of that cultural phenomena was damned funny too...

kronos wrote:I thought it was funny too. Where's your sense of humor cable?

our sense of humor tell much more about ourselves then it do's about the funniness of the joke.

cable2 wrote:

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:I don't know what point you thought you were making there cable but it is not "anti muslim hate". Have you ever been to Egypt? BecMacFeegle and I have and there is an attitude that western women go to Egypt, not to experience the culture and see the monuments, but to have sex with as many locals as they possibly could manage in a week or two.

And it isn't limited to Muslim Arabs.

yes I have.. sex tourism is not limited to Western Women nor are all Western Women tourists after sex.. come to that the same can be said about Western Men tourists, not all are after sex.. would it be funny if we made jokes about Western Men having sex with Egyptian children ???

WTF are you talking about? This isn't about sex tourism, this is about arab men presuming all western women are sluts.

nor are all Western Women tourists after sex..

Specifically this bit you need to tell to the men of Egypt but I guess they are the victims here, these voracious western women who cannot control their libidos going out to Egypt to rape these poor defenceless arab men.

Get real cable.

cable2 wrote:sex tourism is not limited to Western Women nor are all Western Women tourists after sex..

No one said they were, and the fact that you think someone said this shows that you completely missed the point of Matt's explanation of Bec's joke.

The point of Bec's joke was not that Western women are sex tourists, but that Egyptian men think they are. (Obviously not all Egyptian men think this, but apparently enough do to joke about it).

come to that the same can be said about Western Men tourists, not all are after sex.. would it be funny if we made jokes about Western Men having sex with Egyptian children ???

It could be, if that phenomenon is widespread. I don't know if Egypt is a hot spot for child prostitution. But I know Thailand is. Could a joke about Western men coming to Thailand to fuck children be funny? Sure. For something to have humor potential, there needs to be some kernel of truth to it, and there is a large kernel of truth to the idea that Western men go to Thailand to fuck kids. If this is NOT true of Egypt, then such a joke would not be funny, it would be bizarre.

our sense of humor tell much more about ourselves then it do's about the funniness of the joke.

This from the guy who says that calling dbl me old mate, me old fruit, me old fig leaf holder's assistant would have everyone rolling on the floor with laughter where he is from. Wherever that is. You seem to think that humor is something objective, and we can't see its true nature accurately, like you can.

So what does the fact that everyone but you found the joke funny tell us about everyone but you?

Blimey. I didn't think that comment would cause such a fuss. I'm flabbergasted that it could be interpreted as anti-Muslim, it was an observation based on my personal experience with a number of Egyptian men - and not JUST Muslim men - both in Egypt and online when I was younger. `

Maybe you have to have experienced life as a white teenage girl to really get it. Better to laugh about it than get all pissed off, burn my bra and start wearing dungarees I should think. Maybe I shouldn't have said that - perhaps jokes about feminists are also tasteless? Or is it only tongue in cheek comments about political issues you're personally crusading over that upset you, Cable?

It seems you think that if a person makes any negative comment which may encapsulate some portion of the Muslim community or belief that they must automatically be Islamaphobic - regardless of the truth or context of that comment . Well, if I apply your standards to you - then your attempt to censor my comment was an attempt to support or obscure sexism toward western women and you are, therefore, a misogynist.

And before you get upset, that's applying your standards, Cable, not mine.

BecMacFeegle wrote:Blimey.

Don't you mean "oh goodness gosh golly gumdrops"?

BecMacFeegle wrote:Blimey. I didn't think that comment would cause such a fuss. I'm flabbergasted that it could be interpreted as anti-Muslim, it was an observation based on my personal experience with a number of Egyptian men - and not JUST Muslim men - both in Egypt and online when I was younger. `

Maybe you have to have experienced life as a white teenage girl to really get it. Better to laugh about it than get all pissed off, burn my bra and start wearing dungarees I should think. Maybe I shouldn't have said that - perhaps jokes about feminists are also tasteless? Or is it only tongue in cheek comments about political issues you're personally crusading over that upset you, Cable?

It seems you think that if a person makes any negative comment which may encapsulate some portion of the Muslim community or belief that they must automatically be Islamaphobic - regardless of the truth or context of that comment . Well, if I apply your standards to you - then your attempt to censor my comment was an attempt to support or obscure sexism toward western women and you are, therefore, a misogynist.

And before you get upset, that's applying your standards, Cable, not mine.

I remember when I was down "Far End" of the lions hill road in Zambia [which was a bout as deep into village life of Southern Africa as one could go] there was a road side market and amongst the piles of Muti body parts where stacks of wrapped European porn mags all of them had white women.. talking to the guys at the market and even though none had known any white women each could tell me that all while women acted the same as those they seen in the porn mags..

I found your joke as funny as I would if the joke had been made about Zambian men.. the joke could not be seen as just a cutting comment on the views village men had of all white women but as the reinforcement the views white's have of African men.

as for my comment of white women as sexual tourists.. there is no doubt European women have over the last couple of decades started to match European men.. all one needs to do is go down to the beaches in Cyprus or Turkey or on the black sea to meet Brit's on the pull.. what used to be kept by the Brits or German or French women to the beaches of Spain has spread out across the world.. once the view of the locals are of drunken European women looking for free sex it is hard to change such views.. and such jokes reinforce corrupt views.

as for my comment on European guys in Egypt looking for child sex as a long history.. when the French pushed the Mamluks and all things Egyptian became fashionable.. it became a excerpted part of the European sexual tourists trade.
I know I have been give this un-happy reputation in the forum as I see politicks as a matter of life and death.. but I do laugh.

cable2 wrote:I know I have been give this un-happy reputation in the forum as I see politicks as a matter of life and death.. but I do laugh.

That's not why.

cable2 wrote:as for my comment of white women as sexual tourists.. there is no doubt European women have over the last couple of decades started to match European men.. all one needs to do is go down to the beaches in Cyprus or Turkey or on the black sea to meet Brit's on the pull.. what used to be kept by the Brits or German or French women to the beaches of Spain has spread out across the world.. once the view of the locals are of drunken European women looking for free sex it is hard to change such views.. and such jokes reinforce corrupt views.

Ah I see, so you find the sweeping generalisation of all western women as "sluts" is acceptable but criticism of such a viewpoint being held is racist/Islamophobic? What a twisted world you live in cable2.

kronos wrote:

cable2 wrote:I know I have been give this un-happy reputation in the forum as I see politicks as a matter of life and death.. but I do laugh.

That's not why.

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:Ah I see, so you find the sweeping generalisation of all western women as "sluts" is acceptable but criticism of such a viewpoint being held is racist/Islamophobic?

Cable, the raging hypocrisy exposed above is half the reason "why."

In case you were wondering.

What an utterly bizarre post. You'll have to tell me if I've deciphered some of it wrongly, I didn't find it an easy read.

Firstly, I wasn't aware that only white women posed in European porn mags. And let's not forget this is a case of supply and demand. Do you think the pornography created the attitude or was acquired to satiate it? And Are you suggesting that it's ok for men to see all western women as whores because some pose in porn mags? Funny how these men create their impression based solely upon those mags and ignore the millions of other western white women, the politicians, the business women, the aid workers, the soldiers, etc. It's about seeing something the way you want to see it. If they see white women as whores it is because they want to. It's misogynistic to suggest - as you have - that European women deserve to be treated as whores because some pose in porn mags or go on the pull.

I remember the cleric on The Root of all Evil telling Richard Dawkins that western women were whores because they uncover their hair and wear makeup and - worst of all - choose who they have sex with. That's enough to condemn. So hypocritical isn't it, that they would buy those magazines, something made for them, moulded for them - and then use them as proof for the desires those images were created to fulfil?

My views are based on personal experience. Not stereotype. There is no hate, no condemnation in me, just frustration. I have to laugh at the irony of it.

As for Europeans acting as 'sex tourists', you're using that phrase incorrectly. To be a 'sex tourist' is to go to foreign countries to have sex with prostitutes, it has nothing to do with going on the pull when on holiday. And the issue of European men and women going on the pull in foreign countries is an interesting one. Are men condemned for this behaviour? Do white European men have a reputation as whores in Egypt because they might choose to go on the pull? No, of course not.

If you go to Egypt as a tourist you have to change the way you dress, you are expected to behave in a certain way and people do. So your point is moot - you won't find the streets of Luxor lined with Brits on the pull, or scantily clad European women. The tourists who go to Egypt obey the rules and customs.

As for your comments on child prostitution - that is an entirely separate issue, and not something restricted to white wealthy European bourgeoisie whom you seem to despise so much. It's the perversion of paedophiles and the despicable individuals who are happy to sell children into the sex trade, such people you find the world over, not just in the evil, promiscuous, self-indulgent Europe you have created.

By expressing offence on behalf of all Muslims everywhere against even the slightest criticisms of Islam or arab culture, unfortunately cable2 is not alone. Such people in the west, by providing excuses and a voice for arab prejudices against the west, are part of the problem, not the solution.

Show me where there exists in Saudi Arabia people championing the voice of white supremacists and painting them as victims. Where in Iran are the Muslim KKK apologists shouting down any criticism of them? Where in Pakistan are those that attempt to bludgeon people with the idea that neo-Nazis in Germany are the victims of a brutal campaign of misinformation and that they are, in fact, deserving of being put on a pedastal for their devotion and piety?

I don't get it - is it a warped sense of superiority - one which ironically can only be asserted through the constant insistence that we are not better than them? Mebbe?

Armchair Apologists, don't you just love them? Apparently, if you aren't part of the apology, you're part of the problem.

It is possible he is a Muslim.

It would explain a lot.

This is an idea that has been floated. I used to think it was fanciful.

Now I am impressed with its explanatory power.

kronos wrote:It is possible he is a Muslim.

It would explain a lot.

This is an idea that has been floated. I used to think it was fanciful.

Now I am impressed with its explanatory power.

I would have to agree with you Kronos. It would indeed explain an awful lot.

kronos wrote:It is possible he is a Muslim.

It would explain a lot.

This is an idea that has been floated. I used to think it was fanciful.

Now I am impressed with its explanatory power.

I don't think cable2 is a Muslim, he is a classic European "Socialist Alliance" activist. Aside from apparently being opposed to any war, any where ever, they seem to be under the impression that most problems in the world are the fault of Israel and that the Palestinians can do no wrong, that we should believe Hezbollah when they say they have instigated a ceasfire and that Hamas are not violent. There is never any mention of the wanton slaughter of Israeli civilians by suicide bombs going about their daily business, or the same of Russian citizens when being attacked by Chechens. Oh, and Bush and Blair are responsible for all wars in the world.

O' golly, you guys have had your fun.. it must have been national "have a dig at Cable day" as none of you (kronos ,The_Amber_Spyglass, BecMacFeegle, dblboggie) have rad what I have posted. I wonder if there is any point in me even trying to defend me-self or.. should I bite back the anti-Cable jibs with the understanding of all of you are not anti-Cable, it's just my not understand of what you write.