Monday, September 22, 2008

On Blocking Youtube Day 2

Thanks to you all and the amazing response, it seems the Ministry people are realizing their blunder.

Us the ISP's have communicated on the top levels to decide what to do and to try to do it together at once. The 1st plan yesterday was that of incredulity, and we wanted to all block Youtube last night at 12:00 midnight, the move was intended to basically "force the MoC in the spot light" and hopefully the public's backlash would become a lot bigger, since whoever did not know would definitely KNOW.

But around 10:30pm we got information that the MoC people said they will sit together tomorrow morning (this morning) to "discuss the issue further". Ya3ne in simpler terms "find out the extent of the stink they got themselves into", to decide what to do next.

Which also meant they were indirectly asking us NOT to block. In other words, if we have done what THEY asked us to do, THEY would have been the most negatively affected, and they KNEW that, and were asking us to hold our horses. that to me is just too funny.

====================Update Correction (23rd Sep. 4:20pm)==================
And now I got confirmation that the Minister himself has convened with his department heads and rescinded the order.
concerning the above statement:
I called people close to the Minister and it seems that the Minister was not aware of the official memo in the 1st place, so if I'm implying that he was aware of it or produced, it then I apologize and correct myself and it was not my intention to imply that. What I understand now is that the Minister spent the next day (22nd) trying to find out who was responsible and as you read on alJarida, clearly states that neither he nor any of his deputies uphold the memo.

I thank the Minister al-Ghnaim personally as well as his deputy al-Osaimy for their quick and decisive voice of reason and understanding.
=================================================================


Thank you al-Jarida and thank you bloggers of Kuwait :)

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alhumdulilah! This was going to be a serious disaster otherwise.

Manutdfanatic said...

Hahah. Great.

Anonymous said...

Thank god.. Thank u for updating : )

Rhazes said...

Tsk, I was hoping that the block on youtube would remain.

Anonymous said...

I will wait a little bit more to see if they have stuck to their words. But if they have, this is indeed good news and I hope that Kuwait people continue to pay attention to what is going on in their country. Ministry officials need to work for the people and not the other way around.
A lazy approach and solution to the problems of the world will just not cut it. Also cutting off their people from communicating with the world is a backward step. The world is globalizing and Kuwait needs to start taking the lead in showing the world how things should be done. Kuwait does have the resources, the know how and the intelligence to do it. They just need the strength and courage to forge ahead. Time for the lazy people to step aside and let the bright ones shine!

Anonymous said...

Yeah! That is funny actually;p

Alosh said...

For once I wish one of them have the courage to say: "hey, that was a bad call, we screwed up on that one, sorry" but nah, "We need to discuss this further". I say: "we will be right here watching, and for god's sake; stop the blocking policy and have an active role to win people back on the VoIP thing!"

Anonymous said...

Alla wa Ak Bar! Wa Al 7emdulilah!

Ya nass ~i7enah Sha3ab el Kuwait. Wa eh~ya A`7la dawlla fill 7alij wa mako a7lla min haa. Lazm I`7naa daiyman in Saa3ed ill ba3th.

Fee mathaal yee gool.... "ill Eid Wa7da maa~it safiq". Ana wouldee Ashker 3ala~Kill Sha'3ab iKuwaity fee sout hoom 3ala hill maow thoo3.

I`7na lazim in dafi3 3ala `7kookna fee ay `7alla.

Mash koor Falantan 3ala hill `7abar. Killa boona ihnee ra7a insa3dik.

Mash koor.


Translation:

Everybody. We are the people of Kuwait, it is the most beautiful country in the gulf and there is nothing like it. We Should always stick with each other for a cause.

There is an old saying: "One hand cannot clap on its own." I would like to take this opportunity and thank all the people of Kuwait on this issue. We should always defend for our rights in any cause.

Thank you Falantan on this wonderful news. We are all here standing by your side to back you up.

Thank you.

doona said...

thank god for the people who decided to use their brain for a change

Mr. Solutions said...

Thanks for the update man
good news...

Anonymous said...

Guess what!!! The guy from MOC is back!! and wants to block another site .. This is a document i received from a friend of a friend of a friend:

http://img260.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mowasalaatwh9.jpg

falantan said...

uturni:
ha - ha - ha :P

folks, obviously uturni's comment is a joke, please don't take it seriously.

nibaq said...

It is kind of funny.

I was in the Minister of Communications diwaniya last night and everything you just said never happened. The timeline you have just posted about is completely fabricated like that memo.

I mean just look at uturni comment on how easy it is to fabricate a memo.

The main thing to know about government is they love paperwork and signatures. If they did decide to block YouTube that paper would have at least 3 signatures a date on the top and reference number.

falantan said...

nibaq:
As for the memo, I have a copy of it right here with me, and it was by my own hand that I erased both our ISP name, and the date, and also erased the stamp with the IN/OUT mail (waared/saader) before I gave it to alJarida by hand as well (felt great to be honest).

The removal of the names and all that was at the request of my management, and now I really don't care much if my identity is found out, it wasn't much of a secret anyway. alot of people know it already.

So the memo is very real, and it has been confirmed that other ISPs received similar memos, but with from different department heads and different signatures.

Even today on alJarida you can read that the Minister with his deputies confirms that they do NOT intend to block Youtube, while at the same time the dept. which issued the letter (ours atleast) still says the order is still valid.

I think the most relevant story here is the amount of MIS-Communication going on in the Ministry of Communication.

Blocking Youtube is not the real story, because it is too silly honestly.

As for "who did the minister meet", I'll admit that I wasn't there myself and I don't know who did he meet with. All I know for sure is that he consulted with his deputies and councils and stated that the MoC does not support this decision.

Anonymous said...

nibaq: just to point somethings out for you

1-aljarida wouldn't print it unless they know it is real

2- the minister replayed to alJarida and didn't deny the letter he just said that the person who sent it (and they did mention his name) has no authority to do so. you can read that in today's edition of Al-Jarida

and frankly if you believe that MOC personal know what is going on in MOC that is funny.

In MOC after you sort through the Politics, the confusing, the lack of communication and the Ego's u end up with 17 stories and probably none of them is true anyway

Anonymous said...

That was a close one!

After reading today's newspaper I wanted to check out your blog. :-)

Smart-y said...

lol el salfa nafs'ha et9'a7ek!! wallah ana 7addi i was like "kaak" mn 9ejhoum?? mako she3'eeeel!!! seriously!!!

thanks 3al update, kent emtabe3 bdoun ta3leeq! =)