WholeThinking essays with keyword tag: Canada

Saudi Arabian Blackberry Ban is About Social Control

By | August 8, 2010 | Cultural Interface

Research in Motion’s Blackberry service was granted a reprieve on Friday, when the scheduled shutdown was to take place, they have agreed to wait until Monday, August 9th to finish testing on servers in Saudi Arabia. Yes that is correct, RIM has agreed to route messages through servers in Saudi Arabia before they are whisked […]

US Secretary of State to Negotiate with RIM and UAE

By | August 6, 2010 | Cultural Interface

Early in the last century phosphate deposits were important, later countries were undermined for their copper and we all still fight over oil. No one is fighting over the Internet and telecommunications yet but it amplifies the importance of these technologies that the Secretary of State of the United States, Hillary Clinton, would weigh into […]

Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Block Blackberry

By | August 1, 2010 | Cultural Interface

Today, the United Arab Emirates announced that it will start blocking Blackberry email, messaging and web browsing features starting on October 11. Almost immediately following this announcement, Saudi Arabian telcos were ordered to begin blocking the messenger service of Blackberry later this month. The UAE cited security concerns as the primary reason to take this […]

Of Tolls and Rivers Chains -The New Robber Barons

By | September 14, 2009 | Raw Economics

For a number of centuries, roughly 800 AD to 1800 AD, feudal lords with land along the Rhine River in Germany, collected tolls from passing cargo ships. In an effective effort to back this control, large iron chains were laid across the river and raised high enough to block passage of uncooperative vessels. Not being […]