picture from Chillnite.com
The Economist magazine often has a McDonalds index, which assesses the economic prosperity of individual countries via the cost of a Big Mac.
In a similar context, is it time to judge each country's democratic index based on the level of Blackberry usage? I ask this question following the decision of two Middle East autocracies, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, to restrict Blackberry services. These regimes have done this on the grounds that Blackberry email and messaging is encrypted, making it virtually impossible for state surveillance and interception. The next country expected to do the dirty on Blackberry is Kuwait.
Last year, the UAE tried to get Blackberry to 'update' its software. It subsequently emerged that the update was in fact spyware, which would have enabled the UAE Government to track Blackberry emails. Fortunately, RIM, the maker of Blackberry, ensured that users deleted the software that had been uploaded.
Although modern technology has its downsides, the beauty of smartphones like Blackberries are that they need no landline and no broadband Internet connection to work. They rely only on mobile telephony and in Blackberry's case, the special Blackberry infrastructure. In moments, emails can be drafted, tweets can be twittered and Facebook messages sent. They are outside the all-seeing eye of the Big Brother State. All we need now is for RIM to develop satellite software that can bust the jamming of these autocratic Governments. These regimes, will be able to hold back this technology for only so long.
I have little doubt that countries which have the highest level of freedom and property rights, have the highest level of Blackberries or smartphones. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote: "The Liberty of speaking and writing guards our other liberties". What better 21st Century way of speaking and writing can there be than the Blackberry - the enemies of dictators everywhere.
by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment