Protests against Elton John in Tobago?

The Jamaica Gleaner has a story about and "ArchDeacon of Trinidad and TObago" trying to get Sir Elton John banned from Trinidad and Tobago. He's due to perform at the 2007 Plymouth Jazz festival. This is interesting as, living in Trinidad and Tobago for 42 years, I have no idea who this "ArchDeacon of Trinidad and Tobago" is.
Yes, the Immigration Laws do provide for the ability to deny entrance to homosexuals, but then the immigration laws in most countries allow for denying entry to pretty much anyone. Just try to get a visa to Europe or the US as a Trinidadian citizen.
The point is that this is a minority religion, a minority opinion. Most people are thrilled that Sir Elton is coming. It's been impossible to get lodging in Tobago for the Festival this year, as so many people are going just to see him. A lot of the people who own villas and rental properties in Tobago are not renting them, as they want to go themselves. My friend who rents villas has told me she wishes that Sir Elton could come every year - business is soooo good. If the country were anti-Elton, would this happen?
Yeah, there are bigots in T&T, but there are bigots everywhere. All countries have their share of idiots.
If they demonstrate, it might even be good, in that we can see who these bigots are, and we can then boycott them, their businesses, their social events, etc. \

ICANN and online morality?

A friend of mine wrote:
>> I don't think that I can agree with Milton Mueller's statement that ICANN
>> should stick to it historically technical role. This might have been
>> possible when no one cared but is no longer possible or desirable. Someone
>> has to do policy and politics. If not ICANN then ...?

The answer to this after WSIS II was "the Internet Governance Forum" which met in Athens last November, and will meet in Rio in June 2007. That, and the many many legitimate organisations that are set up to deal with things such as legality and morality in different jurisdictions.

The GAC is flexing its muscles. It's up to us to stand up and balance the scales.
It is unacceptable that ICANN, a US corporation, which is responsible in the final account to the US government, and is not a representative body, with no legitimacy other than that given by the US govt and what we choose to give them, should make decisions of this nature.


It is equally unacceptable that the GAC should bully the Board of ICANN into accepting a defacto veto from ANY country. To show the absurdity of it - it's like Saudi Arabia deciding that a Brazilian or Trinidadian website cannot show half-naked women at Carnival? So a culture that has nothing to do with us can determine that we may not do something that is totally legal and permissible in our society? If I wanted to live by the laws of another culture, I would MOVE there!


What we need to do is have discussion on these sorts of topics on these lists, and develop a position that can be presented to ICANN. As individual Internet users, we need to become active in the management of OUR Internet. Otherwise, one day we';ll wake up and find that hartscarnival.com or even trinidadexpress.com has been taken down from the Internet because someone in another part of the world with a different culture has determined that it is "immoral".

A really interesting video about black women and ideas of beauty

Photo: Samsung's Ultra Smart F700 phone - CNET News.com

One of six Samsung handsets unveiled at the 3GSM World Congress, the F700 features a QWERTY keypad, touch screen interface, 5-megapixel camera and large screen.
This is a really cool phone- I can't wait to check it out. Compared to the Apple iPhone (now able to be called that!) - seems to be more practical in that the keyboard is more usable for my large hands, and the camera!!! We'll have to wait and see. :(
But I am not sure that anything will replace by beloved Blackberry 8700!

read more | digg story

Lyrics To Become More Prevalent - Wired

This post discusses the new steps taken by the Harry Fox agency and Lysic Find to allow licensing of song lyrics. This is way cool, in that legitimate sites can now easily recompense artists for the use of their work with regard to the publication of lyrics. Also opens up the way for licensing of lyrics on devices.
Way cool.

Wireless USB Devices Coming This Year

Excitement when I read this - Wireless USB Devices Coming This Year.
USB has a much higher data transfer rate than Bluetooth, which has largely been used for cellphone headsets and ringtone transfers.
So - potential for a truly wireless world, if it takes off. But there's also the security concern - with the number of unsecured WiFi ports, bluetooth phones etc - I don't think that people consider wireless data security at all. As more data gets transferred wirelessly, there's more and more risk that the data will be intercepted and used in negative ways.

Death of an Empire?

This op-ed piece in the New York Times -
What A Terrorist Incident in Ancient Rome Can Teach Us - Pirates of the Mediterranean
raised some interesting questions. After 9/11 when the Patriot Act was passed, it concerned me that rights that were fought for and earned after much struggle were being casually discarded. But history has many lessons for us. This piece relates the contemporary panic to the panic that the Roman Empire went through after a pirate raid, and that was the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire (the beginning of the age of all-powerful Caesars)
We see it here in Trinidad and Tobago as well. Crime is a concern to many. Kidnappings caused a panic (even though they have decreased dramatically after the arrest of the gang that was allegedly responsible) - so now it's normal to have joint Army-Police patrols. Closed circuit cameras have been installed downtown, with no discussion of checks and balances on the use of the information. Parliament is pretty much a ceremonial place. Cabinet informs Parliament what they are doing as a courtesy, but it's just a rubber stamp. We've got a draft constitution written by one man, that proposes an Executive President, with virtually unlimited powers.

Check this out - sound familiar?
The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the
authorities must be moderated and controlled.
Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt.
People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

- Cicero 55BC
Roman author orator & politician (106BC-43BC)