Enochsvision's Blog

This page is frequently updated.

Bahá’í-Inspired Perspectives on Human Rights
Free downloadable book in PDF format.

A portal to blogs around the world which call for Human Rights: http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/

and a related informational site:
Reporters Without Borders For Press Freedom.

This link is to downloads about blogging and in particular getting picked up by search engines, bypassing censorship in undemocratic countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China, Nepal, Cuba, and Iran. It also deals with the ethics that a blogger should have. Highly recommended: http://www.rsf.org/

“Online censorship isn’t only done by communist regimes in Asia. Filtering systems in Iran have greatly improved in recent years and the information ministry boasts that it currently blocks access to hundreds of thousands of websites. The country’s mullahs especially target all content dealing in any way with sex but also they also don’t tolerate independent news sites. The regime is capable of the worst censorship and also set a record in 2005 by throwing nearly 20 bloggers in prison over the preceding 10 months. Three of them were still there on 1 August 2005.”

A direct to the download document is http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Bloggers_Handbook2.pdf

An oldie but a goodie (from Amnesty International)

The Bahá’ís of Egypt
“In a land full of bounties, history, ancient civilization and friendly people, the Baha’is, followers of an emerging global religion, struggle every day just to co-exist peacefully with all others and to serve their society. Here is their story….”

Iranian Minorities Human Right Organisation
Recent Report (overview).

USA: Recent news has revealed how AT&T willingly gave up its customers’ Internet records; how Verizon gave full access to its customers’ SMS messages to the Justice Department without a warrant; how the government tried to force Amazon to reveal their customers’ book purchasing records; how thoroughly search engines track Web users and maintain their entire history; and the list goes on. What can be done by ordinary citizens concerned about their rights to privacy? A Surveillance Society Works Both Ways.

“The New York Times site is running an opinion piece from last weekend which lambasts Yahoo! (and other American ISPs) for cooperating with China and other repressive governments. ‘Yahoo’s collaboration is appalling, and Yahoo is not the only American company helping the Chinese government repress its people … Last January, Representative Christopher Smith of New Jersey reintroduced the Global Online Freedom Act in the House. It would fine American companies that hand over information about their customers to foreign governments that suppress online dissent.’” (from Slashdot)

Human rights organization Privacy International compiled a list of the best and worst countries in 2007 for citizen privacy versus government surveillance. The United States sits squarely at the bottom of that list with Privacy International classifying the country as one of the world’s most “endemic surveillance societies.” Other low ranking countries include: China, Russia, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and England. — Quoted from PC World

Here’s an article to think about from Mother Jones Magazine. My citation of this article does not say or imply agreement with other magazine or website content.

Ethnic profiling at US borders? Say it isn’t so. Story in the Washington Post.

The Myth of the ‘Transparent Society’
Ubiquitous surveillance programs that affect everyone without probable cause or warrant, like the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping programs or various proposals to monitor everything on the Internet, foster control. And no one is safer in a political system of control.

The Evil Of Silent Censorship
The article is an oldie but a goodie.

The War on Photography:
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0806.html

NOTE: Links to news articles and editorials sometimes go stale and disappear. If you find one like that on this page please leave a comment to let me know.

Updated 13 Sept. 2008.