Apparently some of us were very much off the mark over Princess Kimberley’s identity and the reason why her blog was black-listed by DoT.
Over the weekend I was linked by Beth who blogs at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. She has put up couple of posts, which talk about the whole banning of blogs in India and some of the DoT’s targeted blogs/websites.
Here is a look at one of her posts:
First, Merri Musings: merrimusings.typepad.com USED TO BE the blog for Merri. Merri moved off Typepad months ago, and some scumbag snatched the URL up for porn crap. After a lot of complaints to Typepad about it, they deleted the X-rated blog that was using the merrimusings.typepad.com URL (it was only there for maybe a week, anyway). Since then, the URL has been 404. That’s why nobody can get to it, ban or no ban. The ban was on a defunct URL!
Second, Princess Kimberley: Princess Kimberley (not Kimberly) used to have a blog at princesskimberley.blogspot.com. Apparently she also deleted her blog and Blogspot account, and it was snatched up by some “Tony†clown, who’s got a few other empty blogs stashed away. Princess Kimberley is someone totally different from “Princess Kimberly†or this “Tony†guy. I haven’t seen her around commenting in quite some time, but some of us in certain blogging circles know who she is and know of her old blog. Her blog was, like mine and countless others, anti-Islamofascist (only hers was more hardcore than mine, to say the least).
Next: Common Folk Using Common Sense. That’s another one that used to be hosted at Blogspot. As most people have noticed, it’s a Korean(?)-language blog now at CFCS’ old URL (commonfolkcommonsense.blogspot.com). Scroll over the links–they all point to a Korean site with subdomains. Looks like a spammer/splogger, who just snatched up the old URL because there were a lot of other sites linking to it already. (Splog has been reported and flagged to Blogger now). CFCS is now hosted at its own domain.
My Pet Jawa (aka The Jawa Report): It’s not JAVA, its JAWA. Like in Star Wars. Most people seem to have figured this out, but some still are reporting “mypetjava.â€
Though it was an ethically wrong move taken by the government but at least their reasoning wasn’t. However their efficiency still needs to be questioned since most of the black-listed blogs/sites have not been in action or have been deleted.
Comments
3 comments | Add your comment »
Njus
Jul 23rd, 2006 at 6:31 am | #
99% sure this is the truely blocked kimberley site:
http://princesskimberley.logspot.com
Beth
Jul 23rd, 2006 at 6:58 am | #
No, Njus, I assure you that is *not* the same Princess Kimberley that they intended to block. I am 110% sure that what I wrote is correct. I know what her website was like; if the Indian gov’t was banning sites because they’re afraid of hypersensitive Muslims getting their feelings hurt, the defunct princesskimberley.blogspot.com would be among the first they’d ban.
Merri Musings, on the other hand, is just kinda funny. She’s hardly offensive, unless the reader is a child abuser or molester. She just had *one* photoshopped picture up, with her URL on it (the old one) at another site–the site where Princess Kimberley, CFCS, the others, and I were also “found.”
And with all due respect to Sakshijuneja, I wholeheartedly disagree that the Indian govt’s reasoning was sound. Is that how one should run a free country? By kowtowing to impetuous demands that are backed by threats of violence? That makes me think of a parent who gives in to a child’s every demand so they don’t scream and have a tantrum. The child will never learn how to live normally or in peace with anyone else.
It seems that where ever there is a large Muslim population, there’s a corresponding suppression of freedom of expression and religion. Why? Because people allow them to impose their beliefs and demands on everyone else.
Today, the internet ban, tomorrow, a ban on something else. Maybe Bollywood movies. Maybe publicly professing faith in Hinduism or Christianity or Buddhism or Judaism or whatever. Maybe requirements for women to “cover up” so as not to insult or inflame mens’ so-called “uncontrollable” urges. It isn’t much of a stretch, you know. And obviously, the terrorists can see the Mumbai bombings worked in accomplishing at least one of their goals. What will they do next to accomplish the next step on the road to the Caliphate?
Saakshi O. Juneja
Jul 23rd, 2006 at 11:36 am | #
Beth – I have never been in favor of the blog ban or censorship of any form. Governments move was totally against our so-called democratic rights and thankfully the whole matter has been sorted out (atleast for now).
What I meant was…that the reason they gave for taking such an extreme step atleast matched with (some) of the sites they black-listed. In short they did not Google some names and then use ‘inky pinky ponky’ sort of means while preparing the list….as most of had thought.
Hopefully we won’t reach such an extreme stage as you have predicted.