Image by Santosh Dawara via FlickrIt is only my opinion and an opinion is like a bottom, everybody has one and they are full of the same stuff!
Whilst visitors from places like Saudi and the U.A.E insist on full face covering my mind is open to persuasion that mutual respect will be equal in all countries and it is not just Europe facing silly demands.
For example of mutual respect I'd like to request that international business travellers are treated with the same we give those visiting banks with full face covering as banning BlackBerry mobiles is not the very best way to respect visitors or the best way to convince the world that you're a business-friendly place.
The UAE's telecom regulator says BlackBerry
e-mail, messaging and Web browsing services
will be blocked for foreign visitors too.
e-mail, messaging and Web browsing services
will be blocked for foreign visitors too.
The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority
said in an e-mailed response to questions from
The Associated Press Monday that the ban
on those BlackBerry services planned to take
effect in October will be suspended for all
users in the country, including visitors using
roaming services on foreign smart phones.
said in an e-mailed response to questions from
The Associated Press Monday that the ban
on those BlackBerry services planned to take
effect in October will be suspended for all
users in the country, including visitors using
roaming services on foreign smart phones.
100,000 passengers go through the airports
en-route all over the world and a BlackBerry is
so handy to catch up when in transit.
en-route all over the world and a BlackBerry is
so handy to catch up when in transit.
Apparently, Saudi Arabia plans to outlaw use of the phones’ messaging service, while the UAE is going even further by banning internet browsing and email too - making your BlackBerry little more than an expensive paperweight when you're in the UAE. In the interests of balance, we should point out that the UAE regulator says the ban is less about monitoring, and more about security - because BlackBerry data is encrypted and then sent to servers hosted overseas by owner Research In Motion
, the governments supposedly can’t monitor it properly, which it says raises ‘judicial, social and national security concerns’. Big Brother can't watch you, in other words. But it's nothing that 'so-called open countries' don't also require, they insist (as per this crushingly dull piece by the state news agency).Unfortunately, this argument was rather undermined earlier this year by UAE-based operator Etilsat's attempt to get users to install an 'upgrade' that actually turned out to be spyware. At the time, the authorities rapidly distanced itself from Etilsat – but since the incident happened shortly after RIM refused to let it view users’ data, it’s not hard to see a link. And in light of Dubai's recent woes, and the region's somewhat authoritarian reputation, a move like this feels like a bit of a PR own goal.Some say the Burka is not a symbol of being friendly with the community. It is the product of the most extreme fundamentalist form of Islam and a statement of rejection of any form of integration.
Whilst the others say BlackBerry is the exact opposite!
What do you think?
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