Re: Pakistan blocks access to YouTube
Read my words carefully, pal. I said "Pakistan was intended to be a secular nation." Which is why it's stupid for the government to even use the removal "blasphemous content" as an excuse to shut down a popular public website.
:-)
Well, what I said was that I wouldn't want to emphasize this line of reasoning to oppose blocking YouTube. First of all, no one really can claim a 100% bullet proof case whether Pakistan was built to be an Islamic republic or secular or whatever. More over it doesn't matter, for this particular example, if the government wants to remove blasphemous content that can possibly incite people (to protests) then I think its a valid concern. Other countries have done the same thing many times. I think YouTube is banned in several countries. However, I think YouTube is a much more general purpose and useful site. So a more appropriate response would be to approach YouTube and get those videos removed, rather than banning the whole thing.
On a personal level, I am a believer that people should make their own choices in terms of what they chose to watch or not watch. And we should not have an over-bearing government deciding this for its citizenry. Again, I say that from my view point. I am pretty sure, with low levels of education and demonstrated non-sensical protests in the past (burning down KFC's and MacDonalds, burning university buses and many deaths), government in Pakistan believes otherwise.