Thursday, May 20, 2010

"they want you to watch porn you sillys!!"- Tariq Qureshi

Just last night, i was discussing the situation in Pakistan with my rebel mamoo from Purdue, i told him (he's well informed, so he already knew but still he entertained my grievance) how facebook was blocked since yesterday morning, and that youtube and wikipedia were blocked as well. I was all whiny about how there isn't anything left to do on the internet anymore, and after the most briefest yet thoughtful of pauses he goes like "They want you to watch porn, silly!". I laughed so hard I thought I'd probably break something, and it was mostly because it just made so much sense!

it took most of us quite some time to switch our internet browsing preferences from desibaba to sites that construed a much positive influence on our lives like youtube, wiki, and such. And yet more time to stop searching for boobies on youtube and start following people like Norman Finkelstein, Imran Khan and Carl Sagan (and RWJ =3). Just when things got better these ignorant bitches in the Pakistan High Court went on and blocked Facebook and these other sites.

Lets discuss the motive; I got an sms yesterday, the gist of which was that by banning facebook in Pakistan, Facebook just lost 2 Billion Euro, yea you heard me, 2 Billion Euro, and if we keep up this stupidity for the next 7 days, Facebook's losses will reach around 40 Billion Euro. If even for a moment, we consider the aforementioned claims as true, it would be a testament to all those loafers in Pakistan who make a couple of dozen facebook accounts on facebook and send fraaandship requests to women all day, and play a lot of farmville in their spare time (and needless to say add their other accounts as neighbors). Its quite pathetic to suggest facebook would actually be losing money right now, and to talk about this further is like insulting my own intelligence. Haven't they heard of the thing about that the harder you squeeze, the more that will slip through your fingers?

The decision to block out Facebook doesn't make much sense to me, and most such decisions don't, which led me to my Nonsense-lativity Theory: "Blocking Facebook doesn't make sense anyway, and now once that its blocked, unblocking it eventualy would make no sense at all, so if we are to assume that nothing the Pakistani government will do in the future will make sense, then Facebook should be back on in a couple of days." I know! seems simple enough dunnit?!

Commenting on the original "Draw Muhammad Day" issue; the message the muslim populus should have been getting accross should have been that no matter what anyone writes, or draws about the Prophet (pbuh), it will never influence what we think of Him (pbuh) or the regard we have for Him (pbuh) in our hearts. Seems simple enough, doesn't it? (sigh)

5 comments:

Annie said...

your Mamon sure has a point.hehe

However Facebook does loose money. I dont know if the number quoted are right, 2 Bn a day sounds steep however even without dramaticiing it, there is no doubt that the losses they are incurring are pretty decent. Look at the amount of advertising which was coming in from Pakistan, or for companies abroad targetting Pakistani youth. Anyway, it is stupid nevetheless

basim said...

i don't know about the financial thing, does pakistan really make up so much of the facebook market. It does seem rather improbable...

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Anonymous said...

I don't really know about the financial repercussions of this ban, but i can see how some step had to be taken to control the craziness that is Pakistan..you know how worse things could've gotten...
On a brighter note, im enjoying this blog of yours

Tariq Qureshi said...

Actually, it is 'lose' and not 'loose', but returning to the discussion at hand, the social network sites make money through advertisements, and I doubt if any advertisement on facebook would ever generate sufficient clicks from a country like Pakistan simply because people in Pakistan are neither interested, nor do they have the means to afford things are generally being advertised on facebook. And as far as the ridiculous amounts of money being quoted as 'lost' by facebook, I would like to know the currency: if it is 2 Billion Zimbabwean dollars, then facebook can probably live with that.

The infamours 'mamoon'