Proxy servers

The entire Internet system under the strange and inconsistent control of the monopoly Etisalat runs through a proxy server, which is a single inlet for information from the rest of the world. It is sometimes fun to see what sites are banned and therefore inaccessible. The theory is that all sites with political and sexual content, which are not in line with Muslim thinking, would be unavailable. What actually happens is that there are trigger words that cause a site to be banned. Don’t have a problem with banning sex sites, and it is very good when you have children in the house, but can be frustrating at times. When Vin Diesel was in the film xXx (sic) there was an accompanying web site. Mr. Diesel may not be the best actor in the world, but the site didn’t deserve to be blocked. Could be that XXX is normally associated with X-rated sites. The site became available eventually. Wreckedexotics.com has pictures of badly damaged motorcars. Tried to access it from yahoo image search for a picture of a Plymouth Prowler – no it was not possible! Exotics must be too racy for the proxy server. Oh, and all sites in Israel are banned – so no planning that vacation in Tel-Aviv.

As an alternative to the use of the proxy server, some friend of ours in the UK quite proudly said that their 13-year-old son had been accessing porno sites, showing how grown up he was. Mind you, makes a change from the Freemans catalogue, women’s underwear section, of my youth.