The Internet: Choose The Good, Reject The Evil

[R.A. Hettinga]

Here comes the punchline...Wait for it... Wait for it...

"Anguilla Internet Governance!!!!"

Bwahahahaha!!!!

Cheers,
RAH
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<http://www.anguillian.com/article/articleview/4607/1/129/>
 

The Anguillian Newspaper: -
The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance - John F. Kennedy


You are here The Anguillian Editorial

The Internet: Choose The Good, Reject The Evil

Publishing date: 20.04.2007 09:32

This week the Anguilla Government, much to its credit, has had the
opportunity to host the Caribbean Telecommunications Union's Internet
Governance Ministerial Briefing Seminar at Paradise Cove Resort. It has
attracted some 40 delegates from 18 territories.


As Anguilla prepares to observe the 40th Anniversary of its 1967
Revolution, there has been phenomenal growth in the island's
telecommunications industry. While this development may have been greatly
influenced by the demands of the regional market on a whole, Anguilla needs
to be complimented for the great strides it has made in this field over the
past 35 years.

When the story of the Anguilla Revolution hit world headlines in 1967, one
of the difficulties experienced then, and for the next few years, by
regional and international reporters, was the problem of filing their
stories. There were no telecommunications services available and so the
journalists were obliged to travel to St. Maarten if not Puerto Rico to get
out their wire transmissions. It was only in 1971 that Cable & Wireless,
operating from a mobile truck, was able to begin a limited service to the
people of the island, providing for them contact with the outside world.

The present flurry and level of telecommunications services constitute a
far cry from those days. Everyone is astonished by what is now available
not only from Cable & Wireless which maintains its leadership role, but, as
a result of the liberalisation process, the competitiveness of Digicel,
Caribbean Cable Communications and to a lesser extent, Weblinks.

The Internet, which, at its introduction was described as a 'super highway
to information', remains the most versatile and top service. It is a
telecommunications product with two extreme ends, one of good and the other
of evil. When the positive usages are employed, the benefits are
immeasurable and when the negative side is explored, the harmful vice is
also immeasurable. Someone said it is like a knife, 'a handy device in
cookery but a dangerous tool of violence.'

At Tuesday evening's opening ceremony of the Telecommunications Seminar,
the speakers emphasised the importance of Internet Governance in terms of
access, its great value to public policy, private sector enhancement and
society on a whole and other positive benefits. Nobody really touched on
the need to police the Internet which is increasingly becoming a highway of
evil for hackers, pornography and every imaginable vice in the home and in
the society. Their avoidance of this negative side of the Internet is
understandable because it would be a Herculean task to control it and to
set standards for everyone. We must do so for ourselves and country. Good
and evil walk the paths of life together. It is for all of us to choose
which one we should hold hands with but the directional signs that line the
way before us are clear: choose the good and enlightenment. Reject the evil.


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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'