There Are Still Walls Out There

There are so many beautiful and inspiring photographs of when the Berlin wall came down, everyone who remembers it talks about what a great moment in history it was.

After hearing such testimony I feel a great sense of shame and disappointment that 20 years later, we still have walls dividing cities, nations, and people. And while you’d think these walls would be on the verge of being torn down like the Berlin wall was not long ago, instead they get longer and they build more of them.

Which begs the question, have we learned anything since the fall of the wall?

bm235 Online Community and State of Emergency

At a time when the Pakistani government is using the state of emergency declaration to crack down on opposition and media, many citizens are turning to the internet. Amer Sarfraz, one of the people responsible for the Pakistani online community Buzzvines, joins me to describe life under the state of emergency both online and off.

We Discuss:

  • Daily Life
  • Crackdown and Opposition
  • Internet Usage in PAkistan
  • What types of uses
  • Government crackdown in cyberspace
  • The limits of the government’s reach