Indian Government starts blocking blogs!

(Cross-posted on all my major blogs.)

Freedom, democracy and freedom of speech have been thrown to the winds by the irrational action of the Government of India when they told Indian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to various blogs. This can only be done by blocking access to the entire blog service provider and my blogs are, therefore, not accessible by my readers in India.

I also learnt that most, if not all, Indian ISPs have followed the directive.

Economic Times, India Tuesday July 19th 2006:

DoT casts a cloud on bloggers' paradise

Cathedralite 56er HS Uberoi, one of my faithful readers of my "Seventh Heaven" blog alerted me to this when he emailed me with this:'

Dear Jacob,

I don't know whether you are aware that effective today the Government of India has blocked access to ALL blogsites.

I cannot believe that even your nostalgic Cathedral School and St.Stephen's College sites cannot be accessed by us in India!!

I am at a total loss for words!!

Yours in shock.

Ubi

If you have friends in India who want to continue to access my blogs, even occasionally, please email them and ask them to contact me by email and I will give then the surefire way to continue access.

No Government can stop the internet - as there are many many ways round any censorship, many not known to the stupid politicians who think they are being clever by imposing such foolish bans!!

I will not publish all the methods here for reasons which are obvious.

Chaff Meetings in July

Despite the fact that I amnnounced that there would not be any Chaff Meetings in July, as most people who attend are on holidays in many distant places, many of you have emailed me saying that they would like to be at the meeting all through summer as that has been their highlight of the week as they share ideas and emotions with their friends.

As a result, we will be meeting as usual every Sunday, but not as Chaff. The Pailin Restaurant will continuue to offer the hospitality that they offer at the Chaff Meetings - free coffee and tea and the specially priced lunch menu.

But it would be unfair to ask therm to produce a buffet for such a small group. All the items will be available from their standard menu and they will continue to charge the special Chaff prices only.

So if you are in town and have nothing to do on Sundays, do join us at the restaurant as usual.

I would like to say that when Isaac Sundarajan is here in the last week of July, accompanied by his wife and his two children, we will hold a special event in their honour . We are very proud of the work that Isaac has done to encourage Chaff to grow. And many of you are waiting to meet up with his family.

Details of the event will be published on the blog. So stay tuned!