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Greetings to all and may sanity return to the world in the New Year. Enjoy the few day break, where ever you are. Peter's wonderful selection and pithy style have been a joy - and to all who have input so much to CASI since it's inception, so very many congratulations on your impact. a ps small point here from the ultimate computer illiterate - this article says iraq's internet domain is 'iq' - it's email is uruklink - am I missing something? As I say, I am very stupid ...!warmest for the season and the coming year, best, felicity a. INSIDE IRAQ http://europe.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/12/15/iraq.internet.ap/index.html * INTERNET IN IRAQ: LIMITED, APPRECIATED CNN, 16th December BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Sitting in an air-conditioned Internet cafe with an American pop song blaring in the background, Ziad Abdel Hady escapes from Iraq's isolation. Abdel Hady surfs his way to knowledge about everything from what life is like in neighboring Arab countries to the latest breakthroughs in engineering and medicine. The 45-year-old engineer, who has never traveled abroad, says he'd sell his car to buy a computer if he could access the Internet from home. But private links to the Internet have yet to be introduced in Iraq. Abdel Hady goes to one of the five or so government-run Internet cafes in Baghdad, where browsers can only access government-screened sites, many pages are not available and the connection is slow. A first-time surfer, Abdel Hady was looking especially for work-related information about pumps. Iraqis live in a controlled world. Satellite dishes and modems are banned and special permission is needed to install a fax. Local media are either state-run or sponsored by the ruling party and present the official version of the news. The Internet provides a window to other worlds, albeit a small one and for few people. Users in Iraq browse the Internet under the watchful eyes of government employees and are unlikely to tap into opposition sites or other banned Web pages, no matter how benign their content. Verginie Locussol, a Middle East expert with Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, said controlling the Internet is typical of all "dictatorships" that "try to keep people in complete isolation from the world." Iraqi officials blame the war-ravaged state of the country's communications sector on the West. Abdel-Razzak al-Hashimi, a senior member of the ruling Baath party, said it's the sanctions and the countries that support them, not the Iraqi government, that keep Iraqis behind. Alan Mauldin of TeleGeography, a Washington-based Internet and telecommunications consultancy, said Iraq, with 22 million people, is either the last or one of the last countries in the Middle East to join the Internet community. Iraq's ".iq" Internet domain suffix counts just 225 subscribers, he said. By the estimates of TeleGeography, Iraq has a tiny amount of international Internet bandwidth, less than 10 megabits per second. Iraq may have less bandwidth than Syria, whose estimated 4.3 mbps is otherwise considered lowest in the Arab world. Neighboring Jordan hosts about 75 mbps. Whatever the limitations, the Internet is prized by those Iraqis with access. Engineering student Talib Dagher Kathim sees the Internet as the only gate to a better future. A Baghdad University senior, Kathim searches the web for Canadian universities that may give him a scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies. "Sanctions have isolated the country .. but the Internet opened a new door for knowledge and my ambition has no limits," said Kathim, who wants to study abroad because of "the scientific development there." "I wish I could go study there and come back to benefit the country and to bridge the gap between us and other countries," Kathim said |