Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 16 April 2018 | Page 21

WAR AGAINST SOCIAL OPIUM T HERE is a new opium of the people—media. Characterising smartphone use as a “digital opium addic- tion”, Shahjahan Mahmood, chairman, Bangladesh Telecommunications and Regulatory Commission, bem­oaned that students’ sma­rtphone ad- diction “hampered their lives socially and academically”. Des­­pite a fairly low level of internet pen- etration in the coun- try, Facebook is widely used via smartphone. Mahmood said that they plan to make it more exp­ensive to use such apps, and even mentioned an idea about content filters, although he added that this would be difficult to police. In Bangladesh, where a three-week social media blackout was imposed during widespread anti- gover­nment protests in 2015, anything is possible. THE GROUNDED SON N AMAL Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan opposition MP and son of ex-president Mahinda Raj­ a­paksa claimed that US authorities have denied him permission to fly to Texas from Moscow. He has been in Russia to observe the presiden- tial elections (an inspired way to learn about democracy). He tweeted: “Valid reason yet to be received…Sure it has nothing to do with my name, being part of #lka opposition or my travel from #Russia.” Perhaps it has something to do with the money laundering he’s accused of, or perhaps it’s due to the illicit amounts of sarcasm in his baggage. ELUSIVE DATA PURLOINERS A NOTHER day, anot­ her mass data theft. Extortionists have hacked the electricity billing data of thousands of consu­ mers in Haryana. The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, one of the state’s two power distributers, was attacked around mid- night on March 21. When staff arrived at the head office and turned on their computers the following morning, they found a message flashing across their screens, demanding a sum of Rs 1 crore in Bitcoins. A case has been registered and police are trying to track down the attacker using their IP add­ress, but experts say that it is possible to change this very quickly, and that the hacker may have “spoofed” their IP address before acting. Raising A ‘Red’ Flag C HINESE engineers working in Pakistan ended up ass­ aulting local policemen earlier this week. And it would seem all for a noble cause: denying them access to the “red light” area without police escorts. A number of engineers and other workers from China enga­ ged in the construction of M4 Motorways from Bahawalpur to Faisalabad attacked policemen who were deployed at the camp site to protect them. The problem, it seems, stemmed from the poli cemen’s refusal to allow the Chinese nationals to leave the camp and visit local pros­t­itutes without any policemen or security accompanying them. There have been a number of incidents of attacks and murders of Chinese nationals working in various projects in Pakistan. To prevent such incidents, most have been given police protection at their camps and also while trav- elling out of secured areas. According to a report in the English daily Dawn, Pakistani pol­ Not only did icemen refused to allow the Chi- the Chinese nese to leave their camps without workers beat a security squad accompanying up policemen, them. But the foreign workers they struck wanted to shed their security work, cut off cover when they wanted to visit power supply the “red light” area. When the policemen refused to oblige them, and lodged the Chinese engineers and other false charges Chinese workers at the camp site against started beating up the policemen. the cops. To make matters worse, all this was captured on cell phone videos, which have since gone viral. The video clips clearly showed the policemen being kicked and beaten up. In one, a visibly angry Chinese national is also seen atop the bonnet of a police vehicle. Later, the engineers cut off the power supply to the police camp within the main construction camp. The Dawn report said that on Wednesday morning, the Chinese workers stopped work on the project and aban- doned heavy machinery and vehicles on roads in the area. The protesting Chinese engineers also wrote a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, claiming they were prevented from “performing their duties” by the police- men, alleging that they were the ones attacked. They also accused the security in-charge of attempting to hit Chinese workers with his vehicle. The police officials, predictably under tremendous pressure to handle these difficult guests, rejected the accusations and described them as fabricated. Later, Khanewal DPO Rizwan Omer Gondal met with the Chinese workers, after which they agreed to remove the road blocks. But it was made clear they would not be allowed to go out of the camp without police escort. 16 April 2018 OUTLOOK 21