It Was Only a Matter of Time...

I'll take a short break from garden talk to tell you about a recent development in Turkey. Night before last, I went to post an entry into my blog. Instead of the Blogger.com page, I got the dreaded read and white screen shown below, which means that Blogger.com has taken its place with the thousand-plus websites, including include Geocities, YouTube, and most recently, Worldpress, which have been blocked in Turkey.

The reason for the ban was not immediately clear but came out later - there were a few blogs that ran criticisms of a Turkish Islamic Creationist. It's very easy to get a website blocked here if you have friends in the right places especially, or if there is any perceived insult to the founder of the country. Never mind what an excellent opportunity Youtube and blogs are to promote Turkey, her culture, her music, her traditions, her touristic potential. Instead, we have just one more reason to be embarrassed.

Luckily, almost everyone knows how to get around these bans, which makes them all the more absurd... Unless the government goes the route of Iran and blocks all the proxy sites, Turks will continue to participate in the world via the internet, and I'll keep posting!

Update (November 24): The blocking of blogspot has been lifted for now, though other sites remain blocked. Responding to a question about internet censorship, the prime minister (!) said: "I can get into YouTube." I guess he uses proxy sites too...

(Türkçe yorumu yok, gerek de yok zaten, bu pencereyi çok iyi biliyoruz ya offfff...) :-P