Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

Post by foobarian » Thu, Feb 08, 2024, 6:49 PM UTC

bluefirebrand wrote: post #37

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, do Polish people not consider themselves part of the West? Genuine question. I've met and worked with quite a few Poles since moving to the EU and my current takeaway is that it's in a really interesting fusion time between West, East, and some more mysterious third thing.

"The West" is a very murky sort of definition. Arguably the colloquial "Cultural West" is what is on the Western side of what used to be called the Iron Curtain. Poland was definitely on the Eastern side of that.

Post by Off » Thu, Feb 08, 2024, 6:55 PM UTC

mtmail wrote: post #8

2018 Algeria shut down internet during school exam season. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/21/algeria-shuts-... "Algeria is not, however, the only country to take such radical steps during exam season: Syria, Iraq, Mauritania, Uzbekistan and several Indian states reportedly block access to the internet. Ethiopia shuts down social media."

Post by JumpCrisscross » Thu, Feb 08, 2024, 7:03 PM UTC

H8crilA wrote: post #40

The craziest thing is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And not only that, the weapons are at the disposal of the local (very high ranking) commanders. It also is a country where the military is really in charge, only occasionally giving back the control to a civilian government. Sometimes people think that Eastern Europe is the most likely place to get nuked, or perhaps some American carrier off the coast of China.…

Post by ffgjgf1 » Thu, Feb 08, 2024, 7:05 PM UTC

nonrandomstring wrote: post #16

omajid wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think looking at actions around elections in Pakistan through a western lens can lead to false conclusions easily. Let me try and explain through an analogy. Suppose a US political party (A) decided it wanted to win the US elections no matter what. And it had enough clout, "campaign contributions", among the various government agencies (courts, police, FBI) to make it happen. But it just didn't have the votes to ma…

Hmm, I tried to follow but that seemed a little elaborate. I think if someone tried to pull-off what you described (declaring a candidate disqualified within a week of an election) you'd have civil unrest or worse on your hands regardless any information flows.

Post by 082349872349872 » Thu, Feb 08, 2024, 7:12 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #48

H8crilA wrote: post #40

The craziest thing is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And not only that, the weapons are at the disposal of the local (very high ranking) commanders. It also is a country where the military is really in charge, only occasionally giving back the control to a civilian government. Sometimes people think that Eastern Europe is the most likely place to get nuked, or perhaps some American carrier off the coast of China.…

Well, one of those two countries has a no-first-use nuclear doctrine, so I imagine there's a probability conditional there.