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Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

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Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#191

Post by philwelch »

alephnerd wrote: post #122
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.…

> But in reality it's both Pakistan and India If you want to stay up at night - India, Pakistan, and China basically had a Cuban Missle Crisis level event in 2019-2020. India and Pakistan almost went to war in 2019 after the Pulwama attack [0] and then India and China were a trigger away from starting a war over the Galwan river [1]. [0] - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/25/india-pakistan-came... [1] - https://…

There are disputed border areas between India and China, and the two countries have had multiple skirmishes there, but to prevent any serious escalation, the two countries have mutually agreed not to use firearms, so they mostly fight with melee weapons. This is to avoid escalation.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#192

Post by bluish29 »

tmpz22 wrote: post #145
apapapa wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still crazy but more reasonable to shut it down for exams than elections

I wonder if exam season is just a convenient excuse to test the system in case it needs to be deployed for civic unrest.

Maybe, but in all these countries it happens that this happens with specific exams that are national and are very core to student's future. This does not have an equivalent in most of the western countries (probably all?). I wonder if these exams were in the western countries, what would their approach to prevent mass cheating on national scale?

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#193

Post by DoughnutHole »

rayiner wrote: post #179
DoughnutHole wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not even remotely the same, it’s nearly 50% higher than the US (which isn’t doing that great either). South Korea has the 10th highest suicide rate in the world.

On the flip side, how much as South Korean society managed to advance in the 50 years compared to “happy America?”

Other countries have managed economic miracles without mass suicidal tendencies.

Plus, that explosive growth has ended. South Korea escaped poverty and now its growth rate is comparable to western countries with much better suicide rates.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#194

Post by foragerdev »

ryloric wrote: post #173
foragerdev wrote: post #82

I read the comments you guys probably have no idea what is going on in here. Let's talk about it from the start. It's 2021 and Imran Khan is the PM of Pakistan and US is leaving Afghanistan. Now US would certainly want to have their military airbases in Pakistan to keep an eye on Taliban government, they made an undercover request which was denied by Imran Khan on a Tv interview[1]. Which really unpleased the Biden G…

Sounds like a movie script.

I experience it, Imran Khan is former Cricket player and cricket worldcup winning captain he certainly give the big fight. Still not losing. Trust me he made Pakistani politics more entertaining than Netflix.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#195

Post by alephnerd »

philwelch wrote: post #191
alephnerd wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But in reality it's both Pakistan and India If you want to stay up at night - India, Pakistan, and China basically had a Cuban Missle Crisis level event in 2019-2020. India and Pakistan almost went to war in 2019 after the Pulwama attack [0] and then India and China were a trigger away from starting a war over the Galwan river [1]. [0] - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/25/india-pakistan-came... [1] - https://…

There are disputed border areas between India and China, and the two countries have had multiple skirmishes there, but to prevent any serious escalation, the two countries have mutually agreed not to use firearms, so they mostly fight with melee weapons. This is to avoid escalation.

> the two countries have mutually agreed not to use firearms

The Border Peace and Tranquility Agreement from 1993 is over now after the intial clash on the confluence of Shyok and Galwan River, leaving casualties on both sides.

Indian and Chinese soldiers now patrol armed again.

After that initial clash, several additional clashes started, both India and China began mobilizing, and India considered launching artillery strikes on Chinese positions.

Read the article - it's written by the General Naravane, who was commanding the Indian Army at the time.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#196

Post by mcmoor »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #3
sofixa wrote: post #2

On one hand, this is a classic dictatorship move. Senegal just did the same just after postponing elections. On the other hand, Pakistan really did have terrorist attacks just before the election, targeted at the election. So taking heavy handed steps to protect the election integrity can be explained.

As an idea, media moratoriums immediately prior to elections seems fairly sensible. AI and disinformation attacks are likely to be 'last minute'. Maybe the entire phone and Internet system is going a bit far. Also, obtaining broad consensus for just muting the main social media channels doesn't seem that unreasonable. My thought is, unless gunmen are showing up at polling stations, what exactly is so urgent to discus…

Indonesia's election is next week and they also impose 3 day "quiet day" where no political campaign may occur. I don't know if we'll have internet shutdown though.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#197

Post by bravetraveler »

nodogoto wrote: post #168
numpad0 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't SAT tests in US exactly the same as the Korean system?

You can take the SAT as many times as you want and only submit your best score, so the pressure isn't the same.

Or, like me, you can completely abscond from the test and still achieve

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#198

Post by hollerith »

rayiner wrote: post #179
DoughnutHole wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not even remotely the same, it’s nearly 50% higher than the US (which isn’t doing that great either). South Korea has the 10th highest suicide rate in the world.

On the flip side, how much as South Korean society managed to advance in the 50 years compared to “happy America?”

The US government gave South Korean manufacturers access to the US market as part of the US strategy to fight the Cold War. Would South Korea have been able to get rich fast without that access?

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#199

Post by renewiltord »

hackerlight wrote: post #165
renewiltord wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is just paper or words. The constitution? Words. Only power is power. Only shackles constrain. Even computer code is just code. But in my experience, documents count for something because of the result of violating the documents. If your experience is that nothing you've said or written holds water, then so be it. We will see, in time, whose approach leads whom to a better life.

The constitution holds power because the judiciary is independent from the executive and congress. This friendly adversarial tension creates belief in the constitution (similar to social belief in currency) which makes it harder to dislodge. That goes out the window in a dictatorship. It becomes more about the self interest of one person, and if the piece of paper is against that then they'll throw it out.

It's just words. If the President marched the army into the court, the judiciary would capitulate. Books won't protect them.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#200

Post by renewiltord »

anamax wrote: post #169
renewiltord wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is just paper or words. The constitution? Words. Only power is power. Only shackles constrain. Even computer code is just code. But in my experience, documents count for something because of the result of violating the documents. If your experience is that nothing you've said or written holds water, then so be it. We will see, in time, whose approach leads whom to a better life.

> But in my experience, documents count for something because of the result of violating the documents. I'll bite - what's the "result" of violating a "no first use of nuclear weapons" statement? There are two cases. In one case, you got nuked back. In the other, the folks that you nuked aren't in much of a position to do anything, having been nuked and all. What is the "result" in both cases? (If said result require…

The result is that no one else can tolerate your nuclear ability after that. You don't become just an enemy of the guys you nuked, but everyone else as well. And nuclear weapons are far more capable than conventional weapons but you can survive being nuked. It's not the end of the world.

The problem follows after, when India can no longer convince America, Russia, or China that they can be trusted with nuclear weapons.

Economic sanctions would be devastating. India has limited fossil fuels and as of now a not yet fully indigenous defence industry. Being irresponsible nuclear users means all major powers will cut them off because they're a danger to all.

It isn't even clear that other world powers will settle for isolation. They may well require disarmament.

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