From: jbugden@smtplink.alis.ca
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 08:11:54 -0800 (PST)
To: vipul@pobox.com
Subject: RE: Iranian clergic attacks Internet as 'poison' to the m...
Message-ID: <9611318520.AA852059472@smtplink.alis.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Subject: RE: Iranian clergic attacks Internet as 'poison' to the masses (

vipul@pobox.com wrote:
>*** Iranian clergic attacks Internet as 'poison' to the masses

>A senior Iranian cleric called Friday for restricting Internet access
>because the global computer network fed "poison" to the masses.

I have seen this article elsewhere, and the sentiment is not as nefarious as it
sounds. You may know that many Arabic and Persian countries have a heavy
exposure to French. In this case, the confusion arises due to the similarity
between the English "poison" and the French "poisson" which means fish.

Restated, the problem is that the Internet is feeding "fish" to the masses in
the form of information, hence the masses are not feeding themselves.

A similar English adage is: Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a
man to fish and he'll eat for the rest of his life.

As the mullah implies, we need to help people to increase their critical
thinking skills, rather than passively accept what others tell them via the
Internet.

Start now.

James