East and West.
Enough.

I read it everyday, on various forums, on Twitter or Facebook. I read the total lack of understanding of other's cultures and religions.
We know where it leads.

What infuriates me the most is people, from any culture and religion, propagating downright misinformation about places they've probably never been to, and practices they've never tried to know better. Muslims are child abusing barbarians, Americans are fanatic war-mongering Jesus freaks, French smell from their pits and forbid religious outfits.

I won't talk for my America, since I've never been there.
But I can talk for France, since, yes, I am French.

Background: The (overcome) fears of France

Europe has a long, long history of war agains its eastern neighbours. France, most particularly, has had to repel invasions from mostly everywhere, and it accounts for the Umayyad caliphate as well.
France's fear of invasions, thus, takes roots as far back as... well, France itself.

The other fear of France is religion. Any religion. During the revolution, we went as far as chopping many heads, belonging to the royalty and clergy (the king was considered as appointed by god) to get rid of the oppressive establishment. Church and state were then separated much, much later, in 1905, and it's enough to say that religion didn't leave the room without a bang or two.

Nonetheless, France, as a secular state, does not comdemn any religion in particular.
Islam is the second most practiced religion in the country, and a French Council of the Muslim Faith has been created in 2002 despite being controversial and considered as going against the secularism of the state. Mosques are of course not as common as churches ( it makes sense, historically), but more than 2000 are scattered all over the territory.

Background: Misunderstandings

First of, when France looks outward, France is as stupid as the rest of the world, and only swallows what the media and politics feel like babbling at any given time. Terrorism here and there (we had our share too), extremism here and there, well, you know the drill.

The truth is, every religion is complex, with denominations, groups, sects, extremists. Disagreements can arise between/within denominations of a single religion, and they only mean confusion for the outsider.

The other problem comes from an even more broader issue i.e., the immigration from north African muslim countries. In the past, I daresay French government handled the issue very, very badly giving these communities minimal means of integration.
The result is not pretty: several generations later, a great many immigrant descendants suffering from an identity crisis. 
Their environment is prone to rather high levels of criminality and even if religion has nothing to do with it, it's still a strong common denominator amongst immigrant descendants from various north African countries.

What irritates French, is the presence, within these communities, of people who openly reject the country they were born in, sometimes do not speak the language and will not make an effort to go further into integration. They are a minority, a 'vocal minority' comparable to the Jakartanese expats who publicly appear drunk and drowning in prostitutes.

The association is quickly (and very wrongly) made. People are people, everywhere (see my earlier posts about expats).

What does the hijab has to do with all that?

It all began with a custom. 
In Indonesia, I won't eat with my left hand. 
In France, I won't get inside a room with my head covered. School teachers are especially irritating with that, but however much I love my bowl cap, well, I had to remove it while in class.
Enters the vocal minority. The Hijab won't be removed, it's a religious symbol.

More recently, the same thing happened for the Burqa. Nobody will care whether you are wearing it for religious or other purpose, but in France, it is not the custom to hide your face in public. May it be with a helmet, a balaclava or a gas mask. We need a face on your ID papers, we need to see who you are when you enter a bank. As simple as that.
Vocal minority again. The burqa won't be removed.

Tell me a better way to enrage a whole country than saying "I won't adhere your customs, because, in your secular country, my religion forbids me to." Here, you have it. Two hits with one stone.

So you have it, in France:
- Any visible religious signs are banned from schools.
- Any way of hiding your face is forbidden in public places.

Have you noticed the 'any'?

The French government did screw up, though, during the introductory phase of these laws, mixing secularism, security reasons and, in the climate of fear I described earlier, measures agains 'the invasion of extremism'. This is not only a bad PR move, this is total nonsense and I deeply disagree with that last argument. 

They should have adopted a much more direct approach: when in Rome, do as the Romans.

However, the law stays the same for everyone and is not limited to muslims. I won't get in a school wearing a cross in a necklace or a yarmulke and I will get in trouble if I refuse to remove my helmet when I enter a bank.

What's the conclusion?

France is scared of terror and religious totalitarism when, really, they should start sorting the mess with their immigration and do something to improve the immigrant descendants communities condition; The government won't gain any respect from them if they are not respected first, but the politic entanglement is such that they won't grow the spine to do anything, and prefer give in to panic. As an answer to their own panic they meet the same kind of ignorant behavior spreading like a plague: "France doesn't like Islam", which is outright wrong, 2000 mosques are there to prove it.

We saw where this kind of behavior leads, we know what happens when politics start mixing with religion at an international/intercultural level (see Afghanistan). It leads to violence, it leads to death. Not trying to understand a culture, inbound or outbound, is a risk of death, massive in wars or slow and sad inside.

But hey, efforts are being made, on both sides. So there's still hope :)

Posted via email from Walking down the dragon's back

Yesterday, at the Mobile Monday Indonesia conference, was given a most interesting presentation about RIM's next step in BlackBerry Messenger's development, encased in some Playbook promotional speech.
Here: first hand report and reactions.

RIM is taking on pretty much everybody at once, from Facebook to Nintendo.

What was in the beginning a simple platform dependent messaging app is turning into a social platform on its 6th version.
Rumors of RIM opening BBM's API have been heard since the Bali Blackberry Devcon, confirmed since then in Poland and now in Indonesia.

Right after the devcon, I suspected them to take a shot at the social everything, and what's been said yesterday confirms my thoughts. BBM will soon be able to:

- Allow users to invite friends to play games, use BBM ID as a game tag.
It looks like Y!M for desktop but more importantly, like online gaming services untill now exclusive to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, with in game chatting features and achievements.

- Make it easier to share all kind of content
Nothing has been explained in details, but I foresee a revamp of BBM groups, where more several more types of files can be shared and accessed with more ease than now, and where more members are allowed. It would also be a good thing if these groups didn't slow down the phone up to comatose state.

- Be used on other platforms
This is only a rumor. When I asked about a confirmation, I was answered "we can't tell you that yet". Which, I guess, means yes. How will it work, I don't know. What I know is that I am ready to pay premium to use it on any device that's not a BlackBerry (or Nokia).

It's pretty interesting now to see that, in the gaming niche, RIM's direct rival is de facto Nintendo, since they are the only ones to offer the same type of 'social gaming' and persistent ID on mobile platform. I have discussed the potential of the API opening in a previous post. Mostly, this is a chance for RIM to become a major actor on the social/community based market.

RIM made a genius move, amongst major bloopers.

- Genius: get the market where it actually is.
From the mouth of Johan Kremer, head of Alliance for SEA at RIM : "We didn't build BBM 6.0 only thinking of Indonesia, but also South America". Acknowledging the market and responding to users's needs. Isn't that beautiful.

- Major Genius: bypass the local bottlenecks.
Indonesian users will be soon able to buy apps from AppWorld through premium SMS.

- Sorta blooper:
Announcing things several month in advance and going back two steps when asked about their development (I am talking about the API) is probably not the best way to communicate. I also don't understand the way they propagate the news about BBM 6.0 through conferences instead of being more open about it.

- Major blooper:
Staying mute about the cross-platform compatibility features of their next products. RIM has already implemented an Android virtual machine (sort of) on the Playbook, we see where they are going. Stop playing hide and seek and tell us what to expect.

The Playbook: A joke to be corrected in the near future.

Kremer brought a Playbook with him, making sure he wore special pants to conceal it in his extra huge pockets.
He demo'd it for a while after the show, and I wasn't impressed at all.

• The device had to be re-booted before demoing it
• There is no 3g support. How am I supposed to use internet if I'm not near a wifi hotspot?
• Way too much BlackBerry tethering (bbm, contacts, calendar)
• No physical keyboard support, limited accessories support
• A version of the PlayBook supporting 4g features is planned for the near future: buying now is a ripoff.

Conclusion: I am patiently waiting for a BBM app for android. RIM is making efforts to penetrate the Indonesian market, but the stiff communication and the lackluster hardware can't convince me to keep faithful to the brand. We'll see later this year if it changes.

Posted via email from @Danny_Fr

Apart from a brand new wave of Internet memes implying that Obama is mightier than Chuck Norris, what OBL's death means to me really is lots and lots of quesions.

What people really knew about OBL?

If I am to refer to his wikipedia entry, apart from his short biography and his family tree... not much.
I have been reading here and there that he was controlling enormous funds, that he was the thinking head of Al-Quaeda, that nothing would be coordinated anymore without him.

I'm not so sure about it. Let's face it, we don't know much, appart from these:

• He fought in Afghanistan
• He was wealthy
• He was vocal

He was certainly a flag bearer, and the voice of the movement, but he certainly wasn't the unique source of founding, and I personally think that there is not chance that his involvement in the strategic decisions of Al-Qaeda was as big as we think. Terrorists are not idiots, and they wouldn't put their most valuable fighter under the spotlights, or at least, not without serious backup.

Will it be more than a milestone?

We've seen leaders fall since 2001, allegedly tied to Islamic terrorism, I am thinking of Abu Musad Al Zarkawi and Abu Ayyub Al-Masri and of course, Saddam [insert controvery here].These are clearly steps forward in a war against terrorism.

It still leaves the topic open: what terrorism, exactly?
I haven't heard much about the FARC factions in Columbia, not that they do as many damages abroad as islamists do, but that would be nice to include them in the lot, they are not exactly good guys either.

I have taken a look at the Wikipeida entries for terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2010 and counted the victims (both injuries and casualties), in order to see what was the progress of the 'war effort'. I got surprised.

Year 2002: ~3400 victims

Year 2010: ~5300 victims

Mind you, the numbers could be badly reported and it includes all terrorists attacks worldwide, not just the ones from islamist groups.
It does confirm my thoughs, though, that Osama's death will only be worth the chase if the numbers of 2011 take a drastic dive.

Who will be the next enemy?

Ayman Al-Zawahiri seems to be a good candidate, since he's already been designated commander of Al-Quaeda, and apparently has more support than the late OBL.

What now?

To this day, while the media tend to point as Al-Quaeda as the ultimate terrorist group, we tend to forget the existance of a huge number of other organizations, mostly local, that don't get the same amount of press. These groups don't need huge funding, or heavy military organizations, they sometime operate at very low costs (with lighter bombs or pipe bombs) and can have a very high influence in their area.

The pressure on the US, resulting from their campaigns in the Middle-East tends to focus our eyes on international actions of terror, whereas terrorism takes its roots in unhealthy economic and politic climate, poverty and lack of education. The effort is real, but it is doesn't hit home (literally).

Shall we be afraid?

No.

Fear and panic is what feeds terrorists, together with attention and violence.
The rational response should be to keep on living our lives and prove them that we do not need them, their ideology, their help or whetever they pretent to offer, we do not need them in our religions, nor in our politics, we just do not need them, at all.

Congratulations, though, to the US, since their strike have undoubtedly helped in controlling the fear and bringing some most needed hope.
Just, don't forget: it's not over yet, and preventing the spreading of that evil begins with help and tolerance rather than with guns.

 

 

 

Posted via email from Walking down the dragon's back