Category: Thoughts

Why internet is still not a fundamental right | Thoughts #24

…It makes it clear that without internet the full effect of human rights especially freedom of expression and opinion isn’t fully possible, which is obvious given that most of the opinions and expressing of the same is done online now. Even right to education, economic, social and cultural rights come into it.

In India after 10 months of the reading down (which people falsely title as ‘revocation’) of Article 370 the Supreme court finally had some sympathy after delaying the hearing for so long. It declared the access to internet a fundamental right referring to Article 19 (1) (a) in the Indian constitution, which is that all citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression. As noted by the UN internet is an important factor in the facilitation of this right. But what nothing in neither Indian Supreme Court’s statement or UN’s report clarifies is what exactly is internet.

Read more

The false premise of reading | #23

The title is “the false premise of reading” on purpose. If a person reads only newspapers, the general ones, can that person be called a reader? Technically that wouldn’t be wrong, but it still would be wrong. Referring back to the quote of Fuller, the newspaper reading person won’t become a leader even though he/she is a reader, and even if they do, they wouldn’t be a good one. Congruently anyone who reads anything is a reader, and thus anyone who likes to read books of a particular kind is a bibliophile. But words mean nothing, for that this is a weak identity, a facade to cover-up for the literal lethargy, ignorance, and escapism that one has become accustomed to. If the popular answer to the question “what are some of your favorite books?” is a list of fictional drama, comedy, fantasy and thrill of no real sense, well isn’t the society going on the right path, awesome. As a literature student, one who is obliged to read fiction, I can assure you that there are at max a 100 or so books in the entire world of fiction that are written as an abstraction of worldly concepts and not to gain fame and money. I recommend 1984 all the time, and there’s a reason for it; it wasn’t a fictional book made to entertain but rather to explain the concepts of totalitarianism, tyranny of war ridden politics and “doublespeak” that we so profusely watch in today’s world. I would say that is proper fiction.

Read more