I would like to provide the Taliban with their own website. The site would include a pictures of several buddist statues, each with the annotation - "Try destroying this".
Naturally, its removal would require the mullahs to send a email to complain, implement a firewall or hack into the site. Unfortunately, each approach would require them to embrace the technology they currently despise - hence the paradox...
I imagine the sites would get lots of hits. e.g. a denial of service attack powered by teams of fanatics working round the clock.
"Comrade, are there any internet cafes left in Kabul?"
"Good, now we can click, click, click against the great satan..."-- riposte, Apr 23 2001 Amish web-site http://www.amish-heartland.com/Get your non-technological CD holder here [angel, Apr 23 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004] taleban.com http://www.taleban.com/Used to be the official Taliban homepage; then it got hacked, then it was under construction, now it's gone. [jutta, Apr 23 2001] site security http://www.thebunker.nettaking things a bit too far? [chud, Jan 13 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004] I think instead the Taliban should set up operations in America and apply for some of Bush's faith based funding for right-wing religious groups. Don't comparable, religious anti-abortion groups already have such web sites where they seek to destroy medical professionals and practises instead of statues?-- Aristotle, Apr 23 2001 Or alternatively, we could add a Macromedia Flash-based game, pretending to allowing them to smite their foes on-line, saving money on Semtex[tm].-- riposte, Apr 23 2001 "An Attack the Godless <Insert Appropriate Target Here>" game could be fun.-- Aristotle, Apr 23 2001 Does anyone else find it amusingly cool that a domain-name hosting dot-com has apparenty squatted the www.taliban.com name? There will be no one suing them for that name. It seems sort of like stealing money from the mob. Maybe they better be careful...-- globaltourniquet, Apr 23 2001 Petersealy - how do you car bomb a web site?-- CasaLoco, Apr 23 2001 riposte, maybe instead of a single website you should, as you later suggest, distribute a freeware game. Make it fun enough--say, comparable to the original Lemmings--and pitch it to as many freeware archives as possible. Ain't no car bomb made that can eradicate freely distributable software if it's popular.-- Dog Ed, Apr 24 2001 Oh, and riposte? Don't put your real name in the readme.txt file. Use 'Osama bin Laden' instead.
I wrote a parodic interpretation of a loony USian talk-radio show once which included animations and sound effects and simple games. It's lurking in some freeware repositories, I believe. Did not exactly take the world by storm.-- Dog Ed, Apr 24 2001 Somehow the image of a bunch of old guys in turbans hacking and shouting "Death to the Great Satan" makes me want to laugh.-- arghblah, Apr 24 2001 The Amish have a web-site, complete with on-line shopping mall (see link).-- angel, Apr 27 2001 Following a report on the Radio yesterday it seems that the 'rubble' from the destroyed statues are available for purchase, along with artifacts from the Kabul National Museum.
Seems to me like an excellent opportunity to buy the bits (downside being supporting the lining of the Taleban pockets) and reconstruct the statues.
Perhaps this could be done by photographing all the parts and expanding on the flash based game whereby people get to reconstruct them online.-- dapkniht, Apr 27 2001 ummm...his/her user profile says 28 Mar 2001, ub. are you feeling ok? or did the news of your wife being pregnant affect your eyesight somehow?
oh yeah, congratulations!!!!-- mihali, Apr 27 2001 Simple solution for all those people ethically concerned about the Taliban. Buy lots of Lapis Lazuli jewellery. This rare type of rock is found only in Afghanistan, and those that control it are, relatively, the good guys. [It's like the diamond trade, but diamonds fund, for one example, Robert Mugabe and have a fairly high blame level for pretty much all Central and Southern African 'troubles']. Lapis pays the anti-Taliban.
Perhaps this taliban.com site could be an advertising centre... trying to inflate the value of Lapis, to the extent that even small increases in popularity would dramatically change the political balance of power out there? Or am I being naive?-- lewisgirl, Apr 28 2001 Wasn't it you who posted the first ethically aware idea about the Taliban, when they destroyed the statues? Have you decided that it's not your problem any more? I worry, I think it's my problem - and just as I can't do anything about it, it doesn't mean that it's not going to affect my life. It's like the thing between the Americans/Chinese/Taiwanese, but on a different scale. As a global citizen (yes I know that sounds way-out) and a fairly politically aware and ethically concerned one, I think that having a debate about it is the only thing I can do, however fruitless it may turn out to be. Knowing that it is only by the grace of the God that I happen to believe in, that I was born in the UK and not Afghanistan, gives me a huge feeling of mortality. If I was the same person of the same age doing the same job there, (unmarried female mid-20s junior university researcher) I would have been physically removed and forced to stay at home. I dread to think what my fatherless and therefore infidel child would have gone through. We both would most likely have been put through some degree of physical abuse, if not killed. Selfishly, I am citing the example of what's happened to female academics since the rise of this extremist regime - but do you see my point?
In the UK we have something approaching a democracy. Yet so few of us vote. The USA isn't that bad either, it's just so big that you can easily fit a conspiracy theory to anything untoward. It's these kind of things that make me use phrases like 'global citizen' because when I glimpse through selective and mildly censored media, the thousands of earthshatteringly awful things that happen to millions of people every day.. I feel like the luckiest person alive.
"In reality, the Taliban have little or no real effect on our lives. They are persecuting and killing each other, much as Americans, and Chechnyans, and Yugoslavians do. Shouldn't we just let them sink into the mire of their neo-feudalism?"
With all due respect, you could almost be a fascist, UB.-- lewisgirl, Apr 28 2001 Good, thanks for clarifying. I thought it was a tester, but i had to do my sanctimonious bit anyway.
it's all a bit much for what was originally a fairly light-hearted idea, isn't it.-- lewisgirl, Apr 28 2001, last modified Jun 19 2001 "Shouldn't we just let them sink into the mire of their neo-feudalism?"
I don`t see why that comment should be removed. He`s talking about a bunch of sexist, racist, backwards cartoon characters!! I just think its a shame some of them didnt get squashed by bits of falling statue. Heres hoping for a swift karmic payback!-- Pallex, Jun 19 2001 background music by destiny's child-- technobadger, Jun 20 2001 This idea now seems even more ironic, in the light of last week's terrible events...-- riposte, Sep 19 2001 petersealy - there is a british company that has bought off the government a nuclear bunker that they rent to protect peoples servers ( it can withstand x-megaton nuclear blast and subsequent EMP)
good luck with the car bomb
if i can find it ill post a link-- chud, Jan 13 2002 random, halfbakery