12 July, 2007

No more sex in dubai

It appears Etisalat has decided to block the popular blog Sex and Dubai.

EDIT by SD: Please click here to sign a petition to get the blog unblocked.
Posted by samuraisam at 11:56 pm
Labels: , ,

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

For real good love, sex and fun you need basically 1 woman and 1 man and perhaps a good meal before, some good music beside and a shower afterwards. That's it. For what do you need a website in addition?

No seriously, its humiliating to see grown up people, who built up a country, being treated as little child by the authorities. Poor decision. So I suggest you to organize a demonstration. At least you have to do something against it, that the authorities realize, that there is some opposition.

13 July, 2007 01:40
Sleepless In Muscat said...

Your TRA has some badwins running the show, I swear.

Someone should do to them what that IT terrorist did in DIE HARD 4.0

lol :P

13 July, 2007 02:07
Anonymous said...

"to organize a demonstration"

such a blog doesn't deserve a demonstration!
and in Arabic:-

هذه المدونات المليئة بالقصص التافهة التي تعكس أخلاق أصحابها... تستحق ما يحدث لها!

13 July, 2007 02:21
Sleepless In Muscat said...

lady iris:

let's say - for example - for your comment, I told you to shut up. You would be offended - right? Because you had been deprived of your right to say what you want.

Its the same thing with the blogs. Its called socialistic freedom. Its not against the government to talk about such stuff especially online. Plus, they're not exactly showing pornographic content.

Its the same with Etisalat closing up Orkut.com. They deprived the majority who are making good use of the technology that is being served to them from a service provider.

For those who don't like it - switch the channel. No one slapped you on your hand and told you to stay on that webpage because as far as I know, there a gazillion webpages just waiting for your likes to come and discover them.

Next time you want to throw a stone at someone, ask yourself: who deserves the first stoning - them or me (i.e.: you)?

13 July, 2007 02:59
Anonymous said...

Dear Lady Iris, I'm sorry to say, that what you have written is nice to look at, but I don't understand, cos although speaking some languages, I can't speak Arab language. So, if you are interested in dialog with me and some other writers in this blog, please say it in English. o.k.?

13 July, 2007 03:39
bklyn_in_dubai said...

the blog is against the moral and cultural values of the uae, but the york hotel is not?

13 July, 2007 05:49
Anonymous said...

The authorities in this country should be sucking balls instead of blocking sites.

I have a f***ing case in court that proves that a shop owner ripped me off for around 25,000dhm with original reciepts, I've been waiting since 2005 to get my money back and all they do is delay and come up with excuses.

Go f**k yourselves and your justice.

13 July, 2007 08:32
secretdubai said...

Oh god that's really bad. It's an excellent blog, very amusing and well written and insightful, and it has never put up "offensive" photos or links.

We need to get it unblocked.

13 July, 2007 14:18
Anonymous said...

the blog is against the moral and cultural values of the uae, but the york hotel is not?

York generates revenue for the Government. The blog was blocked because it doesn't.

13 July, 2007 14:21
samuraisam said...

A translation of lady iris' arabic (according to google):

"These codes are full of stories that reflect frivolous ethics owners ... Deserve what is happening to them! "

I guess she's never read a HRW report.

13 July, 2007 14:26
Emirati said...

I've read that blog once, despite being stupid, shallow, whorish and completely uselesss, we need to see the bigger picture here.

As soon as one blog is blocked, others may follow. This does not bode well for the blogger community.

13 July, 2007 14:33
Anonymous said...

Possibly the only blocking decision by Etisalat that I will ever support

13 July, 2007 14:37
Anonymous said...

We need to get it unblocked.

SD, I agree.

If you want to put up a petition, let's do it. Let's get it unblocked.

13 July, 2007 14:47
Anonymous said...

Petitions don't do anything!

13 July, 2007 14:57
Sleepless In Muscat said...

samuraisam:

please initiate a petition to help unblock Sex & Dubai's blog.

13 July, 2007 15:44
samuraisam said...

If you click here, you can leave comments on S+D's latest post.

13 July, 2007 15:50
rosh said...

I liked S&D - sort of Sex and the City, Dubai Episodes. For the most part, I think these women wrote up factual & not fabricated events. They are light hearted, humorous and funny - there was no explicit offensive pornographic pictures etc?

I would assume Dubai is a "mature" city, hence cannot understand why grown ups need to be policed around personal ethics by Etisalat, who are short of it in the first place.

Disappointing.

13 July, 2007 18:21
secretdubai said...

OK here we go: please vote to unblock Sex & Dubai here

I know these petitions have no weight by themselves, but if several hundred people sign, at least the local newspapers may take it up.

13 July, 2007 20:11
Anonymous said...

So when will they decided to block blogspot completely ?

flickr - blocked
skype - blocked
orkut - blocked
youtube - 1/2 blocked
casinodubai - not blocked

14 July, 2007 07:48
Anonymous said...

It's not about Blogger. I'm glad Sex and Dubai is blocked. They weren't adding anything valuable anyway!

14 July, 2007 10:26
Anonymous said...

This does not bode well for the blogger community. I'm glad Secret Dodo is going to be blocked. As soon as one blog is blocked, others may follow.

14 July, 2007 20:00
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
14 July, 2007 20:15
Who-sane! said...

You can still read Sex and Dubai's posts by subscribing to the blog through your RSS reader.

All Sex and Dubai has to do is set the blog feed to full. Although you won't be able to read/leave comments, but still, it's better than nothing!

14 July, 2007 23:01
secretdubai said...

This does not bode well for the blogger community. I'm glad Secret Dodo is going to be blocked. As soon as one blog is blocked, others may follow.

Comments like this bewilder me. If you don't like blogging or blogs, why are you here?

15 July, 2007 02:20
M said...

Oh, that is so tragic!
I mean how could they? Etisalat keeps doing it again. Do they have anything against us (the consumer)? I mean why couldn’t they just understand that we are a multicultural society, and we all come from a different background!
Let start a petition and try to get them to unblock it, or even better let’s start a march to be more visible!

How pathetic and shallow of you people to think that etisalat just goes off blocking websites that they feel like blocking! It doesn’t work that way, someday must’ve complained, and somebody thought it was offensive and it doesn’t add value to the norms of our society here in the UAE.

15 July, 2007 21:50
M said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
15 July, 2007 21:52
M said...

-- SD "and it has never put up "offensive" photos or links."

where you waiting for them to post "offensive" photos??? Their words were enough for them to get blocked!!

15 July, 2007 21:53
M said...

-- Russels@teapot,
Maybe Lady Iris, wasn't interested in starting in the end a dialoug with you. Maybe to me who speaks both english and Arabic. Remember this post is posted in UAE community which stands for UNITED ARAB EMIRATES not UNITED ENGLISH EMIRATES.
It is up to her to speak whatever language she wants to speak!!

15 July, 2007 21:56
secretdubai said...

somebody thought it was offensive and it doesn’t add value to the norms of our society here in the UAE.

Then why did they bother to keep reading it? Why just not ignore it?

Blocking a site here doesn't remove it from the world's eyes, so it's not like it helps the UAE's reputation to block it.

There are plenty of blogs I find extremely racist, bigoted, offensive and obscene. Porn type blogs, right wing US extremist type blogs, blogs by expats that express hatred and contempt towards locals (and I don't mean criticism of some government policies like mine does, I mean all out bigoted "sand-n***" type comments), blogs by locals that express foul bigotry towards Asian and western expats.

What do I do about these sites? I ignore them. There are millions of other, better sites out there. I make a mental note not to visit sexygrrl.livejournal.com or downwitharabs.blogspot.com again, and I move on.

What I don't do is try and deny someone else their right to read or comment on that blog. No one forces me to go there. Live and let live.

If we really want to get sites shut down, then let's target phishing sites that try and defraud people of money, or child porn sites. Let's not get all huffy and self-righteous about some mildly titillating dating adventures type blog that we can easily ignore.

15 July, 2007 21:58
M said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
15 July, 2007 23:29
Brn said...

My attitude towards these things was best expressed by Chris Rock several years ago. He was talking about old white people complaining about not liking rap music. "Of course you don't like it! It's not for you!"

That is my attitude toward Sex and Dubai. I tried reading it a few times. Meh. But that is ok, because it isn't for me. But I would still want it available for those who do like it.

15 July, 2007 23:38
Sleepless In Muscat said...

on a side note, SD, PLEASE - if you can - delete one of the petitioners names, the nickname used along with the language will carry the whole petition to the bottom of the sea, if you get my drift.

if SD isn't around, someone please inform her.

Thank you

PS: Its a very serious issue.

15 July, 2007 23:53
secretdubai said...

sleepless - I know - I contacted petitionsonline - and they say individual signatures can't be removed. So what to do, other than delete the entire thing?

What I am hoping is that enough people sign to at least bury it off the first page of signatures.

16 July, 2007 05:07
Brn said...

They don't let you remove signatures from your own petition? That is insanely stupid. They are just making their service useless if bad hats can taint everyone else involved.

16 July, 2007 08:50
Sleepless In Muscat said...

SD:

I suggest you move all the signatures to a text file, and then make a new one, delete the old one and copy paste the signatures onto the new one.

PS: S&D is back and not too happy about their blog being blocked

16 July, 2007 13:11

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