Somehow, wireless connections seem to get inevitably intertwined in political and cultural machinations near and far.
Across the world, North Korea continues its dangerous dance on its nuclear intentions, playing coy and elusive in on-and-off six-party talks with the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. The interesting thing is Kim Jong-il seems to be far more fearful of the Bush administration than we and others are of Pyongyang.
One Web story reported North Korea had impounded 20,000 cell phones since May, blocked most international phone traffic and restricted Internet access out of fear that the United States was readying a pre-emptive military strike. I suppose that’s not a totally paranoid thought, one rightfully shared by other tyrants with nuclear ambitions.
North Korea’s JoongAng Daily said mobile-phone customers who paid $1,200 deposits on phones are upset because their money is not being returned. Several things strike me as bizarre amid North Korea’s nuclear option. First, for a poor, wayward country with an abhorrent government starvation mandate, I would have never guessed (1) cell-phone service even existed; (2) that anyone could ever afford a $1,200 deposit, which probably equals the life savings of many oppressed folks there and (3) they would ever dare complain about losing their deposits. Mobile-phone service supposedly began in the North in 2002.
The wireless situation in Nepal is slightly better-and that’s only of late. Again, an utterly poor nation-this one with internal strife pitting Maoist rebels against the monarchy in conflict that has reportedly claimed 11,000 lives since 1996. When things got too hot in February, King Gyanendra imposed a state of emergency-cutting connections to state-owned Nepal Telecom in the process. Some cell-phone service was restored last month, but apparently journalists are still having problems making cellular calls. Worse, Nepalese journalist Som Sharma was believed to have been abducted by armed Maoist rebels.
Meantime, officials in China-the mother of all mobile-phone markets-are apparently going to require registration of Web sites. If not, they will be shut down.
In another former hot spot, cell-phone service is up and running-with a curious twist. The Web site of U.S. journal Foreign Policy magazine, reports that ethnic loyalties-not price or features-determine choices of Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats when it comes to picking among Bosnia’s three mobile-phone operators.
Things are far more civilized in the United States. Here, it’s just a matter of Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) introducing a two-page bill that could make the Philadelphia Wi-Fi story a real classic.
