A Canadian Compromise

Canadians are famous for self effacement and compromise. Here's a bit of humour that identifies a "solution" to the demands of Persian Gulf states that demand that RIM, a Canadian company, open up its server to let state authorities read all encrypted messages sent by a RIM Blackberry. This is from a post of BoingBoing:

Blackberry ban in Gulf States averted with agreement to distribute "Blackberry burqas"

by Xeni Jardin


"The Blackberry burqa means that people can still use their phones,' said a Saudi government official, 'but the tiny niqab that covers the screen will stop them from reading emails or accessing the Internet."

I wonder what other social effrontery can be cured by a similar technique?

• Could we solve the problem of doom-and-gloomsters by issuing "rose coloured" glasses to all those who think they've spotted some trend that spells doom?


• For those who fear that TV is dumbing down our youth, we could set up an elaborate stage with velvet curtain and drawstring so that kids could pretend they are watching an updated version of a Punch and Judy show, clearly an elevating theatrical experience!


• For those who feel the need to carry personal weapons under a right to bear arms interpretation of the US Constitution, provide them free government-supplied water pistols carefully crafted to look indistinguishable from the real weapon and therefore a sure-fire technique to scare off would be attackers.


• Violence and sex in the movies and on TV that coarsen our youth and create an urge among youth to emulate what they witness could be dealt with by adding Greek subtitles along with a notice to viewers that they are about to watch classical Greek tragedies and comedies which are known to use excesses such as blood and gore and outrageous sex to teach great ethical truth and raise sensitivities to sublime heights. Everybody knows, from their own high school experience, that once you present something as "art" or "literature" kids get turned off and lose interest. So they would stop watching violence on TV and in the movies.