I'm going to talk about pornography.No, I don't need a boost in my circulation - I'm talking about this blog and not my medical condition. Both are fairly big and strong, but if you don't believe me, look at
my stats or ask 'Er Indoors. Still, I must be very careful not to turn you on by using words like s*x or l*st or t*t, and I c*nt talk about b*easts or m*stication or even the chocolate factory owner W*lly W*nka because it's now against the law. And given that this is an English language site, what shall I call
marquisa? P*ssion fruit is also about to be illegal. Mind you, I think there are three words I can use because I've never written about this particular topic. Just google '
Paul Scholes penis' and you'll end up here.
"End up"? Whoops, sorry, but at least I didn't say anything about "getting your end away". Nope, you won't get any dirty talk here. This reminds me of a blind date I didn't c*nsummate in spite of her offer of sharing a mud bath ~ in the n*de, naturally.
Seriously folks, what are we to make of the newly passed
law banning online pornography? This "criminalizes the use, transmission and provision of pornographic websites." Apparently "the government has a one-year period to draft regulations to enforce the law and publicize it before it is implemented."
Yet first, of course, they must define pornography. For some, such as legislator Abdullah Azwar Anas of the National Awakening Party (PKB), nudity falls within this category. For National Commission for Child Protection chairman Seto Mulyadi, "It doesn't necessarily mean nudity" but basically "pictures or information that can arouse sexual desire."
(Presumably picture of
animals and
bicycles will be banned because there are enough instances of weird copulation to warrant their inclusion in the bill.
Lampposts? Presumably the light of his life.
Vacuum cleaner? "Ooh, s*ck me, baby, s*ck me.")
Pak Seto continued: "In many cases, nudity can serve as an educational object, let's say for example in biology class, or as an artistic object."
Does the portrait of French President's new wife,
Mme. Starkers - in the nude, serve as an educational or artistic object? Or does its classification as an 'object' debase the essential humanity of the subject and is therefore pornography? Given that Mme. Starkers was presumably paid for the photographic session, the essential question is whether or not she prostituted herself.
We are being informed that the penetration (
eh?) of the internet in Indonesia now stands at some 35% of the population. I suspect that the majority of those have, like me, a dial up connection dependent on landlines because those with broadband connections generally live and/or work in upmarket locations. Those with top-of-the-range handphones can download emails and websites, but they've no reason to download porn - all they need to do is switch their devices to vibrator mode.
Many companies very carefully control employees' access to the internet with monitoring programmes and firewalls which block certain sites. Anyone with a computer on a network will generally find that the IT administrator has already blocked NSFW sites. Would you believe that this site is blocked? Actually, it's a general fear of bloggers as
Oigal points out today .
Also, ISPs are quite capable of banning the majority of spam and of screening out those viruses and trojans which could sneak through.
A perfectly legitimate question therefore is why legislators are bothering with all this. The public aren't fools and their perception of legislators is of a bunch of w*nkers, unwilling to work with SBY's government. Whether any one person or organisation should have the right to control the behaviour of others, presumably in the privacy of their homes or hotel rooms is debatable. People in glass houses shouldn't masturbate, and surely that's what this bill is - a masturbatory exercise to divert attention from the real issues they should be dealing with.
Human trafficking, child workers, poverty alleviation, jailing corruptors, environmental degradation, and education (etc.etc.) are all issues which surely take precedence over the rights of responsible adults to exercise their rights. I would argue that as sexual practices are legal between consenting adults, then visual images of that ilk should be permissible. Any images involving minors must, of course, be made illegal.
I do not trust folk who set themselves up as moral arbiters. Oigal, in quoting the Jakarta Post, names Roy Suryo. This is the gentleman who was
paid $10,000 to set up SBY's site, not including maintenance and updating.
Nor proofreading.
RS is also the man who reported
Yogya blogger, Herman Saksono, to the police for publishing a photoshopped picture of SBY snogging with Bambang Suharto. I'm glad to see that Herman is still blogging. As he says: I regard that mind is meant to be free and moving mind to mass is a destiny. I can be geeky when it comes to movies, art and culinary, but really, I am simply a man with an irregularity, or many.
Surely responsible adults should be given the rights and the tools to exercise those rights as individuals. That is true democracy; it was the imposition of someone else's will which lead to reformasi. I would argue that as sexual practices are legal between consenting adults, then visual images of that ilk should be permissible. Any images involving minors must, of course, be made illegal. Controlling access by youngsters to what adults deem to be pornographic is the job of educators, parents and, where appropriate, priests, but not a pride of politicians who can not be trusted to lead lives of probity.
Yes, I am bearing in mind that the Electronic Information and Transactions Law, will allow courts to accept electronic material as evidence in cases involving Internet abuse, and that under the law, anyone found guilty of transmitting pornographic material, false news or racial and religious hate messages on the Internet could face up to six years in prison or a fine of 1 billion rupiah (US$109,000). But in suggesting that (many) legislators are corrupt would be a simple matter of listing all those who have been investigated for extra fees for drafting legislation, or of checking with the
Corruption Eradication Commission.
So, how fucking dare they suggest that they are morally superior to you or me!
..............................
Footnote
In my everlasting* search for sites which will stimulate you, I came across a new blog by a lass about to come to Indonesia to teach at a National Plus school in Medan. She may have to change the name of her blog ~ Wanderlusting.
(*nothing to do with Viagra)
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