Madness

     People were recently freaked out by the case of Cheryl Miller being toted off to St Ann's against her will. "Can they do that to me too?" was the general question that made people interested in the case. Cheryl Miller was a ministry employee for 24 years. Her co-workers maintained that she was quite sane after being dragged off to St Ann's after an office dispute. After all the public outcry it was not surprising that the opposition of the government chose this opportunity to speak out against the treatment of this woman. Amery Browne stated that sending her to St Ann's was supposed to silence her. Miller has now become a political tool and not just a victim. It is also of note that Fitzgerald Hinds chose to represent her in court. Even the Public Service Association has gotten involved. Watson Duke and several executive members have helped Miller get legal representation. We must ask, do any of these people really have Miller's interest at heart?

     An article by Atillah Springer describes accurately what Miller has become, a bobolee in that she is representative of so much more. All of us can now focus our energy on Verna St.Rose-Greaves as the bad guy. But Springer points out that we are all Cheryl Miller in some way, overworked and frustrated people who think we deserve more. But we are also the minister at times, making decisions that are wrong because we have convinced ourselves it is the right thing to do. We are reminded of the humanness of both the minister and Ms. Miller here. Mental health is a taboo issue in Trinidad and this situation has thrust the discomfort of many with it into the spotlight. Perhaps that is the true reason why people care. It makes us squirm so we follow the story closely to ensure the matter and thus our minds are put to rest.

Censorship and Copyright

For many of us it may simply be known as an annoyance. We head over to YouTube, following a link that appeared interesting when suddenly we get that mocking chagrined smiley staring at us accompanying the message "Sorry this video has not been made available in your region". It is irritating to us when it is just a music video we were dying to view. However it isn't always something so trivial. This can be because of two main issues, copyright and geographical restrictions.
In the case of copyright the poster of the video must have the rights to the video or the owner can report them to YouTube and the video can be removed or blocked. The owner has the rights to the distribution of their own property. They also control the location restrictions on their videos. YouTube and other video hosts probably use the common Geo-IP look up to track the country that their users are in through the network address of the server of the users.
In the case of geographical restrictions the content could be damaging or controversial in certain countries. Luckily there are now ways to get around this censorship. You can now add on an IP blocker which hides your location, or download additions to your web browser which alter your location to one where the video is allowed such as this one for Firefox taken from http://brokensecrets.com/2010/09/27/how-to-watch-blocked-internet-videos/


Install this Firefox plugin: http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/967 (requires Firefox browser)
In Firefox, Go to “tools” > “modify headers”
From the drop down box on the left select add
Then enter: “X-Forwarded-For” in the first input box without the quotation marks
Enter one of the following IP addresses in the second input box without the quotation marks (choose the country where the content is accessible from)
USA – 12.13.14.15
Canada – 207.245.252.27
UK – 193.35.131.194
Leave the last input box empty, save the filter, and enable it (should look like this: http://imgur.com/Feb4.png )
Click the “Configuration” button on the bottom right then proceed to check the “always on” button.
Close the Modify Headers box, restart the Firefox browser and visit the intended website.

Methods such as this one can be used to access information which would have been hidden by those in authority otherwise. Anti-government and other such controversial information can be viewed and the ordinary citizen can now have the two sides to a story. This leads to a less biased view and a more educated, media literate public.