Websense: Internet Censorship in Botswana

I have been at UB for over three months now and there are lots of differences between the atmosphere here and the atmosphere in Kalamazoo. Academic expectations are lower, confrontation of teachers is frowned upon, and a whole slew of other things, but the one difference that has the most direct impact on my day-to-day life is the blocking of the internet.

Almost a month and a half ago the University of Botswana initiated a system with the aims of limiting the traffic on the, already overstretched network. The problem seems to be that UB simply does not have adequate bandwidth (that is the virtual space used to transfer things from the internet to your computer that is shared by all the users on a network) to support all of the users on its network. As a result, instead of purchasing more bandwidth, UB invested in a system called Websense. This is, oddly enough, exactly the same system utilized by Visteon to limit its employee’s use of the Internet while at work. The difference here is that we are not employees, and our Internet is being limited during the day as well as at night, during our free time.

(websense logo)

Soon after it was installed a group of international students wrote a petition and circulated it. I signed it reluctantly because I had reservations about whether or not it was our place to ask for something to change. After all, we are ‘guests’ here, a fact we were amply reminded of during our first month here. I did sign it and we did submit it to the administration. Simultaneously the student news paper wrote an article concerning the issue citing students and faculty who complained of the system blocking things that made being an academic difficult. This was the primary concern of the International students, that the system was not simply blocking frivolous sites. One of the German students, and the most passionate about the issue, found that the system was not only blocking things like games and movies but it was also blocking e-zines that deal with homosexuality, communism, and other hot-button political issues. We also found that a similar system is employed in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and China. The response from administration, unsurprisingly, was abysmal. The basically told us that they cared what we thought but had no plans to change the system. Big surprise, a uni-lateral change is opposed by the students and the administration fails to get the message, or do anything about it. This lack of accountability is an issue that has become particularly bitter for me as I have stayed here.

To be honest I am most affected by the blocking of frivolous websites and, as such, have been less aggressive in my protest to the system than some of my peers. The biggest hardships for me include the fact that facebook is blocked between 8am and 6pm, games (including fantasy sports) are blocked during all weekdays, and some things, like internet radio is never unblocked.

(Facebook: Blocked ‘During office hours’)

However, the system has also caused other problems intentionally or otherwise. First skype stopped working the same time the system came online. I sent an email to IT and received a message that “skype has never been blocked” but a friend of mine, who is a computer science major found that they are indeed blocking the ports that skype uses. However, some students have access and others don’t. Additionally, occasionally my Kalamazoo email address is blocked. The IT department claims this has nothing to do with skype but the fact that it is unblocked after 6pm makes me think that that too is a lie.

(Kzoo Webmail: note that it says ‘proxy server refused connection’)

(Blogspot: note that in this picture it says ‘connection reset by peer’)

(skype failing to connect)

These issues have left me disarmed and slightly disenfranchised as I realize more and more that questioning authority (especially elders) and general accountability and transparency are not valued in this culture. I have been assured that this is not the case by some of my friends, but the fact is that I have seen it, when I asked a teacher to explain the grade I received, or ask IT why something isn’t working, or when the international students go to administration with a concern and they simply shrug us off with a comment like ‘we will look into it, but the system is in place for a reason.’ A favorite story of mine that serves as evidence to this point is that in parliament when a junior parliamentarian questions an elder is acceptable for the elder to simply respond ‘I am older than you, who are you to question me?’ How is a system supposed to function like that? I suppose I am also considering the ‘respect for elders mantra’ into my evaluation of a lack of accountability. I understand respecting elders, but that should not bar me from questioning them, or allow them to boss me around for no reason. I suppose that just shows that I am from a different culture, but this is an issue I honestly believe must be addressed before Botswana can truly excel.

That’s all for now,
Love to all,
Tommy