March 14, 2007
Sem resposta
I have never in my career written a letter to the President/Reitor of my institution and failed to receive some kind of response. This, alas, was the fate of my carefully written letter to the "Magnífico" Rector/Reitor Dr. Roberto Ramos Santos. Three months later, I turn my letter into a "Open Letter," uma "Carta Aberta." First, primeiro, o português and following that, e depois, the English, o inglês:
14 de novembro, 2006Magnífico Reitor
Dr. Roberto Ramos Santos
Reitoria, Bloco IV
UFRR
Prezado Sr. Reitor,Ao comprar, recentemente, um livro publicado pela Editora da UFRR, deparei-me com esse lema inspirador: “Expandir e democratizar o acesso ao conhecimento.” É pena no entanto que as políticas de acesso à Internet na Universidade estejam longe de cumprir esse objetivo.
Encontrei pela primeira vez a tela de “aceso proibido” quando fui convidado por uma aluna a associar-me no grupo das Ciências Sociais da UFRR do Orkut e tentei fazê-lo de um computador da Universidade. Devido aos altos níveis de ansiedade em torno desse site no Brasil, não fiquei surpreso de ver Orkut bloqueado. Pouco tempo depois, porém, comecei a encontrar mais bloqueios, agora de páginas ligadas à minhas atividades de estudo, bloqueios muito menos compreensíveis. Primeiro, depois de alguns meses de acesso livre, eu descobri que não podia acessar o site de blogs que eu fundei e administro (www.anthroblogs.org). Esse site abriga doze blogs sobre assuntos acadêmicos escritos por antropólogos profissionais ou estudantes. Quando perguntei sobre o bloqueio, Marcos Perreira liberou acesso a esse site dos computadores do NUHSA que costumo usar. Mas é lamentável que esse e outros sites semelhantes continuam inacessíveis para os demais professores e estudantes das Ciências Sociais. Depois, enquanto trabalhando no meu projeto atual sobre índios na cidade, descobri que não podia acessar qualquer site que tivesse “Guyana” ou “Guyane” no URL. Esses, claro, são os nomes em inglês e francês de Guiana, vizinho internacional mais próximo a Roraima e país onde moram diversos povos indígenas cujos territórios tradicionais se estendem sobre a fronteira. Incluídas nesse bloqueio estão buscas no Google ou Yahoo para frases que incluem esse termo. Novamente, Marcos ofereceu abrir esse sites desejados mim, mas nesse caso como é que posso saber o quê preciso sem a capacidade de pesquisar livremente através dessas buscas? E como o iceberg, esses dois exemplos devem representar só um pedacinho dos sites úteis e importantes que são bloqueados juntos com as talvez merecidas besteiras.Como professor visitante financiado por uma bolsa da Comissão Fulbright para oferecer uma disciplina na UFRR, eu não preciso de nada mais do que o uso de um computador e acesso à Internet. Aliás, a essa altura eu já desisti de tentar realizar pesquisa séria nos computadores da Universidade. Em vez disso, tenho que ir às “lan houses” para trabalhar. Depois de conversar com outros professores sobre a situação, eu soube que há sites do próprio governo brasileiro e algumas ONGs que são essenciais para a pesquisa deles, mas eles têm que pedir permissão do Marcos cada vez que querem acessá-los. Eu imagino que os alunos têm mais dificuldade ainda em justificar e conseguir acesso a informação bloqueada por engano. Infelizmente, eu terei que repensar as tarefas que darei aos meus alunos diante de tal restrição a materiais na Net.
Francamente, eu estou pasmo. Parece provável que a UFRR está utilizando filtros primitivos de palavras-chave do tipo normalmente considerado restritivo e censurável demais até para escolas primárias e bibliotecas públicas. O bloqueio da palavra “Guyana” parece vir de “guy,” que sugere que um filtro genérico anti-pornográfico tem sido aplicado. Marcos me disse que alguns “blogs”—uma categoria muito ampla, tecnicamente e em termos de gênero—foram bloqueados (numa maneira “aleatória”) porque “nem todos utilizam e/ou visitam os blogs para os mesmos fins.” Eu tenho que supor que o meu site foi bloqueado porque 1) contem o verbete “blog” no URL e 2) porque alguém (eu) o acessou e seu nome apareceu nos arquivos. Com certeza não foi fonte de vírus ou spam. Ele veementemente nega que essas práticas se caracterizem como censura, mas eu sinceramente não vejo a distinção. Se são aleatórias, ficam pior ainda porque não têm a mínima chance de alcançar eficácia. Para uma universidade que não tem muitos recursos dificultar o amplo uso de um dos recursos mais valiosos que podia-se oferecer à comunidade universitária—uma conexão de banda larga à Internet—é lamentável.
Como pesquisador de comunidades na Internet entre outros interesses, e com experiências em diversas instituições que precisam lidar com abusos das redes, eu conheço muito bem o desejo de equipes de apoio de fechar “sua” rede até o máximo possível para facilitar os seus valentes esforços para manter a rede e os computadores em bom estado. Essa tirania dos setores de apoio técnico tem de ser contrabalançada com a liberdade de acesso que justifica o preço da manutenção, algo que não vejo na UFRR. Acho muito difícil que essas políticas tenham sido discutidas e aprovadas pelos que são atingidos pelas mesmas.
Para resolver o problema, gostaria de sugerir as seguintes medidas:
1) atualizar os sistemas operadores e proteção anti-vírus nos computadores da Universidade e exigir seu uso,
2) atualizar filtros contra spam nos servidores de email e ensinar os usuários em ajustá-los ao gosto,
3) punir usuários que conscientemente acessam sites pornográficos ou ofensivos em computadores nos laboratórios públicos,
4) exigir que alunos e talvez todos efetuem um login com identidade confirmada para garantir o cumprimento das leis federais e as políticas da UFRREnfim, a Universidade deve procurar impedir contaminação de vírus e spam e punir comportamentos abusivos em vez de bloquear de maneira tão bruta largos espaços da Net a todo o mundo, medidas que não só são censuráveis, anti-democráticas, e inimigas das missões básicas de qualquer instituição de ensino superior (“expandir e democratizar o acesso ao conhecimento”) mas também perdidamente ineficazes.
Agradeço a sua atenção.
Respeitosamente,
John M. Norvell
Professor Visitante, Departmento de Antropologia
Now, agora, the English:
November 14, 2006Magnífico Reitor
Dr. Roberto Ramos Santos
Reitoria, Bloco IV
UFRR
Dear Reitor:I recently purchased a UFRR-published book, and noted the inspiring motto of the Editora on the bookmark: “Expandir e democratizar o acesso ao conhecimento.” It’s a shame that the computer access policies fail so spectacularly to meet this goal.
I saw my first “access prohibited” screen when I was invited by a student to join the UFRR Ciência Sociais Orkut group and tried to do so from a University computer. Given the high levels of anxiety about Orkut in Brazil, I was not too surprised to find Orkut blocked. It was not long, however, before I ran into blocked pages that more directly impacted my scholarly activities and were less easily explicable. First, after several months of free access, I discovered that I was not allowed to connect to the blog site that I administer (Anthroblogs.org). This site hosts twelve blogs by professional or student anthropologists who blog on academic topics. Upon my request Marcos Perreira unblocked access to this site from the NUHSA computers that I normally use, but I complained that UFRR social science faculty and students would not have access to this and other similar sites potentially relevant to their studies. Next, in the course of research on my Fulbright research project on urban Indians, I discovered that I could not access any site with “Guyana” or “Guyane” in the URL. These are, of course, the names in English and French of Guyana, Roraima’s closest international neighbor and home to several Indian groups whose traditional territory spans the border. Included in this blockage are Google or Yahoo searches for these terms. Again, Marcos again offered to unblock whatever sites I needed, but in this case how can I know what I need without the ability the search freely?
As a visiting professor funded by a Fulbright grant to offer a course at UFRR, I require no resources or compensation from the University other than use of computer and access to the Internet, but at this point, I have given up on serious scholarly research from University computers. After talking to other faculty members about the situation, I have learned that there are Brazilian government and NGO sites crucial for their research that they have to ask for permission to access every time. I imagine that students have an even harder time getting access to information. Unfortunately, I will have to rethink the research assignments I give my students in light of their restricted access to Internet-based materials.
Frankly, I am flabbergasted. It seems likely that the University is using primitive keyword filters of the type elsewhere normally deemed too restrictive and censorious even for primary schools and children’s libraries. The block on “Guyana” come from “guy,” leading me to suspect that an off-the-shelf anti-pornography filter has been applied. Marcos told me that access to some “blogs” (a very broad category, both technically and in terms of genre) has been randomly blocked because students “don’t always use them for good things.” (He vehemently protests that these practices are not censorship, but the distinction is lost on me.) For a University which is short on resources to lock up one of the truly valuable resources it can offer to the University community – a broad-band connection to the Internet – is astounding.
As a scholar of Internet communities, among other interests, and with experience in a variety of universities and other institutions, I am well familiar with the desires of technical support personnel to lock up “their” network as tightly as possible to facilitate their efforts to keep the network and the computers running well. The would-be tyranny of support staff has to be balanced against the freedom of access that makes computers and networks worth maintaining, a balance which I do not see at UFRR. I find it hard to believe the computer access policies of the University have been discussed and approved by those impacted by its policies.
Let me suggest the following measures:
1) update operating systems and virus protection on University workstations and require their use,
2) update spam filtering by mail servers and teach users how to adjust the filters to meet their need,
3) punish users who knowingly access pornographic or offensive material on computers in public labs,
4) require students and perhaps everyone to log on with usernames and passwords to facilitiate enforcement of violations Brazilian laws and University computer policies.In short, the University should take steps to block harmful viruses and punish behavior rather than crudely block off entire swaths of the Internet to everyone, measures which are not only censorious, anti-democratic, and obstructive of the basic mission goals of any institution of higher education (“expandir e democratizar o acesso ao conhecimento”), but hopelessly ineffective as well.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely yours,
John M. Norvell
Visiting Professor, Department of Anthropology
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September 20, 2006
Milkshakes, making change, changing cups
Another petulant report on the depths of absurdity in Roraimense business practices:
Two visits to Bob's yesterday, two different locations. The first was to the downtown ice-cream kiosk to buy a small milkshake for me. The three milkshake sizes cost R$5.50, 6.50, and 7.50. They had no coins to make change, and I had R$6.00 in bills. The girl behind the counter offered an extra scoop of ovomaltine instead of change. I declined, with the implication that she should go and get change, obligation of the merchant and all that. She showed no intention to do so. I wanted the milk shake, so I just walked away from the change, shaking my head. [Two weeks later: I was there again and heard the attendant making the same offer to someone else, at about 10:00 in the morning.] Later that day, I picked up my nephew from his tutoring session and took him to Bob's airport location for the obligatory twice-weekly post-tutorial milk shake. I ordered a small for him. No go. Why? They were all out of small cups. I asked if they knew the measurements for a small shake. Yes. Well, just make a small in a medium cup and leave a little space at the top. Can't do it. Well, then sell me a medium for the price of a small. Can't do it. I bought the medium because Miguel was getting fidgety. The way I see it, Bob's owes me R$1.50. And they should authorize them to use their own brain cells once in a while.
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August 23, 2006
Meu candidato
Leda's father, Julio Martins, is once again a candidate for elected office, Deputado Federal (federal representative), and the house is in full campaign swing with meetings, cars with loudspeakers, lines of people at the gate, and "santinhos": those little campaign flyers with the candidate's picture, party affiliation, and number. I was inspired to make one of my own:
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August 22, 2006
Computers + Security = Chaos
I've not been to Rio or São Paulo or Brasília for more than a week or so of tourism since 1997, so I'm in some doubt about whether my observations here in Roraima involving craziness in the commercial sector are national phenomena or Roraimense ones (I mean, we are here in the fim do mundo :-).
Specifically, it seems to me that as more and more Brazilian companies integrate their computer systems and network more of their operations, these systems clash with the culture of suspicion that compartmentalizes employee access and authority and produce nightmarish chaos, far surpassing the the typical bureaucratic lunacies of the governmental sector. (By compartmentalized I mean variations on the the familiar process in which, for example, one orders a R$1 coffee, receives a piece of paper with the price, stands in line to pay and have the little piece of paper stamped, and returns to the counter to the present the paper and collect the coffee, all to make sure that the guy beyond the couner doesn't pocket your R$1.)
For example, I tried in vain for nearly a week to buy an airline ticket on TAM airlines, newly servicing Boa Vista. Neither their online ticket site, nor any travel agent, nor their own representatives in their own TAM store at the airport were able to process my purchase with an international credit card. We have heard many reports that credit cards issued outside of Brazil cannot be used online, and TAM is processing its own tickets through an online system. I can use my US credit cards to buy practically anything here in Boa Vista, except airline tickets!
We got a Vivo Zap wifi/modem/Internet deal. It was quite expensive, both for the purchase of their modem and for the monthly fee, over R$100. The deal was unlimited time and 40MB of usage a month. After about a month, our accout was blocked because of high pending bills (we had yet to receive a single bill). No one by telephone or at the store could explain what the charges were for, why we had not received a bill, or why the account had been blocked. The rep scribbled a Banco do Brasil account number on a slip of paper and asked us to deposit several hundred reais in order to unblock the account - this with no receipt, no statement, no nothing. A friend of the family with a similar situation made the deposit, which still didn't unblock his acccunt! After several weeks of no service, we were finally able to see a statement, at which point we discovered that our account had switched over to counting minutes of connect time and not usage, hence a pending balance of hundred of reais. Here's the rub: the agency manager saw the mistake but was unable to do ANYTHING until the next statement cycled. She couldn't unblock the account or correct the problem. She was unable to call ANYONE in the company to do ANYTHING. So, we have sued them, which should be an interesting experience, anthropologically.
Finally, and this example shows the problem is probably not Roraimense but national, a friend of our recently bought tickets for herself and her six-year old daughter to fly on Gol Airlines from Brasília to Manaus. There she would spend time with a relative and then fly to Boa Vista, a segment which is a ocntinuation of the flight from Brasília to Manaus. Her relative ended up not going to Manaus, so our friend bought tickets for the Manaus-Boa Vista segment. When she arrived to check in for the flight in Manaus she was told that the computer system would not allow them to combine the segments and check her in for both segments. She would have to get off the plane in Manaus, collect her luggage and re-check-in for the flight to Boa Vista. At midnight. With her sleepy six-year-old. They assured her there would be time. Of course, by the time she got her bags and ran out to the ticket counter, check-in had long closed (it had clossed even as they were telling her she had plenty of time) and they refused to let her on the plane. She called the police, threw a fit, threw some suitcases, all to no avail. She had to spend the night in a hotel, return the following night to fly to Boa Vista, and - get this - pay a huge fee for having MISSED THE FLIGHT TO BOA VISTA the night before. She, a lawyer, is suing.
All this gives me the impression that business in this country has gone bonkers. Access to the courts is so limited, the consumer protection agencies so under-funded and ineffectual, and competition so anemic that there's not much pressure on companies to improve their service.
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Pitzerites in Roraima
We've been here since late May (Leda)/early June (me), engaged in (in no particular order of time and energy):
1. getting me permanent residency
2. getting me a research visa (possibly, maybe, please god, superceded by #1)
3. getting Leda a green card
4. orienting the Pitzer students (Tara & Marcus) who arrived in July to start the first year of Pitzer in Roraima
5. taking care of baby (see pics here)
6. building an addition on our house (see pics here)
7. trying to start research of our own
So many things to have blogged about. So little time, online anyway: by the time I reach a connection the pique has passed :-( .
Still, lots going on and I hope to post more soon.
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February 12, 2006
Se fosse um país sério...
There are times when these words of Charles de Gaul about Brazil are all I can think of. I have called several numbers in Roraima from the States for seven days in a row now without completing a single call. A land line that I know full well exists and functions gives me a " número inválido" message and the cell phone I've been calling rings four times and changes to a busy signal. For seven straight days. the Lost World is more lost than usual these days.
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January 29, 2006
Back in Roraima
Leda is back in Roraima for a short visit. I will try to get her to post something from there, but I have not so far been successful in persuading her of the advantages and joys of blogging. I have not exactly set a stellar example myself, I have to admit. We will both be decamping SoCal for the Lost World at the end of May, for a six-month research stay, and this blog should crank up then. We may even add some local bloggers. Mainly, here and now, I didn't want this bog to languish into total decrepitude, so here is a post to put text back on the page!
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