The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| What’s in a name? For Saddam Husseins, only trouble Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:14 AM PST In a predominantly Shiite town near Baghdad, Saddam Hussein roams the streets unmolested, joking with checkpoint guards and shaking the hands of passers-by, proudly announcing his name. "You didn't execute me," he tells policemen, laughing. "That was one of my body doubles!" The man, clad in a long black robe and leather jacket, is not the Saddam known the world over. He is one of many nationwide cursed as the namesakes of a dictator who ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly a quarter century. From Saddam's hometown of Tikrit in the north to the western desert province of Anbar, down through the southern provinces, Sunnis and Shiites carry a name once given in tribute, but which has since become an albatross. "Saddam oppressed so many people, so those who were oppressed by him had strong feelings against him," said Saddam Hussein Ulaiwi, a 35-year-old generator operator living with his family in the town of Aziziyah, southeast of Baghdad. "So they are always berating me because of my name." Named by his grandfather when Saddam was Iraq's vice president and in ascendance, Ulaiwi had few positive feelings about sharing a name with the country's dictator. He recounted how, in his school years, teachers would hold him to impossible high standards and dole out stiff punishments when he failed to meet them. When he joined the army for compulsory military service, upon reporting to the unit to collect his uniform, he announced his name to the duty officer, who responded by assaulting him for taking the name of the president. After the 2003 US-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein the dictator, Saddam Hussein the generator operator hoped he would have some measure of relief. While families in his hometown were unquestioning, his father received phone calls from political parties asking him to change his son's name and passers-by would berate him, his name reminding them of painful memories. Ulaiwi did try to change his name in 2006, but was put off by the time involved in dealing with Iraq's labyrinthine bureaucracy and the expense required of someone with modest means, choosing instead to stick with his birth name. "I regret giving him this name," Ulaiwi's father Hussein said wistfully, sitting with his son in the family's small one-storey home. "There were pressures on us before 2003. After 2003, there was more suffering." "There were those who had hatred towards Saddam, and anything with Saddam's name," he said, noting for example that civil servants often do not deal with his son's requests, citing anger over his name. A decade on from his capture, Saddam who was hanged in December 2006, still engenders passionate anger among many Iraqis. Hundreds of thousands, most of them Shiites and Kurds, died at the hands of his Sunni-led government, and countless others suffered as a result of the wars he waged against Iran and Kuwait, the latter of which led to punishing sanctions that crippled Iraq's economy. While some Saddam memorabilia can be bought in Baghdad, such as watches and other curios, major markings of his rule in the form of statues and posters have been torn down. That leaves men bearing his name as among the few reminders of the dictator's rule. Many Saddams have reported death threats, difficulty gaining access to government services and jobs, and other struggles over and above those faced by ordinary Iraqis. "After 2003, many things happened to me when I travelled anywhere inside Iraq. I would conceal my name in order to save my life," said Saddam Hussein al-Mihimidi, an Iraqi journalist living in Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad. Mihimidi's father was fired from his civil service job - as a result of his son's name, he was unable to convince his superiors he was not a supporter of Saddam's Baath Party - and efforts to change his name went nowhere. The 33-year-old, who was named by the doctor who attended his birth, said life before the invasion for him was problem-free, living in the Sunni province of Anbar. After US-led forces overthrew the government, he considered obtaining fake identification documents and would avoid leaving his house during the peak of Iraq's post-invasion violence in 2006 and 2007, "when they were killing people based on their name." He now asks his friends to refer to him only as Abu Abdullah, or father of Abdullah, to mask his identity. "After 2003, my life changed dramatically - from one extreme to another," he said. - AFP, December 11, 2013. |
| Your money and your data are safe in Switzerland Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:04 AM PST It looks like the ideal location for a James Bond thriller: a massive underground bunker in a secret location in the Swiss Alps used for keeping data safe from prying eyes. Housed in one of Switzerland's numerous deserted Cold War-era army barracks, the high-tech Deltalis data centre is hidden behind four-tonne steel doors built to withstand a nuclear attack - plus biometric scanners and an armed guard. The centre is situated near the central Swiss village of Attinghausen, but its exact GPS location remains a guarded secret. Such tight security is in growing demand in a world shaking from leaks scandals and fears of spies lurking behind every byte. Business for Switzerland's 55 data centres is booming. They benefit from the Swiss reputation for security and stability, and industry insiders predict the wealthy Alpine nation, famous for its safe banks, will soon also be known as the world's data vault. Revelations from former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden of widespread spying by the National Security Agency has served as "a wake-up call" to the dangers lurking in this era of electronic espionage, said Deltalis co-director Andy Reinhardt. That danger is something his company takes seriously. To enter the 15,000-square-metre bunker that once served as the Swiss army's secret headquarters, one must first hand over an ID card, leave a biometric scan, go through a security portal, and finally push past an anti-nuclear steel door. From there, a maze of concrete tunnels and corridors covered with Cold War-era military maps and dotted with large pools storing underground water lead to the 600-square-metre Deltalis data centre. Located 200 metres inside the mountain and 1,000 metres below the peak, the pristine, white room, in use since 2011, houses row upon row of humming data storage systems. The machines continuously gather and store data from individuals or companies willing to pay an undisclosed price to ensure their precious information will not be lost to power cuts, earthquakes or terrorist attacks, and will remain safe from would-be intruders. Snowden's disclosures that online behemoths like Facebook, Google, Skype and Yahoo have assisted the NSA and other agencies in their snooping by handing over user data have proved a boon for companies like Deltalis. "I have two positions: one is that I am a citizen of a European country and I find it unbelievable what the Americans are doing," said Christoph Oschwald, the co-director of Mount10, another data centre housed inside a Swiss mountain. From a business perspective, he added, "It's fantastic! It has tripled the business within a short time." While the global data storage industry is ballooning, companies in Switzerland, which has some of the world's strictest data protection laws, are reaping the benefits of the atmosphere of paranoia. Under Swiss law, personal data is defined as a "precious good" that cannot, under no circumstance, be handed over to governments or authorities without authorisation from a judge. Although Switzerland's reputation as the land of tight-lipped confidentiality has taken a hit with the rosion of its bank secrecy practices, it remains miles ahead of most other countries in terms of data protection, according to Peter Gruter, the head of the Swiss Telecommunications Association. "In other countries, all kinds of institutions have access to these data, but here you need permission from a judge. That is a great advantage compared to, for instance, the United States," he said. Susanne Tanner, who heads Swiss data centre Greendata, said many of her company's customers think the Alpine country is a safer bet for their data. "Swiss companies using servers abroad want to return them to Switzerland, and companies from abroad have begun evaluating Switzerland as a potential place in Europe to conduct their data management," she said. Fabien Jacquier, the head of Swiss IT security firm Kyos, agreed. "Clients have become more sensitive to the issue of data protection. Several have asked us to bring their data back to Switzerland," he said. The electronic spying revelations have loosened many purse strings, according to Oschwald of Mount10, who is thrilled that people have stopped asking why they should pay for a data storage service they could get for free from the likes of Google and Apple. For the past four months, he said he hasn't heard that question once: "Now people know that if it is free, I can't complain if they are using my data for whatever they want." - AFP, December 11, 2013. apo/nl/boc |
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