Coffeehouses

Coffee, Controversy and Connectivity: Why Coffee Houses Concern Governments Positive outcomes through cyber cafe hot spots The Chinese government’s policy of closing down cyber cafes and limiting access to the web won’t deliver the positive outcomes government officials hope for. Banning Internet hot spots simply won’t solve what the government views as a problem.History provides evidence that banning substances isn’t effective. One of the biggest controversies in the Islamic world from the 1th to the 18th century was the spread of coffee and coffee houses. To many Muslims and their religious leaders, coffee was considered a drug, its consumption a violation of Islamic law. Further, in the Middle East, coffee was rejected simply because it was an innovation - the Islamic concept of bid’a. The simple fact is this:A government is powerless to legislate social behavior. People will break laws to do the things that are important to them. People will engage in the activities they enjoy regardless of what laws are enacted by governments. The world has seen the power on the Internet, yet this technology is still in its infancy.We can only imagine the benefits the W3 will deliver in the years ahead. to engage others through the use of social media, where ideas can be exchanged without fear of reprisal – without fear of being labeled “mentally ill” as many Chinese teens have been labeled. This innate, human desire to reach out is most efficiently and effectively implemented through the use of the World Wide Web (W). Indeed, the W evolved in the West with the advent of on-line bulletin boards that evolved into chat rooms. In fact, Web .0 technology, which includes increased interactivity among businesses and individuals, is developing at breath-taking speed in the Western world. Consider Twitter, a powerful instant messaging service. While only a few years old, a Twitter account is almost a necessity in Europe and North America. In fact, some companies and individuals have tens of thousands of followers on Twitter, which offers non-stop, real-time interaction between businesses (BB) and consumers (BC). The web was fully developed when it reached the Muslim world, providing governments less time to consider the implications of instant messaging, SMS, blogs and other forms of social media. The same is true in China.The web didn’t evolve. It was already a fully functioning technology, complete with powerful search engines, when it reached China’s teen population. And because the web is a low-cost form of entertainment in China (approximately 0 cents U.S. per hour), on-line social activity became a popular source of entertainment for virtually all segments of the Chinese population. However, because the web “appeared” one day, rather than evolving slowly as it did in North America and Europe, the Chinese government has yet to fully appreciate how to direct the positive benefits the world wide web offers in the arenas of commerce, education, entertainment and engagement with the rest of what is now, clearly, a global community. Given the lessons learned in China, how should Islamic governments, and countries with large Muslim populations, react to this technology? First, recognize that the World Wide Web is a reality that isn’t going to disappear. The genie is out of the bottle and there’s no way to put it back in. Governments seeking positive outcomes among their people must recognize the human need to engage others.We are, by our very nature, social beings. This is especially true among the younger members of a society – teens and people in their 0s reaching out to engage others from different cultures. In the Middle East, teens and people younger than 0 years of age form the majority. These men and women are web savvy. They desire 7 www.digitaldaya.com