Censorship and the Blackberry Conundrum

I could not post to my blog from my laptop in China. My blog is Google based and I assumed a victim of the Google Wars. Try going through Google HK someone suggested. Instead I posted from by Blackberry. When we entered Xinjiang Province - home of the embattled Uighurs, all outside Internet access ceased. No one, neither Chinese nor traveler can email outside the province. I phones could not get signals. We were in a state of limbo. We did not know the state of the Coup d'etat and whether we would be able to go to Kyrgyzstan. We needed info from Geographic Expeditions. Neither was there any English speaking TV. However my BB continued... I even sent video clips of the Sunday Market in Kashgar. Once the hub of the Great Game - it now took a different turn.

The last day In China we flew to Urumchi and from there to Almaty where I sent a really long post from the BB about the sensitive Karakorum highway which goes close to the Afghan border. Then something happened. Angry red crosses appeared when I tried to email. The browser died. In Uzbekistan I hoped for access. In Moscow I hoped for access. Nothing. I would have liked to have posted from the train - nothing. Of course I tried the BB 101 procedures like take out the Battery and the sim card. Nothing. Not even in Washington en route to SFO.

Once home I spent nearly an hour on the phone with Verizon. Everything we tried failed. Finally we discovered the BB Pin number had been erased. Verizon had never heard of such a thing. Very rare - never before etc etc. Could this have been someone hacking into my account? We shall never know but to me it seems suspicious. For me it seems as if the Great Game continues. TTFN