It’s been a mad few weeks for Research In Motion the creators of the BlackBerry mobile platform.

They’re in a bitter battle with several governments over the encryption and privacy they offer their users.  RIM use a secure sever set up to transmit data from their devices, this is what has angered the governments.

RIM categorically say that even they do not have access to the encrypted data that runs through their server, but as you can guess this isn’t enough.

Governments love to snoop on people, they love to look at what you’re doing and who you’re talking to, and do they do this just for the sake of a nations security.

The question must be asked: what measures are put in place to prevent random access without a justifiable need?

In the US the government must get a court order to access the data and must provide reasons as to why they want to view it.

Will this happen in other countries?

National security is an important issue but should it be protected at the sake of ones privacy. You could argue that accessing usage data is as far it should go, but governments always want more to quench the thirst they have for keeping an eye on people.

The UK for example as the highest amount of CCTV in Europe and its been allowed because it ‘helps’ protect national security, but does it?

Should a government be allowed to keep an eye on everyone at all times, I guess we have to live with being monitored but it doesn’t entirely make you trust the people running your country.

Why do you feel the need Mr. Eater, to open your mouth when you chomp your food? I can hear the splashing as the bits hit your jowls, I raise from my seat and wonder towards you, and utter in three words, something you needed to hear.  I raise up my fist from down by my side, a justifiable knock to the side of your face.  See how you like eating with no teeth, you won’t make the noise I loathe so much.

But now, it’s much worse with your gummy appearance, the sloshing has loudened and now it’s coherent, from across the room, I’m going to scream.  So next time you eat, I’ll make sure you know how much it annoys me, and drives me insane, your annoying, irritating, little game.

Political or not, you’ve got to agree that we live in a changing world and indeed a changing country, the ebb and flow of our nation is changing in drastic terms weekly, it’s a new country we’re all learning to live in.  Sixty years ago, the country was radically different, a stunning landscape of engineering and export, but today’s Britain is something entirely different.

We’re no longer a manufacturing nation and the skills developed by those who pioneered those crafts which made us great are sadly dying and we have no one to take over and continue the trend.  I was watching a programme earlier and it made me wonder something.  We have a great history of keeping heritage alive; a case in point are those that run steam railways or preserve vehicles for future generations but what happens why they die? Who takes over? Do we people these days who are interested in running a steam railway or learning how a traction engine works?

Or are we living in a nation that is computer obsessed and doesn’t want to embrace and nurture for our past, this is question without an answer at present.