Pager Incident: Are We Under Electronic Colonialism?!

There is no doubt that the incident of targeting Hezbollah cadres and fighters on Tuesday 09/17/2024 is one of the grave events that has consequences and repercussions. It is a sharp turn in a turbulent region teeming with hot events and abuzz with successive developments that open the door wide to all possibilities and do not exclude a large-scale war that leaves nothing behind.

Apart from the consequences and repercussions of this earthquake event politically, militarily and more, one cannot help but stop at the growing use of technology as a weapon in domination, acquisition, killing and annihilation. In the 2006 war, after a fierce war, about four thousand Hezbollah fighters were wounded, and today, within seconds and without a military war or even announcing it, the party loses a number that is almost close to that war or at least comparable to it, and in a few minutes.

We boast about our electronic capabilities and advanced services, while in reality we are under "electronic colonialism" and do not have any control over our electronic affairs.

After the Israeli attack on Hezbollah fighters, many people in Turkey and abroad were stopped by the words of Selcuk Bayraktar, who said two days before the attack: They hack watches and phones, having our own system is very important for our sovereignty, and we will build it. The words do not need explanation or interpretation, either you have the reasons for scientific progress and advanced technology, or the fate of your present and future will be owned by the one who owns them.

Our dependence on technology and our connection to it has become great, whether this dependence arises from the need for it or addiction to it, as in dealing with mobile phones and their applications and the social media associated with them. With the rapid progress and rapid development in the world of technology and communications, the technical gap between us Arabs and the developed world is widening.

Although we are nothing more than consumers who can barely master even using it, many of us boast about owning an advanced device instead of feeling sorry for our backwardness and inability to invent. We boast about our electronic capabilities and advanced services, while in reality we are under "electronic colonialism" and do not have any control over our electronic affairs.

The same applies to individuals, countries and societies, as we generally use technology on the surface, but in reality it uses us! And whoever provides it to us in one way or another dominates us and our lives and directs us directly and indirectly in the various aspects of our lives.

At the level of public services, an interruption in Internet services can paralyze our lives and disrupt our interests to a great extent that may reach complete paralysis, as we cannot travel or access our money in banks, especially with the trend towards using bank cards, and then smart applications.

One of the reasons for the legendary steadfastness in Gaza is the resistance's interest in technology and its establishment of a scientific infrastructure and its development of cyber systems and its harnessing of technology in manufacturing and the invention of weapons capable of exhausting the occupation.

On a personal level, privacy has ended in our lives, as the mobile phone spies on us, counts our breaths, and monitors our steps and behaviors. Thus, we use free applications that collect information about us and capture data from us to use in marketing products, achieving imaginary profits, and also using it to study our behaviors as individuals, groups, and societies; to use it in peace or war in domination and acquisition.

With human conflicts and the year of struggle that will not and will not end until God inherits the earth and those on it, even if its forms and shapes differ, whoever possesses technology and its tools is the closest to possessing the decision. Calls for peace, whether regional or international, are nothing but a form of conflict, struggle, and attempts at superiority and control, even with soft tools or new methods, and even in this, those who know are not equal to those who do not know.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the legendary steadfastness in Gaza is the resistance's interest in technology and its establishment of a scientific infrastructure and its development of cyber systems and its harnessing of technology in manufacturing and inventing weapons capable of exhausting the occupation and shaking the image of its military industries, whether in its Merkava tanks, which it used to boast about, or in others.

Arab countries are required to invest in real and practical science, not in its forms and appearances, and our universities must move from competing to publish scientific research to occupy an advanced position in university classification lists.

In the midst of regional competition for status and roles, we find Iranian, Turkish, and Israeli competition whose tools focus on owning the reins of science, technology, and manufacturing. While the occupying state invests and excels at the global level technically, we find that Arab countries are absent and marginalized and are content, if they develop, to develop in use and consumption, not in creativity, development, and innovation.

With the growing role of artificial intelligence globally, and its capabilities in spying, prediction, and influence, the gap between Arab countries and the developed world is widening. We may find that we may move from the stage of electronic colonialism to the stage of electronic slavery, and the dominance of those who own the reins of science over us will increase and our dependence on technology will double in consumption and use.

Arab countries are required to invest in real and practical science, not in its forms and appearances. Our universities must move from competing to publish scientific research to occupy an advanced position in university classification lists, to become a place where ideas and research are translated into practical reality, industries and products.

In a world of unforgiving and non-stop competition, the status and achievements of countries are determined primarily by their scientific and technological status. The official Arab failure politically and economically, and the inability to confront Zionist expansion and hegemony and reliance on it, even in the names of peace and normalization, deepens with scientific failure and for our countries, which import almost everything, to export Arab minds and skills that the West welcomes, along with their capabilities, in exchange for a decent life, wide opportunities, and a passport.

Source: Al Jazeera