Posts Tagged ‘GFW’
Puzzled with Hillary’s speech
Especially this part:
You know, no matter where you live, people want to believe that what they put in to the Internet is not going to be used against them. And censorship should not be in any way accepted by any company from anywhere. And in America, American companies need to make a principled stand. This needs to be part of our national brand. I am confident that consumers worldwide will reward companies that follow those principles.”
Does the secretary of state expect American manufacturers in China to “Make a principled stand” about ensuring their workers’ right to unionize or strike? Does she expect developers to stand for residents property rights? I think she should BTW, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that this is obviously never gonna happened in a gazillion years. There’s much to be said about business practice in China and about what foreign corporations should or shouldn’t put up with, I’m just not so sure this discussion should be focused on censorship.
I’ll try to more coherently phrase what exactly bothers me here tomorrow, maybe. Let me just say that signaling out censorship as a manipulation, breaking the costumers’ trust and an all together evil practice sounds somewhat disingenuous in a world where things like er, advertisement exist.
I understand Clinton was hard pressed to come out with a reasoning supporting Google’s move that would also resonate with conventional business logic (not just diplomatic logic, or human one), but really, isn’t making it a consumer rights issue kind of misses the point?
Twitt Twitt
Yesterday afternoon as I was lazing in my fabulous Hutong flat, trying to avoid doing all the work I have to do, I tried to get the latest BIll Maher “New Rules”on Youtubebut the Youtube links kept annoyingly coming on and off.
I assumed the universe is trying tell me something and went on o actually do my work (OK that’s a lie. Went on to read Maus, my ultimate feel-good book). It wasn’t until this morning that I realised I had missed the chance to be the first one to tell the world(!) about Youtube being blocked in China.
Alas, If only I knew how to twitt.
Not sure what’s so important about who reported what first, or, for that matter, what’s so important about Youtube being blocked because of the Tibet isuuse, or down due to a technical problem or not blocked at all or (most likely) blocked due to some mistake on the part of the not-so-sharp handlers of the GFW. I do realise, however, that me not getting it doesn’t mean it’s not a horrific crime against humanity – especially the part of humanity that lives in China and is interested in watching dogs driving minivans. Or Bill Maher.
I do get this though: Youtube being blocked is much more newsworthy than all parts of greater Tibet apparently being blocked for tourists and the media. Tibet itself is not online, you see, so call us back when you have managed to get some footage of Nepali policemen beating up monks and put it on youtube so it can be blocked in China. Then it will be newsworthy.
Had poor George Orwell lived now, he would have probably want to update his ministry of truth slogans:
War is Peace
Ignorance is Strength
Freedom is Slavery
Insignificant is important
Ah, aren’t we lucky to be living in this age of twitted enlightenment?
Or as Jon Stewart said it:
The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c