In a society that prides itself in our ability to speak freely through twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other various media it would be difficult to image a world of strict government censorship. Well China has strengthened its choke hold on electronic communications to maintain social order. Chinese government has target Google as a source of social unrest, even allegedly sabotaging Gmail. But it is more than mass communication like intercepted emails; China's listening ear even invades personal conversations on cell phones ending calls as it sees fit. So as we all groan at thought of teens singing about weekdays and denim, Chinese government has banned the search of the word "freedom"for over six months now.
Read the entire article:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/world/asia/22china.html
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6 comments:
It's important to remember that although we complain daily about little nothings, there are places in the world where people aren't guaranteed things that we take for granted. It really is true- it could be worse.
Its crazy to think that there are places where freedom of speech and other rights we have come so accustomed to, are not rights at all. It blows my mind to even try to imagine living in a place where I wasn't able to freely speak, especially in personal situations. I feel terrible for all of the people subjected to that. We truly are an incredibly fortunate nation.
So many terrible things happen around the globe every day. While we're caught up in memes and pop culture, someone is suffering. I think it's important for us to continually educate ourselves on global happenings, but at the same time we do need some daily down time. Without it I'm sure America would be far more depressed than we already are today.
I guess the main question is how to limit that down time.
What's ironic is that China is trying to present itself as an increasingly capitalist nation. But even if it is slacking up on it's ridiculous business regulation, the Chinese people are under a totalitarian government which has no respect for their rights. I hope and pray the Chinese will be able to taste freedom one day. America will also lose many of its freedoms if we don't continue to both exercise and guard them.
I think it this is a great help in making us keep perspective. We really have it quite easy in the U.S. We can search for or talk to a limitless amount of information and people on the Internet, hold conversations anywhere at anytime, and even put out our own voices. It is hard to imagine the immediate access to information and communication with others being taken away, and it makes me really appreciate how great we have it.
China is one of many nations censoring online content. Specifically, I remember in high school doing research on Singapore for Model UN - because of Singapore's censorship, very little information was available online about the country and its specific government initiatives. Apart from restricting access, censorship prevents individuals from arriving at the truth about certain matters. In this sense, media is manipulated in order to serve the government, not the people. . . and that's not right.
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