Can the Olympics Knock Down the Great Firewall?

The issue of the internet and China is - naturally! - a hot topic in the blogosphere. Bob, blogger for Beijing Olympics blog, has been hoping to tackle this for some time, and so was pleased to see the IOC raise the issue this week (via BBC):

“Inspectors from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said China was obliged under its Games contract to provide journalists with web access.

The IOC’s Kevan Gosper said there was concern that the web had been blocked during recent unrest in Tibet. He said this could not happen during the Games.

The Great Firewall: The Chinese government has a very effective system of blocking websites, censoring content and enforcing self-censorship by internet companies. These methods allow the CCP to effectively road-block the information superhighway. This is the Great Firewall.

China’s effort to Re-Educate, or brainwash dissidents has a short term effect on the victims. As in George Orwell’s 1984, there will be those to play the game to survive. But, given opportunity, they will recover their true identity and resist.

The term “Re-Education” sends shivers. The Chinese need to stop this non-sense and move into the 21st century. The world needs to boycott the Olympics so that China knows without a doubt that what it is doing in Tibet is not acceptable.

China warned on Saturday it would step up a controversial “re-education” campaign for Tibetans after a fresh protest showed a huge security crackdown had failed to extinguish nearly one month of unrest.

Beijing’s behavior in Tibet is repulsive; this century has no place for cultural genocide. An effort to take Tibet out of the Tibetan people and to replace it with the Han culture, and not even true Han but rather neutered, sanitized, secularized post Mao Han culture.

The jailing of prominent Chinese dissident Hu Jia on Thursday for subversion added to concerns around the world that the human rights situation in China was getting worse instead of better ahead of the Games.

Through the controversy and headlines, there may a larger reason to embrace. Dissent brings change. World opinion applies pressure. The IOC will not condone censorship to protect the integrity of CCP propaganda. This may finally be the long awaited tear in the Chinese Cloak of Disinformation. Reeducation by any other name is still Brainwashing. North Korea made that concept famous in the 1950s and 1960s. Humans cannot remain robots forever. Preventing human beings from exploring and expanding their own minds, is like caging a wild animal the releasing them into the jungle without the tools to survive. A large segment of Chinese appear ready to break out of their cage. The Olympics may be their key.

NY Times Holds Stories Because They’re Afraid of Conservatives

Now the New York Times has gotten itself in the same old pickle they always do — they are going to be criticized by Republicans when in fact they were trying to be extra fair to Republicans. What they don’t get is that the conservatives view them as the enemy; they are never going to be appeased. So, do us all a favor and just print the damn story when you have it.

Totalitarian regimes don’t tolerate any distinction between journalism and propaganda

How did a born-again, family-values administration get in bed with a purveyor of misogyny and mayhem, trash and titillation?

This undemocratic confluence of politics and propaganda has long been in the making as corporate media have been incrementally empowered while public influence, input and “interest” have been eliminated.

The transformation of active citizens into passive consumers was enabled by the Federal Communications Commission under Ronald Reagan’s Mark Fowler, who declared “the perception of broadcasters as community trustees should be replaced by a view of broadcasters as marketplace participants.”

With the press tasked with reporting only those stories sanctioned by political and market interests, Americans have only one source for information left. Internet offers world news points of view and first hand accounts from bloggers. Of course, you must attempt to choose an impartial source. Impartial sources are rare these days, but there are a few left. OK, no one is absolutely neutral. You can first try looking at your opponent’s point of view, considering the points and locating the balance. No single point of view is without merit; conversely, no single point of view trumps anything else. Today’s world is smaller than it ever was, because of instant communication. The downside of this is knee jerk responses to breaking news, which is always incomplete.

A self-muzzled press and a public traumatized by 9/11 were manipulated by politicians.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, was asked her opinion of the U.S. media’s coverage of the Iraq win. She responded: “I think the press was muzzled and I think the press self-muzzled. Television … was intimidated by the [Bush] administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News.” For her honesty, Amanpour was immediately branded by one of those Fox foot soldiers as a “spokeswoman for al-Qaeda.”

Fear of being labeled un patriotic, siding with terrorists or anit-American has stifled public and private opinion. Opinions are always suspect by totalitarian regimes. Has the American body politic had a stroke? Remember what the NAZI regime did to dissenters? No, you are probably too young and don’t connect that behavior with Conservative American trends. NAZIs imposed their prearranged structure upon the population, Communists are still practicing this today. Just watch China and SE Asia. America risks following this path. Let Christians be Christians; Jews be Jews; Muslims be Muslims and let the rest of us alone! We don’t want a dog in this fight. Do not insist on mandatory participation. Holding the media hostage to a single agenda is a tragic mistake. You cannot mandate ignorance.