China protest ‘vanishes from web’ via BBC
Instead, a message appears saying: “According to relevant law, regulations and policies, search results for Wukan cannot be displayed.”
In today’s interconnected world China is an anomaly.
…to the grind…
Had a beautiful Vietnam trip – my first to a ‘communist’ country, my first with Western backpackers – they are a breed of their own! Will probably write about that with a few photos as soon as I can. But this week promises to be hectic – I am moving, again! Within Singapore of course, but it is still a lot of pain.
To resume writing, I have this New York Times article that caught my eye. It starts,
Small, sick, listless children have long been India’s scourge — “a national shame,” in the words of its prime minister, Manmohan Singh.
According to the article, China has hugely reduced child malnutrition to 7 percent but in India it is still 42.5 percent. This should make you go out and vote, if nothing else will, even if you feel it does not count. That is the matter for another post that I have been planning – it will come in its own sweet time!
But seriously, I had a hard time on my trip defending India in front of a bunch of Westerners who have spent months there, some have even worked with our NGOs. Our hearts might be in the right place but our actions fall too far behind – and I am as guilty, as charged. But…
“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;”
“Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia has refused to carry the Olympic torch when it reaches New Delhi on April 17.”
Bhutia’s red card to China
When governments all over the world, including India stay mute for fear of losing out on the China bandwagon it is individuals who must stand up to tell the Tibetans that they are not alone. And it helps if the individual is famous!
Baichung joins an elite list which includes Steven Spielberg and Richard Gere. Way to go Bhaichung!
Dr Kotnis ki Amar Kahani is a Hindi film released in 1946 directed by V. Shantaram (he also played the title role). The film is based on the true story of Dwarkanath Kotnis, one of five Indian physicians dispatched to China to provide medical assistance during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938.
I saw an article on a Chinese website about him, which says-
“No single Indian has been more revered by ordinary Chinese than a doctor from a middle class family in northern India. On the day when the Chinese pay respect to their ancestors, the grave of this doctor on the plains of North China is covered with flowers donated by the local Chinese.”
This would be such a shining example of Sino-Indian friendship and collaboration.
I am in Taiwan right now. To be more precise, in Kaohsiung, near the southern tip of the island. It is the second largest city of Taiwan after Taipei and a major port.Nice friendly ‘country’! Nice friendly people, the only problem being the language divide – low percentage of English speakers and English sign-boards. But they more than make up for it through their genuine warmth.Was taken to a small fishing community on the seashore, where we could walk down to the rocky beach. It is on the western coast of Taiwan facing the Fujian province of Mainland China and it suddenly occurred to me, 300 missiles were pointing at us right then from across the peaceful sea. We all laughed a nervous laugh!
I had written about how most Internet companies are bending over backwards in order to please the Chinese government in another post. They do not appear to be afraid of the negative publicity at all. I am sure if all of them refuse as a united front the Chinese government will have no alternative. (Or alternatively if all of us stand-up and boycott them. But I am not trying to be Utopian here!) They will surely not want to keep out the best technology companies from their country.
The article about Microsoft’s latest is here.
Also read this article on the ‘Reporters without Borders’ website which talks about blog censorship practised by Microsoft.
And this article titled “Do Internet companies need to be regulated to ensure they respect free expression ?”
And here is an article from Business Week titled “How China Controls the Internet?”
(Fortunately, the US governmental machinery has woken up to this. We need legislation probably.)
Or rather, ‘The Imminent Fall…’.