Posts Tagged ‘China’
BBC Website 'unblocked' in China
From my 10+ years online experiences in China, an educated guess is that the BBC website is in "blackest" list of Great Firewall of China(GFW), along with Falun Gong, VoA and anti-CCP websites - you should never expect those sites to become accessible in China, and the fact is , I never sucessfully accessed any of those in the past ten years in China, without using any sort of 'special method'.
So this unblock is quite unusual.
Just over a week ago, Youtube and several other websites were blocked because of the tibet related photos and videos. Other recent reports also confirmed the unblock of youtube in China, but it is conditional - if you ever try to access tibet-related videos on youtube, GFW will block your access to the whole site for about 5 minutes or more.
There are quite a lot of materials related to Tibet on BBC as well. However, GFW treated BBC quite generously this time ... em... very weird.
I never opposed the presence of Internet Censorship, but its whole process must be made 100% transparent to every citizen this censorship will affect, otherwise it will be abused by the government like the case in China, tens of thousands of website are blocked without any form of notice, and only a few of them are pornographic websites, the majority of blocked websites are the ones that the government does not "like".
About ... Beijing Olympics
Although some people always say that sports games should not to be politicised, but let's face it, it's impossible to separate two apart - people mix sports and politics all the time.
I can throw you a dozen of examples to prove this: 1936 "Hitler" summer Olympics, 1980 winter and summer Olympics, which America boycotted the games, Munich massacre and to NZers, the recent visa restrictions that stopped number of Fiji sport teams ... and much more.
Whenever there's a protest broke out, the Chinese official's stand is "any attempt to politicise the Olympic games will ultimately fail because it againsts the will of sports-loving people."
However, what I saw is, if there was anyone attempting to politicise Olympic Games, the first one must be Chinese government itself - this game is far more than a game for Chinese Government, it's a event where it attempts to buy global respectability.
The games was also used in propaganda campaign inside China and excuses to force ordinary people to sacrifice their freedom of speech or property.
It is so politicised that the government won't allow any flaws of this game to get exposed to the World, just like this accident most of you probably have never heard about it until now.
The point is, just like commercialisation of Olympic Games, it will also get politicised from time to time. Every one has the right, the freedom to express their opinion and execise what they think like boycott the game or praise it, so I don't think it's wrong to get politics involved in the Olympic Games, and I am very disappointed on New Zealand's attempt to stop kiwi athletes from commenting on political issues.
The choice of whether to comment on the game and/or related political issues should up to each athlete's individual conscience, the last thing we need is a nanny state telling Kiwi Olympians what is right or wrong.
However, I'm not saying which side in this highly disputed game is right: only the time would tell who stands on the moral high ground.
About ... severe cold weather in China
Most up to date information from China says that due to the improved weather condition, most stranded passengers in major train stations are now on their way home.
The problem is, it's New Year's Eve today. In Chinese tradition, tonight is the night of family union. When I was young, Chinese New Year Holiday was always the happiest time, you get lots of good food, presents (most time this means Cash in the Red envelope), just like the importance of Christmas for youngsters here.
But now it seems a lot of people may not able to make it on time and see their child's happy face.
The word "home" has a very special place in the hearts of Chinese People, especially for the migrant workers. In most cases you only get to see your family, your wife or your husband and your children once a year, and now is a time.
In rest of the year, they work long hours for low pay, they save every hard earned cent - never spend more than housing and food cost, so they can bring more money home and hope to get their child a better life, and we can cheaper goods from China.
They are the powerhouse of the booming Chinese economy and yet they received a lot of unfair treatment. When they lived in the tents outside train stations in sub-zero temperature, I saw no one in the local government ever considered somethine like "maybe we should open covered stadiums, schools and get all the empty hotel rooms for them".
Another news says a train was running without air conditioning, food, and water. When the train finally stopped for waterfor more than ten hours, while the trainmen can get off the train and have their food, passengers were prohibited from leaving the train.
It's such a shame for the Chinese authority, what a poor management.
My best wishes are with the people still on their way home, hope them could have a peaceful, and joyful Chinese New Year of Rat with the warmth of their home.
