eldavojohn writes "Sixteen-year-old Deng Senshan was tragically beaten to death by three of his instructors in an internet addiction camp in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough. An article in the Wall Street Journal says that, 'China's netizens have played a key role in drawing nationwide attention to recent cases of deaths in prisons and detention centers, so it should be no surprise that they are up in arms over the fate of one of their own. Many questioned the fairly new diagnosis of "Internet addiction" as a mental disorder.' You may recall electroshock treatment being banned from use on internet addicts in China. According to Xinhua, more than 100 juveniles remain in 'treatment' at the camp, which has stayed open. Perhaps for Senshan it would have been better to let him endure his cruel affliction instead of having his parents pay over $1,000 to have him beaten to death?"
Yeah, that sounds exactly the same as killing someone.
In New York City, you can get an airline/bus/train ticket out of town if you are homeless, so long as there is something awaiting you at the destination. This seems like common sense to me... send people back to where their support structure is. Even the most fucked up people usually have SOMEONE who still cares about them.
Perhaps for Senshan it would have been better to let him endure his cruel affliction instead of having his parents pay over $1,000 to have him beaten to death?
And knowing China, they probably also charged his parents for the cost of the stick used to beat him.
Also, I don't know much about these "internet addiction" facilities. Are we talking about people who spend too much time playing WoW, or dissidents who use the internet for communication? Somehow I'm seeing this as being a gulag for political prisoners, but maybe that's just me being cynical.
The sad thing is, I don't think they're even a gulag for political prisoners -- if they were, the beatings and such would at least make a modicum of sense (a perverted one, but sense nonetheless)... it seems they're doing this for their own valued citizens. Fun, hmm?
Of course, they usually don't kill their victims. That's usually reserved for kids that are suspected of being "gay".
I love this, because some of us here actually broke the barriers, and straight guys are actually standing up for gay guys. It's awesome, because when you see some kid getting hit and beaten until he's bruised and bleeding, you can pretty much walk up, grab a nearby metal stick, and start busting people in the face for being assholes. It's always fun to rip the shit out of people for being total dickwads, you don't have to be gay to enjoy that!
Actually it's funny, people might still think you're a faggot for standing up for a faggot; but you can beat them into a bloody mass, so who gives a fuck what they think anyhow? If they want to do something about it... well, they can't, there's that whole beaten-to-a-bloody-mass thing when they jump you in the alley.
you can pretty much walk up, grab a nearby metal stick, and start busting people in the face for being assholes. It's always fun to rip the shit out of people for being total dickwads, you don't have to be gay to enjoy that!
You know... lawful evil is not all that much better than chaotic evil =)
Maybe there are some camps that are gulags. But I think the majority of the cases are 'legit'. My family is Chinese (from Taiwan, pretty much same culture) and we live in Canada, so I got a relatively watered down version of the 'Asian/Chinese Parents' thing. And I can really see parents sending off their kids for spending too much time playing video games. Among my circle of friends, I know a lot of kids who just utterly fucked up school from gaming too much (this is before alcohol and drugs... and forget about girls), and I know a lot of their parents would try to do more. But really, a motivated teenager is going to somehow get around nearly everything their parents will try. I remember when my parents locked up the TV behind a cabinet so my brother and I would spend less time watching TV/playing SNES (yeah, that was a while ago). We just took the cabinet doors off its hinges whenever they were gone (even the best parents can't be there all the time).
So, given conditions in China (those parents are bound to be away working more than the typical parents here), as well as how addicting those games really are, and that Chinese parents generally really do want their kids to 'succeed', I really can see parents sending kids off to Internet (or Gaming) addiction camp. I mean hell, we have Fat Camps in North America to deal with our problem with obese kids, they have Internet Addiction Camps to deal with their problem with kids gaming way too much. This is no excuse for abuse and killing the poor kid. That shit's fucking horrible. Fuckers should be put in jail. And I think they will be. China might be a totalitarian government, but they still have to pretend to care.
China might be a totalitarian government, but they still have to pretend to care.
No, they have to care. Otherwise, there'll be unrest all over, and the minority groups like the Uyghurs and Tibetans will take advantage of the situation to cause more problems. Local governments aren't necessarily subject to the same restrictions as the central government, but if things start getting too ridiculous, the low-level politicans in charge will pay.
Maybe there are some camps that are gulags. But I think the majority of the cases are 'legit'.
It's not like the same thing doesn't happen in the US. A kid in Florida died after being beaten by his boot camp instructors. The beating was even caught on tape. The murderers got off scot free [go.com].
At least that incident prompted Florida to close its boot camps. Hopefully this incident will get China to close its camps.
What is truly remarkable about this particular story is they say their son started this training Saturday, and was declared dead on Sunday (3 am was it?). Even worse, the mission statement said their methods were "harsh, but no harm will be done", yet the body was bloody and showed signs of restraint and struggle (handcuff bruising on his wrists).
The poor kid didn't even make it one day, yet the camp took a stand much like the Chinese government, denying that anything happened and that the kid had a fever. Apparently in China fevers involve a bruised/bloodied face and handcuffs. China has had attention called to it's human rights violations before, now that we are seeing the murder of a child that didn't do anything wrong in worldwide news, maybe we'll start seeing global pressure on China to change their ways a bit.
I can only wonder if there have been other deaths in this program that did not make the news.
Probably. What I can't believe is that no one seems to be questioning the assumptions of this nonsense (or if they are, the media in its usual incompetent or complicit way is ignorning it): that internet addiction even exists, period.
The very concept is farcical. Like "television addiction", there may be people whose lifestyles are too sedentary, whose lives center more on the couch or computer than most of us are
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baronâ(TM)s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth.
Windows is very popular in China and you can bet most installations are pirated.
I wonder what the trade deficit would be if they actually respected our intellectual property and paid the going rate for it instead of stealing it? Funny how we pay them for their stuff but not the other way around.....
I wonder what the trade deficit would be if they actually respected our intellectual property and paid the going rate for it instead of stealing it?
Good point. It's also ironic since most of/. would have you believe that piracy isn't stealing, and yet their own lives might be noticeably better if stated countries paid for, instead of pirated, American software.
I wonder what the trade deficit would be if they actually respected our intellectual property and paid the going rate for it instead of stealing it?
Good point. It's also ironic since most of/. would have you believe that piracy isn't stealing, and yet their own lives might be noticeably better if stated countries paid for, instead of pirated, American software.
Ironic? I don't know if that's the right word for it. That is nothing like rain on your wedding day, for instance.
I mean, look - yes, some people take that stance, that software piracy isn't "stealing". That point alone is just splitting hairs over terminology. The choice of words there is designed to make people sympathize with the copyright holders, and I think people don't always appreciate that sort of spin.
And then also consider - when we have a stance on what we consider right and wrong, in princi
This sort of thing happens all the time in the states. Google "Aaron Bacon" and he's hardly the only one. US boot camps have a really bad history in this area only nobody seems to care very much since they kids were somehow "troubled" (allegedly, since there is no due process).
I'd be the parent of one of the dead kids, I'd lodge a bullet into that asshole's head, whatever the cost would be.
(flame) Of course, customers of those camps are religious families, so they mostly sit there, whining about the loss, but still thanking god for His Impenetrable Ways. Morons. Ooops. Sorry. (/flame)
There was an interesting, personal account of what its like in these treatment centers in the March 2007 issue of Harpers. http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/03/0081438 [harpers.org] [not free, sadly]
I liked these "Internet Addiction Camps" better when they were called "Summer Camp".
Seriously, when I got too into games as a kid (Dragon Warrior 3, Wizardry 2, and Final Fantasy 2 being the early ones) my mother just walked in, hit the power button, and told me to go outside and not come back in until the sun was down.
Why is this such a hard concept? Is it an asian culture thing? I mean, think of Japan. You have hikikomoris, sitting in the dark in their rooms, with parents enabling them by just feeding them sliced cheese through the crack under the door. China and Kroea have people literally playing video games until their bladders burst and they die.
Granted, A+ for effort but big fat F for common sense, eh?
Is "He'll leave the room when he gets hungry enough" or "Just turn off the freaking router" such a hard concept?
Wow. Not to let me heart bleed all over the place here, but... what? This was a needless death in a camp that didn't need to exist run by instructors who used "punishment" that wasn't appropriate. He had an "internet addiction"... he wasn't a murderer. You don't think this is somehow newsworthy on a site devoted to geeks and geek-related stuff?
I just love these "so what people die every day" type posts. So, just to be clear, it's overkill to mourn a school shooting because more people are dying in Darfur, right?
This is especially sad to me because I'm not really against the idea of an "Internet addiction camp" in general. Real addiction can come in many forms, and it deserves being considered for treatment. But this just shows once again how (in this case very ironically) out of touch Chinese officials are with the concept of moderation.
i'm sure there are holidays camps or scouts or whatever goes hiking away from wifi
In China? Maybe. I don't really know what is available for kids in China. However, if we're talking about clinical addiction, such a simplistic view of a cure is just as bad as this approach. I'll agree that parents are likely to blame because they are the most likely enabler for the addicted child. But once you have reached clinical addiction levels, it is extremely difficult to break, and most people will struggle with it for most of their lives.
There is a larger problem. Chinese parents _paid_ money to send their kids into these needless camps to be "cured" of this so called "internet addiction". It's exactly the same as how American parents _paid_ money to send their kids into these needless camps to be "cured" of homosexuality. In the end, it's those panicky, ill informed, and lazy parents who entrust others with their children without actually bother doing proper research on the subject matter, the people who operate the camp, and their own children that cause pointless deaths like this. I am rather disappointed in the Chinese population today. In all honesty, learning from the western culture doesn't mean they should replicate mistakes in the western cultures too.
A larger tragedy doesn't make this one any less important. It is more relatable, too:./ers probably feel more in common with this kid that 3 year olds dying in Somalia, so it's news here.
I think the shocking thing is *why* he died - someone killed him. He didn't just starve or get malaria or something - he was murdered.
Look people, tragedies happen all the time. For every poor kid beaten to death in China at a "gaming addiction recovery camp", there's thousands more dying of starvation and illnesses in other parts of the world.
This isn't news. This is China. Do you expect differently?
So because the numbers are small, we should ignore it? If you were raped and murdered we could go to the police with your logic and say, "Look, for every person raped and murdered thousands die in automobile accidents on the streets so don't waste your time with this case."
The fact that 'internet addiction' is ill defined and that this was a CHILD not an adult and the fact that it's government run should cause alarm bells to ring even if it is only one case. How do you know the action of beating children is not commonplace and applied to thousands of so called "internet addicts"? How do you know this isn't an attempt to weed out would-be dissidents at an early age?
Your compliance amazes me. Yes, hunger and starvation is a problem but so is this we can report about this on Slashdot and read about hunger and food shortages on CNN.
I'm sorry but "this is China" does not cause me to close my eyes to unalienable human rights that every human being in the world deserves!
You fucking hypocrite. You are sitting on/. typing your rant on a computer that was largely made with Chinese parts/labor, probably wearing shoes/clothing that were made in China and god knows what else. I'm sorry but you don't get to throw stones when you live in a glass house.
I submitted this story in an attempt to raise awareness in our community about a death in an internet addiction camp. Who knows how many others there have been prior to this? And what, stone thrower, have you done?
And now you're criticizing me for purchasing Chinese products? What the hell does that have to do with this? You think the solution is for us to band together and boycott Chinese products? Do you really believe that causing their economic structure to collapse would be the answer? Did trade embargoes work for North Korea and pre-war Iraq?
I'm an American citizen, I have no control over the sovereign nation of China. All I can hope to do is get word out to everyone around the world and hopefully spread news to the citizens of China so they take action. A revolution from the outside is meaningless and often dangerous/deadly/destructive.
I don't want Chinese people to suffer, that's it. I don't care if their system is Communist, Capitalist, Dictatorship or Democracy. Get the word out so they fix it. Go ahead and call me a hypocrite but I'm doing what little I can by spreading facts and news... not pushing my ideals and isms on the sovereign people of China. Basic human rights are the only thing I push and I'm prepared to argue that.
And now you're criticizing me for purchasing Chinese products? What the hell does that have to do with this?
Many of these products (and/or their parts/ingredients) are manufactured in prison labor camps where many more than one person has died. Not that I disagree with your rant, in general, but you should know that by buying Chinese products you are supporting a system that has killed many more than the unfortunate individual in this article. As such, your outrage over this death seems somewhat suspect,
This isn't news. This is China. Do you expect differently?
From you? Not really. From people like you, I expect braindead nonsense whenever the subject contains the word "China" or other related subjects.
For the rest of us - I think it is worth noting that TFA mentions that "a police officer" states that "We are investigating a case where a high school student was beaten to death by his camp supervisors. The case is still under investigation" - IOW, a representative of the local officialdom talks openly about this case to a newsagency, in much the same way as a London police officer would, and refuses to give further details because they are still investigating, just like elsewhere in the world.
The reason I feel the need to draw attention to this is, that it seems to escape the attention of some. Do I need to spell it out any further? There is no "Government Coverup" here; no reasons to hate the Chinese for being Chinese.
While I agree with most of what you had to say, I find it interesting that *this* makes news on slashdot while hundreds of people in the US are beaten (and sometimes killed) for being gay, but we don't seem to be as outraged. Thousands are routinely abused in mental institutions and elder care facilities (and again, many die) and again, it's not as apparent that slashdotters feel the need to draw attention to it.
Is this because it's our *own* dirty laundry or simply because it didn't involve the words "
While I agree with most of what you had to say, I find it interesting that *this* makes news on slashdot while hundreds of people in the US are beaten (and sometimes killed) for being gay, but we don't seem to be as outraged. Thousands are routinely abused in mental institutions and elder care facilities (and again, many die) and again, it's not as apparent that slashdotters feel the need to draw attention to it.
Unfortunately, something that happens frequently isn't considered "news", no matter how much of a tragedy it is.
Solution: Greasemonky script that retrieves a list of updated goatse-style sites... and at random intervals redirects you to one of those pages instead of the link you clicked.
Granted, a different kind of shock therapy, but I'd imagine its pretty effective. (or at least, you won't browse if there's someone else in the room!)
Hell. I'll give you a very long list [homestead.com]. If you think it's bad enough that the kids are dead, look up how they died. Check out Michelle Sutton's story [homestead.com]. A while back the GAO did an investigative report on it. Written report here [gao.gov]. Video of hearing here [edgeboss.net]. There was a second report and hearing as well but that mainly concentrated on deceptive marketing practices (how the kids end up in these places). Has anything been done yet about it? Nope. The congressman Miller acted mighty angry in the hearings but t
Don't worry (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't worry (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Go to high school, get a course on religion (Score:3, Funny)
Hindus believe that you respawn on the same server but the new character type and class depend on your current Karma rating.
For some reason, I feel that I will do fine when I respawn as a troll.
Re:Go to high school, get a course on religion (Score:4, Funny)
Respawning as a troll is too good for an Anonymous Cowardon.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
PvP? Sounds more like he got banned for failure to follow an ever-changing ToS.
Upshot (Score:5, Funny)
On the upshot, that kid is no longer addicted to gaming...
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Yeah, that sounds exactly the same as killing someone.
In New York City, you can get an airline/bus/train ticket out of town if you are homeless, so long as there is something awaiting you at the destination. This seems like common sense to me... send people back to where their support structure is. Even the most fucked up people usually have SOMEONE who still cares about them.
Beware (Score:5, Funny)
Meet the new China...same as the old China (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps for Senshan it would have been better to let him endure his cruel affliction instead of having his parents pay over $1,000 to have him beaten to death?
And knowing China, they probably also charged his parents for the cost of the stick used to beat him.
Also, I don't know much about these "internet addiction" facilities. Are we talking about people who spend too much time playing WoW, or dissidents who use the internet for communication? Somehow I'm seeing this as being a gulag for political prisoners, but maybe that's just me being cynical.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Meet the new China...same as the old China (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, they usually don't kill their victims. That's usually reserved for kids that are suspected of being "gay".
I love this, because some of us here actually broke the barriers, and straight guys are actually standing up for gay guys. It's awesome, because when you see some kid getting hit and beaten until he's bruised and bleeding, you can pretty much walk up, grab a nearby metal stick, and start busting people in the face for being assholes. It's always fun to rip the shit out of people for being total dickwads, you don't have to be gay to enjoy that!
Actually it's funny, people might still think you're a faggot for standing up for a faggot; but you can beat them into a bloody mass, so who gives a fuck what they think anyhow? If they want to do something about it... well, they can't, there's that whole beaten-to-a-bloody-mass thing when they jump you in the alley.
Not being an asshole has many advantages.....
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
you can pretty much walk up, grab a nearby metal stick, and start busting people in the face for being assholes. It's always fun to rip the shit out of people for being total dickwads, you don't have to be gay to enjoy that!
You know... lawful evil is not all that much better than chaotic evil =)
Re:Meet the new China...same as the old China (Score:5, Interesting)
So, given conditions in China (those parents are bound to be away working more than the typical parents here), as well as how addicting those games really are, and that Chinese parents generally really do want their kids to 'succeed', I really can see parents sending kids off to Internet (or Gaming) addiction camp. I mean hell, we have Fat Camps in North America to deal with our problem with obese kids, they have Internet Addiction Camps to deal with their problem with kids gaming way too much. This is no excuse for abuse and killing the poor kid. That shit's fucking horrible. Fuckers should be put in jail. And I think they will be. China might be a totalitarian government, but they still have to pretend to care.
Parent
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China might be a totalitarian government, but they still have to pretend to care.
No, they have to care. Otherwise, there'll be unrest all over, and the minority groups like the Uyghurs and Tibetans will take advantage of the situation to cause more problems. Local governments aren't necessarily subject to the same restrictions as the central government, but if things start getting too ridiculous, the low-level politicans in charge will pay.
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Maybe there are some camps that are gulags. But I think the majority of the cases are 'legit'.
It's not like the same thing doesn't happen in the US. A kid in Florida died after being beaten by his boot camp instructors. The beating was even caught on tape. The murderers got off scot free [go.com].
At least that incident prompted Florida to close its boot camps. Hopefully this incident will get China to close its camps.
Is he actually the first person who has died? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can only wonder if there have been other deaths in this program that did not make the news.
Re:Is he actually the first person who has died? (Score:5, Interesting)
The poor kid didn't even make it one day, yet the camp took a stand much like the Chinese government, denying that anything happened and that the kid had a fever. Apparently in China fevers involve a bruised/bloodied face and handcuffs. China has had attention called to it's human rights violations before, now that we are seeing the murder of a child that didn't do anything wrong in worldwide news, maybe we'll start seeing global pressure on China to change their ways a bit.
Parent
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Maybe. The problem is that many westerners are comfortable with harsh treatment for people they have mentally classified as 'bad'.
For example, see the blase attitude of many Americans towards prison rape and so forth.
Internet Addiction? What a Farce. (Score:3, Informative)
I can only wonder if there have been other deaths in this program that did not make the news.
Probably. What I can't believe is that no one seems to be questioning the assumptions of this nonsense (or if they are, the media in its usual incompetent or complicit way is ignorning it): that internet addiction even exists, period.
The very concept is farcical. Like "television addiction", there may be people whose lifestyles are too sedentary, whose lives center more on the couch or computer than most of us are
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
for what? (Score:5, Funny)
Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough
If only China had the same attitude towards Windows...
Re:for what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows is very popular in China and you can bet most installations are pirated.
I wonder what the trade deficit would be if they actually respected our intellectual property and paid the going rate for it instead of stealing it? Funny how we pay them for their stuff but not the other way around.....
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder what the trade deficit would be if they actually respected our intellectual property and paid the going rate for it instead of stealing it?
Good point. It's also ironic since most of /. would have you believe that piracy isn't stealing, and yet their own lives might be noticeably better if stated countries paid for, instead of pirated, American software.
Think about what the economy would look like!
Doncha think? (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder what the trade deficit would be if they actually respected our intellectual property and paid the going rate for it instead of stealing it?
Good point. It's also ironic since most of /. would have you believe that piracy isn't stealing, and yet their own lives might be noticeably better if stated countries paid for, instead of pirated, American software.
Ironic? I don't know if that's the right word for it. That is nothing like rain on your wedding day, for instance.
I mean, look - yes, some people take that stance, that software piracy isn't "stealing". That point alone is just splitting hairs over terminology. The choice of words there is designed to make people sympathize with the copyright holders, and I think people don't always appreciate that sort of spin.
And then also consider - when we have a stance on what we consider right and wrong, in princi
Life Imitates Art (Score:5, Funny)
When I saw this, I couldn't help but think about the classical Rowan Atkinson sketch [youtube.com].
Did anyone notice the cost? (Score:5, Funny)
Does anyone else see the irony in sending a bunch of computer nerds to camp, and charging them a nice even binary number to do it?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I don't think 7 is a binary number. Er, a number involved in binary.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Did anyone notice the cost? (Score:4, Funny)
Duh.
Parent
Courtesy of /g/ (Score:5, Funny)
Did he drop any good items?
Communist China... (Score:5, Funny)
Not just China (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not just China (Score:4, Interesting)
What is amazing, is that the guy that started all this continues, and that nobody really care.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/09/us/boot-camps-proponent-becomes-focus-of-critics.html?pagewanted=all [nytimes.com]
I'd be the parent of one of the dead kids, I'd lodge a bullet into that asshole's head, whatever the cost would be.
(flame)
Of course, customers of those camps are religious families, so they mostly sit there, whining about the loss, but still thanking god for His Impenetrable Ways. Morons. Ooops. Sorry.
(/flame)
Parent
Hrm. (Score:5, Funny)
"Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough."
Isn't that the reason why anyone gets beaten to death?
"I was a Chinese Internet Addict" article (Score:3, Informative)
Sad (Score:5, Insightful)
I liked these "Internet Addiction Camps" better when they were called "Summer Camp".
Seriously, when I got too into games as a kid (Dragon Warrior 3, Wizardry 2, and Final Fantasy 2 being the early ones) my mother just walked in, hit the power button, and told me to go outside and not come back in until the sun was down.
Why is this such a hard concept? Is it an asian culture thing? I mean, think of Japan. You have hikikomoris, sitting in the dark in their rooms, with parents enabling them by just feeding them sliced cheese through the crack under the door. China and Kroea have people literally playing video games until their bladders burst and they die.
Granted, A+ for effort but big fat F for common sense, eh?
Is "He'll leave the room when he gets hungry enough" or "Just turn off the freaking router" such a hard concept?
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
i'm sure there are holidays camps or scouts or whatever goes hiking away from wifi
In China? Maybe. I don't really know what is available for kids in China. However, if we're talking about clinical addiction, such a simplistic view of a cure is just as bad as this approach. I'll agree that parents are likely to blame because they are the most likely enabler for the addicted child. But once you have reached clinical addiction levels, it is extremely difficult to break, and most people will struggle with it for most of their lives.
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a larger problem. Chinese parents _paid_ money to send their kids into these needless camps to be "cured" of this so called "internet addiction". It's exactly the same as how American parents _paid_ money to send their kids into these needless camps to be "cured" of homosexuality. In the end, it's those panicky, ill informed, and lazy parents who entrust others with their children without actually bother doing proper research on the subject matter, the people who operate the camp, and their own children that cause pointless deaths like this. I am rather disappointed in the Chinese population today. In all honesty, learning from the western culture doesn't mean they should replicate mistakes in the western cultures too.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because China has a "communist" government doesn't mean they murder children at random. The Cold War is over, you can come outside now.
They are murderers and it has nothing to do with the label they stick on it on their government; they're a totalitarian regime.
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
Look people, tragedies happen all the time. For every poor kid beaten to death in China at a "gaming addiction recovery camp", there's thousands more dying of starvation and illnesses in other parts of the world.
This isn't news. This is China. Do you expect differently?
So because the numbers are small, we should ignore it? If you were raped and murdered we could go to the police with your logic and say, "Look, for every person raped and murdered thousands die in automobile accidents on the streets so don't waste your time with this case."
The fact that 'internet addiction' is ill defined and that this was a CHILD not an adult and the fact that it's government run should cause alarm bells to ring even if it is only one case. How do you know the action of beating children is not commonplace and applied to thousands of so called "internet addicts"? How do you know this isn't an attempt to weed out would-be dissidents at an early age?
Your compliance amazes me. Yes, hunger and starvation is a problem but so is this we can report about this on Slashdot and read about hunger and food shortages on CNN.
I'm sorry but "this is China" does not cause me to close my eyes to unalienable human rights that every human being in the world deserves!
Parent
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
You fucking hypocrite. You are sitting on /. typing your rant on a computer that was largely made with Chinese parts/labor, probably wearing shoes/clothing that were made in China and god knows what else. I'm sorry but you don't get to throw stones when you live in a glass house.
I submitted this story in an attempt to raise awareness in our community about a death in an internet addiction camp. Who knows how many others there have been prior to this? And what, stone thrower, have you done?
... not pushing my ideals and isms on the sovereign people of China. Basic human rights are the only thing I push and I'm prepared to argue that.
And now you're criticizing me for purchasing Chinese products? What the hell does that have to do with this? You think the solution is for us to band together and boycott Chinese products? Do you really believe that causing their economic structure to collapse would be the answer? Did trade embargoes work for North Korea and pre-war Iraq?
I'm an American citizen, I have no control over the sovereign nation of China. All I can hope to do is get word out to everyone around the world and hopefully spread news to the citizens of China so they take action. A revolution from the outside is meaningless and often dangerous/deadly/destructive.
I don't want Chinese people to suffer, that's it. I don't care if their system is Communist, Capitalist, Dictatorship or Democracy. Get the word out so they fix it. Go ahead and call me a hypocrite but I'm doing what little I can by spreading facts and news
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And now you're criticizing me for purchasing Chinese products? What the hell does that have to do with this?
Many of these products (and/or their parts/ingredients) are manufactured in prison labor camps where many more than one person has died. Not that I disagree with your rant, in general, but you should know that by buying Chinese products you are supporting a system that has killed many more than the unfortunate individual in this article. As such, your outrage over this death seems somewhat suspect,
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This isn't news. This is China. Do you expect differently?
From you? Not really. From people like you, I expect braindead nonsense whenever the subject contains the word "China" or other related subjects.
For the rest of us - I think it is worth noting that TFA mentions that "a police officer" states that "We are investigating a case where a high school student was beaten to death by his camp supervisors. The case is still under investigation" - IOW, a representative of the local officialdom talks openly about this case to a newsagency, in much the same way as a London police officer would, and refuses to give further details because they are still investigating, just like elsewhere in the world.
The reason I feel the need to draw attention to this is, that it seems to escape the attention of some. Do I need to spell it out any further? There is no "Government Coverup" here; no reasons to hate the Chinese for being Chinese.
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While I agree with most of what you had to say, I find it interesting that *this* makes news on slashdot while hundreds of people in the US are beaten (and sometimes killed) for being gay, but we don't seem to be as outraged. Thousands are routinely abused in mental institutions and elder care facilities (and again, many die) and again, it's not as apparent that slashdotters feel the need to draw attention to it.
Unfortunately, something that happens frequently isn't considered "news", no matter how much of a tragedy it is.
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