Cracks Showing in the Libyan Firewall? 126
An anonymous reader writes "Most Libya Internet traffic has been blocked since the start of the uprisings on February 17. In what may be the first cracks in the Libya Internet firewall and a sign of the rapidly evolving political situation, Libya Internet traffic climbed over the weekend according to Arbor. Twitter updates also suggest the Internet is now working in eastern cities like Benghazi. Gaddafi may be losing control of his state telecom (Libya Telecom and Technology)?"
Re:Information wants to be free (Score:2, Interesting)
People in China have got richer (though the gap has widened)
This is not a coincidence. Margaret Thatcher explained [youtube.com] it more succinctly than any economist. There is a blind assumption that "wealth gaps" are indicative of an unhealthy society, completely oblivious to the real quality of life. Hong Kong has a great deal of "wealth inequality" but its quality of life is immeasurably greater than far more "equal" nations like Kyrgyzstan.
[...] and thus got more and more to lose over the decades.
Which has actually worked against political reform. As you note yourself, when people are starving the threat of death loses its sting. The corollary is that when people are comfortable, injustices that happen to others are easier to tolerate. Liberty has been traded for stability in China, as it always has been since the death of the hundred schools of thought at the burning of books and burying of scholars. Several more generations in China must live and die before the authoritarian spirit that has been at the core of its society and government for more than three thousand years might finally pass away.