Blogging Sweeps China 122
An anonymous reader writes "Dissident astro-physicist, Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at UC Berkeley, interviews Isaac Mao, founder of CNBlog for New Scientist. Asked what is his strategy to expand blogging under China's censorship regime, Mao's response is typically Taoist: 'What is our strategy? We do not have a strategy. But the information flow in the blogosphere has its own Way. The Way is our strategy: personal, fast, connected and networked.'"
Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:2, Insightful)
On the other hand, unlike many Western countries *cough cough* that send the secret police to "visit" people who wish to express
Re:Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:3, Insightful)
It's hard to know how much of the full picture we are getting, but honestly, yes, I think we're getting more than most people in other times and other places.
Re:Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:2, Interesting)
You don't see any Americans killed or wounded (the latter only after they're safe, cleaned up and "wanting to go back there, sir" even without their legs).
You don't see many Iraqis killed or wounded, save the occasional wounded child from an insurgent bomb.
Usually either of these happens only if the story is 'big' like the one time a helicopter fired on civilians and got on tape (or the torture). Those films, too, are edited.
Re:Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:2)
Re:Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:3, Interesting)
One thing I've noticed that is significant: al-Jazeera has quieted down. They aren't able to get the communiques from the insurgents as well as they did in the past.
Overall, it looks as if the fighting is going well for the Coalition, and the Tet offensive of THIS war was done BY the Mari
Oh, really? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1964
Tiananmen dissident tortured to the point of becoming psychotic. He splattered paint on Mao Zedong's portrait.
Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) - An imprisoned Chinese dissident has become psychotic as a result of the torture inflicted upon him, one of the man's friend told Free Asia after fleeing China.
Yu Dongyue is a former newspaper editor who was arrested during the Tiananmen protests and sentenced to life for "counter-revolutionary propaganda": he had defaced Mao's portrait by splattering it with paint.
In 2001 Lu Decheng, another dissident, who was jailed for years but released early, saw Yu in Hunan No1 Prison. "He was almost unrecognisable," Mr Lu said who recently escaped the mainland in a perilous three-month journey. "He had a totally dull look in his eyes, and he kept repeating words over and over again as if he were chanting a mantra. He didn't recognise anyone."
"There was a big scar on the right side of his head. I asked his mother if Yu had ever received a head injury, but she said he never had."
Mr Lu said that another inmate at the prison told him that Yu had been tied to a power pole and left in the sun for several days.
"After that, they locked him in solitary confinement for two years and that's when he got like that," Mr Lu stressed. "He has been tortured to the point of psychosis."
Officials at the Hunan No1 Prison were not available for comment.
Yu Dongyue, Lu Decheng and Yu Zhijian were school friends from Hunan province and had been active in the pro-democracy movement before travelling to Beijing in May 1989 to join thousands of demonstrators on Tiananmen Square.
As a result of his involvement, Mr Lu said, his house was demolished, his wife threatened to the point that the authorities forced her to divorce him, and his minibus confiscated, depriving him of the means to earn a living.
Phone tapping, mail interception and surveillance became a regular part of his life, he added.
Speaking from an undisclosed location, he said he fled so that he could tell Yu's story. He did not reveal any details about his escape.
Re:Oh, really? (Score:2)
Re:Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:3, Informative)
Komintang = Taiwan
Communists (if you can still call them that) = China = Gong Zharn Dong (rough translation)
Re:Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:2)
Er, examples?
I'm not calling BS, but it would be nice to know if you've got examples of "many" Western countries sending "secret police" to "visit" those who only "wish" to express unpopular opinions.
Re:Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:2)
You're thinking of China(1), not China(2).
1. China, Republic of
2. China, People's Republic of
Re:Garbage no in, but garbage out (Score:1, Flamebait)
Free speech? Bullshit. It isn't even that they have transparent censorship. They have downright oppression. Everyone breathing should know this by now.
Isn't this the same government that ran over students protesting with a tank. A TANK.
America has, in my opinion, a rediculously poor record for our f
Blogs (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Blogs (Score:1)
Reminds me.. (Score:5, Funny)
He believed in a door. He must find that door. The door was the way to... to...
The Door was The Way.
Good.
Capital letters were always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to.
Re:Pajamahadeen (Score:4, Insightful)
Shouldn't you be asking if mainstream media is accurate and trustworthy, assuming you're being sincere and not sarcastic of course?.
To answer your sincere question then, bloggers as a whole may not be accurate and trustworthy - can you really trust someone you barely know, except through the thoughts they choose to post online?
However, Bloggers do tell you about their lives, as they live it, about the things that happen in their country and how it affects them. So while blogs may lack decent grammar and spelling, it is at least, to me, a more realistic view of the average person's situation. (Note: this does not apply to the ravings of bored teenage girls with smiley addictions! - of which there are way too many in the blogosphere)
What the hell? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What the hell? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Sounds (Score:5, Funny)
Excellent... (Score:5, Funny)
China blocks all blog sites.
Re:Excellent... (Score:1)
Astounding (Score:5, Funny)
TWW
Re:Astounding (Score:2)
Re:Astounding (Score:2)
Sincerererely,
America's Web Commubity
*Cough* bullshit *cough* (Score:2, Funny)
I think they forgot "...and censored, too."
Sex (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Sex (Score:3, Insightful)
Sex is THE fundamental drive of all life on earth. Why would it surprise you to find it at the top of most human agendas?
Re:Um... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Um... (Score:2, Funny)
I got up this morning and took a shit so that I could survive until the next time I had sex.
I took the dog out because owning another creature raises the possibility of having sex with another interested human.
I made blueberry muffins because eating is fundamental to survival, and attracting the opposite sex with a special skill like cooking is important to having sex.
I checked my email in order to 1) answer emails from friends who may introduce me to future sex partners, and 2) m
Re:Um... (Score:1, Funny)
Rubbish, I took a shit because bowell problems are painful.
Some people hate animals!
What garbage. I made muffin because I like it, gen
Re:Um... (Score:2)
So very true...
I think most things can be linked to sex, but maybe not directly. How about my schedule this morning:
Re:Um... (Score:1)
Or maybe not.
Re:Um... (Score:1)
Re:Sex (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sex (Score:2)
Re:Sex (Score:1)
"It just seems to be a pity to me that people can't find something better than sex to get people to assert their collective voice."
uh... better than sex? *scratches head*
Where are the Iraqi blogs (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Where are the Iraqi blogs (Score:1, Informative)
Once the citizen's life in Iraq becomes relatively stable, and they are able to find jobs, and they can get their kids back in school again, I'm sure there will be some people who will blog. But right now, the place is a veritable hellhole, and we're not going to be seeing anything on the web anytime soon.
BTW There was a
Re:Where are the Iraqi blogs (Score:2)
You think?
You mean...you're not sure? This is the freaking information age. Go find out already.
As for Iraqi blogs. Did you try typing "Iraqi blogs" into google yet?
Re:Where are the Iraqi blogs (Score:5, Informative)
No, I'm not giving you the URLs. Do at least a little work. Sheesh. These people have been blogging for over a year and a half - Salam Pax was blogging when Saddam was still in power. Sorry if I come across as caustic, but your question and the response by the ACs above show that people haven't made the merest attempt to find out for themselves. Anyone who really cared could find Iraqi blogs over a year ago.
Re:Where are the Iraqi blogs (Score:3, Informative)
The Tao of business (Score:2, Funny)
Somehow I'm a little skeptical of the "meh, it'll all work out by itself in the end" style of planning ...
Re:The Tao of business (Score:2)
There are ups and downs to both approaches. But they do both work, in their way.
Re:The Tao of business (Score:2)
sometimes you have to sit down and plan things out. sometimes you don't. If you're just trying to connect people or start a "scene", you may not have to make as many plans as you might have to in order to launch tons of metal and explosive fuel into space, no?
Sometimes the very act of planning limits your ability to react. When was the last time you got mad at someone who didn't deserve it? Those are the tim
Re:The Tao of business (Score:2)
Don't bother getting anecdotal. We could sit here for a lifetime tossing out counter examples.
Planning is better than slapping things together, if you have to do something now, or by next monday. If you have all the time you need to do something, you can dispense with pressure and rigid thinking and simply explore your subject calmly, peacefully, and powerfully.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then fine, it may not make sense to you.
Re:The Tao of business (Score:2)
Somehow I'm a little skeptical of the "meh, it'll all work out by itself in the end" style of planning
That's what happens when you make straw men. One of the metaphors that is used in the book to describe the method is "rolling a boulder down a hill." What this means is employing a minimum of effort by making use of the natural features of your environment. Designing strategies that ignore or flaunt those fe
Re:The Tao of business (Score:2)
They aren't really my analogies, but I apologize that they aren't convincing to you. But may I add that your disdainful dismissal of my comments is made evident by your yawning? I find this inappropriate for reasoned discussion.
Understanding the market, and adapting to it, is the whole basis of a smart business plan.
But now, you seem to be agreeing with me.
Nobody said anything about "proceed
Great! (Score:3, Funny)
Great that those bloggers are lending a hand! With the economic expansion and lack of time and all, the dust has really been piling up in the corners lately.
This is the begining of the end... (Score:1)
Re:This is the begining of the end... (Score:2)
and John Dean will be sworn in as President come January.
Re:This is the begining of the end... (Score:2)
Coming Soon.... (Score:3, Funny)
Makes sense... (Score:2)
Re:Too bad I firewalled the entire country... (Score:2)
So how would you like to write an apology to 1billion+ people? Perhaps a mass email?
Re:Too bad I firewalled the entire country... (Score:2)
They deserve nothing. As compared to administrators in the US and Canada that i've had to deal with, admin types in China/Korea/Taiwan have been useless when dealing with spam.
In fact, I don't think i've ever recieved a single piece of return communication when trying to resolve an unsolicited-mail problem with someone in those areas - the crap mail just keeps coming, and I finally had to go ahead and summarily reject or
Re:Falun Gong (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Falun Gong (Score:1)
Re:Falun Gong (Score:2)
Better for poor peasant kids? How about growing up in a society where one can believe in or do whatever one wants so long as it doesn't harm someone else?
Re:Falun Gong (Score:2)
Be careful my friend. One is just as free to choose ignorance and self limitation as one is of choosing happiness and prosperity. The thing about Falun Gong is that it takes obsolete ideas that are often detramental to one's well-being and guilding it over with a thin layer of spirituality and metaphysics. As a health regiment, practitioners have more often than not forgone legitima
Re:Falun Gong (Score:2)
In that case I'd propose those individuals be denied care unless they can pay for it themselves. I'd have no problem with tax money being spent on educating people about the possible consequenses of their actions (just like anti-smoking commercials). People should be free to live their lives as
Re:Falun Gong (Score:2)
Re:That is why national Health Care is a Failure (Score:2)
Yes, smoking should be illegal. Tobacco products have no redeeming value and in the light of all it's negative effects, there is no reason at all for anyone to be consuming this product.
Aids and other
Re:Falun Gong (Score:2)
"Some of Mr Li's pronouncements are certainly unconventional, some would say just plain strange. He believes aliens walk the Earth and he has reportedly said he can walk through walls and make himself invisible. Mr Li says that he is a being from from a higher level who has come to help humankind from the destruction it could face as the result of rampant evil. "
Similar
Re:Falun Gong (Score:2)
By now, we are jaded by bizzare ideas like this. But most chinese are still relatively naive about such things, and so they get caught up in the frenzy.
China had groups that got into these "bizarre ideas" long before Western cynicism. A recent example (by Chinese standards) that Westerners might remember was the Boxer Rebellion, very similar to the Falun Gong, which occured about a hundred years ago.
I wouldn't write the Falun Gongs off as unsophisticated rubes just yet. There's a reason why the Beijing
Re:Falun Gong (Score:2)
The Boxers were *nothing* like the Falun Gong of today. The boxers, right from the beginning, had political motives. Primarily though, they were anti-foreigners rather than anti-government and were not rebel in the strictest sense of the world. But that is besides the point. It seems to me such a pairing compares apples to oranges. The Boxers incident may be recent relative to the entire history of Chinese culture, but in terms of direct influence (and by this I mean the continuity of cultural consciou