Slashdot Mirror
Is China's Control of the Internet Slipping?
Garp writes "According to the BBC news site the Chinese governments grip on the internet is slipping. Ever since they allowed use of the internet, the Chinese have been monitoring the information that has been flowing (jokingly referred to as the great fire-wall of china), in an attempt to ensure 'bad' philosophies don't infect their people. However, the internet is having a much more profound affect, out of the control of the government ..."
free thought invading, oh no!!!
I want 2D games back.
"Is China's Control of the internet Sliipping?"
There's one "i" in slipping, slugger. Don't worry champ. We all have our bad days.
Mine! first!
Chen Kenichi reigns supreme!
I thought not.
Fuck you, you goddamned honkey jap bastard!
kill 9 squid
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
I like dem pretty chinese girls you always see with pacifers in der mouths and diapers under dem der dress
I should think (and hope) so. Even with all the fuss about trade being the way to democratic reform in China, free access to the internet is probably one of the few things that will actually work..
Tons of unrestricted information should give the Chinese a chance to bypass the biased/false national news and make up their own minds. and that is probably a good thing.
Are you confusing Japanese people from Chinese people?
:)
...flamebait
Well, it took a while but I thought it was funny :)
Either that, or he's using one of those cordless Logitech keyboards. They're a bitch to type on if you're not used to them.
Fuck TITS. Join the UTM - the only movement that respects the contributions of all trolls equally.
Hey, if *you* can't read Chinese, don't complain. Be thankful they translated it the best they could for your sorry complaining ass to read.
No, the World Cup - you know, that huge international sporting event that's currently taking place - is /.ing the BBC, not this site.
Give the poor sod a break, he`s probably American, with his head shoved too far up his own ass to see past the end of US territorial waters, let alone to South Korea ...
YHBT
Nice troll.
Give the poor sod a break, he's probably just got out of bed and hasn't thought to check the scores yet, a fact you might have thought of if you were able to see past your pointed post-colonial nose.
Prolly? Probably? Whoever uses the word 'prolly' is probably a 3rd grade dropout.
Mod parent up! funniest post all day
What the fuck buddy? Are you trying to imitate a chinese person speaking or something?
I 3 eating out wet pussy
Well, if you cast Natalie Portman as Leia Organa then the daughter would look like the mother -- which makes sense. Plus we get more Natalie Nipples that way.
The rest of the world is getting worse.
fucking dammit.. enough with the mirror post you flaming fucking homo!!!!
It is understandable that the Palestinians are mad enough to kill. However, their plight has its roots in two places. First is British colonialism and the failure of its post-colonial policies. The second is Arab aggression against Israel. That is where they should direct their grudge. Blowing up a pool hall full of teenagers is not an appropriate reponse to having a military commander assassinated. Look, if the PFLP, Hammas, Islamic Jihad, ect. limited their activities to military targets in the occupied territories my guess is that American public opinion would be far less supportive of Israel. Particulary if the wealthy arab countires spent some of their money on a media and political lobbying campaign. Unfortunatly, it may be too late, the Israelies will wipe out the Palestinians and the world will stand by: America, because it rightfully views arabs as enemies; Europe, because it values security over freedom; Arabs, because they are afraid. Sorry, it would have been nice if everything worked out.
between the greater and lesser infinities sleep the dreams undreamt
What you appear to be unable to grasp is that whatever was done from the outside had mush less effect than what went on on the inside.
I'll thank you to keep your pontificating as to my mental capabilites to yourself - as you are wrong.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
But the Kingdom of Tonga was not amused, and has now launched a U.S. suit accusing the jester -- a former U.S. bank employee who doubled as a royal investment adviser -- with defrauding the government out of some 26 million.
"I hope we can get some of that money back," attorney Bruce Ericson, Tonga's lead attorney in its suit, said on Wednesday.
Tonga's unfunny run-in with its royal jester has been big news in the tiny Pacific island kingdom, a constitutional monarchy where the government's annual revenue was just 41 million last year.
At the center of the controversy is Jesse Bogdonoff, a former employee of the Bank of America who struck up a close relationship with Tonga's King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV after noticing that the kingdom had millions of dollars sitting in a low-interest checking account.
Tongan officials say that Bogdonoff -- who asked for and received the appointment as Tonga's court jester -- persuaded the government to put him in charge of the 26.5 million Tongan Trust Fund, which was established largely with money earned through the sales of Tongan passports to foreigners.
FUNDS EARNED FROM SELLING PASSPORTS
Tonga, which has a population of 100,000 spread over 170 coral islands in the South Pacific around 1,250 miles (2,000 km) north of New Zealand, sold citizenship in the late 1980s to Hong Kong residents worried about their future under Chinese rule.
In its suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco this week, Tonga claims that Bogdonoff beat out bidders including Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch by promising higher returns and lower management costs to build a fund intended to benefit the kingdom's impoverished population.
In 1999, Bogdonoff and his company Wellness Technologies, recommended that the fund invest some 24.5 million in three companies: a Nevada-based purchaser of life insurance policies, an energy start-up company and a dot-com.
But it soon became clear that the investments were not performing as expected. The Nevada company, Millennium Asset Management, has been dissolved, the energy company Trinity Flywheel Power is struggling and the dot-com FilmAxis.com is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- its name up for auction on the Internet at a starting price of just 1.
"As a proximate result of Bogdonoff's negligence, the Tonga Trust Fund has been damaged in an amount...that, at minimum, exceeds 24.5 million," the lawsuit says.
The suit further charges Bogdonoff -- who has been identified variously as a musician, a poet, a follower of Japan's Soka Gakkai Buddhist organization and a peddler of "healing" magnets -- colluded with executives in the U.S. companies to squeeze the Tongan fund dry.
"Defendants paid themselves and their friends and business associates millions of dollars in charges, commission and fees which they did not disclose" to the fund, the suit said.
Altogether, the Tongan fund is seeking restitution of at least 26.5 million along with possible punitive damages.
The sudden disappearance of so much money has sparked a political scandal in Tonga, where officials say the fund is now left with just 2.2 million in the till.
Two Tongan government ministers who acted as fund trustees -- Deputy Prime Minister Tevita Tupou and Education Minister Tutoatasi Fakafanua -- resigned after government auditors started investigating the trust fund and the investment.
Officials at Tonga's Consulate General in San Francisco did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment on the scandal or the lawsuit.
But acting Deputy Prime Minister Clive Edwards has told Tonga's parliament that he now fears the kingdom will be a laughing stock following its decision to plunk so much money into such shady investment vehicles.
Bogdonoff -- who, after his royal appointment, claimed to be the only official court jester in the world -- has kept a low profile and did not return calls Wednesday to his northern California home seeking comment on the case.