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Microsoft Bans 'Democracy' for China's Web Users
Doc Ruby writes "As reported, paradoxically, on MSN, 'Microsoft's new Chinese internet portal has banned the words 'democracy' and 'freedom' from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing's political censors.' MSN China says it must comply with local laws, but there is no Chinese law against the use of these words."
Okay, the most annoying part of this article is that they never bother to LINK to the new website. What is the point of talking about a new website in a news article and not linking to it?
My quess is this is what they are talking about.
Of course, I don't know how to spell "freedom" in Chinese, but if you compare these two searches:
US
China
You can get a pretty good idea of what they block. And to think, we have U.S. companies helping them to achieve this....
..coming from someone named "Jackie Chan Fan."
Clearly, the benefit for American citizens is cheap products. Benefit for American corporations: higher margins.
Yep, not a lot of long term thinking going on here in America. Buying everything on credit, spending money on high school football instead of advanced courses, etc. We're on the brink of getting our asses royally kicked.
That said, most Chinese I know really like America and Americans, just not our politics. As for me when I am there, I happen to like living in a god-less country, but I'm not so enamored with the totalitarian part. There isn't a perfect country to live in- when I live in China, I have simply traded one kind of stupidity for another.
In the Vietnamese Wikipedia, where I'm a sysop we actually had a discussion about how to translate the motto The free encyclopedia into Vietnamese. Many people were against translating the word "free" literally because it would throw off a lot of readers and the Vietnamese authorities and make it a target for the filtering software installed by the authorities. So we finally reached a compromised and used "open" instead of "free".
You just reminded me of something. I take it most of you that follow American politics even a little know about all the whining over 10 of Bush's judicial appointments? Well, after years (and particularly so in the past several months), of shrill complaints by the GOP that the Democrats where delaying and obstructing the "up or down" votes of these nominies, they finally got their way.
This is where it gets good: During the discussion over one of the nominies a few days ago, just before the vote, the Republicans demanded the debate be shut down and the vote put off. And, the Democrats agreed. What had been so important for them to put a halt to what they had wanted for so many years?
Well, it was announced that 2 communist Chinese businessmen had arrived in the captal building. And, yes, in a show of bipartisan support, both the Republicans and the Democrats stopped the important work of running the nation to both go and meet the businessmen. Not even a vote on a motion taken, just simulatious agreement.
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
No one is as fervently "anticommunist" as the mafia. The same way mafia "families" are "antimafia", when it comes to murdering their competing mafia families. Because they're the competition. That's why the mafia has been so connected to American anticommunism work. And so much blowback, like Kennedy's assassination, Iran/Contra cocaine dealing, etc. All these ideologies are just propaganda for the tyrants to convince the people to work for their own oppression.
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make install -not war
Back about a decade ago, one shell executive was quoted as saying that what any corporation needs, is political stability, and a compliant, cheap workforce == and dictatorships are really good at providing that.
Capitalism does not embrace democracy. It simply tolerates it in the context of western societies. In other countries where there is no need to push for democracy, why should a company do so? The linkage between the two is pure political sugar-coating. This is part of the reason for the tension between capitalism and Free Software (and why 'Open Source' seems like a compelling compromise). Free Software is about Freedom, choice and equality -- none of which really serves the purposes of your average corporate meta-entity.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Censoring a website is small potatoes compared to anything the Third Reich did.
>> Anyone remember IBM and the Third Reich?
Not old enough to remember, but I've read about IBM and Ford and General Electric and more. "Wall street and the rise of Hitler" by Anthony Sutton is an interesting read if you can find a copy...
http://request-header.info
The Communist mafia government is doing a lot more than censoring a website. And their technocrats will continue to exploit tech companies like Microsoft more for population control, just as the Nazis did IBM, then create their own homegrown versions they can control better, without even the possibiity that discussions like this one could interfere.
FWIW, I note that Bush's grandfather, Prescott, sold Nazi war bonds illegally, funding bullets and bombs killing American soldiers, until shut down by the US government under the "Trading With the Enemy" laws. And I further note that Prescott's financial parnership with the Nazis extended back into the early 1930s, as Bush backed Fritz Thyssen, who in turn backed Hitler in his early rise to power. This kind of corporate backing of nominal "enemies" is nothing new, and a greater threat today than ever.
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make install -not war
All this pandering to the Beijing government for distribution rights, as low-down it may be because of the same's treatment of the people the company would like to distribute to, will only be a temporary measure. This period is "China's education" and it won't last long. Once it's over and the floodgates open, the Chinese economy will steamroll the world's.
Since it decided to open up, its people have been "getting used to" newer technologies - and how to make them for themselves. The textile industry is already ripe and just-opened - and not a month after Europe's quota on Chinese textile product imports was lifted, its market was flooded with a 200% increase of low-cost products, sparking a drop in the sales of more "local" companies. To compete, the local companies claim they have to relocate their factories to developing countries.
But here's the thing - even here the Europeans can't compete because China already has all the low-cost hands it needs, and to boot, it already has most of the machines and technology too. Its economy isn't one where everyone in a product's production chain, from raw material to store shelf, is aiming to make a 100% (or more) profit - which makes everything cheaper for them. What's more, since they're a bit 'behind' for the time being, they don't feel the 'need' to create new ideas when they can just dip into the existing market's and make them at a cheaper price. Bill Gates is only adding to this - just wait until the above hits the computer/software industry.
Unfortunately with the floodgates of trade already opening it will be soon too late to protest the Beijing Government's treatment of the Chinese people - the only to protest this is to refuse to have anything to do with its function, meaning cutting them off and not dealing with them - but already it's too late for that. The Bush administration is drooling at the aspect of billions of petrol-consuming new cars and they won't be turning back at any price. Not until the damage is (already) done, anyway. Beijing is full today of "western" businessmen wanting to sell planes, weapons and other technologies - but don't ask me what any of this has to do with "government" - the government's freinds won't want you to. But I digress.
The market eventually will "balance" itself, but before then, in the first decade (at least) after the Chinese floodgates open, we're gonna be in for a helluva ride.
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader