I haven’t been under the tree for almost a week now. It’s one of those days when I was snowed under with work. No worries. It’ll be all over soon and I will be back blogging after Wednesday next.
Just for the time being, I recommend this interesting report from the Christian Science Monitor on the infamous Human Flesh Search Engine. Do you consider this kind of cyber vigilante “civic action” or “virtual mob violence”? I’d like to hear from you.
I am putting forward this comment to kick start discussion:
Catherine’s comment:
The CSM report describes the Human Flesh Search Engine as “a citizen-driven, blog-based hunt for alleged undesirables”. It’s blog-based all right. But is there evidence to support the claim that this kind of activities is “citizen-driven”? I’m not at all sure. Who is to say that the CCP’s propaganda machine, with its massive investment in “Internet security”, is incapable of or unwilling to putting a halt to the activities? The fact that cyber vigilantism is allowed to grow in spite of strict monitoring makes me wonder if this kind of behaviour is state sanctioned.
For those of you who are craving for something a bit more humorous, I highly recommend JR’s spoof of a typical CCP foreign affairs spin doctor, on everything to do with Tibet, freedom of speech and more. Enjoy it.
29 November, 2008 at 6:26 am
What the hell do you know about snow?
29 November, 2008 at 12:53 pm
More than you think. You are not the only one who was a north American in a previous life, remember. I did spend the first six years of my life somewhere close to the Rockies nearby the River Bow. The trouble is: I can’t quite remember much about it, except the cold and the SNOW. So there you go.
30 November, 2008 at 1:14 pm
“Human-flesh searches are a neutral technology that can be used for good or ill,” says Dr. Liu.. Indeed. Just like a gun.
But put a gun into the hands of a continuously mortified man or woman, and you may expect trouble. Yang Jia didn’t even need a gun.
30 November, 2008 at 2:58 pm
It seems in China, you can’t trust anyone with a gun, a pen or a computer keyboard, regardless of whether he is a mortified man or a university student.
David Bandurski at China Media Project just posted an article about how some university students in Shanghai informed on their professor for allegedly expressing anti-government views.
News like this often reminds me of the Red Guards, the Anti-rightists Movement, the Cultural Revolution, the Gang of Four …. All of a sudden, I can see Mao Zedong waving to us at a distance ….
30 November, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Hm. But neither JR nor Catherine have demonstrated any familiarity with REAL snow! Like SIBERIAN snow!
Like these: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=UvO73U4UEqs
30 November, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I’ve seen the Great Snow of 1979 (or 1978) in Northern Germany. OK, I was much shorter than now, but the drifts were still big, and I had an accidental holiday from school for more than a week.
30 November, 2008 at 11:25 pm
JR,
Is it true that Germans believe German snow to be the “Master Snow”?
Or have the bloody Krauts finally learned their lesson after Russian snow – and the “Untermenschen” Russian people – kicked the shit out of the Germans?
(Sorry but yes, I still have a pet peeve about German arrogance.)
30 November, 2008 at 11:45 pm
PS, JR,
Catherine has said to me “Oh dear, now you’re being abusive toward Germans”. I said, “No, I was just being fair, reminding them who won the war.”
Now, THIS is abusive – but still fair, I think:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=mZiRiIpZVF4
1 December, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Well… when you really love your country, it doesn’t matter if others do or don’t. Besides, we lost the war, but won the peace.
The video is “not available in my country”, says YouTube. You really must have a gut feeling for sensitive topics.
And yes, I’m often told that I’m arrogant. So I sure am a good German. Then again, most ppl who call me arrogant are Germans.
1 December, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Well at least you have a sense of humour.
That youtube clip might be banned in Germany because it depicts swastikas, although it does so as a satire of Nazis. But here’s the same song on a clip without any swastikas: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=uQoW6WOehPE
1 December, 2008 at 5:15 pm
JR said: The video is “not available in my country”, says YouTube.
Heaven above! It’s only Donald Duck. How “sensitive” can it be?
1 December, 2008 at 6:57 pm
How can I know how sensitive it is? I can’t watch it here.
2 December, 2008 at 3:15 am
JR, that’s the problem with censorship motivated by political correctness, even though it’s done out of good intention. It sometimes really makes no sense. And it’s ashamed that you can’t watch the Donald Duck cartoon. Because I know you’ll enjoy it.
2 December, 2008 at 7:25 am
Here’s another American WW II cartoon; I’d be curious whether this one is banned in Germany too. It does feature Hitler, but in an abusive way, to say the least.
This one was done by my one of my all time favourite cartoonists, Bob Clampett. His work was the most surreal of all the Warner Brothers’ cartoonists. The “Gremlins” are all caricatures of people he worked with in his studio. Anyway it’s great fun, and kind of weird to see Stalin presented as a “hero” in an American cartoon! http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=4xs8TVkJSUc
2 December, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Cute. Yes, I can watch it here. I think I saw from the preview of the banned movie that it somehow connected Rumsfeld and the nazis, and that I believe that this was the problem – either because you can sue people in Germany for making such comparisons, or because such comparisons are banned anyway. Censorship is never a good thing – but then, this country’s Nazi years were not a good thing either. It’s a matter that deserves to be put into question – but it goes beyond political correctness. Once you start equating current events with nazi ideology, you can easily start playing it’s effects down.
It’s fine with me if Americans equate people they dislike and the nazis. But it is a different story over here – it is a very practical problem.
2 December, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Well, JR, Catherine and I are Australians, and so she and I are FAIRLY AND EQUALLY hostile to ALL asinine political ideologies!
Germany, America, the British Empire, the Japanese Empire, the Chinese Empire…Catherine and I laugh at them all, as all true Australians do!