January 19th, 2010
Google – the Internet Giant – took a shot at Beijing last week. Whether that shot will start a war is doubtful. One thing is certain: It has brought out all the pundits – the China haters and detractors vs. the China defenders – around the world. Main stream media opinions and editorials abound with everyone attempting to offer their ‘expert opinions.’ Bloggers went to work immediately tossing in their informed and uninformed two cents worth.
Knowing China and knowing about China are two different things. Those who know about China have gotten the majority of their information from the Western main stream media, which has a bias against China and from human rights activists who, without a doubt, have a bone to pick with China.
Those who know China are in a different basket. They have lived and worked in China. They have chosen to set aside their preconceived notions about China and experience the true China. I am one of those people, arriving in China after experiencing Asian culture in other countries for 7 years, in August, 2007.
Google got their ‘corporate panties in a wad’ when someone or some entity allegedly hacked into alleged dissenters e-mail accounts. The Western inference is that the Beijing is either directly or indirectly responsible for the hacking’s. My university students came up with a list of other suspects as well – which everyone else seems to be ignoring. “They could have been sponsored by America wanting to embarrass China” said one student. “Google people could have done it for business reasons or to try to put pressure on the government” said another student. Another student posited that “Tibet and Dali Lama could have done it to put focus on their stupid complaints.” Yet another student posited that “some dissidents could have done it to make them look good for America and bring attention to what they see as problems.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Beijing, China, dissidents, Google, human rights
Posted in China | No Comments »
January 15th, 2010
Google, the Internet Giant decided to take on China this week. Speculation is that Google was put up to it by Washington. Human rights advocates are cheering on Google. Ex-pat Chinese dissidents are cheering on Google. Some of the Chinese are cheering on Google. Beijing, however, is controlling the game.
Google’s first complaint was that some e-mail accounts purportedly owned or used by internal and external dissidents were hacked into. That is a valid complaint and should be properly investigated.
If the hacking was done by individuals, then most certainly all applicable laws should be utilized to punish those responsible. If the hacking was done by, or at the bequest of Beijing, that raises other issues.
The US has an array of laws that allow, and disallow the government to snoop on both Americans and foreigners – all in the name of “national security.” We know that America does it, regardless of what the laws are – typically after the fact, and only after great pressure is brought on the government to confess its misdeeds. What we do not know about are all the details about the “hidden espionage” and “hidden national security” fronts that the US utilizes to gain information about its own, and other people. It happens. Everyone knows it happens. The problem is that nothing can be proven conclusively.
If you are a liberal, shame on America for doing those things. If you are a conservative, then ‘good on America’ for doing this because after all, national security trumps individual privacy and rights. We know this because 58% of the American public supports in torture to obtain information about terrorism and anti-American activities.
Beijing does things as quietly as Washington tries to do things. There is the possibility that Beijing has either engaged in the hacking of accounts or allowed / instructed others to do so. Like America, they engage in such activities for “national security.” For Washington to criticize Beijing for doing that is hypocritical. Why should Beijing be held to a higher standard than what Washington holds itself to? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: America, Beijing, China, dissidents, Google, human rights, terrorists, Washington, Yahoo
Posted in China | 1 Comment »
January 4th, 2010
As 2009 came to a close, human rights issues in China were hot topics as China executed a British citizen for drug smuggling and sentenced a ’serial dissident’ to 11 years in prison. Demonizing China for its alleged human rights violations is a long observed tradition in Washington. This demonetization took on a greater furor when President Obama took a very low key approach to human rights in China during his visit to Shanghai and Beijing in November, 2009.
This was the first time in the history of relations between the two countries that Washington could not dictate to China about human rights or economic issues. China had come into own as a world power. This signified America’s decline due to ill advised wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a world wide economic crisis largely caused by America and a burgeoning multi-trillion dollar deficit which is partially being financed by China. The realities of the world coming home to roost did not, and does not sit well with most Americas. The fact that America could not dictate to China about human rights anymore also was a great disappointment to international human rights groups and activists.
Particularly scathing criticisms of China followed the execution of British citizen and convicted drug smuggler Akmal Shaikh. Supporters of Shaikh, which included the government of Germany and Great Briton all loudly claimed that he was mentally ill, and thus should be exempt from execution. Washington was uncharacteristically quiet, due to the fact that it is the only democracy in the world that still executes convicted criminals, some of whom are considered to be mentally ill or retarded.
Naturally, China defended the execution and admonished its critics to stop meddling in its affairs, and rightfully so.
Chinese culture, and hence the Chinese judicial system is much different than Western cultures and judicial systems. In China, there is a very fine line between guilt and innocence. Either you committed an offense or you did not. Accepting responsibility and hence accountability for your actions is an integral part of Chinese culture. In the West, personal accountability is not typically on the agenda. Everyone is trying to make excuses for their anti social behavior; looking for sympathy and loop holes. This type of attitude is something that is an antithesis to Chinese culture. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Akmal Shaikh, America, China, human rights, Liu Xiaobo
Posted in China | 1 Comment »
October 22nd, 2009
Americans are clamoring for health care reform. Driving the demand for reform is the belief that health care is too expensive and is costing the taxpayer too much money. The cost to the taxpayer is attributed to the estimated 40 million uninsured people in the country. Economical issues, as opposed to ethical and moral issues, fuel the debate between liberals and conservatives on the issue.
Progressives in particular, are pushing hard and heavy for a “single payer option” which would essentially make private insurance companies redundant in the relative near future. They argue that private insurance companies are making too much money and not living up to their duties to provide coverage for their customers. In making the arguments, they trot out what they consider to be egregious examples of abuse of insured people. People being denied treatments recommended by their physicians.
Conservatives argue against the single payer system under the belief that the government is incapable of effectively and efficiently providing responsible medical care to the public. They also object to the fact that the middle class and above will end up footing the majority of the health care reform bills. To that argument, the Progressives argue that the savings will more than off set the costs. Both side use comprehensive confusing statistics and figures to attempt to make their points.
Missing from the arguments is one important thing: A definition of what constitutes health care. In short, everyone is discussing health care and there is not a clearly defined and accepted definition of what constitutes “health care” anyplace on the table. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: America
Posted in America | 1 Comment »
October 8th, 2009
After a majorly corrupted database, The Old Codger has returned. Unfortunately, we were unable to recover the old blogs, so we are starting new. A link to another site where the old postings can be found will be posted later.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
