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160 days ago
愚蠢、邪恶和绿坝的荒谬 做坏事有两种情况。好心做坏事叫做愚蠢，歹心做坏事叫做邪恶。近来工信部强制推行绿坝软件的行为，随着时间推移，越来越让人感到愚蠢不能完全解释政府部门的行为模式。 我很希望相信绿坝的推行是一件好事，但不论从寻常网民还是国家利益的角度看，强制推行这一款基于 PC 机的过滤软件都不是一件好事，而后者所受的损伤要远大于前者。对于网民来讲，绿坝只是让他们更进一步的被限制和监管而已。既走五十步，复走百步又何如。 过去寻求宪法赋予他们的自由所需要的是 VPN 和 Proxy ，而绿坝登场后，港澳通行证、外国签证或者水货老板的联系方法将成为新的必备装备。一切照旧，只是正品电脑日子更难过，没钱和缺乏网络知识的人被封锁的更严实而已 – 而对于这些人来说，是否受到了“进一步”封锁实在是没有什么实质性差别。 但对于国家而言，绿坝带来的，除了对计算机制造和销售行业的潜在打击及其附带的税收后果以外，是一次全方位的公共关系灾难。在国外，西方媒体甚至不需要任何歪曲事实的努力就可以用“绿坝事件”加深民众对中国政府“奥威尔式独裁者”的印象 – 任何读过 《 1984 》的人都很难不把工信部的行为与奥威尔笔下“真理部”的所作所为联系在一起。在国内，人们不会有这样的反应，因为只要中宣部存在一天，《 1984 》就永远是禁书。但不将负面情感具体化不意味着没有负面情感，“绿坝政策”出台后线上线下的一片骂声说明利用国家机器损害公民权利，用纳税人的钱开发限制纳税人自由的产品并且强卖给纳税人的行为是万民所不齿的。退一步讲，即便绿坝的开发和推广真的是为了“保护未成年人”，政府机关及国字头机构为推销绿坝这一产品所做的不遗余力的又要当婊子又要立牌坊的努力，实在让国人对有中国特色的国家资本主义感到鄙夷和恶心。 ...
368 days ago
(See BBC news article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7744399.stm) I can't quite get my head around the question whether the Dalai Lama is plainly naive or evilly manipulative. Reaching out to the ordinary Chinese, of which I am a part, is a nice idea, but keep lying to the world about the situation in Tibet, and the root cause of the troubles is not helping. If anyone is using "fear and ruthless suppression" - word the Dalai Lama used to describe the conduct of the Chinese government in Tibet - as a tactic, it is the Dalai Lama himself - by manipulating the fear of China among the western world and the exile Tibetan community, he is suppressing Chinese people's legitimate rights to peace inside the country and friendliness outside. I am extremely disappointed with the British media. Had it spend a tenth of the resource it spends on over-exposing the darker side of China - which by the way is almost all that it ...
450 days ago
I can't say I understand American politics, and Mr. McCain's choice of running-mate for this year's election has certainly confuse me even further. Practically he has chosen someone who is a) The governor of the least populated state which is closer to Russia than to other states in the US b) Someone with little more than no diplomatic credential (something McCain has been banking on) c) Someone who's conservative enough to be against abortion, yet libral enough to embrace her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy. d) Someone who's yet to be cleared of power-abuse allegations e) Someone who's recorded on TV saying she's yet to understand what VP does on a daily basis. As far as I can see, either McCain is plainly stupid - which would be devastating to anyone who still have any remote faith in US democracy - or there's something more cunning ans sinister to come... either way it is likely to reflect very badly on the prevalent social values in the US... can't wait to ...
459 days ago
Watching the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games really ignited my sense of national pride. China is a great country, and if every Chinese continue to march forward with one heart and one mind, this country is going to become even greater. Freedom is important, and indeed appealing, but the Chinese people should resist the temptation of abandoning discipline. Around the world, as well as inside China, Chinese succeed through perseverance, diligence, hard-work, and, above all, solidarity. Every one of us should strive to sustain such valuable qualities of the Chinese nation, while enriching them with creativity and constructive dialectics. There is a long way before China becomes a well-respected member of the international community, and there will be a long time before justice start to outweigh prejudice. The message inscribed in the national anthem still applies to this very day, and for many years to come. Arise! All who refuse to be slaves! Let our flesh ...
460 days ago
One cannot help but be astonished by the level of ignorance shown from time to time by British reporters and news readers. Here are a couple of examples I caught in the past couple of weeks when my average hours of TV exposure is cut down by my 16-hour work days. During the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, BBC's China correspondent who was commenting on the event as the athletes entered the stadium taught the British viewers two valuable lessons a) Lee Kuan Yew was the president of Malaysia b) Take what the BBC say about Asian countries with a pinch of salt. Yesterday, a news reader on Sky News (the news channel of the year in 2006) said the following words, "breaking news from ...uhm... AP news agency". Great! Since when did the abbreviation for Associated Press become stranger to news readers? Maybe the next time they'll say "we are covering the general election from a country called ... uhm... ...
