Today I wanted to listen to the polyglot project’s podcast, the one with the Moses McCormick interview only to find out that access to the mp3 is blocked here in China. I don’t think the Chinese leadership is afraid of a polyglot revolution in their country. They are afraid though of any kind of unrestrained thinking and free exchange of people and thoughts across country borders. So they block all these great sites and tools that let people communicate and exchange ideas.
This is such a rotten system, China will never be a modern country if they don’t let their people think freely. Mr Hu, if you read this, please reconsider, learn English, get on the internet and discover what your people is missing out on!
Norton tells me that the site you mentioned is not safe and teeming with viruses. I guess I’ll stick with my VPN and look forward to the day I am no longer in China.
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Sometimes Steve’s blog is blocked. Our friend’s Keith’s blog (Natural language learning) is blocked. All websites that contain links to Facebook load extremely slow and with many error messages.
The link to the interview didn’t work yesterday, it seems to work today though, thanks for asking.
Perhaps you can take some solace from the idea that the current situation in China seems unsustainable. Given the growing international exposure of many Chinese, it is hard to believe that the population will tolerate this sort of censorship for much longer.
Believe it or not, most overseas Chinese I have met in Norway and Germany are even more hawkish. My teacher back in Germany was terrible! She had lived in Germany for 15+ years, married to a German and even has a German passport now. She complained all the time how biased the German press was when it comes to China.
In China ,more and more officials been dismissed for this reason.Now we can criticize government in internet or some websit.I think it become more positive.so we should give the government some time to improve this. @firedemann,If you stop explain Chinese ,I would like make a friend with you.maybe I can tell you something about Chinese.hehe.
@Friedemann it doesn’t really surprise me- if people are raised on propaganda from a young age it will ingrain itself in their brain, be it religion or patriotism or whatnot. However, take solace that it’s not only the Chinese but, say, many americans and russians who believe that their country is the greatest ever.
@junair how can you be so sure of that? Sure they’re not going to tell us that these regulations will end up in controlling everything written on the internet. A normal regulation has always been there of course (child porn…) we already have that, but they want more. Like I said before, give them time!
@junair by the way, I totally disagree with your sentence “there is no intention in Europe to turn it into the mind control system”. Because they do it all the time!. Society itself does this. But now we have the media and it’s so much easier for them to make us think whatever they want us to think. Brainwashing has always been there and always will be. At least we now have the internet (a breeze of fresh air) and they are trying to control it so we all see the same things and end up thinking the same.
I really don’t know what you mean, after m seeing what is possible in an authoritarian system i have little complain in my country (Germany) and I would assume access to information is not too restricted in Spain either.
@bortrunPerhaps you can take some solace from the idea that the current situation in China seems unsustainable. Given the growing international exposure of many Chinese, it is hard to believe that the population will tolerate this sort of censorship for much longer.
The Chinese who go abroad these days are largely in sympathy with the government and whatever it does. They are the ones who have benefited. Those who left in the 80s are different.
@Steve, sure, but will that continue for 5 more years? For 10? People are already learning how to get around the firewalls in China. Basically, I think it’s a lost cause, and it’s just a matter of time until people won’t put up with it anymore. It might take 10 years, or it might take 20, but it will happen.
It seems that people who spend time abroad would come to appreciate the merits of a free press - although maybe that is wishful thinking (and Friedemann’s experience seems to contradict that idea). But events in the Arab world are reminding us how quickly things can change.