China's New Medium

This weekend I went to Chariton to pack up some stuff and also catch some high school baseball/softball games. One was a team coached by a buddy of mine from Lineville-Clio and the other was some Lineville students playing for Mormon Trail in softball. Remember, L-C has no baseball or softball teams. It was nice to see some Lineville people and talk to them.

Anyways, on the way home this morning I was listening to the Kim Komando Show. Kim is a radio talk show host who doubles as a tech "know-it-all." She gives advice on everything from computers, the internet, high-grade televisions, you name it- she explores it. It really is an interesting talk radio show, especially for a time slot like Sunday morning.

One section of the Komando show (by the way, you can check her out at www.komando.com- she's also pretty attractive) was about China and the internet. The Chinese government wants to open up the internet to its people so they can "explore." Obviously, like any good communist country they want strict limitations. For instance, if a Chinese citizen goes to the Chinese version of Google and searches, oh let's say, "Democracy" they would get a page saying that that search cannot be executed. Another example. "MSN Spaces" is an MSN product (also available here in the states) that always for website creation and blogging. The MSN Spaces China-style does not allow certain words to be blogged. Those words are "Freedom," "Democracy," and various other anti-commie words.

What Kim Komando was debating/shocked about is that MSN even provide this service (with "word blockers" and anti-Google searches) to the Chinese government. As I was listening to her discuss her anger at MSN doing this for a communist country all I could think about was "it doesn't suprise me." Our country all too often likes to spout off words like freedom and democracy without really knowing what they mean, or compromising our beliefs in those ideals for the greater ideal in this country...MONEY. President Bush is a prime example. He may use "freedom" and "democracy" more than anyone since Thomas Jefferson, but look at Iraq. There is no "freedom" of choice in oil companies. The good Bush friends at Halliburton have been awarded a large majority of the contracts for work over there. Iraq has held their elections, but their first prime minister person was somebody appointed by us, same as Afghanistan (and that person is still in power, Karzai). Seems to me that when it comes to the almighty dollar and power...freedom and democracy get comprimsed alot...whether it be by a company like MSN or by our politicians.