Top 10 Snips of 2008

2008 marks an interesting year for me. I started blogging this year and contributing to Shanghaiist on a semi-regular basis. I discovered twitter and announced to the world that I was a socialmediaholic. I discovered the wonders of Google Reader and as a result I started sharing interesting articles via twitterfeed to my friends and followers on twitter as well as Facebook. This list shows some of the things that I have read or followed that you have also found interesting.

Thanks to all of you who retweeted my links, mentioned me in your blogs, speeches or podcasts as well as those of you who have bookmarked my blog in the hopes that I will write something interesting.

2008 has been an interesting year here in Shanghai and by the looks of the Snips the things that have interested you the most have been the rumours of racism at the Beijing Olympics, the plight of those affected by the Great Sichuan Quake and the occasional piece about the Great Firewall of China.

I look forward to sharing more with you in 2009 and genuinely wish you a safe, prosperous and happy new year.

1. Beijing Boyce » Um, really? SCMP claims Beijing to ban blacks, Mongolians at bars
   
2. Fears of a 'no-fun' Olympics in Beijing | theage.com.au
   
3. Police deny bar owners' claims of restrictions on blacks in Sanlitun
   
4. Malaysian tourists in China safe
   
5. 26 Malaysian tourists safe but stranded (updated)
   
6. Dedric Lam | Facebook
   
7. Enjoy it while you can: Lots ‘o Websites unblocked in China
   
8. The heartbreaking earthquake
   
9. China Olympic Terrorists
   
10. Shanghaiist: Report: Beijing bars told to ban black people during Olympics
    

Freedom of Blog - Will Blogs lead to the downfall of individual freedom?

Last month I read an article that reported that a man in Singapore was arrested because of racial comments post on his blog*. Initially I felt outrage that the police could come knocking on your door, confiscate your computer and arrest you for publicizing your thoughts on the Internet. However, I found that this was not an isolated incident and in fact in 2005 a precedent had already been set* when one Singaporean and 2 Malaysian youths were arrested for posting racist comments on a BBS.

The first image that came into my mind after reading this article was of an H.G. Wells Utopia where everything seemed peaceful and ordered during the day but in the cover of night the citizens are like the Eloi (human cattle) who are controlled, manipulated and eaten by the Morlocks*. Of course that is a gross exaggeration of the topic at hand but as with most discussion about freedom vs. oppression, the conclusions are never definitive but instead raise more questions about where we should draw the line.

The other question that arises is whether this really an infringement of freedom of speech or of the press. Wikipedia states that "freedom of the press implies that all people should have the right to express themselves in writing or in any other way of expression of personal opinion or creativity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers"", however it does start that definition with "In developed countries..."

Similarly, Wikipedia also defines "Freedom of speech is being able to speak freely without censorship. The right to freedom of speech is guaranteed under international law through numerous human-rights instruments, notably under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, although implementation remains lacking in many countries. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes preferred, since the right is not confined to verbal speech but is understood to protect any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used." but then continues to commence the second paragraph with "In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country..."

You would think that these qualifiers to the definition to the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press were referring to small underdeveloped nations or nations that gave no illusion of democracy like China or Russia but this debate has been going on since the the enactment of the First Amendment of the US Constitution which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."*, and to fully understand this debate in the context of blogs there are two hurdles that must be overcome.

First of all, the US Constitution does not have global jurisdiction and secondly even in the US, the First Amendment is subject to interpretation as outlined in a blog by Scott Cleland* when Google/YouTube was instructed to remove terrorist or terror inciting video's from YouTube.

The concept of speech or press not being protected by constitutional freedoms if they incite violence or revolt is not a new concept. In fact as far back as 1765 Sir William Blackstone commented about the English system

"Where blasphemous, immoral, treasonable, schismatical, seditious, or scandalous libels are punished by English law the liberty of the press, properly understood, is by no means infringed or violated. ... Every freeman has undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this is to destroy the freedom of the press: but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequences of his own temerity."

Which basically means, you have the freedom to publish but we the Government have the freedom to punish.

Since then, the media has been mostly self regulating and most publications with a wide circulation have generally been careful to publish only what society will accept but in the last five years or so, the concept of blogging has become somewhat of a phenomenon. Through the web, anybody with an internet connection has the potential to share their opinions, feelings, thoughts and misguided beliefs instantaneously to the globe. We are not talking about just those people who actually read blogs but more so, the wider public is exposed to these opinions through micro-blogging services like twitter, search engines like Google, instant messaging and even mainstream media like CNN often derive their stories from internet chatter.

It is now possible for a "reclusive nobody" to gain instant global recognition from the basement of his mother suburban bungalow. For Governments, who must consider public security, safety of citizens, domestic unrest and general mob mentality, their only option is to move away from individual liberties. It is said that "the pen is mightier than the sword" but in these times of "hyperconnectivity" as suggested by Mark Pesce recently, is giving anyone with an opinion (misguided or otherwise) the nuclear option.

Bringing this back to an individual perspective, the 17 year old kid, with the police at his door simply because of what he wrote on a BBS seems a little Nazi, but considering the shift in power, one begins to understand that Democracy and Authoritarianism are not actually opposite ends of a political spectrum but in fact share the same goal of keeping the masses under control. The difference is that Democracy uses the power of compromise and engagement to keep the sheep in the pen and Authoritarians utilize oppression to maintain control. The frightening reality (being realized now through the impact of blogs) is that although the Cold War existed on this difference of opinion between Communism and Democracy the global political challenge today is not about ideology. This next war will be against an Anarchy that powered by a decentralized global bullhorn.

As more governments and citizens realize this, you will see more and more controls on the internet, more and more oversight on content and greater restrictions to interconnectivity between different systems. Enjoy what you have now because I believe that we may be the only generation to experience this level of internet freedom.

Additional Readings:

• http://snipr.com/2eigf Freedom of the press - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [en_wikipedia_org]
• http://snipr.com/2eigh Freedom of speech - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [en_wikipedia_org]
• http://snipr.com/2eig8 AsiaMedia :: SINGAPORE: Policeman who nabbed racist blogger gets award,
• http://snipr.com/2eig3 AsiaMedia :: SINGAPORE: Blogger arrested for racist post ,
• http://snipr.com/2eifq Channelnewsasia.com (from 2005. Kids arrested for anti Malay blogging and BBS posts)
• http://snipr.com/2eihn Morlock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [en_wikipedia_org]
• http://snipr.com/2eiip Cato-at-liberty » Freedom of the Press and Venezuela [www_cato-at-liberty_org]
• http://snipr.com/2eij9 Rights of the People: Individual Freedom and the Bill of Rights [usinfo_state_gov] http://snipr.com/2eik2 Theres no constitutional free speech protection for inciting terrorism; Google-YouTube and NYT are off-base | The Precursor Blog by Scott Cleland [www_precursorblog_com]
• http://snipr.com/2eiks First Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [en_wikipedia_org]

Backlash 2.0

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to....aggregate?

Having just read the Facebook Suicide blog entry by SHL I began to consider my own web mortality. A couple of years ago my journey into the tangled web 2.0 began when I joined Friendster. Invited by my single friends who used this tool to pick up English speaking girls in Shanghai I realised that this was more than just an online singles bar. of course being married I could not partake anyway.

So Friendster led to Linked in, my attempt to waste my time in a manner that I could almost justify as business usage. I discovered MSN Spaces and MySpace where I promptly put up pages to express my feelings or show photos from my camera phone. Shortly after that I joined Facebook and reconnected with those whom I lost touch with decades ago. Then it became an obsession. I started tweeting, blogging, social bookmarking and RSSing. My time is becoming more scarce and now I have just discovered FriendFeed which aggregates and displays the extent of my obsession. I find that I do not hesitate in signing up to any new social network that comes about to the point where I am now signed up to some Chinese sites that I cannot even read.

But unlike the Facebook suicidee, who deleted his accounts in an attempt to regain his real life social networks, I realise that I have no such network to return to. Prior to this 2.0 addiction I used to vicariously live through the exploits of my single and promiscuous friends. Hearing about their parties and conquests allowed me to maintain my fulfilling "1st Life" as a father and husband without having to cheat or lie. I simply listened to the stories of the live of others to get my fill of adventure (of course I never got into the reality TV thing and have no real interest in Brad, Angie, Victoria or David). I didn't have the bandwidth to have a "2nd Life" and now what I have found was that my 2.0 life remained quite fractured amongst over a dozen social networking sites. In essence visiting and linking to me on any one of the dozens sites that I frequent would provide you with only a facet of my personality.

Throughout these proxy social interactions I have attempted to be true to myself and my mediocrity however, a tweet here, an article here, parts of my true identity were scattered amongst the various shards of the blogophere. Now with FriendFeed, Pulse on Plaxo and even through Facebook apps that aggregate feeds from my other existences, I am beginning to see the personality I am projecting with greater clarity, and to be honest, what I am seeing is somewhat frightening. I am now realising that my Freudian Ego and my Cyber Id do not necessarily correlate.

Who is this person that is looking back at me through my FireFox browser. I do not recognise him? This person on the other side of the mirror not only has a political opinion (where I in real life have none), is somewhat communist (something I would never admit in good company), has very cynical view of the world and holds the unpopular position on most issues. This is not the person I knew myself to be. In real life I see myself as a compassionate, friendly and mostly diplomatic being but this other me... he is downright offensive at times. He sees no compassion in the plight of the Tibetans, he doesn't give a hoot about the environment and feels no empathy towards those who in real life might cause me to feel hollow and sad inside.

Is this other personality the real me? or is the person I thought I was the real me? I shudder to think of the day when, through perhaps during a non-voluntary Earth hour, this online Mr. Hyde, without the internet to channel his persona overcomes the politically correct and sensitive Dr. Jekyll , becoming a real life monster.

Who is this facade that has become the one true me.
Please save me from myself Oh Timothy Berners-Lee!