Absurdity, Allegory and China

The Kingdom from another angle.

Absurdity, Allegory and China header image 2
← →

The Truth Will Get You Blocked

June 2nd, 2009 · 7 Comments

At approximately 16:57 this afternoon (June 2, 2009) in Tianjin Flickr flickered off. Actually there was no flicker about it. Someone here in China threw the switch and that was that. Twitter too has flown the coop. In the moments leading up to the June 4th Tiananmen Square 20th anniversary China has decided that too much truth is … well, just too much. So they’ve seemed to scale things way back. These two sites are just the latest, though they are two high profile, popular sites in China. This was expected, and this is just confirmation on what most of us who have been here awhile have experienced before. Flickr’s last block boosted the popularity of Gladder. This time it looks like VPNs. Though I have no idea how all of this works, I wonder if the VPN tunnels will be the next to collapse. This is how emergent power works. The new world order with CCP characteristics. But please don’t misconstrue this as fear. It’s not that. It’s for the protection of People who do not, I repeat, do not need to have their feelings hurt again. There are just so many hurt feelings that a People can bear.

Tags: Flickr · Twitter · block

7 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Bill // Jun 2, 2009 at 10:27 pm

    Yes, there must be harmony and no hurt feelings. There are 1.3 billion people thanking that switch thrower.

  • 2 Wahaha // Jun 3, 2009 at 2:03 am

    As one of the students who participated democratic movement in 1986 and 1989, I am happy that our democratic movement failed.

    Democracy is great on textbook, but a lousy system in realty.

    Dont try to argue me with textbook, use facts to prove the greatness of democracy. What I see is that people in west are using the money that belongs to their children and grandchildren … in the name of human right, YUCK !!!

  • 3 bhb // Jun 4, 2009 at 11:56 pm

    There must be young people asking their parents why are the soldiers guarding the university? Why are they keeping us out of Tiananmen Square? Why are we being made to leave the city for a few days? Like Passover, won’t these things beg the question, why is this night different than all other nights? And then answers will be given. An oral tradition will keep the history alive and the Communist Party are assisting memories.

  • 4 Jim Gourley // Jun 5, 2009 at 4:25 am

    What is clear is that all the blocks and official threats across the mainland-hosted internet are ensuring that many will continue to know about it. I must say that there are many young people (and older people too) in the Chinese countryside who still have no idea about the events of 6/4/89. That I know for a fact. The Chinese net folks, who number more than 300 million are now referring to June 4th as “Internet Maintenance Day,” the same way they refer to the censors as “river crabs” who battle the “alpacas,” know in Chinese as “cao ni ma,” which is homophonic term for “f*ck your mother.” The information is available, and the government’s continued piss poor handling of it will ensure that it will continue to be known. These things have a way of exacting a toll when least expected. It may take 25, 30 or 40 years, but there is still an outstanding debt and it will need to be paid. When Li Peng, one of the most hated men in China, dies, I expect that there will be an outpouring of happiness that will ’shock’ the leaders. But then again, maybe not. “Money changes everything.”

    As far as asking their parents, well, you’d have to ask someone Chinese. I can only speculate, and I think that that is a subject that is probably not often broached. It’s like riding a bicycle here: you don’t want to look back to see what it was that almost ran you over, since the “knowing” just might just scare you to death.

  • 5 Whahaha // Jun 5, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    Jim,

    Your speculation is a very possible scenario. I dont think that the mothers of those killed want LiPeng dies, they want him punished alive.

    I herad that chinese government secretly gave money to those victims’ families. So it is likely when those who were involved in 6/4 are dead, chinese government will give people an answer, but very unlikely an answer that dissidents and West want.

  • 6 eaa // Jun 6, 2009 at 7:36 am

    I particularly like the way you expand the internet metaphors: “Flickr flickered off,” and “Twitter too has flown the coop.”

  • 7 Rhodo Zeb // Jun 12, 2009 at 12:36 am

    I am sure there is a way to defuse this problem.

    However it is highly unlikely that any steps to do so will be taken. Big organizations are like that.

    The keep going till they collapse. Unfortunately a collapse is not a good result either.

Leave a Comment