google error

Google has recently stated that it is investigating a new approach to its dealing with China.

Security breaches aimed at the search giant also struck out at several other entities, targeting what seems to be the accounts of human rights activists.

I wonder if someone as unknown as myself could be among the unnumbered individuals targeted. I am doubtful, but I would be honored.

exemplary

This comes after Google first gained access to the mainland, back in 2006. But to do so, Goggle submitted to the stipulation of filtered searches within China and so compromised its motto of "Don't be evil."

In condoning the blatant censorship of the People's Republic of China, Google continues to say that censorship is not only permissible, but exemplary.

I applaud Google and furthermore challenge Google to take this new approach very seriously. While compromise must be made between any two parties, a compromise of values is simply to condone the lesser.

powerless

Powers that be have the responsibility to use power for good. Who enjoys its power at the expense of those without, renders that power useless.

When will Google use its power to make a stand for what it believes in, to make a stand for those who cannot?

The magnitude of its actions is not a simple matter of beliefs, for it has the potential to undo the brainwashing of years and to better ensure the guarantee of human rights through transparency.

forbidden fruit

Google.cn may not be a household word here in China, but for those who are familiar with the internet, it is a recognizable giant in the world of search. Especially for those interested in foreign affairs, western culture, etc. It also serves a minority of people in China, foreign and local, who search using English as the input text.

It's not difficult to search for blocked content on the Chinese internet.

Below, I simply typed in the name of the People's Square, the Gate of Heavenly Peace. It is a site of great tourist interest, located adjacent and south of the Forbidden City:

Digging deeper: an image search for "tiananmen+square+massacre+in+1989" yields the following:

However, trying to open the link attached to the photo in the bottom left yields a misleading apology from Google:

很抱歉，在 www.google.cn 上没找到您要访问的网页
[We're very sorry, the webpage you are looking for could not be found by www.google.cn]

disclosure

Look closely. Bravo, Google!

With every search that it cannot will not complete, Google admits error:

public confession

To be fair, the same search on www.google.com (without the use of a VPN), however actually showed this today - a first!

forbidden fruit: graphic thumbnails

Usually such thumbnails are ghosted as the five blanks above. Interestingly, I was even able to open links to each page, including raw criticism and denunciation of the 1989 Massacre.

So, what's the scoop, Google? China?

How much longer will sighted eyes be blinded, how much longer will mouths with voices be silenced?

Note: Access to Blogger is still blocked within China. Without access to a much appreciated VPN (proxy), I would be unable to publish to my blog from within mainland China. Thus, I am blessed and grateful to be sharing. With every post, I hereby protest the oppressive nature of the Chinese government blocking access to any part of the web.

little robin

With every utterance of control, there is an ego born of pride, of false knowing and incomplete understanding.

For as much as we control, so are we controlled by that which is around us. As much as we analyze this process, even more so do we become a part of it.

It is sheer ignorance, if the naiveté of humanity, that permits even us to step outside of that which consumes us, that which is a part of the whole, and is the whole itself. That we might suggest that our will is not its will, that our error is not its error.

It is another arrogance to say that our error is but its error, to deny our actions on its behalf.

For all that began with nature will again end with nature - that is, entertaining the contrived concept of a beginning and an end. All that meets the eye is but a piece of the whole, the whole being a cycle of which there is no witness of a beginning and without certainty of an ending.

Our eyes see with limited sight. Our minds breathe with limited life. It is this inability to conceive of that which endures all, that which is all - that defines our being a part of the process - and not outside of, beyond, or above all.

How closely tied is our instinct to our adeptness. For it is our instinct to learn, to grow, to adapt. And so, mankind has, and will, continue in a way that always will.

Why does the sun differ from the moon? For the same reason, or lack thereof, that we are not mere beasts. We are no different, though our tongue speaks not the same.

However superb we elevate our humanity about the robin, still we know not its thoughts.

Might we entertain that its thought leaves ours behind, that it lives in a world to which we are but a busy simplicity, ever concerned with fabrications of an imagination cultivated? But we do not know what the robin thinks or even wills.

If there comes a day when we do see eye to eye with the skirting robin - will we be prepared for such complexity, as we now understand not?

Is it possible that we, too, may evolve in a parallel way, and as such, these two days may never coincide as one? So the robin and man, ever in watch, ever to question, never to know.

It is this longing and lacking that drives the cycle and leads us only to tomorrow.

We are never a farther step from today.

[c. 20071014]

Note: Access to Blogger is still blocked within China. Without access to a much appreciated VPN (proxy), I would be unable to publish to my blog from within mainland China. Thus, I am blessed and grateful to be sharing. With every post, I hereby protest the oppressive nature of the Chinese government blocking access to any part of the web.

on fear

Fear is my foe, my fatal flaw, unforgivable.

And yet it is my most patient friend, most loyal indeed, never to leave, only to disappear, from view, but ever and always near.

It is not oppressive as others may say, nor is it imposing as you might believe.

But its mere presence is enough to render rationale undone, to allow the imagination to run free, to see the light as if without capacity to refract itself, from the blinding light into an array of colors soon in sight.

Fear is neither a being, nor an object. It is is hardly even a state, of which -for lack of better description, and more truly, understanding, I only begin to thus quantify.

And it is here, as I write, that I shape what is the thing, so called fear, and more impressively, create the perception of a reality, but one reality, so called fear.

Note: Access to Blogger is still blocked within China. Without access to a much appreciated VPN (proxy), I would be unable to publish to my blog from within mainland China. Thus, I am blessed and grateful to be sharing.

light of dark

It is in the might of darkness near
that the humble soul asks simply
that the way light the path, and
'lo the blessed soul is blinded by the light
that simply is but darkness' wrath,
which never is what darkness hath.

Note: Access to Blogger is still blocked within China. Without access to a much appreciated VPN (proxy), I would be unable to publish to my blog from within mainland China. Thus, I am blessed and grateful to be sharing.

oppress this

It is time to be heard.

Just last month, China announced a threat to install anti-pornography software on every computer sold in China, or so says western media. However, local media specifies more flexibility, under the name of choice and freedom. The truth simply is hard to capture in black and white.

One thing that is easily quantified is a number of websites currently (or recently) blocked from the local view within China as a result of the recent clashes in the northwest province of Xinjiang between the Uyghur and Han ethnicities, without having to dig very deep:

• wikipedia
• facebook
• blogger
• wordpress
• twitter
  

Over the last decade, China has taken the liberty of restricting web liberties at large, including a few that have hit close to home:

• google
• yahoo
• youtube
  
• bbc
• wikipedia
  
• facebook
• twitter
• blogger
• wordpress
• and many more...
  

If only I had kept track of all those google search terms that were vetoed in various quests, likely because of suspected pornographic or pedophiliac intent. Right. A favorite rejection included this search term, as I prepped for my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) job:

• oral children's efl game

The proxy *was* my friend. My favorites sneakme and anonymouse have fallen victim to site restrictions. Some are just more of a hassle than they are worth.

The blocking of websites in China often points to the speculation that the Chinese government simply does not want locals accessing foreign media. Unfortunately, most locals are not aware of the above mentioned sites, as they do not use English to surf the web. Furthermore, they are unaware of resources provided by an English-native creator, albeit with the availability of translation into Mandarin. I would like to suggest that the blocking of websites is more so to block foreigners from disseminating views, experience, or facts with the outside world.

In this sense, it is an honor to be one of the many people whose voice is restricted... not simply because it means my thoughts are profound. Not simply because I have something worth saying. But because I have something to say which is worth hearing, and the People's Republic of China would rather it not be heard.

Who plants a seed with roots anew is soon to see the shoot.

As any good story might begin, a friend of a friend shared this experience: She is a college student, masters student, and part of the Communist Party. On occasion, they have participation 'homework', which could be in the form or attending/planning meetings or writing a rather nationalistic essay. This year, for June 4th, 2009, she was given a special assignment: she was informed that she would be the

"Supervisor of the Prevention of a Commemoration for an Event that Never Happened".

Needless to say, such a delegation had the student, previously and otherwise oblivious to and uninformed of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, asking a few difficult questions of her own. If an event didn't happen, why would anyone be commemorating it? And more importantly, why would anyone spend time, energy, and resources to prevent the commemoration of something that never happened?

And so... stranded over here in a form of isolation, which shall succeed neither to brainwash nor dirty it more, I write with a bit a clarity, with reflection on what it means to be sheltered in the professed interest of protection.

The fascist smashes the egg to silence the rooster.

Note: the below photos are screenshots taken from my browsing experiences while in the heartland of China:

"this video is not available in your country..."

"Connection interrupted: the connection to the server was reset while the page was loading"

"The connection has timed out: the server at wikipedia.org is taking too long to respond."

Note: Access to Blogger is still blocked within China. Without access to a much appreciated VPN (proxy), I would be unable to write such a post or publish it to my blog from within mainland China. Thus, I am blessed and grateful to be sharing.

toasting 2009

A fool changes to become someone who he is not.
The wise changes to become someone who he is.

roots & fruits

Roots of Communication, Fruits of Language

As a foreigner, learning to speak Mandarin in her very motherland is akin to being born a second time, but this time through the aging eyes of experience. The early stages of learning a second language is more so an exercise in silence; body language takes precedence over the spoken word. It is a powerful experience to transition from having an educated foundation to at once being illiterate and near mute. Listening skills must be honed before the tongue can be tamed. Simple truths in life abound across cultures: A smile is universal. Curiosity is reciprocated. Language is only a framework for communication.

Another language may not translate in full the feeling behind an original thought; each is unique and therein lies the beauty. It is not enough to simply master a language in terms of vocabulary and grammar, for the subtleties of communication lie not only in what is said, but how it is communicated. Learning another language presents an opportunity to graft the wisdom of one onto the voice of the other.

The Chinese language is truly a ripened fruit born from the roots of more than 5,000 years of history. Spoken Mandarin harnesses a thought and tames it for communication. Written Mandarin captures a feeling and liberates it via the joining of ink and paper. The very thought wrapped by humans around an abstract concept was born into a single character. While any language evolves over time, to learn Mandarin is to taste this fruit of bygone days. The wisdom of years past are worn into each character and each formulated thought.

The path to fluency in Mandarin is a journey that reminds one of their own humanity and how their native tongue is but one way to view the world. There is an opportunity to share overseas what is taken for granted at home. There is an opportunity to experience firsthand what many will only read from a book. Each day we live and breathe and learn not only another language, but we have the opportunity to gain this wisdom of the past and apply it to the present day.

While English and Mandarin are natively spoken from two vastly different perspectives, there is a common essence to our humanity that persuades louder than any difference might dissuade. It is a reminder that the real essence of communication is but a common ground upon which both English and Mandarin are deeply rooted.

c.20080621

'a' for 'ism'

Below are a few ruminations from earlier this year:

A flower blooms not before its time.

¨ ¨ ¨
Where the leaf falls, the wind will carry.

¨ ¨ ¨
The stone laid is no more prisoner than before.

¨ ¨ ¨

Death is not to be forgiven -
for ever stealing souls,
the wisdom of never more.

Neither can be forgiven -
the life that breathes,
but gives nothing more.

c. 20080520

paving the way

the highways are deserts for trees;
the signs are wizards of safety;
the people are zombies of purpose.