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 respect

Over the years, I have pondered much the notion of respect –what it does mean and what it does not mean. While it may be foolish to try to define it rigidly or simplistically, I find value in pursuing a truer understanding of it. To disregard the exploration of the abstraction or ambiguity surrounding respect, is to simply default to a superficial definition of respect.

a question

How do the terms ‘survivalism’ and ‘selfishness’ pertain to ‘respect’?

Survivalism may encompass an act or a choice made, cognitively or otherwise, that without being made would lead to the destruction of the self, and by exaggerated extension, the human race. Literally, to survive is to simply to continue [the] existence [of an entity, being.]

Selfishness may describe those actions or choices made, on matters that do not endanger the continuation of one’s existence, and in fact, may create frivolous benefits at the expense of another’s survival. Literally, to be selfish is simply to lack consideration of others.

intersection

I believe these two concepts intersect [or diverge] at a common point, namely respect. I summarize ‘respect’ as “the cognizant compromise of the superfluous desires of the self for the preservation of the basic needs of another.”

When I directly devalue the needs of another at the mere gratification of myself, do I disrespect another. When I value another’s intrinsic rights by relinquishing my desires unessential, do I respect another. Without an intrinsic understanding of this, one is even incapable of respecting the self, and by extension, another.

Disrespect is born via the cognitive acknowledgment, or ignorance of, the sometimes subtle and highly relative distinction of ‘need’ vs. ‘want’.

defining by opposite

Defining what is a ‘need’ or what is ‘essential’ is no abecedarian task. Similarly, defining what is ‘superfluous’ or what is merely a ‘desire’ is better left to the omniscient.

But reality defies the ideality of accurately distinguishing between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’, and so demands otherwise; the one left to practice respect is, ultimately, the common person –you and I.

Perhaps a need is but something we have, if even without wanting it; a desire is but something we want, if only without having it. In quantitative terms, a ‘need’ might have a negative value; a ‘want’ might have a positive value, with survival hovering only at a neutral value between, zero.

Looking at the meanings opposite of ‘survival’ and ‘selfless’, only then, may it be possible to gain a better understanding of where or how these concepts truly intersect to better realize respect, as not only a relative abstraction, but as a tangible reality.

That which speaks not of survival speaks not of life. It speaks of peril and all that perishes.

That which speaks not of the selfish speaks of all that is selfless. It speaks not only of generosity and all that is altruistic, but also of applied philanthropic action.

what it is

Respect is a choice; it is not a simple definition carved out of infallible stone. It is a choice made by the fallible, by the common person, which speaks of a regard for life, of a concern for others.

Respect speaks of sought-out understanding –both of the self, as well as a willed understanding of others.

And living mindfully in the balance between.

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.

officialdom

the red stamp of officialdom

This red stamp validates and sublimely summarizes the last four months of my service as a visiting English Teacher, partnering up with EduChina and Shangqiu Experimental Elementary Schools of Henan Province.

Two months ago, I requested a letter of recommendation, and my superior insisted that a personalized recommendation could not compare to this certificate; it is the thing that employers will look for... and so be dazzled by.

Below is my 聘书 [pinshu, Certificate of Appointment] with EduChina, China's largest educational service provider:

it's official: my EduChina Certificate of Appointment

中国教育学会中育教育发展研究中心特聘JESSICA老师卫中国教育学会实验学校英语口语教学简直教师。

[Chinese Society of Education and Education Research Center for Educational Development distinguishes Teacher JESSICA as a part-time Spoken English Teacher for the Chinese Society of Education Experimental School.]

I am amused, in fact, for I fear that only Chinese companies will take it seriously.

But at least it's official.

critically

For obvious starters, my surname is missing; I am represented, in full, only by my given name.

I briefly imagine that I have a following who know me simply as "...Jessica..." -in a way that I am not confused for another Jessica, nor are others confused for me.

But this is not a reality, and I am thankful for it.

Secondly, 2009年9月20日, the date printed at bottom right (i.e., September 20, 2009) is actually a date before I had worked for, let alone heard of their organization.

Had I not started working for them until the end of October?

Thirdly, the certificate simply states that I have been appointed as an Oral English Teacher. It says no more about what I have contributed; it says not why they would recommend me in the future to others.

Have I left them speechless?

offense in no sense

No matter how convincingly or logically one may argue, it seems that a personalized and thoughtfully tailored recommendation letter is a simple frivolity.

I would take it personally, but I cannot.

This is standard business in China.

An easily reproducible certificate bearing a 盖章 [gàizhāng, an "official" red stamp] is the more desirable.

The red stamp has the final say.

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.