The great firewall of china....

I didn't go to work today because we were adviced yesterday by our supervisor to take a weekend off dahil wala daw masyadong orders kaya pahinga muna kami this saturday, next weekend na lang ang OT.... Okay lang kasi pagod naman talaga ako at kahapon lang ay wish kong sana wala ngang over-time ngayon para makapagpahinga naman ng kunti.... Anyways, i was watching Foreign Correspondent on tv today and there was this topic that had caught my attention.... It was about the danger of being a blogger in china....

What they've said on tv was funny because i think it's very rare for somebody to get a knock on their door as a result of something that they've wrote in their websites or their blogs.... Talagang bihira lang, you can count those cases on a couple of hands practically....

We know that there certainly is survailances, and there certainly are internet police.... There are people who's job is to works on a public security apparatus to track-down speech on the internet.... When the internet first started, everyone said that it's beauty was that nobody controls it and that's what most people still believe now.... But in china, the government has proven that it can control the internet....! It blocks sites that it doesn't like, it prevents discussions on certain subjects, it can fine and even chase, arrest, and jail people for stepping out of the line....

The companies which host chinese blogs are held responsible for their contents, so if a "taboo" subject is mentioned and we don't know what level of written ideas are already considered as "taboo" over there, but the hosting company will often send a polite massage suggesting that by changing their words, the blogger can have their article posted in the internet.... What the....! Ganyan na ba ka takot ang gobyerno nila sa mga write-ups ngayon....?! Quite opposite to how the whole world saw them as one of the biggest producers of electronic communication devices na simbolo pa naman sana ng freedom of speech di ba....? Very ironic ano po....?

At least most of us bloggers are still lucky to belong to a country where freedom of speech and print medias are still safe and widely practiced.... Buti na lang wala tayo sa china at ang pinaka-suspense na sigurong katok sa pintuan na matatanggap natin ay packages ng mga goodies na pinamili natin online o di kaya bills ng internet connections....!

Nakakalungkot lang kasing isipin na para silang namumuhay na bilanggo ng sarili nilang bansa kung saan ang kanilang sariling mga opinyon ay wala na rin halos bisa.... And as bloggers with all the freedom in this world to write just about anything ay alam natin kung gaano kahirap ang ganung sitwasyon.... Ano pa kayang sentensya ang maaari nilang ipataw kung mapuntahan lang nila at mabasa ang iba sa mga napuntahan kong blogsites na masyado na talagang rude at below the belt ang mga banat at mga ibinabatong topics....! Bitay sigurado o di kaya minced meat he-he....!

So if i were blogging in china today, ay hindi pala ako dapat nagsulat ng topic na to ngayon dahil any moment from now ay may mga katok akong maririnig mula sa aking pintuan para arestuhin at ikulong ako for crossing the line hmmmm....! TOk- tok-TOK....! Huh, ano yun....?! Tatot ato he-he....! =D