by Bernie Lopez
There are two opposing forces in China's Internet milieu, the Internet Yin and Yang. On one side is the tremendous growth of users. On the other is growing government Internet censorship. The final victor in this battle is not known, but one has to give in.
China has edged out the US as the number one in the volume of Internet users with 220 million surfers as opposed to the US 217 million as of late February. Of course, one can question these figures, which come from a Chinese research group, the BDA China. Also, the difference is so small that they are virtually at par, if the figures are correct.
In tandem with this growth is China's policy to control Internet information going out to the outside world, especially the Tibetan protests. It has asked video sharing sites like the Youtube to block these outgoing gory human rights violations by Chinese police and soldiers. Youtube, of course, simply smiled. It knows that its business is based on the principle of freedom of communication and information. If it blocks itself, it is global suicide, and rivals will emerge to replace it.
In frustration over trying to control the video sites, it is taking things into its own hands to block these outgoing citizen journalism on its own, by trying to locate the origins. So far, if you assess what you can see in Blogger.com and Youtube.com, which in turn is picked up CNN-BBC-Aljazeera, you can say the Chinese are not very successful because a lot of cellphone videos of actual massacres are being aired.
The sheer volume of the growing cellphone-backed citizen journalists in China defies control, as it did in the Burma unrest, the London bombings, and the blog journalists inside Iraq. If the users are growing, so are these ubiquitous electronic journalist. Two other factors make China's Internet control impossible. First, there are proxy servers that do not reveal the IP address of the original senders. Second, the advent and proliferation of satellite-linked mobile units means they would have sent their 'deadly' materials out to the world before they are caught, if they are caught.
The bottom line is - China will always fail miserably in its Internet politics of controlling information. The other alternative is to abolish Internet altogether in China, which is the greater evil of economic isolation and suicide, and which China will never do.
But there is a dark side to Internet journalism. Total information freedom 'they say' is simply 'licentiousness', meaning, if you can send out critical clandestine information that can pressure nations to stop their massacres, you can also send misinformation to destroy people and nations. For every advantage is a disadvantage, for every good an evil. So what else is new?
THE POLITICS OF RICE
With world rice supply waning a bit (nothing to panic about) and prices inching up, GMA fears the politics of rice might lower her popularity from negative ten to negative twenty. So she has decided to run after the rice hoarders, headed by the Binondo boys. These hoarders have some clout. So she has to be careful. For one, if she plans to have a 'rerun' in 2010, these people are critical sources of funds during election period.
The hoarders’ clandestine partnership with NFA officials has been an open secret for decades now. They hit the papers only during a rice crisis, such as now. The modus operandi is obvious. NFA gets cheap subsidized rice which is passed on to the hoarders and sold as expensive commercial rice. And they split the booty. This is why NFA Director Rogelio Macunay recently sacked NFA North Cotabato manager Anthony Bernad. But that is under the bridge. We wonder how many thousand tons of rice nationwide are sold to consumers this way.
The short-term shortage is two fold. First, climate change has triggered rampant floods in rice-producing nations. Second, Thailand, largest exporter worldwide, has cutback exports by 30% to insure domestic supply. This can worsen or taper off. Nobody knows.
The move of the government to buy more than its target of 2.2 million metric tons (MMT) at double the prices of last year not so much to correct shortages in 2008 but more in preparation for perceived shortages in 2009 may be a good or bad move. It is good if supplies stabilize and prices go down. It is bad if oversupply from overbuying will lower prices, invite hoarding, and strengthen the NFA-hoarder partnership.
The politics of rice is complex. In a real crisis, the issue is food security. But in a non-crisis or a pseudo-crisis, it begins to enter the dangerous arena of election financing. So what else is new?
BARACK VERSUS HILLARY
This is a Third World perspective. First, American politics is it is just as dirty as Philippine politics. They sling mud just as well as we do. Second, Barack and Hillary are the same banana. America foreign policy will not change. They will still stay in Iraq. They will remain the biggest arms seller worldwide, and use Israel as a wedge against the oil-rich Arab world. Dollar hegemony will persist. Their multinationals will bribe Third World government officials and proliferate genetic engineered crops. The US-dominated World Bank-IMF will still give loans conditional to American interests. They will still control the US-dominated UN Security Council. So what else is new?
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