Group items tagged

human rights "can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate crisis and the security crises," Clinton said.

When China joined the WTO, there was also an implicit attempt to use “opening-up” to accelerate “reform.” The saying “there is no way back for an arrow when the string is drawn” is particularly true today when the world is filled with goods “made in China.” It is impossible to allow the free flow of commodities but not information when China takes part in the division of labor in globalization. It is equally impossible to allow the free flow of only the “positive” information. There is no such bargain under heaven. The information age has descended upon us. New media like the Internet and cell phones are still developing rapidly. It will cost more and more to control the dissemination of news and will eventually become impossible.

The games have been billed as China's "coming out party" to the world. They are far more significant than that. These Olympics are the coming out party for a disturbingly efficient way of organizing society, one that China has perfected over the past three decades, and is finally ready to show off. It is a potent hybrid of the most powerful political tools of authoritarianism communism -- central planning, merciless repression, constant surveillance -- harnessed to advance the goals of global capitalism. Some call it "authoritarian capitalism," others "market Stalinism," personally I prefer "McCommunism."

By next year, the Chinese internal security market is set to be worth $33-billion. Several of the larger Chinese players in the field have recently taken their stocks public on U.S. exchanges, hoping to cash in the fact that, in volatile times, security and defense stocks are seen as the safe bets. China Information Security Technology, for instance, is now listed on the NASDAQ and China Security and Surveillance is on the NYSE. A small clique of U.S. hedge funds has been floating these ventures, investing more than $150-million in the past two years. The returns have been striking. Between October 2006 and October 2007, China Security and Surveillance's stock went up 306 percent.

Ever since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, U.S. companies have been barred from selling police equipment and technology to China, since lawmakers feared it would be directed, once again, at peaceful demonstrators. That law has been completely disregarded in the lead up to the Olympics, when, in the name of safety for athletes and VIPs (including George W. Bush), no new toy has been denied the Chinese state.

美国运动员们没有生活在北京，自然不知道北京的空气到底如何，是不是真的就比底特律要差？也不知道现在北京空气的真实治理情况如何，是不是和七年前相比没有任何改进？他们了解北京相关情况的途径只有通过西方的媒体。所以难免会形成这种刻板的印象。

北京政府开辟三个公园作为抗议场地一度成为小小的轰动新闻。但至今已三个星期，还没有任何人在这三个公园举行抗议，而必须经过的申请程序十分危险。据人权组织提供的消息，至少有两名申请抗议的人被捕入狱，其他人则被遣送回原籍。

有一位前女军医想为自己的事举行示威，因为她没有获得民间行医的执照，这完全是一件与政治无关的事。

"中国是法制国家，与其它国家一样"，中国外交部发言人秦刚以这句话反驳对中国的指责。但现实说的是另一种语言：中国警方和国安人员向三十多名人权人士和1989年天安门大屠杀受难者的家属发出了警告，警告他们不要与外国记者谈话。一些人被迫离开首都，另一些人被软禁家中或始终处于监视之下。著名的被捕人权人士胡佳的妻子曾金燕在奥运开幕前一天突然消失得无影无踪。

中央电视台作为实况转播台与奥运艺术策划小组共同做假，欺骗世界，欺骗所有的观众。我觉得，这决不是一次偶然事件。通常说，在中国没有一次事件是偶然事件。它反映了政府一贯的策略和政治方式，那就是：能够掩盖的掩盖，能够遮挡的遮挡，来获得最愚蠢的效果

我觉得，他既不是媚俗，也不是媚权，他就是一个投机者，一个完全没有灵魂的人。完全不懂得什么叫是非，什么叫最基本的艺术职业工作者对艺术的尊重，和对人的基本品质、伦理道德的尊重。他崇尚权力，做着一些令人作呕的事情。

作为这家合资公司的小股东，Skype随后在官方Blog上发表声明并道歉，而大股东及肇事者Tom在线，至今似乎仍未有任何表示，甚至连国内最先报道此事的网易，也已经删除了相关新闻页面（仍可在百度快照中查看）。

大概人们已经对监控、GFW这些行径已经达到麻木的程度，而无力言说，而且注重隐私权和通信安全的人应该都不会选择Tom版的Skype而是使用标准版Skype，虽然标准版据称依然是安全的，但坏消息是：“来自其它国家Skype用户一旦与用中文版Skype的人进行联系，也会受到监视。”

说道这次中科院此时推出雷死人的傻逼研究结果，总觉得是在为几天之后诺贝尔和平奖的颁发打的预防针。只是万万没有料到，化学奖中出现了华人的身影。这一针算是白打了。有了华人就好办了，铺天的宣传，谁得和平奖就被忽悠过去了。否则还要继续代瑞典死人的表，实在不是个滋味。

因此无论如何，是否与和平奖有缘，都来说一声“胡+，+油”吧。

"There was a lot of repression during the Olympic Games. Now is a golden opportunity to underline that repression is unacceptable," said Janne Haaland Matlary, a professor of international relations at the University of Oslo, and a previous candidate to be a member of the Nobel committee.

The Chechen human rights lawyer Lydia Yusupova is another contender. "It would be an opportunity to focus on Russia at a time of increased interest following the conflict with Georgia," said Matlary.

Q: Is China an ally or an adversary?A: They're neither. The fact of the matter is, though, they hold the mortgage on our house. This administration, in order to fund a war that shouldn't be being fought and tax cuts that weren't needed for the wealthy--we're now in debt almost a trillion dollars to China. We better end that war, cut those taxes, reduce the deficit and make sure that they no longer own the mortgage on our home.

How would you balance human rights and trade with China? A: I've been pushing, on the Foreign Relations Committee for the last seven years, that we hold China accountable at the United Nations. At the UN, we won't even designate China as a violator of human rights. Now, what's the deal there? We talk about competition in terms of trade. It's capitulation, not competition. Name me another country in the world that we would allow to conduct themselves the way China has, and not call them on the carpet at the UNQ: So you would call them on th carpet?A: Absolutely. Q: You would appoint a UN ambassador who would press for this?A: It's the one way to get China to reform. You can't close your eyes. You can't pretend. It is self-defeating. It's a Hobson's choice we're giving people here.

法新社北京电：北京奥运开幕式周五又曝丑闻：56名身穿少数民族服装的小朋友事实上都是汉族儿童。据《华尔街日报》报道，银河少儿艺术团的袁某表示，这些站在国旗下面的身穿五彩服装的小孩子代表了56个民族的紧密团结，然而，他们当中没有一个是真正的少数民族。不过，袁某认为，少儿"演员"们看上去非常"天真可爱"。

Google's top copyright man, he wrote his blog in a purely private capacity as one of the leading copyright scholars in the world.

copyright has become less and less responsive to the balance of incentives and exceptions

Copyright law has abandoned its reason for being: to encourage learning and the creation of new works

“They say there are no atheists in foxholes.   Perhaps, then, there are also no libertarians in financial crises.”

That the Internet is now capacious enough to host an entire subculture of users who enjoy undermining its founding values is yet another symptom of its phenomenal success. It may not be a bad thing that the least-mature users have built remote ghettos of anonymity where the malice is usually intramural. But how do we deal with cases like An Hero, epilepsy hacks and the possibility of real harm being inflicted on strangers?

n June, Lori Drew pleaded not guilty to charges that she violated federal fraud laws by creating a false identity “to torment, harass, humiliate and embarrass” another user, and by violating MySpace’s terms of service. But hardly anyone bothers to read terms of service, and millions create false identities.

wow,nice!melamine desert!! so funny to see this vedio while the production is in quality trouble now ashamed

Here was a report that really delivered a blow to the BBC’s solar plexus. Peacock began to foresee the possibility of digital diversity on an unimagined scale, it also put forward the ideas of a consumer-led, market driven broadcasting world, one in which the very principles of a licence fee funded public service broadcasting system would naturally be seen as obsolete. This suited the tenor of the times: deregulation, privatisation and a rigorous dismantling of the frontiers of the state – it was happening in the city and in industry and the utilities, why not broadcasting? The BBC, long seen as harbouring tendencies and personnel that were socialistic at best, Marxist at worst, was suddenly no longer a secure and unassailable acropolis. It was no secret that Norman Tebbit and some of the more fundamentalist free-marketeers and red-baiters of the administration would have been very happy indeed to dismantle the entire structure of the BBC. Peacock prevaricated and the charter appeared safe, but at a great price. Nothing would ever be the same again, the old certainties were dead and the harsh realities of capitalism arrived at Wood Lane and Portland Place. Whole departments were razed and working practices abolished, and something called an internal market was put in place. Radio Times was outsourced, the permanent make-up staff went, engineers, editors and set-designers were suddenly out of a job. Twenty-five percent of the BBC’s output was commanded to be produced from outside sources and a whole new independent sector was born. Companies like Hat Trick and Talk Back achieved almost instant success.

中国政府可能多少也认同缅甸不愿让西方救援人士在本土工作的做法。Wang Fei-Ling谈到，在此前历次灾害中，中国政府从未允许西方机构在境内独立运作，唯一的例外是2003年非典型肺炎(SARS)爆发期间对世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)的调查网开了一面。

中国最近连续发生三起重大社会事件：瓮安、上海袭警、张家界撞楼，于是“俯卧撑”成了最流行语，甚至用到了股市，用于了足球业界。德国之声记者认为，中国社会激烈动荡由来已久，如今愈演愈烈，表明：几个方面的政治改革已经刻不容缓。借用类似的语言：中国急需要做的是几个“仰卧起坐”。其中最关键的是三个：新闻放开、法制到位、民主升级。

世界各地都有社会冲突，比如巴黎郊区几年前、柏林五一时的骚乱。有许多人表现也很极端，比如美国和德国的校园枪杀案件。但是，中国这些年来社会矛盾特别尖锐，却是不争的事实。每年七、八万起，还不包括上海袭警、张家界撞楼这样的非"群体事件"。为什么呢？为什么越是说"和谐社会"，社会似乎越不和谐呢？自然，中国国家大，人口众多，是一个表面原因。更重要的原因是：中国三十年来处于社会剧变的过程中，具有许多类资本主义初级阶段的特征，也具有许多中国独特的恶疾，比如严重的腐败、许多地方官的贪婪、枉权，与商人的勾结，许多地方官被别人和自己捧成了土皇帝，比如许多公务人员的妄自尊大，对民众的不尊重。最严重的是，许多民众有理没地方说去。官官相护的现象也非常严重。