The Great Firewall

In India every once in a while, you go to these parties, where after the second drink, the discussion starts as to how India needs a dictatorship to run it smooth. While Singapre is the role model, since SNG is no bigger than the Bombay-Pune belt, the discussion comes around to how a Chinese style dictatorship (of course, minus the communism) would probably work best. You hear as to how Shanghai airport would put Sahar to shame. Of course, all this with no one having either been to China, or in many cases not even meeting someone from China.

Read this article in the NYT . A wonderful insight into how China works. (On a side note, also shows how little Americans understand about other cultures.) Initially I was very disappointed that the "do-no-evil" Googlers decided to give in to the Chinese censors. But from their perspective, they have a point when they say

Even if you were still too cautious to talk about politics, the mere idea that you could publicly state your opinion about anything — the weather, the local sports scene — felt like a bit of a revolution... Google could still improve Chinese citizens' ability to learn about AIDS, environmental problems, avian flu, world markets..... (Revenue) wasn't a big part of the equation... it would be years before Google would make much if any profit in China... (Going into China) wasn't as much a business decision as a decision about getting people information. And we decided in the end that we should make this compromise."

But behind all this there is a salient feature. And it is that in China, no political opinions are allowed. There is no dissent allowed. Something is brewing among the rural class, and if suppressed, it'll be years till we find out, even with the power of the internet. When I go back to the parties starting June, I know I can say that the Chinese system is better in public and not get solitary confinement in the Andamans. I know that I can look up the Google to find out what happened during the Emergency years. I can Wikipedia the Maoist folk songs of Bihar.

I'd rather be free than rich.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
- Rabindranath Tagore