Blogs & Ecology

Facebook, twitter, blog, facebook, email, online game, then blog, how long have you stayed online? If you have stared at your computer screen and clutched your mouse for over 6.13 hours a day, you are, I am sorry, a person of mental disorder according to the latest official definition in China.

China will be the first country to define internet addiction as a type of mental disorder. The national Ministry of Health has accepted a manual by Chinese psychologists which categorizes obsession with internet as a mental disease, and it is expected to turn into a guideline for all the hospitals in China very soon.

In China, to publish an academic essay is extremely difficult for simply one reason: Too many people are compelled to publish essays in a miserably limited number of journals. Reluctantly, contributors have to pay certain sum of money to get their essays published. But demand still overwhelmingly exceeds supply. Therefore, a new type of brokers came into existence: they help polish, rewrite and publish essays for blind profits. Academics
debate heatedly [zh], but a high-rank official openly supports charging the contributors [zh].

A well-known Chinese blogger WU Jiaxiang （吳稼祥）argues the “riot” that happened at Taipei Hotel November 6 is in fact part of the rampant “political kidnapping” in Taiwan [zh]. The blogger further analyses who are ultimately behind “the political violence” in Taiwan.

It seems that many people, especially if you are outside Taiwan, found the recent protest against Chen Yinlin in Taipei confusing. Bob pointed out that in China, some incidents in the protest were interpreted as democratic violence. Such impression is probably a result of the mainstream media report on the violent scene. You may want to ask what had happened during this long day, Nov 6th? Why did so many people decide to demonstrate in the street? How did the violence happen? Let's take a closer look at and listen to these protesters.

aswing explained why protest:

Oceanic country New Zealand held a general election on November 8, 2008. According to preliminary results, opposition coalition secures 45.5% of votes and 65 of the 122 Parliament seats, which means John Key of conservative National Party will become new Prime Minister. The governing Labour Party, on the other hand, loses 7 seats to 43 seats.

Mainland China envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) flied back to Beijing 7, Nov after his 4-day “ice-breaking” visit to Taiwan.

As the chairman of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), Chen, led the highest-ranked official delegation ever from mainland to Taiwan, to negotiate for new deals that set down agreements on direct shipping and flights, mail services and food safety. It's said to be a historic leap on cross-strait tie.

About 500 students gathered peacefully in front of the Executive Yuan on 11/6 to protest against the current Parade and Assembly Law (集會遊行法). The government abusive use of the law has violated people's rights in protest in the past few days during the visit of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chair Chen Yunlin.

Different from the fierce encounter between protesters and police forces during the day in front of the Presidential Office, there are more than 400 students peacefully gathering in front of the Executive Yuan in order to bring everyone's attention back to the real question: Is the freedom of expression still belong to Taiwanese? And they protest against President Ma and its government for lowering Taiwanese human right standard as to the level in Mainland China(zh).

Wenli is now there and livecasting via Yahoo!Live along with 400 online watchers.

The Chief Executive Donald Tsang's policy speech last week didn't give people any surprise. The hottest subject is about Legislator Raymond Wong Yuk-man, Chair of the League of Social Democrats, throwing a banana at Tsang in the Legislative Council during the Q & A session. It marks the beginning of a new political culture. ESWN gave a background to the banana politics on 17 of Oct in his daily brief.

Here is a youtube video that shows what happened on that day.

To throw or not to throw, that's the question

AgogoCK supports the action:

我本人當然支持呢次行動啦

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Source: Global Voices Online

Melamine-tainted milk gave made-in-China a tough punch, and to reassure the world of China's product safety, premier Wen Jiabao affirmed that “we'll revive the Chinese food industry very soon,” at the World Economic Forum held in Tianjin last month.

The widely-influential milk scandal was resulted from the industrial chemical melamine added to not only milk but yogurt and infant formula. It has led to kidney stones crystallized in body that inflicted hundreds of babies, and killed 3.

At the Forum, Wen kept on saying, as China daily described,

In Oct 7, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the General Administration of Quality Supervision and Quarantine jointly issued a notice which state the upper limit of melamine in milk product. For infant formula, the maximum level is 1mg/kg. As for other formula that contain more than 15% milk, the maximum level is 2.5mg/kg. Any product exceed this level will be banned.

This news about 40 parents petition in Beijing for their missing children has been censored by the mainstream media and major news portal in the Internet in China. Beifeng re-posts one of the parents' first person account of the petition in his blog and urges readers to spread the news.

25日，我在北京的酒店里。一大早，彭先生来找我，早前我推荐过他的寻人博客因此而认识。他来北京上访，屡屡碰壁，很无助，但我帮不了他什么。八点半我们在大堂聊事情的时候，有人在旁监视。

我把刘晓原律师的电话给了他，我想他或许用得着。一个小时后，他被抓走了。

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Source: Global Voices Online

Ruan Yifeng notices that back in 2004 an economist has predicted the economic situation in China as various figures showed that China was caught in a condition similar to the U.S in 1929, the eve before the great depression [zh].

The Hong Kong government has issued a consultation paper on the “Review of the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance” last Friday (Oct 3). The first round of consultation will be lasted until end of January.

A most controversial issue is the suggestion on introduction of an internet filtering system in Hong Kong. In part 4 of the consultation paper, it states that the main issue at stake is:

Given the emergence of new forms of media, particularly the growing popularity of the Internet, members of the public consider it important that measures are taken to protect youngsters from the dissemination of obscene and indecent materials on such new media systems.

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Source: Global Voices Online

The sweeping financial crisis that strikes U.S has brought a debate in the country and its congress whether the government should intervene and rescue the Wall Street, or even the entire economy. And It is not the only country pondering on a rescue plan.

Right in a recent interview by CNN, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao appealed for giving States a hand:

So this time we should join hands and meet the crisis together. If the financial and economic system in the United States go wrong, then the impact will be felt, not only in this country but also in China, in Asia and in the world at large.

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Source: Global Voices Online