Netizens: Freedom, or…….

While applauding Google’s decision not to compromise its beliefs in order to simply gather more eyeballs in China, the subject of cyberspace freedom is, once again, being discussed. The Search Engine behemoth isn’t making any money in China, so it’s not as if this proud stance will cost them anything, but it makes the right decision to do this and state that “Do no Evil” is more than a motto. Most companies would take the position that more eyes mean higher rates for Ad Words so on behalf of all of us, Thanks ‘Googs’. When contrasted with the US financial institutions, the company is certainly making a case that it’s ideals are worth more than it’s share price; a ray of sunshine in the gloom of corporate America. But does the existence of an unpoliced Internet as a whole in our lives mean now what it used to?

The Chinese government may well have been spying on G-Mail account holders, but is it the only Government doing so? It’ a knee-jerk reaction to look at this as a case of a Communist regime, once again taking people’s freedoms away, but if you don’t think that most Governments are doing this, you are dreaming. If your own ruling political party’s secret service were watching you, do you feel any freer where you live than in Beijing? The fact that the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, made such a public fuss about Google’s decision may sound like freedom loving America bitch-slapping it’s Eastern foe, but we all know that all US citizens are being spied on.

The freedom to read and write what you want across a borderless global system comes at a cost: Hacker’s, Viruses, Spam, and predatory individuals are something that we put up with in order to chat with someone in a far flung corner about the mundane seconds of our own lives. If you believe that the ‘net is home to evil doers that don’t need to communicate in public, then what does that say about your feelings concerning the outbreak of laptops in coffee shops? Are those people that you don’t really want to talk to really Twittering on about what they just bought, or do you believe that their conversations a re more nefarious?

If you don’t trust anyone enough to talk to them in public, then you get the Internet you deserve. It’s easier to have numerous instantaneous pen pals across the globe than to open up about yourself to a real live person, but what does that say about the generation now in their teens, and what are they opening themselves up for in the future? There may be an argument for some kind of expanded control if the entire planetary communication is now online. We have always measured our species’ advances in technological terms, but we may have created something here that will enslave us. If this is true, the decision to keep one tiny part of the globe out of the conversation because someone may be listening may do more harm than good.

Inside the Olympics: The Undesired Activity

In a recent post, I wrote about the amount of ‘boot-licking’ a host city has to do in order to continually keep the IOC on its side. From the original bid document, through to the tearful farewell and wrap-up in Spring 2010, this city has been hosed, charged, and demanded-to from these officials to the point where we are now unsure of who actually this month-long (don’t forget the Special Olympics) festival. O.K., it is the largest one of it’s kind on the planet and, if they intend to make money from it in the future, any host city should be ready to invest. However, when items dictated to by the organisers start to cross certain lines, is it not up to the city to hold up a hand and argue it’s corner? Two cases in point raised in the last month argue this.

Every Olympic host city also presents a Cultural Olympiad for the arts that shows the best of your city, country, and extends a hand to other Olympic country travelling exhibits and troupes. Imagine being a winter sports fan, and taking a week out of your life to go to a welcoming town in a different part of the World, see the World’s best athletes compete in your favourite sports, then spend the evenings taking in fabulous artistic and cultural artists. If I had the odd hundred grand sitting around, I’d do it! Well, in a recent guideline handed down, it appears that these artists must contract to perform without making negative comments or the like concerning Olympic sponsors and the IOC! For dancers and opera singers, this may be OK, but perhaps not for you if you are a comic, painter, or actor. These people see a different view of things as a perfect point worth bringing up, but if someone gets excited and ad lib something along these lines  in February or March 2010, their performance can be immediately stopped.

In a related issue, no negatives are allowed to be ‘presented in written form’ in public view. While designed to stop negative graffiti and posters in camera view of the globe’s TV viewers, this has been extended to the interior of businesses and residences! This means that if I have a “No to Visa” sentiment in an upstairs window of my house, a representative from my local city council (I live in a host suburb.), has the right to enter my house and take it down.

Now, in both of the above cases, we would have to be in an extreme situation for punitive measures, I understand this, but haven’t the IOC been told that this country has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that guarantee free speech, and personal property rights? The IOC that aren’t putting these rules in place to protect itself – they are designed to keep negatives away from their sponsors. The largest global corporations on earth have the ability to order this, through the organisers. A soft drink company has the right to complain to an IOC rep, who will tell the local organiser, who will pass onto an elected local official to do the dirty.

I see the day when these games will only take place in totalitarian states – they may be used to taking orders blindly. How did Norway, Japan, and the US ever stand for this?

More on the torch relay to come – I have received a few enquiries about it – unless someone has a problem with that, and will block my internet link. Blogging may become an ‘undesired activity’ in Olympic cities.