Freedom of Speech!
Has anyone of you ever threatened by speaking your mind? It happened a lot with me, in my school and college, both which were strict missionary run schools. Where do we draw a line with freedom of speech? What is taking truth and what is pure slander? It all depends on which side of the table you are sitting or standing.
My friends and myself were punished just because we showed up to the class with clothes full of 'Holi' colors on the Holi day. For us it was freedom of expression but for our college principal its was against the discipline of the college and 'polluting' other students brains.
China is pretty bad when comes to giving its citizens their freedoms. The internet is heavily regulated and monitored. Imagine the amount of wo/man hours go into filtering the content, keeping tab on the offenders and ensuing strain on the whole machinery. There should be something which the Chinese communists are afraid against, is it Truth? If I am afraid of truth, I must be doing something really wrong and I would go back and give it a good think rather suppress it. Chinese are smart folks, hopefully something will happen soon.
Iran is another notorious example. They have recently killed a Canadian photographer who was taking photographs of some of the sensitive areas. She was tortured and killed by Iranian secret police. Recently Iranians have imprisoned Mojtaba and Arash, bloggers, who were writing blogs about Iran and its politics. Their crime? Speaking truth, its like my principal who didn't want our color laden faces and clothes to influence other students to 'play Holi'. The Iranian Mullahs didn't want these 'impure thoughts' to contaminate other Iranians.
Today is the "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day" and we denizens of Blogosphere are showing solidarity with our brothers.
We people living democracies take our fundamental freedoms for granted. Imagine me getting arrested for writing a blog, protesting on streets. I sure wouldn't like battle tanks firing at me but, Will I stand before one to defend my and my fellow country men? Yes sir I would. Would I like getting tortured? No? Would I mind getting tortured by those cute Female GI's in mini skirts and Tight T-Shirts? who woudnt?
A coloumn on US torture techniques in Gitmo.
My friends and myself were punished just because we showed up to the class with clothes full of 'Holi' colors on the Holi day. For us it was freedom of expression but for our college principal its was against the discipline of the college and 'polluting' other students brains.
China is pretty bad when comes to giving its citizens their freedoms. The internet is heavily regulated and monitored. Imagine the amount of wo/man hours go into filtering the content, keeping tab on the offenders and ensuing strain on the whole machinery. There should be something which the Chinese communists are afraid against, is it Truth? If I am afraid of truth, I must be doing something really wrong and I would go back and give it a good think rather suppress it. Chinese are smart folks, hopefully something will happen soon.
Iran is another notorious example. They have recently killed a Canadian photographer who was taking photographs of some of the sensitive areas. She was tortured and killed by Iranian secret police. Recently Iranians have imprisoned Mojtaba and Arash, bloggers, who were writing blogs about Iran and its politics. Their crime? Speaking truth, its like my principal who didn't want our color laden faces and clothes to influence other students to 'play Holi'. The Iranian Mullahs didn't want these 'impure thoughts' to contaminate other Iranians.
Today is the "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day" and we denizens of Blogosphere are showing solidarity with our brothers.
We people living democracies take our fundamental freedoms for granted. Imagine me getting arrested for writing a blog, protesting on streets. I sure wouldn't like battle tanks firing at me but, Will I stand before one to defend my and my fellow country men? Yes sir I would. Would I like getting tortured? No? Would I mind getting tortured by those cute Female GI's in mini skirts and Tight T-Shirts? who woudnt?
A coloumn on US torture techniques in Gitmo.
posted by Pavan @ 12:23 PM
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