Sunday, May 16, 2010

Hello world of free speech

Blog, I missed you!! Communist China is great for terrific and cheap dim sum and amazingly cheap massages but not good for freedom of expression. My access to FB and blog was blocked by the communist government and I felt quite stifled. Not that I have anything important or substantive to say, but just that no matter how unimportant it is, I like the right, or privilege, to say what I want when I want to who I want. The tradeoffs between China and Japan: in China, you can talk as loudly as you want, eat on the streets, walk on whatever side of the street you want (or can find space between the crowds of people), and generally just push or shove your way until you get what you want. But you can't access FB or blog and therefore are disallowed from airing your random thoughts to the public, or reading others random thoughts. In Japan, you can access FB and blog but you must always use your quietest indoor voice, can't eat or drink while walking, and must obey all the rules put in place to make things run in robotic Japanese fashion. Different freedoms, different oppressions.

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Currently "home" in Tokyo for exactly enough time to repack my bags, get 6 hours of sleep and head back to the airport.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

perhaps korea is the happy medium -- you can access FB/blogs and can stils get away with talking loudly, pushing people, and eating cheap (and delicious!) meals :) --g