|
So what do China and Australia have in common? Yes both their flags have stars in them but Australia has a nice calming blue background representing the oceans around the nation while China has a lucky red colour that seems to resonate with the vibrancy of its cultural heritage. Many geographically challenged people would say that they are both on the same continent but they would be wrong as Australia is a continent in itself.
 Which reminds me that when I was in the USA a couple of years ago I mentioned to a person with a thick southern accent that I was from Melbourne, Australia. They responded that they'd driven there once and it was a nice place. I was puzzled by this response not for the positive thoughts on my home city but for the fact that the Pacific ocean was between us and the person I was speaking to. I know that I certainly would like to see their car!
China and Australia don't have the same climate records. After all the "noise" at the recent Copenhagen climate conference we now know that Australia makes more pollution per capita than China....which when you think about it when it comes to per capita China will always win. Which reminds me that like parking companies, governments seem to be using statistics to say whatever they want.
So what is it that Australia and China have in common? A completely insane mentality towards the Internet and free speech. That's right, Australia is going the way of our northerly neighbours (north is normally up on a map for those who failed geography at school) and will be instituting a national firewall in 2010. Welcome to my beautiful country of surf, sun and firewalls!
The Australian government plans on introducing filters that will ban access to websites containing criminal content. The selection of the sites to be banned will be determined by an independent classification body guided by complaints from the public according to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
It could be said that the current political opposition party is conducting criminal activity therefore the government will ban their website. While we're at it let's ban a number of artistic websites such as the Louvre's (big Paris art gallery in a continent called Europe) as it shows medieval ladies with their private parts. Why stop there? Now that we have filtering technology let's change what people can read so that they never know the truth. This is sounding a lot like George Orwell's book, 1984 except it's 2010.
Sure, I may be going a little over the top but I've never known a government not to abuse powers that it awards itself. You've only got to look at the anti-terrorism laws around the world to realize that the general population has had a huge reduction in civil liberties. Was it all worth it? Taking off your shoes, belt, jacket, watch etc. at an airport security check point is only a nuisance but what are we going to do when some bright spark invents the underpants bomb or the bra bomb (although some people would say that they already have bazookas)? As an aside, recently a passenger was asked to take off their shoes and found that they were walking across broken glass....they've now brought out the nuclear lawyer bomb.
What's worse than the filtering is the fact that ultimately any filter will slow Internet speeds. The Internet has reduced Australia's geographic isolation from 17 hours in a Boeing to 100 milliseconds. For the first time in Australia's history we haven't been geographically challenged. Adding another 20 milliseconds or so is like parking the USA half-way into the Atlantic ocean (the big blue stuff to the right of New York....oh know...I have to explain where New York is....I give up.)
So the question I have to ask is, "Why???" As a nation, Australia is finally able to reach the ends of the earth really quickly but what does the government do? They've made us the laughing stock of the world and are now about to shove our gross domestic information account through a funnel with a very small end. It's ridiculous!
I wouldn't be surprised if this move is less about filtering and more about it being the first foray into Internet taxation.....after all, if you can count the bits and bytes why not charge for them? If people aren't willing to pay then just filter them off....that's a scary thought isn't it.
So if you're from China you're probably a little confused that a bastion of free speech and democracy is about to do something as stupid as your government. Others may be wondering whether it's really worth worrying about a place that's a nice drive away. For me, I'm thinking that Mauritius or Tuvalu are looking nice, the only problem is that they might not exist for much longer. Let's hope that Copenhagen gives a positive result....could you give me a call on the phone and let me know because our government has decided to block websites talking about it.
Trackback(0)
|
Article Archive 
G...
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
If you can control the media you can control the masses.