Sunday, January 08, 2006

The Great Firewall of China is on fire tonight

Am I just getting paranoid, or are the brainless morons who censor the
web in China getting seriously heavy-duty these days?

When I begin an online session, I have half a chance fo accessing
'dangerous, subversive' material (like, how long is the Mekong river,
where do giant pandas live, when was the Tower of London built, etc)
from a source like Wikipedia if I access it through a proxy server
such as that provided by www.anonymouse.org. But within a minute or
two, I can't use anonymouse any more.

Is someone really watching my every move? It really feels like that.

I want some travel information about Tibet. Now Tibet is, of course, a
part of China and always has been and always will be and so on. So
presumably the Chinese goverment would like to help me find tourist
information about the place, so I can go and spend a few dollars in
one of their more impoverished provinces.

Apparently not. After half an hour of trying, I have been unable to
access ANY Tibet-related website.

And since I have been searching for Tibet too often, I now cannot even
access Google either.

OK, I'm just a tourist and it doesn't matter. But the Chinese
government is doing this to the whole nation. It makes me sick.

9 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to hear that you are having trouble!! But hopefully that little rant helped!!! Has any one started to be generous with information yet?

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  2. They have a team of marksmen watching your evey move. So I would if I where you take a "BIG" step to the right or left at random every few-ish paces. Then they'll know you know! This could be seen as an physical manifestation to the mild form of paranoia you probably are suffering. I'm told this by the mental heath care professionals watching me right now. However just because you know they are'nt watching does not mean they are'nt. !?!

    PS the world is watching you mate so RANT ON Brother!

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  3. It's come to our attention that Edward Genochio has been publishing his delusional beliefs on the internet. Edward is not in Asia. Edward has been cycling round and round a small village outside Exeter since February 2004, camping in people's gardens and eating out of date supernoodles donated by a local charity. Edward seems to have marked out various parts of the village as important stages on his journey, including 'China' (near the post office), 'Mongolia' or more often 'Monoglia' (just outside the chippy), 'Laos' (actually inside the chippy, hence Edward's problems 'crossing the border', as they won't let him in with his bike) and so on. The famous 'mongolian horseman' bike theft was actually conducted by a Darren, 14 years old, on his older brother's scooter. As far as we know, there is no Mongolian community in the area.
    To be honest, it's all getting to be a bit of a nuisance, but despite the best efforts of modern psychiatry Edward remains steadfast in his belief that he is on an international expedition. As a result, nobody else gets a chance to use the libraries internet facilities - we suspect that the government censors that have upset Edward may in fact be Mrs Smethurst the librarian, who insists the pc gets turned off promptly at 4.45pm. The village council is currently debating whether to request Edward be sectioned, issued with an ASBO (terms to include a restriction on the display of aggressive beards in the local area)or possibly made into an offical tourist attraction. In the meantime, please stop encouraging him.
    E Johnston
    Mental Health Social Worker
    Exeter Borough Social Services

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very amusing post from Exeter...But I know Edward is in China because I met him in Beijing and Shanghai.
    Edward, in fact, if you type in the Chinese in the search bar you get a lot of information, just not of the political sort. So it's not the whole country which has the problem you are experiencing. The reason is that the censors, being bears of very little brain, are not able to decide which of the English language sites are tourist oriented rather than being subversive. So they ban everything.
    Dan

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  5. Is it me or am I missing something here? if Ed needs info on Tibet it could be collected and pasted to this comment slot, and then all he has to do is look here and see what towns have nice clean toilets, where to leave your bike, how to spot your hotel from more than 10 yards or how not to get arrested by chinese intelligence branch. Or am I being too simplistic?

    please discuss amongst yourselves..

    PS very funny Exeter comment, Ed should run a spot me and win a prize campaign... hahaha cos there's a bloke who cycles up my road and it could be him... the amount of shit bolted on that bike it's got to be Ed... or some chinese bloke looking for information on compsites in Peckham and how to get a visa for IKEA...

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  6. Question for Dan are you an Ed G. Stalker cos the chances of bumping into him once is a gazillion to 1, twice he must have had Elvis riding pillion on the back the second time. I want to get down to the bookies and get a bet on who's going to be a guest passenger next shergar or lady di. If you see him again, actually hang on I thought he was in Thailand? at the moment? or have I missed some pages?

    CW

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  7. PUBLIC NOTICE:

    A man claiming to be a mental health social worker, and using the name E Johnston, is currently operating in the Exeter region.

    If this man comes to your door, DO NOT let him in. If he gains access to your property, he will play the guitar at inopportune moments.

    He may also write rude words on your cottage cheese, and/or steal your margarine.

    You have been warned.

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  8. And, seriously, doesn't censorship depress you?

    Or do you back the government, on the basis that ignorance is bliss?

    I'm on the side of Eve.

    ReplyDelete
  9. hiya,just found you,good luck you intrepid adventurer. Obviously you found Tibet, is it magical mystical wonderful,or grinding poverty dismay and grimness. The people sound OK,looked after you well?
    My 21 yr old is still snoring in his cosy bed after a night on the tiles(not roof) I bet the thought of yrs is sometimes too hard to bear, keep at it young man we need more like you

    ReplyDelete