China - mostly
There now, there was a very brief item on last night's six o'clock News about how suspected terrorists might be tried in camera, with no jury and no publicity. H and I looked at each other and expressed concern. It's taken a long time to ensure trial by jury and 'open' courts in this country. Now is not the time to be scared into allowing secret trials 'in certain circumstances', because you can bet your bottom dollar that while the terms of 'certain circumstances' will be specified fairly clearly, they will also be open to 'expanding' should a government think it necessary. Thing is, I can't find any reference to it today!
As I mentioned yesterday, Dear Reader, in the UK we live in a democracy. We have the right to trial by jury. We don't have secret trials. The police can keep suspects in custody without charging them for up to 28 days, but they have to apply for permission to hold people for that long. Yes, terrorist attacks are a reality and should be watched for with the utmost vigilance. What they shouldn't do is allow a concerned anti-terrorist force and government to put in place legislation which is against all we have struggled for for centuries and for which many around the world have, and would still, give their lives.
Cue reminder of Tiananmen Square twenty-five years ago yesterday. Various commemorative events have occurred around the world, the only one on Chinese soil being in Hong Kong. The Chinese Communist party has virtually tried to write the original event out of their history. Being almost all-powerful they have largely succeeded in mainland China. What is interesting to note is that those Chinese who have protested and do protest do not want to overthrow the Communist party in government (as the Communist party government might have you believe), merely get it to clean up its act and behave more like a government and less like a bunch of tyrannical thugs! Bearing in mind that most Communist governments in other countries have, and do, behaved like tyrannical thugs, I suspect their hopes are unlikely to be fulfilled any time soon. Shame!
So not being able to blog about something serious, I shall witter on trivia. It's been a while! There weren't any leftovers from the birthday cheese selection. Work colleagues ate it all. Never mind, we had a Chinese takeaway - Chicken and vegetables, Beef and peppers, Sweet and Sour Pork balls, meat and shrimp fried rice, all of which was quite pleasant and VERY filling. There were prawn crackers too. Tell me, Dear Reader, what is the point of Prawn Crackers? The sit there in the bag like so much expanded polystyrene packaging, they sit there on your tongue with a bit of a crunch but little taste and less texture. Prawn Crackers - why?
Now we all know that Big Brother constantly monitors the Internet, don't we Dear Reader? Big Brother being the US Secret Service. Quite why they do so I'm not sure, but they do. They've have even put out a work tender for a software system to analyse social media data, which should be able to, among other things, 'detect sarcasm and false positives'. Hmmm, bearing in mind the way sarcasm seems to whizz straight over the heads of some people - particularly those who take themselves too seriously (like Secret Services?) I wonder how that is going to work?
What might be interesting to note is that the Chinese government also monitors the internet, and has Very Strict Rules about what ordinary Chinese people may or may not be able to access. It's not like the difference between dial-up and real Broadband, if the Chinese Government Sensors think a site is a bit 'iffy' then it's blocked. I'm not sure quite what the average Chinese internet surfer can access, but I suspect the 'waves' they 'surf' are much smaller and far more China-centred, in particular China as seen by The Party, than anything we can access. I wonder what The Party view is of pictures of cute kitties - the sharing of which everyone knows is the real purpose for the Internet!
And Finally - and not about China - lovers of Classical Music and Cute might like to visit this page. Cats, small children, babies, lambs, dogs, even a piano playing elephant - it's what the internet is for! Hmmm, wonder how many, if any, of those a Chinese surfer might access? Y'all have a good day now!
As I mentioned yesterday, Dear Reader, in the UK we live in a democracy. We have the right to trial by jury. We don't have secret trials. The police can keep suspects in custody without charging them for up to 28 days, but they have to apply for permission to hold people for that long. Yes, terrorist attacks are a reality and should be watched for with the utmost vigilance. What they shouldn't do is allow a concerned anti-terrorist force and government to put in place legislation which is against all we have struggled for for centuries and for which many around the world have, and would still, give their lives.
Cue reminder of Tiananmen Square twenty-five years ago yesterday. Various commemorative events have occurred around the world, the only one on Chinese soil being in Hong Kong. The Chinese Communist party has virtually tried to write the original event out of their history. Being almost all-powerful they have largely succeeded in mainland China. What is interesting to note is that those Chinese who have protested and do protest do not want to overthrow the Communist party in government (as the Communist party government might have you believe), merely get it to clean up its act and behave more like a government and less like a bunch of tyrannical thugs! Bearing in mind that most Communist governments in other countries have, and do, behaved like tyrannical thugs, I suspect their hopes are unlikely to be fulfilled any time soon. Shame!
So not being able to blog about something serious, I shall witter on trivia. It's been a while! There weren't any leftovers from the birthday cheese selection. Work colleagues ate it all. Never mind, we had a Chinese takeaway - Chicken and vegetables, Beef and peppers, Sweet and Sour Pork balls, meat and shrimp fried rice, all of which was quite pleasant and VERY filling. There were prawn crackers too. Tell me, Dear Reader, what is the point of Prawn Crackers? The sit there in the bag like so much expanded polystyrene packaging, they sit there on your tongue with a bit of a crunch but little taste and less texture. Prawn Crackers - why?
Now we all know that Big Brother constantly monitors the Internet, don't we Dear Reader? Big Brother being the US Secret Service. Quite why they do so I'm not sure, but they do. They've have even put out a work tender for a software system to analyse social media data, which should be able to, among other things, 'detect sarcasm and false positives'. Hmmm, bearing in mind the way sarcasm seems to whizz straight over the heads of some people - particularly those who take themselves too seriously (like Secret Services?) I wonder how that is going to work?
What might be interesting to note is that the Chinese government also monitors the internet, and has Very Strict Rules about what ordinary Chinese people may or may not be able to access. It's not like the difference between dial-up and real Broadband, if the Chinese Government Sensors think a site is a bit 'iffy' then it's blocked. I'm not sure quite what the average Chinese internet surfer can access, but I suspect the 'waves' they 'surf' are much smaller and far more China-centred, in particular China as seen by The Party, than anything we can access. I wonder what The Party view is of pictures of cute kitties - the sharing of which everyone knows is the real purpose for the Internet!
And Finally - and not about China - lovers of Classical Music and Cute might like to visit this page. Cats, small children, babies, lambs, dogs, even a piano playing elephant - it's what the internet is for! Hmmm, wonder how many, if any, of those a Chinese surfer might access? Y'all have a good day now!