Google's freedom

The world remains an unfair place. The earthquake that has thrown impoverished Haiti back to the stone-age is cruel. The images hitting TV screens around the world are devastating. Is this nature’s Copenhagen revenge?

Poor Haiti has been hit by every natural disaster possible over the last decade. Floods, tornados, earthquakes. And often in repetition. A rollercoaster of death and destruction. And on top of that a sequel of corrupt governments, wasted aid funds, civil war, UN peacekeepers, exiled dictators. It’s a brutal series. Partly nature’s fault, partly human fault.

And then, as it goes, US president Obama gives a press conference to announce what giant US will do to help tiny neighbour Haiti. But then at the end Obama utters, out of tradition, “may God bless Haiti”. It’s very risky territory, but if indeed one asks God to bless Haiti and its people after the deadly devastation, then one should wonder too why God let this earthquake kill thousands in the first place. Food for religious thought. It’s not meant to be a blasphemed question. Just food for thought.

Anyway. Ousted Haitian president and priest Bertrand Aristide, living in exile in South Africa, issued a statement that his thoughts are with his fellow citizens. Wondering if he wouldn’t use the funds he ‘collected’ during his presidency to help the wounded and homeless back home.

Talk is cheap.

Nature remains a powerful force and human behaviour a witness.

Good news for once too. Well good in reaction to bad. Internet giant Google might pull out of China because the communists seem to block its search engine when users look for human rights related subjects. Censorship of the purest kind. Recently China hosted the Olympic Games and many politicians around the world then proudly and loudly announced this would open up this one-party state and bring freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Well here’s the proof. A kick in the face of all these nice statements and a slap in the face of those nice Olympic principles.

Google’s threats must be applauded as it is very very very rare that big business takes human rights over profit opportunities. What is a bit worrying but not surprising is the silence of the US leadership (on all fronts and all parties). I thought democracy and freedom of speech (and thus freedom of Google-search) was high on the US foreign policy list. But then again China is just too big too handle and too important to criticise. Same goes for the Olympic barons in their HQ in Switzerland (or wherever they spend their millions). Silence on all fronts. Hypocrites! If Iran or Zimbabwe would block certain Google searches the White House and the State Department would compete to be first on air to condemn in the strongest terms these anti democratic actions. And the former Bush cronies would demand a bombing campaign right away. The UN Security Council might even be pushed to issue another meaningless resolution.

Human behaviour and the flexibility of principles. Call it the rape of principles.

And once again to Somalia. It’s just an ongoing source of news and madness. Religious police (yes they have that there) has arrested several men for shaving their beards. Religious fashion fascism.

The Islamist group al-Shabab which controls the vast majority of this lawless sandpit jailed a dozen of beardless men in the southern port city of Kismayo. Being male and having no beard is violating a local decree issued by al-Shabab. As simple as that. The “units in charge of enforcing good religious practice” (as per a local cop) arrested these men after their shaving deed. No shaving cream nor Gillette razors in Somalia. Banned.

Religious freaks amidst a starving and destroyed nation. Sad. Very sad.
Human behaviour sometimes needs to be incarcerated in an asylum. For life.

So Alaska’s extremist Sarah Palin is now a co-presenter on America’s KKK-channel Fox. It fits. Home to roost. Maybe she can explain her fantastic parenthood style (oh yes, that’s called family values in conservative circles) which lead her teenage daughter t get pregnant. Or her vision that every disagreement in the world can be solved by bombing the hell out of everybody.

We knew that Fox had a rightwing tendency; and that’s its right obviously; but my making a regular platform for the witch from Alaska, Fox has just turned the fascist corner. It’s like being on the edge of the right turn and then going further off-road. Anyway, freedom of speech is also freedom of madness and ridiculousness. Nutters also have the right to vomit.

Human behaviour is sometimes just plain fun to watch. As long as it doesn’t blow up the planet.

Throw out. Discovered Brooklyn (NY) rockers The Reveling. Great 4–track ep called “3D radio”. Gruffy vocals over rougher Gaslight Anthem styled tunes. Great discovery. More please! Oh yeah, and the drummer of these Brooklyn-boys is the son of Springsteen’s E-Street’s drummer. A rocking family.

C-Ya

collateral – January 2010 has started with a scary shake