On his next visit, can we get Obama to urge corporate lobbyist

[bjre]

The most agreed comment to the news "Loosen internet control, Obama urges China." http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/11/16/china-barack-obama.html is:

[ quote ] On his next visit, can we get Obama to urge corporate lobbyist to loosen its control of the CRTC, here in Canada, too? [ /quote ]

Other high agreed comment include:

"Comments on this story are pre-moderated. Before they appear, comments are reviewed by moderators to ensure they meet our submission guidelines." "We reserve the right to close comments before then."

Isn't that an Internet control?

Let's hope Barack Obama shares the same message to Canada's major internet providers like Bell, Eastlink, Cogeco, Telus, Rogers, Shaw, and Bell Aliant who are known for throttling the internet and slowing the rate of information transfer.

Perhaps he should target the CRTC as well for rewarding large telecommunication companies, and making it harder on smaller telecoms to compete. Remember the Globalive ruling, and you'll know why.

This debate over "censored" versus "uncensored" is a bit silly. Of course the Internet is censored in the west. Every time a forum post is rejected by the moderator, or the police shut down a web site for posting hate material or child porn, or I sue someone to retract libelous material on their web site, that is censorship at work.

Our problem is that we often see these things through polarized lenses: if the Internet isn't utterly free, that makes it totally censored. The truth is that countries censor Internet access to some degree. Unfortunately, the claim that "you're censored, we're not" feeds our sense of moral superiority far better than "we're much less censored than you are".

[Michael Hardner]

Bjre,

Do you think that government control over communications is bad ? How about total government control, such as exists in China ? Do you think that model should be used in Canada ?

[bjre]

Bjre,

Do you think that government control over communications is bad ? How about total government control, such as exists in China ? Do you think that model should be used in Canada ?

I think that depend. Sometimes it is not bad. Such as control the content that is not good for children such as porn, suicide, and others. Although I don't like hate be defined as a crime, I think hate speech is not good for public security, so, make it less appear in Internet is not a bad idea. And something both China and Western world did not do is they did not block most of bloody violence content on TV.

Others I think China and Canada are in different situation. For China, it is still very weak in many area, the communications need to be protected from the damage from western corporate media which constantly give out lies, partial truth, filtered content that aimed to control to public opinion as they do in western country, because they are too strong and China is not strong enough to resist it, the reason is current Chinese government are not as smart as Mao who can always see the real purpose of his rivals soon enough and tell people the truth. And make action with the power of people. No one in current Chinese government is good at this as Mao can. In 1945, when media was controlled by Nationalist who were supported by the states, Mao easily gained support from most people in the country. And the fact is, China is the best of the world in improvement of its economy. They did it well, why they need change?

While in Canada, I think it is better to loosen its control from corporate lobbyist, so that people can know more about the truth, that is definitely good to Canadian people, so that people can vote correct lawmakers that can speak for them, to abolish laws aimed to rob taxpayers and profit huge interest groups.

But I believe the most important is education, China has many Confucian style moral taught in school that make people (the future politician) to have integrity. Such as "Others first, me last", "be the first to worry about the problems of the world and the last to enjoy its happiness", "Positioned high at court, they worried about the people. Banished to remote regions, they worried about their sovereigns.", Kindly treat enemy such as 7 times seize an enemy chief of rebel, and 7 times release him until he surrender. Even in kindergarten, kids are singing the song, "big apple give to Wang Xiao Li, small one remain for herself".

I think Canada need such education to make future politician some integrity. If politician have the willingness to think of people and work for the interest of most people instead of think of themselves most, the type of the system will not be so important.

[Michael Hardner]

I think that depend. Sometimes it is not bad. Such as control the content that is not good for children such as porn, suicide, and others. Although I don't like hate be defined as a crime, I think hate speech is not good for public security, so, make it less appear in Internet is not a bad idea. And something both China and Western world did not do is they did not block most of bloody violence content on TV.

Others I think China and Canada are in different situation. For China, it is still very weak in many area, the communications need to be protected from the damage from western corporate media which constantly give out lies, partial truth, filtered content that aimed to control to public opinion as they do in western country, because they are too strong and China is not strong enough to resist it, the reason is current Chinese government are not as smart as Mao who can always see the real purpose of his rivals soon enough and tell people the truth. And make action with the power of people. No one in current Chinese government is good at this as Mao can. In 1945, when media was controlled by Nationalist who were supported by the states, Mao easily gained support from most people in the country. And the fact is, China is the best of the world in improvement of its economy. They did it well, why they need change?

While in Canada, I think it is better to loosen its control from corporate lobbyist, so that people can know more about the truth, that is definitely good to Canadian people, so that people can vote correct lawmakers that can speak for them, to abolish laws aimed to rob taxpayers and profit huge interest groups.

But I believe the most important is education, China has many Confucian style moral taught in school that make people (the future politician) to have integrity. Such as "Others first, me last", "be the first to worry about the problems of the world and the last to enjoy its happiness", "Positioned high at court, they worried about the people. Banished to remote regions, they worried about their sovereigns.", Kindly treat enemy such as 7 times seize an enemy chief of rebel, and 7 times release him until he surrender. Even in kindergarten, kids are singing the song, "big apple give to Wang Xiao Li, small one remain for herself".

I think Canada need such education to make future politician some integrity. If politician have the willingness to think of people and work for the interest of most people instead of think of themselves most, the type of the system will not be so important.

It seems that we both believe that censorship needs to be considered in context of the situation. I do think China is ready for more openness however.