Dictators like Tiankai use threats as second nature
The Financial Times reported today that Mr. Cui Tiankai, the Chinese deputy foreign minister, has warned European government officials not to attend the Nobel prize ceremony in December following the announcement of the peace prize going to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Mr. Liu is a political activist jailed by the Chinese state for 11 years for supposed “subversion of state power”.
Mr. Tiankai is quoted as saying: “The choice before some European countries and others is clear and simple – do they want to be part of the political game to challenge China’s judicial system, or do they want to develop a true friendly relationship with the Chinese government and people in a responsible manner?…… If they make the wrong choice, they have to bear the consequences.”
Mr. Tiankai is TALKING BOLLOCKS! Support for Chinese dissidents does nothing to damage relationships with the Chinese people. The real question is do European countries want a good relationship with a totalitarian regime which restricts freedom and bullies it’s neighbours? A dictatorial regime which is so puffed up by it’s new found economic success that it’s unelected bureaucrats have the front to threaten European countries because they dare support a campaigner for freedom?
This self appointed nobody has no mandate and is behaving like all state officials who maintain their power at the point of a gun. He, and his cronies, remain in power by means of threats and violence and so he believes that these tactics will work in all his endeavours.
It is the duty of European government officials to call his bluff and attend the award ceremony en mass.
Photography
CCTV and Big Brother
Tags: big brother, CCTV, citizens, computers, face recognition, freedom, george orwell, Google their Streetview, head up display, I'm a phtographer not a terrorist, photographs, photography, police
I'm a phtographer not a terrorist
In the UK the police continue to stop ordinary citizens taking photographs in public places yet they feel free to take pictures of us any time they like. Police in Brighton have taken to parking a special CCTV van on the pavement. It’s interesting that there has been criticism of Google for their Streetview project yet we are complacent about police collecting similar information.
If I were a IT systems manager in the police force I would consider creating a system collecting all photographs taken by the police into a single database. I’d then reference police computers and online information such as Facebook, Google and Flickr and use automatic face recognition to allow police CCTV equipment to automatically identify people. Add a head up display to police car windscreens and you have little floating tags over members of the public as they go about their business.
Are the police working on such a system? – How would we know?
George Orwell must be turning in his grave