Blog Topic #6 -- What's Up with China and the Great Firewall

At one point or another, we have all heard of the Great Wall of China, the 5,500 mile long wall built in the 200's BC to protect China from invaders.  However, not as many know about the recent wall built to protect China from a different invader.  That invader is realities of the world and that wall is known as the Great Firewall of China.

The Chinese Internet censoring program has been in effect since around 2003.  To the government, it is known as the Golden Shield Project; to everyone else, it is known as the Great Firewall of China.  Although government restrictions began as early as 1998, it was not until 2003 that a formal program was placed into effect.  It has already completed the first stage (lasting from 1998 to 2006) and the second stage (2006-2008).  Its intensity was increased in 2007 blocking more content than ever before.  The main purpose of it?  To block the Chinese people from seeing and learning certain things from the internet.  Often this is fulfilled through IP address blocking and URL filtering although there are other means as well. 

So what sites are being blocked by the government?  The most commonly known are the three T's.  The three T's are Taiwan, Tiananmen Square, and Tibet - all are political and all are things the government does not want the Chinese population to know about.  Taiwan, which says they are separate from China, is blocked for obvious reasons.  Tiananmen Square is where protestors were killed by the Chinese government back in 1989.  Of course, Tibet is another issue being controlled by the Chinese government and not being given its freedom.  Other censored materials include blog sites (so no Chinese will probably see this); anything considered obscene, pornographic, or related to criminal activity; groups that are consider pro-democracy; or anything the government believes to be subversive.  Obviously, this can add up to quite a few sites being blocked and the truth being withheld from the people.

Some citizens of the country are not completely submissive to the government's censors.  According to this article from Time...

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1981566,00.html

...people are not sitting still and are attempting to "climb the firewall" quite often.  For example, a blogger from China has posted how to avoid the censor.  Many people read this and used it until the government began to delete his posts.  Eventually he created a website of his own for his tips and tricks which was blocked by the censor.  People still are desperate enough to climb the wall to read his website.

Another attempt comes through people who manage to get on Twitter (another censored site) and are able to post briefly.  Apparently they talk about one of the main issues behind the censor, freedom of speech.  The people of China have had many of their freedoms taken away; this is just another one to add to the pile.  Those that can talk briefly on Twitter about modern issues will repost information on mainland blogs for others to see.  If people are willing to break the censor just for a few quick words with someone on Twitter, I think that shows just how desperate the people are for their freedoms.

However, the greatest threat to the Firewall is the debate over the  

censor!  Recently, Google declared that it will no longer censor websites for China.  How should China manage a battle to censor materials without the backing of Google, one of the main search engines.  Without Google, it is more likely in my opinion that the truth will be found by the people and that the censor will no longer be able to function.  People will continue to bypass the censor until it becomes obsolete.  The only way to stop this from happening is if the government slows the feeds from overseas sites.  They are reluctant to do so, as this would harm overseas communication between companies, a direct result of our friend globalization!

So will the Great Firewall ever be torn down?  I optimistically think yes!  With the people continuing to bypass the censor and without support from overseas, I think it is only a matter of time before the censor is removed and Chinese will finally be given at least one of their freedoms back!  I close on that note.  Until next time!

Blog Topic #5 -- What's Up with Cartograms?

Today we do not head to a particular region, but instead are looking into the odd map know as the cartogram.  What is a cartogram you may ask?

 
^That is a cartogram.  It is actually a cartogram depicting world population.  The formal definition of a cartogram is a map in which some thematic variable, such as population, is expressed in area or distance.  This causes a distorted looking world that actually is more acurate than one may think. 

For example, what can we read from the population cartogram?  The largest country on the map is show to be India or China.  This means that according to the variable of population, India and China are the largest.  They have the highest populations in world with China at 1.3 billion and India closing in at 1.15 billion.  Soon, India may overtake China as the most populous country due to China's One Child Policy.  What else can we learn from this map?  How does the USA compare in size?  It is actually rather small on this map in relation to its actual land mass being about the same as China.  The reason is that in comparison to other countries of the world, the United States does not have as many people coming in at just over 300 million people.

So what does this have to do with our study of globalization and world regions?  Let's take a look at another cartogram.


This cartogram looks similar to the last in that India and China are large countries under this variable.  However, some populous countries such as the United States, Japan, and European states have all but disappeared.  So what variable is this?  It is the percent of population that lives on less than ten US dollars per day.  This is a large characteristic of a certain type of country; of an LDC or Lesser Developed Country.  LDCs are defined as countries that are not fully industrialized or do not have a sophisticated financial and legal system.  In other words, what we commonly know as Third-World countries.

Studying this map, we can notice that not only China and India, but also Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Pakistan, and many African countries are quite large.  Some of these are classified as LDCs, however, others are given a different catagory, Developing Countries.  Developing countries are those with low levels of material well-being, but have emerging economies.  From our list, China, India, Vietnam, and Pakistan are Developing countries.

So how does this all relate to us and our everyday lives?  Well, just look at the tag on any items nearby.  Chances are that it has one of those country's names on it where it says "made in".  Most of our products come from LDCs and developing countries.  This is possible once again through the ever stretching arm of, you guessed it, globalization.  It is yet another way in which our world continues to connect and make itself smaller and smaller.

Before I close, here is one last cartogram...

So what does this one represent?  Well, maybe you guessed it, but here is a hint...you are contributing to it right now.  Figured it out yet?  It is Internet Use by People in 2002.  Want to see more?  Check out http://www.worldmapper.org/index.html

That's all for now!