Blogging Can Be Dangerous for Your Health

Is blogging harmful for you? 

Can you actually get killed for expressing your opinion in your blog?

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Blogging can be harmful, even fatal for you in some countries where many people get into trouble for criticizing governments or power elites.

Reporters without borders report that globally in 2008, 1 blogger was killed, 
59 bloggers were arrested, 45 were physically attacked, 1,740 websites were blocked, shut down or suspended. 

The General manager of Shuli Architectural Engineering, Wei Wenhua, in Hubei province of China was beaten to death by “chengguan” (municipal police officers) while filming with his mobile phone a clash with demonstrators in Tianmen (not in Beijing but in Hubei province) on 7 January 2008.



Governments getting Tougher on Internet Censorship


According to Reporters without Borders, 64 persons are currently imprisoned worldwide because their blogposts upset governments or power elites.

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37 countries practised online censorship in 2008. Good old China kept its reputation by censoring 93 websites but Syria beat them by censoring 162 websites and Iran took the bronze medal with 38 websites. 

• In China, 10 cyber-dissidents were arrested, 31 were physically attacked or threatened, and at least three were tried and convicted according to Reporters Without Borders. 
• In Iran, Reporters Without Borders reported 18 arrests, 31 physical attacks and 10 convictions. 
• Syria had 8 arrests and 3 convictions
• Egypt 6 arrests 
• Morocco 2 arrests and 2 convictions.

The military junta in Burma, is trying to enter the Guiness Book of Records for the longest prison sentences as punishment for blogging. Blogger and comedian Zarganar and the young cyber-dissident Nay Phone Latt were given incredibly long prison sentences. 59 years for Zarganar and 20 years for Nay Phone Latt. 

Egypt’s Kareem Amer’s four-year prison sentence for postings seen as anti-religious and insulting to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak might seem lenient in comparison.



Blog Censorship in different Countries

Oxford Analytica gives regular updates on the current global situation of blog censorship. The Press Freedom Index, another way to approach this issue, United States or even United Kingdom is way below Namibia and Hungary. 

Whatever reasons they give, in many countries the authorities try to restrict access to certain content, sites, authors and readers from interacting on certain themes. 

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The US military openly admits that they censors soldier’s blogs which mention experiences in wars like Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The number of Internet users in China grew by 42% to 300 million in January 2009. Every 1 in 4 Chinese have access to the Internet, and 90% of them broadband. So, people responsible for censorship in China have to work really hard.



Internet Censorship in China

Already in 2005 Microsoft officially admitted that China was censoring blogs for certain terms like ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’. According to Rebecca MacKinnon of the University of Hong Kong, there are basically two types of Internet censorship in China – those “inside the Great Firewall” and those “outside the Great Firewall” and the relationship between the blog manager or editor with the local State council is crucial to the degree of censorship experienced. The Chinese government has had the Golden Shield Project since 1998 to protect citizens from

• Pornography
• Anti-social opinions and activities
• Ideas, organizations and opinions which are a threat to national security
• Ideas, organizations and opinions which undermine the government’s policies on religion or are seen as subversive

If your blog or site has references to certain subjects like the Falung Gong, Freedom Movement in China, Tiananmen Square happenings etc and the Internet police behind the Great Firewall of China do not like the way this information is handled, your site might get banned in China.

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It really depends on who you ask in China or about China and their censorship. Here is what a Falung Gong practitioner (obviously not based in China) has to say about censorship in China. the name of the blog is Falunggongforever.


Test if Your Blog or Site is Banned in China

There are two sites where you can test if your blogs or sites are banned in China.

1. http://www.websitepulse.com/help/testtools.china-test.html
2. http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/

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Yes, according to the greatwallofchina.org and Chinese readers, this blog Original Wavelength is blocked in China. Who knows whom I have annoyed and for writing what!


Does Anyone Want Blog Censorship?

It is not only the mighty Chinese government or the Iranian clerics who want censorship. In Canada, Manitoba's First Nation leaders want the public and government to clamp down on people who post racist remarks about aboriginals on media websites. 

A new survey reveals that most Americans believe bloggers should not be allowed to publish sensitive personal information about individuals. Web hosting company Hostway polled 2,500 Americans on blogging. 80% of respondents did not believe that bloggers should be allowed to publish home addresses and other personal information about private citizens. A further 72 % favoured censorship of personal information about celebrities, and 68%, information about elected or appointed government officials such as judges or mayors.

Significantly, more than one-third of these American respondents had never heard of blogs before participating in the survey, and only around 30% of participants had actually visited a blog themselves.

There are many sites spreading violent hate messages and dangerous propaganda in addition to sites, which aim to cheat or mislead people.

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Is the Right to Freedom of Speech a sacred right? 

Do you think any authority should be allowed to censor these hate blogs?

Protesting Naked Against the State - Stephen Gough

Would you go to jail for your principles? 

Or would you rather give in and do what you are told? When you publicly challenge the system, how far are you allowed to go before the empire strikes back?

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When thinking about governments that tolerate no challenge from strong willed individuals, you would automatically think of countries like Burma, which has kept the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in house arrest for 19 years already or Uzbekistan, which put opposition leader Sanjar Umarov under arrest for basically opposing the regime.

When talking about prisoners of conscience, you would think of people like Nelson Mandela, who served 27 years in prison for protesting against apartheid in South Africa, Mohandas Gandhi, who spent 6,5 years in prison for protesting against the British government or Chia Thye Poh of Singapore, who was imprisoned without trial for 23 years.

Can this sort of thing happen in a contemporary free Western democracy?

The Strange Case of the Naked Protester Stephen Gough

No one knows this better than the Naked Rambler, a former Royal Marine Stephen Gough also known as Steve Gough. He walked the entire length of Great Britain (1,407 km) from Land’s End in the south to John o' Groats in northern Scotland in 2003-2004 totally naked except for shoes, socks, and a hat to protect himself from the sun. 
On Thursday 18^th December 2008, he was again sentenced to two years in prison for breach of the peace. Gough is protesting against the British people’s attitudes to the human body. 

"This is just one step in the whole process of making people aware about our bodies because we are so paranoid about them." Gough says. 

Stephen Gough was again arrested at Edinburgh airport for removing his clothes during a flight from Southampton to Edinburgh and got a seven-month jail sentence. Characteristically, he again refused to dress up when he was released into Saughton Prison car park in Edinburgh. This time the judge, Isobel Poole was lenient and found that there was no evidence of "actual alarm or disturbance," adding 

"I can understand this conduct could be considered unpleasant to passers-by had there been any but there is a lack of evidence to that effect."

What is the Fear of Nudity? Gymnophobia

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Gymnophobia is the fear of nudity. Serious and respectable people admire ancient Greek culture and pay fees to visit museums filled with naked statues. 

Nudity in art and sculpture is considered a part of higher expression of the aspiration of the human spirit. But, these same people consider seeing nudity in vivo as revolting and outrageous.

Sexual Appeal is Everywhere

The majority of Internet traffic, as revealed by search engine keywords, is geared toward pornography and searching for sex. 

• Why do people spend time, money, and energy staring at flesh on a screen, when seeing human flesh in a non-erotic or sensual context is considered disgusting? 
• Why do South Koreans spend $526.76 per year on pornography when the country with one of the highest number of PhD’s in the world spends per capita $360 per year on education?
• Why is pornography is a $ 27 billion industry in China (double that of the US)?

One fundamental pillar of Western democracy has been the institution of love marriage. The concept of romantic love as a basis of marriage differs totally from the concept of arranged marriage, where parents try to consider the compatibility of partners marrying in addition to furthering the business interests of families. 

When marriages go sour, the most heard complaint is:

 “I don’t love her/him any more” 

or

 “The fire has gone out, there is no sexual attraction any more.”

The majority of marketing messages use sexual appeal to promote goods and services. But then those, who provide sexual services, and instant love, the prostitutes and courtesans, the rent boys and escorts, are not valued in society. Obviously, people use them or they’d have been out of business centuries ago. Is Stephen Gough yet another eccentric crackpot or does Stephen Gough have a valid point in claiming that Western societies should reexamine their relationship to the human body?

Gandhi’s method of Satyagraha has inspired leaders like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Barrack Obama, and countless others but Gandhi always exercised savoir fair, the instinctive ability to know how to deal with any situation that arises. In 1931 when Gandhi went to meet George V, the King and Emperor, Mr. Gandhi was not in "morning dress" as the royal invitation had requested but he was wearing his customary loincloth, and a shawl of homespun.

Viscount Templewood's Nine Troubled Years, describes Gandhi's meeting with the King Emperor. Just, as Gandhi was taking leave, His Majesty warned. 

'Remember Mr. Gandhi, I won't have any attacks on my Empire'. 

Gandhi replied. 

'I must not be drawn into a political argument in Your Majesty's palace after receiving Your Majesty's hospitality'.

Source:

• Alexander, H. (1969), Gandhi Through Western Eyes, New Delhi: Asia Publishing House p.82
  
• Nine Troubled Years: Viscount Templewood by Sir Samuel Hoare Publisher: Collins ,1954, London

Is Love a Mammalian Prerogative or is it universal among all living beings?

Love is an abstract concept yet so concrete that nothing else matters. 

Love has managed to remain beyond all human attempts to describe and define it, not to talk about controlling it.

One can experience love but cannot sufficiently explain it to another who has never experienced it.

Philosophers, poets, artists and singers have tried to describe love for the entire length of recorded history. Humans and divine beings in all mythology and religion deals with different forms and expressions of love, loss of love and consequences of love not socially accepted. 

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What is considered taboo or punishable by death in one context is the norm or highest ideal in another, e.g., falling a love with and marrying a partner is considered a fundamental right in Western democracies but in many other societies one gets harsh penalties for such behaviour.

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Some scientists approach love through a biological model of sex and tend to view love as a mammalian drive like thirst or hunger. Helen Fisher in her book, Anatomy of Love takes a scientific look and divides the experience of love into three partly overlapping stages: 

1. Lust
2. Attraction and 
3. Attachment. 

What about post-attachment love then? Does love end in attachment and there is no room for non-attachment in love? Hmm! Frightening thought!

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Lust exposes humans to others, romantic attraction encourages people to focus their energy on mating, and attachment involves tolerating the spouse long enough to rear a child into infancy. 

If we view the positive connotations of love, we could see loving as: 

• acting intentionally
• in sympathetic response to others
• towards promoting mutual well-being.

Is love only a mammalian prerogative? 

How do we know that reptilians or insects never feel love?

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How do we know that the buzzing of a bumblebee is not a serenade or the movement of a tapeworm is not an erotic dance?

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Here is another way of looking at love through words of poetry.