Showing posts with label oppression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oppression. Show all posts

Monday, April 17, 2023

Russia sentences Kara-Murza, Putin critic and Post contributor, to 25 years; The Washington Post, April 17, 2023

, The Washington Post ; Russia sentences Kara-Murza, Putin critic and Post contributor, to 25 years

"In earlier comments on social media, Kara-Murza said he did not understand how criticizing the government could qualify as treason.

“It is incomprehensible to me how obvious and confirmed facts about the crimes committed during the aggression of Putin’s regime against Ukraine can be presented as ‘deliberately false information’ and the obvious lie — on the contrary, as the only truth.”"

Monday, December 5, 2022

'Andor' soared — it was about the force, not The Force, of the Star Wars universe; NPR, November 23, 2022

Glen Weldon, NPR; 'Andor' soared — it was about the force, not The Force, of the Star Wars universe

"Force with a lowercase "f"

Karn and his colleagues are dedicated to the cause of fascist oppression (which they're careful to refer to only as "order") with a zeal that isn't remotely macro. It isn't mythic, religious or even passionate. Instead, they're driven by institutional imperatives that scour their souls free of empathy, compassion and understanding, and reward them for ruthlessness, cruelty and — above all — efficiency. 

Who's the showrunner here, Hannah Arendt? Because as we watched season one of Andor play out in a series of mini-arcs across its 12 episodes, we saw the inner workings of the Empire. It's The Banality of Evil: The Series."

Saturday, February 23, 2019

China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise; The New York Times, February 21, 2019

Sui-Lee Wee, The New York Times;

China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise

The Chinese authorities turned to a Massachusetts company and a prominent Yale researcher as they built an enormous system of surveillance and control.

"Mr. Imin was one of millions of people caught up in a vast Chinese campaign of surveillance and oppression. To give it teeth, the Chinese authorities are collecting DNA — and they got unlikely corporate and academic help from the United States to do it."

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Interview: Ai Weiwei: 'The mood in Germany is like the 1930s'; The Guardian, December 9, 2018

Kate Connolly, The Guardian; Interview: Ai Weiwei: 'The mood in Germany is like the 1930s'

"Ai took his nine-year-old son with him on a recent trip to Bangladesh – about which he is making a film – just as he has to other investigations, such as to Mexico, to investigate the 43 students who disappeared in a single day in 2014.

“He’s been with me to visit most refugee camps I’ve been to, as well as the poorest ghettos in Mexico, and cartel areas, the island of Lesbos in Greece. I don’t want to teach him anything, but by being exposed to this kind of information he has developed a basic sensitivity of what’s right or wrong. And he sees me arguing a lot with people.”"

Sunday, August 7, 2016

A ‘confession’ that reveals plenty about China; Washington Post, 8/7/16

Editorial Board, Washington Post; A ‘confession’ that reveals plenty about China:
"Ms. Wang has a remarkable record. Yet according to her statement last week, she disavows all of it. Her crusades for equal justice — particularly for women and girls — were merely the product of manipulation from “foreign forces” to “smear the party and attack the Chinese government.” Ms. Wang “won’t acknowledge, won’t recognize and won’t accept” an international human rights award she was given...
Ms. Wang has not been heard from since her statement, even though the Chinese government claims she has been set free on bail. The same is true of legal assistant Zhao Wei, who was supposed to be released last month after posting a confession online. Several of Ms. Wang’s colleagues are also in detention. A court began hearing their case last week, but the trial is open only to select members of the media. Two have been sentenced; one received seven years in prison while the other got a three-year suspended sentence. When the wives of other detainees traveled to Tianjin to seek information, they were placed under house arrest.
For years, Ms. Wang has been publicly committed to questioning the state. Now, in a chilling testament to Chinese tyranny, she has publicly condemned her own questions. Ten years ago, these lawyers could rarely get a case into court. Five years ago, some were disbarred. Today, they face trials far from free or fair — and the defense of human dignity is treated as treason."

Monday, July 11, 2016

In Russia and China, Big Brother is watching you online; Washington Post, 7/8/16

Editorial Board, Washington Post; In Russia and China, Big Brother is watching you online:
"HARD TO believe, but a court in Perm, a Russian city near the Ural Mountains, recently convicted Vladimir Luzgin, 37, and fined him 200,000 rubles, or about $3,100, for posting a simple and true historical fact. Mr. Luzgin wrote on Vkontakte, a Russian social media platform like Facebook, that the Soviet Union collaborated with Nazi Germany to invade Poland in September 1939. He was prosecuted under a law signed by President Vladimir Putin in May 2014 against “rehabilitation of Nazism,” a law that declared its intent was to oppose glorification of Nazism but that human rights activists say was intended to discourage historical debate...
The Cyberspace Administration of China, a powerful censorship agency, took yet another step July 3 when it issued new rules to punish websites that publish unverified content, rumors, hearsay, conjecture and fake news. “Unverified” in this context means “unapproved,” and the real significance of the announcement is to warn websites that news is not what’s trending, but what the Communist Party bosses say it is, period.
Both Russia and China seek to tame the wild and free nature of the Internet, sharing a dangerous and illiberal vision that information should be a ward of the state."

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Whither Moral Courage?; New York Times, 4/27/13

Salman Rushdie, New York Times; Whither Moral Courage? : " Rohinton Mistry’s celebrated novel “Such a Long Journey” was pulled off the syllabus of Mumbai University because local extremists objected to its content. The scholar Ashis Nandy was attacked for expressing unorthodox views on lower-caste corruption. And in all these cases the official view — with which many commentators and a substantial slice of public opinion seemed to agree — was, essentially, that the artists and scholars had brought the trouble on themselves. Those who might, in other eras, have been celebrated for their originality and independence of mind, are increasingly being told, “Sit down, you’re rocking the boat.”... It’s a vexing time for those of us who believe in the right of artists, intellectuals and ordinary, affronted citizens to push boundaries and take risks and so, at times, to change the way we see the world. There’s nothing to be done but to go on restating the importance of this kind of courage, and to try to make sure that these oppressed individuals — Ai Weiwei, the members of Pussy Riot, Hamza Kashgari — are seen for what they are: men and women standing on the front line of liberty. How to do this? Sign the petitions against their treatment, join the protests. Speak up. Every little bit counts."