Chinese Humanity

I recently read a fascinating article on the current situation in China, a country which seems to yet regard civilians who speak out as most people regard smudges on a window: minor problems to be wiped away as conveniently as possible. The article, by Andrew Jacobs and Huang Yuanxi, underlined the situation in the city of Xinhua, in which “whistle-blowers” were being sent to a mental institution, to receive involuntary treatment. The writing itself was remarkable, I thought. It put forth the information in an unbiased form, purely the facts (although, it did put skeptical emphasis on everything the Chinese government said to cover it up, which I thought was appropriate).
But even above the writing itself, the article brings up a very important issue: especially today, and especially in America, we have a tendency to take for granted the things that we have, i.e. free speech. We also have a tendency to overlook the fact that other countries (especially those which we term “developed” such as China) still have tremendous human rights violations even going on today. There is a propensity to look at the history books and say: “well, that’s in the past” when, in reality, the abuse continues.
It is distressing that even in a first-class country like China, where the economy seems impregnable and aspects of culture seem so much more refined than the rest of the world, that this should continue. This is why I am surprised that the article did not get more response. Perhaps people don’t want to know, or are too wrapped up in their gossip to notice. Whatever the case may be, I urge you to check out the article, it’s a fascinating glimpse into how bad conditions really are, even in a world superpower. The link follows:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/world/asia/09china.html?_r=1&ref=world

The One-Dimensional Chavez

Though short, this article caught my eye:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-10-16-anti-chavez_N.htm?csp=34

"Anti-Chavez TV channel could face fines."

Though doubtless everyone enjoys a moment to righteously frown at the ongoing chaos in Venezuela, this article was way too superficial for that sort of thing. Oscar Wilde's Harry contends that "details are vulgar" and this author seems to have taken the extrapolation religiously. The summary of events was direct, succinct, and very well done, however, it assumed far too much knowledge from the reader about Venezuelan history. As someone who has followed the rapid descent of this country when Chavez came to power, I already had enough starting information to understand first, why it should be true that one can be fined or taken from the air for speaking against Chavez in the Venezuelan media, and second, why this matters at all. However, as I read, I realized that these details were simply not given. There was no so much as a: "oh yeah, and by the way, free speech doesn't exist anymore in Venezuela," or "hey, and Chavez has slowly been removing TV channels from the air and newpapers from the presses for saying the wrong thing." It was simply a quick summary of the salient facts, a small and sad comestible (ha) with no nourishment or flavor. Though the summary was good, the lack of depth was very dissappointing and could have been quite confusing or meaningless to another reader.