Cornwall ON – In George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 it was forbidden to write. Having pen & paper and using them could be punishable by death. The book’s first chapter starts in April which makes it ironic to read about Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and activist who has just been arrested by Chinese officials while enroute to Hong Kong.
Mr. Weiwei is a supporter of the Jasmine Revolution. A growing wave in China of dissidents who are unhappy with Communist rule. (remember when we didn’t like Communists?)
It’s not just an odd artist or two. It’s Internet Bloggers, Human Rights lawyers and writers across China are going missing or being detained.
People do things differently in China. I could imagine that our own Stephen Harper can only look on dreaming of such a system, but today people like me am allowed to write in Canada, and others. Our voices can be heard, but for how long and how loudly?
Does anybody really care? As the Fukishima situation in Japan has shown us what happens in one part of the world can effect all of us.
We send Trillions of dollars to China every day so we can buy cheaper sox at Walmart. Cheaper cars, big screen tv’s, but then we find lead paint in our children’s toys and who the heck knows what as China floods our country with low price apples and honey wiping out local producers?
Like lobsters we enjoy our warm water baths until the water starts to bubble and of course by then it’s far too late to change things.
Mr. Weiwei and others are essentially being given “subversion” charges, but since when is it subversion simply to disagree with one’s government? Where is accountability? People are voting in lesser amounts and there are more issues of election fraud coming to light or unusual issues. For example in a nearby county that installed electronic voting, family members would simply call in votes for each PIN sent to their family members, and in one case did that for a family member who was running.
We as Canadians have to pause for a moment and consider what our Democracy means to us and how we can help shape our world before it turns into China.
Like history shows; intellectuals, teachers, radio stations, voices are silenced before the darkness falls…..
In our new age of Social media we’ve seen how countries are facing that when people get upset. Maybe it’s time more people got upset?
Jamie Gilcig – Editor – Canada Free News
