Wednesday, July 23, 2003

July 23, 2003 Terri Gross interview with John Hogan, the CEO of ClearChannel.  10:25:13 PM    comment []

Radio Free Asia From the Wall Street Journal: A young man from southern China recently phoned into Radio Free Asia's call-in hotlines to complain about China's curbs on free expression. "The SARS crisis is over," he said. "People are taking off their masks. So can they talk now?" In quips and gibes, people from all walks of life and every part of China routinely use RFA's call-in hotlines as a way to speak their minds. Many call from public telephones to avoid trouble with the authorities. RFA beams these comments back into China through short-wave radio and the Internet -- both accessible to a large number of determined listeners despite intense jamming from Beijing. These call-ins hardly substitute for town-hall meetings during which citizens could vocalize concerns and exchange ideas with their elected officials. But they offer ordinary Chinese people a means to voice their desire for political participation and civic involvement. As one 50-year-old engineer remarked, "To this day [the Chinese people] don't even have the right to listen to foreign radio broadcasts. Our government interprets human rights as the right to subsist." These examples clearly demonstrate that many Chinese people long for a world in which language is used to inform rather than distort, and in which words and ideas are exchanged fearlessly. After being silenced by so many years of authoritarian government, there are more and more Chinese voices demanding the right to speak freely. ________ END OF SEGMENT___________________  Radio Free Asia gives advice on how to combat shortwave signal jamming: http://www.rfa.org/front/sira/ Why all this stuff about China all of a sudden? Right here at my desk sits a Mr. Coffee machine sold to me by the Sunbeam Company of Boca Raton, Florida. It says "MADE IN CHINA" Why do we manufacture all our stuff in a country that feels the need to jam radio broadcasts and arrest dissidents? You can use this site to contact sunbeam about this: http://www.sunbeam.com/ A drop in the bucket, I know, but you gotta start somewhere. 10:52:08 AM    comment []

I emailed Peter Wonacott, the author of the article on Chinese factory working conditions, to find out more. His reply: Several of you asked how to contact Wu Lei and help others like him. I've enclosed below a Hong Kong-based contact person for the organization that initially assisted Mr. Wu with his legal crusade. Julianna speaks very good English, but Mr. Wu only speaks Mandarin Chinese. As the attachment outlines, Juliana's organization is active in teaching Chinese migrant workers, male and female, how to protect their legal rights. She said she'd welcome all inquiries.   SO Lai-wa, Juliana Project Coordinator (OHEC) The Chinese Working Women Network Correspondence address:     Rm 216-219 Lai Lan House,     Lai Kok Estate, Cheung Sha Wan,     Kln., Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2781 2444 Fax: (852) 2781 4486 8:28:51 AM    comment []