Czech President A Kleptomaniac? Or Just Appreciates A Nice Pen?

My Daily (gruelling!) Commute

Blogger Power: A new generation of “citizen journalists” in China

Censorship is still rife in China. Taken from China Digital Times.

Winners of the coveted Noble Peace Prize are normally celebrated individuals who are respected not only in their respective countries, but internationally, for their work. For Liu Xiaobo, his country’s government was appalled and ashamed at the decision.

The official statement to come out of the foreign ministry claimed that “the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to people who contribute to national harmony, country-to-country friendship, advancing disarmament… Liu was a criminal sentenced by the Chinese judicial authorities for violating Chinese law… The Nobel committee’s decision to award such a person the peace prize runs contrary to and desecrates the prize.”

They were obviously referring to the fact that Xiaobo is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for his part as co-creator of Charter 08, an effort to give greater freedoms to the people and a direct challenge to communist rule, and that he does not deserve the prize at all. This type of reaction indicates the stance that the Chinese government holds on the subject of freedom of speech, and press.

Jack Jia, editor and founder of Chinese News Group based in Scarborough, moved to Canada in 1989. “The change from Communism to Capitalism was a major catalyst for my moving here, and my choice to start Chinese News as well. What I have done would be absolutely impossible to replicate in China.” Now, Chinese News is a popular community newspaper established in 1993 that publishes 3 times a week, distributed in and around the GTA to target the large Chinese population in the area.

Xiaobo has ostensibly motivated a generation of writers and bloggers who are using the internet to fight through media censorship in China. Xiaobo himself states “The phenomenon of ‘citizen journalism’ suddenly arrived several years ago. Since the appearance of blogs in particular, every blog is a new platform for the spread of information.” Shaun Rein from the China Market Research Group (CMR) reported that Chinese consumers spend an average of 17.9 hours per week versus 12.7 hours in Korea and 11.4 hours in America, with a lot of that time spent on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace as well as updating blogs.

A prime example is the website Chinalyst.net, which is a site that provides links to Chinese blogs, in English, that discuss various themes including news, fashion, and even homosexuality, openly. Many blogs criticize the government and it is this type of thing the Chinese authorities are trying to stop.

It is mentioned in the IFEX article “Government ramps up Internet control and leans on Hong Kong to erase dissent” that the People’s Republic of China routinely deploys major resources to control political discussions on the Internet. “”This latest censorship attempt shows that the Chinese authorities, who are obsessed with maintaining political stability, mistrust micro-blogging and its potential for spreading information and mobilising the public,” said RSF (Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders). This is the paranoia displayed by the government when it comes to issues regarding public opinion, and the measures that they are willing to take in order to preserve it.

In fact, In response to this growing popularity of online journalism, the Breitbart article mentions that just earlier this year, in January, President Hu Jintao called for the Internet to be “purified”, and the government has since launched a number of online crackdown operations, banning a number of sites that had content deemed “inappropriate”. This kind of interference has been interpreted by numerous journalists as a reaction of fear from the government, who cannot risk a negative image of themselves being painted and displayed on a global scale. “An authoritarian state is always afraid of freedom of speech,” said Jia. Such a state does not tolerate critical thinking, which is the key for creation and innovation.”

The same authoritarian state that has a zero-tolerance policy on political dissent, and the same one that called the Dalai Lama “a wolf in monk’s clothes” following his win in 1989. Yet, if history proves anything, is that no matter how much the powers that be try to suppress those below them, the more difficult it will be to silence the masses. And that is what China has been slowly finding out this decade, and will continue to find out, due to the growing interest of the internet and the rising influence of the west on the Chinese populace.

Suspicious Package Causes Scare at Ryerson

Police block off section of Gould Street

On Thursday afternoon, at around 2 p.m., Toronto Police, HMU(Hazardous Materials Unit), EMS and Toronto Fire Services all responded to a reported “suspicious package” found outside the RCC building on Gould Street.

The police are investigating and have blocked off the area until the package is opened.

More to come.

Discover Ryerson

Throughout the week of March 14th to the 18th, Ontario high school students attended Ryerson’s annual “Discover Ryerson” event. Thousands flocked to the downtown campus to take part in scheduled campus tours and seminars all over the school.

The Open Day was held on Thursday 17th, with seminars split up into the respective faculties and programs. Instructors were available to answer questions about their respective programs and about the admission process.

New arrest in Gardypie case

Photograph by: Troy Fleece, Leader-Post files

One more person has been charged in relation to the death of Raymond Bernard Gardypie, the first homicide victim of 2010.

Gardypie was found dead on January 10, 2010, at about 12:30 a.m, on the 1000 block of Retallack Street, in Regina.  The police believe the murder took place two days earlier, on January 8.  The year-long investigation has yielded five arrests.

Joshua Brandon Bird, 20, was arrested shortly after Gardypie’s death, along with a 17 year-old male, who cannot be named due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.  Joseph Abraham Kirkness, 22, David Dylan Dustyhorn, 21 were apprehended on March 28,  All suspects were charged with 2^nd degree murder, all related to Gardypie’s death, with the latest arrest being made on March 4, 2011.

The latest suspect, 23 year-old Ryan Leon Kay, of Regina, is charged with murder in the second degree.  He is due to appear in court for the charges on Monday, March 7, 2011.

Deer takes Wakefield down on MMR-autism link

Deer speaking At Ryerson University. Taken by Adnan Mohamed

Brian Deer, a British investigative journalist, was speaking as a guest on Wednesday at the Ryerson University School of Journalism.  Deer is acknowledged for his investigation into the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine and its link with autism in young children.

With a series of stories over seven years, Deer’s investigation into this link caused a great deal of controversy, and pitted him against Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who was adamant that there was a causative connection between the MMR vaccine, autism and autistic enterocolitis.  Wakefield’s study in The Lancet was based on just 12 children allegedly suffering from autism-like disorders and claimed to find a link between the vaccine, the gastrointestinal problems found in many autistic children, and autism.

He was subsequently accused of false research and Deer launched an investigation looking into this supposed link with the vaccine.  According to Deer’s website, He discovered that, far from being based on any findings, the public alarm had no scientific basis whatsoever.

Deer also unearthed some crucial information against Wakefield, which proved a turning point in the ongoing legal battle that involved accusations of libel on Deer’s part.  He discovered that Wakefield had received payments with money from the UK legal aid fund: pressed under the freedom of information act, said was £435,643 (about $ 691,202 CAD), plus expenses.

This particular revelation led to Wakefield and his legal team settling the case with Deer and dropping the libel charges.  Wakefield’s fall from grace was complete when, On 17 February, Wakefield was expelled by the directors of his Texas business, and on 24 May 2010 his name was ordered to be erased from the UK medical register, revoking his license to practice. On 21 December 2010, the erasure was confirmed after Wakefield failed to appeal the decision.

Newspapers A Dying Breed?

Taken from the Hampton Roads Technology Council website

The newspaper industry, in the past 20 years, has taken a big hit.  Renowned newspapers in cities all around North America have been forced to close their doors and the consensus nowadays seems to be that the future of journalism is in news websites, not newspapers.

Clay Shirky explains in his blog the various mistakes that newspapers made in bracing themselves for the phenomenon that would be the internet.  But the truth is, it may be safe to say that no one was really aware of what the internet would be capable of in the next decade.

Not restricting this discussion to newspapers, one can point out that the next victim could be novels.  With devices like Kindle, Apple’s iPad, and other e-book readers, more people are turning to gadgets for things that a normal paperback

Ursula Trescases, who at works at Ryerson Library, has noticed the change as well.  “I can see a more significant increase of electronic material in academic libraries for research and instructional purposes. This is because electronic resources are more versatile and can be accessed from any place at any time. At Ryerson Library electronic resources have more than doubled during the past year.”

However, some experts say the internet is not the only culprit.  The economy has played a big part in newspaper companies going under, especially in small towns/cities.  Fewer advertising spots, rising production prices, and the recession have hit the industry hard.  But the upside is that some experts are predicting a change in fortune.  Advertising research firm Borrell Associates recently predicted that newspapers’ print ad revenue will actually increase, and 8.7 percent by 2014. The newspaper companies and print journalists alike will hope they are right.

Police deaths in Canada

Russell family on vacation

Slain Toronto Police officer Sgt. Ryan Russell, who died after being struck by the snowplow in the Avenue Rd. and Dupont St. area, is the first police officer to die in the line of duty in almost ten years.

Const. Laura Ellis, died in 2002 after she and her partner’s cruiser collided with another car on their way to responding to a break-and-enter call.  Since then, however, there have been no police deaths in the line of duty, until Wednesday, January 12 2011.

The eight-year gap between Ellis and Russell’s death can be seen as a good thing.  According to Statistics Canada, between 1961 and 2009, 133 police officers were murdered in the line of duty–including eight double, one triple and one quadruple-slaying.

The manner in which Russell and Ellis met their deaths is different as well, because police officers killed in the line of duty were almost invariably shot to death. Statistics Canada mentions that, between the same timeframe mentioned above, 92% of all officer-related killings were committed with a firearm.

Russell’s death has prompted a wave of condolences from the city of Toronto, from groups on Facebook to the rising popularity of the hash tag #7686, Russell’s badge number, on Twitter.  His funeral was hundreds of Torontonians on Monday.

Solution for peace in Sudan?

Taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/julien_harneis/

After years of in-fighting and millions dead, southern Sudan is finally on the brink of independence.

Polls opened on Sunday just after local time to decide on the referendum for independence.  At the moment, majority of the people here are in favour of secession, and all signs point to the largest country in Africa being split in two.

According to a New York Times article, tens of thousands have flocked back to take part in the referendum, and some analysts, possibly reinforcing stereotypes of Africa as always teetering on the edge, warn south Sudan could be the next Somalia, awash in violence.

But recently, instances of violence have been steadily decreasing, according to the United Nations.  In fact, there has been no major ethnic violence in the last six months, except one occurrence, where a renegade general who had been leading a revolt recently recently agreed to a cease-fire. However, this has not stopped many northern Sudanese who work in the south to flee.

As far as border creation and debt sharing, most of the southerners are not worried about the technical consequences of the division.  For the people this is of much more significance, both historically and culturally as well.