Issue around the world: Censorship

As recently as yesterday,i heard over the BBC that China has decided not to renew the license of Melissa Chan which has in this case forced the closure of Al-Jazeera's english bureau in China.

Censorship
It is not something new as the most recent case for this was back in 1998. From this i felt that China is trying to show that even in this day and age, the Chinese politburo is still wielding its power and strength in trying to scare the foreign media sources to adhere with its ruling.  It is believed the Beijing allows journalist to report freely in China and that the only restriction placed would be on Tibet however the actual truth is not as what it is believed as when sensitive issues are raised, it is possible to see journalists being hauled in and given warning. They would then threaten to revoke their visas and try to control what they report in the country itself. This itself is censorship and that it has always worked in the traditional media.

However a new form of media has been challenging this sort of censorship and that i will discuss it in the next paragraph.


The power of new media 


To me personally, i feel that even though journalist do play a significant role in getting news across traditional media, they are also fast becoming crucial in the new media as well. With the advent of Twitter and Facebook and even with Weibo in China, news that were once suppressed are now becoming available to the those using this media and thus censorship is not as effective as it used to be. The other factors are that more and more youths and young adults are now found on these site more often and that with news corporation taking advantage of this new media such as the BBC, it is now giving voices to people who were once not able to get their point across using the traditional media.

Chen Guangcheng use of Youtube


As also seen recently was human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng with his plead to Wen Jiabao through Youtube showing that it is now possible for news to filter past the traditional media and with it the video from Chen Guangcheng going viral almost led to a crisis between the Americans and their Chinese counterpart who were due to meet for a summit that was to cover something else but Chen Guangcheng.

Final Thoughts


As we can see from both example is that censorship is not a one size fit all approach to stopping news from spreading as it only works in the traditional media but if the country decides to take an extreme step to stop all internet connections like what the North Koreans do then they would become a "hermit" country. However if they don't then news other than from the tradition media would be here a the long haul.

Issue Around the world: Youth Violence/Juvenile crimes

Today I came across a really interesting letter on Today Online titled: "A new code for youth crime". Juvenile crime as we know in general is on the up and up and that when we read the news these days, we will probably read about a couple of news a day about it.

Is this new?

The historian Geoffrey Pearson quotes a 60-year-old named Charlotte Kirkman, who lamented that, “I think morals are getting much worse... There were no such girls in my time as there are now. When I was four or five and twenty my mother would have knocked me down if I had spoken improperly to her”. Kirkman was speaking in 1843, as part of an investigation into the bad behaviour of contemporary youth. Lord Ashley, speaking in the House of Commons in the same year, argued that “the morals of the children are tenfold worse than formerly”.

Past generations, then, have been just as convinced as we are that the “youth of today” were misbehaving more than ever before. Pearson has suggested that such fears about youth are a way of expressing more general uncertainties about social change and recur with each generation. (Wills, n.d)

So what is the Issue?

Why out of the sudden we are seeing so much crime in the last decade alone?

According to a United Nations report, Statistical data in many countries show that delinquency is largely a group phenomenon; between two-thirds and three-quarters of all juvenile offences are committed by members of various groups. Even those juveniles who commit offences alone are likely to be associated with groups. According to data from the Russian Federation, the rate of criminal activity among juveniles in groups is about three to four times higher than that of adult offenders. Juvenile group crime is most prevalent among 14-yearolds and least prevalent among 17-year-olds. The rates are higher for theft, robbery and rape, and lower for premeditated murder and grievous bodily harm. (UN, 2003)

The issue in my opinion seems to be the influence from the peers around us. As we grow up, we would be easily influenced by the people around us and these make it even more important to mix around with the right choices of people.

However, I am also wondering if it goes deeper than just the mixing of friends or does it even come down to whether a moral degradation.

Now back to the letter that I mentioned above, it states that current system in Singapore is too soft and that it is sending a signal which is wrong and that the true lesson will not be learnt. He also further added that with a harsher approach, such as sending juveniles to a special rehab home.

I feel that if we have to come to such a state then we are literally pouring ‘kerosene into fire’. I feel that we need to nip this issue at the bud and not let them commit their first crime so that we can implement such measure to counter act them. I believe that parents play a vital important role in the upbringing and development of a child and that the child will mimic the behaviour of the parent.

In my next blog post, I will look into the other factors that could affect juvenile crimes and what in my opinion can be done to counter those other issues.

Works Cited

UN. (2003). Juvenile Delinquency. World Youth Report, 191.

Wills, A. (n.d). Youth culture and crime: what can we learn from History. Retrieved from BBC History Magazine: http://www.historyextra.com/feature/youth-culture-and-crime-what-can-we-learn-history

Issues around the world : Corruption

Today I will start on a new series of issues around the world with Part 1 being Corruption.

Just days ago, I read on BBC that a man by the name of Anna Hazare. He stated on Tuesday that he wanted to go on a 'fast unto death' to protest against a "watered-down anti-corruption bill introduced by the Indian government

Why would he protest this?

The Lokpal Bill that was passed by the government was considered a 'bad Joke' by Anna Hazare and he begin his 'fast unto death' on last Tuesday and the whole country has since risen up in protest across the country.

Corruption in India.

Corruption has been rifle in India as it seems that you will need to pay a bribe to get most thing done there and recently the Delhi Commonwealth games has shown the size of corruption in this nation.

I personally feel that although India maybe a strong developing country, corruption is harming it from growing at an even faster speed that what they should be going at. I feel that corruption in India now has been affecting the fabric of the society and to eradicate the problem would be akin to trying to uproot a fully grown tree but as a saying goes ' A Journey of a thousand miles being with a first step' so it is never too late for it to occur.

In Conclusion

I feel that corruption hurts the poorest of the poorest the hardest and that for India to really become a developed country by 2020, they will need to firstly root out corruption and then the economic growth will then trickle down from the booming economy growth that India supposedly enjoys

London Riots: My Point of View

It was a week ago when I was horrified to know that there were riot going on in London, It all started with a man getting shot and then 'all hell broke loose' and everybody started looting and creating violence. It is reported that some inciting of this violence started due to social media site such as Facebook and Twitter and that there were a number of young people who were arrested recently such as a young man by the name of Jordan Blackshaw who is 21.

Now why is this happening?

Why would people whom are in this age group better known as Generation Y do such things?

It is because there is now a lack of moral value and standard that has been eroding our society over the past few years. This has led to the very reason as to why we are now having this type of issue and trouble with young adults who have trouble even following rule. An often-mentioned quote 'Rules are meant to be broken' would be a very apt way of describing why they would do such things and very often do not feel guilty about their actions. We have seen this during the riots in London when people would loot shops and later justify that 'we are doing this to get back at the rich'

FACT of a point is that 2 wrongs do not make a right!!

So What Next?

As this rule has been circumvent, we are no longer living under a structure that has been set where our borders are clearly marked out. We are now living in a time whereby, we are exploring what can be done without the security of a clearly marked out border which states what is right and wrong. This has led to the line being blurred between what is right and wrong and thus this has led to moral degradation in our current society.

To Be Continued in my Next Post..

Watch this space...

Starter

This will be the first post of what my blog will be about and i will give a short introduction about myself.. I am 22.. which is part of the Generation Y, however i am very different from them as i have a strong point of view and mindset that i wish to express in the post to come. That is why this blog url link is word i have to say... I have decided to use my point of view to voice out how i feel about the current generation, the previous generation before us known as generation x and the generation that is after us. I have decided that staying silent and keeping my views to myself will not be the case any longer. I would also like to warn that this blog may be controversial and direct at times. With that i end this post