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Jewish World Review May 22, 2006 / 24 Iyar, 5766 Capitalism comes full circle By Julia Gorin
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."— Vladimir Ilich Lenin
"Maybe this is a clue as to why the Qur'an must not be stocked below the top shelf at Borders? 'Borders(R) and Al Maya Group
Sign Memorandum of Understanding for Borders Franchise in United Arab Emirates and other Gulf Cooperation Council Countries,'
from Yahoo! Finance:
"'Borders Inc., a subsidiary of global book, music and movie retailer Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP - News), announced today
that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Al Maya Group, a diversified corporation headquartered in the United Arab
Emirates, to establish a franchise arrangement under which Al Maya will operate Borders stores in the United Arab Emirates and
other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.'"
The first comment below the post read, "Let me see, Korans on top shelf, no Salman Rushdie books, no books on anti-Islam or
anti-Koran or anti-Muhammed. No books on Jews and Isreal unless it's about Holocoust denial. Seems the capitalists are
determined to sell our freedoms for a few tokens of gold."
Indeed, it looks like we're seeing capitalism coming full circle, as businesses place profits over principles on a very macro scale.
Another glaring, more well-known, example was Google, MSN and Yahoo agreeing to the Chinese government's censorship
requirements in order to do business with that second-largest Internet market.
When Chinese citizens type words like "democracy", "freedom", "human rights" (or other "profanities") into these search
engines, they get an error page. While search engines are hardly the only ones culpable for doing business with China, their
product is information, and they're willing to corrupt it for profits. And that's the least of the problem.
Google was the last of the three companies to enter the Chinese market, and by doing so it's on a dangerous course. Yahoo
has been implicated in helping Chinese authorities to identify at least three Internet writers who were subsequently jailed for
"subversion," and Microsoft followed Beijing orders to shut down the site of an outspoken blogger. So far, Google hasn't done anything so reprehensible, but the
future doesn't look promising.
Last month Google CEO Eric Schmidt had this to say about the company's bowing to Chinese censorship: "It is not an option for
us to broadly make information available that is illegal, inappropriate or immoral or what have you." (By "illegal, inappropriate or
immoral", he's referring to "democracy, freedom, human rights," etc.)
As AFP reported then: "While Google
and the other companies have come under pressure in the United States not to succumb to Chinese pressure, Schmidt praised
China's rulers for their Internet strategy that has seen a huge online population develop.
"'We look at the rise of China, the investment and the smart people and we are in awe of what has occurred here...And we salute
the government, key leaders in the industry and all of you who have made the rise of the Internet in China such a tremendous
accomplishment.'"
Schmidt then declined to answer whether Google would supply personal information about its users to Chinese authorities if
requested: "'I'd rather not answer a hypothetical question,' he said."
What makes the Google case of putting profits over principles particularly galling and depressing—aside from its "Don't Be Evil" (in
pursuit of corporate profits) slogan—is that its founder, Sergei Brin, escaped with his parents from the clutches of the Soviet regime.
All so that he could reach the height of success that American freedom and opportunity afford and then choose to once again do as
the Communists tell him.
Worse, while bowing to Chinese orders, the company refuses to
cooperate with our own Department of Justice in facilitating anti-child-porn measures.
By making the choice—in a land where he has a choice—to do business with a place where there is no choice, Brin's company
promotes a wider world without choice.
"We have all made a commitment to the government that we will absolutely follow the Chinese law," Schmidt added. "We don't have
any alternatives."
Precisely. Such is the country that the Google CEO praises. Sergei Brin's American odyssey back to Communism is what happens
when immigrants forget where it is they came from, and why they left.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Julia Gorin is a widely published op-ed writer and comedian who blogs at www.JuliaGorin.com. Comment on by clicking here. © 2005, Julia Gorin. |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
