felipe

There's definitely a misconception in the west in this regard. I've lived 2 years in China, and I was surprised to learn how much freedom the common Chinese citizen has, in some instances even more compared to westerners.

In specific to this post, there is a lot of "dissident" cultural productions freely available. To just take an example of a recent movie that comes to my mind right now: "Let The Bullets Fly", a comedy-action where a Robin Hood-type thief tries to rob a village ruled by a criminal ruthless kingpin, supported by a corrupt governor. (spoiler alert) at the end, the hero organizes a militia, distributes guns to the entire village and takes over the village. It is absolutely clear this is a satire over current Chinese politics affairs, yet it was released as a major movie in cinemas everywhere.

Figures like Ai Weiwei only perpetuate this misunderstanding that China is some kind of North Korea, when in reality there's already a lot of "challenging" going on.

Note two things: 1. I suspect this would be a Foxconn factory, not Apple (note how Tim Cook says "we'll be working with people"); 2. The total investment of the Foxconn factory in Brazil was 5 times bigger, so I suspect that Apple's $100m would cover only a fraction of the total investment required to build a factory in the US.

Regardless, that's good news for the American worker.

Having said that, the decision might not seem that crazy once you know more about the local electoral laws: Each party has a free quota of TV ad spots (it's actually good because it gives a voice to smaller parties), and because they are free they need to follow certain rules such as no personal attacks.

The electoral judge has the the power to arrest media bosses because historically media has a huge influence in Brazilian elections (for example, the owner of the major TV network actually elected a president several years ago).

Google is being treated in this case as any other mainstream media, and its president is being held accountable. Sounds a little crazy, but these were all protections put in place as a result of decades of dictatorship and disproportionate power enjoyed by the elites.

I wrote an article a couple of years ago with some ideas to overcome this issue: http://successfulsoftware.net/2010/08/12/selling-your-softwa...

Also, US citizenship is not a "trap" in Eduardo's case. It was his choice to become an American citizen in the first place.

http://technode.com/

http://www.shanzai.com/

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/category/technology/

AJE fills a void, which is a focus on developing countries (not only middle-east, but also Latin America and East Asia), together with an "old school" kind of journalism (factual, in-depth) which is hard to find today. The production-quality is outstanding, at BBC level -- In fact, many AJE professionals come from BBC.

Unfortunately AJE is not broadly available, but you can still watch it live on YouTube, as well as all archived documentaries and reports.

EDIT: "focus on developing countries" does not mean that they do not report on developed countries as well. For example "Fault Lines" is a fantastic show about the US with subjects that US-based media never go deep or even report at all.

[1] http://ninjablocks.com

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/07/04/08/1824210/google-faces...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/130502/google_admits_using_ou...

PS: I am Brazilian-American, so I have experienced both sides of the "war on drugs".

Edit: I realize my post is a little confusing, but just to make it more clear: My point is that the "war on drugs" causes more damage than drugs themselves.

In the US even though in some states marijuana is decriminalized, drugs are still treated as a criminal issue.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1951090/

Also, it's not the first time the Weekly Standard distorts the facts in favor of some right-wing agenda (the very war on terror being such an example)

(like the OP, I'm not defending China's actions here. I'm simply pointing out the double-standard)

That's exactly the problem. Google is notorious for providing horrible customer support, so why some people get personalized help, while the rest of us are stuck with the uncaring robots?

The problem of OSM in China is its limited data-set. For example, in the city I developed the project OSM had only the major streets, and the map was quite old.

Also, note that China today is NOT this extreme-capitalistic country that people think. The big enterprises (telecom, oil, etc...) are open and competitive, but most of the shares are actually owned by the government. In fact, when they describe "Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics" I believe it is not a buzzword (like many believe) but really a meaningful description. It seems that they actually created something different.

That's for me the most telling sentence of the article. As someone familiar with the realities of developing countries, I am frankly tired of seeing those kind of "feel-good" type of projects that helps only the ego of those who are "giving".

What is fundamentally missing in those kinds of projects is the SACRIFICE aspect of it. The willingness to get out of your bubble, put your career (or life) on the line and go live the harsh reality of those who you (supposedly) want to help.

* Lack of understanding: Poverty is a deep, complex social, historic and economical problem, and very often the solution is not technical at all (example: OLPC, and the project mentioned in the article). Unfortunately people think they can learn remotely, or with a simple two-week slum tour (more like a vacation).

* Lack of commitment (again connected to sacrifice): "Good-heart" people come, work on the "world-changing" thing for 3 months, get some international awards and then leave. As a result, the community is left feeling manipulated and tired, and that ruins for any other serious projects in the future.

* Lack of respect: Often people approach these projects from a stance of privilege (like Dr. Cornel West likes to say). What I mean by that is that they may demonstrate humbleness with their choice of words, but the general attitude is actually very elitist. Something like: "oh, poor them, they don't know any better". Getting the community buy-in is VERY HARD, and it involves you first showing that you are 100% committed to them (i. e.: sacrifice).

Interestingly, the willingness to sacrifice is also true for start-ups.

And I don't think it's even a cultural thing... Of course culture always play a role, but I think the issue is simply how the market is right now (i. e.: regulations, competition, instability).

Side-note: I have used so many task apps that I am embarrassed to list them here, and right now I am settled with Toodledo for the main task db and Tomboy for daily tasks and general notes. I am not totally happy with it, but at least it does not get on my way. My "system" is a combination of GTD and Covey's 7-habits that I use for almost a decade.

One question: In theatre, does it work the other way around too? That is, do actors also criticize the director?