Letters to the Editor
A.P. Lowell
Published Letters: 2
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Microsoft vs. the Chinese Government?
[Read the article: Microsoft: Just following Chinese orders]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not that I claim to know the answers, but the questions should be asked:
1) Presumably the Chinese government's request to censor a blog within China has the force of law. You may dislike that law -- I certainly do -- but it is, nonetheless, the law. Are you asserting that American corporations should feel free to ignore the laws of the local communities where they operate? If so, by what standard are we to expect them to undertake such actions? To impose some American view of proper behavior? Isn't that rather imperialistic? By their own individual judgement (OK, the CEO's individual judgement) about what they think is good for people? Do we trust their judgement that much? It may be right for Microsoft to defy the local law in this case for some greater purpose, but we're on dangerous ground here. We're not entirely comfortable (or we're downright appalled) with our government asserting such prerogative outside our borders; are we more comfortable granting corporations generally that kind of authority?
2) Is it better for the Chinese people to have the services of Microsoft (or its equivalents) available, however constrained they may currently be by the Chinese government, or to have them unavailable because they've been forbidden entirely for their unwillingness to comply with those government constraints?
-apl
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Protesting the TSA rules
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As someone who is on airplanes at least twice a month I share your frustration with the inanity of the security rules and the lack of any imperative for TSA to improve the situation. And I, too, have fantasized about ways to subvert the system and about raising a holy stink about how stupid it all is. I keep reminding myself that these poor sods don't make policy they just enforce it, that it isn't their fault its the fault of their political masters, but still I want to make enough of a ruckus that those masters hear the tale.
But...
They have me over a barrel, and they know it. When I'm at the airport plodding through security I'm not doing it for my amusement or as a form of political theater. I'm trying to live my life despite the impediments they throw in my path. I'm there because I need to get to somewhere else, and I know that if I act other than the compliant and cowed citizen I likely won't satisfy that need. Immediate pressing needs first; long-term and managable frustrations later.
I presume most people are in similar straits. If we want to fix this mess it will have to come from somewhere other than a security-line rebellion. Sad but true.
-apl