In The News

Exporting Censorship

Xeni Jardin March 15, 2006
Censorship of the internet extends well beyond China and search-engine firms that cooperate. Xeni Jardin, co-editor of BoingBoing.net, recognized massive censorship was underway after receiving dozens of emails from readers who complained they were blocked from the site. A Silicon Valley product called Smart Filter prevented access because BoingBoing.net contained “nudity” – pictures of...

Blame It on Voltaire: Muslims Ask French to Cancel 1741 Play

Andrew Higgins March 9, 2006
In the small French town of Saint-Genis-Pouilly, a conflict arose in 2005 that prefigured the Danish cartoon crisis and tested willingness to defend the right to free speech. The target of Muslim outrage then was one of the Enlightenment’s leading men of letters – Voltaire, or Francois-Marie Arouet. A reading of his play, “Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet,” excited a small riot – “the most...

Novels Found in Translation

J. Peder Zane March 9, 2006
Editors and writers often quote from translated material, without identifying the translator. Writer J. Peder Zane suggests that the neglect reveals a subconscious embarrassment about readers’ dependence on translations, a nagging doubt that the reading does not provide an authentic experience. Yet only because of translations, the average person can enjoy “Madame Bovary” or “Crime and...

The Wild Web of China: Sex and Drugs, Not Reform

David Barboza March 8, 2006
While China’s internet censors block access to sensitive political subject matter, a booming online industry trades in sex, drugs, and just about anything else legal or illegal that turns a profit. Wall Street analysts predict that China, with its rapid internet growth, could lead in online commerce by 2010. Meanwhile, the Chinese pay en masse for online entertainment, with both criminals and...

Seize Golden Opportunity of Rapid Globalization

Dave Young March 8, 2006
Current debates on China focus on its growing economic strength as a threat to the West. But China, moving from a rural to an urban economy, can also offer opportunity for the West. Over the next five years China will build more than 300 new cities, requiring expertise on infrastructure, financing and environmental protection. With China’s growing influence, the author says, world financial...

A Year Abroad (or 3) as a Career Move

Hillary Chura March 8, 2006
More US students are adapting to a globalized economy by working abroad. A surprising benefit is success in the job market after returning home. Teaching in a foreign country, bartending, taking care of children, typing or even traveling and picking grapes can demonstrate resourcefulness and other skills that employers find valuable. Organizations that help students work abroad estimate that 35,...

China Creates Own Net Domains

Hiawatha Bray March 6, 2006
Many governments around the world resent US control of internet regulation. To bypass that regulation, China has set up a new family of Chinese-language alternatives to .com and .net. The move could lead to greater censorship, or it could simply ease the search for words in Asian characters that go unrecognized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, the US agency...