Courtesy of a tweet from Miguel I see that the much talked about exit of Google from China might due in large part to one of his founders, Sergey Brin, who could not stomach to sponsor the censorship and repression he experienced as a very young kid when Russia was still the Soviet Empire. So he left the Chinese promised millions to try his luck in Hong Kong and see how long it would last.
Congratulations to Mr. Brin for showing us that you can allow yourself to skip over a few millions when your principles are pushed too far.
There is a pro Chinese tyrants creep that still goes around, unscathed for all the censorship cuddling up he did to the Chinese authorities during the last Olympics, having no problem to sacrifice Tibetans along the way. I am speaking of IOC chair, Jacques Rogge, who I already bitterly criticized in this blog during the Chinese Olympics (here and here). The guy had no real problem with censorship. See, after all, the fate of people like Chinese and Venezuelans are of no concern for these European aristocrats, or wanna be ones. The rest of the world is really, when everything is said and done, in their secret heart, a whole bunch of uncouth natives who already get more than what they really deserve. How else can one explain the attitude and willing accomplice role of scumbags like Rogge, who sold Chinese people for much less than what Brin's Google would have made had it chosen to accept Chinese terms?
Mr. Brin, you are to be congratulated heartily for such a principled stand. And next time the International Olympics committee comes around to ask you for sponsorship money tell them that fine, AFTER Jacques Rogge public and painful mea culpa, and if possible, after he is replaced by a more principled person. That should not be too difficult.
OT but news too shocking to pass up: Chavez supports Insulza for OAS! Who of thunk it?
ReplyDeleteGlenn
ReplyDeleteAnd you are surprised? He would never get a better secretary for his needs!!!!!
Insulza has been reelected for another five year term. According to the linked article, he was the only candidate for the job. The United States had earlier expressed support for him. Earlier this month, the Human Rights Foundation had called for Insulza's resignation for various reasons, including his mucking-up of the Honduran situation.
ReplyDeleteOh well. Viva Chávez, I guess.
Wonder if they'll be leaving Venezuela in a couple of years, for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteI spoke to an intelligent "oil friend", he works near Maracaibo, and said there is murmurs about Venezuela and oil future. Who is it that defines the amount of prospective oil that exists? If the USGS were involved, consider this. Would it be in the US governments best interest to tell a country such as Venezuela "you have what we want?" My friends comment to me was based on a conversation regarding 200 workers of gingo companies that are scheduling their timely departure from Venezuela. There are good reasons the US is not making any waves in Venezuela. Why make a big deal over nothing. This year will mark a terrible year in Venezuelan history... other than Chavez, the electric, water, crime, fires, ports, inflation, foreign currency issues, roads, food, there's more to come... projected mud-slides are likely because of the extreme dryness and lack of vegetation on many mountainsides. The worst part of all the problems are that the Venezuelan people are being stripped of their wealth, be it a little or a lot. Foreign companies from Russia, China, Iran, and Syria are making their way to being the wealthy elite, and none of these care about Venezuelan people. It makes the gingos look better, doesn't it?
ReplyDeletepulling out of China is easy when you are one of the world's wealthiest young men. The electronic espionage perpetrated by Chinese military and intelligence and the theft of intellectual property from Google that will probably be used by government owned search engine competitor sealed Google's fate.
ReplyDeleteAs a business decision it was poor.
GWEH