I was originally going to append this under On the bombing of Kosovo, but then considered it worthy of its own entry. It's hard to believe that it's been ten years. Damn. I was only 19, just out of college on a temporary leave of absence.

Remember the news footage? The youth of China attempting to take a stand. It reminded me of the demonstrations and political rallies held back in the 1960s here in the US. I had even hoped at the time that it might spark some kind of new global awareness. Like I said, I was only 19.

The demonstration was crushed. We'll never know how many were killed. Many of its leaders were captured, others fled into the underground. My point? The Chinese government effectively squashed the voice of their own youth ... with force. That same government is still in charge today. That same government still has one of the worst human rights records on the planet. That same government controls over 1/4 of the world's population. That same government has been our "most favored trade partner" year after year.

For several years now, I've had a healthy fear that war with China is inevitable. I pray that's not the case. It would spell the end of civilization as we know it. But the trends are alarming.

Consider this: what did our recent bombing of the Chinese embassy do to US popularity in China? Even former "revolutionaries" must think us even worse than the government that rolled tanks into Tianenmen square back in 1989. That smells fishy to me.

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What if the Chinese government were somehow responsible for the misinformation that led to the bombing? What if it were somehow part of a plan to discredit the US to the Chinese people? Think of it as a kind of twisted Pearl Harbor. That's going out on a limb, I admit. But I thought I'd toss it out there.
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END PARANOIA.

It's all a horrible shame. The Chinese cultural and spiritual history leaves their people with much to be proud of. They often characterize "the East" much as the US does "the West." So many disciplines talk about uniting "East and West" these days. Let's hope those efforts are able to transcend the political turmoil. Let's hope they can avoid a war, and instead transform and empower the world. 1 (eg., East) + 1 (eg., West) often equals more than 2. Let's hope the greater quantity falls on the side of peace.

Appended Mon Jun 14 11:46:42 EDT 1999

It seems like reading the Linux Journal is a constant source of enlightenment for me. Yesterday (Sunday) I managed to carve out some hammock time and read some articles from a back issue I left on a plane several months ago. The LJ folks were kind enough to send me one free of charge.

There was a great article by Prof. Steve Mann, the inventor of WearComp the world's first wearable computer. You may have seen some of these guys on an old Scientific American Frontiers show with Alan Alda. In any case, you can imagine that Prof. Mann would have some things to say on human/computer interaction. I'd encourage you to check out his web pages as he does indeed have some important things to say on freedom, computers, and so on.

Anyhow, he cites in the article several problems with "computer secrecy." An example given was the use of traffic monitoring cameras in China, which were used to round up, detain, and execute peaceful protestors during the Tiananmen Square massacre. Big brother has been here for at least 10 years now my friends. Double plus ungood!