 Yoo-hoo, Yahoo ... we see you.
Yahoo, the internet giant, is among such others as Microsoft, Google, and Cisco that are gleaning profits in China at the expense of human rights. The repressive, antidemocratic rulers there use technologies willingly supplied by these corporations to censor the information that the Chinese people get and to monitor the people’s communications.
 Recently,
Yahoo went a step further than simply profiting from repression—it agreed
to aid and abet the thugishness of the rulers. Mr. Shi Tao, a dissident Chinese
journalist, had a Yahoo e-mail address, which he assumed to be a secure refuge
from the authorities. Wrong. When agents of the rulers came calling on Yahoo demanding
access to Mr. Shi’s communications, corporate officials did not hesitate
to sell him out. They turned over his private information to the regime, and Mr.
Shi has now been sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to exercise free speech.
For accommodating the dictatorship, Yahoo gained favor with the thugs and will
continue to profit from China’s burgeoning online market. The corporate
honchos lamely explain they must abide by the laws wherever they operate: “I've
always taken the attitude that you’re better off playing by the government’s
rules,” says Yahoo’s chairman.
This self-serving corporate capitulation to repression is being roundly condemned
by web activists and human rights groups, including a leading Chinese dissident
who wrote a stinging letter to Yahoo’s CEO, declaring: “What you have
said to defend yourself indicated that your success and wealth cannot hide your
poverty in terms of the integrity of your personality ... Your swelling wallet
is an indicator of your diminished status as a man.” Ouch.
This is Jim Hightower saying ... To learn more and take action, go to a group
called BooYahoo. They’re at booyahoo.blogspot.com.
©2005 by Jim
Hightower & Associates
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