标签：杂谈 分类：一塌糊涂
Monday, October 26, 2009 10:56 AM
Mr. Hu, tear down this firewall!
It was supposed to be a place to remember where you were and what it
meant to you on Nov. 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell between East
and West Germany, marking the beginning of the collapse of communism
in Eastern Europe.
But something very different � and fascinating � is happening instead
at the Berlin Twitter Wall, a website that went online last week as
part of the city of Berlin's anniversary celebrations. Instead of
reminiscences about life behind the old Iron Curtain, the site is
being overloaded with complaints about a new barrier sealing people
off from the outside world: China's thick web of Internet censorship,
referred to locally as the Great Firewall (or GFW, in character-saving
Twitterspeak).
Most of the writers posted in Chinese, and claimed to be doing so from
inside China, where Twitter and dozens of other popular websites have
been blocked by the Communist government headed by President Hu
Jintao. (Click here for an incomplete list of the banned sites.)
Blocked sites can be accessed from inside China via virtual private
networks, provided you have both a private computer and the tech savvy
to do so. The entire province of Xinjiang � home to 21 million people
� has been almost completely without Internet service since deadly
ethnic riots hit the city of Urumqi on July 5.
Here is a sampling of some of the postings the Berlin Twitter Wall has
seen in the past couple of days. The tag #fotw refers to "fall of the
wall":
"All kinds of walls will have their day of collapse. #fotw" � posted
Monday, Oct. 26 by "xtzc."
"The collapse of the wall needs everyone's help." � posted Monday,
Oct. 26 by xiaopohen,
"I have a dream: We will see the anniversary if the fall of the Great
Fire Wall in near future." � posted Monday, Oct. 26 by guoyumin
Here are a few others translated by the China Digital Times:
"#fotwWe climb the Great Firewall because it has blocked out all of
the dissent, and we do so to eventually get rid of the Wall." � by
miaofeng
"The wall built for others will eventually become a grave for the
builders. #fotw" � by liujiang
"#fotw It has been twenty years, and we are still in the Wall." � by gengmao
"#FOTW All Chinese on the electronic Berlin Wall, spectacular!" � by peterlue
"My apologies to German people a million times [for taking over this
site]. But I think if Germans learn about our situation, they would
feel sorry for us a million times." � by ChrisicGong
Predictably, by Monday evening Beijing time, the Berlin Twitter Wall
was no longer accessible in Beijing.
Mr. Hu, please?
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