Rise of the Planet of the Humans

The blows heard around the world may come from a relatively small Chinese village but the social media is preventing the Communist regime from keeping it quiet.

It won’t work. At least one journalist is inside Wukan, and the social media has plenty of experience outwitting dictators.

The people, near Hong Kong, are reportedly fed up with the Communist regime’s officials allowing their underlings to take property and hand it to developers to flip it to get rich quick.

It is the first time Beijing has lost control of a governmental unit since the early days of the Mao regime.

Unlike most of the Occupy events elsewhere there has been at least one death. One Chinese YouTube video shows a local woman being assaulted with a baton by a policewoman. She blows it off like Jackie Chan. Food has been cut off, no fishing is allowed and the village is on lockdown.

But in some ways it must be more frustrating than the U.S. and Europe. There are jobs. But what do you do with the money?

Around the world social media is waking sleeping people who gone from being ants to become giants. It is almost like the story of the Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The New Yorker is calling Putin's Russia the Civil Archipelago.

Social media could be the equivalent of the drug they are given in the movie. I know the power of apes and chimpanzees because I was knocked down by a gorilla in a primate center at a primate center in a jungle in Gabon. A chimpanzee distracted the 400-poud gorilla so I could flee.

But the democracy advocates have no powerful drug that turns them into the intellectual equals of humans to heal that diseases like alzheimers and is mistakenly given a bit and then the enlightened ones take more.

At times in the movie, as a big battle is fought on the Golden Gate bridge the seemingly overpowered Chimpanzees and gorillas are reminiscent of American Indians fighting the Calvary on horseback in the fog.

The way people are coming together now reminds one of John Galt. Outing corruption.

The winner has not been declared yet. Former French President Jacques Chirac was convicted this week of corruption. Gaddafi is dead. Army Pvt. Bradley Manning no doubt won’t do as well when he first goes to court for his assistance to Wikileaks more than 18 months after his arrest began. Much of the time he was being held in solitary, naked at bedtime. It was considered torture. At least remains won't be incinerated and dumped like our war heroes.

Some scenes in the Apes say it all. “Take your hands off  me you damn dirty ape.” Caesar the chimpanzee leading the revolt replies. “No.” Then the trashing of San Francisco begins. The apes, chimpanezees and gorillas don’t even make up one percent and their idea of occupy is more like Sherman marching through the South.

On the bridge is anything but “shooting fish in a barrel” and the army of the one percenters’ SUVs appear more like toys,.

When the playing field is finally leveled it will make a great YouTube video. After all, these people are home.

First on www.technorati.com

South African Parliament Imposes Censorship On Media

South Africa's parliament passed a bill Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu says will impose tight censorship on the news media and facilitate corruption.

 Although former President Nelson Mandela did not condemn the legislation his foundation said it was concerned about its implications.

News24 said the vote was 259 yes, 41 no ballots asnd 32 abstentions. "In its current form, the bill represents an attack on principles of open democracy that are deeply embedded in our constitution and our national life," the South African National Editors' Forum told allAfrica.com.

South African unions also have opposed the bill. There may be amendments before the final version is passed. With the African National Congress controlling two-thirds of the parliament there is no doubt they can push it through if they wish.

The bill was introduced after several years of reported corruption and President Jacob Zuma's spokesman, Mac Maharaj, was accused if receiving kickbacks from a French arms manufacturer, News24 reported. Maharaj is suiing several journals.

Under apartheid there were strict rules limiting press, such as barring banned people from meeting with reporters or being quoted. Violent methods were employed against some anti-apartheid dissidents.

However, under apartheid a scandal erupted and cost some high-ranking officials their jobs for using government money to try to secretly spread pro-regime propaganda. A Johannesburg newspaper, the Rand Daily Mail, was leaked the information and reported it. It was later driven out of business.
 Under white-minority rule newspapers were a leading supporter of majority rule.

There have been widespread claims of ANC officials manipulating government contracts to enrich themselves. Journalists, of both races, again have been leading the calls for reforms.

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