Good Morning Vietnam, this is Mr President calling

Good governance and free speech. If they existed in unison, we would probably have a better view of politics in general. A story on News24 reported that a Vietnamese blogger was arrested and held in a jail cell for ten days because she spoke out against the government on her blog. I wonder if at some point in the future you could possibly be charged with "blogging and editing."

Anyway, the activist, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh was one of three bloggers arrested because they decided to speak out against the weenie stance Vietnam is taking against the Chinese government over a land dispute and a bauxite mine. Its not trivial, it’s a matter of nationalism I suppose. The three bloggers also had intentions of printing anti-China t shirts.

She was only released when she agreed to stop blogging. The incident is part of the government's plan to tighten up restrictions when it comes to blogging. Now you can only write about personal matters, turns out Big Brother is Vietnamese and a mouth piece for the government.

Got me thinking about free speech. By the sounds of things, South Africans exercised their free speech yesterday when they called the Presidents hotline. From what I understood, there were just over 40 "call fielders" and between them, they received 6000 calls in the first three hours of operation. Interesting, when I called at 9:30, there didn't seem to be anyone taking calls. I must have been too far back in the cue. Or JZ was still addressing his agents - telling them to keep calm, professional and "humane."

I guess they figured they'd have a few complaints. I'm not really sure if the plan to speed up delivery and "good governance" is what they will achieve with this call center. Just as a math’s equation, it doesn't make sense. 40 people for 40 million problems. The problem is that we have municipalities, government departments and initiatives who can't carry out the government's vision, is adding 40 people to the mix not going to highlight the government's inability to deliver?

Before, when there was an error on your municipality bill, you called, spoke to 20 different people, got a myriad of different stories and no resolution. Finally you'd go there, take a lifetime worth of paper work with you and be "helped" by someone who's computer says no. Now, you get to do all that in addition to calling the hotline to complain, get a little sympathy, maybe even an "I understand where you're coming from ma'am" and then...they "do what they can."

Maybe they just can't do as much as they need to. Running a country isn't like hawking. Oh, wait...maybe it is. I just looked up the definitions for hawking and yes, it seems to make sense. They are, in no particular order...

hawk  /hɔk/
–noun 1. Informal. a person who preys on others, as a sharper.
2. Also called war hawk. Informal. a person, esp. one in public office, who advocates war or a belligerent national attitude. Compare dove.
3. any person who pursues an aggressive policy in business, government, etc.

hawk  /hɔk/
–verb (used with object) 1. to peddle or offer for sale by calling aloud in public.
2. to advertise or offer for sale.
3. to spread (rumors, news, etc.).

hawk /hɔk/
–verb (used without object) 1. to make an effort to raise phlegm from the throat; clear the throat noisily.

–verb (used with object) 2. to raise by hawking: to hawk phlegm up.

–noun 3. a noisy effort to clear the throat.

(ref Dictionary.com Unabridged)

I'd say they all apply, especially the one about clearly the throat nosily. You know that happens when someone is trying to get a little attention. Zuma...you know who we're talking about.

All this got me thinking about the true price of free speech. If you're somewhere between Africa and Asia it seems like you only get one phone call and some jail time. If there's no such thing as a free lunch, why would they throw speech in the bargain bin? Nope, everything has a price, it just depends on your choice of currency (and your political association - thats always a favourite get out of jail free card). On the plus side, we're not being thrown into jail for dissing the Big Boys. So, I'd like to propose a toast...to blogging and every other form of telecommunications! Long live the Information Age. Long live the ideals of Free Speech. Out live the empty vesels.