I agree with you about looking after each other as long as we live together on the same planet.

On the other hand, I embraces the self determination theory and prefers to think that all human beings are able to determine their own future.

As you said, no government is perfect. However, I do not think it is responsible to say, “the government is doing something, so we cannot do something.” We can always do something to change the condition if we think it is important to us.

If a person does not sweat over what he or she wants to achieve, not many people will spare their time to help.

As a Global Voice author, I report what people talk about on internet. For example, some Chinese people cared about the media manipulation problems in China, so I helped them spread the words. On the other hand, if Chinese people did not think this is a big deal, there would not be many people noticing what happened, because media manipulation is always very minute.

To be quick, I will assume you are right when you say, “…it should be Chinese to decide if you want to tolerate media manipulation or not…” Do you mean to say, “Only the Chinese people should really care if the gov. manipulates our media.”? Are you saying that China’s media manipulation is not the business of foreigners? Ok, I will pretend you are right… for this argument.

Here is the problem. The Chinese people do care about media manipulation. Many Chinese do care but if the government controls what is said and not said, how will other Chinese TRULY know if other Chinese are also interested in the same topic? If the government controls the media, how can the Chinese people freely share their voices?

Please look at the very sad earthquake example. (I was in Henan at the time, I feel bad for all of China) The Chinese government let the people speak at first. But when the Chinese people got mad about the poor quality of the school buildings, the Chinese Government silenced the criticism because the local government allowed companies to build bad buildings. MANY Chinese people cared but the government did not allow them to talk. Many Chinese people protested, but the government silenced the news.

That is the problem.

I love China. I love the Chinese people. And I want the Chinese people to have the best life possible. No government is perfect. It does not matter if the government is hundreds of years old like in England or 59 years old like in China, the people need to have the freedom to criticize and improve the government.

Usually people do not care media manipulation in other countries. For example, it should be Chinese to decide if you want to tolerate media manipulation or not, and you do not need to ask other people to “tolerate” it.

In this case, people in other countries may care about media manipulation in China because the contaminated milk powder affects other countries, not just China. If media manipulation in China will deepen this problem, we care, and we may not want to tolerate this problem. We want to help solve this problem to avoid people to be sick due to unsafe food, and this is our way to be friend with China.

However, I hope the people of China see the need more freedom of speech and the need for more independent voices with the freedom to speak out against problems. My home country has MANY problems, but at least we can criticize the government without limit and without fear.

And it is not only the tainted milk products. Previous allegations of tainted consumer goods ranging from electronics (iPods gal anyone? to me thats tainted) and toothpastes tainted with diethylene glycol. Whats next?
The Chinese populus is always complaining about the world looking down on and putting China down.
Time to reflect I reckon and instead of complaining about how the world looks at China, instead question the Chinese government integrity and professionalism.

I feel so sorry for the parents. Hope all the sick children recover well. Hope also this doesn’t cause permanent damages in their bodies developement.

milk power is tained and fed to baby, please blame the parents for their stupid choice to that milk product, while appreciate the Party who expose the news to the common people.

As the result, the Party will be appreciated and correct forever for anything, only the common people is too stupid to make correct choice for them.