Blog #2

Almost twenty years ago hundreds or maybe thousands of Chinese protesters were killed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre by Chinese soilders in the governments crackdown on human rights and freedom of speech. A mixture of students and citizens of the People's Republic of China had gathered in the square for over a month, with cries for democracy and freedom of speech. A giant plaster statue the Goddess of Democracy and the unknown Tank Man are still symbols of their lost cries for freedom. After reading this article I compared China then to China now; today it seems that in their huge economic boom, China's free speech movement has lost a lot of momentum, there and around the world. With their increased life style and urbanization it seems China is willing to put their calls for freedom aside as they concentrate on their new found economic benefits. It is an interesting dilema, would you choose a better more wealthy lifestyle without any political freedoms, or would it be better to have democracy and freedom but less economic prosperity? I think, being american, we would all automatically say freedom, but along with our freedom many of us have good lifestyles with economic properity even with the recent recession. Would you choose dirt poor with rights or rich with no protections or freedom? This can also be related to Nectar in a Sieve, the way the village is loosing their culture and tight community but has economicly propered. Like Rukmani I think I would choose rights and freedom. We may only vote once a year, but I could not imagine not reading the newspaper everyday with confidence nothing has been taken out or cencered. At the beginning of Nectar we talked about if someone can be truely happy in poverty, I think as long as I had my free speech and rights I could deal with everything else.
Pearlman, Merrill. "1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre."The New York Times Upfront. 12 January 2009.