An Olympic Scrap at the FCC

That a country like China can claim the international prestige of hosting the Olympics is pretty ridiculous. I won't bother getting into their flagrant human rights abuses, censorship borne of a fear of knowledge and unmitigated arrogance on the world stage; that would be redundant. The question sometimes comes up as to whether someone with the same views as me is anti-China or anti-Chinese government. For me, the answer is most certainly the latter. China's long history and complex culture is one that any country would be proud to have; I have nothing against China or their people. It's their frightened, power-hungry, abusive government that has to go. Last night I had the privilege to attend a talk at the Foreign Correspondent's Club here, with a panel consisting of representative of the Chinese government, a former monk and student of the Dalai Lama, a member of the Free Tibet Network, and a journalist with extensive Chinese/Tibet experience. It was entertaining to say the least.

Censorship in Thai Cinemas

Despite Thailand's leaders promoting the country as a democracy, it's still got quite a way to go until it truly is what they claim. Nowhere is this more evident than when you go to see a movie, where scenes deemed 'harmful to Thai society' are routinely blurred, pixelated, or just plain excised. In my latest post for The Hollywood Reporter, I detail the fight that celebrated director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has with the censorship board and their outrageous, archaic decisions to cut his film; it seems that every country in the world recognizes his films as classics, except his own, which truly sucks balls. It's pretty ridiculous, actually - when you see a guy holding what appears to be a gun-shaped blob of pixels in his hand, you have to wonder what would have brought more scrutiny - a guy with a gun or a guy with a gun-shaped blob of pixels. Most people with a brain would say the former, but hey - this is Thailand. Often, the censorship isn't even noticeable until you see the movie a second time - check out the screencaps below that I got from the Thai version of Music and Lyrics, versus the international version.

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