battle of titans

the new york times (and others) reported today that google threatened to depart china after being the victim of a cyber attack. google also said something something about the nation’s efforts to limit free speech on the web as being a factor in their decision. which is basically a move to score points as a corporation with a conscience without actually having to do any of the heavy lifting. it’s not like chinese censorship is something we learned about yesterday. unless maybe you are actually in china right now. google may not be openly evil in china—but they’re sure as hell not just plain “open” either.

the fact that the news broke on the same day as the terrible haitian earthquake made for a sad juxtaposition for me. there are already pleas coming from every corner to donate to the red cross to help haitians overcome this devastation. there might even be some celebrities making PSAs for this travesty at this very moment. and that’s a good thing. as it’s also good that bill clinton fights aids, bono is trying to do away with poverty, and wendy malick wants you to be kind to pets. but when hundreds of millions of chinese don’t enjoy free speech, who is their celebrity supporter, the heavyweight in their corner? the answer should be writers.

writers everywhere should be making free speech around the world their cause. writers should be making all kinda of noise right now about china censoring their people. writers should be infecting china with dangerous ideas about freedom every chance they get. the should be exactly the kind of people delillo’s bill gray lamented (oddly enough in “mao ii“) that writers no longer were.

so who’s going to take up this cause? i know who my number one, with a bullet, would be: salman rushdie. pretty sure this is right in naomi wolf’s wheelhouse, too. and it looks like toni morrison tried to start a little something, but i think there’s plenty more work to be done.