Du haut des tours de Notre Dame

Le Louvre la nuit

Se prendre un patin Place de l'Hôtel de Ville

Variations autour de la truffe noire/ Ode au macaron...

Pierre Hermé,
Voulez-vous m'épouser?

Pardonnez mon insolence,
Mais je ne peux m'empêcher
Ma flamme de déclarer,
A celui qui m'a fait atteindre
Le paradis des sens.

Un orgasme même!
Lorsque je goutais la crème
Fondante et délicieuse
De la truffe vénéneuse.

Ah! Vos macarons,
Caramel, foie gras ou passion,
Faudrait vraiment être un Tartuffe,
Pour ne pas s'en mettre plein la truffe!

"Prisoners in Freedom City"

Pour comprendre leur histoire, voir l'article "Cyber Rebelles" de Pascal Nivelle dans Libération daté du 15 Octobre 2007.
Source: Youtube.

"Casse Noisette" à l'Opéra Bastille

Hier soir, "Casse Noisette" à l'Opéra Bastille donc.
Première fois que je pénètrais dans ce qui est, avec l'Opéra Garnier, le temple du ballet et de la musique, mais aussi première fois que je voyais ce ballet, enfin.
La musique composée par Tchaikovsky, est éternelle, et c'est avec joie que je voyais se succéder les différents tableaux,tous plus familiers les uns que les autres: danses espagnoles, arabes, russes, chinoises, dance of the sugar-plum fairy, etc.
Les costumes étaient éblouissants de richesse, et les petits rats de l'Opéra, en petits soldats ou en souris, s'affairaient autour de Clara, l'héroine, pour lui prendre le casse-noisette qu'elle a reçu en cadeau de son parrain Drosselmeyer.
Rosita Boisseau, dans la critique parue dans Le Monde cette semaine, écrit: "Casse Noisette, vertige érotique? (...) Toujours prompt à enclencher le mode "psy" des grands ballets classiques, Noureev fait glisser ce conte de Noël souvent débordant de sucrerie vers le scénario initiatique. Une ado reçoit en cadeau de son parrain un joli casse-noisette, viril comme un soldat. Elle s'endort et s'émancipe dans les bras de son hussard (...). Exit la petite fille reine au pays des jouets et des bonbons. Bienvenue à la toute jeune femme qui se bat contre des rats griffus pour sauver son prince en leur donnant en pâture toutes ses poupées de chiffon. Le conflit entre l'enfance et l'âge adulte est au coeur de ce Casse Noisette, plus proche du texte originel fantastique de l'écrivain allemand E.T.A. Hoffmann (1816) que de l'adaptation adoucie d'Alexandre Dumas (1845). (...) La présence de nombreux enfants de l'Ecole de Danse de l'Opéra de Paris sur le plateau donne au ballet son coefficient de jeunesse et de fraîcheur".

"Casse-Noisette" de Rudolf Noureev à l'Opéra Bastille, Paris 12ème.
Tel: 0892 89 90 90. Jusqu'au 31 Décembre, à 19h30. De 6 à 80 euros.
Photo de l'Opéra Bastille: métrogirl sur Flickr.

Poupoupidou !!

Paris: The Chocolate Factory

After reading Seth Kugel's mouth-watering article about the best places to find hot chocolate in New York, I felt like doing the same, in Paris. Not that I want to compare to him, no no, but after all, why not try the idea in the capital of a country well-known for its food?
It is easy to find low quality hot chocolate in Paris, as in any other city: every café serves it, every "sandwhicherie" (Pomme de pain, la Croissanterie, la Brioche Dorée etc), and don't even mention Starbucks: every time I try their "signature hot chocolate", it's not strong enough, and the beverage is lukewarm...
Rather, I'll mention 2 places that I like for the quality of their hot chocolate: one is the famous "salon de thé" Angelina (top picture); the other one is an Italian place, Amorino (right picture), specialized in Italian ice creams, truffles, and of course: hot chocolate.
Angelina is located on rue de Rivoli, near the place de la Concorde. Well-established tearoom among tourists and parisians alike, prepare yourself for a queue before you can get your table (I recommend to avoid Sundays, and it is quiet in the morning). The decoration is very 1900's, , old ladies come to sip a cup of tea with their friends, tourists try to order in a broken French, and waitresses reply rather impatiently and impolitely: welcome to Paris. But let's not make a storm in a teacup, and instead, order the highlight of the menu: the hot chocolate "Africain": a pitcher full of a thick, spicy, creamy dark hot chocolate, served with a glass of whipped cream to add at your convenience. Amazing. The first time I tried it I was so surprised that a hot chocolate could be so tasty: it was lunch time, and later I didn't have dinner, because I was still full.
The second place is part of a chain store called "Amorino", that serves rich Italian ice creams. This winter they also serve hot chocolate for the modest price of 4 euro per cup. They have 28 different flavours to choose from: Classic, Aztèque, Mint, Red berries, Pistachio, Caramel, Pear, Almond, White Chocolate, Coconut, etc... You choose the flavour that corresponds to a number, the Italian girl at the counter prepares the beverage for you, and here you go! You can drink inside or take it away, as you want. I so far only tasted the Classic hot chocolate and the Aztèque hot chocolate. Both are really strong and we can taste that it is made with very good quality chocolate, without adding sugar or fat etc. My preference goes to the Aztèque chocolate though: the cinnamon and spice after-taste was surprisingly nice.
So, if you want to indulge into an afternoon with your friends (or your grandmother), go to Angelina and order the Africain with some patisseries (try "Le Mont-Blanc". But if during a cold winter afternoon, after a long walk, you feel like having something warm going down your throat, there are plenty of Amorino shops waiting for you in Paris.

Angelina: 226 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris. Tel: 01 42 60 82 00.
Amorino: 22 rue Soufflot (near the Panthéon/Sorbonne), 75005 Paris. Tel: 01 55 42 09 56.
Website: www.amorino.fr

Breakfast at Tiffany's? Almost!

This morning I treated myself into a breakfast at La Coupole. What? It's Monday, and I hate Mondays...
La Coupole is a famous restaurant located in the 14th district (almost the 15th) on the Montparnasse boulevard (the one leading to the train station). Built in 1927, la Coupole embodies life in Paris during the "roaring twenties": loads of famous people had their favorite table, the main room is famous for being very big, with paintings, mirrors, all the 20's style architecture.

The name "la Coupole" stems from the fact that nearby are also the famous restaurants "le Select", la "Rotonde" and le "Dôme", all refering to something like a dome (except "le Select"). I heard that la Coupole's speciality is the lamb curry, but I had a look on the menu, and there was no lamb curry. Instead, some good cuisine, that I am sure, will live up to my expectations (compotée de légumes provençaux, œuf cassé et copeaux de parmesan; fricassée de poulet de Bresse au coulis d'écrevisses, légumes printaniers; gros macaron "framboises" et son sorbet, crème fouettée) , as soon as I come back for lunch or dinner.
But let's talk about the breakfast. I had the choice between the Continental breakfast (beverage, fruit juice, basket of viennoiseries, bread, butter and jam, a piece of Kouglof cake. I chose the "Petit déjeuner de la Coupole": a Continental breakfast, plus eggs your style, ham, fruit salad or yoghurt. That was quite a lot! But the hot chocolate was tasty and the viennoiseries really good. However, the scrambled eggs I had ordered were too liquid, I had to use a spoon at the end (weird, scrambled eggs are not supposed to be liquid). Not surprising, I was surrounded by... business men or tourists.

Overall, this place is worth a visit: it's full of history, and I am sure it would be nice to see it packed during a busy evening and taste the menu. The breakfast was good, but not outstanding; parisians don't go there, instead they go to the average café where they can have a quick coffee and a "tartine".

La Coupole: 102 Boulevard Montparnasse, 75014 Paris. tel: 01 43 20 14 20. (book early!).
Website: http://www.flobrasseries.com/coupoleparis/
Breakfast: Continental: 14,5 euros; Petit déjeuner de la Coupole: 19 euros.

La liberté de la presse n'est pas forcément si importante

La nécessité d'une presse libre diversement appréciée dans le monde
LEMONDE.FR | 10.12.07

©

"Si 56 % des habitants de quatorze pays estiment que la liberté de la presse est importante pour garantir une société libre, ils sont 40 % à considérer que la stabilité sociale doit primer, selon un sondage pour la BBC publié lundi 10 décembre. "L'opinion mondiale est partagée sur l'importance de la liberté de la presse", concluent les enquêteurs. C'est en Amérique du Nord et en Europe que l'on considère le plus la liberté de la presse comme étant essentielle. Près de 70 % des personnes interrogées y jugent qu'une presse libre prime sur la nécessité de conserver la stabilité sociale.

Par contre, en Inde, en Russie et à Singapour, 48 % des personnes sont favorables à des contrôles sur la presse pour assurer la paix à la stabilité. Dans ces pays, seuls 40 % des personnes soutiennent que la liberté de la presse doit être préservée avant tout. 11 344 personnes ont été interrogées dans quatorze pays (Allemagne, Afrique du Sud, Brésil, Egypte, Emirats arabes unis, Etats-Unis, Inde, Kenya, Mexique, Nigeria, Royaume-Uni, Russie, Singapour et Venezuela). Cette enquête a été réalisée par l'institut de sondage international GlobeScan pour BBC World Service, qui fête ses soixante-quinze ans. "Alors que les gens défendent en général la liberté des médias, la vision occidentale de la nécessité d'une presse libre pour garantir une société libre n'est pas universellement partagée dans toutes les régions du monde", relève Doug Miller, président de GlobeScan.

LA CONCENTRATION DES MÉDIAS INQUIÈTE

Les pays occidentaux où la liberté de la presse est prépondérante sont plutôt critiques concernant l'honnêteté et l'exactitude des faits rapportés : 28 % seulement des Allemands considèrent que la performance de leurs médias en la matière est bonne, 29 % au Royaume-Uni et 29 % aux Etats-Unis. Ils sont 44 % au Venezuela, 49 % en Afrique du Sud, 58 % au Nigeria et 61 % au Kenya. Dans les pays où la stabilité sociale est plus importante que la liberté de la presse, les Indiens (61 %) et les habitants des Emirats (52 %) estiment que les faits sont correctement rapportés, contrairement aux Russes (27 %), aux Mexicains (28 %), aux Brésiliens (31 %) et aux ressortissants de Singapour (37 %). 56 % des personnes interrogées dans le cadre de cette enquête ont estimé que la presse dans leur pays était libre de rapporter l'actualité sans être biaisée. Seulement 19 % ont pensé qu'il y avait peu ou pas de liberté des médias dans leur pays.

L'enquête a constaté des inquiétudes sur la concentration des médias au sein d'un nombre de groupes de presse de plus en plus réduit : une grande majorité des personnes interrogées au Brésil (80 %), au Mexique (76 %), aux Etats-Unis (74 %) et au Royaume-Uni (71 %) s'inquiètent notamment que l'opinion politique d'un propriétaire puisse influencer la ligne éditoriale des médias de son groupe."

And the new Miss France is...

Valérie Bègue, qui représentait la Réunion. Elle a 22ans, mesure 1,74m.

La malheureuse histoire de la femme qui est morte car son mari refuse de signer une décharge pour une césarienne

Voici une histoire qui est racontée sur le site de Bruno Birolli, envoyé spécial permanent du Nouvel Observateur à Pékin:
"Le 21 novembre, une femme enceinte de dix mois décédait dans un hôpital de Pékin.
Transportée aux urgences, les médecins considérent son état critique et jugent que sa seule chance de survivre est une césarienne. Cependant, son mari, Xiao Zhijun, refuse de signer la décharge indispensable en Chine avant une intervention chirurgicale. Dans ce document la famille renonce à toutes poursuites judiciaires au cas où l’opération échouerait et s'engage à payer l’hospitalisation. La raison avancée par cet homme est contradictoire : l’enfant est un garçon et il refuse de mettre son fils en danger.
Sa femme qui a gardé sa conscience propose de lui donner 1 000 euros qu’elle avait épargnés à son insu. Pour infléchir l’entêté, l’hôpital se déclare prêt à opérer gratuitement la malade. Rien ne fait démordre Xiao Zhijun. Les supplications, les promesses sont impuissantes à le faire fléchir. Il refuse de signer ce formulaire. Le chirurgien ne peut intervenir. Et la femme décède au bout de plusieurs heures de face-à-face entre elle, sa famille et le personnel de l’hôpital d’un côté et de l’autre cet homme muré dans une obstination incompréhensible.
L’histoire est répercutée dans toute la Chine par les télés qui interviewent le veuf. Xiao Zhijun répond évasivement devant la caméra. Il paraît particulièrement méfiant, dissimulateur et surtout buté. Cet homme frustre qui s’accroche à une seule idée et qui est de ceux dont on peut taper dessus avec un bâton jusqu’à le briser sans parvenir à le faire avancer d’un pas. Les pleurs qu’il répand sur le cadavre de sa femme et les accusations qu’il porte contre l’hôpital semblent surjoués et manquer de sincérité. Car une question reste sans réponse : pourquoi a-t-il refuser de signer l’autorisation d’opérer cette femme dont la perte le fait se torde de douleur ?
Interrogés, des voisins estiment que ce couple semblait uni et que l’homme s’occupait bien de son épouse. Cependant son père fait un portrait différent. Il accuse son fils d’être paresseux et menteur, et dit qu’il avait conseillé à la belle-famille de ne pas donner d’argent à leur gendre si celui-ci le leur demandait.
Xiao Zhijun donne aux journalistes plusieurs explications pour justifier son geste. Toutes sont tirées par les cheveux et pourtant pas si improbables que cela. Par exemple, il prétend qu’un herboriste consulté lorsque sa femme est tombée malade lui a assuré que l’enfant serait un garçon. Or, ces mots abondaient dans le sens d’une prédiction d’un moine remontant à des années en arrière, alors qu’il était âgé de huit ans. Selon ce devin, son premier enfant serait un fils, mais sa femme mourra de mort violente et son fils ne lui survivra pas. En conséquence, il avait refusé de signer la décharge, car il y a vu une ruse des toubibs pour lui voler son argent après avoir assassiné sa femme.
Pressé par un journaliste, l’homme avoue qu’il n‘était pas marié légalement et qu’il savait qu’en apposant son nom en bas de la décharge, il acceptait de prendre une responsabilité financière à laquelle il n’était pas tenu. Or, étant un paysan il n’a pas de assurance maladie. Restant entièrement à ses frais, l’opération l’aurait ruiné. Dans cette logique où le sordide se nourrit de la misère, il était donc préférable que la femme meure.
Ce fait-divers, dramatique et mystérieux, ne pouvait qu’interpeller les Internautes. Pour les uns, Xiao Zhijun est un salaud qui a délibérément laissé mourir sa femme pour garder les quelques billets de banques qu’il cache sous son matelas. Pour d’autres, il est la victime de l’arriération des campagnes chinoises écrasées par des millénaires d’oppression et d’exploitation épouvantables."

Pour moi, le type est certes pauvre et pas très malin, mais il est autant responsable que le personnel de l'hôpital: ils auraient dû opérer la femme sans hésitation, au lieu de négocier des heures sur les papiers et l'argent, car leur devoir est avant tout de sauver des vies. Mais bon, entre le mari qui ne veut pas payer car de toute façon les devins lui ont dit que son fils allait mourir (la femme on s'en fout!), et l'hôpital qui n'opère pas car la décharge n'est pas signée, et qu'il faut l'argent d'abord, voici la réalité chinoise, loin des strass de Pékin et Shanghai...

24 hour party people

Last night I had a good time for 3 reasons: I watched a movie, the cinema was such a nice place for moviegoers like I think I am; and third I had dinner with a friend in a rather unusual restaurant (that will be the subject of another post). But let's focus on the place first:

Its name is MK2 Bibliothèque, and it is located in the 13th district, near the modern Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Bibliothèque François Mitterrand). Inside, you obviously have cafés and restaurants ("chez Jules et Jim" for example...), but also a nice shop where you can find every dvd you have been madly looking for, that documentary you wanted to see but never managed to find it, or that movie by Georges Lautner to complete your collection. Plus the movie soundtracks and the books. I definitely have to come back and buy Raymond Depardon's "numéro zéro: naissance d'un journal"...
Then the movie. I watched Michael Winterbottom's "24 hour party people". There is an English movies festival now (you know, the Eurostar having a new train station in London -St Pancras, the train being faster than ever before to reach London from Paris, and all the ads about London being trendy now, etc...). I like Winterbottom's movies. Actually, I enjoyed the only one I had seen before yesterday: "the Road to Guantanamo". Very realistic and interesting.
"24 hour party people" was great too: "the unbelievably true story of one man, one movement, the music and madness that was Manchester". It starts back in the 70's and goes through the 80's, in Manchester obviously, and tells the story of Tony Wilson, journalist, host of a show about indie music on the local TV station, who is also a huge fan of music. Through his eyes, we will witness the birth of famous bands like the Sex Pistols, Joy Division,Happy Mondays, New Order, etc. He will found his own label, "Factory Records", and open the Hacienda Club, that will soon embody the period when Manchester was the music capital of the world.
The review on IMDB says it all:
"The story really starts with an early Sex Pistols gig in Manchester, attended by only 42 people, most of whom went on to have an influence on the Manchester music scene of the next 10 years. Wilson was in the audience, together with members of the band who went on to form the brilliant post-punk pioneers Joy Division. The first part of the film is really focussed on them, their manager Rob Gretton ( played by Paddy Considine) and their producer Martin Hannett (another superb cameo by Andy Serkis). Joy Division's lead singer, Ian Curtis, is portrayed so accurately by Sean Harris that it's positively eerie, and the scenes of the band playing in rundown venues seem remarkably true to life and capture effectively the rawness and intensity of their live performances. The film also deals, rather insensitively, with the death of Curtis, who's feet we see swinging after he has strung himself up on a rope in his house.
From then on, the story continues with Joy Division's reincarnation as New Order and the building of the Hacienda nightclub, and the sometimes disastrous business decisions made by Wilson and Factory. When New Order released Blue Monday, the record sleeve was so expensive to produce they lost money on every copy sold. The single went on to become the biggest-selling 12' of all time, paradoxically crippling Factory in the process. The first nights at the Hacienda were also calamitous, with bands playing in front of single-figure audiences. Eventually however, the druggy indie dance kings Happy Mondays arrived on the scene, and acid house was born. Suddenly the Hacienda was the place to be and the Madchester rave scene became famous all over the world. The scenes of drugs-and-sex-excess on the Monday's tour bus and the re-creation of the Hacienda club nights are superbly portrayed.
The final part of the film tells how gang violence led to the closure of the club and the drug-riddled misadventures of the Mondays, especially their singer Shaun Ryder, led to their downfall and had severe financial implications for Factory Records. Eventually, Factory was sold to another label (who were perturbed to find Wilson had not signed any contracts with any of the Factory bands, effectively giving the artists total creative freedom).
"24 Hour Party People" is a real roller coaster ride. There are some brilliant acting performances, punctuated by cameos from real members of the Manchester music scene (such as Howard Devoto and Mark E. Smith). The merging of legend and reality may make it difficult for people unfamiliar with events to work out what actually happened. But this is no accurate, austere documentary, but a touching, sometimes surreal, and often very, very funny, anarchic portrayal of a time and a place and it's music. Oh, and of course, the soundtrack is fantastic".

MK2 Bibliothèque: 128/162 av. de France (13e) - Métro : Quai de la gare (ligne 6), ou Bibliothèque (ligne 14)

Montparnasse,tour infernale

Mind your head!

My blueberry nights

Enfin, le nouveau film de Wong Kar-Wai.

Après le très beau esthétiquement, mais très décevant "2046", sorti en 2004, on attendait d'autant plus ce nouveau film du réalisateur hong kongais que c'était là son premier coup d'essai aux Etats Unis.

Film tourné en anglais donc, avec une équipe américaine, des acteurs américains, une action se passant aux Etats- Unis. Cela change des ruelles bondées de Hong Kong et des échoppes enfumées!

L'histoire? Une fille vient de se faire jeter par son petit ami, elle cherche à le revoir en trainant dans un café où apparemment il vient régulièrement. Elle sympathise donc avec le patron de l'établissement, une sorte de "diner" cosy typiquement américain, servant des meat pies, des cheese cakes, le tout arrosé d'un bon café. Deux âmes esseulées qui vont se retrouver tous les soirs, et se raconter leur histoires d'amours respectives. Mais un jour elle ne vient pas: elle part en quête d'elle même et commence un périple à travers les Etats Unis, au cours duquel elle va rencontrer des âmes aussi perdues que la sienne. Partir pour mieux revenir... D'autant plus que le jeune homme du café, tombé amoureux, l'attend...

Si je raconte l'histoire avec tant de "romantisme", c'est qu'elle m'a vraiment plue: j'attendais beaucoup du film après la déception de "2046", et je n'ai pas été déçue: le choix de Norah Jones en premier rôle, au côté de Jude Law, fut un choix judicieux. Elle ne s'affirme pas assez à certains moments, mais bon, faut il lui en vouloir? C'est son premier film! Jude Law est égal à lui-même, mais c'est surtout dans les second rôles qu'il faut chercher les perles: Rachel Weisz et David Strathairn, épatants de justesse.

Les lumières, la musique, le décor, tout se prête à construire une ambiance inimitable, marque de fabrique de Wong Kar Wai. Je conseille donc à tous de se laisser porter par "My blueberry nights"!

Emma est revenue

Fin du "suspense"...Paul et Emma n'ont jamais existé.
Tout ce bazar médiatique a en fait été orchestré par Lagardère Publicité, pour Lagardère Publicité... Une façon en somme de montrer l'étendue du savoir-faire de l'agence de pub, et les divers supports publicitaires qu'elle peut employer lorsqu'il s'agira de nous vendre un nouveau produit.
Vous pouvez quand même continuer de déclairer votre flamme sur le site crée par la régie publicitaire: moiaussijetaime.com
Comme c'est mignon!

Voir:"Paul cherche Emma désespérement"

"China traps online dissent": de la censure sur Internet

Voici un intéressant article paru dans le Financial Times du 12 Novembre dernier, expliquant les méthodes de la censure d'internet en Chine:

"Ever since the internet arrived in China in the mid-1990s, many have assumed that it poses an unanswerable threat to the sprawling system of political censorship that helps underpin the ruling Communist party’s power. Such confidence was memorably summed up in 2000 by Bill Clinton, then US president, who predicted that liberty would spread unstoppably in the 21st century “by cell phone and cable modem”. “There’s no question China has been trying to crack down on the internet,” Mr Clinton said. “Good luck. That’s sort of like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall.”
These days, however, it is not jelly but blithe optimism in the liberating power of technology that is being nailed to the wall. Far from being overwhelmed by the information age, China’s Communist party censors have proved surprisingly adept at blunting its political challenge – and even, in some cases, at turning its technologies into powerful new tools for their regime. While the internet is transforming the way people in China access and share information – just as it is everywhere – Beijing has proved able effectively to muster government and commercial resources to ensure that direct dissent is curtailed, analysts say. “The early idealists and companies and governments have all assumed that the internet will bring freedom. Yet China proves that this is not the case,” says Rebecca MacKinnon, an expert in new media at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre. The success so far enjoyed by China’s political censors has implications far beyond the world’s most populous nation. It offers encouragement to other one-party states that know the world wide web is an essential ingredient in economic development but fear its promise of unfettered information flow.

Internet users in China

Beijing’s internet controls also raise deep moral issues for western democracies, whose capital markets help fund the local enterprises that make the censorship system work and whose own multinationals have tailored their operations in China to avoid upsetting the party commissars. Those issues have been highlighted this month by US congressional hearings at which Yahoo, the internet portal, has been strongly criticised for helping Chinese authorities track down local dissidents. For companies and individuals alike, understanding Chinese online political censorship is made more difficult by the secrecy in which it is shrouded. Officials routinely deny that it happens at all. “As I understand it, the censorship of websites or online content is completely impossible,” says Wang Guoqing, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office, the government body responsible for media monitoring.

But top leaders have left no doubt that controlling the web is a political priority. “Whether or not we can actively use and effectively manage the internet . . . will affect national cultural information security and the long-term stability of the state,” Hu Jintao, China’s president, told a meeting of the Communist party’s governing Politburo in January. It was necessary to “purify the internet environment”. In practice, censorship is built into the very structure of China’s internet, which is separated from the global network by a handful of carefully controlled gateways generally referred to as the “Great Firewall”, or “GFW” to the geeks. Like the firewalls installed on PCs, the GFW does not seek to block all traffic but to guard against specific threats – in this case, the information contained in thousands of websites ranging from the home page of the banned Falun Gong sect to the Chinese news pages of the BBC. Beijing never discusses which overseas websites it is blocking or why. Blocks are often unpredictable and sometimes temporary or partial. Chinese-language sites are targeted more than foreign-language counterparts and those that directly challenge Communist rule are the most carefully blocked.

While the GFW protects the government from information assault from without, internally another system applies. Vaguely worded laws against any speech judged seditious, superstitious or merely “harmful to social order” give officials wide discretion to punish those who post or host sensitive content. But the main burden of routine censorship is left to internet service providers and suppliers of content. Local companies that emulate Google’s YouTube by offering online video hosting, for example, must screen every submission from their users or risk fines or even closure. “We have someone doing this around the clock,” says one executive at one of China’s online video sites, adding that a special watch is kept for content promoting independence for Taiwan or Tibet and for any mention of the brutal 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. “We know not to let anything on the site about ‘The Three Ts’,” the executive says. Local arms of the State Council Information Office or the Communist party’s shadowy propaganda department also frequently contact internet companies with more detailed guidance on what is permissible or with orders for the removal of objectionable content already online. “They usually call pretty often to say what information cannot be distributed, or to point out information that violates the government’s rules,” says a manager at another video hosting site. The same approach is taken with blog services, discussion boards and even online fantasy games, where company “game masters” must watch for any discussion of banned political topics between characters playing warriors, mages or monsters. Surveillance extends to internet cafes, with authorities pushing operators to keep watch on customers’ activities by using technology that records their every key stroke. The penalties for breaking the deliberately vague boundaries set by the censors vary greatly. An online game player who discusses a recent public protest is likely to receive no more than a warning from his game master or at worst see his avatar sentenced to a few hours in a virtual prison. Blog posters have their blogs disabled and discussion board contributors see their posts deleted. The authorities sometimes order the dismissal of managers and editors of internet portals that let suspect content through. Controls are tightened around the sensitive anniversaries of incidents – such as June 4 for the Tiananmen crackdown – and political events including the recent congress of the Communist party. In a show of force ahead of the five-yearly congress, authorities ordered whole internet data centres to shut, abruptly forcing thousands of their customers’ websites offline.

Censors can also call on more traditional tools of authoritarian rule. Web users who persist in posting highly sensitive views or information can expect a visit from the police or the state security agency. Dozens of people are in detention around China because of political writings they distributed online. Shi Tao, the Yahoo e-mail user who was one of a handful highlighted at last week’s US Congress hearing, was jailed for 10 years in 2005 for forwarding information about June 4 internet news controls to an overseas website. While Beijing’s censorship methods are broad-based and multi-layered, its success in part depends on not trying to control too much. The internet remains by far China’s freest public media space. Online discussion can have important social and political consequences, as when the controversy over the killing of a migrant in 2003 led to the scrapping of rules that allowed police to detain vagrants at will.
The party long since gave up any attempt at the kind of total ideological thought control sought by Mao Zedong after the 1949 revolution. Relative cultural freedom is seen as a way to keep the population happy and entertained. Limited and positive public “supervision” of government work is welcome. Yet the commissars are quick to silence online controversies if they appear likely to challenge government legitimacy itself or to fuel wider discontent. “The goal is to keep the Communist party in power,” says Ms MacKinnon. “The moment you see anything that starts to point to political protest, then – boom! – they clamp down.” The result is that the vast majority of China’s 162m internet users are unlikely to be exposed to anything the state might consider politically dangerous. Prof Zhang Junhua of Zhejiang University says the party has been successful in creating a “collective memory” among young people that means the official versions of events such as the Tiananmen Square crackdown go largely unchallenged. “I would say that, consciously or unconsciously, Chinese bloggers have got used to the ‘red line’ drawn by the [Communist party],” Prof Zhang says. “This is exactly one of the reasons of why China remains so stable regardless of immense problems.”

Many users do try to test the limits, by addressing topics obliquely or seeking the most permissive nooks of the web to air their thoughts. Some dare to challenge internet companies directly over their censorship: Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer, this year launched a rare local lawsuit against the Nasdaq-listed Sohu.com after the portal repeatedly censored his blog. But a Beijing court rejected the case in August and local media have ignored it. “Although the constitution grants us freedom of speech, there are no clear rules for exercising that right either in the constitution or the law,” Mr Liu wrote in a blog entry about his decision to push ahead with the suit. “I’ve already appealed, but I’m not optimistic.”

In its effort to tame the web, Beijing has benefited from broad technology trends often overlooked by idealists who hope networks will always empower the individual. Certainly, the internet and the spread of computers and mobile phones let ordinary people communicate on an unprecedented scale. Dissidents who once relied on hand-printed leaflets can reach large audiences by e-mail and blog postings. But communications equipment suppliers are now offering products that grant those who control a mobile phone or data network equally unprecedented knowledge of what its individual users are doing. Ever cheaper computing power and memory capacity mean network managers can monitor huge numbers of users for particular kinds of behaviour or store records of their activity for later analysis. Such capabilities can allow companies to offer improved services for their users, but they also have huge appeal for any government that wants to crack down on terrorists, criminals or simply pro-democracy activists. Under regulations issued by Chinese police in 2006, internet service providers must keep a record of the online activity of all their users – including log-in names, passwords and every website visited – for at least two months. Police in the eastern Jiangsu province recently boasted of their success in tracking down more than 60 people who spread “rumours, deceptions or offensive messages” via the internet or mobile phone text messages – including culprits in faraway Sichuan. Topsec, one of China’s top network security technology companies, says its products have helped police silence proponents of the banned Falun Gong.

China need not rely on domestic technology. Cisco of the US has drawn criticism for supplying Beijing with its powerful network control tools. Asked this month whether he was concerned about the way Cisco’s products were used in China, John Chambers, chairman and chief executive, appeared untroubled. “One thing technology companies cannot do, in my opinion, is involve themselves in politics within a country,” he said. Propagandists are meanwhile making full use of new media, ensuring official accounts of big events have prominence on news sites, arranging for “positive” opinions to be posted on discussion boards and sending individual messages to mobile phone users. Some visitors to Tiananmen Square have even received a text message of welcome from the “management committee” of the politically sensitive plaza. “Please consciously preserve the order and environment of the Square,” the message says. Beijing’s control is hardly total. Tech-savvy surfers can use proxy servers to get around the Great Firewall. Blogs banned in one place often pop up again elsewhere. Meanwhile, the commercialisation of the media and the proliferation of online information are changing China in ways that may eventually undermine one-party rule. For the moment, however, the censors’ electronic scissors remain sharp. The party’s “propaganda apparatus has been revitalised in recent years and remains fully capable of controlling the content of information that reaches the public when it decides to do so”, wrote David Shambaugh, professor of political science at George Washington University, in an essay this year. Such a verdict will disappoint internet true believers. It suggests freedom of speech and information will not be bestowed on China by some inevitable technological trend and that the future of state censorship depends more on the decisions made by government officials, corporate executives and ordinary citizens. This should not come as a surprise. Liberty, after all, is seldom easily won.

‘We are truly sorry to have removed your article’

Type the wrong word into an international internet search engine from China and suddenly your connection is cut for a moment, leaving the browser blank. Then your e-mail account stops working when somebody tries to send you the wrong kind of message. Welcome to the Great Firewall, where an unseen “net nanny” labours to ensure that China’s ruling Communist party never ends up as roadkill on the information superhighway. Unpredictable and for many users infuriating, Beijing’s secret effort to control the internet and wireless networks is aimed at stopping the wrong kind of information winning a broad audience among the 162m Chinese already online. Electronic filters scan internet search traffic across the “GFW” for hundreds of such politically sensitive Chinese words and phrases as “dictatorship”, “the right to strike” or “savage torture”. E-mails with too many problem words are sometimes not delivered or prove impossible to download from overseas servers, freezing an account until they are deleted.
Similar filters are installed on blog sites and instant messaging services, allowing authorities to both monitor and disrupt online conversations. Some blog sites brusquely reject attempts to post “forbidden speech”. Others are more polite. Responding to a blog posting about the banned Falun Gong sect – which China considers a pernicious cult – China’s leading internet portal is highly apologetic. “For various reasons, we have placed your post ‘Falun Gong’ in your recycle bin,” says an automated message from the portal, Sina.com. “We are truly sorry to have removed your article without your prior permission.” The Nasdaq-listed Sina has little choice but to bar politically suspect content. Blog hosts are often punished for suspect content uncovered by the propaganda departments and police agencies that quietly monitor online activity. On some parts of the web, the police presence is very public. Two years ago, law enforcers in southern Shenzhen deployed cartoon-style virtual officers dubbed Jingjing and Chacha to patrol the city’s websites and let “users know the police are watching them”. Similar squads are being put in place in more than 100 cities. Only a small proportion of internet content is ever targeted. For the vast majority of entertainment-oriented users, the censorship efforts go largely unnoticed – at least until a popular overseas service such as Google’s YouTube is blocked. Even then, however, there is always a similar local – and safely censored – alternative. Sometimes users feel they are being pushed towards local companies: many recently found attempts to access Microsoft’s Hotmail service were redirected to the website of Nasdaq-listed but Beijing-based Baidu. Such phenomena lead some to speculate that censorship is often aimed at giving Chinese websites a commercial edge. It is also one reason why Google felt it had to offer a local – censored – search engine as well as its unfiltered but GFW-harassed service. Users do sometimes grow angry. Although the more directly phrased expressions of outrage are in general quickly deleted, coded complaints abound. One noted blogger offers visitors the chance to stick virtual pins in a voodoo doll picture labelled: “This is the person who rendered Google inaccessible.” The “harmonious society” policy pushed by Hu Jintao, China’s president, is mocked when users say deleted posts or blogs have been “harmonised”.

Some foreign business people visiting China say they find the internet much less censored than they expected. Indeed, Beijing is careful to focus its efforts mainly on local language content, confident that the counter-revolution will not be English-speaking."

By Mure Dickie. Source: Financial Times.

Miss Monde 2007 est...

La cérémonie de Miss Monde 2007 s’est tenue hier soir, pour la quatrième fois consécutive, à Sanya sur l’île chinoise de Hainan. Organisée depuis 1951, la cérémonie a notamment distingué Aishwarya Rai, actrice de Bollywood mondialement connue et égérie de l’Oréal, et Rosanna Davison, fille du chanteur irlandais Chris de Burgh. Cette année le jury a couronné... la Chine, en la personne de Zhang Zilin. A 23 ans, mesurant 1, 82m (taille peu commune pour une chinoise !), cette secrétaire a vu ses rêves se réaliser. La gagnante de 2006, la Tchèque Tatiana Kucharova, lui a remis sa couronne, devant une audience d’environ 2 milliards de téléspectateurs. La première dauphine est Angolaise, et la seconde dauphine vient du Mexique.

Les 106 finalistes sont arrivées le mois dernier en Chine faire une tournée tout d’abord à Pékin, où elles ont visité la Grande Muraille, ont enregistré la chanson (sic) qui accompagnera le trajet de la flamme olympique, et ont aidé la Croix Rouge (qui après Adriana Karembeu, n’hésite apparemment plus à faire appel à des ambassadrices de choc) à récolter de l’argent pour construire des centres d’aide. Puis ces demoiselles sont allées sur l’île de Hainan, dans le sud de la Chine, et se sont livrées à diverses activités.

La finale de Miss Monde se flatte d’être l’évènement télévisé le plus regardé à travers le monde, dépassant les 2 milliards de téléspectateurs. Notons que la cérémonie, se tenant en Chine, bénéficie du coup de pouce apporté par l’audience chinoise, et son chiffre assez impressionnant. Est-ce aussi un pur hasard qu’à quelques mois des Jeux Olympiques de Pékin, ce soit une Chinoise qui soit élue Miss Monde ?