I Am Personally Boycotting Foxkeh
Posted January 13th, 2008 by stormbringer
Why would I do a thing like that? Because the Foxkeh monthly wallpapers are supporting the Beijing Olympics. Because of the ChiComs' record of abysmal human rights and their occupation of Tibet, I can no longer support this aspect of Mozilla's campaign.
Yes, I believe that Firefox is a better browser, and China is a big market. There is a great deal of money to be made in and through China. But my self-respect makes me draw some lines.
No, I am not calling for others to boycott Foxkeh (or, by extension, Mozilla). But I do want others to know what's going on.
Here is some information (nothing is being sold here), and a free PowerPoint show and viewer are available of an expanded version of the site: http://www.geocities.com/doctor_5/tibet12/
Off the beam
I'm afraid you're wrong.
1) The Olympics are not a Chinese institution, neither were created by nor are related to Chinese Government. They're an international institution. They do not officialy support any political ideology or principles, thus they can be hosted even in North Korea (to say some country) if allowed. Also remember many other countries hosting the Olympics had their own flaws at that time: e.g. France, Germany and United Kingdom hosted the Olympics while ruling colonies in Africa and Asia and continously violating human rights.
2) Therefore, by supporting the Olympics, FF and Foxkeh are not neccessarily suporting Chinese Government.
Then next thing would be boycotting New Year just because Chinese Government celebrates it?
Off the mark
The fact that the Olympics are being held in Beijing is cause for alarm by many people around the world. The objections are being stated very loudly. The purpose of having the Olympics in China was actually a political move in the first place, to inspire them to become better world citizens. They promptly made things worse for everyone, especially the Tibetans. Nobody in their right mind wants a country to be "perfect", but China is extreme, to say the least.
I did not call for anyone to join me in my personal boycott of Foxkeh (I'll leave that to the college "Free Tibet" groups, they'll probably call for a boycott of Firefox itself if they get cranky enough). Your remark about "boycotting New Year just because Chinese Government celebrates it"...do you actually expect a reply to that remark?
I will be dealing more with this in my Weblog when 10 March approaches. You can search for the occasional Tibet items on it at http://stormbringer005.blogspot.com . But since this is not a political project, I am not willing to participate further in this forum.
"The purpose of having the
"The purpose of having the Olympics in China was actually a political move in the first place, to inspire them to become better world citizens."
That's important. The PRC is known for being secretive. The olympics are forcing them to become more open and they are now beginning to realize "wait a minute, some of the stuff that we've been doing all these years just doesn't look very good!"
There are only 2 other options. If we ignore the PRC, they will simply continue their old ways. Can we try to punish them? While this would be the just approach to the government's crimes, it is simply impossible to punish a govt in control over a billion people. The best approach, IMHO is exposure and the fear of embarassment and loss of national pride will push them to change.
Yeah, but...
...do you actually expect a reply to that remark?
Of course not, so as you don't expect us to join to your boycott, do you? (I think you do; otherwise you wouldn't be shouting out your personal boycott out there)
Since I like and support Firefox, and I don't find any valid reason for that boycott, and also I think this is not the place for dicussing such political issues, I just make defense.
You're free to tell us about your boycott, aren't you? Well, I'm free to give my opinion about it as well, aren't I? Tolerance, man, tolerance...
Preaching?
I see that this has gone from a political discussion into a personal thing. You're preaching about "tolerance"? Funny how people who do that are not tolerant of the views that they oppose. You want to take me apart and assign motives to my remarks. I stated what I believe. If this wasn't a family-oriented forum, I would show you why I have the name of Stormbringer. Didn't the poster known as Mahakala rip you a new one in Usenet? Playtime is over. I am done with this discussion.
Yeah, but...
...do you actually expect a reply to that remark?
Of course not, so as you don't expect us to join to your boycott, do you? (I think you do; otherwise you wouldn't be shouting out your personal boycott out there)
Since I like and support Firefox, and I don't find any valid reason for that boycott, and also I think this is not the place for dicussing such political issues, I just make defense.
You're free to tell us about your boycott, aren't you? Well, I'm free to give my opinion about it as well, aren't I? Tolerance, man, tolerance...
Difficult question
Can you provide some info on how Foxkeh is supporting the Beijing Olympics? All I read on the site is "2008 is an Olympic year" and that Foxkeh therefore went skiing. But it doesn't mention the Beijing Olympics (or I have missed it somehow), plus there will be no skiing during the Beijing Olympics anyway as they are summer games.
- Otto - SOS
Censorship
I had comments that I posted there that were deleted. Also, I was contacted by another person who also had his comments deleted. It seems that Foxkeh will not tolerate free speech. You can bet this will go in my Weblogs!
Not those words
They are doing Olympic stuff, celebrating 2008 as an Olympic year, asking for ideas for subjects (one comment was that they should do summer games), and the only 2008 Olympics that I can find are in Beijing. But no, there is nothing saying, "We support the Beijing games" in those words.