Freedom and Democracy

Today's entry is a diversion from the usual topics in this blog, but nonetheless important in the grand scheme of things. Just for the heck of it, those two words are the title of this entry. This is no soliloquy on human rights or paean to liberty, just a simple exercise in freedom of expression. Wired says not all are so fortunate.

It's also a trade-off that Yahoo is not alone in making. To comply with government requirements, Google's China search engine blocks access to sites the government deems objectionable. Microsoft launched its Chinese blogging service in 2005 with filters that prohibited sensitive words such as freedom and democracy in blog titles. And Cisco supplies internet backbone equipment the Chinese government uses in the so-called Great Firewall that shields citizens from websites about Tibet and the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Corruption Perceptions: It's All Emotions

There's a survey out by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy ranking countries in Asia from least to most corrupt.

"The Philippines has the distinction of being perceived in the worst light this year," Perc said after polling almost 1,500 expatriate business executives in 13 countries and territories across the region in January and February.

In a grading system with zero as the best possible score and 10 the worst, the Philippines got 9.40, down sharply from its grade of 7.80 last year. Indonesia was deemed Asia's most corrupt country in 2006. . . .

China and Vietnam bettered their scores, but Perc said the improved perception was because corruption was not being discussed openly in the Communist-ruled countries.

Note the last line. It implies countries with state-controlled media will be perceived as less corrupt, because the press won't reflect the true conditions. And there's a corollary -- countries with free-reigning presses may overstate the extent of corruption, since media are usually anti-authoritarian and tend to accent the negative.

But aren't businessmen smart enough to sift through what's true and what's glossed over? Should they even pay attention to corruption perceptions when their business is business?