I think the upsurge in my blog traffic over these two days was mainly because a lot of people are interested to find out what Xia Xue had said on the show. That was exactly the reason why i didn't mention her name in the title. To be honest, i did contemplate if i should put up an eye-catching title like "Transcript of talk show featuring Xia Xue" or something like that, but then decided not to do so. I think we shouldn't let one person overshadow the whole show and miss to pick up the important points, i.e. the responsibilities and legal implications of blogging.
I'm not sure if the cyber law in Malaysia is the same as in Singapore, but we can use it as a yardstick to know where to draw the line. Blog is something resides on the Web, which is a public domain. Everything put in public will be subject to the scrutiny and judgement of the people, whether we like it or not. It's pointless to claim that how others shouldn't judge us when we put something of ourselves all out to be scrutinized.
I find it amusing whenever some bloggers said something like "it's my blog and i can write whatever i want and you just don't read it if you don't like it". Yes, it's true that we can write whatever we want on our blogs, but since the Web is a public domain, then we must be prepared for the repercussions if we choose not to be more tactful in our writing. It's also true that the readers can just not read our blogs if they don't like it, but they can also choose to criticize it in the comments or in their own blogs, or even bring it up to the authority. If we think that we have the unrestrained freedom to do as we like, then others also have the same unconstrained freedom to do as they will.
We just have to bear in mind that there's actually no such thing as unrestrained freedom. If we are only concerned with legal standpoint, then freedom is circumscribed within the boundary of law. But for some people, freedom may even be circumscribed by moral value, which is something subjective depending on our religion and upbringing.
Someone left a comment in my previous post criticizing one of the guests in the talk show, teacher Zhao. I don't know him personally and i also couldn't tell from the show if he was really as nasty as what the person had described him to be. Just based on what Zhao had talked about in the show, i could see his concern for the well-being of the youngsters nowadays. I can imagine some of the things he mentioned (such as the language used in SMS) must have been hard to swallow for the youngsters, but it's understandable when it's coming from an older teacher who saw how the influence of technology has rendered their effort futile in educating the so-called pillar of our country for the future.
As for Xia Xue, putting aside my personal opinion of her, i would say that she wasn't wrong in what she said -- coming from a purely commercial point of view. Try talking to those businessmen who open gambling dens or brothels and tell them how their businesses had shattered homes and corrupted our society, they would probably give you the same reply: even if i don't do it, those who wanna gamble or look for prostitutes will still go to other places to look for it. It's basically the "other people are also doing it so why lose out" or "i'm just supplying what is demanded" kind of mentality. If we regard our blogs as something of commercial value, then frankly, she was just talking like a business person. It really boils down to personal choice on how one wants to earn his/her living.
For me, of course i don't agree with such mindset, for i believe in everything starts with oneself. It's the same as in not eating shark fin soup or effort in environmental protection. It's always easy to say that, "hey, even if i don't eat it, others are still eating it what", or "hey, even if i don't litter, others are still littering what". It's exactly this kind of thinking that in the end nothing can be achieved at all. To take it to the extreme, perhaps this is also why we can never put a stop to nuclear arms race; "hey, even if i stop building nuclear weapons, other countries are still doing it what!" Well, if everyone can just start with oneself, then perhaps this world could be a better place for everyone to live in.
Oops, i guess i better stop here before anyone starts judging me and calling me self-righteous bitch... but then, it's my blog and i can write whatever i want and you just don't read it if you don't like it, right?!
