Madoff May Motivate More Malefactors

Bernard Madoff is the new guy that the media has been demonizing lately. At the time of his arrest, he was found to have scammed over 13 billion dollars off average investors who now have been forced out of retirement or into poverty. At 71 years of age, he was sentenced to 150 years in jail, sufficient vengence for some who had their lives ruined by his scheming. However, the problem remains that Mr. Madoff's franchise avioded discovery for such a long time, a possible motivator for other aspiring money launderers who may think that they, like Madoff, could aviod capture for many years. One of the solutions the court used to prevent such felonies was the 150-year sentence. Such a heavy punishment made an impression on everyone. Also, not only did the judge presiding, judge Chin, issue 150 years of jail time, but he also demanded $170 billion be paid by Madoff, leaving the criminal penniless.

China's Internet Security Dispute

I've recently read a Wall Street Journal article about China's new front in controlling the Internet. China requires all computers sold to its population to install censorship softwares. These softwares been deemed by investigators to be flawed as well as simply a disguise for another extension of China's Internet policing policy. China has stated that its intentions were purely to protect its underage population from viewing adult material, but researchers of BBC and Harvard have found that China's Internet policing only blocks a fraction of explicit material, while the majority of its efforts are focused on blocking sites that are news realted or offer political opposition to China's government (as well as blocking most Taiwanese sites). This blockage of material has already reached search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Mircrosoft's Bing. Citizens who want info on health care, news, education, and politics will find their searches filtered.

So how do big companies like Google respond to this situation? Theyhave two choices: confrom with China's regulations and gain acess to a thriving econemy or stand up to China and waste more money garnering complaints. Tough decision... Already, Google has begun looking up ways of providing quality service for Chinese citizens while complying with China's requirements. Bing's idea is also creative. Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional Chinese characters while China uses simplified characters. Bing has created different search results for political topics when using a traditional character search than a simplified search. That way, mainland China has its searches blocked but Hong Kong and Taiwan bypass the restrictions.

Why am I doing community service in China?

Right, so most high schools have a community service requirement to graduate and mine is no exception. That's why this summer, my dad is taking me to Taiwan, where he was born, and mainland China to do a little charity work because of the abundance of this kind of work in those areas. Sounds fun, right? Or maybe a little tedious was what I was thinking. But enhancing global synergy is pretty important and my free time is a small price to pay to help those in need as well as promote interaction between the two sovereignties of the world, China and America.

As a start, we've got a black president so I guess that's proof of an open-minded America right there. Although, it'll be even longer before the first Asian president is elected so it's this sense of cultural enlightenment that should be a long-term goal for any person wanting to take another step in improving foreign relations. That's why I hope to encourage others to do service in another country because I think that it would show our willingness to offer help and then trigger a positive response from the helped, thus creating international cooperation.