Who are the biggest micro-bloggers in the world?

 An extraordinary occurrence is happening in China.  Her citizens are probably the most prevalent micro-bloggers in the world.  According too the China Internet Information Centre, there were 63 million micro-bloggers at the end of 2010 - approximately 14% of her 457 million internet users.

Whilst Twitter and Facebook has been banned, Chinese versions have been created such as weibo.com, which is enormously popular - especially with the young.

Whilst the micro-blogging sites are rarely used openly challenge the Communist Party, they are mechanisms to criticise and upset the existing order - including exposing public cover-ups. Micro-blogging was used to publicise information such as the July bullet train crash in Zheijang Province.

Inevitably, the 'authorities' have tried to control micro-blogging, by recently requiring all bloggers to register internet accounts with 'real' identities.  But, even this has been 'mocked' by micro-bloggers.

Censorship of the Internet is increasingly difficult.  Even websites that are banned are possible to access with the right computer software.  The huge power of the Chinese Communist Party is slowly dissipating against the huge power of the Internet.

P.S.  You can read more HERE.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Remembering Ronald Reagan

A very special evening in the Guildhall. The event was to commemorate the unveiling of a statue of Ronald Reagan in Grosvenor Square this morning. William Hague, Liam Fox and Condoleeza Rice were all guest-speakers, and all spoke about human values of freedom and democracy.

Reagan was a great American President, and a champion of these values. He stood up to Soviet Communism, and alongside Margaret Thatcher brought about the end of the Cold War. At the time he was he much under-rated. History judges this President very differently.

As Reagan once said: "give people the freedom to choose and they will always choose freedom". Worth remembering as we watch events in the Middle East.

You can read more HERE.

Lenin and the far-Left

What is it about the far-left and dictators? The Times recently reported that in Montpellier, France, the Regional Leader. Mr Georges Freche (who describes himself as a Socialist, has commissioned a large Statue of Lenin and place the one-tonne sculpture in the city's centre.

Ignoring the fact that Lenin had nothing to do with the French City, Mr Freche described the Soviet Dictator as "one of the great men of the twentieth century" .

It seems quite extraordinary that leftists such as Mr Freche can venerate Lenin, a man who murdered millions, set up the gulags and began the Soviet Dictatorship.
How is that Communist tyranny is something to be celebrated by the far left - in marked contrast to the other tyrannies that have stalked the world?

By Robert Halfon