The purpose of this article is aimed at demonstrating to you how easy it is to demonise another country or culture simply by using the power of language to turn a common action taken by all governments under the similar circumstances into a human right issues or a symbol of oppression of a particular government or culture.
We all know that, it is a common practice for governments all over the world to step up security prior to and during a major national or international events.
For examples,
Security at G20 Summit in USA (2009)
The September 2009’s G20 Summit was held in Pittsburgh, USA. As usual, US’s government step up its security in the surrounding area where the Summit located. The issue of stepping up security is itself a common sense issue and a necessary action expected by any government organising a major national or international event. As such we can understand why the issue was not in the radar of the mainstream media in USA, including Australia.
However, the technology that the US government used against its own citizens surrounding the summit area were highly controversial and yet the mainstream media had been very much silence on the issue. Why?
If you did not subscribe to some Independent Internet Media in USA or read this article, you may never know the following story:
During the G20 Summit, Pittsburgh police use technology deployed in Iraq as an "anti-insurgent weapon" to blast the ears of citizens near the G-20 meeting of world economic leaders. I don’t want to waste your time by putting them in word, please click on this report by AlterNet (28 Sept 2009): ’Police Use Painful New Weapon On G20 Protestor’, and view the two videos at the end of the report to have a direct feel of the inhumane power of the ‘Sound Weapon’ against those individual citizens who have done nothing wrong or involved themselves in any protest activities.
Security at Copenhagen UN climate talks (2009)
Like the USA, Danish government also step up its security in preparation for the Copenhagen UN Climate Talks in December 2009. Following are the pictures of the temporary Cage cells they prepared to imprison protestors:
Picture Sources: Hong Kong’s Media: Phoenix TV
Like the US’s security measure, the Danish’s security measure has not been demonised by the mainstream media in Australia.
However, imagine, if the American’s ‘Anti-Insurgent’s Sound Weapon’ or the Danish ‘s Cage Detention Center is adopted by the Chinese government as part of its security measure for its 60th National Day’s Celebration, what kind of publicity will be pushed across the world by the mainstream Western Media and politicians?
Security at China 60th Birthday Celebration in Beijing (2009)
Like the American and the Danish’s government, Chinese government also step up their security surrounding the areas where their leaders and foreign guests gathered to celebrate the nation 60th birthday by asking its citizens to stay home watching TV and asking those who live near the Tiananmen Square to have their window facing the square shut during the celebration.
Common sense tell us that this is a necessary security measure as:
1) It can prevent snipers or terrorists using those locations as a launching pad to terrorise the celebration.
2) China is a country with 22% of the world population - just the number of travellers (businessmen, tourists, diplomats, students, expatriates, journalists) moving through Beijing International Airport alone is more than 65 million people in 2009.
3) If we includes the 17 million Beijing residents and those who visit Beijing by trains, buses and private transports from all over the country every day, I can assure you that, the total number of people living in or moving in and out of Beijing is much bigger than the entire Australia population.
Therefore, I believe that, it won’t be hard for us to understand why the Chinese government have to request that “people stay home to celebrate the National Day by watching the parade on their TV’s screen.”
However, look at how our media using the power of language to demonise such common sense security measure:
How the Mainstream Media Demonise or at least created a negative impression of China’s Common Sense approach to Security arrangement
The Age (Australia, 1 Oct, 2009) ‘China celebrates National Day extravaganza’: “Despite the burst of pride, official insecurity also has been clearly on display - authorities have imposed draconian security in a bid to prevent an array of perceived threats from spoiling the party.”
SBS TV (Australia, 1 Oct 2009): ‘China celebrates power, 60 years on’: “The numerous dress rehearsals staged by authorities virtually paralysed the city, with entire neighbourhoods closed to traffic for hours at a time, underground rail lines shut down and hotels, businesses and schools closed,” “...but most Beijingers, rather than celebrate in the streets, will be at home watching on their televisions,” (Note: this is SBS website description, but when you watch SBS 6.30 pm News on TV, it is all about military and public isn’t invited kind of tone).
MSNBC (USA, 1 Oct 2009): ‘China’s 60th anniversary stirs pride, unease’: “...behind tight security that excluded ordinary people from getting near the parade route through Tiananmen Square.”
As you may observe, the above are just a few links I provided, if you do your own search through the Internet, the reality is, virtually almost all the mainstream Western Media focus their report of the celebration on one point: “tight security and the exclusion of ordinary Chinese citizens”.
Comparing to the report on the security in G20 summit and Copenhagen, The report on China has been double Standard in nature
On the outset, all the above wording seems to be reasonable. However, when we put in context to compare the mainstream media response to the security in the G20 summit and the Copenhagen UN Climate Talks as illustrated above, I cannot help feeling disgusted by the double standard approach toward China in its security measure.
I have to question once again: why the West has to use another set of standard to report on a common behaviour by all government when organising a major event as such? Again, I am sorry to say that, I cannot explain the rationale behind the double standard behaviour of the mainstream Western Media but conclude that it is simply another form of racism towards a non-Western country who demonstrated its potential to become the number one world power.
Australia is located right within the Asia Pacific Region. When is Australia going to growth up and learn to accept its non-Western’s Asian neighbour?
Written on 25 June 2010. Up loaded 28 June 2010
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