Censorships

I always associate the word "Censorship" with some kind of horrible things that was done in the feudal times or under the control of American occupation forces. However, some kind of bad censorships still remain in other countries such as China. In China, criticising the communist party or communism is severely banned and if you write some criticism down on the intranet, it will be deleted in a few minutes by the government. Moreover the websites which support the Independence of Tibet and which have a relation with Tibetan Buddhism are also inspected. I could not believe it at first. I think these are disturbing the right for freedom of expression , religion and thought which all human must have equally. We should protest against this outrage that Chinese government is doing now. I think that is what we have to do from outside of China.

About Virtual Violence

Today, there are many kinds of violent computer games and violent movies. Many adults refer to bad effects of these virtual violence and criticize them very severely. However, In my opinion, violent scene itself is not so important to decide whether it is harmful or not. I think the most important thing is not a rank of violence but a theme of game or movie. For instance, Steven Spielberg's famous movie " Saving Private Ryan", which depicted the Second World War, had so many cruel violence scenes, but many people admired the movie. It was a big hit all over the world and wan five Oscars in 1998. That's because the main theme of this movie was, in short, "NO War". I think expressing an objection against violence by showing violent scenes is one of the important way for movie directors. So, a theme of movie or game must be taken into consideration to set a better standard for virtual violence.

About virtual world

These days many people are very much into the virtual world like "Second Life". In this world, you can do anything as you do in real life. For instance, you can use special currency, you can buy something, you can work and you can even get married. And surprisingly, you can also change the original currency "Linden dollar" into real money. It is almost incredible to me.
However, I am a little anxious about people who are too addicted to it. That's because there are some kind of crazy people who escape from real life and don't live in real world. I don't want to be. I believe real life is much more important and much more exiting than life in a computer screen.