Chinese Prisoners
polycounter lvl 14
I think its a general section, where we can share anything related to games but this one is very remotely related but I must share.
Chinese Prisoners Allegedly Forced to Play 'World of Warcraft'
Chinese Prisoners Allegedly Forced to Play 'World of Warcraft'
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It's pretty hardcore, and raises so many questions, it's not even funny.
Last thing that I heard about WOW in China was this
So they are farming gold for the game that is officially banned in China... =\
Although playing WoW seems like one of the better things that can happen to you in a Chinese prison....
There is a huge difference between forcefully playing a game for Gold farming and playing it willingly to ease off your stress (even if you endup raging and getting more stress. <.<)
If a Chinese prison is a sweatshop on steroids, then it may be better to have a mouse in your hand than a hammer or a pick.
Imagine that.
+1
There's a defined difference between punishment and slavery/profiteering.
Are you insinuating the US prison system is better? It's not profiteering if they're losing money paying for what's essentially a low-end hostel.
They're so overcrowded they simply let their criminals go.
Not sure what the issue is, if they're made to do something useful (aka bring in money). Isn't it nice, they're lessening the burden on taxpayers?
I read a couple of articles about this and it was the guards making the money. I don't disagree with your sentiment but this sounds more like an abuse of power and torture.
There's so many things wrong here.
First of all, to get into prison in China you really don't have to be a criminal. You can be a journalist.
Secondly, slave labor is wrong no matter where it is. It's wrong in a US prison, it's wrong in a Chinese prison. Bad conditions in a US prison doesn't make bad conditions right in a Chinese prison.
Getting tortured if you don't gather enough gold when they're so tired they can barely see straight?
I guess I'm a bit crazy when I support human rights. I don't think prison should be a vacation, but I definitely don't condone torture or disproportionate punishment.
China has it's problems, but it's naive to think the US prison system is any safer. Throw a black guy in with a few neo-nazi's and see how long he lasts. Child molesters are treated so ruthlessly, they get separated (which costs the state more money), and then put out on the street early (99.9% re-offend rate with this one BTW).
You're talking that slave labor is wrong in prison? I thought freedom is something that's given up when they GO to prison.
BTW, I don't take the criminals account at face value. Seems a little sensationalized to me for more exciting journalism. Like do you know what happens when inmates don't meet their quotas for license plate manufacturing or whatever it is they're doing now?
And yeah this is a pretty old story. To be honest I'm more concerned that they may be world #1 economically in the next few months if the US goes in for a double dip. The US can be a messed up place, but its not populated by people who have gender selective abortions like they are going out of fashion, and occasionally even leave new born girls to die in the gutter. Not to mention their human rights abuses/censorship issues...The ramifications of a collective mind like that knowing they are the most powerful in the world makes me worry about the next 20/30 years.
Just something I worry about on the bus on the way to work. :P
Hmm, I find this pretty sensationalist, but you critisized sensationalism in the same post.
from the article:
"Liu Dali, a former prisoner at the Jixi labor camp in northeast China, told the Guardian that he spent his days breaking rocks and digging trenches and his nights playing video games."
this isn't a case of gold farming instead of hard labor, this is hard labor and then gold farming instead of sleeping.
Did you know in China, the propaganda war in the internet got so bad, that the government has hired an army of posters to post 'pro' governmental comments? If a person if found to be a 'repeated' offender, they're taken to jail.
For example, if I get an unjust ticket, because my sister didn't want to sleep with the chief of police, and I make a post about it, on a random blog, over 500 comments will come in claiming that I'm wrong, hence persuading populace opinion on my issue. If I do it again, several times, I'm deemed as a threat, hence, once tracked down, I can very easily be taken away, and no one would hear about me.
Issue with the problem? Prisoners, that could be very easily be civilians that were trying to protect their loved ones, from someone who has too many connections in the right places, can end up in such a situation. Sorry to say this, but I can see the point you're making, but regardless of that, you're simplifying the situation WAY too much.
Blind justice is just as damaging as free justice.
But not in the current situation: the money doesn't go towards the state but to corrupt officials instead, and the amount of work and the punishments for not meeting quotas are a bit excessive.
And while you give up your freedom, you don't give up your humanity. I think if a person does wrong he should be punished, but not to the extent that any sort of hardship can be put upon him with the only argument being that he is a prisoner and it's ok.
But yes, my concern is with the safety and well being of prisoners. I think that when a person gets out of prison they shouldn't be a worse person than when they came in. 5-25 years of mental and physical abuse isn't the way forward.
OK. So do people have issue with the countries hard stance against free speech (teachers journalists)?
Or is it about punishing prisoners by making them play WoW?
Or is this about the extent the prisoners are being punished for not making their quotas?
So as a westerner, we have the right to speak up against the social injustices of China, because our prison guards have absolutely no history of ever abusing our prisoners?
So yea the US has a long way to go, but that doesn't mean we're on the same level as china or can't help the Chinese citizens get to the pitiful levels human rights we have.
In this case though, this is prison guards profiteering from violating the human rights of the very prisoners that are supposed to be entrusted in their care. You're allowed to disagree of course, but personally if you can't see that this is wrong, I'd have to severely question your moral compass.
Well I kinda disagree with the last bit.. half the time the problem is the US "helping" other countries..
I Don't think we have any right as westerners living in our western bubble to tell any other country how they should 'Act' when we don't even have our own ship in order.
Like or not, more than half your population seems to believe every word Bill O' Reilly says.
Just reeks of:
From The Country that brought you Abu-ghraib, comes "Lessons in Human Rights":
2nd to Last time I went to jail... the police planted syringes heroin/cocaine in my van.
I met very few people in Austin who deserved to be in a cage.
Thankfully, I have found this to be true so far. That by wit and hard work I have used the judicial system to empower myself against what real estate interests would have the police do to squash my life.
Really?
What happened there is heinous, but that doesn't make a message of Human Rights less poignant. Analyze the message and not the messenger.
Besides that, do you think everyone in the whole US have the same opinions? If someone is a human rights activist in a country and someone else is a mass murderer, does that make the opinions of the human rights activist unimportant?
There are many south african caucasians working for equal rights, and were during apartheid. If they recognize an injustice and division in equal rights in the US you'd have an issue with it because South Africa also has issues?
It makes no sense to me at all.
I guess I thought this was a topic of discussion because it was WoW based, which it obviously isn't and therefore probably shouldn't belong on this forum.
We could also solve the death penalty issue the same way North Korea has, instead of death by lethal injection you just sentence a prisoner to hard labor and let them die from that.
Yep, closed.