Good News Source

Frog2 FrogRemailer at lne.com
Mon Aug 6 19:54:09 PDT 2001


This will sound crazy to most readers, but the "World Socialist Web
Site" ("Published by the International Committee of the Fourth
International") is a pretty good source of news.

You have to ignore some jibes at free markets and the like, but I like
it better than the New York Times, The Economist, CNN, and Wired.  The
articles are oriented to providing information rather than
entertainment.  (No reporters reporting on reporting with cute leads
like 'If it's true that Al Gore created the Internet, then I created
the "Al Gore created the Internet" story.')

For example, this article on HIV in rural China is good:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/aug2001/aids-a06.shtml

HIV spread like crazy in rural China because commercial blood
collection centers mixed the blood of several people before separation
and return to the donors.  "The operators were generally government
bodies, such as hospitals, or private entrepreneurs connected with
government officials."

The Chinese government has discouraged efforts to honestly educate the
population about HIV, including banning ads recommending the use of
condoms as a prevention measure.

While the U.S. government is not as backward, the article strikingly
illustrates the problem of governments that view change with fear and
suspicion and actively prevent constructive responses to serious
problems.  While China has achieved more horrific results, the basic
behavior of the U.S. government towards cloning, cryptography, and the
Net, is not fundamentally different.





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