[sustran] Fw: Re: Regional focus for sustran-discuss: Asia or the global South?

[jane.]

Loss of face might be part of the explanation, but I don't think it fully uncovers the situation. English might be the language of educated classes in India and the Philippines, but that still overlooks a vast number of people in the "Global South"--namely, people in China (not to mention southeast Asia, etc.). If we look at the Chinese-language Internet, for example, we can see that it is extremely active, and the oft-quote "Chinese netizens" tend to be very vocal and opinionated on both foreign and domestic matters ... on Chinese-language discussion forums. (See the somewhat raunchy www.chinasmack.com for a peek into this activity, diligently translated into English by an anonymous Shanghai-based blogger). To me this would indicate issues with common language, lack of awareness of the list, and/or lack of interest.

I suspect without resources available in simplified Chinese, it will be mighty difficult to get many voices heard from within mainland China. 

Yet another issue is accessibility. Specifically, a number of carfree websites, including the World Carfree Network's and World Streets (as it's hosted on blogspot), are currently blocked by China's firewall. 

Does somebody have access to the
 number and demographics of the existing members? How many are actually in Asia, and especially the regions? Do those numbers shed any light on the silence?

Jane

--- On Sun, 6/7/09, Zvi Leve <zvi at inro.ca> wrote:

From: Zvi Leve <zvi at inro.ca>
Subject: [sustran] Re: Regional focus for sustran-discuss: Asia or the global South?
To: "Jonathan E. D. Richmond" <richmond at alum.mit.edu>
Cc: "Paul Barter" <paulbarter at nus.edu.sg>, Sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org
Date: Sunday, June 7, 2009, 12:07 AM

I do not think that it is exactly "fear of punishment" that inhibits people from certain cultures from participating in such 'public' exchanges - it is more a "fear of losing face". That is, they are worried about how they will be perceived by others.... When interacting
 with people directly it is easier to understand the social cues, so more people would be inclined to actively participate.


Not sure what can be done about this. If one desires, it is not difficult to hide one's true identity from the forum (generic email address, no full name, etc.), but this does not seem to make much of a difference.


Anyway.... 

Zvi



2009/6/6 Jonathan E. D. Richmond <richmond at alum.mit.edu>





I do not think the issue is fear of lack of knowledge but fear of punishment.



In many Asian countries there is a taboo about expressing opinions, an activity often felt to be reserved for politicians and the most senior officers --Jonathan!






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