Courtesy of a tweet from Miguel I see that the much talked about exit of Google from China might due in large part to one of his founders, Sergey Brin, who could not stomach to sponsor the censorship and repression he experienced as a very young kid when Russia was still the Soviet Empire. So he left the Chinese promised millions to try his luck in Hong Kong and see how long it would last.
Congratulations to Mr. Brin for showing us that you can allow yourself to skip over a few millions when your principles are pushed too far.
There is a pro Chinese tyrants creep that still goes around, unscathed for all the censorship cuddling up he did to the Chinese authorities during the last Olympics, having no problem to sacrifice Tibetans along the way. I am speaking of IOC chair, Jacques Rogge, who I already bitterly criticized in this blog during the Chinese Olympics (here and here). The guy had no real problem with censorship. See, after all, the fate of people like Chinese and Venezuelans are of no concern for these European aristocrats, or wanna be ones. The rest of the world is really, when everything is said and done, in their secret heart, a whole bunch of uncouth natives who already get more than what they really deserve. How else can one explain the attitude and willing accomplice role of scumbags like Rogge, who sold Chinese people for much less than what Brin's Google would have made had it chosen to accept Chinese terms?
Mr. Brin, you are to be congratulated heartily for such a principled stand. And next time the International Olympics committee comes around to ask you for sponsorship money tell them that fine, AFTER Jacques Rogge public and painful mea culpa, and if possible, after he is replaced by a more principled person. That should not be too difficult.