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Original poster

Would you boycott Yahoo?

45 replies

edam · 13/09/2005 07:10

Yahoo have collaborated with the Chinese goverment (which has a dreadful record on human rights), giving them the information they needed to persecute a journalist for writing about the Tiannemen Square massacre. I'd boycott them but my email address that I use for work is Yahoo. B*gger. Will contact them anyway.

While I work out what to do, would anyone else care to get the ball rolling? While I look for a link?

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KateF · 13/09/2005 14:37

Good grief - I must be positively ancient (35!). It was a very influential event to people of my age, something I could not forget if I tried. The first time I realised that people died for rights we take for granted.

SlightlyTaintedSaintGeorge · 13/09/2005 14:40

He wasn't run over, a fellow protester pulled him out of the way.

There is some dispute as to his identity and to what happened to him. It is possible he was executed some time later, but no one seems to have the accurate facts. No doubt the Chinese Government know, but they aren't telling.

BarbaraX · 13/09/2005 14:41

sorry re read my posting

I am not suggesting that we should stop buying chinese goods at all. In fact the opposite is true.

donnie · 13/09/2005 14:41

that particular man did not get run over by the tanks, although of course many others were killed. It is true that the Chinese have an abysmal human rights record....but how many of us buy toys , electrical goods and clothes made in China? how many of us are propping up the sweat shops of Burma and Indonesia by buying Nike, Gap etc etc? sweat shops where people are actually denied drinking water unless they hit targets? the world is bursting with economic and corporate hypocrisy.Why has China been admitted to the WTO ? why do we still buy Israeli products at the supermarkets? sorry edam, I'm not disparaging your cause, I'm just wondering where the hell one starts in making a stand!

happymerryberries · 13/09/2005 14:43

Can confirm he wasn't run over.

He was never caught by the government troups either. His identity was never made clear, luckily for him.

KateF · 13/09/2005 14:56

I often agonise over where to start making a stand. Buying free trade stuff is about as far as I've got. Anyone well-informed about ethical living?

monkeytrousers · 13/09/2005 15:57

Ggglimpopo - most of the kids at uni don't know what Nelson Mandela did, they just think he's famous for nothing like every one else.

monkeytrousers · 13/09/2005 16:07

Edam, I don't use Yahoo anyway but would boycott if I did. Did you also read about cosmetic companies using the skin of executed Chinese prisoners to test and develop new products now targeting a UK market?

Kate, I think it's nigh on impossible to buy ethically in these days of cheap foreign labour. Even not buying branded goods such as Fila etc when the cheap shoes are made in exactly the same conditions. There is an argument that all economies start on exploitation but that it does eventually leads to better conditions for all. It's easy to forget that that main tenet of capitalism is to capitalize against others in the marketplace. That's basically a euphemism for exploitation, isn't it? But that?s also the reality of business. Also that working in a 'sweatshop' is better than prostitution or black marketeering. I don't know, I'm not an economist. I watched a ?Dinner with Portillo? on this subject and there was no consensus with the big brains either. Business is an exploitative endeavour not an ethical one.

monkeytrousers · 13/09/2005 16:09

SG, don't the Chinese govt deny any massacre took place?

flamesparrow · 13/09/2005 16:28

The history side of things.... She had been studying China through the ages, and had to select one event in China, however recent, to study

starlover · 13/09/2005 16:33

i am only 25 but i have heard of it! i think we studied it briefly at school, but have also read up about it since then.

i agree with others that if police require information then you can be forced to give it... so may not be yahoo's fault at all.

also agree with sharklet about boycotting people... how many of you shop at asda? how do you think they keep prices so low?

monkeytrousers · 13/09/2005 17:36

As veggis we make a stand by not buying meat or any derivetives including leather and suede. That's about all we can do consistantly.

stitch · 13/09/2005 17:39

the country with the worst human righst records, is our friendly neighbour. the us of a.
slavery... remember that?
the destruction of an entire culture/way of life... native americans, remeber that?

america is also the ONLY country to actually use a nuclear weapon against innocent civilians. not just once, but twice. sixty years later people are still being affected

china is small fry compared to the american government.

Original poster
edam · 13/09/2005 19:46

It is difficult to decide where to make a stand when there's so much that is wrong in the world. But here's one issue - why not take a stand on this? I don't buy Yahoo's defence - smacks of 'we were only following orders'. They didn't have to give the information that allows the Chinese regime to target people who write about this appalling massacre. It's a large multinational corporation, they have knowledge, power and expertise. It's shameful that they caved in on this.

I'm certainly going to write to Yahoo and BT to tell them how shameful their actions are. God forbid any of their executives ever find themselves persecuted by tyrannical regimes but let's hope if they did end up in that position people would stand up for them. And I'm going to investigate alternatives to Yahoo (if I can find a way of redirecting my work emails - I'm freelance so it's difficult but worth looking into.

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Original poster
edam · 13/09/2005 20:13

bump just in case any of the evening posters are interested...

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ghosty · 14/09/2005 01:49

stich ..
If you are talking about human rights records in history ... the Brits were pretty crap too ...
There was slavery in britain too ... look at the colonisation and decolonisation of Africa, look at India, in fact look at what the British did to the most of the world (the British Empire) look at child labour during the victorian age ...
I think the whole thing about human rights is not to go back on what every one did 100s of years ago, but to fix it now, today, the 21st century.

ghosty · 14/09/2005 01:51

What I mean is ... the sorts of things that go on in the world today have no place in this time in history IMO ...
If I had yahoo I would boycott them ... I will write to them however.

QueenOfQuotes · 14/09/2005 01:51

last post before I sleep (honest - nearly past my bedtime now)

I thought this was relevant to this discussion (human rights/sweatshops etc).

Please wait until the morning to shoot me if this is completely irrevarant as I'm a little tipsy

pesha · 14/09/2005 08:09

Isnt asda part of wal-mart, does that mean we should be boycotting asda too?

Original poster
edam · 14/09/2005 08:13

Well said Ghosty.

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