Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Reactionary Ringtones

This article about a crackdown in Tibet caught my eye today. It seems that a number of people have been arrested in Lhasa for having "reactionary songs" on their mobile phones. I'm sitting in my office looking out on a scene of Shanghai with its modern skyscrapers and wondering how it can be that a country that can create this can be simultaneously running around Tibet rounding up people for having "seditious" ringtones on their phones. I have a hard time getting my mind around the concept of a reactionary ringtone but I'd love to hear what one sounds like. Could it be an irritating excerpt from Kanye West's latest synthesized release, or Guns n Roses' "Chinese Democracy" or Elvis Presley's famous pro-Tibet lyrics from "Release Me":

"Oh please release me, let me go
For I just dont love you anymore
To waste our lives would be a sin
Release me and let me love again"

Or could it be the latest ditty from the Dalai Lama? Truth be told, I think the PSB should focus on cracking down on the average mobile phone users in Shanghai that wield 400 decibel ringtones that are loud enough to cause heart attacks. I'd also like to see them crack down on people that leave their cell phones on during meetings and interrupt the meetings to answer phone calls. Those are things that make me feel reactionary.

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