2009 Nobel laureate Herta Müller tells a story about writing under repression

Müller was awarded the Nobel prize for her depictions of the "landscape of the dispossessed" in novels that demonstrate "the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose". Born in Romania, the author received death threats for refusing to become an informant for President Nicolae Ceausescu's department of state security, the Securitate, and eventually emigrated to Germany.

Original report by Alison Flood and published Guardian.UK

Müller's lecture on winning the Nobel saw her lay out in detail the moment when the Securitate attempted to force her to sign a document describing herself as a collaborator. "He called me stupid, said I was a shirker and a slut, as corrupted as a stray bitch," Müller said. "Without sitting down, I wrote what he dictated my name, date of birth and address. Next, that I would tell no one, no matter how close a friend or relative, that I ... and then came the terrible word: colaborez I am collaborating. At that point I stopped writing."

She told the man that she didn't "have the character for this". "The word character made the Securitate man hysterical," she said. "He tore up the sheet of paper and threw the pieces on the floor. Then he probably realized he would have to show his boss that he had tried to recruit me, because he bent over, picked up the scraps and tossed them into his briefcase. After that he gave a deep sigh and, defeated, hurled the vase with the tulips against the wall. As it shattered it made a grinding sound, as though the air had teeth. With his briefcase under his arm he said quietly: 'You'll be sorry, we'll drown you in the river'. I said as if to myself: 'If I sign that, I won't be able to live with myself anymore, and I'll have to do it on my own. So it's better if you do it'."

google.cn image search for "tiananmen massacre" shows tanks and corpses now.

Stand up google, finally! No amount of money is worth bending your knees. Yahoo has also just waken up and supported google's stance.

There has been some funny logic going on after Baidu, who calls themselves "google of China" to get money in the US stock market, was attached by hackers from an Iranian web group a day before the google saga. Some well-known personnel in China's official-run TV and bunch more people online couldn't believe that a pro-Iran group would attach something China, "we have supported Iran, as the only supporter almost, to fight against US and the West, it is not possible for them to do this to us!!! it must be a conspiracy originated by the US (like everything else that is considered against China, more precisely against the ruling and only party in China)".

The same people or mentality had problems understanding African pirates took a Chinese ship and more than 20 sailor for hostage, and got many millions of dollars in ransom right after the show of power bythe Chinese military during a National Day goose-step zero-audience-on-street parade, because these people in China cheered for the pirates when they took American hostages. Same disbelief when Al Qaeda announced war against the Chinese people after a brutal oppression of Chinese Muslims in Xingjiang because these group of Chinese people cheered for Al Qaeda too when 9/11 happened.

By the same line of reasoning, they can never understand why the US would air-raid Yugoslavia to save the Muslims in Bosnia if the Muslims are against the US. Neither can they ever understand why the first response after the Haiti earthquake yesterday was from Washington, and all the rescue teams, millions of dollars from USA even still in economic turmoil, USS Carl Vinson, and the hundreds of marines going in to that part of the world after Black Hawk Down and Maersk Alabama/Captain Richard Phillips.

In Chinese sayings: these people have 小人之心 (tiny shrivel little heart) and are 井底之蛙 (narrow slit of opening for a view of the world, should feel sorry for themselves of living a pitiful narrow-minded life)。