21st Century Gulag: Hard Labor by Day, Gold-Farming by Night
By
BrandX,
Posted on: 2011-05-25 14:20 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
This is pretty much what happens in the short story Anda's Game, written by Cory Doctorow back in 2004. Presumably between balloon flights.
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Priceless.| The 54-year-old, a former prison guard who was jailed for three years in 2004 for "illegally petitioning" the central government about corruption in his hometown, |
Corruption in his town got him sent to prison and now corruption in the prison has him gold-farming.
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The Mentor Project
This is of course a new twist on the global sweat-shop industry of gold farming, which is estimated to be worth $3 billion and to employ over 400,000 people.
And the sad part is, people dont give a... [expletive deleted]... damn. Seeing nothing wrong with forced labor providing them an easy path.
Give it 5 seconds and someone will post in here how they dont have a problem with a criminal doing something like this because, well they are criminals and criminals derserve as much even if they are arbitrarily placed in such conditions ( this guy's case for being a whistleblower).
------->"Sic Semper Tyrannis"<-------
ROFL. I still remember being told I was nuts when I said that the gold farmers in China either had the governments support or were being run by the government itself.
Another feather in china's cap as far as I'm concerned about a government out of control, most people are afraid of terrorists.
Not me China is too silent about what they do and alittle too cold about human rights violations for my tastes.
The rest of my post would go too much into politics, borrowing money from them, buying the cheap *** junk that comes from (yeah you walmart), and some of the disgusting crap they eat.But, I won't go there.
If you were in a prison, would you prefer playing WoW for 12 hours each day or working in a quarry, mine, factory, or any of the other hard labor that prisoners do? Doing hard labor for a few hours each day keeps the prisoners fit and playing WoW for a few hours each day keeps the prisoners from collapsing due to physical exhaustion.
The first step in being sane is to admit that you are insane.
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I don't want fit prisoners. Screw the hard labor. That only means that they'll be in shape to commit more crimes when they are released.|
Originally Posted by starphoenix
If you were in a prison, would you prefer playing WoW for 12 hours each day or working in a quarry, mine, factory, or any of the other hard labor that prisoners do? Doing hard labor for a few hours each day keeps the prisoners fit and playing WoW for a few hours each day keeps the prisoners from collapsing due to physical exhaustion.
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I want fat flabby out of shape prisoners that can't walk 5 steps before they need to catch their breath. They won't be in any shape to break the law when they finally get released.
Plus, with china's record 90% of those prisoners are probably political activists, human rights activists, a couple Tibetan monks, and other folks who either asked the wrong question or was in the wrong place.
You know people like the author..innocent people.
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And Doctorow expanded on this idea for his 2010 novel, For the Win. (I didn't know about Anda's Game - it's an entertaining story. I might start forwarding it to non-gamer friends to help them understand the gold-farming issue.)
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Originally Posted by SkullThuggery
This is pretty much what happens in the short story Anda's Game, written by Cory Doctorow back in 2004.
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Yes, yes, a very LULZy opinion, but this is not an either/or proposition, much less a referrendum on penal theory. In this reported case, the hard labor is part of the regular sentence, and the after-hours gold-farming an illicit activity enforced with physical abuse by a corrupt prison system. I'd be most surprised if this were the only prison in China where this particular private scheme were being exploited.|
Originally Posted by starphoenix
If you were in a prison, would you prefer playing WoW for 12 hours each day or working in a quarry, mine, factory, or any of the other hard labor that prisoners do? Doing hard labor for a few hours each day keeps the prisoners fit and playing WoW for a few hours each day keeps the prisoners from collapsing due to physical exhaustion.
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As for why the whistle-blower would have wound up in prison himself, bear in mind that gold-farming is a significant enough issue in China that the government has been attempting to crack down on virtual currency exchange but obviously without much success - or really understanding the problem, frankly.
In any event, gold-farming is enough of a problem for CoHers that this news is all too relevant.
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There's a few prisons in the US that already do that!
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
I don't want fit prisoners. Screw the hard labor. That only means that they'll be in shape to commit more crimes when they are released.
I want fat flabby out of shape prisoners that can't walk 5 steps before they need to catch their breath. They won't be in any shape to break the law when they finally get released. |
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
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In all fairness, the Chinese think some of the stuff we eat is disgusting. For example, name a Chinese dish that has cheese in it. You won't be able to, because the Chinese consider cheese to be what it actually is: rotted milk.|
Originally Posted by The_Larker
Another feather in china's cap as far as I'm concerned about a government out of control, most people are afraid of terrorists.
Not me China is too silent about what they do and alittle too cold about human rights violations for my tastes. The rest of my post would go too much into politics, borrowing money from them, buying the cheap *** junk that comes from (yeah you walmart), and some of the disgusting crap they eat.But, I won't go there. |
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Originally Posted by starphoenix
If you were in a prison, would you prefer playing WoW for 12 hours each day or working in a quarry, mine, factory, or any of the other hard labor that prisoners do? Doing hard labor for a few hours each day keeps the prisoners fit and playing WoW for a few hours each day keeps the prisoners from collapsing due to physical exhaustion.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
I don't want fit prisoners. Screw the hard labor. That only means that they'll be in shape to commit more crimes when they are released.
I want fat flabby out of shape prisoners that can't walk 5 steps before they need to catch their breath. They won't be in any shape to break the law when they finally get released. |
Off topic but when I first saw the thread title I said to myself, "It's memorial day monday, not labor day." 
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You do realize I was being facetious right?
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Originally Posted by sleestack
Yeah, this isn't a day spa we're talking about here, or even pumping iron in the exercise yard. These Chinese prisoners aren't getting a "workout", they're being "worked out". That is, they're being worked to death. They aren't getting "fit", they're being physically broken.
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I kind of figured you were, but there were two posts saying about the same thing, so I want all Internet Pedant and when I came to the post was already there. No intention to "call you out" or anything. |
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
You do realize I was being facetious right?
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Also, I wonder if the guards force the prisoners to consume Cheetos and Mt. Dew while they are gold-farming, as these two substances in combination are scientifically proven to increase gaming skills by 358.4%?
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Originally Posted by sleestack
I kind of figured you were, but there were two posts saying about the same thing, so I want all Internet Pedant and when I came to the post was already there. No intention to "call you out" or anything.
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Actually the other post your referring to was the one I was being facetious about. Now the other poster may also have been poking fun with the statement comparing hard labour to staying fit, but I couldn't resist a little teasing myself.
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They are not having success for the same reason why most other crackdowns in China fail - endemic corruption across the board.|
Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
Yes, yes, a very LULZy opinion, but this is not an either/or proposition, much less a referrendum on penal theory. In this reported case, the hard labor is part of the regular sentence, and the after-hours gold-farming an illicit activity enforced with physical abuse by a corrupt prison system. I'd be most surprised if this were the only prison in China where this particular private scheme were being exploited.
As for why the whistle-blower would have wound up in prison himself, bear in mind that gold-farming is a significant enough issue in China that the government has been attempting to crack down on virtual currency exchange but obviously without much success - or really understanding the problem, frankly. In any event, gold-farming is enough of a problem for CoHers that this news is all too relevant. |
China is corrupt. At all levels. You have "inspectors" getting paid off to look the other way. I remember hearing stories from my Grandfather - when the local inspector visited his furniture shop, the inspector would ask to use the restroom or take a smoke break, and would deliberately leave his jacket hanging on a chair. On his return, he'd feel the inside pocket to see how fat it was, just expecting the shop owner to have placed his payoff bribe while he was out. If it was fat enough he'd leave with a smile and a wave. If not, well, you might guess what happens.
When the government publicly imposes another level of inspectors to watch the first set as a PR move, the second level gets paid off to look the other way just like the first. And the third level. And the fourth. Everybody lies. It'd be almost comical if it weren't so horrible.
In fact, China calling itself "communist" in the past was just laughable. There was no communism. There was only a council of bullies and thugs pretending that they had changed how things work. The names and details have changed, but the same damn corruption has been around for thousands of years over there.
Note when you read my words: I am Chinese, and have a large number of my family in that nation.
-np
I see myself as witty, urbane, highly talented, hugely successful with a keen sense of style. Plus of course my own special brand of modesty.
Virtue: Automatic Lenin | The Pink Guy | Superpowered | Guardia | Guardia Prime | Ultrapowered
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Rotten milk ha that's funny...but anybody imo that let's eggs ferment in boys urine and eat them is on the top of the gross food list.
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Originally Posted by sleestack
In all fairness, the Chinese think some of the stuff we eat is disgusting. For example, name a Chinese dish that has cheese in it. You won't be able to, because the Chinese consider cheese to be what it actually is: rotted milk.
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The Guardian investigates a digital/human rights violation that sounds more like something from the science fiction of William Gibson or Cory Doctorow:
As a prisoner at the Jixi labour camp, Liu Dali would slog through tough days breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines of north-east China. By night, he would slay demons, battle goblins and cast spells.
Liu says he was one of scores of prisoners forced to play online games to build up credits that prison guards would then trade for real money. The 54-year-old, a former prison guard who was jailed for three years in 2004 for "illegally petitioning" the central government about corruption in his hometown, reckons the operation was even more lucrative than the physical labour that prisoners were also forced to do.
"Prison bosses make more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."