On a Postcard

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One depressing statistic is that almost all of the blogs that are started die off within the first 90 days.

Why is that?

Simple really…. unless you’re pretty dedicated and self-motivated, it’s quite difficult to keep writing if you’ve no idea whether or not anyone is actually reading what you write. I’m pretty stubborn so will probably pass that 90 day period with ease on this blog but then I’ve already broken through that barrier with the much longer running Foreign Perspectives which is almost four years old now.

At the moment, I’m just getting a trickle of hits on this blog and no real subscribers but hopefully that’ll change in due course.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Perhaps the most depressing indication of the rising influence that blogs have around the world is the press freedom barometer thatĀ Reports Sans Frontiers has: currently 131 journalists imprisoned and 66 cyberdissidents, mainly in China.

The frightening thing about this is that many of us who touch on political commentary now and again could easily be amongst those in jail were we operating in a different regime such as Guo Qizhen in China. What did he do to deserve that? Well, basically he posted comments to the effect that it was time for the death-knell to be sounded for the Chinese regime. Sure, that’s anti-government and I suppose you could say that it was a dissident comment, but who amongst us hasn’t criticised our various governments from time to time?

Freedom of expression is something that all of us in democratic societies take for granted. Given the examples of what can happen when that freedom isn’t there, we should make sure that this freedom is defended at every opportunity.

Popularity: 2% [?]