Onderdrukking = winst

Hier in het Westen zwaaien we graag met ons vingertje naar dictatoriale regimes. Via de voordeur geven we waarschuwingen af en doen we verontwaardigd als er weer eens een opstand in bloed wordt gesmoord. Via de achterdeur helpen we deze regimes gewoon in het zadel te blijven. Simpelweg omdat we daar veel geld aan verdienen. De Electronic Frontier Foundation is het zeer mooie initatief gestart om eens in kaart te brengen welke Westerse bedrijven profiteren van de onderdrukking van complete bevolkingsgroepen. Zo dadelijk het overzicht.

Al deze bedrijven hebben een ‘corporate responsibility’-beleid. Nu ben ik op dat punt nogal een scepticus en zie dat soort beleidjes vooral als ‘kijk ons ook eens iets goed doen’-praatjes. Eentje zegt bijvoorbeeld: “We seek to bring benefits to people globally by using the power of Motorola’s world-wide business. We strive always to do the right thing in everything we do. This is our corporate responsibility.” Of deze hoogpraat: “Oracle works actively to address community needs and improve the quality of life in the communities in which it does business. Preferring to solve problems, rather than manage their consequences, Oracle Corporation and its employees focus on bringing about positive change in four key areas: education, giving, community partnerships, and volunteerism.”

Goed, en nu de praktijk:

• Cisco: Cisco’s deep involvement in the building of China’s Golden Shield Project has been admitted by the company. Cisco’s involvement has even already been raised before Congress, including the fact that Cisco engineers gave a presentation acknowledging the repressive uses for their technology that quoted their Chinese government buyers as saying that Cisco’s products could be used to “combat ‘Falun Gong’ evil religion and other hostiles”. The UK’s Guardian reports that Cisco provides over 60% of all routers, switches, and network gear to China and estimates that Cisco makes $500 million annually from China.
• Nortel: Rolling Stone and The Guardian report that Nortel has sold hardware to aid the Golden Shield Project for surveillance and censorship purposes, including working with Tsinghua University to develop speech recognition software to monitor telephone conversations.
• Oracle: Business Week reports that Oracle has sold software to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security for criminal and ideological investigations. Oracle admits that one-third of its business in China is with the government.
• Motorola: Business Week also reports that Motorola sold the Chinese authorities handheld devices for street cops to tap into ‘sophisticated data repositories’ on Chinese citizens.
• EMC: Business Week also reports that EMC sold ‘sophisticated data repositories’ to the Chinese public security authorities. The top EMC executive in Beijing is quoted as saying, “We can expect big revenue from public security agencies in China.”
• Sybase: Business Week also reports that Sybase sells database programs to the Shanghai police.
• L-1 Identity Solutions: Rolling Stone reports that this Connecticut-based biometrics company sold software to Chinese companies that aids government officials in identifying individuals for purposes of criminal investigations.

Bron: EFF

Het enige dat helpt is naming and shaming. Hierbij mijn bescheiden bijdrage. Shame on you! Met Nortel zijn we in goede handen… Waarom trouwens toch altijd weer zo’n Engels mannetje?