Boingboing linked to a story of a New York Times reporter being held hostage in a Chinese toy factory. It illustrates the dysfunctional nature of Chinese authority. Basically, the almighty dollar trumps government authority.
It also reaffirms the story I’ve heard about Chinese police always doing their best to do absolutely nothing. Seems pretty consistent with my own observations of China.
I cringed when I learned that Bellsouth would use the AT&T name. Though the new AT&T has little in common with the AT&T of old (aside from wanting to own the world), the name carries baggage for me. When I was in charge of phones at one former company, I was shocked to discover that AT&T had slammed my company – switching fourteen of our phone lines to their long distance service without our approval. I was so furious that I immediately filed a complaint with the N.C. Public Utilities Commission, after which an AT&T lawyer called to soothe my nerves. Had my employer not imploded days later (making the whole matter moot), I would have pressed the Commission to drop the hammer on AT&T. A similar case in Texas had recently cost a slamming telco $1.4 million. Seemed like a good starting point to me.
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