In the context of the environment, I posted the other day that I thought China’s leaders would use technology to fight corruption within government ranks. It seems that some anti-corruption officials are thinking laterally as, just a day or two later, the news broke that the government has funded the release of a computer game in which players are encouraged to kill and torture corrupt officials…. Naturally, to save embarrassing the Communist Party, the game is set in the past, in the time of the Emperors – but that won’t stop the message getting through.
China Digital Times discuss it here, pointing out that (as a responsible game should), the game automatically shuts off after two hours so that younger players won’t be online for unhealthy periods.
According to the BBC, the game has been so popular that the servers have been overloaded. The same article also quotes a professor from Beijing University, Wang Xiongjun, who complains: “Government officials should be the ones getting anti-corruption education, not local youngsters“. While that’s no doubt also true, the way to change a culture is to educate the young, no? And perhaps this game will contribute to that.
According to China CSR blog, the game has been sponsored not by the central government or party, but by “Ningbo Haishu District Discipline Inspection Commission and Haishu District Ximen Street Party Working Committee” – which, China Digital Times clarifies, is in Zhejiang Province. What might happen if Beijing decided to follow suit?
That computer game is a great idea. And if kids have made it a hit, then it is a great project indeed. You’re right, hope is in the young ones. I just wish they do something like that here in the Philippines, where young and old people alike have become inured to the corruption that goes on around them. In some places, it has even become the “lifestyle.”
Nino
BTW, can I link this to my blog? Thanks.
Hi Nino,
Thanks for the comment – and by all means link to your blog!
It’s probably too late to get corrupt officials to change their ways willingly; increasing their fear of detection and punishment is probably the only way left there, and technology can help do that. However, educating the young that corruption is wrong and contemptible may help kill the problem at its root in the next generation…
[...] here’s one suggestion that I found in Trigram. Perhaps school administrators can try out something like that computer [...]
[...] here’s one suggestion that I found in Trigram. Perhaps school administrators can try out something like that computer [...]