Current Information#
Time Period: 25/01/01-07
Keywords: information transparency, power supervision, pension, wealth disparity, labor rights, sexual minorities, information communities, air disaster, satellite communication
Table of Contents#
- 【Sweden Achieves Digitalization and Openness of Citizen Information】(Sweden, information transparency, supervision, trust) https://www.zhihu.com/question/655381910/answer/38332698445?utm_psn=1858948831967862786
- 【Completely Open Swedish Personal Information】(Sweden, information transparency, personal information, supervision) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Sz93StmPcO86hyVWq9NF-Q
- 【Huang Jisu: Why is the Speed of Wealth Concentration Among a Few People So Fast?】(wealth disparity, class disparity, modern history) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/uq1Cvk5xhV9iwfGnkFid5g
- 【10 Reasons to Raise Farmers' Basic Pension to 1000 Yuan】(farmers, pension, redistribution) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/domhjlZis7dqENklOxxXpA
- 【A Company in Jilin Issues "Consumption Vouchers" Instead of Salaries】(labor rights, salary) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9Vy-G-cvfQ7EE-3A2O_teg
- 【Thailand - The Promised Land for Chinese Transgender People】(sexual minorities, transgender, gender reassignment surgery) https://www.twreporter.org/a/frontlinefellowship-chinese-transgenders-promised-land-thailand
- 【Information Communities in Participatory Culture】(information science, information communities, information community) https://emilymossportfolio.com/information-communities-in-participatory-culture/
- 【Some Chinese Airlines' Flights Avoid Southern Russian Airspace】(Russia, air disaster, national image) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LN36-FMTZWQnOx6YFgPCqA
- 【China Conducted the World's First Satellite-Based Ultra-Remote Surgery】(satellite communication, internet, technological innovation) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FfSS4TldZL3-ce447Pj80g
#1【Sweden Achieves Digitalization and Openness of Citizen Information】#
(Sweden, information transparency, supervision, trust) https://www.zhihu.com/question/655381910/answer/38332698445?utm_psn=1858948831967862786
Why does such a thing exist? The fundamental reason is that the design intention of a society like Sweden is to be a "gentleman society," which on the surface is a country highly constrained by rules and laws, but at its core is based on trust and consensus. It assumes that in a highly transparent and organized society, everyone will cautiously use their rights and freedoms. For example, it assumes that you would not go and humiliate someone by saying "Ha, you poor thing, you only earn this much" when you know your neighbor's income is lower than yours, just as it assumes that I would not harm that HR person when I know her father has passed away.
Notes#
I think this is a possibility for future society: equal transparency, equal supervision. In fact, one effective use of blockchain is to mimic Sweden's population number system to create a national citizen personal information registration and disclosure system. The information of the entire population would be recorded in a public blockchain system, allowing unconditional (or symbolically charged) queries of any citizen, permanent resident, immigrant, international student, or work visa holder's personal information. Queries would also be real-name based, so whoever queries would be known, and the queried party could freely check the other party. Extending this, it could also be used for public supervision of bureaucrats and public power. There are always claims that senior officials in certain government departments are corrupt in canteens. Relying on the blockchain system, it could achieve full transparency in registering the salaries, benefits, and rank treatment of that government department. The contractor company for the department's canteen would be publicly searchable; the contractor's legal representative, contracting records, responsible person, and contract price would all be publicly searchable; the personal information of the legal representative and responsible person would also be publicly searchable. Similarly, this system could be applied to schools, enterprises, and institutions. Anyone who dares to engage in corruption through the dining business would be obvious. Let's call this query system "One Chain for All Queries."
The trust relationship based on equal information transparency can effectively reduce social friction costs caused by a lack of trust due to information opacity (i.e., unequal transparency), reducing time and resource consumption and improving overall social efficiency. Based on kinship and geographical location, such as in previous rural communities where everyone knew each other well, good or bad news spread quickly. Based on this locality of information transparency, people naturally would not dare to engage in any underhanded or openly corrupt activities. This is a pre-atomized society, or in situations of low population mobility, where trust (credit) systems formed by family, close relatives, and fellow townspeople suppress the likelihood of behaviors that harm others' interests.
For example, today I urgently need a large sum of money—say, I was suddenly bitten by a dog, requiring rabies passive immunization and vaccination, costing around a thousand yuan. But since I have no cash on hand, all my money is in investment funds, and I can't withdraw it immediately, I need to borrow money from others in an emergency. However, apart from family and old classmates, even if you claim you can pay back quickly, online friends or less familiar classmates are still unwilling to lend you a thousand yuan at once. But if your annual income and asset information are transparent, with a good credit record, banks and financial institutions, friends, and family can verify your claims at any time, then borrowing money (including for medical emergencies) would not be difficult.
Alipay provides loans to individual businesses and small consumer loans based on income and expenditure records, doing what banks are unwilling to do, facilitating these two groups of people.
"The Poor Man's Banker" also discusses a way to achieve effective mutual supervision and trust through binding credit relationships among fellow townspeople (residents of the same area): everyone's interests are on the same battle vehicle, and no one can leave the team arbitrarily. This method is essentially based on local information transparency and trust relationships. Financial capital undermines and attacks these inclusive financial services aimed at the poor because financial capital cannot obtain the profits from the interest margin and liquidity of the poor.
#2【Completely Open Swedish Personal Information】#
(Sweden, information transparency, personal information, supervision) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Sz93StmPcO86hyVWq9NF-Q
As for personal information, as long as you have a population number in Sweden, almost all personal information is open and can be accessed by anyone. Your name, address, house value, birthday, income, vehicle, and all information about cohabitants are public!
#3【Huang Jisu: Why is the Speed of Wealth Concentration Among a Few People So Fast?】#
(wealth disparity, class disparity, modern history) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/uq1Cvk5xhV9iwfGnkFid5g
A friend invited me to Tianjin, saying there are the former residences of Liang Qichao and Li Shutong. I said let's just go to these two places. The former residence of Liang Qichao has two Western-style buildings; the first one was built two or three years after the Xinhai Revolution, and later another building for reading and writing, known as the "Ice Drinking Room," was added. Liang Qichao was neither a businessman nor a professional politician; I believe his aspirations were for the people and knowledge. But such a mansion still surprised me; I think it has reference value for modern intellectual history and modern social history: why is the speed of wealth concentration among a few people so fast?
#4【10 Reasons to Raise Farmers' Basic Pension to 1000 Yuan】#
(farmers, pension, redistribution) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/domhjlZis7dqENklOxxXpA
Currently, the average basic pension for elderly people over 60 in rural areas is less than 200 yuan/month. In my large province of Sichuan, which has a large population and is also a major agricultural/migrant worker province, the current basic pension is only 128 yuan/month, and this is after the increase in 2023. In contrast, the average pension for enterprise employees is just over 3000 yuan, while the average pension for civil servants and public institution employees is over 6000 yuan, meaning that a civil servant's monthly pension is equivalent to four years' worth of a Sichuan farmer's pension.
#5【A Company in Jilin Issues "Consumption Vouchers" Instead of Salaries】#
(labor rights, salary) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9Vy-G-cvfQ7EE-3A2O_teg
Insiders told reporters that these consumption vouchers are essentially internal circulation vouchers of the company. The employees involved also stated that these consumption vouchers are issued in the name of salaries and are not additional year-end benefits; the designated consumption locations are actually another mall operated by the company's boss.
#7【Information Communities in Participatory Culture】#
(information science, information communities, information community) https://emilymossportfolio.com/information-communities-in-participatory-culture/
In the literature, information pools are considered "online information products that contain a combination of inputs accessible to a large number of individuals... Contemporary examples of information pools include... various discussion groups, forums, and online communities" (Flanagin, Hocevar, & Samahito, 2013, p. 1). The authors suggest information communities as an example of information pools, but their definition only references the information itself without mentioning the practical culture that aids its integration. Durrance and Fisher's description of information communities refers to participants describing information users and information providers, and implicitly viewing individual agency as a crucial behavior for community functionality, including technological development, the elimination of geographical boundaries, and cooperation among members (Durrance & Fisher, 2003). So, what is missing in Durrance and Fisher's concept of information communities, as evidenced by the real-world behaviors and practices we observe in our studied communities?
#8【Some Chinese Airlines' Flights Avoid Southern Russian Airspace】#
(Russia, air disaster, national image) https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LN36-FMTZWQnOx6YFgPCqA
Notes#
The collapse of national image is difficult to recover.