Continuously Denied

I'm not one of those people who updates their status every hour on Facebook, or plays games on there, pokes people or posts albums full of pictures.

Instead I use the social networking site to keep in touch with friends and family, find out what people are doing and in turn let them know I'm doing OK.

However, the National Day celebrations have come and gone, November is fast approaching, and we still don't have access to websites like Twitter and Facebook.

My colleague said to me earlier this week that since the July 5 riots broke out in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, this has been the longest period the Chinese government has blocked specific websites.

Many of us thought that after the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China that we would surely get our freedom back to posting our status on these social networking sites. But the government has thought otherwise, which sends a disturbing and disappointing signal.

While having access to social networking sites may seem frivolous, it is the concept of getting back access to something that was blocked earlier. We've been good boys and girls, right? What have we done to deserve this continuing punishment?

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have their own Facebook pages, albeit created by their fans... don't they want people to know what they're up to?