I. China
13/11/10 12:30:17 "Only Britain can beg for scraps from China and tell them how to behave" | Simon Jenkins | Comment is free | The Guardian
13/11/10 12:34:18 David Cameron says he will drum up China trade & tackle human rights. "It is an exercise in bluff concealing hypocrisy"
13/11/10 13:09:55 But, Mr Jenkins, why is it that nary a word has emerged from people like yourself in the media concerning Toxic Surveillance used in London for 12+ years to imprison, torture, carry out medical experiments, surveillance R&D and attempt to execute 24/7/365 during all these years? You could add that to your list here:
"One day perhaps China will have enough of this posturing and send a return delegation to London. Before discussing British lingerie exports, the Chinese will profess a "deep concern" at Britain's prison overcrowding, control orders, housing benefit reform and cap on student fees. They will "raise awareness" of Abu Hamza's detention, the persecution of asylum-seeking children and house flipping by MPs."
"Finally the delegation might beg advice on democracy. How can they arrange for seats in the houses of parliament to be sold to wealthy businessmen, or handed down from father to son? How could an election be fixed so the party that comes third finds itself in power? And perhaps Cameron could lend Beijing his admirable Mr Gove, to advise on the dictatorial centralisation of the Tibetan education service."
II. Spartacus
13/11/10 12:25:00 I am not nor ever will be Spartacus. I think the judge made the correct decision. Now, we have Yasmin Alibhai-Brown targeted with a "joke" threat to stone her to death
13/11/10 13:48:00 "Spartacus:" universal values are freedom, love, hope, & finally life itself. Oppression & slavery strip these away
13/11/10 13:53:27 In the winter of 1959 when I had just turned 16, I read Howard Fast's 1951 novel "Spartacus." At at that time I was studying Roman history and wrote a paper about it for my Roman humanities class. It was not part of the curriculum. I just read this on my own and submitted this paper when one was due. This occurred in the deep south some 35 miles east of Atlanta, Georgia at the original campus of Emory University which had by then moved to Atlanta. The essence of Spartacus was slavery and freedom which was very much a suppressed issue at that time in the deep south of the US. The following year I saw the film when it first came out.
Slavery takes on different forms, and I view this use of the phrase "I am Spartacus" to violate the essence of what Spartacus has come to symbolise. No one can make extreme threatening comments publicly as was done in this instance or more recently against Yasmin Alibhai-Brown without being held accountable and responsible. The judge has made the correct decision in this case. Those who have opposed this decision have enslaved themselves as part of a tyrannical mob who approves jokes about bombing when Spartacus represents the essence of opposition to such tyranny that was engendered in the "joke" Tweet.
http://bit.ly/ciIVV7 "Spartacus' " "central theme is that man's most basic universal values are freedom, love, hope, and finally life itself. Oppression and slavery strip these away from man. . ."
III. Toxic Surveillance
13/11/10 15:04:12 JRN 320 - Promise and Perils of Online Journalism: WaPost Exec Editor Marcus Brauchli and "Top Secret America"
13/11/10 11:22:29 I'm glad to see this particular example of today's journalism being brought to journalism schools giving students an opportunity to hear directly from Marcus Brauchli about what I consider to be the most profound problem in the world today that is comprehensively presented to Washington Post readers by the use of technology and the Internet. The importance of what the Post has done in terms of content and method (form?) will take a considerable amount of time to sink in fully, but such an appreciation will inevitably occur precisely because of the technology used to communicate and the interaction it makes possible.
One of the key reasons that Top Secret America is so important has to do with his statement: “The most powerful officials have virtually no power to compel a news organization not to publish something.” If what those in power want suppressed cannot be achieved by legal means, the essence of Top Secret America that has yet to be exposed will cause to happen by its dirty tricks based upon technology that is far beyond the willingness of most to accept although it is known and described, and I don't mean simple hacking.
What the Washington Post has been able to do at this point in time will be seen, I believe, as the pivotal point between the old world of struggling to publish the truth against a recalcitrant power and a new world where that struggle will encounter the ability to know ("intelligence") turned against a domestic population in advance and in order to sabotage in such a manner that censorship is achieved. Any effort to try to describe what is happening will be ridiculed especially by those carrying out the dirty tricks.
Why I like to see this being brought to the journalism schools as here means that today's students have a choice about how they want to pursue their careers in the future in light of what Top Secret America represents in both content and method of communication. It will take a lot of study to grasp the meaning of this fully, but then that is the job of the students. I just hope that this can be brought to as many schools as possible if Mr Brauchli has the time which I'm sure he doesn't. Well, there is the technology and Top Secret American at the Post with its searchable database.
I'm just wondering when Marcus Brauchli will start chipping away at the essence of Toxic Surveillance (a product of Top Secret America) to stop its abuse by publishing it?
