THE AGE - FAIRFAX MEDIA - AND LETTER-WRITING TANGLED WEBS!!

The Age newspaper has been trying to tell its readers - old and new - how independent they are, and this large advert in recent papers is to persuade us that we really can accept that items published in Farifax appear without fear or favour!

Preserve us from such pious platitudes!

After a lifetime of reading newspapers in many countries and experiencing the downgrading of journalism and reporting in Fairfax in recent years, we can but despair that papers which were so good in past eras can be so bad in the current times that they cannot be trusted to tell the truth, nor to report - critically - matters which should be analysed, dissected, discussed and show honesty and lack of bias.

For many years of my long life I wrote letters to newspapers in whichever country I happened to be living in, and the topics were many and varied. I used to get letters published from time to time and certainly one's expectations were based on the fact that space for letters has always been limited and the number of letter-writers has been rising over time.

However, many years ago, when I was living in Sydney and writing letters on a regular basis to the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and which were just as regularly not ever published, a reader - and writer of letters - wrote in to say - and it was a published letter - that he or she had written about 100 letters to the SMH in a certain period of time and a certain number had been published - and was that a record?

So I wrote a letter to the SMH - which was of course NOT published! - stating that I had written about 100 letters in that same period of time, and NOT ONE had been published, and I was sure that was a record!

I also accused the letters editor of keeping a little black book with the names of people whose letters were not to be published, and the letters editor of the time had a weekly review column on letters sent in to the paper, and my black book suggestion was utterly refuted with all sorts of justifications given as to why my letters may not have got themselves published.

All nonsense, of course! My letters were not published in the SMH - and later not in The Age in Melbourne - because the respective letters editors and their chief editors didn't like what I had said on certain topics and they were certainly not going to print those letters!

So, back to the huge advert above of Fairfax damning themselves with this rubbish and also the following items which have been appearing in The Age since Saturday 28 September 2013:

********************************

Never too serious or silly for poised pen

Date

September 28, 2013

Alex Kaplan

Each morning Myra Fisher reads the front page of The Age, thinks ''Bugger that …'', and fires off another missive to the editor.
With almost 500 letters to her name in the past 15 years, it's no surprise she has taken up the mantle of legendary late letter-writer Constance E. Little.

Myra Fisher has had her 10 pennies' worth for 30 years. Photo: Michael Clayton-Jones

For Mrs Fisher, having her ''10 pennies' worth'' is her sport. ''I love it,'' she says. ''I pit my wits against politicians, against sportsmen, against radio announcers.''

Like Constance E. Little, who when her health was failing contacted Mrs Fisher asking her to keep up the penmanship, no topic is too serious or too silly to tackle.

Mrs Fisher has shot politicians (Amanda Vanstone) out of cannons and given them the rude finger. She's dished out advice on the cooking of Patagonian tooth fish (fried better than poached) and observed the delight of a kiss (I said to my husband of 54 years, ''Kiss me like you used to''. He did. Oh, what joy!)

Being a leftie, she has not hesitated to give a tick to Julia Gillard (After a long labour - it's a girl!) or a kick to Tony Abbott (Face it, Tony, women are just ''not that into you''.)

The Letters page, she says, gives ordinary people a place like no other to have a voice. ''It's a forum, and it's a democracy. I can have my little say, and how wonderful is that? I mean, I'm nobody.''

Myra Fisher was born in London's East End in 1931, the daughter of Jewish migrants. She left school at 15 and trained as a hairdresser.

''I'm not highly educated but highly attuned,'' she says.

Her family journeyed to Melbourne as ''10-pound Poms'' when she was 17. Three years later, after a five-month courtship, she married Ron Fisher. ''He was so handsome - it was 'lust' at first sight!''
They raised a son and two daughters, one of whom died in 2001, aged 45.

Her observations, at 82 and a grandmother of five, often move her to write. ''The world has changed,'' she says. ''We've got to go along with it.''

A discussion this year about the unwillingness of men to wed prompted a longer, more personal letter about Ron, who died on St Valentine's Day this year.

''My husband volunteered into the navy when he was 17 … he spent his 21st birthday alone on guard duty at Chatham Barracks. What a man he was. Responsible and funny and mature.

''I look at my grandsons, and I love them to bits, but they're boys.''

When Mrs Fisher began writing to The Age more than three decades ago, she would read out letters on the phone to the paper's copytaker to type up. But as the internet age dawned, she refused to be left behind.

The prospect of making people chuckle keeps her going.

''Such a miserable bloody world some mornings, you wake up and read the paper. So if you can bring a smile to somebody's face, how lovely is that?''

Her occupation as a letter writer has taken on a life of its own. She burst into tears upon hearing from Constance E. Little. ''I was just knocked out.''

Having a letter published is a privilege, she says. ''I don't take that lightly.''

Alex Kaplan is Letters Co-editor.

Pardon me for mentioning… Unpublished letters to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald (Allen & Unwin) is available now. RRP $24.99

 **********************

 

Our passionate people of letters

Date

September 28, 2013

•  

Elizabeth Minter

Julia Blunden was 11 when she first started voicing her strong opinions as a primary school student. Her contributions to ABC radio's Argonauts Club were regularly read out on air.

More than 50 years later, Julia is still trying to influence public opinion, regularly writing letters to the editor on issues close to her heart such as public transport and climate change. Writing letters to the editor is a family affair in many Age readers' households. Julia's husband, Ralph, who has a master's in moral philosophy and a doctorate in education, is also a regular contributor. Occasionally the couple discuss issues and suggest improvements to each other's letters, but there is little rivalry in who gets published. ''We tend to stick to our areas of knowledge,'' says Ralph Blunden. ''While I used to write long-winded missives, I have learnt over the years to be much more succinct.''

Peter Allan, another regular over the past decade, says his introduction to The Age was through Odd Spot: ''In high school my friends and I would go to the library at lunchtime and get a chuckle each day.'' Allan says The Age then became ''my paper''. Just like some people can't start the day without a shower or a cup of coffee, ''I can't start the day without my Age''.

Peter Allan and his daughter, Kate, are both regular letter writers to The Age. Photo: Angela Wylie
He is also pleased to claim some credit for inspiring a new generation of writers.

His daughter, Kate, 23, a history honours student, recently had her first Age letter published, while his son and some of their friends have also picked up their pens in the cause.

''I am encouraged that I have helped inspire the next generation to get involved and not just sit on the sidelines.''

Kate Allan says that knowing her father had been published gave her confidence to start contributing. Gen Y representatives regularly join in online debates but Allan says there is something special about an argument being printed. ''What you are saying just doesn't disappear into cyberspace and there is much more accountability.''

Matthew Van Wees had his first letter published as a 14-year-old, when he made a cricket wisecrack about John Howard and Shane Warne.

In a remarkable show of perseverance, he continued to send in letters for another eight years before he was published again. Now a pharmacist, Matthew, 24, and his brother Nathan, 22, who has also begun contributing, indulge in some healthy sibling rivalry. Matthew is currently just pipping his brother in the publication stakes.

Letters that are accurate, factual and topical help a writer get published. Writer Barbara Chapman, for example, always provides references for claims made in her letters and regularly champions the causes of the voiceless in society, such as refugees and domestic violence victims. About seven years ago, after witnessing several disturbing events in adult education where she worked, she received a letter from a senior bureaucrat warning her not to speak publicly. ''I was initially intimidated … but about 12 months later, I reclaimed my voice. And the warning had the reverse effect.''

She began writing to the paper more regularly. ''Silence is consent, and I couldn't be silent in the face of institutional misconduct. It can be a formidable task to get another perspective out there because of the power imbalance in society, but that is why the Letters page is so important. It is one of the last bastions of democracy and truth.''

Some letter writers express frustration with what they see as a perceived bias of the page. They believe that while readership of the newspaper would be evenly split between Coalition and Labor/Green voters, the letters do not reflect this, with a far higher proportion criticising the Coalition than Labor.

However, letters are published in strict proportion to the numbers received on any topic. Recently, for example, The Age received more than 80 letters critical of the Abbott government's male-dominated cabinet, while just over 10 letters backed the new Prime Minister's decision to have just one woman.

Barrister Douglas Potter believes the page falls for party-political campaigning. ''People have obviously been given a script with talking points and the writers make those same points. I don't think it is a coincidence that so many letters are published on a certain topic from day to day.''

Thomas Hogg, an economist who has been writing letters for more than a decade, is dismayed by what he calls an appalling understanding of economics generally, but especially from politicians and opinion makers.

As a public servant - he headed up two state government departments and was the chief executive of the Australian Manufacturing Council - he was constrained from speaking publicly. But when Jeff Kennett came to power and Hogg was made redundant, he became free to comment. He also believes the page is too heavily biased towards ''inner-city lefties''.

Potter also dislikes the anonymous contributions allowed by other media. ''If you really believe something, you should stand up and be counted.'' Yet newly published writers can feel daunted. Kate Allan said she felt good at having her letter published, ''but it soon turned to a feeling of paranoia that someone might cut down what I said''.

''Because I am still quite young I am a probably a little more thin-skinned than older writers.''

This is why Chapman has respect for letter writers. ''They care enough to write in, even though they can expose themselves to possible ridicule, contempt or even hostility.''

But despite the brickbats and bouquets, one message is consistent: the desire to be heard and make a difference to society lies at the heart of most writers' motivations.

The importance of the page to readers as they go about their daily life is also a common theme. Says Peter Allan: ''I like the fact that the page is a conversation with a lot of people. It is like attending a rally when a few hundred or even a few thousand people attend. The rally might not achieve much but when you see a huge crowd of people that hold the same values as you, it feels good to know you are not fighting these issues alone.''

Allan believes readers have a strong sense of ownership of the page. That writers are regularly allowed to criticise actions taken, or articles published, by the paper adds to its integrity, he says.
At its most basic, ''everyone writes in because they are trying to make the world a better place, even though we do not all agree on how to do that''.

Pardon me for mentioning… Unpublished letters to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald (Allen & Unwin) is available now. RRP $24.99

 

******************************

 In your own write

(editorial theage 300913)

Many are called, but few are chosen. Thus the eternal quandary of contributing to the letters-to-the-editor pages of The Age. Conversely, our letters editors, Liz Minter and Alex Kaplan, are faced with the daily task of selecting perhaps 25 letters out of about 300 submitted for publication.

It is no coincidence that The Age's editorials and our readers' letters share this space: the harmony of our opinions chiming with your opinions may contain more than a few dissonances, but this is exactly why we have always encouraged and valued your correspondence. Letters (emails, more likely) are as vital to newspapers as audiences are to a performance: without them, there can be no way to gauge the public mood - be it supportive or conflicting.

This week, some of our unsuccessful letter writers of the recent past finally receive their moment in the sun via a whole book devoted to their efforts. Pardon me for mentioning … is a compendium of unpublished letters to The Age and our sister paper, The Sydney Morning Herald. Edited by Ms Kaplan and her Herald counterparts, Julie Lewis and Catharine Munro, this book is not just an excuse to run resuscitated dead letters. It is a reminder of the diversity of opinion, quirks and foibles and downright common sense that lurks within the Fairfax readership.

On Saturday, we caught up with some of The Age's legion of letter writers - a breed that crosses generations and many differences of opinion. What they have in common, apart from their addiction to playing letter-lotto, is the desire to be heard and to make a difference. We salute them all, especially the indefatigable Myra Fisher, of East Brighton, who has written almost 500 letters to The Age in the past 15 years. To all of you: keep writing!

*******************************

How fortunate

(letter in theage 300913)

As a fellow ''letter writer'', it was nice to put a face to your name, Myra Fisher (''Never too serious or silly for poised pen'', 28/9), and to read of the general acknowledgment for the ''passionate people of letters'' (Insight, 28/9). Whenever I submit a letter to the editor, regardless of whether it's published, I feel privileged; just as I do every time I go to the ballot box to vote. I am deeply aware of how blessed we are in Australia to not only have the freedom to express our views, but to be encouraged to do so. How many worldwide would give everything to have this right, and in fact, often do so?
Janine Joseph, Prahran East

****************************

Some years ago, when the fact that newspapers were not prepared to publish my letters became more and more apparent, I started a web page called Unpublished Letters, and managed to publish letters which needed to be out there and which had been ignored. Recently I have not been as driven to write letters to the media because I have developed my web pages more and more to reflect my politics, and the urgency of the main stream media has diminished.

 

STAR OBSERVER ACCEPTS BLOOD MONEY FROM ZIONISTS

As a Star Observer shareholder, I object in the strongest possible terms to an organisation like the Star Observer being prepared to enter the partisan world of Middle East politics by showing its support for Israel at the expense of Palestine in the ongoing battle for that stretch of territory in Palestine/Israel.


The Star has not been given a mandate by shareholders to enter this sphere of politics and has presumably only done so in order to raise money for the operation of the Star Observer.

The following is an open letter to the Star Observer editor who obviously has no intention of responding to our complaints and we will be forced to take our complaints to the Star Observer Board in order to stop this sort of "advertisement" ever being accepted again!


Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity,
PO Box 1675
Preston South
Vic 3072

In January 2013, the Star Observer carried an advertisement from the Jewish National Fund  seeking funds for tree plantings in Israel and - unstated - in the occupied Palestinian territories. We objected to the advertisement then (shown in the letter below) and we object even more strongly to the advertisement - again! - on page 10 of the Star Observer edition 1193 of 20 September 2013. The Star Observer is accepting such an advertisement which is blood money - the blood of Palestinians in the West Bank occupied by Israel since 1967.

Are the readers of the Star Observer Israeli citizens? Are they  zionist supporters? Is the Star Observer so desperate for funds that it has to resort to this sort of  advertising?

We received no response last time and we believe it is time the Star Observer answered the issues raised.

The zionist community will do anything to show that it is "gay" friendly and the JNF in Australia designed this advertisement for that purpose.

Please ensure that this advertisement does not appear ever  again in the Star Observer.

Mannie De Saxe

FROM ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN'S BLOG, 26 SEPTEMBER 2013

http://antonyloewenstein.com/2013/09/26/reality-of-water-starved-palestinians-in-occupied-palestine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99UeSjIotXQ

------------------------------------------------------------

23 January 2013

STAR OBSERVER JOINS AUSTRALIAN ZIONISTS

The latest edition of the Star Observer dated Friday 18 January 2013 carries a prominent page 2 advertisement from the Jewish National Fund.
As you can see from the picture below the graphic shows two trees with stick people below and the colouring of the trees from left to right is -you guessed it - rainbow colours to show that zionists are gay-friendly!

The impression given by the advert is that the Jewish National Fund (JNF) (remember the Blue Boxes in every Jewish household to collect money to plant trees in Israel?) has saved Israel from the desert and created a "cleaner and greener legacy"
Oh, the hypocrisy!!!
What the advert doesn't tell you is that it the JNF is supporting planting trees in the illegal settlement areas of the west bank, where Israelis steal Palestinian land on a daily basis, apartheid intensifies criminally and the JNF trees are watered with water reserves stolen from the Palestinians for the illegal settlements!
The advert tells you how gay friendly the JNF is, but doesn't tell you that after the elections in Israel on 22 January 2013 the religious right will have more control of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) and that they are not exactly gay friendly!
And this is now supported by the Star Observer who were no doubt paid a large sum of money for the advert to be placed so prominently in the paper.
Send your protests loud and clear to the editor of the Star Observer and tell the editor that blood money is unacceptable!
I have sent the following letter to the editor of the Star Observer as a protest on behalf of Lesbian and Gay Soldarity:
I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms to the Star Observer accepting an advertisment form a zionist organisation such as the Jewish National Fund which is an organisation using blood money to pay for the advertisment.
On top of this travesty, the advertisement purports to support the gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV (GLTH) communities by showing trees and stick people in rainbow colours. In reality, the rabid right-wing reactionary government of Israel is controlled by religious political parties which are endeavouring to ban all aspects of acceptance of GLTH groups into the life of the Israeli communities.
The Jewish National Fund is one of those groups which plants trees in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, is instrumental in securing water to water these trees and depriving the Palestinian citizens of their rightful use of their own waters which are diverted for the use of the illegal settlers.
Please ensure that the Star Observer does not ever again accept advertisements from such organisations.
On top of everything else the advertisement appears on page 2 of the issue of 18 January 2013 in one of the most prominent positions available.

editor@starobserver.com.au

ART AND CENSORSHIP IN 2013 AUSTRALIA - AND WE ALSO CENSOR THE WORDS SEX AND FUCK!

Maybe we are reverting to the dark ages when the "masses" were illiterate and knowledge was limited and education was only for the very privileged.

Those days are over? Well, not exactly!

A current art exhibition which is showing at an art gallery in Melbourne uses the fuck word in its title. But this word is forbidden to the Melburnians because the newspapers publicising information about the exhibition are writing the word as f--k! Oh dear, how pathetic!

In a separate but unrelated episode, a very famous "left-wing" blog has censored out the use of the word sex, sending it out in articles as "s-x".

These are both examples of self-censorship and what we were very accustomed to in South Africa during the apartheid police state years.

When are they all going to grow up and stop doing the work of the censors for them. What, after all, are they paid for? In any event the new conservative government will be even more reactionary than the previous conservative government, and censorship will soon increase even more alarmingly.

Here are two recent articles from The Age newspaper about artist Paul Yore and his new exhibition and his forthcoming prosecution of a previous exhibition on grounds of child pornography after ONE complaint from a member of the public who paid for admission to a gallery to be able to make the complaint:

Legal action spurs artist to continue

Date

September 10, 2013

•  

Dewi Cook

Paul Yore, artist, was charged by Victoria Police after officers seized some of his artwork from a St Kilda gallery for child porn. Seen here with his latest piece.

Paul Yore with his latest work, Fountain of Knowledge. Photo: Jason South
Melbourne artist Paul Yore, who will face court in November on charges of possessing and producing child pornography, has vowed to continue creating art that deals with his recurrent themes of sex and popular culture.
Ahead of two new exhibitions of his work in Melbourne and Sydney, Yore has spoken about the impact of the controversial seizure of pieces from his Everything is F---ed installation at St Kilda's Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts in June.
''With the police raid, that's a response that I could have never imagined for the work,'' he told Fairfax Media.
''But in a weird way, in dealing with the despair of the situation that I'm currently in, what I've taken from it is a reaffirmation of the need to make such work, the need to put things together from society that shows and reveals what they are."
Police moved on the Linden exhibition after acting on a complaint from a member of the public, seizing parts of Yore's work that allegedly showed images of sex acts with children's faces superimposed.
In what is expected to become a landmark case testing the boundaries of artistic expression, charges were laid against Yore on Friday.
City gallery Neon Parc, whose owner Geoff Newton curated the Like Mike show at Linden featuring the controversial Yore work, will reveal Yore's latest piece Fountain of Knowledge on Wednesday. Made during a recent residency at the Australian Tapestry Workshop, the large, hand-stitched wall hanging is trademark Yore: figures frolic around a central phallus spraying a rainbow of beads and felt applique. It is bordered by squares spelling ''playland'' and ''dystopia''.
Mr Newton is also taking another Yore piece, a huge site-specific installation, to the inaugural Sydney Contemporary art fair next week.
Arts on Wednesday -Dan Rule speaks to Paul Yore, the man behind the controversy.

---

Psychedelic dystopia, a vision of our mad world

Date

September 11, 2013

•  

Dan Rule

Besieged artist Paul Yore challenges our pop-cultural prism.

 

Melbourne artist Paul Yore with a piece from his latest show, Fountain of Knowledge.
Paul Yore seems relieved to be talking about art.
Softly spoken and articulate, the 25-year-old prefaces his wildly colourful and expansive work with a particular consideration and scrutiny. Collecting, compiling and reconstituting discarded toys, consumerist objects, pop-cultural posters and texts, Yore's immersive sculptural installations and hyper-detailed needlepoint works have garnered acclaim in art circles for their playful broaching of identity politics, sexuality, consumerist excess and the power of vernacular images and texts.
''I've always seen text as an extension of the assemblage or collage, where you're taking disparate sources and mashing them together,'' he says of his work, which has been shown at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Gertrude Contemporary, Federation Square, various council and artist-run galleries, and will be on show at city gallery Neon Parc from Wednesday (although its official opening is Thursday night). ''I'm really obsessed by this idea that a Britney Spears lyric could be just as important as a Socratic fragment.''
The statement points to both the playfulness and critical intent of Yore's often homoerotic work, which acknowledges the power of language, pedagogy and the pervasiveness and implications of pop-cultural images and objects. In works such as his vast installation at the Substation gallery in Newport this February, shrines to Justin Bieber, urinating dildos, phallic totems, sensor-triggered robotics and sound and psychedelic needlepoint knotted and coalesced.
''There's definitely an archaeological or anthropological approach that runs through the work,'' says Yore, who studied painting and anthropology at Monash University. ''It's partly about the potential to transform what is depressing shit into something that at least acknowledges the meaninglessness and wastefulness of it.''
But it's the sexualised content within Yore's work that brought him all the wrong kind of publicity in June, when a segment of his installation, Everything is F---ed - showing at Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts in St Kilda as part of a tribute exhibition to the late Mike Brown (who in 1966 became the only Australian artist to be successfully prosecuted for obscenity) - was seized by police following a complaint from an audience member. Last Friday, days after the announcement of Yore's new show at Neon Parc, Fountain of Knowledge, he was charged with producing and possessing child pornography. The charges have rocked the Melbourne art world and several people, including prominent artist Juan Davila, have come out in defence of the young artist. Speaking on Monday, Neon Parc director Geoff Newton, who curated the exhibition from which Yore's works were seized and will show his work at the coming Sydney Contemporary art fair, said only that the charges ''will be vigorously defended''.
Acting on legal advice, Yore is unwilling to comment on the charges. However, Fountain of Knowledge, his large-scale felt-applique work for his exhibition at Neon Parc, suggests he's also unwilling to shy away from the homoerotic themes for which he's become known, with naked male figures dancing around a hot-pink phallic totem, the words ''playland'' and ''dystopia'' bordering the image.
Yore describes the work, which he created as part of a residency at the Australian Tapestry Workshop following the events at Linden, as ''rainbow coloured, psychedelic and a bit apocalyptic with dark undercurrents'', the dualistic qualities of place and culture playing out in a colourful schism.
''This particular piece is about language acquisition,'' says Yore. ''This idea that at a young age you're taught to make these linguistic differentiations and you're kind of stuck with that. And they're these really deep-rooted dualistic things, like male or female or colours that reduce an endless spectrum to this really limited set of categories, like red or green.''
Yore says that the events at Linden have only reaffirmed his commitment to making such work. ''With the police raid, that's a response that I could have never imagined for the work … in a weird way, in dealing with the despair of the situation that I'm currently in, what I've taken from it is a reaffirmation of the need to make such work, the need to put things together from society that shows and reveals what they really are.
''This new work is a response partly to what has happened,'' he says. ''I'm still willing to broach phallic imagery and homoerotic imagery in my work because that's not a crime.''
Fountain of Knowledge is on until October 5 at Neon Parc.

 

 

 

 

HOMOEROTIC? HOMOPHOBIC? HYPOCRITICAL? - AFL!

There are many thousands of people who are interested in sport. There are many thousands of people who watch sport. There are many thousands of people who play sport.

In all these thousands of people it is not possible according to the laws of probability that there are not several gay players involved on all sides of sport.

Despite all efforts over the years to change the climate of fear and hatred and homophobia existing in all sorts of sports at all levels, the Australian Football League - AFL - has not yet had any out or outed players in its ranks.

This defies statistics and the hopes and wishes of many players who are still locked in and hidden away in closets because there is too much fear to declare themselves in the public arena for fear of the consequences.

Brave will the first player be who shows he is prepared to weather the storm and show the world what gays in footy look like.

But, as the saying goes with so many aspects of our lives, "DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH!"

.........and enjoy the eye candy these homoerotic photos from our daily papers illustrate!

UNION OF POLICE STATES - USA, UK, AUSTRALIA, ISRAEL - AND MANY OTHERS!

The police state is not something new. Dictatorships such as Spain, Germany, USSR, Italy, South Africa kept tabs on their citizens and controlled them accordingly, with dire consequences if and when they strayed. This article covers much of the ground. It was on the blog Activist Post on 23 AUGUST 2103.

 

Friday, August 23, 2013

How to Talk to Kids About the Police State

Anthony Freda Art

Sigmund Fraud
Activist Post

While many adults would prefer to ignore it, a police state has already risen amongst the once free nations of the West. The legal framework and technology for this advanced big brother nightmare has been developing for decades, and as such, it is unlikely that the trend towards even greater surveillance, control and injustice will slow much in the coming years, even though the public is slowly awakening to what is happening.

The next generation of children may very well be the first to never experience privacy, and will be preyed upon their entire lives by the corporate state, ostensibly for purposes of security and marketing. As such it is imperative that today’s youths are given an honest explanation of what is happening along with hopeful guidance for navigating this brave new world.

What is to happen to the next generation? Are they to grow up knowing only subservience and submission to an all-seeing technological oligarchy? Or will they grow up to develop the personal power and intelligence to survive and thrive in this unfortunate environment?

Children are unlike adults in that they typically have a more intuitive way of reading the world around them. Too young to understand the logic of our chaotic and backward world, and too inexperienced to yet give into cynicism, kids also have a keen ability to know when someone should be trusted and when someone should be feared. The police state relies on it’s fearful image and tactics to maintain it’s power, and our young people are quick to see through this and spot the injustice, hypocrisy and the phoniness of adults.

In the classroom, children are taught the traditional nationalistic history, which celebrates and glorifies the past achievements of the state, repeating the idea that the nations of the West are governed by principles, morals, equal rights, democracy, and such. Being intuitively alert, it is impossible for the youth to be fooled by a painted picture like this, while all the while there is wanton violation of all this in the real world. The contradiction between this repeated lie and the real experience of living in a fearful security state contributes to inner conflict and reinforces the popular cognitive dissonance that renders so many adults useless in the effort to maintain personal liberty in these times.

It is imperative that we liberate the youth of today from the crippling fear that gives the police state its power. For this, here are some key considerations for discussion with today’s youth about life in a new age of tyranny:

• Keep your moral compass focused on the principles of liberty, peace and love. The alternative is submission, conflict and hate, which will absolutely destroy you, as it is destroys those who would subjugate others.
• Be honest with them about what we are confronting. Let them know that this is not right, this is not normal, and this is not how life should be.
• What you are taught in school and in the media about how the world works is largely untrue.
• You must know and understand your rights in order to endure injustice. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, and the volumes written on the subject of human freedom, liberty, the nature of tyranny offer moral guidance and inspiration. This is essential knowledge for confronting injustice and mustering courage.
• You must exercise the rights that you still have, as well as continue to exercise those rights which have been unjustly turned into privileges.

• Personal responsibility is crucial, as the alternative is apathy and indifference, which are crucial to rise of tyranny. This situation is your responsibility to deal with in whichever way you are guided to, but ignoring and refusing to acknowledge this is simply unacceptable.
• You are not alone in this, as there are already literally millions of people worldwide contributing to efforts to bring light onto what has come to operate in the dark. The movement towards global freedom is indeed growing in parallel with the move toward global slavery.
• It is not OK to emulate the leadership that we have nowadays, nor to join them in enforcing unjust laws. It is also not OK to profit from intruding on someone else’s liberty and privacy.
• What happens to your neighbor and countrymen also happens to you. A predatory government always starts on the outskirts of society, first demonizing and persecuting fringe groups, then naturally evolving to toward more segments of society until everyone is a terrorist. By ignoring today the targeting of others, you contribute to your own persecution in time.
• Privacy is something very valuable and very critical for mental health and well-being. It is important to learn how to exercise privacy and to protect yourself when using technology. Learn how to opt-out, decline, and skillfully not-comply when possible.
• Taking care of your body, your mind, and spirit, and intentionally living with conscience will liberate you from the psychic and spiritual trap that is the control-freak matrix. It is designed to diminish your personal power and make your life seem insignificant. Turning your attention away from the mindless distractions and temptations of the media and focus instead on self-mastery and personal spiritual cultivation will help you to see through its illusions.
• History is full of tyranny, war and ugliness, yes, but it is also a continuing story of revolution, triumph, re-construction and love, so do not be fooled by those too afraid to put hope into action.
• Life is too short and too precious to live in fear of another human being. You deserve to be happy and enjoy your life, so it is your task to rise above this insanity.

Preparing the future generation for the challenges plaguing humankind requires brutal honesty with them about the condition of the world, while offering them hope and direction by exposing them to the creative ideas that will improve things. We have, sadly, created many problems for the next generation, the police state being only one of them. Courageous souls are needed, and it is our responsibility to develop within the youth the personal power to move through this.

This article was inspired by the following video which offers a short glimpse into the tragic lives of some of Syria’s youth as their country descends further into all-out war. The strength and poise of the children in this video is equally inspiring and heart-breaking and should give us all pause in considering how we prepare the next generation for the possibility of a better life than this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbKIiR5pRvk#t=64



Sigmund Fraud is a survivor of modern psychiatry and a dedicated mental activist. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com where he pursues the possibility of a massive shift towards a more psychologically aware future for mankind.

CHELSEA MANNING LAWYER SPEAKS OUT AND DAMNS BRUTAL US SENTENCE

The above video was from

Antony Loewenstein's blog

Chelsea Manning lawyer speaks out and damns brutal US sentence

In­de­pen­dent jour­nal­ist Alexa O’Brien, one of the only real re­porters who doc­u­mented the Chelsea Man­ning trial from the be­gin­ning, in­ter­views Man­ning’s lawyer, David Coombs, on Democ­racy Now!

OBAMA SHAPING UP AS WORST PRESIDENT IN UNITED STATES HISTORY? - GREENWALD, MANNING, ASSANGE, SNOWDEN ET AL

This article comes from Nation of Change on 20 August 2013 and is a further example of the way the United States of America is showing its tendency to become the police state of the western world.

 

Detention of Greenwald Partner inLondon Clearly Came on U.S. Orders

It is becoming perfectly clear that the outrageous detention of American journalist Glenn Greenwald’s Brazilian partner David Miranda by British police during a flight transfer at London’s Heathrow Airport was, behind the scenes, the work of US intelligence authorities.

British police and the British Home Office (the equivalent of America’s Department of Homeland Security) are claiming that the action was taken by them on the basis of an anti-terrorist statute, passed in 2000, with the Orwellian name “Schedule 7.” The give-away that this was not something that the British dreamed up on their own, however, is their admission that they had “notified Washington” of their intention to detain Miranda, a Brazilian national, before the detention actually occurred.

Note that they did not notify Brazilian authorities. It was the Americans who got the call. Why would British police notify American authorities about the detention of a Brazilian citizen except to ask what US authorities wanted done ? Clearly, Miranda was on one of America’s “watch lists” and the British police called because they needed instructions from their superiors in the US regarding whether to detain him and what to do with him once they had him. (The ironically named new White House press secretary, Josh Ernest, denied any involvedment by the US in the detention of Miranda, saying, "This is a decision that was made by the British government without the involvement - and not at the request - of the United States government. It is as simple as that." He was not pressed on the matter by the assembled members of the White House press corps--a group that is not known for its aggressiveness even when its own interests are at stake.

Miranda subsequent to the UK police's call to the US, was detained and held, without access to a lawyer, for nine hours -- the maximum amount of time allowed under the draconian terms of Schedule 7 -- and was during that time questioned by at least seven security agents, whom Miranda says threatened him with jail and asked him about his “entire life.” Never was there any suggestion that he was a terrorist or that he had any links to terrorism. Rather, the focus was on journalist Greenwald’s plans in relation to his writing further articles about the data he had obtained from US National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, now living in Russia under a grant of political and humanitarian asylum.

British police confiscated Miranda’s computer, his computer games and memory storage devices he was carrying. (In a related action, police also went to the offices of the UK Guardian newspaper, which is where Greenwald works, though from his home in Brazil, and, in an act of wanton destruction reminiscent of Nazi storm troopers or Chinese public security bureau thugs, destroyed hard drives of the newspaper’s computers containing leaked documents provided by Snowden. The paper’s editors said that this particularly ugly police action against the news media was pointless since the paper has copies of those documents elsewhere, but then, the “point” was the act of destruction, not elimination of the leaked information itself.)

It makes no sense that British authorities would have taken these outrageous police-state actions against Miranda, against Greenwald and against one of the UK’s most prestigious newspapers, on their own. The issue after all is Snowden’s leaks, which are primarily of concern to the US and the NSA -- the source of the documents.

US intelligence authorities these days maintain enormous files on American and foreign citizens, and track their movements by air. Many people are regularly subjected to special searches at US airports, and in some cases have their computers confiscated and searched by immigration authorities. Some are also detained for hours and are denied the right to get on a plane, though they are never charged with any crime. When I investigated the TSA’s watch lists and its “no-fly” list, I learned that there is no way to find out if you are on such a list, or to get your name removed if you are on one. There is not even a right to learn how such lists are compiled, or which agency might be the source of information that is putting you on a watch list.

No doubt Miranda was placed on such a watch list by the US because of his relationship with Greenwald. No journalist himself, Miranda had just met in Germany with journalist/filmmaker Laura Poitras, who has been working in collaboration with Greenwald on the Snowden documents exposé. According to the Guardian, which was paying his airfare, he was bringing back to Rio de Janeiro some materials in her position for Greenwald’s use in writing further articles. (Knowing that the NSA is monitoring their every electronic communication, Poitras and Greenwald understandably preferred to use a trusted courier, rather than sending the records electronically.)

We have entered a very dark period in terms of freedom of the press, not to mention the basic freedom of travel, association and privacy, when people like Miranda are detained in this manner. No one has suggested that Miranda, Poitras or Greenwald has broken any law. They are doing what good journalists in a free society are supposed to do. But the US security state, which has its tentacles now spread through most of the world, with client state secret services, such as the police in Britain, doing its bidding, isn’t going after “criminals” or “terrorists.” Like tyrants everywhere, it is engaging in repression, pure and simple.

“Terrorism” laws are now being overtly used to repress basic freedoms without the state even bothering to pretend that the police actions taken have anything to do with combating “terror.” The only terrorism at this point is the actions of the state. The only terrorists are government authorities.
What started out as malignant universal monitoring by the NSA of all electronic communications is now metastasizing into arrests of journalists and their assistants at the airport. This will no doubt in no time metastasize further to night-time SWAT raids on journalists’ homes and offices. We’ve already seen such things being visited upon political activists, so the new development should not come as much of a surprise.

This latest escalation of the US government’s assault on truth and journalism exposes the puerile sham of President Obama’s claim to want to “reform” the National Security Agency’s spying program and to limit the “Justice” Department’s invasive actions against journalists. The detention of Miranda was an act of war on the whole concept of press freedom.

Absent a public outcry -- and I see none -- it will only get worse.

ABOUT Dave Lindorff

Dave Lindorff is an investigative reporter, a columnist for CounterPunch, and a contributor to Businessweek, The Nation, Extra! and Salon.com. He received a Project Censored award in 2004. Dave is also a founding member of the online newspaper ThisCantBeHappening! at www.thiscantbehappening.net

*********************************************************

The following video is from the

Antony Loewenstein blog

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

*****************************************************

Her majesty's thugs target press

Date

August 23, 2013 The Age

•  

James Temple

Using the Terrorism Act to detain a journalist's partner is a gross abuse of power.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald walks with his partner David Miranda in Rio de Janeiro's International Airport. Photo: Reuters
It's been an infuriating few days for anyone who values the freedom of the press, as authorities in Britain resorted to the tactics of tyrants and thugs to squelch reporting that they simply don't like. In acts clearly calibrated for optimal intimidation, they have detained the partner of a journalist, threatened to shut down a reporting operation that has prompted a critical public debate over government spying, and forced the destruction of a major publication's computer hard drives.
It's breathtaking in its audacity - and if it comes to light that the US government took any part in these acts, it will warrant immediate congressional investigation.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Photo: Reuters

 
As it is, accelerating assaults on investigative journalism demand stronger protections for journalists and their sources. Otherwise, Western society will forsake its right to know what happens in the back rooms of a government that purportedly exists to serve democratic interests.

On Sunday morning, the partner of Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian newspaper columnist who broke most of the recent blockbuster stories about US government surveillance efforts, was detained at Heathrow Airport for nine hours under Britain's broad terror laws. Authorities interrogated David Miranda without a lawyer and confiscated his laptop, phone, memory sticks and other devices.
Miranda was returning from Berlin, where he met a filmmaker who worked with Greenwald on stories based on leaks from former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Schedule 7 of the British Terrorism Act grants authorities wide latitude to search and question travellers to ascertain any link to terrorism. But it's clear Miranda's detention had nothing to do with terrorism, since Greenwald reported that those nine hours were spent questioning him about the NSA reporting.
Using laws designed to ferret out suspected terrorists to detain a person aiding acts of journalism is a cut-and-dried abuse of government power, an act of intimidation that may well be illegal - and certainly should be. It gives the lie to the naive but oft-repeated notion that if you've done no wrong, you have nothing to fear.
British officials justified their actions by suggesting Miranda was ''in possession of highly sensitive stolen information that would help terrorism''. But many things can be construed as ''helping'' terrorism. Osama bin Laden recommended a Bob Woodward book for its insights into US military decision-making, but that doesn't mean anyone with a copy in his or her carry-on luggage should be dragged off a plane.
The White House acknowledged that it was given a ''heads-up'' about Miranda's detention, but said it occurred ''without the involvement - and not at the request - of the United States government''. An equally shocking set of revelations arrived on Monday, as Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger published a story disclosing that British officials have demanded that the newspaper relinquish or destroy all the material leaked by Snowden. He was warned that if the newspaper refused to do so, the government would force its hand in court.
Rusbridger told authorities that most of the reporting on the NSA stories was already happening out of New York. But his argument was unpersuasive.
''And so one of the more bizarre moments in The Guardian's long history occurred - with two [government intelligence] security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in The Guardian's basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents,'' Rusbridger said.
The good news: the publication had digital copies of the material outside the country. But the mere fact that a Western democracy raided an independent publication and shattered its property is outrageous, a tilt towards the totalitarianism imagined by George Orwell.
Such attacks on investigative journalism appear to be escalating. Judges have threatened reporters at The New York Times and Fox News with jail time for refusing to disclose their sources. The Obama administration has prosecuted more people under the Espionage Act for leaking classified information than all past presidencies combined.
Veteran investigative reporters say the current climate has cast a chill across the landscape. Once-reliable sources now refuse to step forward for fear of winding up the next Bradley Manning, the WikiLeaks leaker.
There's a high price to pay for these policies: we'll know less about what governments, businesses, lobbyists and other institutions are doing behind closed doors. Unless we demand stronger protections for journalists and their sources, we forfeit a victory to idiocy, incompetence, abuse and crime.
James Temple is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.