This is an interesting, quiet interview with Julian Assange about WikiLeaks and those powers that currently try to prevent his organisation from doing its work.
The interviewer does not interrupt and this is in contrast to so many of the fast cut, sensationalist style TV interviews, reports and also those misinformed or even hate-filled blog posts like some of those recently found on the usually respectable Boing Boing.
Recommended.
Frost over the World – Julian Assange (24:01), December 22, 2010
“The WikiLeaks founder talks about secrets, leaks and why he will not go back to Sweden.”
“Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, said the company had removed the app “because it violated our developer guidelines.” Ms. Muller added: “Apps must comply with all local laws and may not put an individual or group in harm’s way.”“
This is simply an excuse for censorship.
I’ve been of course boycotting Apple (and switched to PC hardware/Linux) ever since they let me down with my broken iMac G5 after a Leopard “upgrade” that went badly wrong and when they then even removed my post to their forum about the matter in April 2008.
Apple is of course also on the list of patent trolls that steal your and mine (not any more since I got rid of that camera) H.264 footage.
Beware of those who offer you “Freedom from XXX” (techcrunch.com). You pay for it. You get it.
So I was preparing this blog entry about how Julian Assange was finally granted bail (www.guardian.co.uk), about Reporters without Borders among many others supporting WikiLeaks (en.rsf.org) this week, about the US House Judiciary Committee conclusion(wlcentral.org)“…four argued that Wikileaks is protected by the Constitution, two argued that it should be prosecuted, and witness Stephen Vladeck abstained from making a determination on WikiLeaks” and about the Bank of America that now joined the club of “independent” banking entities that won’t process donations to WikiLeaks (www.kansascity.com) any more while you can always find out how-to donate to WikiLeaks on this page (wikileaks.ch).
But then I saw the following video and even though I am not really that much into rap I think this one summarizes pretty well in pop culture speak what is going on right now and what is at stake…
Much more interesting than what I had prepared!
Rap News 6 – Wikileaks’ Cablegate: the truth is out there (6:23)
Update:
Creative Commons license for the video (as shown on the artist’s YouTube page): BY-NC-SA
Artist’s website (thejuicemedia.com) for donations and more. For their lyrics and more (www.reverbnation.com).
The video’s website on YouTube offers an interactive transcript in various languages (click icon bottom right of video).
What follows are the lyrics from http://www.reverbnation.com via saving the whole page as a .html – somehow that widget did not allow me to simply copy/paste the lyrics…:
Rap News 6 – Cablegate: The truth is out there Lyrics by Hugo Farrant & Giordano Nanni
Good morning, this is a Juice News call out in the wake of Cable Gate and the subsequent fall-out balls out revelations, observations of diplomats giving actual confirmation of hidden facts
spilling backroom deals, leaking leaders’ chit chat money laundering and tit for tat spits and spats: The picture that emerges, provided by the servers shines light further behind the wire curtain
Certainly this has divided views of the populace Some say it’s obvious, ‘nothing new in these documents’ Others say it’s ominous, and applaud the revelations Others still call for the messenger’s assassination
Following Assange’s arrest and calls for his head, over nine 9000 counterattacks on all of the web, the state department being forced to defend spying at the UN and a secret war in Yemen
Despite DDOS attacks on Wikileaks’ system Day by day cables still spray through mirror reflection Will cable-gate change the game or lead to repression? We get face-to-face with Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton, how does it feel to get leaked on? It’s scandalous, this is a case of high treason It’s against the land of the brave and divine freedom – We’re the good guys, for democracy, we fight evil
And we’ve waged peace around the world, proud of the flag These leaks could devalue this powerful brand Bring military operations straight to a halt Our shareholders, clients and partners would plainly revolt
But, aren’t you beholden to the American Public? And isn’t the US one of the primary culprits, In overthrowing governments? Such as? Chile, Iran, Nicaragua? Please, stop with the drama!
The American People are our employees whose taxes fund the wars that support our schemes their kids become troops we send overseas in return for mega malls and the American dream
And if our client states don’t like the things that we do we install a dictator with a CIA coup in foreign relations, subversion is the method we use Wikileaks threaten this system so it’s a terrorist group
But the people of the world seem to generally approve of Wikileaks’ actions in spilling the truth… They do? Well, then, they’re terrorists too! dissentors are traitors, as history proves
And they always lose. That’s curious, weren’t some of our greatest heroes persecuted for this reason. Who? Mandela, Gandhi, …Jesus Ahhh… you idealists.
Now for a different perspective, Prison-Planet host, Alex Jones. Sheeple, heed the megaphone, This Assange has apparently shown The emperor on the palace throne grabbing at clothes
But I’ve heard anecdotes, I’ll show it fits This Patsy’s a triple agent for the globalists He claims openness, but he’s actually a catalyst For the one world government of commie nazi fascists
Robert, I’m getting paranoid, I need to state This is a false flag to bring in a police state A cyber 9-11, that’s the secret vision Right now they’re de-briefing Julian in a British prison
So Wikileaks is an inside job? They hide the thruth To distract from the climate deal in Cancun You try and do my job without hiding something I ain’t called the SECRETary of State for nothing.
But surely, now the leaks are exposed out on the stage You’d expect the world’s leaders to be outraged By the spying, lies, emerging charges Now on the line it’s Colonel Gadaffi
Asalamalekum. Alekumasalam, Are you outraged? Well, now that there’s a muslim Brother President of US, we expected secrets to be kept, but now we have to keep abreast
Of these.. huge… security leaks. Obama must get firm grip on Wiki-tits Er.. ok, how about you Mr Berlusconi, will your reputation fall more in this pandemonium?
Ma Roberto! Gli italiani mi amano come bambini E glielo metto in culo come Mussolini The American flag is symbol global of liberty And I love Hillary… though she’s a bit too old for me
By the way, Robert, how much for your news show? I pay cash — I just got some Rubles Sorry, Silvio, we have scruples, it’s not for sale Va bo, Hillary, come have a cigar at the hotel
Well, Hillary it appears that the leaders Are not that outraged. Ha! Are you serious? Of course not. We’re one happy family tree, son As you’ll see soon when we hang Assange for treason
Treason? could an Australian ever stand trial? Ha! Australia’s in the American Empire! We have puppet states, franchisees, subsidiaries, Provided they obey, they’re guaranteed liberty
We’re not letting Assange get out of our grip You know how hard it was to plant a condom that split? Hill, ya turd, your Bilderberg lies are blatant But, Alex, where’s your evidence that Assange is an agent?
Well, obviously this is a globalist psi-ops plot designed to keep us in the dark
They’re climbin in your windows They’re snatchin your income tax tryna enslave you so y’all need to hide your kids, hide your wife buy a gun , buy a knife watch my show, buy your gold and buy your silver cuz they enslavin errbody out here We don’t have to look for no facts we know this is true … they gon chip you they gon tag you but we can run and yell that, run and yell that run and yell that! New World New world order!
We got his IP he done left data discs and all he is so done he is really going, on trial But what is Assange accused of? I was molested by Julian in the Stokholm
So done, so done, so done, so
Ok, It’s almost time to end for the day But until we meet again, a few questions remain Is Wikileaks really the greatest threat that we face? Or is it the response we are seeing in defense of the state?
A response which is building and seeks To turn back the clock on freedom of speech And fundamental rights earned over a century This should ring alarm bells for all who know their history
From this evidence, are we neglecting our memory And repeating the trajectory of the twentieth century? And if so, upon seeing the facts But ceasing to act, don’t we deserve the leaders we have?
What needs to befall before we open the door and yell “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”? Or shall we sit waiting for messiahs or aliens, Or a super-hero, if they’re not all one and the same meme?
History, dear viewers, is happening Will we ever get a similar chance again? History books will be written about events this month The story they will tell — is up to us
As netzpolitik.org reports the JMStV v2010 was unanimously stopped in NRW today. This is very good news for free speech and free access to information in Germany. As previously reported the consequences for bloggers, webmasters, artists and (new media) investors would have been pretty devastating with the JMStV v2010 in place.
So sanity has prevailed after all. It also seems that politicians are finally starting to understand the dynamics of the net and what the online generation can contribute to that ongoing experiment we call Democracy.
It still remains to be seen how a future version of the JMStV will be drafted and what it might look like: anyone planing an online project in Germany is well advised to follow closely all developments leading towards a JMStV v2011…
See also JMStV vor dem Aus (www.heise.de/tp) for a critical look at the way the JMStV v2010 was drafted. The article basically says that the process was not an open one and that old media (TV) and its close ties to politics had a lot to say. Some of the comments to the article also question the motivation for stopping the JMStV and suggest mainly tactical reasons.
There are lessons to be learned for everyone, that seems pretty clear to me. For me personally one lesson is: even if you live in a supposedly free country like Germany there are certain values like free speech that constantly need to be tested and defended if necessary. JMStV v2010 had the potential of destroying (not only) wide parts of the German blogosphere. In the end sanity prevailed, but things could have gone the other way and this is something that I simply had not anticipated in this country in the year 2010. Everyone needs to keep their eyes of vigilance open at all times from now on.
For the first time since I started this blog I’m posting in German. What follows is the comment (with just with one tiny grammar correction) I posted on the JMStV ablehnen! page (jmstv-ablehnen.de).
For more about this, not quite as diplomatic as the German text that follows, see my previous blog entries here and here and here.
Yet of course many questions still need to be answered:
* Who drafted the current proposal and why and how and for whom?
* How will a future version of the JMStV be drafted and how will it look like?
Germany’s politicians will still have a lot of explaining to do if they want to regain some of the trust they lost to the net community. At the moment it is also unclear why exactly NRW will possibly vote against the JMStV.
Free speech and free access to information are too important and should never have been taken so lightly by those in charge in Germany today.
Der Ihnen vorliegende JMStV scheint mir, höflich gesagt, im besten Fall ein Schildbürgerstreich der Sonderklasse zu sein.
Als Netzbürger mit 15 Jahren Onlineerfahrung, Blogger, New Media Künstler und ehemaliger Moderator auf der Medienplattform Ourmedia kann ich nur meine Hände über dem Gesicht zusammenschlagen, in Verzweiflung den Kopf schütteln und sehr unschöne Worte über den JMStV laut ausrufen.
Hier haben die Verfasser ihre Hausaufgabe nicht gemacht, und die Konsequenzen bei Abnicken dieses JMStV würden verheerend für die Zukunft des Internets in Deutschland sein.
Ich bin 1999 von Wien nach Berlin in Ihr schönes Land gekommen, um der wie ich meine dort (damals) vorherrschenden engen Sichtweise bezüglich Film und Neuen Medien zu entkommen.
Ab 01.01.2011 könnte nun Berlin/Deutschland wegen des JMStV auf einmal ein völlig unattraktiver Standort für mich sein. Ich bin ehrlich schockiert. Fragen stellen sich: wer hat warum, wie und für wen diese Vorlage erstellt?
Alleine die Idee mit den “Sendezeiten” ist, wieder höflich gesagt, sehr verwunderlich. Selbst wenn das technisch für meine Onlineauftritte durchführbar wäre, würde ich dann ja immer noch, für die der Vorlage nach zu schützende Jugend, z.B. in den USA erreichbar sein…
Besonders übel würde es, wenn man in den USA dann auch noch auf die Idee mit den “Sendezeiten” käme… Usw.
Es scheint mir schlimm genug, daß es der vorliegende JMStV überhaupt zu Ihnen zur Abstimmung geschafft hat, und ich bitte Sie, den Vogel jetzt nicht auch noch mit Ihrer Zustimmung abzuschießen.
Schützen Sie die Jugend, stimmen Sie für den globalen Zugang zur Information für die Ihnen nachfolgenden Generationen, und geben Sie diesem Land weiter eine Zukunft in Sachen Internet und Neue Medien!
Posted by vsworks 
