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Assange Handed Sydney Peace Medal
hihihihi writes "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's Gold Medal for 'exceptional courage in the pursuit of human rights.' It is only the fourth time in the organization's 14-year history that the prize for extraordinary achievement in promoting peace with justice has been given out. Previous winners are Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda. Foundation director Professor Stuart Rees accused the Australian government of demonizing Mr Assange and aiding US efforts to behave like a totalitarian state."
contrary to what you arrogant and self-centered right wingers in america tend to think, the people around the world think good of assange since he is exposing the SHIT that u.s. perpetrates around the world, ranging from bullying germany to prevent prosecution of the cia agents who kidnapped german citizens and tortured them in syria, to bullying spanish government to put out 3 strikes law to censor people for american copyright interests.
i find your disgust at exposition of such information, disgusting.
now scram.
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I like the fact that they are awarding the idea of open government and open corporatism, but what has been released that has been worth all the hub-bub?
what has been released that has been worth all the hub-bub?
Here's an article listing some of the revelations from 2010.
Did he know before they announced it?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
So it's been around 14 years, so basically before Assange it has only awarded one prize to someone who did not already have a nobel peace prize at the time of the award. Having grown up in Sydney I have got to say I am pretty uninterested in this me-too institution. Since I doubt many Australians will do anything worthy of the attention of the Norweigian government or whoever awards these things, maybe starting with Assange they can make it a sort of domestic competition with lesser criteria.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
I'm just saying.
A. Different brains?
B. Different culture?
C. Favouritism?
Unfortunately, racists on either side are quick to highlight A or C. I'm not so fanatically politically correct that I'm going to dismiss A (we don't really know enough about the brain nor have we devised any suitable tests to determine) and C (it is human nature to support your own group, so if one group is already well established it might foster further success for that same group), but maybe there's quite a lot of B.
I mean, why are such a great proportion of students at Oxbridge from private schools? Could it be because the parents who have given their children a private education have tried to prioritise good education? We're not saying that every parent has the means to do that, but neither does every Jewish family have the means: all you need is significantly more Jewish families to want to prioritise their children's education, some of whom will also have the means to action their want, for them to end up overrepresented in some professional field. This sort of sentiment is cultural, passed down through families and community groups. It is a spirit perhaps to be learnt from, though perhaps not adopted wholesale: a graduate from a top university is just as likely to become a wanker banker as a life-enhancing scientist.
There's a big difference between hating Jews and hating an oppressive regime. Not all Jews support Israel. I think that deserves to be pointed out every once in a while.
So you're saying Israel is a repressive regime? Do you know anything about the Middle East or the world for that matter? I bet you view Israel as a far greater problem area than Syria, but Syria is the one that has a repressive regime. Israel has a Democracy with citizens of all religions. Homosexuals can walk the streets holding their lover's hand without getting stoned to death. Christians don't run in terror from angry mobs, expect in the West Bank and Gaza. What an unusual repressive regime.
Bradley E. Manning should get this price, he is the real hero. He put his life on the line to release this information, what did Assange risk?
Manning was held naked in a prison cell without windows for 23 hours a day, Assange won't even go to Sweden to face the charges for sex-crimes (not even after being assured he will not be sent to any other country without britains concent).
But it also kicks families out of the house where they've lived for generations. It built a wall that separates farmers from their fields. Israel goes out of its way to disrupt the lives of normal Palestinian families. It's not oppressive to the people it likes, but it is oppressive to the people it oppresses. The fact that there are also people who are not oppressed by the Israeli government doesn't change this simple fact.
How ironic. I have varying opinions on all the past recipients named, but all of them have actually been the center of conflicts, more so than defusing them. So in retrospect, Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize wasn't such a bad idea since most folks agree on global warming and don't launch armed conflicts about the issue.
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
The Sweden "court system" for this issue is almost a regular medieval political circus. Look at what Sweden has all but promised Assange in his "fair" trial: Solitary confinement before trial without access to his lawyers. Closed door secret court - no one will hear let alone be able to refute any testimonies. Three of the four judges to be (or appointed by) politicians! Not to forget that the case was closed before being reopened by, you guessed it, a politician - apparently because they say the girls did not know they were being raped at the time and it is up-to their court of laypersons to decide (I kid you not, crazy system Sweden has, huh). The rabbit hole of deceit by Swedish authorities goes way deeper than most would like to see however - in this case starting with the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny, lawyer Mr Claes Borgström and their relationship with the Swedish Democrat party which stands to gain from this circus.
Who in the right mind would not try to fight for a fairer trial than this? I don't care if it is Assange or anyone else, Sweden should be ashamed of these "courts", if you can even call them that.
The only good thing coming out of this abuse is the increased scrutiny on the very broken European extradition laws - and perhaps some Swedish rethinking their leaders (although the last election shows this to be unlikely).
Why would you compare the two? Obama did nothing to deserve a Nobel peace prize (and most disappointingly, still hasn't since) unless you count bringing grammar back to the White House. Assange has actually done things to further world peace, whether you agree with the means or not. The two are not comparable.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I'm Swedish and this is 100% accurate, +100 Insightful. The Swedish justice system is a huge embarrassment and completely broken. Hopefully this case will shed some light on it so it can be fixed.
You also forgot to mention two other interesting facts of Claes Borgström, both of which you can find in his Wikipedia article. First of all he was the attorney of Thomas Quick, a case that is one of the biggest scandals in Swedish justice history. Basically Quick was mental and admitted to a whole bunch of murders he never committed and was sentenced guilty without a shred of evidence. Secondly Claes Borgström is an extreme left wing feminist nutjob that thinks men has a "collective guilt" against women and should pay a special tax for being men.
The US went into Vietnam because we were asked by FRANCE, who wanted to keep their little Asian colonial empire, which was rapidly ending as Vietnam was struggling for independence.
And no, he's not saying that 9/11 is the same as Vietnam, what he's saying is that we in American are a bunch of hypocrites. If someone does something to us, it's terrorrism, if we bomb the shit out of someone else, it's liberation. If we repel people attacking us we are heroes, if someone else does it it's terrorism. If someone captures our servicemen we expect humane treatment, if we capture one of theirs we torture them at guantanamo.
You can't have it both ways. We should not have been in Vietnam. We should not have been in Kuwait. We should not have been in Irag. Those last two things alone are what pissed of the Islamic nutjobs (American boots in their holy land) and caused them to plan and execute 9/11. Everyone else in the world looks at us and sees our hypocrisy. Most Americans are too busy waving the flag at the monster truck show to look deeply at how our country is behaving and face the harsh realities that we are not the world leaders in morality, justice and freedom that we like to think we are.
You are incredibly dishonest, and profoundly ignorant of history. Anyone who equates criticism of the government of Israel with antisemitism is either a fool or a liar.
Really? Let's try this. U.S.A. is Number One!!