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Statues of Assange, Snowden and Manning Go Up In Berlin
HughPickens.com writes: RT Times reports that Alexanderplatz square in Berlin has become the stage for a provocative art piece which celebrates whistleblowers and encourages ordinary citizens to speak out. "They have lost their freedom for the truth, so they remind us how important it is to know the truth," says sculptor Davide Dormino. The life-sized statues of the three whistleblowers stand upon three chairs, as if speaking in an impromptu public meeting. Next to them is a fourth, empty chair. "The fourth chair is open to anyone here in Berlin who wants to get up and say anything they want," says the artist. Dormino, who came up with the idea together with the US journalist Charles Glass, specifically chose a classical bronze statue for his depiction – and not an installation or abstract piece – since statues are usually made of establishment figures. According to Domino while men who order others to their deaths get immortalized, those who resist are often forgotten, so "the statue pays homage to three who said no to war, to the lies that lead to war and to the intrusion into private life that helps to perpetuate war." Activists and members of Germany's Green party unveiled the life-size bronze statues on May Day.
"Activists and members of Germany's Green party unveiled the life-size bronze statues on May Day."
...depicting Manning as a male while s(he) asked to be considered as a female, standing next to the fugitive suspect for the rape of a female mister Assange, between a transexual and mister Snowden who is protected by a goverment declaring that homosexuals are not welcomed...
Even i, a right-wing Greek, couldn't plan it better! Don't you just love our left-wing Europeans?
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
War Resisters Remain in Canada with No Regrets
Many opponents of the Vietnam war fled to Canada rather than face conscription, "An estimated 125,000 Americans fled to Canada in the 1960s and '70s to avoid the Vietnam War military draft, according to the American Veterans of Foreign Wars" according to the article
The town of Nelson planned to build a memorial to these folks, who once they settled into Canada became exemplary citizens and active participants in their communities.
The flood of hate mail from the USA caused them to reconsider.
If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep
I have to disagree. Not with them being ordinary folks - that's true enough, and a good reminder that ALL of us have the potential to be heroes, if we only have the courage to do what's right, rather than what's convenient.
But that a democratic system would never do despicable things that it accuses the other side of? Many a mob would disagree, and a mob is probably the most democratic system that has ever existed. In fact even a very many individuals are prone to accusing others of their own failings - why would you assume we would become more virtuous en mass?
The problem is not "The System", though it has admittedly become twisted enough by institutionalized corruption that it would be difficult to fix. The problem is not even that pretty much since its inception it has been populated by the sort of people who want power - such is true of most any system that grants it.
The problem is that we, the populace, trusted "the system" to protect us from the inevitable corruption of the very people who run it. We abdicated our democratic responsibility to keep our government to heel. We embraced party politics, despite be warned of their dangers by the very people who created "the system". We vote for the people who run the flashiest ads appealing to our hopes, fears, and biases, rather than spending the time and energy to actually investigate the candidate's track records and put our support behind the ones who actually best represent our interests. There is no system that can protect us from the abuse of power so long as we continue to freely hand that power to those who wish to abuse it, and reward that abuse with reelection rather than retribution.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
It's still a birth defect, not unlike webbed feet or missing hands.
So, Germans defend the right of people to tell the world when things go wrong in other countries.
And yeah, building statues is clearly the right thing to do, especially after Snowden clearly said that he didn't want the world to focus on his person but rather on what he revealed. How about actually helping these people instead? They aren't dead yet you know.
For me it is an empty political move.