Saturday, April 09, 2011

Avaaz supports Bradley Manning

I was delighted to find out that one of my favorite organizations, Avaaz, is starting a campaign to stop the torture of Bradley Manning. I signed the petition and donated to the Washington, DC ad campaign immediately.

Last time I went on vacation to the U.S., the self-checkin kiosk wouldn't work for us and the check-in agent said there was some sort of "flag" on me. On her screen I saw a bright red box with a message containing a three-letter acronym that I neglected to memorize. She explained that she'd have to make a call, went away for fifteen minutes, then came back and said I was cleared. On the way back to Canada, the same thing happened again, and the agent informed me that I could expect this to happen every time I crossed the border.

What sort of list am I on? Was I put on a list because of opinions on my blog (the blog's probably not prominent enough for that), or because I donated money to WikiLeaks in response to the Collateral Murder video? Bradley Manning is the person accused of giving that video to WikiLeaks, and given his harsh and unconstitutional treatment, I wonder if I should be worried for myself, too. Obviously, they can't imprison everyone that supports the cause of truth and transparency in government, but they can harass them a little bit at the border, and like lawsuits against people that share a couple of albums on the internet, they could pick a few targets at random just to create fear and discourage activism.

4 comments:

Piotr said...

Mi hazarde trovis vian adreson, ĉar vi donis iam la komenton al mi.
amike

Qwertie said...

Pri kiu komento vi parolas? ĉu mi donis a vi min adreson ĉi tie? ĉu vi parolas la Angla? Post mi komencis studi la Hispana, mi ekforgesis kiel paroli Esperanto! Bezoni iom da praktiko nun en Esperanto... mi devas nun pensi tre zorgeme kaj malrapide por memori la Esperantaj vortoj. Kaj mi devas uzi la vortaron ĉe lernu.net.

Qwertie said...

Oops, mi volis diri "Mi Bezonas iom da praktiko". Eble mi forgesis diri "mi" pro la Hispana, en kiu oni ne devas diri pronomoj plejparte (pro ke pronomoj estas enkodigitaj en la verboj).

Piotr said...

Vi povas skribi angle. Mi ĝojas duoble, ke vi ne neglektis la noton, kaj vi skribas espernate. Mi bone komprenis ĉion.
Vi rajtas ne memori mian taglibron, ĉar tio ekis pli ol tri jarojn antaŭe. Ĝuste vi lasis komenton en blogo, en mia unua noto. Se vi deziros do, vizitu ĝin, kaj eble donu komenton, ankaŭ angle.
http://piotr46.blogspot.com/
amike