“Among the many questions posed by Scandinavia’s embrace of mass surveillance is one that has lingered at the margins throughout the Snowden debate: Are advanced democracies any different than their authoritarian counterparts in seeking to gain broad access into the private lives of citizens?” Hugh Eakin shines a light on the underreported activities of Sweden’s FRA in spying on people everywhere.
With thanks to Michael August.
Plenty of questions about the conduct of the United States of America remain unanswered. Still, the 44th President manages to stand out amongst political leaders of our time. Will his words be remembered?
“Our concern about government snooping sometimes distracts from self-awareness of our complicity as consumers of products so ubiquitous they have become everyday verbs.” Rachel Holmes is joining the resistance, because the so-called neutral platforms in reality facilitate hate against women, racism and homophobia.
Is this all that the United Kingdom will be left with after Brexit?
“Human rights introduce morality into law and offer limited legal enforcement to moral claims. But as morality is not one and the law is not a simple exercise in reasoning, moral conflict enters the legal archive and legal strictures regiment and control moral responsibility.” For Costas Douzinas, the human rights movement is an ongoing struggle to close the gap between the abstract man of the Declarations and the empirical human being.
“We might not achieve that today, but at the very least we have to call upon our politicians and our media to drop the language of fear and be far more tolerant of one another.”
Alexander Betts
“The international efforts to reduce corruption that have developed over the past 20 years constitute a massive agenda which is being worked through in multilateral institutions, individual countries, companies and civil society campaigns. It will take years of reform to fulfil the commitments that have been made. But the prize is enormous.” Claire Short is in an optimistic mood.
“Zwar ist jede Form der organisierten Fremdenfeindlichkeit verwerflich—aber im Gegensatz zu vielen sozial abgehängten Pegida-Anhängern sind die Blankeneser wohlhabend, gebildet und gesellschaftlich einflußreich. Und daß ausgerechnet solche Menschen den allerschwächsten Mitgliedern unserer Gesellschaft ihre Unterstützung verwehren, ist schlichtweg unerträglich.” Peter Maxwill stellt fest, daß man kein Rassist sein muß, um rassistisch zu handeln.