As authoritarian regimes try to stifle freedom of speech and cover their crimes with secrecy and denial, maybe we should remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller.
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
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Here is a different take on it from George Washington blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://realityzone-realityzone.blogspot.com/2010/09/silence-is-death-of-liberty.html
I'll go and read it right now.
ReplyDeleteHow you been?
ReplyDeleteHave not seen you around for a while.
Hope this finds you and yours well.
Fine, RZ, and thank you for asking. Best wishes to you and your family as well.
ReplyDeleteIt was one of those summers when there was a lot to read and not much time to write. Our prime minister has been up to his usual weird endeavours. He disappeared for over a month and let his deputies take the flak for some pretty strange proposals. He came back with new glasses and looked a little bit thinner. I thought he had either spent a long time at the optometrist's or took a vacation on a fat farm (or a cosmetic surgeon, but even they can only do so much...).
Now, with parliament in session, the fun begins. (Ooooh, yeah).
As far as I know, he still has not been released, and has not been allowed access to family or lawyers. Some of us--and to be frank, myself included--have complained about "slacktivism" and "clicktivism," forgetting that something like blogging can earn one imprisonment and torture in some situations. This particular regime seems to be totally impervious to external criticisms, and it seems no moral pressure from outside the country is moving it.
ReplyDelete