politics

Technology and Human Rights

On Friday it’s time for me to give a lecture on Technology and Human Rights for the local masters course on human rights. The nice part about this lecture is that it gives me the opportunity to collect and explore different strands of my work and present them to a new audience. My interest in this area began some time ago and resulted in 2005 in the collected edition Human Rights in the Digital Age which I edited together with Andrew Murray.

Discussing technology and rights can at times feel a bit banal. Human rights activists struggle to free people from torture and death so isn’t technology a small waste of time? There is no way in which it would be fair to compare technology and rights to the work of activists against the death penalty. But there is a major problem if all issues must be resolved in the order of magnitude. Speech rights may be less important to someone facing the death penalty but this does not mean that we should ignore speech rights until we have managed to abolish the death penalty.

For the lecture on Friday I am planning to look at three different areas.

The first area is going to be the use of the Internet as a “place” for political participation. I want to discuss the Internet as an area of political discourse and in particular show its possibilities and its fundamental flaws and limitations. This area should include freedom of speech and freedom of association.

The second area is privacy. In particular I want to focus on the merging of online and offline data. Or to put it another way the combination of spatial information (where you are) with the information traces stored in databases (who you are) to show the advanced control mechanism being created.

The final area is the aggregate use of technology. In this section I want to show the audience that with each piece of technology we may implement for our comfort we also form and shape our lives. In particular we also shape the way in which our lives may be controlled by others. This incremental implementation of technology does not bring large protests since no large rights are threatened overall. However the net long term result is darker than anything Orwell would have dreamed about.

Eric Drooker

The overall goal is to make the audience a bit paranoid about technology – to make them question the choices we are all making in our rush towards a more convenient way of life. Not bad for a Friday…

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Sweden to criminalise DoS attacks

It does not come as a surprise to read (in Swedish here) that Sweden is on it’s way to criminalise denial of service attacks. This is unsurprising since it is simply another step in the obvious direction of EU harmonisation following the framework decision on attacks against information systems. The latter framework decision is part of a general scheme to fight against terrorism and organised crime within the information society.

The problem is that criminalising DoS attacks in this way makes all DoS attacks illegal. Even if an attack is carried out in the form of political protest, in other words, not terrorism, not organised crime. For example, in a case settled in 2006 where the Frankfurt Appelate Court found the groups â??Libertadâ?? and â??Kein Mensch ist illegalâ?? (No Human is Illegal) had carried out a legitimate form of political protest when they organised 13000 people in an online blockade (With a script- client- based distributed denial of service attack) of the airline Lufthansa. The protest was against the companies part in the deportation of asylum seekers (for more see links below).

When states now criminalise the act of DoS they also make sure that this tool cannot be used as a form of political protest. Therefore the regulators go far beyond their intention and scope of preventing terrorism and organised crime.

A more paranoid person may suspect that the regulator is using the label of terrorism to create rules which limit our ability to use technology in political communications… Read more about the “unintended” negative consequences for democracy, which occur when regulators attempt to control technology in my thesis: Disruptive Technology.

—

Decision by the Frankfurt Appellate Court (in German only, 22.05.2006)
http://www.libertad.de/service/downloads/pdf/olg220506.pdf

Statement by Libertad on the ruling (in German only, 1.06.2006)
http://www.libertad.de/inhalt/projekte/depclass/verfahren/libpe010606.shtml

In German (1.06.2006)
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/73755
In English (2.06.2006)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/73827

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Elections Mumbai Style

It’s election time in the local Mumbai elections and among the people I have spoken to the general feeling is that politicians lie and cheat to get into power and then once in they ignore all the election promises that they made. Sounds familiar…

Actually outside the media and bills posted on walls the actual election has been very quite. Considering that Mumbai has a population of over 12 million you would have expected more action. My media coverage has been thin, mainly the overly positive (to almost everything) Times of India which is basically pushing people to go and vote – even if they leave a blank vote. Mainly it seems to be local celebrities talking about the importance of democratic participation.

There is not much political graffiti mainly handbills but there is an exception and that is the blue paint of which is seen in a few places

But the most intimidating seems to be some of the ads which attempt to bully the voters into choosing their party…

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Depiction of Resistance

Ever wondered who gets to be portrayed as a brave resistance fighter and why? The role of the media in bringing â??the storyâ?? to the attention of the public is crucial. Unfortunately the public (thatâ??s us) is too occupied to carry out real investigations so we generally tend to accept anything the media tells us. Naturally with varying degrees of skepticism.

The skepticism depends to a large degree on several factors: the trustworthiness of the source, the importance of what is being said, the personal impact on our lives, our beliefs and cultures. But mostly we (the public) tend to accept what is being presented before us. Sad, but true.

The first main barrier is the choice to tell the story or not. Certain stories get a great deal of press attention while others get little or none. The next barrier is the presentation of the story. Will those resisting be described as the white or the black hats? Will resistance be legitimized or criminalized? The third barrier is the reconstruction after the fact. What will the victor say of the vanquished? What will be the persistent historic truth once the conflict is over?

Julius Caesar vanquished all of Gaul. After the task he wrote his account of the wars. Generations of children have since then learned their basic Latin language by reading exciting excerpts from his book. Even if we no longer learn Latin Caesars version of the truth remains the dominant story. He was â??forcedâ?? to attack the Gaul in order to protect the Gallic friends of Rome. The fact that he achieved personal fame, an enormous fortune and eventually sole power of Rome was beside the point.

The ability to resist does not build upon the ability to control the dominant truth â?? but no resistance (from a local protest to outright war) can afford to ignore it.

An exciting example of this is the 1966 film The Battle of Algiers from wikipedia:

The film depicts an episode in the war of independence in the then French Algeria, in the capital city of Algiers. It is loosely based on the account of one of the military commanders of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), Saadi Yacef, in his memoir Souvenirs de la Bataille d’Alger. The book, written by Yacef while a prisoner of the French, was meant as propaganda to boost morale among FLN militants. After independence, Yacef was released and became a part of the new government. The Algerian government gave its backing to have a film of his memoirs made and he approached the Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo and screenwriter Franco Solinas with the project. The two dismissed Yacef’s initial treatment as biased toward the Algerian side. While sympathetic with the cause of Algerian nationalism, they insisted on dealing with the events from a distanced point-of-view.

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Are torturers evil?

It is very difficult to break out of some of one’s gut instincts. Since I was raised in the west, spoon-fed Hollywoodisms from my youngest days and all in the shadow of the cold war east-west mentality it is difficult to really get past some of the “facts of life”.

One such fact is that only evil people torture. Evil torturers fall into different categories such as (1) medieval (e.g. Spanish inquisition), foreign despot (e.g. Idi Amin), (3) total raving nutter (e.g. Hitler). Now despite the fact that I know that these simplifications are not true. Works by people such as Hannah Arendt (Eichamnn in Jerusalem) and Stanley Milgram (Obedience to Authority Study) show that acts of evil are conducted without much passion and by ordinary people.

Reports of torture being carried out by ordinary people systematically appear – and I am shocked. In particular since the organisation carrying them out is bringing democracy and attempting to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Why am I shocked? If I know that people are capable of evil? The only explanation I can think of right now is the lame idea of them and us. Stated simply evil people are them, we are good even though sometimes in error. How depressing that in the face of all the evidence I still cannot get beyond this gut reaction that they are evil while we are good.

Oh and don’t try to explain the whole thing away by speaking of a few bad apples at the Abu Ghraib prison. That simplification does not work. See for example an editorial in the New York Times (Only the Jailers are Safe, 20 December 2006, via Battleangel)

Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago, was a whistle-blower who prompted the raid by tipping off the F.B.I. to suspicious activity at the company where he worked, including possible weapons trafficking. He was arrested and held for 97 days â?? shackled and blindfolded, prevented from sleeping by blaring music and round-the-clock lights. In other words, he was subjected to the same mistreatment that thousands of non-Americans have been subjected to since the 2003 invasion.

The culture of cruelty (i.e. the acceptance or tolerance for evil deeds among organisations and in society) is spreading and the more we hear the more we accept. We become (as a society) de-sensitized and tolerant to suffering.

What is the point of fighting for democracy, rights and freedom if the methods used are cruel, inhuman and against democracy, rights and freedom? If we win this fight (against whom?) is it a victory worth having? Or will we like King Pyrrhus declare, after beating the Romans at Asculum (279 BCE) declare that a victory at such a cost is not worth having?

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The Darfur Wall

The tragic situation in Darfur has cost the lives of 400 000 people. In an attempt to raise money and awareness the Darfur Foundation have created a striking demonstration and collection method. They have created The Darfur Wall. This is 400,000 dark numbers spread over 40 pages. Each number represents one of the 400,000 people who have been killed in the Darfur genocide.

Each visitor can pick a number and, by donating one dollar, the number is lit up.

The founders carry the administrative costs so, aside from the Paypal fee, the money is divided equally between the four organizations supported by this foundation, allocated specifically to Darfur relief efforts.

Since the wall went up in November:

Numbers lit: 12270 of 400000
Total amount donated: $12,542
Number of donations: 848
Average donation: $14.79
Percent lit: 3.07%
Pages fully lit: 0 of 40

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Resistance Fashion

Resistance to fashion is a topic that occasionally appears. Such resistance can take the form of animal rights activists protesting against the fur trade (e.g. Coalition to abolish the fur trade), it can take the form of protests against the use of anorectic models (e.g. the Spanish Association in Defense of Attention for Anorexia and Bulimia has managed to obtain the world’s first ban on overly thin models at a top-level fashion show in Madrid), or it can deal with protests against the conditions of workers in the textile trade (the most famous example must be Naomi Kleinâ??s work No Logo)

But what about the fashion of resistance? This is can be seen both as a reflection on what is fashionable to resist at any given time and as the actual fashion statement of the resister. The former is a fascinating subject since the world attention is fickle. The focus of popular attention varies even if the reason for resistance may remain â?? maybe a book here for someone to edit? (nudge, nudge).

However, it is the latter which is the focus of this post. Fashion and style can in themselves be both a form and a symbol of resistance. Styles of dress such as punk and hiphop are seen as resistance to the norm â?? punk went even further since its purpose was to provoke.

But even in the less extreme resistance has a fashion. Styles which identify, unite and exclude. Occasionally these styles establish themselves in the mainstream and there ability to provoke/resist are almost lost. One such controversial symbol is the image of Che Geuvara. On 5th of March 1960 Alberto â??Kordaâ?? Gutierrez took two pictures of Che Guevara. In 1967 the Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli received two copies of the famous print at no cost.

Che by Korda

Feltrinelli started making posters from the prints with the notice â??Copyright Feltrinelliâ?? down in the corner. The image was on itâ??s way to become an international icon â?? it has been transformed, transplanted, transmitted and transfigured all over the world. Korda never received a penny. For one reason only – Cuba had not signed the Berne Convention. Fidel Castro described the protection of intellectual property as imperialistic â??bullshitâ??.

Since then the image has gone from being a symbol of resistance and revolution to being a fashion statement. Today the image has achieved iconic status and is (ab)used on everything from posters to carpets. The image has even had an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The question therefore, as symbolized, by the Che icon is: How does an iconic symbol of resistance spread to a mass audience without becoming pop-culture and lacking in the symbolic value which was the original purpose? Or is resistance fashion a paradox since once it becomes a fashion it loses its resistance quality?

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Think of the French…

Do you associate the French with advanced implementations of Gnu/Linux? Neither did I. But we are wrong â?? the French are now moving ahead in implementing FOSS in government.

Apparently the servers of the French Gendarmes run on â??open sourceâ?? and also the Ministry of Culture. But in June 2007 the PCs in French deputes’ offices will be equipped with a Gnu/Linux operating system and open-source productivity software.

The results of an earlier study showed positive results:

â??The study showed that open-source software will from now on offer functionality adapted to the needs of MPs (members of parliament) and will allow us to make substantial savings despite the associated migration and training costsâ?¦â?? (News.com)

Swedes like to think of ourselves as being technologically advanced (which we are) but we are really falling far behind in the high level use of FOSS in government. It would be an excellent opportunity to take advantage of Microsoft Vista to go Gnu/Linux…

More info: Open source software in the General Assembly (in French), Free Software for the deputies (in French).

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Activist Academia

Faslane 365 is a one year continuous peaceful blockade of the Trident base at Faslane from 1st October 2006 to 30th September 2007.
The blockade is being “manned” by several different groups (look at the list here). Usually the groups organise and promise to take a certain period of the blockade.

Faslane 365 is asking a wide range of local, national and even international groups from all sections of civil society to come to Faslane with at least 100 people committed to stay and make their visions for a just and peaceful future visible for at least two days.

And guess what? There will be a group of academics blockading Faslane in the 7th January 2007. The method for blockading is a method which academics should find natural – the seminar!

Academic Trident Seminar Blockade on the 7th of Jan 2007 within the Faslane 365 Campaign in Scotland, Faslane (www.faslane365.org). In this positive and pro-active action we do not simply protest the existence of nuclear weapons but do direct action to stop them from being used by doing the professional work we do as academics; a scientific seminar. The seminar is then simultaneous a blockade of the Trident Submarine base at Faslane since the seminar will happen directly at the North Gate on the road, i.e. a blockade of base work by scientific discussion! (Academics & Scholars)

There is still time to submit a paper for the blockade (deadline 10 December): Seminar papers are supposed to be short and written by those who participate in the seminar at the gates of the base, i.e. risk arrest. The papers are our statements on why we are blockading with as usual appropriate academic references (1-5 pages, complete texts done by deadline 1st of January).

I really want to submit a paper and go. Not sure if I will be able to…
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The Mountain Lake

Yesterday I held a public lecture in a local suburb of Göteborg, a place called the Mountain Lake. In English the name is totally exotic and idyllic. In Swedish the place is called Bergsjön (literally the mountain lake). Bergsjön is not a place with idyllic connotations but rather one thinks of a problem suburb to the northeast of Göteborg.

Built in the 1960s. Bergsjön is actually a part of Göteborg which lies close to nature, with parks, and yes, a lake. The area is 8 km outside the city center with good public transportation. Almost all the street names have something to do with outer space (for example Galileo Street and Comet Road). At the same time the area is also described as a failing area marked by social segregation, high unemployment and a large (yet diverse) immigrant population.

Bergsjön came to be built during the so-called million program which is the common name for the large scale housing project intended to solve the housing crisis of the 1950s and 1960s in Sweden. The goal was to build one million apartments in Sweden during 1965-1974. It is worth remembering that the population of Sweden is today 9 million.

The architectural ideal of the day was strongly focused on a few key ideas such as commuting, intense central planning, functionalism and a return to nature (or rather a desire to leave the narrow confines of the small stone cities). These ideas, coupled with narrow economic margins, formed the way in which these satellite cities were designed, built and populated. Today one fourth of the population of Sweden lives in a house built in this program. Despite the ideals and economic constraints, in the end, only one fourth of the houses of the million project have more than six floors.

Bergsjön

Many of the complaints against the projects do not concern themselves with the standard of living or the building materials and techniques used. The problem has been seen as a social problem. By building large-scale projects also involves the movement of people. These people have little or no common background connected with the place. Therefore social cohesion becomes difficult from the start.

In addition to this these spaces have been populated with a high number of new immigrants in addition to people with social problems. Thus the areas have been marked with high unemployment. This leads to high social costs and low council taxes which creates a negative spiral.

Social cohesion is on the rise. The first â??officialâ?? notice of this development came from linguists who began to notice a common language being formed and developed in these areas. The language is marked with a high level of borrowed terms from many different parts of the world. Once this minor dialect became more popular it also brought with it a growing awareness of the cultural developments within these areas.

Despite this there remain serious issues connected to the buildings of the million program. Mikael Askergren suggests that they should not be seen as social living spaces but rather:

â??Why do people have such problems loving the concrete architecture of Sweden’s structuralist residential suburbs of the 1960s and 1970s? Most people seem to agree that it is impossible to live a decent life there. But it should be possible to learn to love the architecture of these suburbs as monumentalist artworks; as sculpture. The future of the suburbs of the 1960s and 1970s is not to be lived in, but (much like the castles, palaces, and other monumentalist artworks of ancient times) to be emptied, to be restored to their original splendour, and then to become the subject of tourism.â?? â??Concrete Tourismâ?? by Mikael Askergren, Plaza Magazine, 5-2002.

Whatever happens these areas constitute the real fringe of Swedish language and cultural development. Away from the mainstream they may be the place from where new culture may be introduced into the mainstream.

However, none of this will solve the social issues connected with the larges sites of the million program. Politicians have largely ignored the topic of social improvement since they naively believe that reducing unemployment through different schemes (carrots and/or sticks) will even fix problems of social seclusion and segregation.

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