Cheap Coffins An Election Matter in Mizoram

Aizawl, Nov 22 : Dying is expensive in Mizoram where wooden coffins burn a hole in the pockets of poor families.

Now, NGOs have appealed to political parties contesting the November 25 polls to create awareness about inexpensive coffins made of bamboo which is available in plenty in the state.

The Young Mizo Association, a NGO which helps in coordinating social functions and in conducting funerals for poor families, have been providing free bamboo coffins to those who cannot afford the wooden ones.

"Whenever we hear that someone poor has died and the family doesn't have the money to buy a coffin, we provide cheap bamboo coffins free," YMA general secretary Vanlalruata told PTI. "There is hardly any mass production of bamboo coffins which can bring down prices," Vanlalruata said.

The price of a wooden coffin in the Christian majority state is upwards Rs. 4,000 depending on the variety and design.

A bamboo coffin, in comparison, costs just Rs. 1,500. But lack of awareness and shortage of government subsidy for manufacture of bamboo coffins is stopping its mass production, which is a dampener for the sale of the cheaper variety.

According to Vanlalruata, bamboo coffins are being produced in coordination with the National Bamboo Mission.

Mizoram Election Update: Nov 22

Rahul Gandhi promises jobs for Mizoram youths at a campaign trail in the state

AICC Vice-president Rahul Gandhi hit the campaign trail for the November 25 Assembly polls in Mizoram today, stressing on welfare of Mizo youths and promising to create more jobs if Congress is voted back to power in the state.
Addressing an election rally at Kolasib town on the Assam-Mizoram border, Rahul said skill development will be Congress' priority to ensure that more Mizo educated youths find employment across the country.
"We (Congress) will also create more jobs for youngsters in the state during the next five years if Congress retains power," he said.
He promised setting up of a medical college after Mizoram University, National Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Mass Communication started functioning in the state.
Development of the sports skills of Mizo youths will be a continued priority of the government, he said, adding that "a number of Ronaldos and Messis (internationally renowned football players) will come up from the state." Besides construction of three stadiums with artificial grass in the state, a stadium each will also be constructed in every district.
Gandhi lauded the achievements of the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla and said the New Land Use Policy (NLUP), the flagship program of Congress, has brought economic prosperity in the state.
NLUP was a special project for which the Centre provided Rs 2,800 crore during the past five years. It benefited the youths and farmers specially by creating more jobs and increasing yield from land.
Referring to the ongoing Kaladan Multi-Modal Transport Project, which will help direct export of products from Mizoram to Kolkata via Myanmar, Rahul said the government will also give special focus to roads, and every village in the state will be linked.
Earlier in the day, the Congress Vice-president also addressed an election meeting at Champai town on Mizoram-Myanmar border.
He was accompanied by CM Thanhawla, AICC General Secretary Luizinho Faleiro and three candidates from the district. Rahul left for Delhi after the Kolasib rally.

70 per cent turnout in Bru relief camps for Mizoram Assembly polls

Thamsa Para: Reang tribal refugees show photo identity cards as they lineup at a polling station to vote for Mizoram Assembly elections

At least 70 per cent poll turnout was reported from the six Bru relief camps in North Tripura district during the three-day polling for the coming elections to the 40-member Mizoram assembly, state Joint Chief Electoral Officer H Lalengmawia today said.

Polling began on Tuesday last and concluded today in the relief camps of Naisingpara, Asapara, Hazacherra, Khakchangpara, Kaskau and Hamsapara, Lalengmawia told PTI.

The Election Commission (EC) had instructed the state election department to conduct the polling in relief camps on November 19 and 20.

However, the polling, which was conducted through postal ballots, could not be completed yesterday due to slow process of the exercise and the Commission granted permission to continue the franchise today, Lalengmawia said.

The 11,612-strong Bru electorate in the relief camps were exercising franchise through postal ballots in the camps for the Mizoram polls to be held on November 25.

Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath, while visiting Mizoram recently had said Bru voters lodged in the camps in Tripura would be allowed to exercise franchise in the camps in accordance with the Delhi High Court order of 1999.

Mizoram CM gives tickets to kith and kin, draws flak

Under fire from rivals for giving in to Hindu rituals, Mizoram chief minister Lal Thanhawla is now besieged by barbs for “importing” the Congress’ dynastic politics against the tenets of local tribal culture.

The accusations have reached a crescendo with the day of polling, November 25, round the corner.

Mizos did not give much thought to the candidature of the chief minister’s younger brother Lal Thanzara from Aizawl North-III seat in 2008. Thanzara, seeking re-election from the same constituency, ended up as the “de facto deputy CM” — a term the Opposition has coined — handling almost everything Thanhawla would normally have done if he did not travel “300 days a year”.

Social media sites — offline Mizos too — began discussing the advent of dynastic politics after the Congress gave the ticket to Chalrosanga Ralte for the Lunglei West seat. Chalrosanga is the brother of Lalriliani, the chief minister’s wife.

Chalrosanga is also the younger brother of Mizoram’s sports minister Zodintluanga, who is hoping to represent the Thorang seat again. That Chalrosanga was not in the reckoning even a few months ago set tongues wagging.

If that weren’t enough, the Congress has retained Lt Col Zosangliana for the Aizawl South-II seat despite the “non-performer” tag. Zosangliana is the brother-in-law of Mizoram assembly speaker John Rotluangliana — party candidate for the Mamit seat as also of Lok Sabha member CL Ruala.

Mizo accord best example of conflict management: Rahul Gandhi

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday addressed a poll campaign rally in Mizoram, assuring the people that those from the state had "a friend in Delhi".

In a short speech at Kolasib in Mizoram, the Gandhi scion said that he wanted to travel across the state like his father, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and listen to the problems of the people.

He further said that the Mizo accord is the best example of conflict management.

Rahul's rally in the poll-bound state came four days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed a small gathering of around 600-700 people, canvassing for votes for the Congress. The Prime Minister referred to the advantage of the same party remaining in power, thereby indicating how Congress-ruled state and central government could work in tandem towards this.

"I recall that 5 years ago I had said that if a Congress government came to power in Mizoram it would again implement the NLUP, which had been discontinued by the MNF government... I know that the state government has made some suggestions to make the scheme better and I promise you that the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre will provide all possible assistance to Mizoram to achieve this," Singh had said.

Mizoram headed for crorepati rule

By Linda Chhakchhuak

Mizoram, a special category State, is headed for rule by a government of crorepatis. Going by a study of the candidates’ assets, the only sure upshot is that the State is headed for a rule by rich men.

Ruling over a State that’s known as a ‘poor’ State, the outgoing people’s representatives have done very well for themselves. The assets of 36 outgoing MLAs who are contesting again in the 2013 elections grew by a clean Rs 1.79 crore on an average. Analysed by the Mizoram Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) the candidates average assets growth is Rs 2.62 crore from the average Rs 82.81 lakh in the 2008 elections, a 217 per cent growth.

Three chief ministerial hopefuls, Congress president and Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, Zoramthanga, president of the Mizo National Front (MNF) and Lalduhawma, president of the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) are all millionaires as per their affidavits.

Congress president, Thanhawla, contesting from Hrangturzo and Serchhip constituencies has declared maximum increase in assets of Rs 6.92 crore; from Rs 2.22 crore in 2008 to Rs 9.15 crore in 2013.

Zoramthanga, though not a sitting MLA has total assets of Rs 2.18 crore. Not reflected in the affidavit is that a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act has accused him of having assets worth Rs 800 crore without proper source of income.

The assets of former IPS officer Lalduhawma, ZNP president and sitting MLA grew by 155 per cent from Rs 67 lakh in 2008 to Rs 1.70 crore in 2013.

Retired Indian civil servant, and president of Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) which is in poll alliance with the MNF, has assets of Rs 2.01 crore.

ADR report says that 53 per cent, i.e., 75 out of the total 142 candidates are crorepatis. The average assets of the 40 Congress candidates is Rs 2.52 crore, ZNP with 38 candidates has an average of Rs 3.13 crore and the MNF with 31 candidates is an average of Rs 2.69 crore.

At the other end of the spectrum are the candidates at the bottom of the assets line-up. There are 12 candidates with less than Rs 1 lakh assets with Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Zoramchhani, a woman candidate having total assets of Rs 3,800 only.

While the crorepatis woo voters, the average electorate remain hassled by issues of price rise of essentials, disappearance of domestic cooking gas from the agencies, the roads in disrepair, etc.

The soaring wealth of their rulers are a far cry from the per capita income which was reported as Rs 30,488 in 2007-08 and rising to Rs 50,021 in 2011-2012. The Economic Survey 2011 reported that 60 per cent of the population of the State depended on agriculture but the sector contribution to the GSDP was only 19.84 per cent.

The average ‘agriculturist’ in this mountainous State ekes out a tough living in the notoriously mountainous terrain. This is incidentally, where the political parties led by ruling Congress party are set into a formula wooing voters through ‘charity’ based schemes such as the New Land Use Policy (NLUP) or various versions of this through which money will be directly distributed if voted to power.
 

Mary's Metro Plans in Delhi

By Piyali Dasgupta

Mary also mentioned that she's more relaxed travelling these days because her youngest, five months old, travels with her.

 Olympic medalist, boxer MC Mary Kom has been spotted on and off in the capital these past few days.

Recently, Mary made her second visit to Delhi in a short while, and said, "I was in Delhi just a few days back to attend the F1 Indian GP, and now again I'm back in Delhi for the North East festival.

It is always a joy to come here in the winters. At least you get a chance to put on your sweaters and leather boots here!"

She added, "Delhi is almost like another home now. I have a lot of relatives staying here, so whenever I'm here, I try and meet them. I remember the good old days in Delhi when I was living in Mukherjee Nagar with my relatives.

I would usually plan my trip to Patiala, for the practice matches, to include a stopover in Delhi for a few days and enjoy myself with my family.

I have enjoyed travelling in the Delhi buses and cycle rickshaws. Of course, now it's been a long time since I got to do all that. The only thing that I haven't done in Delhi is taken a Metro ride... Maybe, someday, I shall try doing that too!"

Mary also mentioned that she's more relaxed travelling these days because her youngest, five months old, travels with her.

Centre, Naga Insurgents Begin Fresh Negotiations

Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah. File Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar

No prospect of breakthrough, but government optimistic, sources say

The Union government began a fresh round of negotiations with leaders of the largest Naga insurgent group on Thursday, hoping to hammer out a political settlement to the decades-old conflict ahead of Lok Sabha elections next year.

Former Petroleum Secretary and Nagaland Chief Secretary R.S. Pandey, the Union government’s interlocutor, met with the top leadership of the National Socialist Council of Nagland — Isak-Muviah, or NSCN-IM, represented by its chairman Isak Chishi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah — the latest in a series of closed-door negotiations that have continued for more than fifteen years.

Neither side made statements after today’s talks, which are expected to continue for several days. Prior to leaving Kohima, Mr. Swu refused to speculate on the outcome of the negotiations. Mr. Muviah said that “we want a solution as soon as possible.”

The talks, have been shrouded in secrecy, but a senior government official told The Hindu, centred around a deal which would give Naga communities in both Nagaland and Manipur similar substantial rights across State lines — but without territorial concessions from Manipur on Naga-inhabited areas in the districts of Tamenlong, Senapati, Ukhrul and Chandel.

“In essence,” the official said, “the best-case outcome would be a deal which created a institutional mechanism to give Naga communities across the region full recognition and rights, but without redrawing state boundaries.”

“There is no immediate prospect of a breakthrough, but the government is optimistic,” he added.

Pressure on NSCN factions

Pressure has been mounting on the NSCN-IM since early this year, which some experts believe could bring a deal within reach. Notably, there have been growing protests in Nagaland against the parallel taxation structure insurgents use to fund their operations. Thousands defied NSCN-IM calls to rally in Dimapur on November 1 under the banner of the Action Committee Against Unabated Taxation to protest against taxes imposed on underground organisations on salaries, businesses and contractors.

Former Indian Administrative Service officer and social activist K.K. Sema said the protests were organised “not to fight with any underground faction but to reason with them that there has to be the rule of law.”

“Take tax but through rules,” Mr. Sema said, calling for “one government, one tax.”

Formations like the NSCN-IM came under further pressure in May, when the Nagaland government was reported to be considering granting tribal status to the Mao Nagas — a legal decision that brings with opportunities for government employment and benefits. The Maos already have tribal status in Manipur.

However, the move encountered resistance from some Naga tribal groups within Nagaland—a development with direct repercussions for the NSCN-IM, whose leadership are made up of Tangkhul Nagas, whose lands are mainly in Manipur.

Though the State government later denied it was granting the Mao tribal status, the issue led to friction between the Naga Tribal Alliance, a newly-formed association of tribes within Nagaland, and the Naga Hoho, which claims to speak for all Nagas.

Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have passed resolutions in their assemblies that no territory will be given up for a Greater Nagland, and New Delhi fears it could stoke the ethnic-Meitei insurgency in Manipur.

Frequent clashes have taken place over the issue. In 2011, Mr. Muivah was forced to defer a visit to his ancestral village of Somdal in Manipur’s Ukhrul district, after it generated a standoff at the Mao Gate on the Nagaland-Manipur border.

India Decries ‘Assam rape festival’ article

Most blame misinformed people for publishing article that maligns the country’s image

By Karuna Madan

New Delhi: A cross-section of the Indian society feels that an American website’s satirical rape article is a “clear Western propaganda” to malign India, its men and its main religion Hinduism, with the author not having even minimum knowledge of Indian culture.

“Worse than the article is the photograph of ‘Sadhus (saints), rushing to take bath in holy river Ganga at the time of auspicious Kumbh Mela,” said Delhi-based journalist Hemender

“This is a direct religious-racial attack on India. Hinduism is the religion where women have been given topmost priority, so much so that they are attributed as source of ‘Shakti’ (power).

“The defamation of Indian culture has been happening since the beginning of time. The people out there who believe that Indian society is regressive need to get their heads examined,” .

Famous corporate trainer Sarandeep Singh believes no culture is perfect and as part of human progress, civilisations must try to remove social man-made flaws and uplift women and the downtrodden.

“Having said this, the article on the purported Assam Rape festival is utterly disgusting. However, learning about the true nature of the article is an even bigger shocker. The writer has shown his disrespect to two groups of people at least. First, insult is brought on India and the Indian people, whose name has been maligned [by being shown as allowing] a gross tradition. Any such association wrongly projected in the name of satire is deep rooted offence and not humour. Secondly, this is a huge disrespect to women in general,” Singh added.

Women’s rights activist Kusum Sehgal said it was one thing to dominate women and keep them downtrodden due to lack of equal education, employment opportunities and social and legal rights, but joking about gang rape was simply outrageous.

“It is shameful and thoroughly offensive journalism,” Sehgal said.

However, some people who saw no wrong in the write-up. Delhi University Professor Reena Bhatt said: “On National Report’s website, they clearly state that they produce fake news. They do not hide this important piece of information.

“People saw a sensational story and ran with it. They did not bother to look at the source.”

Bhatt said it was not National Report’s fault that legitimate media sites were lazy in their fact checking.

“Personally, I wish National Report would change their name to something more befitting to them, maybe ‘National Joke Report’ or ‘National Faux News’ because too many of their silly stories keep getting picked up by the world media,” Bhatt added.

How Big Is Your Internet Penis? (NSFW)

This Is The Most Uncomfortable Thing In The History Of The Internet

It’s a website that takes your name and generates an image of your privatest parts.

If you go to this site, and I’m not saying that you should, but that you could, you’ll see an input.

 It’s for your name.

Simply put your name, or up to four names, in this box, and it will draw you a picture.

You get the Point and don't do it at work...

You can further analyse and compare different things...like &^%%% and *&&&**

Portraits Of Americans And Their Guns

SAFETY ON? SAY CHEESE


Lindsay Makowski and her bulldog in her living room in Silver Spring, Md. Ms. Makowski owns numerous handguns which she got after getting into a bad situation with a former boyfriend.


 (L) Ben Baker stands on the railway tracks that run by his home in in Ashburn, Ga. He is posing with his beloved 20 gauge pump action shotgun. (L) Writer Dan Baum at his home in Boulder, Colo. Mr. Baum with his cherished 7.63mm C96 Mauser which was manufactured in 1896.

Finding Snowden

By Silkie Carlo

“There were times when I thought it would never happen,” Coleen Rowley, a former FBI agent, said about her recent trip to Moscow. “I’m still amazed.”

I too was amazed when I received an encrypted email at 2am one recent October morning, with a photo of her and three other whistleblowers standing shoulder to shoulder with one of the most wanted men on the planet.

When Edward Snowden abandoned his Hawaii home, a long-term relationship, and a six-figure salary as a government contractor in order to lift the veil on the US's transnational surveillance system, he also left behind any sense of safety or security. The US Justice Department has charged the 30-year-old former "infrastructure analyst" with theft of government property, and two serious charges under the Espionage Act. The former director of the NSA, Michael Hayden, even recently "joked" during a cybersecurity panel that Snowden should be put on America’s kill list. (Rep. Mike Rogers R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, responded, "I can help you with that.")

For four high-profile former spooks, each with their own histories of whistleblowing and government persecution, arranging a secret meeting with the world’s most wanted whistleblower was no simple thing. In early October, they embarked on their mission to inaugurate Snowden into the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of ex-intelligence officials who demonstrate “courage, persistence, and devotion to truth — no matter the consequences.” They had chosen Snowden as the awardee of their 2013 Sam Adams Integrity Award, and felt it would only be right to deliver the award—a candlestick holder made on a 3D printer—in person. They would be the first Americans known to meet with him since he arrived in Moscow on June 23.

Holding a 3D-printed candle to power: From left, Coleen Rowley (retired FBI agent), Thomas Drake (former NSA senior executive), Jesselyn Radack (former Dept. of Justice advisor), Snowden, Sarah Harrison (WikiLeaks journalist), and Ray McGovern (retired CIA analyst). 

“Arrangements were made,” said Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the NSA who was on the trip and who spoke carefully about its details. Drake, who warned about abuses at the agency after 9/11 and was indicted under the Espionage Act before most of the charges were dropped, has been cited by Snowden as an inspiration. After Snowden's disclosures, Drake warned him publicly to “always check six"—make sure you know what's behind you. "Obviously, with Snowden, no communications can be electronic.”

The term "logistical nightmare" springs to mind, but that would be an understatement. The challenges of what they called the "mission to Moscow," of communicating with and meeting with Snowden without revealing his location to people armed with the arsenal of technology Snowden has revealed, appeared insurmountable when the group began planning their trip in earnest in early August, at a hacker conference outside Amsterdam.

“We cannot be entirely sure, but it would appear that we did successfully meet Snowden without being tailed or giving his location away,” said Drake, who spearheaded the planning of the trip. “We arrived in Russia not knowing where we would meet him—and of course, we did not meet him at his place of residence. This level of security was at his request, and agreed upon to protect his safety.” They met in an undisclosed place that Rowley said was "probably a third location" in a series of possible rendezvous points, in order to throw off anyone who might be following them, and perhaps to keep the visitors in the dark too.

Moscow, via Flickr/apurturismo

Given the risks and difficulties of transportation, accommodation, and communication between Snowden and his visitors, it's not improbable, as some observers have speculated, that Russia's state security services are responsible for their eminent asylee. Some reports that emerged after the whistleblowers’ visit referred to metal detectors at their meeting place, and the presence of Russian officials. The visitors said that Snowden's attorney, Anatoly Kucherena, and a translator were also in attendance, along with the British journalist Sarah Harrison, of Wikileaks—"his shepherd, friend, protector and constant companion since Hong Kong," according to Radack. Ed's father, Lon, would visit the following day. But they would not discuss other people who may have been at the ceremony. “Russia has a duty to protect Ed as an asylee,” Drake explained. “That should tell you everything you need to know.”

However hard they are, the challenges of reaching Snowden might be somewhat diminished if you're already familiar with the ins and outs of government power, as the Sam Adams Associates certainly are. The award they were bringing was named for a CIA analyst who, in 1967, discovered that there were more than half a million Vietnamese Communists under arms, which was about twice the number that the US command in Saigon would admit to, lest the narrative of the war's "progress" prove to be false. Adams protested within the system, and after retiring from CIA in 1973, wrote an article about about what he called a CIA conspiracy for Harper's, testified before Congress, and helped CBS News make a documentary. But up until he died from a heart attack in 1988, he was nagged by the thought that he could have said and done more. The new whistleblowers are determined to avoid that regret. 

“The US has unchained itself from the constitution,” said Drake, who has spent the past few years railing against the government's massive collection of Americans' data, which violates the Fourth Amendment's principle that "searches and seizures" require warrants. Snowden is a constitutionalist too, and when asked in an online Q & A what he would say to other potential intelligence agency whistleblowers, he expressed his nationalism in the plainest terms: “This country is worth dying for."

Snowden's decision to expose the NSA, made in service, he's said, to the American public and the Constitution, comes at a serious personal cost. His year-long asylum protects him in Russia, but beyond those borders, he risks prosecution, or worse. It's easy to imagine life that has been hollowed, exiled in a freezing, alien terrain by his crisis of consciousness; his daily existence shaken by the constant anxiety of his inevitable persecution. 

To the contrary, though, Snowden is doing “remarkably well,” said Drake, who noted his "wicked sense of humor." Rowley rather casually told me he “seemed fine.” There, they described a man living in asylum, not as a fugitive—and not, as Snowden made sure to explain, as a pawn of the Russian government. (His passport was revoked by the U.S. while in transit to Ecuador, he points out, and his every move is watched by Wikileaks' Harrison.) His biggest concerns, his visitors said, tended to go well beyond his own safety.

“He has a poker face,” said Rowley. “He talked a lot about the need for reform in the US—personal issues didn’t come up much.” What about former director Hayden’s thinly veiled assassination comments? “We asked him about that. It didn’t shake him at all. He shrugged it off.”

Rowley, herself a remarkably resolute character who was recognized as a Time Person of The Year in 2002 for her whistleblowing at the FBI, describes Snowden as “one of the strongest and most stable characters I have ever encountered.” He is practical and focused, she added, an Epictetian stoic who carried on with life as best as possible, sometimes getting out and about in Moscow (according to his attorney), and apparently, working too. Rowley said Snowden's new gig is “working on internet services of some sort.” No surprise there, but Snowden’s job, like his location, is likely to remain a closely guarded secret, for now at least.

Snowden's remarks at the Sam Adams Associates dinner, via Courtesy Wikileaks/The Daily Conversation

Being a Sam Adams Associate may not endow you with any added sense of security, but it aims to provide a comforting sense of solidarity. After the two-hour award ceremony, which included individual speeches, an exchange of human rights texts and Russian literature, and accounts of radical moments in American history, the attorney and translator left, and the whistleblowers chatted until the early hours. Another of his visitors, Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department ethics attorney and whistleblower who has represented Thomas Drake and others, chose to read from Albert Camus.

“We have nothing to lose except everything," she recited. "So let’s go ahead. This is the wager of our generation.” She drew parallels between Camus’ wager and what Snowden called "the Work of a Generation" in a statement he recently sent to the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee. Radack reminded Snowden too that Camus rejected what he termed “the paltry privileges granted to those who adapt themselves to this world," adding, “those individuals who refuse to give in will stand apart, and they must accept this.” Stoicism, not anger, it seems, is a consistent motif among the US's intelligence whistleblowers.

Ray McGovern, the 73-year-old founder of the Sam Adams Associates, isn't among Snowden's generation, but he supports his "wager." A former high-ranking CIA analyst who served under seven presidents, McGovern argues that young people today who have grown up with the internet possess technical abilities and a corresponding conscience that motivates them to keep it free.

"One of the things that impressed me most," McGovern wrote, "was Ed’s emphasis on the 'younger generation' he represents—typically those who have grown up with the Internet—who have (scarcely-fathomable-to-my-generation) technical expertise and equally remarkable dedication to keeping it free—AND have a conscience."

"It is the sort of idealism," said Jesselyn Radack, "that allows someone to undertake such a magnificent act of civil disobedience. It’s an idealism that believes the democracy he once knew can be reined in from the surveillance state it has become, if only the public knew what was going on.” 

Drake, who has been thinking a lot lately about civil liberties in the digital age, believes that an internet-connected generation that remembers the pre-9/11 world may “carry new principles to do with the democratization of information and the protection of civil liberties that help us resist this dystopic nightmare.” Perhaps serving as some measure, the number of people using the anonymous web browsing program Tor has rocketed since the Snowden revelations.

Will this generation manage to curtail the kind of dragnet surveillance that Snowden helped disclose, whether through political change or technological evasion? Do Americans want to resist the spied-upon world that Snowden said he didn’t want to live in? In the Nation, Radack described Snowden as “idealistic—in the best sense of the word. It is the sort of idealism that allows someone to undertake such a magnificent act of civil disobedience. It’s an idealism that believes the democracy he once knew can be reined in from the surveillance state it has become, if only the public knew what was going on.”

There was a dose of realism in their meeting too. “He was always talking about what should we do next, how to achieve reform,” Rowley said, recounting the whistleblower's three main political aims. First, he would like to see section 215 of the controversial post-9/11 PATRIOT Act, and particularly section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, repealed, ending two elements of legislation that permit the collection of metadata and warrantless surveillance, with dubious constitutionality." 

Snowden also said he wants to see the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) amended, as this is the legislation that permits the interception and storage of private electronic communications. Third, he urged that an independent body conduct a thorough inquiry into the surveillance practices of US intelligence agencies on a broader scale. Rowley reminded me that the NSA is just one of sixteen US intelligence agencies—and that there are around 2,000 private security contractors. “There is even more going on than Snowden knows about,” she said.

And for us, the public, too. Glenn Greenwald, who took hold of Snowden's documents (Snowden has said he no longer has them), estimates that he and other journalists are only about halfway through the release of Snowden's trove of exported documents. And some of the most shocking revelations, I am told, are yet to come.

The revelations likely won't end there. The ex-spooks tell me, with scant detail, that more whistleblowers have begun to come forward. There's a sense now that dawn is breaking in the Information Age, revealing a staggering new horizon. If information is power, Snowden has helped foretell a decade of unprecedented public empowerment, his supporters say. He may be called an idealist for wanting to change the world, but in the eyes of those who have dared to tread a similar path, he already has.

“It is never about the majority,” Drake said of the people who are instrumental in protecting the freedoms of the public, “nor has it been throughout our history.”

Source: vice.com