Nexus - 1106 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

THE RISE THE GLOBAL ACTIVISM NEw In the wake of 9/11, governments have been cracking down on the freedoms of individuals, but new activist movements are growing around the world and people are making determined stands for human rights and justice. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. — US Congressman Ron Paul, in his "Texas Straight Talk" column, August 2004 Society Unravelling t's a short visit to the USA, but already I'm getting used to standing in endlessly long airline boarding lines. I'm a white middle-aged woman in amongst people of all colours, waved into a line destined for special attention because of my "foreign" ID. Once American, I long ago adopted and was adopted by Australia, "the Lucky Country". We wait, all of us stockinged or barefoot, looking pained and embarrassed, surrounded by black-suited, unfriendly, paramilitary-looking men and officials wearing rubber gloves. Up ahead an Hispanic child of barely three is being searched, her teddy bear falling to the ground. Rough hands retrieve it and probe the bear deeply for contraband. None is found. The child cries. The line is painfully slow. The linoleum chills my feet. My facial expression must be betraying my distaste. People talk in whispers. People glance around to spot the camera, careful to hide their mouth from the prying lens. A black man helps me to understand. "Nine-eleven," he whispers barely audibly. Others join in. Stories cautiously seep out whenever I stand in line with others. We begin an impromptu Sociology 101 lesson. Somebody's friend with an Arabic name was arrested and disappeared for weeks, but was never charged. Somebody else knows of a teacher who taught the Constitution in her classroom and was censured. A student shared his political views in a classroom and was visited by the FBI. A person was detained for reading an airport novel that featured a gun on its cover. While somebody's sister was in jail for a minor offence, her child was put into a foster home by the authorities. "Surely that can't be right," I say from my white middle-aged Australian perspective. Laughs all round. "You got no money, you go to jail, man. It's da rules," explains a brown man with dreadlocks. I later discover that of the 80,000 women now in US jails, about 70% are nonviolent offenders and 75% of them have children. Entire archipelagos of prisons all over the world are owned by private corporations. Business is booming. Share prices are going through the roof—a good investment for the rich. Multinational prison corporations have built and operate Australian detention centres where we, in the once Lucky Country, incarcerate refugees from the Third World. There are two million people in US prisons, the highest prison population in the world—more than in Russia.' Of those, 70% are illit- erate, 50% are African Americans, and 80% are drug users and alcoholics mixed in with the homeless, the mentally ill and nonviolent offenders. The prison corporations offer no treatment for the sick or help for the homeless. On the contrary, the sick and poor are mixed in with a general assortment of sociopaths. My boarding call is announced. I'm relieved when the line shortens. It's my turn. I am waved up to a table by two rubber-gloved uniformed persons. I notice that rubber gloves are very popular these days. I am motioned to stand with my legs wide apart, my arms extended. The large male spills my bag's contents onto a nearby table. My money purse bursts open and coins spill out. A dime rolls and stops at my bare feet. On it I see the Email: evehillary@smartchat.net.au NEXUS = 11 MEET THE GLOBAL CORPORATE POLICE STATE by Eve Hillary © 2004 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com