Extraordinarily frightening. Read, learn, inwardly digest and then ACT. If you’re like me and safely outside of the US (although there’s a few examples of where that doesn’t count for much), read, learn, inwardly digest and ACT.

I had  flashback to the 80s after reading this article. Not the boofy haired, shoulder padded kind of 80s. The 80s where people were protesting in the streets and being beaten for it. Where espionage on the behalf of governments was rife. Where we felt like we were on the brink of annihilation.

Okay, maybe we’re not actually on the brink of annihilation now. But there’s something afoot. With our new found freedom of information and expression comes a reaction. The push and pull of forces makes it so.

I need a coffee.

This week, Wikileaks burst into the news. Bigger and louder than before and bringing forth a full force reaction from the powers that be. What information came out (that made the headlines anyway) from the latest leaks? Apparently important enough information for the US to explode in anger towards Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. Within days, Palin & Huckabee were in a perverted bidding war on how to deal with him. “Track him down like Osama Bin Laden” (what, wait 10 years for nothing to happen?), “assassinate him”? This, from the Land of the Free, where Freedom of Speech is king.  The US Government went into overdrive, looking for payback. Shortly afterwards, Amazon booted Wikileaks off their server and then Paypal stopped donations being paid through them. (Boycott both if you care). The UK snivelled up to their special friend and called for Assange’s blood. So did France and most disappointingly, Australia. How shameful is it that someone who was born in Australia, (and remains a citizen) is threatened by his own government? But not everything went against Assange: A Swiss host has taken Wikileaks onboard and is not inclined in the slightest to bow to pressure to remove it.

This is serious, folks!

There are some who are likening Assange to Che Guevara. I disagree. He’s not advocating a violent overthrowing of the government. He’s enacting what governments all over the world say they espouse – transparency. If Assange is like any other historical figure/s he’s more like Woodward & Bernstein. Journalists tracking down information that’s being withheld from the public.

The ramifications of the reaction to these leaks is world changing. Assange is a public figure now. We know who he is, what he looks like and sadly, that he has a son. Should he be assassinated or thrown in prison to rot will have a major effect on the media – mainstream and social – and I suspect, world politics. Conspiracy theorists will go wild with a world wide “told you so”.  Dictatorships will be heartened by how democracy deals with rogue information.

What came out of the latest leaks

Do I need to know what conversations were had between top diplomats? Do I need to be told that the US thinks Russia is run like the Mafia or that Berlusconi is sex mad? In the case of the latter two, no, we already know that. Rumour, gossip and conspiracy theories will always thrive in the absence of official information. But with so many leaks yet to be published, it’s an indictment on the media as much as the readership that the titillating, gossipy leaks made headlines first.

From the Telegraph’s article of Wikileaks’ 10 greatest stories, you can see that many of the leaks are important. They show us what’s been going on behind the curtain of confidentiality while we go about our daily lives. In another Telegraph article, it’s revealed that some files may contain evidence of war crimes (see article: Afghan war logs: ‘files may contain evidence of war crimes’ ).

Perhaps we don’t need to know everything. The delicate dance of diplomacy requires some level of discretion. But if atrocities are going on each day in the name of freedom, science, government without recourse, then we need to know. No, really, we need to know. Otherwise, it’s all a bit Orwellian, isn’t it? Now that we know just some of it, to not have that information would paint a twist on our pleasant daily lives. Wouldn’t it?  It’s not indecent that Wikileaks leaked the information. It’s indecent that some of these activities went on behind the scenes. It’s indecent that the governments want privacy over what is public. It’s most indecent that some of us would prefer never to know in the first place.

Further reading: Keep informed!

How WikiLeaks altered the way we see the world in just a week

BBC: Wikileaks Revelations

Afghan war logs

Finding Wikileaks – mirror sites are popping up all over the place as many domains falter

http://wikileaks.gonte2.nu/

http://wikileaks.piratenpartei.de/

via Twitter: http://twitter.com/search?q=imwikileaks

Both Anna and Kristina have come in at the end of a very long period of Labor government. Kristina got the poison chalice and the folk of Queensland appear to be tired so very tired of Labor. But what of Mike Rann? No doubt he believes he has a goal to drive South Australia into the future, following his own grand plan. Feeling as though he was annointed by Saint Don Dunstan (may he rest in peace), nothing will stop him from leading the state forth. But there’s a shelf life for everything and everyone. There comes a time when stepping aside and letting in  someone with fresh ideas. Or is it all about breaking the record set by Bob Carr? Surely not.

Mr Rann is exhibiting such vanity ahead of the both the State’s and Labor’s interests – something akin to Howard in his last years. Instead of trying to break Bob Carr’s record, he should learn from Bob Carr’s actions by stepping aside. In my opinion, he should have stepped down prior to the last election. If arguments by the unions, the press or the electorate don’t change his mind, maybe a tempter of a better life post politics?

A personal appeal to Mike Rann

Imagine, Mr Rann, your retirement in the Italian countryside, writing epistles & tomes at your leisure. How much nicer would that be than being run out of office by an infuriated electorate? And wouldn’t stepping aside to let some fresher minds have a go be better for the party? By fresh, I don’t mean Kevin Foley. He may have been an effective parliamentarian, but his jackboot style and now, ineffective management of the Treasury is more on the nose to the public than you.

Image via Wikipedia

I have a reputation at work for being always hungry for information and impatient with internal communication. Frankly, I can’t stand not knowing. I don’t envy those who trundle along, happy to wait for information to be delivered to them in whatever form the deliverer decides. I know ignorance is supposed to be bliss, but to be inside an information free zone is my idea of hell.

I’ve recently tracked the source of this hunger to a few key events in my life.

The first major event:

1983 Year 12 Camp – Victor Harbor

Before mobile phones and the Internet, and TV & radio providing the only information, real news from our respective worlds was reduced to a minimum. Until word got out that there were bushfires spreading throughout the Adelaide Hills which were to become known as the Ash Wednesday fires. While country based teachers were allowed to go home, we students were plunged into a media blackout. News via all media was banned – to keep us from becoming upset.

1998 – Needs to know basis

I found myself working under a fascist. She seemed friendly enough, but then she started coming out with rascist jokes that would curl even Pauline Hanson‘s hair. That was bad enough. It was worse when I’d clearly asked her not to tell me the jokes only to have her persist. Anyway, that’s not the reason why this point in time is mentioned. It’s because, in her previous working life, she’d been an intelligence officer for one of the armed services. Her training had given her a skewed perspective on communication. When she found out that my uncle was one of the Balibo Five, asked me if I knew how they died and then gave me a knowing look (I know but I won’t tell you). Over the days, weeks and months I worked with this person, she would drip feed or deny me information using the “needs to know basis” formula. Even outcomes of  meetings were based on this formula. It essentially gave her power over me and frankly, drove me around the twist.

1999 – Change Management

I was the Coordinator to a Change Management project. Change Management done badly is akin to a propaganda campaign, carried out by management to ensure a smooth transition from what was to what’s coming. It ignores human nature or at the very least denies its expression.  Okay, perhaps it can be done well. I’m yet to see it.

This project was for a small company that had been bought out by a huge company. They’d already worked through all the processes and conducted a Supply Chain re-engineering Project. The employees were clearly nervous about what was to come. Recruitment had been stopped and temporary employees were brought in (and hated). But the Change Management project rolled along. Focus groups, workshops, training sessions and more were added to the already busy days of the employees. Naysayers were given stern talkings to and decried as fear mongers. Part of my job was to allay the fears. When people nervously predicted that everything would be shut down and moved to Melbourne, it was I who soothed their worried brows and told them it just wasn’t true. It turns out everyone, including me, was a sucker. Six months after I left that job, I bumped into one of my former colleagues and was told that, indeed, the whole place was shut down and relocated to Melbourne.

2001 – News blackout

11 September 2001. I’d watched the buildings crumble before my very eyes via Channel 9 the previous night. I listened to the news on the car radio, tears streaming as I drove in to work. Everyone, absolutely everyone wanted to know what was happening, what had happened, why it happened. News websites were accessed across the organisation – the BBC being one of the better sources of information. But by the next day, IT had blocked all access to news sites. I suppose we could have listened to the radio, but radio has its limitations. Looking back, I can see that internet access in 2001 was meagre compared to now.  But at the time, that information was like oxygen. We needed to understand. We needed information. And they cut supply.

Now

I must write very carefully. There are such things as career limiting moves (CLM). Management, and from my experience this means management in many organisations, not just mine, like to, well, manage information flows. This information management becomes habit-forming. Management also hate – HATE – the grapevine. But there’s your trouble. In the absence of real information, speculation and rumour WILL fill the void. Despite the assertions of “Who Moved my Cheese“, employees are not simple-minded rats. With an open flow of communication, we will decide what’s important and what’s not. To hold off information until the very last “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed is counter productive. Draft versions of information are perfectly fine – especially if marked DRAFT boldly throughout the content. With a management approach to information very much along the lines of “needs to know”, my colleagues and I now have a standardized greeting of “so, what do you know?”. My suggestion to management is: open up communication, manage the reaction. It might be that with open communication, perhaps over time, the reactions will become so that little management is required.

A little trite?

Compared to those brave souls around the world who speak up against oppression, facing imprisonment or sometimes, death, my fight for information seems a little trite. I read about Zarganar, a Burmese comedian who is in prison for 35 years, who can only see two members of his family during allotted times, but is still writing jokes. So I understand that my fight to have the results of the employee opinion survey to be released appears lame compared. In this comfortable life we lead, we have the luxury of choosing our battles and this is mine.

to be continued…

This morning was a reminder of how civilised my train service is. Newly renovated line and station, reliable timetable, pleasant fellow travellers.

While I didn’t have to wait very long, I did have some minutes to enjoy the bird song, the view of the hills and a swoosh by of the Overland.

I was able to use my iPad too but since it doesn’t have 3G and at this stage, the train system is without WiFi, I read some more spokes of the wheels in the Fry Chronicles (app).

It was altogether an enjoyable experience. And I’ll happily travel by train again, if the weather’s right, if I can figure out how to get from the stop to work, if I’m not too tired etc..

*special feature – a slideshow! Featuring in two of the photos, my finger!

I’m sitting outside work in a lovely grassy area in today’s most glorious sunshine. For the moment there are no trains lumbering past and so the rustle of the breeze through the trees and the chatter of birds is all I can hear. Bliss! As a pasty person, I’ve already slathered on my sunscreen and have chosen a shady spot to sit. Soon enough I’ll need to lug my sorry soul back inside to stare at numbers for hours on end. For now though I’ll just wallow in the warmth.

A stripped garden bed.

Now for some groundcover and mulch!

Hold on tight little buddy, there's a road underneath you.

- Posted using MobyPicture.com