Just a reminder of the freedoms we enjoy...
What, you might ask, was Pham Hong Son jailed for? For translating an American pamphlet about democracy and distributing it in Vietnam.
This is one of the reasons that those who misuse the term fascist to describe the current state of affairs in the U.S. really torq me off. Such people, such spoiled, jaded, suburban twits of political neophytes have NO CONCEPT, whatsoever, of what fascism is....
http://www.thedissidentfrogman.com/dacha/001369.html
Quote:
I heard about Pham Hong Son last June, when the totalitarians ruling Vietnam set another row of those sadly famous political masquerade trials, specialty of the Real Socialism paradises around the world, if there was any.
At that time, Minky Worden, electronic media director at Human Right Watch noted:
« Vietnam's crackdown on critics who use the Internet to peacefully disseminate their ideas or communicate with democracy advocates abroad appears to be escalating... These harsh prison sentences and vaguely worded charges of spying appear designed to intimidate not only government critics, but everyone in Vietnam who uses the Internet. »
I put together that picture and labels and hung the Internet Dissident button on the wall of the dacha on June 19.
The day before that, at the end of a half-day closed trial in Hanoi, Pham Hong Son was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment and 3 years of house arrest on espionage charges.
« Outside observers were also barred from Pham's first trial, despite written requests to attend. The sole witness called was Pham's wife, who was only allowed to answer two "yes" or "no" questions. »
The crimes of Son "the Spy" are indeed horrendous and will repulse any conscientious Socialist despot or the average drooling clone volunteer of the French Politically Correct National Bloggade Brigade who usually see no harm in supporting the formers on the daily dissent crushing attempts, especially over the Internet.
Pham Hong Son, Internet dissident has been charged with spying because, according to the terms of the indictment (emphasis by myself):
« (he) took the initiative to communicate by telephone and e-mail with political opportunists in Vietnam and abroad (...) Son willingly supported the view of these mentioned political opportunists and became a follower of the action plan to take advantage of freedom and democracy to advocate pluralism and a multiparty system in order to oppose the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. »
Trying to use freedom and democracy to advocate pluralism and multiparty shall not be tolerated indeed.
....
Therefore, the simple idea that this kind of comprehensive and didactic document on such an obvious and trivial issue - again, at least for us - still finds a craving audience whose daily life and perspective of future are doomed by the deprivation of this basic knowledge opened in front of me a wide and vertiginous abyss of understanding.
Standing on the edge of the abyss, one starts measuring the full extend of the destructive effect on civil society. What's more, one starts apprehending the magnitude of the task, when such long-standing dictatorships fall.
Reconstruction means going back to basics. It's not only about roads, electricity or running water. It's not just about teaching people their most basic right, freedom, and teaching them how to respect their fellow citizen's so they can eventually grow and defend it together. They know about that wherever they are. They can feel this burning flame, even when the ruling princes, juntas, commissars, ayatollahs or mullahs exerted themselves to stifle it for decades.
Going back to basics means giving them the necessary hope so they can believe in the strength of this flame, in front of the political or religious polices.
...At this very minute, and without a doubt, from Iran to Vietnam there are people using the media on which you're currently reading, to learn what they miss about the roots of freedom in human societies. Most of them were born under the oppression. They were misinformed with the lies of their respective regimes.
Yet, despite what the enlightened and self-proclaimed "morally superior" Western "elite" would like us to believe, they're not stupider than anybody else and they're certainly not more "accustomed" to oppression than anybody else. They feel that something is wrong with what they've been told. Maybe they simply cannot put names on the ideas, as a result of their oppressors' efforts.
Using the Internet just as their Eastern European counterparts did when listening to Radio Free Europe, some of them can see that something is wrong indeed and they can find the right words to conceive the political implementation of their aspiration to freedom.
Unlike the limited opportunities of action offered by the radio medium, they can take an active part in the struggle for their own freedom.
If the Internet is an American invention and not a Russian, Chinese - or even a French one - and moreover, if it's one that initially emanated from the US military (not the Russian, Chinese... All right, you get the point) and yet has been opened to all and made its way up to the heart of the worst dictatorships, contributing to their brittleness - and consequently their fall - this is not, this can't be coincidental.
There are those who protest against the worldwide diffusion of American values and culture but as far as I'm concerned, there's little to complain and much to rejoice. To put it bluntly, all in all, it brought me more freedom - especially when looking back at the tragically uniform voice of the whole French press during the Iraq crisis.
Guess what? I have the feeling that even from his jail, Pham agrees with me. I'm sure his hope started to take shape, no matter his current situation.
On the other hands, his jailers and my enemies certainly have to worry about it, and they do.
His imprisonment proves it.
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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.
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08-23-2004, 07:55 AM
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