{"id":94010,"date":"2013-07-04T01:35:14","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T20:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=94010"},"modified":"2013-07-08T16:05:47","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T10:35:47","slug":"the-many-dimensions-of-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-many-dimensions-of-surveillance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Many Dimensions Of Surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Edward Snowden<\/a><\/span> was unknown, just as Julian Assange<\/a><\/span> was a nonentity until he blew a whistle. \u00a0 The disclosures regarding the extent, pernicious character and the political economy of surveillance has raised the ire of a lot of people.\u00a0 Americans of the United States, in particular, are livid about this invasion of privacy, apparently sanctioned by the self-appointed high priests of democracy and freedom (not just for the citizens of that country but the rest of the world as well) themselves.<\/p>\n

It has been wryly observed that \u2018White America\u2019 seems to have just woken up to smell the coffee, so to speak.\u00a0 For that \u2018America\u2019 largely insulated from the horrors of the world and the tragedies at their doorstep, Snowden is a \u2018newsmaker\u2019.\u00a0 For large sections of the \u2018other\u2019 America (of the US), as well as for the rest of the world, unburdened of illusion a long time ago, it is just something that spilled into the comfort zones of privilege.<\/p>\n

The truth is that Big Brother never blinks, although he can be so blinded at times by ignorance and arrogance that he misses both wood and tree and errs terribly.\u00a0 Mohamad Tabbaa, a doctoral student in Criminology and Law and the University of Melbourne has laid it out well in \u2018Suddenly, white people care about incursions\u2019, an article that\u2019s available at www.salon.com.\u00a0 He notes that for many in the USA, government surveillance has been a regular part of life, especially since 9\/11. He asks, therefore, \u2018So why the outrage now?\u2019 and murmurs, \u2018Welcome to the world of the Muslim, post September 11\u2019.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of truth in the assertion for if privilege in that country has a color, it is white.\u00a0 But there are whites and there are whites.\u00a0 The class structure is not white-on-top and\u00a0 non-white-below.\u00a0 There is \u2018white poor\u2019 and there are whites who object to much that \u2018Big Brother\u2019 does.\u00a0 The anarchists, in particular the \u2018Black Bloc\u2019 associated with the anti-globalization protests in Seattle in November 1999, were white.\u00a0 The communists hounded during the McCarthy weren\u2019t all non-white. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were hanged. They were white.<\/p>\n

The demarcating factor is perception of threat to a fairly well established system of privilege.\u00a0 The mover is fidelity to a project of sustained exploitation and control.\u00a0 Barack Obama<\/a><\/span>, self-appointed grand abbot of democracy and freedom didn\u2019t mince his words when he said that if you want security you must submit to surveillance.\u00a0 The point, however, is that surveillance is not about public security.\u00a0 It only gives that impression.\u00a0 It is about system-security where \u2018system\u2019 is about exploitation, plunder, strategic needs to sustain these etc.\u00a0 The ordinary US citizen has to submit him\/herself to surveillance so that<\/em><\/strong> system stays.<\/p>\n

Some say it\u2019s all exaggerated.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a story that will demonstrate the no-stone-unturned bottom line of anxiety and control that is an integral part of the US \u2018security\u2019 system.<\/p>\n

In the year 2000, I wrote a series of articles titled \u2018Sketchbook USA\u2019 for the Sunday Island<\/em>.\u00a0 It was all about my experiences in the USA, my observations during the7 years I spent in that country as a student. One of the articles was titled \u2018My professors and friends\u2019.\u00a0 I wrote about the teachers I respected most, learned from the most and were more colorful than their colleagues.\u00a0 Among them was Geoff Waite of the German Studies Department.<\/p>\n

\u2018Geoff Waite, the only card-carrying member of the Communist Party at Cornell University and Professor of German Studies, who taught Marx, Nietszche, Freud, Lacan and Althusser to both undergraduates and graduate students, was far more relaxed. All he wanted from us was that we maintained a journal, i.e. write regular commentaries on the reading material or the class discussion. “As long as I am convinced that you are doing some serious thinking, I will be satisfied,” he would say.\u2019<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2018Card carrying member\u2019 was shorthand for \u2018radical\u2019, \u2018brave\u2019 and \u2018unique\u2019.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t spell it out because it was a light piece.\u00a0 The person who used that phrase, one of Geoff\u2019s doctoral students, didn\u2019t spell it out either.\u00a0 He knew, I knew. That was enough.<\/p>\n

This was in a Sri Lankan Sunday newspaper. A light piece, as I mentioned.\u00a0 It was not \u2018missed\u2019 by whoever does surveillance in Sri Lanka for the CIA\/FBI though.\u00a0 The FBI paid Geoff a visit, I learned a couple of years later.\u00a0 Maybe I was na\u00efve.\u00a0 Geoff obviously wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 He had observed, I was told, \u2018Malinda screwed me\u2019. \u00a0 I was so na\u00efve that when I was informed of this, I couldn\u2019t imagine how on earth I could have caused any harm to that lovely man endowed with one of the sharpest minds I\u2019ve encountered.\u00a0 It took me a few months to figure out what must have happened.<\/p>\n

Mohamad Tabbaa is a student in Australia. I don\u2019t know which country he is a citizen of.\u00a0 He is being watched now, if he was not being watched before.\u00a0 What Snowden has revealed is far more sinister; people are being watched in terms of a \u2018just in case\u2019 logic.<\/p>\n

And it is unlikely that governments other than the one in Washington haven\u2019t picked a surveillance leaf from that nasty book.<\/p>\n

How do we respond?\u00a0 Vigilance.\u00a0 Counter-surveillance.\u00a0 Solidarity.\u00a0 Flipping the script is not easy, but flipping is a non-negotiable if you value your privacy, your freedom.\u00a0 Play peek-a-boo.\u00a0 It works.\u00a0 You make them angry.\u00a0 They slip.\u00a0 They may have superior technology.\u00a0 You can counter it all.\u00a0 If you have a heart.\u00a0 And of course a mind.\u00a0 It is easy to lie but easier to be honest.\u00a0 Especially if you are being watched 24\/7.<\/p>\n

Just remember: if you\u2019ve bought their lie, the more pernicious mechanism of incursion is resident within you.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":93503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Many Dimensions Of Surveillance - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-many-dimensions-of-surveillance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Many Dimensions Of Surveillance - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-many-dimensions-of-surveillance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-03T20:05:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-08T10:35:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"329\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"367\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-many-dimensions-of-surveillance\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-many-dimensions-of-surveillance\/\",\"name\":\"The Many Dimensions Of Surveillance - 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