In the USA: Big Brother Is Watching You
Lázaro Fariñas • digital@juventudrebelde.cu
August 19, 2013 21:07:01 CDT.

 

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

The U.S. has sold the world on the idea that they are the champions of citizen civil liberties. According to government speakers they can teach each and every nation in the world how to respect human rights. This is good democracy, they say.  

This would be wonderful if such statements were accurate. It is true that there are three powers representing the state; and it is true that they are independent from each other…at least on paper. The president does not tell a judge what punishment he should give in a particular case or a legislator what law to pass. As long as everything is within the system – that is, the establishment- members of the three powers do not interfere with one another. Everybody knows how to play with the chain, but nobody touches the monkey.   

But when at different times in the history of this nation one person, or a group of citizens, has moved out of the marked path, all three powers have immediately closed ranks and become one. Congress has made the laws, the executive has signed them and the judicial has placed each one in its place. It could not be clearer: you don’t play with the establishment. This happened during the Civil War, then in the Great Depression of the 30s, and also during the Viet Nam war.

Of course, here citizens have free space to move in without consequences, but the truth is that this space has become narrower and narrower; and there are repressive forces to tell the citizens to stay within their assigned space, or else… Those who move out will get what will come to them.

After the criminal terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the three powers became one and narrowed down even more the little space we had. I don’t believe the famous Patriot Act was passed only because at the time a select reactionary right-wing group was in power in the country. I am convinced that something very similar would have been orchestrated if the liberals had been in power.

What happened on that infamous day was very traumatic, but such drastic measures to avoid the repetition of something similar should never have been taken. The limitation of civil rights has been extreme. It is as if all the citizens in the country were suspected of terrorism.

There are innumerable examples of individual cases where exaggerations have taken place. Today you must think twice before taking a plane. Going through security checks is a real nightmare. They search a small child or an old lady. You must take off your shoes, belt, jacket, and take everything out of your pockets. But that is not all; you must go through a sort of X-Ray machine that undresses you electronically. You better not talk while in the long lines for the checkpoints in airports or seaports of the country, because if by chance you utter the wrong word, or a word is misinterpreted, you can be taken out of the line and taken to an interrogation room.

In the big cities, almost every intersection has a security camera watching the movements of the citizens. These are just like the ones in supermarkets, malls, office buildings, etc. You step out of your house and you are watched. In the street you are a potential felon. But, what happens inside the house? Well, just the same: telephone calls are monitored -the number of times you call a number here or abroad- and if they deem it necessary they listen to your conversations. The Internet is controlled, and every social network has become the video game of a Big Brother who is watching you.

So, if all this surveillance is taking place, and if all three powers become one when they think it’s necessary; what are they champions of? What the U.S. government should finally say is that all governments have the right to defend their systems, and that nobody is better that the rest with a right to criticize the others.


*Cuban journalist resident in Miami