Artificial clouds

Some people start sniggering when they hear the term 'chemtrails', and happily dismiss it as one of those crazy conspiracy theories. "Where's the evidence?" they might ask. Although some people have analysed soil and rainwater samples to prove the existence of things that don't usually float in our atmosphere, like Aluminium, Barium and Strontium, and sometimes even weird biomaterial like desiccated red blood cells, as long as the main stream media doesn't pick up on it, it can't be real.

But it's easy to observe inexplicable celestial phenomena, usually dismissed as 'contrails'. Anyway, today weather radar above Melbourne showed something I challenge anyone to explain as 'natural phenomenon'. The pictures below show this afternoon's weather radar. Pretty much in the center of all images are four parallel 'clouds', that begin as thin lines and slowly morph into less suspicious, cloud like shapes.

I think it's quite safe to assume that those lines of the radar were artificially created. However, I'm open to any explanation how these parallel constellation might have occurred naturally. When I've got some more time, I might make any animation out of these.

Bit for bit

Many people define 'consciousness' as nothing but the state they lose when they go to sleep, overdo substances or get severely injury by accident or violence. Somehow this negative definition suggests that we humans are either conscious or unconscious, which sounds to me like delusional, wishful thinking.

Psychologists would rather claim that we spend quite a limited time 'fully conscious', our sub-consciousness controlling the majority of our activities. Depending what you know or believe about your own subconsciousness, the idea of acting subconscious most of the time might induce quite a lot of fear.

Western societies don't value thinking about thinking and most forms of self-reflective activity very high. Although we all have a mind, only specialists are entitled and encouraged to figure out how these minds work. Yet in everyday business, our minds are mostly driven by our subconscious believes, and rationalise our behaviour after it happens.

The concepts explaining subconsciousness don't appeal too much to regular people, as they seem rather overly complex (Freud) or pretty far out (Jung). After all, all we need to do is to somehow 'soldier on', 'get on with our lives', 'make a living', 'function in the modern world', right?

Yet subconscious drives especially those unaware of it, or touchy to think about it. Education conditions us to 'mind our own business', and leave the business of the mind to dedicated specialists. This opens the door to easy manipulation, and maintains the state of learned helplessness most people suffer from.

So we can embrace the suggestion to be 'in control' of our own lives, only dependent sometimes to those who know ourselves better than we can ever do. If our experience contradicts the promises of 'experts', it can hardly be their fault, something must be wrong with us. And the experts can fix it - if not straight away, then not because they have other interests than our own best at heart, but surely because we're much wronger than we should be.

Any sort of logical system needs a solid foundation to reflect the reality of our own experience, otherwise it creates a life on its own. An idea or concept gone wild might provide us with entertainment, enjoyment, solace, yet it can hide the truth of our existence from us. Whenever we believe something without any personal evidence, we might get deluded into illusion about reality.

Humans are born to be curious, that's one of my personal believes I found plenty of evidence of. I think Truth fails to be described in words, it rather unveils itself in actions and artefacts of existence. When we observe objects falling towards the earth, very consistently, 'gravity' turns into one of those inexplicable truths. Birds and insects defy this principle, but that doesn't need to worry us, as they obviously do something to defy this principle - yet luckily, they land sometimes, and stop doing what they did, so we can investigate how they temporarily manage to counteract the attraction of our spaceship Earth.

The brothers Montgolfiere and the Wright brothers had to sustain through much ridicule for their idea that even humans could manage to defy gravity and float within the atmosphere. Luckily, the combination of astute observation and curiosity advanced technology a bit further, flicking a collective binary switch on - humans can fly, without any magic involved.

The oldest form of flight technology I know of didn't make any inventor famous though. A simple boomerang still manages not only to blow my mind, but those of many others as well. Newton's physics would have trouble describing its flight path, which might explain as well explain why the inventors of the Montgolfiere and the plane had to fight so much resistance.

'Modern' people know that planes exist, and maybe also that boomerangs fly in surprising ways. Most of us hardly know why and how, and wouldn't be able to construct or build either of them. It just doesn't give us a fright when we see them, our subconscious tells us it's possible and we don't need to worry.

We got used to the sun and stars staying in their orbits as well, continuous observation allowed to us to let go of the fear of the sky collapsing on us. Predictability became our friend, and science helped those curious to grasp bits of the why and how, and those less curious could rest in the solace that no magic was involved to make it happen.

The word 'magic' though does already unpredictable things to the minds of english speaking people, activating an essential binary switch in our subconsciousness. We tend to organise our experience around the concept of 'real' and 'illusionary', a imaginary binary concept shown as relatively irrelevant by quantum mechanics and buddhism.

The virus language (thanks Laurie Anderson) often creates binary concepts that defy our experience, while acting as cornerstones to our logic. Yet as social beings, we don't enter the world of our experience as blank slates, but informed by the ideas of our ancestors, transmitted by language and the culture we're born into.

The amount of 'bits' of information in any given sentence is potentially infinite, and neither sender nor receiver usually have any clue about much information is transmitted. If we take a popular way to construct a sentence expressing something meaningful, 'A is B', we already open the door to multiple interpretations.

'God is great'. Many people will not only find this sentence meaningful, but also containing Truth. On a semantic level, however, it turns into something with little to no value at all. I don't want to open a can of worms with discussing the terms 'God' and 'great', when I hear any sentence of the 'A is B' type the incompleteness flag of my subconsciousness gets raised.

Aristotle left humanity with some basic ideas about binary logic, we might consider him as one of the first computer scientists in history. Like all abstract concepts, Aristotelian logic simplifies reality in order to obtain 'higher' levels of knowledge. But when we mistake his map for the territory, we become susceptible to be remote controlled by anyone understanding the binary nature of our subconsciousness to create our analogue experience.

When we see an image on a TV or computer screen, we might be aware of the underlying binary construction of it, but depending on the quality of the image, we can happily immerse ourselves in the illusion created by it. Salvatore Dali elegantly demonstrated his understanding of human perception with images that change from a collection of random dots into 'meaningful' shapes in a distance, long before most people got hypnotised by the illusion of moving images composed of a random collection of dots.

Similarly we can stay oblivious to the binary nature of our subconsciousness, and enjoy the speed in which we can react without thinking. The ability the process information subconsciously at high speed definitely contributes to individual survival - faced with a wild animal, philosophical considerations warrant usually fast death.

In our 'civilised' times, life and death situation became luckily rare. In most parts of world, dangerous animals have been extinct, so technology exposes us to the biggest threats to our survival. However, while we live potentially the most sheltered life in known history, the idea of life-threatening situations seem to have increased exponentially.

According to Leary's 8-circuit model of human consciousness, the evaluation into 'save' and 'not save' constitutes an elementary switch in our subconsciousness. This evaluation usually happens neither rational nor objective, yet subconsciously based on our prior experience. If we made 'bad' experiences with approaching a dog, for example, in an early state of our life, we will most likely turn out be a 'cat' person, and when given a choice for a pet unlikely choose a dog.

While dogs can be dangerous in certain cases, most of them are quite harmless. Our subconscious programming, however, doesn't act rational, but automatic. Unless we use efficient methods to change it, it will retain any conditioning ever acquired. While this might sound somewhat overwhelming, it also offers with it the understanding that we might access much more 'information' than we can imagine in our wildest dreams.

Exactly there, in our dreams, we can find a glimpse of the opportunities inherent in our subconscious. A nearly perfect virtual reality happens while our body lays down sleeping, appearing as intensely real like our waking life. Our pineal gland emits DMT and we dance with the dream fairies. While millions of bits of sensual information travel through our nervous system, our attention focuses on a specific set of circumstances, and filters the rest. This 'rest' comprises a large part of the dream scenery.

Not everyone has memories of their dreams, yet we dream every night when we enter a REM (Rapid Eye Movement) phase in our sleep. Obviously, the 'input' to our dream awareness doesn't come from our senses. While the complexity of dreams worlds doesn't look like composed in a binary fashion, it just would need sufficient amount of binary data and high processing speeds. Billions of neuron, each of which might be just a binary switch or even something like a megabyte memory unit, with up to 10000 connections between each other, provide both - large memory area and processing speed.

The locus of individual memory items (engrams) has not been located. If we have a holographic memory, engrams potentially leave traces in a variety of different locations. The orientation of our attention brings memory back to awareness, not necessarily as precise recording of the events that happened, rather as current interpretation of the event itself. As we get mostly educated by permanent repetition, our episodical memory is in average quite prone to error regarding specific details. The same event seen by different people can yield description which tell entirely different stories.

In other words, each of us has a different binary pathway through the filters we acquired in our lifetime. Our reality tunnels, in Robert Anton Wilson's words, distort the space-time event we witness. Unless we understand and detect the patterns we use to generate our 'reality', we cannot de-activate the filters, although drugs might temporarily de-activate them. Opening the doors of perception doesn't provide you with super powers, and learning to shutting them at will is as important as the initial opening.

Yet we can learn to observe our thinking, to get to know the filters through which we create our reality. Don't expect to enter an unfiltered existence, just enjoy the shift of perspective whenever you flicked a binary switch of your subconscious that distorted your perception of reality.

Lawless police

Today, another protest against the detainment of Bradley Manning, and the crimes against humanity committed by the US government exposed by Wikileaks, took place in front of the US consulate in Melbourne.

As it was already the third time we managed to organise this legal form of political protest, basically a sit-in, we were familiar with some people involved, like the friendly and sympathetic receptionist, and some of the police. The building manager had changed since we've been there last time. While he seemed less angry than the last one, he still didn't like political protest in 'his' premises.

The last sit-in lasted three hours, so this time we were well prepared to enjoy ourselves while being there. We had some music and food, and prepared some little scenes and speeches to make it a joyful happening. The cause, however, is less funny - Obama's drone war, Bradley Mannings incarceration for years, most of it in solitary confinement, declaring Wikileaks and its confederates as 'Enemy of the state', the Grand Jury against Assange, who is held hostage in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Learning from their last experience, whoever was responsible to enforce mob law on civil protestors, decided on a faster course of action. And yo a more intimidating and finally violent approach. Police observing the protest initially were quite edgy, carried their guns and actively engaged in house-keeping, removing the flyers we patched to the doors of the embassy.

CIRT (Critical Incidence Response Team), the muscle of the corporate impostor government, arrived with more troops in riot gear, squads from a variety of police stations got into their gloves, ready to rough up the protest.

As I have some good reasons not to get into violently enforced laws, I took care of the belongings of some of my friends, left the building and awaited for the inevitable unlawful eviction. I positioned myself in front of the door, sheltered from the rain and got my camera ready. One of the police clowns approached me and ask me to move on, which I politely declined initially.

'Move away!', 'Sorry, sir, you got no right to ask me to move on'. 'It's for you own safety, it could dangerous for when we remove the protestors.' 'So you're intending to do something dangerous?' 'I don't engage with your semantics.'

The police officer then asked me about the things I put down temporarily, suggested I could join my mates to be forcefully removed, so I moved a couple of metres away, into the rain, still waiting for the eviction.

I dropped the things I took care of next to a table belonging to the cafe next door, still in good sight of the four police clowns readying themselves for some action. One of the youngest of them came over and asked me for ID, which I politely declined with: 'I don't think I'm obliged to give you my ID.'

He moved back, and when I dropped my cigarette butt (I know, smoking is bad, littering as well, but, hell, I got nervous and uncomfortable), one of the clowns marched over to me: 'Give me your ID, I have to fine you for throwing away burning litter!' Luckily, I got backup in the ensuing attempt to contract me to accept a fine, and managed to remove myself from police, put the belongings of my mates into the car and chill for a while.

When we went to debrief into a cafe opposite the embassy, things escalated again. Our independent journalist demanded to identify the cop that pushed him during the eviction, and got done badly. As we still could see what happened, most went back to look after him, and they arrested a young woman, pushed several others to the ground, and took her and the journo on a ride.

Similar to other evictions, they simply drove them off the scene and dropped them somewhere in St. Kilda on the side of the road. When we regrouped with the arrested, the woman had gone into shock, and lay on the pavement in the rain. By the time ambulance arrived to take care of her, people with video evidence could show the medics how police had assaulted her.

The amount of laws broken by police, and their attitude was mostly shocking. In first place, removing the protestors from the inside of the building was unlawful - places of business are similar to public space, and removing someone wanting to talk to a representative of the US consulate in front of it, causing neither damage or danger to persons and property, not even following any sort of protocol, is unlawful.

The rough handling of some the protestors technically is assault, and arresting someone nominally, without a charge, and just dropping them off somewhere constitutes basically kidnapping. The Stanford Prison Experiment has shown convincingly that entitling people with a uniform effectively removes them from personal responsibility, and often of empathy, and turns them into beasts.

While we did our best to alleviate the psychological harm and trauma inflicted, and the bruises caused by brutal handling won't last for long, it's simply unacceptable to have people ostensibly representing the government acting like the muscle of the mafia.

We stood up to injustice in non-violent, lawful ways, and the authorities came down on us like thugs of a fascist, impostor government. Because that's what they are. They get paid to inflict injustice on regular people, while we do it to stand up for a healthy, just society. It's kind of sad that it takes some of us getting beaten up to make a tiny media blip, especially if it's just in Murdoch press.

Yet without resistance, the next generation will be born into inescapable servitude, and no one will remember the god-given right to freedom, so many people in history have fought for. And as we are aware of the policy of intimidation to enforce pretend law, we will not give up.

Weather modification

While many people believe in the devil CO2 being responsible for global warming, the issue has much more complexity than I initially thought. I was wondering why I haven't seen many distinct chemtrails lately, well, I got more to do than peeping at the sky all day, and I didn't want to get to paranoid about being what might be in the artificial clouds we're exposed too. In the last three months or so, even without a chessboard pattern in the sky, I noticed lots of clouds that simply didn't look real.

Anyway, I came across a video explaining more of the mechanics of solar radiation management. In order to create clouds, you need water vapor and seeds. This can be done in two steps, first bringing out the seeds, and then using 'normal' air traffic to provide the necessary water vapor, as by-product of the normal engine exhaust.



I checked the weather forecast this morning, as I wanted to do my laundry, and it said 21-26 degree, mostly sunny. While it was relatively warm, I didn't see too much sun, but some toxic looking greyish soup most of the day. Okay, I admit, this might be just my paranoid explanation.

On a facebook group somebody linked NASA's earthview, offering satellite images of the entire planet. It doesn't only offer to show clouds, but also measures other data about the atmosphere. As I learned in the video, the seeding agents can be brought out before the actual clouds are created, in the form of aerosols.

The satellites measure the aerosol content (the coloured patches in the image) by its albedo, meaning by the reflectiveness. One concept of solar radiation management proposes to alleviate global warming by reflecting sunlight away from the earth. The coloured areas show therefor something in our atmosphere which aren't 'natural' clouds, and it's easy to see some areas that don't align with the cloud cover.

One the bigger version, it's easy to see that the patches of aerosol move east, mainly covering Victoria and the West Australian coast. The red area (highest density) increased in the last few days, making it easy assume that lots of aerial spraying happened around Perth, Melbourne and Tasmania, a bit less in the Darwin area.

As I've seen lots of photos taken of chemtrails in Victoria from the same period of time, this composite satellite image confirms that our skies are badly messed with at the moment. I can't really tell what kind of junk is sprayed on us, but these images leave little doubt that currently a lot of artificial cloud coverage is produced here.

Considering that the Earth's atmosphere is tiny and fragile, experimenting with it feels like Russian roulette to me. However, this satellite data should provide enough evidence for the doubters that weather modification in large scale already happens, without knowledge and consent of the wider population.

Battlefields

I breathe in, I breathe out,

the voice in my mind still loud,

I breathe in, I breathe out,

wonder what it's all about.

I consume, I produce,

I feel good in my shoes,

I consume, I produce -

creativity on the loose.

I go up, I go down,

still with a frown,

I go up, I go down

and feel like a clown.

In a world of constant madness

I foster my frequent sadness.

Some fire from Iceland

Birgitta Jónsdóttir (English)

"...A message from me to everyone protesting today:) Specially my friends in Portugal.

Dear brothers and sisters

I truly wish I could be with you in person, for I miss the protests we used to have in Iceland in the wake of our financial crisis in 2008/2009. I miss the spirit and the sense of unity we all felt together who showed up at the protests. I am with you in spirit and everyone else rising up today. People all over the world are awakening to the fact that our systems are no longer working for us. The systems are self sustainable in defending themselves instead of the people that they should be serving: YOU.

Let us never forget that we are the system, we are the government, and if we want to change it we have to go inside it and create a bridge between the power and the people. I am a poet first, thus I choose to see me either as a poetician or a hacker in Parliament, I went in there in order to understand how to bring more power to the people of Iceland.

It was our brothers and sisters of the revolution in Argentina that started to use pots and pans when revolting against their corrupt president and IMF a few years ago. We were inspired by them. Now you are inspired by us. Let us remember that even the smallest suffering or joy of someone else in our world is indeed ours, for we are one.

The ideologies of the old school of politics, media, monetary systems, corporations , and all known structures are in a state of transformation. They are crumbling. Now is the time for fundamental change on all levels, we have to seize this moment. Because this is THE moment.

It is rare that generations and so many individuals get such an opportunity to transform the world as we know it. The big question is how do we transform it? Lets change the pyramid of power into a circle of power where everyone is valued just as much.

It is obvious that we are running out of planet, many people have lost the vital connection to our environment, most of humanity doesn’t comprehend cause and effect of lack of sustainability anymore and many of us feel lost, displaced and lonely. All the structures we thought would take care of us, be it systems, ideologies, religion, politics or institutions are failing. Big time!

To follow the heart and guts as a poetician makes a lot more sense to me then the rivalry and manipulations of left or right ideology. The right and wrong ideology of the old world has simply outgrown itself. No longer do we have strong parliaments with a direct link between the general public and decision maker. We have so called professional politicians that are far removed from the reality most of us live in.

Parties and politicians are often in an unhealthy marriage with corporations and corruption is thriving in the political arena all over the world. Many governments and politicians talk about transparency yet the process of politics and laws is shredded in secrecy.

We need to change this. We have to know what we want instead of this reality we are confronting.

The 21st century will be the age of us, the common people, where we will understand that in order to live in the reality we dream of, we have to participate and help co-create that reality.

I strongly encourage you to join a movement for change, run for office, be part of this opportunity of change. If I could become an MP in the Icelandic parliament, anyone can become a member of parliament.

Here is our first task: If there is something we have to make sure stays under the guardianship of nations not corporations then it is the following, water companies, energy companies, social welfare, education, the internet and health systems.

We have made everything so complex and grand, perhaps it is time to return to more simple ways, more self sustainable ways, we can do that by learning from each other, by helping each other locally and globally and by remembering that we as individuals can change the world, and now is the time to step forward – take on that challenge and be the change maker. Don’t expect others to do it, your time has arrived to make a difference!"

Offensive defence

Like the bees make their honey,

You want the truth to be funny,

with no further thought to invest,

just pleasant and easy to digest.

And then, in a state of confusion,

after another destroyed illusion,

you think the world's insane

and begin to complain.

Life goes up, life goes down,

a smile is just an upside frown.

If you seek eternal pleasure,

your acts will lose all measure,

your deeds will become a disgrace,

until truth smacks you in the face.

Geometry of life

Once we overcome the idea of duality we can experience that is all one. All matter, all movement emerges at the infinite border of space, with the border similarly elusive like a fractal. While we get educated to believe in this existence of matter, our experience provides us with a series of qualities, reflecting various forms of energetic interaction.

The indoctrinated believe in the existence of matter has shaped a language not well suited to describe energetic transaction in easy understandable terms. Our language literally and legally enslaves us - the fiction of a legal person implies we are technically deceased. That's the reality behind the term zombie apocalypse: The identification with the legal person, inculcated by education, tradition and medie, creates an army of human beings which are literally treated as dead meat, and shamefully sucked of their life energy, expressed in the money they received in exchange for labour.

The Oneness of everything remains an elusive concept when our language creates divisions, which according to Aristotelian thinking appear to be mutually exclusive. Believing in Oneness while taking divisions too seriously creates cognitive dissonance. You probably want to avoid building your concept of this universe on swampy foundations.

As balls on a pool table, pushed around by invisible forces in a mechanically universe, we can detect pattern, most of which will not really introduce the idea of choice. When we transform the pool table into a Mandelbrot set, and surf along the borders we can detect many patterns and constellations. The Oneness fills up with Suchness, depending on our specific perspective.

I consider the Mandelbrot set as interface between matter of space. Distinction created by observation brings 'matter' about, which implies that the idea of finding the 'material' core of the creation of matter can never succeed. The Hadron collider proves rather that no matter how small our measurements get, we have to hypothesise the 'existence' of something smaller.

The scientific world currently ventures on a quest to prove Aristotle's idea of 'isness', while more and more people operate on experiencing and manifesting suchness. While the suchness incorporates many self-similar patterns, it lacks real uniformness. Transformation, dynamism and unpredictability of chaos blow minds firmly trained in Newtonian/Aristotelian believes.

The chaos of the Mandelbrot set disrupts the conditioning about a well ordered universe. The 'isness' rather describes the rules of the creation of matter than anything material at all. We just experience the permanent transformation of energy, which in turn manifests the 'material' world of our common sense reality.

We get caught up in the trap on focussing on matter, the source of distinction but not of division. We learned to vibrate with the rhythms of life while acting often just like dead matter. Luckily, life energy provides us with some resilience towards the often toxic of effects of cognitive dissonance.

Life energy resonates within its surroundings, we literally tune into the vibrational fields around us. Our body busies itself in every living moment adjusting the electro-chemical constellation require to deal with a given experience. Chemical reactions, as well as electric flow create fields, which affect similar distinctions which can resonate with them.

Memes determine the base frequency of our signature vibration, which makes us individual. Jung's archetypes reflect a memepool to understand some re-occurring patterns of life. We can only accept those patterns of life as reality which have no cognitive dissonance associated to them. The believe in matter restricts the range of frequencies we can tune into and resonate with.

Language itself comes with 'frequency restrictions'. Our multi-sensorial input needs understanding of composition as much as it needs an understanding of division or distinction. To comprehend the connectedness of the universe our memes need to support thinking linking the transformation of energy towards creation, maintenance and destruction.

These three base processes join transformation itself, establishing the four corners or sides of the tetrahedron. The feedback loop capable of describing the essentials of any energetic process, any 'movement'. The primal distinction describes the direction in which this tetrahedron spins, positive or negative, left or right, up or down, forward or back, inwards or outward, yin or yang.

Simple rules shape a universe with an infinite amount of aspects, based on a geometry describing  building patterns glued together with a fractal, holographic space. Common reality resonates, all along the available octaves and hues of perception. Cutting through the matrix in purely abstract, verbal manner can leave scars, taking a long term to heal. It also closes the open door to the rabbit hole, which will reappear in a new constellation of same basic energy dynamics.

Beauty can and is found in destruction, maintenance and creation. Hollywood glorifies mainly the principat destruction within the 'material' world, producing a latent fear-inducing trauma based on clinging to the solidity and permanence of 'things'.Nature uses geometry to produce beauty, or at least geometry can be found in beauty.

Destruction expresses much of the immediate chaos inherent in fractals, the flower of life represent maintenance the creation of boundaries within the infinite, which in this universe are maintained by al the shapes that can be derived from the flower of life, which in the end creates seemingly random diversity.

Frequency and amplitude determine the reach of any emanation. The amplitude can be increased by synchronisation, maintaining the frequency needs repetition before it 'self-ignites'. Even then, it just means another area of exploration. Anyway, re-programming the mind to let go of 'matter' to grasp more of the liveliness of the universe remains an ongoing challenge, depending on the influence we can 'materialise' in our immediate environment.

Incidentally funny

Looking at the global state of affairs, facing the truth about what's really going on on this planet, can be quite depressing. After I chalked an Orwell quote in front of the State Library, 'In times of universal deceit, speaking the truth becomes a revolutionary act', I got into a chat with someone trying to sponsor an NGO, taking care of children in Africa or so.

Before she could give me her spiel, I used the opportunity to give her mine. I updated her about the latest sit-in in the US consulate, Bradley Manning and Wikileaks and the enemy of the state role, war crimes and drone wars. Basically, lots of stuff the main stream media doesn't bother to tell, still information available to anyone who knows what to look for.

Although I tried my very best to convince her that humans are basically harmless, and hinted a lot that government is the real problem, I received probably a typical reaction to handing out a red pill in what I considered a mild verbal dosis. "I feel a little depressed now." came back, after I mentioned that Obama signs the kill orders for the drone war. Oops.

Silly me. I guess I thought the nice girl was maybe interested in me, as a person, and not just as a potential name on the email list for the charity she was working for. When I noticed that her approach to make this world a better place differed a bit from mine, I stepped back to listen to the NGO story she tried to sell.

Who can resist an appeal to one's purse when images of hungry black toddlers are shown? Well, I could easily. When I came across a map of the world in the material she presented to me, I was mildly amused that Australia wasn't even on the map. 'You know, it shows all the countries we're involved in helping children', as if nothing is wrong in this country.

Would somebody, please, think about the children? In retrospect, it seems like a clash of civilisation happened. I happily assume that someone working for an NGO has this weird idea of making the world a better place, which motivates me to expose myself as 'enemy of the state US' by protesting in front of their embassy, to show the hypocrisy of Australian politics that send in the police to end this kind of protest, to chalk messages in public places. Basically, making a dick of myself in public, for no other returns than the experiences I gain.

So there we are, two human beings in front of the library, united in our good intentions, yet worlds apart. Me, appealing to the community I live in, pointing out what's happening in front of our doorstep, for the sake of it, she, wanting to help poor kids in some distant countries, and getting paid for it.

Yet in a way, we used a similar strategy - using information to appeal to our hearts to do something, pointing out some 'bad stuff' on this planet. While I'm happy with planting seeds, without offering any specific solution besides probably daring a bit more a walk your talk, her solution comes easier.

I admit, unless people that walk their talk become more numerous, quietening one's conscience with a donation to starving kids in Africa has more appeal. It takes at least the Hegelian triangle to prevent people from feeling overly depressed when confronted with some unpleasant truth. Or a good dosis of humour.

City ambassadors or pseudo police?

It took nearly an entire year to reconstruct Swanston Street, one of the most frequented bits of Melbourne's CBD. Most of the time, hardly anyone could be seen actually working on the reconstruction, and most passers-by were busy enough to squeeze through the narrow bits of pavement left for the pedestrian part of the population.

Unlike many European City centres, traffic is still allowed to pass through, not only Melbourne's iconic (privatised, over-aged and not build for capacity) trams, but cars can still make their way through as well. The planners came up with a solution for cyclists that only convinced car fans can conceive, having a bike path between the waiting area for tram passengers and the tram lines.

In good old Australian fascist fashion, markings on the pavement tell the pedestrian what they should do. The bike path is marked with dozens of 'KEEP CLEAR' stencils, large signs for cyclists order them to stop and let tram passengers pass at the four stations along the reconstructed area. As it takes a while to re-educate the population to a new set of rules, I take a lot of care while using the bike path on my unicycle, as it's often taken as convenient short cut to cross the road, or as waiting area despite the 'Keep clear' markings.

The latest station to be finished is in front of the RMIT, and many students have sufficient attention deficits to bumble into the bike path, which really doesn't bother me much, as I'm not too fast on the unicycle.

The architectural preference of Europe in the 80s dominated the station design: cool metal and glass, and strange blue lights potentially as tribute to the 21st century. I haven't waited in rainy conditions for a tram there, but I guess the idea of sheltering waiting passenger is meant rather symbolic than practical, like at many tram stops in Melbourne.

The benches, made of thin steel bars, are not only cold and uncomfortable, they are outright dangerous as I had to find out today. I got distracted on my way to one of them, and hit my knee against the side of a bench. Although I was moving in a rather slow pace, the sharp profile of the thin bars poking out at the side of it left a gashing wound. I guess many people will be injured by this stupid design, which ironically happened while I observed some activity most likely intended to increase the safety at the newly build stations.

Melbourne has some volunteers acting as city ambassadors, wearing bright red shirts and caps, available usually to answer questions. They usually roam Swanston Street in pairs, the pair I asked about the spy cams at the intersection I met them didn't even know about their existence in first place. Unlike described on the city councils website, the cameras that look eerily similar to those that became more familiar after the reporting about Trapwire, there's no signage indicating their presence. As the MCC promotes the pervasive CCTV surveillance to increase the feeling of safety, I wonder how this can be achieved when hardly anyone notice them.

Today, however, two ambassadors approached cyclists and pedestrian who didn't follow the proper rules of making use of the redesigned tram stop in front of RMIT. When I saw them ganging up on a cyclist for rolling a bit along the tram, I tripped into the bench as I couldn't really believe what I saw.

I didn't even notice the bleeding until after I sat down - hitting your knees always hurts a lot, but this was the first time I ran into something that sliced the skin so easily. After telling the cyclist off, the ambassadors continued to have a watchful eye on everyone passing through their area of righteousness. The older one of them even walked after a guy in suit for 10 metres or so to inform him that he went on the 'wrong' part of the tram stop.

Give a man a uniform, and he turns into a fascist, drunk by power and self-importance. I wonder whether they acted out of their own idea to preserve law and order at the tram stop, or if the ambassadors are now trained to interfere with the dangerous elements of society that lack obedience to the writing on the pavement, and in an incredible act of defiance, walk on the bike path.

The most liveable city on this planet, now with power-tripping ambassadors, 'free' bikes that only cost a couple of dollars (not refundable), soon without single tickets for public transport, instead with a Myki that can be conveniently ordered and sent to your home for only $10 (non refundable). If you dare not to understand the PT ticketing system, gangs of ticket inspectors might detain you for a while, and after some weeks of using stations like Flinders Street or Melbourne central you will find your way around, and no longer complain about the lack of signs towards the platforms or the exit.

The zombie apocalypse has already begun, people leave their common sense at home because in public it's neither required nor appreciated. If you break the rules, someone in uniform will fine you so that sufficient memory traces for obedient behaviour are burned into your neurons. As neither Orwell nor Huxley got it 100% right, the mixture of 1984 and Brave New World is now normal Australian behaviour - distracted by sex and drugs, permanently surveilled and bossed around by people in uniform just following orders. Hooray!

Rain-making act of 1967

During the last few weeks I noticed quite persistently skies above Melbourne that didn't look normal to me. Strange shapes, sometimes iridescent rings around the sun and moon, plenty of high altitude haze, clouds that seemed to fall from the sky while I was observing them.

I upset at least a couple of people by tweeting out my observations about what's nowadays called stratospheric aerial geo-engineering, carefully avoiding the term chemtrail. I avoided this term not only because of the association with conspiracy theory, and like every properly conditioned citizen will know, a conspiracy theory can only be fantasy, but mainly because I didn't see any blatantly obvious trails in the sky.

Colours, the structure (or lack thereof), shapes and movement were the give aways for my assumption that Melbourne gets quite persistently sprayed lately, so I investigated a bit more about what could happen here. Geo-engineering, also known as solar radiation management or climate remediation, is a topic not very publicly discussed.

While nearly everyone has heard nowadays about climate change, especially after the introduction of a carbon tax to ostensibly fight it, the nice sounding terms like solar radiation management or climate remediation disguise discussions and research focussing on alternatives to a reduction of CO2 emission into the atmosphere.

In times when markets go crazy, the idea that a market instrument like the carbon tax can save our planet needs multiple leaps of faith to become credible. Especially considering the fact that Australia (or rather some industries) makes some seizable amount of money with carbon-based fuels and are exempt from this tax anyway.

It took a long time to make the illusion of climate change sufficiently real and threatening to call for 'global solutions', and once a momentum of fear is created it can be used in different ways as well. The concept of solar remediation management reminds a little bit of Mr. Burns plans to withdraw sunlight from the hometown of the Simpsons, Springfield, and potentially bears as many good intentions as this cartoon story.

With less sunlight reaching the planet, less heat will be produced, hence the planet cools down. Precipitation (clouds) achieve this effect naturally, so what could possibly go wrong when we put more clouds in the sky to reflect the sun back before it heats the planet up? Only several things....

While the cloud cover reflects some of the sunlight back, it also keeps the heat that's already there in. It also requires a lot of planes bringing the artificial clouds out, which delivers the currently accepted culprit for global warming to a place where it's most effective. Last but not least, water vapour alone wouldn't be sufficient to create artificial clouds, so an interesting mix of nano-particles (according to existing patents) does the job.

The whole picture behind geo-engineering gets really spooky, feel free to go through this rabbit hole yourself. As I can't really tell what in the world are they spraying (which is the title of a good documentary available on the youtubes), I rather focus on what can potentially be done to find out what's already happening.

I don't believe that any entity would claim: Hey, I know how to stop global warming, shall we give it a go? Experiments on that scale happen usually in secret, as no one can anticipate consequences of newly introduced technology. Controlling nature in our favour often yields more problems than solutions, cane toads and GMO might serve as example here.

Once facts have been created, the marketing machinery starts to retroactively justify what already has happened. As I've seen chemtrails not only in Australia, but also many years ago in Germany, and as they are observed at least in the US, Europe and here I happily conclude that the planetary 'rescue' by climate remediation is already in full swing.

The case of Wikileaks has shown to the world that governments do a lot without asking their citizens, and taking away 'a little bit of sunlight' might not find consent, but a lot of opposition. In 2010, the Brumby government financed a conference about Geoengineering in California. Doing this far away from home fits into the secrecy about this topic, and the willingness to create facts without letting the affected citizens even know.

During this Asilomar conference, Brumby stated that he wanted to attract geo-engineering research to Victoria, not too surprising considering the amount of energy generated by brown coal in this state. As many decisions in parliament are taken without even being discussed beforehand, or being noticed by media afterwards, exposing Victorians to aerial spraying could already happen, even quite legally.

Section 2 of the Rain-making control act 1967 defines rain-making wide enough to cover geo-engineering:

rain-making operation means the seeding or nucleating of clouds by artificial means from a manned aircraft.

Section 3 fully fits into the scope of geo-engineering:

Whenever it appears to the Minister to be desirable in the public   interest to promote rainfall or otherwise modify natural cloud      processes in any part of Victoria-

(a)  for improving primary production either generally or locally and
        whether with respect to one or more than one primary product;
   (b)  for improving water storages either generally or locally;
   (c)  for reducing fire-danger in a forest area; or
   (d)  for any other sufficient purpose-
the Minister may authorise the carrying out of rain-making          operations in respect of the area or areas concerned.

OMG, global warming is coming, and we can't stop our power plants to prevent it - so when taking the climate change paradigm as reality, geo-engineering as prevention certainly fits the 'other sufficient purpose' catch-all phrase.

The act further describes that the Victorian PM can grant away the authority for 'rain-making acts' in a way that would allow daily spraying, and informing some other ministers. (Section 5)

(3) The Minister shall cause a copy of every authority issued under this Act
to be forwarded to Minister administering the Water Act 1989, the Minister
administering the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987 and the Minister
administering Part 9 of the Local Government Act 1989.

So whatever happens above us, might already have left bureaucratic traces. I have no clue which divisions of the corporation Victoria handle above mentioned acts. Yet all three acts referred to have been recently amended (within the last two years), yet my duress for legalese is depleted for now, so I will stop my research here for today.

If all the spraying isn't officially permitted by the PM, the fines for 'unauthorised' rain-making are quite mild: $1000 a day. I wonder which path to go for Freedom of Information Acts to figure out who is spraying what so obviously and persistently over our heads.

PsyOp gone viral

If you want to learn about PsyOps, some contemporary event offers a splendid opportunity. Anyone still exposing themselves on a regular basis to the mind numbing mass media has been exposed to the latest talking point the dominator society threw into the global memepool: The anti-muslim movie.

Although I spend too much time on the internet, I didn't came across the source of all this hodge-podge of events until now. Many demonstration in front of embassies happened, even with some death casualties. The Sydney demonstration against the anti-islam movie made a headline in the Sunday Herald Sun: "Why police was FORCED to use violence against protestors".

Within 4 days, the cause of the latest global media storm had gone viral, with more 4 million views. It appeared in my youtube suggestion (without a user profile), so I watched it.

My first reaction was similar to reading Hitler's Mein Kampf - I didn't really fancy going through all the abysmal bs. However, 13 minutes of watching a video are easier to cope with than reading a  book filled with racist slur, so I persisted.

Although the video suggest very amateurish origins, it bears rather the hallmarks of some professional production. There's quite a large cast involved, about 10 different actors, with some good props (swords, tents) and lots of bluescreen technology. Most movie production methods have become much more affordable with Open Software, nevertheless the lighting, costumes and bluescreen suggest at least a semi-professional studio and a decent amount of money went into this movie.

Most surprising for me, having a youtube channel myself, was the speed in which it was recognised, in parts of the world which seem to be less internet-hooked than the western world. The uploader, DarkF3TT. had done some game captures of First-person shooter games, showing his abilities to do head shots.

I can't really tell how much of gamer's culture exists in the places where US embassies were torched, but somehow the idea of being a devout and radical muslim and playing video games heroising US based kill missions seems odd. The gamers I met in Australia were certainly impregnated with unconditional nationalism, extended to the big brother US.

As video games allow one to identify with the game character, I wonder how many people living in places that ostensibly have to hate the US would spend their free time impersonating US heroes liberating the world from evil Nazis and communists.

So how on earth did the people taking it to the street find out that this despicable peace of religious smear existed in first place? And how did they find out, before the global mass media picked up on the reactions?

Of course, it fits much better into the discourse that has been started to talk about religion, extremism, or any other topic suggested the main stream media than asking more obvious questions. The people I talked to about this had, like me by then, not seen or noticed the 'offending' video.

The obvious questions, however, make it look like a psyop. Nothing on the internet gets viral until its gets promoted to sufficient multipliers. Without someone embedded in a group sufficiently radicalised to push their noses into this pile of racist bullshit this video would have had the same fate as youtube video on a fairly unpopular/unknown youtube channel - not even getting more than 100 views.

Once people started protesting, the promotion worked out, and more than 4 million views happened. And as long as people don't care about how it kicked off, the media discourse fosters the divide and conquer meme.

Back to nerddom

As I used to work in IT, I liked to have an easy setup for the systems I use at home. While I was still considering to return to earning money with my nerd skills, I even ran my own web server as kind of a showpiece, but that times have long gone.

My preference for Mac systems remained until recently. For a long time of my life, these systems offered simply the most trouble free solutions for my sometimes exquisite demands. However, as I reduced my consumerist ways drastically, and don't like the idea to spend money every so often to get a decent system, I needed alternatives.

I hesitated for a long time to go the Intel way - but some years ago, when my PowerPC based MacBook went into a HDD nirvana, I got myself a shiny Macbook, and got even a free iPod touch on top of the deal.

For quite some time this remained a relatively satisfying solution. You get OpenOffice, I didn't mind to shell out some money for Photoshop elements, and what I wanted to do on a computer works out in satisfying speed. After all, no longer professionally working in IT, I had only little comparison to other systems, so things looked fine.

My preference for multi-tasking brought performance to a limit though. At some point, I let go of the familiar Firefox, and switched to Chromium, with lots of google integration which seemed to make life easier from a user perspective. However, lately I got pretty annoyed about the frequent stalls, not only with Chrome, but also with the entire system.

Depending on how many things ran in parallel, the system just denied me even switching application without either the rainbow, or no reaction at all. As I got myself a Windows based laptop for some other task, which now mainly runs on Ubuntu, I considered upgrading my Macbook to Ubuntu as well.

That was about four days ago, and I still struggle to get it working. Doh. Of course, there's plenty of information on the interwebs how to do it, yet many contradicting information, and the Mac idiosyncratic hardware doesn't really simplify things.

Ubuntu offers to try the system before installing, and as burning a bootable CD doesn't cause any problems, I had a quite satisfying taste of linux booted off CD. As I didn't want to make a complete switch before knowing I could still use all of images. music and other documents, I wanted to go down the dual boot route, or maybe just having a small linux on an usb stick before loosing all the data on my internal disk, which spoiled my fun with the Macbook I had before.

So far, after some four days of intense hacking, numerous reboot and installation attempts, I only learned some valuable lessons, without yet succeeding in setting up a workable Ubuntu installation. Luckily, I remembered some valuable ideas from my times as professional unix nerd, which so far prevented from losing my music, documents and images I gathered over the last few years/ Phew.

I just finished the second restore of the internal hard disk, so if you go for the adventure of installing Linux on a box that has already some valuable data/setup, here's the first important hint:
Clone your original disk with something Carbon Copy Cloner!

Luckily I had a big external USB with lots of stuff, but still sufficient space available, so before I started doctoring with the single partition of the internal disk, I made a clone that saved my ass already twice. I couldn't resize the disk - it was probably too cluttered after some years of use. To create a second partition, I needed to clone the system, delete all contents, create a second partition, and restore the original system.

I learned heaps of the boot process as well, which differs quite a bit between Apple and PC systems. PCs use traditionally BIOS booting, while my and all newer Macs use a method called EFI. These methods don't mix too well, although its possible to have the Mac emulating a BIOS to install Linux (and Windows as well). I forgot already what a default Ubuntu installation would do, as most description suggest a manual partitioning setup.

Each disk has a Master Boot Record (MBR), which you want to preserve for a dual boot system. I learned the hard way that installing a MBR onto the disk itself doesn't work well. MacOS still started, but appeared a bit sluggish, but more important, I couldn't get Linux to boot. Second highly important hint:
Don't install the MBR onto the disk, but in a dedicated small partition!

While from MacOS 10.7 onwards BootCamp offers a multiboot capability, mainly to run Windows parallel, the best solution seems a tool named rEFIt. I didn't manage to start the installation from USB stick without it, yet with it things started working out fine. That was the tool that enabled me to find out that I screwed up the MBR of my disk - after installing Linux two penguins appeared in the boot menu, none of which swam to the shores of a booting system.

After the second time I reinstalled my Mac from the clone, things started working out really well. I could use the USB stick for installation (less noisy and a bit faster than the CD installation), and finally, I could boot into a working Linux on my Mac. Hooray!

However, there's still plenty of things to sort out. My Linux partition is much smaller than the Mac part, and I want to access the files on the Mac partition (at least in read-only mode) from Linux. Though it's possible to boot Ubuntu with EFI, this needs some more doctoring. Also, the brightness control doesn't work yet. It still looks like I can now start figuring out how useful Ubuntu is while still being able to fall back to the comfort and settings of my Mac.

The aim remains to create a system which offers more privacy than MacOS. Apple has been caught lately with a lot of cooperation with the American spy authorities, and having a system that can't be spied on, and offers more Tor integration makes all the hacking worthwhile.

Strolling through the most liveable city of 2012

I happily admit that I fell in love with Melbourne. Some of the weirder experiences I had here lately make me wonder whether the title of most liveable city on this planet really applies. If so, the planet must have turned into some really unpleasant place.

Collection of cameras in less than 5 minute walking distance around the main motive,
no duplicates, many omissions

Anyway, I went on a mission to investigate a little bit whether I could find some surveillance equipment that could fit into the #Trapwire technology. The internet research unveiled no direct links into Victoria, however, the government here committed to have stricken a deal with SAIC, another one of the global paranoia players providing the technological equipment for total population control.

Williams Str 91

On my way to the city I enjoyed some blue skies and a bit of sun, which I hadn't seen thanks to Melbourne winter for a while. The familiar sight of chemtrails made me aware that soon the sun would vanish behind some hazy clouds. I knew from Google Maps to look for a building with an ANZ branch in it, close to Collins Street, and soon I arrived at the building, inconspicuous like most of the farms for people in suits in this area.

Eagle House

While looking for the location of the Melbourne office on the web, I noticed that SAIC also has an office in Pine Gap, a well establish spy base close to Alice Spring, not mention being located in plenty of US military bases around the world. Some of the bases had strange names often with 'Eagle' somewhere in it. Not that I don't like eagles, but in a way it's interesting that this company shares their favorite animal with the Nazis.

Tenants of the Eagle House, (highlight by PS)

Although there weren't any current job adverts, SAIC had already spread out in this building to another floor. Varec Inc might be just another company belonging to the web of 'security' companies that like to use as many disguises to remain looking harmless, and warrant a high level of internal compartmentalisation.

Collins Street

Now that I knew my way to yet another place where millions, if not billions of taxpayers money is spend against the population, I continued to look around for some dome cameras as they are used for #trapwire. I didn't have to go far.

Collins Street again

Most intersections along Bourke Street had one dome camera, hidden in plain view as most people frequenting this area don't pay much attention to anything around them. The council might explain them as 'traffic' related, although they differ a lot from typical red-light or speed cameras.

ANZ Bourke Street

This scenic view however, doesn't show a traffic cam - unless you can break the law easily as pedestrian. It captures the entrance of the ANZ building, but basically has a splendid view along the pavement of Bourke Street.

Close up ANZ Bourke Street camera

Hmm. Looks exactly like some the cameras attached at intersections, and although it kind of blends into structure, it looks like being attached after the building was finished.

Parliament House Station

Now that's what I call a convenient location for a surveillance camera - directly at the entrance to a train station, and it seems to be the same kind of model as the one in front of ANZ.

Colourful stretch of Bourke Street

The upper part of Bourke Street has a lot of gastronomy, cosy little buildings framed by the skyscrapers in the background. Outdoor areas to have some food and drinks, meeting with friends, having a yarn, while someone might a great view into the cleavage of guests from above.

Close up from scenic Bourke Street view

Or, depending on the resolution of this camera, which can pan, tilt and zoom, you might even read laptop or mobile phone screens over the shoulder over the user, without raising suspicion with your smelly breath when this still had to be done in person.

Less scenic Bourke Street view

I admit, this photo doesn't really look good. It's as chaotic as a lot of the views in Melbourne's inner City, but maybe you can guess why I took it.

Close up less scenic Bourke Street view

Yet another one of those nicely shaped surveillance cameras, like many others not really planned to blend smoothly to its attachment, yet again nearly invisible due to its height. Basically another perv cam, in summer time many women working in offices show off their cleavage in their business customs, maybe that's one of the perks for the poor souls condemned to spy on their community.

Witty caption (forgot the location)

Okay, call me boring, there's a diversity of camera models in public, not only the dome type that looks so much like the photos I saw in some of the TrapWire stories. At some point, I noticed that especially ANZ branches had cameras directed on the public, but hey, I'm sure it's a coincidence that SAIC has its office in a building shared with ANZ. And claiming that jumbling the letters and adding an I makes ANZ Nazi would totally undermine any credibility to this story, so I don't.

Obviously corner Bourke and Swanston Street

I didn't follow Bourke Street further down south, depending on some more sunshine with less chemtrails I might do this. I wouldn't even be surprised to find less of them, because of the strategic importance of this specific stretch of the city. Most rallies held in the CBD start at the State Library, go down Swanston Street, turn onto Bourke Street up to the Parliament.

Corner Swanston and La Trobe Street, opposite State Library

When Eastern Germany disintegrated, and the files of the Stasi (GDR's secret service) became public, many were shocked to find out that the Stasi was able to track people in East Berlin's centre completely just with surveillance cameras. Not to mention that even toilets had some, just like the idea of contemporary shop owners to have cameras in changing rooms.

TrapWire cam (via rt.com)

Go ahead, coincidence theorists, explain it all as harmless, unimportant or 'conspiracy'. Or maybe someone get issue an FOI to the Melbourne Council, asking for the purpose of the cameras, the money spend on it, the people operating and watching.

The TrapWire story seems to make the Empire nervous, lots of things happened to distract the overly short attention span of average citizens. The trolls on chats eagerly dismissing the importance of Trapwire were of course not at all PsyOp. I mean, the government wouldn't really spend money on engaging in social media, using similar strategies to viral marketing to whitewash their curiosity about every step we take in public.

A historical speech

I'm not really of friend of politics, most of the times it rather makes me mad to hear the dissonant and incoherent utterings of people who appear to be quite insane. Yet sometimes even politicians say things which rather touch my heart than try to screw my mind. The speech given about the decision of the Ecuadorian government belongs to this category, and as it is probably under reported in the mainstream media, and for my personal pleasure, and as hobby historian, I could not resist to republish it in full length in its english translation.

Statement of the Government of the Republic of Ecuador on the asylum request of Julian Assange

On June 19, 2012, the Australian citizen Julian Assange, showed up on the headquarters of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, with the purpose of requesting diplomatic protection of the Ecuadorian State, invoking the norms on political asylum in force. The requester has based his petition on the fear of an eventual political persecution of which he may be a victim in a third State, which can use his extradition to the Swedish Kingdom to obtain in turn the ulterior extradition to such country.

The Government of Ecuador, faithful to the asylum procedure, and attributing the greatest seriousness to this case, has examined and assessed all the aspects implied, particularly the arguments presented by Mr. Assange backing up the fear he feels before a situation that this person considers as a threat to his life, personal safety and freedom.

It is important to point out that Mr. Assange has made the decision to request asylum and protection from Ecuador because of the accusations that, according to him, have been formulated for supposed “espionage and betrayal” with which the citizen exposes the fear he feels about the possibility of being surrendered to the United States authorities by the British, Swedish or Australian authorities, thus it is a country, says Mr. Assange, that persecutes him because of the disclosure of compromising information for the United States Government. He equally manifests, being “victim of a persecution in different countries, which derives not only from his ideas and actions, but from his work by publishing information compromising the powerful ones, by publishing the truth and, with that, unveiling the corruption and serious human rights abuses of citizens around the world”.

Therefore, for the requester, the imputation of politic felonies is what backs up his request for asylum, thus in his criteria, he faces a situation that means to him an imminent danger which he cannot resist. With the purpose of explaining the fear he has of a possible political persecution, and that this possibility ends up turning into a situation of impairment and violation of his rights, with risk for his integrity, personal security and freedom, the Government of Ecuador considered the following:

1. That Julian Assange is a communication professional internationally awarded for his struggle on freedom of expression, freedom of press and human rights in general;
2. That Mr. Assange shared with the global population privileged documented information that was generated by different sources, and that affected officials, countries and organizations;
3. That there are serious indications of retaliation by the country or countries that produced the information disclosed by Mr. Assange, retaliation that can put at risk his safety, integrity and even his life;
4. That, despite the diplomatic efforts carried out by the Ecuadorian State, the countries from which guarantees have been requested to protect the life and safety of Mr. Assange, have denied to provide them;
5. That, there is a certainty of the Ecuadorian authorities that an extradition to a third country outside the European Union is feasible without the proper guarantees for his safety and personal integrity;
6. That the judicial evidence shows clearly that, given an extradition to the United States, Mr. Assange would not have a fair trial, he could be judge by a special or military court, and it is not unlikely that he would receive a cruel and demeaning treatment and he would be condemned to a life sentence or the death penalty, which would not respect his human rights;
7.  That, even when indeed Mr. Assange has to respond to the investigation open in Sweden, Ecuador is aware that the Swedish prosecutor’s office has had a contradictory attitude that prevented Mr. Assange from the total exercise of the legitimate right to defense;
8. That Ecuador is convinced that the procedural rights of Mr. Assange have been infringed during that investigation:
9. That Ecuador has verify that Mr. Assange does not count with the adequate protection and help that he should receive from the State of which he is a citizen;
10. That, according to several public statements and diplomatic communications made by officials from Great Britain, Sweden and the United States, it is deduced that those governments would not respect the international conventions and treaties and would give priority to internal laws of secondary hierarchy, contravening explicit norms of universal application; and,
11. That, if Mr. Assange is reduced to preventive prison in Sweden (as it is usual in that country), it would initiate a chain of events that will prevent the adoption of preventive measures to avoid his extradition to a third country.

Accordingly, the Ecuadorian Government considers that these arguments back up Julian Assange’s fears, thus he can be a victim of political persecution, as a consequence of his determined defense to freedom of expression and freedom of press, as well as his position of condemn to the abuses that the power infers in different countries, aspects that make Mr. Assange think that, in any given moment, a situation may come where his life, safety or personal integrity will be in danger. This fear has leaded him to exercise his human right of seeking and receiving asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom.

Article 41 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador defines clearly the right to grant asylum. Regarding those dispositions, the rights to asylum and shelter are fully recognized, according to the law and international human rights instruments. According to such constitutional norm:
“People who are in a situation of asylum and shelter will enjoy special protection that guarantees the full exercise of their rights. The State will respect and guarantee the principle of no return, aside from the humanitarian and judicial emergency assistance”.

Moreover, the right to asylum is recognized in the Article 4.7 of the Organic Law of Foreign Service of 2006, which determines the faculty of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Integration of Ecuador to know the cases of diplomatic asylum, according to the laws, the treaties, the rights and the international practice.

It is important to outline that our country has outstood over the last years for welcoming a huge number of people who have requested territorial asylum or refuge, respecting with no restriction the principle of no return and no discrimination, while adopting measures towards granting the refugee status in an efficient way, bearing in mind the circumstances of the requesters, most of them Colombians escaping the armed conflict in their country. The High Commissioner of the United Nations for Refugees has praised Ecuador’s refugee policy, and has highlighted the meaningful fact that these people have not been confined to refugee camps in this country, but they are integrated to society, in full enjoyment of their human rights and guarantees.

Ecuador states the right to asylum in the universal brochure of human rights and believes, therefore, that the effective application of this right requires the international cooperation that our countries can provide, without which its enouncement would be unfruitful, and the institution would be completely ineffective. For these reasons, and bearing in mind the obligation that all the States have assumed to collaborate in the protection and promotion of Human Rights, as it is established in the United Nations Letter, invites the British Government to provide its contingent to reach this purpose.

For those effects, Ecuador has been able to verify, in the course of analysis of the judicial institutions regarding the asylum, that to the confirmation of this right attend fundamental principles of general international law, which because of their importance have universal value and scope, for they are consistent with the general interest of the international community as a whole, and count with the full recognition of all the States. Those principles, which are contemplated in the different international instruments, are the following:

1. The asylum in all its forms is a fundamental human right and creates obligations erga omnes, meaning, “for all”, the States.
2. The diplomatic asylum, the refuge (territorial asylum), and the right to not being extradited, expulsed, surrendered or transferred, are comparable human rights, thus they are based on the same principles of human protection: no return and no discrimination with no distinction of unfavorable character for reasons of race, color, sex, language, religion or belief, political or other type of opinions, national or social origin, birth or other condition or similar criteria.
3. All these forms of protection are ruled by the pro homine principles (meaning, most favorable to the human being), equality, universality, indivisibility, complementarity, and inter dependency.
4.  The protection is produced when the State which grants the asylum, refuge or requested, or the protective potency, considers that there is a risk or fear that the protected person may be a victim of political persecution, or are charged with political felonies.
5.  It corresponds to the State which grants the asylum to qualify the causes of asylum and, in the case of extradition, to value the evidences.
6. Regardless of the modality or form in which it is presented, the asylum has always the same cause and the same legal object, meaning, political persecution, which is a legal cause; and to safe guard the life, personal safety and freedom of the protected person which is a legal object.
7. The right to asylum is a fundamental human right, therefore, it belongs to the ius cogens, meaning, the system of imperative norms of right recognized by the international community as a whole, which does not admit a contrary agreement, annulling the treaties and dispositions of international law against it.
8. In the unforeseen cases on the law in force, the human being is under the safe guard of the humanity principles and the demands of the public conscience or under the protection and empire of the principles of the law of people derived from the established uses, of the humanity principles and the dictates of the public conscience.
9. The lack of international convention or internal legislation of the States cannot be legitimately claimed to limit, impinge or deny the right to asylum.
10. The norms and principles that rule the rights to asylum, refuge, no extradition, no surrender, no expulsion and no transference are convergent, to the necessary extent to perfect the protection and providing it with the most efficiency. In this sense, the international law of human rights, the right to asylum and refuge and the humanitarian law are complementary.
11. The rights of protection to the human being are based on ethical principles and values universally admitted and, therefore, they have a humanitarian, social, solidarity, assistant and pacific character.
12. All the States have the duty to promote the progressive development of the international law of human rights through effective national and international laws.

Ecuador considers that the right applicable to Mr. Julian Assange’s case is integrated by the whole principles, norms, mechanisms and procedures foreseen on the international instruments of human rights (regional or universal), which contemplate among their dispositions the right to seek, receive and enjoy asylum for political reasons; the Conventions that regulate the right to asylum and the right of refugees, and that recognize the right to not be surrendered, returned or expulsed when there are founded fears of political persecution; the Conventions that regulate extradition and that recognize the right to not be extradited when this measure can mask political persecution; and the Conventions that regulate the humanitarian right, and that recognize the right not to be transferred when there is a risk of political persecution. All these modalities of asylum and international protection are justified by the need to protect this person of an eventual political persecution, or a possible imputation of political felonies and/ or felonies connected to these last ones, which, to Ecuador’s judgment, not only would put at risk the life of Mr. Assange, but would also represent a serious injustice committed against him.

It is undeniable that the States, having contracted with so numerous and substantive international instruments- many of them judicially binding- the obligation to provide protection or asylum to people persecuted for political reasons, have expressed their will to establish a judicial institution of protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, founded as a right in a generally accepted practice, which gives those obligations an imperative character, erga omnes that, being bonded to respect, protection and progressive development of human rights and fundamental freedoms, are a part of the ius cogens. Some of those instruments are mentioned bellow:

1. United Nations Letter of 1945, Purposes and Principles of the United Nations: obligation of all the members to cooperate in the promotion and protection of human rights;
2. Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948: the right to seek and enjoy asylum in any country, for political reasons (Article 14);
3. American Declaration of Men’s Rights and Duties of 1948: the right to seek and enjoy asylum in any country, for political reasons (Article 27);
4. Geneva Agreement of August 12, 1949, regarding the Due Protection of Civilians in War Times: in no case it is due to transfer the protected person to a country where they can fear persecutions because of their political opinions (Article 45);
5. Agreement on the Refugees Statute of 1951, and its New York Protocol of 1967: forbids to return or expulse refugees to countries where their life and freedom may be in danger ( Article 33.1);
6. Convention on Diplomatic Asylum of 1954: the State has the right to grant asylum and to qualify the nature of the felony or reasons of persecution (Article 4);
7. Convention on Territorial Asylum of 1954: the State has the right to admit in its territory people it judges convenient (Article 1), when they are persecuted for their beliefs, opinions or political filiations, or by actions that may be considered political felonies (Article 2), not being able the asylum granting State, to return or expulsed the asylum seeker that is persecuted for political reasons or felonies (Article 3); in the same way, the extradition does not proceed when it is about people who, according to the required State, are persecuted for political felonies, or for common felonies that are committed with political purposes, nor when the extradition is requested obeying political motives (Article 4);
8. European Extradition Agreement of 1957: forbids the extradition if the requested Part considers that the felony imputed has a political character (Article 3.1);
9. 2312 Declaration on Territorial Asylum of 1967: establishes the granting of asylum to the people that have such right according to Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including people who fight against colonialism (Article 1.1). The denial of admission, expulsion or return to any State where they can be object of persecution is forbidden (Article 3.1);
10. Vienna Convention on the Right of the Treaties of 1969: establishes that the norms and imperative principles of general international right do not admit a contrary agreement, being null the treaty that at the moment of its conclusion enters in conflict with one of these norms (Article 53), if a peremptory norm of the same character arises, every existent treaty that enters in conflict with that norm is null and ended (Article 64). As far as the application of these articles, the Convention authorizes the States to demand their accomplishment before the International Court of Justice, with no requisition of conformity by the demanded State, accepting the tribunal’s jurisdiction (Article 66 b). The human rights are norms of the ius cogens.
11. American Convention on Human Rights of 1969: the right to seek and receive asylum for political reasons (Article 22. 7);
12. European Agreement for the Repression of Terrorism of 1977: the required State has the faculty to deny extradition when there is danger of persecution or punishment of the person for their political opinions (Article 5);
13. Inter American Convention for Extradition of 1981: the extradition does not proceed when the requested has been judge or condemned, or is going to be judge before an exception tribunal or ad hoc in the required State (Article 4.3); when, with arrangement to the qualification of the required State, it deals with political felonies, or connected felonies or common felonies persecuted with political purposes; when from the case’s circumstances, can be inferred that the persecuted purposes is mediated for considerations of race, religion or nationality, or that the situation of the person is at risk of being aggravated for one of those reasons (Article 4.5). The Article 6 disposes, regarding the Right to Asylum, that “none of the exposed in the present Convention may be interpreted as a limitation to the right to asylum, when this proceeds”.
14. African Letter of Men and People’s Rights of 1981: the right of the persecuted individual to seek and obtain asylum in other countries (Article 12.3);
15. Cartagena Declaration of 1984: recognizes the right to refuge, to not being rejected in the borders and to not being returned;
16. Fundamental Rights Letter of the European Union of 2000: establishes the right to diplomatic and consular protection. Every citizen of the Union may seek refuge, in the territory of a third country, in which the Member State of nationality is not represented, to the protection of diplomatic and consular authorities of any member State, in the same conditions of the nationals of that State (Article 46).

The Government of Ecuador considers important to outline that the norms and principles recognized in the international instruments mentioned, and in other multi lateral agreements, have preeminence over the internal laws of the States, thus such treaties are based in a universally oriented normative by intangible principles, from which a greater respect is derived, guarantee and protection of human rights against unilateral attitudes of the same States. This would subtract efficiency to the international law, which otherwise has to be strengthen, so the respect of fundamental rights is consolidated in function of integration and ecumenical character.

On the other hand, since Julian Assange requested political asylum to Ecuador, dialogues of high diplomatic level have been held, with the United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States.

In the course of these conversations, our country has appealed to obtain from the United Kingdom the strictest guarantees so Julian Assange faces, with no obstacles, the judicial process open in Sweden. Such guarantees include that, once treated his legal responsibilities in Sweden, he would not be extradited to a third country; this is, the guarantee that the specialty figure will not be applied. Unfortunately, and despite the repeated exchanges of texts, the United Kingdom never gave proof of wanting to achieve political compromises, limiting to repeat the content of the legal texts.

Julian Assange’s lawyers requested the Swedish justice to take statements of Julian Assange in the premises of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Ecuador translated officially to the Swedish authorities its will to facilitate this interview with the purpose of not intervening or obstacle the judicial process that is carried out in Sweden. This is a perfectly legal and possible measure. Sweden did not accept it.

On the other hand, Ecuador searched the possibility that the Swedish Government would establish guarantees to avoid the onward extradition of Assange to the United States. Again, the Swedish Government rejected any commitment on that sense.

Finally, Ecuador directed a communication to the Government of the United States to know officially its position on the Assange’s case. The consults referred to the following:

1. If there is a legal process in course or the intention to carry out such process against Julian Assange and/ or the founders of the Wikileaks organization;
2. In the case of the above being truth, what kind of legislation, in which conditions and under which maximum penalties would those people be subjected;
3. If there is the intention of requesting the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States.

The answer of the United States has been that they cannot offer information on the Assange’s case, with the allegation that it is a bilateral matter between Ecuador and the United Kingdom.

With these antecedents, the Government of Ecuador, faithful to its tradition to protect those who seek shelter in its territory or in the premises of its diplomatic missions, has decided to grant diplomatic asylum to the citizen Julian Assange, on the basis of the request presented to the President of the Republic, through a written communication dated in London on June 19, 2012, and complemented by a communication dated in London on June 25, 2012, for which the Ecuadorian Government, after carrying out a fair and objective assessment of the situation exposed by Mr. Assange, attending his own sayings and argumentations, intakes the requester’s fears, and assumes that there are indications that allow to assume that there may be a political persecution, or that such persecution may be produced if the opportune and necessary measures are not taken to avoid it.

The Government of Ecuador has the certainty that the British Government will know how to value the justice and rectitude of the Ecuadorian position, and in consistency with these arguments, trusts that the United Kingdom will offer as soon as possible the guarantees or safe conducts necessaries and pertinent to the situation of the asylum requester, so their Governments can honor with their actions the fidelity they owe to the international laws and institutions that both nations have contribute to shape along their common history.

It also trusts to maintain inalterable the excellent bonds of friendship and mutual respect that unite Ecuador and the United Kingdom and their respective people, confident as they are in the promotion and defense of the same principles and values, and because they share similar concerns about democracy, peace, Good Living, which can only be possible if the fundamental rights of all people are respected.