Bureaucratic nightmares

Today I got convinced that this part of the world has already been converted to some sort of open citizen prison, Victoria Police acting as prison guard defending national security by harassing whoever appears to cross their path the wrong way.

I found a tiny card next to the penalty notice in my mailbox, which I nearly threw away as advertising. The card informed that L/S/C Mlikota paid me a visit, and asked to get in contact. After the second call to my local police station I got informed that some documents were waiting for me.

The police woman that gave me my charge (by contesting the penalty I now get charged in front of the Magistrate Court) acted very helpful, and didn't even ask for my ID before handing out the paper work. I'm not too sure whether police sees (and checks) incoming numbers, I'm sure she was convinced that I spoke to her about this charge on the phone earlier.

I browsed quickly through the papers, and found the same outdated legal definition from 1999 I saw already as attachment to $464 worth of fines. So I smiled at her and asked whether it is common to get charges delivered in person, as I contested a number of similar fines, and thus will get more charges soon. I pointed out to her that the current Road Code, as of 2009, has a different definition for bicycle.

I pulled out the printout of the current version, showed it her and said that this is the reason why I contested all that fines. An older police man joined the conversation, and tried to reach the constable in question. I mentioned that I don't mind to go to court to make my case, having the written law on my side. 'But he only wants to help...', unfortunately, he didn't.

Of course, as its my local police station, sun was shining, and it's a pain in the ass to drive a car along Sydney Road on a friday arvo and find a park, I had my trusty unicycle with me. The copper wanted to make me wrong, and started the usual false argumentation. Danger of cycling without helmets, which I countered with the lack of compulsory helmet laws in Europe. 'You'd better get back then', and I squeezed a grimaced 'Thank you, sir' as reply, took my papers and left.

It took maybe four or five statements back and forth before this happened - I usually insist on quoting the definition, and pointing out that a unicycle has ONE wheel, no gears, chains or belts. Meanwhile, the police woman looked like checking my printout online on her phone. At a distance, it looked like good cop, bad cop, luckily with a counter between us.

The accused at Parkville on Monday the 5th of December 2011 did fail to wear a securely fitted and approved bicycle helmet at Royal Parade whilst riding a unicycle. Does anybody else notice the bit of Orwellian Newspeak in this charge?

When people in uniform don't like the word of the law if you hold it under their own noses, and still insist that you must have done something wrong, because they don't err, the police state has arrived. They follow orders, not the law. I mean, with the legal situation whether I'm 'guilty' or not bases on the ability to count. Does a unicycle have two or more wheels? Does it have gears, belts or chains?

Not mine :( Yet identical in its setup: One wheel, no belts, gears, chains

Coincidentally, each time I got done on the unicycle I was on my way to Occupy Melbourne, each time to different locations: Flagstaff Gardens, Father Bob's and City Square. In comparison to my harassment I witnessed much more bewildering and violent police activities in each of those (and other) locations.

Occupy inspired me to film one of those encounters with Melbourne Bike Patrol (there to fight BIKE CRIME). I failed to connect to Constable Miletta from human to human, and have already a new strategy for the next time he or his fellow bike crime fighters infringe on my right to freely move through Melbourne's public space.

Now I can rehearse my defence in court, and investigate how to turn the pages by asking for compensation for the continuing harassment. We don't need police to enforce laws that protect people from themselves, even if they don't exist. We rather need protection from people in uniform making their own laws.

Why I occupy

On the way to my Shiatsu course, on the pavement of Swanston Street, the police pushed me into the occupy movement. I stopped in front of a wall of police, and when I turned around, I got pushed forward, unaware of the fact that the police decided to herd anyone on the entire width in Melbourne's city centre towards north.



I got really angry, hurling abuse and demanding my right to go to the next tram station. I saw many rallies, but the experience of a human wall forcing everyone around them against their will into a specific direction was new and truly bizarre. I use my hands and my Ki when I practise Shiatsu, and felt incapable of doing my job after this invasion of arbitrary police violence into my life. I stayed in town and saw a crowd of people vanishing into Trades Hall, with the army of police it looked like a trap to me.



As I don't use TV or newspapers as primary source to stay 'informed', I researched a bit more what this global occupation movement is all about. The common global consent, so it seems to me, lays mainly in the commitment to non-violence. When people remember the process while they act within the movement, it opens the avenue to collective creativity, with the tastiest fruits harvested by consent.



Of course, within a growing movement the knowledge of and experience with the process, the ability to learn, accept and apply it, differs among individuals. I met enough people to convince me that the global thing happened also here in Melbourne. I joined the First Aid and Care work group, and benefit each time immensely from the wealth of different expertise coming together on a peaceful lawn in a peaceful park on a sunny sunday afternoon.



Don't get deluded, it's not a talk fest happening here – in a time of civil war against basic human rights like freedom of assembly and freedom of speech many casualties occur. It takes a lot to organise the safety and health needs of a community of sometimes hundreds of people, especially when even people wearing First-Aid vests get clubbed by police while trying to care for pepper-sprayed peaceful protestors.



Even those who only witnessed the police brutality have been left traumatised, often reliving in their minds the memories of a terrifying assault on their believe in justice. The more stories I hear while debriefing the victims of the ongoing psychological warfare against a peaceful movement, the more I feel outraged about the utter disrespect for human life that happens right now in the city of Melbourne.



I chose as my occupation to teach and heal people, after spending some time of my life working as IT specialist mainly for the banking industry. The absurdity of the situation, the constant harassment, nearly daily new eviction orders were issued and executed, means that our team needs to build up an external network to cope with the cases too severe to deal with safely within our capacity.



First Aid usually serves as some sort of insurance policy, good to have around, but depending on the circumstances, hardly ever needed. The circumstance for Occupy Melbourne... well, let's call them sub-optimal from a health care perspective. Melbourne City Council removed shelter from rain and sun, access to water and sometimes the kitchen from Treasury Garden, not only increasing the psychological pressure for the permanent occupiers, but also actively endangering their immediate health.



Some of the occupiers have special needs, like Brandon, whose poetry you can listen to on the frontpage of omdigest. Even Brandon got served an eviction notice and was moved the meat wagon of the police. Others have difficult family backgrounds, and feel safer from violence in the occupation than at home. Many are exhausted from their job as occupier, yet the smallest creature comforts bring with it the threat of immediate eviction.



The re-occurring raids of the police made the First Aid gear evaporate. Just being prepared and equipped for good-case scenarios (prevention material like sun-screen, insect repellent, ponchos and blankets) becomes a logistical challenge. Not even having a minimal sheltered space for treatments available makes our task even more difficult. No time for leadership debates available, and self-organisation provides a level of First Aid and Care that would cost a lot of money if sourced for a commercial event.



Why do I occupy? I want to live in a world where we respect each other, where we care for each other, for all of us. I feel this vision resonating when I collaborate with the occupy movement, and it's happening all over the world right now. Let's organise horizontally and see where it'll lead to.

Public Domain

War is peace,

slavery is freedom,

ignorance is bliss.

In ancient times, when most people hardly knew anything about the existence of other people, or the limits of our planetary confinement, or the space-time rules seemingly governing the movements of planets and stars, they considered most likely everything 'public domain'.

The capitalist concept of 'property' turned out as a successful meme, although with a very long incubation period. Humanity installed many systems to maintain injustices based on the meme of property, and only few to protect the public domain.

In a tribe, there's little space for private property. Still, everyone within a tribe owns something, which makes them unique and individual. 'To make something your own' seems like a common human desire, and this includes skills and knowledge as well as material goods.

Pre-civilised societies steal the resources they need, unaware of the limited space our planet offers. Trading resources and knowledge creates a win-win situation for the involved societies, and unlike the violent option of war, and shares the benefits of the accompanying technological progress. Our resources might be limited, but our inventiveness brought an increase in common wealth in many periods of history.

For a long time, we could only rely on our gut feeling to determine whether a war was truly just or just another commercial enterprise. From a humanitarian perspective in the 21st century, war has proven an irrational choice to improve the situation of the majority of people involved. No government acts in the interest of its people if it leads them into a bloody-thirsty money-making scheme like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and redirects tax-payers money into the greedy fingers of the military industrial complex.

War has shifted its meaning since George Orwell wrote the quote I began with. It became the Orwellian monster, an endless war against invisible enemies, brought to life by government propaganda. Like in 1984, everyone's life get influenced by the growing paranoia of governments about 'terrorists'. We don't identify the terrorists in suits on our TV screen spreading distrust and lies, and the spin becomes common knowledge, or rather COWDUNG (common wisdom of the dominating group).

The latest victim of the terror campaign originating mainly, but not exclusively, from the US is Julian Assange. He represents a project to bring transparency into politics. The Wikileaks publications confirm the lack of responsibility within the leadership of 'democratic' (and less democratic) governments many people have suspected to exist.

The discussion about Assange and Wikileaks polarises positions, like so many public interest topics. You can find the 'us vs them' meme many times, yet this time the frontline is drawn in new ways. It's governed against government, an act of self-defence against arbitrary, intransparent, uncontrollable and unaccountable government.

The people only want what they have been promised to pay for by their taxes: Civil servants that act in their interest. We have many so-called democracies on this planet, yet the people of this planet still unite behind the idea of transparent government. After 911, 77 and the Asian tsunami, civil liberty has become a global media talking point.

In a way, it seems a bit like David and Goliath - Julian Assange against the bureaucracies and politicians of some of the world's most 'powerful' nations. Yet Assange has only founded Wikileaks, and now puts his head on the block for it. Those calling him a 'hi-tech terrorist' unveil themselves as terrorists, fighting against democracy and freedom of expression.

Justice belongs to the global set of ethical standards, independent of the culture. Humans intuitively notice if a potential win-win situation turns into one where into one with unequal, unfair outcome. This prevented the introduction of abusive governing structures for some ten thousands of years, yet lately we entered again into a phase of human history where cruel governments dominate.

Democracy seems a uniting meme, yet the attempts to implement democracies were deeply flawed as of now. Elections neither prevented Hitler, Stalin nor Saddam. In times of global communication, travel, and trade the argument of 'national security' does not make any sense anymore. Governments have been the biggest threat to human life in the last few hundreds years, and Wikileaks confirms that this attitude prevails into contemporary times.

I'm just not paranoid enough to feel good that my taxes pay for death and torture in places I might never visit. I don't conceive government as a force of nature, but a man-made agreement how to live together on a larger scale. Governments shrouded in secrecy did (and still do) many objectionable things, and don't deserve the name 'democracy'.

In a country where parents have to subsidise the 'free' public education system, without free public health system, and growing poverty any cent spend on military adventures is wasted. In a democracy, information about how elected governments act and spend our money belongs to the public domain. Listen to the voices condemning Assange, and decide for yourself whether their interests really apply to you.

act assange common democracy domain global government history human interest knowledge life meme people period planet public resources seems situation times war wikileaks

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A lot of people, the kind of people that get provided with free air time in the mass media, outed their attitude towards democracy lately. They insist to continue to work in secrecy, like Count Dracula fearing the light of day shining on their actions. Be grateful, earthling, to witness history in the making.

The 21st century started nightmarish with American imperial ambitions, justified by the myth of all-mighty terrorism. Men wearing suits recklessly demolished human rights, erected invisible walls for the meeting of the global suit wearing elite in Sydney, ordered a continuation of the outrageous injustice thrown unto David Hicks, sold the public transport systems in Victoria to multi-national companies, and still treat the indigenous population of Australia as second class citizens, savages to be taken by the hand.

Men in suits bossed the governments of this planet into paying a ransom to bail them out of their losses, produced by irresponsible and reckless gambling with fantasy products. Men in suits want your vote to legitimate action they don't want to tell you. Men in suit now threaten Julian Assange, someone who helped taxpayers finding out how their money is spend behind their backs.