Ambling through the affluent areas of South West
London I find myself at the famous Harrods shopping complex. Harrods towers
above me like an old, crafty crocodile; where millionaires, the wealthy and
royal buy stuff. It was created in 1834 and had many owners including Egyptian
businessman Al Fayed whose son, Dodi, perished with Princess Diana in 1997. Two
years ago this biggest (shopping) establishment in UK was sold to Qatar Prime
Minister, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. (What a long name!) it is said
the cost was one and half billion pounds.
Woow...
Harrods soars over me as I marvel its amazing
architecture. Wazungu always score with their buildings. They keep them fresh and forever. Many years ago while
touring (with a theatre group) in Vienna, Austria I was mesmerised how ancient pretty buildings still dazzle the
city.
Like Zanzibar’s
Stone Town, perhaps?
Author ambles around Stone Town in 2011...spooky and interesting
<--more--!>
Difference
is ... Stone Town... somewhat gears towards tourism than tradition. We need to
learn to sustain our old majengos.
Anyway this is one of my thought lines; buzzing and circling through my mind as
I step into Hans Crescent, a small obscure street jutting from Brompton road.
Still at Knightsbridge, cars look and smell money... Mercedes, Jaguars, Aston
Martins... a few meters away I see a bunch of policemen, standing attentively
and firmly guarding the Ecuador Embassy; ready for Australian journalist and
internet haktivist, Julian Assange to pop out. He has been hiding here since
June and last Thursday he was granted asylum by the Ecuadorian authorities.
Facing
the small premises of the Embassy is the media, dissenters and more police. One
of the protesters has a huge megaphone and starring at the group of policemen
she then blows her saxophone:
“Nobody
made a 999 call asking for your assistance isn’t it!”
Apart
from this verbal challenge and complaints there are numerous placards and
photos of Julian Assange. The placard-words are as varied as the life of this
interesting journalist: “Freedom”, “Courage is Contagious”, “Free Assange-
Don’t shoots the messenger”, “Publish the truth”, “Educate the Youth” and more:
“Why are met police working with the USA?” or “End the war on whistle blowers”...
Whistle blowers
are the theme. It was an American soldier, Bradley Manning, who blew the
whistle on atrocities committed by American soldiers in Iraq in 2007. This
information and the alleged 2009 killings of 145 Afghani women and children were
all published in WikiLeaks, the site founded by Julian Assange in 2006.
WikiLeaks,
has since become part of media history so phenomenal that it has infuriated
governments and cries for his blood by some senators in USA and Canada.
Meanwhile Bradley Manning (pictured below) is in jail. One of the protesters told me Manning is "being tortured" and a campaign to free him is as important as Julian Assange’s
ongoing ordeal.
Yeah. Assange.
He was born in Australia 41 years ago and
spent most of his childhood roving through
50 cities and 37 schools accompanied by his divorced mother. He is
ironically still “roving” around the world. The fearless Australian, whose
media career began as a professional “hacker” was named Man of the Year by Time
magazine in 2010, honoured with the Sydney Peace Prize and Martha Gellhorn
Prize for Journalism 2011. Three years
ago having exposed the unlawful murders of Kenyan lawyers(Oscar Kingara and
John Paul Oulo) plus other human rights personell, he was given the 2009
Amnesty International Media Award. Although WikiLeaks had been active since 2006
(earning at least 85,000 pounds daily, according to Assange) it significantly
rose in presence in 2010. One was the exposure and toppling of the corrupt
government of President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali of
Tunisia; subsequently - beginning of the Arab Spring which still booms in Syria,
as we speak. WikiLeaks also exposed corrupt dealings in Tanzania one of which was
selling of BAE radar systems. Apparently in his constant travels, Assange visited
and briefly stayed at Dar es Salaam.
Dar es Salaam... looking impressive ...minus traffic jams...
So I am passing through
watching all this and imagining what will happen. Charges that he sexually
assaulted two women in Sweden and messed around with US government top secrets
have been strongly denied. Last week he gave a strong statement (without stepping
out of the embassy). One of the protesters, who says he is not afraid of CIA or
any strong powers quipped :
“What Julian Assange is doing
is bigger than us. It is about power. That man holed inside there is
responsible for publicising through the internet -on WikiLeaks- serious atrocities
committed by governments across the globe. If we know this information we can change
things and make our world a better place.”
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