I hummed and hawed about what to do today. All my Meetup groups had to offer was an "intimate" evening with David J. I wasn't at all familiar with him, but checked him out on YouTube - he was listenable-to, but when I listened a bit closer, I found his lyrics a bit weird, and passed. So I did a broader search on Meetup - and came across this Whistleblowers talk, on the Open Rights Group (ORG) page. So I hummed and hawed a bit more, and decided to join and book (tickets were free, but required booking).
Although I just missed the first train, I was in good time, and wasn't worried. It was as crowded as ever on the Piccadilly Line, and I had no chance of a seat until Leicester Square - by which time I was 70% of the way there, and figured it wasn't worth it. But at least I finally got to one of the standing areas where there's a padded bar, which you can lean against - so I had my hands free to eat my dinner of M&Ms. Alighting at Russell Square, you have to take a lift; I seriously doubted we'd ever move at all, the doors were so concerned about us being trapped in them, and kept opening!
When I looked up directions earlier today, I saw it was just past the Brunei Gallery. Well and good, I remembered how to get there - it hasn't been so long. Then the trick was to continue past the gallery entrance, and turn right at the end of that lane. I was looking for Birkbeck. Now, I knew I was to go to the Torrington Square entrance, and I could see that road on the map - but Streetview doesn't go there, so I couldn't see what I was really dealing with, and I got confused. So I turned right, up Torrington Square, found myself in front of a building marked "Birkbeck" and waited for the organiser to show up with a sign, as promised.
There was a guy waiting there as well, but he turned out to be waiting for someone. And someone else happened by and asked me for directions, but I was no help. After I'd been there for five minutes, I decided to have a look around.. which is how I came to see the main entrance (with BIRKBECK carved in the stone) to a building on the other side of the "square". I hadn't been able to see it before, with the trees in the middle. And it turns out that Birkbeck owns all the buildings around this "square" - so they're all "Birkbeck". Aargh!
So I wandered over that way - there was a chap taking photos at the entrance. Still no sign of this lady with a sign, but I remembered that these Meetup people sometimes wait inside. So I went in - and phew! there she was. With a sign. And no time even to say hi, because she was being completely monopolised by a woman who was asking her all about the organisation. Anyway, I stood there for a while, rictus grin on my face and completely ignored, until a chap happened in and straight asked her where the talk was on. (Downstairs, and right.) He decided that she was busy enough that he'd head straight down there - and I decided, of course, to follow him.
It was supposed to be in B35, but there was a crowd outside B34, next door - and when I finally caught a glimpse of the door between people holding it open to go in, I saw a sign for the talk. Ah, ok. So I then also ran the gamut of people handing out fliers - they love doing that, these folks. I took a seat - as I did so, the host asked people please to sit near the walls, we were going to be more than full. So I did, and perused the several fliers and the booklet I'd been given. And noticed that the room contained a strong smell of what seemed like fly spray..
There were sundry fliers for events happening to protest against the various wars, and for the closure of detention centres. There was also a small booklet about Julian Assange, which, while it contains many interesting facts, is rather undermined by its trashy, sensationalist presentation. As it happened, the ORG people (sans organiser) chose to sit beside me, and the one next to me was vexed that she didn't know who the speakers were. "Ah!" I said, "that I can help with!" and produced my printout of the Meetup event page, which had a list of them. This also proved useful to the fellow on my other side, who used it when compiling his notes during the talk.
The speakers were a bit late - we were told they were having dinner. While we waited, I noted all the cameras - at such an event, there were so many I got a bit paranoid. There was also something that looked like an isolation booth of some kind, over the side.. Anyway, the speakers eventually took their places and the event began. There were seven speakers - one more than on my list. And apparently, this was one of four stops they're making on a limited European tour - we're lucky.
On the far left was a Birkbeck lecturer, who's written about such things. Beside him was the woman not on the list - Eileen Chubb, who lost her job and pension when she spoke out about abuse in a BUPA care home. She had plenty of interesting things to say, about how, if you're attacked on the street, at least a policeman might come along; if you're attacked in a care home, you are, as she put it, "buggered". She absolutely rubbished the Freedom to Speak Up Review and PIDA, saying a bad law is worse than none, and pointing out that there's no way of enforcing this law. She told us how Des Kelly of BUPA, who covered up the abuse that she highlighted, is now advising the government on care of the elderly. Mind you, when one audience member asked where the police were in all this, she defended them, saying it can be difficult, when you know you'll lose your livelihood for speaking out. She even brought up the soldiers involved in the Bloody Sunday inquiry a couple of times, how it was recorded that they had pointed out to their superiors that they were firing on unarmed civilians..
The rest of the panel were American. Beside Eileen was Daniel Ellsberg, who served in Vietnam and released the Pentagon papers to the press in 1971. He was charged under the Espionage Act, and explained that he only avoided 100+ years in prison because all the injustices perpetrated on him came out in his trial. He made the point that the intense surveillance trumpeted by the American and British governments as the only way to prevent terrorist attacks is as useless as torture has been proven to be for the same aim. It doesn't provide any protection - rather, it allows the government to control its people. And I felt like I was watching Citizenfour again when he slated Obama's record on civil liberties.
Speaking of Citizenfour - the story of Edward Snowden, who is an American in exile for leaking NSA secrets - it turned out that his lawyer, Jessie Radack, was sitting next to Daniel Ellsberg! She had plenty to say about the Espionage Act under which her clients are charged, and how it's a 100-year-old law that doesn't permit a defence to be mounted.
On her other side was another of her clients - Thomas Drake, also charged with releasing NSA secrets, under the Espionage Act. He explained that yes, he is related to Sir Francis Drake.. and he was the most literary member of the panel, mentioning George Orwell (think 1984) and Aldous Huxley.
Beside him was Norman Solomon, a mature gentleman with the most gorgeous, soft voice, and an activist. He had much to say about the diminution of the American Bill of Rights, and how it was basically thrown away after 9/11. And he pointed out that the definition of democracy as government by informed consent falls down if the consent of the people is not informed. And finally on the panel was a former member of the FBI, Coleen Rowley, who in 2002 leaked information about the organisation's failures in the run-up to 9/11, for which she was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.
Arguably the most interesting exchange of the evening came when the lady right behind me asked the first question of the evening, and openly accused Ms Rowley of supporting strikes against President Assad's opponents in Syria, citing his human rights abuses, as exposed by NGOs such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. To which Ms Rowley responded by quoting Hilary Clinton, who apparently once described "soft power"; you start soft, then you can get harder and harder until you end up with the hardest, military option. A "soft" place to start might be with an NGO.. the implication being that you get the NGOs to feed the public whatever information you want..
Even more thought-provoking than last week's talk. Several people around me were taking notes, one in front of me was tweeting her opinion. Questions were taken in batches of three, then of four. They tried to finish by 8.30, but ran over by 20 minutes - there was just too much to say. There was no attempt afterwards by our Meetup group to meet up - mind you, the people sitting outside me (and blocking my exit) were in such deep discussion that I thought I'd never get out of there. And when I did, it was FREEZING! I trotted back to the station, pausing at the pedestrian crossing as usual, and admiring the great bulk of the Russell Hotel, on the corner, which I can never get a photo of, because by the time I can get my phone turned on, the lights have changed and it's time to cross.
Tomorrow, I'm off to the Film Nite discussion on The Falling, the film we saw last week (those of us who stuck it out and didn't leave in disgust). And wouldn't you know it, again there's no PayPal link!
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