SA activists and writers join worldwide reading in support of Edward Snowden

In June 2013, Snowden, a former employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States, leaked documents exposing the extent of mass surveillance being conducted on ordinary citizens by states and corporations worldwide. The revelations were published in a series of articles by The Guardian newspaper.

Snowden is currently in Russia awaiting offers of asylum from other countries. In support of Monday’s worldwide reading, the BLF issued a statement calling for member states of the European Union to recognise the importance of Snowden’s revelation and to grant him asylum in the EU.

Njabulo Ndebele, chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, concluded the readings at the AVA yesterday.

“We can learn from the sincerity and integrity of Edward Snowden,” said Ndebele … He was not a self-proclaimed activist, but someone who professed a deep love for his country and the global public. We [in South Africa] must join to add our voice to this global voice. As South Africans, we must go out and fight for the protection of privacy and for a free and open society.”

GroundUp has aggregated select Snowden quotes, as read out at the AVA.

Read by Zackie Achmat:

“Many will malign me for failing to engage in national relativism, to look away from [my] society’s problems toward distant, external evils for which we hold neither authority nor responsibility, but citizenship carries with it a duty to first police one’s own government before seeking to correct others.”

“If you seek to help, join the open source community and fight to keep the spirit of the press alive and the internet free. I have been to the darkest corners of government, and what they fear is light.”

Read by Henrietta Rose-Innes:

“I think it’s important to remember that people don’t set their lives on fire, that they don’t say good-bye to their families, actually pack up without saying good-bye to their families, they don’t walk away from their extraordinarily comfortable lives, I mean, I have been a guy with a lot of money for someone without a high school diploma, and burn down everything they love for no reason.”

Read by Roberta Nation:

“The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change.”

Read by Kelsey Wiens:

“Any (NSA) analyst at any time can target anyone, any selector, anywhere… I sitting at my desk certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a Federal judge to even the President if I had a personal e-mail.”

Read by Mandla Mbothwe:

“[T]hey’re the communications of ordinary people, of your neighbours, of your neighbours’ friends, of your relations, of the person who runs the register at the store. They’re the most deep and intense and intimate and damaging private moments of their lives, and we’re seizing them without any authorisation, without any reason, records of all of their activities – their cell phone locations, their purchase records, their private text messages, their phone calls, the content of those calls in certain circumstances, transaction histories – and from this we can create a perfect, or nearly perfect, record of each individual’s activity, and those activities are increasingly becoming permanent records.”

Read by Christi van der Westhuizen:

“Even if you’re not doing anything wrong you’re being watched and recorded.”

Read by Vinayak Bharwaj:

“As a general rule, so long as you have any choice at all, you should never route through or peer with the UK under any circumstances. Their fibers are radioactive, and even the Queen’s selfies to the pool boy get logged.”

Read by Zapiro:

“I think it’s unfortunate when, for example, in Germany evidence has revealed that the NSA is spying on millions of German citizens … and that’s not a scandal. But when Angela Merkel’s cell phone is listened in on and she herself is made a victim, suddenly it changes relations. We shouldn’t elevate senior officials. We shouldn’t elevate leaders above the average citizen because, really, who is it that they’re working for? You know the public interest is the national interest.”

Read by Gabrielle Lubowski:

“No system of mass surveillance has existed in any society that we know of to this point that has not been abused.”

“If we want to be free we can’t become subject to surveillance, we can’t give away our privacy, we can’t give away our rights. We have to be an active party, we have to be an active part of our government.”

Read by Masello Motana:

“I don’t think there’s ever been any question that I’d like to go home. I mean I’ve from day one said the I’m doing this to serve my country, I’m still working for the government. Now whether amnesty or clemency ever becomes a possibility is not for me to say. That’s a debate for public and the government to decide, but if I could go anywhere in the world that place would be home.”

Read by Njabulo Ndebele:

“Citizens have to fight suppression of information on matters of vital public importance. To tell the truth is not a crime.”