[bestbits] Human Rights Heroes and Villains - nominate until 13Sept

[Renata Aquino Ribeiro]

Hi Alex

I think this is quite a healthy debate.

It is quite easy to see that dualist views in technology policy is a
rather restrictive approach.

I'm not sure if understand your Germany example but Brazil, well,
we're surrounded by villains now and it took less than 1 year. And
many voted for the major villain when he was vice-president candidate.
But one has to highlight the quickness and the energy the interim
president has invested in undoing or trying to undo everything done
before his term. In center stage, Brazil's foward-thinking digital
rights bill.

Would be possible for a villain to change his ways and do, at least,
less damage than what he is used to? Any effort towards pointing that
out is quite welcome by those who are opressed by the villain.

Is the hero cult dangerous? Of course. But this is not a problem of
tech only, it rather affects tech dangerously. Women are subject to
harassment in and out of tech, it is the lack of policies of
protection which is clearly amplified in gender-based violence online.

Still, courage of those who speak out has to be highlighted. As well
as wrongdoings of those who are supposed to do a good job for their
people.


On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 3:13 PM, Alex Comninos <alex.comninos at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Sorry for the terse reply. Thanks for sharing.
>
> I guess I have been annoyed for some time at binary and moralistic discourse
> discourse (good guys and bad guys) in human rights. In addition to being
> polarising ,it misses the point that humans are complex creatures and that
> human rights and rule of law are complex processes that require evolution
> and nurturing towards good.
>
> For example, Germany, the new "leader of the free world" has this year
> promulgated one of the worst internet laws ever in terms of digital rights -
> Russia just copy pasted it. Is Germany now a "villain"? Or is the answer
> more complex and involves a move in a bad direction.
>
> Also the "heroes" in tech thing, in addition to being gendered, is dangerous
> - the Jacob Appelbaum affair being a case in point.
>
>
> On Tue, 29 Aug 2017, 18:59 Renata Aquino Ribeiro <raquino at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> I guess the fact that villains only multiply exponentially contributes to
>> it.
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 9:18 AM, Alex Comninos <alex.comninos at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Why always the heroes and villains trope?
>> >
>> > On Sun, 27 Aug 2017, 17:07 Renata Aquino Ribeiro <raquino at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Awards will be given in Rightscon 2018 Toronto
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> https://www.accessnow.org/now-accepting-nominations-fourth-annual-heroes-villains-awards/
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ____________________________________________________________
>> >> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>> >>      bestbits at lists.bestbits.net.
>> >> To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
>> >>      http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits
>> >
>> > --
>> > Alex Comninos
>> > Doctoral Candidate, Department of Geography
>> > Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
>> > Skype: alexcomninos5
>> > Tel: +49 178 2349 836
>> > http://comninos.org
>> ____________________________________________________________
>> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>>      bestbits at lists.bestbits.net.
>> To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
>>      http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits
>
> --
> Alex Comninos
> Doctoral Candidate, Department of Geography
> Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
> Skype: alexcomninos5
> Tel: +49 178 2349 836
> http://comninos.org