Kevin Galalae Hunger Strikes for Freedom of Education
19 April 2011
Mr. Thomas Hammarberg
Council of Europe
Commissioner for Human Rights
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex
FRANCE
commissioner[at]coe.int
press.commissioner[at]coe.int
Dear Mr. Hammarberg,
A week has gone by since I first have hand delivered a letter to you at the fortified gates of the Council of Europe, where I wrote that upon arriving in France on the 12th of April I began a hunger strike on behalf of Freedom in Education.org, explained my reasons and that I need to speak to you. Next day I came to see you but I was told you are too busy. At your secretary's advice, I have followed my initial request for an audience with an email that very afternoon and then again on the 18th of April, but to no avail. I am now 20 pounds lighter, having lost 10% of my body weight, but tenfold stronger and more determined than ever to see to it that Europe rescinds its unlawful, discriminatory, divisive and unethical program of covert surveillance and censorship of students in universities, which I shall henceforth refer to by its acronym SAC.
The exigencies of your office must be great indeed, but if you are too busy to see a man who puts his life on the line so that the fundamental rights of our most vulnerable members of society, our children, are respected by the powers to be, then perhaps you ought to reconsider your priorities. It is bad form and bad manners, as well as callous and cruel to ignore a man who is starving at your door. It is also a breach of common and universal etiquette, especially since I am not appealing to you to push my own case, which is grinding its way through the European Court of Human Rights, but to make sure that SAC is shut down before other young men and women are hurt by it and to ensure that those young students whose lives have been damaged are properly compensated and apologised to. The latter point is particularly important since only a public mea maxima culpa from the EU leadership will ensure that SAC is not reincarnated under a different disguise or continues to exist under the cover of secrecy.
The men and women who have conceived this abominable program are as of today guests in your building for a three-day conference on how else to deprive the populace of their rights and liberties while maintaining a façade of democracy and law so as to allow the Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland and other officials to publicly and earnestly declare that:
"The Council of Europe has developed a unique three-pillar approach to fighting terrorism: strengthen the international legal framework, address the causes of terrorism and safeguard fundamental values. Our commitment to the rule of law and human rights is key in this approach".
Nothing could be further from the truth and I hope that you will give me the chance to show the participants the damage they have caused by allowing me to address them on the last day of the conference. What I shall tell them is that Europe does not need more counter-radicalisation measures but a psychological transformation within itself, a transformation that will allow it to embrace the world, not reject it. Continuing down the path of vindictive counter-radicalisation will lead only to the ghetoization of Europe's minorities and to yet another age of pseudo-Christians.
I speak now from bitter experience when I say that Europe's institutions have decayed to such an extent and have deviated from their true purpose - which is to serve the people - that Europeans consider themselves fortunate to be given the opportunity to beg for their constitutionally protected rights. Well, I do not beg for my rights. I am Canadian and we Canadians do not beg for our rights from those whom we pay from the public purse to serve us. We demand them and I am here to demand that our rights are respected. I should think that medieval barons were more considerate of their subjects than the public officials who make up the ranks of the EU nowadays. Adenauer would turn in his grave if he knew what had become of his noble dream.
Now that I have vented seven days worth of hunger strike frustration let me state a few inconvenient truths about Europe's counter-radicalization policies, their most abject progeny, SAC, and the EU institutions as a whole.
It has become clear to me from the evasive actions of the Council and the delays of the European Court that SAC is not only approved at the highest levels of the EU, but that it is also protected by the Council of Europe, the very institution entrusted with safeguarding legal standards, the rights of citizens, democratic development and the rule of law, all of which SAC tears into with impunity. Had this happened in Europe and not affected my fellow Canadians I would have let it go, but this unlawful, discriminatory, unethical and divisive program has violated my fundamental rights as a Canadian (see pp. 9-11 at https://wikispooks.com/w/images/1/19/Kevin_Galalae_vs._the_United_Kingdom%2C_
European_Court_of_Human_Rights.pdf.) and has deprived me and many others of parliamentary access and legal protection in my own country. I take that personally. More than this, it has perverted and corrupted the institutions of Canadian democracy, the freedom of the press, the impartiality of the courts, the humane activities of NGOs and civil society, and the inclusive nature of Canadian society, which is a society of immigrants that prides itself on multiculturalism and tolerance (for details see https://wikispooks.com/w/images/0/06/Covert_Censorship_at_Oxford_and_Leicester_University.pdf.) It has therefore damaged my country to the core.
This means that countless other Canadians and foreign nationals across the globe who are attending EU universities online or onsite are affected and their lives destroyed and dreams irrevocably altered by Europe's political decision to knowingly institute a program that is flawed in every way and that represents gross abuses of power directed at people and countries where the EU has no jurisdiction and no right to misshape public opinion by manufacturing consent or by imposing its cultural values.
Europe has no right to judge the religions, ideologies and thoughts of non-Europeans in the conceit that this will bring about peace, engagement and security, when Europe's religious schisms, ideologies and actions have been more violent, excessive and destructive than those of any other lands and cultures. Even today, Europe's and by extension the West's socio-economic system, which is being imposed on the globe, causes more pain and suffering through institutional manipulations, economic exploitation and immoral speculation than Al Qaeda could ever hope to achieve.
On a more philosophical level, no one, not even God (if He exists) has the right to interfere with man's thinking, for that constitutes an assault upon free will. No good practice manuals, however rigorously written and enforced, could possibly avoid the pitfalls of abuse on the part of the overseers and of humiliation on the part of the overseen. That is because the agents trained to apply the rules of surveillance and censorship, as indeed the writers of the manuals themselves, are conditioned by their own cultures and backgrounds, as well as unduly influenced by their own petty prejudices, political preferences, racist tendencies and religions or lack thereof.
At the very least, European universities must explicitly state that participation in their programs is subject to government interference and that the opinions expressed are censored by secret service agents according to the objectives of Europe's counter-radicalisation strategy. It should also clearly state what those objectives are and what one is allowed and not allowed to say in Europe's universities so that foreign students who choose to participate in studies at European universities can decide for themselves if they want thought control and ideological indoctrination to be part of their educational experience. I should think that most will opt out and will not pay the triple tuition fees that foreigners are charged. They will instead take their parents' hard earned money and study where the sanctity of the academic environment, free speech, and freedom of conscience are respected and not conditional on one's ability or willingness to conform to European norms and values.
The very least Europe can and must do is be honest and considerate of the fact that if it wants to profit from foreign students then it must respect their cultures and opinions. Europe cannot have its cake and eat it too; that is to say, it cannot secretly subject foreign students to thought control and ideological manipulation meant to purge the continent of foreign norms and values that are different or clash with those of Europeans while at the same time profit from the exorbitant tuition fees it charges its foreign students.
European universities are now in the business of exporting bigotry and prejudice instead of inculcating knowledge, mutual respect and a desire for truth. In the process, SAC is giving all Europe's universities a bad name for there is no way of knowing those that do not collaborate with SAC from those that do. In Britain alone, where SAC originates and has been fully operational since 2007, 2/3 have succumbed to SAC.
The fact that Europe has tried to get away with SAC without fully disclosing its perils to its foreign and, for that matter, its domestic students attests to the bigotry, prejudice, hypocrisy and arrogance of the European establishment of power; traits that have caused two world wars, a Holocaust and countless pogroms in the last century alone. Traits that have dragged the entire world into hell and that are once again threatening to cause a global conflict.
The crimes and abuses of the 3rd Reich, we must not forget, began with the burning of books written by Jews. SAC is eliminating the ideas and ideals of non-Europeans as they are expressed and before they have a chance to make it on paper, and it is doing this on the sacrosanct soil of its universities where free speech and freedom of conscience are supposed to be actively promoted and defended. This is happening despite the fact that the European constitution is crystal clear on that free speech gives one the "freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers", that freedom of conscience gives everyone the right to publicly manifest their beliefs, and that education is for all and no one should be deprived of the right to education.
Well, on this last point it turns out that Europe makes a mockery of the right to education not only for counter-radicalisation reasons but also in the name of Chemical and Biological Weapons Convention and thus has given itself secret permission to pre-screen innocent foreign students from chemistry programs. The proof comes from a 2008 US embassy cable (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/nuclear-wikileaks/8297132/CWSBWC-CLOSE-
ALLIES-MEETING-JUNE-17-18-2008.html.)
"The Close Allies (U.S., UK, France, Germany) met in London on June 17-18 to discuss issues related to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions. ...both Germany and France also expressed reservations about proposals that would increase the numbers of students from developing countries studying chemistry in Western countries, noting that their governments went to considerable lengths to limit and manage the degree to which students from countries of concern had access to such programs."
The "considerable lengths" used by Germany and France to "limit and manage" access to chemistry university programs, while not specified, indicate that deserving young people are denied entrance to university on false grounds just because they might pose a danger in the distant future. This is a clear and gross violation of Article 2, the right to education, enshrined in the 1st Protocol of the European Convention, both of which Germany and France are signatories of, not to mention a terrible injustice perpetrated on the young and innocent. While SAC weeds out students post-enrolment in university, by engineering various expulsion methods, the prerogatives of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Convention are used to selectively deny students access to chemistry programs in the pre-enrolment phase.
Those who still refuse to believe the reality that EU countries subject foreigners to discriminatory treatment in education, a reality I have lived through as a student at Oxford and Leicester universities, will say that SAC and other counter-radicalisation programs that comprise Europe's prevent strategy are merely after extremists who promote violence. Well, I am no extremist and I certainly do not subscribe to violence. Nevertheless, I was expelled from these two universities by overzealous SAC agents and I am neither Muslim nor Arab. If anything I am the antithesis of Muslim fundamentalists, being European by birth, agnostic, apolitical, non-ideological, fiercely independent, outspoken and perfectly peaceful. If I could fall victim to SAC's censors than anyone can because the programme is out of control and is animated by racist tendencies.
Knowing that SAC cannot be defended in a court of law or even in the court of public opinion, Europe's politicians have given themselves the right to act outside the law and to do this without the consent of the people. More than this, and what is most frightening, is that in order to get away with it, Europe's politicians and security service agents have played on the fears and prejudices of those in key positions to selectively shut down any and all possibilities of SAC being exposed in the media or contested in a court of law. For the first time in history, even the fifth pillar of democracy has been corrupted, the NGOs, becoming fully complicit in this grotesque conspiracy of silence.
The fact that Europe's politicians have succeeded in obtaining the collaboration and silence of the entire civil society shows just how riddled with fear and hatred Europe's populace is and demonstrates that Huntington's dire prediction of civilizational conflict is upon us, for this kind of extrajudicial and unethical collaboration dwarfs the greatest conspiracies and can only be explained in terms of cultural divides. It is a coalition of the willing; those willing to be partners in crime and to cover up their misdeeds at all costs and in the name of preserving the integrity of their cultures under the pretext of national security.
But even this mighty coalition of the willing can be brought down, especially now that I have already shattered its ranks. Universities UK, the definitive voice of all British higher education institutions, has followed my lead only one month after I exposed SAC and its abuses on Cryptome and published a report, entitled Freedom of speech on campus: rights and responsibilities in UK universities (http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/Publications/Documents/FreedomOfSpeechOnCampusRights
AndResponsibilitiesInUKuniversities.pdf. ) in which it tells the government in no uncertain terms that their members will no longer perform surveillance and censorship functions on behalf of the nation's intelligence apparatus.
Despite my small victory, the cost to democracy and freedom remains greater than any damage terrorists could have ever done. That cost I have elucidated in my by now infamous paper The Great Secret: Surveillance and Censorship in Britain and the EU (https://wikispooks.com/wiki/File:The_Great_Secret.pdf.) That Europe thought it could get away with SAC shows a complete lack of good judgment on the part of those who make executive decisions, in that they should have known better that once policies that give every Dick, Jane and Harry the right to judge the expressions of others will bring the worse human instincts to the fore and prejudice, bigotry and hypocrisy will multiply like mushrooms after the rain and lead to abuse. It also shows their reckless arrogance that they could suppress the truth forever, as though a country could be turned into a tribe and a continent into the cosa nostra.
It is no secret that I have made but few friends anywhere in the West while exposing the incestuous agreements and backroom deals that have made SAC possible and knowledge of its existence a well-kept secret. But that is of little importance, for what the world now needs is not more corruptible friends but unapologetic human rights defenders and freedom fighters who can still see beyond the blinding cultural divides, and that is exactly who and what I am. I will continue to poke my fingers in the eyes of power until I am dead or get the free world back to being free…and fair and just; for I am an idealist who believes it is not too late, a humanist who knows that nothing matters more, and a realist who reasons that this is the only right way.
I was taught to treat others as I want to be treated myself and to stand up for the underdog. It is an unspoken truth that the entire counter-radicalisation agenda is directed at foreigners in general and Muslims in particular and I am an unlikely defender of Islam because I am agnostic and highly suspicious of organised religion. But I am just as suspicious of governments who set themselves above the law. For what is lost in the blindness of fear and prejudice is the simple fact that a Muslim life is as much worth as a Christian life and that a Muslim's dreams are as valuable and precious as a Christian's dreams. That is why I will not allow Europe and indeed the entire Western world to squash those dreams and ruin those lives, be they Muslim, Christian or otherwise at university, where lives are supposed to be made not ruined. The victims, we have seen, come in all colours, creeds and political orientations. I will also not allow Europe to divide my country in the name of its own safety.
And if I die here in France fighting for equality under the law, mutual respect and human rights, then so be it. For I have no desire to live among a people who can justify such injustice because they are led by hatred, fear and prejudice towards those who are not like them. Sadly, the entire western world seems to now fall in this category to various degrees and to resemble thus more than ever the intolerance, sectarianism and factionalism of the Islamic world.
Since my arrival here in Strasbourg I have contacted several French newspapers, the Council of Europe press office, and just about every human rights organisation on earth. I have yet to hear from any of them, which is what I expected knowing what I know about the extent to which democracy, truth, and justice have been annihilated by Europe's counter-radicalisation strategy. The reason they are not interceding on my behalf or publishing my story and revelations is because these good Christians have decided that I am not one of their own and that in exposing them and their state-sponsored discrimination I have dealt a deadly blow to their efforts to purge Europe of foreign and especially Muslim elements, which is the hidden agenda of Europe's counter-radicalisation strategy.
Civil society will not breathe a word or help for reasons of civilizational loyalty, to put it kindly, and Muslim organisations are petrified that if they do help they will be seen as aggressive and will suffer further reprisals from an overbearing super-state on the hunt for victims and a population crazed with vigilante fervour. In the process the rule of law and equality under the law have been shattered and with them the lives and wellbeing of countless people. That is why I stand alone in this struggle and why no one will help even though most people on either side of the cultural divide want me to win. But that is fine with me for all I need is for the law to be applied without prejudice so the innocent can be protected from the cultural and religious conceits of civilizations gone mad. As it is, I want no part in either the Muslim or the Christian camp since they both behave according to their worse instincts.
Europe's good Christians and secularists alike must get it through their heads that it is not possible to live in a globalized world and isolate the continent in order to preserve its cultural purity - even if there was such a thing to preserve. These days are over and everyone must get used to this new reality and move on down the path of tolerance, acceptance and inclusiveness. Otherwise shut down your borders and become an island, but live also on your own devices and resources and stop exporting your goods and services and drawing profit from peoples and nations you are reluctant to coexist with on an equal basis.
While the reality is that Europe's people have not been considered in either the design or implementation of the counter-radicalisation strategy, it is quite clear that any measures aimed at purging the continent of foreigners meets with the approval of a great many Europeans and that if SAC were to be put to a referendum it would probably pass in those countries that feel threatened by their large Muslim and foreign minorities, which are mainly former colonial powers that by now should have learned to live with the effects of their past occupations and abuses of foreign lands. Until such democratic test, however, the fault and the responsibility lie with those in power and it is their interests that SAC best represents. Instituting programmes of oppression like SAC reflects the attitude of people who are locked up in ivory towers and have little or no connection with the common people or a desire to coexist with them on an equal basis. This kind of elitism is alive and well at the EU institutional level and breeds disdain for the fundamental rights of citizens, creating new lines of division in society.
This kind of elitism has also given rise to secrecy in government. Secrecy is antithetical to democracy. Nothing good could ever come out of secrecy and nothing good has ever come out of it, yet secrecy has become the modus operandi of the EU institutions resulting in an embarrassing gap between their public pronouncements and the actual reality. This gap is so great that the EU as a whole is becoming a simulacrum, a counterfeit and fraudulent product, being neither democratic nor consensual, neither respectful of human rights nor kind to its people, neither transparent nor accessible, as it bulldozes its policies over an increasingly resistant population. As a result, their decisions and policies no longer command respect but instil fear.
But let me now return to the reality of my hunger strike, to the bizarre and embarrassing spectacle of being on public display. The hunger is the easy part. The difficult part is having to subject myself to the judgment of strangers and their derisive smiles, even though they have no idea that I am starving myself so that they can live in freedom and their children can still have rights in a kind and fair society that is creed-, color- and culture-blind. The even more difficult part is being ignored by those who come out of the rarefied and climate-controlled offices of European power, as though I did not exist and should not exist or as though I were the one trapped in some fiction, when they are the ones caged up in institutional bunkers, both literally and figuratively, where fictions are passed as facts.
The hardest part is having to live with the knowledge that the world is ignorant of what is going on and apathetic, yet these very ignorant and apathetic people look upon me and other protestors with whom I share the space in front of the Court or Council, as "loose cannons". They fail to remember that if it were not for "loose cannons" like us - that is to say, people who are willing to make great personal sacrifices in the name of justice and truth - the world would have long succumbed to the tyranny of those reasonable masses who always choose the easiest path, the path that compromises away everything their forefathers have bled and died for, a path that always ends up in corruption, decay, lies and hypocrisy. Does that sound familiar? Is SAC and the entire counter-radicalisation fiasco not the embodiment of such compromises? And if the regime of surveillance, censorship and secrecy that has been instituted in the last ten years is allowed to continue and proliferate will democracy and freedom not be lost for generations to come?
This generation of leaders thinks it can cage the beast but it can not. Already the beast is out of control and devouring everything sacred the West purports to defend from terrorists and extremists. It is in fact so out of control that Europe and its allies will do anything to keep SAC secret and its abuses unpunished.
No sooner do I take my place in front of the Court that I am visited by two policemen in civilian clothes. Every day two different men come by and they are invariably polite and amiable so much so that I actually look forward to see whom I will meet next. Nevertheless, their visits are not courtesy calls but security precautions. None of the other protesters get this kind of attention. The establishment of power must be truly afraid of me. But that need not be the case for my heart is not ruled by hatred or anger but by love and peace and my intention is not to wreak havoc but to spread goodwill among men. To achieve my goal I use the power of persuasion, be it through the written word or my self-less actions. I am guided by the light of truth and the strength of courage, for I have nothing to fear and nothing to hide. The law and lady justice are on my side and I also have the moral high ground. This may not mean much in a world controlled by heartless institutions, self-serving bureaucracies and the profit motive. But it means the world to me. I have also nothing to lose. What Europe could take from me it has already taken: my wife, my children, my rights and my protection under the law. But Europe has not robbed me of my dignity, honour, courage and self-respect. And it never will.
It is my responsibility as a father to ensure that I leave behind a better world than the one I inherited and it is my responsibility as a citizen to keep our public officials honest. I intend to fulfill both of my responsibilities to the best of my abilities and whatever the cost to me.
I hope, dear Mr. Hammarberg, that you have not closed your eyes to the truth and the suffering and humiliation of students injured by the actions of those who want to hang on to and expand their illegitimate powers at all costs, and that I will not have to sacrifice myself to force your and their eyes open by reawakening your consciences. The only other alternative would be violence and I am not a violent man. Besides, violence cannot cure Europe's ills or the cancer that has taken hold of its government; it would only aggravate them. So as you watch me decay into a walking cadaver, I will watch your heart bleed with remorse and will hope that you will be able to live with yourself for having had the power to stop it, but not used it. The longer you let me suffer for Europe's sins and conceits, the greater the damage to the EU institutions and to Europe's reputation as a society of justice, freedom, and kindness.
I hope that you will act in accordance with the values and norms expected of your position and publicly condemn SAC. If you do not have the courage to do it, then you must resign. That way, the world will know that Europe is once again in the clutches of fascism and the people will rise to make sure that they will not suffer the same dire consequences for a second time in only 70 years.
Your actions will determine if Europe's good Christians, who are so keen on preserving their values and norms from foreign influences, will let me die for their sins.
Respectfully yours,
Kevin Galalae
P.S. Please note that this letter has been posted on the Internet at the same time as you received it.
