A year ago I realised we were no longer living in nations that respected any human rights. Of course the signs were already there but on April 11, 2019 the abuse of & disregard for law was done right out in the open, in front of everyone’s faces. Yet, still we did...
#FreeAssange

...nothing. Oh there was a lot of hand wringing by many (but not the majority), & enormous efforts were made to organise, get public support & make noise. As naturally peace loving & law abiding people what else could we do? Even for those who felt it might be time to get a ...

...little desperate & were wracking their brains trying to think of ANY thing that could get Assange out, I think they like me concluded that one man or woman alone would only be a statement that was quickly ignored or worse never heard & so we focused on doing what might be...

...the only chance, to rally the people, reach out to any of the ‘reachable’ politicians left (there are very few or even if they are sympathetic they have lost all hope in fighting the system, except on very, very small issues), get those who should have been in the thick of...

...the fight, right from the beginning on board, the journalists, the human rights bodies & anyone who could see the dangers apparent & they were numerous. Freedom of speech, freedom of information, the public’s right to know, the protections of asylum, the illegality of...

...torture, a right to a fair trial, access to lawyers, ignoring of international law, the expectation to be judged based on the letter of the law not by the judge’s own personal prejudices, censorship of media & the failure of journalists to hold govt to account, prison...

...conditions, application of laws extraterritorially on a person who had broken no laws in their own jurisdiction nor really in the other, the unfairness embedded in a one-sides extradition treaty, the end of the idea that one’s defence should not be spied upon, both doctor &...

...legal right to privacy/legal privilege rendered meaningless, will I ever run out of the abuses that have been laid out bare & in plain sight in the #Assange case? I will stop there, but have no doubt there are other things I have forgotten, or other foul deeds that would...

...take a very long article or a book to cover on their intricacies of deceit & unfair play.
So as I said, those of us who could see it & had not been misled by ‘official’ coverage nor statements about what was going on & I do feel that finally we were making a difference...

...the protest crowds were growing, the decade long tirade of false smears were beginning to tumble away and the real issues of what the #Assange case meant not just for him as an individual but all of us were being coming clearer & to increasing numbers of people by the day...

...but here we are one year later, and no longer allowed to gather on the streets. Meanwhile the torture continues with 23+ hours of solitary confinement & then 30 minutes of exposure to fellow inmates at risk of infection from the virus that keeps us in our homes. The govt...

...releases other ‘at risk’ prisoners or those who pose low risk to the public but not their prize canary #Assange with a myriad of health issues due to prolonged years of inhumane arbitrary detention & not a single record of violence nor imprisoned on any criminal conviction.

We have a hero sitting in our prisons and the institutions we relied upon to protect his and our rights and freedoms have been shown to be ineffective in the greatest hour of need. The time for excuses is over, we need to recognise the position we are in. I sadly have no...

...answers to offer. I am absolutely stumped & sitting in a foreign country with no permissions to leave. I honestly cannot see what can be done but I do think the answer will only come once we all finally let go of our hopes that this all ok, that justice & right will win out...

...it’s time to be adults & peel the childish wishful thinking from our eyelids & see the world as it has become. It will only be when can see the harsh reality for what it is, only then will we be truly ready to fight. I think we owe that to Julian, don’t you?