Government-sponsored Skullduggery

Cliff Stoll and Jonathan Zittrain are speaking at Harvard’s Berkman Center tonight. Subject: When Countries Collide Online: Internet Spies, Cyberwar, and Government-sponsored Skullduggery.

Cliff Stoll (who helped catch a ring of computer hackers/Soviet spies in the 1980s) and Jonathan Zittrain (principle investigator at the OpenNet Initiative) are speaking at Harvard’s Berkman Center tonight. Subject: When Countries Collide Online: Internet Spies, Cyberwar, and Government-sponsored Skullduggery.

I’ll be sequestered in the industrial-sized kitchen of my co-op, chopping vegetables to make stir fry for my 27 roommates, but if you’re free, check out the live webcast at 6pm EST to find out how governments are using the Internet, how far their online spying has gone, and what the legal implications of state sponsored network espionage might be.

A Song for Kansas Day

Happy Kansas Day, everyone!

Wandering children of Kansas away,
By mountain, by desert, or sea,
Feasting or fasting, at prayer or at play,
Whatever your fortunes may be,
Open the doors of your hearts to the breeze,
Prairie wind never are still,
Hark to the surf in the cottonwood trees,
The breakers that boom on the hill.
Open your soul’s windows–let in the sun–
The prairie sun gay with delight.
Where’er your wandering pathways have run,
Come home tonight.

Come home where Kansas lies under the stars
Twinkling back beauty and joy;
Come and let homely love poultice your scars,
Leave off your restless employ.
Come home where summer winds billow the wheat,
Where golden tides cover the sands;
Come–let your heart’s longings hasten your feet
And home love unfetter your hands.
Come where the tawny sunflower eagerly bends
A tawny frank face to the light,
So do our hearts seek the joy of old friends–
Come home tonight.
— William Allen White, “A Song for Kansas Day”

Live from DC: “21st Century Statecraft”

I’m liveblogging Secretary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom at The Morningside Post.

I’m liveblogging Secretary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom at The Morningside Post. You can follow along over there or below:

Global Voices: So much more than a blog.

I am proud to share a birthday with Global Voices Online (December 11 — mark it in your calendars, ladies and gentlemen). I celebrated my 25th with friends and ungodly amounts of cheese, while GV celebrated its fifth with a series of wonderful retrospectives.

I am proud to share a birthday with Global Voices Online (December 11 — mark it in your calendars, ladies and gentlemen). I celebrated my 25th with friends and ungodly amounts of cheese, while GV celebrated its fifth with a series of wonderful retrospectives.

Me?  I’ve been holding off on writing my Global Voices anniversary post for the silliest of reasons:

Rebekah, GV Ferret and Jer in Guatemala

On the left is me, a bit disheveled after ziplining through the Atitlán Nature Reserve near Panajachel, Guatemala. On the right is Jeremy Clarke, who, in addition to being rather fetching in an orange helmet, happens to be both the first person in years to convince me to publicize my Facebook relationship status and the code and design wizard for Global Voices. (Bonus: the neon green thing in Jer’s right hand is GV Ferret, Global Voices’ unofficial mascot.)

When I posted about WordCamp NYC without mentioning Jer (he spoke at the event), I was promptly called on it by David Sasaki, who happens to be another member of the GV community. It feels wrong for me to slather love on Global Voices (which I’ll do shortly, no worries) without also mentioning Jer.

So: I mentioned him.

The thing is, Jer’s not the only person at Global Voices with whom I’m fallen totally, head over heels in love. GV is full of people who routinely challenge my perceptions of the world, remind me that the rest of the world is both indescribably different and infinitely more the same than I could ever imagine, bring awesome things to my attention and overwhelm me with their creativity and mad dance skills.

I’ve been a part of this beautiful community since May 2007. Over the last two and a half years I’ve had the privilege to meet and become friends with some of the most dedicated citizen journalists in the world. I think Jill puts it well:

These people, once strangers on the Internet, have become some of my closest friends. They are colleagues, people I trust, people I go to with questions, for news.

I’ve also been consistently awed by the scope and power of citizen media, from coverage of Obama’s election to the Beijing Olympics to the death of Michael Jackson.

For Hoa Quach, knowing GV-ers are out there, covering the world’s underreported stories, allows her to breathe easier. For Thiana Bondo, GV gathers the whole word together. For Lina Ben Mhenni, GV is a family and a school.

If GV has been anything for you in the past five years — birthday buddy, matchmaker, friend, news, family, school — please consider showing your support.

The Other Eight

Uganda’s proposed anti-gay legislation has gotten a lot of press since its contents were made public in October. But there are other eight countries in the world where homosexuality is punishable by death.

Uganda’s proposed anti-gay legislation has gotten a lot of press since its contents were made public in October. I think this is fantastic, especially as the coverage becomes increasingly focused on how this bill is partly a proxy for American culture wars, in terms of both American evangelical support for the bill and American LGBT activist opposition.

Amidst all the media hubbub, however, I’m concerned that there has been so little discussion of LGBT-related laws elsewhere in the world. Uganda is considering the death penalty for certain homosexual acts (including those committed by people with HIV and/or for “repeat offenders”), yes, but homosexuality itself carries a death sentence in eight other countries right now, none of which have been mentioned in any of the articles I’ve read on the subject in the last three months.

World Homosexuality Laws

World Homosexuality Laws via Wikipedia

     No information
Homosexuality legal      Same-sex marriage      Other type of partnership (or unregistered cohabitation)      Foreign same-sex marriages recognized      No recognition of same-sex couples
Homosexuality illegal      Minimal penalty      Large penalty      Life in prison      Death penalty

In case it’s hard to see: being gay is punishable by death in Iran, Mauritania, parts of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, the UAE and Yemen.

It’s easy to sweep these countries under the rug as being full of crazy Muslims and ergo impossible to dissuade from executing gays. It shouldn’t be, though — especially as we continue to blame American Christians for promoting Uganda’s hate-filled bill.

I’m not saying the US should drop everything and focus its relationships with these countries on the way they treat their LGBT populations. The US obviously has bigger issues to tackle (as do bloggers and journalists who pay attention to these countries).

Still. Every time you read something new about the bill in Uganda, please try to remember the other eight.

P.S. A ton of other countries enforce punishments for homosexuality ranging from a few months in prison to a decade or more of hard labor. Check out the full list on Wikipedia.