There is a scene in the 1st instalment of the Godfather trilogy in which a young Vito Corleone(Marlon Brando as a child) comes to the US as a stowaway in a ship. the year is 1901. He and many Italian immigrants like him have a first glimpse of America in the form of the statue of Liberty as their ship enters the Hudson Bay en route to New York. For them, this is the sign of liberty, a sign that a life of freedom and prosperity awaits them in their new country. Incidentally, a country which espouses the values of freedom, has through the clandestine Prism surveillance program, snooped on the email, phone and other conversations of several American people. Is this liberty, freedom as was enshrined in the American constitution which was signed by the founding fathers of the new country. Is this freedom which promises to uphold individual liberty and rights. This is akin to the novel 1984 written by George Orwell which placed the State in the role of the big brother which had the right to control the lives of individual citizens. Such clandestine programs financed and operated by governments, especially those of democratic countries in which the state executive is elected by the electorate, should never be tolerated.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 07:18:52 +0000
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