If you are reading these words, then you are a conscientious citizen who cares about protecting human rights.
Or else, you are an employee belonging to one of hundreds of worldwide government organisations who monitor the internet for early signs of organised dissent.
If you fall into both categories then your body may soon be found by a passer-by.
If you are ‘time-poor’ or otherwise have a boss who wears sunglasses inside the office, here are the two links:
This one is to the RFK Training Institute.
This one is to the BBC who have written an online article about them.
Off you go. See you back here later.
Over the last two years, Roadwax has noticed a couple of disturbing trends within the media.
1) The increasing use of the term “Human Rights Activist”.
2) Investigative journalists who mock Twitter for being a fickle gossip shop yet all have Twitter accounts.
Let’s take a closer look:
1) “Human Rights Activist”. Er…someone who actively promotes human rights? Not just a “Human Rights Supporter” – someone who supports basic human rights but…well…someone who goes a little bit further. Maybe, too far.
Even the most right-wing dictator or left-wing Supreme Leader supports human rights. It always looks good on their CV or resume and calms fears that they might actually be a right-wing dictator or a left wing Supreme Leader. But hey, running around and actively supporting Human Rights – now, that is just asking for trouble. Best stay at home and click ‘like’ on a Facebook campaign when asked. Don’t push it. Don’t get active. You need to be a trained pro to do all that stuff. Best leave it to someone else.
On what date in history did we normal humans apparently stop actively supporting our rights? Or, is popular media beginning to use the term ‘active’ as a kind of negative adjective, a nudge in the ribs to their readers and viewers?
“Watch out for Dave. He’s an Education Activist. He openly questions the teachers at parent meetings.”
“Watch out for Ella. She’s an Animal Welfare Activist. She persuaded her local store to stop selling battery-farmed eggs.”
Supporters are supposed to fill seats in the stadium and watch the activists do the work.
Nonsense. Dangerous nonsense.
We should all be Human Rights Activists. We should regain ownership of the term.
Which brings me neatly to point number 2).
Again, in the space of a couple of years, Twitter has gone from lightweight world chat-room to premier source of breaking news.
How do we know? Well, we could conduct a simple scientific experiment:
1) Have a huge storm hit a major city. New York will do fine.
2) Go on to Twitter and watch what ordinary people say and upload as pictures.
3) When someone uploads a picture of a shark swimming in their yard…
4) Watch how long it takes in seconds before major news websites carry the story…
5) …before dumping it and instead running a “How to Spot a Faked Photo” article.
So, without causing any cruelty or suffering to animals, we can test out how the major news-gathering organisations work these days.
They watch Twitter. They use a mixed bag of paid and unpaid freelance reporters to report from the front line. They use activists.
Staff reporters visiting dangerous places? Not likely. Have you any idea how expensive and embarrassing it gets when a staff reporter gets their head stuck in a toilet in a Kiev brothel or runs down a local warlord’s mother-in-law while driving a Sixt Rental Toyota in Afghanistan? Nope. Staff reporters do the restaurant reviews and click on Twitter.
The RFK Training Institute have spotted this trend. The BBC have spotted the RFK Institute spotting this trend. Roadwax spotted the BBC spotting the RFK…oh – you know how word travels.
The RFK Institute in Florence, Italy are opening their doors today.
They are offering to train Human Rights Activists how not to get caught, killed or disconnected. The big beasts. The ones who report human rights abuses in other people’s countries. Countries where nobody can tell who the guys with the guns and the Toyota pickup truck work for. The guys outside your house.
If you want any more information, email Valentina Pagliai on: pagliai@rfkcenter.com but do not waste her time. They are apparently looking to focus efforts on the most high priority cases – the men and women who already have to hide from tyranny to stay alive long enough to report it.
The BBC says that the RFK Institute are going to sell courses to teach human rights activists how to protect themselves online from being tracked, monitored, shut down or effectively marginalised.
The first students will enroll in January 2013.
Strange.
Instead of offering all this information free to everyone via the internet, the RFK Institute is carefully hand-picking a few whose names will be kept secret and who will be trained behind closed doors.
Instead of freely revealing all the tips and tricks that every human ought to be aware of to be kept safe while using the internet in 2012, RFK is teaching maybe fifty or a hundred paying guests.
They will become the elite who can protect themselves from prying agencies. RFK Institute will issue the qualifications, I assume. Control the market, as it were.
The RFK Institute has just created the Human Rights Industry.
It has just put a price on knowledge instead of uploading it for free to everyone.
If I become a donor to this charity, will I get a monthly newsletter that includes a helpful ‘handy tip’ on how to keep my freedom online? I doubt it. I sincerely hope not.
The RFK Institute appears to be ‘professionalising’ human rights activism.
My heart hurts.
roadwax 
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