Letters to the Editor

“And then tomorrow it will be another human being who is so afflicted”

Very many thanks for the courageous while necessary reporting on Julian Assange! The investigative journalist is facing so many obstacles from the British judiciary, but also from Sweden, which seems to have forgotten the Scandinavian pacifist tradition of Olaf Palme and Dag Hamerskjöld, while he is subjected to such torture in a security prison in the UK, in solitary confinement, that it is really hard to believe.
One might very well hope that there is still a corner left in the British legal system for the humanity that Mr Assange has championed. It is simply quite unjust, quite despicable, what is being done to Mr Assange – and what is alarming to me is that the UN and its voice is no longer respected, indeed, no longer heard.
If we don’t put a stop to it, the UN will soon be mocked ... And tomorrow it will be another human being with humanity, the next one to be plagued like this, who will be placed in solitary confinement, and then we will have no legal recourse and no legal means at all against it! Resist the beginnings!
Mr. Assange’s legal case is a precedent, and I don’t know what else can be done, if the UN has to watch helplessly. We shouldn’t fool ourselves, the US still have full power to do what they want, as Daniele Ganser’s books (unfortunately) confirm, but slowly, slowly, the world’s attitude is changing, and many people are recognising Mr. Assange’s merits for the truth. Actually, the human right to peace should be accompanied by a human right to the truth – a glimmer of hope are the private advertisements in some newspapers demanding Assange’s release.

Susanne Wiesinger, Freiburg i. B., Germany

Every generation has its own tasks to solve

Why are we complaining about the Corona crisis and the necessary restrictions it imposes on us? Doesn’t every generation have its tasks rooted in the present? Tasks implicate school, work, securing of existence, ageing, health changes, environmental changes, world politics and ...
Each of these areas require that we learn to deal with them. Complaining things are the way they are is for some instance acceptable for a certain time (to define the situation), but in the end we have to find a way how to deal with the changes in a meaningful manner. If mankind had not managed this for thousands of years, sometimes better and sometimes worse, no human being was still alive. During the Second World War, when the threat was imminent and the hunger was great, the problem had to be tackled by everyone, although it was uncomfortable. Even today there is need for courageous activity in order to combat the threat of Corona in solidarity. Both, young and older, everyone, should follow the AHA rules. And reduce contacts.
Last but not least, today’s situation offers – or demands – the possibility for young and older, parents and children, for all of us, to get to know each other better and maybe in a new way. If we come together in a human manner, this will not harm us, but everyone and humankind itself will benefit from it.

Lutz Geisen, Trimmis, Switzerland