Philobiblon

In Britain, Australia and the US laws have been brought in to deal with “terrorists”, sweeping away civil liberties in the process. But these were only for terrorists, we were told.

So who’s been caught?

The latest, in Britain, is an an “over-enthusiastic” A-level chemistry student.

In Australia this week, it was entirely innocent, indeed random, bus passengers and car drivers, on routes heading towards Sydney beaches where there have been racist clashes that no one has suggested have anything to do with “terrorism”. Police were confiscating their mobile phones and reading through the text messages. So much for privacy.

And of course there’s is the US, where the situation is even worse, since George Bush is not even bothering to try to get a law or legal backing for wire taps, instead employing the Louis XIV-style of government.

Finally, however, I get the feeling that the pendulum is swinging. It is not just those who pay reasonably close attention to issues such as human rights who are starting to get concerned, but the general public. Of course the problem is that it is a lot harder to get rid of laws than bring them in.

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Elsewhere, while I don’t believe in the death penalty, it is hard not to give a little cheer at the end of a Japanese “groper”, chased by a group of men after his woman victim had the courage to speak up. (He had a heart attack and died in hospital.)

I doubt there’s a woman – at least a woman who’s lived or visited a city – who hasn’t suffered from this sort of assault. It is the sort of thing that makes women feel they are living in perpetually hostile, male, spaces.

And hopefully this event will empower more Japanese women to speak up and protest.