Frightening: Big brother is watching you!

Came today across an information that freaked me out.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/25/british-councils-used-investigatory-powers-ripa-to-secretly-spy-on-public?CMP=share_btn_gp

The translation is "Big brother is watching you!"
Tapping conversations, reading your email, and following you on camera for "crimes" such as dog fouling and loud music! And on top of this Orwellian behavior using your tax money to do it.

It did not take place in North Korea, the culprits are Councils in England. A country that prides itself to have strict privacy rules and tight checks and balances on government surveillance.
In this case Ripa (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act ) "councils were given permission to carry out more than 55,000 days of covert surveillance over five years, including spying on people walking dogs, feeding pigeons and fly-tipping" via "secret listening devices, cameras and private detectives.

With the rise of the extreme right and national socialism in Europe and the US, the government power to enter into our lives and observe us on everyday basis is frightening, much more that terrorism.
Measures primarily intended for combating terrorism were used for issues as trivial as a dog barking or the sale of theater tickets.
Out of fear we are giving away our civil liberty, right to privacy and freedom of information not knowing what we are signing on when we accept to erode civil right and freedom on the altar of safety.

I wonder and shiver at the thought of how these powers, available through advancement in technologies are used in Iran and the Gulf States where governments are not democratically elected. Or in the Middle East and Africa where Parliaments are weak and powerless.
Or in Western countries where "strong men" such as Putin,  Erdogan, and maybe Trump, or in a nightmare scenario Farage, or Marie le Pen, lead!

It is indeed a frightening world, and the culprit is not the acts of terrorists, rather it is that we are letting them win by giving up our citizens rights.

"Don’t forget Aleppo" he shouted, but nobody heard...

The Russian ambassador to Turkey has been shot dead by a police officer who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo” as he pulled the trigger.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/19/russian-ambassador-to-turkey-wounded-in-ankara-shooting-attack?CMP=share_btn_gp

Putin reacted say it is a ‘provocation’ aimed at sabotaging Russo-Turkish relations. He chose to acknowledge it as a cosmic conspiracy against Russia by God knows whom, refusing to even consider that the chilling attack is a backlash against Russian military involvement in Syria, the last of which resulted in the destruction and ethnic cleansing of Aleppo.

Erdogan went along with Putin and declared "Attack won't dampen effort to strengthen ties between Turkey, Russia". Then he went on to use it in his drive to tighten his grasp on the country by proposing another conspiracy theory. The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut soon declared "Gulen network behind killing of Russian ambassador".

Donald Trump condemned the assassination calling it a "violation of all rules of civilized order" and attributing it to a "radical Islamic terrorist". Faithful to his two dimensional vision of the world,  he confirms the division of the world between the ''civilized'' world and the ''others'' which happen to be Islamic terrorist. Irrelevant to him whether the perpetrator is Daesh ideology driven, or not.

The current White House condemned, showed sympathy, and stood united with Russia and Turkey in confronting ''terrorism in all of its forms''. Any easy way out from taking responsibility for the failure of the Obama policy of ''leading from behind''.  After 8 years Obama legacy is a violent unsafe polarized world, a US that lost credibility around the world for not standing its ground on red lines, abandoning its friends, and cowering in the face of petty bullies.

There is no denial that what happened is an act of violence that cannot be accept under any justification. But it is too simplistic to say that it was the act of a Daesh lone wolf. The shooter was a police officer and he did not go on a rampage. He shot the ambassador in an execution style manner shouting. He said ''We will not forget Aleppo and you cannot kill people and stay safe''. He did not use Islamic terminology or mention Jihad or any religious group.
He did say Allah Akbar, but anybody raised in the Muslim faith will say it even if he is not religious. It is indicative of ''Islamization'' for those who have no clue of this region of the world.

It is a chilling attack that requires in depth analysis in order to prevent an escalation of polarization and violence that draw us all into a conflict where the choice is no winner, all will lose. Sheer force is not the solution. Combating terrorism requires to drain the pool of disgruntled hopeless and angry young and less young men and women.
This cannot happen if those who have the reigns of power around the world do not submit their actions to the checks and balances of analysis, recognizing the mistake, and learning from them. The starting point is Palestine, the Cold War, supporting dictators, Afghanistan, Iraq, and ....the Iran nuclear deal and leading from behind.