[LINK] Vodafone: the dictator made us do it

[Kim Holburn]

On 2011/Feb/05, at 8:58 AM, David Boxall wrote:
> On 4/02/2011 9:50 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:
>>> but all Vodaphone had to lose was money.
>> Not really.  The Vodafone employees in Egypt may have had and may have considerably more to lose.
> You know that? Do tell.

You know they don't?  Do tell.



On 2011/Feb/06, at 8:16 AM, David Boxall wrote:

> On 5/02/2011 5:52 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> Not sure of your point here....
> The subject is Vodafone.
> On 4/02/2011 7:56 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:
> ...
>> Phone companies have to obey the law don't they? ...
> Who would say that, but one who assumes unquestioning obedience?
> 
> Nüremberg Principle IV begins:
> "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of
> a superior does not relieve him from responsibility" ...

There are people being disappeared and tortured by the Egyptian police and secret services and have been for the last what: twenty years or more; and you're focusing on a telephone company?  A telephone company that has probably had the police breathing down its neck.  A telephone company that has gone out of its way to let people know what's been happening.  You didn't get that from the other Egyptian phone companies did you?

> You're evidently much younger than I,

Huh?  Just because I question some of the things you say, you accuse me of being a whippersnapper?  That's a bit below the belt!

> or you would not be ignorant of 
> the lessons of World War II.
> 
> Your evident preference for mindless obedience _will_ lead us to repeat 
> the mistakes that culminated in the Nüremberg trials.

It's hard to know where to start with a statement like that.  As a typical Australian living safe and far away from most other countries in an obsessively law-abiding nanny state, it seems like you can easily point to who is "obeying" the law and who is committing crimes against humanity with little actual evidence.  In a totalitarian regime where people as a rule don't obey the law, the situation is very different, so very different.  Have you lived in a country under a totalitarian government?  I have.

I really doubt we're all that far apart on the issues.

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
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