May I introduce myself?

[ulrich.hanke]

In the newsletter of yesterday, there was written that new members could introduce themselves as reaction to the newsletter. So, I will do this. I am 62 years old, I am living in Germany in the littel Town Lueneburg (the center of the well-known  "Lueneburger Heide") and I am blind. My first contact to donation-coder.com was the search for programms. I got in contact with Skwire, because I had a problem with one of his programs. He was very kind and changed the software so that I could use it as a blind user. I work with a software screen reader called "JAWS" (= Job Access with Speech) that can read the contents of the display, as long as it is not purely graphical. Taht much to my person.

My question is connected to the security item: here in Germany, we will elect a new government on September the 22th, and the story of Edward snowden and NSA is a important item in the pre-election struggle of the political parties. In Germany, we have laws that should save the innocent people from being watched by the german secret services. But we now had to admit that the NSA may have observed german People in Germany, and the german secret Service "BND" and the NSA work togehter. There is a hot discussion if the secret services worked illegally.

Our newspapers report that in the USA the discussion about the actions of the NSA is no big item. I cannot understand that people are not scared when they come to know that they were x-rayed by their own secret service. So I ask the american members here how the discussion really goes on in America.

Thanks for Your answers!

I Wish You all a great second half of the week!

Yours, Ulrich 

[cmpm]

Yes, the NSA is violating our civil rights. And the government has been doing it for years under the cover of one agency or another. I think they are afraid someone might tell the truth for a change.

Here in America most think it's for their own good. But it's not, and few know it.

Our politicians are two-faced liars. And should not talk about the other countries who violate civil rights until they do something to clean up their own house.

[40hz]

I think there's a lot of domestic outrage brewing over the US government's behavior during the last ten or so years. And in the end, I think you'll see a reaction to the NSA and the whole post-911 mindset that strongly resembles what happened when the American people became disgusted en masse with the excesses of McCarthyism back in the 50s.

Big issues like this tend to percolate here rather than ramp up in a linear fashion. But when an issue does come to a boil (and this one surely will) it only seems to happen overnight.

Right now I think it's slowly coming to a boil.

Part of what makes the USA so hard to understand for so many people outside of it's borders is that the United States is not a monoculture. So if you ask what "The American People" think, you need to be aware of which American People you're asking. Because we have marked attitudinal differences and political predilections based of our geographic region, degree of wealth and education, race, gender, and ethnic affinity - to say nothing of sexual orientation, political party, occupation, religious affiliation (if any), and our overall personal level of tolerance towards others.

I know it sounds confusing. But it can be confusing at times. Even for us.

[skwire]

My first contact to donation-coder.com was the search for programms. I got in contact with Skwire, because I had a problem with one of his programs. He was very kind and changed the software so that I could use it as a blind user.

Nice to see you join the site, Ulrich.     We hope you enjoy your stay.