In the beginning of everything I asked myself why should Julian Assange do something like that? Need for attention? Need for some court trials? I was observing all actions around WikiLeaks and Julian Assange over months, that topic aroused my interest more and more. I did research and questioned the intentions of a man who is willing to stand up and embarrass the most powerful and criminal political institutions of the world. Day after day I recognized that WikiLeaks was not just something like a “pop up window” in the media world, which would just disappear again as everything else before. The response all over the globe was clear, as well as the message. It became obvious for me that whatever Julian Assange’s intentions where, he changed the world.
Reading all the truth revealed by WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was shocking, watching the Collateral Murder video horrified and shocked me deeply. We had everything in this almost passed year. A very angry US government, trials, hearings, allegations in such a ridiculous way which I’ve seen barely before, blockades of money transfer services to shut WikiLeaks down, several murder threats, “information war”… it’s like a complex sci fi thriller, with which not even Hollywood could come up with and it happens now, in front of our eyes. And in the middle of this whole mess, there’s a man who seemed unusual calm and distanced about all that. Who is Julian Assange and why he seems not even touched a little bit of what’s happening to him and his surroundings? Of course he told people of his situation and treatment but with a supposed emotionless face and voice. He seemed even sometimes kind of unhuman and maybe even a little bit creepy.
Even after I considered myself as a WikiLeaks supporter I wasn’t sure what to think about him. Until I found a very touching interview. Suddenly there was not sitting this seemingly emotionless man as usual, there was sitting a man who was locked away, because he realized his dream, he realized a dream, which the most of us wouldn’t even dare to think about. There was sitting a worried father, who can’t speak to his children to safe them from attacks and threats. There was sitting a man who sacrificed everything to show us the truth. His reputation, his freedom, his private life.
What is it worth to change the world? Was it worth to try “to teach us to long for the immensity of the sea”?
Governments tried everything to shut him down, but with every try he stands up with a greater conviction than before.
Julian Assange deserves the nobel peace prize because he’s fighting for all that, for which all the other people gave up wishing and hoping years ago. He’s fighting for a future, which I can barely imagine, not just for free speech but for justice and freedom of every single one of us. He broke down the borders and huge walls between governments and it’s people.
He gave us the a taste of forbidden truth, a little bit of salt, which made us longing for the sea.
M. Messner
Austria
2011
