Prompt: Reality depends upon who is telling the story
Whilst it is often difficult to counter the official public narrative owing to the wealth of tactics at the disposal of establishment voices, individuals do have means these days to hijack the story.
The story of Ensaf Haidar who circulates an alternative version
Just ask Ensaf Haidar who founded the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom (RBFF) to promote free speech. She believed his online articles “never crossed the line”. “He was simply exercising his right to expression.” She wrote a book earlier this year, Raif Badawi: The Voice of Freedom: My Husband, Our Story, detailing the story of how they met and her campaign to free him.She has been heartened by the world-wide response that gives her hope and strength to continue to campaign for freedom.
The story of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, US whistleblowers who reveal the story behind the “story”
US Private Chelsea Bradley Manning, who managed to tell an alternative story about the allied forces indiscriminate violence in Iraq and the military cover-ups. He was dismayed that journalists and civilians were killed quite recklessly and these misadventures were disowned by those who controlled the public relations machine. Manning, who had access to highly sensitive information, released 700,000 secret US records of US military incidents about the war in Afghanistan and 400,000 similar documents on Iraq. Typical leaks included that of an Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007 including two journalists. He wrote (on Facebook) in May 2009 that he was “beyond frustrated with people and society at large”.
Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower believed that it was critical to confront the extent of the government’s secret surveillance work. He states, “the government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight”. He had become so alarmed at the extent of the deceit that he decided to make public millions of documents so that “citizens around the globe” can talk about “what kind of world we want to live in”.
The story of North Korean poet who resists the official version
Likewise, Jang Jin-Sun, renowned North Korean poet, wrote in his memoir, Dear Leader (2012), that he could not continue to write lies about the almighty power of the military regime of Kim Jong-IL because it was fraudulent. The poet was a member of the Propaganda Unit and stated his poems about the military might of the regime were so successful that he was singled out by the leader for praise. However, he found it difficult to reconcile the military excesses of the regime with the starving hordes on the streets. He became disillusioned when he saw a woman begging in the market, trying to sell her daughter for 12 cents. Overwhelmed by the lies, his guilt was too much to bear and he fled across border into China with a close friend, who was shot. Thankfully, Jang Jin-Sun lived to spread his story about the desperate condition of the millions of poor people in North Korea.
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