I'm the first to admit that I am easily influenced. Come to me with a strong argument for your cause and I'm yours, until the next good speaker convinces me otherwise! Armchair activism is something I've been incredibly loathe to voice an opinion on. So easy to hide out in the apathetic majority. I agree with roughly 70% of the chain e-mail petitions I get but rarely forward them on, only after checking the contact details.
Even then, it can be embarassing when your good deed for the day turns out to be little more than an urban legend.
Receiving the "UN is collecting signatures against the war on terrorism" this week prompted me to dig up some food for thought and led me to breakthechain.org. I'm sold on their argument (for now...)
To stand and be counted in the debates and demonstrations to come, it's going to take more than a few keypresses. Hell, you may even have to work up a sweat.
Back in Sydney to catch up with family and things have changed since the last visit. Fear, uncertainty and doubt is up due to legislation introduced last year giving police to stop and search people without reasonable grounds. Sniffer dog patrols are now a regular feature of the city and surrounding suburbs.
You only have to witness one of the patrols (first encountered at a suburban train station, Hornsby) to see that the principles of the Panopticon are out in force. The new policies have less to do with drugs then with introducing a culture of suspicion and fear. I for one, don't want to live in a society that tolerates this.
Enter www.snifferdogalert.com, an SMS service that tracks the dog patrols and sends you notifications when they hit your area. The site, run by volunteers in conjunction with the Redfern Legal Centre, seems to be down after a lot of publicity last year but this alternative URL turned up in Google. A less sensational resource is www.snifferdogs.info