Rat out..!

The buzz this week was hard to miss unless you've been living somewhere in a cave in Afghanistan for the last five years. Wikileaks and it's founder, Julian Assange were plastered all over the media for bringing to light official documents pertaining to misconduct during the war in...where else...Afghanistan. Snitches, informants, whistle-blowers and whatever you want to call them seem to be all over the place these days. Of course the grand daddy of the lot was none other than Judas Iscariot. According to the bible. he delivered a fellow by the name of Jesus to the Romans. How a Porto Rican found his way to Jerusalem I have no clue. Interesting story but the plot is a little weak. My first real encounter with a snitch happened during a test in first grade. I casually blurted out the answer to a question to the student sitting next to me who immediately pointed an accusing finger and calling the teacher said '' Miss, he said the answer out loud ''. This was also my first encounter with the yard stick, receiving a couple of blows to my bottom for my indiscretion.The teacher obviously did not question the snitch's credibility and this is unfortunately the case nowadays. The media often jumps on the bandwagon and a frenzy erupts before any informant credibility can be established. And, in some cases, with the new and improved security measures, contrary to our justice system, the accused have to establish their innocence, being presumed guilty from the get go.This has happened all so fast on numerous occasions, especially involving alleged cases of child abuse. A lot of families, lives, reputations have been ruined by hearsay and non credible witnesses. Also, some people's moral grounds are someone else's playground. I remember these two old ladies in British Colombia who complained to the police that their neighbor walked around naked in his house and they found this offensive. When the whole thing went to court, the judge inquired has to how the two spinsters could see the naked man in the house since he lived 300 feet away. '' We can see him with our binoculars '' they replied. The case was thrown out. With that being said, I don't doubt the validity of whistle-blowing one bit. We need brave individuals to come forth and report anomalies or misconduct from governments, multinationals, institutions and individuals. Often enough, these people seek some form of anonymity. I say No..! I f you want to point an accusing finger at anyone we should know who you are in order to establish your credibility. With technology today, it's way too easy to start the rumor mill going and inflict serious harm to people who are just going about their daily lives. Imagine for one second that you were in Toronto on business during the G8 summit. You're walking downtown thinking of arranging this important meeting when your foot hits a brick on the sidewalk. Finding this odd, you pick up because you don't want anybody else to hurt their big toe. At that moment a couple on vacation snaps a picture of you holding the brick. Unfortunately, there's an identifiable Mc Donald's window in the background and you're wearing a germ protective mask they gave you at the hospital in case your flue turns out to be contagious. They post their picture of you with brick in hand and masked on Facebook, thinking they've photographed a real life anarchist. The Toronto police find this while scouring the web for info and through some face recognition software, they id you, review your credit card transactions, find your address and pick you up at your hotel for questioning. Of course you deny the whole thing but they bring up your participation in a protest against the seal hunt during your college years in the 70's. They allow you one phone call, so in desperation you call your wife on her cellphone but it's buried somewhere between a chocolate bar and a dry cleaning bill deep inside the bowels of her purse. So you leave a message on her voice box hoping that she remembers the access code.
Basically you could rot in jail from anywhere between 48 hours to a month, whith-held on reasons of national security. We've all heard about the Stasi years in East Germany when even family and friends were snitching on each other, creating a wave of collective paranoia. Any idiot with a camera equipped cellphone is a potential snitch. Just look at how many people after 9/11 reported seeing Bin Laden either driving a taxi in Manhattan or buying fruit in a seven-eleven in Boca Raton. So, as my father always says...'' Don't believe everything you read and only half of what you see''.

Footnote: The video above is an hilarious SNL skit with Robert De Niro where college students have phoned in to report terrorists.