New Proposal by Ignacio Ramonet at Havana Book Fair

Journalist Ignacio Ramonet presented a book on Sunday entitled El Imperio de la Vigilancia (The Empire of Surveillance) which is a reflection on the control of the State of Humanity during the 25th International Book Fair underway at the San Carlos de la Cabana Fortress in Havana.

Published by the Jose Marti Editorial House, the text reveals the beginnings of surveillance and methods used, among them reading mail and listening to telephone conversations, which were later replaced by the current trace left when using Internet.

During the launching of the book at the Nicolas Guillen Salon, Ignacio Ramonet assured that Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft are five companies whose main capital is information, sales information on people to publicists and government intelligence services.

He added that after September 11th, 2001, politicians have used the excuse that in order to be safe in today’s world, we all need to sacrifice the freedom of each individual.

Ramonet stressed that in the presentation of the book, some people assured not being worried if they are watched because they have nothing to hide, but I asked myself if this is really true and are willing to allow a violation to our private life.

The book includes interviews to Julian Assange and Noam Chomsky that helped complement the understanding of the issue in modern society and ideas on how to face the system and defend the right to privacy, he said.

Rosa Miriam Elizarde, who was present at the book presentation along with Cuba’s Culture Minister Abel Prieto, said that the text is an intelligent and well documented concern on the control of the States over Humanity taking into consideration the fight against terrorism.

Ignacio Ramonet, Spanish academic and journalist living in France and who directed the Le Monde Diplomatique magazine is the author of some 20 books among them Cien Horas con Fidel (One Hundred Hours with Fidel).(Taken from Cuban News Agency)