Privacy concerns
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However, this piece is not intended to be an advertisement for Vivaldi, nor a rant against Google and/or Meta (that's one for another day). No, this is simply a few thoughts about privacy and the occasional lack thereof, that plagues our modern world.
As an introvert, my privacy is important to me. It's why I have net curtains and blinds on the windows of my apartment, and crave decent fencing at my dzialka. Right now I have waist high wire fencing, plus some bushes that in time (say three or four years) will provide additional screening, as does the mature hedge at the front boundary of the plot. As things stand, the neighbours all around have a clear view into my "private" space (as indeed I have into theirs, should I want it - which I don't), and it makes me uncomfortable. I don't want people seeing what I and my family are doing when we're there - we're not doing anything to be ashamed of, but it's our business, nobody else's. But this is par for the course here, as it is in many other parts of the world. I crave the 6 foot high waney-lap fencing I had around my entire gardens, in pretty much all the homes I had back in England, but to add it to my plot here would cost me even more than it would there. You get used to it, of course, but that doesn't mean you can simply ignore it (at least I can't).
Apartment living has its own privacy challenges. I remember the first couple of homes I owned: a small, old, middle terraced semi-slum on top of a railway bank and an end-terrace in a better neighbourhood. Both had entrances shared with our next door neighbours and wafer thin walls, and you could clearly hear what tv program they were watching and every word of any argument they might have. You could also hear the more, shall we say, intimate activities going on, and I suppose it was as unsettling for them to hear ours as it was for us to hear theirs. Moving up market put paid to that, especially in my last big detached house.
But it's all back again in the apartment living that is the norm in my life now. Our place is relatively new, so of better construction than many blocks, but I can still hear the kids running around in the place immediately above ours, often earlier in the morning than I would like, and I have no doubt they, and the people below us, can also hear us. I know that the regular arguments that happen in any family can be clearly heard - we had a good one last week, all four of us, and a couple of days later the upstairs neighbour, who we bumped into in the lift, joked about it: we responded in kind (they're decent friends of ours) but I found it unsettling - even those from people across the shared garden. We had a young couple in one of the ground floor apartments and they were quite, shall we say, demonstrative in their conjugal activities: one summer afternoon so much so that most of the balconies were full of people listening to their antics (there was no choice actually, such was the din) and gave them a rousing ovation after the third time in an hour and a half. They moved out a week or so later.
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It seems to me that, with all this move to apartment living rather than houses (at least in my neck of the woods) privacy is on the wane. The rise of social media has resulted in people, especially the younger generation, being more prepared to share their lives on-line, with their friends and relatives, and this I believe is a dangerous development - I tend to be much more circumspect with what I share on my own Facebook account (it's the only platform I use and, frankly, far less than I used to) than I used to and rarely post pictures now.
Then there are the activities of the press and paparazzi. There is no doubt the press will do whatever they deem necessary to get a story, even stuff there is barely (or not at all) legal - phone hacking and stalking being prime examples - especially where the story relates to a celebrity, politician or royalty, or a serious crime is involved. Reporting seems much more prurient and unpleasant than I remember it before the rise of the internet, even in the gossip columns that most tabloids carry, and its alternative news organizations like Buzzfeed or Huffington Post, with formerly respected outlets like the Times and the Mail and the Washington Post dumbing down to compete and selling their support to the highest paying political party. Smartphones, with their built in cameras, and sites like X (or Twatter if you prefer), Instagram and TikTok mean that everyone potentially is a citizen journalist and can post any old garbage with little fear of anyone fact-checking it, and find an audience.
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Sorry - I've drifted off-piste a little, but never mind: all of the stuff in the last couple of paragraphs is still very relevant.
All of this citizen journalism (or shit-spreading, if you prefer) has it seems to me eroded everyone's right to privacy, and this can only be seen as a Bad Thing. Whatever you think of Prince Harry (for instance - he's not my favourite person in the world), he should still be entitled to some privacy for he and his family. If he and missus are at a film premiere or something then it's obviously different, as they are "working", and to be expected, but under normal circumstances there should be no phone hacking or packs of paps on motor bikes dogging his every move, just because of his background (he didn't choose to be born into the royal family) and actress wife. At the end of the day, they are both human beings, the same as the rest of us.
It struck me particularly strongly last week how far reporting has degenerated into scummy tittle-tattle last week when I watched the first Pentagon new conference Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin made after his recent treatment for prostate cancer. Now, I don't know much about the bloke, know nothing of his past military career nor his performance in his current job. Wikipedia tells me he is 5 months younger than me, a devout Catholic, married for over 40 years and has two step-sons. So a decent bloke then. It also briefly mentions that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and underwent corrective surgery over Christmas.
Now in this briefing, more time was spent discussing this ailment than the conduct of US forces in the Middle East, or American support for Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression, or his country's commitment to NATO - all of which seem to me far more relevant to a defence briefing than his state of health. But no: because of press tittle-tattle, especially from the Trump supporting alt-right media, and the strident complaints of a Republican party that has lost touch with reality, Austin spent half of his time giving a tortuous and very personal explanation of what happened to him and when, and then answering innumerable questions on the same topic.. One no-mark wannabe hack, probably from Trump's favourite Fox News, asked why, in view of his "conduct" (as if developing cancer, in any form, should ever be considered "conduct"!) he hadn't resigned or been sacked.
It just so happens that I was diagnosed with the same condition last year, so I have a very good idea of what Lloyd Austin and his family have been going through. My diagnosis was in May, and I had surgery in mid-November, so we had almost exactly 6 months living with it - six months of blood tests, scans and painful and distressing biopsies to see how bad the tumours were and if the disease had spread (potentially fatal). Then waiting for the surgery to be scheduled and completed, with its embarrassing and difficult after effects. I was lucky: the surgery was completely successful and the recovery (so far, and touching wood!) much easier and complete than I - or the doctors - had anticipated. But it's still been a tough time for us, and I still have six months and more blood tests before I can be pronounced cancer free.....
This is what Lloyd Austin has faced and is still going through: his use of a golf buggy shows clearly his recovery is proving much more difficult than mine. He's clearly a strong and determined guy, and I have no doubt he will get there - and I wish him every success in his personal journey.
But here is the thing: just because he holds a senior position in the current Administration should not mean that he has to go through this process in the full glare of publicity, nor should he be condemned for a perceived "lack of judgement" during his hospitalization. At the end of the day, he is just an ordinary man who is going through a health crisis, albeit one that does not necessarily impact his ability to do his job properly.
He should be entitled to do that in privacy.
As should we all.
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