Understanding Cardinal George Pell prosecution, Institutional abuse & Debian cybertorture
When the news appeared about Kevin Spacey today, I couldn't help reflecting on the similarities to the case of Cardinal Pell. Both men had a very prominent status in their profession. Both were in authority positions: Spacey was not only an actor, he was also artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London for eleven years. Pell had been Arch-Bishop of both Melbourne and Sydney at various times. In both cases, the accused had substantial wealth.
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Thinking about the impact these thoughts have on a child's state of mind, it is not hard to answer the question I raised at the beginning: Why did a fourteen year old boy from the choir begin using hard drugs like heroin? It could originate with any priest, even one he encountered before joining the choir and the school. Cardinal Pell may have been a red herring.
Yet we see a very similar phenomena in Debian and other open source communities today. Abusers like Enrico Zini have inflicted secret punishments on various developers. At the same time, Zini tells the victims he still wants us to sing for him. Dr Norbert Preining shared one of those messages in December 2018. Here is the bit about continuing to sing:
All packages in which you are currently listed as maintainer or uploader will be added to your Debian Maintainer whitelist as soon as possible.
Zini is telling Dr Preining: continue to work for us but you are not allowed to speak.