Hubris

Julian Assange is a not so nice product of Australia who has gained notoriety  by hacking into various web sites, downloading the contents and, after cherry picking the product publishing the information for all the world to see. Almost nothing he has raided and published is noteworthy, in fact most of it is inconsequential email and low level reports, but there is usually enough titillating data to thrill the general public and always enough dirty laundry to embarrass the originator. Assange has made a name for himself, by persuading others (such as the hapless US Army private Bradley Manning, who had access only to Confidential files)  to raid those files and accounts and sending them forward to Assange for his profit and emotional thrill.

The narcissistic Assange put himself into self imposed exile and for a while hid out in Sweden. While there he allegedly sexually attacked at least two women before moving on to England and when England decided to honor an arrest warrant he sought asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy where he has been for several years. I'm sure his self aggrandizing personality must wear greatly on the Ecuadorians but they are stuck with him since they did grant him asylum and he will not leave in the face of certain arrest, transport to Sweden and,if guilty, several years in prison. There is truth for Ecuador is the adage that "no good deed every go unpunished".

True to Assange's self indulgence he is now asking for other people (who are probably lessor individuals in his eyes) to donate money for the creation of a life size statue of, who else, Julian Assange. In his proposal Assange says that the statue will be shipped around the word and displayed for all to admire his "bravery" and (my words) "self indulgence".

At the moment the world is awash in narcissistic personalities and we don't need an individual who most likely believes that he is more important than our own resident team of self important administrators. So if you get a request from the fugitive Mr. Assange for money to make himself more visible, please decline!