Christopher Lauer speaks in Berlin State Parliament

I Have Absolutely Brilliant Colleagues

Pirate Parties

Stop whatever you’re doing right now and watch this eight-minute speech from Christopher Lauer, a Member of State Parliament in Berlin who was elected last fall.

After you’ve seen the speech (after clicking Play, press the uparrow and then CC to turn on subtitles in English, as I did), try to tell me with a straight face that Pirate Parties worldwide isn’t exactly what is needed to reconquer democracy and make a government for the people, by the people. Now, you need to remember as you watch this, that this man is actually an elected representative. He is a Member of Parliament in Berlin, elected for the Piratenpartei, the German Pirate Party.

Every day, I am amazed at the sheer brilliance, clearsight, and almost brutal candor of my colleagues. Christopher, I would be honored to buy you the first beer next time we meet.

At the same time, I can’t help noticing the von oben attitude of the old-guard politicians filmed in the video, just thinking that the pirates are a nuisance that will eventually go away, so that power can get back to caring for power.

With professional conduct in Parliament like this available for everybody to see, well, we’ll see about that.

(Hat tip to @opassande for the heads-up.)

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About The Author: Rick Falkvinge

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a tech entrepreneur background and loves whisky.

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Justus Römeth

January 15, 2012 - 22:53

The video on Youtube itself also offers subtitles in Catalan, French, German and Polish if anybody needs those. Turkish is in the pipes, more may or may not come. A big shout to the TTF of PPI for helping me translate this within 24h.

Please spread the word!

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1.1

Rick Falkvinge

January 15, 2012 - 22:54

Thank you for helping share this display of brilliance and powerful honesty.

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- 1.1.1
  
  Justus Römeth
  
  January 15, 2012 - 23:01
  
  Credit where credit is due, I find the TTF to be one of the least complicated and most dedicated group of pirates/netizens I have ever worked with. And I find translations to be essential if we are to grow the internatinality of this movement (so in response to your last blog post, I am very excited about what the following year will bring to us, Mr Falkvinge! :-) )
  
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suchenwi

January 15, 2012 - 22:56

I had watched Christopher’s speech some days ago, but in the light of your comment I just rewatched it. Powerful, passionate. I don’t know how it will impress members of other parties (of whom many seats were empty anyway), but I expect Christopher to make more such speeches.
Only, his gestics could be stronger if he took the left hand out of his pocket… :^)

2.1

Justus Römeth

January 15, 2012 - 23:03

Yeah he was essentially reading the speech, not really presenting it. But I am sure he’s the first one to admit that, and he has 3.5 years to work on that.

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- 2.1.1
  
  Fabio Till
  
  January 28, 2012 - 20:35
  
  4.5 years
  
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slightlyanon

January 15, 2012 - 23:17

Excellent speech, his plea to bring public debate back into politics was fantastic. I dream of the day we can have politicians like him in my own country, hopefully someday soon.

Btw, i must ask, does anybody know what’s up with all the mac’s?

bluebomb

January 16, 2012 - 00:12

Can anyone provide a link to a transcript (preferably but not necessarily in English) of this speech?

4.1

Justus Römeth

January 16, 2012 - 00:17

Try https://redmine.piratenfraktion-berlin.de/projects/plenar6sitzung/wiki/Christopher_Lauer_zur_Regierungserkl%C3%A4rung and http://piratenpad.de/speech-lauer-agh

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børge / forteller

January 16, 2012 - 00:15

If the subtitles went too fast for anyone else to read too, you can read them at your own pace here: https://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/F4z9Fy65XWav/en/223286/ (English. The other languages are available on the left side).

5.1

Lars

January 16, 2012 - 10:03

Here are the subtites in text format (I removed the surrounding comments that were not part of the speech, and the interruption in the middle).
http://pastebin.com/EtMLVyib

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5.2

Lars

January 16, 2012 - 10:03

Here are the subtitles in text format (I removed the surrounding comments that were not part of the speech, and the interruption in the middle).
http://pastebin.com/EtMLVyib

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5.3

Chuck Smith

January 16, 2012 - 17:33

We just finished translating the subtitles into Esperanto on universalsubtitles.

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- 5.3.1
  
  børge / forteller
  
  January 17, 2012 - 11:44
  
  Awesome! Thank you for using US! :)
  
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5.4

Björn Persson

January 16, 2012 - 23:12

Thanks for that link. Not only did the subtitle go fast. They were also black text on half-transparent black bars against a varying but often black background.

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AeliusBlythe

January 16, 2012 - 03:24

Wow, this is a hopeful thing.

It is one thing to see pirates speaking at conferences, at lecture halls, at rallies… but to see people directly from our own digital generation speaking truths that the old guard has tried so hard to suppress, speaking in our own terms in a place of government, right in the midst of that old guard… that fills me with hope and pride.

Too bad many did not seem to show respect or even attention to these powerful words, but isn’t ignoring these people what allowed them to sneak right in to Parliament in the first place? While the current powers-that-be disregarded those in the Pirate movement as children, the Pirates were busy coming up with good ideas and getting votes. So let the old guard ignore the “children” and talk amongst themselves … let them talk themselves right out of a job.

Travis McCrea

January 17, 2012 - 02:58

Can someone tell me what was shouted out by the other party member?

7.1

MasterYoda

January 17, 2012 - 10:32

I second that.

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- 7.1.1
  
  Justus Römeth
  
  January 17, 2012 - 21:54
  
  At what time/moment exactly?
  
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Los piratas y el Parlamento | Blog PeruW

January 17, 2012 - 05:15

[...] Vía Rick Falkvinge llego a este impresionante y duro discurso de Christopher Lauer en el Parlamento Estatal de Berlín, donde el Partido Pirata consiguió quince escaños en las pasadas elecciones del 18 de septiembre. El vídeo está en alemán, pero puedes verlo subtitulado en varios idiomas, entre otros en inglés o en catalán, o leer el texto completo en inglés aquí. (ACTUALIZACIÓN: ya están disponibles los subtítulos en español – gracias, Darío :-) [...]

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