Jason Koutsoukis lobbies a lot for GM food in The Age lately. He quotes a governmental report that claims that GM food poses no danger to human health and the environment.
The US and Canada, two nations that engage a lot in producing transgenetically engineered food, don't label GM food as such, which makes it virtually impossible to determine which impact on individual health this food has.
Cross-pollination with conventional crop spreads the transgenetic material around - nature is no lab. Genetic material from GM corn in the US was already found in remote areas of Mexico, which has not allowed planting of GM crops.
Per definition, organic food can not make use of GM food, which means that there will be no more chance to produce organic food in the long run, or just on a very limited scale.
GM canola probably looks and tastes like conventional canola, but it is sufficiently different from it to deserve being patented. Basically, it is a new species. Australia has some experiences with introducing new species into its ecosystem, as far as I know hardly any positive experiences. There's lots of toads here naturally, so the cane toad can't harm.... There's lot of canola here, so GM canola can't harm...
The way Jason describes the customer's desire for GM food is quite interesting as well. The acceptance has risen, he states, but mentions no statistics. Was the rise from 10% to 11%? Leaving out precise figures nourishes the suspicion that most customers don't want GM food. Asking customers whether they would want to pay more for non-GM food is not really an objective way to find out about acceptance, and maintains the myth (also known as sales promise) that GM food can be produced cheaper, and the consumer would as well pay cheaper prices. Somehow this contradicts the capitalist mantra of maximising profits, but it nurtures the myth of benevolent corporations.
If you suspect that I don't want GM food to be introduced here, you are right. In Germany, illegally planted GM crops have already cross-pollinated adjacent crops, and thus destroyed the livelihood of organic farmers. Monsanto sued a farmer in Canada whose crop was affected by cross-pollination and made him pay for things he didn't want to have in first place.
Although I'm quite happy with your implicit consent to my prior postings, I'm curious about your thoughts about GM food.
Do you want it? Do you think the introduction of a new species into the Australian ecosystem is a good idea? If GM food isn't labelled, can we with certainty conclude that it has no health impacts? Isn't it a reduction of consumer's choice, if "the whole world" plants GM crop? Wouldn't there be an enormous advantage for Australia to be one of the few countries to still produce organic food?
Sunday, 12 August 2007
Sunday, 5 August 2007
Dynasty
A decent tyranny needs an evil family, willing keep the power in their hands, no matter what happens. Fidel gave his power to his brother Raoul Castro, Saddam Husseyn would have made one of his sons the next leader, and feudalism used inherited leadership systematically.
It comes as a bit of a surprise that in the US a single family got hold of the presidency twice. Yet, this will for power stems from the grandfather of the current US president, Prescott Bush.
Prescott Bush married into a wealthy family, which provided him with the job to organise financial support for Nazi Germany. At the end of the second world war he was found guilty of supporting the enemy, but was not penalised. The money earned in this nefarious activities built the basis for the wealth of the Bush family.
Prescott Bush's support for the Nazis was just consequential. A BBC documentary followed the traces of an attempt to assassinate Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933. There are very familiar names among the conspirators that planned to turn the US into a fascist country like Germany.
GWB has created enough Presidential Orders and Directives to declare himself as a dictator (in case of a national emergency, which is anything the president defines as such). He cannot be reelected, but he might simply cancel the elections.
The reason could be a terror attack, this time certainly done by terrorists from Iran, maybe even nuclear or chemical, in a place like LA or San Francisco. While the inevitable nuclear retaliation annihilates Iran, going to vote is uncertainly impossible. I hope I'm wrong.
I just wonder whether you still think democracy is healthy in the US when the next elections get cancelled, or another country gets attacked.
It comes as a bit of a surprise that in the US a single family got hold of the presidency twice. Yet, this will for power stems from the grandfather of the current US president, Prescott Bush.
Prescott Bush married into a wealthy family, which provided him with the job to organise financial support for Nazi Germany. At the end of the second world war he was found guilty of supporting the enemy, but was not penalised. The money earned in this nefarious activities built the basis for the wealth of the Bush family.
Prescott Bush's support for the Nazis was just consequential. A BBC documentary followed the traces of an attempt to assassinate Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933. There are very familiar names among the conspirators that planned to turn the US into a fascist country like Germany.
GWB has created enough Presidential Orders and Directives to declare himself as a dictator (in case of a national emergency, which is anything the president defines as such). He cannot be reelected, but he might simply cancel the elections.
The reason could be a terror attack, this time certainly done by terrorists from Iran, maybe even nuclear or chemical, in a place like LA or San Francisco. While the inevitable nuclear retaliation annihilates Iran, going to vote is uncertainly impossible. I hope I'm wrong.
I just wonder whether you still think democracy is healthy in the US when the next elections get cancelled, or another country gets attacked.
Sunday, 29 July 2007
Semester 2: Revenge of the PIS
The PIS returns! Here is the agenda for this week's meeting, which takes place Wednesday at 1pm, in our new location of Room 109, Alice Hoy Building.
No smoking
Why is it that, if you is sitting in a drinking establishment with politically interested people, you can play devil's advocate on all manner of issues - defend the Iraq war, agree solemnly with the PM that fighting climate change must not be at the expense of the economy - but if you refuse to agree wholeheartedly with this new smoking ban of Bracksy's in bars and restaurants, you are looked at like you have just escaped from an asylum?
Is it possible that this ban is actually lousy policy?
Pakistan
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's semi-benevolent dictator, is in a spot of bother. A few months ago he dismissed a judge, as dictators are inclined to do, but all hell's broken loose ever since, both with Pakistan's democrats, and, more worryingly, with its Islamists. Tensions reached a new high just the other week, with the storming of the Red Mosque. And the latest Newspoll finds he has made up hardly any ground on Kevin Rudd.
To take all this instability and supersize it, the Bush Administration, defying the general hope that its dumbest ideas are behind it, is planning on sending American troops into Pakistan.
What's going to happen in Pakistan? Is Musharraf going to have to get off the fence, and choose between a long-promised return to genuine democracy, or a metamorphosis into all-out dictatorship? Or, will Pakistanis choose to overthrow him first?
And: should America's policy of supporting Musharraf as an ally in the 'war on terror' be revised? Has it contributed to this whole mess?
Marriage
So less people are getting married, and those that do are getting married later in their lives. Is this regrettable? Or is there an upside? For example, maybe if our PM had remained an ineligible bachelor and hadn't tied the knot to Lady MacBeth, we would have been spared 11 years and might still live under the rule of law... Discuss.
Federal politics
Are the Coalition going to lose?
Should they switch to Costello?
How 'bout this Haneef business?
To be followed immediately by Hawkey Card-priced beer at PA's, on Grattan Street, from 2:15.
Previously, at the PIS ...
PIS President Dave Fettling won his second term. It was the narrowest election margin in the history of the Society.
One week later, he was inaugurated under a bleak overcast sky and with a record low turnout. While running the meeting that week, he was frequently interrupted and contradicted, leading to whispers he may already have become a 'lame duck PIS President'.
Despite this the President was talking big: 'Let me put it to you this way. I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it', he told the assembled media at the Prince Alfred hotel.
Meanwhile the PIS's mascot, the two-headed dog, was hospitalised again at the end of May, spending a night in Eltham East Veterinary Clinic. Flowers, get-well cards and Schmackos from concerned members of the Political Interest Society poured in. The dog is beloved by the PIS.
Blanche, wife of former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who agreed to become the official patron of the Political Interest Society in February of this year, wrote an apologetic letter to the PIS Committee apologising for her husband's poor attendance record at the club. But as she explained, "he's been hitting the turps pretty bad ever since the Keating! musical became a hit".
What sort of semester is it going to be for the PIS? There's ample evidence that the club is headed for disaster.
The Young Liberals on campus, who attempted to crush the PIS four years ago, 'like the Soviets into Czechoslovakia in 68', as their then President described it, have been growing alarmed at the leftward turn in the Society's emails. While the Libs cautiously welcomed the election of Dave Fettling back in 2006, they have noticed of late his growing tendency to don army fatigues, smoke cigars, talk about a 'politically interested utopia', and refer to his Secretary, Eddie Clarke, as 'Raoul'.
We tried to get a quote from the Young Libs, but they didn't answer.
Then we tried again and they answered and they said that they were all gay.
After being released from the vet in June, the two-headed dog has returned to the ranch he calls home, but has been feeling dizzy and lethargic. All PIS members are to pray for him.
Thomas Friedmann in his regular New York Times column has asked the question, 'Is Dave Fettling the PIS's Mikhail Gorbachev?' Friedmann pointed out that the Soviet Union was going swimmingly until Gorbachev launched 'glasnost', which is Russian for 'going to the pub', and 'perestroika', which is Russian for 'stupid emails'. Gorbachev, says Friedmann, 'attempted to reform the unreformable...as a result, the whole Empire came crashing down'. Hmm.
And the University of Melbourne Student Union has launched an investigation after two rank and file PIS members were caught breaking into the Clubs & Societies office and tampering with files.
But I'm sure it's nothing.
No smoking
Why is it that, if you is sitting in a drinking establishment with politically interested people, you can play devil's advocate on all manner of issues - defend the Iraq war, agree solemnly with the PM that fighting climate change must not be at the expense of the economy - but if you refuse to agree wholeheartedly with this new smoking ban of Bracksy's in bars and restaurants, you are looked at like you have just escaped from an asylum?
Is it possible that this ban is actually lousy policy?
Pakistan
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's semi-benevolent dictator, is in a spot of bother. A few months ago he dismissed a judge, as dictators are inclined to do, but all hell's broken loose ever since, both with Pakistan's democrats, and, more worryingly, with its Islamists. Tensions reached a new high just the other week, with the storming of the Red Mosque. And the latest Newspoll finds he has made up hardly any ground on Kevin Rudd.
To take all this instability and supersize it, the Bush Administration, defying the general hope that its dumbest ideas are behind it, is planning on sending American troops into Pakistan.
What's going to happen in Pakistan? Is Musharraf going to have to get off the fence, and choose between a long-promised return to genuine democracy, or a metamorphosis into all-out dictatorship? Or, will Pakistanis choose to overthrow him first?
And: should America's policy of supporting Musharraf as an ally in the 'war on terror' be revised? Has it contributed to this whole mess?
Marriage
So less people are getting married, and those that do are getting married later in their lives. Is this regrettable? Or is there an upside? For example, maybe if our PM had remained an ineligible bachelor and hadn't tied the knot to Lady MacBeth, we would have been spared 11 years and might still live under the rule of law... Discuss.
Federal politics
Are the Coalition going to lose?
Should they switch to Costello?
How 'bout this Haneef business?
To be followed immediately by Hawkey Card-priced beer at PA's, on Grattan Street, from 2:15.
Previously, at the PIS ...
PIS President Dave Fettling won his second term. It was the narrowest election margin in the history of the Society.
One week later, he was inaugurated under a bleak overcast sky and with a record low turnout. While running the meeting that week, he was frequently interrupted and contradicted, leading to whispers he may already have become a 'lame duck PIS President'.
Despite this the President was talking big: 'Let me put it to you this way. I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it', he told the assembled media at the Prince Alfred hotel.
Meanwhile the PIS's mascot, the two-headed dog, was hospitalised again at the end of May, spending a night in Eltham East Veterinary Clinic. Flowers, get-well cards and Schmackos from concerned members of the Political Interest Society poured in. The dog is beloved by the PIS.
Blanche, wife of former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who agreed to become the official patron of the Political Interest Society in February of this year, wrote an apologetic letter to the PIS Committee apologising for her husband's poor attendance record at the club. But as she explained, "he's been hitting the turps pretty bad ever since the Keating! musical became a hit".
What sort of semester is it going to be for the PIS? There's ample evidence that the club is headed for disaster.
The Young Liberals on campus, who attempted to crush the PIS four years ago, 'like the Soviets into Czechoslovakia in 68', as their then President described it, have been growing alarmed at the leftward turn in the Society's emails. While the Libs cautiously welcomed the election of Dave Fettling back in 2006, they have noticed of late his growing tendency to don army fatigues, smoke cigars, talk about a 'politically interested utopia', and refer to his Secretary, Eddie Clarke, as 'Raoul'.
We tried to get a quote from the Young Libs, but they didn't answer.
Then we tried again and they answered and they said that they were all gay.
After being released from the vet in June, the two-headed dog has returned to the ranch he calls home, but has been feeling dizzy and lethargic. All PIS members are to pray for him.
Thomas Friedmann in his regular New York Times column has asked the question, 'Is Dave Fettling the PIS's Mikhail Gorbachev?' Friedmann pointed out that the Soviet Union was going swimmingly until Gorbachev launched 'glasnost', which is Russian for 'going to the pub', and 'perestroika', which is Russian for 'stupid emails'. Gorbachev, says Friedmann, 'attempted to reform the unreformable...as a result, the whole Empire came crashing down'. Hmm.
And the University of Melbourne Student Union has launched an investigation after two rank and file PIS members were caught breaking into the Clubs & Societies office and tampering with files.
But I'm sure it's nothing.
Saturday, 28 July 2007
A win for justice?
The case against Dr. Haneef crumbled to bits and pieces, after Howard, Ruddock and Andrews celebrated this witch hunt as victory in the "war on terror". Now, without a visa, Dr. Haneef has to pay about 120$ per day for his detention, until he goes back to India. As he couldn't pay his rent while he was held without charge, he has lost his flat, which was searched by about 300 police forces to find no evidence.
No one as yet is willing to take responsibility for this act that concerns all foreigners in Australia. The anti-terror laws have no regulations for compensation, as they seem to be designed to make anyone a terrorist, no matter how flimsy the evidence is.
Dr. Haneef isn't the first one who felt the injustice of Australia's anti-terror laws. The Barwon 13 still wait for their trial, after more than a year in solitary confinement in a high-security prison. Faheem Lodhi will spent 22 years in prison for something, that can't even be described as a thought crime. Jack Thomas, by the media prejudiced as Jihad Jack, still suffers from a constraint order, being subjected to a curfew and restrictions which means of communication he is allowed to use.
And finally, David Hicks, who was subjected to five years in American torture camps, is held as a terrorist in jail, and will enjoy a similar constraint order like Jack Thomas, once he is a "free man" again.
David Hicks, Jack Thomas and Dr. Haneef are not allowed to talk about their treatment, which would be essential to determine how Australia treats basic human rights. Human Rights Organisations consider solitary confinement as a form of torture, especially over long periods of time, and all of the former experienced this totalitarian treatment.
So much I would appreciate Philip Ruddock taking his hat for his repeated abuse of the anti-terror laws, I don't see this happen. Mick Keelty might end up to be the scapegoat, and/or Kevin Andrews, but this seems as well not too likely. However, it would satisfy my concept of justice and accountability in a democracy to see some heads rolling, though it wouldn't make up for the damage done to the victims of the witch hunt, nor would anyone pay back the taxpayers money used to pursue this paranoid trials.
Just personal responsibility could move Ruddock, Keelty or Andrews to resign, legally there is no reason. All of them can hide behind the anti-terror laws, which are the core of the problem. This legislation opened a back-door to circumvent to the rule of law, and thus can be abused by anyone in a position of power.
Although the media, especially The Age, played an important role to prevent the next innocent man being subjected to a life in prison, it is far from being innocent. Terrorists are an extremly rare breed, luckily, and the threat posed by them is far less than the threat by car accidents or suicide. However, reporting permanently about terror related topics maintains fear among the population, and the illusion of a real threat. But this paranoia is never backed up by numbers, because the numbers speak simply a different language.
I'm really curious who, if anyone, will take responsibility for this abuse of power. As mentioned, I would appreciate simply abolishing the anti-terror laws, which would automatically prevent especially Ruddock from interfering with the judiciary system.
The damage done to the life and reputation of Dr. Haneef can not be undone. He is one of 20,000 foreign physicians working in Australia (out of 50,000), and at least people from muslim backgrounds might no longer be willing to take the risk of supporting the Australian medical system.
Well done, Mr. Keelty. Well done, Mr. Andrews. Well done, Mr. Ruddock. Well done, Mr. Howard.
No one as yet is willing to take responsibility for this act that concerns all foreigners in Australia. The anti-terror laws have no regulations for compensation, as they seem to be designed to make anyone a terrorist, no matter how flimsy the evidence is.
Dr. Haneef isn't the first one who felt the injustice of Australia's anti-terror laws. The Barwon 13 still wait for their trial, after more than a year in solitary confinement in a high-security prison. Faheem Lodhi will spent 22 years in prison for something, that can't even be described as a thought crime. Jack Thomas, by the media prejudiced as Jihad Jack, still suffers from a constraint order, being subjected to a curfew and restrictions which means of communication he is allowed to use.
And finally, David Hicks, who was subjected to five years in American torture camps, is held as a terrorist in jail, and will enjoy a similar constraint order like Jack Thomas, once he is a "free man" again.
David Hicks, Jack Thomas and Dr. Haneef are not allowed to talk about their treatment, which would be essential to determine how Australia treats basic human rights. Human Rights Organisations consider solitary confinement as a form of torture, especially over long periods of time, and all of the former experienced this totalitarian treatment.
So much I would appreciate Philip Ruddock taking his hat for his repeated abuse of the anti-terror laws, I don't see this happen. Mick Keelty might end up to be the scapegoat, and/or Kevin Andrews, but this seems as well not too likely. However, it would satisfy my concept of justice and accountability in a democracy to see some heads rolling, though it wouldn't make up for the damage done to the victims of the witch hunt, nor would anyone pay back the taxpayers money used to pursue this paranoid trials.
Just personal responsibility could move Ruddock, Keelty or Andrews to resign, legally there is no reason. All of them can hide behind the anti-terror laws, which are the core of the problem. This legislation opened a back-door to circumvent to the rule of law, and thus can be abused by anyone in a position of power.
Although the media, especially The Age, played an important role to prevent the next innocent man being subjected to a life in prison, it is far from being innocent. Terrorists are an extremly rare breed, luckily, and the threat posed by them is far less than the threat by car accidents or suicide. However, reporting permanently about terror related topics maintains fear among the population, and the illusion of a real threat. But this paranoia is never backed up by numbers, because the numbers speak simply a different language.
I'm really curious who, if anyone, will take responsibility for this abuse of power. As mentioned, I would appreciate simply abolishing the anti-terror laws, which would automatically prevent especially Ruddock from interfering with the judiciary system.
The damage done to the life and reputation of Dr. Haneef can not be undone. He is one of 20,000 foreign physicians working in Australia (out of 50,000), and at least people from muslim backgrounds might no longer be willing to take the risk of supporting the Australian medical system.
Well done, Mr. Keelty. Well done, Mr. Andrews. Well done, Mr. Ruddock. Well done, Mr. Howard.
Monday, 16 July 2007
Risk assessment
I got my numbers wrong in the previous posting, sorry for that. Let's do the math again.
New York, 9/11/01: 2974 casualties
Bali, 10/12/02: 202 casualties
Madrid, 3/11/04: 191 casualties
London, 7/7/05: 52 casualties
Mumbai, 7/11/06: 209 casualties
Glasgow, 6/30/07: 0 casualties
Total: 3628 victims of terror, so I should I have said far less than 5,000 people were killed by terror in this century in the western world.
According to the Food and Agriculture Administration of the UN, more than 25,000 people starve daily. The daily loss of life due to our economic system is five times higher than the death toll due to terror in the last six years.
About 2,000 to 2,500 people annually committed suicide in Australia in this millenium.
According to the Lancet study, 655,000 people were killed in Iraq from March 2003 to June 2006. Assuming a similar rate of killing for the period from July 2006 until now brings the number up to 850,000 (conservatively). The estimate of about 150,000 to 250,000 during six years of war in a country with more than 30 million population seems very conservative, however, as both areas are still war zones just estimates are possible.
The use of Depleted Uranium and daisy cutters bombs increases civilian casualties even without actual fights, intoxicates former arable land and turns farming into a deadly adventure. The website Afghanistan after Democracy gives you an idea of the mutations caused by DU (warning: very graphic images).
Although the US rulez "war on terror" killing game is far from over, it is virtually impossible to catch up for the terrorists.
Terrorists: 4,000 Governments: 1,100,000
Corporatism (death by starvation): 60,000,000
(all estimates for 21st century)
I consider myself in first place as an Earthian. The winner in this cruel game are corporative interests fostered by governments, the loser is humanity.
And all of that because of the myth of scarcity. In the height of the cold war, 1983, Richard Buckminster Fuller, the Leonardo da Vinci of the 20th century stated:
Bucky Fuller, Grunch of Giants (emphasize not in the original)
PS: I kind of feel very uneasy as international student in this country right now. The way in which Dr. Haneef is treated reminds me very much of the dark times in Germany. He is - in the view of the government, represented by Mr. Andrews - guilty by association, and while being here an temporary visa, the century old legal principle of "guilty until proven innocent" seem not to apply any more in Australia. While Ms. Payne, the judge that tried to keep up legal principles, granted him bail, because there is simply no evidence backing his alleged support of a terrorist group, the minister of immigration knows better than a judge.
This arbitrary interpretation of legal principles scares me a lot. I wouldn't be surprised, if in the near future the slogan "Don't buy at muslim shops" is propagated. It seems like the government has decided to scare skilled immigrants off. I'm used to live in a relatively free society and to speak my mind. But neither the Liberals nor Labour seem to have a problem to mix up legislative, executive and judicative powers, so that one of the basic principles of democracy, the separation of powers, has been abolished.
Martin Niemöller
I don't know whether one of you will speak out, when someone comes for me. But as long as terror paranoia can justify arbitrary decisions like in the case of Dr. Haneef, without any public outrage and severe consequences for those in government making their own rules, I feel like history is repeating. And I still doubt that 88 Australian victims in Bali justify the abolition of civil rights and centuries old legal principles.
PPS: Obviously, 2002 was the climax of terror victims from an Australian perspective. Rational Fear provides data as it was collected by the World Health Organisation. For your convenience, I pulled the data for people between 20-24 for this year to help you a bit in your personal risk assessment.
In 2002 in Australia the leading causes of death for men in that age group were:
1. 84 (0.012%) deaths from:
* Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation and suffocation - Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation and suffocation, unspecified place (X709)
2. 48 (0.007%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object - Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object, driver, traffic accident (V475)
3. 18 (0.003%) deaths from:
* Accidental poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances - Accidental poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances, unspecified place (X449)
4. 17 (0.003%) deaths from:
* Pedestrian injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van - Pedestrian injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van, traffic accident (V031)
5. 17 (0.003%) deaths from:
* Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other gases and vapours - Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other gases and vapours, unspecified place (X679)
6. 15 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Accidental poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucinogens], not elsewhere classified - Accidental poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucinogens], not elsewhere classified, unspecified place (X429)
7. 14 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van - Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van, driver, traffic accident (V435)
8. 13 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with heavy transport vehicle or bus - Car occupant injured in collision with heavy transport vehicle or bus, driver, traffic accident (V445)
9. 12 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object - Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object, passenger, traffic accident (V476)
In 2002 in Australia the leading causes of death for women in that age group were:
1. 14 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation and suffocation - Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation and suffocation, unspecified place (X709)
2. 8 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van - Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van, driver, traffic accident (V435)
3. 7 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object - Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object, driver, traffic accident (V475)
4. 6 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Myeloid leukaemia - Acute myeloid leukaemia (C920)
5. 6 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Accidental poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances - Accidental poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances, unspecified place (X449)
6. 5 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van - Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van, passenger, traffic accident (V436)
7. 5 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with heavy transport vehicle or bus - Car occupant injured in collision with heavy transport vehicle or bus, driver, traffic accident (V445)
8. 5 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object - Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object, passenger, traffic accident (V476)
I'm very tempted to kindly ask the next one, who wants to remind me of the threat that terrorism poses, to commit suicide. The age group 40-44 which pushes suicide to the second place (for males), but just because the counting distinguishes between different methods of suicide. Once you made it to 55, the suicidal tendencies decrease. Women tend to be less suicidal, but it's still the primary reaper for females between 15 and 30.
New York, 9/11/01: 2974 casualties
Bali, 10/12/02: 202 casualties
Madrid, 3/11/04: 191 casualties
London, 7/7/05: 52 casualties
Mumbai, 7/11/06: 209 casualties
Glasgow, 6/30/07: 0 casualties
Total: 3628 victims of terror, so I should I have said far less than 5,000 people were killed by terror in this century in the western world.
According to the Food and Agriculture Administration of the UN, more than 25,000 people starve daily. The daily loss of life due to our economic system is five times higher than the death toll due to terror in the last six years.
About 2,000 to 2,500 people annually committed suicide in Australia in this millenium.
According to the Lancet study, 655,000 people were killed in Iraq from March 2003 to June 2006. Assuming a similar rate of killing for the period from July 2006 until now brings the number up to 850,000 (conservatively). The estimate of about 150,000 to 250,000 during six years of war in a country with more than 30 million population seems very conservative, however, as both areas are still war zones just estimates are possible.
The use of Depleted Uranium and daisy cutters bombs increases civilian casualties even without actual fights, intoxicates former arable land and turns farming into a deadly adventure. The website Afghanistan after Democracy gives you an idea of the mutations caused by DU (warning: very graphic images).
Although the US rulez "war on terror" killing game is far from over, it is virtually impossible to catch up for the terrorists.
Terrorists: 4,000 Governments: 1,100,000
Corporatism (death by starvation): 60,000,000
(all estimates for 21st century)
I consider myself in first place as an Earthian. The winner in this cruel game are corporative interests fostered by governments, the loser is humanity.
And all of that because of the myth of scarcity. In the height of the cold war, 1983, Richard Buckminster Fuller, the Leonardo da Vinci of the 20th century stated:
In 1970 it could, for the time, be engineeringly demonstrated that, applying the most advanced know-how to the conservation and use of the world's resources, we can, within ten years of from-killigry-to-livingry reoriented world production, have all humanity enjoying a sustainably higher standard of living than any humans have ever heretofore experienced. It could be further demonstrated that we can do this while simultaneously phasing out all further Earthians' use of fossil fuels and atomic energy.
Bucky Fuller, Grunch of Giants (emphasize not in the original)
PS: I kind of feel very uneasy as international student in this country right now. The way in which Dr. Haneef is treated reminds me very much of the dark times in Germany. He is - in the view of the government, represented by Mr. Andrews - guilty by association, and while being here an temporary visa, the century old legal principle of "guilty until proven innocent" seem not to apply any more in Australia. While Ms. Payne, the judge that tried to keep up legal principles, granted him bail, because there is simply no evidence backing his alleged support of a terrorist group, the minister of immigration knows better than a judge.
This arbitrary interpretation of legal principles scares me a lot. I wouldn't be surprised, if in the near future the slogan "Don't buy at muslim shops" is propagated. It seems like the government has decided to scare skilled immigrants off. I'm used to live in a relatively free society and to speak my mind. But neither the Liberals nor Labour seem to have a problem to mix up legislative, executive and judicative powers, so that one of the basic principles of democracy, the separation of powers, has been abolished.
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Martin Niemöller
I don't know whether one of you will speak out, when someone comes for me. But as long as terror paranoia can justify arbitrary decisions like in the case of Dr. Haneef, without any public outrage and severe consequences for those in government making their own rules, I feel like history is repeating. And I still doubt that 88 Australian victims in Bali justify the abolition of civil rights and centuries old legal principles.
PPS: Obviously, 2002 was the climax of terror victims from an Australian perspective. Rational Fear provides data as it was collected by the World Health Organisation. For your convenience, I pulled the data for people between 20-24 for this year to help you a bit in your personal risk assessment.
In 2002 in Australia the leading causes of death for men in that age group were:
1. 84 (0.012%) deaths from:
* Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation and suffocation - Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation and suffocation, unspecified place (X709)
2. 48 (0.007%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object - Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object, driver, traffic accident (V475)
3. 18 (0.003%) deaths from:
* Accidental poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances - Accidental poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances, unspecified place (X449)
4. 17 (0.003%) deaths from:
* Pedestrian injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van - Pedestrian injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van, traffic accident (V031)
5. 17 (0.003%) deaths from:
* Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other gases and vapours - Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other gases and vapours, unspecified place (X679)
6. 15 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Accidental poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucinogens], not elsewhere classified - Accidental poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucinogens], not elsewhere classified, unspecified place (X429)
7. 14 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van - Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van, driver, traffic accident (V435)
8. 13 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with heavy transport vehicle or bus - Car occupant injured in collision with heavy transport vehicle or bus, driver, traffic accident (V445)
9. 12 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object - Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object, passenger, traffic accident (V476)
In 2002 in Australia the leading causes of death for women in that age group were:
1. 14 (0.002%) deaths from:
* Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation and suffocation - Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation and suffocation, unspecified place (X709)
2. 8 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van - Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van, driver, traffic accident (V435)
3. 7 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object - Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object, driver, traffic accident (V475)
4. 6 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Myeloid leukaemia - Acute myeloid leukaemia (C920)
5. 6 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Accidental poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances - Accidental poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances, unspecified place (X449)
6. 5 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van - Car occupant injured in collision with car, pick-up truck or van, passenger, traffic accident (V436)
7. 5 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with heavy transport vehicle or bus - Car occupant injured in collision with heavy transport vehicle or bus, driver, traffic accident (V445)
8. 5 (0.001%) deaths from:
* Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object - Car occupant injured in collision with fixed or stationary object, passenger, traffic accident (V476)
I'm very tempted to kindly ask the next one, who wants to remind me of the threat that terrorism poses, to commit suicide. The age group 40-44 which pushes suicide to the second place (for males), but just because the counting distinguishes between different methods of suicide. Once you made it to 55, the suicidal tendencies decrease. Women tend to be less suicidal, but it's still the primary reaper for females between 15 and 30.
Friday, 13 July 2007
Let's hear some experts
Most of the club members are well aware that I don't believe the official myth of 911. And I'm well aware that some of you are pretty annoyed whenever I bring up the topic, while others happily use my different opinion on that matter for ad hominem attacks and put the tinfoil hat of a conspiracy nut on my head.
However, I feel mature enough to stand the heat and not to give in to peer pressure. Especially as I don't spread any particular conspiracy theory, but ask for explanations of physical phenomena that insult my understanding of basic principles of science.
One of the key issues remains the question why and how the trade center building 1, 2 and 7 collapsed. The most intelligent reply I heard about this topic asked for some statements by engineers (thanks, Sophie), which might have a better idea about structural integrity of building, and the ways and reasons why buildings might collapse.
A lot of literature has been published about 911, and you might happily say by conspiracy nuts to make a big buck. But it when comes to making money out of 911 other names come to my mind. Larry Silverstein for example, the lease holder of the WTC complex made several billion dollars just a few months after signing the lease contract for the buildings. Or Halliburton, which overcharged the US government for the ongoing occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, but remains a primary supplier for the US army.
And probably you'll think it's just a publicity stunt, when celebrities like Charlie Sheen or Rosie O'Donnell raise their doubts about the official story. They lack - just like me - the professional credibility assumed by anyone the media calls expert.
Yet some experts use their knowledge to investigate on their own, with the little evidence that is left since most of debris of the collapsed buildings was sold off as scrap metal to China. Pr. Steven Jones, physicist, got hold of samples from the debris of the WTC, and found in it the chemical signature of thermate, an explosive used for controlled demolitions.
Richard Gage, an architect that designs steel-framed highrisers, held a lecture at the Sonoma State University to explain why he came to the conclusion that the buildings WTC1, WTC2 and WTC7 were brought down in a controlled demolition. You can find the link to the presentation on the left side of the "Architects and engineers for 9/11 truth" website, and although the quality of the video is not too stunning, it is well worth watching. For a quick fix in better quality check the the first part of the lecture held in Canada.
The chairman and final editor of the 911 commission report, Philip Zelikow, is not only a participant of the occult Bilderberg meetings and co-author of a book with Condoleeza Rice (and thus not really "independent from the government"), but also, according to Wikipedia, an expert for the creation of public myth. Decide for yourself who might be more competent to explain why fire can or cannot destroy a huge steel construction in a neat, symmetrical fashion.
So for those of you who want to hear some expert opinion about the collapse of the World Trade Center building, have a look at the Architects and engineers for 9/11 truth or Scholars for 911 Truth website, before you refrain to the next unsophisticated ad hominem attack when I mention this topic.
You may wonder why I bring up 911 so persistently, which is easy to answer. 911 is used as a general excuse for abolition of civil rights world wide and the murder of about a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Australia will spend 10 billion dollar on its "war on terror" in the next 5 years (according to The Age), which resembles more and more the endless war described in Orwell's 1984.
I think its absurd to claim to live in a civilised society when more tax payers money is spend on war than on education or health. Unless you buy into the doublespeak idea that citizen are civilians, which can be bossed around like the Aboriginal communities by the army.
We study at one of the most prestigious universities of the world, which implies that we will (possibly) earn better wages and therefore pay more taxes than average Joe. This means we contribute more to support governmentally initiated murder.
Less than 10,000 people were killed by terror in the 21th century in the western world (none in Australia), whereas western governments killed about a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan. And historically seen, most governments abused their population at will. Full suffrage for all citizens just happened in the 20th century, in Australia less than 50 years ago. Good luck in numbing your conscience with luxury and trusting the government.
However, I feel mature enough to stand the heat and not to give in to peer pressure. Especially as I don't spread any particular conspiracy theory, but ask for explanations of physical phenomena that insult my understanding of basic principles of science.
One of the key issues remains the question why and how the trade center building 1, 2 and 7 collapsed. The most intelligent reply I heard about this topic asked for some statements by engineers (thanks, Sophie), which might have a better idea about structural integrity of building, and the ways and reasons why buildings might collapse.
A lot of literature has been published about 911, and you might happily say by conspiracy nuts to make a big buck. But it when comes to making money out of 911 other names come to my mind. Larry Silverstein for example, the lease holder of the WTC complex made several billion dollars just a few months after signing the lease contract for the buildings. Or Halliburton, which overcharged the US government for the ongoing occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, but remains a primary supplier for the US army.
And probably you'll think it's just a publicity stunt, when celebrities like Charlie Sheen or Rosie O'Donnell raise their doubts about the official story. They lack - just like me - the professional credibility assumed by anyone the media calls expert.
Yet some experts use their knowledge to investigate on their own, with the little evidence that is left since most of debris of the collapsed buildings was sold off as scrap metal to China. Pr. Steven Jones, physicist, got hold of samples from the debris of the WTC, and found in it the chemical signature of thermate, an explosive used for controlled demolitions.
Richard Gage, an architect that designs steel-framed highrisers, held a lecture at the Sonoma State University to explain why he came to the conclusion that the buildings WTC1, WTC2 and WTC7 were brought down in a controlled demolition. You can find the link to the presentation on the left side of the "Architects and engineers for 9/11 truth" website, and although the quality of the video is not too stunning, it is well worth watching. For a quick fix in better quality check the the first part of the lecture held in Canada.
The chairman and final editor of the 911 commission report, Philip Zelikow, is not only a participant of the occult Bilderberg meetings and co-author of a book with Condoleeza Rice (and thus not really "independent from the government"), but also, according to Wikipedia, an expert for the creation of public myth. Decide for yourself who might be more competent to explain why fire can or cannot destroy a huge steel construction in a neat, symmetrical fashion.
So for those of you who want to hear some expert opinion about the collapse of the World Trade Center building, have a look at the Architects and engineers for 9/11 truth or Scholars for 911 Truth website, before you refrain to the next unsophisticated ad hominem attack when I mention this topic.
You may wonder why I bring up 911 so persistently, which is easy to answer. 911 is used as a general excuse for abolition of civil rights world wide and the murder of about a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Australia will spend 10 billion dollar on its "war on terror" in the next 5 years (according to The Age), which resembles more and more the endless war described in Orwell's 1984.
I think its absurd to claim to live in a civilised society when more tax payers money is spend on war than on education or health. Unless you buy into the doublespeak idea that citizen are civilians, which can be bossed around like the Aboriginal communities by the army.
We study at one of the most prestigious universities of the world, which implies that we will (possibly) earn better wages and therefore pay more taxes than average Joe. This means we contribute more to support governmentally initiated murder.
Less than 10,000 people were killed by terror in the 21th century in the western world (none in Australia), whereas western governments killed about a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan. And historically seen, most governments abused their population at will. Full suffrage for all citizens just happened in the 20th century, in Australia less than 50 years ago. Good luck in numbing your conscience with luxury and trusting the government.
In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to Party propaganda. Once when he happened in some connection to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs that fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, "just to keep the people frightened".Orwell, 1984
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Brave new world
“I think a lot of people would be really disturbed by what’s happening. People have this rose-coloured view of Australia as a democratic country. But we are seeing measures which have more in common with the Stasi or a police state. University is a time when people traditionally question things and open up and learn about the world. That spirit of inquiry is now under threat.”
These are the words of the President of Sydney University's Student Representive Council (SRC), Angus McFarland. His SRC fellow David Jones was approached by the police to spy on his socialist activists comrades.
There's quite some socialism activism in Melbourne as well, and many are annoyed hearing and reading about the socialist world revolution. However, a closer look unveils a very non-threatening crowd. It is hard to imagine that Sydney's socialists pose more of a threat than our own.
This raises some questions. Why does the government want to prevent activism? Who is the spy among the Melbourne socialists, or is there none? Is it illegal in this country to be against consumerism, conformism and neo-liberalism?
Who much freedom is left in a country that puts you in jail for dissent?
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Never ending story
As long as there are civil rights to be taken away, the universal excuse 911 will be used. Like it happened in the last six years while about a million people were killed as retaliation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A lot of people all over this planet doubt the official account of the day that changed the world. But as long as they are just someone, most people won't listen. The list of prominent people asking for a reinvestigation of 911 gets longer.
Rosie O'Donnell lost her chance to talk about the mysterious collapse of WTC7 on the show The View, she left the show in June. The left documentarist Michael Moore joined now the ranks of those thinking that 911 could have been an inside job.
Moore mentions explosions in the World Trade Center buildings, and wonders why we haven't seen any footage from the more than 100 video cameras capturing the Pentagon. Explosions were reported by several eye witnesses, yet the most confusing eyewitness account just broke.
Jason Bermat and Dylan Avery, the heads behind Loose Change, one of the most popular Google video since its existence, chased up somebody who has been in official mission in WTC7 just after the first plane crash into the north tower of the WTC.
Parts of the interview have been prereleased on Alex Jones Prison Planet, the interviewee will remain anonymous until the final release of Loose Change, which is due later this year.
Mr. X wanted to see Mr. Guiliani in the New York City Office of Emergency Management, which was located on a fortified floor with bombproof windows on the 23rd floor of WTC 7. Just minutes after the first hit the emergency team has fled their control center in an apparent hurry.
The lifts were no longer operating, on the way down via a staircase he nearly fell into the gap ripped by an explosion. When he finally made his way into the lobby, "it looked like King Kong stepped through it and destroyed all".
Mr. X had been talking to the 911 commission, but his account was ignored in the report. Of course, you can imagine that this is nothing but a marketing scam for a long expected film. I'm quite curious which celebrity will come out of the closet after Michael Moore and this new evidence.
A lot of people all over this planet doubt the official account of the day that changed the world. But as long as they are just someone, most people won't listen. The list of prominent people asking for a reinvestigation of 911 gets longer.
Rosie O'Donnell lost her chance to talk about the mysterious collapse of WTC7 on the show The View, she left the show in June. The left documentarist Michael Moore joined now the ranks of those thinking that 911 could have been an inside job.
Moore mentions explosions in the World Trade Center buildings, and wonders why we haven't seen any footage from the more than 100 video cameras capturing the Pentagon. Explosions were reported by several eye witnesses, yet the most confusing eyewitness account just broke.
Jason Bermat and Dylan Avery, the heads behind Loose Change, one of the most popular Google video since its existence, chased up somebody who has been in official mission in WTC7 just after the first plane crash into the north tower of the WTC.
Parts of the interview have been prereleased on Alex Jones Prison Planet, the interviewee will remain anonymous until the final release of Loose Change, which is due later this year.
Mr. X wanted to see Mr. Guiliani in the New York City Office of Emergency Management, which was located on a fortified floor with bombproof windows on the 23rd floor of WTC 7. Just minutes after the first hit the emergency team has fled their control center in an apparent hurry.
The lifts were no longer operating, on the way down via a staircase he nearly fell into the gap ripped by an explosion. When he finally made his way into the lobby, "it looked like King Kong stepped through it and destroyed all".
Mr. X had been talking to the 911 commission, but his account was ignored in the report. Of course, you can imagine that this is nothing but a marketing scam for a long expected film. I'm quite curious which celebrity will come out of the closet after Michael Moore and this new evidence.
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Citizen under siege
Ed and Elaine Brown from Plainfield, New Hampshire look just just like the nice, friendly, elderly couple that they are.
The Browns believe in the American constitution, and like many others they despise the 23rd December 1913, when President Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act, which handed the privilege to print money to a handful private banks.
As a consequence the government pays the Federal Reserve to print its money and interest for the connected loans. In the US, the income tax is used to pay for the cost arising for the circulation of money, and the IRS is the muscle used to get it.
The IRS claims that the congress had given them the power to collect income tax, but according to the constitution the congress has not the power to introduce such a tax. Aaron Russo, the maker of the documentary America: From freedom to fascism took his time to investigate to strange legal situation of the income tax.
The Browns refuse to pay take income tax, because they assume that the constitution has highest legal authority. But the IRS stroke back. Their home is besieged since last week with armored vehicles, drones spy out their properties, snipers creep around their house.
Just a coincidence might have saved their lives when a SWAT team was about to move in on thursday morning. Danny Riley, a friend of the Browns, discovered the teams while walking their dog.
Electricity to the house is disrupted, phonelines disconnected and mobile phones get jammed. Several independent reporters have interviewed the Browns, while the rest of media shows no interest at all. The armoured vehicles and SWAT teams still hang around.
This style of law enforcements reminds of overly violent Hollywood movies, but not of a free society. The free American society, however, has been abolished with the Military Commission Act of 2006. The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive finally grants the American President the right to introduce martial law when he like it.
Naomi Campbell joins those concerned about the slide towards fascism in the US. Her article inspired retired judge Peter Gebhard to reflect about the shutting down of democracy in Australia.
America is well prepared for a dictatorship, Halliburton received last year a $385 million contract to build detention centers in the US. And Australia builds its own Guantanamo-like facility far out on Christmas Island.
Your vote is a valuable thing. What you say often enough becomes true. And I hope the siege of Ed and Elaine Browns home will not to be next the Waco, but so far the publicity, especially by Alex Jones radio show, has prevented anything bad happening.
The Browns believe in the American constitution, and like many others they despise the 23rd December 1913, when President Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act, which handed the privilege to print money to a handful private banks.
As a consequence the government pays the Federal Reserve to print its money and interest for the connected loans. In the US, the income tax is used to pay for the cost arising for the circulation of money, and the IRS is the muscle used to get it.
The IRS claims that the congress had given them the power to collect income tax, but according to the constitution the congress has not the power to introduce such a tax. Aaron Russo, the maker of the documentary America: From freedom to fascism took his time to investigate to strange legal situation of the income tax.
The Browns refuse to pay take income tax, because they assume that the constitution has highest legal authority. But the IRS stroke back. Their home is besieged since last week with armored vehicles, drones spy out their properties, snipers creep around their house.
Just a coincidence might have saved their lives when a SWAT team was about to move in on thursday morning. Danny Riley, a friend of the Browns, discovered the teams while walking their dog.
Electricity to the house is disrupted, phonelines disconnected and mobile phones get jammed. Several independent reporters have interviewed the Browns, while the rest of media shows no interest at all. The armoured vehicles and SWAT teams still hang around.
This style of law enforcements reminds of overly violent Hollywood movies, but not of a free society. The free American society, however, has been abolished with the Military Commission Act of 2006. The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive finally grants the American President the right to introduce martial law when he like it.
Naomi Campbell joins those concerned about the slide towards fascism in the US. Her article inspired retired judge Peter Gebhard to reflect about the shutting down of democracy in Australia.
America is well prepared for a dictatorship, Halliburton received last year a $385 million contract to build detention centers in the US. And Australia builds its own Guantanamo-like facility far out on Christmas Island.
Your vote is a valuable thing. What you say often enough becomes true. And I hope the siege of Ed and Elaine Browns home will not to be next the Waco, but so far the publicity, especially by Alex Jones radio show, has prevented anything bad happening.
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
When the elite meets
Economic summits create usually a lot of attention, both from the media and protesters. Last years G20 summit in Melbourne is a good example, like this years G8 summit in Germany, where democracy has been abolished to protect the participating politicians. Hearsay provided enough evidence for the German police for lots of unwarranted searches and arrests, the demonstrations planned for this events can't take place at the events site, but miles away from it.
German chancellor Merkel felt quite uneasy, when Putin reminded her that the way Russia deals with dissent is remarkably similar to Germanys stance towards G8 protests.
Though they are still two weeks to go before the G8 summits starts, it has raised already some attention. 146 article pop up on factiva with the keyword G8 for Australia in the last three months, yet not all of them related to the summit.
But if you search the Australian media for information about the Bilderberg group, you will find only one article, and it doesn't even mention that the next meeting of this mysterious group will take place next weekend in Istanbul, Turkey.
Is there no public interest in a meeting with the Queen of the Netherlands, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, Jean Claude Trichet, and other noteable figures from politics, and the oil-, telecommunication-, media- and banking industry?
Paul Wolfowitz was initially invited to this event, but might not attend as his reputation suffered a little lately. But his planned successor as World Bank president, Bob Zoellick will be there for sure, like in 2003 and 2006.
And Gordon Brown will be there as well, and not for the first time. Did I mention that Blair attended some Bilderberg conferences, before he was elected? Even Angela Merkel was invited in 2005, some months before the German elections.
Of course, probably the participants simply enjoy meeting up with old mates, well protected by the CIA, and exchange stories about family, food and vacation. Yet in this case the extreme secrecy about this meeting would not be neccessary.
However, participants from the media (Economist, Le Figaro, NYT to name a few insignificant ones) are obliged not to report about this event. But then, does the public has any right to know what happens behind closed doors, when the World Bank president and the head of the European Central Bank have a friendly chat with the CEOs of the biggest commercial banks?
I think there is significant public interest in this meeting. But then, I'm sure it will go relatively unnoticed by the global mass media. And you, my dear friends from the PIS, can feel free to label this post as conspiracy, and go back to sleep, dreaming about democracy.
The presidential election in the US in 2008 will show much democracy remains in the western world. If the currently most popular Republican candidate (Ron Paul, in case you didn't know) is allowed to run against Hillary, there might be hope. If it's Rudi Guiliani, the man who is responsible for the death and disease of thousands of rescue workers (he sent them knowingly unprotected in the toxic waste pit of Ground Zero), the US empire will strike even more.
German chancellor Merkel felt quite uneasy, when Putin reminded her that the way Russia deals with dissent is remarkably similar to Germanys stance towards G8 protests.
Though they are still two weeks to go before the G8 summits starts, it has raised already some attention. 146 article pop up on factiva with the keyword G8 for Australia in the last three months, yet not all of them related to the summit.
But if you search the Australian media for information about the Bilderberg group, you will find only one article, and it doesn't even mention that the next meeting of this mysterious group will take place next weekend in Istanbul, Turkey.
Is there no public interest in a meeting with the Queen of the Netherlands, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, Jean Claude Trichet, and other noteable figures from politics, and the oil-, telecommunication-, media- and banking industry?
Paul Wolfowitz was initially invited to this event, but might not attend as his reputation suffered a little lately. But his planned successor as World Bank president, Bob Zoellick will be there for sure, like in 2003 and 2006.
And Gordon Brown will be there as well, and not for the first time. Did I mention that Blair attended some Bilderberg conferences, before he was elected? Even Angela Merkel was invited in 2005, some months before the German elections.
Of course, probably the participants simply enjoy meeting up with old mates, well protected by the CIA, and exchange stories about family, food and vacation. Yet in this case the extreme secrecy about this meeting would not be neccessary.
However, participants from the media (Economist, Le Figaro, NYT to name a few insignificant ones) are obliged not to report about this event. But then, does the public has any right to know what happens behind closed doors, when the World Bank president and the head of the European Central Bank have a friendly chat with the CEOs of the biggest commercial banks?
I think there is significant public interest in this meeting. But then, I'm sure it will go relatively unnoticed by the global mass media. And you, my dear friends from the PIS, can feel free to label this post as conspiracy, and go back to sleep, dreaming about democracy.
The presidential election in the US in 2008 will show much democracy remains in the western world. If the currently most popular Republican candidate (Ron Paul, in case you didn't know) is allowed to run against Hillary, there might be hope. If it's Rudi Guiliani, the man who is responsible for the death and disease of thousands of rescue workers (he sent them knowingly unprotected in the toxic waste pit of Ground Zero), the US empire will strike even more.
Thursday, 22 March 2007
American diversity
While the American President tries again his dictatorial powers, not every American happily agrees with his follies.
One of the icons of investigate journalism, Seymour M. Hersh, asks in his article The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?
His analysis of the situation in the Middle-East, and the connection of terror groups with Vize-President Cheney's office should reap some mainstream media echo, but the media simply ignores Hersh.
Hersh broke the story about the massacres in My Lai during the Vietnam war, and build a network of contacts during his long career that makes even unnamed sources credible. His named sources include more than two sides of this complicated constellation.
Something seems to be wrong with the American government. Even talk show host Rosie O'Donnell joined the conspiracy nuts, or rather asks in her blog why WTC 7 collapsed. Besides other doubts about the latest propaganda coming out of Brain-Washington.
And again, mainstream media doesn't care, besides labeling her as insane. Instead of no longer trusting the government, most people decide to rather no longer trust their neighbour. Terror(tm) is per definition linked with islamic fundamentalism, and to assume that the CIA or even Cheney financed these groups.... is a thought crime.
That doesn't stop talk radio host Alex Jones in his aerial info war. He fights tyranny where ever he can find it, and that's in a lot of places. Paul Watson's take on the Khalid Sheik Mohammed confession offers a good insight of the mysterious world of government sponsored terrorism.
It looks like activism is rising again. Maybe we don't live yet in a world as happy and sterile as our daily soaps suggest. Government seems out of control, but some people still believe in a better world for all human beings, even though they have the 21st century motherf***er blues.
PS: I didn't want to end this posting with a nasty word, so I'd rather plug the dytopian article Survival At The Pleasure Of The President.
One of the icons of investigate journalism, Seymour M. Hersh, asks in his article The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?
His analysis of the situation in the Middle-East, and the connection of terror groups with Vize-President Cheney's office should reap some mainstream media echo, but the media simply ignores Hersh.
Hersh broke the story about the massacres in My Lai during the Vietnam war, and build a network of contacts during his long career that makes even unnamed sources credible. His named sources include more than two sides of this complicated constellation.
Something seems to be wrong with the American government. Even talk show host Rosie O'Donnell joined the conspiracy nuts, or rather asks in her blog why WTC 7 collapsed. Besides other doubts about the latest propaganda coming out of Brain-Washington.
And again, mainstream media doesn't care, besides labeling her as insane. Instead of no longer trusting the government, most people decide to rather no longer trust their neighbour. Terror(tm) is per definition linked with islamic fundamentalism, and to assume that the CIA or even Cheney financed these groups.... is a thought crime.
That doesn't stop talk radio host Alex Jones in his aerial info war. He fights tyranny where ever he can find it, and that's in a lot of places. Paul Watson's take on the Khalid Sheik Mohammed confession offers a good insight of the mysterious world of government sponsored terrorism.
It looks like activism is rising again. Maybe we don't live yet in a world as happy and sterile as our daily soaps suggest. Government seems out of control, but some people still believe in a better world for all human beings, even though they have the 21st century motherf***er blues.
PS: I didn't want to end this posting with a nasty word, so I'd rather plug the dytopian article Survival At The Pleasure Of The President.
Friday, 9 March 2007
Clash of fundamentalism
Not everyone agrees with Huntington's idea of the Clash of Civilisations. The British author Tariq Ali rather calls the current situation Clash of Fundamentalism, and his analysis about the diversity and history of the Muslim communities world wide, and its parallels in the Christian world provides probably a better background to the Middle-East conflict than the daily news yarn.
But not matter how you call this historic (or hysteric) era we live in, Islamophobia is noticeable even in multicultural Australia, and undoubtedly people in Afghanistan and Iraq won't embrace the attempt to mold their societies after the American ideal of freedom and democracy.
Politicians seems to have failed to find a peaceful solution to this conflict, but maybe people can have their voices heard if they unite. Online petitions become more and more popular, and personally I like the petition to Stop the clash of civilisations .
Of course I don't assume that this idea is endorsed by the PIS, but maybe some of you feel inclined to do a little bit more than nothing, and have at least a look at the compelling video accompanying this petition.
But not matter how you call this historic (or hysteric) era we live in, Islamophobia is noticeable even in multicultural Australia, and undoubtedly people in Afghanistan and Iraq won't embrace the attempt to mold their societies after the American ideal of freedom and democracy.
Politicians seems to have failed to find a peaceful solution to this conflict, but maybe people can have their voices heard if they unite. Online petitions become more and more popular, and personally I like the petition to Stop the clash of civilisations .
Of course I don't assume that this idea is endorsed by the PIS, but maybe some of you feel inclined to do a little bit more than nothing, and have at least a look at the compelling video accompanying this petition.
Wednesday, 28 February 2007
Global Warming - Global Conspiracy?
When I checked news from good old Germany I stumbled across a discussion about global warming. The discussion was sparked off by an article comparing global warming sceptics with creationists. The strategies seem indeed similar, the sceptics will find some convincing specialist on internet, whose genius unveils that the 450 scientists working for the IPCC are nothing but fools.
The arguments of the Global Warming Deniers sound nearly religious: Man is not important enough and too impotent to influence our climate. Global Warming is just a hoax devised by big companies to make more money from the little man.
Now that's what I would call a great conspiracy theory. Manipulating climatologists, oceanologists, metereologists, geologists and physists worldwide to spread the evil lie of Human Caused Global Warming. I just wonder which global player would profit from a change toward more environmental friendly policies. And I wonder if I can ever get paranoid enough to believe somebody would push scientist all over the planet into 'Faking it'.
A reduction in CO2 emission could harm some businesses though, those producing and dealing with the commodity oil. Though they might already plan an exit strategy for their core business (Shell and BP research a lot into photovoltaic technology), the oil giants have some vital interesting that the consumption (and pollution) patterns of oil don't drastically change. But maybe that's just another conspiracy theory.
Some of the posting I read were simply hilarious, but I was amazed how some of GW-sceptics referred to their pseudo-scientific single sources on the internet. One article, written by a German physicist, sounded quite convincing, but luckily I found a reply to his yarn. A Professor Rahmsdorf, who works for the IPCC, managed to rebut his arguments with sufficient foundation, while being very comprehendable.
Stefan Rahmsdorf, oceanologist and member of the German Advisory Counsil on Global Change, published as well an interesting essay about the strategies of The Climate Sceptics. It deals with their primary pseudoscientific arguments and critics, and serves as a good example how to deal with dogmatic attitudes about the Unspeak expression 'Climate Change'.
The arguments of the Global Warming Deniers sound nearly religious: Man is not important enough and too impotent to influence our climate. Global Warming is just a hoax devised by big companies to make more money from the little man.
Now that's what I would call a great conspiracy theory. Manipulating climatologists, oceanologists, metereologists, geologists and physists worldwide to spread the evil lie of Human Caused Global Warming. I just wonder which global player would profit from a change toward more environmental friendly policies. And I wonder if I can ever get paranoid enough to believe somebody would push scientist all over the planet into 'Faking it'.
A reduction in CO2 emission could harm some businesses though, those producing and dealing with the commodity oil. Though they might already plan an exit strategy for their core business (Shell and BP research a lot into photovoltaic technology), the oil giants have some vital interesting that the consumption (and pollution) patterns of oil don't drastically change. But maybe that's just another conspiracy theory.
Some of the posting I read were simply hilarious, but I was amazed how some of GW-sceptics referred to their pseudo-scientific single sources on the internet. One article, written by a German physicist, sounded quite convincing, but luckily I found a reply to his yarn. A Professor Rahmsdorf, who works for the IPCC, managed to rebut his arguments with sufficient foundation, while being very comprehendable.
Stefan Rahmsdorf, oceanologist and member of the German Advisory Counsil on Global Change, published as well an interesting essay about the strategies of The Climate Sceptics. It deals with their primary pseudoscientific arguments and critics, and serves as a good example how to deal with dogmatic attitudes about the Unspeak expression 'Climate Change'.
Tuesday, 23 January 2007
Listening Tour
One day in December, Kevin Rudd and I went to Queensland. Somewhere in the clouds after leaving Canberra and Melbourne, respectively, the newly elected Opposition Leader and I, in anticipation of landing, each turned back the clock. Watches and mobiles reconfigured for the absence of daylight savings time, we were both ready to land.
Rudd, with entourage, was going to Brisbane to begin his ‘listening tour’ in the state Labor must make inroads in at the next election. I, with entourage, set off by hire-car to the caravan park at Mon Repos Beach, north of Bundaberg, site of a sea turtle rookery, for a more typical tour. At 6.45 pm, according to my watch, it was getting dark. I stood surveying the place, the tents and caravans and cabins behind me, the beachside national-park ahead, irritated by Queensland recalcitrance on time, envying Rudd his Brisbane electricity.
‘Yeah, I been comin’ here forty years’, said Les, suddenly next to me. He was maybe 60, grey-haired, grey-stubbled. ‘Up from, ah, Maryborough’.
‘Yeah?…’ I said. Les stood with his arms folded staring out at the ghostly line of white waves in the blue-blackness to the east.
‘…It seems like there are a lot of places to see round here’, I said. ‘You don’t go to the Sunshine Coast or Fraser Island some years?’
‘Nah’, said Les. ‘…Nah, this place is good. Quiet. Beach for the kids. Good showers and all that’. He looked around. ‘Don’t fix what ain’t broke, y’know?’
I said, ‘We’re just up from Melbourne. Came here to see the turtles come up to the beach’.
‘Melbourne?’ Les said. ‘Ah yeah…Yeah, the kids scare ‘em off a lot of the time, the turtles, goin’ on the beach just before dark. They ban people from the beach after six o’clock, but…’
That was news to me. ‘They should really put up signs or have rangers around or something at that time. There were people all over the beach before’.
‘…Yeah’, he said, carefully and somewhat suspiciously considering my proposed change. ‘Maybe…’.
I discreetly analysed my new acquaintance. Probably his group, like mine, had left the lantern home and so couldn’t play Uno. And as he was a Queenslander, I figured I was very probably in the presence of a "Beattie-Howard voter". For ten years of elections, Queenslanders have opted for the combination of a John Howard federal government and a Peter Beattie state government.
Les, too, was watching me with an analytical gaze.
I said, ‘After this we’re gunna go down to Hervey Bay’.
‘Hervey Bay’s bloody horrible, said Les. ‘All developed. Was good once. We was there in ‘74. Wasn’t bad then,’ he said, pausing meditatively. ‘But ah, no, not anymore’.
We stood in silence, bar the rasping bush heartbeat of the crickets.
‘But this place’, said Les. ‘This place hasn’t changed. See, in the eighties they, ah, wanted to develop this whole stretch. Big complex right on the beach. Make it like Noosa. But those turtles, they can’t have artificial lights. Screws ‘em up somehow, I dunno exactly how, but, yeah, it does. So there was this huge fight, dragged on for years, and in the end they banned any sort of development, ‘cept for this caravan park, ‘cos it’s been here forever and it don’t interfere that much’.
Except that, surely, Mon Repos had changed in forty years. An hour ago I had strolled about, in the last of the light. An asphalt road that looked newly paved was bordered on one side by a sugarcane plantation, sprinklers chugging water over the green stalks. The road was dotted with flattened corpses of cane toads.
I inched Les towards the subject of politics.
‘Well, I liked Hawke until that thing with the air-traffic controllers. When he sacked the air-traffic controllers, well, that did it for me, I couldn’t vote for him again’.
I asked what he thought of Keating.
‘Keating! Him and the bloody Indonesians! Keating and Suharto were bloody buddies for Christ’s sake. The Indonesians don’t like us, don’t respect us; and Keating was just falling over himself to please ‘em. He had’ve won again we’d all be eatin’ with chopsticks’.
Whitlam?
‘Whitlam! He was just a fool. Just ploughed ahead with any change he could think of. Didn’t matter to him if it was good change or not or what else it stuffed up. And he didn’t explain half of it to his own Guvvamunt, let alone the rest of us’.
The inner-city Sydney-Melbourne perspective tends to see the Howard Government steadily eroding the painstakingly-formed mountain of progress, whether whittling away one hundred years of industrial relations safeguards through WorkChoices, or eight hundred years of the rule of law in its attitude to David Hicks. But another perspective, common in Queensland, is that it is ‘progress’ which is eroding the world as they like it.
I hoped that, down in Brisbane with his electricity, the new Labor leader, as he enjoyed drinks with Queenslanders (or, for all I know, played Uno with them), was receiving a similar serve. Les doesn’t mourn the ghosts of Labor past: one who didn’t see a need to announce his economic policy at an election prior to implementation; another who hardly bothered to explain and justify dictator-coddling to the electorate; another who crashed through with all the subtlety of the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil, and to hell with any collateral damage.
Too often, the ALP gives the impression of not realising, first, that not all change is inherently good, and second, that change should be articulated and explained to Maryborough. For too many, the Labor Party and its policy initiatives seem like legislative cane-toads hopping brazenly into backyards.
Howard, and also Beattie, buck the trend in the minds of many – in Les’s words, they’re ‘Alright’ – and are rewarded with the caravan park vote.
My watch said seven thirty. The sky was black, aside from pinpricks of stars. Almost time to go turtle-spotting. I said to Les, ‘What’s with this no daylight saving up here?’
Les said, ‘Mm. Yeah. Well, there have been referendums on it.’
‘Have there?’ I said.
‘Yeah. Beattie said just the other day, he reckons he’ll hold another vote on it soon’.
‘Really?’ I said.
‘Personally I think it’s a good idea’, he said.
‘Really?’ I said.
‘Well, yeah. Ya have daylight saving, ya get home from work, ya get an extra hour of light to, y’know, do the garden or whatever. Seems a good idea to me’.
‘So you’d support it if it were put to a vote?’ I asked him.
‘Well…’ he said. ‘I’d certainly consider it’.
Rudd, who is a Queenslander, even though he has taken to adjusting his watch in October and again in March, is a good candidate to perform a very necessary task, to reconcile the literal and metaphorical time difference between the states and peoples of Australia. If he achieved nothing else of consequence in government, it would in itself make him a successful Prime Minister; and it could serve as a useful platform for Rudd Labor to bring about permanent and popular-mandated change.
If he never becomes Prime Minister, Rudd will be a useful Labor leader if he makes the federal party realise that their long period in opposition is partly their own fault. Adolescent romantics aside, it is probably more sensible to ensure you will actually crash through and not simply crash. And, when skiing downhill, a full set of skis and poles are generally preferable.
Rudd may find inspiration from Les’s choice for State Parliament. Peter Beattie, member of a new generation of less tub-thumping Labor leaders at Premier’s desks, has paved the way to reconciling change-mongering with ‘relaxed and comfortable’, reconciling Les with the latte set, and maybe soon, Queensland with daylight saving.
In thongs we walked to the beach and joined the rangers, me with my tertiary-educated posse, Les with his grand-daughter. My watch and Les’s both said 10pm. It felt to me like 11, but as we all loitered and shivered on the deserted beach, awaiting prehistoric reptiles to materialise from the crashing waves, the clock’s importance faded. The wind whistled; the surf hissed; the moon was full. The hillside was pitch-black, development-free, just the way the turtles from South America, and Les from Maryborough – and I – liked it. Then, digging her flippers into the wet sand, humping awkwardly up the beach, was a green sea turtle.
The Queensland State Government has implemented a useful change at Mon Repos. A short way up the black hillside, behind the grassy sand-dunes, there is a tiny light. Without disturbing the turtles, it shows people, in the dark, the path to the caravan park. It is the light on the hill.
Rudd, with entourage, was going to Brisbane to begin his ‘listening tour’ in the state Labor must make inroads in at the next election. I, with entourage, set off by hire-car to the caravan park at Mon Repos Beach, north of Bundaberg, site of a sea turtle rookery, for a more typical tour. At 6.45 pm, according to my watch, it was getting dark. I stood surveying the place, the tents and caravans and cabins behind me, the beachside national-park ahead, irritated by Queensland recalcitrance on time, envying Rudd his Brisbane electricity.
‘Yeah, I been comin’ here forty years’, said Les, suddenly next to me. He was maybe 60, grey-haired, grey-stubbled. ‘Up from, ah, Maryborough’.
‘Yeah?…’ I said. Les stood with his arms folded staring out at the ghostly line of white waves in the blue-blackness to the east.
‘…It seems like there are a lot of places to see round here’, I said. ‘You don’t go to the Sunshine Coast or Fraser Island some years?’
‘Nah’, said Les. ‘…Nah, this place is good. Quiet. Beach for the kids. Good showers and all that’. He looked around. ‘Don’t fix what ain’t broke, y’know?’
I said, ‘We’re just up from Melbourne. Came here to see the turtles come up to the beach’.
‘Melbourne?’ Les said. ‘Ah yeah…Yeah, the kids scare ‘em off a lot of the time, the turtles, goin’ on the beach just before dark. They ban people from the beach after six o’clock, but…’
That was news to me. ‘They should really put up signs or have rangers around or something at that time. There were people all over the beach before’.
‘…Yeah’, he said, carefully and somewhat suspiciously considering my proposed change. ‘Maybe…’.
I discreetly analysed my new acquaintance. Probably his group, like mine, had left the lantern home and so couldn’t play Uno. And as he was a Queenslander, I figured I was very probably in the presence of a "Beattie-Howard voter". For ten years of elections, Queenslanders have opted for the combination of a John Howard federal government and a Peter Beattie state government.
Les, too, was watching me with an analytical gaze.
I said, ‘After this we’re gunna go down to Hervey Bay’.
‘Hervey Bay’s bloody horrible, said Les. ‘All developed. Was good once. We was there in ‘74. Wasn’t bad then,’ he said, pausing meditatively. ‘But ah, no, not anymore’.
We stood in silence, bar the rasping bush heartbeat of the crickets.
‘But this place’, said Les. ‘This place hasn’t changed. See, in the eighties they, ah, wanted to develop this whole stretch. Big complex right on the beach. Make it like Noosa. But those turtles, they can’t have artificial lights. Screws ‘em up somehow, I dunno exactly how, but, yeah, it does. So there was this huge fight, dragged on for years, and in the end they banned any sort of development, ‘cept for this caravan park, ‘cos it’s been here forever and it don’t interfere that much’.
Except that, surely, Mon Repos had changed in forty years. An hour ago I had strolled about, in the last of the light. An asphalt road that looked newly paved was bordered on one side by a sugarcane plantation, sprinklers chugging water over the green stalks. The road was dotted with flattened corpses of cane toads.
I inched Les towards the subject of politics.
‘Well, I liked Hawke until that thing with the air-traffic controllers. When he sacked the air-traffic controllers, well, that did it for me, I couldn’t vote for him again’.
I asked what he thought of Keating.
‘Keating! Him and the bloody Indonesians! Keating and Suharto were bloody buddies for Christ’s sake. The Indonesians don’t like us, don’t respect us; and Keating was just falling over himself to please ‘em. He had’ve won again we’d all be eatin’ with chopsticks’.
Whitlam?
‘Whitlam! He was just a fool. Just ploughed ahead with any change he could think of. Didn’t matter to him if it was good change or not or what else it stuffed up. And he didn’t explain half of it to his own Guvvamunt, let alone the rest of us’.
The inner-city Sydney-Melbourne perspective tends to see the Howard Government steadily eroding the painstakingly-formed mountain of progress, whether whittling away one hundred years of industrial relations safeguards through WorkChoices, or eight hundred years of the rule of law in its attitude to David Hicks. But another perspective, common in Queensland, is that it is ‘progress’ which is eroding the world as they like it.
I hoped that, down in Brisbane with his electricity, the new Labor leader, as he enjoyed drinks with Queenslanders (or, for all I know, played Uno with them), was receiving a similar serve. Les doesn’t mourn the ghosts of Labor past: one who didn’t see a need to announce his economic policy at an election prior to implementation; another who hardly bothered to explain and justify dictator-coddling to the electorate; another who crashed through with all the subtlety of the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil, and to hell with any collateral damage.
Too often, the ALP gives the impression of not realising, first, that not all change is inherently good, and second, that change should be articulated and explained to Maryborough. For too many, the Labor Party and its policy initiatives seem like legislative cane-toads hopping brazenly into backyards.
Howard, and also Beattie, buck the trend in the minds of many – in Les’s words, they’re ‘Alright’ – and are rewarded with the caravan park vote.
My watch said seven thirty. The sky was black, aside from pinpricks of stars. Almost time to go turtle-spotting. I said to Les, ‘What’s with this no daylight saving up here?’
Les said, ‘Mm. Yeah. Well, there have been referendums on it.’
‘Have there?’ I said.
‘Yeah. Beattie said just the other day, he reckons he’ll hold another vote on it soon’.
‘Really?’ I said.
‘Personally I think it’s a good idea’, he said.
‘Really?’ I said.
‘Well, yeah. Ya have daylight saving, ya get home from work, ya get an extra hour of light to, y’know, do the garden or whatever. Seems a good idea to me’.
‘So you’d support it if it were put to a vote?’ I asked him.
‘Well…’ he said. ‘I’d certainly consider it’.
Rudd, who is a Queenslander, even though he has taken to adjusting his watch in October and again in March, is a good candidate to perform a very necessary task, to reconcile the literal and metaphorical time difference between the states and peoples of Australia. If he achieved nothing else of consequence in government, it would in itself make him a successful Prime Minister; and it could serve as a useful platform for Rudd Labor to bring about permanent and popular-mandated change.
If he never becomes Prime Minister, Rudd will be a useful Labor leader if he makes the federal party realise that their long period in opposition is partly their own fault. Adolescent romantics aside, it is probably more sensible to ensure you will actually crash through and not simply crash. And, when skiing downhill, a full set of skis and poles are generally preferable.
Rudd may find inspiration from Les’s choice for State Parliament. Peter Beattie, member of a new generation of less tub-thumping Labor leaders at Premier’s desks, has paved the way to reconciling change-mongering with ‘relaxed and comfortable’, reconciling Les with the latte set, and maybe soon, Queensland with daylight saving.
In thongs we walked to the beach and joined the rangers, me with my tertiary-educated posse, Les with his grand-daughter. My watch and Les’s both said 10pm. It felt to me like 11, but as we all loitered and shivered on the deserted beach, awaiting prehistoric reptiles to materialise from the crashing waves, the clock’s importance faded. The wind whistled; the surf hissed; the moon was full. The hillside was pitch-black, development-free, just the way the turtles from South America, and Les from Maryborough – and I – liked it. Then, digging her flippers into the wet sand, humping awkwardly up the beach, was a green sea turtle.
The Queensland State Government has implemented a useful change at Mon Repos. A short way up the black hillside, behind the grassy sand-dunes, there is a tiny light. Without disturbing the turtles, it shows people, in the dark, the path to the caravan park. It is the light on the hill.
Tuesday, 16 January 2007
Afghanistan - an example of democracy
The war in Iraq isn't over yet, and the US is already longer engaged there than in World War II. The 'new strategy' the of US, trying harder to do the same things that caused this disaster, has just been confirmed. Condi Rice uses all her Unspeak skills to redefine the increase of invasion troops as 'augmentation'.
Obviously, an augmented sense of reality is needed to support the American efforts for world domination. War always yields incredible suffering among innocents, and depending on the weapons the suffering might never stop.
The quagmire in Iraq distracts attention from Afghanistan, but how does Afghanistan after democracy look like? The average life expectancy is 44 years for females, 45 years for males.
Outside Kabul warlords rule the country, rape women and children, abduct children to harvest and sell their organs, and the opium trade (which was stopped by the Taliban in areas they controlled) is at an all time high, supported and organized by American military.
But besides the lack of government, which creates anomy (not anarchy) and poses the daily threat of sudden death for most Afghan people, another legacy of the 'liberation' produces a creeping genocide.
Mohammed Daud Miraki, a social scientist engaged in helping people in Afghanistan, travelled during March and April 2006 through this country and collected photographic evidence of the long-term consequences of the use of DU ammunition. Following the link to his photos is nothing for faint-hearted persons, and I wish I hadn't done this myself.
But images of such 'alien babies' will probably appear in most areas where DU ammunition was used, though not everywhere will be people caring enough to publicise them. The half life of DU is about 5 million years, and it has been used abundantly in former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, and the US forces considered using it in their Australian bases as well.
Nobody would seriously call Saddam Hussein or the Taliban just rulers of their countries. However, it is embarrassing for the Western World that it managed to worsen the life of millions of innocent people by attempting to liberate them. And whereas people from Iraq and Afghanistan could look for asylum before their countries were invaded, they will now by send back to a fast death due to chaos, lawlessness and unexploded bomblets, or a creeping death by the intoxication by DU ammunition.
Let's just continue to close our eyes and support the biggest mass murderers of the 21st century, George Bush and Tony Blair. Let us not blame John Howard and Alexander Downer for going arm in arm with them, 100 victims of the superior Australian race in Bali easily justify such horrible retribution. Or not?
PS: You can see an interview with Mohammed Daud Miraki in Alex Ansary's Outside The Box public access TV show. In case the link doesn't show up, just search for 'Outside the box #84' on Google video, unless you're afraid of alternative media.
Obviously, an augmented sense of reality is needed to support the American efforts for world domination. War always yields incredible suffering among innocents, and depending on the weapons the suffering might never stop.
The quagmire in Iraq distracts attention from Afghanistan, but how does Afghanistan after democracy look like? The average life expectancy is 44 years for females, 45 years for males.
Outside Kabul warlords rule the country, rape women and children, abduct children to harvest and sell their organs, and the opium trade (which was stopped by the Taliban in areas they controlled) is at an all time high, supported and organized by American military.
But besides the lack of government, which creates anomy (not anarchy) and poses the daily threat of sudden death for most Afghan people, another legacy of the 'liberation' produces a creeping genocide.
Mohammed Daud Miraki, a social scientist engaged in helping people in Afghanistan, travelled during March and April 2006 through this country and collected photographic evidence of the long-term consequences of the use of DU ammunition. Following the link to his photos is nothing for faint-hearted persons, and I wish I hadn't done this myself.
But images of such 'alien babies' will probably appear in most areas where DU ammunition was used, though not everywhere will be people caring enough to publicise them. The half life of DU is about 5 million years, and it has been used abundantly in former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, and the US forces considered using it in their Australian bases as well.
Nobody would seriously call Saddam Hussein or the Taliban just rulers of their countries. However, it is embarrassing for the Western World that it managed to worsen the life of millions of innocent people by attempting to liberate them. And whereas people from Iraq and Afghanistan could look for asylum before their countries were invaded, they will now by send back to a fast death due to chaos, lawlessness and unexploded bomblets, or a creeping death by the intoxication by DU ammunition.
Let's just continue to close our eyes and support the biggest mass murderers of the 21st century, George Bush and Tony Blair. Let us not blame John Howard and Alexander Downer for going arm in arm with them, 100 victims of the superior Australian race in Bali easily justify such horrible retribution. Or not?
PS: You can see an interview with Mohammed Daud Miraki in Alex Ansary's Outside The Box public access TV show. In case the link doesn't show up, just search for 'Outside the box #84' on Google video, unless you're afraid of alternative media.
Wednesday, 10 January 2007
Corporate social responsibility
The Age had an interesting article about declining sales of Australian produced cars. Due to some incompentent management decisions (neglecting the fact that more Australians favor more economical and fuel-efficient cars) their sales plummeted, and now they ask to
In 2006, the same car manufacturers axed 1000 jobs, which equals to one million dollar as bonus from the government for each slashed job. Somehow, this begging for money from the government for multinational corporations doesn't fit IMHO into the idea of free markets, a credo propagated by the Liberal Party.
On the other hand, a lot of education instutions suffer from under-funding. And as neither Holden, Ford or Toyota are Australian companies, I wonder why the government should even consider bailing out this companies, who drove themselves into problems.
A billion dollars invested in the education system might help growing an educated workforce, which isn't as much distracted from the market reality as the management of these companies obviously is.
How free is the Australian market, and can subsidies for multinational companies really do any good for Australians? There are certainly markets, where home-made products could be sold worldwide, like environmental friendly technologies that reduce CO2 emissions or alternative energy generating technologies.
But those emerging markets don't have the same lobbying power as established industries. And probably will never have, as they don't follow the paradigm of one size (of gas-guzzling status enhancing vehicles) fits all, but require providing solution that fit into local conditions.
Does corporate social responsibility mean the government has to reward incompetent managers of non-Australian (ie multi-national) companies for slashing 1,000 jobs?
pump an extra $1 billion into the car industry.
In 2006, the same car manufacturers axed 1000 jobs, which equals to one million dollar as bonus from the government for each slashed job. Somehow, this begging for money from the government for multinational corporations doesn't fit IMHO into the idea of free markets, a credo propagated by the Liberal Party.
On the other hand, a lot of education instutions suffer from under-funding. And as neither Holden, Ford or Toyota are Australian companies, I wonder why the government should even consider bailing out this companies, who drove themselves into problems.
A billion dollars invested in the education system might help growing an educated workforce, which isn't as much distracted from the market reality as the management of these companies obviously is.
How free is the Australian market, and can subsidies for multinational companies really do any good for Australians? There are certainly markets, where home-made products could be sold worldwide, like environmental friendly technologies that reduce CO2 emissions or alternative energy generating technologies.
But those emerging markets don't have the same lobbying power as established industries. And probably will never have, as they don't follow the paradigm of one size (of gas-guzzling status enhancing vehicles) fits all, but require providing solution that fit into local conditions.
Does corporate social responsibility mean the government has to reward incompetent managers of non-Australian (ie multi-national) companies for slashing 1,000 jobs?
Tuesday, 9 January 2007
Blood for oil?
Finally, Operation Iraqi Liberation, the original name for the invasion of Iraq by the Coalition of the Greedy, oops, Coalition of the Drillers, oops again, Coalition of the Willing (to sacrifice international and human rights) has shown its real purpose.
I'm not really surprised to catch the American government with yet another lie. Allegedly the most valuable resource of Iraq, oil, should help to finance the reconstruction of the devastated country. This was at least the spin from Cheney & Co to excuse incarceration of innocents in Guantanamo Bay, torture in Abu Ghraib, random slaughtering of civilians and raping of women and children by the occupation forces.
Now the puppet government in Iraq, which already had a favorable timing to sentence Saddam (just before the election) and killing him (just when about 3,000 US troops were officially killed), gave away its oil wells.
The Independent published a report detailing how the oil industry, which was nationalized in 1972, is handed over to the evil overlords, ooops, liberators of Iraq.
I wonder how long Australia will feel comfortable being in bed with the American war criminals, as all the myths that eased an Australian engagement in Iraq crumble away like castles made of sand. WMDs? No, none there. Al-Quaida connections? Not while Saddam was in power. Human rights? That's what the Military Commission Act officially got rid of, so that torturers working for the US can no longer be prosecuted.
What remains, is blatant corporate greed, and Australian soldiers, who engage in the robbery of oil in Iraq. And of course, Alex Downer, who just can't get enough of Australian involvement in this bloody, unjust occupation.
Trust your government, it wants just your best. Your blood, your life, your integrity and your money.
I'm not really surprised to catch the American government with yet another lie. Allegedly the most valuable resource of Iraq, oil, should help to finance the reconstruction of the devastated country. This was at least the spin from Cheney & Co to excuse incarceration of innocents in Guantanamo Bay, torture in Abu Ghraib, random slaughtering of civilians and raping of women and children by the occupation forces.
Now the puppet government in Iraq, which already had a favorable timing to sentence Saddam (just before the election) and killing him (just when about 3,000 US troops were officially killed), gave away its oil wells.
The Independent published a report detailing how the oil industry, which was nationalized in 1972, is handed over to the evil overlords, ooops, liberators of Iraq.
I wonder how long Australia will feel comfortable being in bed with the American war criminals, as all the myths that eased an Australian engagement in Iraq crumble away like castles made of sand. WMDs? No, none there. Al-Quaida connections? Not while Saddam was in power. Human rights? That's what the Military Commission Act officially got rid of, so that torturers working for the US can no longer be prosecuted.
What remains, is blatant corporate greed, and Australian soldiers, who engage in the robbery of oil in Iraq. And of course, Alex Downer, who just can't get enough of Australian involvement in this bloody, unjust occupation.
Trust your government, it wants just your best. Your blood, your life, your integrity and your money.
Monday, 18 December 2006
Trusting the government
Some heated debated we had lately in less formal PIS meetings revolved about the question, how trustworthy governments are and what they would or would not do to their people.
As an anarchist, I tend not to trust governments, and as Media&Communication student I learned already a lot about the quality of news.
Chomsky's propaganda model of the media provides a scientific account how media coverage was manipulated in several cases to justify wars. Understanding this model helps determining how much factual background the daily news yarn owns.
However, I noticed an apparent lack of critical thinking with some fellow debaters, which seem to assume benevolent governments axiomatically.
In my political science lectures I learned about the concept of the post-911 world, although I managed to score a H2A for an essay that claimed that 9/11 has hardly changed anything in global politics.
Nevertheless, 911 has been the prime excuse to illegally invade countries and to massively restrict civil rights. And whenever some myth are blown away, like the existence of WMDs in Iraq, the responsible actors claim to have been wrongly informed.
Of course, admitting outright lies means political suicide, even though the voting sheep don't care too much about the integrity of their rulers.
Here is an account about the knowledge available to British MPs before they send their soldier to die, spread death, torture and devastation in Iraq, or, to use the Unspeak terms of the media propaganda, to liberate Iraq and spread freedom and democracy.
The lies of the American president are legion, the UK government knew how harmless Iraq was, and Tony Blair spun the same lies than his American collegue. I'm sure, John Howard is innocent, maybe a bit too gullible, and sent Australian soldiers in the battle just to protect his homeland.
As an anarchist, I tend not to trust governments, and as Media&Communication student I learned already a lot about the quality of news.
Chomsky's propaganda model of the media provides a scientific account how media coverage was manipulated in several cases to justify wars. Understanding this model helps determining how much factual background the daily news yarn owns.
However, I noticed an apparent lack of critical thinking with some fellow debaters, which seem to assume benevolent governments axiomatically.
In my political science lectures I learned about the concept of the post-911 world, although I managed to score a H2A for an essay that claimed that 9/11 has hardly changed anything in global politics.
Nevertheless, 911 has been the prime excuse to illegally invade countries and to massively restrict civil rights. And whenever some myth are blown away, like the existence of WMDs in Iraq, the responsible actors claim to have been wrongly informed.
Of course, admitting outright lies means political suicide, even though the voting sheep don't care too much about the integrity of their rulers.
Here is an account about the knowledge available to British MPs before they send their soldier to die, spread death, torture and devastation in Iraq, or, to use the Unspeak terms of the media propaganda, to liberate Iraq and spread freedom and democracy.
The lies of the American president are legion, the UK government knew how harmless Iraq was, and Tony Blair spun the same lies than his American collegue. I'm sure, John Howard is innocent, maybe a bit too gullible, and sent Australian soldiers in the battle just to protect his homeland.
Friday, 15 December 2006
Undergrad Reflections
A quick bit of auto-trumpet on my part. After six years at Unimelb, next Wednesday I finally graduate. To mark my transition from student to ex-student, I'm writing my Undergrad Reflection on my modest little blog. You might like to have a read, and better yet, leave a comment.
Here 'tis.
Here 'tis.
Wednesday, 6 December 2006
Just some short wrap ups
The PIS is alive and kicking, and even though only four of us remained on topic, our noise level nearly emptied the pub. A cornucopia of ideas spilled across the room, which should probably inspire some articles for the next AAP.
But to keep it up short, I just like to throw in some missing links. One of our topic was Depleted Uranium, an environmental hazard and toxic legacy that is increasingly used all over this planet.
While taking about war segueing into the evil overlords comes natural. Ari had not heard about the Bilderberg Group, which might come closest to be something like the secret rulers of this planet. I started investigating the mysterious group myself, and tried to research the participants. It's definitely work in progress, yet global politics and events appear already in a different light.
The last referral is to the background of ubiquitous terror theme. Somehow, links to Google Video seem not to work here, so simply search for terrorstorm and enjoy an alternative analysis of events of global events.
And the club website got a small makeover to create a bit more of corporate identity for our advertising efforts. Hope you like it, because you have live with it :)
But to keep it up short, I just like to throw in some missing links. One of our topic was Depleted Uranium, an environmental hazard and toxic legacy that is increasingly used all over this planet.
While taking about war segueing into the evil overlords comes natural. Ari had not heard about the Bilderberg Group, which might come closest to be something like the secret rulers of this planet. I started investigating the mysterious group myself, and tried to research the participants. It's definitely work in progress, yet global politics and events appear already in a different light.
The last referral is to the background of ubiquitous terror theme. Somehow, links to Google Video seem not to work here, so simply search for terrorstorm and enjoy an alternative analysis of events of global events.
And the club website got a small makeover to create a bit more of corporate identity for our advertising efforts. Hope you like it, because you have live with it :)
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