World Citizen 3000

TIME to CARE - NOW!!

2007-12-23T08:48:00.000+11:00

GEo 4, from the United Nations Environment Programme shows we are at crisis point environmentally.
What are we doing this Christmas about it?
selling air conditioners in the southern hemisphere, transporting raw materials around the world using precious oil and pumping greenhouse gases to make disposable products.
IT HAS GOT TO STOP

With 23% of mammals, 12% of birds in extinction danger and 70% of fish stocks in danger...WE ARE IN DANGER

Victorian Govt -enviro disaster

2007-12-23T08:20:00.000+11:00

I am starting to realise that the State Government of Victoria Australia are an environmental disaster, making key decisions that are all undermining the environmental integrity of the state and putting at risk key long term sustainability. Witness:

a 3b dollar desalination plant which will create 60 per cent waste product and 200 kg of greenhouse gas per Victorian
pipeline to pipe water OUT of the Goulburn Valley, a food basket area into Metro Melbourne
dredging of Port Philip Bay at high cost with dubious economic return
construction of a new freeway link Eastlink with no corresponding rail link
the consideration of $12b of additional roads and road tunnels
the refusal to invest in additional rail capacity eg no new lines, paltry number of new trains
failure of 2020 strategy for metropolitan Melbourne

Taken alone each decision is environmentally concerning. Combined together they are all evidence of 1950s type solutions which are running roughshod over serious environmental concerns.

Where is the serious responses to peak oil, greenhouse gases, water shortages and food security?

Not from the Brumby Government of Victoria. Sadly not from the opposition either.

Why desalination for Melbourne

2007-12-18T11:54:00.000+11:00

According to Wikipedia: Large-scale desalination typically requires large amounts of energy as well as specialized, expensive infrastructure, making it very costly compared to the use of fresh water from rivers or groundwater.

What is Victoria doing? We are spending 3.1 billion on a desalination plant when we are trying to reduce our greenhouse footprint. The plant will produce annually:

150 billion litres of water - Thats the good news
250 billion litres of brine and salt
1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (200 kg for every man, woman and child in Victoria)

It will also cost Victoria between $300 and $500 million years every year for 30 years
... cost to our sea-life?

Alternatives:

Make the hard decision that NO drinking water is used on gardens/parks.... only recycled or tank water....saving us at least 80 to 100 billion litres
Use one billion dollars to provide 1 million homes with a water tank costing $1000..at current prices. that would allow a capacity of 4.5 billion litres...most tanks are filled and refilled a few times a year...
use 500 million dollars to outfit major public buildings** with water tanks, waterless toilets etc
do something about the 140 billion litres of water used to generate coal fired electricity in Victoria...can we use rainwater? recycled water?
every year Melbourne Water pumps 300 billion litres of treated sewage into the sea and 500 billions litres of rain water falls in the metropolitan area***

OPPOSITION VOICE:
GOVERNMENT VOICE:

**Parliament House, Musuem of Victoria, MCG, Spencer St Station (yes I know it has been renamed), Flinders St Station, the various Markets, sports facilities etc etc
***The Nationals

Howard and Bruce: History repeats

2007-12-18T11:42:00.000+11:00

In 1929 Australian Prime Minister Stanley Bruce introduced the Maritime Industries Bill - designed to do away with the Conciliation and Arbitration Court and return arbitration powers to the States. The Bill was lost 34 votes to 35 bringing down the government and sending Australians to the polls Labor won a landslide victory and Bruce was defeated in his electorate of Flinders, becoming the first Australian Prime Minister to lose his seat.

In 2005 the Australian Prime Minister John Howard introduced legislation amending the Workplace Relations Act 1996, substantially changing the role of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, making it harder for workers to strike, making it easier for employers to require their employees to be on individual workplace agreements rather than collective agreements, and by banning clauses from workplace agreements which support unions. Opposed by half the country, it was passed and took effect in March 2006. At the following election, Labor won a landslide victory and Howard was defeated in his electorate of Bennelong becoming the second Australian Prime Minister to lose his seat.

Happy Christmas Howard

2007-12-18T11:25:00.000+11:00

It is not considered polite to gloat at the misfortunes of others at key times but I am sure happy that Howard has to move to a new home this Christmas.
John Winston Hoard who told his first lie when he became prime minister : I govern for all Australians has not only lost government but his own seat. He is the second PM to do so (see other post).
What I will miss about JWH:

core and non core promises
demonising of people when he chose to eg refugee, iraq war detractors, Universities, ABC
refusal to apologise to the nation's first peoples
selling out Australia for the wishes of the USA
lies over Iraq (eg documented evidence of WMD, we knew nothing about wheat)
privatisation of everything we held core: health, education
voluntary student unionism
the refusal to live in the nation's capital and the waste of resources for his commute
being PM during a worldwide economic boom and taking credit for it
the GST
workchoices
the baby bonus - result: whole cohort of disfunctional families and high plasma TV sales

Adios John Winston Howard and good riddance..may we never hear from you again

Are you a citizen

2007-10-04T20:51:00.000+10:00

The new citizenship test has arrived in Australia. ...this blog sums up how I feel about it - take a look.

Who killed the Monks?

2007-10-01T18:13:00.000+10:00

Burma has fired on the protestors of Burma, killing monks amongst other people While it is the soldiers who have done this, the junta leaders are behind every trigger that is squeezed. But who else is helping put those shattering bullets into the bodies of civilians? Whoever sold the weapons that are being unholstered by the army. These sellers whether they are Russian, American, French or Japanese have the blood of Buddhist monks on their hands.
In the weapon selling business, the manufacturers can talk about targeted, efficient, strikes etc but at the end of the day who usually gets killed by these guns etc? It is the children, the monks and the protestors. Whether they are in Burma, Africa or Iraq.
In a 21st Century world, it is time to wipe out the manufacture, sale and use of weapons. We surely must have learnt other means of diplomacy by now?

No Kangaroos in Austria, Bush's Bad Day

2007-09-09T02:18:00.000+10:00

President Bush’s tongue started slipping almost as soon as he started talking at a business forum on the eve of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Sydney.

“Mr Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction,” he told Prime Minister John Howard. “Thank you for being such a fine host for the Opec summit .”

As the audience of several hundred people erupted in laughter , Mr Bush corrected himself and joked, “He invited me to the Opec summit next year.”Australia has never been a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Later in his speech, Mr Bush recounted how Mr Howard had gone to visit “Austrian troops” last year in Iraq. There are, in fact, no Austrian troops there. But Australia has about 1,500 military personnel in and around the country.

from the Economic Times

The GLUGS OF GOSH

2007-09-08T16:22:00.000+10:00

This poem written by C.J Dennis. in 1917 has a message for us today. Thinking of our recent deals with China and Russia. Clue: change Glug to Aussies, Splosh to Howard, Tush to Downer and stones to uranium

Now, here is a tale of the Glugs of Gosh,
And a wonderful tale I ween,
Of the Glugs of Gosh and their great King Splosh,
And Tush, his virtuous Queen.
And here is a tale of the crafty Ogs,
In their neighbouring land of Podge;
Of their sayings and doings and plottings and brewings,
And something about Sir Stodge.
Wise to profundity,
Stout to rotundity,
That was the Knight, Sir Stodge.

Oh, the King was rich, and the Queen was fair,
And they made a very respectable pair.
And whenever a Glug in that peaceful land,
Did anything no one could understand,
The Knight, Sir Stodge, he looked in a book,
And charged that Glug with a crime called Crook.
And the great Judge Fudge, who wore for a hat
The sacred skin of a tortoiseshell cat,
He fined that Glug for his action rash,
And frequently asked a deposit in cash.
Then every Glug, he went home to his rest
With his head in a bag and his toes to the West;
For they knew it was best,
Since their grandpas slept with their toes to the West.

But all of the tale that is so far told
Has nothing whatever to do
With the Ogs of Podge, and their crafty dodge,
And the trade in pickles and glue.
To trade with the Glugs came the Ogs to Gosh,
And they said in seductive tones,
"We'll sell you pianers and pickels and spanners
For seventeen shiploads of stones:
Smooth 'uns or nobbly 'uns,
Firm 'uns or wobbly 'uns,
All we ask is stones."

And the King said, "What?" and the Queen said, "Why,
That is awfully cheap to the things I buy!
For that grocer of ours in the light brown hat
Asks two and eleven for pickles like that!"
But a Glug stood up with a wart on his nose,
And cried, "Your Majesties! Ogs is foes!"
But the Glugs cried, "Peace! Will you hold your jaw!
How did out grandpas fashion the law?"
Said the Knight, Sir Stodge, as he opened his Book,
"When the goods were cheap then the goods we took."
So they fined the Glug with the wart on his nose
For wearing a wart with his everyday clothes.
And the goods were brought home thro' a Glug named Ghones;
And the Ogs went home with their loads of stones,
Which they landed with glee in the land of Podge.
Do you notice the dodge?
Not yet did the Glugs, nor the Knight, Sir Stodge.

In the following Summer the Ogs came back
With a cargo of eight-day clocks,
And hand-painted screens, and sewing machines,
And mangles, and scissors, and socks.
And they said, "For these excellent things we bring
We are ready to take more stones;
And in bricks or road-metal
For goods you will settle
Indented by your Mister Ghones."
Cried the Glugs praisingly,
"Why how amazingly
Smart of industrious Ghones!"

And the King said, "Hum," and the Queen said, "Oo!
That curtain! What a bee-ootiful blue!"
But a Glug stood up with some very large ears,
And said, "There is more in this thing than appears!
And we ought to be taxing those goods of the Ogs,
Or our industries soon will be gone to the dogs."
And the King said, "Bosh! You're un-Gluggish and rude!"
And the Queen said, "What an absurd attitude!"
Then the Glugs cried, "Down with political quacks!
How did our grandpas look at a tax?"
So the Knight, Sir Stodge, he opened his Book.
"No tax," said he, "wherever I look."
Then they fined the Glug with the prominent ears
For being old-fashioned by several years;
And the Ogs went home with the stones, full-steam.
Did you notice the scheme?
Nor yet did the Glugs in their dreamiest dreams.

Then every month to the land of the Gosh
The Ogs, they continued to come,
With buttons and hooks, and medical books,
And rotary engines, and rum,
Large cases with labels, occasional tables,
Hair tonic and fiddles and 'phones;
And the Glugs, while concealing their joy in the dealing,
Paid promptly in nothing but stones.
Why, it was screamingly
Laughable, seemingly --
Asking for nothing but stones!

And the King said, "Haw!" and the Queen said, "Oh!
Our drawing-room now is a heavenly show
Of large overmantels, and whatnots, and chairs,
And a statue of Splosh at the head of the stairs!"
But a Glug stood up with a cast in his eye,
And he said, "Far too many baubles we buy;
With all the Gosh factories closing their doors,
And importers' warehouses lining our shores."
But the Glugs cried, "Down with such meddlesome fools!
What did our grandpas lay down in their rules?"
And the Knight, Sir Stodge, he opened his Book:
"To Cheapness," he said, "was the road they took."
Then every Glug who was not too fat
Turned seventeen handsprings, and jumped on his hat.
They fined the Glug with the cast in his eye
For looking both ways - which he did not deny -
And for having no visible precedent, which
Is a crime in the poor and a fault in the rich.

So the Glugs continued, with greed and glee,
To buy cheap clothing, and pills, and tea;
Till every Glug in the land of Gosh
Owned three clean shirts and a fourth in the wash.
But they all grew idle, and fond of ease,
And easy to swindle, and hard to please;
And the voice of Joi was a lonely voice,
When he railed at Gosh for its foolish choice.
But the great King grinned, and the good Queen gushed,
As the goods of the Ogs were madly rushed.
And the Knight, Sir Stodge, with a wave of his hand,
Declared it a happy and prosperous land.

It chanced on day in the beginning of May,
There came to the great King Splosh
A policeman, who said, while scratching his head,
"There isn’t a stone in Gosh. To throw at a dog; for the crafty Og,
Last Saturday week, at one,
took our last blue metal, in order to settle A bill for a toy pop-gun."
Said the King, jokingly, "Why, how provokingly Weird; but we have the gun."
And the King said, "Well we are stony-broke."
But the Queen could not see it was much of a joke.
And she said, "If the metal is all used up,
pray what of the costume I need for the Cup?
It all seems so dreadfully simple to me.
The stones? Why, import them from over the sea."

But a Glug stood up with a mole on his chin,
And said, with a most diabolical grin.
"Your Majesties, down in the county of Podge,
A spy has uncovered a very cute dode.
And the Ogs are determined to wage a war
On Gosh, next Friday at twenty past four."
Then the Glugs all cried, in a terrible fright,
"How did our grandfathers manage a fight?"

Then the Knight, Sir Stodge, he opened his book.
And he read, "Some very large stones they took,
And flung at the foe, with exceeding force;
Which was very effective, tho’ rude of course."
And lo, with sorrowful wails and moans,
The Glugs cried, "Where, Oh, where are the stones?"
And some rushed North, and a few ran West;
Seeking the substitute seeming the best.
And they gathered the pillows and cushions and rugs
From the homes of the rich and the middle-class Glugs.
And a hasty message they managed to send
Craving the loan of some bricks from a friend.

On the Friday, exactly at twenty past four,
Came the Ogs with triumphant glee.
And the first of their stones hit poor mister Ghones,
The captain of industry.
Then a pebble of Podge took the Knight, Sir Stodge,
In the curve of his convex vest.
He gurgled "Un-Gluggish!" His heart growing sluggish,
He solemnly sank to rest.
‘Tis inconceivable, scarcely believable, Yet he was sent to rest.

And the King said, "Ouch!" And the Queen said "Oo!
My bee-ootiful drawing-room! What shall I do?"
But the warlike Ogs, they hurled great rocks
Thru the works of the wonderful eight-day clocks
They had sold to the Glugs but a month before -
Which was very absurd: but, of course, t’was war.
And the Glugs cried, "What would our grandfathers do
if they hadn’t the stones that they one time threw?"
But the Knight, Sir Stodge, and his mystic Book
Oblivious slept in a grave-yard nook.

The a Glug stood out with a pot in his hand,
And he said, "If these Ogs you desire to retard,
Then hit them quite frequent with anything hard."
So the Glugs seized anvils, and editors’ chairs,
And smote the Ogs with them unawares;
And bottles of pickles, and clocks they threw,
And books of poems, and gherkins, and glue,
Which they’d bought with the stones – as, of course, you all know –
From the Ogs but a couple of months ago.
Which was simply inane, when you reason it over,
And un-economic, but then, it was war.

When they’d fought for a night and most of a day,
The Ogs threw the last of their metal away.
Then they went back to Podge, well content with fun,
And with much satisfaction, declared they had won.
And the King of the Glugs gazed around on his land,
And saw nothing but stones strewn on every hand:
Great stones in the palace, and stones in the street,
And stones on the house-tops and under the feet.
And he said, with a desperate look on his face,
"There is nothing so ghastly as stones out of place.
And, no doubt, this Og scheme was a very smart dodge.
But whom does it profit—my people, or Podge?"

Australians now more protected

2007-08-26T23:50:00.000+10:00

This weekend, I watched my Australian Rules football team win its Round 21 match. Aussie Rules is a unique game, centred largely in the southern states (Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania and in Western Australia. Its fast, its furious and attracts huge crowds of us.
I watched the last game with a 60 year old Greek born man on my left and a late twenties Italian man on m y right.
We had four things in common:

we love our team, are proud of it and want the best for it
we love out sport...aussie rules
we are very proud of our country: Australia
none of us have done the new Citizenship test

In order to protect our society, the government today released a 40-page draft guide detailing what it regards as the 10 essential Australian values every aspiring citizen must embrace.

Does it protect us? What a crock!

This new test will only help people who can memorise the answers. It won't stop terrorists sneaking in. How will knowing the colours of the Australian flag build a more cohesive society? How will knowing the animals on the coat of arms, stop people bringing racial conflicts with them?

Look around you Mr Andrews, we are already creating a more cohesive society. Its been happening round you for years. Look at the cross cultural marriages, the faces in our bureacracies and the foods in our supermarkets.

The people who threaten it are the yobs who bash Jews in the streets of Melbourne, threaten veiled Muslim women on the trains of Sydney and chant ching chong chinaman at the Japanese tourists visiting the Gold Coast.

The people who threaten our cohesive society are the Pauline Hansons who call for stopping of Muslim immigrants into Australia and the Howards and Andrews who speak in stereotypes or the Ruddocks who denied some a home.

War and Children

2007-08-26T23:32:00.000+10:00

Killing the most innocent, the children, is an sin for which there can be no forgiveness. Koran [6.140]

But Jesus called for them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these"

Buddha: Just as a mother would protect her only child at the risk of her own life, even so, cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings. Let your thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world.

Iraq Not found..

2007-08-26T23:11:00.001+10:00

America's 50 largest cities displaced.....

2007-08-26T20:28:00.000+10:00

The Iraqi Red Crescent Organization said that the number of displaced Iraqis shot upward from 447,337 on Jan. 1 to 1.14 million on July 31, 2007. This is in addition to the two million who are refugees in Syria and Jordan. The three million displaced people and refugees represents about 15 per cent of the Iraqi pre-war population of 22,219,289.

If this was Australia and 15 per cent of our 21 million people were displaced, that would be equivalent to the entire population of the state of Tasmania plus the Australian Capital Territory plus the cities of Adelaide and Perth. Or most of the population of Sydney or Melbourne.

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States is about 302 million. 15 per cent of the US population is 45 million. If 45 million people were displaced or made refugees in the USA, this would be equivalent to the entire population of California plus Oregon plus Nevada plus New Mexico. It is also the same as the population of the top 50 US (see list below) Imagine if all those cities populations were displaced?. This is what has been done to Iraq. When will the US and Australia admit its been a mistake? Read and weep this blog from an Iraqi woman http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ and this from an Iraqi teen: http://baghdadgirl.blogspot.com/ .

The top 50 US cities, population total = 45 million....

New York, N.Y.
Los Angeles, Calif.
Chicago, Ill.
Houston, Tex.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Phoenix, Ariz.
San Antonio, Tex.
San Diego, Calif.
Dallas, Tex.
San Jose, Calif.
Detroit, Mich.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Jacksonville, Fla.
San Francisco, Calif.
Columbus, Ohio
Austin, Tex.
Memphis, Tenn.
Baltimore, Md.
Fort Worth, Tex.
Charlotte, N.C.
El Paso, Tex.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Seattle, Wash.
Boston, Mass.
Denver, Colo.
Louisville-Jefferson County, Ky.1
Washington, DC
Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.2
Las Vegas, Nev.
Portland, Ore.
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Tucson, Ariz.
Albuquerque, N.M.
Long Beach, Calif.
Atlanta, Ga.
Fresno, Calif.
Sacramento, Calif.
New Orleans, La.
Cleveland, Ohio
Kansas City, Mo.
Mesa, Ariz.
Virginia Beach, Va.
Omaha, Nebr.
Oakland, Calif.
Miami, Fla.
Tulsa, Okla.
Honolulu, Hawaii
Minneapolis, Minn.
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Arlington, Tex.

John Howard stands for nothing

2007-08-26T14:07:00.000+10:00

"I mean love me or loathe me, people accept that I stand for something" John Winston Howard, ABC's 7.30 Report August 2007

The only thing Howard stands for is his own political survival.

Australia 1984

2007-08-26T12:19:00.000+10:00

People often accuse the Prime Minister John Winston Howard of being in the 1950s.I think that there is more in parallel with our society and Orwell's 1984 with increasing: state control, propaganda and a state of perpetual war. Is John Winston Howard our Big Brother?

1. State Control over riding individual rights ...we have seen the Australian Federal Government become more involved in more issues than ever eg childbirth, local government. overturned euthanasia legislation in Northern Territory plus ACT on gay marriage. It has brought in workplace laws that some say eroded worker rights

2. Propaganda as evidenced by:

The Federal Government spending $100 million a year on advertising making it globally the fifth biggest spender on government ads.
the government gagging anyone who may criticise them eg Universities and CSIRO
continual criticism of and control over the National Broadcaster (ABC)
media ownership laws allowing less diverse media ownership (eg of 12 capital city and national daily newspapers, seven are owned by Murdoch's News Corporation and three by Fairfax. Two are officially independent)
dismantling student unionism
Wiki Scanner discovering that John Howard's staff edited entries in the online Wikipedia to remove potentially damaging details.-- boy would they love to work in the Ministry of Truth rewriting history

3. A state of perpetual war

PRIME Minister John Howard has warned Australians that the war on terrorism is a never-ending battle that will go on for decades,"Mr Howard said the threat posed by the “menace of Islamic fanaticism” was real, constant and insidious." He warned the nation to wake-up to the reality such “borderless assault” was a global threat to society and the carefree lifestyle that Australians cherish". Sue Neales, The Australian July 14, 2007

Baghdad's water taps running dry

2007-08-18T16:16:00.000+10:00

According to Steven Hurst in the Seattle Times, Baghdad has a water shortage, caused by the failed electricity grid that doesn't deliver sufficient power to run purification plants and pumping stations with some parts of the city getting tap water for only one hour a day and an hour of electricity every few days. Large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days.(picture from Associated Press)

JOHN HOWARD & Climate change: "Well, it would be less comfortable"

2007-06-14T23:36:00.000+10:00

On a Lateline program Broadcast: 05/February/2007 in , the presenter, Tony Jones, was interviwing the Ausyralian Prime Minister on a range of subjects including climate change....

TONY JONES: Prime Minister, what do you think living in Australia would be like by the end of this century for your own grandchildren and for the grandchildren and great grandchildren of others, if the temperatures, the average mean temperatures, around the world do rise by somewhere between four and possibly even more than six degrees celsius?

JOHN HOWARD: Well, it would be less comfortable for some than it is now,...

The PM is determined to ensure that Australians don't "adopt the doomsday scenario. There have been plenty of examples in the past where those sorts of scenarios have been embraced and they haven't been realised"

Mr Prime Minster, there have been plenty of examples where people have not adopted the doomsday scenario and it has been disastorous. Just to be clear.....

If we get warming of two or three degrees Celsius, then I would expect that both West Antarctica and parts of Greenland would end up in the ocean, and the last time we had an ice sheet disintegrate, sea level went up at a rate of 5 metres in a century, or one metre every 20 years. Dr James Hansen, NASA Scientist
Australia's Great Barrier Reef could lose 95 percent of its living coral
"Australia has significant vulnerability to the changes in temperature and rainfall that are projected" Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
more bushfires and more intense cyclones. More intense tropical cyclones would have serious implications for storm surge heights, ...CSIRO
three quarters of all bird species in northeast Australia ... could become extinct WWF

Media dumbing down

2007-05-29T18:45:00.000+10:00

Compare these three countries and the current affairs fare:

World Tonight: UK

US and Iran break 30 years of silence
How life has changed in Russia under Putin
A new leader for Israel's Labour party.
What does it really take to write a novel?
As pressure on Sudan mounts we talk to the UN special envoy there.
Anyone for whale curry?

Today Tonight Australia

woman steals daughter's trust fund
man appears on two quiz shows simulataneously
after death experiences

Insider CBS Los Angeles

Brad Pitt is interviewed
a look at the film "Knocked Up.

Solar v Nuclear

2007-05-26T23:30:00.000+10:00

It is like the stuff of Science Fiction! Seville in Spain has opened a 4O storey solar tower, the first of a series...The Sanlucar la Mayor Solar Platform will eventually comprise nine towers by 2013, requiring a total investment of [euro]1.2bn. The towers will produce enough energy to power 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the whole of Seville but without producing the 160 000 tonnes of greenhouse gas that is currently released in bringing power to the citizens of Seville.

To do the same for Australia's estimated 7.4 million households would require the country to build 370 of these towers at a total cost of 67 billion US dollars. A massive investment.

It has been proposed that Australia move down a nuclear path, instead. 25 nuclear power stations would be built across Australia to provide one third of the country's power needs.

25 power stations at 1.5 t0 2 billion US dollars each is between 37 and 50 billion US dollars.
The differences between the solar option and the nuclear options are:

annual running costs for solar would be much less
australia could start building the solar plants now..nuclear plants will take at least a decade to come on stream
the amount of water required to run the nuclear plants would be much much less
solar tower collectors would be less likely to be a terrorist target
there would be no waste products from solar towers - compared to waste which would last thousands of years from nuclear
if something went "wrong" with a solar plant, the damage is minimal - from nuclear the damage could be catastrophic ala 3 mile island

How about it Howard and Turnball??? Solar not nuclear.

Virginia a Tragedy overshadowing other tragedies

2007-04-19T02:31:00.000+10:00

Not going to belittle the anguish, nightmare and cruelty of what has happened in Virginia.
However, lets remember that equally innocent civilians have died in shootings and bombings across Iraq since the US invasion there. They don't seem to generate the same anguish?
Every year 25 000 people die in the US from gun related deaths.

They are two tragedies that deserve the pages devoted to this latest shooting.

Australia now leading the fight against climate change?

2007-03-31T09:50:00.000+10:00

The Minister for the Environment, Malcolm Turnbull, said the prognosis was already "well known to us". "We know that there is the possibility or the probability of a hotter and drier future in southern Australia … We have to recognise there are changes to our climate likely to occur and we have to adapt to them."

Mr Turnbull said there was "no government in the world, not one, that has done more to adapt to climate change than the Australian Government".

Sorry?

This is the government that denied it's existence?
the Prime Minister has not even read the International Panel of Climate Change report despite having an advance copy last year
refused to sign Kyoto even with AN 8% INCREASE in emissions over 1990 for Australia?
the government has refused to set up an emissions trading scheme
rubbished the Stern Report ("Don't get mesmerised by a single report")
made the forestry deal in Tasmania to continue old growth logging?
a government that has not supported solar options despite our climate advantages?
rubbished anyone who warned about the possibility of global warming for a decade?
how does our actions compare with the British who have put the issue on the table with the Stern report?
the Swedes who have committed themselves to a 100% reduction in greenhouse emissions?

Britain's drugs laws driven by "moral panic" - Yahoo! News UK

2007-03-11T09:18:00.000+11:00

Britain's drugs laws driven by "moral panic" - Yahoo! News UK: "Britain's drugs laws are driven by 'moral panic' and should be replaced by a more flexible approach that recognises most drug users harm neither themselves nor those around them, a two-year study concluded on Thursday.

Drug use should be treated as a health issue and not just as a matter for police and courts, said a commission formed by the Royal Society of Arts"

Dixie Chicks shut out

2007-03-11T09:03:00.000+11:00

Surely politics would have nothing to do with the fact the Dixie Chicks with a five grammy haul have got NO nominations for the American Country Music Awards this year.
People do have the freedom in a democracy to declare they are ashamed of their President's invasion of Iraq? Don't they?

To be a Aussie Uni student...not!

2007-03-11T08:08:00.000+11:00

The 21st Century Austalian univeristy student attends universities which have:

steadily lost funding over a decade; class sizes are large and resources run down
been silenced on speaking out on controversial issues
lost many student student supports through voluntary student unionism
had to charge fees

These students no longer recieve the financial supports that they used to with cuts to student bursaries. Austudy (previously known as TEAS) pays $348.20 per fortnight to eligible students...that would barely pay rent in Sydney. They also go to uni in an era when there is more pressure on their families with their own high working hours.
Reports are suggesting that things are tough for students.

Education Minister Julie Bishop argues Australia is more generous to students than many other developed countries, and that with a tight labour market students can earn more than in the past.

This is a woman who did her degree in the early 70s..a law degree no less ..so paid no fees for it and probably got government financial help to do it.

Bishop also fails to understand that "evidence shows–consistently, and over time–that countries ...invest heavily in education and skills benefit economically and socially from that choice. For every euro invested in attaining high-skilled qualifications, tax payers get even more money back through economic growth. Moreover, this investment provides tangible benefits to all of society" (Andreas Schleicher, OECD Education Directorate)

She also neglects to mention that many countries are indeed more generous than Australian eg Sweden, Norway and Finland. There are other models for student funding which may work better for society. The cost per annum for a student and their family of studying away from home in Australia is between $US 7000 and $US 38 000 compared with $US6000 to $21 000 in France, $US 4352 to $US 10 379 in Norway and $7312 to $US12 317 in Sweden. And we have a lower cost of living?
Thank heavens The Labor leader Rudd is taking education seriously.

Military Strikes against Iran to create a safe world?

2007-02-27T09:50:00.000+11:00

"The United States ...left open... possibility of military strike against Iran ...Cheney: 'But I have made the point, and the president (George W Bush) has made the point, that all options are still on the table. 'The next step is now being debated.'

Who would a military strike do?

more deaths in Iran and for the USA
damage any possibility of peace and dialogue with Iran
create more haters of the West in Iran

To safeguard the world from rogue states possessing nuclear weapons, lets get rid OF ALL OF THEM. Thats right! No nukes in France, USA, Russia, Israel, India, Pakistan, UK. No state will have the right to nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are an immorality in the 21st century.

(Pictured: the Trident ballistic missile.. Range: 12000 km (7000 miles), eight warheads -- a yield of up to 3.8 megatons. Impact : Many more times Hiroshima creating a crater of 2 sq km (1.2 sq miles), levelling everything for several kilometres --destroying concrete bunkers 300 metres/ 1000 feet underground.)

(Oh these missiles cost $30m each)

Australia's US relationship: too close?

2007-02-27T09:02:00.000+11:00

Poll in The Age: "Too special? : Is Australia's special relationship with the US too close?

Yes - 70%
No - 30%
Total Votes: 781 Poll date: 20/02/07"

Enough said.

Howard out!! The Tide IS Turning!!

2007-02-26T08:45:00.000+11:00

McKew challenge steels PM to work harder - Yahoo!7 News: "McKew challenge steels PM to work harder

Prime Minister John Howard says the challenge of high profile media personality Maxine McKew will only steel him to work harder in his seat of Bennelong."
With a mere 4% lead..the PM could become the longest serving Prime Minister ever AND the second to lose his own seat...
Howard is of course is also the most dishonest, destructive and evil Prime Minister we have known in Australia.

The USA is violent

2007-02-23T04:00:00.000+11:00

Entrez PubMed: "the United States, which has extraordinarily high homicide rates in comparison with other highly industrialized countries"...
How is this violence manifested?

1. Children's cartoons have for years shown extraordinary levels of violence with characters shooting at, blowing up, suffocating, running over, burying. True the characters are not real and immediately start running and shooting again but what message does that send when the killing is accompanied by canned laughter? Would we let kids watch it if the characters were real people?
2. US business regulalry uses the language of violence eg "we will squash our opposition", "we will take no prisoners"
3. US churches use the language of violence: "we will conquer the land", "we will destroy the enemy" etc etc
4. US diplomacy is based around the fact that violence and violent threats are a part of the landscape. Negotition rarely seems to be between two equal nations
5. the USA has a gun culture responsible for 29,573 deaths per year this includes over 16 000 suicides, 8 times more suicide every year in the USA using guns than all of the people who died in September 11....(notice the USA has not declared war on suicide yet!)
6. the US uses violence to stem violence eg police carry and use guns, citizens carry weapons for self defenceand, prisoners are executed (sometimes wrongfully)
7. The US has the biggest cache of weapons of mass destruction and is responsible for the two single largest acts of nuclear violence (ie Hiroshima and Negasaki)

This is a country that was birthed in violence, united by violence and survives through violence. A disappointly grim picture of a nation that offers so much.

Howard 'knew about UK troop reduction' | | The Australian

2007-02-23T03:20:00.000+11:00

Howard 'knew about UK troop reduction' | | The Australian:

AUSTRALIA has known for six months that Britain would reduce its troop numbers in Iraq, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said today."

If Howard and Nelson knew, why did they increase our troop presence?
What are we doing there? Is this a coalition of the willing? or a Coalition of the USA and a couple of toadying nations desperate for positive US`attention?

We should not have gone in. We should not be there. Sadly, Howard will be dead when the world reaps the destructive angry force that will emerge from Iraq to challenge the world in the future.

Howard attacks Obama

2007-02-23T03:06:00.000+11:00

Howard: "If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats."

Yes we know this statement was all about positioning Howard for the forthcoming Australian election run but:
1. who is our alliance with? The USA or the Republican party?
2. this statement drew attention to our continuing lone support for a US decision that was flawed at its best and stupid, dangerous and destructive at its worst
3. the statement drew attention that we have only a handful of troops compared to our larger ally (though I was interested we immediately sent more troops).
4. it suggests to me the good news that if Obama gets in, then Howard is not planning to be around to work with him...yay the end of Howard's reign is nearing!
5. it suggests we live in a new world where if you dont like another leader, you criticse them and inetrefere in their domestic policies or invade them ...eg the US` ambassador commented on an opposition leader in Australia's last election..wait is that such a new action?

Laurie Oakes says the whole thing is bad politics.

Some good news on the environment Yahoo!7 News

2007-02-20T12:01:00.000+11:00

Labor welcomes govt's light bulb plan - "The opposition has welcomed the federal government's plan to phase out incandescent light bulbs by 2009-10 but says the government has stolen the idea.

Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he'll announce a commitment to phase out the bulbs within three years, which he said could save up to two million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett said the environmental group Planet Ark had been in discussions with the federal government about phasing out the standard inefficient light bulbs.

'We do think it is a good idea, even if it is somebody else's idea, and not the government's,' Mr Garrett told ABC Radio."

Rudd is now challenging Howard

2007-02-20T11:59:00.000+11:00

Rudd plays down favourable Newspoll -

while very early days....
who would make a b etter Australian prime minister than Howard...well anyone really...history will one day show how truly awful he is...but Rudd is an excellent move!!! GO RUDD GO!!

U.S. leadership as ``El Diablo.

2007-02-10T17:15:00.000+11:00

From letters to the editor in the Pantagraph
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez referred to U.S. leadership as ``El Diablo.'' Consider the record.

We were in bed with Stalin who murdered more people than Hitler. German scientists were spirited away from potential war crime trials to create nasty WMDs for our side. Panama's Noriega and the brutal Shah of Iran were embraced. We supported Castro early in his revolution. We trained/supplied the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. We provided Saddam Hussein with anthrax, botulinin toxin, West Nile fever virus and cluster bombs. People - some innocent - are being renditioned to selected countries for torture.

Our leaders attack Castro, Chavez and Kim Jung Il while sending 3 million manufacturing jobs to China, the biggest communist country, while adding jobs here minus health care or pensions.

So, beat up small-time socialists and communist but fast-track hundreds of billions to China as they steal or buy our military technology. Shoot the moon - er, umm satellites!

Our government: devils or angels?

Global warming & PM: "sceptical about gloomy predictions"

2007-02-02T11:19:00.000+11:00

Does Mr Howard still stand by his statement made late last year re global warming: " I am sceptical about a lot of the more gloomy predictions."

With the release of the The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a group of hundreds of scientists and representatives of 113 governments — what specific knowledge does the Prime minister of Australia have that would make us not feel gloomy? What scientific resources does the Prime Minister have access to that would reassure us that we can continue to do what we are currently doing?......

UN issues sea level warning

Climate models may have underestimated the rate of sea level rise caused by Greenhouse gas emissions, new research suggests.

The study, co-authored by a leading Australian researcher, found sea levels could rise by as much as 88cm by 2100 - about 30cm higher than previous highest forecasts.

Published in the journal Science, the research comes ahead of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ICPP) report which is expected to find humans are the likely cause of climate change.

The IPCC report, to be released in Paris, will deliver the UN climate panel's strongest warning yet, that human activities are causing global warming that may bring more drought, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

The international team from six institutions cautioned against suggestions that the IPCC had previously overestimated the rate of climate change, saying the situation could, in fact, be quite the opposite.

They reviewed observations of carbon dioxide, temperature and sea level from 1990 to 2006 and compared them with projected changes for the same period.

Researchers warned the relatively short review period of 16 years meant it was premature to conclude that all sea levels would continue to rise at the same rate in the future.

However, they said their findings showed previous projections had not exaggerated the rate of change and may have underestimated it.

Delegates said IPCC scientists agreed it was "very likely" that human activities were the main cause of warming in the past 50 years.

The panel, grouping 2,500 scientists from 130 countries, is also expected to say that oceans will keep rising for more than 1,000 years even if governments stabilise greenhouse gas emissions.

Sea levels were likely to rise by between 28 and 43cm this century.

Temperatures are predicted to rise by three degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels BY 2100.

Passed USA CLEAN Energy Act of 2007

2007-01-22T15:02:00.000+11:00

H.R. 6: CLEAN Energy Act of 2007

To reduce our Nation's dependency on foreign oil by investing in clean, renewable, and alternative energy resources, promoting new emerging energy technologies, developing greater efficiency, and creating a Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve to invest in alternative energy, and for other purposes.

Escalation in Iraq - political disaster?

2007-01-19T01:10:00.000+11:00

The American people in polls:

72% oppose Bush's handling of the war (who are the 28% who do not oppose it)

61% oppose Bush's escalation plan

and 56% want to bring all troops home in 2007

Can a lame duck President get worse results?

energy 2007...long post here....

2007-01-17T10:31:00.000+11:00

So its 2007 and the world scientists are clamouring at us to drastically reduce greenhouse gases....Australia can see the impact of warmer temperatures over a period of time with loss of farm income, collapse of rural communities, loss of hydroelectric capacity, and a shortage of water in all our cities plus increased fires costing us farms, natural environment and now power supplies.

The Howard government commitments to greenhouse reductions in 2007?:

a commitment to water intensive, risk laden nuclear power in 10 to 15 years time
a commitment in the Switkowski Report to a continuing rise in domestic power consumption
a continuing rise in energy and resource exports to China despite Australia refusing to sign Kyoto because the agreement did not include countries like China (hypocricy?)
Oh, Senator Campbell, Australian Minister for Environment has cut his department's greenhouse emissions

What is it they are frightened of?
Three things:
1. they know that for Australia to tackle our green house emissions seriously would require a 75% cut in the current levels...to do that would mean voter backlash and a huge re structure of Australian energy sector

2. Australia's current economic growth is reliant on the continuing extraction of non renewables...any halt of this would expose how shakey the fundementals of the Australian economy are...foreign debt is at all time record highs, international ownership of Aussie assets significnat, imports far outweigh exports

3. Howard and his cabinet seem to have a vested interest in supporting the energy companies

There are things we could do to start to tackle greenhouse gas emissions....
a cut of 7 per cent in gas emissions in 2007 then 8 in 2008, 9 in 09, 10 in 2010 etc...before we know it...we would be close to 70 per cent by 2013....

To get there:
TRANSPORT SECTOR

we need to reduce road emissions by 10 per cent per year for next five years:
we need to hold air emissions from airline travel at same level
we need to accept some growth from rail as we switch from road to rail travel

How we do this?

stopping the sale or importation of any vehicles that do not meet minimum greenhouse standards
carbon taxes on renewable fuels -funds used to build public transport infrastructure
refusal to build any more freeways
rewards for people who give up cars
investment in public transport and bike paths in all cities
taxes on car parks
an end to the provision of company cars and the tax deductability of employer paid public transport
education campaigns to encourage people to stop driving
an end to sporting events that are car based eg grand prixes

DOMESTIC
we need to reduce domestic usage by 10 per cent per year...do this by:

Six star energy rating on all houses now
all new homes to have at least solar hot water and a water tank if not full solar
a ban on domestic airconditioners except in cases of elderly or infirm people
subsidies, support and programs to place one million Aussie made solar collectors on Australian roofs by 2011 ...scattered across Australia and feeding power into the grid
aim for solar hot water heating on half of Aussie homes by 2017

COMMERCIAL

support for telecommuting, teleconferencing
six star rating for all commercial buildings
125% tax deductability for the purchase and installation of solar or other renewable power systems
rewards for businesses that reduce their per capital energy usage
higher tax deducatbility for commercial vehicle purchases with lower emissions

Bonsai

2007-01-17T10:16:00.000+11:00

This is the new name for Australian Prime Minister: John W Howard.
Why?
Cos he s a little Bush

Belated Christmas Greetings

2007-01-17T08:55:00.000+11:00

Christmas is a special time for GWB. After all three years ago he promised that the troops would be home by Christmas 2003.
In 2004 he said of the then Australian Labor leader's decision to pull Aussie troops out of Iraq by Christmas 04: "I think that would be disastrous.... It would dispirit those who love freedom in Iraq."
In 2005 he said "Christmas is a time of joy and peace" forgetting it was neither for most Somalians, Sudanese, North Koreans, Iraqis and Palestinians and then
In 2006, On the twelfth day of Christmas GWB sent to the world:
Twenty thousand extra troops..........

Eleven fighters a -fighting,

Ten kids a-running,
Nine ladies weeping,
Eight men a-torturing,
Seven refugees a-swimming,
Six teachers a-hanging,
Five gold n oil coys,
Four warring tibes,
Three axis of evil nations
Two million displaced,
And a flawed peace process.

so in the words of Elton John from the brilliant musical Billy Elliott:
"So merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher**
May God's love be with you
We all sing together in one breath
Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher
We all celebrate today
'Cause it's one day closer to your death"

** substitute Howard, Blair or Bush

Five penguins killed in savage attack

2006-12-24T19:03:00.000+11:00

One word?
WHY??????????????????????????

Costello discovers Asia

2006-12-24T17:26:00.000+11:00

December 19, 2006 01:05pm.

"Australians working or studying overseas were more likely to head to Asia than Britain or the US in future, Treasurer Peter Costello said today. .. with one-in-six members of the Australian diaspora in Asia, an Australian expatriate community is already emerging, reflecting an increasing integration into the region as well as wider global economic and demographic trends."

Ten marks to Mr Costello for noticing....But this is the Peter Costello who first had this revelation after the Bali Bombings in 2002. However he has been a member of the government who:-

opposed the introduction of racial hatred legislation by the previous government
upset The Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia when the Australian Prime Minister declared the right to launch a pre emptive strik e on a country to prevent a terrorist attack
cut a Commonwealth scheme set up to boost the Asian language study in Australian schools to save $3o million pa
described their role in Australia as nd talking about Australia as "deputy sheriff", not something that is "inclined to make you well loved and respected in the region either"
cut Radio Australia's budget in half, axed three foreign language services, closed down its South-East and North-East Asian transmitter and drastically reducing its audience
refused to sign a non-aggression treaty with the Association of South East Asian Nations
has a Prime Minister who said "the pace of change of [Asian immigration] has probably been a little too great"
failed to directly repudiate the politician Pauline Howard instead declaring "I welcome the fact that people can now talk about certain things without living in fear of being branded as a bigot or as a racist"

Media freedom disappearing

2006-12-05T01:45:00.000+11:00

Reporters Without Borders in their recent survey say " the steady erosion of press freedom in the United States, France and Japan is extremely alarming” . They rate every country in the world on "the degree of freedom journalists and news organisations enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the state to respect and ensure respect for this freedom".
This year's results:

Finland, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands as the best in the world
New Zealand was 18th
Australia fell to 35th from 31st in 2005 because " of anti-terrorist laws potentially dangerous for journalists" Australia was 12th in 2002
the USA fell from 44 to 53 after being 17th in 2002
the worst country? North Korea...Turkminastan, Eritrea, Cuba and China were down the bottom of the list

Ruling by thirds

2006-11-19T20:32:00.000+11:00

It seems to be that the world is split into thirds on climate change:

One third of people are convinced about the threat of global warming and are modifying or have modified behaviours
One third are worried and want to do something or want the "government" or someone to do something
One third thinks its an over reaction like Y2K: "Wait long enough and it will go away or "won't an increase in temperatures be actually good for us?"

If parliament is the same, then we can expect the same representation. It is their duty then to educate themselves, by listening to scientists NOT to their media advisers and see what's really going on? The people need to know which of the three reactions above is the wisest one.

A study in the US shows that reactions and behaviours toward global warming can be manipulated by the way facts are presented. Lets be careful here to listen to facts and move fast if we are in real trouble.

Interview with Tony Blair

2006-11-19T20:15:00.000+11:00

Poor Tony Blair,,caught out by a slip in an interview with David Frost, he appears to acknowledge that Iraq has been a disaster. Then blames the current situation on the very things that war opponents warned about.

From Al Jazeera

Sir David Frost: In terms of Iraq, Prime Minister, in the light of the latest figures from the, Iraqi health ministry, that the number of Iraqis who have died is between 100,000 and 150,000 and so on, with those scale of figures, if you had known that that was the scale of bloodshed, would you have still gone to war?

Tony Blair: Well the alternative was leaving Saddam in charge of Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of people died, there were a million casualties in the Iran/Iraq war, Kuwait was invaded and four million people went into exile.

So the idea that Iraqis should be faced with the situation where they either have a brutal dictator in Saddam or alternatively a sectarian religious conflict, why can't they have in Iraq what their people want? Which is a non-sectarian government, a government that is elected by the people and the same opportunities and the same rights that we enjoy in countries such as this.

But, but so far its been ... you know, pretty much of a disaster ...

It has, but you see what I say to people is "why is it difficult in Iraq?" It's not difficult because of some accident in planning, it's difficult because there is a deliberate strategy, al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on the one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militia on the other to create a situation in which the will of the majority of Iraqis, which is for peace, is displaced by the will of the minority for war.

But you said you would still, still have gone to war but I mean what would you have done, knowing what you know now, what would you, and should you, both have done differently?

Well I think you can debate that forever but, you know, and there are issues that I have already raised to do with, you know, was the de-Bathification process too fast? Should we have disbanded the army in the way that we did and so on, but in the end what we have got to understand, and this is why it's so important for us to send a message to the region, we are not walking away from Iraq.

We will stay for as long as the government needs us to stay.

Aussie govt greenhouse solution

2006-11-19T20:04:00.000+11:00

After years of dithering, the Australian minister for the Environment has returned from the UN Climate Change Conference in Kenya with good news for Australia on climate change: "It is with a real sense of relief that I can reveal to you the innovative Australian solution to greenhouse gas emissions. Many of you have held the view that the Aussie govt is hiding its head in the sand. Not so!"

He continued: "The Australian government has a unique cost effective solution. It’s called Magic. Yes, Magic! Magic will spirit away greenhouse gases, magic will reverse the coral bleaching, magic will banish drought. Have faith citizens and nothing bad will happen."

Greenhouse Maths Two

2006-11-19T19:55:00.000+11:00

Australia

’s twenty million people produce two per cent of the Earth's greenhouse gases. Not a lot it sounds like. However if you take the world average, we are directly producing the equivalent greenhouse gases of 120 million people. So, we are producing six times "our share".

Australia

's “fair share” of greenhouse gases should be 0.003% of the world's gases.

The Australian carbon production figure if it did not change (remember the Australian Government wants to protect the economy at all costs) while the world reduced production by sixty per cent would then become what 300 million people would produce…fifteen times our “fair share”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Australian Government is allowing its people to be selfish....NOT GOOD LEADERSHIP!

Australia needs to:

· reduce urban car usage by fifty per cent, change the fuel mix of the remaining car trips and force Australians to buy fuel efficient vehicles (carbon tax, ban on high polluting vehicles and education)
· stop building highways, stop subsidising car production and build/upgrade rail transport (just do it)
· reduce power consumption (carbon tax)
· Move power production to greenhouse friendly production methods (how about a subsidy on a million solar water heaters now?)
· invest in local food production ( a major transport cost in Australia)
· help industry become sustainable now (we want business to prosper)
· enforce maximum environment standards on all commercial and residential buildings (create a whole new industry)
· reward people, communities and companies not for reducing green house gas production but become environmentally neutral (education, awards, tax deductions)

Now that would take leadership….too bad Australia hasn’t any…just vote chasers

Greenhouse Maths One

2006-11-19T19:38:00.000+11:00

I fear that we will not be able to do it. Follow the math carefully……

The world we are told needs to decrease carbon production by sixty per cent by 2050. The USA is refusing to do it (they currently produce 25 per cent of carbon emissions with five per cent of world’s population).

Assumption One: Lets assume that the world overall achieves a fifty per cent reduction. (NB With no reduction in US carbon production their share would then go to half the world’s new total.)
Assumption Two:Let’s be optimists and say the USA achieves a twenty per cent reduction.
Assumption Three: If the USA manages that 20% reduction, then the rest of the world will actually need to cut carbon production by sixty per cent to meet that overall cut of fifty per cent (the maths works).
Assumption Four: China and India will con tinue to forge ahead ....eg there are already six times more planes in Indian skies than a decade ago and all of the Inidan airlines have orders to triple the fleets in the next five years
Assumption Five: Another billion or two born in the world in the next 25 years.

Greenhouse reduction seems impossible.
Thank Goodness we are running out of oil…that may be the only thing that forces us off the roads and skies. Either way we face environmental disaster, mass starvation and war over dwindling resources.

Water Crisis Hits Australia

2006-11-06T06:51:00.000+11:00

Some kudos - well done to "Prime Minister John Howard's snap water crisis summit amid warnings that key Murray-Darling Basin dams could be dry by May." (Yahoo News)

Brickbats to the PM of Australia who has had the opportunity to do something about this...earlier in his terms. Two State of the Environment Reports (1996 and 2001) that thngs were grim in terms of water resources in Australia. In 2001:

Surface water use is close to or exceeds estimates of sustainable yields in 26% of river basins across Australia. If surface water extraction is to be sustainable into the future, then it will need to be reduced, alternative sources found, or efficiencies in usage implemented in order to meet demands.
There is evidence of a climatic shift that has reduced inflows in south-west Western Australia. Sustainable yields in this catchment have been adjusted accordingly. The enhanced greenhouse effect may result in lower average rainfalls across much of Australia and produce a corresponding decrease in river flows.

The "Greenies" have been warning that something must be done and have been ignored, over ruled and avoided. Now we are at a water crisis....

Will the Federal Government call an emergency Greenhouse summit in 2015 when things are looking dire? How about now this time?

Prime Minister Howard's push "bizarre"

2006-11-05T12:06:00.000+11:00

Western Australia Energy Minister Fran Logan says Australia does not need nuclear power: "It is a ridiculous argument for a country like Australia..."That we should even consider nuclear, I mean the whole argument is just bizarre."

1984's Reinterpreted

2006-11-05T11:32:00.000+11:00

Below are the three slogans introduced to us by George Orwell in his book 1984. They have been updated in a post by a Mary-ooooooh on the site Harry's Happy Hamster Home in 2003. I want to add one more for these times...

Results through Inaction: dedicated to the Australian Minister for the Environment who explained on ABC television that the Australian "cabinet then made a decision (not to ratify Kyoto) ... "We wanted to demonstrate to the world and to the Australian people that we were serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions"

War is Peace: means that the government's military industrial complex maintains order by creating a perpetual environnment of war, threate of war, and war expenses. In today's world it is embocied in Bush's War on Terrorism, which morphs into what ever will create the next place to attack in order to distract the population from democracy. Peace is defined as the state controlling all dissent. War is used as the national security rationale to quash dissent of the government and therfore create the illusion of peace.

Freedom is Slavery: means that the government uses the supposed "chaos" of freedom to say that those who act freely are threatening society and therefore put the rest of society into slavery to fear. The freedom of civil liberties are used as the reason to restrict freedom because such freedom may threaten national security. If we, so says the government/capitalist controllers of the media military industrial complex, allow freedom then we will be enslaved by those who use freedom against us. In fact the truth of that logic is used by them to enslave us by corporate contol of the media.

Ignorance is strength: Only by keeping people in igornance can a nation state remain strong in its ideological purity. Most religions or political groups can not survive when their members are in doubt. Just think of how questions are received in the sunday school class.
Thus keeping the members in ignorance prevents doubt and makes for the unquestioning obedience to the "group" and its leaders. That is a strong group in which inquisitions and witchhunts are freely enslaving the people. But the group is strong based on the ignorance of the individual members.

See Andrew Sullivan on torture, 1984 and the USA

paris breakfasts

2006-11-05T11:18:00.000+11:00

Some cheery and fun stuff because I love Paris...can you imagine a more pasionate people than the French?
paris breakfasts

10 Reasons why Iraq's better off

2006-11-04T12:39:00.000+11:00

"The Bush administration admits it was mistaken in believing that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but the president and other top officials maintain that Iraq is better off as a result of his removal."

1. End to Weapons of Mass Destruction? "Leaving the lives and the security of the American people at the mercy of this dictator and his weapons of mass destruction - not an option." Bush The Washington Post, Feb 2003

n October, Duelfer released a preliminary report finding that in March 2003 -- the month of the invasion -- Saddam did not have any WMD stockpiles and had not started any program to produce them. The Iraq Survey Group report said that Iraq's WMD program was essentially destroyed in 1991 and Saddam ended the country's nuclear program after the Persian Gulf War in 1991. See NSA Archive.

Less corruption?

· US halts auditing of reconstruction projects

· Haliburton subsidary KBR, largest civilian contractor in Iraq and former employer of VP Cheney, is claimed to have systematically engaged in practices aimed at veiling the facts around its contracts

· Over half a billion US dollars intended to fight the insurgency in Iraq was stolen by people running the country's Ministry of Defence before the 2005 elections, CBS News reported.

Conquered Iraq to be a model of democracy: Bush (2003)

4. Warning to world of the might of the USA?

President George Bush has outlined an expansive vision of a postwar Iraq and said toppling Saddam Hussein would be a lesson to other foes of the United States. Mr Bush spoke of using Saddam's undoing as an example to others. "By defeating this threat we will show other dictators that the path of aggression will lead to their own ruin."( The Washington Post, Feb 2003)

Demonstration that the USA uses its power for good in the world?

Mr Adelman, a senior Reagan adviser at cold war summits said the guiding principle behind neoconservatism, "the idea of using our power for moral good in the world", had been killed off for a generation at least. After Iraq, he told Vanity Fair, "it's not going to sell".

6. Improved Economic Situation? Mr Bush said. " Iraq can be an example of progress and prosperity in a region that needs both." The Washington Post, Feb 2003 In fact, in the UNDP Iraqi living condition survey conducted one year after the invasion, household income had declined from 366,000 Dinars (around 255 US$) to 207,000 Dinars (US$144)

7. A Free Media?

October 17,2006 A statement by the Iraqi parliament urges Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki to close down Azzaman newspaper.he statement also asks Maliki to ban Al-Sharqiya television, the nation-wide network operated in coordination with Azzaman newspaper.

Greater Peace and Stability in Middle East?

"The situation is bad in Iraq, it's bad for both Iraqis and Americans alike and looking at the way the war is being managed right now makes me extremely worried about the future of our world. I am that worried that I feel I, or the next generations of my people, won't be safe in this world even if we were born and lived elsewhere. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Iraq might turn into a second Somalia within a year if the situation is allowed to keep descending the way it's doing now." From Iraq the Model

Iraqis Happier?

"The goal, officials said, was to make sure the Iraqi people "immediately" consider themselves better off than the day before war, and attribute their improved circumstances directly to the US.

"We literally do not know a single Iraqi family that has not seen the violent death of a first or second-degree relative these last three years. Abductions, militias, sectarian violence, revenge killings, assassinations, car-bombs, suicide bombers, American military strikes, Iraqi military raids, death squads, extremists, armed robberies, executions, detentions, secret prisons, torture, mysterious weapons – with so many different ways to die, is the number so far fetched?

There are Iraqi women who have not shed their black mourning robes since 2003 because each time the end of the proper mourning period comes around, some other relative dies and the countdown begins once again." Wednesday, October 18, 2006, http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Safer country ? ie Reduction in Iraqi civilian deaths compared to Saddam?

Saddam it is estimated was responsible for the deaths of 400 000 civilians. Interestingly, most of these occurred when he was an ally of the USA. Iraqi Body Count believe that between 45 and 50 000 civilians have died post invasion. See their database here. See also : icasualties.org Lancet claims 650 000. Bush administration says 30 000. Whatever the figure, we need to add the Iraqi and Coalition military deaths. As Derrick Z. Jackson Boston Globe pointed out in November, 2003 “Just one Iraqi civilian death is horrible blood on our hands given that the attack on Iraq appears to have been based on a lie.”

The author of Iraq the Model website warns that having got us in there, "We need the decision-makers to rise above the rhetoric of who's right and who's wrong and focus on protecting the world from falling prey to the vicious enemies of civilization. We are in the middle of this situation now and losing is not an option. You know what, maybe the world isn't going to harvest direct benefits from winning the battle of Iraq but the world still has to spare no effort to win this battle, again not because winning will bring direct benefits but because losing here will bring subsequent losses that would no doubt be great."

Mission Accomplished?

2006-11-04T12:31:00.000+11:00

The Guardian: reports today that "Several prominent neoconservatives have turned on George Bush days before critical midterm elections, lambasting his administration for incompetence in the handling of the Iraq war and questioning the wisdom of the 2003 invasion they were instrumental in promoting."

Kenneth Adelman, ...Reagan era hawk who sat on the Defence Policy Board until last year, drew attention with a 2002 commentary in the Washington Post predicting that liberating Iraq would be a "cakewalk".

He now says he hugely overestimated the abilities of the Bush team. 'They turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the postwar era. Not only did each of them, individually, have enormous flaws, but together they were deadly, dysfunctional.'"

Will somebody somewhere DO SOMETHING?

2006-11-04T11:55:00.000+11:00

Seafood could collapse by 2050, experts warn. If current trends of overfishing and pollution continue, by 2050 the populations of just about all seafood face collapse, defined as 90 percent depletion, a team of ecologists and economists warns in a study published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. ..“At this point 29 percent of fish and seafood species have collapsed — that is, their catch has declined by 90 percent. It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating,” Worm said. “If the long-term trend continues, all fish and seafood species are projected to collapse — by 2048.”

The Northern Territory Seafood Council has supported a Canadian report that claims some of the world's fish stocks could be wiped out by 2048.

Haggard: Judge not lest you be judged

2006-11-04T11:25:00.000+11:00

“No pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of evangelicalism than does Pastor Ted [Haggard].” according to Harpers. Colorado Springs Gazette says "Ted Haggard sees things other people don't. ...angels and demons and blood on his hands. Sometimes, he sees things before they happen. While fasting and praying 18 years ago on the side of Pikes Peak, Haggard envisioned the church that would become the largest in Colorado, where believers speak in tongues ... a place Haggard says he'll never leave."

Now we know why Haggard may see things others don't... The Colarado Springs Gazette again: "Ted Haggard, ... has resigned his duties amid allegations of a homosexual affair...
The accusations involve comments from [Mike] Jones, a homosexual man who claims Haggard paid him for sex about once a month for three years and that Haggard used methamphetamine during some of the encounters. ..Haggard...has admitted he bought methamphetamine from the man, Mike Jones, but [that] he didn't use it."

Ted Haggard is (or was) pastor of 14,000-member New Life Church, President of thirty million-member National Association of Evangelicals and worldprayerteam.org, the only real-time global prayer network.

Initially on Nov 2 Haggard told a Denver television station that he had never used drugs or had sex with a man. Outside his home on Nov. 3, he admitted that he had purchased meth from Jones.“I was tempted, but I never used it.” He also said that he had had a massage.

However it is noted that "his accuser failed a lie detector test" although the test's accuracy has been questioned.

Haggard's views on homosexuality? According to the Denver Post:
"Homosexual behavior is immoral; in other words, it's not the very best. And that's not my opinion, either," (1993 PBS documentary)

"I believe the church has to teach against immorality, but I don't believe it's the role of the state to spend money to find out what consenting adults do in their bedrooms and then haul them off to jail," (2003)

"Our primary argument is that marriage is a foundational institution in society that should be protected," Haggard told The Associated Press. Once marriage between a man and a woman is protected, legislatures can do what they want to provide benefits for others in civil unions"
(2004)

Well now Haggard's church has said "Our investigation and Pastor Haggard's
public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct...In consultation with leading evangelicals and experts familiar with the type of behavior Pastor Haggard has demonstrated, we have decided that the most positive and productive direction for our church is his dismissal and removal. In addition, the Overseers will continue to explore the depth of Pastor Haggard's offense so that a plan of healing and restoration can begin" (Press Release November 4, 2006)

Andrew Sullivan says: "There is no commandment not to be gay. There is a commandment not to bear false witness. Haggard bore false witness - to himself, to his wife, to his traumatized kids, to his fellow gay men and women. repeatedly, pathologically, self-destructively. The right response for Christians is compassion and forgiveness. But also hope: hope that this will help spread the truth about what being gay actually is."

How the story began: Evangelical sex scandal on Good Morning America

Little fish in warming pond

2006-11-04T09:35:00.000+11:00

November 03, 2006 12:00.

Article from:By Sue Dunlevy (Sydney, Australia)

GLOBAL warming became a shocking reality for me four weeks ago when I took my daughters to revisit the once mammoth Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland, only to discover it now barely exists.

Fourteen years ago, this glacier spread down the Grindelwald valley and it was possible to step out of your car and into an ice cave filled with a magical display of ice carvings.

Visit it now and after a long walk all you'll see is a set of 500 steps leading to a small and dirty patch of ice hidden in the rocks high above you....

...Unlike John Howard, who says we shouldn't be mesmerised by the doomsday warning of the Stern Report, millions of ordinary voters are worried about global warming. Like me, many of them are making small, token personal contributions to help reduce our impact on the planet.

What really annoys them is that they know their small personal contributions are made meaningless because this problem is not something individuals can change. Stopping global warming requires the co-operation of every nation on earth.

We need politicians to make the hard decisions to switch from coal powered electricity to nuclear, wind or solar power, industry leaders who will encourage the invention of transport driven by renewable energies such as solar power.

Jeopardising their own political position by making tough decisions now to prevent an environmental catastrophe 50 years down the track is not something politicians have ever been good at......If politicians continue to make our personalised attempts to save the planet worthless by refusing to pull their weight, we might as well enjoy ourselves while the planet burns up.

Global Responses to Stern Report

2006-11-04T08:25:00.000+11:00

John Howard, PM of Australia: "we’ll lose... wealth if our good productive industries which underpin that wealth are unfairly disadvantaged"

George Bush, President of USA: White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that Mr Bush “has, in fact, contrary to stereotype, been actively engaged in trying to fight climate change and will continue to do so”.

International climate justice movement: "Although climate scientists are in nearly unanimous agreement that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide must be limited to no more than 450 parts per million in order to avoid catastrophic climate chaos, the new UK report calls for CO2 emissions to be stabilized at the much higher rate of 500 to 550 ppm"

Canada: "The federal government will seek a "comprehensive review" of the 1997 treaty when negotiators from 165 countries meet in Nairobi, Kenya.... Canada wants to focus on 'the longer term',"

Tony Blair: " the most important document on the future.... should act as a wake-up call to everyone"

Michael O'Leary, chief executive of the low-cost carrier, RyanAir: "It's the usual horseshit that we hear," he said. "There is a fundamental misunderstanding about aviation and environmental taxes at the moment. No one knows what they are talking about."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel : "The EU needs a strategy for the time once the Kyoto Protocol is elapsed. Climate change is one of the great challenges of the 21st century."

OPEC, the organisation of petroleum exporting countries: The mitigation and adaptation to climate change can only be accomplished on the principles of common responsibility and respected capabilities and not by scenarios that have no foundations in either science or economics as we had yesterday from London".

Wall Street Journal: "Despite using many good references, the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is selective and its conclusion flawed. Its fear-mongering arguments have been sensationalized, which is ultimately only likely to make the world worse off."

Aussie PM on Greenhouse

2006-11-04T08:13:00.000+11:00

PRIME MINISTER: if you go back to the energy whitepaper it was laid out very clearly then that the best thing this country could do would be to invest in technology to clean up the use of fossil fuel, mainly coal but also gas and other fuels. We laid that out two and a half years ago. We said then that given the comparative advantage we had in coal and gas that was the most sensible way to go. What people have got to understand about this whole climate change debate is that in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions you have to adjust the use of all of those things where we have comparative advantage; that is fossil fuels, because they’re the basis of a lot of our wealth. Now we’ve got to be very careful that the adjustment process doesn’t unfairly disadvantage Australia and I am determined that it will happen in a way where our comparative advantage is protected, but those people who criticise me are indifferent to that comparative advantage. I mean the cost to this country of losing our comparative advantage in things like gas and coal would be enormous. It would be jobs and investment lost and it’s my responsibility to see that in our balanced response to this issue we do not make that mistake.

JOURNALIST: But we’re a wealthy country. Isn’t there some scope for leadership on this?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re a wealthy country but we’ll lose that wealth if our good productive industries which underpin that wealth are unfairly disadvantaged, that’s the point I’m making. Our wealth is in part based on fossil fuels where we have an advantage and we have to be careful that we do not lose that advantage. I mean that will mean no inheritance for our children, in our response to this issue to overreact and burden those industries that give us such wealth with unreasonable costs. So our imperative for two and a half or more years now has been to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from using coal and other fossil fuels. We laid that out two and a half years ago. Now it happens that a lot of the things that we have announced in the last few weeks are the product of those decisions and they coincide with the Stern report, but they certainly haven’t been cobbled together in the last couple of weeks. They were mandated two and a half years ago and there’ll be more of those projects laid out in the months ahead, but they all flow from that energy whitepaper that decisively said the way forward for Australia was to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions coming out of the use of fossil fuel. So this is not a latter day conversion, it’s the product of a long term commitment.

From DOORSTOP INTERVIEW, BUNGENDORE 03 November 2006

Howard & Bush - treacherous disastrous ostriches??

2006-10-30T16:33:00.000+11:00

"Our actions over the coming few decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century." - from a 700-page report by the economist Sir Nicholas Stern

This Stern Report sets out three possible solutions:

extending and linking emissions-trading schemes across the world
doubling the amount of funding for new energy technologies
and holding developed nations to their pledges on aid, as the poorest people will be hit worst by climate change.

Stern says that the world needs to spend 1 per cent of its GDP, or £184 billion, to deal with climate change now, or face a bill up to 20 times higher within a decade. And rather than waiting for another five years to reach agreement on Kyoto targets, the protocol should be signed next year, according to Sir Nicholas's report.

If Stern is wrong and he has over estimated the damage of Kyoto by 1000% then it is still worth investing in Kyoto now as the return rate would still be 2 to 1.

Yet Bush is silent with White House officials claiming to be working toward the problem (his own environmental inititaives include only a new marine park for Hawaii, and cleaning brownfields sites). Howard still refuses to consider emission reduction, trading or control, puts little into new energy, pushing instead nuclear and Geosequestration ignoring solar, wind and tidal options. Environment Minister Ian Campbell said Australia had led an international push to allow carbon to be stored under the sea floor. (News.com)

Money v science

It is interesting that after twenty years of scientific treatises on global warming it took an economist to really get people moving in the UK?

2006-10-23T21:56:00.000+10:00

Subway!

LOve it!

Nuclear Power for Australia

2006-10-16T16:22:00.000+10:00

"We have a wonderful, plentiful, energy option here in this country. We would be foolish not to consider that nuclear option. We would be even more foolish to simultaneously dismiss the chance to slash our emission rates.'' Australian Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane

Both the PM and Industry minister are committed to clean nuclear power. This is as many countries have stopped further plant openings (UK) or are phasing them out (Sweden). Our govt moves along implementing its 1950s decisions.

Lets ignore the risks, the terrorism threat and the 30 000 life cycle of uranium. Let say one nuclear plant costs 3 billion dollars to build. The 3 billion dollars could buy solar panels for at least 800 000 homes for heating hot water OR solar cells for 160 000 homes.

These could be installed at low cost or free and rented to people. Almost nil running costs and no radiocativity to worry about..

So The Hon Ian McFarlane I say to you: "We have a wonderful, plentiful, energy option here in this country. We would be foolish not to consider that solar option. We would be even more foolish to simultaneously dismiss the chance to slash our emission rates.''

2006-10-14T14:57:00.000+10:00

Gorillaz & Madonna At The Grammys

Addicted to this clip...saved it to my blog so I can watch it a lot!

Bush: Iraqis Willing To 'Tolerate' This 'Level Of Violence

2006-10-14T11:31:00.000+10:00

Watch the video below and be amazed!

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN: Thank you, Mr. President. Back on Iraq, a group of American and Iraqi health officials today released a report saying that 655,000 Iraqis have died since the Iraq war. That figure is 20 times the figure that you cited in December at 30,000. Do you care to amend or update your figure and do you consider this a credible report?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, I don’t consider it a credible report, neither does General Casey and neither do Iraqi officials. I do know that a lot of innocent people have died and it troubles me and grieves me. And I applaud the Iraqis for their courage in the face of violence. I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to — you know, that there’s a level of violence that they tolerate.

Some sources suggest while the death rates are contested (48 000?, 100 000? 650 000?) the realities are:

the death rate is unacceptable
civilians are dying at significant levels
almost 900 000 Iraqis have moved to Jordan, Iran and Syria since Hussein’s fall
300,000 have fled to other parts of Iraq to escape the violence
71 percent of Iraqis want U.S. forces to leave Iraq within a year, saying “they would feel safer if U.S. and other foreign forces left Iraq.”

Having fun with this!!

2006-10-14T02:25:00.000+10:00


	Your travel type: Travel Yup The Travel Yup likes exotic and adventurous travel, but prefers big cities with fast paced life. He has a keen interest in other cultures and always brings home a few souvenirs. Shopping in Bangkok, getting a tailor made suite in Kuala Lumpur, that's the kind of thing the Travel Yup is into. Even though he likes to get away, he prefers his travels to be comfortable.
	top destinations: Beirut New York Amsterdam	stay away from: Hampi Ciudad Perdida Darien Gap

get your own travel profile

US States I have visited

2006-10-14T02:17:00.000+10:00

create your own personalized map of the USA

Hes noticed

2006-10-14T01:29:00.000+10:00

The Prime Minister of Australia has noticed we have a major drought. Its only been a decade in some parts of the country.
Whats next? He might notice global warming or will he leave a response to that to the last minute?

A nuclear world

2006-10-14T01:13:00.000+10:00

As we run around panicking and condemning North Korea, do we dare pause to hear the hypocrisy we live with. Sure the idea of a North Korea with nukes scares me.

My question is why does anyone have nuclear weapons at all now. I d feel a lot safer if North Korea didnt have them nor India, nor China, Israel, Pakistan, France, the Uk or the only country in the world to have used them the USA.

Why do we need them?

are they really the ultimate deterrant or are they the ultimate threat?

How much easier would it be to tell North Korea to disarm if the whole world disarmed? Are we safe now with the stockpiles of weapons sitting there with the capacity to destroy the planet? How has these nuclear ams acted as a deterrant.

No weapons, no radioactive materials being cycled, no threats, no poison, lest become a nuclear free world.....why not?

PS interesting we invaded Iraq for their weapons of mass destruction and in the lunatic world of North Korea, they were making their own ones. Would Saddam have used nukes if he had them? Not convinced he would have. North Korea who has let their own people starve?...I am afraid.

Where have I been?

2006-10-14T01:05:00.001+10:00

create your own visited country map

When are we to start panicking?

2006-09-26T14:37:00.000+10:00

The arctic ice is now so thin and broken up you can sail from the North of Europe to the North Pole.
The CSIRO, ("A key question for the world is no longer ‘Will the climate change?’ but rather ‘How will it change") Australia's chief science body is warning that climate change is occurring faster than expected.
Mega bushfires threaten Australian cities
The Uniting Church today released a report saying greenhouse was a moral issue and called on the federal government to commit to cutting 20 per cent of the nation's greenhouse emissions by 2020.
Australia is moving into yet another year of drought

AND......the Australian government is STILL resisting major steps to arrest the situation fearing the econmy will suffer.
Maybe the economy will suffer when our farming collapses? or when natural disasters impact us more regulaly? or when Australia has NO water. Sorry to be dramatic but isnt this a potential reality?

I used to support 20 per cent by 2020. From what I am reading and seeing, I now think we need to be talking 80 per cent.
I no longer see any credible scientists questioning the theories of Greenhouse.
what are we doing?

Boeing 747-400 Cockpit video

2006-09-26T14:30:00.000+10:00


Cathy Pacific 747-400 takeoff roll and climbout from London Heathrow. i love flying!!

Howard government denies basic happiness

2006-09-17T03:43:00.000+10:00

In my last post I noted research which shows that almost 60 per cent of Australians nominated their relationship with their family, including partner or spouse, as the most important factor contributing to their happiness.

If this is the case why does the government want to deny recognition of marriages of some of its citizens? Surely gay and lesbian people may too see their partner or spouse as the source of happiness? Yet this government has done all it can to deny any recognition of domestic partnerships or even to have a proper non emotive debate and dicussion about them resorting to cliches and fearmongering.

Money or happiness?

2006-09-17T03:13:00.000+10:00

For Australian Prime Minister John Howard there is only one goal in life ..." economic growth and his government has thrown everything at it...tax reform, deregulation, privatisation, employment reform, tax cuts.... yet in a recent survey, the Sydney Morning Herald notes that 40% of Aussies think life is getting worse.....only 25% thinks life in Australia is getting better, 34 % feels things are about the same.

The SMH says that this "reseach ... shows extra wealth does not bring a sense of extra wellbeing. And it raises questions about the top priority governments give to economic growth.....77 per cent agreed with the proposition that a government's prime objective should be promoting the greatest happiness of the people rather than the greatest wealth." (

Almost 60 per cent of Australians nominated their relationship with their family, including partner or spouse, as the most important factor contributing to their happiness. This compares to only 48 per cent of Britons.

The Herald noted that Dr Clive Hamilton who conducted the research said, " public policy and the news media place extraordinary emphasis on higher incomes and material acquisitions. But not far beneath the surface Australians know it's their relationships that sustain them."

One day we will see how the Howard strategy was fundementally wrong.

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-09-17T01:27:00.000+10:00

The Al Gore film "Inconvenient Truth" which warns of the possible impact of global warming has reached Australia. I saw it in the USA and believe it is important to watch....

When shown in the Australian Parliament recently, however, only 20 of our Federal politicians could be bothered to go. Possibly the most important issue of the 21st Century and less than 10% of our representatives charged with managing the nation now and into the future are educating themselves in this way.

No wonder Australia is one of the least prepared nations in dealing with global warming. SHAME SHAME SHAME. Gore says "John Howard is increasingly isolated in his views on climate change ". While Howard is sceptical global warming, Mr Gore says "He's increasingly alone in that view among people who've looked at the science," (The Age 12th Sept 2006)

Links:
For reviews of the film click here
For critics of the fikm and global warming arguements click here

Citizenship test under consideration

2006-09-16T19:50:00.000+10:00

As`reported several months ago........The Federal Government says it is considering introducing a compulsory test for people who want to become Australian citizens...to...ensure that prospective migrants have a good grasp of English, Australian values, customs and laws.

Perhaps they could start by testing the values Aussies believe are key ( see post:Weds Aug 9, 2006):

helps their mates
tells the truth
has some good morals.

The trouble is Howard and his mates would only partially pass. While very good at helping "mates" (eg their voters, big business etc), they are shocking at telling the truth (they have core and non core promises for exam ple in elections and non core are the ones they don't keep after an election apparently) and as for their morals.....

New Australian Citizenship Law

2006-09-16T19:22:00.000+10:00

To answer criticisms that immigrants to Australia are no showing appropriate values, the government has launched a campaign to ensure all immigrants meet minimum standards. The tests will apply to all immigrants and their immediate and extended families who have arrived in Australia since 1788.

The tests will include:

respect for the Australian landscape and sacred places
knowledge of key historical and cultural traditions and stories including Dreamtime beliefs
understanding of Sacred Law
spear, javelin and boomerang throwing

The program will commence with an apology from the Prime Minister over the stolen generation similar to the national apology extended in August, 2006 to Vietnam veterans who were shunned for their part in the war that divided the nation.

Tolerance...lessons for us all

2006-09-16T19:21:00.000+10:00

'[2:62] Those who believe (in the [Koran]), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians—any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord.'"

Taken from the Koran

My September 11 Questions

2006-09-11T23:15:00.000+10:00

While we think of the events of 11th of September 2001, there are some questions that I still have not had answered?

why did the perpetrators do it?
what did they hope to achieve? Have they been successful?
apart from talking tough, making travel as safe as possible and bombing some places, what have we really done to stop other young men making the same choices and bombing other innocents?
what can we do to create a world which is more peaceful?

How many famous Aussies died this week?

2006-09-09T07:20:00.000+10:00

This week three significant Australians died. From the popular media it sounded like only two lost their lives. The three who passed away were:

Steve Irwin, 44, (entertainer)
Colin Theile 85, (author of 100 books including "Storm Boy").
Peter Brock, 61, (racing car driver)

Irwin and Brock died doing what they liked best namely racing car driving for the latter and filming in the case of the former. Theile died in hospital after a short stay due to breathing difficulties (and a failing heart).

Interestingly, while Thiele and Irwin died on the same day, the popular media focused most attention on Irwin, who made a reputation wrestling crocodiles and introducing North Americans to the perils of Aussie wildlife. Thiele, a prolific author who was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (the highest level of the award) in 1977 for his services to literature and education was not offered the state funeral that Irwin was. (Bob Irwin, Steve's dad refused the offer of a state funeral).

I never knew Dr Colin Thiele but his books impacted my life powerfully. The fire in the stone which I read in 1975 in primary school was my introduction to this great Australian author. This is a man who should be read more. If he had been a French author, his death would have been heralded as a day of mourning and people would have noted his amazing understanding of the realities of Aussie life. But it seems in contemporary Australia, TV and wrestling crocodiles win.

Vale Irwin, Thiele and Brock who lived out their passions. This is the best example of an Aussie and a world citizen.

1500 Days

2006-08-27T23:40:00.000+10:00

This is how many days until it is now estimated oil production will peak. After years of speculation that we would run out of oil, we are now on the eve of that day.

and what is Australia doing?

Despite warnings for years about the vulnerability of Aussie oil supplies, governments have continued building roads, encouraging car manufacturers and minimised investment in public transport.

Now that prices are climbing what does our Federal government resolve to do?

raise fuel taxes to reduce consumption while putting the funds into public transportation? NO!
educating Australians about the implications of peak oil? NO!
encouraging Aussies to use less? NO!
developing a long term strategy to ensure Australia is self sufficient! NOPE!

Instead if you apply, the government will give you money to covert to LPG

How much if you buy a fuel efficient car? NOTHING
or a hybrid care like the Pirius? NOTHING
or if you give up the car and use PT? NOTIHNG!

one day we will rue this government's inability to do anything eccept regain Power!

Aussie Snippets: we like our iced coffee milks~

2006-08-27T12:35:00.000+10:00

Several years ago, I travelled around Australia in a 4 wheel drive with a friend of mine. In every town (and there are few of them in the remoter parts of Australia we stopped for Iced Coffee flavoured Milk. We rated every one of them and decided the two best were Pauls in the Northern Territory and Farmers Union in South Australia.

From Wikpedia: "In Australia, iced coffee is a flavoured milk drink more similar to a Starbucks Frappuccino in the United States as opposed to simply coffee that has been chilled or cold-brewed. Home made iced coffee is often served with ice cream and whipped cream and is often compared to a milk shake.

Outside Australia, the drinking of flavoured milk does not seem as common and the products I have sampled have been disappointing.

Now it seems Farmers Union is the top selling flavoured milk in my country! Little known outside the state it is produced in, it apparently is the only drink in the world to outsell the uniquitous coca cola! According to National Foods, 22 billion litres are consumed annually!!!

In addition, according to NT cartoonist, Colin Wicking, apparently Northern Territorians drink 40 litres each of flavoured milk per annum. This dents the reputation of Aussies as beer drinking champions!!

101 Uses for a John Howard!

2006-08-27T12:30:00.000+10:00

Been a busy month so not much time for too much blogging!

Loved this website: http://www.101usesforajohnhoward.com/

Enjoy!

Great Aussies help Mates

2006-08-09T10:04:00.000+10:00

From The Age:

What makes ?

According to a survey condicted by the National Australia Day Council the a great Aussie:

helps their mates
tells the truth
has some good morals.

The survey found that most people believed a "great Australian" was someone who was unselfish, honest, community-minded and possessed great personal integrity.

Interesting how the Prime Minister stacks up against all of those:

1. only helps mates when there is some return coming (have a look at East Timor, the Iraqi invasion)
2. most Aussies in a recent survey believed he lied over his succsession plan with the treasurer Peter Costello
3. do good morals include locking children in detention camps?

It would be nice if our Prime Minister and government projected the values of being unselfish, honest and community minded into the global stage.

Where would we stand on Iraq if we had? On the Kyoto treaty???

"the unnecessary slaughter of innocents Part II

2006-07-30T19:36:00.000+10:00

Israel kills 21 children...
(from http://au.news.yahoo.com/060728/2/zxua.html)....

An Israeli air strike killed at least 40 Lebanese civilians, including 21 children, in the southern village of Qana, in the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbollah. Lebanese Red Cross workers covered the corpse of one dead child with a blanket. A woman in a red-patterned dress lay crumpled and lifeless in the broken masonry. A leg poked out from the rubble nearby. A child lay dead in the street.....

a child who would normally be playing, eating, dreaming, sleeping and loving lay dead in the street

See my post published Monday, July 24, 2006 called "the unnecessary slaughter of innocents is always wrong" quoting Bob Herbert of The New York Times

Vale Justin Coogan

2006-07-25T20:11:00.000+10:00

Went to a funeral last week for a brother of a friend and business collegaue Justin Coogan. The funeral was in a movie theatre (Sun Theatre, Yarraville in Melbourne that he had been involved in renovating.

The "celebration" of his life was interspersed with humour, film clips of his life, tears, hugs and even song. Justin was a talented man in many fields and a business man from his high school days.

At the end we all released balloons as the coffin turned the corner. I m still moved by that memory.

Justin was only 39.

Sadly my second funeral for 2006.

"President...spent the afternoon at Dunkin’ Donuts."

2006-07-25T19:59:00.000+10:00

For someone who is politically supposed to be a million miles away, Andrew Sullivan (The Times and Daily Dish) and makes a lot of sense. I may not agree with all he says but he is an intelligent read.........

This essay "Stop dithering, this dictator's really got WMDs" contains such gems as "what you cannot do is argue as Dick Cheney and Bush have consistently argued about the WMD threat, then look at their current position .... and consequently make any coherent sense at all"

and "[Bush] spokesman told the press: “It’s been our policy all along that we do not act unilaterally . . ." and

"you see the strange, almost surreal disconnection between the president’s words and his actions"

Ugly ugly anti-semitism

2006-07-25T19:32:00.000+10:00

Andrew Sullivan (Daily Dish) has video from a Palestinian sermon about Jews published on his site on 24 Jul 2006 01:28 pm. Its tired, old, deadly posion inciting hatred against a race. Does not help peace methinks.

"Excessive Use of Force"

2006-07-25T19:00:00.001+10:00

United Nations relief coordinator Jan Egeland said the damage to civilian areas caused by Israeli airstrikes was worse than he had anticipated and reemphasized that attacking civilians was illegal under intrenational norms. "It is horrific. I did not know it was block after block of houses... It seems to be an excessive use of force in an area with so many civilians," said Egeland, described by reporters as "visibly shocked." "It makes it a violation of humanitarian law." He acknowledged, however, that he did not have all the information he might want: "What we do not know, for humanitarians, what was between these buildings, what military targets? But it seems excessive." (from Jurist)

He has yet to tour the damaged civilian areas in Israel caused by Hezbollah BUT that does not change what seems "to be an excessive use of force" by Israel. As we keep saying defence is one thing.....

"the unnecessary slaughter of innocents is always wrong"

2006-07-24T15:55:00.000+10:00

Bob Herbert at The New York Times, while accepting Israel's right to respond to attacks has said the following in relation to the Israeli bombing campaign in Lebanon:-

"...the unnecessary slaughter of innocents, whether by Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda, American forces in Iraq or the Israeli defense forces, is always wrong, and should never be tolerated. So civilized people cannot in good conscience stand by and silently watch as hundreds of innocents are killed and thousands more threatened by the spasm of destruction unleashed by Israel in Lebanon."

"Going after Hezbollah is one thing. The murderous rocket attacks into Israel must be stopped. But the wanton killing of innocent civilians, including babies and children, who had no connection at all to Hezbollah is something else."

"....the Bush crowd nodded in acquiescence as Israel plowed headlong into a situation that can’t possibly end any other way than badly. Lebanon, which had been one of the few bright spots in the Middle East, is now a mess. Even if Hezbollah is brought to its knees, the circumstances will ensure that there will be legions of newly radicalized young men anxious to take up arms and step into the vacuum...." [see my early post: How to create a million terrorists]

"As a true friend of Israel, the task of the United States is to work as strenuously as possible to find real solutions to Israel’s security. The first step in that process, as far as the current crisis is concerned, would logically have been to try and broker a cease-fire.

"But the compulsive muscle-flexers in the Bush crowd were contemptuous of that idea. Always hot for war, and astonishingly indifferent to its consequences, they egged Israel on. That was not the behavior of a friend." www.nytimes.com

On the Brink of World War Three

2006-07-23T10:45:00.000+10:00

Following on from my earlier post...here are the comments of Newt Gringich former Republican Speaker of the House on Meet the Press July 16 2006

MR. GINGRICH: I mean, we, we are in the early stages of what I would describe as the third world war, and frankly, our bureaucracies aren’t responding fast enough, we don’t have the right attitude about this, and this is the 58th year of the war to destroy Israel. And frankly, the Israelis have every right to insist that every single missile leave south Lebanon and that the United States ought to be helping the Lebanese government have the strength to eliminate Hezbollah as a military force, not as a political force in the parliament, but as a military force in south Lebanon.

MR. RUSSERT: This is World War III?

MR. GINGRICH: I, I believe if you take all the countries I just listed, that you’ve been covering, put them on a map, look at all the different connectivity, you’d have to say to yourself this is, in fact, World War III.

Bush Massages the World

2006-07-23T10:02:00.000+10:00

What more can we say? Except" "is this a bizarre image?"
What was the President of the United States of America thinking at the G8? Also at G8 was "the m icrophone incident when a mic "accidentally" (?) left on picked up a private Bush-Blair chat:

his infamous "Yo Blair" comment, when the "Prez" showed how informal his relationship is with the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Tony Blair
The US president apparently believes Mid East conflict will cease when Syria gets" Hezbollah to stop dong this shit"
In his response to what the USA would do in terms of intervention: "I think Condi (US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice) is going to go pretty soon"

Sadly, Bush continues to show an extraordinary lack of wisdom and leadership especially if he gave a "green light" to Israel to launch the attacks against Hezbollah...and as the bombs rained on Lebanon and the rockets on Haifa what did our two leaders have to say?:

Bush: Thanks for the sweater - it's awfully thoughtful of you.

Blair: It's a pleasure.

Bush: I know you picked it out yourself.

Blair: Oh absolutely - in fact I knitted it!!!

(laughter)

How to create a million terrorists

2006-07-23T09:28:00.000+10:00

It is now estimated half a million people have been displaced in and out of Lebanon by the Isreali rocket attacks.
Half a million people who have listened to the whistle of rockets, seen the bombing of buildings and people around them, heard the rumours and mistruths that emerge from times like this.
In addition, there are many many Israelis who are experiencing the continued fear, pain and death that have come from years of suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
In the minds of the children, men and women, we are creating a group of people who will learn to hate, fear and mistrust the other. Very few Lebanese will ever feel comfortable talking to an Israeli and few Israelis will ever trust the Arab world. These seeds already sown, and watered over the last few decades will continue to be fertilised by hate.
In the Jewish Scriptures (1 Kings chapter 12), Rehoboam is proclaimed king of Israel. The people ask him to "lighten the harsh service and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, we will serve you". Ignorning the advice of the elders, the new King turns to friends who tell him to say "My little finger is thicker than my father's body. Whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.'"

When Israel heard this, they abandoned the monarchy, and were violent to its leaders. King Rehoboam flees and civil war ensues. All because he chose not to treat people who were willing to negotiate with any sort of empathy, communication and kindness.

Our leaders have done the same in our world. Every time we choose to bear arms, answer incursion by some with violence to many, we further the flames of civil war. For the many ordinary Lebanese and Israelis who don t want war and violence, the heavy handed responses by some will create many more generations of terrorists.

Howard's Aussie Energy Super-Power

2006-07-19T09:22:00.000+10:00

"John Howard, Australia’s prime minister, on Monday drew attention to the countrys growing strategic importance, saying it had the makings of an energy superpower and that it was in the world’s interests that it assumed such a role" writes Virginia Marsh in the Financial Times My interpretation of the PM's vision:

there is no concept of trying to get humanity to curtail energy growth
Australia's role is to profit from world need and greed
we need to start looking for oil everywhere (i assume this includes my backyard, national parks and Antarctica)
while solar gets a mention, there is no thought of major reliance on renewables un- like Sweden for example..its nearly all non environmentally sustainable materials

I d much rather this vision from a Canadian not-for-profit, public-private partnership called EnergyINet Inc. that is working to help Canada become an energy superpower by accelerating the development and deployment of advanced, environmentally sustainable energy systems and technologies.

The Australian PM has been consistent in his energy views eg resisiting encouraging Australia to reduce consumption and refusing to sign the Kyoto Treaty (saying Australia should not sign while China does not have to- while supplying China with vast quantities of raw materials), ignored greenhouse warnings for much of his term (see earlier post on the A to Z of Howard government mean-ness)

Which superpower vision do we want for our world? One that rips, extracts, uses and burns or one that looks to renew, recycle and replenish?

When will Iraq be grateful?

2006-07-19T09:03:00.000+10:00

We keep being told that soon "things will settle down" and "Iraq will take its place as a full and safe democracy". Surely, this must be soon? Surely the people of Iraq must be ready to celebrate their "freedom"?

I quote from NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer on a UN report. One hopes that the leaders of the invading countries read and weep...shame on them for the option they chose a violent invasion. Few of us could support the previous regime but there had to be a different way to bring about change?

Nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike in deaths that coincided with rising sectarian attacks across the country. The report from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq describes a wave of lawlessness and crime, including assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, torture and intimidation.

Hundreds of teachers, judges, religious leaders and doctors have been targeted for death, and thousands of people have fled, the report said. Evidence suggests militants also have begun to target homosexuals, it said.

"While welcoming recent positive steps by the government to promote national reconciliation, the report raises alarm at the growing number of casualties among the civilian population killed or wounded during indiscriminate or targeted attacks by terrorists or insurgents," the U.N. said in a note accompanying the report.

According to the report, 2,669 civilians were killed in May and 3,149 were killed in June. Those numbers combined two counts: from the Ministry of Health, which records deaths reported by hospitals; and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, which tallies the unidentified bodies it receives.

The report charts a month-by-month increase in the number of civilians killed, from 710 in January to 1,129 in April. In the first six months of the year, it said 14,338 people had been killed.

The report's figures were higher than some other counts, but even the U.N. said many killings go unreported.........It was unclear whether the tally from the Medico-Legal Institute included only those who were killed as a result of violence.

The U.N. report also details the rise in kidnappings, particularly of large groups of people. On May 17, for example, the report said 15 Tae Kwon Do athletes were kidnapped in western Iraq."There is no news regarding their whereabouts," the report said.

Women report that their rights have been rolled back by extremist Muslim groups — both Shiite and Sunni.While under Saddam Hussien's women faced few social restrictions, they say they are now barred from going to market alone, wearing pants or driving cars.

The government still has not pursued many allegations of torture and other inhumane treatment in prisons and detention centers, the U.N. said.

Read the story here.

Australian state to ban plastic bags...eventually

2006-07-17T22:12:00.000+10:00

After my earlier post "Ireland's done it, Switzerland is doing it..why can t we" one of Australia's states, the southern state of Victoria (capital = Melbourne) announced that plastic bags will be banned.................from January 1, 2009

In the meantime, Victorians will continue to use about 1.1 billion bags annually...so by Jan 1, 2009 another 2.8 billion plastic bags will have been used........the ban will not apply to biodegradable bags, to small retailers or in situations where bags are required for health and safety reasons.

Just one question, why not 1 January 2007 or even 2008? what do we need to prepare for?
protect the industry? educate consumers?

Peak Oil

2006-07-17T07:46:00.000+10:00

The world is starting to slowly realise that we have an increasing world population and declining oil stocks. This will mean possible crises if we dont do something about it.

This means reducing consumption now, finding alternative means of transportation now, looking for ways to get food grown closer to where it is consumed now.

In Australia, its busines as usual despite the needs for the above. But then again our Federal Environment Minister Senator the Hon. Ian Campbell cannot even cope with the thought of forcingAussies to reduce plastic bag usage (see previous post). So more freeways, more air travel are still in train. One day our next generation may look at us with disgust and horror at our wastage and squandering of oil.

Ireland's done it, Switzerland is doing it..why can t Australia?

2006-07-17T07:12:00.000+10:00

Plastic Bags....Its almost an old issue in consumrs minds but its a biggie...
"Current plastic bag use and disposal, ..... not only create environmental problems, but also reinforce the perception of a wasteful society. Plastic bags as litter create a visual pollution problem, and affect our aquatic wildlife,..[and] raises questions of resource consumption and resource efficiency"1

Globally plastic bags didn't come into widespread use until the early 1980s, environmental groups estimate that 500 billion to 1 trillion of the bags are now used worldwide every year.2

"Every time we use a new plastic bag they go and get more petroleum from the Middle East and bring it over in tankers," said Stephanie Barger, executive director of Earth Resource Foundation in Costa Mesa, Calif. "We are extracting and destroying the Earth to use a plastic bag for 10 minutes." 3 In addition, hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.

Australia has opted for a voluntary plastics code and the Federal Environment Minister refuses to ban plastic bags or put a tax on them. Yet in Ireland, the use of plastic bags in Ireland dropped more than 90 percent following imposition of a tax, in Taiwan a law which required restaurants, supermarkets and convenience stores to charge customers for plastic bags and utensils has resulted in a 69 percent drop in use of plastic products. In some Cantons of Switzerland, they are banned. Germany charges for them.

Why cant Australia take stronger action? Is our minister more committed to the preservation of the plactics industry than the preservation of the environment?

1 National Plastic Bags Working Group Report to the National Packaging Covenant Council
6 December 2002
2 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0721-04.htm
3 ibid

World War Three Madness

2006-07-16T20:08:00.000+10:00

The world sits on the edge of global war...
Israel v Lebanon...bring in Iran, the USA, Russia and North Korea...
Tell me my fears are an over reaction?

The A to Z of the Howard Government's Mean-ness

2006-07-16T01:27:00.000+10:00

Australia, as a country gave so many of its young men to the war effort of World War One. The impact on the country was significant. The myth of the Aussie "digger" were a group of men known for their sense of humour, commitment, desire to see "everyone have a go" and generosity.

These are the values that I would hope would have become engrained in our Psyche and lasted many many generations.

Enter the Howard government. With a leader who does not demonstrate a sense of humour but which has plenty of commitment....to their own power...shows little generosity and far from giving everyone a go, actually seems to select groups to be "mean to".

Here is the A to Z of the Howard' Government's mean-ness

ABC, our government media arm (notice every time the Govt discusses the ABC, it is to accuse it of bias. At the same time funding has been cut drastically and the Board stacked with conservative appointees)
Business Owners - the small ones that is...they seem to love big business ( GST, what other real help has Howard given small business?)
Democracy (note the reduction of Committee Powers in the Senate)
The Environment (the State of the environment report released in the first year of office - ignored, greenhouse effect - ignored, note the refusal to sign Kyoto and the failure to even get rid of plastic bags, now we want an expansion of uranium mining and the construction of nuclear power stations)
Freedom (note the draconian anti terrorism laws and sedition laws)
Gays (Howard denies any investigations into discrimination, blocked gay marriage and overturned state and territory considerations of civil partnerships)
Health (Howard cut the dental subsidy and has steadily eroded the public system in favour of private while blaming the states for any financial woes)
Iraq (in our greed for money for Aussie wheat, we supported an invasion which has cost more than 2000 young American lives and at least 100 000 Iraqi lives)
Jobless (punitive rules for the unemployed and the unemployable)
Koories (no apology, no real solutions, little respect & a continual desire to gloss history)
Lower income workers (the govt have resisted all attempts to increase low income wages and provided a new system which will result in an increase in the working poor)
Media independence (witness the new media ownership laws)
Overseas Aid (it might look like we give more - but we now include expenditure for Narau to house our refugees who nearly all end up in Australia anyway)
Physically and intellectually disabled (benefit cuts and rules requiring them to work)
Public education (note the on-going criticism of the standards and values of public education)
Republic (the ballot process about the republic was manipulation at its worst..not given two questions - one whether we wanted a republic and one outlining the preferred model)
Refugees (how we can punish and hurt those fleeing from punishment and hurt?)
Single parents (just got to work, work, work)
Truth (witness the children overboard incident, and the arguments for supporting the US invasion of Iraq, listen to the continual "newspeak" phrases that are used)
University education (witness the tightening of funds, the raising of fees, the continual ridiculing and criticism of academics -seldom to you ever hear this govt praise higher education, the new employment rules that gag academics and the 1984 speak Voluntary Student Unionism which deprives university Unions of income curtailing many campus services but more telling campus democracy
Workers in Australian companies (the new work legislation which overturned 100 years of a system that actually worked to keep Australia fair)
Young voters (note the new laws which close an electoral roll on the day of an election instead of giving people a grace period)

So what has Howard given us:

lower taxes (which also means less money the government has to spend)
$3000 baby bonus
higher house prices (some of us have done well from this, some will never own homes in their own cities)
global low interest rates (well I added the global..the govt keeps saying that it brought interest rates down...funny that its happened across the whole planet)
racial violence

Please help me to add to these lists

Welcome to Australia - the mean country - where we no longer give everyone a go.

Costello learns Howard is a liar

2006-07-16T01:24:00.000+10:00

Costello has learnt what many of us have known for a long long time. John Howard, the PM of Australia will do anything he can to hang onto power. When it suited Costello he kept his eyes and mouth shut and avoided seeing the lies or commenting on hem. When it impacts his power, his career and his future, then suddenly Costello notices the liar in his midst.

Over Reaction???

2006-07-16T01:13:00.000+10:00

Is it a slight over reaction to launch a war on two fronts that could have global consequences when eight soldiers are killed? Is every Israeli soldier worth 12 lives (100 killed so far including children..see Gruesome Scenes)
Israel has now created its own ghetto where EVERYONE outside its borders hates it more than ever.

What is the solution?
Israel has a right to exist and the Palestinians have a right to their existence too.