tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-213728632012-02-16T19:29:48.470+11:00This just in: It's a freakazoidal world we live in.Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.comBlogger701100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-38138156635034368602007-08-03T00:27:00.000+10:002007-08-03T01:29:54.716+10:00A worrying judgment by the High Court was delivered today regarding control orders for individuals who've been cleared of all terrorist-related charges, but who still pose a threat to society. The case concerned <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/08/03/rgn_thomas_narrowweb__300x482,0.jpg">Jack Thomas</a>, more widely known as 'Jihad Jack' (great alliteration, i must add). Briefly...<br /><br /><blockquote>The decision means that conditions affecting Thomas including a curfew, reporting to police and prohibitions on meeting certain people will stand, despite the fact that his retrial has not yet gone ahead.<br /><br />Thomas had argued unsuccessfully that control order legislation was constitutionally invalid. The judges ruled 5-2 that the section of the anti-terror laws relating to control orders was supported at least by the defence power in the constitution.<br /><br />The court held the defence power was not limited to external threats or to war between nations but extended to protecting the public from terrorist acts.<br /><br /><br /></blockquote>I guess it defeats the whole purpose of innocent until proven guilty if the courts are allowed to control your whereabouts, especially according to such strict measures. It would make more sense if it applied to individuals charged of a crime, not to "potential" criminals. Everyone has the potential to be a threat to national security, methinks.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-3813815663503436860?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-49516243891457651102007-07-03T01:28:00.000+10:002007-07-03T01:31:54.318+10:00<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KFZz6ICzpjI"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KFZz6ICzpjI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-4951624389145765110?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1170308801531131962007-02-01T16:41:00.000+11:002007-02-01T16:54:39.886+11:00...than with a Waleed Aly article!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/islam-and-democracy-do-mix/2007/01/31/1169919400771.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1">Count the numbers and see: Islam and democracy do mix</a><br />February 1, 2007<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><strong style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The West needs to show that it is willing to abide by the popular will, writes Waleed Aly.</strong><br /><strong></strong></div><p>LET no one deny that George Bush is an optimist. Even as Iraq descends further into the quagmire of civil war, the United States President is celebrating small victories. The Iraqi people voted in three elections in 2005, he enthused in his State of the Union address last week. Yes, there have been setbacks, but "it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle". Let democracy triumph. Let freedom prevail. Et cetera.</p> <p>Clearly, the democratisation of the Middle East has long been part of Bush's plan. For Bush, that meant trying to turn Iraq into Sweden overnight by pounding it militarily. It was a profoundly revolutionary approach, quintessentially unconservative, and ultimately doomed to the failure we now observe.</p> <p>The sadly inevitable consequence has been the emergence of the thought that democratisation is simply beyond the Muslim world. It seems that when it comes to Muslim democratisation, there are those who oppose it and those who would bomb it into existence.</p> <p>Neither position reflects the desires of the Muslim world itself. We have long known of the deep unpopularity of the invasion of Iraq. But we are less familiar with the attitudes revealed last week by a Gallup poll of 10 Muslim majority countries: that public sentiment across the Muslim world is firmly in favour of democracy.</p> <p>The twist is that strong majorities express their democratic aspirations within an Islamic framework. The key Gallup finding is that most believe in the happy coexistence of democracy and Islamic law. They maintain that Islam should, at the very least, be a source of legislation.</p> <p>This will unnerve many Western commentators whose immediate response to public religion is, for obvious reasons, often allergic. But observers of the Muslim world will be far from surprised. Election results in recent years in Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, Pakistan, Algeria and, most infamously, the Palestinian territories, have demonstrated the willingness of Muslim-majority populations to vote for religiously based parties.</p> <p>Given decades of corruption and despotism under secularists such as Saddam Hussein, and given the strong social services and anti-corruption agenda of religious parties in the Muslim world, this is perfectly understandable.</p> <p>Still, one glance in the direction of Afghanistan or Iran will be enough to have many questioning the wisdom of giving democratic expression to these popular aspirations. The long-obvious, inescapable fact is that democracy in the Muslim world is unlikely to produce results entirely pleasing to Western political sensibilities. Implicit in many Western observers' objections will be the suggestion that religious parties will do considerable damage to democracy.</p><a name="contentSwap2"></a> <p>This is short-sighted. It would be more meaningful to consider the exact reverse: the effect democracy will have on religious polities. It is one thing to shout pious mantras of dissent from opposition; it is quite another to govern a people and then face elections. Political reality and public accountability can have a moderating effect, and governments that do not adjust risk public resentment.</p> <p>It is noteworthy that support for Islamic government is highest in Egypt and Pakistan, where it does not exist, while there is increasing public dissatisfaction with self-declared Islamic governments in places such as Iran and Nigeria, which have failed to deliver freedom.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/islam-and-democracy-do-mix/2007/01/31/1169919400771.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1">[...]</a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-117030880153113196?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1166542275998443072006-12-20T02:07:00.000+11:002006-12-20T02:34:09.446+11:00It's a French film about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce" title="Christmas truce">Christmas Truce</a> between French, British and German soldiers of World War I. It's simply excellent in every aspect, and i still have a big, goofy grin on my face just thinking about it. My favourite part of the film is when... ah, i won't spoil it! Nevertheless, the tagline for the film sums it up pretty well: "Without an enemy there can be no war".<object height="350" width="425"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ulkxyWkpWhE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object><br /><br /><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ulkxyWkpWhE"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ulkxyWkpWhE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object>Watch this film, even if it's the last thing you do! And since Joey and i have been agreeing a lot lately, the end may not be as far as we previously thought it. So do it ASAP! It might even be a nice idea to watch it on Christmas Day, for those who do and do not celebrate Christmas...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116654227599844307?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1165702277315697892006-12-10T07:55:00.000+11:002006-12-10T09:20:51.686+11:00I never liked Bono's music, and I always was a bit sus about his neverending supply of sunglasses and striking resemblance to Robin Williams. That hasn't changed of course, but this speech he made at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. earlier this year really struck a chord with me.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gUdrYDk8rVA"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gUdrYDk8rVA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br />It's about 20 minutes long and the full transcript is available <a href="http://www.data.org/archives/000774.php">here</a>. But for those of who can't be bothered, here are some of the best bits (well I think so anyway):<br /><br />[...]<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.<br /><br />I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill… I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff… maybe, maybe not… But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that <span style="font-weight: bold;">God is with the vulnerable and poor</span>.<br /><br />God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. </span><br /><br />[...]<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">[Re poverty] There’s is much more to do. There’s a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.<br /><br />And finally, it’s not about charity after all, is it? It’s about justice.<br /><br />And that’s too bad.<br /><br />Because you’re good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can’t afford it.<br /><br />But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6,500</span> Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.<br /><br />Because there's no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn’t accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, “mother nature”. I<span style="font-weight: bold;">n Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month</span>. A tsunami every month. And it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.</span><br /><br />[...]<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than two million Americans… left and right together… united in the belief that <span style="font-weight: bold;">where you live should no longer determine whether you live.</span><br /><br />Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market… that’s a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents… That’s a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents… that’s a justice issue. </span><br /><br />[...]<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.<br /><br />Do to others as you would have them do to you.’ (Luke 6:30) Jesus says that.<br /><br />‘Righteousness is this: that one should… give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.’ The Koran says that. (2.177)<br /><br />Thus sayeth the Lord: ‘Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.’ The jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.<br /></span><br />[...]<br /><p style="font-style: italic;">I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing…Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional one percent of the federal budget tithed to the poor. </p> <p style="font-style: italic;">What is one percent?</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">One percent is not merely a number on a balance sheet. </p> <p style="font-style: italic;">One percent is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This one percent is digging waterholes to provide clean water. </p>[...]<br /><p style="font-style: italic;">I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did—or did not to—to put the fire out in Africa.</p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">History, like God, is watching what we do.<br /></span></p>::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br /><br />Okay, so they're more chunks then bits, I couldn't help myself.<br /><br />As far as I can gather from Youtube feedback boards, I'm sure there're lots of people who have their claws out for this millionaire preaching justice, this rockstar spewing religion. Peeps, dear peeps, lay off da man! (While we're at it, leave Madonna alone for wanting to care for a child facing a high risk of death!) What Bono is saying makes sense, almost too much sense. Maybe it's time to stop worrying about why or how these words are spoken, and starting thinking about what they actually are.<br /><br />I also gather that there're more than a few who are less than happy with the heavy emphasis on religion, particularly the religions of the Book. Well...get over it. Social justice IS rooted in such religions, and nothing has been said to suggest that atheists, or those of other faiths, aren't equally capable or worthy or whatever it may be. If anything, the speech implies the contrary, encourages a unified front against poverty.<br /><br />So yeah, listen to what Bono is saying. It's better than anything he's ever sung.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116570227731569789?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1165298575003855922006-12-05T16:54:00.000+11:002006-12-05T17:06:12.656+11:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/01/28/29n_gillard_narrowweb__200x296.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/01/28/29n_gillard_narrowweb__200x296.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/12/04/1165080880905.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">No one's fool: lady-in-waiting boxes clever</span></a><br /><byline>Michelle Grattan</byline><br /><date>December 5, 2006<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/12/04/1165080880905.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1">[...]</a><br /></date><p><a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/member.asp?id=83L">[Julia] Gillard</a>, 45, in Federal Parliament only since 1998, is ambitious, talented and, as Kevin Rudd says, endowed with a bucketful of energy. As leader, Simon Crean spotted her strengths and had her forge, as immigration spokeswoman, Labor's policy in the difficult and divisive area of asylum seekers. She did it with tact and toughness, helping to defuse the issue, which was finally put to bed under Latham.</p> <p>Daughter of a migrant family from Wales, Gillard studied law, and was a senior partner in the industrial law firm Slater & Gordon before becoming chief of staff to then Victorian Opposition leader John Brumby in 1995 to '98. Her experience with state Labor gives her a point in common with Rudd, who worked for the Goss opposition and government in Queensland.</p> <p>Gillard was part of the Left sub-faction led by Martin Ferguson. She became a rusted-on supporter of Crean, then of Latham. This put her at odds with Ferguson, one of the delegation who tapped Crean on the shoulder in 2003 and then voted for Beazley against Latham.</p> <p>One reason Gillard disliked Rudd was that she did not believe he was loyal to Crean. Also, the two were natural future leadership rivals. The irony is that both became part of the broad destabilisation movement against Beazley and now the rivals are joined at the hip as a "team".</p> <p>Gillard is disciplined, organised, and good humoured. She is the ultimate tidy-desk person. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tidy kitchen too, which, when photographed, drew criticism from some who seized on it to argue that a childless, single woman would not be accepted by the community as a leader.</span></p><div class="pageprint" id="contentSwap2"><a name="contentSwap2"></a> <p>She is more in sync with the style of the anal Rudd than the rather shambolic Beazley. As a political saleswoman, she is relaxed, affable, effective and uses her vivacious style to persuade. With her press secretary she often tours the parliamentary press gallery, promoting lines, sharing a joke, her hearty laugh ringing through offices.</p><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/12/04/1165080880905.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1">[...]</a><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116529857500385592?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1164378369544896732006-11-25T01:15:00.000+11:002006-11-25T01:50:07.316+11:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7256/2161/1600/962504/Wladimir_Putin.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7256/2161/200/373943/Wladimir_Putin.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7256/2161/1600/61037/pt_hilali_ent-lead__200x304.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7256/2161/200/762543/pt_hilali_ent-lead__200x304.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />By Waleed Aly<br />November 25, 2006<br /><br />QUESTION: which public figure made the most contemptibly misogynist comments about rape reported in the past month?<br /><br />Amid the recent furore surrounding Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, you probably missed the answer: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin was speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Conversation turned to the topic of Israeli President Moshev Katsav, suspected by Israeli police of raping female employees. Putin was unaware a nearby microphone was on. He joked that Katsav was a "mighty guy". <b>"Raped 10 women! I would never have expected that from him. He surprised us all. We all envy him."</b><br /><br />When comments this disgusting come from the political leader of one of the world's largest nations, scandal is inevitable. The excuses were painfully familiar. "It was a joke which did not have anything to do with the official part of the talks," explained Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. It "was not addressed to journalists". Somehow, this was meant to assuage us, as if the abhorrence of Putin's remarks inhered not in their content, but the fact that journalists heard them. Still, Peskov continued: "It is not always possible to translate a Russian joke into another language in such a way that you convey its complete meaning." If so, one wonders why Putin chose to share his "humour" with an Israeli. Does Olmert possess special insight into the Russian comedic tradition?<br /><br />Ultimately, we were asked to believe it was all a misunderstanding. "These words should in no way be interpreted as President Putin approving the possibility of this sort of crime," said Peskov, demanding of us new feats of interpretive gymnastics.<br /><br />The defence of cross-cultural miscommunication has reached new levels of infamy after the recent the Hilali controversy. And indeed, at least in Hilali's case, it is precisely this cross-cultural element that has allowed so many commentators to adopt such a sanctimoniously outraged posture. Their rage could be unbridled because it in no way implicated them. For several commentators, Hilali's comments were immediately and exclusively co-opted into a discourse against multiculturalism. The implication is that the malady embodied in Hilali's remarks is entirely alien to us.<br /><br />Sadly, this is more convenient than erudite. Only days earlier a video surfaced of a dozen Werribee schoolboys sexually assaulting a semi-naked 17-year-old girl before setting her hair on fire and urinating on her. Someone was proud enough of this production to sell copies of it for $5 in the western suburbs. The boys laughed as they did it. Two of their parents dismissed it as a bit of fun. For them, as for Putin, sexual assaults against women are a source of humour.<br /><br />The facts are that the blight of misogynist thought and violence is closer to home than is comfortable. It was oft-noted during the Hilali saga that victim-blaming attitudes to rape were commonplace in Australia as recently as two decades ago — a fact evidenced by a parade of comments from judges and barristers. Certainly, it is possible that what so provoked Australians was not that such comments are threateningly foreign, but that they are menacingly familiar; that they remind us of the darker portions of our recent past.<br /><br />But in truth, this is not simply a relic. Our deliverance from such attitudes on violence against women is more official, and less popular, than we might admit.<br /><br />A VicHealth survey of 2000 Victorians released last month found that 40 per cent considered rape a product of men's inability to control their need for sex, while half believed, without evidence, that women falsified claims of domestic violence to gain a tactical advantage in family law disputes. Fifteen per cent still believe "women often say no to sex when they mean yes". A quarter are prepared to excuse domestic violence perpetrators if they are genuinely remorseful — which the report notes is dangerous given that domestic violence is often episodic, punctuated by remorseful moments.<br /><br />Unlike the Werribee video, these attitudes cannot be quarantined to the domain of a delinquent fringe. They point to a stubborn, significant malaise in our social consciousness, and a willingness to trivialise violence against women.<br /><br />Yes, other parts of the world have worse records. And yes, we have made laudable progress. Numbers of women who have suffered physical or sexual assault have declined in the past decade. Nearly everyone now accepts domestic violence is a crime. Those who believe that "women who are raped often ask for it" are now only 6 per cent. Ten years ago, they were 15. But continued progress is only possible when we acknowledge that problems remain. And they do.<br /><br />Today is the day to recognise this. White Ribbon Day, the UN-declared day for the elimination of violence against women, is about keeping this global problem in our consciousness. One might have hoped the stream of news over the past month would mean we would not needed reminding. Popular attitudes suggest we do.<br /><br />Waleed Aly is a White Ribbon Day ambassador.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116437836954489673?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1162647298539707972006-11-04T22:46:00.000+11:002006-11-05T00:34:58.630+11:00John Butler Trio. Australian music at its best methinks...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Zebra (live):</span><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/E7GCrlRk-EY"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/E7GCrlRk-EY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Something's gotta give (live):</span><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/URNtuqyWW8Q"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/URNtuqyWW8Q" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Home is where the heart is (close to being my favourite song):</span><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/advz4zMUce8"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/advz4zMUce8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br />Australian bands rock. We need more of 'em (the good ones, not the shit ones like AC/DC)!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116264729853970797?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1161690585834757502006-10-24T21:44:00.000+10:002006-10-24T21:49:45.846+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blogs.theage.com.au/music/archives/women%20in%20rock.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://blogs.theage.com.au/music/archives/women%20in%20rock.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><b>With everyone from The Veronicas to Robbie Williams claiming rock'n'roll cred, is rock in danger of becoming just another adjective?<br /><br /></b>It doesn't take much to be "rock" these days. Once upon a time it took a modicum of edge, perhaps a captivating stage persona, sometimes you even had to play rock'n'roll to be rock! <p>Now, all you have to do is wear a certain t-shirt, mix some Boss overdrive in with your chintzy pop, and/or pose with a guitar, and bingo! Instant rock.</p><p><a href="http://blogs.theage.com.au/music/archives/2006/10/rock_and_roll_o.html">Read more...</a></p>My favourite part of the article was this quote:<br /><br /><blockquote>If the issue had been called "Women in Music". or maybe "Some Cute Girls with Top 10 Records out Right Now". I would have no beef with it. Corny as it may sound, ROCK is something which is still meaningful and even sacred to some of us. Use the word "rock" in bold letters next to a picture of Britney F--king Spears, and you're turning your whole publication into a joke... and an offensive joke at that.</blockquote><br />So f--king true! <p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116169058583475750?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1161510681472252162006-10-22T16:29:00.000+10:002006-10-22T20:08:25.406+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/10/22/22n_stott2_narrowweb__300x423,0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/10/22/22n_stott2_narrowweb__300x423,0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I don't think Joey (or Nur for that matter) care about this, but i am so incrediably disillusioned by<span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);"> </span></span><a style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);" href="http://www.natashastottdespoja.democrats.org.au/">Natasha Stott Despoja's</a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);"> </span>decision to quit federal politics. She was the one who really got me interested in Australian politics, not to mention my favourite politician ... and i don't know what else to say! I don't think i'm going to get over this any time soon. And Joey shall hear me whine about it hereafter. </span><date style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></date><br /><br /><a style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);" href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/stott-despoja-set-to-quit/2006/10/22/1161455598770.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Stott Despoja set to quit</span></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">October 22, 2006</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Former Australian Democrats leader, Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, has announced she will quit federal politics when her current term ends in 2008.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Senator Stott Despoja told reporters in Adelaide today she would not be nominating for the senate ticket for the next federal election, due by next year.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[...]</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Senator Stott Despoja said she would continue to pursue social justice and human rights issues "in ways that enable me to spend more time with my son Conrad, especially when he reaches school age."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The prospect of not being a legislator is heartbreaking for me: I love the cut and thrust of the parliament, the opportunities to change laws and therefore lives for the better.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"This passion has sustained me even through tough political and personal times."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Senator Stott Despoja said her commitment to the Democrats was unshakeable and she believed they could retain her senate position at the next election.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">She said there was a lot more she wanted to achieve on behalf of the Democrats before her term was completed, including the passage of advanced stem cell research laws, national paid maternity leave, and greater investment in education.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The senator, who was close to tears during her announcement, did not rule out a return to parliament in the future.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">She did, however, rule out any involvement in state parliament in South Australia. </span><p style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">- AAP</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116151068147225216?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1160397229192688612006-10-09T22:32:00.001+10:002006-10-09T22:44:44.960+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.faskally.co.uk/images/toiletinside.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.faskally.co.uk/images/toiletinside.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-AU">I know this is probably going to sound very strange, but one of the most interesting parts of my day at university is visiting the toilets in the Baillieu Library. I love the Baillieu. It’s weird I know, to love a library. But I feel like it’s my second home. It’s filled with science students, architecture students, engineering students…you name it. But mostly it’s filled with arts students. Loud, messy arts students! I guess that’s why there’s no one telling you to “shush” in the Baillieu. It’s more likely that the person next to you is making more noise than what’s heard on the 4^th floor of the law building in one day. </span> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">But you know what the best part of the Baillieu is? The fact that we can take in, wait for it……<span style="font-weight: bold;">FOOD!</span> Need I say more? </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">Anyhow, here’s some stuff I read on the toilet walls. There’s also quite a heated pen-discussion going on on the walls of one of the cubicles about Descartes and what he <i style="">really</i> meant with <i style="">cogito ergo sum</i>. Maybe I’ll put that up one day!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">Hah! Fat chance. I hate Descartes. :)<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></p><p style="color: rgb(153, 255, 255);" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span lang="EN-AU">You cannot go through the front door with a red fist. You must change the world through the back door, with a suit and a better plan.</span></i></p><p style="color: rgb(153, 255, 255);" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i style=""><span lang="EN-AU"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><p style="color: rgb(153, 255, 255); text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span lang="EN-AU">Today I wonder:<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><p style="color: rgb(153, 255, 255); text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span lang="EN-AU">What for?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 255);">Freedom lives in constraint.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116039722919268861?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1160315698878750402006-10-08T23:43:00.000+10:002006-10-09T00:33:07.770+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://linux.org.au/%7Eleonb/lca2006wiki/jeff-australian-flag.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://linux.org.au/%7Eleonb/lca2006wiki/jeff-australian-flag.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Samuel Johnson famously declared that patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel, but the American satirist Ambrose Bierce may have been closer to the mark when he said that it was the first. In any case, the fog of patriotic fervour now lies so heavy on the Australian political landscape that it is necessary to clear some of it away lest we lose direction entirely.<br /><br />Attachment to the good habits and institutions of one's country and a modest pride in the genuine achievements of one's co-nationals is a commendable attitude, capable of forging ties and cementing community feeling. But patriotism has a strong tendency to go beyond this. The slogan, "My country, right or wrong" is palpably absurd, but the more seductive, though equally foolish, idea is that my country can actually do no wrong, or, at any rate, no serious wrong. The emotions of patriotism all too often blind us to the moral crimes and follies that "we" have committed and can again commit. When this is combined with the political advantages of populism, the mixture can be lethal. It is not only scoundrels who misuse patriotism; the foolish and opportunistic also do it.<br /><br />Our politicians are falling over themselves to reach the peak of Patriot Hill. They vie with each other to make new and more dramatic proposals for pulling the rest of us into line with some opaque vision of Australian values. The proposals range from the conspicuously silly, such a Kim Beazley's visa pledge to Aussie values for tourists to the downright unpleasant, such as Andrew Robb's proposal to force migrants to wait four years for citizenship instead of the present two. There is even a whiff of it in Julie Bishop's call for a common national school curriculum designed to fend off Marxist, feminist and even (God help us!) Maoist interpretations apparently being foisted on our unsuspecting Aussie kids by ideologues in state education bureaucracies.<br /><br />Much of this combines exaggerated fear with extravagant attachment to a comforting fantasy of a stereotypical Australia. The fantasy is supposed to protect us from the fear. The fear itself is partly a genuine if overwrought fear of terrorist acts, and partly a formless dread of unusual foreigners, especially, nowadays, Muslims.<br /><br />I remember when Australian patriotism used to be a quiet and modest affair. The 1950s that our Prime Minister is so fond of was actually a time when loud affectations of "Aussie values", condemnations of "anti-Australian behaviour", and indulgence in flag-worship would have been greeted with astonishment and scorn. I can only hope that some of that earthy, cynical realism remains in our make-up, but decades of exploitative advertising ("C'mon Aussie, c'mon") and imitation of the most sentimental elements in American culture have undoubtedly had their effect. The idea that respect for law, regard for justice ("fair go"), and concern for women's rights somehow flourish distinctively here ("Aussie values") and languish everywhere else is of course nonsense, but that is the impression regularly conveyed by many of our political leaders, and reinforced in much of the media.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/folly-of-dangerous-and-foolish-patriotism/2006/10/06/1159641524117.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1">[...]</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116031569887875040?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1160055164352600932006-10-05T23:18:00.000+10:002007-03-02T18:17:01.991+11:00I like censorship!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-116005516435260093?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1159544272520026802006-09-30T01:28:00.000+10:002006-09-30T01:41:12.726+10:00It's a bit (not suprisingly) delayed, but here is some footage from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matisyahu">Matisyahu</a>'s gig on July 25th, 2006. I had the absolutely pleasure of being there, even if it was with my (un-kewl) brother. Joey was not so fortunate, which is really why i recorded this footage in the first place ('cause i'm that nice). If she had listened to me and used a fake id! Kids these days are so responsible.<br /><br />Anyhow... enjoy! I have a few more full songs to upload, but i need to figure out how to cut then down first (which may/may not take about a year).<br /><br />Indestructible...<br /><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/V-DuddtsAeQ"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/V-DuddtsAeQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object><br /><br />Great guitar solo (even if it is badly recorded, you get the idea)...<br /><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rS_AR20P6I0"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rS_AR20P6I0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115954427252002680?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1159299353454964462006-09-27T05:28:00.000+10:002006-09-27T05:35:53.470+10:00So let's have some poetry!<br /><br />If<br />By Rudyard Kipling<br /><br />If you can keep your head when all about you<br />Are losing theirs and blaming it on you<br />If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you<br />But make allowance for their doubting too<br />If you can wait and not be tired by waiting<br />Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies<br />Or being hated, don’t give way to hating<br />And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise. <br /><br />If you can dream–and not make dreams your master<br />If you can think –and not make thoughts your aim<br />If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster<br />And treat those two impostors just the same<br />If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken<br />Twisted by knaves to make a trap by fools<br />Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken<br />And stoop and build ‘em up with worn out tools<br /><br />If you can make one heap of all your winnings<br />And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss<br />And lose and start again at your beginnings<br />And never breathe a word about your loss<br />If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew<br />To serve your turn long after you are gone<br />And so hold on when there’s nothing in you<br />Except the will that says to them: Hold on!<br /><br />If you can talk with crowds and keep our virtue<br />Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch<br />If neither foes, nor loving friends can hurt you<br />If all men count with you, but none too much<br />If you can fill the unforgiving minute<br />With sixty seconds worth of distance run<br />Yours is the earth and everything that is in it<br />And, which is more, you’ll be a man, my son. <br /><br />:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br /><br />Bit male-centric. Nonetheless nonetheless. I like.<br /><br />(The formatting is gross, I know. But I can't help it!)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115929935345496446?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1158507754663903712006-09-18T01:33:00.000+10:002006-09-18T01:43:41.996+10:00<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>I wish these guys would get a clue and read this article...<br /><br /><div class="articleDetails"><byline></byline><date></date><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/dailypix/militarypix/31115489.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/dailypix/militarypix/31115489.jpg" alt="" border="0" /><byline></byline><date></date></a><script language="JavaScript1.1"> <!-- if(detailsstrpagination) { document.write(detailsstrpagination); } //--> </script> </div><!--articleDetails--> <!--articleExtras-wrap--> <bod> </bod><div class="pageprint" id="contentSwap1"><a name="contentSwap1"></a><p><strong>by Waleed Aly</strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">September 18, 2006</span><br /></strong></p><p><strong>The Pope should mind his words. So should some of his Muslim critics.</strong></p> <p>LET me get this straight. Pope Benedict XVI quotes the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus asserting before a Persian Islamic scholar that the prophet Muhammad brought nothing new to the world except things "evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". Some Muslims clearly interpret Benedict to be quoting Manuel with approval, and take offence at the suggestion that Islam is inherently violent. The response is to bomb five churches in the West Bank, and attack the door of another in Basra. In India, angry mobs burn effigies of Pope Benedict. In Somalia, Sheikh Abu Bakr Hassan Malin urges Muslims to "hunt down" the Pope and kill him, while an armed Iraqi group threatens to carry out attacks against Rome and the Vatican.</p> <p>There. That'll show them for calling us violent.</p> <p>Meanwhile, other commentators seem to be vying to be most hysterical. Libya's General Instance of Religious Affairs thinks Benedict's "insult … pushes us back to the era of crusades against Muslims led by Western political and religious leaders". And a member of the ruling party in Turkey has placed Benedict "in the same category as leaders like Hitler and Mussolini", in what must surely be an insult to those who suffered under them.</p> <p>Closer to home, Muslim Community Reference Group chairman Ameer Ali cautioned Benedict to "behave like (his predecessor) John Paul II, not Urban II (who launched the Crusades)", while Taj al-Din al-Hilali declared startlingly that the Pope "doesn't have the qualities or good grasp of Christian character or knowledge". It's fair to say perspective has deserted us.</p> <p>Parallels with February's Danish cartoon saga are begging to be drawn. As Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya and Syria did with Denmark, Morocco has now withdrawn its ambassador from the Vatican. Egypt and Turkey called for an apology. Indeed, one expert has suggested Morocco's</p> <p>decision may have been a tactic to prevent a wave of street protests similar to those that stunned the world in February. There is an awful sense of history repeating: a provocative gesture triggers an overblown response of surreal imbecility.</p> <p>But this is not the same as the Danish catastrophe. On that occasion, the cartoons' publication was an act calculated specifically to offend Muslim sensibilities. The reaction was irredeemably contemptible, but the sense of offence was justified.</p></div><div class="pageprint" id="contentSwap2"><a name="contentSwap2"></a> <p>Pope Benedict's speech was an academic address at a German university on an esoteric theological theme that had nothing to do with affronting Muslims. The apparently offending remarks were almost a footnote to the discussion. The contrast is manifestly stark.</p> <p>But it seems some elements in the Muslim world are looking avidly for something to offend them. Meanwhile, governments looking to boost their Islamic credentials are only too happy to seize on this, or nurture it, for their own political advantage. At some point, the Muslim world has to gain control of itself. Presently, its most vocal elements are so disastrously reactionary, and therefore so easily manipulable.</p> <p>Here, the vociferous protests came from people who, quite clearly, have not bothered to read Benedict's speech. Worse, some (like al-Hilali and Ameer Ali) themselves regularly complain of being quoted incorrectly and out of context. Had such critics done their homework, they would have noted Benedict's description of Manuel II's "startling brusqueness". Manuel's point was that violent doctrine could not come from God because missionary violence is contrary to rationality. Benedict's point was a subtle one: that Manuel draws a positive link between religious truth and reason. This was the central theme of the Pope's address. He was silent on Manuel's attitude to Islam because it was beside the point he was making. Clearly, Manuel II was not a fan of the prophet Muhammad. But that does not mean Benedict isn't either.</p> <p>The trouble with being the Pope is that you are simultaneously a theologian and a politician. Theological discourse is regularly nuanced and esoteric. Political discourse</p> <p>is not. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said "the Pope spoke like a politician rather than as a man of religion", but the truth is the exact opposite. In theological terms, Benedict chose an example well suited to his narrow argument.</p> <p>In political terms, his choice was poor. He was naive not to recognise how offensively it would translate into the crudeness of the public conversation, and should at least have made clear that he was not endorsing Manuel II's words.</p> <p>I happen to think Manuel had a shoddy grasp of Islamic theology. Indeed, the Islamic tradition would have much to contribute to the theme of Benedict's lecture. While medieval Christendom fought science stridently, the relationship between faith and reason in traditional Islam was highly convivial.</p> <p>That's why I would be interested to have heard how the Persian scholar responded to Manuel's argument. I'm fairly certain, though, he wouldn't have called on Muslim hordes to hunt down Manuel and kill him.</p> <p>Waleed Aly is an Islamic Council of Victoria director.</p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115850775466390371?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1158158487348627422006-09-14T00:18:00.000+10:002006-09-14T00:43:23.593+10:00<!--articleTools Top--> <date></date><date>September 9, 2006</date><strong><br /><br />There is something frightening about two sides fighting a war each claims the other started., writes Waleed Aly.</strong><br /><br />ON THE first anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Britain's most vile terror-loving organisation, al-Muhajiroun, held a celebratory conference. Members gathered to recall how "magnificently" the twin towers were reduced to rubble.<br /><br />Conference excerpts were replayed on radio after the London bombings last year. A spokesman said it was perfectly acceptable in Islam to kill civilians. Naturally, this sickened me as a person and insulted me as a Muslim. But it did not disturb me as much as I expected: his ranting was so maniacal it didn't quite seem real.<br /><br />But then he said something that jolted me rudely back to reality. Islam does not permit one to start wars, he said, but September 11 was not the start. It was a response to decades of aggression. He insisted that he didn't start this war, but he was intent on supporting those who would finish it.<br /><br />This statement was so disturbing because it was so familiar. It is precisely what we hear from our political leaders every time a terrorist atrocity occurs, precisely the sort of justification put forth before, and relentlessly repeated since, the disaster of Iraq. There is something frightening about two sides fighting a war each claims the other started, and each claims it now must finish.<br /><br />Initial Western political responses to September 11 were staggeringly reductionist, triumphalist, even self-congratulatory. George Bush spoke like a comic book superhero by framing the world in terms of good and evil. Western societies were terror targets because they were so thoroughly good. We are despised because we are so virtuous.<br /><br />In fairness, these responses are understandable in the emotional whirlwinds of tragedy. They give reassurance at a time of raw pain. But eventually, they must give way to more introspective nuance. And indeed, here, the Australian Government should be given credit: it has belatedly incorporated job, recreation and education initiatives into its security strategy, which at least shows a recognition that terrorism has important social dimensions.<br /><br />But still, five years on, Western governments have, at least publicly, exhibited a stubborn blind spot when it comes to the impact of their own foreign policy. They have held fast to the implausible proposition that however many innocent people we kill as "collateral damage", whether by invasion, or as was the case earlier in Iraq, via sanctions that saw 500,000 children die, this in no way aids the terrorists' cause.<br /><br />This ignores that Western foreign policy has always been a central plank in terrorists' discourse. Typical were the words of al-Qaeda spokesman Sulayman Abu Ghaith following the September 11 attacks: "The number killed in the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon … is only a tiny number of those killed in Palestine, Somalia, the Sudan, the Philippines, Bosnia, Kashmir, Chechnya and Afghanistan. We have not yet arrived at equivalency with them; thus we have the right to kill 4 million Americans, among them 1 million children." Morally repugnant indeed. Historically nonsensical. But driven by vengeance for suffering perceived to be inflicted by, or through, the West. <i>The 9/11 Commission Report</i> in the US explained as much. Western polities choose to ignore it.<br /><br />Thus, the circle of blame completes itself. If terrorist ideologues are so concerned about oppression of Muslims, they might begin with the fact that most of their victims have been Muslims. They might turn attention to Sudan, where Muslims are killing and raping each other in numbers that make all else fade into insignificance. Yet until Western forces intervene, this slaughter is of little consequence to terrorists. Apparently, what matters is not who is killed, but who does the killing. So much for being vanguards of justice.<br /><br />This deep terrorist hypocrisy does reveal a strong ideological element. But our politicians' tendency to pretend that past colonisation of Muslim lands and the present invasion and occupation of Iraq is irrelevant, is wilfully oblivious to the obvious. The Australian public intuit this. Well over two years ago, an opinion poll found two-thirds thought our role in Iraq would make a terrorist attack here more likely. And that was before Iraq's descent into radicalising catastrophe. It seems public wisdom trumps political rhetoric.<br /><br />Five years after it all began, can we please end the poisonous political cycle? Can we admit the damage we have done and still do in the Muslim world? Can we realise that while this can never justify terrorism, it aids terrorist recruitment? Can Muslims admit that terrorism does not restore balance or return honour, but inflicts continuing oppression on innocent Muslims? I suspect, deep down, we all recognise these contradictions, but cannot find the political courage to admit them. How catastrophic that humanity uses the suffering of innocents not to reflect inwardly but to rage outwardly, to justify its next moral transgression. What an insult to those slaughtered. What a disaster for all of us if history repeats.<div class="pageprint" id="contentSwap2"> <p><strong>Waleed Aly is an <a href="http://icv.org.au/">Islamic Council of Victoria</a> director.</strong></p></div><div class="pageprint" id="contentSwap2"><p><strong></strong></p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115815848734862742?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1156651476083639672006-08-27T13:48:00.000+10:002006-08-27T14:24:13.473+10:00Call me soft if you will: i can't help but think that 20 years behind bars is a little excessive considering the guy didn't actually <em>do anything</em>. Seriously, who hasn't <em>thought</em> about strangling Andrew Bolt, Peter Costello and John Howard?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/bomb-plot-man-gets-20-years/2006/08/23/1156012609641.html"><strong>Bomb plot man gets 20 years</strong></a><br />Kenneth Nguyen and Lisa Allan<br />August 24, 2006<br /><br />THE 20-year jail term handed to a man who wanted to blow up Australia's electricity grid was a sign of how tough the courts will be on terror-related crimes, legal experts say.<br /><br />Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, will spend about as much time in jail as an average murder sentence after he was caught in <strong>early stages of a criminal plan that a judge conceded lacked viability.</strong><br /><strong></strong><br />The sentence will come as a relief to the Federal Government, after the first person jailed under its tough anti-terror laws, Joseph "Jihad Jack" Thomas, had his conviction quashed last week.<br /><br />Lodhi showed no emotion yesterday as he was sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court.<br /><br />Lodhi, the first person convicted under the new laws of planning a terror attack on Australian soil, had been "essentially informed by the concept of violent jihad and the glorification of Muslim heroes who have fought and died for jihad", Justice Anthony Whealy said.<br /><br />The court had heard previously that the Pakistani-born architect, who lived in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba, used a false name to obtain two maps of the national<br />electricity grid in October 2003.<br /><br />Lodhi had also sought information from a company about the availability of chemicals to manufacture explosives (which he never obtained), and had written a 15-page terrorist manual with recipes and instructions on bomb-making, hand grenades, petrol bombs and poisons.<br /><br />Lodhi was linked to French terrorist suspect Willie Brigitte, whom he picked up from Sydney airport in May 2003. Justice Whealy said Lodhi and Brigitte (who was deported later that year) had a <strong>"joint interest in contemplating and discussing the possibility of some type of terrorist activity in Australia".</strong><br /><strong></strong><br />Justice Whealy said although Lodhi's plot was thwarted at a very early stage and there was a "general lack of viability and sophistication" in his actions, it had the <strong>potential</strong> to have an impact on Australia's stability.<br /><br />Had the attack been carried out<em> <span style="color:#ffffcc;">[but it wasn't!]</span>,</em> it "would instil terror into members of the public so that they could never again feel free from the threat of bombing attacks within Australia".<br /><br />The judge added: "One has only to think of the consequences on the national psyche of a tragedy such as the Port Arthur massacre to realise how a major terrorist bombing would or could impact on the security, the stability and wellbeing of the citizens of this country."<br /><br />Lodhi will serve a minimum 15 years for acting in preparation for a terrorist attack by seeking information about chemicals capable of making explosives.<br /><br />[....]<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115665147608363967?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1155821966186211322006-08-17T22:34:00.000+10:002006-08-19T04:31:13.003+10:00By Sam de Brito<br />August 17, 2006<br /><br />Imagine walking into a newsagency and some crabby, 'old-school' Aussie is getting stroppy* with the elderly Chinese owner who's saying, "No siss for dollah." The Aussie, who's probably two generations out of Manchester, is shaking his head dramatically, like the Chinese bloke is a retard. "Just give me me f**kin' scratchies will ya?" he says, abandoning any pretence of politeness, but really he's thinking: "Learn to speak English." That's when the Chinese bloke's 18-year-old son appears out of the back room and strolls up in his boardshorts. In a perfect Australian twang he says: "You get six for ten dollars, mate, that's what me old man's tryin' to tell ya. He doesn't wannna rip you off"…<br /><br />Now commeth the change.<br /><br />The 'Aussie's' demeanour immediately becomes solicitous because he's dealing with someone whose English is just as good as his.<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />It's so much harder to be racist when the focus of your contempt speaks with the same accent you do.<br /><br />This scene is being repeated in bakeries, restaurants and dry cleaners all over the country.<br /><br />It happened to the Greeks and Italians and Lebanese; now a whole generation of Vietnamese and Cambodians, Thais and Chinese are growing up with yobbo accents you could beat a Pommie backpacker unconscious with.<br /><br />We're now at the point where the Australian national cuisine has gone from being sweet and sour pork at the local Chinese restaurant to laksa at the Thai joint up the road (even though it's a Malaysian dish).<br /><br />One of my oldest mates, Pete, was born in Korea and moved here when he was five-years-old. It was a tough gig for him surfing our local break.<br /><br />Kids too young to have seen his head before in the line-up would drop-in on him mercilessly, burning him because they thought he was just another Japanese tourist out here to spend his rich industrialist dad's money.<br /><br />That's until Pete would do a perfect reo off the offending grom's head and yell at him in plain, ocker English: "Don't drop in on me again, you little kook."<br /><br />The expression on the kid's face was always worth its weight in Four 'n' Twenty pies.<br /><br />Peter now lives up the coast and the first time he went to the local RSL, it was like the new gunslinger had come to town. The music stopped and all the heads at the card machines stopped to turn and stare.<br /><br />"No one said anything, but there were some heavy looks," said another one of my mates, who lives up north as well.<br /><br />Gradually, the cement-spattered tradies and purple-faced pissheads realised Pete was in the TAB more than them. Every time they'd look up at Sky Channel to watch the seventh at Warrnambool, there would be the Asian bloke with his schooner, laying the whip into his imaginary mount.<br /><br />When it came in at 11 to 1, they'd scream for joy and realise they were both on the same horse and smile at each other, because, Jeez, we both just won four hundred on that thing.<br /><br />Pete would come in for a New some days and they'd nod their heads, just to be polite and maybe ask him what he was on, to see what the Asian bloke would be backing.<br /><br />Every now and then they'd mention the weather and Pete'd say something about the surf being good at such and such a reef and they'd wonder how the hell he knew that it worked best on a south-east swell.<br /><br />Then maybe fishing would come up and Peter would tell them about the bream he caught at such and such a beach or the smoko he got off this tiler at the pub and, well, it's hard to hate a bloke who likes fishing and a smoke and surfing and a beer and a punt, isn't it?<br /><br />I don't know about you, but I am particularly enjoying seeing the new generation of Asian-Australians coming to the fore, with their perfect English and understanding of 'our' ways.<br /><br />Earlier this year, at a suburban bowling club, I saw an Aussie of Asian appearance carrying two jugs of beer in one hand and four empty schooners glasses snaked in the other.<br /><br />One of the guys I was with yelled at him: "nice effort, mate," and the bloke just nodded.<br /><br />Made me want to sing Waltzing Matilda.<br /><br />*Stroppy: Easily offended or annoyed. Ill-tempered or belligerent.<br /><br />:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br /><br />Hilarious post from Sam de Brito's "All Men Are Liars (except Sam de Brito)" blog. Well methinks anyway. The man's observations are so relatable. Couple of people come to mind...<br /><br />However, he definitely portrays the phenomenon as positive. That I disagree with - assimilation ring a bell? A reader comments that it is less a matter of assimilation and more a matter of humanism - "if you humanise whom you perceive to be the object of your hatred, you become no longer capable of maintaining towards them the same degree of irrational animosity."<br /><br />Well, if you need to hear an Aussie accent to realize the one talking to you is human, let's put this in words you'll listen to - Myyte, Oi think men-tul ray-ta-day-shin is more your problem.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115582196618621132?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1155694349171446082006-08-16T11:57:00.000+10:002006-08-16T12:14:21.453+10:00I am the type of person who likes to get differing, and often opposing, perspectives on pretty much anything – political or not. This is why I read a variety of newspapers and magazines. I have however, been very disheartened and disappointed with The Australian, which led me to remove the link to it off our “News” sidebar. I did not want it there simply because I did not share the views expressed by the editors, and found that even the ‘objective news’ articles in the paper were in fact quite biased and somewhat misinformed. Recently, such behavior has become more evident - I guess they weren’t trying to hide it.<br /><br />Nevertheless, the link is back up on the sidebar. I still read The Australian, even if I do not share their views. And I guess the best way to understand who has an agenda and who does not, is by reading everything and anything. I just hope by the end of all that reading you’d be left with some truth and sense.<br /><br />Or you could just read a bunch of Waleed Aly articles.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115569434917144608?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1154331836486372052006-07-31T17:29:00.000+10:002006-07-31T17:43:56.496+10:00By Waleed Aly<br />July 31, 2006<br /><br />The bombardment of Lebanon has spawned a humanitarian crisis. Hundreds have been killed. Well over half a million have been displaced [...]<br /><br />Only last week, 25,000 Australian citizens were caught in the middle of this military bombardment...In such a situation, the only relevant question for the Australian Government is how, not if, to evacuate them. And indeed...this was precisely the Federal Government's response. Simple, really.<br /><br />How then, did an unambiguously tragic humanitarian mess...give life to what the Prime Minister last week acknowledged was an emerging debate on dual citizenship? Suddenly...Western Australian MP Wilson Tuckey is arguing that dual citizenship should be abolished; that people should choose one or the other. [...]<br /><br />This absurdity stems from the fact that, at least according to an odious array of letter writers, talkback radio callers and newspaper columnists, these Australians trapped in Lebanon were not Australian after all. They were Lebanese-Australians. They held Lebanese passports, too. They even lived in Lebanon. On this basis, faced with Australian citizens in grave peril, this group's rhetorical response was not to advocate for their rescue, but to question their loyalty.<br /><br />In so doing, they created a new category of person: the pseudo-citizen to whom we owe nothing or at least not a rescue mission from a war zone. After all, that costs taxpayers' money. Why should we spend it on saving their lives?<br /><br />It is perhaps the most disgusting argument I've heard over the course of a decidedly ugly fortnight. One might have thought that money spent saving...lives...could scarcely be called wasted. It is irredeemably repugnant to argue that people can be undeserving of the Australian Government's help simply because they hold another passport and spend extended periods of time overseas.<br /><br />It is tempting to say this discourse merely reflects a recently emerging narrative of Australian nationalism. Several federal politicians and business leaders have sounded off about loyalty to Australia in recent...times of insecurity and stress. [...]<br /><br />But it seems clear now that there is something deeper at play here. Last Wednesday, Assaf Namer, an Australian citizen fighting with the Israeli army in Lebanon, was killed in a Hezbollah ambush in Bint Jbeil...The public testimonials to a man who loved Australia and had Australia in his heart are plentiful.<br /><br />We have heard how he planned to return to Sydney, marry his girlfriend and spend his time between Australia and Israel. We have heard of his parents' anxiety when he told them of his decision to volunteer for military service. What we have not heard is anyone...questioning his credentials as an Australian for his demonstrably zealous loyalty to a foreign state.<br /><br />Similarly, when Israel began pounding Lebanon, putting at risk the lives of thousands of Australian citizens, I don't recall pro-Israeli spokespeople being bombarded with questions about whether their primary loyalty was to Israel or their fellow Australian citizens.<br /><br />Let me be abundantly clear: had such questions been asked, I would have found them repulsive. [...] They exhibit a grotesque myopia, and fail to acknowledge that as Australians we are still connected...the world around us. But, if the emerging philosophy of vehement nationalism is truly about nothing more than total and undivided loyalty to Australia, it is precisely the kind of question that was begging to be asked.<br /><br />And if Iran was attacking England, leaving many London-based Australian citizens stranded, it surely would have been. And British-Australians (the largest group of Australians with dual citizenship) would, rightly, be unquestionably Australian.<br /><br />Instead, it was only endangered Australian-Lebanese civilians who were required to justify their Australian existence. Perhaps here, it becomes clear that the loyalty question is about something else.<br /><br />Perhaps the objection is not purely to what the Prime Minister calls hyphenated Australians. At least for some commentators, it would seem that some hyphens are more acceptable than others. It is not the hyphen's mere existence that is of concern, but what is on either side of it.<br /><br />Nationalism, though sometimes harmless, has occasionally provided cover for bigotry. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that in this instance, that cover has been blown.<br /><br />Waleed Aly is an executive committee member of the Islamic Council of Victoria.<br /><br />:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br /><br />Yes, another article by Waleed Aly. It can't be helped, the man simply talks too much sense.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115433183648637205?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1154188487438863722006-07-30T01:42:00.000+10:002006-07-30T01:58:05.603+10:00<a href="http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=AA14AD66-5056-AA77-6C2CC29DEF4B66D5&component=toolkit.article&amp;method=full_html"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.buy-aid.com/uploads/pics/Medecins_Sans_Frontieres_02.jpg" border="0" /><strong>Lebanon: Aid moved with difficulty and access hampered</strong></a><strong><br /></strong><br /><em>There have been violations of the most essential humanitarian obligations, including the destruction of trucks loaded with aid and the targeting of fleeing civilians by bombing. Aid workers have also been subject to machine-gun fire. It is almost impossible to gain access to civilians in the most exposed areas.</em><br /><br />As four Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams continue to evaluate needs in different areas of the country (Beirut, Jezzine, Saida, and Tyre), an initial delivery of 85 tons of supplies is on its way to Lebanon. This first round of distributions is intended for the displaced persons who have fled the fighting.<br /><br />Pierre Salignon, MSF's General Director in France, provides an initial view of the situation in the field and the problems the teams face.<br /><br /><strong>What is the situation of the Lebanese population?</strong><br /><br />This is a serious crisis. As part of the evaluations that our teams have conducted in the field over the last few days, they have observed that the population is in a very fragile situation.<br /><br />The human cost of the war between the Israeli Army and the Hezbollah militia fighters is high. The bombings have not spared civilians or the infrastructure required for their survival. It is revolting. There are hundreds of wounded and more than 300 dead.<br /><br />Massive numbers of people have been displaced from the bombed areas, with authorities estimating their numbers at more than 500,000. The poorest among them have lost everything and are completely destitute. They have no water, no items essential for daily life (mattresses, blankets, soap) and some have no food. They have no resources and can purchase nothing. They are totally dependent on the aid provided by their families and the local governments in the areas where they are sheltering.<br /><br /><strong>How is the aid being organized? What problems are the teams facing?</strong><br /><br />At this stage, the aid organized by our Lebanese colleagues has been responsible for avoiding a medical catastrophe. I want to emphasize that. From the first days of the war, the Lebanese medical authorities and organizations have been the ones to take on the bulk of the aid effort.<br /><br />But that won't continue. Local capacity is dwindling daily. There is a real risk that the health situation will worsen and only a major international organizational effort will prevent a wider catastrophe.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the work of our teams - and of all aid workers - is very dangerous because of the fighting and the Israeli Army's military operations initiated after the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and in response to Hezbollah rockets launched against Israeli towns.<br /><br />There have been violations of the most essential humanitarian obligations, including the destruction of trucks loaded with aid and the targeting of fleeing civilians by bombing. Aid workers have also been subject to machine-gun fire. It is almost impossible to gain access to civilians in the most exposed areas. This is unacceptable and could have more tragic consequences in the near future.<br /><br /><strong>Can we expect improved access to the populations in need of aid?</strong><br /><br />For the last 10 days, Lebanon has been virtually sealed off and international aid has been blocked. It appears that the French government's call for establishing humanitarian corridors, relayed by the United Nations, has been heard. The Israeli government has agreed, in principle, to facilitate the transport of humanitarian aid between the island of Cyprus and Lebanon. Several countries have released funds for humanitarian aid to Lebanon. It's a first step.<br /><br />It remains to be seen, in the coming days, if political will can move beyond ceremonial speeches and, specifically, if the parties to the conflict will facilitate access to civilians in the areas hardest hit by fighting and bombing in Lebanon. The humanitarian aid promised will only have an effect if it actually reaches the displaced populations. There are no assurances and that worries us.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115418848743886372?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1153974232558999892006-07-27T14:22:00.000+10:002006-07-27T14:50:45.393+10:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/hezbollah.0.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/200/hezbollah.png" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Conflicting views of the Middle East crisis<br />July 27, 2006<br /><br />A Hezbollah point of view from Ali Fayyad.<br /><br />FOR nearly two weeks, Israel has been waging a war of terror and aggression against Lebanon. Its stated justification is the capture by the Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah) of two Israeli soldiers with the aim of exchanging them for Lebanese prisoners. The war has already resulted in the killing of about 400 and wounding of more than 1000 Lebanese. Most are civilians (a third children), crushed in their homes or ripped to pieces in their cars by Israeli bombs and missiles.<br /><br />In reality, the Israeli escalation is less about the two soldiers and more about its determination to disarm the Lebanese resistance. According to the US, Israel and some other Western states, this would implement UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon last year.<br /><br />Most Lebanese, however, do not regard the resistance forces of Hezbollah as militias, as referred to in the UN resolution, let alone any kind of terrorist organisation. Our resistance accomplished a major national mission by forcing Israeli troops to withdraw from most Lebanese territory in 2000 after 22 years of occupation...<br /><br />The Lebanese people's support for the resistance was demonstrated by the fact that Hezbollah and its allies won more seats in the 2005 elections, following the Syrian withdrawal, than when Syrian troops were still in the country. That is why Israel is now targeting civilians.<br /><br />In the context of the continued occupation, detention of prisoners and repeated Israeli attacks and incursions into Lebanese territory, the capture of the Israeli soldiers was entirely legitimate. The operation was fully in line with the Lebanese ministerial declaration, supported in parliament, that stressed the right of the resistance to liberate occupied Lebanese territory, free prisoners of war and defend Lebanon against Israeli aggression.<br /><br />[...]<br /><br />There is now a clear national consensus on the need to maintain the military power necessary to prevent Lebanon from being subjugated by Israel's war machine. Popular resistance is a way of redressing the huge imbalance of power [and] defending Lebanon's sovereignty...It is also dictated by an entirely local agenda, rather than reflecting any Syrian or Iranian policy.<br /><br />The aggression against Lebanon, which has primarily targeted civilians and failed to achieve any tangible military objectives, is part of a continuing attempt to impose Israeli hegemony on the area and prevent the emergence of a regional system that might guarantee stability, self-determination, freedom and democracy.<br /><br />Hezbollah has tried from the start of this crisis to limit the escalation by adopting a policy of limited response while avoiding civilian targets...However, Israel's systematic destruction of entire civilian areas in Beirut and elsewhere and perpetration of scores of horrific massacres prompted Hezbollah to shift to an all-out confrontation to affirm Lebanon's right[s]...just as any sovereign state would do.<br /><br />Thus far, Hezbollah has had surprising military successes, while maintaining its position in the face of Israel's superior firepower, and preserved its capacity to wage a long-term war. But Hezbollah is still ready to accept a ceasefire and negotiate indirectly an exchange of prisoners to end the crisis.<br /><br />This is what Israel has so far rejected, with the support of the US, for this is also a war of American hegemony over the Middle East, and the US is fully complicit in the Israeli war crimes carried out in the past two weeks. It would appear that the peaceful option will not be given a chance until Hezbollah and the forces of resistance have demonstrated their ability to confront Israel's aggression and thwart its objectives, as happened in 1993 and 1996. That is why resistance is not only a pillar of our sovereignty but also a prerequisite of stability.<br /><br />Ali Fayyad is a senior member of Hezbollah's executive committee.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115397423255899989?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1153974113385607122006-07-27T14:06:00.000+10:002006-07-27T14:52:02.356+10:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/Flagbig.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/200/Flagbig.png" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Conflicting views of the Middle East crisis<br />July 27, 2006<br /><br />An Israeli point of view from Isaac Herzog.<br /><br />SOME may wonder how, as a man of the left and Israel's peace camp, I can at the same time be a member of a Government now fighting a war in Lebanon. The answer is the same one that Clement Attlee or even Harold Wilson would have given: when your very existence is under threat, you have the right to defend yourself and the responsibility to your people to defend their security. Let's be clear: Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation. This is not a political issue, it is not an ideological issue; it is a matter of survival...<br /><br />Israel today is facing a sustained onslaught from one of the world's most dangerous and effective terrorist organisations. In the past few days, 1000 rockets and 1200 mortar rounds have been hurled across the border by Hezbollah at hospitals, schools and homes. Their intention is the killing and maiming of Israelis in general.<br /><br />Israel is fighting back. Israel's use of force is entirely proportionate to the extent of the threat that Hezbollah poses. A third of our people are in immediate danger of Hezbollah missiles and are sheltering in fear for their lives. The whole of the north of our country has, in effect, been shut down. International law recognises the right to respond to the extent of a threat, and Israel has therefore acted within international law.<br /><br />Our goals are clear. Israel was forced to enter this conflict after an unprovoked attack by Hezbollah terrorists across the border, in which three soldiers were killed and two kidnapped. The attack, one of many in recent years, was made possible because of an abnormal political situation in Lebanon. Since May 2000, the southern part of that country has effectively been hijacked by a terrorist organisation. Hezbollah controls the border and administers every aspect of life for the residents of southern Lebanon. The organisation is armed, trained and kept afloat by foreign powers — Iran and Syria are at the forefront.<br /><br />This terrorist organisation openly desires the destruction of Israel. Its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is an anti-Semite [who] uses Lebanon as a launch pad to pursue his own agenda with a wilful disregard of the hardship and pain he has brought on his fellow countrymen and women in Lebanon.<br /><br />This situation is unacceptable. It will not continue. Israel's goal, first and foremost, is to ensure that, when our operations end, Hezbollah may not reignite fighting [from the border] at its whim. This is why a simple ceasefire, as attractive as it sounds, is not enough. It would allow Hezbollah, as it has done for six years, to regroup, replenish supplies, and then start the fighting all over again.<br /><br />The goal of ending Hezbollah's capacity for aggression can be achieved in a number of ways. From our point of view, the obvious solution would be the deployment by the Lebanese army of its forces throughout the entirety of Lebanese territory. This is in accordance with the norms of life in sovereign countries. It is also required by Lebanon's obligations according to UN resolution 1559. We are told, however, that the Lebanese army is weak and small, and contains within its own ranks a considerable number of Hezbollah sympathisers.<br /><br />So be it. Clearly, it is imperative that the international community endeavours to help the Lebanese Government reach a situation in which it is able to effectively police its territory...<br /><br />The international community has already proved that with solid, unified support it helped Lebanon rid itself of Syrian occupation. The same international will must now be garnered to rid Lebanon of Hezbollah. For the interim period, however, Israel could accept the deployment of a sizeable, effective international force along the border.<br /><br />I hope the Israeli action of recent days has disabused Hezbollah and its backers of the notion that Israel is a "paper tiger", lacking the will to act in its citizens' defence. If this lesson has not been absorbed, and the aggression begins again, Israel will be prepared, if necessary, to mobilise once again.<br /><br />It is to be hoped that arrangements of this type, along with the immediate return of the kidnapped soldiers, will now be enforced on Hezbollah. The lives and dignity of the people of both Lebanon and northern Israel have for too long been forfeit to the whims of a terror group in the pay of a neighbouring dictatorship. It is time for this situation to end. Hezbollah's immoral and illegal behaviour must end so a new era may dawn on the region.<br /><br />Isaac Herzog is Minister of Tourism and a member of Israel's security cabinet.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115397411338560712?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1153732609297687922006-07-24T19:11:00.000+10:002006-07-24T19:16:49.296+10:00Here's something you guys might want to have a look at: <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/Jul06Leb/petition.html">Justice For Lebanon</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115373260929768792?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1153655848161621052006-07-23T21:55:00.000+10:002006-07-23T21:57:28.160+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/22/knCATOON_gallery__470x342,0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/22/knCATOON_gallery__470x342,0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115365584816162105?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1153493463992539852006-07-21T23:44:00.000+10:002006-07-23T21:53:45.173+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.basher82.nl/Flags/australian%20flag%20header.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.basher82.nl/Flags/australian%20flag%20header.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/story/0,21985,19855991-25717,00.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/story/0,21985,19855991-25717,00.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Escape from Beirut</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/columnist/0,21997,25717,00.html">by Andrew Bolt</a><br /><br />July 21, 2006<br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/">The Herald Sun<br /></a><br /><strong>LOYALTY cuts both ways. So how much do we owe the dual-nationality "Australians" screaming to be rescued from Lebanon?</strong><br /><p>At least 25,000 of the Australians in Lebanon actually live there and the vast majority have Lebanese citizenship, too. </p> <p>Does that make them really "ours", deserving all the help that we'd give to someone living in our own street who runs into strife overseas? </p>[...]<p>The real question is instead whether we have sold the right to be Australian too cheaply. </p> <p>By allowing Australians to keep a second nationality have we have weakened our notion of what an Australian citizen should be in these fractured times? </p> <p>And as this conflict warns only too graphically, does dual nationality mean we'll be sucked too easily into wars not of our making, just because some ersatz "Aussies" are in danger? </p>[...]<p>If we keep allowing or encouraging immigrants to treat Australia, not as a family but a camping ground, what do we get? </p> <p>I'll tell you. </p> <p>We get an Australia in which a crowded Bankstown Town Hall in April heard Islamist speakers say the "overriding commitment of a Muslim" was not to Australia but "Allah and Allah alone". </p> <p>We get an Australia in which Islamist immigrants are arrested and some jailed for allegedly plotting to blow up Australians for a foreign-inspired jihad. </p> <p>We get an Australia in which second-generation Lebanese form ethnic gangs in Sydney that fight for turf rights to beaches in Bondi and Cronulla.<br /></p> <p>[...]<br /> </p> <p>We now have enough warnings that our community is fraying fast. Mass immigration, cheap travel and communication, multiculturalism and a loss of faith in Australia has given us the hyphenated citizen. The dual nationality. The split loyalties. And trouble. </p> <p>The cries for help from Lebanese Australians should wake us up. </p> <p>Help we can always offer, and will. We're generous. </p> <p>But our Australian identity? We must remember that some things are too valuable to hand out for free, or as some optional extra. Choose us or choose someone else. We're too good for only half your loyalty and love.</p></blockquote><p> </p>...........................................................................<br />...........................................................................<br /><br />You know, i started to question this 'right' of citizenship when the single Australian passport holding <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hicks">David Hicks</a> applied for a British citizenship because his own government would not lobby for his rights.<br /><br />And since he mentioned it, let's remind Old Bolty what really happened at Cronulla...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://perth.indymedia.org/storyuploads/14922/pylatcronulla.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://perth.indymedia.org/storyuploads/14922/pylatcronulla.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.antipopper.com/images/cronulla.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.antipopper.com/images/cronulla.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2005/12/12/sydney192.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2005/12/12/sydney192.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Cronulla_riots_2_-_no_lebs.jpg/280px-Cronulla_riots_2_-_no_lebs.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Cronulla_riots_2_-_no_lebs.jpg/280px-Cronulla_riots_2_-_no_lebs.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>But maybe Bolt's right. Maybe we have sold our 'right' to be Australian too cheaply. But the <span style="font-style: italic;">real </span>question is, to who?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115349346399253985?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1152701619311046782006-07-12T20:42:00.000+10:002006-07-12T20:53:39.323+10:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/1107NAT_TEENS_wideweb__470x233%2C0.0.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/320/1107NAT_TEENS_wideweb__470x233%2C0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Oh my God, teenagers brighten up PM's day<br />Tom Allard and Belinda Kontominas<br />July 11, 2006<br /><br />TO BREATHLESS teenage squeals of "oh my God" and "he's sooo coool", John Howard began the defence of his leadership yesterday by unveiling his most potent weapon, his political popularity.<br /><br />Engulfed by the biggest political crisis of his 10 years in power, the setting for Mr Howard's first public foray into the saga was near-perfect.<br /><br />A glittering Sydney day, the Opera House and his palatial home of the past decade, Kirribilli House, resplendent just across the harbour.<br /><br />The news conference in the western courtyard of the building was vintage Howard. Terse, tightly scripted denials and relentlessly "on message".<br /><br />There had been no leadership deal, he said. Just like he and Peter Costello had been saying for years.<br /><br />The meeting witnessed by former defence minister Ian McLachlan occurred but "there were many discussions about the future leadership of the party at that time that went on for weeks after that particular meeting".<br /><br />Ipso facto, "nothing could have been concluded at that meeting".<br /><br />Calling the news conference abruptly over, Mr Howard turned on his heel for a rare prime ministerial promenade down the Opera House concourse.<br /><br />Stunned families waved back as Mr Howard loudly declared the weather to be fine. The students of Perth's Penrhos College went gaga, mobbing the Prime Minister.<br /><br />"You're our favourite politician," they screamed as Mr Howard, and the trailing media, joined them for some hearty glad-handing and pictures. "It's pretty cool to meet John Howard in person," said 16-year-old Olivia Loxley. "We'd all vote for him if we were 18."<br /><br />"He's pretty short in person. Oh my God, I'm taller than John Howard," said another student, Brittany Lynch.<br /><br />[...]<br /><br />Impromptu it may have seemed, but Mr Howard's harbourside meet-and-greet was clearly calculated.<br /><br />While many of the men and women of the parliamentary Liberal Party may scoff at his insistence there was no leadership deal struck with Mr Costello, few could deny his enduring appeal to the electorate.<br /><br />The Prime Minister is banking that, ultimately, this is what will determine the outcome of the leadership tussle.<br /><br />:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: <br /><br />Clearly, Johnny Cool is an accomplished hypnotist/magician. <br /><br />WARNING: DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT HIM <br />(NOT THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115270161931104678?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1152649773562797032006-07-12T06:05:00.001+10:002006-07-12T20:40:51.850+10:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/MALAYSIA-MAHATHIR-MERDEKA.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/320/MALAYSIA-MAHATHIR-MERDEKA.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Miffed Mahathir starts to Retaliate<br /><br />Michael Backman<br />July 12, 2006<br /><br />MAHATHIR Mohamad, Malaysia's former prime minister, is not happy. He was content to leave politics in late 2003 in return for a degree of reverence as an elder statesman, and perhaps to be consulted from time to time. He wasn't banking on being largely ignored, openly blamed for current and past errors, and seeing initiatives he backed dismantled in a way that seems calculated to make him lose face, particularly in the Asian context.<br /><br />But Mahathir has retaliated in the past fortnight. He has claimed publicly that his successor, Abdullah Badawi, has stabbed him in the back. He has rebutted criticisms made of him and he has questioned Abdullah's policies.<br /><br />The media, which under Abdullah was supposed to report the news rather than be the Government's good-news mouthpiece, blacked out Mahathir's remarks, presumably on Government orders. The Government also responded through Nazri Aziz, a minister in the Prime Minister's office who, in a 45-minute news conference, launched a fierce attack on Mahathir, advising him to be a "real man" and to leave UMNO, the ruling party. He even accused Mahathir of not loving his country, as if criticising the Government meant criticising the country. That's the sort of confusion normally reserved for developing-world dictators.<br /><br />Also last week, a former political secretary of Mahathir, who weighed in to support his former boss, was rewarded with a defamation suit for 50 million ringgit ($A18.3 million) from the deputy chairman of Malaysia's biggest newspaper group.<br /><br />And a former owner of the national airline filed a court document to say he never wanted it and that Mahathir's government made him buy it. Presumably, that is what led him to strip millions from it in related-party transactions.<br /><br />And former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim lodged with the High Court his reply to Mahathir's attempt to get his defamation suit against Mahathir quashed. Anwar made a range of new allegations about how the government was run under Mahathir, seemingly neglecting the fact that it was also Anwar's government at the time.<br /><br />Amid all this madness, there was spark of common sense. Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail floated the idea of bringing back jury trials, which were abolished 11 years ago. Malaysians were now better read, informed and competent, he said.<br /><br />But the spark was soon extinguished by none other than Nazri Aziz. Jurors were "ordinary" people, Nazri said, and might be swayed into believing clever lawyers' arguments. Goodness. On top of that, they might be bribed. Essentially, Nazri was saying that Malaysians were too stupid to be jurors and that court decisions were better left to judges. Apparently Malaysian judges are renowned for their professionalism, incorruptibility and independence. I hadn't known that.<br /><br />The Mahathir furore has helped Abdullah mask his own inaction. When he came to office he encouraged expectations that he would seriously tackle corruption and promote transparency.<br /><br />But Malaysia's police remain a disgrace. Out of control, corrupt and trigger-happy, they generally kill at least one person a week.<br /><br />So far, no major Government project has been subject to an open tendering process, despite Abdullah's suggestions they would be.<br /><br />And, despite all the talk of getting rid of nepotism, the families of most politicians remain involved in businesses that rely on Government contracts, including Abdullah's own.<br /><br />Furthermore, he appears to be excessively reliant on his son-in-law, the unelected 31-year-old Khairy Jamaluddin.<br /><br />[...]<br /><br />Back to Mahathir. Is all his noise a bad thing? Not at all. Mahathir must keep up his criticisms. It doesn't matter whether he is right or wrong. What matters is that he keeps going. Monopolies are never a good thing, particularly when it comes to a monopoly of ideas. Mahathir has given Malaysians a lot of things. Giving them what might turn out to be the most effective opposition voice they've had is his latest contribution.<br /><br />Flashy buildings make a country look modern. But real modernity comes from open public debate. Mahathir is dragging Malaysia forward while Abdullah is disappointing.<br /><br />:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: <br /><br />Apparently, Tun Dr. Mahathir is the new crusader for democracy and free speech. <br /><br />Now, there's a sentence you never thought you'd see...<br />I joke. <br /><br />Turn up the noise, old man. Maybe then your people will get the chance to as well.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115264977356279703?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1152457411293620682006-07-10T00:11:00.000+10:002006-07-10T01:03:31.376+10:00By Terry Lane<br />July 9, 2006<br /><br />Remember when the Man of Steel tried his hand at writing a preamble to the constitution? How he managed to go right to the heart of essential Australianness?<br /><br />Australians are free to be proud of their country and heritage, free to realise themselves as individuals, and free to pursue their hopes and ideals. We value excellence as well as fairness, independence as dearly as mateship.<br /><br />It is true that there is a want of poetry here. And how we laughed at the time at this feeble attempt to define the true spirit of Ozness. But one has had reason to take another look at Mr Howard's words these past few days and one has spotted a semantic error in the juxtaposed qualities a dinkum Aussie must keep in tension. We understand that excellence and fairness are euphemisms for profit on the one hand and a damn good thrashing if you ask for a decent wage on the other. And we understand that independence and mateship are code words for well-deserved wealth over dole bludging.<br /><br />However, the opposite of mateship is not independence - it is paranoia. And if there's one thing the Man of Steel is good at, it is paranoia. Not only has he elevated it to the status of a virtue but he has almost succeeded in wiping out the last vestiges of the good old bush socialism we think of when we hear the word mateship.<br /><br />The essence of mateship, as a universal virtue, is that it is an impulse to help strangers, assuming the best of them until they prove themselves unworthy of an altruistic helping hand. Mateship is a shorthand way of describing a system of social organisation based on the moral imperative of doing one for others without calculating that one day you may need them to do one for you. It is a sort of bucolic golden rule that even affects social interaction in the cities.<br /><br />It is, of course, the very socialistic weakness of spirit that the Man of Steel and his cronies so despise. Here is what set me thinking along these lines. Last week, the Spouse took one of her occasional trips to Adelaide and before embarking in Melbourne she was gone over with the explosives sniffing device. This is the third time that this has happened to her at Melbourne airport. Now she is a cruel woman, but you would never know that from just looking at her. So why is she singled out for the explosives treatment?<br /><br />In Adelaide, she has a small accident. A water bottle in her bag leaks and items in the bag get wet. She asks a shop assistant for a plastic bag into which to separate the wet from the dry. She is told that she can't have a plastic bag because she will use it to steal merchandise. She asks another assistant. And another. Same response. (Harris Scarfe, in case you're wondering.) Then she misses her bus and a stranger, seeing her distress, tells her to hop in his car and he will take her to the next stop. Who is this man, ready to help a terrorist shoplifter in distress? A white-slaver? A mate?<br /><br />When the Prime Minister reads the parable of the Good Samaritan, he probably despises the Samaritan as a sentimental fool and cheers the priest and the Levite who had the good sense to pass by on the other side.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115245741129362068?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1151744171975660012006-07-01T18:53:00.000+10:002006-07-01T18:56:11.996+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/06/30/rappers_wideweb__470x352,0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/06/30/rappers_wideweb__470x352,0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><p><strong></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><strong>and their Official Muslim Comedy Tour is helping knock down stereotypes. Waleed Aly explores the jesters' role in society.<o:p></o:p></strong></p> <h1><span style="font-size:85%;">Comedy of terrors</span></h1> <p>MEL BROOKS ONCE insisted that no subject, however dark or serious, is unfit for comedy. He should know; his musical comedy <em>The Producers</em> derived much its humour from Hitler's Holocaust. Still, stand-up comedy scarcely thrived in the immediate aftermath of <st1:date year="2001" day="11" month="9">September 11, 2001</st1:date>, particularly in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Some sores were just too sensitive to be prodded.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>But according to the cliche, humour equals tragedy plus time. If this could be true of the Holocaust, it was inevitable that September 11 would eventually provide swathes of new material, opening new comedic spaces. Yet few would have expected Muslims to fill them.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Enter Azeem, Azhar Usman and Preacher Moss, three American Muslim comics who form <em>Allah Made Me Funny: The Official Muslim Comedy Tour</em>.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>The trio came together in 2004 and have toured across the <st1:country-region><st1:place>US</st1:place></st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>, attracting extraordinary attention at every stop. Their media file is impressive, featuring reviews and interviews from <em>The New York Times, The </em><st1:state><st1:place><em>Washington</em></st1:place></st1:state><em> Post, Time</em> and US TV, plus international coverage on the BBC and in <em>The Guardian</em>. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, though smacking of quaint curiosity.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Muslim comedy? Surely, in the popular imagination, there is no phrase more oxymoronic. The public Muslim is pathologically humourless. Not surprisingly, these Muslim comedians are under no illusions about the cynicism that confronts them.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>"A lot of people don't expect the tour to be funny," Usman admits frankly. Azeem agrees: "They think a Muslim comedy show is like going to a prostate exam and telling him he's going to have a great time."<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Meantime, Muslim comedians are emerging with surprising regularity. Arab-American comics, many of whom are Muslims, have long been a fixture in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>US</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Across the </span><st1:place style="font-weight: bold;">Atlantic</st1:place><span style="font-weight: bold;">, British-born Shazia Mirza is perhaps the first person to do stand-up in a headscarf. Her career took off with the opening line of her first gig after September 11: "My name is Shazia Mirza. At least that's what it says on my pilot's licence."</span> Other Muslim comics joining Mirza at last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival were fellow Brit Paul Chowdry and Danish-Egyptian Omar Marzouk.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Perhaps, then, it is to be expected that <em>Allah Made Me Funny</em> is shooting for the mainstream. What began in mosques and Islamic community centres has now ventured successfully into some of <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s best-known comedy clubs, such as The Improv. This is a calculated step, designed to force Muslims and non-Muslims to come together and interact through laughter.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Also, this is a comedy tour with a pedigree. It is the brainchild of Preacher Moss, a veteran of the industry who has written for Damon Wayans, George Lopez and <em>Saturday Night Live</em>. Azeem has shared the stage with Steve Harvey, Adam Ferrara and John Pinnette. Moss and Azeem are black American Muslim converts of about 20 years, and their roots have left an unmistakable imprint on their acts. Much of their material trades on the kind of racial observational humour mastered by Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>The result is a kind of black-Muslim fusion. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Azeem recalls being 17 and telling his grandmother, a devout southern US Baptist, that he had become a Muslim. "I said, 'Grandma, I'm a Muslim.' She looked up and said, 'No you're not. You ain't never been to jail.'"</span><o:p></o:p></p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Usman, by contrast, goes straight to the political Zeitgeist, opening with a disclaimer: "I am not in any way affiliated with al-Qaeda. Nor am I a member of the Taliban. I just play one on TV."</span> The joke is visual. Usman, with his skull cap and long beard, quite unlike his colleagues who could pass for jazz musicians, is the very caricature of the fundamentalist Muslim image - a fact he exploits regularly in his act.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>He discusses how people stare at him in utter fear whenever he boards a plane. <span style="font-weight: bold;">"Everybody's real nice to me once the plane safely lands," he says. Drawing on his Indian heritage, he adds: "People look at me like I was responsible for 9/11. Can you believe that? Me, responsible for 9/11 - 7-Eleven, maybe."</span><o:p></o:p></p> <p>In many ways, Usman is the odd one out. The Chicago-born former lawyer is the only one of the trio born into a Muslim family. He is also probably the least experienced, having only started performing what he calls his "Muslim schtick" a few months before September 11. His act hasn't changed substantially since. "The main difference," he says, "is now people care."<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Usman is right. To borrow from John Howard, the times suit him. Muslims in the West find themselves in the intense, perpetual spotlight, and this can be thoroughly exhausting. "Muslims need a laugh," says Usman, <span style="font-weight: bold;">and Moss quips that after September 11 the tension and paranoia was so high that you couldn't even tell a Muslim a knock-knock joke. Try it, he says:</span><o:p style="font-weight: bold;"></o:p></p> <p style="font-weight: bold;">"Knock knock."<o:p></o:p></p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">"Don't answer it!"</span><o:p></o:p></p> <p>This environment guarantees no shortage of stereotypes waiting to be given the stand-up treatment.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> "Muslims are the most peaceful people on the planet Earth," retorts Azeem to the common perception that Muslims are violent.</span><o:p style="font-weight: bold;"></o:p></p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">"Y'all don't believe it? Think about it. Mike Tyson ain't won a fight since he became a Muslim."</span><o:p></o:p></p> <p>Like all good comedians, Azeem, Usman and Moss are quite prepared to laugh at themselves. Usman's character comedy brings us "Sheikh Abdul, the radical imam", who intersperses vitriolic lectures with announcements about double-parked cars and meetings to re-elect the mosque committee that has remained unchanged for 37 years.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>There's also <span style="font-weight: bold;">"Uncle Letmesplainyou"</span>, an antique Muslim who barely speaks English, has crazy political views and a voracious desire to share them, elbowing others aside to embarrass the community in television interviews. <span style="font-weight: bold;">He also brags about the growth of Muslim America to people who don't care. "He's bragging to his friends at work: 'Can you believe it, Bob? Seven million Muslims in </span><st1:country-region style="font-weight: bold;"><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-weight: bold;">!' He thinks Bob is impressed. He's not, he's scared."</span><o:p></o:p></p> <p>Muslims connect immediately with these characters because they, and the elements of internal community dysfunction they represent, are so achingly familiar. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Usman recounts a conversation with a friend who says he is completely uninterested in organised religion. "I said: 'Great! Become a Muslim. We're the most disorganised people on Earth!'" </span>In this way, <em>Allah Made Me Funny</em> gives Muslims permission to acknowledge and laugh at the problems in their own community, and to share that process with non-Muslims. "It is therapy," says Usman.<o:p></o:p></p> <p><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/comedy-of-terrors/2006/06/29/1151174330447.html">[…]</a></p> <p>Usman calls this "comedy of distortion", where "the minority group that is the butt of the stereotype (is) using that stereotype, flipping it inside-out, and exposing it for what it is".<o:p></o:p></p> <p>In truth though, Muslim stereotypes scarcely need explicit treatment. The mere existence of <em>Allah Made Me Funny</em> is often treatment enough. "When was the last time you saw a happy, bearded Muslim on TV?" asks Usman.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>From all reports, the sense of empowerment is apparent in Muslim audiences. "The group of people that I've noticed that come out are those persons who, for some reason, have felt spiritually disenfranchised," says Azeem. "What I've noticed is that as they leave, it's like they just came from a spiritual revival."<o:p></o:p></p> <p>It is as though the comedy gives Muslims permission to celebrate who and what they are. In a world of intense pressure and relentless maligning, such opportunities for celebration are otherwise in critically short supply.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>But if stand-up at its best is a commentary on the human condition, and if the lives of American Muslims are by now indelibly politicised, it is inevitable that <em>Allah Made Me Funny</em> would have a political edge. Jokes about the absurdities of modern security measures are high on the agenda. Xenophobes are also useful fodder.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Usman wonders how some archetypical callers to Fox News manage to get through the screening process: <span style="font-weight: bold;">"Yeah, hi, my name is Billy-Bob. I'm calling from </span><st1:state style="font-weight: bold;"><st1:place>Louisiana</st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-weight: bold;"> and I just wanna say that all them Muslims - and them Islams - and all them Pakistanis and Afghanistanis and Iraqistanis - they should just go back to </span><st1:place style="font-weight: bold;">Africa</st1:place><span style="font-weight: bold;">!"</span><o:p></o:p></p> <p><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/comedy-of-terrors/2006/06/29/1151174330447.html">[…]</a><o:p></o:p></p> <p>Comedy has this unique power. As Australian comic Adam Vincent says: <span style="font-weight: bold;">"The jester would be the only one who could get away with telling the king what was wrong with the kingdom."</span><o:p></o:p></p> <p>Usman is explicit on this point. "There's a history of the underdog using stand-up comedy to speak truth to power. People take notice and are transformed by the experience."<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Viewed through this lens, <em>Allah Made Me Funny</em> represents the forging of a new American Muslim identity. And like all social development, it is not without its resistance. Some Muslims will be uncomfortable with mixing comedy with religion.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Moss is frank about the challenges: "You know, some Muslims just take themselves too seriously," he muses.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> When Usman was booked to perform for a Shi'ite audience, some members of the community objected. It took a favourable ruling from the Ayatollah himself before the show could go ahead. Now, Usman is dubbed the "Ayatollah of comedy".</span><o:p style="font-weight: bold;"></o:p></p> <p>But for all the obstacles, <em>Allah Made Me Funny</em> has been hugely successful. Plans are afoot for the tour to go to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and requests have flooded in from the Muslim world. Australian Muslims have made similar requests, but so far the tyranny of distance and economics have not yet made it viable.<o:p></o:p></p> <p>Globally, it seems, there is an insatiable appetite for the Western Muslim voice. It's fitting that via the speech of the jester they are beginning to find it.</p> </blockquote> <p><o:p></o:p>I really, really want these guys to come to Neverland (aka Australia)! I love the Mike Tyson joke. And Joey, does the term "Islams" ring a bell? lol<br /></p> By the way, I tried very hard to cut the original article down. I failed miserably. :p<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115174417197566001?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1151740243808985902006-07-01T17:24:00.000+10:002006-07-01T17:53:14.853+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cards.lovingyou.com/platinum/images/bd002.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://cards.lovingyou.com/platinum/images/bd002.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 153);font-size:130%;" ><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 102);font-family:georgia;">...aka Nur. Hope you had a wonderful day! :)</span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 51);font-size:85%;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">(And just 'cause you're older than me, doesn't mean you're right! :p)</span> </span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115174024380898590?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1151729256703947792006-07-01T14:24:00.000+10:002006-07-01T14:53:36.996+10:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/Hicks.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 355px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 247px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="224" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/320/Hicks.0.jpg" width="345" border="0" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115172925670394779?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1151649300846893382006-06-30T16:29:00.000+10:002006-06-30T16:35:25.163+10:00Naturally, John Howard begs to differ.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">I don't want Hicks here: PM<br /> </span><!--articleTools Top--> <date><br />The Age<br />June 30, 2006 - 1:06PM</date><br /> <p>The Australian government has rejected calls for David Hicks to be returned home after America' highest court found military commissions set to try the Australian terror suspect are unlawful.</p> <p>Prime Minister John Howard urged US authorities to find another forum to try Hicks, saying he had no sympathy for the Adelaide-born man who is facing trial accused of training as a terrorist with al-Qaeda.</p> <p>Hicks' father, lawyers and politicians demanded Hicks be brought home after the US Supreme Court ruling overnight which found US military commissions to try Guantanamo Bay detainees are unlawful.</p> <p>The Supreme Court justices voted five-three that the structure and procedures of the military commissions violated military justice codes and the Geneva Convention.</p> <p>But Mr Howard said Hicks, who has been detained by the US at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for four-and-a-half years, should still be tried in the US.</p> <p>Mr Howard said he was not embarrassed by the court ruling but admitted his government was wrongly advised that the military commissions were lawful.<br /> </p> <p><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/i-dont-want-hicks-here-pm/2006/06/30/1151174375820.html">[...]</a><br /> </p> <p>Australian Democrats foreign affairs spokeswoman Natasha Stott Despoja said the Howard government should press for Hicks' immediate repatriation.</p> <p>"The process has been judged illegal, it is an abrogation of international humanitarian law," Senator Stott Despoja said.</p> <p>The Law Council of Australia's independent observer of the Hicks case, Lex Lasry QC, said there was a "very strong argument" that under a properly constituted court martial, or civilian court, there was no case for Hicks to answer.</p> </blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115164930084689338?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1151648187264380522006-06-30T16:07:00.000+10:002006-06-30T16:16:27.276+10:00<blockquote>By <byline>Waleed Aly</byline><br /><date>June 30, 2006<br /><br /></date> <p><strong>A study has found Westerners and Muslims view each other in much the same way, writes Waleed Aly.</strong></p> <p>Relations between Muslims and Westerners are at present in a state of crisis. I can say this, now, without significant fear of contradiction. With all their disagreements, even contemporary Muslims and Westerners seem to agree on that much. Except, for some unexplained reason, in Pakistan.</p> <p>At least, that is the portrait painted by a Pew Global Attitudes Survey, released late last week, on how Westerners and Muslims view each other.</p> <p>It's the first significant survey of its kind, spanning over 14,000 people in 13 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and America. And it makes for absorbing, compulsory reading for anyone interested in knowing to what extent the clash of civilisations is all in our heads.</p> <p>To that end, the Pew survey unearthed some profoundly significant points of connection. Muslims overwhelmingly believe democracy can work well in the Muslim world. And perhaps most significantly in the contemporary political context, majorities in almost all countries are substantially concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism. In any struggle against such militancy, it seems most of the world, Muslims included, are on the same side. That speaks more to the possibility of an alliance of civilisations.</p> <p>Certainly, there are enough differences in perspective to say the intercivilisational gulf will take some bridging. Each side is more inclined to blame the other for the world's woes than itself. Smaller percentages across the board hold both responsible. Yet, for all the glaring opposition of these views, they come ultimately from the same resistance to engaging in honest introspection (though this is less marked in the Western societies surveyed than their Muslim counterparts).</p> <p>Perhaps as a result, Westerners and Muslims do not hold each other in especially high regard at present.</p> <p>Western respondents tended to see Muslims as fanatical, violent, intolerant, and disrespectful towards women. This, frankly, is hardly a shock. What might surprise Western readers is that Muslim populations tend to think of them in precisely the same way - though they add that Westerners are selfish, immoral and greedy for good measure.</p> <p>We should pause for reflection here. If Westerners immediately, and correctly, recognise that these Muslim perceptions of them are stereotyped nonsense, they may also be inclined to reconsider the accuracy of their own stereotyped view of Muslims. True, Westerners can point to cliches in support of their caricatures (terrorism, honour killings), but so can Muslims (military invasion, pornography). Each has some factual basis, but the result is a false, essentialised typecast of countless astonishingly diverse, complex societies.<br /></p> <p>There might be mutual hostility here, but there's a compelling symmetry, too. Indeed, paradoxically, these results may have highlighted some common ground from which an intercivilisational relationship can progress. Each may view the other as violent, intolerant and disrespecting of women, but at least everyone agrees these traits are worthy of condemnation. This implies that they may be the universal, or at least common, values on which further dialogue could be built.</p> <p>But just as compellingly, the Pew survey demonstrates the importance of familiarity in such a process.</p> <p>The pioneering contribution of this research is that, for the first time, significant Muslim minorities in several European countries were surveyed specifically as a separate group. Unlike their co-religionists abroad who have little or no contact with Western society, European Muslims' views of Westerners were generally positive: largely describing them as tolerant, generous, and respectful towards women. They reject, by large majorities, the suggestion that Westerners are violent. They are also more likely to accept that Muslims are at least partly to blame for Muslim-Western hostilities than societies in Muslim homelands.</p> <p>European Muslims occupy a precious middle ground in what is otherwise generally polarised terrain. Undoubtedly this is due to their inevitably more nuanced understanding of both Muslims and the West, which neatly demonstrates that if a gulf exists between the Muslim and Western worlds, it will be people whose knowledge and experience spans both that are capable of bridging it.</p> <p>Australia is no exception to this rule. A study of Australian attitudes to Muslims published earlier this year by Kevin Dunn at the University of New South Wales found that younger people, who had more contact with Muslims than did older Australians, were less likely to view Islam as a threat. Familiarity, it seems, does not always breed contempt. It might be our best hope.</p> <p>The clash of civilisations, therefore, feeds off foreignness - literally xenophobia - not reality. To a very real extent, it is in our heads. Certainly, it is in our hands.</p> <p><small>Waleed Aly is a secondee solicitor at the Human Rights Law Resource Centre.</small></p></blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115164818726438052?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1150713057228288962006-06-19T19:48:00.000+10:002006-06-19T20:30:57.300+10:00So violence is all religion's fault?<br />By Barney Zwartz<br />June 17, 2006<br /><a name="contentSwap1"></a><br /><blockquote>Faith is no more likely to provoke bloodshed than secular ideologies, which come with their own share of absolutism, divisiveness and irrationality.<br /><br />IN THE 1940s, Jehovah's Witnesses in the US were beaten, tarred, castrated and jailed because they believed that followers of Jesus should not salute a flag. Historian Martin Marty cites this 50 years later. To him it is evidence that religion has a particular tendency to be divisive and therefore violent.<br /><br />He writes that it "can be perceived by others as dangerous. Religion can cause all kinds of trouble in the public arena." For Marty, religion refers not to the ritual pledging of allegiance to a flag, but only to the Jehovah's Witnesses' refusal to do so.<br /><br />There is clearly something wrong here. Surely the obvious conclusion is that fanatical nationalism can cause violence. Why does Marty blame religion? Marty is seduced by, and helping to cement, a myth so deeply rooted in Western society that it may be impossible to dig out, and that is the myth that religion has a dangerous tendency to promote violence.<br /><br />Combating this conventional wisdom was the theme of an important international lecture by American theologian William Cavanaugh at Melbourne University this month, and I largely follow his argument.<br /><br />This myth plays a valuable role for secularists. It helps them marginalise Christians and demonise Muslims, and creates a blind spot about violence by the West. It confirms an "us" (the rational, peace-making, secular West) against a "them" (violent fanatics in the Muslim world). To quote Cavanaugh: <strong>"Their violence is religious, and therefore irrational and divisive. Our violence, on the other hand, is rational, peace-making and necessary. Regrettably, we find ourselves forced to bomb them into the higher rationality."</strong><br /><br />Most religious believers have bought this myth, too. They try to fight it by two arguments. First, they say that violence in the name of religion is really usually about politics or economics. Second, they claim that people who perpetrate violence, by definition — the Crusaders, for example — are not really religious. Australian Muslims constantly say this of terrorists: "These people aren't really Muslims, because Islam is a religion of peace." I understand their predicament, but the argument doesn't work.<br /><br />First, it's impossible to separate religious motives from the rest to make religion innocent. So the first argument by defenders of religion shares the same flaw as the myth itself. How can you separate religion from politics in Islam when Muslims themselves make no such separation?<br /><a name="contentSwap2"></a><br />Second, it may be true that the Crusaders misappropriated Christianity, but they claimed it as their motive. Christianity can't be entirely excused. That's because it's not just a set of doctrines, it's a lived historical experience distinguished by the observable actions of Christians. So religion can and does contribute to violence. Where the myth is wrong is in saying religion is more violent than secular ideologies.<br /><br />The argument has two prongs: to show how the myth is incoherent, and to show how it became so widely believed.<br /><br />It's incoherent because the division between the religious and secular is artificial. It's a modern, Western invention to separate religion from culture, politics and economics. Scholars agree that it's impossible to define religion. Must it include belief in God or gods? If not, you can include Buddhism and Confucianism, but a whole lot of "secular" beliefs sneak in too, such as nationalism, which has been called the most powerful religion in the US.<br /><br />The sociologists, political scientists, historians, theologians and others who have written since 9/11 attacking religion as violent just pretend this difficulty does not exist. Then they claim religion is prone to violence because it is absolutist, divisive, and/or irrational. They ignore overwhelming evidence that secular ideologies and institutions can be just as absolutist, divisive or irrational.<br /><br />Their problem is that when they try to separate secular from religious violence, they refute their own distinctions. Marty, for example, lists five "features" of a religion, and shows how politics shares all five: both focus our ultimate concern, both build community, both appeal to myth and symbol (for example, national flags, war memorials), both use rites and ceremonies and both demand certain behaviours. In showing how closely intertwined the two are, Marty ends up demolishing any theoretical basis for separating them.<br /><br />Mark Juergensmeyer, in his influential Terror in the Mind of God, says religious violence is particularly relentless because believers elevate it to a "cosmic war". But he admits that so do those involved in ideological and ethnic violence and he admits secular nationalism is a religion. How many Christians would be willing to kill for their faith? How many would be willing to kill for their country? Surveys in America show that the nation-state attracts far more absolutist fervour than Christianity. Many Christians there endorse slaughter on behalf of the nation as necessary, even laudable.<br /><a name="contentSwap3"></a><br />If this myth about religious violence is incoherent, why is it so widely believed? Because it's so useful. In domestic politics, it helps silence religious believers, who are told their faith is a private matter and must be kept out of politics. In foreign politics, the myth helps reinforce and justify Western attitudes, especially towards Muslims.<br /><br />It helps frame the clash-of-civilisations world view, which says Muslims hate the West partly because they haven't been able to separate religion and politics. If you accept this, it helps the "us and them" attitude and lets the West sanitise its own actions. If Americans can write off Muslim resentment as irrational, they don't have to scrutinise their dealings with Muslims. Worse, it helps the clash of civilisations become a self-fulfilling prophecy.<br /><br />Imagine if President George Bush had called 9/11 a crime rather than a war, if the West hunted Osama bin Laden merely as a murderer. It would have given a much better sense of perspective and not let militants persuade other Muslims that this is a war against Islam.<br /><strong></strong><br />But many in the West believe in such a war. Author Sam Harris ( The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason) actually suggests that if an Islamist regime gets nuclear weapons the West may need to launch a nuclear first strike. <strong>In other words, if we have to slaughter millions by a first strike, it will be the fault of the Muslims and their crazy religious beliefs.</strong> Harris says Muslims would misinterpret this "self-defence" as a genocidal crusade and plunge the world into a nuclear holocaust. To avoid this, he suggests the West will have to impose <strong>"benign dictatorships"</strong> on Muslim countries. And his book has been endorsed by such academic luminaries as Alan Dershowitz, Richard Dawkins and Peter Singer.<br /><br />One doesn't have to be naive about either Islam or Christianity to see the danger of this secular myth. Harris may be an extreme example, but the myth of religious violence is still helping to shape policy in Western governments.<br /><br />Barney Zwartz is religion editor of The Age.<br /><br /><br /></blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115071305722828896?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1150538141418103762006-06-17T19:45:00.000+10:002006-06-17T19:58:19.750+10:00<blockquote><p><strong>'The people' no longer means all Australians<br /><br /></strong>By Waleed Aly<br />June 13, 2006<br /><br />The quality of a democracy can be gauged by the extent to which its electoral process is inclusive of maligned sectors of society. Democracy may be inherently majoritarian in nature, but if its core concept is that government derives legitimacy from the consent of its people, that legitimacy depends on every constituent, however peripheral or unsavoury, having the opportunity to speak through the ballot box. A democracy with iniquitous electoral laws is unworthy of the name.<br /><br />That is why the bill amending our electoral laws warrants serious scrutiny. It does substantial philosophical damage to our conceptions of democracy, particularly in its proposal that all prisoners be stripped of the right to vote.<br /><br />For Senator Eric Abetz, who originally championed the bill, the proposition is deliciously simple: "If you're not fit to walk the streets as deemed by the judicial system in this country, then chances are you're not a fit and proper person to cast a vote in relation to the future of your country." Democratic pearls should not be cast before civil society's swine, apparently. Prisoners don't deserve democracy.<br /><br />There's a paradigm shift here. Suddenly, to vote is not a right of the people from which government derives its legitimacy; it is a privilege to be conferred at Canberra's discretion. That is the very opposite of democracy. When you take the philosophical step of tying voting rights to worthiness, it implies a government prerogative to make this judgement. The logical extension of this is to restrict the power to appoint the government to a government-authorised elite.<br /><br />This fact is not avoided by the argument, put forward in recent parliamentary debates by Liberal backbencher Michael Johnson, that "people who commit serious offences against society, against the community, should forfeit their right to vote". Their transgressions do not render such people devoid of all rights. If we care about human rights - and the right to vote is one - then any derogation must be demonstrably necessary. Thus the state may deprive criminals of their liberty, but it cannot torture them. Similarly, the state may deprive us of a right to vote, but, according to the UN High Commissioner, only to the extent "necessary in a democratic society" for a public purpose.<br /><br />Nothing about this amendment is necessary. Influential courts across three continents have said as much when considering similar legislation.</p><p><br />It will not, as some have suggested, deter the commission of crime, as though the prospect of imprisonment is less threatening. Nor is it necessary to prevent prisoners from becoming a lobby group as the Festival of Light argued before a Senate committee.<br /><a name="contentSwap2"></a><br />There is no evidence to support any of these rationalisations, which probably explains why, apart from those of the Festival of Light and the Liberal Party itself, every submission to the Senate vehemently opposed the bill. One of the few things it<br />will achieve is to violate Australia's human rights obligations.</p><p><br />But then, Abetz emphatically doesn't care. "The reliance on international treaties is usually the last resort of those that can't argue their case domestically," he retorts. Apparently we live in a nation where the idea of democracy is a rhetorical hook, yet lamentably, human rights are not.<br /><br />In that case, Abetz might consider how comfortably this proposal sits with our own constitutional requirement that the government is elected by "the people". True, once upon a time "the people" did not include women, or Aborigines, but constitutional lawyers have long accepted that the concept would evolve with community standards. Are we prepared to concede those standards hold that prisoners are not people? How democratic are we?<br /><br />In the arena of political argument, democracy is a rhetorical colossus. It permits those who have it a certain smugness at their comparative political enlightenment in the world. It confers moral authority in international affairs. Apparently, it even justifies ill-conceived military invasions. But that only increases the imperative for us to be vigilant about its quality. In that regard, this bill should sound the alarm. It seems democracy is more a good for export, than for domestic consumption.<br /><br /><em>Waleed Aly is a secondee solicitor at the Human Rights Law Resource Centre.</em><br /></p></blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-115053814141810376?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1149257370491550492006-06-02T23:57:00.000+10:002006-06-03T00:09:30.566+10:00<p></p> <blockquote> <p>So Britain's largest union of university lecturers has courageously bitten the bullet. Defying any spurious claims of latter-day "McCarthyism" or politically correct twaddle about "academic freedom", the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education has voted in favour of a boycott of Israeli academics and higher education institutions that do not publicly dissociate themselves from Israel's "apartheid policies" (The Age, 31/5).</p> <p>About time, too, some might say. Although there are as many differences as there are similarities between the old white South African version of apartheid and the present Israeli version, when it comes to academic moral rectitude, near enough is close enough. But why stop with Israel?</p> <p>Just this week, <em>The Age's</em> United States correspondent, Michael Gawenda, wrote about the wall the US is planning to build along the 1341-kilometre border with Mexico to stop the estimated 500,000 or more people coming into the US each year (Opinion, 29/5). At least Israel could argue some security rationale for its "apartheid wall", which has so offended the British academics: it has, after all, greatly reduced the number of suicide bombings in Israeli cities - but when last did a Mexican suicide bomber blow up a party of US schoolkids in a Texan steakhouse?<br /> </p> <p><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/first-they-came-for-the-israelis---/2006/05/31/1148956413907.html">[...]</a><br /> </p> <p>True, we don't have an "apartheid wall" in Australia - at least, not a full-blooded razor-wire-and-concrete job like the Israelis'. But we do have a "virtual" wall that is at least as effective: the so-called "exclusion zone" that has just been extended to make the whole of Australia and its outlying islands refugee-free.</p> <p>And just in case any "illegal entrants" manage to breach those defences and pose a "terror threat" to our "relaxed and comfortable" Aussie way of life, we have a set of draconian "anti-terror" laws that place unprecedented restrictions on individual freedoms.</p> <p>Some of these not only ape those in force in apartheid South Africa (detention without trial, for example), but - on the near-enough-is-close-enough principle that highlights superficial similarities while ignoring fundamental differences - would not be out of place on the statute books of the mercifully defunct totalitarian dictatorships of 20th-century Europe.</p> <p>And, perhaps more to the point in terms of the present anti-Israel boycott, how are these morally sensitive British academics going to react to the putrid sore at the heart of Australia that Wadeye has opened up for all the world to see?</p> <p>What we have seen at Wadeye in recent weeks paints a picture of race-based neglect, apathy and cynicism that has left Australia's indigenous population, after 200 years of white "occupation", as economically and socially disadvantaged and as devastated as South Africa's blacks were at the height of apartheid.</p> <p>If Wadeye does not represent the fruits of 200 years of effective "apartheid" in Australia, then what does it represent?</p> <p>So, Ye Guardians at the Gates of British Academe, can Australian academics now expect an ultimatum to "publicly dissociate" themselves from the "fascist, apartheid policies" of the Australian Government - or find themselves sent to Coventry with their fellow Israeli recalcitrants?</p> <p>Or is that a club restricted to citizens of the Jewish state alone?</p> <p><strong>David Bernstein is an Age writer.</strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong></strong></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114925737049155049?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1148636482490890662006-05-26T18:52:00.000+10:002006-05-26T19:49:23.633+10:00Editorial: One law for all<br />May 26, 2006<br />Our legal system must reinforce <strong>Australian values</strong><br /><br /><blockquote><p>LAST August The Australian informed a horrified country of the case of a 14-year-old Aboriginal girl from the Northern Territory who was taken from her home against her will by a 55-year-old community elder, who took her to his outstation, bashed her with a boomerang and had anal sex with her over two days. The sentence for this crime? Due to the mitigating factor of tribal custom, the elder received just one month behind bars. And while Northern Territory Chief Justice Brian Martin, who handed down the original sentence, has admitted his error in this case, the new sentence of three years handed down by an appeals court still feels manifestly inadequate. Last week, in response to this and other outrages, the federal Government called for the removal of Aboriginal customary law from the list of circumstances judges can take into account in deciding sentences for criminals in the Northern Territory. This seems to have run smack into the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act on the grounds that it unfairly singled out Aboriginal tribal law. In response, Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough now proposes that customary, traditional and tribal laws of all stripes be taken out of the sentencing system, saying he does not believe that any sub-group of Australian culture should be allowed to use cultural sensitivity as a defence for criminal behaviour.<br /><br />This is exactly right. Australian law exists to serve and reinforce the values of the community and cannot bend and twist to treat various groups differently depending on the culture they were raised in. The law must enforce a common set of values and principles. And high on the list of those ideals is the principle that the law is there to protect society's weakest members from the predations of the strong. No one deserves to be sexually assaulted, least of all children, but the evidence suggests that this is happening on an appallingly regular basis in Australia's indigenous communities. Thus the weakest members of society have become the collateral damage of well-intentioned progressives who, after creating a vicious "Big Man" culture in Aboriginal communities through the sit-down money of the welfare state, now seek to preserve it in all its brutality in the name of authenticity. [...] Mr Brough is striking a blow for women and children. In much of Aboriginal society, a culture has developed which allows elders to pick and choose from prepubescent girls. [...] In 2006 much of sharia law as it is practised around the world appears dedicated to turning women into property, first of their fathers and then of their husbands. By excusing violence against women under the guise of any sort of traditional law, the state tacitly sanctions the offence.<br /><br />Mr Brough is to be applauded for his effort to make sure that the Australian legal system – and not any other system, be it tribal, sharia, or the Napoleonic Code – governs the conduct of all Australians. Despite the complaints of critics, this is not about removing the discretion of judges to hand out what they feel are appropriate sentences, but rather making sure that the law the country's judges apply is solely Australian. Courts in remote areas are replete with stories of judges excusing rapes, assaults and pedophilia through the invocation of the magic words "customary law". [...] No matter which end of the spectrum of seriousness a judge is dealing with, treating Aborigines differently because of their heritage is patronising and counterproductive. Sending the message that certain people are to be treated differently because of the circumstances of their birth denies Aborigines the right to fully integrate and participate in Australian society. By writing the traditional law defence out of sentencing factors, states will send a strong message about <strong>lawlessness in Aboriginal communities</strong>, which are tragically ill-served by the current regime. Otherwise they will be complicit in yet more crimes against Australia's most defenceless citizens.</p></blockquote><br /><br />One law for all?<br /><br />Cultural sensitivity toward Anglo-Australians is inherent in the Australian legal system, taken for granted day by day. It is inherent in the white male pioneers who thought up the system, the white male parliamentarians who make the law and the white male judges who enforce it.<br /><br />Cultural sensitivity toward all other minority groups is to be banned for fear of their innate "lawlessness", their sheer immorality and the danger they pose to "Australian values".<br /><br />Yes, one law for all indeed. All "Australians" that is.<br /><br />The moral of the story?<br />Civil discourse proclaiming justice is but a poor veil for ignorance and racism.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114863648249089066?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1148304096902167412006-05-22T23:19:00.000+10:002006-05-22T23:21:36.916+10:00By <byline>Jane Lydon</byline><br /><date>May 22, 2006<br /><br /></date> <p></p> <blockquote> <p>In the debate about the abuse of Aboriginal children, we are seeing the re-animation of much older, historical images of Aboriginal neglect and ill-treatment.</p> <p>After the colonisation of Australia in 1788, Europeans represented Aboriginal gender relations and, especially, the care of children, as disorderly and brutal. Such accounts served to justify invasion, intervention, and ultimately the removal of children from their families.</p> <p>The horrors courageously made public by Alice Springs Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers are real, and the pain and death inflicted on these small victims must not be denied, yet the way that this terrible situation has been taken up by some commentators, notably Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough, reveals an insidious colonial legacy that does nothing to tackle the problem's underlying causes.</p> <p>Rather than acknowledge the longstanding structural disadvantage experienced by remote Aboriginal communities, the complicity of the Australian Government in their creation and neglect, and a national responsibility to make real changes, Brough's immediate response to Rogers' revelations was to announce the existence of a pedophile ring of senior Aboriginal men. No evidence has been produced, and it seems clear that none exists.</p> <p>Where did Brough's allegation come from? Such a "ring" would, of course, give the minister a convenient solution to his need to be seen to be doing something: an evil group of Aboriginal men, a target small enough to rapidly identify and punish, would serve as a scapegoat and provide a quick fix for his problem. But if we look further back into the long history of Aboriginal-white relations, it becomes clear that such claims have often helped governments to justify interventionist indigenous policies.</p> <p>Early white observers were quick to condemn Aboriginal society as wild and lawless, underwriting the process of colonialism. Although missionaries emphasised indigenous people's shared humanity, often opposing contemporary scientific racial theorists who argued for their biological inferiority, all agreed in condemning Aboriginal men as oppressors of their women, ignoring evidence for women's status within their own society.</p> <p>Such views were the basis for confining them on reserves where women, in particular, were the focus of intense scrutiny and discipline. Such perceptions also served to justify taking indigenous babies and children from their mothers: as we now know, a long-term and systematic official practice with devastating consequences. More recently, historians of the "stolen generations" such as Anna Haebich have shown how similar images of neglect and disorder were used as the basis for child removal as recently as the 1970s.</p> <p>The causes of these entrenched problems in many Aboriginal communities are complex, and the solutions will not be easy or certain.</p> <p>The search for answers is not helped by political claims, from those who should know better, that reiterate the same old ideas about Aboriginal culture as inherently abusive - a notion explicitly rejected by several Aboriginal leaders over the past two days.</p> <p>This is a terrible episode in Australian history, and the central fact is that every Aboriginal child is precious. What is needed are more perceptive analyses of these troubled communities - best of all, from listening to Aboriginal people, who have been trying to address these problems for a considerable time.</p> <p><small>Jane Lydon is a research fellow at Monash University's Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies.</small></p> </blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114830409690216741?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1148256694491580142006-05-22T10:06:00.000+10:002006-05-22T10:11:34.503+10:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/701/2161/1600/svCARTOON_gallery__470x341.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/701/2161/320/svCARTOON_gallery__470x341.jpg" border="0" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114825669449158014?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1147908386330090262006-05-18T09:16:00.000+10:002006-05-18T09:32:54.080+10:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/701/2161/1600/r85580_251104.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/701/2161/320/r85580_251104.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><blockquote><p></p><p></p><p>Reporter: Quentin McDermott<br />Broadcast: 15/05/2006<br /><br />In the hours before he killed himself in April last year, Campbell Bolton wrote a long note in which he told his family how sorry he was for the pain he was about to cause them. "It fills me with grief when I think of what I have done to you," he wrote.<br /><br />Nobody doubts he meant it. But, absorbed in his own pain, 17-year-old Campbell could not have comprehended the intensity and the breadth of suffering that he would inflict on others... his parents and brother, veering between sadness and anger, his extended family, friends, his school community, and the anonymous strangers - the emergency and morgue workers who had to handle his shattered body and tell a mother her son was dead.<br /><br />"He didn’t have any idea of the grief," says Campbell's grandmother. "It's like a ripple in a pool, throwing a stone in a pool."<br /><br />Now think of hundreds of stones being hurled into a pool, and the ripple effect. <strong>When Campbell Bolton died he became one of about 2,000 Australians who deliberately kill themselves each year, a tally that exceeds the huge but humdrum toll of road deaths.</strong> <strong>On average, one young person, like Campbell, dies by suicide every day</strong>. They're statistics to most people - but not to loved ones and the countless others who are touched by suicide.<br /><br />Four Corners looks for insight into this social catastrophe by exploring the promising life and wasteful death of Campbell Bolton. On the surface nothing was wrong; Campbell came from a high-achieving, middle-class family with no background of drug abuse, violence, psychiatric illness or divorce.<br /><br />He was a funny, charismatic and extremely clever young man. "Come speech night, he's basically falling over with prizes," a friend says. In Campbell's last months, however, as HSC exams approached, his academic performance slipped dramatically. No one could tell what was wrong.<br /><br />This Four Corners report does not seek to answer exactly why Campbell ended his life. However it does identify some issues that were occupying him, including hissexuality and an acne problem. It now seems, with benefit of hindsight, that Campbell also had an abstract, intellectual attraction to suicide.<br /><br />In making this program, Four Corners has sought to avoid glamourising Campbell's death or apportioning blame. Without the courage of Campbell's family, friends and school, the program could not have been made. All who knew him are victims of his death.<br /><br />"The reason we're doing this program is that there's a deathly silence around suicide," says Campbell's mother Merridy. "Everybody's shocked and everyone says, 'Oh isn't it terrible'... but then the conversation stops." </p></blockquote><br />I watched this program last night and i admit it was slightly disturbing but incrediably insightful. So if you don't have time, please make some and read at least parts of the transcrpt <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1639099.htm">here</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114790838633009026?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1147695238820792392006-05-15T21:58:00.000+10:002006-05-15T22:41:38.000+10:00Tussle over images worth their weight in gold<br />By Dan Silkstone<br />May 15, 2006<br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>FREED miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb are locked in a fight with mine management over potentially lucrative video footage and photographs taken during their confinement.<br /><br />The footage, which could be <strong>worth hundreds of thousands of dollars</strong> as part of a media deal, is being held by the mine's managers despite repeated requests from the two men, sources have told The Age.<br /><br />Video and still images were taken by the miners with a camera supplied by rescuers and used during the nine-day rescue operation to monitor their well-being and the effect of drilling and blasting on their surrounds.<br /><br />Both men are trying to negotiate deals with commercial television networks. The hours of footage and dozens of photographs would be extremely valuable but could diminish the value of their story if they were released or sold to a rival network.<br /><br />The two men are believed to have requested the footage almost immediately after they emerged from the mine on Tuesday.<br /><br />Mine spokesman Mike Lester said the images were being withheld because a coronial inquiry was under way, not because the company wanted to profit.<br /><br />"The mine has to work out legally whether or not they can release anything," he said. But Mr Lester confirmed the mine had received offers. "Virtually every media organisation has asked for it," he said. "Not everyone has offered to pay."<br /><br />Celebrity agent Max Markson, who left Beaconsfield yesterday after failing to persuade the two men to sign up with him, said the footage and pictures were highly sought after.<br /><br />"It depends how good the quality is but it would give great footage for the TV. People imagine what it's like down there, that's human nature. Now they can see for themselves."<br /><br />Australian Workers Union secretary Bill Shorten said the pictures and footage should be handed over immediately to the two men. "The images belong to the blokes and if there's anything in that footage that makes the company look bad then the blokes should have it anyway."The spat comes as the battle for the miners' story intensified.<br /><br />The miners have appointed an agent, Sydney lawyer Sean Anderson, who also represents several Seven Network personalities. <strong>Some newspapers reported yesterday that the Seven Network had tabled a $2.75 million bid to each of the miners.<br /></strong><a name="contentSwap2"></a><br />Seven News director Peter Meakin did not deny the mooted figure but said speculation that the pair would feature on Sunrise was wide of the mark.<br /><br />Speculation that the deal included tie-ins with international media, including The Oprah Winfrey Show and American 60 Minutes, was also inaccurate, Mr Meakin said.</blockquote><br />:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::<br /><br />Todd Russell and Brant Webb emerged without a scratch (figuratively of course) and with millions on the horizon. Don't you love that these guys are probably better off after being trapped in a mine for 2 weeks than they were before?<br /><br />Viva Capitalism!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114769523882079239?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1147088378271091592006-05-08T21:25:00.000+10:002006-05-08T21:43:36.296+10:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/Non%20Sequitur%20-%20One%20Million.0.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/400/Non%20Sequitur%20-%20One%20Million.0.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/Non%20Sequitur%20-%20A%20Mainstream%20Religion.0.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/400/Non%20Sequitur%20-%20A%20Mainstream%20Religion.0.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/Non%20Sequitur%20-%20Heresy.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/400/Non%20Sequitur%20-%20Heresy.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/400/Non%20Sequitur%20-%20The%20Big%20Bang%20Theory.gif" border="0" /><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/Non%20Sequitur%20-%20Chocolate%20Sinner!.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/400/Non%20Sequitur%20-%20Chocolate%20Sinner%21.gif" border="0" /></a><br />According to Danae...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114708837827109159?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1146931756262991212006-05-07T02:07:00.000+10:002006-05-07T02:09:16.276+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/701/2161/1600/hell_pizza_2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/701/2161/320/hell_pizza_2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114693175626299121?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1146388050120165672006-04-30T19:05:00.000+10:002006-04-30T19:10:31.236+10:00By Adam Morton<br />April 29, 2006<br /><br /><blockquote><p>INTERNATIONAL university students are launching an equal opportunity claim against the State Government, arguing rules banning them from travel concession fares are racially discriminatory.<br /></p><p>The complaint to Equal Opportunity Commission Victoria will claim foreigners who use public transport pay hundreds of dollars more each year than their domestic classmates due to race.<br /></p><p>Campaign spokesman Pradeep Subramaniam said the complaint could lead to Victoria's overseas student population — more than 50,000 last year — taking separate legal action against the state if it was not willing to compromise.<br /></p><p>"It's clearly a case of racial discrimination. There's no other basis on which you cannot get concession if you are an undergraduate student," he said.<br /></p><p>A daily inner-city Metcard costs $6.10 at full price or $3.20 with a concession. A monthly pass is $49.10 cheaper with a concession card than without.<br /></p><p>The discrimination complaint, to be lodged next week, comes at a time of growing disquiet in the international student sector.<br /></p><p>Australia's $7.5 billion foreign education market is slowing after years of rapid growth in the face of increased competition from Asia and Europe. Last month 60 overseas students at Central Queensland University's Melbourne campus threatened to go on hunger strike, accusing the university of milking them for upfront fees by examining and failing them on material they were never taught. </p><p>About 100 international students from different universities yesterday marched through the city before protesting outside Parliament.<br /></p><p><strong>They were inspired by a NSW tribunal last month finding similar travel concession rules in that state breached anti-discrimination laws.</strong> NSW and Victoria are the only states that require international students to pay full fare on trains, trams and buses. Victoria also bars postgraduate and part-time students from concessions.<br /></p><p>Song Yee Ng, of the National Liaison Committee for International Students, said the fight for equality for foreign students had only just begun. "Even the state governments treat us like cash cows," she said. </p><p>Transport Minister Peter Batchelor's spokeswoman, Louise Perry, said overseas students qualified for travel concessions if they were refugees, on exchange programs or held Australian development scholarships.<br /></p><p>She said postgraduate and part-time students with low-income health care cards from Centrelink also paid concession rates.<br /></p><p>"The State Government is committed to providing public transport concessions to students who are in genuine need," she said.<br /></p><p>Ms Perry said it was puzzling that students campaigned over comparatively minor transport fares while staying quiet about massive upfront university fees.<br /></p><p>Ms Ng said international students contributed to the economy through GST and payroll tax.<br /></p></blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114638805012016567?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1145936868680540992006-04-25T13:33:00.000+10:002006-04-25T13:55:02.030+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.militarybadges.info/nz-army/images/anzac-cove.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.militarybadges.info/nz-army/images/anzac-cove.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><blockquote>April 24, 2006<br /><br /><p>My grandfather, Charles Williams, served at Gallipoli, and later at the Western Front in France. He first met my grandmother after returning home, while fulfilling a personal pledge to find her family and tell of how her brother, a front-line mate, had died. They were married a year later.</p> <p>A victim of mustard gas, he lived and worked the rest of his life with only one serviceable lung, a condition that, mysteriously, did not prevent him from serving in New Guinea during World War II. He died 60 years after his experience at Gallipoli, in 1975. Only in his final days, drugged with painkillers during the palliative stage of his hospitalisation, did he vividly recount the awfulness of his wartime years with family members, his rambling mind helplessly returning to the nightmarish horrors of his youth. Prior to this period, my grandfather was extremely reticent on the subject of wartime experiences, in spite of the irrepressible curiosity of his grandson. I learned, over time, that it was a subject he did not wish to speak of.</p> <p>It is with him in mind that I appreciate, and fully endorse, the views of Alan Attwood (Opinion, 22/4) regarding the proper respect for Anzac Day services. Few of us now living, if any, can truly understand what it must have been like for those Australians who landed at Gallipoli in April 1915, or comprehend how sad and painful were the reminiscences of those who survived the senseless chaos of the long months that followed. Few of the multitude of flag-draped "mates" who annually descend upon Gallipoli, realistically, would understand the depth of fellowship engendered between young men constantly living with the threat of imminent death from shellfire or disease.</p> <p>Attwood reminds us all that the original purpose of Anzac Day services was to set aside a time for veterans to gather and reflect upon their shared experiences, in sombre remembrance of their fallen comrades - not a recurring opportunity for "major event" organisers to entertain and awe members of the general public, or to perpetuate some jingoistic celebration of martial glory and national identity by mythologising a military campaign that was, in actuality, an unmitigated disaster for the invading forces, where more died from dysentery than battle wounds.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Many veterans, my grandfather included, did not appreciate the gradual process through which, over time, their fundamentally private stories were co-opted in the service of a blustering, bellicose patriotism, and, most of all, <span style="font-weight: bold;">desired future generations to acknowledge the horror and essential stupidity of war. </span>The great sacrifices their generation made would be <span style="font-weight: bold;">wasted if current and future Australians do not share an abhorrence of war, and forever work more towards its reasonable avoidance rather than its glorification.</span> They would want us to reflect upon the human tragedy that World War I was not, as hoped for at the time, the "war to end all wars" - that young people are still called up as cannon fodder whenever politicians tire of resolving differences through diplomacy or have grandiose visions of national destiny.</span><br /></p> <p>Lest we forget.<br /><strong>Peter Kartsounis, Footscray</strong></p></blockquote> <p><strong><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I think we already have.<br /><br /></span></strong></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114593686868054099?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1145935880067982512006-04-25T13:22:00.000+10:002006-04-25T13:31:20.066+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.inkcinct.com.au/Web/CARTOONS/2005-245C--Gallipoli.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.inkcinct.com.au/Web/CARTOONS/2005-245C--Gallipoli.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />'Cause it did in 2005...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114593588006798251?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1145934912413340872006-04-25T13:10:00.000+10:002006-04-25T13:15:12.426+10:00<blockquote> By <byline>Alan Attwood</byline><br /> <date>April 22, 2006<br /> <br /> </date> <p>In the beginning there was an eerie quiet. Before dawn on April 25, 1915, Australian troops packed into boats rowing towards the murky Gallipoli Peninsula were struck by the oppressive stillness. An engineer wrote later they expected, even hoped for, "all hell to be let loose every second, machine-guns, shrapnel, anything but this nerve-racking silence".</p> <p>The first Anzac Day services, which began within the following decade, made a feature of silence. Many of these events were simple affairs, often open only to veterans; the first official dawn service was conducted at Sydney's Cenotaph in 1927. Services big or small followed a familiar pattern. In the pre-dawn darkness veterans would be ordered to "stand-to". Then came two minutes of silence, broken by a lone bugler.</p> <p>It was simple; effective; replete with symbolism. So why have we allowed ceremonies to mark the nearest thing we have to an Australian national day to become tacky travesties of what they were meant to be? Modern Anzac Day services are in danger of succumbing to the Major Event syndrome, tricked up with scripts and soundtracks and special effects. Early on Tuesday afternoon, for example, ABC TV will telecast the dawn service from Anzac Cove along with a feature, <em>Spirit Of Place</em>, that, according to one program guide, includes "a musical performance and evocative lighting of the cliffs and gullies, set against images of the Gallipoli landing 91 years ago". What, no spouting fish?</p> <p>The good news is that this time, unlike last year, there has been no brouhaha about John Farnham singing (or not) at Gallipoli. The bad news is that the swing towards showbiz spectaculars continues unabated. And, of course, there are the souvenirs. An establishment in the ACT has been advertising a "Sands of Gallipoli" plaque - "antique nickel finish metal plate on a wooden base featuring authentic sand collected from the beaches of Gallipoli". So now we know what all those trenching tools were for.</p> <p>In recent times, there has been controversy about the impact of roadworks and the swelling tourist tide on the former battlefields. One positive aspect of last year's Farnham fuss was that it raised the question of what was, or wasn't, appropriate on the peninsula - even in a concert separate from the official commemorative service. New Zealand's PM put the kybosh on Whispering Jack but made it clear that her home-grown Finn brothers would also not be appropriate.</p> <p>In the flood of letters and talkback calls debating this issue, two struck me as especially poignant. The first recalled a lone pilgrim to the peninsula starting to sing the Eric Bogle song <em>And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda</em> in the pre-dawn silence then, slowly, thousands participating in an improvised, and very moving, singalong. The second, rejecting the Disneyfication of the site, described the impact of "the grim sadness of the place; its silent melancholy".<br /> </p> <p>The place is its own memorial. It doesn't need slick ceremonies. Nine years ahead of the centenary of the Gallipoli landings - an anniversary to send major event planners into a frenzy - is not too early to suggest that perhaps the peninsula should be given the Uluru treatment. Just as climbing the Rock, once practically compulsory for visitors, is now deemed to be disrespectful, so too could the Gallipoli site benefit from more reverence and simplicity, less sound and lights and PA systems. The story is so strong it does not need artificial aids.</p> <p>As for Melbourne's official service at the Shrine, I have wished for years that they would do away with the sepulchral, rather banal commentary that precedes the unseen bugler. The immense power of the occasion comes from the gathering of strangers in the gloom; the flickering light of the flame, surrounded by pensive faces; and, above all, the enveloping darkness and silence that recall the conditions of the original heroic and tragically botched military operation.</p> <p>The day and the way it is remembered has evolved over the past 91 years. The veterans of the first landing have all gone now. Technology has changed everything. No doubt there are computer whizzes around who reckon they could produce a powerful big-screen simulation of the events on Anzac Cove if given half a chance. They should politely be told to keep their memory sticks to themselves. And any major-eventer with plans for massed choirs or Russell Crowe reading some poetry should be reminded that this is a service, not an opening or closing ceremony. Silence can be the most powerful sound; also the hardest to achieve.</p> <p>Early in the afternoon on Anzac Day there will be a call for silence at the MCG. A huge crowd is expected to witness the annual game between Essendon and Collingwood, which, in its way, has become an important part of the ritual of the day. This doesn't strike me as inappropriate - much less so, certainly, than showbiz presentations or souvenir plaques, complete with pilfered sand. After all, those early Anzacs loved a game of cards or cricket or footy. Any diversion would do. Anything to help them forget what followed that first nerve-stretching silence.</p> <p><small>Alan Attwood is a Melbourne writer.<br /></small></p> </blockquote> <p><small></small></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114593491241334087?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1145204274210602622006-04-17T00:40:00.000+10:002006-04-19T23:15:26.713+10:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/Don"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/400/Don%27t%20You%20Dare%20Step%20Over%20This%20Line.jpg" border="0" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114520427421060262?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1145023241479965932006-04-14T23:57:00.000+10:002006-04-15T19:10:38.623+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,1658,5139254,00.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,1658,5139254,00.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />...Cartoonists.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114502324147996593?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1144674759198749232006-04-10T22:55:00.000+10:002006-04-10T23:16:28.133+10:00<h4 style="font-weight: normal;"></h4> <blockquote> <h4 style="font-weight: normal;">By Waleed Aly</h4> <h4 style="font-weight: normal;">April 10, 2006<br /> </h4> <h4 style="font-weight: normal;">TO his supporters, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali is a tireless, selfless, charismatic community worker and scholar who gives hope and guidance to disadvantaged youth, and who bravely risked his life to rescue Australian hostage Douglas Wood from the clutches of terrorists in Iraq. To his opponents, he's the shady imam who doesn't speak English and relied on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a Tsarist forgery, to construct wild anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world through sodomy. When such an enigma is given the grand sounding title of Mufti of Australia, controversy is inevitable.</h4> <p class="encompass"> So there was a monotonous familiarity to speculation surfacing last week of a move by the Muslim Council of NSW to depose him. The council insists this is not its intention and that it supports al-Hilali, but al-Hilali's backers were out in force anyway, placing abusive calls to the council and warning it would be a huge mistake to undermine him. </p> <p>So, the fervour in Sydney is undeniable. But the view from Victoria of this undignified scenery is utterly bemusing. For all the considerable public attention he has attracted over the years, and for all the unshakable support we are told he has in Lakemba, al-Hilali remains of more interest to tabloid columnists than to Victorian Muslims. All the voices in the debate are from Sydney. The arguments in defence of al-Hilali focus on his following in Sydney. Elsewhere, the conversation evokes little more than a giant, collective yawn. </p> <p>The reality is that al-Hilali's controversy has more to do with the murky community politics of south-western Sydney than anything else. That might be fair enough if he was the mufti of Bankstown, but this is being played out on a national stage. Sydney is not yet Australia. It is madness that the rest of the nation's Muslims are involuntarily caught up in this mess. </p> <p>The problem is not so much al-Hilali as it is the office of the Mufti of Australia. Traditionally, the job of a mufti is to be a source of religious guidance to the community on contemporary religious questions. But the reality in Australia, as in all Western countries, is that religious authority is radically decentralised. People tend to find someone local with whom they feel comfortable, or borrow from a range of religious sources to navigate their own path through the spiritual challenges of contemporary life. </p> <p>No wonder so many Muslims are regularly bewildered by descriptions of al-Hilali as the "spiritual leader of Australia's 300,000 Muslims" (as though there is one) or "the nation's most senior Islamic cleric" (as though Islam were a church with a formal hierarchy). In truth, no one in Australia, however brilliant, fits these descriptions. Nor is it possible in a Muslim community as dizzyingly diverse as Australia's. In that context, the idea of a national mufti is utterly meaningless, which is why no other Western country has one. </p> <p>Perhaps unwittingly, al-Hilali's supporters have admitted as much. Take Keysar Trad, who asserted that even if al-Hilali was deposed, this could not "undermine the sheikh's standing in the community". Or al-Hilali himself, who quipped: "A position does not make a man; a man makes a position." The fact is that no one seeks al-Hilali's guidance because he is called the Mufti of Australia. His support base will remain without the title, and his knockers will continue to malign him with it. The only difference it makes is that it falsely projects that Muslims across Australia have a sole religious representative. </p> <p>With the position itself being such a nonsense, it should be abolished.</p></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><p></p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p style="font-style: italic;">Waleed Aly, a Melbourne lawyer, is an executive member of the Islamic Council of Victoria.</p></blockquote><p style="font-style: italic;"><br /></p> <p style="font-style: italic;">This article originally appeared in The Australian.<br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114467475919874923?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1144662396007933242006-04-10T19:20:00.000+10:002006-04-10T23:10:28.560+10:00<em>Excerpts of an article from The Age. The full article discusses in further detail the similarities between the three religions of the book.</em><br /><br /><strong>God of all things</strong><br /><br /><blockquote><p>By Andrew Stephens<br />April 9, 2006 <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/1600/Tombstone.1.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 153px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 316px" height="334" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7256/2161/320/Tombstone.1.jpg" width="178" border="0" /></a><br /><a name="contentSwap1"></a><br />FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, the German philosopher, proclaimed in 1882 that God was dead. If that bold claim were true, we must have missed the funeral, because God has been very busy: the century-plus since Nietzsche has been drenched with war and calamity, yet graced with extraordinary developments in our understanding of the universe. Not to mention epic scientific, technological and social change.<br /><br />[…]<br /><br />While the faithful are being taught their very similar versions of the "one" God, with a hint of the devil thrown in, it is the intrusion of politics — inter-religious and international — that keeps them from harnessing the spiritual power of their united heritage and ethics. It seems unsurprising, then, that Buddhism, the philosophy-based path that has no god but many deities, is one of the fastest growing faiths in the West; and Hinduism, with its pantheon of beautifully coloured gods, no prophet, no founder and no creed, remains the third-biggest religion in the world.<br /><br />[…]<br /><br />With such common ground on God and evil among the major monotheistic religions, surely the tolerant co-existence that exists to a large extent can be furthered, with the same open-minded and searching quality evident in the scientific community, who are also trying to understand our existence?<br /><a name="contentSwap6"></a><br />Christianity, Islam and Judaism — whatever their deep and complex distinctions — each propound one unique God who made the universe. Each believes that the faithful should do God's will and live by certain rules, that a holy way of life should include acts of loving kindness, prayer, study of their holy text, and certain rituals. And each proposes some idea of heaven or an afterlife.<br /><br />Contemporary life is difficult. In less developed nations it is the basic struggle to survive that makes life hard. In developed countries it is the struggle to find and practise basic values under the welter of rampant consumerism, galloping technological change and the incessant pressure of material concerns: acquiring money, possessions, status, beauty. Yet we crave meaning and spiritual happiness. In the West, writes Buddhist Sogyal Rinpoche, <strong>it is important not to get caught in a "shopping mentality" with religion, but to follow one tradition with all your heart yet remain open and respectful to all the other religions</strong>.<br /><br />[…]<br /><br />The dearth of spiritual values we can attribute to our political leaders — honesty, justice, compassion, acceptance — is glaring. Author Mark Juergensmeyer says that when governments start to embrace moral values associated with religion, then a level of mutual interfaith trust and respect is possible between religions.<br /></p><p>Looking beyond dogma to the shared spiritual goals that are the touchstones of religion is something Melbourne theologian and ethicist Rufus Black endorses. He says that <strong>one of the main ways of encouraging mutual tolerance is to move from an age of conversion to an age of conversation</strong>.<br /><br />"The shift that we have to make in our world is to end this attempt to convert each other and to begin much more profoundly with conversations of much deeper mutual understanding. For that to happen we need to address the underlying social, political and economic circumstances that make fundamentalism attractive both in theIslamic and non-Islamic world."<br /><a name="contentSwap7"></a><br />This also involves getting those in the three big religions with a more tolerant vision to speak much more strongly, and for the media to stop "grossly simplifying" the world of religion. "The more subtle, complex ways of talking about God don't get much of an airing."<br /><br />People such as Constant Mews, director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology at Monash University, are working towards interfaith understanding. His own path in Christianity has been influenced by his exposure to Hinduism and Buddhism and today he is running a seminar on how those two faiths inform each other on ideas about the human mind and emotions.<br /><br />More broadly, he says the three big one-God faiths need to go beyond their own narrow focus, <strong>beyond "mere toleration",</strong> and start understanding what each has to say about the oneness of God and their common goals.<br /><br />Indeed, Muhammad Kamal is keen to stress that, for much of history, the three big religions have co-operated harmoniously. "But when you think of religion as a political institution and reduce the kingdom of God into that political institution, then the differences arise.<br /><br />Today, when some people — mainly in the media — focus on the differences rather than similarities, things become difficult. Arabs and Jews lived in Palestine or Israel for a long time peacefully. <strong>Politics created divisions and differences.</strong> The Middle East has been the centre of three major monotheistic religions and the followers of these religions lived for centuries together. In small neighbourhoods, Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together, their children played together."<br /><br />He pauses thoughtfully.<br /></p><p>"People talk about the clash of civilisations but don't realise that we are deeply connected. Those who try to reduce God into a political institution reduce God from the absolute position into a human position. For me, this is the end of God."<br /></p></blockquote><br />:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::<br /><br />Why can't we all just get along?<br /><br />Damned politicians.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114466239600793324?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1144390741569547092006-04-07T16:13:00.000+10:002006-04-07T16:19:01.573+10:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/04/07/0407judas1_wideweb__470x336,0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/04/07/0407judas1_wideweb__470x336,0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div class="articleDetails"></div> <blockquote> <div class="articleDetails"> By <byline>Linda Morris</byline><br /><date>April 7, 2006 - 8:08AM</date><br /> </div> <!--articleDetails--> <bod> </bod> <p>A 1700-year-old papyrus manuscript suggests history has misjudged the greatest villain of Christianity: Judas was under orders when he betrayed Jesus.</p> <p>The only known surviving copy of the lost gospel of Judas portrays the treacherous disciple as a loyal deputy acting at the behest of his leader.</p> <p>In fact, Judas sold Jesus out as an act of obedience not treachery, thereby fulfilling his theological destiny. Key passages from the third or fourth century Coptic manuscript were released by its publisher, the National Geographic Society, last night, a week before Easter, the holiest time of the Christian calendar.</p> <p>The society, which is rumoured to have purchased publishing rights for more than $1 million, plans magazine articles, television specials and book deals amid concerns about the ethics of ancient acquisitions.</p> <p>The society's panel of scholars has submitted the document to radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and spectral imaging and has declared it authentic.</p> <p>The gospel of Judas is believed to be the work of gnostic Christians, a stream of Christian thinking declared heretical by early church fathers. It is a companion text to ancient scriptures unearthed in 1945, which have formed the basis of some assertions in Dan Brown's controversial bestseller <em>The Da Vinci Code</em>.</p> <p>Australian biblical scholars said the document would be likely to provide a window on early Christianity, but did not threaten Christian teachings because while it was old, it did not date to the time of the Bible's Gospels.</p> <p>"The text bears witness that to some people Judas was a misunderstood character," said Dr Malcolm Choat, a specialist in early Christianity at Macquarie University. "It fills in the picture but it doesn't make the picture."</p> <p>But the Coptic Orthodox Church dismissed the document as "non-Christian babbling resulting from a group of people trying to create a false 'amalgam' between the Greek mythology and Far East religions with Christianity They were written by a group of people who were aliens to the main Christian stream of the early Christianity," the church's theological leader, Metropolitan Bishoy, said.</p> <p>"These texts are neither reliable nor accurate Christian texts, as they are historically and logically alien to the main Christian thinking and philosophy of the early and present Christians."</p> <p>The Judas gospel is a third or fourth century Coptic manuscript discovered in the desert near El Minya, Egypt, in the 1970s. It was sold to a dealer in illicit antiquities and languished in a safe deposit box in the US before falling into the hands of a Swiss foundation.</p> <p>The Bible says Judas betrayed Jesus to the Romans for a purse of 30 pieces of silver in the Garden of Gethsemane. He later hung himself.</p> <p>According to limited extracts of the gospel of Judas offered to the Herald, Jesus explains Judas his role in the crucifixion: "You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."</p> <p>In other key passages released to the public, Jesus confides: "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal."</p> <p>For his role Judas would be despised by the other disciples: "You will be cursed by the other generations and you will come to rule them." The gospel ends: "They [the arresting party] approached Judas and said to him. 'What are you doing? You are Jesus's disciple'. Judas answered them as they wished. And he received some money and handed over to him.</p> <p>As well as the gospel of Judas, the newly discovered 66-page document also contained a text titled James, a letter of Peter to Philip, and a fragment of a fourth text scholars are provisionally calling Book of Allogenes.</p> </blockquote> <p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114439074156954709?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1144389647417938082006-04-07T15:51:00.000+10:002006-04-07T16:00:47.446+10:00By <byline>Michael Gawenda</byline><br /><date>April 3, 2006<br /><br /></date> <p>THE great Israeli writer Amos Oz once wrote that while knowing history is probably a good thing, knowing too much is a form of tyranny. In the bitter conflict between Jews and Arabs, each side has known too much of its own history and nothing of the history of the other. This must mean that the national narrative of each side must be seriously flawed. Indeed, what it means in this conflict is that each side denies almost totally the historic narrative of the other.</p> <p>This is not an original insight, which is not surprising given that the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians has been subjected to more analysis and scrutiny than perhaps any other conflict in the past century.</p> <p>It is a conflict burdened by too many insights, too many opinions, too many facts. Around 400 extra journalists came to Israel to cover last week's elections, joining close to 600 Jerusalem-based reporters who regularly report on the Middle East for newspapers and television around the world. That's a lot of journalists in a country the size of a half a dozen Melbourne outer suburbs.</p> <p>It would be fair to say that a significant proportion of us journalists who flew into Jerusalem in the past week or so did not come with the burden of too much history weighing heavily on our shoulders. This is not meant as a criticism. We journalists are not historians but rather imperfect and often bewildered people trying to do the impossible: make sense of a conflict that is suffused with great passion and great hatred. And bitterly disputed competing historic narratives.</p> <p>The best journalists acknowledge their limitations and, where possible, make explicit their prejudices. This means making as clear as possible the paradigm through which they are reporting the conflict. The best journalists resist the enormous pressure on them in a world of media fragmentation and fierce competition to be bold and to "know what's happening". The best journalists admit to doubt and at times, total bewilderment. They tread warily.</p> <p>It is hard to tread warily in a world of 24-hour cable news services. One day in Ramallah, an American cable network crew did a two-minute report from the Palestinian Legislative Council building to which their "fixer" had brought them and where he had lined up a couple of Hamas spokesmen.</p> <p>Not all journalists who report from the West Bank or Gaza use fixers, mostly Arab Israelis who know their way around, have contacts in the various Palestinian factions and can line up people for interviews. But most visiting journalists, especially TV reporters — and a fair number of Jerusalem-based correspondents — use fixers.<br /></p> <p>It is impossible to say just how much this affects the reporting of the Palestinians, but that it does have an effect is beyond doubt. Given the language barriers and the chaos and tension of occupation, the feuding militias and the presence of armed gangs, it is inevitable that the fixer will, to a greater or less extent, be our eyes and ears.</p> <p>Having met the spokesmen, the cameras rolled and the journalist asked a question: what would be your preferred outcome in the Israeli elections? This is not a terrible question, and it is certainly nowhere near as silly, for instance, as asking a Palestinian who has been stuck at a military checkpoint for hours because of a security alert, how he or she feels.</p> <p>But it is a question that will inevitably elicit a predictable response and that will allow the journalist to state on camera, with some authority, that the new Hamas Government has no interest in the election outcome, a bold statement, the boldness of which is simply not justified.</p> <p>Amos Oz, who helped found the Peace Now movement in 1977, also once said that the tragedy of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is that it involves two peoples with equally valid national aspirations, which is another way of saying that each of their historical narratives have moral and ethical force.</p> <p>When it comes to reporting this conflict, not only do a lot of journalists know little about these narratives, but for obvious and non-malign reasons, they quickly conclude that the Palestinian story, whatever the history, is one that has led them to great suffering and dispossession, which means the Israeli story must be about conquest and occupation of stolen land.</p> <p>The paradigm is one of victims and victimisers, helpless and hopeless Palestinians on the one hand and brutal occupiers and oppressors on the other. One narrative is true and tragic and one narrative is false, an example of the colonialist's lies and propaganda.</p> <p>One result of seeing the conflict through this paradigm is that by reducing Palestinians to victims, their leaders are reduced to victims as well and are excused from taking any responsibility for their political failings, for the corruption that they encouraged and from which they personally benefited, from taking responsibility for the opportunities they passed up to improve the lives of their long-suffering people and perhaps even give the Palestinians the state that is so clearly their right.</p> <p>Why is it that for all the hundreds of journalists covering the conflict, there was no great attempt to expose the massive corruption of Fatah under Yasser Arafat, which most journalists knew about and which led to the squandering of billions of aid dollars that could have been spent, should have been spent, to give the Palestinians an economic future?</p> <p>The answer seems obvious.</p> <p><em>United States correspondent Michael Gawenda is in Israel to report on the election.</em></p> <!-- PRINT SPONSORSHIP <img src="http://fdimages.fairfax.com.au/crtvs/printout_sponsor-hp.gif" height="60" width="400" id="printout-sponsor" /> //PRINT SPONSORSHIP --><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114438964741793808?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1143461025490350132006-03-27T23:02:00.000+11:002006-03-27T23:03:45.503+11:00We've really been neglecting this blog...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114346102549035013?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1141905410108226332006-03-09T22:51:00.000+11:002006-03-09T23:01:15.893+11:00Iway ustjay iscoveredday igpay atinlay andway I’mway ovinglay itway! Isthay isway omewhatsay ofway away eaninglessmay ostpay, utbay incesay I'veway othingnay etterbay otay oday ithway ymay imetay, erehay eway areway. It’sway away ameshay Iway onlyway oundfay outway aboutway isthay ownay…osay anymay earsyay ofway ildhoodchay astedway.<br /><br />Otay anslatetray ethay uoteqay eviouslypray ostedpay by Alevway:<br /><br />Ustjay arkday isway ethay absenceway ofway ightlay,<br />Andway oldcay isway ethay absenceway ofway armthway,<br />Evilway isway ethay absenceway ofway Odgay.<br /><br />Isthay isway unfay! Utbay I’llway opstay ownay, ecausebay I’veway othingnay eftlay otay aysay.<br /><br />Eerschay!!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114190541010822633?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1141741093478408222006-03-08T01:13:00.000+11:002006-03-08T22:23:35.286+11:00<div align="center"><u>By John Donne (1572-1631)</u></div><div align="center"><u></u></div><div align="center"><u></u></div><div align="center"><u></u></div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center">Death be not proud, though some have called thee<br />Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so<br />For, those, whom thou thinkst, thou doth overthrow<br />Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me<br />From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures be<br />Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow<br />And soonest our best men with thee do go<br />Rest of their bones, their souls deliveree<br />Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, Kings and desperate men<br />And dost with poison, war and sickness dwell<br />And poppy, or charms, can make us sleep as well<br />And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then;<br />One short sleep past, we wake eternally<br />And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die. </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="left"><em>"A writer can do with words what Jimi Hendrix does with a guitar." </em></div><div align="right"><em>- Michael Cunningham, author of "The Hours"</em></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114174109347840822?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Joeynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1141710925514064182006-03-07T16:53:00.000+11:002006-03-07T16:55:25.523+11:00Of this quote...<br /><br /><blockquote>Just as dark is the absence of light<br />And cold is the absence of warmth,<br />Evil is the absence of God.<br /></blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-114171092551406418?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1139918668035885672006-02-14T23:03:00.000+11:002006-02-14T23:05:05.140+11:00<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">By John Wright</span><strong style="font-weight: bold;"><small><br /></small></strong><span style="font-weight: bold;">February 14, 2006<br /></span> <p>The US Greeting Card Association estimates that, worldwide, 1 billion valentine cards are sent each year, which means 5 billion of us will miss out.</p> <p>Though historians mention at least two martyred priests in ancient Rome called St Valentine linked to February 14, but the date's first association with love was in 14th century England and France, when it was the day birds traditionally paired off to mate.</p> <p>So, whether you have that special mate today or not, here are my favourite top 10 love quotations:</p> <p><strong>10.</strong> <font><font>There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is, I'll get married again<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Clint Eastwood</span></span></p><font><font> <font><font><font><font><font><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><strong>9.</strong><font> <font>I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.<font><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Woody Allen</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> <font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><strong>8.</strong> <font><font>To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>David Viscott</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> <font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font></span><font></span><font></span></span></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><strong>7.</strong><font> </span><font></span><font>If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Dorothy Parker</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> <font><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font></span><font></span><font></span></span></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><strong>6.</strong><font> I love you the more that I believe you have liked me for my own sake and for nothing else. John Keats</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> <font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font></span><font></span><font></span></span></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><strong>5.</strong> <font>Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.</span><font> Miss Piggy</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> <font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font></span><font></span><font></span></span></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><strong>4.</strong><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><font>It was a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the courtesy to thank her for it. W.C. Fields</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> <font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font></span><font></span><font></span></span></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><strong>3.</strong><font> </span><font>I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it. Groucho Marx</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> <font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font></span><font></span><font></span></span></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><strong>2.</strong><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><font>Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Charlie Brown</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> <font><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font></span><font></span><font></span></span></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><strong>1.</strong><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><font>Always get married early in the morning. That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day. Mickey Rooney</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></blockquote><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span><font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113991866803588567?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1139542152295038812006-02-10T14:14:00.000+11:002006-02-16T22:00:27.243+11:00<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">By </span><byline style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">Malcolm Fraser<br /></byline><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">February 10, 2006<br /></span><date style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms"></date><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">In 1997, there was an exhibition of photographs by American artist Andres Serrano at the National Gallery of Victoria. Many regarded the exhibition as offensive to Christ. Churches and others objected. The Catholic Church sought a court injunction. The objections were strong. A youngster eventually damaged Piss Christ with a hammer, violence was involved. The exhibition was closed.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">That was our reaction to an exhibition that many people regarded as offensive to their religion. The reactions to the Danish cartoons have clearly been much more widespread and violent, that must be condemned. But those cartoons were published in a highly charged political atmosphere.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">We have a right to free speech and expression but that right is in some instances circumscribed by law. The worst excesses are covered by defamation laws or laws relating to racial or religious vilification. These set the bar very high and most of us understand that if we wish to live in a civil society where there are broadly harmonious relationships between different groups, races and religions, we must exercise that right with common sense and, hopefully, with a degree of wisdom.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">Today we know that Islamic fundamentalists, who won't be changed by logical argument, will use any excuse to stir their supporters to encourage the view that Christian nations vilify and degrade Muslims. Thus the fundamentalists gain new recruits. If terrorism is to be overcome we need to make it much harder for the fundamentalists to use arguments, however superficial, that attract potential suicide bombers.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">Unfortunately, in the years since 9/11, the United States and its closest allies have done many things which make it easier for the fundamentalists to attract recruits. The war against Afghanistan was supported, but not the war against Iraq. Iraq had not housed al-Qaeda, it didn't have weapons of mass destruction, it was a secular regime. Saddam Hussein was a terrible dictator but so are a number of others, some of whom at times have been called "ally" by the US.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">If the resources poured into that war had gone to fight terrorism and extremism, while maintaining a broad-based, international coalition, terrorism would have been significantly blunted, maybe overcome.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">But America wanted an emphatic demonstration of American power.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">Insurgents in Iraq have all been regarded as terrorists, even though it appears a majority are Iraqi.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">The arguments about weapons of mass destruction were false. The decision to go to war was made months before American people were told. Hans Blix was never going to be allowed to finish his report. It would have taken away the main reason for the war. These actions and the falsehoods that accompanied them fractured worldwide support and sympathy for the US.<br /></p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">There is a perception also in the Middle East that the US, in particular, is prejudiced in favour of Israel. This may or may not be true but, while that perception exists, it becomes a reality that infects the politics of the region.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">The US has promoted democracy in many parts of the world. In Egypt this has given a platform for extremists. In Iraq it has brought a Shiite regime to power, with close links to Iran. In Palestinian territories, Hamas has won. The United States and others have said they cannot talk to Hamas. Islamic countries are now saying democracy is all right for America if it gives the result America wants.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">It would have been possible to say to Hamas: if there is to be peace between Israel and Palestine, your policies are going to have to change but you have been democratically elected and we will talk to you and judge you on your actions from the day of your election.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">That would not have violated Western principles. For Islamic countries, all this demonstrates a double standard.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">We said we believe in the rule of law, in due process, in the principles of liberty. What about people in Guantanamo Bay, designed specifically to deny access to the law. What about Abu Ghraib? What about the Torture Papers, published by New York University's Centre on Law and Security, which demonstrates that the highest authorities in the US were seeking to find ways in which invasive questioning of detainees could be undertaken with impunity. What about the military tribunals that, from their nature, cannot provide justice?</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">The British Government has condemned these tribunals. The Australian Government has been prepared to condemn David Hicks, whether innocent or guilty, and renounce its own citizen.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">America pursues the rendition program. Individuals are captured, taken from the streets, from America, perhaps South Asia or parts of Europe, flown to a country that will allow questioning under torture.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">Our leaders talk of the principles of freedom and democracy and of liberty. But Islamic fundamentalists can point to example after example where Western governments have failed to apply those standards to their own actions.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">The great failure, even sin, of the coalition of the willing is the belief that we in the West cannot fight terrorism and adhere to our own principles. Even in Australia, many of these principles have been abrogated. The onus of truth has been reversed, due process abolished and there are provisions that allow the detention in secret of people the authorities know to be innocent of any crime.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">Our leaders believe we must adopt tactics and practices too often used by our opponents if we are to beat them. Their faith in democracy is shallow and inadequate.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms">Terrorism will only be overcome if we adhere to our own principles and destroy the arguments that the extremists can use so ably to attract new recruits.</p><p style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms"><em>Malcolm Fraser was prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983. This article was originally published in <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/">The Age</a>.<br /></em></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113954215229503881?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1138781965903776682006-02-01T18:33:00.000+11:002006-02-01T19:19:29.293+11:00<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">By Waleed Aly</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-style: italic; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The push for change must come from within the Muslim world.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">On occasions such as International Women's Day, which was marked around the world yesterday, the Muslim world never escapes negative attention. Nor should it. As a Muslim who is deeply troubled by the kinds of abuses that women infamously endure in some parts of the Muslim world, i think it would be profoundly immoral to ignore such injustice. It should be unapologetically confronted. Reform is badly needed. </span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">To this end, it is vital that any discourse seeking to initiate change in the Muslim world has some traction among mainstream Muslims. It is otherwise doomed to irrelevance.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">This is where Western discussions in general, and Western secular feminist discourses in particular, hit a mighty roadblock. Even among Muslims seriously committed to gender reform, Western feminism has often presented more of a hindrance than a help.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">In simple terms this is because, to the Muslim ear, feminist discourse smacks of colonial imperialism. It echoes a broader historical polemic between the Muslim world and the West in which Western prescriptions for Muslim reform were often egocentric and hypocritical. Here one would site Lord Cromer, the 19th century British consul-general in Egypt who advocated women's unveiling while simultaneously being president of the men's league for opposing women's suffrage in England.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Alternatively, there was the International Alliance of Women, which left many Eastern feminists disillusioned in 1939 when it appealed for the release of a Czech member held by the Nazis, but refused to do the same for a Palestinian member imprisoned by the British.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Feminism and imperialism seemed to have some kind of undisclosed memorandum of understanding.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">This perceived link with cultural hegemony continues to the present day. Many Muslims agreed with the Western feminist criticisms of the Taliban forcing Afghan women to wear the burqa. Such denial of choice is indeed oppressive, and deserves opposition. But nary a squawk was heard from those same Western voices in opposition to laws in Turkey that denied women the choice o wear head-scares in educational and political institutions. </span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">This leaves many Muslim women wondering whether their feminist sisters only defend a woman’s right to choose when she chooses to renounce Islamic norms, but not when she chooses to adopt them. Being forced to abandon Islamic behaviour does not seem to matter.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The belligerent attitude towards Islam exhibited in particularly by second-wave Western feminists didn’t help. Arguments seeking gender equality by prising Islam’s fingers off social norms and constructing a society on secular foundations were profoundly offensive to many in the Muslim world, where religion is still so central to identity. To attack Islam was not to attack the tool of patriarchal oppressors; it was also to attack the identity of the oppressed. </span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Third-wave feminism has changed this approach radically, but the damage has already been done. Feminism has already become the f-word. Only a few Muslims would dare use it. </span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Unsurprisingly then that any Western attempt at gender reform in the Muslim world meets tremendous suspicion. Feminism – often appallingly stereotyped and misunderstood – is imagined as the West’s Trojan horse, intended for Islam’s destruction. Its mere mention creates a kind of invisible paranoia that captures the resonance of colonialism and imperialism in the collective Muslim mind.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Accordingly, the more Western feminism speaks didactically about Muslim gender reform, the more damage it does to the plight of Muslim women. It becomes easier to dismiss any women’s right discourse as the Western corruption of Muslim societies. I have seen this time and again, where valid objections are derided on this basis and avoided, rather than engaged.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">So what is one concerned by gender injustice in the Muslim world do?</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The solution must be indigenous to the societies seeking change. Perhaps in cognisance of this, Western feminists often support local groups agitating for change. The problem is that the Western activists tend to be enamoured of their own reflection, and often support groups that are hostile to Islam as they are. Such attitudes will always be viewed as foreign and become irrelevant.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The only effective path to reform will locate itself within the dominant cultural paradigm. In the case of the Muslim world, this means collectives that fight for gender justice from within the Islamic framework will stand the best chance of success. Such movements certainly exist throughout the Muslim world, and are sometimes maligned, but because they speak the language of Islam, they cannot be ignored.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">We should not ignore them either. </span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;">Originally appeared in The Age Newspaper March 9, 2005. Waleed Aly is an executive member of the Islamic Council of Victoria.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113878196590377668?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1138775859166039472006-02-01T17:29:00.000+11:002006-02-01T17:37:39.176+11:00<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">By </span><byline style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Mathew Murphy<br /><br /></byline> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">PREMIER Steve Bracks has indicated he is likely to water down his tough new anti-terrorism legislation amid a community outcry that the laws go too far — especially on strip-searching children.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">His comments came as law bodies told a committee yesterday that the legislation unduly trespassed on fundamental rights and freedoms.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Mr Bracks said he was prepared to change part of the legislation that related to strip-searching children as young as 10 by police officers of the opposite sex and without their parent's knowledge. Mr Bracks said it would be clear in the legislation that it would only be conducted under extreme circumstances.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">"(The powers) would be used when there was an imminent terrorist attack happening on our soil, so it can't be anything more dramatic than that," he said. "Some debate is coming now, that's good, and we will account for that debate and if there needs to be some fine-tuning we will do it."</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The Bracks Government has copied NSW legislation that says strip-searches of children aged 10 to 18 would not be conducted by a police officer of the opposite sex or without parental knowledge "unless it is not reasonably practicable in the circumstances".</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Acting Attorney-General John Lenders said the Government would be flexible in responding to concerns.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">"Clearly there are discretionary issues between (strip-searching) someone who's 10 and someone who is 17 years and 364 days, but again we will take this on board," he said.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">He said the Government would look at whether the laws were in line with what was agreed between state and federal governments, "is it the most appropriate response and what are the protections and mechanisms in there".</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Opposition attorney-general spokesman Andrew McIntosh said Mr Bracks had introduced "shonky legislation" into the Parliament that was not consistent with the Commonwealth legislation or what was agreed to by the premiers at the Council Of Australian Governments meeting that thrashed out terrorism issues.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The Law Institute of Victoria told the parliamentary Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee that the powers "go beyond what is required to prevent or protect the community from a terrorist attack".</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Victoria Legal Aid said the bill was a "disproportionate response to the threat of terrorism in Victoria". The Victorian Bar Council argued it was not right to detain a person who had not been charged with a crime.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The legislation will be debated when Parliament resumes next week.</p> <br /> <span style="font-style: italic; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The idiots are finally realising just how stupid parts of the bill are.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113877585916603947?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1138679482083499742006-01-31T14:50:00.000+11:002006-01-31T14:51:22.093+11:00Believe it or not, but for the past few days those two, deceptively simple words have been an infinite source of frustration and anger for me. Never have i been so perplexed in trying to understand two words used so casually and so often in everyday speech.<br /><br />Politicians use the phrase all the time. Laws that are passed for the greater good of "<span style="font-style: italic;">the people</span>". The uprising against privatization of the freshwater system in <st1:place><st1:city>Cochabamba</st1:city>, <st1:country-region>Bolivia</st1:country-region></st1:place> carried the chant "<span style="font-style: italic;">the people</span> united will never be defeated". But what did they mean?<br /><br />Are "<span style="font-style: italic;">the people</span>" those who choose to vote, and act within the system? Are "<span style="font-style: italic;">the people</span>" those who elect the government, and are thus considered the majority? Or are "<span style="font-style: italic;">the people</span>", as it was in the case of <st1:city><st1:place>Cochabamba</st1:place></st1:city>, those who are denied their rights?<br /><br />It's neither one. Because whenever i think of "<span style="font-style: italic;">the people</span>", another, more infamous phrase comes to mind - George W. Bush's "<span style="font-style: italic;">Axis of Evil</span>". On the surface they appear to have very little in common. One seems to describe a collective of nations, whilst the other seems to describe a collective of individuals <span style="font-style: italic;">(whoever those individuals may be is beside the point)</span>. Yet, both phrases serve the same purpose: to provide it's user with an escape from having to explain themselves, whether it be their actions or beliefs. They are used to incite fear or halt argument. Simply stating that a nation is part of the "<span style="font-style: italic;">Axis of Evil</span>" seems to be reason enough for a future military offensive. Seditions laws are necessary because it seems “<span style="font-style: italic;">the</span> (Australian) <span style="font-style: italic;">people</span>” are united against terrorism. Or so i’m told.<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">The people</span>" is a brand name. It's used as a short-cut. It's an easy way out for those who can’t be bothered or have nothing to say. It’s meaningless. Irrelevant. Imaginary.<br /><br />And which two words would i replace "<span style="font-style: italic;">the people</span>" with?<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">Absolute Bullshit</span>". : )<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113867948208349974?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1138589484554131732006-01-30T13:44:00.000+11:002006-01-30T13:51:24.566+11:00<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;"> By </span><byline style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Kate Bean</span><br /></byline> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">THERE is a sense of the surreal from working in Alice Springs observing indigenous communities and their living conditions. As <i>The Age</i> has reported recently, some of the conditions are as bad as anything you will find in Asia's worst slums.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">I have worked for aid agencies both in Australia and overseas for many years and know the slums of Mumbai, Jakarta, Delhi and Lahore.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Here, like there, there is grinding poverty, frustration and helplessness that leaves you with an overwhelming sadness at the way in which people are surviving. Alcohol, violence, racism and all the usual factors present in developing countries also exist here. The real shock is that this is not somebody else's country I am working in or somebody else's community. This is my country and these are my people.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">While working in a refugee camp in Peshawar on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, I held children whose starving bodies were like fragile twigs inside a fine skin casing. Here in Alice Springs, I have held children and babies severely undernourished and covered with scabies.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">But only to describe this is to continue to perpetuate the same incomplete snapshot of indigenous communities. I have had the privilege to meet and learn from a diverse range of committed, passionate and well-informed individuals in Alice Springs. These have included Aboriginal women from remote communities in town to discuss developing health sessions in the bush and Aboriginal clients who use our services and are incredibly generous in sharing their stories with me and gently reconstructing my down-south perspective.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">We have worked very positively with indigenous communities and organisations on projects identified by the communities as priorities. These have included developing a health training model for Aboriginal health workers and an Aboriginal women's clinic.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The Government's latest response to the problem of Aboriginal disadvantage is Shared Responsibility Agreements — under which communities are required to meet corporate-style performance standards in return for assistance. They are not the answer. At best, they present some kind of transparent attempt to reconstruct the community development model, but power remains with the Government. At worst, they not only hold communities to ransom over basic health and social issues but also, more importantly, blame the victim when key performance indicators are not met. If the agreed objective of the Shared Responsibility Agreement is not met, it is deemed to have failed. In the community development model, there is opportunity to re-evaluate and be more strategic in project planning with communities.<br /></p> Shared Responsibility Agreements remain tainted with a colonialist attitude and continue the patronising of marginalised and disempowered communities in a way that would not be tolerated in a non-indigenous community. <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">These agreements are not about giving communities the right to determine priorities. They are punitively driven contracts in which lip service is paid to community control.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">There is no quick-fix solution to the problems of indigenous communities. However, I believe the community development model is the only way for us to begin to progress towards becoming one community that truly embraces diversity. It is also the most difficult model to put into operation, given how easy it is for people to simply talk the talk.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">We are all very familiar with the notion of hierarchy, and historically tend to value those with academic qualifications and so-called expertise in any given area. Encouraging people to relinquish this power and embrace a model that inverts the pyramid of traditional hierarchy is often regarded as threatening, both personally and professionally.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">This is what community development is, in essence, about. Managers, team leaders and self-appointed experts form the bottom rung of the pyramid, with the community and representative workers from these communities at the pointy end. This is a challenge for most bureaucrats and health professional experts, but must be embraced if this model is to be successful.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The community development model empowers communities. It embraces devolution and place management, values social capital and mutual respect, rejects traditional hierarchies and is driven by and responsive to community determined priorities and direction, interwoven with the social and cultural norms that make up the discrete social fabric of all indigenous communities.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The model values skills and experience not traditionally recognised in our workforce and emphasises how integral cultural etiquette is to developing strong and meaningful relationships, which truly incorporate trust and mutual respect. Working for harmonious collaboration between the funding body, service provider and community enables enhanced mutual understanding in achieving good governance in project management and outcomes.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The debate about housing conditions in indigenous communities is a graphic example of how unsuccessful the current model has been. Historically, it has been nearly impossible for us to grasp the notion that other communities don't endorse our European lifestyle and values. The indigenous culture embraces family, both immediate and extended, and it is normal for several generations to live together. Whereas we tend to place our elderly in residential care, for their own good these communities value their elderly as an integral part of the family network. I remember discussing this with an Indian man in Himachal Pradesh who told me it was an honour and a privilege to be chosen by his elderly mother as her primary caretaker.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Listening to communities is not rocket science. Community development projects are an accepted and highly successful model all around the world. Aid agencies I have worked with such as Australian Volunteers International and the United Nations Development Program collaborate all the time with communities in developing such projects.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">We need to listen to Aboriginal communities, rather than impose solutions — and accept the process will take much longer than we are all comfortable with.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Developing trust between a community and outsiders takes as long as it takes.<br /><br /></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Kate Bean is regional manager, Family Planning Alice Springs</span><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113858948455413173?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1138502038674988262006-01-29T13:20:00.000+11:002006-01-29T13:36:26.330+11:00"Democracies die behind closed doors"<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal (US)</span><br /><br />"Majority rule only works if you're considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper"<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- Larry Flynt</span><br /><br />"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding"<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- Justice Louis D. Brandeis</span><br /><br />"Bad laws go heavily armed, with masks of gold"<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- Bruce Dawe</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113850203867498826?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1138271485888122982006-01-26T21:20:00.000+11:002006-01-26T21:34:50.203+11:00<script language="JavaScript1.1"> </script> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">By Christopher Bantick<o:p><br /></o:p><br />There can be few images more crass than Australians parading with bobbing corks on their hat brims. It's Australia Day and these jolly swagmen apparitions are set to reappear.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">This is an <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> that exists in the imaginations of romantics given to hum Waltzing Matilda. For Henry Lawson, these up-country chums soon went widdershins in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s crushing isolation. In the company of jumbucks, they went mad with loneliness.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s preoccupation with simplistic national symbols borders on being infantile. The nation's young country status revisited annually on Australia Day in mantras of achievement - chanted by ruddy-faced civic leaders in community breakfasts - is anachronistic and increasingly irrelevant.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">The bush ethos is a haven when uncertainty exists. <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s iconic figures remain outdoors men (women rarely make the cut). They are cricketers, footballers - a race of athletes, no less, as the British Gallipoli correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett described them.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> makes much of its Akubra-wearing mateship tradition. It is touted every year that there is something quintessentially Australian about being a mate. But cobbers in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> are no different from American, English, German or just about any other nationality where companionship is configured through mutual dependence.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Such easily defined national symbols remind us of what we like to believe our antecedents to be and what we like about ourselves. The truth is we are some far distance from the lucky country.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">When A. A. Phillips declared in his famous 1950 Meanjin essay The Cultural Cringe that <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> regarded its literature as inferior to that produced overseas, he hit a national nerve.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Phillips was right for his time. Thankfully, <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> no longer cringes away from its writers and artistic community. This has been replaced by a suspicion of outsiders. The new cringism is to be found behind the fences of border protection.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> is increasingly and worryingly more bellicose and jingoistic about expressing its national identity. This is not just in Aussie green and gold shirts at sporting events. The Cronulla riots reflected much about national contemporary identity that <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> actively encourages.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Where is the difference between a boozed-up sunburnt ocker who drapes himself in an Australian flag at Cronulla and wistful backpackers similarly attired at Anzac Cove?<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">The December Sydney beach riots were an ugly example of mateship gone awfully wrong. The aggressive racial Australianness expressed at Cronulla flows from the same wellspring of national pride heard in the cheering crowds at any international event where <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> is represented.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Even so, the xenophobia that has typified much of Australian history and was the dark undercurrent at Cronulla, is now part, for a significant number of Australians, of what it means to be Australian. This is borne out in the acceptance of mandatory detention and in suspicion displacing charity towards asylum seekers.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Australia Day should be a day - perhaps more so this year with the Cronulla riots in mind - where <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s diversity is celebrated. Multiculturalism is the success story of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. It is what unambiguously defines the nation. But is <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> still the country of the fair go?<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Children these days are growing up in a very different, less open, society than when I grew up in the 1950s. Curiously, even with high postwar levels of Mediterranean migration, there was less need to ostentatiously show what being an Australian meant. Those simple days were measured out with Vegemite on crusts at the school tuckshop and singing the national anthem on Monday mornings.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Back then, there were no wire fences in the desert keeping new arrivals from the rest of Australian society. Never did I think I would have to explain to my young son why people were locked up in camps. Never did I think I'd feel ashamed as an Australian when there was so little that apparently could be done to save Nguyen Tuong Van. Or so utterly shamed that <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> remains for many indigenous people a <st1:place>Third World</st1:place> country where children are born into unspeakable disadvantage.<o:p></o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">The barbecues and festivities on Australia Day need to be put in perspective. Recognising identity is one thing. Rock concerts, parades and legions of flag-wearing, stubby-guzzling mates are the distillation of a culture that cringes from looking beyond irrelevant symbols of itself.<o:p></o:p></p> <br /> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal">Christopher Bantick is a <st1:city><st1:place>Melbourne</st1:place></st1:city> writer.</p> <script language="JavaScript1.1">(navstrpagination) { document.write(navstrpagination); } //--></script><br /> <!-- PRINT SPONSORSHIP <img src="http://not-a-real-namespace/http://not-a-real-namespace/http://fdimages.fairfax.com.au/crtvs/printout_sponsor-hp.gif" height="60" width="400" id="printout-sponsor" /> //PRINT SPONSORSHIP --><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113827148588812298?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1138148700468031282006-01-25T10:27:00.000+11:002006-01-25T11:25:00.513+11:00<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> </span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;;">By Chas Savage<br /><i><br />The latest legislative threat to our freedoms is worthy of contempt.</i><br /><br />Edmund Burke, who declared the tyranny of bad laws, was a deep political thinker and a ferocious polemicist. In 1777, he wrote to the Sheriffs of Bristol that the true danger to freedom was when liberty was nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.<br /><br />We should wish that 1777 is now, and that Burke was writing to our prime minister. Perhaps then John Howard would be less reckless in his pursuit of additional security powers and more concerned about the damage his legislation will do to important traditions of free association, opinion and debate.<br /><br />I declare, therefore, that i write the following with open, seditious intention.<br /><br />The Federal Government proposes to amend the Crimes Act 1914 so as to be able to jail any body of persons, incorporated or unincorporated, which by its constitution or propaganda or otherwise, advocates or encourages the doing of any act having or purporting to have as an object the carrying out of seditious intention.<br /><br />Seditious intention means an intention to bring the sovereign into hatred or contempt; or to urge disaffection against the constitution; the government of the Commonwealth; either house of parliament; to urge another person to attempt, otherwise than by lawful means, to procure a change in any matter established by law in the Commonwealth; and to promote feelings of ill-will or hostility between different groups so as to threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth.<br /><br />Just so it is clear, i urge all Australians to hold the sovereign and her heirs and successors with hatred and contempt. Lecherous, callow, adulterous; inbreed, exclusive and foreign; they remind us that by them, we are made no democratic people. Because they are appointed by bloodline, and because talent, accomplishment and merit enter not into the question of their position and the prominence accorded to them, they exist as proof that the government can be degraded by the powerful in service of their own interests. As such, they deserve our democratic hatred and contempt.<br /><br />I openly urge disaffection with the constitution. Concerned with matters of commerce, and gerrymandered to protect states instead of individuals, the Australian constitution serves a reduced purpose poorly. Under this constitution a High Court can rule that a man, charged with and guilty of no crime, can be locked up indefinitely. Under this constitution, rights are left to the mercy of predators such as Howard and expedient windbags like Beazley. The Australian constitution enables the government to spend without constraint to serve its own political interest. As such, it deserves the disaffection of decent, democratic people.<br /><br />I openly urge disaffection with the Government of the Commonwealth. Its leaders behave with the morality of the gangster. They are shameless in their pursuit of their own self-interest and in the efforts they make to maintain their control on power. They plunder the public purse to benefit their own careers and to maintain their own grip on power. They reward incompetence and cruelty; they themselves behave incompetently and cruelly.<br /><br />Moreover, they work not to strengthen democratic practice but to strangle it. The good health of a democracy depends on the engagement of informed citizens. In turn, a citizenry is made informed by public debate, between parties of opposing views. John Stuart Mill, who once was precious to the Liberal Party, made it clear that diversity of opinion was not an evil, but a good. This gang, however, chooses to debate laws bearing on matters of our freedom behind closed doors, and then ambush a compliant parliament.<br /><br />I openly urge disaffection with both houses of the Parliament. They have become an imperial court, tending to their own affairs before and above all else. Indifferent to matters of good policy, they are focused on the gaining and distribution of positions of power. Houses of Parliament? - our democratic houses are now foul, muddy and stinking - no better than sties. Our Parliament also deserves the disaffection of decent, democratic people.<br /><br />I have read the proposed anti-terrorist bill and see reference is made to sayings and acts done in good faith. I make as clear as possible, in terms as unambiguous as possible, that in urging disaffection - and hatred and contempt - i am motivated by no sense of good faith whatsoever.<br /><br />Instead, i am prompted by a sense of malice and ill-will and seek to create a maximum level of public discontent, disorder and disturbance.<br /><br />Because i don't want to see liberty nibbled at, i urge an association of Australian men and women to act mightily, with seditious intention, against the sovereign and against the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia.<br /><br /><i><br />Chas Savage is a </i></span><st1:city><st1:place><i><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;;">Canberra</span></i></st1:place></st1:City><i><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;;"> writer and outlaw. This article appeared in The Age late last year. Since then, the proposed anti-terror bill has passed through parliament and become law. </span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;;"><br /><br /> <!--[endif]--></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113814870046803128?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1138076120528874492006-01-24T14:11:00.000+11:002006-01-24T15:18:52.340+11:00<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">By Maher Mughrabi</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />How not to let facts get in the way of a good religious stereotype. </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />It's really amazing how much easier it has become to understand the myriad political situations between Morocco and Indonesia, or Nigeria and Chechnya since September 11, 2001. Gone are the tiresome days of having to study each country and its historical and social circumstances, its language and thought, before you can write about it. You just whip out your Handy Islam Template and presto: everything falls into place.</span><br /><br /> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">If young women are being genitally mutilated in Africa, your template can help you understand it without any need to talk about tribal practices that existed in Africa before Islam arrived; if young people are blowing themselves and others to bits in Israel, you can talk about Islam's "culture of death" without having to figure out what it means when Sri Lankan Tamils, hardly any of whom are Muslim, adopt the same terrorist method.<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> But the usefulness of your Handy Islam Template (or HIT for short) doesn't end there. You can use it to make sense of your civilised Western surroundings too. Once upon a time you might have bored your readers by examining the tendency of first-generation migrants to concentrate in certain neighbourhoods, how governments responded, and what that meant for their children and their integration.</span> <br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> But now, thanks to your HIT, you can titillate your audience with totally new and hair-raising scenarios: when Muslims migrate, they don't do so to escape political persecution or find ecomonic opportunity like migrants of other cultures. What an outdated notion. In fact they re sent by underground leaders to overthrow Western civilisation and wreak revenge on behalf of the Moors. They live close to one another so that they can plan their jihad without being disturbed, and the women wear burqas to hide the secret weapon. What is the secret weapon? No one knows - it's secret. But as Donald Rumsfeld so sagely said, the absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> (An important reminder: when using your HIT, make sure you drop in some of those exotic Arabic words. No, you don't actually have to speak Arabic. Your HIT is designed for convenience and easy use.)</span> <br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> Which brings us to the rioting in Paris over the past fortnight. Two kid trying to avoid police end up getting themselves killed? In the bad old days you might have been tempted to compare this with the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King verdict, or even what happened in Redfern last year.<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> With your Handy Islam Template you can actually trace rioting like this right back to the Middle East, without having to wonder about the fact that many young French Arabs dress like American rappers and idolise the guns, drugs and scantily clad women of hip-hop culture. Forget all that urban guerilla warfare you might have read about in French history (the reason Baron Hausmann made the boulevards of Paris so wide in the 19th century was to stop the mob barricading them) and get your HIT out.</span> <br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> After taking a potshot at French multiculturalism (whatever that is), you don't have to identify a single reliable source that claims this is a religious rising. You just have to hint at shadowy Islamic radicals and chuck in the word "intifada". After all, that was what the intifada was, right? Just a big riot (that's certainly what it looked like on TV) run by mad mullahs under the bed. If someone asks you whether there was a "failed Israeli experiment with multiculturalism" in the Gaza Strip, or what kind of police they had in Nablus in 1987, then you know for certain that this person doesn't own a HIT.</span><br /><br /> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">One more lucky customer.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;">Maher Mughrabi is a staff writer at The Age, where this article first appeared in November 17 2005<br /><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21372863-113807612052887449?l=freakazoidtimes.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Alevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04709391810893952223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21372863.post-1138010161248433952006-01-23T19:57:00.001+11:002006-01-25T11:56:15.006+11:00<div style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br />By David Campell<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Surely even a child can understand the difference between good and evil.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dad...what's a terrorist?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Well, according to the Oxford dictionary a terrorist is "a person who uses violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims". Which means that terrorists are very bad men and women who frighten ordinary people like us, and sometimes even kill them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why do they kill them?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Because they hate them or their country. It's hard to explain...it's just the way things are. For many different reasons a lot of people in our world are full of hate.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Like the ones in Iraq who are capturing people and saying that they'll kill them if all the soldiers don't leave?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Exactly! That's an evil thing called "blackmail". Those innocent people are hostages, and the terrorists are saying that if governments don't do what they want the hostages will be killed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So it was blackmail when we said we'd attack Iraq and kill innocent people unless they told us where all their weapons were?</span><br />No! Well...yes, I suppose. In a way. But that was an "ultimatum"...call it "good blackmail".<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Good blackmail? What's that?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />That's when it's done for good reasons. Those weapons were very dangerous and could have hurt a lot of people all over the world. It was very important to find them and destroy them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">But Dad...there weren't any weapons.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />True. We know that now. But we didn't at the time. We thought there were.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So was killing all those innocent people in Iraq a mistake?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />No. It was a tragedy, but we also saved a lot of lives. You see, we had to stop a very cruel man called Saddam Hussein from killing a great many ordinary Iraqi people. Saddam Hussein stayed in power by giving orders that meant thousands of people died or were horribly injured. Mothers and fathers. Even children.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Like that boy I saw on TV? The one who had his arms blown off by a bomb?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Yes...just like him.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">But we did that. Does that mean our leaders are terrorists?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Good heavens, no! Whatever gave you that idea? That was just an accident. Unfortunately, innocent people get hurt in a war. You can't expect anything else when you drop bombs on cities. Nobody wants it to happen...it's just the way things are.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So in a war only soldiers are supposed to get killed?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Well, soldiers are trained to fight for their country. It's their job, and they're very brave. They know war is dangerous and that they might be killed. As soon as they put on a uniform they became a target.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What uniform do terrorists wear?</span><br />That's just the problem...they don't! We can't tell them apart from the civilians. We don't know who we're fighting. And that's why so many innocent people are getting killed...the terrorists don't follow the rules of war.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">War has rules?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Oh, yes. Soldiers must wear uniforms. And you can't just suddenly attack someone unless they do something first. Then you can defend yourself.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So that's why we attacked Iraq? Because Iraq attacked us first and we were just defending ourselves?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Not exactly. Iraq didn't attack us...but it might have. We decided to get in first. Just in case Iraq used those weapons we were talking about.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The ones they didn't have? So we broke the rules of war?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Technically speaking, yes. But...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So if we broke the rules first, why isn't it OK for those people in Iraq who aren't wearing uniforms to break the rules?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Well, that's different. We were doing the right thing when we broke the rules.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">But Dad...how do we know we were doing the right thing?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Our leaders...Bush and Blair and Howard...they told us it was the right thing. And if they don't know, who does? They say that something had to be done to make Iraq a better place.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Is it a better place?</span><br />I suppose so, but I don't know for sure. Innocent people are still being killed and these kidnappings are terrible things. I feel sorry for the families of those poor hostages, but we simply can't give in to terrorists. We must stand firm.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Would you say that if I was captured by terrorists?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />Uh...yes...no...I mean, it's very difficult.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So you'd let me be killed? Don't you l