Happy Holidays

The idea of a Christmas truce is a meaningful but pointless one. However we live in harder times. The business of killing is so important that pausing for a single day might create an intolerable backlog of the living. So the death machine rumbles on into the new year.

Merry Christmas

New Bike

My new bike, a Merida Matts sport 300 disc

I test-rode a stock frame yesterday, the disc brakes were an absolute dream compared to the v-brakes I'm used to. The bike stops in something like half the distance and slows evenly the whole way and the frame felt generally solid yet quite light. I'm getting a size larger than they had in stock so I'll have to wait till Jan 3 for mine. They'll change the tires to some thinner Continentals, stick on some cow horn bars and change the rear derailleur. That should make it a real goer. If you're in the St Lucia area and you need a bike, you can't go past the Uni Bike Shop.

Weak and cowardly

"When is it my turn to be Reichskanzler? You promised I'd get to have a go! Can I at least drive?"

Jews Jones not to blame: Costello

December 20, 2005 - 12:14PM

Racism in Australia can easily be "whipped up", says Treasurer Peter Costello, but he does not blame the media.

Mr Costello said today gangs of youths had incited racism in Sydney, but said the local media were not responsible for fanning the flames.

"I think racism can be easily whipped up in Australia," Mr Costello said.

"I don't think there's racism on the street, no, I think we're a very accepting country," he told ABC Radio.

Sydney talkback radio personalities, including Macquarie Radio's Alan Jones, have been accused of fuelling racial tensions in the wake of the recent Cronulla riot.

Asked if he thought Jones "went too far", Mr Costello said he did not.

"That's not what I mean by whipping up," Mr Costello said.

"I think it can be fanned if gangs of youths come into a neighbourhood and try and take it over. That can fan racism.

SMH

Racism is the fault of the ethnic group being victimised rather than a hate radio station that reads out incitements to violence on air and eggs on criminals. Well done Pete, 300,000 votes will surely flow your way from Alan "wog basher" Jones. Costello's got a yellow streak down his back a mile wide. He can't face up to John Howard so he's taken a break from begging to have a go at being PM to wiggle his hips at Johnny's electorate.

Radio's mad mullah

Why isn't Alan Jones being charged with a crime?

Dear Honourable Senator Coonan

Forgive me if my form of address is incorrect. I write you to enquire as to whether your ministry intends to investigate whether Alan Jones of 2GB violated the Broadcasting act in the course of broadcasting statements as follow:

"Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge. This Sunday every Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to support the Leb and wog bashing day …" in the context of choosing to report an incitement to violence by reading the very incitement verbatim on air.

I hope you take this matter seriously, such irresponsible, and quite possibly illegal behaviour undoubtedly contributed to the appalling violence, destruction of property and breakdown of civil order that took place in Cronulla. We should be sending the message that behaviour like this, from a person with influential access to a large audience regulated by yourself, is not acceptable.

I trust you will at least consider making a statement to assure worried Australians like myself that our nation's airwaves are not the playground of extremists and people who nurture violent, antisocial behaviour.

Warmest Regards

Wanker of the Year

I bring you Gerard Henderson ladies and gentlemen.

Australia is essentially a tolerant and accepting society. It is consistent with the essential Australian empiricism that individuals of ethnic background meet their most sustained opposition in the areas where few of them live. This is in stark contrast to genuinely racist societies where ethnic groups are opposed because they are known.

"I don't like you because you're dark and I've never met a darkie," is different from "I've met darkies before and I don't like them." Only in the nuanced mind of a Howard conservative.

It is unfair to blame the mainstream media for what happened. For example, a re-reading of Sydney's Daily Telegraph indicates that it reported the lead-up to last Sunday's events quite responsibly. Likewise, talkback radio did not spark the violence. Young Australians, of whatever ethnic background, can communicate their messages by mobile phones without using the established media.

Really?

Radio doesn't get much grimmer than Alan Jones' efforts in the days before the Cronulla riot. He was dead keen for a demo at the beach — "a rally, a street march, call it what you will. A community show of force."

He assured his huge audience he "understood" why that famous text message went out and he read it right through again on air. "Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge. This Sunday every Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to support the Leb and wog bashing day …"

Daily he cautioned his listeners not to take the law into their own hands, but he warmed to listeners who had exactly that on their minds.

Last Thursday Charlie rang to suggest all junior footballers in the Shire gather on the beach to support the lifesavers. "Good stuff, good stuff," said Jones.

"I tell you who we want to encourage, Charlie, all the Pacific Island people because, you want to know something, they don't take any nonsense. They are proud to be here — all those Samoans and Fijians. They love being here. And they say, 'Uh huh, uh huh. You step out of line, look out.' And, of course, cowards always run, don't they?"

When John called on Tuesday to bluntly recommend vigilante action — "If the police can't do the job, the next tier is us" — Jones did not dissent. "Yeh. Good on you, John." And when he then offered a maxim his father had picked up during the war — "Shoot one, the rest will run" — the broadcaster roared with laughter. "No, you don't play Queensberry's rules. Good on you, John."

It was horrible stuff, larded with self-congratulation. And pity poor Berta — "not of a Middle Eastern family" — who tried to argue there were two sides to this story. When she reported hearing "really derogatory remarks" aimed at Middle Eastern people on Cronulla beach, Jones cut her off: "Let's not get too carried away, Berta. We don't have Anglo-Saxon kids out there raping women in western Sydney."

SMH

Now where would anyone get that idea Gerard?

It gives me great pleasure to award this beautiful and multipurpose trophy to the hands down winner of 2005. Wank on Gerard, may your lubricant of choice be ever free of sand.

Flaming gasbag

"I can smell smoke, better put on my strong and resolute face..."

How about some moral leadership Kim? Why don't you come out and call a mob of 5000 violent racists exactly what they are? Kim Beazley is a moral and ethical coward. Plain and simple. He is not fit to lead a bridge team, let alone the ALP.

The dead rodent sketch

"5000 people rioting and attacking swarthy individuals isn't racism, nudge nudge, wink wink."

Prime Minister John Howard today refused to call Australians racist following the mob violence in Sydney.

But he said attacking people on their basis of their race was totally unacceptable.

He condemned incidents in which up to 5,000 people descended on North Cronulla Beach, chanting racist slogans and attacking people of Middle Eastern appearance.

The violence sparked apparent reprisal attacks late last night, with cars damaged at Maroubra Beach.

"Mob violence is always sickening," Mr Howard told reporters.

"Attacking people on the basis of their race, their appearance, their ethnicity, is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians irrespective of their own background and their politics," he said.

"I believe yesterday's behaviour was completely unacceptable but I'm not going to put a general tag (of) racism on the Australian community.

"I think it's a term that is flung around sometimes carelessly and I'm simply not going to do so."

SMH

Message understood.

The return of the shredder

As cruel, amoral and heartless as the men who put him there

No, not the one in TMNT. Saddam's people/plastic shredder, remember that? It was one of the 'reasons' given by our sycophant in chief for invading Iraq. Along with WMD, Democracy (TM) and the size of his Little House on the Prairie video collection. So far no shredding machines have been found, no doubt they're hidden right next to the piles of WMD. No operators of such machines have been found either and no people actually involved in places where it would have been used have come forward. It's distinct lack of existence was an embarrassment for the pro war crowd, insofar as they have a capacity for embarrassment at all, which made me quite surprised to see this:

"I swear by God, I walked by a room and ... saw a grinder with blood coming out of it and human hair underneath," Hassan told the court. During the testimony, Barzan, sitting behind Saddam in the dock, interrupted Hassan, shouting: "It's a lie!"

SMH

Make no mistake, Saddam is a criminal who has undoubtedly committed crimes against humanity. He's been a crook since he first seized power with American help. He was a criminal when he met Donald Rumsfeld. He was a criminal when he invaded Iran and used chemical and biological weapons on them and Iraqis which were provided by America and Europe.

The resurgence of the shredding/mincing machine is a symptom of what's wrong with Saddam's entire trial. The Americans want him to appear to get a fair trial, to prevent him becoming a martyr. However there's no way they can give him a fair trial. Take a look at the crime he's charged with. A mass murder in Dujail circa 1982. Why not charge him for using chemical weapons and invading Iran? Why not any of his other crimes? the simple reason is this is the only thing they can pin on him that doesn't involve American or European complicity. That's why it's necessary to make up nonsense about shredding machines when talking about a dictator who had no qualms simply hanging people and forcing their relations to pay to get back their bodies. A man who quite happily and openly tortured, murdered and committed crimes against the peace, he did all these things with the help of his current jailors and they know it.

When I was a kid we wrote letters to the Iraqi government to free political prisoners on behalf of Amnesty international. I knew about Abu Ghraib before American soldiers were in charge of the rape and torture there. We were always told that although our letters didn't do much, they did something and I remember feeling that wasn't justice enough for the innocent men who languished in that and many other prisons.

What sort of justice does Saddam Hussein deserve? I don't know, that should be for a legitimate Iraqi government to decide. I do know that justice is not the wicked punishing the wicked.

From the office of infant soul torture

When I was a kid the idea that unbaptised infants who died would remain in some sort of 'limbo' for all eternity was one of the many things that led me to reject religion as a pastime for the cruel and the cowardly. It seems the Catholic church is set to rewrite that rule to make it sound less like an eternal punishment for the heinous crime of dying an infant. Funny how god's laws can be rewritten at the drop of a hat. I suppose that means god gets a memo to stop torturing the little kiddies who got into limbo prior to the latest corporate policy change. And how about their parents?

"Dear bereaved,

It has come to our attention that you were informed that your child, Johnny, was consigned to suffer for an eternity because you didn't get him baptised quickly enough. Due to a recent change in corporate policy your child died in the hope of eternal salvation as opposed to the the previous policy of damnation between heaven and hell. We regret any distress caused you by the idea of your offspring suffering for ever and ever and ever through no fault of their own. Management has been notified to cease the child's stay in limbo on receipt of your prayers, in triplicate. We thank you for your cooperation in this matter and hope that this unfortunate oversight does not affect your decision to choose Catholicism as your means to communicate with the Almighty.

From the desk of

Panzerfaust I Pontifex Maximus"

Riverside Racist

"Hmmm... edit... find and replace... Asians... with... Muslims... save!"

This evening Sarah and I were headed into the city, it was too rainy to bike so we took the citycat in. As we get on I notice that the door separating the front deck from the midships enclosed cabin is open and rain is blowing in so I get up and shut it. There's a few people milling around but none seem to notice the rain. Just before our stop a slightly shorter than average man in his late forties in jeans and a white t-shirt with thin blue stripes comes up to me and says something like, "I bet they're from up the river [something] live in tents fucking camels." Of course I'm quite astonished and I ask him what on earth he's going on about. He responds, "Camel fuckers, living in tents, it really pisses me off, they should slide the door shut, camel fuckers."

Given the volume of his voice and his projection it slowly dawns on me that he isn't talking to me at all, he's just pretending to. He hasn't responded to anything I say, even though it's along the lines of nod and smile. I look around and see a man sitting on the left of the row of seats in front of me. Mr camel fuckers nudges me conspiratorially and looks at him, opining, "Those camel fuckers live in tents, not like us, eh? We close doors."

He thinks the man is an Arab, even though he looks Pakistani or Indian to me. He's not talking to me at all, I'm a prop in a racist attack. A white racist is including me, a black man, in his subset of humanity in order to hurl racist slurs against someone he thinks is an Arab. Who says multiculturalism doesn't work? He hasn't met the other guy before in his life, the guy had nothing to do with the door being open. Mr camel fuckers just felt like calling an Arab guy some names. By the time I figure this out he's gone out on to the front deck and I'm still sitting in my seat wondering what the hell I should do. I don't know what I could have done really, I don't know if the other guy heard him or anything and I could hit him for calling me names because he wasn't.

I wonder how many people like that are out there, people who feel safe enough in the current environment of government and talkback radio inspired fear and hatred to attack people like that. I'm glad I've started shaving my beard again.

Didn't we used to be slightly better than Saddam?

IRAQ HAS POSSIBLY EMPLOYED PHOSPHOROUS CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST THE KURDISH POPULATION IN AREAS ALONG THE IRAQI-TURKISH-IRANIAN BORDERS. […]

IN LATE FEBRUARY 1991, FOLLOWING THE COALITION FORCES’ OVERWHELMING VICTORY OVER IRAQ, KURDISH REBELS STEPPED UP THEIR STRUGGLE AGAINST IRAQI FORCES IN NORTHERN IRAQ. DURING THE BRUTAL CRACKDOWN THAT FOLLOWED THE KURDISH UPRISING, IRAQI FORCES LOYAL TO PRESIDENT SADDAM ((HUSSEIN)) MAY HAVE POSSIBLY USED WHITE PHOSPHOROUS (WP) CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST KURDISH REBELS AND THE POPULACE IN ERBIL (GEOCOORD:3412N/04401E) (VICINITY OF IRANIAN BORDER) AND DOHUK (GEOCOORD:3652N/04301E) (VICINITY OF IRAQI BORDER) PROVINCES, IRAQ.

In other words, the Pentagon does refer to white phosphorus rounds as chemical weapons — at least if they’re used by our enemies.

Via Think Progress

Rape rooms: Check

Secret Prisons: Check

Widespread torture and intimidation: Check

Chemical weapons used against civillian targets: Check

Rampant corruption: Check

At odds with Iran: Check

At odds with Syria: Check

If it weren't for the increased deaths and total anarchy, Iraqis probably wouldn't be able to tell that Saddam isn't in charge anymore. It seems that the only problem we ever had with the way Saddam ran Iraq was that his name was Saddam Hussein.

Conventional Terror...

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Conventional Terror...

It sat on my PC desktop for five days.

The first day I read about it on the internet, on some site, my heart sank. White phosphorous in Falloojeh. I knew nothing about white phosphorous, of course, and a part of me didn’t want to know the details. I tried downloading the film four times and was almost relieved when I got disconnected all four times.

E. had heard about the film too and one of his friends S. finally brought it by on CD. He and E. shut themselves up in the room with the computer to watch the brief documentary. E. came out half an hour later looking pale- his lips tightened in a straight line, which is the way he looks when he’s pensive... thinking about something he'd rather not discuss.

“Hey- I want to see it too…” I half-heartedly called out after him, as he walked S. to the door.

“It’s on the desktop- but you really don’t want to see it.” E. said.

I avoided the computer for five days because every time I switched it on, the file would catch my eye and call out to me… now plaintively- begging to be watched, now angrily- condemning my indifference.

Except that it was never indifference… it was a sort of dread that sat deep in my stomach, making me feel like I had swallowed a dozen small stones. I didn’t want to see it because I knew it contained the images of the dead civilians I had in my head.

Few Iraqis ever doubted the American use of chemical weapons in Falloojeh. We’ve been hearing the terrifying stories of people burnt to the bone for well over a year now. I just didn’t want it confirmed.

I didn’t want it confirmed because confirming the atrocities that occurred in Falloojeh means verifying how really lost we are as Iraqis under American occupation and how incredibly useless the world is in general- the UN, Kofi Annan, humanitarian organizations, clerics, the Pope, journalists… you name it- we’ve lost faith in it.

I finally worked up enough courage to watch it and it has lived up to my worst fears. Watching it was almost an invasive experience, because I felt like someone had crawled into my mind and brought my nightmares to life. Image after image of men, women and children so burnt and scarred that the only way you could tell the males apart from the females, and the children apart from the adults, was by the clothes they are wearing… the clothes which were eerily intact- like each corpse had been burnt to the bone, and then dressed up lovingly in their everyday attire- the polka dot nightgown with a lace collar… the baby girl in her cotton pajamas- little earrings dangling from little ears.

Some of them look like they died almost peacefully, in their sleep… others look like they suffered a great deal- skin burnt completely black and falling away from scorched bones.

I imagine what it must have been like for some of them. They were probably huddled in their houses- some of them- tens of thousands of them- couldn’t leave the city. They didn’t have transport or they simply didn’t have a place to go. They sat in their homes, hoping that what people said about Americans was actually true- that in spite of their huge machines and endless weapons, they were human too.

And then the rain of bombs would begin… the wooooosh of the missiles as they fell and the sound of the explosion as it hit its target… and no matter how prepared you think you are for that explosion- it always makes you flinch. I imagine their children covering their ears and some of them crying, trying to cover up the mechanical sounds of war with their more human wails. I imagine that as the tanks got closer, and the planes got lower- the fear increased- and parents searched each other’s faces for a solution, for a way out of the horror. Some of them probably decided to wait it out in their homes, and others must have been desperate to get out- fearing the rain of concrete and steel and thinking their chances were better in the open air, than confined in the homes that could at any moment turn into their tombs.

That’s what we were told before the Americans came- it’s safer to be outside of the house during an air strike than it is to be inside of the house. Inside of the house, a missile nearby would turn the windows into millions of little daggers and walls might come crashing down. In the garden, or even the street, you’d only have to worry about shrapnel and debris if the bomb was very close- but what were the chances of that?

That was before 2003… and certainly before Falloojeh.

That was before men, women and children left their homes only to be engulfed in a rain of fire.

Last year I blogged about Falloojeh and said:

“There is talk of the use of cluster bombs and other forbidden weaponry.”

I was immediately attacked with a barrage of emails from Americans telling me I was a liar and that there was no proof and that there was no way Americans would ever do something so appalling! I wonder how those same people justify this now. Are they shocked? Or do they tell themselves that Iraqis aren’t people? Or are they simply in denial?

The Pentagon spokesman recently said:

"It's part of our conventional-weapons inventory and we use it like we use any other conventional weapon,"

This war has redefined ‘conventional’. It has taken atrocity to another level. Everything we learned before has become obsolete. ‘Conventional’ has become synonymous with horrifying. Conventional weapons are those that eat away the skin in a white blaze; conventional interrogation methods are like those practiced in Abu Ghraib and other occupation prisons…

Quite simply… conventional terror.

Baghdad Burning

There are pictures here, if you can bear to look. Pictures of children burned alive or killed by having their lungs oxidised by white phosphorous. WP is not just a harmless illumination round that can kill if a chunk lands on you. It's also used in shells that burst apart to release a fine powder that if breathed will kill you by burning your lungs. If it lands on you it will burn your skin. It's pretty much the same as WWI chlorine/mustard gas. Clearly it's a higly effective round. I know for sure that if someone killed my family like that I'd spend my every waking moment looking for a chance to do the same to them, or their family or maybe even anyone even remotely associated with them, who knows, it'd probably drive me insane. What I wouldn't do is cower meekly in terror.

Thanks John Howard, for forever staining my country with the shame of taking part in this... mass murder. History will judge you and it will not be kind to your precious legacy. God willing, when you finally die, peacefully in your bed after a long and comfortable life no doubt, I will still be able to find your grave and paste 8x10 glossies of your true legacy all over it. It'd be worth being done for sedition.

Y'allah! it ain't like we cut someone's freakin' head off or nuthin!

Iraq plays down claims of abuse

Iraq's interior minister says reports of prisoners being tortured at an Iraqi-run centre have been exaggerated.

Only a few of the 170 detainees at the Jadiriya centre in Baghdad appeared to have been maltreated, Bayan Jabr said.

But he made clear that no abuse would be tolerated. The prisoners, discovered by US forces on Sunday, had reportedly been tortured and were malnourished.

Mr Jabr spoke as the US warned the Baghdad government not to let sectarian militias take over detention centres.

"I reject torture and I will punish those who perform torture," he said.

By torturing them until they reject torture!

The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says that the minister has been politically scarred over the revelations of abuse and went before the press reluctantly.

Mr Jabr acknowledged that several detainees had been mistreated - but despite an investigation now under way, he did not seem to know how many, our correspondent says.

At one point he spoke of five, at another point of seven.

5, 7, 160 like his deputy mentioned the other day, who's counting? You better not be counting Hamid... or else...

'Dangerous'

Mr Jabr also said some of the men found at the Jadiriya centre had been foreign terror suspects, and that he had personally requested they be kept there because they were dangerous.

"These are the most criminal terrorists who were in these cells," he said.

Displaying a unique interpretation of due process

Leaders from Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority have long complained about alleged human rights violations by the Shia-dominated provisional government.

They neglected to point out the irony of the ethnic group that used to run secret torture prisons being tortured in secret prisons run by the group they used to torture, installed by the country that had endorsed the intial group of torturers in the first place. Whew, international relations, it ain't for everyone.

Sunni groups have also demanded an international inquiry into allegations that Shia militias linked to the interior ministry were responsible for the abuse.

In his news conference, Mr Jabr denied that either militiamen or Iranian intelligence operatives had been working at the facility.

He also played down concerns over an impending sectarian crisis, saying that inmates at the centre included both Shias and Sunnis.

Shortly afterwards, the American embassy in Baghdad issued a statement saying US officials had "made it clear to the Iraqi government that there must not be militia or sectarian control or direction of facilities or ministries".

All your prison are belong to us! Seriously, militias? Freelance torture is so 80s, these days you pay professionals to do it, just like the Americans.

Mr Jabr's deputy, Maj Gen Hussein Kamal, had earlier said he wanted to place all of Iraq's internal security services under his ministry's control in order to prevent future cases of abuse.

"We want to gather all security departments under the wing of the Interior Ministry," he said.

Gen Kamal admitted that the Iraqi government had long feared such activities.

"What we were afraid of has happened when some prisoners were subjected to ill-treatment at the hands of the investigators," he said.

"We strongly condemn such illegal acts. All those responsible will be punished whatever their rank."

However, Gen Kamal also said the alleged abuse had been isolated incidents.

All 160, er 7, no 5... 5! of them.

Cash Money, foo...

American Faces Charge of Graft for Work in Iraq

In what is expected to be the first of a series of criminal charges against officials and contractors overseeing the rebuilding of Iraq, an American has been charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to American occupation authorities and their spouses to obtain construction contracts, according to a complaint unsealed late yesterday.

The man, Philip H. Bloom, who controlled three companies that did work in Iraq in the multibillion-dollar reconstruction effort, was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, conspiracy to launder money and interstate transportation of stolen property, all in connection with obtaining up to $3.5 million in reportedly fraudulent contracts.

The complaint, unsealed in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia, also cites two unnamed co-conspirators who worked in the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American administration that governed Iraq when the contracts were awarded in early 2004. These were the officials who, with their spouses, allegedly received the payments.

[...]

The complaint says that in order to obtain lucrative reconstruction contracts, Mr. Bloom paid at least $200,000 a month to an unspecified number of coalition authority officials, including the two co-conspirators and their spouses. Neither co-conspirator is named in the complaint, although it indicates that one is cooperating with the prosecution.

The other co-conspirator, the complaint says, held the position of comptroller and financing officer for "C.P.A. South Central Region in Iraq," which included Hillah. This person controlled $82 million "to be used for payment of contract services rendered in Al Hillah, Iraq, including contracts awarded to Bloom," the complaint asserts.

A United States government official said this person was named Robert J. Stein.

The complaint says the contracts Mr. Bloom obtained "were purported to be for the rebuilding and stabilization of Iraq" in Hillah and Karbala, a holy city in the south. The work included "the renovation of the Karbala Public Library; demolition work related to, and construction of, the Al Hillah Police Academy; the upgrading of security of the Al Hillah Police Academy, and the construction of the Regional Tribal Democracy Center."

With the assistance of the alleged co-conspirators and others, the document says, Mr. Bloom submitted multiple bids on the same contracts, using the names of different companies that were either controlled by Mr. Bloom or did not exist. Once there were sufficient bids to satisfy United States government regulations, the co-conspirators, including Mr. Stein, would ensure that the contract went to one of the companies, the complaint says.

"The value of these contracts ranged up to $498,900," the complaint says. "Co-conspirator 1's approval authority for awarding contracts was limited to contracts less than $500,000."

In an effort to clear things up for potential investors, we would like to present:

Lil Jon's guide to doing business in Iraq.









































"Nope."


























"E-yea-uuhhh!!! Heee-yeeeahhh!! Yeeeah!!!!"



That was Lil Jon's guide to doing business in Iraq.

The Penguin from Hell

Finally got it working

After much downloading and a lot of pain, I've finally got Linux up and running, and connected to the internets, which was no easy feat. Forget about switching over to Linux unless you're prepared to learn entirely too much about how your computer works and willing to invest a fair bit of time getting it going. However if you do, it's not half bad, purty looking, reasonably usable.

My main complaint is the difficulty in finding help. I'm not averse to learning the things i need to but information seems to be hoarded in the Linux community, you have to do a fair bit of googling if you want to find out about something. Other than that, it's great. the distribution I picked, Ubuntu (it's not an ancient "African" word by the way. what is it with white people and an inability to differentiate when talking about Africa, a continent of 800 million people with over 800 languages in 53 nations? Be specific, it's a big place) Anyway Ubuntu is a word in Zulu and Xhosa which translates roughly as an idea of community spirit and mindedness, specifically thinking of the benefit of others. It's an 'ancient' word in the same way that 'hello' is an ancient English greeting. It's a pretty good distribution though.

We Made it!

Oh yes, we did.

First Ghana, now Australia, this is going to be the best World Cup, ever.

We don't Target Muslims

Suspect is 'mentally disturbed'

By Matthew Moore
November 16, 2005

Khaled Sharrouf, 24, was diagnosed as a schizophrenic four years ago and suffers mental illness that would probably have influenced his behaviour in making the alleged remarks, according to the author of one of the reports.

Revelations of Sharrouf's mental state come a day after police released a statement describing how he and seven others they allege were planning terrorist attacks had purchased chemicals that could be used to make bombs and had travelled to properties near Bourke to prepare for their assaults.

Apart from his desire to die in an attack, police allege Sharrouf went to a store in Chullora last month with several other members of the group and was caught trying to steal batteries and six digital timers.

Bomb-maker lucky to be alive - and on bail

By Malcolm Brown and Geesche Jacobsen January 13, 2004

The man who exploded a huge bomb at Doonside is expected to walk free on bail this morning after a magistrate ruled he did not intend to harm anyone and had no motive other than his own gratification in setting off the explosion.

Mark John Avery, a 27-year-old electrician who allegedly detonated the bomb by lighting a sparkler and "running like hell", was lucky not to have killed himself, Blacktown Local Court heard yesterday.

Avery told police he learnt how to make the bomb from the internet and had bought the ingredients from hardware stores, pool shops and agricultural suppliers.

Magistrate Brian Lulham said there was no evidence Avery had an expert knowledge of explosives. "I suppose the worrying aspect of this matter is that any person could acquire these items," he said.

Police ministers are reviewing the way ammonium nitrate, a common fertiliser, is sold.

The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, told ABC television last night governments were looking at a variety of ways to limit unlawful use of such chemicals.

The NSW Police Minister, John Watkins, said he wanted a sensible, quick, nationwide solution that would make the community safer.

"But we have to also take into account the needs of law-abiding farmers, gardeners and even people with swimming pools," he said.

Avery's lack of knowledge of explosives was supported by the fact he had used a sparkler to set off the device. Mr Lulham said: "I don't know how you could get away with it and not kill yourself!"

Avery, who wiped away a tear, nodded. Mr Lulham: "That fact more than any other would cause you not to have any more to do with chemicals, do you understand?"

Avery: "Yes."

The explosion blew a hole two metres deep and five metres wide, and spread bits of the car over 350 metres, smashing it so completely that neither its model nor make could be identified from the wreckage, the court heard.

Yesterday a Queensland man was caught with a real stockpile of actual, homemade explosives. He was released on bail. The admiration of your peers to anyone who can actually find the story, I haven't been able to. Bet you he's not a Muslim.

Thorpey for Queen

VS






















No contest.

Workchoices, Australia says No

'Curtheth! Thwarted again!'

You might have noticed 'workchoices' ads disappearing from their primetime slots lately. The funny thing is that they seem to be replaced with the 'Violence Against Women, Australia says No' ads which are appearing pretty much where the workchoices ads used to. Sarah's bet is that the govt. paid for X amount of broadcasting time and after using $50,000,000+ of it to poison public opinion and turn every man, woman and child in Australia into a labour union supporter, Howard seems to have decided to back off a bit and gnaw away at his problem from a different angle. The public reaction to 50 million public dollars being used to sell them a pile of manure probably helped his decision too. Now it's terror and battered women. You heard it here first.

The question is where to from here? Obviously he hasn't given up on it, watch out for 'substantial changes and consultation' or some other colour of lipstick for the workchoices pig.

Leader of the Free World

“We do not torture. And, therefore, we’re working with Congress to make sure that as we go forward, we make it possible -- more possible to do our job.” - George W Bush, not torturer.

"They made me stand on a box with a robe on my head and arms flat out in the air. They told me they would electrify me. I did not believe them. Then they took two wires and stuck them into my body. I felt like my eyeball was falling out. Then I fell to the ground." - Haj Ali al-qaysi, not tortured by Americans.

"What U.S. forces did to me, Saddam Hussein himself did not do," al-Radi said through a translator. "During Saddam Hussein's time, we used to be tortured. The scars from the torture I received during the previous regime still mark parts of my body. But I was never forced into nudity. There were never any immoral practices during Saddam Hussein's regime." - Saddam Saleh al-Radi, not tortured by Americans.

"Frederick had come once or twice with a group of dogs," Abbas said. "They would tie us to the doors and then unleash the dogs on us. Graner was a disgrace to all civilized and democratic values every day. Graner enjoyed seeing prisoners tortured and tied up in the cells." ...

"Usually when prisoners are brought in, Graner would be present," Abbas said. "First of all, they would be made naked, with their hands behind their backs. Then, they would put the bag over their heads, using shoes to beat them on sensitive parts of their bodies, pushing them against the walls." ...

"He made me put my hand out in the cell bars and would stomp with his boots on this hand." - Haj Ali Shallal Abbas, not tortured by Americans.

"My son was beaten in front of my eyes," al-Hasani said through a translator. "The hood was over his head. And he was dragged on the floor. And he was pushed into the walls."

Her son was released the same day he was beaten, something that was kept from al-Hasani during her whole three months in prison.

Al-Hasani's family ties were twice exploited - by the beating of her son, and while she was being held in the high-security interrogation center near Baghdad International Airport.

"For six days, the hood was not removed from my head," she said. "Neither were my handcuffs taken off. When they pushed a young girl into my cell, she had a hood on. And I thought it was my daughter. But when I removed the hood, it was someone else. I broke down." - Mithaal Sultan al-Hasani, not tortured by Americans.

Business and the Beast

Forget the fact that the sanctions against Iraq were overseen by the US and UK who had a veto on every single thing imported into Iraq and who turned a blind eye to smuggling and sanctions rorting so long as it benefitted their friends. Ignore the widespread suffering they caused in Iraq and how utterly ineffective they were on Saddam.

Isn't it precious that the company that accounted for 14% of all kickbacks to Saddam under the oil for food program is our very own Australian Wheat Board. Of course this probably doesn't account for US companies, but alas, most information concerning them is classified. I wonder why? It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that American companies (the mob that wanted the sanctions) were responsible for 52% of kickbacks to Saddam. Anyway right up until the first Australian bomb fell on Iraq an Australian company, one of our biggest exporters, intimately connected with the government, was greasing Saddam's palm. Even as John Howard hopped around like a Punch & Judy puppet, decrying Saddam as an evil the world had never seen, his friends in the corporate sector were handing out money to Saddam Hussein like Shane Warne in a strip club.

In fact the head of the AWB at the time did such a good job of funnelling baksheesh to Saddam that Alexander Downer, Lord of Baghdad, appointed him to a team meant to 'modernise' Iraqi agriculture, nudge nudge, wink wink. Something tells me that the 'problems' regarding wheat imports into Iraq we had recently were just about who got paid and how much. Obviously we just don't have as much clout as we used to.

Thank me later

Everyone's had this problem, it's a hot day, you want a cold beer so you go get one but 15 minutes later it's hardly ice cold. Let's face it, a stubby holder just won't cut it yet what options does a regular guy have for keeping his bottled beverage chilled? Well, strap yourself in while I show you how to make your own beer cooler out of stuff you've got lying around.

You will need an icepack, I don't know what size it should be, get one that's big enough.




















A container that's almost as tall and twice the diameter of your beverage of choice, having a handle helps too, as you'll see.





















Crush your (frozen) icepack until it's more or less flat then curl it into a 'C' shape and fit it into the outside of your container like so. If you've used a bag of frozen water, you're an idiot and this won't work, crush the ice, shove it in the cup and rest your bottle on top, pulling it out for every swig like a poofy Frenchman with a champagne bottle, poof.

If you've followed my instructions you should have something that looks like this.

Top view, note the 'C' shape and tight fit of the bottle, this is good:



















Side view:




















Grab the handle and enjoy your ice cold beer, the adoration of any nearby women and the envy of your mates.





















Enjoy.




















"You can make a beer cooler? That's sooooo sexy! Take us home now!"

Iran defiant over Israel threats

By Evelyn Leopold
October 30, 2005

The United Nations Security Council has condemned a call by Iran's president to "wipe Israel off the map" and said all UN members should refrain from threatening or using force against another country.

But the condemnation, endorsed by all 15 council members, was delivered in the form of a press statement rather than at a formal council meeting, which would have given it more weight. Algeria, the only Arab council member, objected to the open meeting.

"The members of the Security Council condemn the remarks about Israel attributed to H.E. Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran," said Mihnea Motoc, Romanian ambassador and council president.

"The members of the Security Council support the secretary-general's statement of October 17 noting that under the United Nations Charter, all members have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state," Mr Motoc said.

Unless those threats are made against Iraq.

So what did President Ahmedinejad actually say?

"Once, his eminency Imam [Ruhollah Khomeini] stated that the illegal regime of the Pahlavis must go, and it happened. Then he said the Soviet empire would disappear, and it happened. He also said that this evil man Saddam [Hussein] must be punished, and we see that he is under trial in his country. His eminency also said that the occupation regime of Qods [Jerusalem, or Israel] must be wiped off from the map of the world, and with the help of the Almighty, we shall soon experience a world without America and Zionism, notwithstanding those who doubt."

Hardly friendly, but entirely in keeping with the tone of conversation between Israel and Iran. Prior to this Israel has threatened Iran with a nuclear first strike on numerous occasions without similar widespread condemnation. Israel is a nuclear power which refuses to ratify the NPT or let anyone inspect its arsenal. When Israel threatens Iran it actually does have the ability to 'wipe them off the map'.

Big surprise

$6bn black market in nannies

By Danielle Teutsch
October 30, 2005
The Sun-Herald

Au pair Jana Borchard with Emma Staats and her mother Jackie Orchard.
Photo: Jacky Ghossein

Working parents desperate for affordable child care are hiring au pairs and unregistered nannies, and fuelling a black market worth an estimated $6 billion.

The unregulated nanny industry is being investigated by the House of Representatives standing committee into balancing work and family.

The committee is concerned parents may be using unqualified and inexperienced staff in a bid to cut costs.

Committee chair Bronwyn Bishop has calculated the black market care industry is worth $6 billion.

Families can pay a nanny $15 an hour by finding one through their local paper and negotiating a fee, instead of $20 an hour if they hire through an agency.

An estimated three in four families who hire a nanny do so under the radar of the tax office, said Trish Noakes, director of Just for Kids.

"When employing a nanny privately, many families try and negotiate the lowest wage and pay no superannuation, sick leave, holiday leave or insurance protection," she wrote in a submission to the inquiry.

Mrs Bishop has backed calls for ABN-registered and qualified nannies to be eligible for the 30 per cent child-care rebate, or be tax deductible for families, as a way of making the black market less attractive.

Opposition spokeswoman on child care Tanya Plibersek said the expense and shortage of child-care centre places was to blame for the growth in the black market in nannying and the surge of interest in au pairs.

Couldn't have seen that one coming.

Oh Dear

You scored as The Operative. You are dedicated to your job and very good at what you do. You've done some very bad things, but they had to be done. You don't expect to go to heaven, but that is a sacrifice you've made for a better future for all. The Operative 88% Simon Tam 81% River Tam 81% Capt. Mal Reynolds 75% Zoe Alleyne Washburne 75% Inara Serra 75% Shepherd Derrial Book 75% Hoban 'Wash' Washburne 56% Jayne Cobb 56% Kaylee Frye 56% Which Serenity character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I wasn't expecting that, I mean, I'm hardly amoral, I just acknowledge that reality is cold, hard and unforgiving. And yes, most people are shortsighted, venal and selfish, knowing this isn't always enough to keep onself from succumbing to such weaknesses however. I'm not given to blind faith either but I'm open to new information which sometimes radically changes my opinion on things.

Something I read earlier today has stuck in my mind, it's from a forum I contribute to, written by a gentleman who sometimes pops by here. He said:

Referenda work very well in Swtizerland, but the government structure over there is radically different, based far more around a local council-like structures, so you could argue that the public feel more connected with the decisions they are voting on. They have referenda pretty regularly, less now I think than fifteen years ago.

The two things that wouldn't work for Australia are a) referenda here at least are a seriously expensive business, millions and millions and millions.

b) the public is _incredibly conservative when it comes to referenda. In Australia we have only voted yes on a referendum twice. Once, to federate, and once to give indigenous people a vote. That's it in over a hundred years. Not exactly inspiring, is it?

Would smaller scales - say, state-based change this? I dunno, but I've got strong doubts.

You could also argue that a referendum where the public are voting on an issue they don't really understand (and let's face it, that's a lot; policy is bloody hard stuff, no one understands all of it, or even most I would say), is a form of sham-democracy, because it's an uninformed decision.

patrickgarson

I've struggled with the biggest weakness of democracy for ages and have come to the conclusion that people are stupid sometimes, and there's nothing one can do about it. That just has to be accepted. The only redemption is that sometimes the punishment for making stupid electoral decisions is severe enough to spark political engagement among voters, for a while, and a resulting revival in political ideas and idealistic politicians. However there doesn't seem to be any way to sustain it. What do you think?

Global warming, government snoring

I've always wanted beachfront property...

PM still won't sign Kyoto Protocol

October 27, 2005 - 5:14PM

Prime Minister John Howard is standing firm against signing the Kyoto Protocol despite growing calls for his government to take more action to counter greenhouse gas emission.

At the same time Environment Minister Ian Campbell acknowledged that the debate on climate change is now over, it is real and represents a very serious threat to Australia.

He urged Australians to accept that humans contributed to global warming and should adapt their behaviour to save the planet, calling for a massive injection of new technology, including wind, solar, nuclear power and clean coal.

Former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr, appointed to a key position with a newly-created lobby group, the Climate Institute, has also called on the government to sign the Kyoto agreement.

"The fundamental challenge is to sign Kyoto and to make us a world leader and not a craven follower of the Bush administration on international climate policy," Mr Carr said.

But Mr Howard said the government would be selling out the interests of Australian industry and jobs if it signed the climate change protocol in its current form.

Australia and the United States are the only developed nations to have refused to sign Kyoto.

"The Kyoto Protocol is anti-Australian jobs, particularly in the resource sector, because it imposes burdens on Australian industry and it doesn't impose on like industries in Indonesia and China," he said.

That's a lie, China and Indonesia, being signatories, are subject to the same restrictions as everyone else Australia on the other hand will be locked out of a potentially lucative carbon credit market and emission control technology market. Why are our industries so lazy and slothful that they can't adapt to life under Kyoto like industry in practically every other country on earth?

"I'm amazed that a former Labor premier should advocate that we should sign up to something that would export the jobs of Australian workers."

Senator Campbell said the government had been a world leader on addressing climate change for several years and the Kyoto Protocol was ineffectual.

"Anyone who's looked closely at the problem, as I have, knows very well that Kyoto won't solve the problem," he said.

Yes, sitting around ignoring the problem while making back room deals with your resource industry mates will.

Racism as economic policy

"No Jeanette, you can't take one home to help around the house."

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has turned down the request of Pacific island leaders to let their citizens into Australia as seasonal workers.

Mr Howard has, however, offered to set up a new technical college in the South Pacific with funds from Australia's existing aid budget.

He made the offer at the Pacific Islands Forum retreat yesterday in Madang, Papua New Guinea, where the leaders approved the Pacific Plan, which is designed to establish greater co-operation and integration of struggling Pacific island nations.

He said the college would be located in "one of the more populous South Pacific countries" and would offer Australian trade qualifications in a number of areas including nursing and metalwork.

The qualifications would help young Pacific islanders find work in their own countries, but also in Australia, where there is a skills shortage, Mr Howard said.

Cynthia Banham Foreign Affairs Reporter in Madang, PNG
October 27, 2005

An influx of semi-skilled labour would be quite helpful in keeping our economy ticking over, of course it's not popular with the hard core of racists that both main parties pander to in order to win elections so we'll continue to beg Europeans to come over while wasting our aid by pouring it into corrupt breaucracies. We have jobs that need doing, they have people to do them, while they're here they'll spend some of their earnings here too, as well as sending most home to help their countrymen. And yes, practically all of them will go home, it would be ridiculously easy to ensure this, unless of course this is an admission of how truly incompetent Howard's immigration department is. But then, who wants to be known as the PM who let all the blacks in?

ECON1000

Two-thirds of users addicted to 'ice': report

By Jacqueline Maley, Medical Reporter
October 27, 2005 - 11:55AM

Recreational drug users are turning in droves to the highly addictive form of methamphetamine known as "ice" or "crystal meth", says a new report that provides the most comprehensive snapshot yet into the drug flooding Sydney.

Nearly two-thirds of 310 users of crystal meth interviewed are dependent on the drug, which the report authors say is becoming more socially acceptable.

Since 1999, the market for the more pure forms of ice and base methamphetamine has flourished, according to the study, released today by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

Worryingly, the advent of ice on the market has been associated with smoking the drug, which yields a rapid and intense effect akin to injection, and in turn makes the drug user more susceptible to addiction.

"Young ecstasy users have taken up smoking crystal meth," said Rebecca McKetin, the report's lead author.

"Otherwise, most of them are pretty well adjusted; they are in regular employment with no criminal record ... but they are becoming dependent on the drug."

Social or recreational drug users saw smoking the drug as an acceptable and fairly harmless way of ingesting the drug, Dr McKetin said. But in fact, those who smoked it were three times more likely to be dependent on it than those who snorted it in its less concentrated powder form, often referred to as "speed".

Rates of psychosis among regular meth users were 11 times that of the general population and half the meth users who had experienced psychotic symptoms in the last year felt hostile or aggressive at the time.

It's no surprise. Just like America we've become really good at restricting the supply of drugs like cocaine and heroin, unfortunately the demand is still there and people who want a fix will simply drift to something more available, in this case something that's easy to smuggle either ready made or in precursor form and can be readily manufactured in Australia. Just further proof that the control method of fighting drug abuse isn't working.

But my choices are all the same...

A 'worker's market'

Take the job you're offered, says PM

October 25, 2005 - 12:26PM

Job seekers should take the job they are offered rather than hold out for a better salary, Prime Minister John Howard says.

Mr Howard today defended the impact his workplace changes would have on the unemployed.

The changes would force job seekers to accept a job under an Australian Workplace Agreement even if some conditions such as holiday pay and meal breaks were lost.

Job seekers can alreday have their Centrelink payments docked and suspended for refusing a job based on the conditions offered, but they can often successfully appeal to have them reinstated under an industrial relations environment which is seen as more generous than that being proposed under the changes.

Mr Howard said the practice of docking and suspending job seekers' payments had existed for a long time.

"They don't have that [choice to refuse a job] now," Mr Howard told Radio Easy Mix in Cairns.

"If you don't try and get a job now when you're getting the unemployment benefit you run the risk of some penalty. That's been the case for a long time."

Mr Howard said most Australians would support welfare recipients taking a job that was offered to them.

"I believe most Australians think that if somebody is offered a job and, providing the conditions of that job are reasonable and the minimum pay and conditions standard requires that you get paid at the hourly rate prescribed by the award, requires you get four weeks' annual leave, requires maternity leave, requires sick leave, [then you should take it]," he said.

AAP

Yes but everybody can quote a different situation. I accept that. But the overall reality of the Australian economy now is that we do live very much in a workers' market. The greatest complaint I have from employers at the moment is that they can't get enough good staff. That is the complaint that we have. We've had an ongoing debate in this country about a skills shortage. Why don't a lot of young people go into apprenticeships? The reason is that they can get highly paid unskilled jobs as soon as they leave school. We are living in a situation where it is a workers' market, like never before.

John Howard - 10/10/2005

But, I thought it was a worker's market, doesn't that mean I get to hold out for a better job? Or is 'worker's market' Newspeak for 'workhouse'?

I really wonder how people who voted for John Howard feel. Interest rates are going up, medicare is falling apart, your job security's about to vanish and the economy's flattening partly as a result of your man's disastrous policies in the Middle East which are keeping oil prices high and driving inflation. Honestly, what did you vote for and when are you going to get it?

The Book of Job Excerpt II

'My goodness, it's almost as insubstantial as the real thing!'

Tuesday, 1 June 1999

A Beazley classic in Caucus today. He was waffling on about the sins of the Government's GST package and how there was ample room for the ALP to fix it up. Then Sid Sidebottom, a well intentioned but naive fellow, jumped up and asked, 'How? How are we going to fix it up Kim?' As Gareth would say, it was like farting in church. Beazley stuttered and spluttered for a while before finally replying, 'We don't want to give out too much detail just yet'.
Translation, he has no idea.

At Flinders Street station, where the march ended, federal ALP leader Kim Beazley offered a “rolled gold guarantee” that Labor would oppose the new laws in the parliament, “side by side with the union movement”. But he stopped short of any promise to roll the laws back if elected to government.

He made carefully and vaguely worded promises that a federal ALP government would “not allow any individual contract to undermine any employment conditions” and would “guarantee a fair umpire”, but didn’t promise to abolish AWAs as former leader Mark Latham had.

Beazley said that an ALP government would have an “independent determination of the minimum wage” and “ensure that all Australians feel secure and not at risk of unfair dismissal”. “We will never surrender. We will fight this from Broome to Brisbane”, he assured.

Green Left Weekly, June 30 2005

Not an awful lot's changed over 6 years it seems.

The more things change

Former governor who oversaw destruction of ancient Buddhas is elected to Afghan parliament


By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press
October 18, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan - A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two giant 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign has been elected to parliament, election organizers announced Tuesday as the results from two provinces were finalized.

In the latest fighting, meanwhile, U.S.-led coalition forces killed four police after mistaking them for militants during an operation in southern Afghanistan, a top government official said Tuesday. The coalition said it could not confirm the incident and was investigating.

The Taliban disregarded worldwide protests in March 2001 and used dynamite and artillery to blow up the fifth-century Buddha statues, famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. The Taliban considered them idolatrous and anti-Muslim.

At the time, Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province where the statues are located. After U.S.-led forces ousted the fundamentalist regime in late 2001, he fled to the country's north and was never detained unlike other Taliban officials.

Of course the Buddhas were destroyed because the Taliban were angry at the UN for spending so much money preserving the statues when Afghanistan had so many other pressing problems. Not to worry though, seeing as how Afghanistan is now a paradise, a multi million dollar project to rebuild them as tourist attractions (!) is underway.

Separate, but Equal

Funny how we never seem to turn away Brits who need to move here to look after their relations. Funny that.

Workchoices

"10 inch or 12 inch bitch?"

Same job but one gets $4987 less than the other

October 20, 2005

Two people work side by side, doing the same job in the same workplace. One is paid $5000; the other gets $13, after tax.

It's hardly a good advertisement for the Federal Government's allegedly fairer proposed industrial relations regime; which is ironic, because that's exactly what it is: a Government ad for its WorkChoices regime.

Cameron Meadows is one worker who got $13, or two hours' overtime, for appearing in one of the WorkChoices ads. He is one of four people in the ad who is not an actor but a worker at a factory used as a backdrop.

The actors pretending to be happy workers were, according to industry sources, paid about $5000 for their performances.

Quite apart from the matter of pay, there is the matter of choice. The actors got to make an informed choice about whether or not they would appear in the ad; Mr Meadows did not.

He told Channel Nine he had no idea he would be part of the Government's propaganda campaign. No idea, in fact, that he would even be seen on television. As Mr Meadows related it, he was simply told by his boss at the Melbourne company where he worked until recently as a welder to "get the workshop ready because there is a crew coming in to film stuff for WorkSafe".

"But it isn't even, it's not WorkSafe is it?" he said.

Contrast this with conditions under which actors work, conditions nutted out by their union. Under standard contracts, they get told exactly what it is they are being asked to promote. They get a chance to say no if they don't like the sound of it. If the ad gets a bigger run than originally planned, they have residual rights and can get extra money.

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance is concerned that these standard contacts could be at risk, but for now actors are doing all right out of pretending to be happy workers, creating the high-wage illusion while genuine workers experience the low-wage reality.

Here's a hint Johnny, if you want to convince people that workchoices are good for them, don't rape the people you hire to be in the ads.

How much for 'extras'?

Free with any Opera House rental!

Now that the dust has settled after the Forbes conference of business leaders at the Opera House in August and September, it's time to look at the bills. The Greens MP Ian Cohen has been asking some niggling questions at a budget estimates committee, and says expenditure on the event amounts to a scandal.

The Opera House was hired for $100,000 by Forbes Inc. This was offset by rental waivers totalling $31,836 provided to retail outlets that closed during the conference, a loss of revenue of about $40,000 and "other operating costs" of $34,936. On figures so far provided by the State Government, this equals a net loss to the Opera House of $6772 for hosting the shindig.

Spike

Tax payers of NSW I hope you enjoyed giving Forbes Inc. a tender, loving handjob, I bet they did.

Globalising Healthcare

The way of the Future?

Medicare is expensive and given the questionable efforts of Federal and State governments there's no way you can argue that it's anywhere near universal. There are long waiting lists for surgical procedures and dental care is pretty hard to come by in the public system.

On the other hand in countries like India, Western trained professionals operate world class facilities that provide procedures desperately needed here at up to 80% less than they cost here. The obvious solution is to take the money being wasted on people who aren't getting the procedures we need and outsource them to foreign countries, India and Cuba come to mind.

Calm down, I'm not advocating the destruction of Medicare or anything. All I'm saying is that we have waiting lists of people in desperate need of a product we can't produce enough of. Doesn't it make sense to look elsewhere for the same product at the very least till we can produce enough ourselves? Of course the fact that it's so much cheaper over there would mean that vastly more people could get the healthcare they needed and the burden on our system would be relieved. Even if the government paid for travel costs, the procedure and acommodation the unit cost would be much lower than in Australia.

Some people, probably AMA members would argue that Indians and Cubans can't provide the same healthcare standards as Australians, I mean look at the Indian population. This is a fair point, except we'd be paying them to provide the same standards and relying on the lower cost of living to keep the price low, and incidentally introducing an ongoing stream of foreign currency into their economy. Everybody wins, even Australian doctors aren't out any extra patients because the plan would only apply to a demand they can't meet.

All I'm suggesting is that the government make use of something that already exists in an example of mutually beneficial privatisation.