Why John Howard Is Wrong: Discrimination

I thought of saying something on this, but others have done so already.

Gay Erasmus fills in the context for us:

# New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma has opposed children’s books that feature same-sex parents. He declared, “I do not personally believe it appropriate for two-year-olds to be dragged into the gay rights debate.” More proof, alas, that our politicians can’t abide our relationships and families, viewing them as fodder for rhetorical manipulation instead of examples of love, altruism, and care.

# Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has weighed into the debate, arguing, “I wouldn’t want to see any perverse biases put into early childhood development that could affect children one way or the other.” Um, which way is she referring to here?

# Russia’s inaugural gay pride rally ends in a series of violent arrests. A new generation of 78ers is born.

Humanising The Other

Turki al-Hamad “is a Saudi-Arabian political analyst, journalist, and novelist, best known for his trilogy about the coming-of-age of Hisham al-Abir, a Saudi Arabian teenager, the first installment of which, Adama, was published in 1998. Although banned in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait, the Arabic edition of the trilogy — called in Arabic Atyaf al-Aziqah al-Mahjurah (Phantoms of the Deserted Alley) — has sold 20,000 copies.” I borrowed Adama (London, Saqi, 2003) from Surry Hills Library last week and have just finished it.

Set in Saudi Arabia in 1969, the novel tells of the final year of high school of a thoughtful young Marxist intellectual, Hisham al-Abir, and of his friends and family. I found this an amazingly honest book, with no illusions either about revolutionary politics. Saudi Arabian society bursts into three-dimensional life in these utterly humane pages.

Marsden’s flamboyant funeral splits city’s elite

Alex Mitchell’s story in today’s Sun-Herald tells us that “Justice Kirby plans to deliver a strongly worded eulogy that defends Marsden against the attacks that have followed his death.”

Nothing if not colourful, Marsden even managed to cause a stir with his funeral notice:

Some of his closest confidants roared with laughter when they read his funeral notice last Thursday, which included a long list of his former sexual partners.

“If they had printed all his partners it would have filled another column of the [Sydney Morning] Herald,” joked his political protege Peter Breen, the upper house MP recently recruited to the Labor Party.

“He was extraordinarily promiscuous. He used to boast about his sex life and exaggerate it. It used to put a lot of people off.”

See also Lawyer Marsden: Paul Sheehan’s vitriol.

The Road to Nowhere: Four Corners Broadcast: 29/05/2006

This episode of Four Corners looks promising.

…Imanpa is on the brink of collapse. Its main income stream, the work for the dole scheme, has been cut off. Someone has been ripping off community funds. The only store in town is broke. Most of the people have drifted to Alice; those who stay live in fear of rampaging petrol sniffers and drunks. The youth worker left after being attacked – but it’s “not a big deal”, says a female community leader. The nearest police station is 150 kilometres away. Few children go to school.

The leaders who have stayed on are desperate. As they cast about for a quick fix to the money problems, an invited Four Corners team assembles a rare, intimate profile of a community in crisis.

Answered By Fire on ABC 8:30pm Sunday, May 28, 2006

David Wenham makes his much anticipated return to ABC TV in this dramatic story based on true events. In 1999, a group of Australian police joined other volunteers on the United Nations mission to East Timor. Their job was to oversee the country’s vote on independence from Indonesia. The UN promised the East Timorese they would stay after the vote, regardless of what happened… It was a promise they couldn’t keep. The two-part mini-series, Answered by Fire begins Sunday 28 May, 8.30pm on ABC TV.

How spooky is that! I’ll be watching; it looks really good.

I endorse our current commitment to East Timor, but see the redoubtable Hamish McDonald, How we brought this crisis on ourselves.

South Sydney Herald fund raiser

I was not able to attend this, as it clashed with Lord Malcolm’s party; but I will leave this edited version as news.

On Sunday, 28 May at 4pm, come to Sydney Town Art for a celebration of the South Sydney Herald and Trevor Davies’ birthday.

Mr Davies has kindly allowed The South Sydney Herald to hijack his 50th birthday and hold a fundraiser. All money raised will go back to The South Sydney Herald, a free and independent newspaper of good standing in the inner city.

Join with Councillor Tony Pooley (MC) Alex Mitchell (Sun Herald) Meredith Burgmann MLC (President NSW Upper House) and Duncan Gay MLC (National Party Leader NSW Upper House) for a night of stories to celebrate Trevor Davies’ Birthday and raise funds for The South Sydney Herald. Learn more about The South Sydney Herald here.

I did wish Trevor a Happy Birthday in church this morning, however.

Department of Human Services

Last September I wrote an angry piece on Blogspot.

That rather Orwellian title hides a great deal of inhumanity. Take a scenario I heard yesterday. You have a serious chronic illness, and despite surviving things that would kill most people, you, because you really are a person who rejects “bludging”, have worked on in an area under state government control which deals with health issues not dissimilar to your own. You work hard, and achieve much of value. This in fact assists in your survival and prevents your being a drain on the public purse. But the time comes when the state government agency you work for deems the time has come for you to severely cut back, or stop working, as there are health and safety issues to be considered. So you go to the federal government’s Department of Human Services Centrelink, explain the situation, expecting some assistance as you are far from well and have not chosen to be unemployed.

For all of us

Sorry Day: 26 May. Click the banner above.

Guest entry from The Poet

I told you it would happen.

Here is the first guest entry. The Poet has a new site called An original sonnet written for you… . I’ll let The Poet explain.

Please remove your prejudices and/or shoes before entering…

I suggest the above to myself as much as to you. Take Islam. It should be clear, if you browse this blog under “religion” or “faith and philosophy”, that I would have a problem with the Muslim view of the Qu’ran, given my views on God and revelation in general; but in saying that I am not rejecting root and branch all that followers of that faith might do or say.

Take MyScribbles: Write-ups of an Afghan, which I just encountered through Blog Explosion. This is one remarkable young man, whom I suspect the Taliban would not like all that much. (He’s a mad soccer fan as well.) Read with an open mind his post In Response to a Popular Islam Basher.

Before I delve into the main subject of this post, let me make this clear: I am not a ‘Muslim extremist’. I support freedom of thought and expression and I value constructive criticism. I am writing this post as a critique only…

Terrorism: What’s Morality Got To Do With It?

ABC Radio National, that embattled treasure of civilised broadcasting, offered a challenging Encounter this week.

Recent terrorist acts such as 9/11 and the Bali bombing have been justified using moral and religious language, as has the West’s response through its ‘war on terror’. Political moral philosopher Thomas Pogge examines these justifications and whether they represent a moral framework that either side genuinely holds to.

You may read a full transcript, or listen, or download a podcast. Just a sample:

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

As John Howard recently said in another context, “Be very careful what you wish for.”

In the wake of Wadeye and other issues in the Northern Territory, Indigenous Affairs Minister Brough is maintaining the right-wing rage over the customary law versus law of the land dilemma. Last night on 7.30 Report he was very direct:

KERRY O’BRIEN: Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough told Parliament today that Aboriginal offenders should not be able to use customary law to obtain softer sentences for serious crimes. He said Australian law should apply equally to all people. The minister joins me now from our Canberra studio. Mal Brough, we might come to the specifics or some of the issues related to Wadeye in a moment. But first of all, when you say you will prevent Aboriginal offenders “hiding behind customary law” to get reduced sentences for violent crimes, how will you force the courts to ignore cultural factors in sentencing Aboriginal offenders?

MAL BROUGH, INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS MINISTER: Well, it’s quite simple, Kerry. What you do is you have the states and the territories agree that they will legislate that using such defence, or using it to lessen a sentence as a mitigating circumstances, is actually - is unlawful. In other words, you don’t allow not just Indigenous people, not Australian Indigenous people, but any group to use what they would claim to be a culturally sensitive or culturally traditional practices which involve serious crime, serious pain to other people, they will not be able to use that as a defence.

Is there more to Miranda than we suspected?

I just noticed that the day before yesterday someone Googled their way here with this search:

da vinci can jesus be married and devine

What an amazing thought. The Blessed Miranda indeed!

Mister Marsden’s shed

The contents of the late John Marsden’s shed fascinate Nick Tabakoff in the latest Bulletin.

John Marsden took many secrets to his grave. Others he left in a humble shed. “I’ve got boxes and boxes and boxes of material,” the flamboyant Sydney solicitor told The Bulletin in his last interview, just weeks before he died. The contents of those boxes will be causing plenty of sleepless nights among Sydney’s high-rollers and low-lifes…

Mister Marsden has certainly achieved more fame in death than he has at any time since the famous Channel Seven defamation case; I can’t help thinking he would be enjoying this, wherever you imagine him to be, if anywhere, right now.

He’s done this blog a bit of good lately anyway, as this morning’s thirty days stats show:

Not the Third World, just Australia’s first war zone

Thus does this morning’s Sydney Morning Herald announce its story today on Gang wars, and politics, are pulling an Aboriginal town apart.

Scores of Aborigines have fled their homes and are living in squalid refugee-like camps as two rival gangs, the Evil Warriors and the Judas Priests, fight for control of the Northern Territory’s largest black town.

Wadeye’s chief executive, Terry Bullemor, said yesterday the local council was considering evacuating about 300 people to Darwin and elders called on politicians to send in the army to help the town’s five full-time police officers keep the peace.