Thinking about the think tank

Religious language and religious groups cause no end of angst to many folk, and the further they are from our own experience and immediate circle the more angst we are likely to suffer. For example, a nice man named Ben has just left a comment on the Big Archive at the entry Looking for the “gay lobby”, the point of the entry being that the “gay lobby” is essentially a paranoid construct in the minds of people who don’t like gays and lesbians, or suspect them of enormous power and credit them with a unity of purpose they sadly lack. Ben begins and concludes his message thus; I’ll leave you to check, or just guess, the middle:

History of Immigration to Australia

About last week’s discussion here and on Jim Belshaw’s blog —

Sirdan in The Shakespeare, Dr Haneef on the box, Andrews and Howard up the creek…

Perhaps inappropriately, Sirdan and I were tucking into an excellent $10 roast pork lunch at The Shakespeare Hotel as we discussed the matter of Dr Haneef yesterday. Apparently The Empress and Kiwi Nick had almost come to blows on the subject at The Shift during the week, The Empress complaining about government incompetence while Nick tended to think Haneef was indeed a “person of interest”, as they say nowadays instead of “guilty party”. Come the weekend and Kiwi Nick was apologising; the government has not followed suit.

When Sirdan told me Dr Haneef was giving a paid interview on TV I tended to doubt him. You see, I have been without TV ever since the communal antenna and booster was knocked out of action some time Friday night. All I can watch is DVDs (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon last night) so I missed Sixty Minutes.

He was evil — a dangerous man. If he wasn’t a terrorist, his mates were. And he was helping them. Or so we were told.

For more than three weeks, the Haneef affair dragged on. And let’s face it, on the strength of the so-called evidence, the Gold Coast doctor certainly looked suspicious.

Environment and more…

Recently — I forget how — I stumbled into Sprol: Worst Places in the World. Using Google Earth images, it explores the effects of all manner of impacts of mining, deforestation, water use, and more — it extends to such matters as prisons and migration. Explore it, and you may never be the same.

There are a number of items with resonance for us here in Australia:

About the Haneef case

I was just looking at the Big Archive and found There will be injustices (Sep 28th, 2005).

Ministers accused of ‘driving’ Haneef case

SOURCE: ABC News

Civil libertarians say any inquiry into the bungled prosecution of Dr Mohamed Haneef should focus squarely on the actions of Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock and Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.

The terrorism-related charge against Dr Haneef was dropped yesterday after prosecutors abandoned their case amid revelations of mistakes in the case against him. In announcing the decision, Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Damien Bugg QC admitted his agency had made two key errors as it built its case against Dr Haneef.

But Australian Council for Civil Liberties national secretary Cameron Murphy has told AM it is clear there was political interference in the case.

Teacher pride 2

By coincidence a member of the Class of 1986 dropped by yesterday and left a nice comment on The HSC English moanings of Miranda…

Very pleasant. Thanks Chris.

Two Three shock announcements

1) Howard’s housing takeover. Jim Belshaw will be worth reading if ever he comments on this…

STATE governments face being cut out of providing public housing under a radical Howard government move to invite the private sector to tender for commonwealth housing funds.

Federal Community Services Minister Mal Brough yesterday labelled the states, which have been given $10 billion in federal funds over the past decade, failures on the issue of public housing. “So let’s open it up to everyone,” Mr Brough said.

“Let’s open it up to innovation, let’s see over the next two months what industry can come up, what the NGOs (non-government organisations) can come up with, what councils and the states can come up with — not just leave it to the states, who have a proven record of failure in this area. The states have not delivered. Hence this major change of direction.”

The surprise policy shift overshadowed Kevin Rudd’s long-anticipated housing affordability summit in Canberra. The summit, featuring 130 government and private-sector participants, was long on talk but short on concrete outcomes beyond the promise that a Labor government would create a new committee to collect housing statistics…

Teacher Pride Rules!

Why not? I found this on the web:

The ABC’s of Teaching

A is for taking Attendance.
B is for Bearing society’s problems.
C is for Caring so much.
D is for Dedication.
E is for your enthusiasm.
F is for shaping the Future.
G is for Grading papers and more papers.
H is for the sticky Hugs.
I is for your integrity.
J is for Juggling all that you do.
K is for the Kindness you share.
L is for Learning.
M is for the memories.
N is for many Notes you have written over the years.
O is for being a true Optimist.
P is for your teacher Pride.
Q is for a few minutes of Quiet.
R is for Returning each Australia Day weekend.
S is for the Students you teach.
T is for becoming a Teacher.
U is for Understanding.
V is for summer Vacation.
W is for the Wisdom of children.
X is for the eXcellence you eXpect.
Y is for your Years of service.
Z is for your Zest for sharing yourself with our children.

Shame there were typos in the original though… I’ve Australianised it slightly.

Poem from The Momauguin School Connecticut USA

Seen the government’s Work Choices ads?

Sorry, whatever they have renamed it as this week…

I commend Marcellous on this one.

Three uplifting stories

Today’s Sydney Morning Herald tells the story of Zainab Kaabi, seen below at Sydney University.

It is also a story of ESL teacher Dorothy Hoddinott, one of the shapers of the new HSC ESL English course, someone I am proud to say I have met. It is a story of dedication and of the magnificent things that do happen in NSW public education. I offer this as a counterpoint to Miranda.

I can tell you all about cheap fares to South America…

…because M was here last night for several hours researching the subject.

The HSC English moanings of Miranda…

…and her mate Barry Spurr.

From the esoteric mind of a Latin Mass Catholic HSC crib writer and a right-wing Catholic newspaper columnist comes this “objective” analysis of the 2009–2012 NSW HSC prescribed texts. Honestly, the parent who complained on my English/ESL site that “the HSC English curriculum is a load of s**t and I wonder – and I think many parents would wonder – how the study of English degenerated into mere literary criticism*” should, logically, praise the new list, if Miranda is giving it fair representation — but of course she is not.

More on multiculturalism etc

Consider the following information from Year Book Australia, 2005. 

There has been a significant change in the source countries of permanent arrivals, with settlers arriving from more diverse regions of the world since the mid-1990s compared with the early-1980s (table 5.32). In 1982-83, 28% of settler arrivals to Australia were born in the United Kingdom, 9% were born in Vietnam and 7% were born in New Zealand. In 2002-03 the United Kingdom and New Zealand both contributed 13% of all settler arrivals, although in 2001-02 New Zealand-born settler arrivals contributed 18% of all settler arrivals in that year whereas settler arrivals born in the United Kingdom only contributed 10%. Settler arrivals born in China (7%), India (6%) and South Africa (5%) each contributed 5% or more of all settlers in 2002-03 compared with only 1%, 2% and 3% respectively in 1982-83 (table 5.32).

Meanwhile, for the record

Relevant to the ongoing series is a new page on The Big Archive under the Before Blogspot tab:  For the record: the great SBHS race debate of 2002.

Of course I did that with Live Writer from some off-line archives and am doing these finishing touches in the Chinese internet cafe on Elizabeth Street! My download cap renews at midnight…