The AmishThrasher

Site on Hiatus

2006-02-03T01:47:00.001+11:00

Quick Update:
Kinda Empty...

Sorry about the lack of updates the past few months, and for seemingly dropping off the face of the Earth... I've just been busy studying on, working on, and procrastinating about my thesis. Which unfortunately leaves little time for the Blog. So the AmishThrasher is on hiatus at the moment, but feel free to check through the archives (which are filled with old essays and the like) - there's heaps there to check out. And just to be clear, Andrew is no slack bastard. amish thrasher at gmail dot com

The AmishThrasher Wrap, August 7th

2005-08-07T23:29:00.000+10:00

The Great Cruisade:
One reason why we don't want Theocracy!

Well, it's time to take another nutritious bite of the AmishThrasher Wrap. This week, on the religious front, the Uniting Church gives its thoughts on Religious Vilification Laws, as well as an announcement about the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches. The Nuclear ambitions of the Environment Minister, Ian "The only options that we're pursuing are on offshore islands" Campbell come under fire on the anniversary of Hiroshima, while the Greens extend an olive branch to the Nationals over food labelling laws. The Electronic Frontiers Foundation, an Internet user right's watchdog, has been outraged by US Government moves to undermine your rights, by allowing US government agents more power to pry through your digital equiptment. On the Activist front, refugee rights group the Refugee Action Collective has announced a march on Friday, August 26th, calling for long term solutions to Australia's ongoing detention centre crisis. All that and more (including a site update) in this edition of the AmishThrasher Wrap, so click through for analysis and commentary on these issues. Certainly, you can't complain that we don't live in interesting times!

The Uniting Church gives its thoughts on Religious Vilification Laws
I'll kick off this Wrap by mentioning this recent statement, by the Uniting Church (which will participate in the forthcoming 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches) on the issue of Religious Vilification Laws. As regular readers of the AmishThrasher will know, one of my pet peeves is radical fringe religious groups - be they Christian, Muslim, Juewish, Buddhist, or Hindu - who hijack their religions to promote an agenda of violence, racism, and hatred. Such messages often go against the key messages of the religions that these extremists claim to represent. These radical fringe groups have recently mounted a campaign of misinformation about Victoria's Religious Vilification laws, which help protect the right we have to practice our religion, or our choice not to actively participate in religion, in peace. After all, in the age of terrorism, what we need is understanding and co-operation. And accepting fear and intimidation on the part of extremist religious elements which seek to spread hate are part of a pre- 9/11 mindset. And it is great to see that mainstream Christian Churches, like the Uniting Church, agree with this position.

The key parts of the Uniting Church's common-sense position on the issue include:
* "The last thing Australia needs is intolerant religious groups going around inciting hatred against people of other races and religions. That is why we need effective laws against racial and religious vilification."
* "It is also time to stop the current campaign of misinformation and sabotage by fringe Christian groups, against Victoria’s racial and religious vilification laws"
* "These trifling claims are undermining the law by giving ammunition to certain religious groups who demand in the name of their own religion, the freedom to incite extremism and hate against others. But that is not the Australian way, and we don’t need it."
* "In my view reasonable Christian people - those who follow the message of Jesus “to love your neighbor as yourself” - need to be the most supportive of tolerance and respect for people regardless of race and religion. "

The statement itself is in response to a recent court decision that clarified a number of points about Victorians racial and religious vilification laws, which seriously undermine the fear campaign several radical groups have been running:

* The law is there to deal with extreme actions, those that inflame hatred of people based on their race or religion.
* The law recognises that you can hate an idea or religion without hating the people that believe in it.
* The law allows you to state, if you want to, that your religious beliefs are the one true religion and all other religious beliefs are false.
* The law does not prevent criticism of religion or religious practice, unless you cross the line of inciting hatred of the of followers that religion.
* The law does not prevent evangelism.

The statement itself is fairly short, so if you have a few spare moments, it's well worth downloading:
Click here to read the Uniting Church Statement.

Campbell under fire on the anniversary of Hiroshima
This past week has marked the anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, as the world has contemplated one of the (numerous) downsides of nuclear technology. And it has led to calls for Campbell to reverse his stance on the Northern Territory nuclear waste dump (which he lied about at the last election), and to end the debate about Australia switching to outdated nuclear reactor technology for its power. As I said ealier, the real debate here isn't about nuclear power; its about how many of these agenda pushing pollies deserve to keep their jobs.
Click to read Senator Milne's Statement.

extend an olive branch to the Nationals over food labelling laws
This past week has marked the Greens presenting an olive-branch to National Party Senators who are willing to stand up for their conscience, in the face of government policy. They have done this by taking the side of farmers, whose farms have been threatened and undercut by cheap foreign imports. The biggest problem here is that Australian consumers often have no way of knowing whether the fresh produce they buy is grown locally, or overseas. This is one of a number of holes in our current labelling laws, on top of a number of other loopholes recently exposed by Choice Magazine (including one can of Diet Coke supposedly being 1.88 servings).

As consumers, we depend on honest product information to make an informed decision about what we chose to buy. If these laws are tightened up, we as consumers are the clear winners. Similarly, since most patriotic Australians would prefer to buy Australian Made and Owned rather than Cheap and Imported, our farmers and manufacturers - and the workers that are employed by those businesses - are also winners. And while tougher labelling laws are still some way off, this is a great step in the right direction.

The key quotes from Senator Nettle are as follows:

The Greens give 100% support to farmers who are protesting the Howard government allowing multinationals to abandon local producers and prevent consumers from supporting local produce by refusing to legislate real truth in labelling laws... Bob Brown will reintroduce The Greens Truth in Labelling Bill 2005 which requires food labelling to show the country of origin, and whether it came from genetically modified crops or was more than 0.5% GE contaminated (as required by tough European Union rules). The Greens also oppose more free trade deals which could end up like the lopsided US free trade with no barrier on US food imports to Australia but 20 pages of restrictions on Australian exports to the US.

In the Press Statement, Senator Nettle also criticised the Howard government for not just selling out farmers, but also students and workers, by stating that "At the same time as students are coming under attack so too are the working conditions of 95% of Australian workers, threatened with the loss of holiday pay, long service leave, sick leave and other entitlements which make our communities tick."
Read it here

The Electronic Frontiers Foundation, an Internet user right's watchdog, has been outraged by US Government moves to undermine your rights,
A scary article here, from technology rights watchdog the EFF, about how the US Government is using technology to further undermine the privacy of its citizens:
The Electronic Frontiers Foundation, an Internet user right's watchdog, has been outraged by US Government moves to undermine your rights.

the Refugee Action Collective
The date of the protest, like I stated earlier, is Friday, August 26th. By attending, you won't magically make Vanstone - and the bureaucrats under her watch - do their jobs properly. But what you will do is show that immigration lies are intollerable, that cases like Cornelia Rau and Vivian Solon are unacceptable, and that we are interested in the issue and will hold the guilty accountable come the next election.
the Refugee Action Collective Protest.

Vermont South Tram Extension
One of the causes this site champions is greater investment in public transport infrastructure, as well as long term planning for future transport needs. And given this, it's worthwhile mentioning the recent extention of the Burwood Highway tram to Vermont. Peter "No tolls" Bachelor, I want to make it clear, is not one of my favorite politicans; but he does deserve some credit for overseeing an important addition to Victoria's public transport network. That said, while having connecting busses to Knox adds value to the extension, it's really just a low-cost, stop-gap solution done in place of extending the tram to Knox (which has become a thriving retail and commercial hub in the outer eastern suburbs). It is also a dissapointment that the building of the Mitcham-Frankston Tollway was not taken as an opportunity to build a major outer-metropolitan radial line, connecting some of the suburbs which have been served by public transport the worst; and the Vermont South tram-line would add significant value to such a radial railway. As I stated earlier, what we need here is bold, long term planning covering public transport in Melbourne. And while this tram extension is a clear step in the right direction, there is plenty more which needs to be done.

Site Update
I want to finish up this Wrap with a quick update about the site. I've submitted a couple of articles to Rabelais, the Latrobe University student magazine, and hopefully they'll be included in the next issue of the student paper. So for those of you who are out at Bundoora, keep an eye out for it. Regardless if they are included, they will be republished here on the AmishThrasher in the coming weeks.

On a different note, last week, instead of doing a second AmishThrasher Wrap, I posted a string of Quick Updates on a number of issues. The logic behind doing this is that, rather than scanning through a post which discusses several issues, it may be easier to scroll to the issue you are interested on the front page. Unfortunately, this site has nowehere near the traffic (or comment) volume that makes this style of story so worthwhile on sites like Slashdot, or elsewhere. That said, I may post a few single Quick Updates some weeks to get a time-efficient update on to the site.

Quick Update: Date Set for RSPCA Elephant Appeal

2005-08-01T17:08:00.001+10:00

Quick Update:
Appealing for Elephants

I recently posted an article about a campaign, currently being led by the RSPCA, to block the import of Asian Elephants into Australian zoos. The problem with these imports is that the elephants to not survive well, or breed well, in captivity. Well, according to a new press release from the RSPCA, "A legal appeal to decide the fate of eight Asian elephants earmarked for Australian zoos has been set for September 26, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled today." I would like to wish them good luck in their legal appeal on September 26th. Meanwhile, I mentioned in the last AmishThrasher Wrap that, on the environment, "...our Federal Government certainly hasn't been pulling it's weight. Put differently, it's been a low priority - if not outright off the agenda - which has led to a decade of missed opportunities. And it's no surprise that the man at the center of this is Ian "The only options that we're pursuing are on offshore islands" Campbell... And if he doesn't either fix up his act and get his (and his government's) priorities straight, then it is up to us, voting public, to decide if we want him as our environment minister. It's really that simple." Well, intervening here would allow Campbell to do just that.

Quick Update: Moving Sideways on Refugees

2005-08-01T16:25:00.005+10:00

Quick Update:
Howard Moving Sideways

A number of human rights organisations have accused the government of moving sideways on the issue of much needed Refugee Rights Reforms in the wake of the Palmer Report. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has lended cautious support to reforms undertaken by the Howard Government (after pressure from moderate Liberals, including Petro Georgiou) to end the detention of young children. According to their Press Release, "While welcoming today’s developments, Amnesty International Australia noted that much remains to be done to ensure that Australia’s immigration detention policy is consistent with the government’s international human rights obligations." The criticisms have been echoed by A Just Australia - a refugee activist group - who have pointed out that "The Australian Government has excised more Islands from Australia's migration zone earlier this week." In the press release, Spokeswoman Kate Gauthier states that "If the Government was bringing in genuine reform of asylum seeker policy, they would not at the same be finding ways to reduce the ability of people to claim asylum." Click through to add your comment.

Quick Update: PBS fights back

2005-08-01T16:25:00.004+10:00

Quick Update:
PBS Fights Back!

In my quest to keep the AmishThrasher up-to-date with limited time, beyond the AmishThrasher Wraps (which you have no doubt seen at the site already), I'm going to try some Slashdot style short posts, which link to interesting news and features on other websites, to open up discussion here. Anyway, in our first Quick Update, a Triple J radio show ("The Hack") has recently attacked PBS FM, accusing the Melbourne-based community broadcaster of acting in an unethical manner. Triple J apparently used the program to accuse PBS of being involved in a payola scheme, where in order for artists to be featured on its popular 'Studio 5 Live' program, the artists would have to make a donation to the station; and the station was not transparent to its listeners about this. Well, in a recent PBS FM Press Release, the community station has lashed out at Triple J's bribery accusations, stating that they "..are incorrect and challenged". The station also stated that "After we have approached touring acts to come on the show, we try and encourage them to make a contribution to cover our production costs but we do not make it conditional (ie, bands are chosen on merit). Indeed out of the past 46 performances only 9 have made a contribution and not all for the same amount. On-air cross promotion of the bands up coming performance is provided regardless of whether there has been a contribution. Where there has been a contribution the announcement is tagged 'Sponsors of PBS-FM’."

Quick Update: Asian Tsunami Relief Update

2005-08-01T16:25:00.003+10:00

Quick Update:
Beyond the Tsunami...

There are a number of updates, from various charities, on the relief work being carried out in the wake of the Indian Ocean Tsunami (which happend earlier this year). The first is from the Uniting International Mission - a charity group linked to Australia's Uniting Church - on the work being undertaken in Thailand to help the marginalised Moken community. Meanwhile, the Australian Red Cross has made an appeal for donations to help in other aid operations in South-East Asia, publishing alarming statistic that "It takes only seven days for the same number of children who died in the tsunami to die as a result of poverty in South Asia and the Pacific. This shocking statistic shows the fragile existence of so many of our regional neighbours. While those in the tsunami affected regions are receiving help, there are many others who need support." Having seen the poverty in the Philippines first hand a few years ago, this is not difficult to imagine. Click through to add your comment.

Relegation in Australian Soccer

2005-08-01T12:59:00.000+10:00

Crystal Palace:
Should Australian soccer clubs be relegated,
like Palace were?

One of the ongoing debates with Australian soccer - especially in regards to the national league - is whether Australia should have a system of promotion and relegation, like European competitions (such as the English Premier League). The debate - which has been ongoing for over a decade - has been heightened given the kickoff of the Hyundai A-League later this month, with proponents of a relegation / promotion system criticising the new national league for not implementing one, while pointing to promotion and relegation systems being actively used in some of Australia's state soccer leagues. But there are good reasons why such a system wouldn't work on a national level Australia (as it does in Europe), and it seems that some of those pushing for such a system may have a hidden agenda. That said, it may be possible to have a modified promotion / relegation system for Australian soccer.

And the reason why a 'National 2nd Division' wouldn't work in Australia is simple: Australia is a continent with a low population density, spread over a large geographic area. This is coupled with the fact that in Australia, unfortunately, soccer is a second or third tier spectator sport, ranking well behind AFL football, both rugby codes, and cricket in popularity. Even in these more popular codes, it would be difficult to viably implement such a system. To attempt to do so with soccer could potentially be devestating.

And the reason it would potentially be devestating is because of the costs involved. Beyond the travel and accomodation costs, we have to factor in the cost of flying in team and league officials, doctors, the refs, the ticketing, catering and security costs, and all the other expenses that go along with sport on a national level - it truely is an expensive business. Even our most popular codes struggle to attract television coverage beyond the elite level, as do second and third tier sports like soccer; so television rights would not be available to offset the 2nd division. Over the past decade, these costs have proven to be problematic (or even fatal) for many of the clubs in the now disbanded NSL competition. The second and third tier clubs would not stand a chance, with many successful state-level clubs quite possibly going out of business in the process.

We also have to remember that some of those who have floated the idea of a National 2nd division have a hidden agenda. Many are connected to, or support, the single ethnicity clubs which were either former NSL teams, or play at state level. A system of promotion and relegation from a 2nd division, or lower divisions, would provide a 'back door' for these teams to enter - or re-enter - the national league. My reason for not wanting these teams to return to the sport at an elite level isn't the product of WASPish racism or a denial of the important role people of many ethnic backgrounds have had in building soccer in Australia; far from it, I myself come from a Non-English Speaking Background, and one of the great aspects of soccer is its multiculturalism. The problem comes about by representing this multiculturalism by having teams which represent a single ethnicity, and where those who do not come from that specific ethnic background often don't truely feel welcome, regardless of their love of the sport. By having a major metropolitan area represented by a team that seeks to only represent one ethnic group in that city (rather than everyone regardless of ethnicity), the potential support for elite soccer is diminished significantly. It is better to have Australia's soccer tribalism defined geographically, consisting of multicultural teams representing a geographic area where anyone - regardless of ethnicity - can feel 'at home' than to constrain the sport's popularity with single-ethnicity teams.

There is a model of promotion and relegation, however, that could work in Australia. Such a model would see a designated number of 'slots' for teams based on their geographic (in most cases, state) base. So, for example, we may have 2 teams each from Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern NSW / NSW Central Coast, and New Zealand; 3 each from Victoria and New South Wales, and a team each from Northern QLD, and the ACT. The teams which finish in the bottom 4 places are relegated back to their state league, with the top team(s) being promoted to national league level. Teams from the Northern Territory and Tasmania could be included either by replacing the ACT slot with a 'wildcard' slot, whereby if the Wildcard team gets relegated, the NT, Tasmanian and ACT premiership teams play off for the wildcard position, or alternatively, if there's no current Tasmanian team in the league, the Tasmanian state premiers play off against te Victorian Premiers for one of the Victorian slots (thus the Tasmanian clubs are included in one of the Victorian slots), with something similar also done for the Northern Territory. Or alternatively having a 'Tasmanian league' slot in the Victorian Premier League. Similar structures at state level could ensure regional participation in the sport at state level.

If such a structure were implemented, it may also be worthwhile to adopt a licensing system similar to that which is used in the German Bundesliga. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, according to Wikipedia, "Every team in the Bundesliga must have a license to play in the league, or else they get relegated into the minor leagues. Only financially healthy teams can get the license." Perhaps rather than directly promoting the state champions, we should instead promote the highest ranked state league clubs with a national league license. Qualification for such a license would ensure that the club was economically sound enough to compete in the national league, as well as a broad, multicultural appeal, and a large enough base of support to sustain it in the national league.

What such a structure would create would be a truly national competition which incorporates the promotion and relegation system - a system which makes soccer such an interesting sport to follow - while both strengthening the state leagues (as feeder competitions) and ensuring that national league teams are economically viable enough to sustain existance in the highest level of the sport.

The AmishThrasher Wrap, July 28th

2005-07-28T11:35:00.001+10:00

Man's best friend:
The AmishThrasher

The Wrap - a weekly look at current news and events - is back. In this issue, we discuss the power of religion to help the oppressed, the new measures taken by the State Government to protect children, the Red Cross Appeal for West Africa, and calls by the Lost Dogs Home for a doggy-census. Oh, and our buddy, Environment Minister Ian "absolute categorical assurance" Campbell, is back too. All that, and more, in this edition of the AmishThrasher Wrap.Welcome to the second edition of the AmishThrasher Wrap. And in this wrap, we break the rules of polite conversation and openly discuss religion and politics.

In this Issue:

Helping the Helpless
Inspiring the Downtrodden
Helping Africa
Helping the Environment
Doggy Census

Helping the Helpless
There has been a lot of debate recently about the role of religion in society. Well, as I have previously mentioned in the AmishThrasher, chruch-backed groups, who share many values with the secular humanist community, do an extrodinary job in helping the downtrodden, both at home and abroad. And this press release - from AngliCare (a group linked to the Anglican Church) - shows how religion, and a secular state, can work together to promote a common humanitarian goal in our community:

19 July 2005
The state's largest provider of foster care services, Anglicare Victoria, today welcomed the State Government's announcement of new measures to protect children.

The Working with Children Bill 2005 will assess a person's eligibility for working or volunteering with children.

Anglicare Victoria CEO Dr Ray Cleary said the measures were welcome because they strike a balance between the interests of children and the rights of the individual.

"In welcoming the Government's initiative it is important to remember that we all must remain active and vigilant in ensuring the wellbeing of our children.

"Anglicare Victoria currently conduct mandatory police checks on all of our staff and volunteers who have direct contact with children. However we welcome a system that sets minimum standards and puts the interests of children at the forefront."

Dr Cleary said the most important task facing the Government would be educating the community of the benefits of the Bill.

"There will be those who feel the legislation doesn't go far enough and those who feel it is too invasive. Creating legislation around protecting children is an essential and difficult task that must be undertaken in close consultation with the community and service providers."

Dr Cleary said that mandatory police checks did not prevent people from volunteering at Anglicare Victoria.

"We should not assume that the Bill will prevent people from volunteering. It is reassuring for volunteers to know that agencies place the rights and safety of children first. We work with thousands of volunteers who understand the need to protect the children in our care."

The Government's decision to pay for the costs associated with volunteer checks will reduce the burden on community organisations Dr Cleary said.

SOURCE: http://www.anglicarevic.org.au/Media/MediaReleases/2005/MR20050719.htm
Children's aid organizations, I would immagine, would seem very attractive to paedophiles. The State Government deserves to be commended on its efforts to ensure that those who work with children - particularly vulnerable children - pass a background check to safeguard vulnerable children from risk.

But perhaps more interesting is that government money is being used to cover the costs of these background checks to child welfare groups - including AngliCare -who already undertake them. This is an example of a secular state working with a religious backed body to advance a common humanitarian cause; in this case, the plight of disadvantaged children. And I personally think that, in this case, it is thoroughly commendable to do so. The interraction between church and state should not be one where religious dogma - in the cloak of 'values' - are forced on to the community and thus heightening the tensions between those who chose to actively participate in organized religion, and those who don't. Rather, we need to build bridges between religion, secular individuals, and (where appropriate) the state to further the cause of social justice in our community.

Inspiring the Downtrodden
As we have seen, religion, and religious backed charities, play a critical role in keeping our social fabric together. The sad truth for many of Melbourn'e homeless is that the local church may be the best hope for both a , while for many abandoned and homeless children, charities like AngliCare is the only hope for a safe bed to sleep in at night. Both at home and abroad, religion plays another critical role - giving help to the downtrodden. And this article from the Uniting Church about the inspiration Christianity provided to overcome Indonesian oppression is a good example of this at work:

It was clear, the Moderator of the Protestant Church in East Timor wanted us to see the great statue of Christ the King erected by President Suharto in 1997 on the promontory five kilometers east and north from the centre of Dili. It was built two years before the referendum that ended the last uneasy years of Indonesian occupation.
...
Yet the power of a symbol can sometimes be turned on its creators. The Moderator of the Protestant Church in East Timor did just that. “Look closely at the hands,” he whispered through the city, “they are not raised to bless, they are held out palm upwards toward Dili. Jesus is not blessing Indonesian Dili, he is in fact questioning whether the Indonesians should leave!”

One can only imagine the way that would fizz through a community under oppression. The image was ever present to the eye during the day and lit at night, a living message read differently by invader and oppressed. It was not long before the lights at night were disconnected. But it was too late. By 2000 Christ the King had become the prophetic sign of a liberated country.

SOURCE: a href="http://nat.uca.org.au/news/stories/250705.htm
Religion is a powerful and important force in society, and the world. That's a power that can be used for both good, and evil. Those of us who are religious (of all faiths), as well as those of us who aren't, must unite to make sure that the power isn't hijacked for the purposes of evil. Those who want to hijack religion want to wage culture wars, holy wars, and further an agenda of hate; both the extremist Christian Identity nuts, and their more "moderate" counterparts. Well, this perversion of religion for evil - and the social injustice in our own society - can be defeated. But it will take an alliance of progressive people, progressive politics, and progressive reigion to do it.

Helping Africa
Speaking of global social justice, a press release from the Australian Red Cross has made an urgent appeal for funds to fight hunger in west Africa. The press release is below:

Australian Red Cross has launched an urgent appeal to assist international efforts to avert possible widespread starvation in the four worst affected countries of the Sahel region of West Africa.

The appeal will support efforts by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, aiming to raise $18 million for disaster relief.

The CEO of Australian Red Cross, Mr Robert Tickner said the situation is especially serious in Niger, where according to the UN 3.6 million people, or 28 per cent of the population, are affected by food shortages, caused by a combination of drought and the effect of last year's invasion by swarms of locusts.

'The Red Cross wants to help 222,000 of the most vulnerable people for the next six-months, through food, seed, fodder distributions and mobile feeding centres,' said Mr Tickner.

'The funds raised will be used to provide assistance in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.'

According to current UN estimates, 800,000 children in Niger are going hungry. But it is not only Niger that is in the grip of food shortages. Populations in neighbouring countries - some 2.2 million in Mali, 1.6 million in Burkina Faso and 750,000 in Mauritania are also under threat.

To donate to the Niger Emergency 2005 Appeal:

* Call 1800 811 700
* Visit www.redcross.org.au to make a secure online donation
* Send a cheque to GPO Box 9949 marked 'Niger Appeal' in your capital city

SOURCE:
African poverty has been on the agenda lately. At the recent G8 summit, the world got some eloquent spin about the need to relieve Africa's debt Meanwhile thousands attended Live-8 concerts calling for an end to African poverty. Well, the time has come for people to put their money where their mouths are. Long term solutions are great, but the truth is that there are people starving to death in Western Africa right now. The question is will you help out the Red Cross, or just let the people die?

Helping the Environment
Within weeks of his radio lies being exposed, the Environment Minister has again come under fire for inaction over climate change in a recent press release from the Greens:

The release of the report Climate Change: Risk and Vulnerability vindicates two decades of Greens political pressure and is a damning indictment of Howard Government inaction, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.

"The government, in particular this Prime Minister, is charged with intergenerational abuse – it has put self gratification for the coal industries way ahead of our obligation to secure the next generation's life security.

"When I warned about global warming on entering the Senate a decade ago, government members laughed.

"They are not laughing now. This has been a decade of failure," Senator Brown said.

SOURCE: http://www.greens.org.au/mediacentre/mediareleases/senatorbrown/260705a
Australia undeniably has the world's most beautiful and unique continent, and it is our patriotic duty as Australians to make sure that our environment is preserved for future generations. And I think most patriotic Australians do genuinely care about the environment - but at the same time, we also have busy lives to lead. The challenge for our leaders is to find simple ways where we can all make a difference, to encourage people to make a difference, and to show their patriotism to Australia by enacting laws which make the Un-Australian destruction of our environment not just immoral, but also illegal. And it needs to come up with long term, big picture planning, on issues like infrastructure, that will see sustainable economic growth which doesn't undermine our natural habitat.

And it seems that, if not asleeep at the wheel, then our Federal Government certainly hasn't been pulling it's weight. Put differently, it's been a low priority - if not outright off the agenda - which has led to a decade of missed opportunities. And it's no surprise that the man at the center of this is Ian "The only options that we're pursuing are on offshore islands" Campbell. Campbell, who has . It's time for him to either encourage the Howard government to make sure that we don't suffer another decade of missed opportunities, or reconsider what he is doing with the Environment portfolio.

And if he doesn't either fix up his act and get his (and his government's) priorities straight, then it is up to us, voting public, to decide if we want him as our environment minister. It's really that simple.

Doggy Census
Those of you who know me know I'm definately a 'dog person', being the proud owner of a Kelpie named 'Tugs'. And for my fellow pet-owners and animal lovers out there, the Lost Dogs home ahs their Autumn newsletter out (it's in PDF), and it's well worth downloading and printing off. One of the interesting articles in there raises the issue of adding questions about our pets to the census:

We were delighted to see that the National General Assembly of Local Government (NGALG) meeting in Canberra last November passed the following resolution:
That this National General Assembly endorses the proposal that the Australian Bureau of Statistics include as part of the National Census, a series of questions that would indicate the dog and cat population kept at residential premises on census night.
We like it! If and when this ever happens the appropriate bodies at all three tiers of Government – Federal National and State – plus all animal welfare organisations, will be better informed, and therefore far better equipped, to deal with the many current problems associated with the welfare of domestic animals in our society.

The data revealed by such an inclusion would certainly be valuable not only to Local Councils but to most animal welfare organisations and of course to marketers of pet products and services – plus other segments of our society. It would certainly be of significant interest to us since The Lost Dogs’ Home has for years now served the community on a national basis. We are confident that our national activities will greatly expand in the not so distant future.

Unfortunately the NGALG left its run a little late for next year’s (2006) census. At the time of its conference last November the deadline for such suggestions was long, long gone. No way could it be received, considered and acted upon by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in time for the 2006 national census.

However there will be another census in 2011 and we would encourage the NGALG to persist in its efforts. We will certainly have it in mind as a project to inititate in 2007-2008. So – as the saying goes – watch this space! It makes good census!

SOURCE:

Having accurate census data will help not just the Lost Dogs home, but also the RSPCA, by helping them do their job better by allocating resources to where they are needed. It will also help governments at all levels create policy that better deals with, and protect, our beloved pets. It's time to do it!

And that's all for this week, thankyou again for reading!

- Andrew
(the AmishThrasher Webmaster)

2,000 Hits, and Time to Step Up.

2005-07-28T11:35:00.000+10:00

Kerry Packer:
He wants to own all our media.

This week, the AmishThrasher crosses another milestone, having gotten 2,000 hits. But, as we celebrate this amazing achievement, there are stormclouds on the horizon. On the table are drastic plans to shake up Australia's media industry and dramatically limit the number of voices setting the agenda. These plans have been criticised both by commentators in the independent media, like Crikey, and by the opposition. The time is coming for Australia's indepedent media - including those of us in the blogosphere - to step up to the plate; our national discourse is under threat.As it stands, 1,979 people have logged on to the AmishThrasher since the site began; and perhaps before the next chance I get to update that number will tick over to 2,000. I would like to personally thank those who have checked out the AmishThrasher and helped us reach that amazing milestone. For everyone reading this, thankyou: we could never have done it without you!

But all is not sweetness and light in the media.

In fact, for the past decade, Australia's media policy has been badly mangled and mutilated. And the man most to blame is the former Communications Minister, Richard Alston. Alston, a former Senator, became infamous for his belief that the Internet - one of the most important social, economic, and technological revelations of the past decade - was useful only for pornograhy and games. And beyond fumbling broadband internet, Alston also stumbled when it came to digital TV.

Beyond the internet, digital TV represents perhaps one of the greatest opportunities to broaden the number of voices in the media in Australia. The reason for this is that digital TV signals take up a lot less bandwidth than a traditional analogue signal - in fact, you can do 'multichanneling', where you have 6 standard definition digital signals in the same bandwidth it takes for one standard definition (PAL) analogue signal. There is also the potential for 'datacasting', where digital signals are used for world wide web-style interactive multimedia; including streaming audio and video. Implimenting these technologies with responsible legislative controls could potentially mean an exciting array of new media choices and services for consumers, while at the same time reducing cross media ownership restrictions.

Alston instead chose to sell out these opportunities to big money, old media interests. Instead of getting 6 new digital channels for every current analogue channel, we got one HD-TV and one standard definition channel clogging up the possible bandwidth (one HD-TV station taking up the same bandwidth as about 5 or 6 standard definition channel). The door was bolted shut on new media players by a ban on anyone (bar the ABC and SBS) multichanneling, underfunding of the multichanneling efforts of the ABC and SBS, and an outright ban on new players starting up new channels until 2007. Oh, and the HDTV bandwidth was given away free to the existing TV channels. Hideous limits were placed on the Datacasters - no news, no sport, and no entertainment - and the auction for the channel failed when no-one showed up. Foxtel and the old media owners (like Kerry packer) got everything on their christmas wishlists. Even Rupert Murdoch was outraged about the restrictions on datacasting - of which News Corp had an interest in investing in.

The big problem with High Definition is that, unless you have a high definition home theater system, the difference makes little difference - yet it takes up significantly more of our precious bandwidth than Standard Definition. And those who have the money to splash out on high definition home theater systems would undoubtedly also get Foxtel Digital to get the best value out of it anyway. A better arrangement would be to make Foxtel Digital the exclusive preserve of high definition, while freeing up the free-to-air bandwidth for as many standard definition channels as possible. However, instead of more variety, a mix of big media and big government largesse won out; though the vast majority of the Australian public was sold out in the process. The resulting policy is a pathetic joke.

And it is against this background that the debate over media reform is happening. Where we could, in a more competitive media environment, be able to weaken controls on cross media and foreign ownership while still preserving - or even enjoring a greater diversity of - media voices than today, Alston's fumbling has made sure that without severe reforms to our digital TV regulations, deregulation will ensure that even more power is concentrated in a much smaller number of hands.

The future of our national discourse, and the diversity of our media, rests in the hands of the new Communications Minister, Helen Coonan.

According to Crikey.com:

Page one of Tuesday's Financial Review is dominated by a story under the heading "New TV channels in media plan," which outlines the fullest details yet of the government's blueprint to change the country's media laws.

The plan is presented as a bold "shake-up of the $12 billion media industry," that will "allow" TV networks to offer viewers multiple digital channels and "give" pay TV the right to broadcast more major sporting events.

And the good news doesn't end there. According to The Fin, Communications Minister Helen Coonan intends to introduce a "diversity" rule that "would ensure there were five large media companies in each capital city."

SOURCE: http://www.crikey.com.au/articles/2005/07/27-1406-1451.html

Yet Crikey is critical about the changes that have been outlined, writing:

there are currently nine large media companies operating in the two cities that really matter, Sydney and Melbourne. Count 'em:

* Newspapers: News Limited, Fairfax (2)

* TV: Nine, Seven Ten (3)

* Radio: Southern Cross, Austereo, Australian Radio Network, DMG (4)

According to The Fin, the five-company diversity rule will be the only cross-media restriction under the government's new plan – which means that companies could own newspapers AND television AND radio in one city (subject, of course, to ACCC approval).

And you don't need to be a mathematics professor to work out the answer to this primary school arithmetic test:

Question: If there are nine companies in the market now, and only five must remain after Mr Howard's new rules are introduced, how many companies can disappear to still ensure "diversity"?
Answer: Four.

Under the government's proposed "diversity" test, four major media companies in the country's major cities could be taken over by, or merged with, the remaining companies.

This is a media reform recipe that will bury Australian democracy. It will leave the country's key markets – where all the major commentary, analysis and media influence resides – with a handful of the most powerful media owners anywhere in the world.

SOURCE: ibid.

Kim Beazley has also been critical, according to the ABC:

Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says the Government's planned overhaul of media laws is another example of its extreme activities now that it has control of the Senate.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan is considering a raft of changes, including scrapping restrictions on foreign ownership and allowing companies to control more than one form of media in the same metropolitan market.

Senator Coonan has also reportedly proposed a forum of media executives be formed to allow them to discuss the changes.

Mr Beazley says the moves will simply harm diversity in the media.

"An essential part of democracy is diversity in the media and the media laws that were put in place by the previous government at least guaranteed a certain diversity," he said.

"It seems to me that what Senator Coonan proposes to do is to move away from that. That's not good for democracy here."

SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1422647.htm

The time has come for us, in the independent media, to step up to the plate. We need to both be a watchdog on these policy changes to make sure that they are implimented in a manner benefitting the Australian public, and also to fill the need for new voices (especially if our media laws are mangled in favour of big media interests). For those of us who take up the challenge, there are unique opportunities in the months and years ahead. And by independent media, I mean across the spectrum: from independent and community TV, to the street press, and especially online, and in the blogosphere. And it is a duty: the consequences of inaction on civic life in an Australia with few alternative voices means a concentration in the agenda setting power of the media; and we will all suffer as a result of this.

And the message to the Coallition needs to be simple: we are watching. The Australian people have entrusted you with a double majority (even though I personally don't think you deserve it). And we are watching Ministers, like Helen Coonan, closely. And if you abuse your power to reduce the number of agenda setting voices in the media and weaken our democracy, or abuse your power in other ways, we will make sure you are never entrusted with such power again.

Ever.

Important Site Update

2005-07-24T23:22:00.000+10:00

Time:
Something I may be needing a little more of...

Well, my mid-year holidays are just about over, and this has implications for the site. Over the past couple of months, I have endeavoured to try to update the site at least once a day (sometimes more often, sometimes less). But as of tomorrow, I start back at uni and - coupled with work - I won't have anywhere near enough time to update the site everyday. Given this, I have decided to drop back how often I post articles here to maybe once a week. But there is some good news on the horizon in regards to the site too, click on for details.My reason for making this decision is simple: as it stands, this site is just a hobby. While I would honestly love to be able to earn a living by running the AmishThrasher, at this stage it isn't half popular enough to do that. Oh, and I won't get a degree when I'm done with it.

During the past week or so, you will have noticed that I've tried a number of different formats for articles, including the AmishTrasher Wrap, and my reason for trying these out is to try and find a format in which I can cover a variety of issues in a single weekly post. While on some weeks I may write a whole post on a single issue, it may also be that there are a number of things that I want to tackle. Again, given the time constraints I have, I'll see if doing more AmishThrasher Wraps and Digests (like the Public Transport Digest I did a while ago) is a better way of going about it. Given I have a fairly long commute, another thing that you may see start to appear is 'quick updates' that I put together on the bus ride to or from uni.

For those of you out there who read this site regularly, don't dispair about a lack of updates just yet. I have invited a number of my friends to contribute to the site, if they wish to do so. And if they do, I'll set up accounts for them - again, hopefully over the coming few weeks. What this will mean to you, the reader, is site that covers a broader variety of subject matter far more regularly than I could hope to provide. Personally, I think this is a very exciting development.

I mentioned that I wanted to try doing some Podcasts or video clips on the blog, which is something I unfortunately haven't had a chance to do as yet. I'm not a politician, and given this I'd liek to appologise to anyone who has looked forward to seeing these. The reason that they haven't appeared is that I need to find a good webhost upon which I can store these features. Don't worry though; I am keen to add these at some point in the future. That said, over the past month (beyond redesigning the layout of the site), I have added a number of new features, including headlines from BBC News, daily horoscopes, and a chatroom. The thing about some of these interactive features (like the message board) is that the more you use them, the better they become. My hope is that the AmishThrasher will eventually become an online community, rather than just a blog.

Over the past couple of days, I have changed the format for most of the archives covering the articles I've posted over the past few weeks so that it's easier to find what you are looking for. If you haven't checked out the archive yet, there is a lot of cool stuff there and it's well worth checking out between updates. The other sites that I have linked to - including Sterne and Anonymous Lefty - are also well worth checking out in between updates.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, if you come here and see that I haven't updated in a number of days, don't worry; the site hasn't 'gone dark'; it's just that for practical reasons I haven't been able to update as regularly as I would have liked. Like always, if you have any feedback about anything I've talked about

Iraq Today Part II: The Insurgency, and Iran in Iraq

2005-07-23T12:12:00.000+10:00

Iran:
Did we give them control of Iraq?

I noted in Part I of this series that "an alliance of Pro-Iranian Shi'ite parties is the main group in Iraq's transitional government. Al-Jaafari, the transitional Prime Minister, is a member. The Kurds - as I estimated earlier, around 20% of the population, have also done well: they got Talabani as a Prime Minister. But this leaves the 18% of the population who are Sunni but aren't Kurdish unrepresented." As I will discuss in this article, leaving 18% of the population unrepresented does have implications for the Insurgency we are currently facing. But first, given the shift in 'justification' for the war in Iraq from weapons of mass destruction to 'freedom for Iraq', a recent article at Salon.com suggests that the transitional government, and the Iraq thus far, may have resulted in a more powerful Iran. The article, by Juan Cole, is entitled "The Iraq war is over, and the winner is... Iran." To read it, you need a "Day Pass" to their site (but it's worth it). For those who can't be bothered, I will post a few key excerpts here.

The first alarming development out of having the Shi'ite fundementalist-led transitional government in Iraq is the closer ties it is seeking with Iran:

On Saturday, Jaafari made a ceremonial visit to the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, on which he laid a wreath. In a meeting with Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei on Monday, according to the Tehran Times, Jaafari "called the late Imam Khomeini the key to the victory of the Islamic Revolution, adding, 'We hope to eliminate the dark pages Saddam caused in Iran-Iraq ties and open a new chapter in brotherly ties between the two nations.'" The American right just about had a heart attack at the possibility (later shown false) that newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been among the militants who took U.S. diplomats hostage in 1979. But the hostage takers had been blessed by Khomeini himself, to whom Jaafari was paying compliments.

When Jaafari met the head of the Iranian judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, on Tuesday, the two discussed expanding judicial cooperation between the two countries. Shahrudi said that cooperation with Iran's Draconian "justice system" has had a positive impact on other Muslim countries. He called for Iraq to coordinate with something called the "Islamic Human Rights Organization" -- an Orwellian phrase in dictatorial Iran, a state that tortures political prisoners and engages in other acts of brutality. And he urged the Iraqi government to put greater reliance on "popular forces" (local and national Shiite militias) in establishing security.
...
The previous week, Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi had made a preparatory trip to Tehran, exploring the possibility of military cooperation between the two countries. At one point it even seemed that the two had reached an agreement that Iran would help train Iraqi troops. One can only imagine that Washington went ballistic and applied enormous pressure on Jaafari to back off this plan. The Iraqi government abandoned it, on the grounds that an international agreement had already specified that out-of-country training of Iraqi troops in the region should be done in Jordan. But the Iraqi government did give Tehran assurances that they would not allow Iraqi territory to be used in any attack on Iran -- presumably a reference to the United States.

SOURCE: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/07/21/iran/

These is no understating how closer ties between Tehran and Baghdad has been a gift to Shi'ite fundementalist reigime in Iran:

The Iranians hold a powerful hand in the Iraqi poker game. They have geopolitical advantages, are flush with petroleum profits because of the high price of oil, and have much to offer their new Shiite Iraqi partners. Their long alliance with Iraqi president Jalal Talabani gives them Kurdish support as well. Bush's invasion removed the most powerful and dangerous regional enemy of Iran, Saddam Hussein, from power. In its aftermath, the religious Shiites came to power at the ballot box in Iraq, bestowing on Tehran firm allies in Baghdad for the first time since the 1950s. And in a historic irony, Iran's most dangerous enemy of all, the United States, invaded Iran's neighbor with an eye to eventually toppling the Tehran regime -- but succeeded only in defeating itself.

SOURCE: ibid.

This is important to remember, given that the current justification for our involvement in the Iraq War. George W. Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard, in my opinion, lied through their teeth about Weapons of Mass Destruction. When the WMD's failed to show up, the excuse shifted to justifying that the Iraq war was worthwhile because it bought 'freedom' and 'democracy' to Iraq. Well, our idea of 'freedom' and Iran's are two very different things. Bush said it himself when he called Iran one of the world's most dangerous reigimes. While it may be noble to send over 1,700 troops and 25,000 civilians to their deaths in the cause of bringing democracy and freedom to an oppressed people, to waste those same lives to shift the oppression of those oppressed people from Saddam to Iran is a callous waste; one which our so-called leaders should be called on.

One of the worst kept secrets of recent times is that the War in Iraq was never about fighting terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, or bringing Freedom and Democracy to the middle east; it was always about oil, and geopolitical power. By inadvertantly handing power in Iraq over to Iran, Bush's poor planning has lead to a deterioration in the west's geopolitical power in the region:

The ongoing chaos in Iraq has made it impossible for Bush administration hawks to carry out their long-held dream of overthrowing the Iranian regime, or even of forcing it to end its nuclear ambitions. (The Iranian nuclear research program will almost certainly continue, since the Iranians are bright enough to see what happened to the one member of the "axis of evil" that did not have an active nuclear weapons program.) The United States lacks the troops, but perhaps even more critically, it is now dependent on Iran to help it deal with a vicious guerrilla war that it cannot win.

SOURCE: ibid.

The current situation in Iraq is the product of massive incompetance and poor planning, pushed on the Australian public by a pack of liars, and paid for in blood. The weapons of mass destruction was a lie, and if Iran is allowed to reign over Iraq, bringing freedom is a lie. And as the general public wake up to this, there will be a massive backlash against the guilty.

The question, then, is what is Iran's new-found power in Iraq doing to the insurgency? Again, the answer is chilling:

Not surprisingly, the warming relations between Tehran and Baghdad have greatly alarmed Iraq's Sunni Muslims. They know that Iranian offers of help in training Iraqi security officers, and Iranian professions of support for a united, peaceful Iraq are code for the suppression by Shiite troops and militias of the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement. Many Iraqi Sunnis believe that the Sunni Arabs are the true majority, but that millions of illegal Iranian emigrants masquerading as Iraqi Shiites have flooded into the country, skewing vote totals in the recent elections. This belief, for all its irrationality, makes them especially suspicious of Shiite politicians cozying up to the ayatollahs in Tehran. A recent BBC documentary reported that the Sunnis of Fallujah despise Iraqi Shiites even more than they do the Americans, in part because they code them as Persians (in fact they are Arabs).

SOURCE: ibid.

Early this month, and late last month, I ran a series of articles examining some of the reasons behind the current insurgency in Iraq. Well, the reasons discussed in those articles have been augmented by the transitional government in Iraq.

As you will no doubt recall, around the elections there were bold predictions that the insurgency would end after the Iraqi elections; that a democratically elected transitional government would temper support for the insurgency. And this, to a degree, may have been the case in Kurdish and Shi'ite areas: for the reasons outlined, they still don't like the American Coallition, and in some cases may still be willing to attack it, but the democratically elected government does represent them.

In contrast to this is the 18% (or so) of the Iraq population who are Sunni but not Kurdish. The Shi'ite government cutting deals with Iran clearly doesn't represent them, and they dislike the Americans (and the coallition partners) for the reasons I've outlined in that series. And, in spite of protests to the contrary by Bush, Blair and Howard (and let's face it, they wouldn't admit that the situation in Iraq has made the terrorist threat more dangerous, now would they?) this is a dangerous mix of circumstances that have been created in Iraq.

And if the only light at the end of the tunnel is an Iraq controlled by Iran, perhaps it's time we re-assessed our continued support for it.

Iraq Today Part I: Who's Running Iraq?

2005-07-22T12:57:00.000+10:00

Ibrahim al-Jaafari:
The new Prime Minister. But who is he?

From across the globe, the current situation (which Australia is involved with) in Iraq can be confusing. To help, I've decided to run a series here at the AmishThrasher covering the basics of current events in Iraq. In part I, I look at who 'won' the Transitional Elections over there, who they are, and who they represent. Given the critical importance of Iraq as an ongoing issue, if you are unfamiliar with events over there, it is well worth reading on. Note that if you are interested in events in iraq, I highly reccomend Steve Gillaird, who I mentioned here earlier, and Juan Cole, which are excellent resources on current events in Iraq.

First, to understand the balance of power in Iraq, it is critical to understand its demographics:

There are more Arab Iraqi Muslims members of the Shiite sect than there are Arab Iraqi Muslims of the Sunni sect, but there is a large Sunni population as well, made up of mostly Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomans, (Shiite 60% of total population). Small communities of Christians, Baha'is, Mandaeans, Shabaks, and Yezidis also exist. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims.

Demographic information from the 2004 edition of the CIA's The World Factbook:
* Ethnic groups: Arab 70%-75%, Kurdish 20%-25%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 25%
* Religions: Muslim 93-95% (Shi'ite 60%, Sunni 40%), Christian,Yezidi or other 5-7%

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq

In other words:
* Approximately 20% of Iraq's Population are Kurdish, who are mostly Sunni Muslims. They are concentrated in the North.
* Approximately 18% of Iraq's Population are Sunni Muslims, who are not Kurdish. They are concentrated in the "Sunni Triangle", which includes Baghdad.
* Approximately 57% of Iraq's Population are Shi'ite Muslims. They are concentrated in the South of the country.
* Approximately 5% of Iraq's Population are none of the above.

Keep these in mind, as (like I said above) it is critical to understanding what's going on Iraq.

Just for some background, Iran is a Shi'ite Islamic state. Similarly, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is a Shi'ite.

In contrast to this, most of the rest of the Islamic world are Sunni Muslims. Similarly, Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein are Sunnis. Even though nearly 60% of Iraq's population is Shi'ite, Saddam Hussein belonged to the 18% who were Sunni.

A good place to start our look into who is in control in Iraq is the election of the Transitional Government in Iraq:

In the January 30, 2005, Legislative elections, the Iraqi people chose representatives for the newly-formed 275-member Iraqi National Assembly. The voting represented the first general election since the United States-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, and marked an important step in the transition of turning control of the country over from US occupation forces to the Iraqis themselves.
...
Provisional results released on February 13 showed that the United Iraqi Alliance, tacitly backed by Shi'a leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, led with some 48% of the vote. The Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan was in second place with some 26% of the vote. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party, the Iraqi List, came third with some 14%. In total, twelve parties received enough votes to win a seat in the assembly.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_legislative_election%2C_2005

So who is the United Iraqi Alliance; the main political alliance in the transitional coallition currently running Iraq? Well, for a start, they are an alliance of the main Shi'ite parties in Iraq. here are some details:

The United Iraqi Alliance is one of the electoral coalitions that participated in the January 30, 2005, National Assembly election in Iraq.

The alliance is made up of mainstream Shi'ite Islamic religious parties in the Iraqi Interim Government, liberal secularists, nuclear physicist Hussain Shahristani, some independent Sunni representatives and representatives of the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, a leader of disaffected Shi'a who is suspected by American occupational authorities of having ordered the 2003 murder of Ayatollah Abd al-Majid al-Khoi. The coalition is generally believed to be supported by senior Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most widely respected religious figure in Iraq, and although the Ayatollah has offered no official endorsement, many in the Iraqi public refer to the UIA as "al-Sistani's list."

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Iraqi_Alliance

This alliance has two key parties in control: the SCIRI (or Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq) and the Dawa Party. But who are these groups, and what do they believe? First, the Dawa Party:

The Islamic Dawa Party (Arabic transliteration: al-Da'wa al-Islamiyya) is an Iraqi political organization. It is one if the main Shi'ite parties. In the lead-up to the 2005 Iraqi election it cooperated with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and other Shi'ite groups in the United Iraqi Alliance. The party is led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a doctor, who now serves as Iraq's Prime Minister.

The party was formed in the late 1950s by a group of Shi'ite leaders, with Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr, the uncle of Muqtada al-Sadr, playing a prominent role. It was created to combat atheistic communism and Baathist Arab socialism which were then ascendant in Iraq. While founded and led by Shi'ites it worked closely with Sunni Islamic groups and a significant minority of the group's members were Sunnis. Al-Dawa rose to prominence in the 1970s when it waged a terrorist campaign against the Iraqi government. It supported the Islamic Revolution in Iran and in turn received support from the Iranian government, especially during the Iran-Iraq War. Despite this cooperation the Islamic Republic envisioned by al-Sadr differed sharply from that of Khomeini. While Khomeini, and the SCIRI, argued the power of the state should rest with the ulema al-Dawa supported the notion of power resting with the ummah.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Dawa_Party

Next, the SCIRI:

The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) is an Iraqi political party; its support comes from the country's Shi'ite Muslim community and from their fellow religionists in neighbouring Iran. Prior to August 2003, SCIRI was led by Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim; its current leader is the ayatollah's brother, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.

Ayatollah al-Hakim was killed in a car bomb attack in the Iraqi city of Najaf on August 29, 2003. The car bomb exploded as the ayatollah was leaving a religious shrine in the city, just after Friday prayers. At present no group has admitted responsibility for the attack, although many believe it is intersectarian violence.

The party was founded in 1982 after the near annihilation of the Islamic Dawa Party after the latter's failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein. It was largely based in Tehran and during the Iran-Iraq War the Iranians recognized the SCIRI as the government of the Islamic Republic of Iraq. The SCIRI ideology was closely based on that of Khomeini, and was far closer to the Iranian model than al-Dawa supporting the control of government by the ulema.

With the fall of Saddam after the 2003 invasion of Iraq the SCIRI quickly rose to prominence, working closely with the other Shi'ite parties. The party leaders toned down many of party beliefs and committed it to democracy and peaceful cooperation. SCIRI's power base is in the Shi'a-majority southern Iraq. It still has an armed wing, the Badr Brigade, with an estimated strength of between 4,000 and 10,000 men. Its Baghdad offices are based in a house that previously belonged to Ba'athist Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Council_for_the_Islamic_Revolution_in_Iraq

A member of this Shi'ite Alliance (including the SCIRI and Dawa), which won 48% of the vote, has become Iraq's Transitional Prime Minister:

Dr Ibrahim al-َAshaiqir al-Jaafari (إبراهيم الأشيقر الجعفري) (born 1947) is the new Prime Minister of Iraq in the Iraqi Transitional Government following the elections of January 2005. He is a Shiite and was previously one of the two vice-presidents of Iraq under the Iraqi Interim Government in 2004, and the main spokesman for the Islamic Dawa Party in Iraq.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_al-Jaafari

Meanwhile, the Shi'ites partners in government, the Kurdish Alliance, have gotten their leader appointed as President:

Jalal Talabani (born in 1933), is a seasoned Iraqi Kurdish politician, who was named State President of Iraq on April 6, 2005 by the Iraqi National Assembly. Talabani is founder and secretary general of one of the main Iraqi Kurdish political parties the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) . He was also a prominent member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council, which was established following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalal_Talabani

So an alliance of Pro-Iranian Shi'ite parties is the main group in Iraq's transitional government. Al-Jaafari, the transitional Prime Minister, is a member. The Kurds - as I estimated earlier, around 20% of the population, have also done well: they got Talabani as a Prime Minister. But this leaves the 18% of the population who are Sunni but aren't Kurdish unrepresented. As a result of the "one person, one vote" system that was implemented (rather than having a quota from each major Iraqi demographic group), many boycotted the elections.

And, as we will see in Part II, the power of the Shi'ite religious parties has come to a great benefit to Iran.

Time to Help the RSPCA

2005-07-21T13:39:00.000+10:00

Where elephants belong:
The Wild!

The RSPCA, in association with the IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) and HSI (Humane Society International), has launched a last-ditch effort to stop Thai elephants, which do not survive well in captivity, being imported by Australian Zoos. In a press-release on the subject, the RSPCA states that "Elephants in zoos breed poorly, with a high level of stillbirth and a very high rate of infant mortality, and also generally die at a younger age." The full press-release on the issue, in PDF format, is available here. For those of you who are interested in helping them out, information is available here.

The full Press Release Reads:

The RSPCA believes the welfare of elephants in zoos is severely compromised. The RSPCA will join IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) and HSI (Humane Society International) in appealing the decision by Environment Minister Ian Campbell to approve the importation The non-government organisations will also ask for an injunction to stop the zoos from moving the elephants before the AAT appeal is heard.

RSPCA Australia spokesperson Dr Hugh Wirth said today the RSPCA’s opposition to the plan was based on serious animal welfare concerns. “There is no doubt that the weight of scientific evidence goes against expanding the current zoo elephant population,” said Ms Speechley. “In allowing this importation to proceed, Minister Ian Campbell has condemned these elephants to a life of suffering in captivity,” she said.

The RSPCA is not opposed to zoos but points to recent scientific evidence which demonstrates that elephants are not suitable to be kept in captivity. RSPCA, IFAW and HSI also reject the zoos’ claim that the plan is in the interests of elephant conservation, rather than in the interests of raising profits for the zoos involved. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) states that endangered animals can only be imported for conservation and breeding purposes, not for commercial benefit. However, despite over 100 years of keeping elephants in captivity, Australian zoos have been unable to breed even one single Asian elephant. Furthermore, there is no plan to ever release any elephant back into the wild, placing any perceived conservation benefit in serious doubt.

“Taking elephants way from their home and family groups in Thailand, and sticking them in a zoo in the middle of Sydney or Melbourne, is no way to contribute to elephant conservation,” said Dr Wirth. “The elephant is a precious and endangered animal, not a tourist attraction,” Dr Wirth said. Elephants in zoos face restricted space and opportunity for exercise, unsuitable climate, small or unstable social groups and lack of opportunity to exhibit natural behaviours. Subsequent health problems suffered by elephants in zoos include serious foot and joint complaints and obesity. Elephants in zoos breed poorly, with a high level of stillbirth and a very high rate of infant mortality, and also generally die at a younger age.

SOURCE: http://www.rspcavic.org/news_info/media_releases/mr_thailandelephants.pdf

Speaking of the RSPCA, a group that does a lot of extrodinary work in helping animals, if you are interested in helping them out, you may want to check out their Animal Art Exhibition; it sounds like a great way to spend a day, and help a great cause:
Date: 14 - 24th July 2005
> Time: Monday to Friday      10:00am to 5:00pm
               Saturday & Sunday 1:00pm to 5:00pm
> Location: Glen Eira Council Gallery.
                      Corner Glen Eira & Hawthorn Roads, Caulfield. Gallery Ph: 9524 3214
> Entry: Via donation

More Details at http://www.rspcavic.org/events/artexhibition.htm

The AmishThrasher Wrap, July 21st

2005-07-21T10:44:00.000+10:00

AmishThrasher Wrap:
Mmmm... souvlaki

Today on the AmishThrasher Wrap: Remember Senator Ian Campbell? He's back, and he's just shocked that anyone would lie to him, telling ABC's 4 Corners that "You know, when a guy looks you in the eye and says he's going to either abstain or walk out of the room and shakes your hand, I come from a tradition of respecting that until proved otherwise... all I know is what's happened is they promised to do one thing, and did the other, and the result is foul." Not that he'd ever do anything like that! Plus a flashback to a Ruddock quote which, in the light of Vivian Solon's deportation, is worth remembering: "And the alternative course that is offered -- and when you recognise that at the moment in detention we have something like 1,600 people and 800 of those people, almost 800 of those people, are being held for removal -- in other words, they're not refugees." All that, and more, today in the AmishThrasher Wrap!Hi, and welcome to the AmishThrasher Wrap. Like I said, I'm looking at different ways of delivering content, especially once I get back to Uni, when the time I have to put this together will be a lot more limited. Anyway, here's a quick round-up of a number of recent issues in one post:

Whale Watching
I'll start the Wrap off by talking about the ABC's Four Corners Program this week, which dealt with the recent Whaling Summit. And while I have recently criticised the Environment Minister, Senator Ian Campbell, for his lies in the lead-up to the last Federal election (which you can read here), he does deserve to be commended for the work he put in in opposition to Japans move to re-legalise commercial whaling, and his opposition to the "Scientific Research" loophole which Japan has used to slaughter whales. During the Program, Japan's Representative to the IWC comes off as particularly loathsome.

That said, keeping in mind the porkies he told before the last Federal Election about Australia's nuclear waste dump being on an off-shore island and that the Northern Territory was not being investigated, take a look at some of his comments during the program. For example when the Solomon Island's Prime Minister lied about abstaining from the vote, Campbell said "You know, when a guy looks you in the eye and says he's going to either abstain or walk out of the room and shakes your hand, I come from a tradition of respecting that until proved otherwise." And I agree, politicians looking you in the eye and telling lies is disgusting. But apparently, in Campbells tradition, politicians telling porkies before an election to thousands over the radio is A-okay. Another quote from the Senator was "...all I know is, what's happened is they promised to do one thing, and did the other, and the result is foul." It's funny, the people in the Northern Territory who heard you tell them there would be no radioactive waste dump in the Territory feel the same way.

The transcript is online here.

The Ruddock Quotes
Moving on, from time to time I like to post past comments from pollies when their comments get exposed for lies. Well, given the recent crisis in the Detention Centre system, it is worth going back to see what, soon after the 2001 Federal Election, former Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock was saying about the detention centre system, in the wake of the illegal and immoral detention of Australian Citizens like Cornelia Rau, and the deportation of Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez-Solon. Here's a transcript of Ruddock on Lateline, broadcast on the 19/3/2002:

Ruddock defends detention of children

...And the alternative course that is offered -- and when you recognise that at the moment in detention we have something like 1,600 people and 800 of those people, almost 800 of those people, are being held for removal -- in other words, they're not refugees.

They have no lawful basis to be in Australia.

They could be removed tomorrow if they were prepared to cooperate with us...

SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/stories/s508634.htm

One of those people 'held for removal' - that is, waiting to be deported - would be Vivian Alvarez - Solon.

But if Ruddock was wrong that people slated for deportation had no legal basis to be in Australia, the question arises of how many of those 800 people that Ruddock had deported really were refugees? And just think, if even one of those 800 really was a legitimate refugee, we sent them back to a war-torn country where they would face persecution, and that they had risked everything to leave.

Meanwhile, given that Cornelia Rau, who was a diagnosed schizophrenic, was neither diagnosed correctly by Detention Centre officials, nor given adequate care for her condition, questions have been raised about the quality of health care (especially mental health care) in our detention centres. So what did Ruddock have to say about the state of these health services?

In relation to the others we have a duty of care which we accept and which we honour and we provide a very full and comprehensive set of medical services as well as other related services to ensure that they suffer as least as possible.

But we're not going to unwind the detention arrangements merely because people bring families and then demand with the support of well-meaning groups that they should be free in the Australian community because of potential harm that they may suffer.

This is a situation in which they have placed themselves.

SOURCE: ibid.

As the Rau case shows, the mental health services available to detainees is, at the very least, thoroughly incompetant. Did they suddenly deteriorate between this interview and when Rau was incarcerated? Or was Ruddock lied to by his own department and, for whatever reason, didn't find out for himself? Or was Ruddock simply lying through his teeth when he was saying this? Whatever the truth is, it doesn't look good for Ruddock.

And, as the interview notes, there were clear warnings by experts, as early as 2002, that things were deffinately awry in the system, especially in regard to mental health care. What did Ruddock do? Deny it, of course:

TONY JONES: These doctors are saying, Minister, there is cancer in the system.

You are not taking their advice, you will not allow them to make an independent assessment of what's happening inside these detention centres -- the state, the mental state of not only men and women but their small children.

PHILIP RUDDOCK: What we have is a number of doctors, and you've dealt with this earlier in the program, who made it their business to go and offer advice and consult with people without them very often knowing that's what was happening and who were under the professional care of other practitioners.

I don't think that's an appropriate or ethical way in which to undertake inquiries or to come to an informed view.

But we did set up an independent evaluation of all the medical service that we are operating to ensure that they are appropriate.

I'll have a report available fairly shortly which details the result of that.

I mean, I do take advice in these matters.

I take it seriously.

Detention is not intended to be punitive.

SOURCE: ibid.

I wonder what happend to Ruddock's personal inquiry? Regardless, since then, we have gotten the Palmer Report. And it's a shame that things have deteriorated - either during, or since - Ruddock's watch to the point where an official inquiry was necessary. Speaking of which, Crikey have a story about it here, where they highlight where Palmer identifies the immigration system as being “‘Process rich' and ‘outcomes poor'.” And Ruddock undeniably deserves a lot of the blame.

Port Phillip Bay and Coode Island Update
Recently, I ran a story at the AmishThrasher recommending the redevelopment of Coode Island - you can read it here (it's in the July Archives). Well, for those of you who are interested, the Victoria Greens and the Blue Wedge Coallition have a protest coming up over the issue. From the Green's website:

Despite very big questions hanging over the economics of channel deepening in Port Phillip Bay and growing community concern, the Port of Melbourne Corporation and the state government seem determined to push ahead with a nine week, $30 million plus, 'dredging trial' in the north and south of the Bay.

"Trial dredging" - due to commence as early [as the 2nd of August -] is simply the thin edge of the massive dredging operation (four times as big as has been done any where else in the world) which the Independent Panel Report stated in March this year, threatens serious and irreversible environmental damage to the Bay.

There should be a moratorium on any further dredging in Port Phillip Bay until an independent analysis is conducted of all the direct and indirect impacts and costs of channel deepening (not just the cost of the dredging operation).

WEAR RED, CARRY RED, SEE RED and join the Blue Wedges STOP THE DREDGE Protest rally,
1pm, Sunday July 31,
Greenwich Reserve, The Strand, Williamstown
(Melways 56C5)

SOURCE: http://www.vic.greens.org.au/content/

The Racist Professor
Finally, I'll wrap this up (no pun intended) with another follow-up to a story I did on Eric Rudolph, the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Terrorist who was recently thrown in jail. Senator Nettle has put up a press release about Andrew Fraser; the racist accademic who has recently been featured on programs like A Current Affair, and in various newspapers for his hateful views on people from Africa and Asia. It's worth checking out.

If there were a Professor in Australia who actively supported Islamic Extremism, they would rightfully be condemned. Well, Fraser's comments actively support the positions of the Christian Identity movement; an American Neo-nazi Terrorist movement of which Eric Rudolph was a member. He deserves the same sort of condemnation.

And that's a Wrap!
And that's all from the AmishThrasher Wrap for now, though there is heaps more on the website. Thankyou for reading it!

If you think that this is a worthwhile feature, please let me know, either by leaving a comment, e-mail, or on the Message Board. Also,I'm thinking about doing something like the AmishThrasher Wrap as an e-mail newsletter - would you be interested in it? or would I be better seved in posting a number of short, paragraph longstories on the front page? Any feedback would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks,
Andrew S.

Atlanta Terrorist Thrown in Jail.

2005-07-19T21:46:00.000+10:00

Eric Rudolph:
The face of a terrorist.

According to the New York Times, Eric Rudolph, the terrorist behind a number of deadly attacks including the attack on the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, has been thrown in jail. According to Wikipedia, "It has been alleged that Rudolph is an adherent of the extremist group Christian Identity, a sect that holds that white Christians are God's chosen people, and that others will be condemned to Hell." The crimes committed by this terrorist and his extremist group, Christian Identity, are disgusting and cowardly. Thankfully Rudolph, whose terrorist acts have seen innocent people killed, is being bought to justice. Arresting domestic terrorists like Rudolph, who has been nicknamed the "Birmingham Bomber" is a clear victory in the War on Terrorism.

Before going any further, here's some background on the crimes committed by this terrorist:

Of the bombings committed by Rudolph, the most notoriety came from the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta on July 27, 1996, during the 1996 Summer Olympics. The blast killed Alice Hawthorne and wounded 111 others. Melih Uzunyol, a Turkish cameraman who ran to the scene following the blast, died of a heart attack.
...
Rudolph has also confessed to the bombings of an abortion clinic in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs on January 16, 1997, a gay and lesbian nightclub, the Otherside Lounge, in Atlanta on February 21, 1997, injuring five, and an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama on January 29, 1998, killing Robert Sanderson and critically injuring Emily Lyons. Rudolph's bombs were made of dynamite surrounded by nails which acted as shrapnel, increasing the destructive power of the bombs. The use of two bombs is a common terrorist tactic: the second bomb is timed to target those responding to the first explosion.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Rudolph

Well, here's an excerpt from the American newspaper The New York Times, describing him facing justice for his horrendous crimes:

Victims Have Say as Birmingham Bomber Is Sentenced

By SHAILA DEWAN
Published: July 19, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 18 - It was Emily Lyons's first chance to address Eric R. Rudolph, the bomber whose attack on an abortion clinic here in 1998 left her half-blind and maimed. And she had plenty to say.

Ms. Lyons, who had been the director of nursing at the New Woman All Women Health Care clinic, called Mr. Rudolph a coward for making a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, and said, pointedly, that the clinics he bombed were still in operation today and that his attack had transformed her into a public figure who had raised thousands of dollars for abortion services.

And she told Mr. Rudolph at his sentencing Monday morning in Federal District Court, "I have more guts in my broken little finger than you have in your whole body."

Mr. Rudolph, who pleaded guilty in April to the Birmingham bombing and three bombings in Atlanta, was sentenced to two life sentences without parole for the Birmingham bombing. Judge C. Lynwood Smith ordered him to pay $1.2 million restitution to the victims, though he acknowledged that Mr. Rudolph had no financial resources. In August, Mr. Rudolph will be sentenced to two more life terms in Atlanta for attacks on another abortion clinic and a gay club and at the 1996 Olympics.

SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/national/19rudolph.html

Perhaps a little disconcerting was that Prosecutors, rather than sending this guy to dry out in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay, chose to deal with this as a criminal case. Even worse, Prosecutors chose to negotiate with this terrorist:

Prosecutors had agreed not to seek the death penalty if Mr. Rudolph helped them recover more than 250 pounds of explosives he had hidden in western North Carolina, buried in the wilderness where he had taken cover while in hiding. Officials announced the deal in April, after law enforcement agents recovered the explosives.

SOURCE: ibid.

Also very scary is the fact that, as shown in the following excerpt, Rudolph was able to obtain the ingredients for this bomb in a local Wal-Mart store. Also kind of creepy is the fact he wrote 'bomb' in his Bible:

Ms. Lyons, who has been vocal in her disappointment that Mr. Rudolph would not face capital punishment, read a seven-page statement recounting the many ways in which he had worked against himself: he saved the receipt for bombing components bought at Wal-Mart; he left explosive residue all over his trailer; he failed to notice that his intended target in Birmingham, the doctor providing abortions, did not use the clinic's front door; he left the bomb in plain sight instead of hiding it in the bushes; he wrote the word "bomb" in the margin of his Bible; and, ultimately, he failed to stop women from obtaining abortions.

SOURCE: ibid.

Fundementalists like Rudolph, who hijack a religion of peace and compassion and use it to further a violent agenda of hate - to put it bluntly - piss me off. These people do not represent Christianity, its values and morals, and its spirit of compassion. As you can see, this terrorist didn't achieve his end goal, and we must make sure he doesn't. As you may recall, a few days ago I wrote the following (about people like Rudolph) right here on the AmishThrasher:

The real enemy, both for compassionate people of faith and secular Humanists alike are those who try to hijack religion to push for radical, destructive agendas. Personally, it makes me thoroughly sick when I hear someone use religion as an excuse for racism; especially when it cuts against the fundamental message of their religion. Unfortunately, even within Australia, there are numerous so-called 'religious' groups actively trying to recruit people to their hateful cause. Such groups don't put their effort into social justice, but rather they actively undermine it. The goal of such wackos is to further their agendas of personal power, wealth, and hatred. And unfortunately, both in Australia and abroad, they seem to be growing in power, while giving people of good faith a bad name.

SOURCE: http://amishthrasher.blogspot.com/2005/07/volunteers-urgently-needed-in-mallee.html

The first thing authorities in the US should do is track down this extremist 'Christian Identity' group, and all those who support it or give it comfort, and bring them to justice. Meanwhile, here in Australia we need to seek out Fundementalist Christian groups and cults which seek a similar agenda and seek to use similar tactics, and bring those groups to justice. Like any terrorist groups, they need to be thoroughly infiltrated - top to bottom - by intelligence and law enforcement officials, neutralised, and its members bought to justice. We must apply a post September 11th mindset to all religious extremism, and crack down on all these groups.

Like any terrorist group, we need to find out what it is about this group, which makes it alluring to recruits. What makes people turn out like this terrorist,

And finally, all of us who believe in social justice and humanity - whether actively religious, or aethiest - must unite. For those of us who are actively religious, we need to reclaim the name of religion in the name of peace and justice from those religious wackos of all stripes - be they Islamic extremists, or other groups like Christian Identity or the Klan - who seek to use it to propogate hate. And it is up to us to set an example of social justice, progress, human rights, and compassion. To unite and work together to build and strengthen the cause of social justice in Australia and the world, against the thugs and wreckers who seek to undermine and attack it.

We must not give in to terrorists like Rudolph.

Why does Global Arms Control Matter?

2005-07-19T17:14:00.000+10:00

Handguns:
Should they be sold
for human rights abuse?

In a good piece of news, according to Amnesty International, "In the last week, thirteen more governments have announced their support for the international Arms Trade Treaty at a UN arms control meeting in New York. The governments of Benin, Colombia, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, the Netherlands, Norway, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Turkey, Uganda and the Vatican gave their support, bringing the treaty much closer to being a reality." While there is more work needed for a legally binding treaty selling or giving arms to those who want to commit human rights abuse, this is a clear step in the right direction. But why should the issue of arms control matter to ordinary Australians? Read on to find out.

Well, think about some of the horrific human rights abuses of the past few decades - the wholesale murder of civilian men, women and children in places like Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and more recently in the Darfur region of Sudan. The thousands of innocent people killed as a result. The idea that people would commit such horrific acts against their fellow man makes me sick to my stomach. Thinking about these situations, you have to wonder where exactly these monsters got their weapons - the hundreds of guns and thousands of rounds of ammo used in these protracted tradgedies.

And the answer is points to something that is perhaps as sickening as the acts themselves: there are people who either gave these armies their weapons for some sort of personal gain, or worse, knowingly sold those weapons for profits. Somewhere out there sleeping in their mansion after selling guns and ammo to some 3rd world tinpot dictator with the weapons, while knowing that thousands of kids would be shot and needlessly slaughtered as a result. It's thoroughly immoral, and it should be illegal too: globally.

And this is what Amnesty International is trying to do with Global Arms Control.

John Howard and George W. Bush claim that the reason for invading Iraq (after the Weapons of Mass Destruction failed to show up) was to stop human rights abuses by Saddam Hussein. Well, they should get behind Amnesty International in supporting Global Arms control to ensure that no other dictator, like Saddam Hussein, ever gets the opportunity to commit such large scale attrocities ever again. Australians who knowingly sell weapons that are used to abuse human rights deserve to be thrown in jail, and foreigners - and foreign businesses - that do it should be banned from doing business in Australia. And those tough laws must be adopted worldwide.

The fact is that Global Arms control matters because thousands more people will die - like they did in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and Darfur, if we do nothing. It's time our so-called 'leaders' stepped up to the plate and showed their leadership in arms control.

Here's the full text of Amnesty International's Press Release:

Thirteen more governments announce support for Arms Trade Treaty

18 July, 2005 | IOR 40/019/2005
In the last week, thirteen more governments have announced their support for the international Arms Trade Treaty at a UN arms control meeting in New York. The governments of Benin, Colombia, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, the Netherlands, Norway, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Turkey, Uganda and the Vatican gave their support, bringing the treaty much closer to being a reality, said campaigners today.

A number of other governments, including the EU countries, some East African states and the Mercosur grouping of Latin American states also made positive statements in favour of stronger export controls based on global minimum standards.

The proposed Arms Trade Treaty has the support of Nobel Laureates and citizens around the world. It would be legally binding and would ban arms transfers if they are likely to contribute to human rights violations or fuel conflict, or undermine development. The treaty would close the loopholes that currently exists between incompatible national arms export laws.

The new expressions of support for the Arms Trade Treaty came during a week-long conference at the UN in New York to review progress in curbing the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons under a 2001 agreement, the UN Programme of Action.

"While many governments are still failing to meet their obligations under the Programme, it is encouraging that momentum is building towards the agreement of a new legally binding treaty on export controls", said Brian Wood, arms control manager of Amnesty International.

"Governments at last seem to be waking up to the fact that hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are killed every year by armed violence. So many governments backing the treaty in just one week is a massive step towards enforcing stricter arms controls", said Anna MacDonald, Director of Policy at Oxfam.

"This is a major shift from the last UN review meeting two years ago, when export controls were barely on the table. As a result of strong campaigning from a global network of NGOs, along with the support of states including Kenya, UK, Costa Rica, Norway and Finland, states are recognising the necessity of a legally binding treaty," said Rebecca Peters, Director of IANSA.

SOURCE: http://www.amnesty.org.au/resources/newsroom/news?cid=1&pid=968

Rewarding Politicians for Incompetence.

2005-07-18T17:58:00.000+10:00

Meet Peter Beattie:
He wants to curb your freedom.

If nothing else, you have to credit the politicians for audacity. Within a week of the Palmer Report showing clear incompetance by government with mandatory detention, politicians like Queensland's Premier, Peter Beattie, have come forward to the Australian public asking us to, essentially, trust the government with even more power; this time, with a mandatory national ID card. Perhaps the most audacious aspect to all of this is that Beattie, whose state illegally held Rau as a prisoner, wants the government powers extended because of their incompetence with the powers that they already have! Beattie made the point in a recent interview where he stated that "The other thing about it, too, is we've had the problems with Cornelia Rau and the Alvarez case... Now a national ID system will have benefits in that." In other words, dangerously incompetent government departments and politicians should be rewarded with even more power, while we - the public - should be punished by being forced to give up more of our civil liberties. Really, it should be the other way around: incompetent government departments should be punished by having their power cut back, and incompetent politicians should be fired.

First, some history. In 1992, the Federal Government (under Paul Keating) gave itself (through the Immigration Department) the power to be able to detain, or deport, anyone who it thought was in the country illegally, without trial. After the 2001 Federal elections, those powers were strengthened and extended by the Howard government. The incompetence with which these powers were used by the immigration department was revealed when Cornelia Rau, an Australian citizen, was illegally arrested and detained while another Australian, Vivian Solon, was illegally deported. This incompetence with the powers the department already has been criticised in the resulting Palmer Inquiry. In the wake of this report, the guilty government bureaucracy either needs a serious overhaul, or to have their powers slashed dramatically - or both. To reward this bureaucracy for its utter ineptness with even more power would be an act of monumental stupidity.

An excuse often used to extend government powers is that if you have nothing to hide, you should have nothing to fear. Well, neither Rau nor Solon had anything to hide - they were both Australian citizens; so they really should have had nothing to fear either. Nothing to fear, that is, except for the abuse of power by a pack of over-zealous bureaucrats. And with the Australia Card, those same bureaucrats would gain access to a Soviet-style centralised government database potentially linking all your personal information, both public and private. Your right to privacy goes out the window, and the potential for abuse is enormous. Do we really want to give the same government bureaucracy and politicians that have already been shown to be incompetent that much power?

I, for one, think that it would be an incredibly stupid thing to do, which is why I don't support it.

John Howard has found a different excuse for attacking your privacy with an Australia Card, when he stated (according to The Age) that "This is an issue that ought to be back on the table but back on the table as part of inevitably looking at everything in the wake of the terrible tragedy in London." The problem is that most of the London terrorists were born and raised in the UK. Using such a large scale database would mean scouring through the personal details of millions to find a couple of dozen people, and would necessitate both a massive and comprehensivefile on everyone; resources that should be spent on human intelligence; on infiltrating and undermining extremist organisations both at home and abroad.

Howard and Beattie think we should have a national debate over whether we should introduce the Australia Card. Well, in the wake of the Palmer Report we do need a national debate, alright. But it should be a very different one to the one Howard and Beattie have in mind: the debate shouldn't be over introducing an Australia Card, but rather over how many of these pollies deserve to get fired at the next election. And how many more deserved to be fired if they pull through with this scheme.

The Challenge: How the Pollies Responded.

2005-07-17T11:51:00.000+10:00

Spring Street:
Who bothered to Reply?

One week ago (between 1:09 and 1:25 PM on the 9th of July), I sent e-mails to the ALP, Liberals, and Greens. The aim of the excercise is simple: to see what kind of responses I would get to a bunch of simple questions about their policies on public transport. Given my commentary on the delapidated and underused state of metropolitan Melbourne's public transport infrastructure, this would provide the parties with both a right-of-reply, and an opportunity to address some of the problems I had identified. It would be interesting to repeat the excercise in the lead up to the next state election to compare how much more prompt the replies are. So which of the 3 parties performed best in our challenge?

It took a couple of days for any of the parties to reply to the request: the first reply I got back was on Tuesday (the 12) when, at 12:55, I got the first e-mail back. Who was the first party to respond? The Greens, with the following e-mail (some names and e-mails have been removed):

From: xxx@vic.greens.org.au
Subject: Re: Public transport policies etc.
Date: 12 July 2005 12:55:14 PM
To: amishroadkill502@hotmail.com
Cc: xxx@vic.greens.org.au
Reply-To: xxx@vic.greens.org.au

Andrew (? surname?),

thanks for your enquiry. I have responded to the particular issues
below. I would have copied this query to our public transport
spokesperson, but unfortunately we are in the process of re-appointing
this person.

So please see if this helps. And get back to me if necessary.

On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 13:25 +1000, Andrew wrote:
> To whom it may concern,
> I would like to make some inquiries in regard's to the Greens current
> public transport policy. Here are some specific questions I have in
> regards to such policies in metropolitan Melbourne. Any assistance
> would be greatly appreciated:
>
> 1) In brief, what are the key priorities of the Greens public
>transport policies, and where is more information about it available?

Our state policies are at: http://vic.greens.org.au/content/about-the-greens/policy/Passenger Transport.

>
> 2) How do current Green policies in regards to public transport differ
> from those under the Bracks Government?

I am not able to give you this analysis, in my role. Perhaps the spokesperson can do this, once appointed. Similarly with the specific queries below.

Your patience in this matter is most appreciated.

--
??? ???
Party Administrator
Direct Email) xxx@vic.greens.org.au
From the Front Desk, Vic State Office.

Australian Greens (Victoria)
GPO Box xxxx
MELBOURNE VIC 3001
General email) xxx@vic.greens.org.au
Ph: (xx) xxxx xxxx
Fax: (xx) xxxx xxxx
Web site: www.vic.greens.org.au

NOTE: the AGV State Office is open Mon-Thur 10.00 am - 6.00 pm.
********************************************************************

In other words, in spite of not currently having a Public Transport spokesperson, the Greens were the first of the 3 parties to respond to my e-mail. While they didn't reply to any of my questions, they did provide a link to the website where they present their public transport policies. I'll have a look at these policies in greater depth later.

Anyway, less than an hour after recieving the e-mail from the Greens, I got a letter back from the ALP. Basically it was a stock e-mail simply acknowledging that they had recieved an e-mail from me, and that it was being "receiving attention" with a response coming as soon as possible. What I suspect it means is that it landed in some secretary's inbox, was deemed unimportant. and will get replies to me whenever they get around to it - if they get around to it. If they do eventually reply, I will post the e-mail here in full with comments.

So what of the Liberals? Well, thus far, no response or acknowledgement whatsoever. In thsi challenge, they have clearly performed the worst of the bunch. This really is a poor communications effort, from the State Liberals, to an active voter. Or do voters only matter before elections?

So far in our challenge, the Greens have clearly performed best, even with one hand tied behind their backs, making a genuine effort to reply to my concerns. It's appreciated. As I said earlier, if I get any more replies I'll post them, but after a week, I'm honestly not holding my breath on it. In contrast to the Greens, both of the major parties have performed very poorly - thus far - at this challenge.

Forget Nuclear Waste, Let's Dump Some Pollies!

2005-07-16T13:16:00.000+10:00

Radioactive Lies:
Another day in Canberra.

During the last election campaign, the Federal Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, promised that "The only options that we're pursuing are on offshore islands. I think the reality of this is that there's no one on the mainland who particularly wants a nuclear waste dump in their backyard, and that is why we're pursuing the practical option of going to an offshore island, so the Northern Territorians can take that as an absolute categorical assurance." Less than one year on, the ABC reports that "The Federal Government has announced that a new radioactive waste facility will be located at a Commonwealth-owned site in the Northern Territory." With liars like Campbell, perhaps radioactive waste isn't the only thing needing to be dumped?During the 2004 election campaign, the Liberal Party's Federal Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, categorically assured voters in the Northern Territory that Australia's nuclear waste would be dumped on an offshore island, rather than on Australia's mainland. During the radio broadcast, he told thousands of radio listeners that:

Coalition rules out nuclear waste dump for the mainland

PM - Thursday, 30 September , 2004 18:38:00
Reporter: Anne Barker
IAN CAMPBELL: The only options that we're pursuing are on offshore islands. I think the reality of this is that there's no one on the mainland who particularly wants a nuclear waste dump in their backyard, and that is why we're pursuing the practical option of going to an offshore island, so the Northern Territorians can take that as an absolute categorical assurance.
...
IAN CAMPBELL: It's going to be an Australian offshore island. I'm not going to get into the business of ruling out every one of the thousand Australian islands, we're going to get the very best scientific advice which makes it a safe, secure environment on an offshore island for the future of Australia.

SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1210748.htm

When a senior Government Minister promises that the only options being investigated are on offshore islands, and offers it as a categorical assurance (his words, not mine) to voters, you would think that the waste dump would end up being built on as offshore island, right? Fast forward to Friday, the 15th of July:

NT chosen as site of new waste dump

The World Today - Friday, 15 July , 2005 12:10:00
Reporter: Samantha Hawley
After months of speculation, the Federal Government has this morning announced that the nation's new nuclear waste dump will be located in the Northern Territory.
...
BRENDAN NELSON: The Keating Labor Government in the early 90s did look at a range of sites and chose the Woomera site. We spent specifically eight years building up that site. The parochialism and the efforts undertaken by the South Australian Government were such that in the end we had to abandon that site last year.

Whether these sites were considered in the early process, I'm not able to tell you. After the decision to move away from Woomera, we did examine very closely an offshore site. We looked specifically at Christmas Island, which we considered to be unsuitable for security, geological, environmental, and other reasons.

We have concurrently been looking at several sites in the Northern Territory, and we have chosen these three.

SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1415026.htm

It's abundantly clear that, as well as the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, this is another massive lie from the Federal Government. It is a lie on two counts - first, the "categorical assurance" that "It's going to be an Australian offshore island". The second lie is the one about "The only options that we're pursuing are on offshore islands", and this is clearly contradicted by Brendan Nelson's announcement that "We have concurrently been looking at several sites in the Northern Territory, and we have chosen these three." And if the only options the Government really was persuing were on offshore island, then Nelson would have no problem saying so now. In other words, at the very moment that Ian Campbell was making those promises, his department was concurrently, actively investigating 3 sites in the Northern Territory. If Campbell, the responcibile minister, didn't know what his own department was doing in concurrently investigating the NT sites, then that in itself is sheer utter incompetance for which he deserves the sack. On the other hand, if (as I suspect) he knowingly lied to the public, then that's even worse, and he must be held accountable.

Meanwhile, John Howard has stated that "This country has enormous supplies of uranium and it would strike a lot of people as an odd contradiction that we would not allow a debate on nuclear power in Australia yet we would be quite happy under appropriate safeguards to export large amounts of uranium." (SOURCE: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10334951) Okay, how's about we start the debate with this: which offshore island will we dump the waste from these powerplants on? And if there is no island chosen for this nuclear waste dump, then we really need to debate exactly how many votes the Government - especially the likes of Campbell - deserve at the next Federal election.

According to a Press Release from the Greens, I'm not the only one angry at these liars:

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle today accused the federal government of cynical political manipulation by promising Northern Territorians during last years election campaign that there would be no nuclear waste dump in the NT but today announcing that there will.

"This is another election promise back flip that underlines the untrustworthiness of this government," Senator Nettle said.

"The Minister for the Environment Senator Ian Campbell told ABC Radio on the 30th of September 2004 that 'the only options that we're pursuing are on offshore islands. I think the reality of this is that there's no one on the mainland who particularly wants a nuclear waste dump in their backyard, and that is why we're pursuing the practical option of going to an offshore island, so the Northern Territorians can take that as 'an absolute categorical assurance' .

"Dr Nelson has made a liar of Senator Campbell.

"Territorians should be very concerned about this dump at a time when the federal government is talking up the development of nuclear power in Australia, building a new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights and pushing for an expansion of nuclear power worldwide to boost Australian uranium
exports.
...
"The Greens are concerned that establishment of a dump will encourage an expansion of the nuclear industry in Australia. The nuclear industry produces the most dangerous pollution on earth and facilitates nuclear weaponary proliferation and should be wound down not expanded."

Which raises the question: why do these lying pollies, like Ian Campbell, get away with it? In many cases, because we let them. In fact, in some cases we reward the liars with bigger majorities and more seats. We, as voters, need to make it clear to these liars that their lies will not be tollerated any longer; that the liars will be voted out of power. The message to the pollies if this happens will be simple: You lie and you're fired.

Look, I can understand that sometimes things don't always go to plan. But even in such cases, politicians shouldn't make such outlandish promises about things that they know they won't be able to deliver on, and the person responcible at the very least should appologise, and then possibly step aside. That isn't the case here. As we can seen, by Brendan Nelson's own admissions, Campbell lied. And we will continue to have a lying Federal Government until they are held accountable for their lies.

Volunteers Urgently Needed in Mallee Next Weekend

2005-07-15T23:20:00.000+10:00

The Mallee:
Looking for volunteers.

According to this press release, "Drought Recovery Worker in the Mallee, Rev. Brad Harris, urgently needs four car loads of willing volunteers to help plant native trees at Sea Lake in the Mallee. The trees will make a long term difference in soil quality and prevent erosion. People from the city with a heart to support rural communities are encouraged to volunteer." For those of you who are reading this and are interested in camping, this is a great opportunity to not go camping next weekend, and at the same time also help the environment, and those who have been hit hard by drought. But even for those of you who aren't, the call for volunteers illustrates some interesting points, witin the context of recent debates in the blogosphere (read on to see why). An effort has been organized for next weekend to bring together a group of campers, from both the city and country, who are willing to plant trees in the Mallee region of Northwestern Victoria. The trees that get planted will help both the environment, by soaking up salt from the soil, and by improving the soil, will also help farmers who have been hit hard by drought. By inviting us city-slickers along, the organisers also hope to help build ties between the city and the country. For those of you who are interested in the volunteer effort (and even those of you who are not), here is the full text of the press release:

DROUGHT ASSISTANCE: URGENT NEED TO PLANT 4000 TREES

Drought Recovery Worker in the Mallee, Rev. Brad Harris, urgently needs four car loads of willing volunteers to help plant native trees at Sea Lake in the Mallee. The trees will make a long term difference in soil quality and prevent erosion. People from the city with a heart to support rural communities are encouraged to volunteer.
...
Mallee Farmers have expressed concern that their needs and problems are not well understood by city people. Offers of material aid, and of work parties, are difficult to respond to, but conservation measures needing real hands-on efforts are very much needed as farmers embrace long term Government offers to restore flora and fauna values, combat salinity and erosion, and make farming operations more sustainable.

If you can garden and walk all day, you will keep up. Garden gloves, raincoats, boots. Training in planting, lunch and dinner on Saturday and the chance to attend Sea Lake worship on Sunday will give you a window on life in the Mallee as people try to recover lost ground. The tree lines (four trees wide and 2 kms or more long) are local species planted as part of a national design to recover natural values and part of the Biolinks program to rebuild animal migration corridors to increase habitat. Two sites are prepared in this area, Nandaly and Tyrrell near Sea Lake.

Drought Recovery Worker in the Mallee Rev Brad Harris is attempting to garner support from Uniting Church people to help with the task. He urgently needs four carloads of willing volunteers to help plant native trees at Sea Lake in the Mallee. People from the city with a heart to support rural communities are encouraged to volunteer. Camp at the Manse or at Green Lake Friday 21st and Saturday. Contact Brad Harris 0417 550 822 or try 5026 3125.

SOURCE: http://vic.uca.org.au/media/releases/2005/DROUGHT_ASSISTANCE.pdf

Reading this press release, notice that the organizer for this community and environment building project is a Uniting Church Reverend. Also notice the line "... hands-on efforts are very much needed as farmers embrace long term Government offers to restore flora and fauna values, combat salinity and erosion, and make farming operations more sustainable." You could say that it's a a case of church and state uniting - to help the environment.

I mention this against the backdrop of the recent debate that was sparked by Treasurer Peter Costello visiting the evangelical Hillsong Church in Sydney, and the electoral success of the right-wing Family First party at the last Federal election. In the wake of this, some secular humanists - those who don't actively participate in religious activities - have attacked organised religion. I'm sure many of those reading this will be familiar with most of the arguments; how religion is used to justify war, or how it is used to hold the disadvantaged and underpriviliaged down.

Such arguments overlook the essential role that religion, and compassionate and truthful religious people, play in helping the downtrodden and advancing social justice in our society. Think about the countless hours put in for volunteers of a range of religious charities like the Salvation Army, the Brotherhood of St Lawrence, Anglicare, UnitingCare, the St. Vincent dePaul Society, and numerous others. Thnk about the front line advocacy and lobby work put in by numerous religious groups for a number of social justice causes, like workers rights and the environment. Think about the rallies in facor of refugee rights and against war over the past few years, which featured contingents of people from all faiths - Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddist, Muslim, and Hindu. Think of the example I discussed above, where a Uniting Church Reverend is doing thankless work for the environment and drought relief. Are their acts of conscience and compassion somehow less worthy because of the fact that those who undertake them also believe in a benevolent deity? Or is there a shared common sense of conscience and compassion with those secular humanists who, while not actively participating in any religion, also share a belief in social justice, and put in countless hours to advance the cause of social justice in Australia, and around the world?

The real enemy, both for compassionate people of faith and secular Humanists alike are those who try to hijack religion to push for radical, destructive agendas. Personally, it makes me thoroughly sick when I hear someone use religion as an excuse for racism; especially when it cuts against the fundamental message of their religion. Unfortunately, even within Australia, there are numerous so-called 'religious' groups actively trying to recruit people to their hateful cause. Such groups don't put their effort into social justice, but rather they actively undermine it. The goal of such wackos is to further their agendas of personal power, wealth, and hatred. And unfortunately, both in Australia and abroad, they seem to be growing in power, while giving people of good faith a bad name.

The time has come to build bridges and unite. To unite all people of good faith, from all good faiths, and all those of good faith who don't actively participate in any faith. To unite and work together to build and strengthen the cause of social justice in Australia, against the thugs and wreckers who seek to undermine and attack it. We can make this country a great place to live, but it will take all of us.

Together.

The Community Calendar 15/7/2005

2005-07-15T15:04:00.000+10:00

Melbourne:
What's on around this old city today?

Welcome to another new feature I'm trialing on the AmishThrasher. This is a calendar of community events in, and around, Metropolitan Melbourne. If you know of any community events coming up over the next few months (which are not listed in this calendar), or if you have a correction to make, please e-mail me (amishroadkill502@hotmail.com) the details and I'll look in to it. Like always, please discuss any feedback about it on the message board, in comments, or by e-mail. Time permitting, i'd love to make this a regualr feature at the AmishThrasher.

Friday, July 15

Infant Immunisation in the Willis Room, Whitehorse Civic Centre, 379 Whitehorse Rd, Nunawading, 9-10.30am. Ph: 9262 6197.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, July 16

Whitehorse Film Society presents Tais-Toi in the Willis Room, Whitehorse Civic Centre, 379 Whitehorse Rd, Nunawading at 7.30pm. Annual subscription cost: $50, $45 concession for 19 films. Ph: Jenny, 9803 3003.

Boroondara Farmer's Market, Location: Patterson Reserve, Auburn Road, East Hawthorn, Time: 8:00am to 1:00pm, A $2 donation will support Foundation Boroondara and Rotary projects. For further information contact Elisa Grassa on 9278 4814.

4. International Children's Festival: 17 schools will be celebrating the 4. International Children’s Festival. It will bring all children from different backgrounds together to paint the picture of one happy family and celebrations bring together the unity of children from different races and cultures. The event itself promotes peace and harmony and we uniquely call this multiculturalism in Australia. School children from Prep – Year 8 are invited to put on a performance for the general public. Event sponsored by City of Melbourne, Aust. Multicultural Association & ATBC.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, July 17

Eisteddfod Showcase Concert: Eisteddfod Showcase concert at the Hawthorn Town Hall. Free. Commences 2pm.

Monday, July 18

Rea Woodford Awards, Box Hill Art Group Inc. 18 July – 23 July. Box Hill Community Arts Centre, 470 Station St, Box Hill. Ph: 9898 3544

Tuesday, July 19

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Wednesday, July 20

Infant Immunisation Burgess Family Centre, 15 Barwon St, Box Hill North, 9-11.15am. Ph: 9262 6197.

Thursday, July 21

General Meeting Box Hill Historical Society, Strabane Chapel Hall, 29 Strabane Avenue, Mont Albert North at 8pm. Ph: 9897 4167.

Belly Dancing Classes at Box Hill South Neighbourhood House, 47 Kitchener Street, Box Hill South. Cost: $75 for 8 weeks beginning 21st July. Ph: 9898 8270.

Wesley Watercolours - Town Hall Gallery Works from the Wesley College Collection: Opening Night: 6-8pm, Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Ph: 9278 4770

Friday, July 22

Wesley Watercolours - Town Hall Gallery Works from the Wesley College Collection: 12pm - 5pm, Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Ph: 9278 4770

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, July 23

Canterbury Craft Market East Burwood Hall, East Burwood Reserve, 298-366 Burwood Hwy, Burwood East from 9am-2pm. Free entry. Ph: Sheila, 9569 8064.

Wesley Watercolours - Town Hall Gallery Works from the Wesley College Collection: 12pm - 5pm, Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Ph: 9278 4770

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, July 24

The Whitehorse Orchestra – Paddington Bear’s First Concert. Holy Redeemer Hall, Cnr York St & Mont Albert Rd, Surrey Hills. Ph: 9879 7672.

Wesley Watercolours - Town Hall Gallery Works from the Wesley College Collection: Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Ph: 9278 4770

Nunawading Art & Craft Market Whitehorse Civic Centre, Whitehorse Road, Nunawading from 9am-2pm. Ph: 0412 324 249.

Monday, July 25

Monthly Luncheon Meeting Box Hill V.I.E.W. Club, Mitcham RSL. Ph: 9836 1797.

Tuesday, July 26

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Infant Immunisation Burgess Family Centre, 15 Barwon St, Box Hill North, 6-7.45pm. Ph: 9262 6197.

Good Life Program Whitehorse Community Health Service. 7 week program from 10am-12.30. Ph: 9890 2220.

Wednesday, July 27

The Getting of Wisdom – The Musical Presbyterian Ladies’ College, 141 Burwood Hwy, Burwood at 7.30pm. Ph: 9808 5811. 2pm.

Wesley Watercolours - Town Hall Gallery Works from the Wesley College Collection: 12pm - 5pm, Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Ph: 9278 4770

Thursday, July 28

Infant Immunisation Box Hill South Family Centre, 1228a Riversdale Rd, Box Hill South, 9-10.30am. Ph: 9262 6197.

The Getting of Wisdom – The Musical Presbyterian Ladies’ College, 141 Burwood Hwy, Burwood at 7.30pm. Ph: 9808 5811. 2pm.

Friday, July 29

Surrey Music Café Box Hill Community Arts Centre, 470 Station St (Cnr Combarton St), Box Hill at 7.30pm. Cost: $14. Ph: 9262 6555.

The Getting of Wisdom – The Musical Presbyterian Ladies’ College, 141 Burwood Hwy, Burwood at 7.30pm. Ph: 9808 5811. 2pm.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, July 30

The Getting of Wisdom – The Musical Presbyterian Ladies’ College, 141 Burwood Hwy, Burwood at 7.30pm. Ph: 9808 5811. 2pm.

Forgotten Faces: Chinese and the Law
Drawing on the immense archival treasures of Public Record Office Victoria and the collection of the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, Forgotten Faces presents fascinating photographs of 19th century Chinese prisoners, never before exhibited. Along with poignant individual stories and artefacts, these haunting photos give us a glimpse into the lives of these Chinese men who sought the “New Gold Mountain” in Victoria.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, July 31

Basic Acupressure Box Hill South Neighbourhood House, 47 Kitchener Street, Box Hill South. From 9.30am-4pm. Cost: $50. Ph: 9898 8270.

Monday, August 1

Tuesday, August 2

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Wednesday, August 3

Thursday, August 4

Friday, August 5

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, August 6

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, August 7

Craft Market: 10:00am to 3:00pm, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Rd Hawthorn. Contact 9278 4444 for inquiries.

Monday, August 8

Tuesday, August 9

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Wednesday, August 10

Thursday, August 11

Friday, August 12
Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, August 13
Forgotten Faces: Chinese and the Law
Drawing on the immense archival treasures of Public Record Office Victoria and the collection of the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, Forgotten Faces presents fascinating photographs of 19th century Chinese prisoners, never before exhibited. Along with poignant individual stories and artefacts, these haunting photos give us a glimpse into the lives of these Chinese men who sought the “New Gold Mountain” in Victoria.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, August 13

Monday, August 14

Tuesday, August 16

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Wednesday, August 17

Thursday, August 18

Friday, August 19

Open Store: Come and explore the treasures of the City of Boroondara Civic Collection in the store room with the Curator. Please note that this program runs for approximately 1 hour and people will need to stand. Participants to meet in the Town Hall Gallery prior to program - Rear Entry, Lower Level Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthron VIC 3122. Bookings are essential as places are limited, phone 9278 4775.

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, August 20

Boroondara Farmer's Market: Patterson Reserve, Auburn Road, East Hawthorn, 8:00am to 1:00pm, .A $2 donation will support Foundation Boroondara and Rotary projects. For further information contact Elisa Grassa on 9278 4814.

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, August 21

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Monday, August 22

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Tuesday, August 23

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Wednesday, August 24

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Thursday, August 25

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Friday, August 26

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, August 27

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Forgotten Faces: Chinese and the Law
Drawing on the immense archival treasures of Public Record Office Victoria and the collection of the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, Forgotten Faces presents fascinating photographs of 19th century Chinese prisoners, never before exhibited. Along with poignant individual stories and artefacts, these haunting photos give us a glimpse into the lives of these Chinese men who sought the “New Gold Mountain” in Victoria.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, August 28

Melbourne Writers' Festival: The 20th Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival is Australia's premier literary event. For ten days Melbourne will be host to authors from across the world and around Australia, including Steven Booth, John Harvey, Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall-Smith and Douglas Coupland. Plus local authors including Kate Grenville, Sonya Hartnett, Jane Clifton, Delia Falconer, Robert Manne, Robert Drewe, Tony Wilson and Sean Condon.

Monday, August 29

Tuesday, August 30

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Wednesday, August 31

Thursday, September 1

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates, Opening night: 6-8pm, Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Friday, September 2

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, September 3

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, September 4

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Craft Market: 10:00am to 3:00pm, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Rd Hawthorn, Contact 9278 4444 for inquiries.

Monday, September 5

Tuesday, September 6

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Wednesday, September 7

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Thursday, September 8

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Friday, September 9

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Wednesday, September 14

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Thursday, September 15

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Slides & Sushi: 6 - 8pm. Town Hall Gallery prior to program - Rear Entry, Lower Level Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthron VIC 3122. Bookings essential as places are limited, phone 9278 4775.

Friday, September 16

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, September 17

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Boroondara Farmer's Market, Patterson Reserve, Auburn Road, East Hawthorn. 8:00am to 1:00pm. A $2 donation will support Foundation Boroondara and Rotary projects. For further information contact Elisa Grassa on 9278 4814.

Sunday, September 18

Monday, September 19

Tuesday, September 20

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Wednesday, September 21

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Thursday, September 22

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Friday, September 23

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, September 24

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, September 25

Monday, September 26

Tuesday, September 27

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Wednesday, September 28

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Thursday, September 29

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Friday, September 30

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, October 1

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, October 2

Monday, October 3

Tuesday, October 4

Free Tai Chi at Fed Square
Indulge the body, mind and soul at Federation Square with Tai Chi. A free Tai Chi class is held every Tuesday from 7.30am to 8.30am and open to everyone. Led by experienced instructors, held in the main square. Begin each Tuesday, refreshed, rejuvenated and energised! For further information on Tai Chi visit www.taichiaustralia.com.au

Wednesday, October 5

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Thursday, October 6

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Friday, October 7

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Produce Market at Fed Square
Held each Friday, the Produce Market at Federation Square offers fresh, clean, high quality Victorian produce from delicious seasonal produce to specialist year-round products. Stalls include - on a rotating basis: organic vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, muesli, preserves, smoked trout, cheeses, pastas, sauces, oils, pates, dips and chocolates to name but a few.

Saturday, October 8

Town Hall Gallery Works by Ballarat University MA & PHD candidates: 12pm - 5pm. Rear entry, lower level, Hawthorn Town Hall, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Several artists from the exhibition will be conducting floor talks. For exact times please contact Leisure & Culture on 9278 4770.

Books at Fed Square
Immerse yourself at Melbourne’s premier book market held every Saturday at Federation Square. Select from a range of pre-loved, new and specialized books, and with over 5000 titles on display, you are sure to find something you can’t wait to get home and read! Each week around 10-15 stallholders, whom collectively share almost 200 years experience specialising in fields of literature, gardening, history, photography and art, offer a range of books that will suit a wide array of interests.

Sunday, October 9
Whitehorse Spring Festival, Whitehorse Civic Centre Lawns, 379 Whitehorse Road Nunawading, 10am - 4pm.

INXS Idol: Selling Out a Dead Man

2005-07-14T23:54:00.000+10:00

Michael Hutchence:
Spinning in his grave tonight.

For those of you who have been reading the AmishThrasher for a while, you'll probably remember that this site began - over a year and a half ago - under the title "Truth of the Music Industry". For those of you who are newer to the site, it's definately worthwhile to click back through the first few months of the archives as there are some great posts articles about the music industry in there. Well, beyond a few sporadic reviews, I haven't posted too much about the music industry in quite a while. But given the travesty I've just seen on my TV mere moments ago, I felt compelled to write something.

There have been plenty of famous examples of selling out over the years. Like the time Metallica got short haircuts and released a shft-rock album called Load. Or the time Metallica sold out their own fans over Napster. Or the time Metallica cashed in on the nu-metal trend by releasing an album that James Hetfeld only bothered to work on 4 hours a day. But hell must have a very special place for those who internationally sell out a dead man. And, ladies and gentlemen, INXS have stooped to that new low; so low, in fact, that I'm pretty sure they've beat Metallica (well, at least for the time being anyway).

The show itself, for those of you unwilling to shill out to Rupe for Fox-8, is a travesty. Imagine Australian Idol (congratulations, you're almost there). Now imagine, instead of doing souless kareoke versions of pop songs, the Guy Sebastian wannabes are doing souless kareoke versions of Inxs songs. Oh, and the Guy Sebastian wannabes are now competing to be a 'rockstar', rather a flash in the pan pop fad who will be forgotten in 5 minutes like that Guy... well, you get the picture. And all of the would-be manfuactured rockstars - none of whom seem to want to pick up and play a guitar - even sing in the same Idol-esque faux-kareoke style.

The thing that these kids don't seem to get is that they will never be the next Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, or Jimi Hendrix; and they will never be a legend on that scale - or have any credibility whatsoever - by winning a TV kareoke show. Hell, it can take years for even seasoned musicians to be accepted as members of established bands - Jason Newstead was only ever a stand-in for Cliff Burton, and many people are still debating Hammett Vs. Mustaine over twenty years after the fact. In soem cases, fans don't buy whole band line ups; a recurring theme in the mosh at Megadeth's concert is how much more awesome it would have been for Ellefson / Menza / Freidman to be taking the stage. What chance do these kareoke stars have?

Well, there is a way to rock credibility for these wannabes. First, pick up a guitar (or a drum kit, or a bass guitar). Then learn to play it - and by learn to play it, I mean until your fingers bleed; I mean play it everywhere; I mean to the point where you can be a complete jackass and people still say "Well, he is talented". Then, find yourself a band and jam in a garage until you get some awesome songs. Then play small, smokey pubs and get screwed over by promoters. Keep playing those crappy pubs until you can get into the bigger clubs. Sacrifice everything for studio time for an independent record and pray like hell that either a more popular band decides you're talented enough to open for 'em, or that some A&R wanker picks up your album. Then tour everywhere while simultaneously getting screwed over by your record company and hope like hell your album sells. Then come back to me and ask about credibility.

Oh, and unless you're willing to die well before your own time, preferably at the peak of your career as a result of your own self - destructive behavior, don't even think about knocking 'credible' up to 'legend'.

Here's the problem : the kids on INXS Idol (whoops, I meant 'Rockstar' - how silly of me) are utterly unwilling to put in the hard work and sacrifice to make it. Because, like anything worthwhile in our culture today, these kids expect to be handed fame, fortune, credibility and legend status on a silver platter, with no work or sacrifice. Unfortunately for them, in spite of the marketing hype, there is more to rock than just a particular set of clothes in your wardrobe. Where the hype machine may be enough to make you a popstar, in the world of rock (any flavor of it) the instant success is a clear path to derision; at bsest these kids will end up the subjects of snickers and nasty jokes.

Because, at the end of the day, this whole Simon Fuller-esque production is just that: a giant joke. A stinker of one, in fact - allbeit one lined with gold. Hopefully one which doesn't lead to reality TV travesties where Idol-wannabes compete to be "the next" Dimebag Darrell or Freddy Mercury. But, then again, it takes a very special kind of sell-out to sell-out a dead man.

Public Transport Digest 14/7/2005

2005-07-14T12:50:00.000+10:00

MetCard:
Such a world class system
that it's getting canned.

Welcome to a new feature I'm launching on the site: a quick wrap-up of public transport news. First, the good news for anyone who intends on travelling to the airport via public transport: Metlink has announced a Skybus Metcard Trial whereby travellers can buy a '2-in-1' Metcard and Skybuy ticket; a good step forward in public transport integration. Unfortunately these tickets won't be available for Zone 2 or 3, and won't be available on Metcard Machines. Speaking of Metcards, they're going to be replaced with SmartCards as a new Ticketing Company has been announced - more info at the DOI. Cancellations aplenty - Particularly between North Melbourne and Essendon, and Clifton Hill and Macleod. Finally, an interesting blog advocating public transport at Melbourne In Transit. Click through for details and analysis. Welcome to the first Public Transport Digest, where we look through the good, the bad, and the ugly of commuting around Melbourne. This is a new feature for the AmishThrasher, so if you have any thoughts about tweaks I could make to it, feel free to e-mail them across. Let's start off with the good...

The Good
Skybus Metcard Trial

Metlink, in conjunction with Skybus and OneLink, has developed a new ticket aimed at encouraging tourists and travellers to use public transport for travel around Melbourne.

Currently in a three-month trial period, the new Skybus Metcard allows passengers to travel on the Skybus from Melbourne Airport to the city and then within Zone 1 on Melbourne’s public transport network, all on the one ticket.

The Skybus Metcard is a normal Metcard with a Skybus barcode printed on the back and is available from the MetShop (corner of Swanston and Little Collins Streets) and from the Skybus ticket booth at the airport.

During the three-month trial period the Skybus Metcard is available in two forms:
• 2 hour Zone 1 Full Fare Metcard with Adult one-way Skybus $16.00
• Daily Zone 1 Full-Fare Metcard with Adult one-way Skybus $18.50

Skybus staff will be collecting anecdotal feedback from customers to determine level of demand for a Zone 1+2 and/or Zone 1+2+3 version of the Skybus Metcard.

At the completion of the trial, sales and feedback will be analysed to determine the success of the product offer, distribution channels and whether further expansion is required. Skybus staff will be closely monitoring the level of demand for a Zone 1+2 and/or a Zone 1+2+3 version of the Skybus Metcard.

SOURCE: http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/latest_news/latest_news_detail.php?id=1803

This is great for people who are travelling to the airport. Leaving your car at home and catching public transport to the airport seems like a good option compared to leaving your car in a long-term carpark at the airport. The problem is that the Skybus hasn't been added to the regular Metcard system, and these tickets are unavailable for Zones 2 and 3. Let's hope that these changes get rectified in the near future, and we all get a more useful and better integrated transport system.

Speaking of which, during the week I came across a blog advocating just that at advocating public transport at Melbourne In Transit I might, at some stage during the week, take a better look at that Blog and some of the ideas it raises for improving public transport in Melbourne. Suffice to say, if you have a few minutes, it's worth a look.

The Bad
The bad news is that there are train cancellations aplenty - Particularly between North Melbourne and Essendon between the 21st and 28th, and Clifton Hill and Macleod on the 23rd and 24th. Thankfully there will be busses, but it's going to be a pain for anyone who relies on public transport in the north and northwest over the next few weeks.

The Ugly
Well, at least potentially, anyway. Here's the Metlink Spin:
NEW TICKETING SOLUTION PARTNER ANNOUNCED

Tuesday July 12, 2005

Premier Steve Bracks and Transport Minister Peter Batchelor have just announced that Kamco (Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium) has been awarded a $494 million contract following a rigorous nine-month tender and evaluation process led by the Transport Ticketing Authority (TTA).

The TTA and Kamco now finalise contractual arrangements and start the hard work of designing and building a new world class ticketing solution for Victoria.

Completion of this process signals the start of a “business requirements” phase, designed to enable the TTA and Kamco to continue to work closely with transport operators, customers, special interest groups and other key stakeholders to develop the detail of the Victorian smartcard ticketing solution.

SOURCE: http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/latest_news/latest_news_detail.php?id=1813
There is more spin on this at the DOI. Basically, the Metcard system has been such a 'world class' system that it's being dumped. Instead, we're getting SmartCards, on which you will pre-charge a certain ammount of cash, and the system will 'determine the best ticket for you'. This has the potential to get quite ugly for a number of reasons, however. The most obvious will be the headaches it will cause for many technophobes and elderly users of the public transport system, or occasional users.

It will be interesting to see how well this system handles, say 10x 2 Hour tickets - do you automatically go from (say) having 'used' 2 hour tickets over x days to getting a 10x2 as your use increases, or do these fares simply dissapear from the system? Commuters will need to watch the state of the 'zone' ticketing system and various weekly and monthly tickets to make sure that the new tickets aren't an excuse to eliminate these. Similarly, unless these new ticketing machines have a way of fending of vandals at unattended train stations, I wonder how it will cope with several thousand commuters whose local platform's ticketing machine has been smashed in overnight?

Anyway, that's the good, the bad, and the ugly of public transport this week; feel free to leave your thoughts.

SITE UPDATE: Notice Anything Different Around Here?

2005-07-13T12:54:00.000+10:00

Bob Dylan:
Not sure about the times changing,
but the blog has...

It's time for another site update to fill you all in on the latest news on the AmishThrasher Blog. Noticed anything different about the site since last time you visited? I'll keep you posted on what I've changed, why I changed it, plus a few hints about what's still to come (whenever I get around to it, by which I really mean "soon", and by "soon" I probably really mean never). Click through for more details if you're interested.Hi, and Welcome (again) to the AmishThrasher!

The biggest change since last time is that I've made the site a lot easier to read. One of the big problems of the blogosphere (in my opinion) is that with Blogger (and I'd imagine several other major blog hosting sites), by default the whole text of your most recent post appears on the main page of the blog. Depending on the format of the content on the site, this in itself isn't a problem; in fact, on sites which mostly consist of a short paragraph or two (perhaps with links to other stories) like Slashdot, or Guidomedia, this works perfectly.

The problem comes in when you have articles posted up which take more than a paragraph or two. Sometimes this means posting excerpts from an article posted elsewhere, and making comments about it, or writing several paragraphs, or posting a whole essay. And, as some of you will no doubt have noticed, I can be quite verbose (even when it's not a whole essay that gets posted up). By default, the whole article appears on the front page. This becomes a problem if you're interested in one thing I cover in this blog, and couldn't care less about the rest; you have to wade through paragraphs upon paragraphs of other stuff to get to what you want to read!

This is in stark contrast to a well presented magazine, or some of the more professional news or magazine websites on the internet. In the well presented Magazine, you might get a paragraph or two on a contents page telling you what the articles are about, and the page you need to flip to to read them. The same deal goes for the contents page of a well presented magazine online. With these, you can quickly scan through the articles, and either flip to the page (or click the link of the page) that has the stuff you're interested in, without having to spend time wading through the rest.

Well, doing something similar within blogger (or on another blogging site, or with another blogging program) is actually surprisingly easy - for those of you who are interested, the instructions are posted here. So from here on in, the front page of the AmishThrasher will have a short description of the article, a selected quote, or the first paragraph or two; if you're interested in reading more, click the link and read it, but if you don't, you don't have to wade through the whole article to get to what you want.

There are other perks to doing this too, like front page of the site loading a lot quicker for those of you with slow internet connections. It should also help get more accurate search results for this site too - looking through the logs, I've noticed some wierd combinations of search words which have seen people land on one of my archives pages, where I've said something in one post, and then 8 posts and 8000 words later I've used another word that they've searched for in regards to something totally unrelated. While it's great to have these people coming to the site, it really doesn't help them much with whatever it is they're looking for. By doing this, this should happen much less often.

There are a few other odds and ends in regards to the blog. There are a few other changes I'm looking at in regards to the template beyond that; I'll update you all on it when I put them in. Yesterday I got back 2 e-mails based on my questions to the ALP, Labor, and Greens in regards to public transport. As I said earlier, I'll post those up sometime soon.

Finally, why do I bother posting up these Site Updates? Well, I've noticed that there seems to be a number of people who read the site regularly. And I don't want to keep big changes in regards to the blog hidden from you, the regular reader. Posting the site updates will make sure that the decisions I make in regard to the format or editorial direction of the site are in the open, rather than decided behind closed doors (per se). By making comments to these site updates, you can contribute your thoughts or opinions to the formatting or editorial direction the site is taking.

Anyway, thankyou for reading,
Regards,
Andrew.

CRITICAL INFORMATION: Bill of Rights for Victoria

2005-07-12T13:36:00.000+10:00

Bill of Rights:
The time for action is now!

During the months of June and July, the Victorian Department of Justice is actively investigating the question of whether a Bill of Rights should be enshrined in our state constitution. The decision to safeguard your basic human rights, and the rights of those you love, is essentially being made in deciding whether or not Victoria should have a state Bill of Rights. The basic details of the human rights consultation are here, and the questionnaire is here. For all Victorians reading this, I strongly urge that you participate in making sure that the rights, freedoms and values we hold dear are protected from being undermined by government; and pass the message on to your friends and relatives. In addition, I want to encourage all the bloggers who may be reading this to repost information about how to participate on to your blogs.

Here are the basic details of what's happening (click this link to see the original page):

PDF and HTML copies of the community discussion paper are available at the bottom of this page under publications.

You can also post your submission online from 1 June - 1 August.

These questions are being explored by the Human Rights Consultation Committee (the committee) over the next six months:
Should Victoria have a Charter of Human Rights?
What should it protect?
Are there other ways human rights can be better protected as part of our democracy?
There are many views about the value of having a special law that sets out our human rights, just as there are many different experiences people have about what human rights means, and how best to protect and promote them.

The committee hopes these web pages will get you thinking about human rights, our democratic institutions and what the Victorian Government should do to encourage the development of a human rights culture in our community.

Follow the links below to read more about the Human Rights Consulation Project.

SOURCE: http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/CA2569020010922A/page/Resources-Human+Rights+Consultation?OpenDocument&1=0-Resources~&2=0-Human+Rights+Consultation~&3=~

To clarify why this decision is so importatnt, here is some background information on the decisions currently being made:

Well-known human rights include the right to vote, to freedom of speech and to be free from discrimination because of your age, race, culture, gender or because you have a disability. Human rights also include protection from things like arbitrary imprisonment or cruel or degrading treatment.

When rights such as these are set out in the law, such as in a Charter of Human Rights, they can protect people against the actions of government. They can also promote better government by providing an accepted standard for how government should operate in dealing with the community. Perhaps most importantly, human rights can promote respect for others and can change individual and community attitudes.

Australia has signed several international treaties that set out these and other rights. They include both economic, social and cultural rights, like the right to education, as well as the more well known civil and political rights, like the right to a fair trial. However, these treaties do not automatically form part of our law.

There are some important laws that do apply in Victoria to protect human rights. However, there is no Charter of Human Rights in Australian or Victorian law that provides a statement of what our human rights are as well as protection for them. Today, Australia is the only western nation without a national or State Bill of Rights.

Many attempts have been made to develop some form of Charter of Human Rights. Apart from 2004 legislation in the Australian Capital Territory, none of these attempts have led to a change to the law.

The Victorian Government is thinking about whether we need a new law on human rights. It has released a Statement of Intent and set up an independent committee to talk with all Victorians about whether change is needed, and if so, what that change might be. A Charter of Rights at the State level in Victoria could play an important role in promoting and protecting human rights in the areas for which the Victorian Government has responsibility. It could also fill many of the gaps in the existing protection.

The Government has asked the Committee to focus on the rights contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in considering whether to change the law. In doing so, it is helpful to look at the models adopted in other countries. More information about human rights laws in other nations is contained in the first part of the Discussion Paper at pages x to xx.

Looking at what has worked and has not worked in other places will help us to find out:
The best ways of making sure that any new laws meet human rights standards;
The role of Parliament, government, the courts and the wider community in protecting human rights;
Whether other organisations are needed to protect and promote human rights;
The best ways of educating and involving the community in promoting human rights and encouraging respect for others; and
What needs to be done now, and in the future.

We have prepared a list of ten questions that we hope you will help us to answer. There is further information about these questions in the second part of the Discussion Paper at pages 34 to 52. You can also answer the questions online at www.justice.vic.gov.au/humanrights.

SOURCE: http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/CA256902000FE154/Lookup/HR_Consultation_project/$file/communityconsultationpaper.htm

This is our chance to stop future reckless politicians from trampling on such rights as the right to your life, privacy, education, healthcare; as well as essential freedoms like free speech, freedom to pracice religion, freedom to assemble on public lands for the purposes of peaceful protest. Many of these essential human rights and freedoms can currently be over-ridden by the laws of power-mongering politicians; it's time we made them constitutional rights for all Victorian residents. The time has come get involved: pass on the message. Your great-grandchildren will thank you for it.

Port Phillip Bay and Coode Island

2005-07-12T12:50:00.000+10:00

Port Phillip Bay:
Ripe for a Dredging?

Debate is mounting over whether Port Phillip Bay should be dredged further, or whether the long term focus for Melbourne's should be about moving Melbourne's shipping hub to Westernport Bay, along with Melbourne's chemical storage facilities and industrial heartland:

Greens Oppose Murky Plan for Port Phillip Bay

Senator Siewert, 11th July 2005
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert today called on the Federal government to block the Victorian government's decision to dredge Port Phillip Bay.

The Victorian government announced a go-ahead for a $32 million trial to dredge the Port Phillip Bay shipping channel, but the plan still needs the approval of the Minister for the Environment and Heritage before it can proceed.

"The dredging of the bay will have significant impact on the fragile eco-system of Port Phillip," Rachel Siewert said.

"The Victorian government is ignoring alternatives and riding rough shot over community opinion."

"The planned "trial" dredging alone will have a huge impact, removing up to 4 million tonnes of rock and sediment from the bay."

"The economics of the project are questionable and the environment questions haven't been answered."

"Ian Campbell needs to use his power under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to save the bay from the Bracks Government's foolhardy decision to go ahead with the dredging."

SOURCE: http://www.greens.org.au/mediacentre/mediareleases/senatorsiewert/110705a

One of the reasons for the need for dredging is the chemical storage facility at Coode Island which, despite having been engulfed in flames 20 years ago, remains on prime land just minutes from the city:

Coode Island, an almost uninhabited industrial area, is 4 km. west of Melbourne. It was formed in 1886 when canal was cut through the Sandridge swamp to provide a straightened stream for the Yarra River. The boundaries were the canal on the south, the Maribyrnong River on the west and the Yarra meander on the north and east. Its area was 97 ha. It was named after Sir John Coode, an English harbour engineer who was engaged by the Melbourne Harbor Trust to select the optimum route for the canal as part of the Port of Melbourne.

Coode chose the canal route so as to avoid dangerous tidal ebbs and inflows that would occur along one that went straight from the Yarra River docks to Hobsons Bay. Inflows endangered flood-prone land upstream as far as Gardiners Creek, by the banking up of stream waters. The route also ensured that the Yarra waters would discharge into the river mouth, scouring the bay and reducing silt deposition.

The meander was known as Fishermens Bend or Humbug Reach (1887). Later "Fishermens Bend" came to be applied to the land opposite Coode Island, on the other side of the canal, and even to Sandridge Beach, Port Melbourne west, which became Garden City.

By 1909 the marshy surface of Coode Island was being filled for reclamation. Its chief use was as a quarantine station for stock, and buildings were erected there in the event of the need for a bubonic plague sanitarium. Much of the native vegetation had been replaced by exotics, probably from abandoned ships' ballast. By the late 1930s the meander was almost abolished and the "island" joined to West Melbourne, but the name continued to be used.

In 1929 the construction of Appleton Dock on the south-east corner of Coode Island was begun. Swanson Dock was excavated out of the island near its south-west corner when containerized cargo services began in the 1960s. MacKenzie Road was constructed southwards, west of Swanson Dock, and bulk petro-chemical storage tanks were built along it, beginning in 1960. The liquids were unloaded from Maribyrnong No. 1 berth on the western bank of Coode Island.

In 1990-1 about 70% of liquid chemicals through the Port of Melbourne went through Coode Island. On 21-2 August, 1991, fire broke out at a liquid tank storage facilities, destroying or severely damaging 27 tanks. The event provoked a review of the facilities, leading to proposals for its transfer from metropolitan Melbourne. Six years afterwards a new site was not agreed, but in the meantime improved safety measure had lessened anxiety about future risks.

Coode Island also has transport companies, cargo storage, bulk (non-liquid) storages and port facilities.

SOURCE: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ncas/multimedia/gazetteer/list/coodeis.html

Going over the Westgate Bridge, it's clear what an utter waste the current Coode Island arrangement is. The facilities are sitting on what is potentially some of Melbourne's best real estate - just minutes from the city, within walking distance of Docklands, at the junction of the Maribyrnong and Yarra Rivers, and across the Yarra to its mouth at Port Phillip Bay. Moving such facilities and decontaminating the soil in the area would open the area up either for prime parkland, or an exciting real estate and commercial hub - or both. Such a development would bring about tremendous benefits for residents of surrounding suburbs, like Footscray, Yarraville, and Port Melbourne; ushering in a revitalisation of many areas of those suburbs. Freeing up land for such uses at Coode Island would create a new inner-city suburb, and thus (in the short to medium term) take some of the pressure off urban sprawl along Melbourne's outer-fringes.

It is now difficult to imagine that Jolimont, Garden City, Southbank, and the Docklands were, as recently as a decade ago, home to delapidated shipping, rail, and transport yards; somewhat similar to those now at Coode Island. Today, the development of those areas has contributed to the livability of Melbourne, and we all benefit as a result. It's time that the politicians had similar vision in regard to Coode Island. Further dredging of Port Phillip Bay will only serve to perpetuate these facilities.

Is Fox News and CNN Helping Terrorism?

2005-07-12T12:21:00.000+10:00

Fox News Channel:
Who is their coverage really helping?

A few days ago, I posted a story about how - in the wake of the London train bombing - presenters at America's Fox News Channel boasted about how the terrorist attacks would work to the advantage of right wingers, and how they could make money because the stock-market was lower after a terrorist attack. Since then I've come across this interesting article about how the 24 hour news channels obsessive coverage may be helping terrorists. While the Rutherford Institute (where this story was originally posted) is far from a bastion of neutrality - their front page (http://www.rutherford.org/) prominantly features a link stating "Bible Reading Under Attack! Sign Our Petition" - this article raises a lot of interesting points.

Here's an excerpt:
Strange Bedfellows: Terrorism and the Media
by John W. Whitehead
7/8/2005

Just imagine that you’re a terrorist with limited funds and you want to create havoc. You only have a few bombs, but you want your message broadcast to the world. How do you get the best bang for your buck? The answer is simple: turn the media into broadcasters for your acts of terrorism.

As the recent terrorist attacks on London’s transport system show, the way for terrorists to broadcast their message to the world is to get the attention of the world media. Today’s terrorists know that they have the broadcast media at their disposal—CNN, FOX, MSNBC and the rest are all at their beck and call—because the networks have 24 hours of airtime to fill, and what’s more salacious than the murder and mayhem of terrorism?
...
Ask yourselves: why do terrorists fly planes into buildings and blow up subway systems? Do they do it to be mean? Or because they like to destroy things? Perhaps in part. But the real motivation behind these acts of urban terrorism is the attention the terrorists receive from the world media. Laqueur quotes one terrorist leader as saying, “If we put even a small bomb in a house in town, we could be certain of making the headlines in the press. But if the rural guerrilleros liquidated thirty soldiers in some village, there was just a small news item on the last page.”

FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=347

Certainly, the idea that guaranteed 24 hour news coverage may help motivate attacks, like the one we have seen in London, is not an idea that will get much coverage in most of the mainstream media (I suspect somehow); but it is worth looking at.

Grey water.

2005-07-11T14:29:00.000+10:00

Grey Water:
Is this the future?

Public transport is not the only infrastructure decision that we will have to face over the coming years. At the time of writing, Melbourne's water storages were 52.1% (click for source) full.

Before I go any further, a question that some of you will be asking around about now is "who cares" and "why does this stuff matter"? The truth is that the planning decisions we make today will have a tremendous impact on the kind of city that we will live in in 20 or 30 years time. Furthermore, the city that our children and grandchildren will inherrit depends on the decisions that we make today. With both public transport and water, there are clear choices to be made - with their consequences - as well consequences for inaction. Because of these, we need an informed, public debate over the choices to be made over the coming years. It's time to care.

Early in Melbourne's development, people with tremendous foresight had the vision of fencing off the Upper Yarra Valley, and preserving its forests, as a catchment for the growing city of Melbourne. Melburnians today benefit from this foresight every time we turn on a tap - we have some of the world's cleanest water. The problem for us is that the Upper Yarra is barely meeting our needs today, let alone our needs in the future. A simplistic answer I have heard is the suggestion that we need to build new reservoirs and boost our water storage capacity, but this answer fails to understand that doing so will fail to accomplish anything; the problem is not that we have insufficient capacity for storing water, but rather that we don't have the water to fill the capacity that we have already.

The State Government, while I have criticised them a number of times on the blog, deserves to be applauded for various initiatives it has put in place to cut Melbourne's water usage. But while this is a good short to medium term solution, it fails to address where our water will come from long term. It is a debate currently being played out in Sydney, where a choice will be made on whether money should be spent on desalinification facilities, or whether it would be better used building infrastructure for 'greywater'.

Here's some background on greywater from Wikipedia:

Greywater is wastewater generated by household processes such as washing dishes, laundry and bathing. Greywater is distinct from wastewater that has been contaminated with sewage, which is known as blackwater.

There are numerous processes such as using reedbed filter systems, the wetpark systems or the living wall that can be used to clean up greywater.

Recycled greywater from showers and bathtubs can be used for flushing toilets, which saves great amounts of water. Many attempts at this have been made in Germany.

In the water damage restoration industry, grey water is considered to be any water from the exterior of the home, or clean water that has been standing for more than 48 hours.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greywater

Treatment
There are numerous processes that can be used to clean up waste waters depending on the type and extent of contamination. Most wastewater is treated in industrial-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) which may include physical, chemical and biological treament processes. The most important aerobic treatment system is the activated sludge process, based on the maintenance and recirculation of a complex biomass composed by micro-organisms able to degrade the organic matter carried in the wastewater. Anaerobic processes are widely applied in the treatment of industrial wastewaters and biological sludges. Some wastewater may be highly treated and reused as reclaimed water. For some waste waters ecological approaches using reedbed systems such as constructed wetlands may be appropriate. Modern systems include tertiary treatment by microfiltration or synthetic membranes. After membrane filtration, the treated wastewater is indistinguishible from waters of natural origin of drinking quality.

Reuse
Treated wastewater can be reused as drinking water (Singapur), in industry (cooling towers), in artificial recharge of aquifers, in agriculture (70% of Israel's irrigated agriculture is based on highly purified wastewater) and in the rehabilitation of natural ecosystems (Florida's Everglades).

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wastewater

Some of the issues surrounding this debate has been raised in a recent press release by The Greens:

Sunday, 10 July 2005
Randwick's Greens Mayor tonight called for government owned effluent water and storm water recovery plants to bolster Sydney's long-neglected water supply.

NSW Premier Bob Carr is expected to tonight announce that a massive desalination plant will be constructed in the Randwick City Council area using private sector financing.

"Desalination is up to 5 times more expensive than a similar sized reclamation plant", Mayor Murray Matson said.

"Southern California is currently building a large scale water reclamation plant to utilize sewage.

"I think it to be a terrible idea that the private sector is to be given such a large amount of control over Sydney's water supply."

Randwick City Council recently considered the location of a desalination plant at Malabar Headland and rejected it.

"Desalination is simply too energy intensive and costly", Cr Matson said. "There are many other alternatives available and recognised both in Australia and overseas."

London recently rejected desalination and Singapore successfully utilises membrane technology to reclaim water for the island.

"Losses through leaks current account for 10% of Sydney's water use", Cr Matson said. "Just spending the money to fix our water pipes would make a lot more sense."

The Premier is ignoring authoritative advice from the NSW Auditor General who advocates better management and pricing of water, leakage reduction and re-use of water.

"450 billion litres of poorly treated sewage goes out through the ocean outfalls every year. Large scale water recycling is a viable option being used all around the world for quality reuse projects", Cr Matson said.

"Water reclamation is inherently more enviromently sound than desalination.

"Recycling water and treating in a reclamation plant has the additional beneficial side effect of reducing ocean pollution and creating fertiliser as the reusable waste product.

"A reclamation plant does not need to be built near the Sewer Treatment Plant and recycled water can simply be transferred back to the river system to restore environmental flows or used for other uses."

"The Greens believe that reusing water is acceptable to the community. Only a fraction of Sydney's water supply is actually used for drinking and this could still be meet by our supplies from dams.

"Large scale water recycling does note necessarily mean substitution of drinking water, that is a matter of community choice."

Before we move forward, there are some fundamental questions we have to address. The first is whether we want a key component of our water catchment system - either by way of water purification or desalinification - owned in private hands. Keep in mind that water was one area where not even the Kennett government chose privatization. Similarly, if this new infrastructure is to be publically funded, the question to answer is whether we want to plunge our governments into debt to pay for it; if the answer is no (as has often been the case in Australia), then it means the investment of surpluses over a longer period of time into water infrastructure.

If we chose reclaimed water / Greywater as a solution, there are further issues which need to be addressed. The Greens are seemingly advocating Greywater being mixed in with drinking water, but I personally doubt that this is a politically workable solution. My impression (and I may be wrong) is that more people who would support, say, their toilets being hooked up to reclaimed water, than those willing to drink the stuff.

Related to this point is the question of whether we want a centralized system for greywater, or whether it should be an individual choice. The hidden cost of greywater may be the need to implement a second pipe system in our streets to pump the reclaimed water into our toilets. However, this could be negated if the decision is made that water collection and treatment for toilets be done on-site. The question is whether there is a will amongst the general populace to spend money on such schemes. if the answer is no, or we decide that a centralized system is better, laying thousands of miles of pipes will take decades. The time to make the choice on whether we want to undertake such a massive project is now.

Melbourne's water system has treated us well for decades. The time has come to debate its future.

Public Transport Privatisation: What Went Wrong?

2005-07-10T23:43:00.000+10:00

Privatisation:
The Trains were Jeffed

Well, it's Sunday night and, perhaps unsurprisingly, none of our politicians have replied to the e-mail about public transport. Apparently politicians aren't accountable on weekends (just kidding... politicans are unaccountable on weekdays too). As I said, half of the interest in this excercise in what replies we get back from them - just as interesting is what sort of replies we get, and how promptly. Here's an excerpt from an informative article on how privatisation has damaged the system to read while we wait: (click the link for the full article)...

Public transport privatisation in Melbourne: What Went Wrong?

Privatisation was heralded as leading to improved services, though the introduction of new and refurbished rolling stock, improved punctuality and reliability, increased service levels and innovative service and marketing policies.

The first change passengers noticed was the rapid loss of the modest degree of system integration that had existed under the PTC. Each operator redesigned vehicles, timetables and stops in its own livery, and began to treat the other operators as rivals - a pattern that would be familiar to observers of the post - privatisation scene in the UK. For example, for many months timetables for train services operated by Hillside trains could not be obtained from Flagstaff, Melbourne Central or Parliament Stations, which are operated by Bayside Trains - even though the Hillside services called at those stations. Even the operators eventually conceded that this did not constitute an improvement in services by announcing, in April 2002, their intention to reinstate common 'branding' and a common livery for vehicles and infrastructure (Sunday Age, 7/4/02, p. 1).

The extent to which the new measures amounted to a reversion to the situation that had applied under the PTC was underscored by the suggestion (see above) that the operators might even revive the PTC's brand-name, 'The Met.' However, when the re-branding was launched in August 2003, it emerged that the 'Metlink' brand-name and livery would be applied in addition to those of the private operators, not as a replacement, further confusing the picture for patrons.

The principal aspects of service quality that have been reported on since privatisation are cancellations and on-time running. The media has widely reported that these have improved since privatisation. It is true that there have been modest improvements since the first set of figures, covering the 3rd quarter of 1999, were released, but these figures do not represent the true pre-privatisation situation. The reason for this is that reliability levels had deteriorated in the lead-up to privatisation, due to operational problems associated with the splitting of the rail and tram networks to form four separate entities. These problems were particularly serious in the case of the rail system. So an accurate comparison would be with the situation, and the trend, before the commencement of privatisation.

The Auditor-General of Victoria noted in 1998 that the Public Transport Reform Program had produced a considerable improvement in the PTC's punctuality and reliability, and that the situation was expected to continue to improve (Auditor- General 1998, Part 5). Comparisons are complicated by the fact that some of the definitions used have altered (see note to table 2), but it appears that the situation deteriorated in the lead-up to privatisation due to the disruptive effects of preparation for privatisation. Although punctuality and reliability have improved since 1999, they are no better than was the case in 1997, as can be seen most clearly in the figures for cancellations, the definition of which has not changed. Given that the situation was improving under the PTC, it appears that privatisation has produced no improvement, and possibly a deterioration.

Some improvement in service levels was also promised as part of the franchise agreements, notably in the case of Yarra Trams, which undertook to upgrade daytime weekday service frequencies on all its routes to 10 minutes. Five of Yarra's ten routes already complied with this under PTC management; the remaining three ran every 12 minutes and have since been upgraded to 10 (7.5 in one case). In addition, the franchise agreements provided for two modest network extensions: a two-kilometre extension of tram route 109 to Box Hill and a seven km extension of the St Albans rail line to Sydenham. These were all genuine improvements, but were comparable to similar service and network expansion that had already taken place, and which would presumably have continued, under PTC control.

What was widely anticipated, although not explicitly provided for in the franchise agreements, was that the requirement to increase fare revenue would lead the operators to introduce innovative service, fare and marketing strategies. To date, there has been little evidence of successful innovation. A number of changes were introduced (e.g. 'shopper express' services on Hillside trains; single-mode yearly tickets by both rail operators), and withdrawn after a short time.

The major lasting new product has been Yarra Trams 'park-and-ride' scheme, whereby motorists parking at three city-edge car parks receive free tram travel as part of the cost of their parking. Some patrons of this service are likely to have formerly driven their cars all the way to the city centre, but given that the park - and - ride stations are on the edge of the CBD, the overall reduction in pollution and traffic congestion is likely to be minimal. Another effect of this program is likely to be a transfer of passengers who currently use public transport to travel all the way to the city, providing a classic instance of 'wasteful competition' that is likely to worsen environmental outcomes. Presumably for this very reason, National Express, who operated both Bayside Trains and Swanston Trams, did not introduce a similar scheme.
...
The failure to better the PTC's performance in service provision and innovation is the principal reason why the private operators have failed to meet their patronage and revenue targets. It is clear from the revenue projections that an immediate, dramatic improvement in standards was expected to flow from privatisation; it is equally clear that this has not occurred and shows no sign of happening.

SOURCE: http://www.uws.edu.au/download.php?file_id=5007&filename=18.2_FINAL_P.Mees.pdf&mimetype=application/pdf

Common Sense Prevails: Spy Network Whistleblower Finally Granted Permanent Protection

2005-07-09T14:41:00.000+10:00

Tianamen beating:
Human Rights in China.

Senator Bob Brown has been one of many celebrating a former Chinese spy who defected to Australia, Chen Yonglin, on getting a Permanent Protection Visa:

Chen visa thanks to Australian people

The granting of permanent visas for Chinese diplomat and defector, Chen Yonglin and his wife and daughter is due to huge public sentiment which swept in to rescue him, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.
The Chen family is delighted and wants to thank the Australian people. Mr Chen says he is looking forward to their new life in Australia.

“Before Chen went public, the government ignored his pleas for diplomatic asylum. The Department of Immigration, dangerously, did worse than nothing – it revealed his defection to Beijing.

“The Minister for Foreign Affairs denied having Chen’s request for asylum until the public evidence showed this claim to be fraudulent.

“Chen and his family will be valuable Australian residents. I congratulate him. His conscience and his courage have been rewarded by this nation if not its government,” Senator Brown said.

SOURCE: http://www.bobbrown.org.au/600_media_sub.php?deptItemID=1724

To understand why Mr. Yonglin getting this Visa is so important, and why Senator Brown's thoughts are shared by many Australians, we need to look back through the history of this case (with the help of WikiPedia):

Chen had been a university student in Beijing during the pro-democracy movement that ultimately led to the Tiananmen Square protests, in which several of his friends were wounded. He underwent "re-education" after the subsequent crackdown on dissidents, and joined the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991. This culminated in his posting as the consul for political affairs in the Chinese consulate in Sydney, Australia. In this position, Chen has stated that he was responsible for monitoring Chinese political dissidents living in Australia. He also reportedly had access to highly classified information on Chinese intelligence activities in Australia. Chen has claimed that he had "gone easy" on dissidents and members of Falun Gong and had not reported some actions in protest at China's policies towards political dissent. He has also suggested that the Chinese government was becoming suspicious of his activities, and that as a result, he fears for his safety if returned to China.

In late May 2005 (there have been conflicting reports as to the exact day), Chen walked out of the consulate and went into hiding with his wife and six-year old daughter. He reportedly met an officer from the Department of Immigration on May 26, and then a representative from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on May 31. Chen has stated that he was told at the latter meeting that his request for political asylum had been rejected, but that he could apply for a protection visa. The story broke to the international media on June 3, when Chen contacted The Weekend Australian newspaper, sparking fears of a serious diplomatic incident between the two nations.

On June 4, though he allegedly feared being kidnapped, Chen come out of hiding in order to address a rally commemorating the 16th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. During his speech, he claimed that he would "reveal everything he knows" if he was allowed to remain in Australia. He also claimed that the Chinese government had more than a thousand agents in Australia, and that they were responsible for kidnapping Chinese dissidents and returning them to China. Furthermore, Chen claimed that in one particular case in early 2000, Chinese agents in Sydney had kidnapped a student, Lan Meng, to force his dissident father to return to China. The father, Lan Fu, did return in 2000 to face prosecution and a death sentence, but the charges stemmed from a US$6 billion smuggling racket in Xiamen, where Lan Fu had been deputy mayor, rather than from any dissident activity. Lan's lawyer, Zhu Yongping denied that kidnapping played a part in his client's voluntary return, insisting his client had given himself up voluntarily.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Yonglin

Within a few days, China's Ambassador to Australia, Fu Ying, appeared on the ABC program Lateline. What followed were some of the most obvious lies I have ever seen - it was painful to watch Madam Fu on there. Here's an example:

Defection attempt won't harm relations: ambassador

Broadcast: 06/06/2005
Reporter: Tony Jones
...
TONY JONES: Well, let's move on if we can. He says that China has thousands of agents in Australia. How many agents do you have in fact?

MADAME FU: I read the story from the 'Australian' by Mr Stewart, who said that China has espionage operation of 3,000 people. The focus is the Australian Army. Australian Army has about 50,000 people. That's 1 for almost 20 soldiers. I don't know why we need to do that. And for an operation of 3,000 spies, that costs a lot. Our per capita GDP is only 1,000 and Australia's is 27,000 US dollars. It takes a lot of people of people working to support such a huge spy network. And for Australia, there are only 20,000 people in this country. If we need 3,000 spies for Australia, how many do we need for United States, for other countries? And what China - how much China is going to pay for all these spies? I think all our farmers, our workers would be doing nothing but supporting the spies overseas. I think it's very absurd. China is too busy with itself. We are a poor country. We have 70 [per cent] people living in rural area. We are very busy, very, very busy working to develop our own country. So these kind of stories is really very absurd.

TONY JONES: Ambassador, it is inconceivable, isn't it, though, that a country as powerful and influential as China would not have an independent way of gathering intelligence in a country like Australia. You must have, presumably, some agents?

MADAME FU: I think in the Cold War period, when we are on different side of the front line of Cold War, people treat each other - the countries treat each other as enemies. So at that time, I know some countries have huge espionage operations against the other side. But China doesn't see any threat from Australia. Australia doesn't see China as a threat. We have lots of channels open how to exchange views and information. I don't see why we need espionage on Australia.

SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2005/s1385925.htm

If anyone doubted that China did have a spy network operating in Australia, there was little doubt remaining after the conclusion of that interview. Say what you will about politicians, when it comes to lies Madam Fu is in a class of her own (with about half the skill). After this interview:

On June 10 Chen appeared to retract [the kidnapping] accusation, commenting only that "I said that in fear, and I don't want to talk about it again." On June 22, however, Chen provided further details about the alleged kidnapping, naming Zhang Jin, Deputy Director of the Third Department of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, as the official responsible for the abduction. The Weekend Australian has found that Lan Meng, then 18, was living in the Melbourne suburb of Sandringham from November 1999 until November 2000, for at least three months before Lan Fu returned to China, casting further doubt on the story that Lan Meng was kidnapped and taken to China, leading up to Lan Fu's return. It is believed that Lan Meng and Lan Fu's wife, Lai Chongxin are still in Australia, and Lan's wife was also reported to be on China's wanted list in connection with the Xiamen scandal.

After the June 4th rally, Chen once again went into hiding, having claimed that he was under constant surveillance and in fear of his life. The future of his claim for a protection visa remains unclear, as it places Australia in a difficult situation regarding its trade relationship with China - which in turn has its own concerns about its human rights reputation in the leadup to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. While the government has so far been reluctant to comment on the issue, saying only that he will receive no special treatment Shadow Minister for Immigration Laurie Ferguson and prominent trade unionist Bill Shorten have both been particularly vocal in their defence of Chen, demanding that the government put trade concerns aside and review his case, comparing it to the Petrov Affair during the Cold War. On June 5, the Chinese embassy released a statement concerning its version of events, claiming that Chen was due to return home and had made up the claims in the hope that he would be allowed to stay, and attempting to alleviate fears that Chen would be harmed if he returned to China. On June 7 Chen's claims were supported by Hao Fengjun, a former police officer with the 610 Bureau, a special security force established to eradicate Falun Gong by whatever means they deem necessary. The Chinese government responded by claiming that documents seized from Hao's home in China had shown that he was a low-level policeman suspected of corruption. Hao's lawyer, Bernard Collaery, attacked the claims, however, claiming that they were "standard (Chinese) tactics."

On June 20, Chen participated in World Refugee Day rallies, calling for the Australian government to release detainees and drop its policy of mandatory detention. On June 21, Chen was granted a temporary "bridging" visa, while his case is under review.

On July 7, a Chinese defector in Canada using the name Han Guangsheng emerged to support Chen and Hao's spying allegations. During his interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation show Lateline, Han explained "I do know that the Chinese Communist Party sent people to collect intelligence information, including Chinese Embassy and Consulate staff. Some of the reporters coming from state Chinese media and visiting scholars are also given special spying tasks to carry out." The fifty-two-year-old defector has been denied political asylum by the Canadian government due to suspicion on prior human rights abuses. This appears consistent with Han's claim that he was in charge of Shenyang's public security and labor camps before his defection.

On that same day China's ambassador, Fu Ying, condemned Chen for "attacking his motherland" with "allegations and noise" for the sole purpose of living in a wealthier country. She warned that many more would follow Chen, if he was allowed to relocate to Australia, and she lamented the "underlying prejudice" revealed by those who supported Chen.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Yonglin

These condemnations by Madam Fu were truely bizzare, to say the least. During these statements, Fu equated oppostion to foreign countries opperating large spy networks in Australia, or opposition to the Chinese Government's undemocratic human rights abuses with casting a shadow on reforms in China! Here's an excerpt of her bizzare statement (from The Age):

Chinese ambassador accuses Chen of greed

Addressing the inaugural Australia-China Coal Summit, Ms Fu said Mr Chen appeared to hate China, adding: "But China, the country he dislikes now, offered him the best a Chinese young man can have.

"Now that's not good enough for him anymore, he wants something better, he wants Australia which has 27 times higher per capita GDP," she said.
...
"He has had to go to the extent of attacking his motherland in order to be accepted in another country," she said.

"There are people like him - he's not the first and he will not be the last - there will be quite a few.

"But if those people, if they can succeed, can be followed by many more."

Ms Fu said some sections of the Australian media and human rights protesters did not want closer economic ties with China.

She said many of them had "made a living out of being anti-China" and rejected claims that close economic ties would see Australia lose its sovereignty.

"I am quite confident that most people in Australia who have been to China and who have seen the progress of the reform will not easily be influenced by allegations and noise," she said.

"But these problems do reveal the underlying prejudice among some sections of the public and they can influence our normal working order and cast a shadow on the positive progress we are making.

SOURCE: http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Chinese-ambassador-accuses-Chen-of-greed/2005/07/07/1120704478547.html?oneclick=true

Critics of the Chinese Government's undemocratic practices, like Senator Brown, saw Fu's eccentric attack for what it was: a brazen last minute smear campaign by a dictatorial government, scared that a whistleblower was about to spill the beans. The call was also made for the authoritarian Chinese government to explain the erratic comments of its ambassador:

7th July 05
China’s angry ambassador Madam Fu Ying was invited to elaborate on her outburst in Brisbane today when the Senate committee inquires into the defection of diplomat Chen Yonglin in two weeks time, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.
"As well as her condemnation of Mr Chen, I would certainly like to hear her talk about the 250 000 prisoners in ‘education with labour’ camps in China," Senator Brown said.
"Her vilification of Mr Chen probably indicates she has given up trying to get him back to China by fair means or foul.
"Chen Yonglin has repeatedly said how much he loves China but dislikes the authoritarian dictatorship in Beijing. Madam Fu’s outburst will not undermine his love of country," Senator Brown said.

SOURCE: http://www.bobbrown.org.au/600_media_sub.php?deptItemID=1723

Anyway, congratulations to Chen who, on July 8 (with his wife, and his 6-year-old daughter) were granted permanent protection visas by the Immigration Department. It's good to see common sense has finally prevailed. Hopefully we can now get to the bottom of foreign spy network opperating out of Australia.

Mr. Amish goes to Washington (Or at least sends annoying e-mails to Spring Street)

2005-07-09T13:58:00.000+10:00

Connex Train:
We need more of these in suburban Melbourne

A couple of days ago, I posted a story about how Melbourne's public transport infrastructure has suffered as a result of a lack of long-term investment over the past few decades. So, just out of interest, I've decided to send an e-mail a series of questions, related to the key points I raised, to relevant minister (Peter Batchelor). While I'm not holding my breath for Mr. batchelor to ever read them, it will be interesting to see if what I get back is either a canned response, or a full reply from a PR flack or low level staffer. Here's a copy of the e-mail I'm sending:

From: amishroadkill502@hotmail.com
Subject: Transport Infrastructure Questions
Date: 9 July 2005 1:02:37 PM
To: peter.batchelor@parliament.vic.gov.au, rob.hulls@parliament.vic.gov.au, info@vic.alp.org.au

To whom it may concern,
I would like to make some inquiries in regard's to the State Government's current public transport policy. Here are some specific questions I have in regards to such policies in metropolitan Melbourne. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated:

1) In brief, what are the key priorities of the State Government's public transport policies, and where is information about it available?

2) What community consultation has the State Government undertaken in regards to this policy? Is there any ongoing community consultation, or is any planned in the immediate future?

INFRASTRUCTURE
3) What public transport infrastructure projects are currently either underway, or planned, around Metropolitan Melbourne?

4) What place does public transport hold in Melbourne 2030, and has the State Government issued any other long term plans for public transport in, and around, metropolitan Melbourne?

5) Do any of these plans discuss future tram or train lines, particularly in the outer suburbs of Melbourne? If not, has (or is) the government considering any new tram or train lines in the outer suburbs of Melbourne?

6) Do any of these plans discuss future non-radial (i.e. outer suburban 'loop') train lines around the outer suburbs of Melbourne? If not, has (or is) the government considering any such lines around the outer suburbs of Melbourne?

7) Do any of these plans discuss future 'branch' train lines connecting the Metropolitan rail network with major suburban centres (for example major shopping centres such as those at Knox City or Chadstone, or universities such as Monash in Clayton or La Trobe in Bundoora)?

8) Will the government undertake any grade separation at any of the frequently congested rail intersections along the Belgrave / Lilydale line (such as those at Middleborough Rd, or Springvale Rd)? If so, when will these projects be undertaken, and if not, would such projects be evaluated in the future?

TIMETABLES
9) Has the Government investigated improvements to the NightRider Bus Service, or running all-night train services on Friday or Saturday nights? Is the Government considering, or has it considered, any plans for improvements to all-night weekend services in the future?

10) How successful has, in the Government's opinion, the SmartBus service been, and if so, which lines will be upgraded to SmartBus in the near future?

11) How successful has, in the Government's opinion, the Doncaster Park and Ride been, and is the government currently considering creating any more Park and Ride styles hubs?

12) Will the government consider combining the 551 Heidelberg - Bundoora (La Trobe University) bus service with the 291 Heidelberg - Box Hill (via Doncaster) bus service, or implementing a better co-ordinated time-table between these two bus services?

Again, your time in answering these questions is greatly appreciated.

Sincerest Regards,
Concerned Commuter.

For the sake of comparison, I've slightly re-written the e-mail and am sending copies both to the State Liberals, and the Victorian Greens. Here's a copy of the e-mail I sent to the Greens (the one I sent to the Liberals is almost identical):

From: amishroadkill502@hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: 9 July 2005 1:25:55 PM
To: transport@vic.greens.org.au, office@vic.greens.org.au, planning@vic.greens.org.au

To whom it may concern,
I would like to make some inquiries in regard's to the Greens current public transport policy. Here are some specific questions I have in regards to such policies in metropolitan Melbourne. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated:

1) In brief, what are the key priorities of the Greens public transport policies, and where is more information about it available?

2) How do current Green policies in regards to public transport differ from those under the Bracks Government?

INFRASTRUCTURE
3) What criticisms do the Greens make about public transport infrastructure projects which are currently either underway, or planned, around Metropolitan Melbourne?

4) What criticisms do the Greens make about the Back's Government's Melbourne 2030 plan, in regards to public transport in, and around, metropolitan Melbourne?

5) Do the Greens currently have a long term strategy in regards to public transport in, and around, metropolitan Melbourne?

6) Do any of these plans discuss future tram or train lines, particularly in the outer suburbs of Melbourne? If not, has (or is) the Greens considering any new tram or train lines in the outer suburbs of Melbourne?

7) Do any of these plans discuss future non-radial (i.e. outer suburban 'loop') train lines around the outer suburbs of Melbourne? If not, would the Greens consider any such lines around the outer suburbs of Melbourne?

8) Do any of these plans discuss future 'branch' train lines connecting the Metropolitan rail network with major suburban centres (for example major shopping centres such as those at Knox City or Chadstone, or universities such as Monash in Clayton or La Trobe in Bundoora)?

9) Do the Greens support undertaking grade separation at any of the frequently congested rail intersections along the Belgrave / Lilydale line (such as those at Middleborough Rd, or Springvale Rd)?

TIMETABLES
10) Do the Greens policies cover improvements to the NightRider Bus Service, or running all-night train services on Friday or Saturday nights? Do the Greens have any criticisms of all-night weekend services as they currently stand in Victoria?

11) How successful has, in the Greens opinion, the SmartBus program been? Do the Greens support continuing the SmartBus program?

12) How successful has, in the Greens opinion, the Doncaster Park and Ride been, and does the Greens policies include any more Park and Ride styles hubs?

13) Do the Greens support combining the 551 Heidelberg - Bundoora (La Trobe University) bus service with the 291 Heidelberg - Box Hill (via Doncaster) bus service, or implementing a better co-ordinated time-table between these two bus services?

14) Are there any other improvements the Greens would make to the bus service in suburban Melbourne?

Again, your time in answering these questions is greatly appreciated.

Sincerest Regards,
Concerned Commuter.

As I said earlier, I'm not nieve enough to expect anything other than spin, if I get any reply at all. That being said, I'll post whatever replies I get - with my analysis - as it comes in.

Making Bad Foods Look Good

2005-07-08T15:12:00.000+10:00

Diet Coke:
Exactly 1.88 Servings

Choice Magazine has an interesting article up about the marketing tricks that some food companies use to make unhealthy foods look better than they are. While not legally speaking misleading, such packaging stretches the truth and makes use of loopholes in our 'honesty in advertising laws'. Some of these tricks include cans of Diet Coke, which are described as being 1.88 servings (so the claim can be made that it contains only 1 calorie per serve). Another trick exposed by Choice is by promoting the lack of negative qualities that you wouldn't expect the product to have anyway(to paraphrase Dave Hughes on the ABC's Glasshouse show, sand is fat free too - but it's not a good idea to eat it!).:

Food labels: 7 deadly sins

Sin 1: Accentuate the positive
Promote the (sometimes arguable) benefits, while ignoring the negatives.

Example: It’s common now to see packets of lollies extolling their ‘99% fat-free’ status, as if this will improve their practically-all-sugar reality. CHUPA CHUPS lollipops take it a step further with their ‘New formula with fruit pulp’. If you take in the ‘Freshness and fruit’ tag and the luscious fruit pics on the packet, it’s possible to infer that they contain fruit so they must be healthy — but the fruit content is a mere 3%.

Sin 2: A sporting chance
Utilise the belief that if the sports science sounds good, the product must be good.

Example: If you’re after a drink complete with a ‘unique energy management system’, look no further than Thorpey’s THORPEDO Water. We’re not sure what it means, but it sure sounds impressive.

Sin 3: Be vague
Use positive, but meaningless, descriptions.

Example: Terms and claims like ‘good’, ‘healthy’ and ‘nutritious’ sound positive, but aren’t defined by law so can legally be applied to pretty much anything. ‘Light’ or ‘lite’ is an equally vague description, and while labels must state what the product is ‘light’ in, it’s not always obvious. The label of CRISCO Canola Oil declares that ‘it’s light’ — light in kilojoules or fat you could presume. But the (very) small print reveals that it’s referring to colour and taste.

Sin 4: Tick tick tick
Boost the product’s appeal by giving it as many ticks as possible.

Example: It’s easy to assume that — much like the National Heart Foundation Approved tick — any tick on a food label means that the product meets certain nutrition criteria which could benefit your health. And the more ticks the better. But take the time to read what they represent, as often it’s little more than a trivial feature. The FERRERO Nutella ticks are as inconsequential as ‘contains skim milk’, ‘packed with hazelnuts’ (just as well, seeing it’s a hazelnut spread) and ‘only 7.6% cocoa’ (why ‘only’?).

Sin 5: Image magic
Lure you in with a picture that’s not necessarily representative of the product.

Example: MASTERFOODS Creamy Guacamole Style Dip is only 1% avocado, yet it shows a large picture of an avocado on the label and describes itself as ‘a smooth and creamy blend of tasty avocados, fresh capsicums, garlic and fragrant spices’. Those avocados must be particularly tasty if you only need such a small amount.

Sin 6: Sneaky servings
Use serving sizes that show the product in a favourable light.

Example: A standard 375 mL can of DIET COKE apparently contains 1.88 servings. Considering a can isn’t resealable, you’d think it’d make more sense for the whole can to be a single serve, rather than just 200 mL. But then, of course, it wouldn’t be able to make its famous ‘less than 1 calorie per serve’ claim.

Sin 7: The invisible bonus
Make a selling point of the absence of ingredients that you wouldn’t expect to be there in the first place.

Example: It would be rare canola or olive oil that contained cholesterol, considering that dietary cholesterol is only in foods of animal, not vegetable, origin. The same could be said for rice or breakfast cereals. But this doesn’t stop some brands from having ‘cholesterol-free’ declarations on their labels. It may be true, but it shouldn’t influence which brand you buy.

Labels aren't the only way to persuade a consumer a product's what they want.
* You can describe a fatty or sugary product as being “an important part of a healthy, balanced diet”, or as being “OK to eat occasionally, as long as you’re eating plenty of healthy food too”.
* You can also play on the notion that kilojoules are bad but energy is good to change a sugary, high-kilojoule food into one that’s “packed with energy”.
* An argument often used by the food industry is that “there’s no such thing as a bad food, just a bad diet”. If you subscribe to this you can produce and promote the least nutritious food, and simply put the onus onto the individual to get good nutrition elsewhere.

SOURCE: http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle.aspx?id=104788&catId=100288&tid=100008&p=2

It's time that these loopholes got tightened up. Click through to read an excerpt.

Fox News' Reaction to London Tragedy: "Time to Buy!"

2005-07-08T14:59:00.000+10:00

Fox News:
Profiting from tradgedy.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on London's Underground train network, the coverage of the 24 hour news channels has been filled with predictable clichéd speculation:

Breaking News Coverage - keeping talking, when you still don't actually know anything yet

Friday, July 08, 2005
...
I'd like to mention the much more trivial issue of the plight of 24-hour ON THE SCENE News Reporters.

Who have to ad-lib for hours as information gradually scrapes in. And who manage this by mouthing CONSTANT and PAINFUL homilies, generalisations, assumptions, theories and guesses to make up for the complete lack of actual facts. Or even pictures.

SOURCE: http://anonymouslefty.blogspot.com/2005/07/breaking-news-coverage-keeping-talking.html

The worst of the bunch, by a country mile, has got to be the right-wing Fox News Channel, whose coverage of the unfolding events was thoroughly disgusting.

First, in the 24 hours before the terrorist attacks on London, Fox News Channel's John Gibson seemingly stated that he would have 'enjoyed watching' France suffer a terrorist attack:

Missed Opportunity
All day long people have been saying to me, "Wasn't it great they didn't pick Paris?" And I've been saying, "No, no, no."

Paris was exactly the right place to pick and the Olympic committee screwed up.

Why? Simple. It would have been a three-week period where we wouldn't have had to worry about terrorism.

First, the French think they are so good at dealing with the Arab world that they would have gone out and paid every terrorist off. And things would have been calm.

Or another way to look at it is the French are already up to their eyeballs in terrorists. The French hide them in miserable slums, out of sight of the rich people in Paris.

So it would have been a treat, actually, to watch the French dealing with the problem of their own homegrown Islamist terrorists living in France already.

...

But, alas, they picked London. I like the Brits. I like London. I hate to see them going through all this garbage when it would have been just fine in Paris.

C'est la vie. Goes to show the Olympic committee doesn't recognize the perfect opportunity when it presents itself.

That's My Word.

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161750,00.html

Given this, what was Fox News' Brit Hume's first thoughts after the attacks? Apparently, the money he could make as a result:

Hume's "first thought" on hearing of London attacks: It's "time to buy" futures
Posted to the web on Thursday July 7, 2005 at 5:58 PM EST

During Fox News' coverage of the July 7 London bombings, Washington managing editor Brit Hume told host Shepard Smith that his "first thought," when he "heard there had been this attack" and saw the low futures market, was "Hmmm, time to buy." Smith had asked Hume to comment on the lack of a negative U.S. stock market reaction to the London attacks.

From Fox News' July 7 breaking news coverage between 1 and 2 p.m. ET:
SMITH: Some of the things you might expect to happen, for instance, a drop in the stock market and some degree of uncertainty across this country -- none of that really seen today, and I wonder if the timing of it -- that it happened in the middle of the night and we were able to get a sense of the grander scheme of things -- wasn't helpful in all this.

HUME: Well, maybe. The other thing is, of course, people have -- you know, the market was down. It was down yesterday, and you know, you may have had some bargain-hunting going on. I mean, my first thought when I heard -- just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, "Hmmm, time to buy." Others may have thought that as well. But you never know about the markets. But obviously, if the markets had behaved badly, that would obviously add to people's sense of alarm about it. But there has been a lot of reassurance coming, particularly in the way that -- partly in the way the Brits handled all this, but also in the way that officials here handled it. There seems to be no great fear that something like that is going to happen here, although there's no indication that we here had any advance warning.

— J.B. & R.S.K.

SOURCE: http://mediamatters.org/items/200507070005

Beyond Brit Hume describing the financial windfall he could possibly reap at the expense of the dozens killed in the terrorist attacks on London, the right-wing Fox News Channel's Brian Kilmeade described how the terrorist attacks "works to our advantage":

Fox News' Brian Kilmeade: London terror attack near G8 summit "works to ... Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together"
Posted to the web on Thursday July 7, 2005 at 2:07 PM EST

The following exchange between Fox News host Brian Kilmeade and Fox News business contributor and substitute host Stuart Varney occurred during breaking news coverage of the attacks on London subways and buses on the July 7 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

KILMEADE: And he [British Prime Minister Tony Blair] made the statement, clearly shaken, but clearly determined. This is his second address in the last hour. First to the people of London, and now at the G8 summit, where their topic Number 1 --believe it or not-- was global warming, the second was African aid. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1. But it's important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened.

VARNEY: It puts the Number 1 issue right back on the front burner right at the point where all these world leaders are meeting. It takes global warming off the front burner. It takes African aid off the front burner. It sticks terrorism and the fight on the war on terror, right up front all over again.

KILMEADE: Yeah.

— N.C.

SOURCE: http://mediamatters.org/items/200507070005

it is an understatement to say that the reaction of the Fox News presenters in the face of this horrific human tragedy has been thoroughly, utterly disgusting. Plotting financial gains for yourself, and gloating about political advantage in the face of tragedy - how low can they go?How low can they go? Read on to find out!

Public Transport Neglect

2005-07-07T14:12:00.000+10:00

A suburban tram:
This picture clearly wasn't taken in Rowville...
The PTUA has issued a press-release about the public transport system being run down, and the token slaps on the wrist given to privately owned public transport opperators for unreliable service - in some limited circumstances:

New Customer Charters Highlight Transport Neglect
The Public Transport Users Association says the new train and tram customer charters highlight that performance of the public transport network is getting worse, not better.

The new charters include additional triggers for passenger compensation, and extra tickets where performance is particularly poor.

"Through its continued neglect of investment and maintenance, the government has been forced to put compensation measures in place for even lower levels of system performance. These are situations that should never occur yet the government has allowed the system to run down", PTUA vice-president Chris Loader said.

"Under the new charters, there will be no compensation if you are late for work because your train is cancelled three days every week - that's not acceptable for Melbourne commuters", Mr Loader said.

The compensation codes allow for passenger compensation only when the metro-wide average level of cancellations or punctuality reaches certain thresholds for trains or trams. Because of the averaging process, people on worst effected lines miss out on compensation. In addition, most compensation is only payable to holders of monthly, six-monthly and yearly tickets.

"Because of the way performance is calculated, very few people will actually receive compensation. The bulk of penalties paid by the operators will continue to go to the government, whose continued neglect of the infrastructure helped create these problems", Mr Loader said.

In other components of the charters:

* The Yarra Trams Customer Charter states an aim to reduce the number unpunctual services by 20%, but offers no changes to existing punctuality targets.

* The PTUA welcomes raising of the cancellation threshold for Connex from 96% to 98%, but believes the old threshold of 96% was too generous.

* Connex are not penalised for running trains up to five minutes early. When trains run early passengers arriving at their station on time could be forced to wait up to 40 minutes for the next train.

The charters reference the need for better inter-modal connections, yet Yarra Trams is in the process of removing tram stops from important bus-tram interchanges in Collins Street, Victoria Parade and Kew Junction.

SOURCE: http://www.ptua.org.au/media/2005/may30.shtml

There has, over the past few decades, been a clear under-investment in public transport infrastructure across large parts of suburban Melbourne. And the unreliable nature of most of Melbourne's public transport is only half the problem.

One of the big 'divides' often cited between the inner-city left and those of us in the suburbs is the issue of public transport. The issue of public transport has been presented as being something that merely concerns those living in inner suburbs, who are served well by public transport, while suburbanites as supposedly 'car lovers'. But for the residents of many Melbourne suburbs, public transport is simply not an option. Take for example the residents of suburbs like Rowville and Scoresby - the only means of public transport through large parts of these suburbs is the 665 InvictaBus line between Ringwood and Dandenong, which (even through peak-hour) runs along the congested Stud Road. Train or tram in these suburbs is not an option as the nearest train stops are in either Ringwood or Dandenong. Getting to the city via public transport can take over 2 hours for some of these residents. No wonder they 'love their cars'!

This situation has arisen from the failure of several governments, both Labor and Liberal, to extend a train-line to these suburbs. Successive governments have been negliagent in setting aside land and making plans to connect these suburbs to Melbourne's train and tram networks as they developed. The problem for us today is that setting aside parts of paddocks in growth corridors is significantly cheaper than buying back subdivided blocks with established houses, and thus the cost of extending train or light-rail services to these growth areas is significantly higher today than it would have been had various state governments undertaken adequate planning. The result is a thoroughly unacceptable public transport situation in such suburbs.

I was once asked by a self confessed car lover how investment in public transport benefits them. Well, investment in public transport infrastructure is critical to the further growth, both of our cities, and our economy. After all, it is difficult to grow an economy where all the workers are stuck in a traffic jams. Such investment clearly benefits not just those who use public transport, but motorists as well, as while many motorists will stick to their cars, other motorists will chose to switch to public transport, and thus less traffic on many major suburban roads in peak-hour. Similarly, strengthening the public transport network across suburban Melbourne benefits inner city public transport users by making more parts of Melbourne available to them via public transport.

What we need is long-term planning for the development and extension of public transport across Melbourne. We need to plan for future tram and train lines in currently undeveloped areas in Melbourne's growth corridors. Planning for public transport must be included in any growth stratergy or planning for Melbourne. I mentioned the dire situation in suburbs like Scoresby or Rowville, but an 'Outer Suburban Loop' line following the path of the Metropolitan Ring Road would greatly help the transport situation in these suburbs. Elimninating level-crossings and replacing them with over- or under-passes will allow for both significantly better traffic flow (particularly along, for example, Springvale Road near its ever-congested intersection with Whitehorse Road) as well as for more regular train services along established lines.

Suburban Melbourne's public transport situation is dire, but salvagable. We need leaders with a vision of transport in Melbourne that stretches 20 or 30 years, rather than just to the next election. There has been talk of branch-lines and tunnels to major suburban centres like Knox, Chadstone, or Doncaster for decades, but talk is cheap. What we need is plans and timelines for action, as well as the fiscal responsibility to put the plans into action.

Site Update: 1,500 Hits

2005-07-07T11:39:00.000+10:00

V for Vendetta:
Thankfully none against the blog, yet!
After the fairly heavy stuff I've posted the past week, it's time for a short post to celebrate the fact that we have had 1,500 people visiting the site. I want to say thankyou to everyone who has stopped by. Over the past week or so, i've been working on developing a tone, and a voice, for this blog. It's not quite there yet, but it will get there soon.

I might add some other writers to the blog over the coming weeks. Basically I've been aiming for an update a day, but that might dry up once I get back to uni; hopefully by having a number of writers for the blog, there will be more updates when this happens. The aim is to post on a number of issues, which may or may not be covered adequately in the mainstream media. If you want to contribute, feel free to send me an e-mail.

Also, I got a few new albums, so I'll post my thoughts on them sometime soon. Stay tuned.

Post-June 13th 'Normalcy' in Iraq

2005-07-06T21:19:00.000+10:00

Leviathan:
Unworthy of our trust,
Unworthy of Power.
A few days ago, I posted the following archived news story about Iraq:

World still waits for Saddam trial
Last Updated: Monday, 13 December, 2004, 09:35 GMT
...
In a television address, President Bush declared: "In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over."

General John Abizaid, head of the US Central Command, said the capture had dealt the insurgency "a huge psychological blow" that would "pay great benefits over time".

And the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, Major General Jay Odierno, whose troops were credited with seizing Saddam, declared the insurgency to be "on its knees".

"Within six months I think you're going to see some normalcy," he added.

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4090081.stm

Six months from December 13th 2004 - unless I'm mistaken - is June 13th, 2005. Given that date has well and truely passed, it may be worth looking at the 'normalcy' that has come about from the 'huge psychological blow' which has seen the insurgency "on it's knees":

Security incidents in Iraq, July 6
06 Jul 2005 10:20:54 GMT
Source: Reuters
BAGHDAD, July 6 (Reuters) - Following are security incidents reported in Iraq on July 6 as of 1000 GMT. U.S. and Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad.

BAQUBA - The U.S. military said one of its soldiers was killed and two others wounded on Tuesday after a roadside bomb attack north-east of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - Insurgents attacked an Iraqi police patrol in eastern Baghdad early on Wednesday killing one policeman and injuring 10 others, police said.

KIRKUK - A suicide car bomber killed one Iraqi soldier and injured four on Tuesday when he drove into an Iraqi army checkpoint on the main road to Baghdad, the defence ministry said in a statement.

KERBALA - A bomb blew up near a U.S military convoy in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, police said. One Iraqi civilian was injured.

(Reporting by Mussab al-Khairalla and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad and Sami al-Jumaili in Kerbala)

SOURCE: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GRA636250.htm

If this is 'normalcy', heaven help us! But at least the insurgency is on it's knees, right?

Diplomats in Iraq are Latest Targets
By Seattle Times news services
Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen ambushed diplomats from Bahrain and Pakistan in separate attacks in the capital yesterday, just three days after militants kidnapped Egypt's top envoy, in tactics that seemed aimed at scaring off foreign governments and isolating Iraq from the Arab world.

Hassan Malallah al-Ansari, the top-ranking diplomat at Bahrain's Baghdad mission, was shot and wounded when gunmen in a pickup tried to abduct him as he was driving alone in the capital's Mansour district, police said. In the afternoon, Pakistani Ambassador Mohammed Younis Khan escaped injury when gunmen in two cars fired on his convoy in the same neighborhood.

The two attacks came on the heels of the disappearance and apparent kidnapping of Ihad al-Sherif, chief of Egypt's diplomatic mission in Baghdad. A message posted on an Internet forum yesterday said the group calling itself al-Qaida in Iraq was holding al-Sherif, who was last seen Saturday night

Egyptian officials stated their intention last month to convert their diplomatic mission in Iraq into a full-fledged embassy, and al-Sherif was to be elevated to the status of ambassador.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly telephoned her Egyptian counterpart to offer any help the U.S. government could provide in gaining al-Sherif's release.

SOURCE: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002359564_iraq06.html

So let us get this straight: if we weren't being lied to, what we are seeing in Iraq is 'normalcy'. The work of an insurgency 'on it's knees'. If this is normalcy, I hate to see what chaos looks like... or what kind of carnage an insurgency that isn't on its knees would bring!

Clearly, what the troops, the Iraqi public, and we - the voting public of nations supporting the Iraq war - have been told fails to stack up with reality. These attacks are happening daily, and are so common that they no longer seem to be newsworthy. We were promised an insurgency on its knees, and normalcy in 6 months. And with ongoing attacks in an environment where senior diplomats are not safe, it is clear that those promises are false.

What we all have been fed - since the start of this conflict - could be described (if we feel kind) as a string of best case scenarios. Instead of levelling with the troops, the people of Iraq, and the voting public about the realities of war; the reality that this could be a bloody and protracted war, we were fed these false promises. The governments of coallition nations like Australia have not levelled with their publics that this war would involve thousands of deaths; rather what we have gotten a parroting of the hollow promises fed to those overseas. The realists who tried to communicate a less rosy, yet honest, picture of what this wretched war would involve have been dubbed 'treasonous' and 'unpatriotic'. The warnings of the realists were left unheeded.

The so-called 'leaders' who fed us these hollow promises are wondering why there's a backlash to the Iraq War, and why their opinion poll ratings are slipping. It is because the public remembers all the hollow promises - the normalcy in 6 months, Saddam's capture bringing the insurgency to its knees, the weapons of mass destruction, etc. - and are asking (as the diplomats get captured and the insurgency continues to attack) why these promises go unfulfilled.

More and more people are beginning to ask themselves the fundamental question: are the guilty politicians merely incompetant, or blatant liars? Or Both?

Whichever way you answer the question, it is increasingly becoming clear that those who have made these outrageously false comments are fundamentally untrustworthy. The act of war, of sending thousands of people (including both civilians and our troops) to their deaths; the defence of our nations is arguably one of the most critical powers we entrust our politicians with. If they show, as they are showing, that they are undeserving of the most critical powers; that they handle even their most critical powers with utter incompetance (or lies), surely the guilty politicians are undeserving of power.

Period.

Seeds of Insurgency: The Conclusion

2005-07-05T20:34:00.000+10:00

Rumsfeld shakes hands with Saddam:
Nothing to see here...
Over the past 5 days, the AmishThrasher has run a series of posts examining the key reasons why many ordinary Iraqi citizens may be supporting the current Insurgency in Iraq. In doing so, we have seen a wide variety of reasons why this is the case. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list of the reasons for the popular support of the insurgency, but rather an examination of 5 key issues, or motivations, which has seen the War get to the point where it has today.

The AmishThrasher does not not support the Insurgency in Iraq. Rather, the motivations for running this series has been to help promote public debate about why a war which, in the face of promises by various politicians, continues to see more death and destruction every day. Honest public debate on how to address the issues discussed in this series, as well as the other reasons for popular support for the insurgency - and how to deal with these issues - is essential if there is to be any hope of peace in Iraq.

The popular press seems keen to suggest that the bulk of the insurgency is being carried out by foreign, or Islamist terrorists. Conflating Islamic extremism with all the insurgents is both simple-minded and counter-productive. To have any hope in Iraq at all depends on winning hearts and minds of the nationalist element of this insurgency, and the sections of the Iraqi public which supports it. Avoiding doing so will almost inevitably lead to more needless carnage and death.

Not all of these 5 factors are the products of poor planning at the time of the invasion - the British Mandate of Iraq was in place decades before the second Gulf War. But the failure to adequately address them is. The politicians responsible need to be held accountable, and this can only happen through honest public examination of the insurgency, and its causes. Politicians - on both sides of politics - rank somewhere between used car salesmen and snake oil salesmen in terms of trustworthiness. You will have noticed that the AmishThrasher has extensively quoted old news stories - the reason for doing so is that numerous politicians have made comments to the public in the past, many of which seemingly don't stack up with reality. If these comments are made by misinformed politicians, in a Post 9/11 world, that's terrible. If they lie intentionally to us, and our troops, that's worse. And at a time of war, when the lives of both our troops and civilians are on the line, it is thoroughly unacceptable.

As Australians, we face an additional dilemma: how long to support the War in Iraq. In order to decide this, we must have a key list of objectives that will lead to the United States winning the peace, and a timeline. While Australia's relationship to the United States is important, we must not get ourselves involved in another Vietnam as a result of it. The Australian government must have a clear time-line, and a clear understanding that failure to adhere to it will lead to Australia withdrawing its support for the Iraq War.

Where we go from here is up for question. That death and destruction will come from a lack of debate or accountability is not.

Seeds of Insurgency Part V: The Critical Error

2005-07-04T11:52:00.000+10:00

Iraqi soldiers:
Where are they now?
This is part 5 of an ongoing series I'm running here looking at the factors behind the insurgency in Iraq.

Yesterday, I concluded by posting that there was one fundemental error which has lead, perhaps more than the other factors I have discussed, to the current insurgency in Iraq: the fact that early in the occupation, the US decided to disband the former Iraqi Army, and build a new army from scratch. To understand why this is a problem, we need remember that many in the army were loyal to Iraq, rather than to the ruler of the day (including Saddam Hussein). This has been the case for a very long time:

British Mandate of Iraq
The British decision at the Cairo Conference to establish an indigenous Iraqi army was significant. In Iraq, as in most of the developing world, the military establishment has been the best organized institution in an otherwise weak political system. Thus, while Iraq's body politic crumbled under immense political and economic pressure throughout the monarchic period, the military gained increasing power and influence; moreover, because the officers in the new army were by necessity Sunnis who had served under the Ottomans, while the lower ranks were predominantly filled by Shia tribal elements, Sunni dominance in the military was preserved.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_of_Iraq

The huge implications of the decision to disband the Iraqi Army were spelled out early in the war by analyst Steve Gilliard (who I talked about yesterday):

The Fatal Mistake

Sunday, September 21, 2003

Hubris leads to many things, but the disbanding of the Iraqi Army, 400,000 men strong, was the mistake which will, ultimately, undo our occupation and war.

Why?

Because it was the one national institution which existed apart from Saddam Hussein. He didn't trust it, and he didn't let it get too close to him. Their officers were bribable and they hated Saddam. Yet, they were tossed out of a job and had to threaten the CPA to get demobilzation cash.

The heart of any Army is not its generals, but its young sergeants, captains and colonels. They're the men who win battles and lead troops. Keeping them on your side is the difference between victory and defeat in war. If Viceroy Jerry and his crew had been smarter about this, they would have been able to provide security. It might not have prevented a civil war in the end, but, the security problem would have a very different cast.

Despite the defeat in the first Gulf War, the Iraqi Army was sound for what it was. It had good command and control, good training and decent elite units, both Special Forces and Republican Guard. There was a sound nucleus to build a new Army around. Instead, by casting the army to the winds, it created the backbone of an opposition.

How can you tell?

Because the tactics of the resistance are growing in proficiency. The guerrilla units are too large and well coordinated to be merely pissed-off jihadis. Attacks signaled by flares and coordinated remote mine attacks are not taught in training camps, but in military schools. Sure, some of the kids may be bribed, but there is enough military training among Iraqis to make a resistance possible. They have the ability to set ambushes and escape. Not just once, but repeatedly. And last week, in Ramadi, Iraqi resistance held off US Armor and infantry for three hours, forcing them to withdraw. That is not being done by bored Syrians.

KIRKUSH MILITARY TRAINING BASE, Iraq, Sept. 15 Ã¢â‚¬â€� The mock attack begins with whistles, because the new Iraqi army needs to conserve its blanks.

Within a few minutes, under the watchful eye of private trainers paid by the United States, a platoon of recruits overruns the enemy position. Like the rest of their battalion, these young men are only weeks from becoming full-fledged soldiers.

When they are ready, their new army will have 735 men.

In Washington, politicians and military planners say the United States needs to rely much more heavily on Iraqi soldiers and police officers, both to restore order and to lighten the load on overworked American troops. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said that strengthening the Iraqi security services is a top priority. Pentagon planners have optimistically spoken about replacing American soldiers with Iraqi troops.

But on the ground here, the Iraqi cavalry appears a long way off.

There is this assumption that the Iraqi Army was tactically unsound. Retraining the Army seems not only to be a waste of time, but is hampered by the fact it is tainted as an army of collaboration. It exists because of the Americans and is designed to serve American, not Iraqi, needs. How can they expect the Iraqi people to rally around what is in essence, the New ARVN.

The new army will be of little use against well-armed guerrillas, much less as a deterrent to the established armies of Iran and Turkey, Iraq's neighbors to the east and north, said Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington policy institute. That is likely to remain the case for the next several years, he said.

"One of the great problems here is that they are creating an Iraqi army that is seen by most Iraqis as not an Iraqi army, but as a paramilitary force that looks more like a tool of the occupation than a national defense force," Mr. Cordesman said.

That opinion is widely shared on the streets of Iraq. In Kufa, a religious center 100 miles south of Baghdad, a half dozen men agreed in interviews that America had acted deliberately to leave Iraq's army weak. "It's not the right thing to do," said one of the men, Hussan Muhammad.

You have to wonder why the new Iraqi Army will be a fraction of the size of the old Iraqi Army and will be for years. Also, what self respecting Iraqi would serve in such a force.

General Eaton said the occupying forces were reconstructing the Iraqi army as quickly as possible. The soldiers of that army, many of them conscripts who had been ill treated, fled after the fall of Mr. Hussein's government. Its barracks were looted to their walls, its tanks blown apart or stripped to their tracks, its weapons stolen.

The old Iraqi bases "do not tolerate human life right now," General Eaton said. "The buildings are carcasses."

The occupying forces plan to rebuild the bases while they train a select group of former Iraqis officers in how to lead a volunteer force in a democratic nation, he said. Then, next spring, it will recruit former soldiers, telling them that "the barracks are ready" and "your leaders have been retrained."

If all goes as planned, the 13,500 recruits will form the two new divisions to complement the 6,700 from Kirkush.

This army can only serve one purpose, to repress other Iraqis. It is too small and weak to do anything else. Most Iraqis, not stupid, have figured this out.

Once the Army was dissolved, a key tool of national unity was loss and the resistance gained many new members. A resistance which grows more efficient by the day.

SOURCE: http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2003/09/fatal-mistake-hubris-leads-to-many.html

The decision to disband the Iraqi Army has even been described as a mistake by Ghazi al-Yawar (the former interim president):

Iraqi interim president: Insurgents will be gone in a year
Al-Yawar said he believes the United States was wrong when it eliminated the Iraqi army.

"In hindsight, it was a mistake to disband the Iraqi military," he said.

He said he foresees U.S. forces remaining in Iraq until enough Iraqi forces have been recruited and trained to replace them.

SOURCE: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/08/iraq.interim.president/index.html

In other words, there was a mutual distrust and dislike between Hussein and his Army. Hussein was protected by a separate Republican Guard was precisely for this reason. It would be reasonable to suspect that most in this Army - particularly the lower-ranked Shi'ites - were not Baathists. The question to ask is what has happend to these 400,000 armed and trained soldiers? A reasonable answer would be to suggest that many went on to join - to form the backbone of - the Insurgency. If this is the case, then disbanding the old Iraqi Army may have been the most critical mistake made by the US in its invasion in Iraq.

Seeds of Insurgency Part IV: Early Mistakes

2005-07-03T12:07:00.000+10:00

Uncle Sam:
Made a few mistakes in Iraq
This is part 4 of an ongoing series I'm running here looking at the factors behind the insurgency in Iraq.

One of the most insightful sources of information about the ongoing US - Iraq Crisis has been Steve Gilliard. Gilliard - while wrong about some issues (for example his prediction that Howard Dean would become US President) - has made a number of accurate predictions and has done some excellent analysis into the ongoing war in Iraq. This has been no accident; Gilliard has an extensive knowledge of military history, and has applied this knowledge to the ongoing war. He also has extensive experience as a journalist, having written for numerous publications and websites. Unsurprisingly, Gilliard has been constantly critical about the war, often in the face of popular opinion. His thoughts on Iraq are available through his News Blog - available online at http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com.

An example of this analysis is the following piece. While much of the mainstream media, back in August 2003, were busy proclaiming that Iraq was a clear victory and that all that was necessary was 'mopping up' a few of Saddam's 'dead-enders', Gilliard was busy analysing why America was losing the war in Iraq. While some of these early mistakes have been corrected, either the ongoing damage persists, or worse, the key problems identified by Gilliard still remain uncorrected.

In this series, I have already raised a number of reasons why there is an insurgency in Iraq today, with support perhaps even amongst people who thoroughly hated the reigime of Saddam Hussein. Decade-long sanctions which hurt the civilian population (which - directly or indirectly - killed many innocent children), Britain's history in Iraq, and civilian casualties were key factors in forming the guerilla movement now attacking the American and coallition troops in Iraq. Yet, on top of these factors, there were other fundamental mistakes that were - and still are being - made by the US. (as outlined below):

Monday, August 18, 2003
With exploding pipelines and flooded streets, it's time to ask why we're losing this war.

First, the entire war was based on a series of false assumptions, which centered on the political fiction that exiles would be warmly accepted by the Iraqi people as viable representatives of a post-Saddam Iraq. Why that assumption was made is beyond me, but since ideology trumped basic common sense, there was no way that the kind of people who are eventually going to run Iraq would have been acceptable. The idea that we would fight a war to make Ayatollah Hakim President of Iraq would have gotten zero support.

In reality, the exiles, many of whom had dealings with Saddam or were completely unknown, were resented as tools of the US. One cleric allied with the US was chopped into tiny bits by Shias in Najaf. The great neocon hope, Ahmed Chalabi, is now the most hated non-Baathist in Iraq. Far too little was understood about how dissident politics would play out, even though, it is clear that only home grown heroes would ever make the cut. Only an exile leader with demonstrable suffering, like a Hakim, can have any credibility. Exiles who have grown up with fairy tales about life in Iraq, or who left as children, have little chance to be accepted by average Iraqis.

Second, at every opportunity, we have been giving the wrong signals. Relying on exiles, attacking Islamicist parties, living in Saddam's palaces. Iraqis figured the score as their libraries and museums were looted while the oil ministry was protected. Jerry Bremer, completely untrained in any civil skill useful to rebuilding a country, acts like a viceroy. Instead his expertise is in "terrorism". It's like Red Dawn where the Russians bring in a guy who's expert on hunting partisans. You don't have to be a scholar in American studies to see what the Americans are really thinking. He lives in Saddam's palace, drinks his booze and drives around in an armored SUV. To the average Iraqi, the only difference is that he doesn't have people tortured by his sons.

The conduct of the troops belies a deep contempt and racism for Iraqis. But unlilke uneducated Somalis, many of these folks not only speak and read English, they understand the world. Iraq is not some backwards swamp, but a complex, cultured country with plenty of educated people. Baghdad is not Kabul. They know how Americans live and how they live and they think it's not funny they're suffering and the Americans are not. We have completely underestimated the attitudes and resolve of the Iraqi people, who see no reason for their continue joblessness and wretched misery.

Third, there is no information gap. Iraq is not Somalia or Afghanistan, where the locals barely read and are lucky to have radios. Kids in Iraqi streets worship David Beckham, watch Premiership soccer, listen to the BBC and go online. When ABCNews runs a story on Halliburton and Bush, they can read it or watch the video. The BBC tells them about Tony Blair's lies the same time they tell us. Iraq is a wired country with lots of information available to the public. Within minutes of lights going down on the east coast of the US, Iraqis were laughing about it in their tea houses. We are dealing with a sophisticated, educated, armed populace. We act as if we are dealing with ignorant children. They are not.

The racist assumptions about Iraqi awareness means that we discount real threats like Sadr and his tacit working arrangement with Hakim and Sistani and seek to blame our problems on Saddam and his friends and Al Qaeda. At no point has the US been able even to manage the anarchy. The police are ineffective because we don't fully trust them. We expect Iraqis to work with the US, yet provide them no protection or safety. We use them and they get killed, at points, by their own families.

Fourth, US tactics range from the abysmal to the common sense. It is increasingly clear that there is a leadership problem in the 4th Infantry Division. Their battalion commanders seem to lack basic common sense in dealing with Iraqis. While the 3rd ID is burnt out, the 4th ID seems to revel in bad tactics and bad leadership. You have commanders using questionable tactics and the command staff living in luxury while the manuever units live in hell. Special Ops is uneven at best. The vaunted and secretive Task Force 20 seems to have little regard for Iraqis or their safety. Meanwhile, the 101st, while losing men, has a much better commander and command structure. The difference in their operations seems to be night and day. But it goes deeper than leadership.

The US military is tactically at sea in Iraq. Each battalion, in each brigade, in each division seems to be doing its own thing. Not in terms of tactics, but in terms of everything. Some units are well supplied, some are not. Some sweep through towns and make enemies, some don't. It seems to be that every unit is working off of a different playbook, yet none of the plays work. It seems clear that the leadership at the top of CENTCOM is so busy trying to run two wars, they haven't noticed the 4ID is a disaster in the making. The current use of partisan sweeps is a failure. The locals are not going to help the US find their relatives. Every time they announce that they've taken 20 AK's, remember Iraq has over 5 million of them. Or about 55 for every GI in country. We are fighting a colonial war against the best armed population in history. Iraq was a vast storehouse of weapons and those who wanted them, took them. We are sending in units against Iraqis who have the same basic weapons we do, automatic rifles, machineguns, mines, grenades. No colonial population has ever had the chance to resist their occupiers on nearly as even terms. Most Iraqi men have military training, hundreds of thousands have combat experience. Their tactics negate our equipment. They are able to use signal flares to manuever, which is a basic infantry manuever, but almost impossible for the untrained to master correctly. These are no fat former secret policemen doing this.

US troops are so trigger happy and so poorly trained, they shoot civilians without pause. A cameraman shooting US troops was gunned down. Whole families have been blown away by US troops. Abuse of Iraqis is common. You have to wonder what isn't making the papers. Our MOUT (urban warfare) training is so unrealistic, that basic car stops often end in tragedy, while guerrillas brag about shipping guns past them. Most American soldiers patrol with their weapons pointed at the locals, off safe. We often shoot recklessly among civilians as well. The desire to go home is obvious, but when troopers kill a child because they freak when Iraqis fire guns in celebration, that's a failure of training. The brutal fact is that the US Army was unprepared to occupy Iraq and its current methods make the occupation worse.

This is from today's Guardian:
But colleagues who were with the award-winning cameraman when he was killed told a different story.

Nael al-Shyoukhi, a Reuters soundman, said the soldiers "saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission.

"After we filmed we went into the car and prepared to go when a convoy led by a tank arrived and Mazen stepped out of the car to film.

"I followed him and Mazen walked three to four metres. We were noted and seen clearly.

"A soldier on the tank shot at us. I lay on the ground. I heard Mazen and I saw him scream and touching his chest. I cried at the soldier, telling him 'you killed a journalist'. They shouted at me and asked me to step back and I said 'I will step back but please help, please help'."

He said they tried to help but Dana was bleeding heavily. "Mazen took a last breath and died before my eyes."

Stephan Breitner, of France 2 television, added: "We were all there for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don't think it was an accident. They are very tense. They are crazy."

Fifth, the occupation has no political supporters. You have some exiles, some grifters and some parasites, but even most of Saddam's stooges won't suck up to the US. You would think that a country riven with informers would be either in civil war or vying to get close to Uncle Sugar. Instead, they're not supporting the US and turning their back when the guerrillas strike. No one serious in Iraq wants anything to do with this occupation. Those that do are angling for power at best. The US is unable to deliver basic services and is, thus, losing the middle and working classes they desperately need to support them.

The US, unable to provide basic security, is discredited by this more than anything else. Without power, light and gas,the US are just occupiers who need to leave.

Finally, the cost of rebuilding Iraq is begining to dawn on the administration. The lack of consensus from our European allies means they will refuse to help. Without UN help, the cost of running Iraq is too much to bear. We can't afford it, not the $2b for the electrical grid, forget the billions to rebuild the oil industry, forget the actual war-related damage. The guerrillas don't have to do much, just blow thing up the US cannot afford to fix. Of course, there is no relation to the fact that Bush's cronies have gotten all the big contracts, despite rank imcompetence. Why should France sink billions into Iraq so Dick Cheney can make more money?

The Iraqis know this. They know the jury-rigged CPA is an obstacle, not an aid, to real rebuilding. Why should they support an occupation which, at its core, seeks to remake their country for the safety of Halliburton? A free, independent, Iraq sounds great. But since the US is allowing the exploitation of the oil fields in the name of crony capitalism, they know that's a pipedream. When they go online and read the NY Times, they take the hint.

Everyone talks about 4th generation warfare. Well, we live in a 4th generation information age. If we write it and say it, they see it. Forgetting that fact, gets Americans killed.

SOURCE: http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2003/08/why-were-losing-in-iraq-with-exploding.html

On top of these fundamental mistakes, there is perhaps one other - even more fundamental - error made by the US, as I will show tomorrow.

Seeds of Insurgency Part III: Civilian Casualties

2005-07-02T16:27:00.000+10:00

Shock and Awe:
We won't hit civilians
This is part 3 of an ongoing series I'm running here looking at the factors behind the insurgency in Iraq.

When the US, and its coalition, began the war in Iraq, it was amidst a barrage of promises about "shock and awe". To many, the most important comments were the efforts, as presented by Donald Rumsfeld, to ensure the lowest possible civilian death toll. Here's an example of the comments made in the lead-up to the war:

Pentagon briefing transcript
March 27 2003, 11:58 AM
To the Iraqi people, let me say this: By now you have seen and know that coalition airstrikes are not aimed at you, they are aimed at the regime of Saddam Hussein. We are systematically eliminating the institutions that repress you. As we do so, we are doing everything possible to protect innocent civilians. Humanitarian assistance, food, water and medicine is already being delivered, and more will arrive shortly. A regime that starved its own people so that a dictator could build many, many palaces, will be removed. In its place, you will build a free Iraq with a new government based on democratic principles of political freedom, individual liberty, and the rule of law.

SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/27/1048653783786.html

The 'shock and awe' tactics, the public was told, was going to lead to maximum devastation to Hussein's government and his army. Iraq was to be a clean war; a safe war. This view was presented, through the mainstream media, to the general public:

Analysis: US 'shock and awe' tactic
By Steve Schifferes
Friday, 21 March, 2003, 19:03 GMT
...
The doctrine of "shock and awe" is based on a book by military strategist Harlan Ullman, who is admired by both Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Mr Ullman wrote that the use of air power to achieve "nearly incomprehensible levels of mass destruction" could achieve "an overwhelming level of shock and awe against an adversary on an immediate basis to paralyse its will to resist".

...

However, many US supporters of air power have called for precision bombing which would not be aimed directly against civilians but only military and industrial targets.

Mr Ullman argues that with modern precision weapons, a "non-nuclear equivalent" of Hiroshima could be created.

The use of these sophisticated weapons, precisely targeted by global positioning satellites, is designed to maximise their effects while limiting collateral damage, which would make the task of post-war reconstruction more difficult.

Mr Rumsfeld said that there was no comparison between the air war in World War II, where "dumb weapons were widely distributed across large areas," and the precise targeting employed now to ensure that military targets and the leaders of the regime were precisely attacked without harming the Iraqi people.

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2874075.stm

The problem with this is that even the smartest of bombs is prone to failure; something that should have been apparent to the US (in regards to Iraq) even before the start of combat, during pre-war strikes on Iraq:

Smart bombs 'missed Iraqi targets'
Thursday, 22 February, 2001, 14:21 GMT
Pentagon officials have admitted that most of the bombs dropped by US and British warplanes on Iraq last Friday missed their targets.

A senior defence official in Washington told Associated Press that the strikes - launched in retaliation for alleged attacks on allied air patrols - had been given "about a B minus or a C plus" in terms of accuracy.

Last Friday's attacks sparked protests around the world, and inflamed UN-Iraqi relations, souring the atmosphere ahead of key talks aimed at paving the way for a lifting of the decade-old embargo on Iraq.

The revelations from the Pentagon come amid repeated US accusations that Chinese workers are in Baghdad - in breach of UN sanctions - installing fibre-optic cables to be used in Iraq's air defence.

China denied the allegation again on Thursday, saying it was to divert the outcry against the air strikes.

Weapon limitations
Stories that so-called "smart bombs" have gone off course are not new.

Last August, it emerged that the accuracy rate of bombs dropped by British forces during the 1999 Kosovo conflict was only 40%.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral Craig Quigley said the missiles fired at Iraq last week had achieved their purpose of "disrupting and degrading" radar systems near Baghdad.

But he also acknowledged the limitations of the strikes: "It isn't perfect. It never is."

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1184086.stm

As the weeks progressed, it became increasingly apparent that the 'surgical strikes' were failing at 100% accuracy.

List of casualties in Iraq
July 15 2003
One US soldier was killed and six were wounded when a military convoy came under attack with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in Baghdad yesterday, a US military spokesman said.

Following is a table of US, British and Iraqi casualties in the Iraq war and its aftermath, as announced by US, British and Iraqi authorities or independently confirmed by Reuters correspondents.

The figures in brackets refer to casualties after May 1, when US President George Bush declared hostilities over.

US AND BRITISH TROOPS KILLED:
COMBAT/ATTACKS
United States 146 (32)
Britain 14 (6)

NON-COMBAT
United States 69 (45)
Britain 29 (4)

IRAQIS KILLED:
MILITARY
2,320#

CIVILIANS
Between 6,058 and 7,711*

# = US military estimates relating only to fighting in or near Baghdad. No other figures available.
* = Figure compiled on website http://www.iraqbodycount.net, run by academics and peace activists, based on incidents reported by at least two media sources.

NON-COMBAT is defined as accidents, US or British fire killing or wounding their own troops, and other incidents unrelated to fighting.

SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/14/1058034953059.html

Civilian deaths continued to mount after 'major combat operations' ended:

No excuses
We must count Iraqi casualties
Mike Rowson and John Sloboda
Thursday December 9, 2004
How many Iraqis will die today? Maybe 10. Maybe 100. We have no way of knowing. Blair and Bush, who invaded and occupied Iraq in order to make the world a safer place, say there is no reliable way to count Iraqi casualties - and so they will not try. Thus they refuse to accord innocent Iraqis the same status as our own dead and injured, whose names we rightly record and honour.

In an open letter to the prime minister yesterday, 46 diplomats, academics, health experts and religious leaders called on him to commission an independent inquiry to count the casualties in Iraq. Blair responded by telling the House of Commons that the Iraqi health ministry has done the "most accurate survey that there is". But these figures - 3,853 dead and 15,517 injured - are not a survey, they are a partial count covering a six-month period from April to October this year. Even Iraqi officials acknowledge it to be an undercount.

Iraq Body Count's ongoing tally of recorded civilian deaths is based on official Iraqi figures, media reports and information from aid organisations. It does not pretend to be a complete count, but stands at between 14,619 and 16,804 deaths.

SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1369548,00.html

How many Iraqi's have been killed as a result is a matter up for debate at the moment, but even the most conservative of estimates - presented by the British government - suggests a number in the thousands:

Counting the civilian cost in Iraq
Monday, 6 June, 2005, 16:35 GMT 17:35 UK
...
Civilian toll estimates at 05/05

• Iraq Body Count: 22-25,000
• The Lancet: 100,000
• UK foreign secretary: >10,000
• People's Kifah >37,000

Where sources report differing figures, a minimum and a maximum are given.

Professor John Sloboda, a co-founder of Iraq Body Count, told the BBC News website: "Everyone can agree that there are good reasons why our count can never be complete, but there is not as much confusion as you think.

"Since the end of hostilities was declared, we are confident in the figures."

The IBC wants to see an independent commission set up in Iraq to give the best estimate of civilian deaths and full details of how each person died.

Prof Sloboda said: "No country could hold its head up high without looking back to investigate the deaths of thousands of its people.

"Imagine the United States not investigating exactly who died on 11 September, it is unthinkable."

"It should be recognised that there is no reliable way of estimating the number of civilian casualties caused during major combat operations"
British defence ministry

Other sources for casualty figures include the Washington-based Brookings Institution, which combines IBC's figures with projections for deaths caused by violent crime in Iraq.

In June 2005, it said that between May 2003 and 30 April 2005 6,598 Iraqi civilians had been killed in acts of war. This number does not include Iraqi civilians killed during what the US military defined as "major combat operations" between 19 March and 30 April 2003.

A study by the British medical journal, the Lancet, estimated in October 2004 that the invasion of Iraq had led to the deaths of 100,000 beyond what might have been expected before the invasion.

In August 2004, an Iraqi group calling itself the People's Kifah said it had documented more than 37,000 civilian deaths from March to October 2003. But there has been no independent scrutiny of these figures.

SOURCE: http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/1/low/world/middle_east/3672298.stm

The question to ask is how the friends and family of the civilians killed at the hands of US (and other invading) soldiers would react to the US afterwards (even if they didn't or don't like Saddam Hussein)? If a foreign country invaded your homeland and, during the process, accidentally killed a close friend or relative (even if you hated the people running your country), how would you feel towards them? Even if you had have greeted the invaders as 'liberators' originally, would you feel the same after someone close to you had died?

Note that not all of the friends or family members of the dead civilians necessarily turn into Insurgency operatives; some may feel more ambivalent towards the invading force. Perhaps less willing to help the invaders, or more willing to lend support to the insurgents?

By the most conservative estimates, there have been 6,598 civilians killed since 'major combat operations' ended, and perhaps 6,000 more during the main combat - over 12,000. The friends and families of these 12,000 - 100,000 (according to The Lancet) - thousands of Iraqi's - are faced with this very dilemma. Add thousands more who have been injured, and you begin to see a huge potential base of support for the insurgency.

When we add in the other factors I've discussed in these posts, like sanctions, we are beginning to see quite a significant potential base for the insurgency in Iraq; amplified by Britain's history in Iraq.

Seeds of Insurgency Part II: The British Mandate

2005-07-01T14:20:00.000+10:00

British Mandate Flag:
You mean this isn't the first time
westerners have tried to
impose democracy in Iraq?
This is part 2 of an ongoing series I'm running here looking at the factors behind the insurgency in Iraq. Yesterday, I examined the impact of sanctions on ordinary Iraqi civilians. These sanctions, when coupled with bombs being dropped on the livestock of Iraqi farmers and dilluted uranium munitions left in the country after the first Gulf War, caused a lot of hardship for ordinary Iraqis in many different ways. These included a scarcity of drugs and medical equiptment to treat preventable disease, food schortages, a rise in the cancer rate, and declining standards of education from under-resourced Iraqi schools. 500,000 Iraqi children - and perhaps many more adults - died as a result. Given this, it seems unsurprising that the USA and UK - two countries who pushed for those sanctions - would not be greeted as 'liberators', even amongst Iraqi citizens who utterly dispised the reigime of Saddam Hussein.

However, to truely understand current events in Iraq, we have to go back even further. It may come as a surprise to some people, but 2003 does not mark the first time that British troops have set foot in Iraq. Nor, for that matter, does it mark the first time that an attempt has been made by western powers to, following a period of occupation, create democratic insitutions in Iraq, or to create an Iraqi state whose oil resources are freely exploited by the west, and where a pseudo-independent client state acts as a military base for a western state in the Middle East. Indeed, the modern state of Iraq was created and shaped by the British doing precisely this in the aftermath of World War I.

As we are about to see, the following decades were marked by groups - which could broadly be described as insurgent groups - making attempts to overthrow these institutions. The essential problem of these institutions was that they were percieved as being illegitimate by Iraqis. Fast-forward to 2003, when the US, with their British allies, promise to 'liberate' the Iraqis by re-imposing a similar situation on Iraq, and the rest of the Middle East. Should we be surprised that such an act was greeted by many Iraqis with - at the very least - skepticism, and open hostility, rather than greeting the invaders (and their insitutions) as 'liberation'?

From the Wikipedia:
During World War I, British forces invaded Mesopotamia in 1917 and occupied Baghdad. Before they succeeded, they suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Turkish army, the siege and surrender of Kut. At the end of the war, the Ottoman empire collapsed and an armistice was signed with Turkey in 1918.

The British Mandate Period
Iraq was carved out of the old Ottoman Empire by direction of the UK government on January 10, 1919, and on November 11, 1920 it became a League of Nations mandate under British control with the name "State of Iraq".

At the end of the war, ownership of and access to Iraq's petroleum was split five ways: 23.75% each to the UK, France, The Netherlands and the USA, with the remaining 5% going to a private oil corporation headed by Calouste Gulbenkian. The Iraqi government got none of the nation's oil. This remained the situation until the revolution of 1958.

The British government laid out the institutional framework for Iraqi government and politics; the Iraqi political system suffered from a severe legitimacy crisis; Britain imposed a Hashemite monarchy, defined the territorial limits of Iraq with little correspondence to natural frontiers or traditional tribal and ethnic settlements, and influenced the writing of a constitution and the structure of parliament. Britain also had to put down a major revolt ( also known as the Arab revolt) against foreign rule between 1920 and 1922, resorting to aerial bombardment of Iraqi villages before control was established. These operations, in which it is alleged poison gas was used, were led by the future prime minister W.Churchill.

The Kurds in the north, wavering between adherence to the new Turkish state of Kemal Atatürk and the newly created Iraqi state, were lured by a British promise of autonomy within Iraq, a promise that was broken as soon as their incorporation was a fact. The British also supported narrowly based groups -- such as the tribal shaykhs over the growing, urban-based nationalist movement. The Land Settlement Act gave the tribal shaykhs the right to register the communal tribal lands in their own name. The Tribal Disputes Regulations gave them judiciary rights, whereas the Peasants Rights and Duties Act of 1933 reduced the tenants to virtual serfdom, forbidding them to leave the land unless all their debts to the landlord had been settled. The British resorted to military force when British interests were threatened, as in the 1941 Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani coup. This coup led to a British invasion of Iraq using forces from the British Indian Army under General Sir Edward Quinan, combined with an attack by the British controlled Arab Legion based in Jordan. This led to a very rapid defeat for the Iraqi army in May 1941.

The Iraqi Monarchy
The British designated Iraq as a kingdom and placed the country under the rule of Emir Faisal ibn Husayn, leader of the so-called Arab Revolt against the Ottoman sultan, brother of the new ruler of neighboring Trans-Jordan, Abdullah ibn Husayn, and member of the Sunni Hashemite family from Mecca (Makkah). Chased by the French out of Syria, of which he had been proclaimed king, Feisal obtained the throne of Iraq by the influence of T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) and Miss Getrude Bell, a romatically inclined English writer who lived in Baghdad, during a conference in Cairo, presided by the British minister of Colonial Affairs, Winston Churchill. Although the monarch was elected and proclaimed King by plebiscite in 1921, boycotted by the shi'ite majority, full independence was not achieved until 1932, when the British Mandate officially terminated. In 1927, discovery of huge oil fields near Kirkuk brought many improvements to Iraq. The Iraqis granted oil rights to the Iraqi Petroleum Company, a British-dominated, multinational firm.

King Faisal I was succeeded by his son, Ghazi, after the death of his father in December 1933. King Ghazi's reign lasted for some five and a half years, during which he claimed Iraqi sovereignty over Kuwait, as part of the former Ottoman province of Basra. An avid amateur of fast cars, the king drove into a lamppost and died instantly on April 3, 1939.

King Faisal II (1935-1958) was the only son of King Ghazi I and Queen Alya. King Faisal II was about four when his father died. For that reason the regency was assumed by his uncle Abdul Illah (April 1939 - May 1953), who after the accession to the throne of his nephew became crown prince.

In 1945, Iraq joined the United Nations and became a founding member of the Arab League.

At the end of the Second World War the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani led a rebellion against the central government in Baghdad. The Kurds had caused trouble earlier, insisting on their promised autonomy, and had never accepted the monarchy. After the failure of the uprising Barzani and his followers fled to Stalin's Soviet Union.

After the establishment of Israel a war with Israel followed in 1948, in which Iraqi forces were allied with those of Transjordan, in accordance with a treaty signed by the two countries during the previous year. Fighting continued until the signing of a cease-fire agreement in May 1949. The war also had a negative impact on the Iraqi economy. The government allocated 40 percent of available funds for the army and for Palestinian refugees. Oil royalties paid to Iraq were halved when the pipeline to Haifa was cut off in 1948. The war and the hanging of a Jewish businessman led to the departure of most of Iraq's prosperous Jewish community. Although emigration was prohibited, many Jews made their way to Israel during this period with the aid of an underground movement. In 1950 the Iraqi parliament finally legalised emigration to Israel, and between May 1950 and August 1951, the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government succeeded in airlifting approximately 110,000 Jews to Israel.

In 1956, the Baghdad Pact allied Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, United States and the United Kingdom, and established its headquarters in Baghdad. The Baghdad Pact constituted a direct challenge to Egyptian president Gamal Abdal Nasser. In response, Nasser launched a vituperative media campaign that challenged the legitimacy of the Iraqi monarchy and called on the officer corps to overthrow it. The 1956 British-French-Israeli attack on Sinai further alienated Nuri as-Said's government from the growing ranks of the opposition. In February 1958 King Hussein of Jordan and Abdul Illah proposed a union of Hashemite monarchies to counter the recently formed Egyptian-Syrian union, opening its doors for any Arab state to join if they wished. Nuri as-Said concentrated on the participation of Kuwait as a third country in the proposed Arab-Hashemite Union, Shaikh Abdullah Al-Salim, ruler of Kuwait, was invited to Baghdad to discuss Kuwait's liberation from British protection, and the subject of tri-unity. Britain opposed declaring Kuwait independent at that time. At this point, the monarchy found itself completely isolated. Nuri as-Said was able to contain the rising discontent only by resorting to even greater oppression and to tighter control over the political process.

The End of the Monarchy
Inspired by the example of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, a swift, predawn coup executed by officers of the Nineteenth Brigade known as "Free Officers", under the leadership of Brigadier Abdul-Karim Qassem (known as "il-Za`im") and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif overthrew the Hashemite monarchy on July 14, 1958. King Faisal II and Abd al Ilah were executed in the gardens of al-Rihab Palace, a large villa in Baghdad. Their bodies (and those of many others in the royal family) were displayed in public. Hysterical crowds dragged Abd al Ilah's remains through the streets of Baghdad, where it was butchered into pieces. Nuri as-Said evaded capture for one day, but after attempting to escape disguised as a veiled woman he was caught and shot on the spot. His mutilated body was burned on the steps of the ministry of Defence. Egypt's ruler, Gamal Abd el-Nasser, obtained a finger of Nuri as gift, but, disgusted by this token of esteem, ordered it to be buried. Iraq was proclaimed a republic, and the union with Jordan dissolved. Iraq's activity in the Baghdad Pact ceased. At the same time the new government declared the agreement by which foreign powers controlled the nation's oil reserves to be null and void, but that the government was willing to negotiate with western companies to continue their exploitation of Iraqi petroleum with appropriate payment.

When Qassem distanced himself from Nasser he faced growing opposition from pro-Egypt officers in the Iraqi army. Arif who wanted closer cooperation with Egypt was stripped of his responsibilities and after a convenient trial, thrown in prison.

When the garrison in Mosul rebelled against Qassem's policies he allowed the Kurdish leader Barzani to return from exile in the Soviet Union to help suppress the pro-Nasser rebels.

In 1961, Kuwait gained its independence from Britain. Abdul-Karim Qassem immediately claimed sovereignty over it, like king Ghazi I before him, based on the former status of the Emirate as originally part of the Ottoman province of Basra. Britain reacted strongly to this threat to its ex-protectorate, dispatching a brigade to the country to deter Iraq. Qassem backed down, and in October 1963, Iraq recognised the sovereignty and borders of Kuwait.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iraq

Looking in more depth, there are eerie parallels between the early US occupation (in the period between 2003 and 2005) and this earlier British Mandate:

The civil government of postwar Iraq was headed originally by the high commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, and his deputy, Colonel Arnold Talbot Wilson. British reprisals after the murder of a British officer in An Najaf failed to restore order. British administration had yet to be established in the mountains of Kurdistan. From the Hakkari Mountains beyond Iraq's northern frontier and from the plains of Urmia in Iran, thousands of Assyrians began to pour into Iraqi territory seeking refuge from Turkish savagery. The most striking problem facing the British was the growing anger of the nationalists, who felt betrayed at being accorded mandate status. The nationalists soon came to view the mandate as a flimsy disguise for colonialism.

Three important anticolonial secret societies had been formed in Iraq during 1918 and 1919. At An Najaf, Jamiyat an Nahda al Islamiya (The League of the Islamic Awakening) was organized. Al Jamiya al Wataniya al Islamiya (The Muslim National League) was formed with the object of organizing and mobilizing the population for major resistance. In February 1919, in Baghdad, a coalition of Shia merchants, Sunni teachers and civil servants, Sunni and Shia ulama, and Iraqi officers formed the Haras al Istiqlal (The Guardians of Independence). The Istiqlal had member groups in Karbala, An Najaf, Al Kut, and Al Hillah.

The grand mujtahid of Karbala, Imam Shirazi, and his son, Mirza Muhammad Riza, began to organize the insurgent effort. Shirazi then issued a fatwa (religious ruling), pointing out that it was against Islamic law for Muslims to countenance being ruled by non-Muslims, and he called for a jihad against the British. By July 1920, Mosul was in rebellion against British rule, and the insurrection moved south down the Euphrates River valley. The southern tribes, who cherished their long-held political autonomy, needed little inducement to join in the fray. They did not cooperate in an organized effort against the British, however, which limited the effect of the revolt. The country was in a state of anarchy for three months; the British restored order only with great difficulty and with the assistance of Royal Air Force bombers

Ath Thawra al Iraqiyya al Kubra, or The Great Iraqi Revolution (as the 1920 rebellion is called), was a watershed event in contemporary Iraqi history. For the first time, Sunnis and Shias, tribes and cities, were brought together in a common effort. In the opinion of Hanna Batatu, author of a seminal work on Iraq, the building of a nation-state in Iraq depended upon two major factors: the integration of Shias and Sunnis into the new body politic and the successful resolution of the age-old conflicts between the tribes and the riverine cities and among the tribes themselves over the food-producing flatlands of the Tigris and the Euphrates. The 1920 rebellion brought these groups together, if only briefly; this constituted an important first step in the long and arduous process of forging a nation-state out of Iraq's conflict-ridden social structure.

At the Cairo Conference of 1921, the British set the parameters for Iraqi political life that were to continue until the 1958 revolution; they chose a Hashemite, Faisal ibn Husayn, son of Sherif Hussein ibn Ali former Sharif of Mecca as Iraq's first King; they established an indigenous Iraqi army; and they proposed a new treaty. To confirm Faisal as Iraq's first monarch, a one-question plebiscite was carefully arranged that had a return of 96 percent in his favor. The British saw in Faisal a leader who possessed sufficient nationalist and Islamic credentials to have broad appeal, but who also was vulnerable enough to remain dependent on their support. Faisal traced his descent from the family of the Prophet Muhammad. His ancestors held political authority in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina since the tenth century. The British believed these credentials would satisfy traditional Arab standards of political legitimacy; moreover, the British thought Faisal would be accepted by the growing Iraqi nationalist movement because of his role in the 1916 Arab Revolt against the Turks, his achievements as a leader of the Arab emancipation movement, and his general leadership qualities.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_of_Iraq

As I have suggested a number of times in thsi article, beyond the geopolitical advantage that Iraq would give a foreign power, a key motivator in the earlier British Mandate was clearly oil:

The Iraq Petroleum Company was set up in 1920 as the Turkish Petroleum Company following the defeat and break-up of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and with the shares held by three oil companies, Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Shell Oil Company and a French oil company, Compagnie Française des Petroles and one individual, Calouste Gulbenkian, who held 5% of the shares. It was renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1929.

A concession to explore for oil in Iraq was obtained in 1925 and oil was first struck by the company in 1927. Oilfields were discovered and developed in the north of Iraq near Kirkuk and on the southern borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Oil pipelines were built to carry oil to the Mediterranean Sea at Haifa, Baniyas, Syria and Tripoli, Lebanon. The former pipeline was no longer used following the creation of Israel in 1948.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the company also obtained concessions to explore for oil in Dubai and other Gulf states. It retained a monopoly of exploration and development in Iraq until 1961, though it set up wholly owned subsidiaries such as the Basra Petroleum Company to operate in some areas.

In 1961, the revolutionary government of General Qassem nationalised 99.5 % of its concession areas in Iraq, leaving only the producing oilfields in the company's control. In 1971, the Iraqi government nationalised the remaining interests. This resulted in major increases in revenues for the Baath party government under Saddam Hussein to pursue massive infrastructure projects.

The Kirkuk field, originally brought online by the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1934, still forms the basis for northern Iraqi oil production. Kirkuk has over 10 billion barrels (1.6 km³) of remaining proven oil reserves. The Jambur, Bai Hassan, and Khabbaz fields are the only other currently producing oil fields in northern Iraq. While Iraq's northern oil industry remained relatively unscathed during the Iran-Iraq War, an estimated 60% of Northern Oil Company's facilities in northern and central Iraq were damaged in the Gulf War. Also, post-1991 fighting between Kurdish and Iraqi forces in northern Iraq resulted in temporary sabotage of the Kirkuk field's facilities. In 1996, production capacity in northern and central Iraq was estimated at between 0.7 to 1 million barrels (110,000 to 160,000 m³) per day, down from around 1.2 million barrels (190,000 m³) per day before the Gulf War.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Petroleum_Company

When we talk about the Insurgency, and how Iraqis have reacted to both the Iraq War, the occupation, and the new 'democratic' institutions, it is important to remember that these events are taking place against this historical background. Similarly, many of the challenges facing the British are also being, and will be, faced by the Americans. Perhaps more importantly, it is against this historical backdrop that the current insurgency has grown in Iraq, and the history of the west in Iraq - often under-reported by the Western media - shaped many of the attitudes of Iraqis today. When combined with the impact that sanctions have had, we can begin to trace out why the current insurgency came about.

Seeds of Insurgency Part I: "We Think the Price was Worth It!"

2005-06-30T14:10:00.000+10:00

Iraq's No Fly Zones:
A map of the areas they covered
Yesterday I posted comments from various people connected with the Bush Administration. One of the comments came from Paul Wolfowitz, who stated that "I am reasonably certain that (the Iraqi people) will greet us as liberators, and that will help us to keep requirements down." Meanwhile Ghazi al-Yawar stated that "We're not fighting a Viet Cong, which has principles and popular support. We are fighting Saddam loyalists. ... They know they are fighting for a losing battle. The whole Iraqi population is against them."

The question to ask is why this didn't transpire as planned?

Consider the following:
United Nations sanctions against Iraq were imposed by the United Nations in 1991 following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and continued until the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 because of the failure of Saddam Hussein to satisfy the UN that the conditions for lifting them had been met.

...

On August 6, 1990 the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 661 which imposed stringent economic sanctions on Iraq, providing for a full trade embargo, excluding medical supplies, food and other items of humanitarian necessity, these to be determined by the Security Council sanctions committee. After the end of the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi sanctions were linked to removal of Weapons of mass destruction by Resolution 687.

Effects of the sanctions
According to UN estimates, a million children died during the trade embargo, due to malnutrition or lack of medical supplies. Among other things, chlorine, needed for disinfecting water supplies, was banned as "dual use". A 1998 UNICEF report found that the sanctions had resulted in an additional 90,000 Iraqi children dying per year since 1991. In a 1996 interview US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright infamously replied, in answer to whether these deaths were "a price worth paying".

Denis Halliday was appointed United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Baghdad, Iraq as of 1 September 1997, at the Assistant Secretary-General level. In October 1998 he resigned after a 34 year career with the UN in order to have the freedom to criticise the sanctions regime, saying "I don't want to administer a programme that satisfies the definition of genocide". Halliday's successor, Hans von Sponeck, subsequently also resigned in protest. Jutta Burghardt, head of the World Food Program in Iraq, followed them. According to von Sponeck, the sanctions restricted Iraqis to living on $100 each of imports per year.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions

First, meet Madeleine Albright:

Madeleine Korbel Albright née Marie Korbel (born May 15, 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, now in the Czech Republic), American diplomat, served as the 64th United States Secretary of State.

She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996 as Secretary of State. After being unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, she was sworn in as the 64th Secretary of State on January 23, 1997. Albright was the first female Secretary of State, which in turn made her the highest ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government (Condoleezza Rice has since become the second female Secretary of State).

...

As Secretary of State, Albright incurred the wrath of many Serbs in the former Yugoslavia because of her role in the Kosovo and Bosnia wars as well US policy in the Balkans per se.

Albright has been condemned for remarks she made during on interview on December 5, 1996, for the 60 Minutes television program. On the theme of US sanctions against Iraq, Lesley Stahl asked:

We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?

Albright replied: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it.

In 2000, Secretary Albright became one of the highest level Western diplomats to ever meet Kim Jong Il, the reclusive leader of North Korea.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright

Note that Albright wasn't Secretary of State when sanctions were imposed; that honour goes to James Baker. Lawrence Eagleburger, and Warren Christopher were also Secretaries of State while Sanctions were imposed on Iraq, yet before Albright.

What sort of impact did these sanctions have on ordinary Iraqi citizens - you know, the ones who were going to greet the United States and its coallition as 'liberators'? According to John Pilger:

Before 1990 and the imposition of sanctions, Iraq had one of the highest standards of living in the Middle East. Now Unicef reports that at least 200 children are dying every day. They are dying from malnutrition, a lack of clean water and a lack of medical equipment and drugs to cure easily treatable diseases.

The current food ration, while nearly sufficient in calories, does not include enough vitamins, minerals and protein for health or growth. Malnutrition is now endemic amongst children. Diseases like kwashiorkor or marasmus are common in paediatric wards. Before 1990 the most important problem faced by Iraqi paediatricians was childhood obesity.

Many sewage treatment plants were targets of the air strikes during the war. Others have since disintegrated without equipment and spare parts from abroad. Chlorine and other water purification chemicals are now banned under 'dual use' considerations. As a result children are dying of what should be treatable diseases: simple diarrhoea, typhoid, dysentery and other water-borne illnesses.

The health system has disintegrated under sanctions. Hospitals are short staffed with doctors' and nurses' salaries insufficient to support them. Medical equipment like incubators, X-ray machines, and heart and lung machines are banned. The Security Council consistently blocks vaccines, analgesics and chemotherapy drugs, claiming they could be converted into chemical or biological weapons. Problems with transportation and refrigeration mean that even drugs that are allowed - like antibiotics - arrive only intermittently. Children with leukaemia, who can be saved with a full course of antibiotics, die, because one dose is missing.

Morphine, the most effective painkiller has been banned by the Security Council. At the same time the number of cases of cancer has risen sharply especially in southern Iraq.

After the Gulf war Iraq was not allowed the equipment to clean up its battlefields. More than 1 million rounds of weapons coated in depleted uranium (basically nuclear waste) were used by the allies during the war. As much as 300 tonnes of expended DU ammunition now lies scattered throughout Kuwait and Iraq. Depleted uranium dust gets into the food chain via water and the soil. It can be ingested and inhaled. Prolonged internal exposure leads to respiratory diseases, breakdown of the immune system, leukaemia, lung cancer and bone cancer. Cases of cancers in Iraq have risen tenfold since 1990. If cancers continue on the present upward curve, 44 per cent of the population could develop cancer within ten years.

SOURCE: http://pilger.carlton.com/iraq/impact

Depleted Uranium you ask? Here's some background from The Guardian:

Scientists urge shell clear-up to protect civilians
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Thursday April 17, 2003
The Guardian

Hundreds of tonnes of depleted uranium used by Britain and the United States in Iraq should be removed to protect the civilian population, the Royal Society said yesterday, contradicting Pentagon claims it was not necessary.

The society's statement fuels the controversy over the use of depleted uranium (DU), which is an effective tank destroyer and bunker buster but is believed by many scientists to cause cancers and other severe illnesses. The society, Britain's premier scientific institution, was incensed because the Pentagon had claimed it had the backing of the society in saying DU was not dangerous.

In fact, the society said, both soldiers and civilians were in short and long term danger. Children playing at contaminated sites were particularly at risk.

DU is left over after uranium is enriched for use in nuclear reactors and is also recovered after reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. There are thousands of tonnes of it in stores in the US and UK.

Because it is effectively free and 20% heavier than steel, the military experimented with it and discovered it could penetrate steel and concrete much more easily than convential weapons. It burns at 10,000C, incinerating everything as it turns to dust.

As it proved so effective, it was adopted as a standard weapon in the first Gulf war despite its slight radioactive content and toxic effects. It was used again in the Balkans and Afghanistan by the US.

DU has been suspected by many campaigners of causing the unexplained cancers among Iraqi civilians, particularly children, since the previous Gulf war. Chemicals released in the atmosphere during bombing could equally be to blame.

SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uranium/story/0,7369,938413,00.html

The impacts weren't just towards the citizen's health, however:
Education
In 1990 Iraq had one of the highest rates of literacy in the world. The Iraqi government maintained its commitment to high quality education even during the Iran/Iraq war.

The government built schools, trained teachers, and distributed free textbooks and other school supplies. Graduates from high school were accepted in universities throughout the world. Primary school children received milk, cod liver oil, hummus, fresh fruit and vitamin supplements on daily basis.

This system has been gradually destroyed over the last ten years. Iraqi teacher salaries have fallen from $400 to $3 per month. Teachers have to work a second job in order to earn enough to survive. Delegations from Unicef, AFSC and other humanitarian organisations paint the same picture. In classrooms all over the country children sit on the floor during lessons. There are no desks or chairs even for teachers. There are no school supplies: books, pencils and paper are all banned under 'dual use' considerations. Each class shares a single dilapidated textbook.

'We are told that pencils are forbidden because carbon could be extracted from them that might be used to coat aeroplanes and make them invisible to radar. I am not a military expert, but I find it very disturbing that because of this objection, we cannot give pencils to Iraqi school children.'
Farid Zarif, deputy director of the UN humanitarian program in Baghdad. New York Times, 3 January 1999

Schools have no heating or cooling systems where previously each classroom had a stove and a fan. Sanitation facilities are minimal. Children with gastroenteritis have to be sent home because toilets are broken. Many of the children in the classrooms appear visibly malnourished or stunted. It is common for children to faint with hunger.

Agriculture
In 1999 74% of Iraq's arable land had salinity problems. This figure is increasing steadily with several thousand hectares of land going out of cultivation annually. This coupled with a lack of functioning agricultural equipment, fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and seeds has resulted in a massive decline in food production.

Livestock poultry and fish industries have suffered through severe shortages in spare parts for equipment and veterinary drugs. Bombing raids during and since the Gulf War killed many livestock. The bombardment affected conditions of surface soil, destroying plants and causing soil erosion. Foot and mouth disease is now present throughout Iraq and is threatening to spread to neighbouring countries. The factory that was used to produce food and mouth disease vaccines was put out of commission by Unscom's biological weapons monitoring programme. Lack of refrigeration and transport facilities make it hard to distribute the vaccines that can be imported from abroad.

SOURCE: http://pilger.carlton.com/iraq/impact2

Just imagine that you're the parent of one of those 500,000 Iraqi children who has died as a direct, or indirect result of sanctions. Perhaps the parent of a child who has died of lukemia, or as the result of an easily preventable disease. You're old enough to remember life before the sanctions - or at least have someone old enough to tell you about life before sanctions were imposed on your country. Either way, the memory of life before the sanctions is clear in your mind - before the deterioration of your local hospital and school, when food was plentiful in the local store.

Or imagine that you're a farmer who lives under what was one of the No-Fly Zones. Foreign fighter jets have repeatedly bombed your fields and cattle, but it's not newsworthy enough to make the news anywhere - the citizens of the foreign state don't know about it. Meanwhile your farm equiptment collapses, but you can't source any parts for it as those parts could supposedly be used in weapons.

The state which imposed those sanctions is going to invade your country - again. Even if you absolutely hate the guts of your country's current leader, would you greet the foreign, sanction imposing, invading army with songs and dance? Would you see them as 'liberators'? Would your friends and extended family?

To Donald Rumsfeld, the answer to these questions was clear: Yes. It is worth remembering, however, that it is against this background that the insurgency in Iraq is taking place.

Iraq Timeline

2005-06-29T23:39:00.000+10:00

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:
That wasn't a lie now was it?
George W. Bush, Tuesday June 28th, 2005:

"I recognize that Americans want our troops to come home as quickly as possible. So do I. Some contend that we should set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces. Let me explain why that would be a serious mistake. Setting an artificial timetable would send the wrong message to the Iraqis - who need to know that America will not leave before the job is done. It would send the wrong message to our troops - who need to know that we are serious about completing the mission they are risking their lives to achieve. And it would send the wrong message to the enemy - who would know that all they have to do is to wait us out. We will stay in Iraq as long as we are needed - and not a day longer."

SOURCE: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/28/195710/973

Hold on, I'm confused. See, I thought that the Iraq War was won - or at least as good as won - already. Weren't the Iraqi's going to greet the Americans as 'liberators'? Wasn't the only thing uncertain about this war was the number of days or weeks it would take to win? Weren't there only going to be 30,000 US troops in Iraq by the end of 2003? Didn't Bush declare victory on the USS Lincoln? Wasn't the resistance just a bunch of small groups of maybe 10 Saddam dead-enders? Wasn't capturing Saddam supposed to bring the insurgency to its knees? Didn't (re) - capturing Fallujah break the insurgency's back? Didn't this month mark the return of 'some normalcy' in Iraq? Won't the insurgency be totally gone by Christmas, this year? Isn't the insurgency in its last throws?

After all, it couldn't be that we've all been lied to, now could it?

Let's take a little trip down memory lane, shall we?

In 1999, Bush Demanded A Timetable
In 1999, George W. Bush criticized President Clinton for not setting a timetable for exiting Kosovo, and yet he refuses to apply the same standard to his war.

George W. Bush, 4/9/99:

“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.”

And on the specific need for a timetable, here’s what Bush said then and what he says now:

George W. Bush, 6/5/99

“I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.”

[ed. note: article originally ran in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on 6/5/99]

VERSUS

George W. Bush, 6/24/05:

“It doesn’t make any sense to have a timetable. You know, if you give a timetable, you’re — you’re conceding too much to the enemy.”

SOUCE: http://thinkprogress.org/2005/06/28/in-1999-bush-demanded-a-timetable/

Pentagon briefing transcript
March 27 2003, 11:58 AM
Defence Department Operational Update Briefing
Briefers: Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld;
General Richard Myers, Chairman, Joint Chiefs Of Staff
Pentagon Briefing Room, Arlington, Virginia
1:30 P.M. Est, Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Rumsfeld: Good afternoon. It's now about five days since the major ground forces entered Iraq. It's almost four days and 30 minutes ago that the air war began. We're still, needless to say, much closer to the beginning than the end. The men and women in the uniform, the U.S. and coalition alike, are performing superbly. They're doing an outstanding job. The resistance that's being encountered was expected. It has not affected coalition progress. Iraqi forces are capitulating by the hundreds. The total now, as I understand it -- at least early this morning -- was something in excess of 3,500 Iraqi prisoners of war and thousands more that have been part of units that have simply disband (sic). With each passing day, the Iraqi regime is losing control over more of the country. Coalition forces are closing in on Baghdad and will not stop until that regime has been driven from power. Their defeat is certain. All that is unclear is the number of days or weeks it will take. The threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction will be removed and a regime that is one of the world's most notorious sponsors of terror will be no more.

This war is an act of self defense, to be sure, but it is also an act of humanity. Coalition forces are eliminating a regime that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of its own people and which is pursuing weapons that would enable it to kill hundreds of thousands more. In recent days, the world has witnessed further evidence of their brutality and their disregard for the laws of war. Their treatment of coalition POWs is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/27/1048653783786.html

Days or weeks? Weapons of Mass Destruction? Geneva Convention?

Iraq: When Can We Go Home?
For obvious domestic political reasons, the Bush Administration going into the war had downplayed the scale and duration of a post-war occupation mission. When then-Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki told legislators that such a mission would require several hundred thousand U.S. troops, his assessment had been immediately dismissed by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz as "wildly off the mark." Wolfowitz explained that "I am reasonably certain that (the Iraqi people) will greet us as liberators, and that will help us to keep requirements down." Six weeks ago, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was still suggesting the U.S. force in Iraq could be reduced to 30,000 by the end of the year. But the prevailing assessment in Washington appears to be shifting to the idea of a figure closer to Shinseki's.

SOURCE: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,461462,00.html?CNN=yes

Bush makes historic speech aboard warship
Friday, May 2, 2003 Posted: 0148 GMT ( 9:48 AM HKT)
ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CNN) -- The following is an unedited transcript of President Bush's historic speech from the flight deck of the USS Lincoln, during which he declared an end to major combat in Iraq:

Thank you. Thank you all very much.

Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.

In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment, yet it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage, your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other made this day possible.

Because of you our nation is more secure. Because of you the tyrant has fallen and Iraq is free.

SOURCE: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/05/01/bush.transcript/

Major combat operations in Iraq have ended?

Rumsfeld dismisses Iraq's 'dead-enders'
Associated Press
Posted 6/19/2003

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday played down recent deadly attacks on Americans in Iraq, equating those losses with everyday violence in large U.S. cities.

Attacks and accidents have killed about 50 American troops - including about a dozen from hostile fire - since major combat was officially declared over on May 1. Between March 20, when the war started, and May 1, 138 Americans died from accidents or hostile fire.

Asked at Pentagon press conference about the Iraqi resistance, Rumsfeld described it as "small elements" of 10 to 20 people, not large military formations or networks of attackers. He said there "is a little debate" in the administration over whether there is any central control to the resistance, which officials say is coming from Saddam Hussein's former Baath Party, Fedayeen paramilitary, and other loyalists.

"In those regions where pockets of dead-enders are trying to reconstitute, Gen. (Tommy) Franks and his team are rooting them out," Rumsfeld said, referring to the U.S. commander in Iraq. "In short, the coalition is making good progress."

SOURCE: http://www.dailyherald.com/special/iraq/wwi_paststory.asp?intID=3779194

...and hasn't he made good progress since June 19th 2003! I mean, the US death toll isn't much higher than 138 now, right?

Iraqi interim president: Insurgents will be gone in a year
Thursday, December 9, 2004 Posted: 0854 GMT (1654 HKT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iraq's interim president has said he sees no reason why the insurgency should not be vanquished within a year and Iraq well on its way toward becoming a constitutional democracy.

"Why not?" Ghazi al-Yawar said in a CNN interview on Wednesday. "We're not fighting a Viet Cong, which has principles and popular support. We are fighting Saddam loyalists. ... They know they are fighting for a losing battle. The whole Iraqi population is against them. I'm sick and tired of them.

"I think one year from now, exactly, we'll be very busy preparing for our free democratic election after we have a constitution."

Al-Yawar said he believes the United States was wrong when it eliminated the Iraqi army.

"In hindsight, it was a mistake to disband the Iraqi military," he said.

He said he foresees U.S. forces remaining in Iraq until enough Iraqi forces have been recruited and trained to replace them.

SOURCE: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/08/iraq.interim.president/index.html

One year from December 4th?

World still waits for Saddam trial
Last Updated: Monday, 13 December, 2004, 09:35 GMT
...
In a television address, President Bush declared: "In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over."

General John Abizaid, head of the US Central Command, said the capture had dealt the insurgency "a huge psychological blow" that would "pay great benefits over time".

And the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, Major General Jay Odierno, whose troops were credited with seizing Saddam, declared the insurgency to be "on its knees".

"Within six months I think you're going to see some normalcy," he added.

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4090081.stm

Insurgency on it's knees? Normalcy 6 months on from the 13th of December?

Iraq insurgency 'broken,' general says
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 4:55 p.m. ET Nov. 18, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. offensive in Fallujah has "broken the back of the insurgency" in Iraq, disrupting rebel operations across the country, a senior U.S. commander said on Thursday.

Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Fallujah, said the all-out assault on the city, which had been a stronghold for Iraqi insurgents who rose up after last year's ouster of President Saddam Hussein, had flushed the rebels out of their lair and scattered them.

The comments by the top Marine commander in Iraq came as insurgents in Mosul attacked the governor's office and amid bloodshed elsewhere in the north, while U.S. forces and allied Iraqi government troops continued house-to-house sweeps to find remaining insurgents in Fallujah.

"We feel right now that we have broken the back of the insurgency and we've taken away the safe haven," Sattler said in a briefing from outside Fallujah monitored at the Pentagon.

Sattler, citing records captured from rebel positions inside Fallujah, said insurgents had lost its "means for command and control" and "the turf where you're operating, the town that you feel comfortable moving about in, where you know your way about."

'Now you are scattered'
Speaking as if he were addressing the insurgents, he added, "Now you are scattered. You've been flushed from your hide-out. You have no friends in the area you move into. You must make new contacts."

"Each and every time we can force these individuals to go to new locations, expand their circle of friends - if you want to call it that - to include some that they don't know and they don't trust, they'll bring in rookies, more junior people that will, in fact, make mistakes," Sattler added.

"And that's why I mentioned that this has disrupted them, I believe - my personal belief - across the country. This is going to make it very hard for them to operate. And I'm hoping that we'll continue to breathe down their neck," Sattler said.

...

Sattler spoke as U.S. troops continued to mop up pockets of resistance in Fallujah, occasionally coming under heavy fire.

SOURCE: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/misc.activism.progressive/browse_frm/thread/cc141695daa704fc/b46e1bc13956e13b?q=insurgency+end&rnum=6&hl=en#b46e1bc13956e13b

Awfully long mop-up?

Iraq insurgency in 'last throes,' Cheney says
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The insurgency in Iraq is "in the last throes," Vice President Dick Cheney says, and he predicts that the fighting will end before the Bush administration leaves office.

In a wide-ranging interview Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live," Cheney cited the recent push by Iraqi forces to crack down on insurgent activity in Baghdad and reports that the most-wanted terrorist leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been wounded.

The vice president said he expected the war would end during President Bush's second term, which ends in 2009.

"I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time," Cheney said. "The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

SOURCE: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/05/30/cheney.iraq/

Come to think about it, maybe it's better there isn't a solid timetable - I somehow doubt it would be remembered anyway. And, as history has shown, we've gotten the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but... Right?

The major issue before us is disarmament!

2005-06-28T22:54:00.000+10:00

Colin Powell:
"We think the Iraqi people would be a lot
better off with a different
leader, a different regime," he said, "but
the principal offence here is weapons of
mass destruction ... The major issue
before us is disarmament."
Since the start of the Iraq War, proponents have increasingly tried to understate the emphasis placed on the Weapons of Mass Destruction which have never showed up. The reason for this is that it has become increasingly apparent that there are, and were, no WMD's in Iraq. Given this, and the current spin about why we went to war in Iraq (to stop Saddam's human rights violations), it is worth takeing a trip down memory lane. For , as the following story illustrates:

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 7:30 p.m. ET Oct. 6, 2004
WASHINGTON - Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost more than 1,000 U.S. lives, the top U.S. arms inspector reported Wednesday that he had found no evidence that Iraq produced weapons of mass destruction after 1991. He also concluded that Saddam Hussein’s weapons capability weakened, not grew, during a dozen years of U.N. sanctions before the U.S. invasion last year.

Contrary to prewar statements by President Bush and top administration officials, Saddam did not have chemical and biological stockpiles when the war began and his nuclear capabilities were deteriorating, not advancing, said Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group.

SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6190720/

In the face of such revelations, the public has been presented spin, like the following comments by Alexander Downer to the PM Program last year:
PM - Friday, 19 March , 2004 18:22:00

Reporter: Mark Colvin
MARK COLVIN: No but clearly what David Kay is talking about is whether we misjudged his actual intention to have and use, and whether he had weapons of mass destruction.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, we didn't misjudge the fact that he had programs, we didn't misjudge the fact that he completely refused fully to cooperate with the United Nations, which he was required to do under Security Council resolutions, but we haven't found the stockpiles.

Now, I guess, look, it just depends where you come from on these issues. I don't place as much emphasis on that as some do. I mean, some people say, well, we haven't found the stockpiles so the war was wrong.

SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1069923.htm

So who, exactly, placed the emphasis on disarming Saddam of his stockpiles of WMD's? And was the emphasis really on getting rid of Saddam because of his human rights violations? So you all don't forget, I dug up this little article from 2002:

Saddam can stay if he disarms, Powell says
By Anne Kornblut in Washington
October 22 2002

It would be possible for Saddam Hussein to remain in power in Iraq if he eliminated his weapons of mass destruction, says the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell.

Mr Powell, raising the possibility that the US might not seek "regime change" as it has repeatedly promised over the past 18 months, said on Sunday that if Saddam abandoned his chemical, nuclear, and biological programs, the Government would be altered so dramatically that in effect the goal would be reached.

"We think the Iraqi people would be a lot better off with a different leader, a different regime," he said, "but the principal offence here is weapons of mass destruction ... The major issue before us is disarmament."

...

The last time Mr Powell suggested that the US could accept Saddam continuing to govern was during a meeting with the editorial board of USA Today three weeks ago. He was then seen as stepping out of line with the Administration. Other officials have continued to insist that only with Saddam out of power can the world be assured that the weapons of mass destruction are no longer a threat.

However, other White House officials have quietly suggested the Administration is sincere about its desire to avoid war, a necessary tack if it hopes to reach a compromise on a new UN resolution.

Mr Powell said on television that although the UN negotiations were moving forward, there was no guarantee of an agreement on the resolution by the end of this week.

"Whether they can get to a final solution this week or not, I don't know. There are still some difficult issues. It isn't just going to be, 'Here it is' and that's it."

Asked whether Vice-President Dick Cheney and the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, two of the leading proponents of aggressively pursuing Saddam, agreed with his assessment that Saddam could remain in power, Mr Powell said: "The President has made it clear what the United States position is."

SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/21/1034561443683.html

Fancy that - Powell was willing to let those terrible human rights violations slide, as long as Saddam got rid of the WMD stockpiles he never had! Why "if Saddam abandoned his chemical, nuclear, and biological programs,"(ibid.) which it turns out he didn't have, "the Government would be altered so dramatically that in effect the goal would be reached."(ibid.)

The Problem with Federal Labor.

2005-06-27T17:05:00.000+10:00

Kimbo:
Is he competant?
Since the last Federal election - and even before it - there has been debate about why Labor isn't winning elections Federally. The ongoing debates have been re-fuelled by forthcomming biography about Mark Latham, as well as Beazley's inability to build popular support against Howard.

An example of this line of reasoning is an opinion editorial in The Australian, by Trevor Smith, which suggests that "While Labor sees its job as being to attack 'Tories', we are constantly reminded that Australians are inherently conservative." But as Kim Beazley has pointed out, Labor holds all 8 state and territory governments. Indeed, if Latham had (somehow) managed to win the last federal election, you would have had a sitatuation where nowhere in Australia (at state or federal level) there is a Liberal government. Indeed, the same conservative commentators who have been crowing about how it shows Australia as a nation of conservatives would themselves be under attack for being irrelevant. The obvious question to ask for Federal Labor is why the party has been so universally succesful at state level across Australia, yet such a failure federally?

And there are clearly lessons that federal Labor can learn from their state counter-parts. Take, for example, Bob Carr's handling of the media. Carr, a former journalist, has applied the skills he has learned in his previous life to his career as NSW premier. He employs those skills to control how his message is delivered to the media, and subsequently how it is handled by the media. Sydney based journalists often get SMSes simply announcing when and where Carr is going to deliver a press conference, with no further details. The journalists often have no time to prepare, and no information on what will be discussed (thus no opportunity to prepare themselves). Carr is thus able to deliver his message unchallenged to the waiting journalists.

I raise this as an example, because part of Labor's problem has been in getting its message across to voters. Federal Labor must effectively package its policy positions and deliver them to the general public - to point out the flaws in Liberal policy, and get convincing arguments in favor of their positions to the public. New technologies could help labor do this - beyond just getting its 60 second soundbytes and quotes out to the mainstream media, hows about presenting messages expalining policy - and providing details - to the left wing blogosphere? Similarly, setting up and funding think-tanks, policy lobby groups and policy institutes (and that means beyond the ACTU) is a worthwhile investment.

Of course, this assumes that Labor actually has some policies - some workable policy positions which help it to determine which liberal policies to attack, and what its positions are. Policy positions should not be something that gets wheeled out in the lead-up to an election, they are important in presenting a party which the public can be confident in serving as a real alternative. A long-term view in formulating these positions is a good thing: If Simon Crean had come out strongly against the Iraq War, it would have paid dividends to the ALP as the Weapons of Mass Destruction didn't materialize, and Labor plays the strong anti-Iraq War party now that Iraq is increasingly looking like a quagmire.

There is a central point to this that federal Labor needs to get: that most people don't give a flying fuck about politics. Many Australians would fail a basic test on current issues, or which MP's are responcible for what. But don't get this twisted: people who don't give a fuck about politics in general can get worked up about a particular issue, depeing on how it's framed. And this happens the easiest on the things which matter to people in their everyday lives. When you have children at school, their education matters to you. When you wait for a train running an hour late, public transport matters to you. When you pull in to Mobil, the price of petrol matters. At tax time, tax matters. Put people in these situations, and you'll see the most aepolitical people have opinions - either left wing or right wing. Exploit the issues that generate left wing responces.

Similarly, people who are aepolitical can, depending on the circumstances and how the issue is framed, get very passionate about issues which don't affect their everyday lives. Sometimes you can do this by tieing something abstract into the lives of everyday people. Sometimes you can ellicit a responce by framing an issue in terms of justice or compassion (think the Asian tsunami). Labor should keep this in mind both when it picks and frames its battles, and remember that popular policy is not necessarily good policy, and what by one measure is a good policy may be an abject failure by another. The question to be asked is whether the ALP wants to find a popular frame for good policy, or aim for populist policy regardless of who wins or loses as a result. And if people don't give a fuck, either give them a reason to, or move on to focus on something else.

I quoted Trevor Smith earlier, and the reason why I'm saying all this is because Smith, the national forestry secretary of the CFMEU, doesn't get it. Smith thinks in terms of stereotypical voters - the universally conservative suburbanites as opposed to the 'latte set' and writes - for example "One mystifying question for Labor is this: how did it end up in the web of the cafe latte set, given that it had a leader who could contest the culture wars against John Howard?"(ibid.) Creating an artificial divide in the left, creating two categories, and assigning to those groups various 'values' is not going to fix the problems of federal Labor. The label is also particularly stupid - you can get a latte in Footscray or Knox just like you can in South Yarra (and obviously someone drinks them).

In fact, Trevor Smith buys into a notion of a left-wing elite lock, stock and barrel - but presents nothing to back up his opinion. He wrotes "Inner-metropolitan voters are attracted to a secular, socially progressive party and have been the biggest beneficiaries of privatisation and globalisation. In the regions and outer suburbs, there is scepticism, if not antagonism towards economic rationalism, and family and community are still important."(ibid) The idea of a massive wealthy left-wing elite being the only people who support progressive policies, and that all suburbanites think alike is patently absurd. The real issue isn't in appealing to "suburban" or "latte" voters, it's in framing policy debate. Get a real, detailed breakdown of voters - by gender, by seat, by party or issue alliegiance, as well as by economics, and build policy stratergy around that.

But there is a deeper problem in the federal parliamentary party: their sheer, utter incompetance. The hardline refugee stance that led to Howard winning the 2001 election is coming back to haunt him. Petro Gerogiou, and a group of back-bench MPs have pushed Howard into a policy back-flip. In this situation, what was Beazley, and Federal Labor, doing? Were they sticking a crow-bar into the divide by pry apart dissenting Liberals from Howard? Perhaps offering sweetners to dissenting Liberals, such as a good preference deal from Labor (and the minor parties) if they run as independents - or automatic preselection to their seats as a Labor candidate - if they don't win Liberal preselection as a result of their views. Those dissenters will be the only thing potentially blocking Howards legislation and policies after July 1. Alternatively, Beazley could attack the Liberals over their in-fighting or that Howard's famed 2001 hard-line stance - by a very important measure (it has deported and illegally arrested Australian citizens) has failed. Instead, he's talking about blocking a tax cut which will become law as of July 1 regardless!

Take a look at the last federal election: John Howard pinned his political hopes on people trusting him. Yet the very notion of people trusting a politician is patently absurd - for good reason, people don't trust politicians. And, given Howard coined the phrase "non-core promise", and the little issue of weapons of mass destruction that never showed up, Howard is as untrustworthy as any. The mark of federal Labor's incompetance was that he got away with it. The question determining the future of federal Labor is what are they going to do about it?

Site / Personal Update: June 26th, 2005

2005-06-26T22:02:00.000+10:00

Mezmerize:
Am I reviewing music again?
Okay, I've just about posted all of my old essays (at least for the time being). Reading back over them, you can see how they have improved over the past year and a half. It's great to see the number of people who have visited the blog since I began - it stands at 1,283 (as of typing this) and, more importantly, it has had over 1,100 unique visitors.

With the old essays up, it leaves a good opportunity to fill you all in on what will be happening with the blog over the next while. While I will try to - for the time being - still try to get a new post up most days, there may be a few fewer updates, simply for the fact that it is a helluva lot easier to copy and paste an old essay than it is to come up with something from scratch. Please note also that university holidays (which I'm on at the moment) have freed up some time to work on the blog, which is why I have been, and will be able to, put up more posts on the blog. However, I do have a life outside the blog, which means that some days I may only be able to manage a "quick update" via my mobile, or no update at all - especially once I start back at uni. That said, when I get a chance I will try to post either a "Personal update" (about what I've been doing with myself of late), a site update - like this one, or some news analysis (usually in a format I've used a number of times already on this blog - news story, some background info from Wikipedia or elsewhere, and personal opinion).

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to look into any of the things I've hinted at doing with this blog in some of my earlier Site Updates. Don't take the lack of - for example - an Podcast as a sign of my unwillingness to experiment with different mediums; more it's a sign that I haven't had the opportunity to put one together (for example getting webhosting for it, or putting the right people together for it). A related idea to some of these site updates is putting together a static AmishThrasher site (with content that won't change often) linked to this blog (filled with dynamic content).

On a different, thanks to Charlie I've had a chance to listen to a few new albums, and I'll share my first impressions of a couple of them:

The first of these is "Mesmerize" by System of a Down, which is an awesome album. Before going any further, a little annecdote - when I first heard Metallica's Saint Anger, my first impression of it was that it sounded like a bad System of a Down demo, with James Hetfeld filling in for Serj Tankian. One of the problems with trying to sound like someone else - as Metallica were obviously doing - is the question of why bother listening to a cheap imitation when I can listen to the real thing. Cutting between hard / fast and soft / slow riffs and next to no guitar solos works for System, but not Metallica (in the end, St Anger was blown away by Megadeth's The World Needs A Hero, which sounded like a Megadeth album).

Mesmerize is an example of artistic progression done right. The wierd experimental stuff the 'crazy Armenians' in System often do clicks well with the more serious, political undertones of the album. Like Metallica's St Anger, this also sounds like a SOAD album - done right. The first single (BYOB) is on a plane with - if not better than - Sugar and Chop Suey; and unlike Eminem's Encore, is favorably comparable to the band's earlier work.

The second album I'll look at is Encore by Eminem. And while this isn't a terrible album, it seems also to be lacking. Look, there's probably nothing I could say here about Eminem that hasn't been said already elsewhere ad nauseum - over the past 5 or 6 years he has been one of the most commerically successful artists, and one of the most controversial; Mathers is undeniably skillful at what he does. That said, you can't help but notice that this album isn't half as strong as his pervious albums. For starters, one of the big appeals of Mather's earlier albums - particularly the Mashall Mathers LP - was the politically incorrect guilty pleasure aspect of his work (made more appealing by those who weren't 'in on the joke' and thus got offended). That aspect is gone from this album - the whole world is in on the joke. His old material no longer shocks, and he seems either unwilling or unable to find a new angle upon which to create controversy with. In a way, it's the old Madonna syndrome (has anyone been 'shicked' by anthing Madonna has done over the past decade?) - except at least Madonna made a comeback in the late '90s as a 'soccer mom'.

The lack of shock value - while the icing on the cake of Eminem's earlier albums - is not the only thing which both made his earlier albums worthwhile to listen to, and yet is completely missing here. During his previous albums, Eminem was able to cash in on the zeitgeist - an anti-'boy band' pop music backlash. And Eminem, while still attacking fellow popstars and ridiculing various celebrities - has not been able to tap the same zeitgest (which is unsuprising, given that part of that backlash currently brewing will be against the dominance of rap music in the charts). Where in the past Eminem attacked individual 'pretty boy popstars', he also attacked pop music (in general) on tracks like Criminal, yet while Eminem attacks reality TV stars like Jessica Simpson, there is no track attacking the whole reality TV genre. Other old stand-by gimmicks are also feeling tired here. I really wonder if there is much more he can say about his family - particularly about hwo he hates (yet somehow loves) Kim and how much he loves his daughter Hailie - that he hasn't said already. He's worn out the earnestness that made The Eminem Show and 8 Mile so compelling.

One of Eminem's great skills is as a storyteller - particularly in the style of tracks like Kim and Stan - or even Drips. While there are a couple of tracks on here along those lines, like One Shot 2 Shot, they seems to have vanished beyond a few running narratives in the background. Similarly, his political tracks here (like Mosh) lack the anger and emotion of - say - White America (or System's more political tracks). Finally, this album seems to be lacking is some of the production values of hsi previous releases - Em seems to have regressed back cheesy, 80s style to synth-pop.

Why am I being so harsh on an album that, while not that great, is not the most terrible album ever either? Because we have seen Eminem do so much better, and (even within the mainstream) there is much better new music out there. Note also that these are just my first, and inconsequential, thoughts. And ultimately, time is the only marker of a great album.