Site on Hiatus

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

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

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

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

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

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.