Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

What makes the publication even more unusual is Wakim and Zwier’s message. They do not subscribe to either side’s narrative but are motivated instead by a will for dialogue in reconciliation. At the same time they do not spare their verbal rod from either Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu or Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas( Abu Mazen).

Since a large number of immigrants, both white and coloured, have re-shaped this nation for the better, will they now be permitted to contribute to the identification of a revised package of national icons? Carefully selected and evaluated, a palimpsest of a national iconology might be achieved, where nothing significant of the past is obliterated.

Rarely do politicians listen to climate scientists, nor is the atmosphere likely to cooperate with governments trying to obtain a “balance” between fossil fuel corporations, trade unions, environmentalists and the public. Not to decide is to decide.

Stats and financials for June and the financial year

What should have been the Coalition’s great asset – and only a complete curmudgeon would deny that Turnbull has that elusive X-factor, alone on his side of politics – is now a cumbersome liability. The messiah on the white charger has suddenly morphed into Richard Nixon and Mark Latham combined ...

For a long time I have been baffled at the way no one else has looked at the similarities between the relationship to their traditional land of Bedouins and Indigenous Australians. ... It is quite common to come across arguments in the Israeli against Bedouins “encroaching on state land” and who have no title to it. They are some arguments used against Eddie Mabo’s claim before and after the court victory. (Joel Gibson)

On an earlier stay at the abode of Mona I attempted in vain to explain to her the English term “harmony”. I had to resort to song (which is bloody obvious when you think about it) and began singing Frère Jacques – she immediately laughed and then spontaneously harmonised in Mandarin.

Probably two significant moments in my career that I hadn’t really thought about until around, funnily enough, the semi-final in the World Cup in 2003 after the well-documented walking incident in that match. That was the catalyst for me to start thinking and thinking why have I got this approach. (Adam Gilchrist on "walking")

Observations show that warming of the climate is unequivocal. The global warming observed over the past 50 years is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases. These emissions come mainly from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas), with important contributions from the clearing of forests, agricultural practices, and other activities. (US Global Change Research Program)

The charging of people who arrive on our shores seeking protection the costs of their detention is part of the way in which we have demonised them and presented them as being worse than criminals. And this image, I believe, underpins the abuses which have been discovered by inquiries into our mistreatment of people in detention. (Petro Georgiou)

The latest update from the Democratic Audit program at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, on how our democracy is working.

When Howard posed as the loyal and faithful servant of the Liberal Party by vowing to serve as long as the party wanted him, this was pure confected humility that served only to throw sand in Costello’s face and demonstrate to the party how powerless he really was. What Howard was boasting in this oft-repeated mantra was that he had the numbers, and his rival did not. (Norman Abjorensen)

When I think of Kath I think of children, for Kath is a loving and devoted mum and it shows big time. But she is not alone, for most parents love their kids. To love your children is catholic and reflects the very simple but universal truth of Christianity. We love our kids and would die for them.

So there are some questions that may be interesting to discuss. The longevity one, what next for Iran, and doubtless several more that others can raise. In the meantime, yesterday, as most Webdiarists will be aware, Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei delivered an address at the University of Tehran’s Friday prayers. The following is a summary from the Guardian.

Fresh out of meetings at the Heartland Institute (earlier involved in tobacco promotion) supported by the American Enterprise Institute, which received $1,625,000 from Exxon-Mobil between and 1998 and 2005, Senator Fielding states, "So far I don't think there's been a real debate about the science," and "Let's actually explore that". Unfortunately, the climate is not waiting for Senator Fielding’s “exploration”.

While the economy boomed, it was easy for politicians to talk about reward for effort; and no one paid too much attention as they generously rewarded their own efforts. Their sanctimonious prattle about welfare cheats and mutual obligation also had plausibility – until they were revealed to be far more skilled in the art of the rort than any single mother or unemployed teenager. (Frank Bongiorno)

On a more serious note allow me to return to my childhood and share something that is now indelibly tattooed in my brain; something that had almost faded away. Nothing profound, nothing really important to me personally but it is, and was to millions of human beings, Geoff included. It’s a ghost, harmless to me personally but a ghost of the nasty kind that does mean something to many. One degree of separation.

The point is that the glass is not static. Six months ago it wasn’t empty – it had a negative quantity in it! One needs to look at the context and dynamics of the glass. Barak Obama went as far any US President could go and then some. And nothing illustrates that better than the issues of settlements.

But then came the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, and it became clear that the new Western model was an illusion that benefited chiefly the very rich. Statistics show that the poor and the middle class saw little or no benefit from the economic growth of the past decades. The global crisis demonstrates that the leaders of major powers had missed the signals that called for a perestroika. The result is a crisis that is not just financial and economic. It is political, too. (Mikhail Gorbachev)

Let’s go back to the where the ghost tale began (for me); in that hotel room in old Shanghai. Pumpkin wanted to tell me a story, a special story about a Ghost known only to a few. As such, in the wee hours of a balmy Shanghai night Pumpkin told me the tale of the Magical Flying Dragon Ghost.

The commodification of tertiary education means something much worse than that subjects, disciplines, awards and faculties will sink or swim on the number of customers they attract. Commodification changes the very nature of what is exchanged. As Noble notes, when education is commodified, concern is shifted from the experience of the people involved in an educational process to the production of what he puts in scare quotes as ‘course materials’...

I decided to go and have it out with Mr M and waddled off in the general direction of the mausoleum. But all of a sudden I got a bloody great big chill down me back and my feathers stood on end. It was hard to be sure whether it is the poor dead dear lying in that somewhat solemn and stately design or the cop car just behind me.

Having endured the sharp climate upheavals of the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles, humans are likely to survive in suitable environments, including clouded tropical mountain regions, high elevation islands and cool high latitudes regions. Hinging on extensive agriculture in temperate climate zones, prone to severe droughts, on cultivation in low river deltas, prone to sea level rise, and on irrigation of mountain snow-fed rivers, the future of civilization under global warming on the scale of several degrees Celsius is less clear.

So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end. (President Obama)

Who are you? Where did you come from? What experiences have you brought to this country? What are you doing? How are you being treated by the Aussies? This was before we ‘wogs’ and ‘blackfellows’ became Aussies ourselves. That is what we talked about.

If a company like General Motors can be allowed to go bankrupt then there is a big question mark about US unreserved support to Israel regardless of its actions. One does not have to share Burston’s world view to follow his logic.

The couple rang QANTAS to advise them of the predicament, and the airline gave them permission to make the flight. Loretta tells me that health authorities, when advised of QANTAS and the couple's decision, "were about to go into a meeting and would discuss it there" and would ring them back later in the day. The call was never returned.

Now we have five dead Australians and the belated pandemic declaration it's probably time to re-open discussion on this one. PS note that no-one knows how many swine flu cases there have been globally, as it is still true that Australia is one of the very few countries that is actually testing everyone with flu symptoms to find out whether they have H1N1 A. The Aussie case number is therefore pretty accurate. Nearly everyone else's is an underestimate.