Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Good night for the year from Webdiary. This is the last post for the year. We will be back with New Year bells on the 2nd January.

"In the 2005 rankings, Iceland scored as the least corrupt country, with the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand, and Singapore close behind. The US ranked seventeenth from the top, a not-so-glorious position for the world’s leading power. In general, the poorer the country, the lower the ranking: tied for last place are Chad and Bangladesh." Jeffrey Sachs.

Christmas is anti-war. It is anti-slavery and anti-exploitation. Christmas I dare to bubble is at root against domination, against class, against patriarchy and against prejudice. It is an ancient struggle against poverty and disease; against women dying in childbirth and against people losing their loved ones to tragedy. It is, in ritual, a universal cry for the finest features of the human spirit; for our wildest hopes and dreams; the deepest aspirations of life. It is for democracy and liberty, for universal health care and education, for old forests and clean waterways, for romance and music, for beaches, good company and cold beer.

"Central Asia is frequently in the news these days – and most of the news seems to be bad. The casual reader, viewer, and listener has become acquainted with a region of landlocked and poor countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – that share a legacy of isolation, squandered natural resources, environmental degradation, and Soviet-era political systems." Kalman Mizsei and Johannes F Linn

Justin Wilshaw kindly suggested we publish the following statement from The Howard Government for discussion. I for one take it at face value and believe every word, but other Webdiarists may not agree. Hamish Alcorn.

"The Army's psychological tool, brainchild of the ADF's propaganda boffins, is called "Armygeddon". It's a converted Land-Rover that does everything that Herbie the Love-Bug can, promoting high adventure in the Humvees and Abrahams tanks. Below the fire licking from its headlights, the word "ARMY" is emblazoned on its bumper." Richard Tonkin

"History is hindsight with blinkers on. We see the source material through someone else’s eyes then reinterpret it. Literary criticism is a somewhat different task. Literary works are like children: we nurture them, cosset them, watch them develop and then send them out into the world to stand or fall on their own. They must make their own way in the face of their audience whatever we intended them to be. There is a tool, however, that the literary critic has that the historian does not. Sometimes, ever so rarely, an insight becomes available to the critic operating like a window on the author’s soul. So it was, gentle reader, that I made one of the most astonishing and significant literary discoveries (long suspected but never before blessed with evidence) in literary criticism as I soared my way through Yorick’s private diaries for the week of Trafalgar Day 1807." Malcolm B Duncan

"No, this is not about the Asian fondness of chomping Rover. This about the many forums, summits, talk-fests etc that have been inflicted on us by the politicians of our region. The latest is the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Kuala Lumpur (14/12/05) recently attended by the reluctant John Howard. It must have been a very difficult and uncomfortable summit for John Howard. One can see that from his verbal and body language." PF Journey

by Jack H Smit
Project SafeCom

Ian Harper, John Howard's new Fair Pay Commissioner, is an Anglican who's on God's side, and he's been pretty open about it since his appointment. It seemed a bit up in the air at the time, but Australian reporters let him have his day in Heaven when he was first appointed. Now, it seems, Mr Harper may know more about God than about the Australian history of Industrial arbitration, a discovery probably first made through Sydney-based blogger Evan Jones - on his Alert and Alarmed Blog - and further brought to the public domain by the folks of ABC Radio's PM program this week.

"When it comes to genuine power politics - totally shorn of all other considerations - there’s only one real place to turn. And, no...it’s not Machiavelli - or Hobbes - given that neither were willing to advocate the suppression of all other aspects of life in pursuit of power. Nietszche was also remiss in certain ways here, being - in the final analysis - far more interested in the development of potential than in power as a (pure) end in itself." John Henry Calvinist.

"The benefits of tolerating free speech outweigh the harm of abusing it. Indeed, the Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen has demonstrated that free speech even helps mitigate seemingly natural catastrophes like famines, because it reveals the ways in which a few haves exploit the many have-nots. As the watchdog organization Transparency International reminds us, corruption exposed is in many cases corruption prevented. These practical consequences are above and beyond the liberating effect of allowing the “marketplace of ideas,” rather than state authorities, to judge people’s expressed views." Ralf Dahrendorf.

"News footage of the swarming White militants in Cronulla has provided some of the most disturbing scenes of racism on our streets. What we saw was racist slogans daubed on placards, bodies and tee shirts. One tee shirt proclaimed “ethnic cleansing unit”. Mind-blowing. Yet one lesson we learn from this is that many actions were pre-meditated and not simply the result of a drunken mob out of control." Stephen Smith