Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Democracy must be a constructive working partnership between citizens and the politicians they vote to represent them. Despite the cynical attitude of many, politicians are not installed by themselves. The quality of the politician ultimately depends on the quality of the vote. It’s up to us to ensure the political candidates we vote for are good enough to represent us.

Australians is a grand and absorbing feast of a book. There were many sections that I lingered over slowly, savouring Keneally’s gift for bringing such a wide cast of characters to life, making the book a real experience. Keneally also writes in a witty, almost lapidary prose that is most appealing.

While we in the West can hold our nose when we read about these terrible troubles in the rest of the world, the reality is that our oil dependence means we help contribute to this ugly reality. Our leaders cheerfully extol the virtues of globalisation, but don't like to talk about the money that Saudi Arabia funnels into supporting fundamentalist causes.

"The Water Dreamers" is a haunting and thought provoking history of a dry land that refuses to yield to the fevered imagination of its colonisers. With our current water crisis do we continue to dream on, or do we submit to the land and live within it?

Stuart pulls his focus back from the dumpster to give a big picture view of the shocking inefficiencies in the way we make and market food. When the veil is lifted on how food is farmed, processed, marketed, sold and often thrown away your jaw will hit the ground.

All political leaders conduct themselves as though they were in a state of permanent media, cultural and political warfare. Media cycles must be managed, everyone must stay on message, and leaders become so insulated that they actually start to believe as true their own spin. All politics becomes destructively partisan, with everything reduced to petty point scoring, when larger and more important issues loom, demanding serious attention.

What’s the take away? For Costello, he has learnt that the Liberal party has a cult of the leader. Too many in his party saw Howard as a virtual god. For the reader, we have discovered not to trust the promises of a hungry politician, for they'll step on anyone's neck to get to their desired destination. Voter beware!

It’s been estimated that the average Australian basket of food travels around 70,000 miles  That doesn’t include the energy costs in the actual food’s production – from manufacturing to the use of pesticides and fertilizers. For example, it takes 2,200 calories of hydrocarbon energy to produce a can of soft drink containing 200 calories.

John Howard and Peter Costello have for the past ten years presented themselves as the undisputed masters of the Australian economy, delivering growth galore and wealth never dreamt of. Andrew Charlton argues that their constant trumpeting of this line has been so effective that everyone – media and electorate – take it for gospel truth.

With only weeks to go until the election, I thought I'd better pull my finger out and try to learn something about Kevin Rudd. I must admit, Rudd’s winning the Labor leadership for me was a bit of a bummer. His fastidious personality and love of detail seemed perfect for some high brow portfolio, but I couldn’t imagine the public flocking to him as leader. (Boy was I wrong.)

If we were to be really fair about the citizenship test, all citizens would be made to pass it before they were allowed to vote. As it stands, someone who’s lucky enough to be born in Australia is free to remain blissfully ignorant of how our parliament works, what happened at Gallipoli, and the importance of Donald Bradman to the national psyche.

How to live? How to die? What's the best way to live? Chris Saliba reviews Pamela Bone's Bad Hair Days, her account of her battle with cancer.

Matt Howard from Iraq Veterans Against The War is in Australia at the moment speaking out about his involvement in the Iraq war. A public meeting was held at Melbourne University on Thursday 23^rd August to hear Matt discuss his experiences of the war and the US military, with question time afterwards.

Following Levin’s story is like listening to a brilliant but eccentric genius talk to themselves. You have to pay attention, as she mixes insights with throwaway one-liners in equal measure. This is a serious book that often asks you not to take it too seriously.

Call me naive, but I’m hoping Barack Obama becomes the fourty-fourth American president. He’s no political saviour, but he could point us in a better direction.

The Occupation of Iraq is an insider’s story, a book written from an Iraqi’s point of view, watching with obvious angst as his country plunges into murder and mayhem. In it he describes the bewilderingly complex relationship between Iraq’s three major groups, the Shi’a, Sunnis and Kurds, and further, the factions within those groups.

"After spending three years incarcerated at various locations by the US Army, you’d expect this book to be one long vituperative tirade. Despite Moazzam Begg’s hardships, the former Guantanamo prisoner comes across more an impatient rather than angry man.": Chris Saliba

"Peter Costello is right. If you can’t commit to Australian values, we should put you on a boat and send you out to sea you later. Democratic beliefs, respect for the rights and liberty of others, and respect for the rule of law are our core beliefs "Those who are outside this compact threaten the rights and liberties of others," the Treasurer warned at his speech to the Sydney Institute. Amen to that." Chris Saliba

"It may surprise the reader to know that a majority of Americans support a stronger United Nations, believe in international co-operation, favour spending money to help out poorer nations and even support the International Criminal Court (ICC). All this despite the current Bush administration’s pronounced displeasure with the UN." Chris Saliba

Who are you, John Howard? It’s been close to ten years that you have been Prime Minister of Australia, ten years of listening to you talk, debate, argue, disagree, spar with enemies, deny, explain, console, assure, and yet, after all those words, I’m still at a loss as to who you really are.

"Power Without Glory is an odd novel, in that it was actually commissioned by the Communist Party. Hardy was provided financial backing by the Party for four years; he also had a swag of party members act as researchers. The novel in a lot of ways reads like blockbuster fiction, yet doesn’t really have a plot, rather it piles political intrigue upon political intrigue, until you feel quite sick at the canker in the democratic bud. This was pretty much Hardy’s goal: a book aimed at moral improvement, not so much of the reader, but of the current political culture." Chris Saliba

"The evening with Mr Ritter was hosted by the Victorian Peace Network, with Bill Deller chairing. In Mr Deller's introduction, he told us how  he believed it would be necessary in future to create broad coalitions with people of differing ideological hues in order to achieve similar goals. To prove how pear shaped politics has become, Deller introduced us to Scott Ritter, a man who voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 election and a former marine who worked as a ballistic missile adviser to General Norman Schwarzkopf during the first Gulf war." Chris Saliba

"What you see on television of Terry Hicks is not enough. In many ways, he's a remarkable man. To be thrust into this extraordinary situation, he's had to do a lot of quick learning. International political intrigue is obviously not his metier, yet how he throws out details from the latest UN report! His witty musings on what Tony Blair might have to do if David manages to obtain British citizenship showed that, despite all, he hadn't lost his sense of humour. He spoke of Donald Rumsfeld's public utterances like a patient man indulging a wayward family member given to compulsive lying. After hearing him speak, you couldn't help but admire his simple, dogged determination." Chris Saliba

"Author Robert Pape, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago, has studied every suicide attack from 1980 to 2003 - a total of 315 attacks. His findings on the motivations of suicide terrorists fly in the face of the war-on-terror rhetoric that our leaders and media lackey’s serve up daily." Chris Saliba reviews Robert Pape's book: Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.

"Our chairperson kicked off proceedings by suggesting that Chen’s defection from the Chinese Communist Party is the biggest event in Australia-China relations since Tiananmen. Why did he sacrifice such a brilliant career, she asked? ‘I want to live as a man of dignity,’ Chen said, telling us that in China there is no such thing as freedom of speech. For those who risk it there is ‘prison, or you get sent to mental hospital’. We all chuckled at what we assumed was a witticism, but soon came to our senses. This was no joke." Chris Saliba

I asked Jennifer Zeng what she thought Mr Chen Yonglin’s claim of a thousand spies working in Australia. "I was not surprised at all by Mr Chen’s claims," she said. "My family back in China warned me more than a dozen times that they were not only warned, but also convinced by Chinese authorities that everything I am doing and saying here is monitored." Chris Saliba

"Democracy sure is messy. Last Friday’s Melbourne anti-war protest was proof of that." Chris Saliba reports

"What seems to have been largely ignored of Latham’s past is his literary output. Celebrated as the new generation ideas man of the Labor party, the media over the year has not had much to say about the half dozen books he has written or contributed to between 1990-2003. There have been a few murmurings here and there, an occasional quote, but nothing sustained. This is surprising, because his literary output provides a sustained ideological view and program. Over that thirteen-year period, Latham’s thinking has not changed much, if at all. I dare say it will not change much in the future. This could have consequences for all of us." Webdiarist Chris Saliba

"Not only does John Howard disapprove of gay marriage, but refuses to even give relationship status to gay and lesbian couples, preferring the tawdry term 'liaisons'. It's as if he'd never heard of famous couples like Patrick White and Manoly Lascaris, or Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas." Chris Saliba

"Are the Greens policies as 'kooky' as John Howard insists? Without doubt their overall program is radically different to the prevailing orthodoxy. The last decade of the Howard government has seen a current account blowout that would make Kath and Kim blush, from $194 billion dollars in 1995 to the $393 billion today. Under Howard, we’ve all shopped ourselves silly, and still feel like we’re missing out. The Greens would change all this. Under the Greens we would be made more aware of the cost of everything we consumed – to the environment, to poorly paid sweated labour. Splashing out on an outré outfit at a Chapel street boutique would become fraught with all manner of ethical dilemmas. Were the workers properly paid? Did the dyes used in the product have an adverse environmental impact? Is the outfit sustainable?" Chris Saliba