Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Margo, Just a (brief) suggestion for a column that I'm repeating here - since (I suspect) it may have been lost in the plethora of comments you get!

Now...several months ago, I suggested that webdiary might well be the right place to publish a detailed/personal account (no names, but!) of the academic "ghost writing" industry in this nation, which - I have recently found out - is very similar right across the Western world.

I'm not particularly proud of this, but I - for about two years - was a highly successful "contributor" to said industry - it being the only paid work I could find as an over-educated mature-age male, with a history of mental illness and (therefore) a somewhat dodgy employment record. Not only that, but it also happens to be the ONLY well-paid work I've ever had...and, that includes several years as a junior staff member at a university.

The conjunction of these two pay-scales, unfortunately, speaks for itself...

Because, to put it bluntly, ALL of our "higher" educational institutions are now so dependent on said trade that ALL of their public statements are the same - ie: that people get them off the internet and that sophisticated software can catch them - are a totally laughable smokescreen obscuring what actually (and VERY) successfully goes on - especially w/foreign students in business courses.

I hope you agree with me that this practice ought to be exposed. At the very least, it might well help shame the government into restoring funding to the universities - which has undoubtedly led to their relentless obfuscation re said practices.

all the best

David
[AKA "John Henry Calvinist"]

ps: the new site needs a dedicated access point for prospective columnists to make working submissions for your consideration. Because the current lack of same is - to my mind - a genuine weakness in Webdiary.

Margo: Like the idea of a ghost writing industry piece, JHC. And love your PS idea - we'll work on having a dedicated access point for working submissions on the permanent site.

The following extract from Justice Tony Fitzgerald's speech launching Margo’s book Not Happy John! Defending our democracy, at Gleebooks in Sydney on June 22, 2004, sets out more reasons why there is a need for another space to pursue informed and civilized debate:

“Australians generally accept that democracy is the best system of government, the market is the most efficient mechanism for economic activity and fair laws are the most powerful instrument for creating and maintaining a society that is free, rational and just. However, we are also collectively conscious that democracy is fragile, the market is amoral and law is an inadequate measure of responsibility. As former Chief Justice Warren of the United States Supreme Court explained: "Law … presupposes the existence of a broad area of human conduct controlled only by ethical norms.”

Similarly, democracy in our tradition assumes that a broad range of political activity is controlled only by conventions of proper conduct. Especially because individual rights are not constitutionally guaranteed in this country, justice, equality and other fundamental community values in Australia are constantly vulnerable to the disregard of those conventions.

Since the sacking of the Whitlam Government in 1975, the major political parties seem to have largely abandoned the ethics of government. A spiteful, divisive contest now dominates the national conversation, and democracy struggles incessantly with populism. Mainstream political parties routinely shirk their duty of maintaining democracy in Australia.

This is nowhere more obvious than in what passes for political debate, in which it is regarded as not only legitimate but clever to mislead. Although effective democracy depends on the participation of informed citizens, modern political discourse is corrupted by pervasive deception. It is a measure of the deep cynicism in our party political system that many of the political class deride those who support the evolution of Australia as a fair, tolerant, compassionate society and a good world citizen as an un-Australian, ‘bleeding-heart’ elite.”

The major political parties are not the only ones to have abandoned this space: Australia’s broadsheet newspapers have also greatly reduced their willingness to provide a wide range of informed opinion and the depth of background information necessary for the reader to understand the genesis and development of those opinions.

The strategic intent of Webdiary is to be the home of informed opinion and debate in Australia. It is unashamedly in favour of “the evolution of Australia as a fair, tolerant, compassionate society and a good world citizen” – but happy to publish, listen to and debate the views of those who don’t agree.