Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

One of the very scarce reports on what is going on in prisons in Papua came earlier from Oswald Iten, a journalist with the Swiss quality paper Neue Zuercher Zeitung, who was imprisoned in Jayapura for twelve days in December 2000. He had allegedly violated the conditions related to his tourist visa (he had been making photographs and since he was a journalist that counted as working without a work permit). I can’t recall that that report got much attention in this country...

A war between “good” and “evil” is a cosmic war. A cosmic war is not a war over land or resources as such a strong army cannot prevail in a cosmic war. The battle ground of a cosmic war is the mind.

Australia is a small country and we cannot afford to waste lives or resources. We have growing threats much closer to home than Afghanistan and we should be concentrating on these threats. We should be fighting real terrorists, not chasing ghosts or nation building in distant countries that are no threat to Australia.

While the absorbing intricacies of the sometimes daily twists and turns of developments in Fiji, which I have chronicled closely since Easter, 2009, when any pretence to not being a fully-blown military dictatorship was removed, are fascinating, I want to here focus on how Fiji might, eventually, be returned to democratic governance. The first important point to at least try to establish is exactly what Commodore Frank is seeking to achieve in Fiji. This is trickier than might be initially expected because of the sometimes daily shifts or twists in his expressed thinking or planning.

The new aircraft carriers proposed by the Chinese would end the domination of our region by the US navy. The Australian navy needs to rethink its policy on aircraft carriers. We will not always be able to rely on the US navy to provide air defence on the high seas; we will have to redevelop our own fleet air arm.

It's really all about keeping up with the Jones (or whatever the Asian equivalent may be) so now we spend 2% of GDP on armaments, White thinks it should be at least 2.5% – given we always need to ever more secure, why stop at 2.5%?

The Afghan people are fighting us because we are the foreigners. We are pushing people into the arms of the Taliban and inflaming the situation with the likelihood of spreading the war into surrounding countries such as Pakistan and Iran.

Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear and the Chinese authorities remain constantly suspicious of them. Today, the religion, culture, language and identity, which successive generations of Tibetans have considered more precious than their lives, are nearing extinction; in short, the Tibetan people are regarded like criminals deserving to be put to death. (H.H. the Dalai Lama)

In The Next 100 Years, George Friedman offers a lucid, highly readable forecast of the changes we can expect around the world during the twenty-first century. He explains where and why future wars will erupt (and how they will be fought), which nations will gain and lose economic and political power, and how new technologies and cultural trends will alter the way we live in the new century. (Black Inc Publishing)

Mrs. Clinton went on: "There is a pent-up desire on the part of the United States government under the Obama administration, as well as partners around the world, that we begin to work together to solve a lot of our common problems...

Whilst there is now plenty of discussion about the responses that governments should be making to address the predicted consequences of climate change, the focus seems to have been largely on the economic, trade and security issues. The social and human rights implications rarely rate a mention. (The Hon. John von Doussa)

While many are taking small steps personally to save water and minimise use of resources, without leaders acting as statesmen and calling for the big changes which alone can make a dent in the problem, we will get nowhere.

The real threats to international peace and security are no longer confined to violations of state sovereignty for which the UN collective security system was created. Rather, genocide, massive violations of human rights, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) represent immediate international security threats that are beyond the scope of any one state to solve.

One thing you can't accuse of our Dear Leader is that he is lacking guts. Not only delivering his speech to students at Peking University in Mandarin, he again repeated his concern about Tibet.

A news article on Australia-China Free Trade Agreement negotiations, emphasizing the broader ramifications of the Tibetan issue on economic policies. 

Demonstrations are a legitimate form of public dissatisfaction by those who feel their impotence to influence government action or non action – in the present instance e.g. a boycott of the torch relay in view of the situation in Tibet.

[The Australian-US] alliance is steeped in history. But it is also part of our framework for meeting the challenges of the future. The purpose of my remarks is to reflect on the continued importance of U.S. global leadership, to reflect on the new Australian government's foreign policy framework, and to make some observations on how we both might engage China in the future. (The Hon. Kevin Rudd)

Many commentators in Australia have taken an even more negative and distorted view of Portugal and other Portuguese-speaking countries, simply because of East Timor. Unlike the Indonesians' colonial master, the Dutch, the Portuguese are, ahem, "wogs", but unlike the Italians and the Greeks, they are not as well represented in Australia, or have as high a profile.

If any continuous theme runs through [Paul Keating's] career, it is power: the acquisition of it, the exercise of it, the company of it, being on the side of it, loss of it, and now reminiscence of it. I cannot put it more appropriately, even though my grandmother once told me never to use language: power has been to Keating as shit to a blowfly.

Greg Sheridan, writing for the Oz, describes the Suharto as "an authentic giant of Asia, a nation-builder, a dictator, a changer of history" My own analysis is that he has done more harm to Indonesia than good. He did create short term stability for the country, but on the fundamental issues that are vital to the long term prosperity, democracy and survival of the country, he has come out short, very short.

Australians have a fear of Indonesia that is only equalled by Indonesian’s fear about Australia. The major difference is that Indonesians know far more about Australian politics than Australians know about Indonesia.

She risked everything in her attempt to win democracy in Pakistan and she has been assassinated by cowards afraid of democracy. (Gordon Brown)

To the average punters in Asia, the perception of Australia has been coloured, if you excuse the pun, by the White Australian Policy (THE WAP) and its remnants. The contemporary Australia might have a hot economical engagement with the Asian region, but politically and socially, there are still nagging questions being asked about Australia. First, has Australia completely jettisoned the WAP? or it is still lurking just beneath the surface. Second, is Australia an Asian country? or a Western country? or an Eurasian country? or none of the above? Sometimes, I think we don’t know the answer to this question ourselves.

"This is not a Tasmania I any longer recognise, this is Bjelke Petersens Queensland, and it is time we took our Tasmania back—back from the lies, from the intimidation, from the threats, from the character assassinations and blacklisting. Because its our Tasmania, not one company’s fiefdom. We have suffered for too many years them turning Tasmanian against Tasmanian, seeking to make us forget that what joins us is always greater than what divides us, that forest worker and conservationist, union man and greenie woman, southerner and northerner, Liberal and Labor and Green all share a great love for our island and for our people." Richard Flanagan, author

Webdiarist Susie Russell emailed me amazing news today which I thought you might like to hear. Yes folks, Vaile has agreed, under questioning from a talk back listener and citizen extraordinaire, to take a lie detector test on AWB!

"Elections, Parliament, the media, freedom of speech - these can all bethought of just as tools to enable citizens to exerciseaccountability.  Accountability has two components.  First, a target oragent (such as an executive government) has to explain their actionsand the reasons behind them to seekers of accountability (such as thepublic).  Second, there needs to be power to impose sanctions whenthose actions and reasons are considered unsatisfactory.  In theabsence of either of these elements, there is no accountability and nodemocracy." Peter Ellis

“India has been planning its nuclear program even before independence period of the 1950’s, after some Indian graduates from Berkeley ordered critical parts to build a cyclotron before they could return home ” said Sreedhar Ramamurthi. And he should know. He was employed as a Scientific Officer with India’s Department of Atomic Energy.

The APEC thuggery results from a Labor and Liberal conspiracy to destroy our civil liberties and give police untrammelled power to serve political ends. I've been warning of this on Webdiary for many years. We saw with Haneef that now, police and/or government lawyers are prepared to lie under oath to the Courts to get their way. And the NSW Labor Government's disgrace started long before Iemma.Have a look at the start of the rot, under Bob Carr, in 2002, when Howard was revving up his 'terror' laws.

Later I saw another old lady asking police if she could go to David Jones.  They told her it would be always there and it would be best if she went home. Kindly old ladies being discouraged from David Jones?  That's not the Australia I grew up in!  I saw the reassuring sign that "it costs no more to shop at David Jones" but security guards blocked me from leaving via the Elizabeth Street doors.  How bizarre.

Then it got really ugly. The police moved into the centre of the intersection and formed an outward moving circle, forcing the protesters to the curb.  I ended up trapped amidst protesters and media, shepherded into a corner with armed and mostly unidentifiable police (many police on the day had no ID badges, and I have footage).  Nowhere to move to, and cops in riot gear moving in behind them, and the chopper overhead, I was beginning to get scared.