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The Daily Briefing 22/11/05
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1 Laura Secor on Iran and its political dissidents/New Yorker (2 links below)
2 Josie Appleton on romantic lefties and Latin America/spiked (link below)
3 Lee Epstein & Jeffrey Segal on how courts sway judges/Washington Post
4 Report says UK will turn to nuclear power/Times (2 links below)
5 Michelle Goldberg on Christmas and the culture wars/Salon (link below)
6 Rob Pegoraro on buying a new computer/Washington Post (2 links below)
7 Report on the fairies and the developer/Times (2 link below)
8 BOOKS: Brooklyn Follies By Paul Auster (plus 11 other links below)
9 IN THE PAPERS: National, Opinion, Business round-up
1 The young Iranians
An up close and personal account of life and politics in Iran, focusing on the young , dissident Iranians who have had their hopes dashed by the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but who have not given up hope. In fact, they believe that the outcome will make life more difficult for the hardliners, who will no longer be able to blame reformers for the country's failings. "Iran has an estimated three million to seven million Internet users, the most in the Middle East. Some sixty-five thousand Iranians post blogs, many of them evading government filters by jumping from server to server. In 2004, however, the hard-liners began cracking down on Internet dissent, using both filtering technology and old-fashioned harassment. By October, twenty-one Iranians were imprisoned in connection with blogs. Most were technical administrators of Web sites, but seven were political writers."
In The Washington Post, journalist, author and poet Roya Hakakian thinks Ahmadinejad's call for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth will backfire on him, because of a healthy contrarian strand to Iranian thinking. "While President Ahmadinejad does not truly represent Iran and its attitude toward the Jews today, he does represent an old bigotry that the nation has yet to address. When it does, Iranians will finally be granting long overdue recognition to some of the country's most loyal citizens. And they may also save the Jewish community from extinction. If Iran can continue to be a sanctuary to Jews and other minorities, it will have maintained the very elements that have, throughout history, brought it both glory and distinction."
And this report in The Guardian paints a picture of a potentially dangerous loony hell-bent on having a nuclear button to put his finger near. "Iran is facing political paralysis as its newly elected president purges government institutions, bringing accusations that he is undertaking a coup d'état."
LAURA SECOR/THE NEW YORKER
2 The Latin American revolution
Frankly there is not a lot to this one, but TDB has linked to a few article on developments in Latin America of late, most from a centre-left position. So at least Josie Appleton's article (link below) for the libertarian contrarians at spiked will add some balance. "When it comes to writing about Latin America, there's a mismatch between grand words and a messy reality. Western leftists look to Latin America as a canvas on which all their dreams can be painted. While the left is in dire straits back home, activists increasingly go looking for their revolution abroad. They wax lyrical about street protests and fiery leaders, paying little attention to the problems that these movements are facing on the ground. Western commentators would do better to face up to the problems of politics at home, than to fix a romantic gaze on Latin America."
TDB has linked previously to information about the background of spiked magazine (which has an unfortunate habit of taking money for its projects from vested interests), and there was more in The Guardian on the week-end when Stuart Jeffries interviewed Claire Fox, one of its founders. "Two things emerged from these ashes - Spiked, a web magazine, and the institute, which Fox directs. Both teem with former members of the RCP, an iconoclastic Trotskyist splinter group that regularly engaged in non-metaphorical fisticuffs. Often with other Trotskyist splinter groups, but still. "If there was still an RCP I would be a member," she says. "There are revolutionary principles I adhere to. I'm interested in improving the world.""
JOSIE APPLETON/SPIKED
3 How a court changes judges
Conservatives nominees face a challenge from within their own ranks in trying to make the US Supreme Court - religious fundamentalists want someone who will overturn the hated Roe v Wade pro-abortion decision; but intellectual conservatives look for someone who will respect court precedents. Samuel Alito looks like threading his way between those two to have his nomination confirmed. But will he turn out to be the die-hard conservative his supporters are hoping for? Lee Epstein, professor at Washington University and Jeffrey Segal, political science professor at Stony Brook University, say "probably" as they look at how courts influence judges. "Branding nominees as "conservative," "liberal" or something in between, with the expectation that those nominees will act reflexively in accordance with those labels, ignores the nature of judging. While O'Connor's preferences may have grown more liberal over time, it is equally likely that her vote in the Michigan law school case reflected her belief in the value of making changes incrementally. The lesson here is that Alito will be more likely to chip away at abortion rights and affirmative action practices than to vote to overrule them immediately."
LEE EPSTEIN & JEFFREY SEGAL/THE WASHINGTON POST
4 The nuclear option, oil and hybrids
This one has been coming for a while - TDB linked to the early phases of the debate, when the call for Britain to turn to nuclear energy in response to global warming was first made. (The Times, by the way, has backed the move, which may help explain how it came to get the drop on this story.) "Less than two years after a government paper called nuclear power an unattractive option, the Prime Minister has become convinced that building nuclear power stations is the only way to secure energy needs and meet obligations to reduce carbon emissions."
For those who've not had their fill of the "peak oil" debate (lots in links in Archives), David Jenkins (former chief technology adviser to the BP group) and Jeremy Leggett (CEO of Solarcentury) debate the world's energy future on the pages of Prospect magazine.
And Wired reports that engineers are developing adapter kits for hybrid vehicles that will increase their efficiency to 100 miles per gallon by powering them solely on electricity during short trips.
THE TIMES
5 How the reds didn't steal Christmas
How many sleeps until the first media beat-up about how the politically correct are stealing Christmas. The West Australian comes close this morning as it reports that WA State schools are not obliged to teach children about the religious significance of Christmas but Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich says she would encourage all schools to teach Christmas traditions. (Is there no end to the amount of brainwashing to which children must be subjected?)
Salon reports that the issue is a weapon in the culture wars, used by the right to rally its troops and demonise liberal humanists. And how about this - it has nothing to do with "politically correctness gone mad" (to coin a phrase). The article linked to below says in 1959 the John Birch Society issued an urgent alert: Christmas was under attack. "In a JBS pamphlet titled "There Goes Christmas?!" a writer named Hubert Kregeloh warned, "One of the techniques now being applied by the Reds to weaken the pillar of religion in our country is the drive to take Christ out of Christmas -- to denude the event of its religious meaning." The central front in this perfidious assault was American department stores, where the "Godless UN" was scheming to replace religious decorations with internationalist celebrations of universal brotherhood."
MICHELLE GOLDBERG/SALON
6 Buying a computer, $100 or more
Straight forward this one - ground rules for buying a new home computer from someone who seems to know what he is talking about. "Apple is making a strong pitch these days. The price to switch can be little more than $500, the cost of the Mac mini. That and other Macs ship with an outstanding set of multimedia programs -- iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD -- and continue to be free of viruses, spyware, browser hijackings and many other Windows diseases."
Two reports of $100 (US) computers. David Pogue in the NYTimes on the educational gadget called the Fly Pentop Computer. "The Fly is so fat because it contains an AAA battery, a computer chip, a speaker and, mounted half an inch from the ballpoint tip, a tiny camera. For all of its educational, interactive tricks, the Fly pen requires special paper whose surface is imprinted with nearly invisible micro-dots. As you write, the pen always knows where it is on the page, thanks to those dot patterns and the camera that watches them go by."
And Wired reports on the hand-cranked $100 laptops that the magazine's founder Nicholas Negroponte wants every child in the world to have. "With its cheery green coloring and Tonka-tough shell, the laptop certainly looks cool. It boasts a 7-inch screen that swivels like a tablet PC, and an electricity-generating crank that provides 40 minutes of power from a minute of grinding. Built-in Wi-Fi with mesh networking support, combined with a microphone, speaker and headset jack, even means the box can serve as a node in an ersatz VOIP phone system."
ROB PEGORARO/THE WASHINGTON POST
7 The fairies, the developer and scrabble
"Come away, O human child!/ To the waters and the wild/ With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand." Some weeping on the part of developer Marcus Salter, head of Genesis Properties, who "estimates that the small colony of fairies believed to live beneath a rock in St Fillans, Perthshire, has cost him £15,000. His first notice of the residential sensibilities of the netherworld came as his diggers moved on to a site on the outskirts of the village, which crowns the easterly shore of Loch Earn."
The world has a new scrabble champion, "Adam Logan, a 30-year-old mathematician from Canada, scored 465 points to beat Pakorn Nemitrmansuk, a 30-year-old architect from Thailand, with 426 points in the final game of a playoff. "In the end, the zobo and the ogive could not quite triumph over the qanat and the euripi on Sunday, and thus the contender was birsled - Scottish dialect for scorched or toasted."
And in anothe dispatch from the odds 'n sods file, The Independent tracks the history of drinking in the UK and finds they've been binge drinking for 2,500 years. "Stone Age beer jugs have suggested that we were intentionally fermenting alcohol as early as the Neolithic period, 12,000 years ago."
THE TIMES
8 Follies, Freedom, Fable, Fortepianos and more.
TUESDAY BOOKS: a selection by donn wood.
The Unknown Soldier: The Story of the Missing of the Great War by Neil Hanson
Last Post by Max Arthur
In Literary Review, Nigel Jones reviews these books, which attempt to explore the meaning that the Great War still holds in the collective consciousness of the West. Oral historian Arthur interviewed nine of the surviving handful of WWI veterans, and Jones says of his book ... “Really only to be recommended to First World War buffs who have to read everything.” Hanson’s book he finds to be a much superior endeavor, which begins with “... the imaginative idea of combining the story of the Unknown Soldier – the symbolic body buried in Westminster Abbey to represent all the myriad legions of Britain's missing – with the individual stories of three of those missing: a British and a German soldier, and ... an American airman.”
Phone Rings by Stephen Dixon
Not familiar with this author’s name? As this is his 25th book, and he has won a number of awards, this might seem surprising, but as Ron Antonucci in the San Francisco Chronicle writes, “... probably because his approach to fiction is so singular, breaking rules and expanding the strictures on form and style, Dixon remains little known to the general reading public. Daunting if not difficult, Dixon does experiment with form and narrative technique; he's earned the avant-gardist label he wears so well. But, with all of that, Stephen Dixon is simply one heck of a storyteller.”
The Jungle Law: A Novel By Victoria Vinton
“Kipling provides the story's start; he's a newcomer who excites and confounds the region's locals.” Art Taylor in The Washington Post reviews this novel, set in rural Vermont, where Rudyard Kipling wrote ‘The Jungle Book’. “By navigating both rural living in all its hardscrabble grit and the world of the imagination in its most vibrant bloom, Vinton plumbs human yearnings for more than the everyday and probes the transformative impact that storytelling can have on a willing audience -- both the lures of literature and the perils of conflating art with life. More to the point, though, Vinton also tells a great story, reason enough to pay these Kiplings and their neighbors a call.”
To Repel Ghosts: The Remix by Kevin Young
This book by one of America’s most highly regarded young poets, is a telling in verse of the work and (short) life of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who went from graffiti artist to hot-property painter to DOA junkie (and therefore even hotter dead young painter) in less than a decade. This review by Olivia Cronk in Bookslut is complete and comprehensive, and I couldn’t find an extract that would give you an idea of its flavour, so I can only link you to it here, and suggest that you read it in its entirety.
Company Of Pianos by Richard Burnett
Written by a pianist and pioneer of the early piano revival in the UK, this “... marvellously illustrated book is in fact an extensive guide to the sixty-one instruments of the Finchcocks Collection in Goudhurst, Kent.” And as Burnett not only assembled the collection, but also bought a country house in Kent to house them, who better to undertake such a task? And who better to write this review in the TLS than Angela Hewitt, a world-class pianist herself? “Burnett takes us on a splendid voyage through the evolutionary history of keyboard construction, describing each instrument of the Finchcocks Collection in vivid detail.” Included with the book is a CD of music played on 33 of the instruments from the collection.
Ladykiller by Charlotte Gill
“In Charlotte Gill's seven stories we meet people who are frozen in this kind of light, their lives etched in brilliant clarity, their relationships caught just as they are about to crumble and blur away into yesterday.” Cherie Thiessen, writing in January Magazine, reviews the first book from the Canadian author. “Gill may be tough with her language and her readers, taking them on journeys they may prefer not to take, but with her characters she is sensitive and non-judgmental. The world can use more of that and readers will find they can use more of Charlotte Gill.”
The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature: Edited by Zipes, Avery, Hunt, Paul, Vallone In The Boston Globe, William Flesch reviews this (massive, at over 2200 pages) collection of work from 170 writers and illustrators, ranging over 350 years. “All great children's literature reminds adults of the ephemerality of childhood. It does so because it is written by and for adults thinking hard about their own lost childhoods even as they interact with real children.”
The Narnian by Alan Jacobs
And to follow the previous article, here is an article based around a review of a biography of C.S. Lewis, who wrote the Narnia books for children, including ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ (of which, especially if you have children, you will be hearing lots more in the weeks to come). Lewis was a complex figure, both in his personal life and in his writing. (You may remember the film ‘Shadowlands’, with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger). Adam Gopnik, writing in The New Yorker, takes Jacobs’ book as the starting point for a detailed and thoughtful analysis of the life and work of the English writer, who is regarded radically differently on either side of the Atlantic. Informative and very well worth reading.
Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom by Roger Pearson
“Famous in his lifetime as a prolific dramatist and a poet, Voltaire is not much read nowadays, even in France, and then only for his short prose tales such as Candide. Instead, he embodies in his career and makes intelligible in his conversation and letters the great revolutions of the 18th century in religion, civil rights, finance, domesticity and sex. As Roger Pearson shows in this elegant, learned and handsome new biography, Voltaire managed both to be in the thick of things and to survey them from the sort of Olympian distance that generally only posterity enjoys.” In The Guardian, James Buchan reviews the latest biography of a man who wrote books, plays, numerous letters and petitions; was a voice of reason and an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution. At his death, his body was denied burial in church ground, and after some years his remains were moved to the Pantheon in Paris. In 1814 a group of hard-line religious radicals stole Voltaire's remains and dumped them. (And no one knew for 50 years). His heart had previously been removed from his body, and is in the Paris Bibliotheque Nationale. His brain had also been removed, and after changing hands several times over 100 years, it disappeared after an auction. Sort of your ultimate literary carve-up.
The Naming of Names by Anna Pavord
This history of the classification of plants and the evolution of their names begins with Athenian philosopher Theophrastus (who was born in 372BC, and studied under Aristotle), but basically made hardly any progress for the next 1000 years. Toby Green, in The Independent, thinks the book is at its best describing the Renaissance and its after-effects ... “Pavord's account of the discoveries and rivalries of thinkers in England, Flanders, France, Germany and Italy excels at recreating the excitement of that age, and she bestows her love of the natural world on the descriptions of plants and flowers that garlanded illustrated books of the time. Her book is beautifully illustrated with over 100 colour plates from these rare publications.” It wasn’t until the 17th century that Theophrastus’ ideas started to be put into common practice. Hey, it only took 2000 years!
“Ultimately, as Pavord shows, the truth behind his noble idea overwhelmed the dogmatists.”
Flawed Angel by John Fuller
“Under John Fuller's elegance is a grim and gleeful depiction of the relations between flesh and spirit, or between matter and the life that informs it." AS Byatt, writing in The Guardian, finds this philosophical fable-cum-fairytale both admirable and enjoyable. “No other writer could make an ingenious primal soup in a civilised dish in quite this way. Flawed Angel is easy to read, but persists in the mind when it has been read, and asks to be thought about.”
The Brooklyn Follies By Paul Auster
Paul Auster, who may be better known to movies buffs as the screenwriter of ‘Smoke’ and its sequel ‘Blue In The Face’, ends his 12th novel on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Of course, this is no coincidence, or perhaps it’s just that coincidence is normality in a Paul Auster novel. “Other familiar Austerian conceits are in evidence: the narrator is a writer, characters disappear and then return many years later in unfamiliar guises, men languish in self-imposed isolation. But ‘The Brooklyn Follies’ is warmer than any of Auster’s previous novels, and is touched by an unmistakable air of nostalgia.” In the TLS, Henry Hitchings reviews the latest from postmodern existentialist writer Auster, and finds it “...a departure for Auster. Instead of tight plotting and theoretical figure work, there is domestic realism. The result is a novel far more passionately American than Auster’s previous ones. It is also more abundantly furnished: its milieu is a Brooklyn of croissants and strollers ...” Perhaps the postmodern bathwater has been thrown out, and the baby left behind. (link below)
HENRY HITCHINGS\TLS
| 9 IN THE PAPERS: National, Opinion, Business round-up IN THE BROADSHEETS Opinion polls do the work for the papers this morning, as the Fairfax papers both make a meal of the findings of the ACNielsen poll. The Age (Michelle Grattan) reports that John Howard and his Government have taken a spectacular nosedive with voters as the unpopular workplace changes give a dramatic boost to Labor and resuscitate the fortunes of its leader, Kim Beazley. Michael Gordon says the results reflect public disquiet on the Government's handling of one issue, industrial relations; and Peter Hartcher introduces TDB to a new political term, "inflection point", which apparently has been reached - "the electorate has reacted strongly against the Howard Government's workplace changes, and this has changed the fortunes of both major parties and their leaders". The poll says Labor leads on a two-party basis by 58 to 42 per cent and that things are so bad, people are even thinking that Kim Beazley might not be so bad. Them's a mighty ugly set of numbers, especially when you've just spent $55 million buying them. Still, it was only our money and not that many kiddies could have been educated with it. In The Australian, Steve Lewis reports that Labor's blitz against the federal Government's workplace revolution is paying handsome dividends, with Newspoll finding the Opposition regaining a commanding lead and Kim Beazley the gradual trust of voters (although TDB had not really noticed this "Labor blitz" - the ACTU has been busy, but Labor under Beazley doesn't really do a blitz, a long march maybe, but Kim just isn't a blitzy kind of guy.) Matt Price comments on the big fella's stumble over Michelle Leslie, which he says was not a good look (true, but you'd hope it points to a mind occupied with more important matters. Or at least occupied with something?). The paper's lead says that companies will be forced to explain to workers in plain language their rights whenever a company moves to terminate award agreements or switch to individual contracts, under concessions agreed to by Coalition MPs (how about, "you've been shafted"? Should be plain enough.) It also reports that Michelle Leslie hit back last night at allegations that she has been faking her devotion to the Muslim faith (so it's off with the lingerie and back to the burqa?) ; that the Australian Customs Service pushed the button on a $250million computer project that caused chaos on the wharves, even though it knew the system did not have the power to run the new software; and that Muslim extremists want to create an Islamic state stretching from Thailand to Indonesia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer warned yesterday ("warned" no less - this has been well known for a very long time, but if The Australian thinks it news, TDB thinks the Oz is playing terrorism beat-ups again, still). The Age reports that Treasurer Peter Costello has refused to publicly endorse Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie's continued tenure on the Reserve Bank board (although Stephen Bartholomeusz takes a different view, see Business below); that employees of wheat exporter AWB could face imprisonment for up to 10 years if a court finds they knowingly paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's former regime in the UN oil-for-food program; that Michelle Leslie may have paid bribes to get out of her Bali jail; and that a non-government inquiry into immigration detention has heard claims of systematic human rights problems and alleged bias against Muslim asylum seekers within the Immigration Department (that'll please John Stone - more recruits for the Queen Isabella Society). The Herald reports that the Government is urgently examining the prospect of saving Australian Nguyen Tuong Van from execution by using a United Nations convention on organised crime to take action in the International Court of Justice; that unwitting motorists from the east and south keen to take advantage of Sydney tunnel's toll-free period are being slugged $14.50 just to get into the tunnel (didn't they know there is no such thing as a free tunnel); that the first Australian to be charged for training with a terrorist organisation has had his trial delayed while a judge considers whether it was illegal for him to have attended a camp for Pakistani militants; prisons in NSW have the highest reoffending rates in the country and allow inmates fewer hours out of their cells than any other state, a report by the NSW Auditor-General has found; and that victims of sexual assault who give evidence by video are not perceived by juries to be less credible or less sympathetic, a study by the Australian Institute of Criminology has found. Australian high commission staff and their families have been robbed at gunpoint near the start of the Kokoda Trail (is that anywhere near the Kokoda Track?); people audition for Big Brother hoping to escape their boring lives (some escape); and police have dubbed three friends caught drink-driving within two hours of each other at the same spot "Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest". OPINION The Age: Tim McCormack (professor of international humanitarian law) is shooting fish in a barrel as he finds fault with the US military tribunals proposed for Guantanamo Bay detainees; Tony Parkinson criticises Singapore's mandatory death penalty and how it is practiced, but thinks that the laws of sovereign nations must be respected; Nicholas Wapshott and George Trefgarne appear to take some delight as they detail the difficulties confronting Conrad Black, otherwise known as Lord Black of Crossharbour; and Ros Porter criticises child protection legislation now before the Victorian Parliament. The Australian: Phillip Adams works himself into a sweat as he lays into Singapore, the death penalty and the war on drugs, and says Australia should threaten to break diplomatic relations to help Nguyen Tuong Van; Geoff Masters (Australian Council for Educational Research) gets to rebut The Australian's line that education standards are going to hell in a hand basket, and that there is no international evidence for the claims made by Kevin Donnelly, who is not mentioned by name. (Now, if Masters gets a run with 20 articles like this, it would balance the space given to Donnelly's tendentious rubbish.); Steve Lewis thinks CHOGM is dead and should be buried, and reports that a cross-party group of federal MPs is about to rekindle debate about a republic; Paul Schnabel (Netherlands Social and Cultural Planning Office) reports on the Dutch experience with Muslim immigrants; and Salam Zreika doubts the sincerity of Michelle Leslie, model Muslim. The SMH: Gerard Henderson thinks Amanda Vanstone's speech shows that historically the Coalition has been light on for articulate intellectuals (and he manages to give the ABC a belt along the way); Louise Dodson complains that journalists were kept at a distance from the APEC summit, which she nonetheless thinks is more relevant that CHOGM; Richard Harris (Screen Directors Association) takes his turn to lay into the new sedition laws; and Alison Cameron is unimpressed by a new dating advice book for men. BUSINESS The Age leads with what the business page editors have decided is the story of the morning, reporting that the market seems to have written off Lion Nathan's chances of acquiring 100 per cent of Coopers Brewery, even though Lion has increased its takeover offer from $260 a share to $310. This is the general tone of the reporting - the Age headline reads "Lion still over a barrel on Coopers", but Bryan Frith is not having a bit of it, commenting that if price alone were the criteria, it's difficult to see how the board of the embattled Coopers Brewery could do other than recommend acceptance of Lion Nathan's revised takeover offer. The headline on his column reads " Lion Nathan's latest bid has Coopers board over the barrel". TDB remains curious as to why Frith has run such a tough, one-sided campaign against Coopers. Any clues? The Age goes on to report that three of Australia's largest banks have moved to repel a campaign by ANZ Bank for public auditing of banks' treatment of customers under credit stress; and that in Mayne Group's newly spun-off injectable drugs business, Mayne Pharma, debuted strongly, fuelled by recent comments from new boss Thierry Soursac that the company was an attractive takeover target. The Australian reports that Orica is pinning hopes for continued profit growth on the strength of Australia's primary industries as it battles continuing softness in consumer and manufacturing markets; that Tattersalls has papered over divisions that led to a board restructure at the gambling giant, at the same time recommitting to profit forecasts in its prospectus despite a "soft" start to the new financial year; and that Macquarie Infrastructure Group chief executive Stephen Allen defended public-private partnerships yesterday after Sydney's troubled Cross City Tunnel mired the toll-road sector in controversy. The Herald goes off shore for its lead reporting on rumours that General Motors, the largest car maker in the world and the backbone of American industry, could be about to file for bankruptcy. It also reports that petroleum dollars are about to flow across the Tasman to Australia after Australian Stock Exchange companies approved the development of two New Zealand oil projects yesterday; and that Lachlan Murdoch, former non-executive director of One.Tel, will today begin three days of testimony on his recollection of events leading up to the telco's collapse in 2001. Stephen Bartholomeusz thinks that Donald McGauchie can now probably plan on having his term as a member of the Reserve Bank board extended, with much gnashing of teeth within the Federal Government, thanks to speculation yesterday in The Age that he would be dumped because of his role at Telstra. STATE ROUND-UP The Daily Telegraph: In her first interview since leaving jail, convicted drug user Michelle Leslie declared last night: "I am not a fake Muslim"; Telstra is preparing to sack hundreds of administrative staff, many of them based in Sydney, in the first job cuts since new boss Sol Trujillo announced he would axe 12,000 positions from the telco over the next five years. The Herald-Sun: Three boys from a private Melbourne school have returned home in disgrace after becoming the latest young Australians to risk their freedom by using drugs overseas; The twin brother of a Melbourne drug courier on death row flew to Singapore yesterday to ask for forgiveness. The Courier-Mail: A central plank in the coalition deal between Queensland's conservative parties is in danger of collapse, as the prospect looms of three-cornered contests in up to five seats at the next state election; One of Queensland's biggest developers believed it was his duty and his "right" to donate thousands of dollars to Gold Coast City Council election candidates via a secret trust fund, a Crime and Misconduct Commission inquiry was told yesterday. The Advertiser: Multinational brewer Lion Nathan has put another $70 million on the table in its takeover bid for Coopers Brewery - but the head of the South Australian company believes the family will not be swayed by the extra money; South Australian football great Ken Eustice has revealed his fight with depression after his finance company lost $64 million forcing him into bankruptcy in the 1990s. The West Australian: State Environment Minister Judy Edwards will unveil a long-awaited report today on how to fix the Swan and Canning rivers - but has deferred announcing extra funding or new action until another study nears completion in the middle of next year; The lawyer who acted for a man acquitted of rape last week has called for the law to be changed so women who claimed to have been raped could be named publicly. The Mercury: Speculation is firming that the Lennon Government will call an early election in late February or early March next year, more than six months ahead of schedule; An emotional and tearful Judy Jackson bowed out of Tasmanian politics yesterday after nearly 20 years in the public eye. SPORT Michael Clarke's Test sacking should not ruin his confidence and could make him a better player provided he remains patient, according to captain Ricky Ponting; Wallabies captain George Gregan has denied a newspaper report that he will retire from international rugby after the Test against Wales on Saturday, but Greg Growden thinks he has overstayed his welcome; Grant Hackett has been named swimmer of the year. THE DAILY BRIEFING |
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re: The Daily Briefing 22/11/05
Russia recently conducted a flight test of a new warhead that can change course in midflight whilst travelling at 5km per sec.
Star Wars program will take some more bucketloads of cash to try and circumvent this sort of manouverability when it can't even hit those on a predictable Earth re-entry course.
re: The Daily Briefing 22/11/05
Americans Now Getting Charitable Aid from Venezuela
re: The Daily Briefing 22/11/05
Hi Wayne, thanks for the wrap. Always interesting even if usually only read it all. Just a few comments:
The Melbourne student union giving aid to the workers opposing the changes in their work practices by the multinational oil companies now in Iraq and the spin put on it by our Government. Aiding and abetting the enemy and opposing the occupation forces (and making trouble for the oil companies) and naughty student union so must have VSU. Why am I not surprised? Interestingly, this is an example of what may be described as giving aid to the enemy in the terror legislation and land them in 10yrs gaol.
Also, interesting how the Justice Einfeld and Howard both agree that Ms Leslie should not tell her story and the Murdoch New Idea don't want it. I thought the legislation about profiting from convictions would cover that selling of the story any way.
Still, interesting that our Judge should not want the mechanisms of Indonesian justice examined, lest those "mechanisms" be not available to future Australians in trouble, I think that is what he is saying. So, the legal system should not be open and honest? Is that his view on our system too? Not to examine judgements and "good results" lest they not be available next time?
I wonder what the average Indonesian thinks of this talk. Supreme hypocrisy one might guess. Don't think the Bali Nine look good enough in lingerie nor have the same friends to get such treatment anyway. Or is he talking of the recent Shipper of frozen fish, and his 20 thousand tablets that got him a few months gaol as well in Bali. Seems there may well be Justice and justice and why not examine that? Reminds me of football teams.
Leslie's arrangements are more likely to be embarassing for the son of a certain Indonesian minister, according to newspaper reports, is my guess. If so, are military contracts a possible honey pot target or just coincidence? Happens all too frequently, even here last year with Ruddock's daughter, and people should be aware to avoid such dangers if too naive. Relatives of the powerful are targets.
Then again, a lingerie model might indeed be just foolish enough to party with Eky or have it planted, whatever the real scenario is. Really, though, would you fly home via Singapore if you are a convicted drug user? No direct flights home to Australia? Would send shivers down my spine just thinking of all those on death row in Changi for a similar crime to that just convicted of. Yeek.
On that note, nice of our PM to still be negotiating the merger of Qantas with Singapore Airlines at the same time as seeking clemency for Van Nguyen. Can just hear it, true to form: "Clemency? No? There, had to raise it as said would and the polls are ifffy at present. Now down to the really important money making issues, Qantas and Singapore, selling off via the back door etc, and need to do it after all is forgotten in the media about Van whatsi-about three days after the hanging I reckon with our people. A board job? How sweet mate."
Money talks with that vulnerable Island Nation, not popular politics as they don't have it.
Boycott Singapore airlines now, for a start.
And the oil refining? And the shipping? Money talks, not weasles. So little time left to safe a lad's life and such weasley words from our leaders on both sides. No wonder we are not respected as a nation there. No spine when it counts.
Cheers.