Ars technica says it best:
Archive for the 'politics' Category
23
Dec
08
Net filter
15
Jul
08
I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo….
This seems to have slipped through “Can Naked Kids be Art?” fiasco without notice.
Associate Professor Robert Nelson (Monash University) has sold out middle-aged men: “This was a photo taken not by a middle-aged man but the mother of the child. It seemed quite a responsible thing to do.”
He could be just reflecting social norms though. Qantas, British Airways or Air New Zealand have a policy of not seating adult male passengers next to unaccompanied children.
Boris Johnson, writing for The Telegraph, sums it up better than I could.
A few years back a male friend almost landed an assistant position at a kindergarten. The position was withdrawn at the 11th hour when several parents complained.
The protesters, the politicians, the corporations, the sweat shops, the headlines. Where did they all go? The products of globalisation are still with us, but the term has faded.
It came up in conversation tonight with a former colleague. My take on globalisation had been mostly indifference, as long as individuals could have the same benefits as multinational companies.
We pondered why Australian mortgage holders couldn’t transfer their debt to the US where interest rates are lower?
I recanted a story I’d read once of a US software developer who outsourced his tasks to India and kept pocketing his wage. (Google for it, I don’t want to dob the bugger in!)
There was interesting case recently in Australian Federal Court. The issue was whether genuine Ralph Lauren clothing purchased in the US could be ‘parallel import’-ed legally into Australia and sold here. Polo/Lauren claimed that its copyright had been infringed. However, the proceedings were dismissed with costs. My take is that if clothing producers can swan off to the cheapest place for production, why can’t consumers, or importers on their behalf, swan off to the cheapest place to buy the goods?
I picked up this book five or so years ago: “The Collapse of Globalism: And the Reinvention of the World” by John Ralston Saul. I literally picked it up off the bookstore shelf, just because I found the title cheeky and confronting, but I didn’t buy it. The word “globalisation” was everywhere at the time. The title seemed fanciful. Fast forward a couple of years and I found myself flicking through it again, and found myself agreeing with its tenets. I bought it.
Today national interests are to the fore. The US is at war. China and India are ascending. There are oil and food shortages and there is no common and binding economic consensus…. yet!
01
Feb
08
Art!
© Kenyon Bajus 2001-2007 (from www.artistaday.com )
His web site here: http://kenyonb.com/
I love this piece.
29
Jan
08
My Australia Day Weekend
I reflected on our lack of identity over the weekend. Who are we Australians? I read a few news articles which were anxious to define us. I think “big media” needs to catagorise us though, purely to sell ad-space. It probably riles them a bit that we defy definition.
Saturday consisted of cleaning the backyard for a BBQ, riding my new scooter down to the shops, cooking some meat, then going to the local civic centre to watch the traditional fireworks. They were also traditionally late. Whilst waiting in the service road across the way, we copped some passive smoke from a pregnant mother. Hubby was watching their two boys (who didn’t seem to too stunted). “Come here Jordan”, he yelled. I was reminded of this old, entertaining, despot’s quip about us being the “white trash of Asia”. Continue reading ‘My Australia Day Weekend’
The new government’s proposed “clean feed” net filter system mandates that ISPs block sites from a known “bodgy” list.
The filtering infrastructure will be a bottleneck, slowing down and making more expensive our Internet connectivity. And the ALP went to the election promising to improve our broadband access and speeds!!!
The system will not stop paedophiles preying on children in chat rooms, nor stop kiddie porn. That’s not what it does. Continue reading ‘Save the kiddies from shavedasianteengoats.com!!!’
29
Dec
07
Convicted
Much can depend on just a few words. David Hicks pleaded guilty in front of “an ad-hoc military tribunal designed to try non-US citizens according to an unacceptably low standard of justice.”
He was released today from prison. Here’s how some news sites described him.
The ABC online: “Confessed terrorism supporter” but in photo caption “Convicted terrorism supporter”. A quick search Continue reading ‘Convicted’
05
Dec
07
Ever met a member of the AFA?
They keep getting quoted in the mainstream press, the Australian Family Association that is. So I thinks to myself, I know plenty of families but I’ve never met anyone from the AFA. Erm…
Five minutes on the web reveals that they were founded by the National Civic Council. Wikipedia states: “The Association was founded by B.A. Santamaria, a prominent Melbourne Catholic activist of Italian descent”. Nothing controversial about any of this.
A quick scan of their home page today reveals that they are primarily concerned with abortions, gay marriages, cloning, graphic films and porn. Continue reading ‘Ever met a member of the AFA?’
The night before an election. I feel the butterflies I used to reserve for footy. Sad bastard. All the election boffs (psephologists) are predicting an easy Labour win. I feel nervous. I don’t like Howard. He was worked against the things that are important to me.
Our Internet infrastructure neglected, our educational institutions under-funded, tertiary education becoming the domain of the wealthy, climate change denied, history revised, Africans/Asians allowed to be marginalised, Aboriginals driven to the fringes instead of attempting to integrate their culture with ours, his love of the monarchy, his attack on the wages of the lowest paid, whilst handing the best tax cuts to the wealthy.
But most of all I despise the way he and his mob have come to assume their mantle as a birth right. I still hear him laughing at his victory speech in 2004, the deranged laugh of a man who has won power, but lacks the decency to show any gravitas or humility.
19
Nov
07
Peter Garrett
A few people have asked me, as a Midnight Oil fan, what I think of Peter Garrett now; now that he has supposedly dropped all his former principles.
He’s made a tough choice that will cost him friends and supporters.
But I believe he’s the same guy with the same beliefs. The ALP has a strategy to win this election and he has played from the script (apart from a couple of slip-ups). Continue reading ‘Peter Garrett’
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