diogenesian discourse

The Tent Embassy brouhaha

2012-02-04T00:38:00.004+11:00

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then skip this post. It is probably not for you.

I just need to get some things out of my system.

First of all, I had departed the gathering just after the smoking ceremony, so I was not there when the brouhaha at The Lobby restaurant occurred.

Some have referred to the non-Aboriginal supporters there as "rent-a-crowd." I don't understand the mindset of those who labelled them thus. Did they think the Tent Embassy event was an Aboriginal-only event? If you're not Aboriginal and you show up to express your solidarity, you're "rent-a-crowd"? And what do they mean by "rent-a-crowd" anyway?

I have no problem with the angry response of the protesters, given the misinformation they were fed. I think they behaved reasonably. As usual, about 99% of the violence came from the police.

Gillard and Abbott should have addressed the crowd.

The security people over-reacted. Quelle surprise. What's new? Don't they always? Wankers!

I nearly blew it...

2012-01-30T09:40:00.004+11:00

My loved one and I were watching the Djokovic-Nadal tennis match last night.

It was a long night, and towards the end I dozed off, sure that Djokovic would win the match.

Just as well I woke up about half an hour before the end!

There was Djokovic... looking and playing like the walking dead. I said to myself (I frequently have long discussions with myself) "That boy needs some energy." So I telepathically started sending him mega-amps of the stuff.

And it worked. The boy started picking up almost immediately. Even the commentators were saying things like "Where is he getting the energy from!"

And that, dear readers, is how I won the Australian Open. Modesty demands I acknowledge that Djokovic played a small part, and I happily do so.

Well done, Djokovic !!!

Happy Anniversary

2012-01-20T18:18:00.003+11:00

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra is celebrating its 40th anniversary on Australia Day (26th Jan.)

I'll be there as a show of solidarity.

Look for me, I'll be wearing this T-shirt:

..and I've been asked to carry a banner (deem chuffed look included.)

(This nicely offsets the previous post eh.)

Welcome to Boganville

2012-01-19T15:54:00.003+11:00

I saw this sticker on the rear window of a car today:

Yes, I know these stickers have been around for a while...

But I'm confused... What constitutes love of Australia?

Does turning this country into a redneck, racist, hate-filled nation of bigots demonstrate love for this country?

What is and isn't love when it comes to "loving Australia"?

Until we can sort this out, how would we know who should be told to leave?

And remember, patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel...

Discuss.

Paul Sheehan gets a clue

2012-01-10T04:38:00.002+11:00

He's getting it about water.

Now let's see if he'll get it about fracking, peak oil, the population explosion, and the unsustainability of consumerism and Western middle class lifestyles.

Onya, Paul. Keep joining those dots. You'll soon get what's wrong with capitalism and the globe-f#cking Yanks (and their masters in the military industrial complex.)

Merry Silly Season y'all...

2011-12-22T19:40:00.004+11:00

Have a good one, eh...

They really believe it...

2011-12-20T20:19:00.005+11:00

I'm watching TV.

It's a documentary about life aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, the United States' newest (in 2005) nuclear powered aircraft carrier. One of the officers interviewed shares this gem of wisdom:

"Our mission is to protect the United States"

I'm sure she really believes that. It may well be thirty years later (if ever) before she realises what their real mission was. No one is more attuned to unquestioningly osmoting propaganda than a serviceperson.

Ahh... True believers... God love 'em...

"Forgive them, for they know not what they do" comes to mind...

Happy Birthday Bradley Manning

2011-12-19T03:06:00.004+11:00

Last Saturday was Bradley Manning's birthday. I found this out through an email from a journalist friend in Laos who sent me a link to a very interesting article by Michael Moore.

Ain't the interweb fantastic?

EXTRA: Compliments of a reader >>>

Classified cryptomania

2011-12-13T09:00:00.003+11:00

I came across a classic case of cryptomania, and as an aside, I decided to google the word 'cryptomania' to try to find a definition. I couldn't find one. Is it classified?

And what was this classic case of cryptomania?

You can read all about it here >>>

Unbelievable...

2011-12-09T08:42:00.006+11:00

Pepsi must think the Indian people are stupid. Here's their latest PR masterpiece:

Giving Back MORE WATER Than We Take
We call it "Positive Water Balance".
To help save a precious resource that is fast depleting in India. Through rain-water harvesting, community water-sheds, and water conservation in agriculture, we at PepsiCo India saved 836 million litres* more water than we consumed in 2009."

Read this >>>

Burnum Burnum

2011-12-05T15:25:00.003+11:00

It's time to remember Burnum Burnum (10 January 1936 – 18 August 1997).

From Wikipedia: "He may be best remembered for planting the Aboriginal flag on the White cliffs of Dover on the Australian Bicentenary Day of 26 January 1988. This was his tongue-in-cheek way of claiming England, as Arthur Phillip had done to Burnum Burnum's homeland in 1788 when arriving with the First Fleet."

Transcript: "The Burnum Burnum Declaration England, 26th January, 1988

I, Burnum Burnum, being a nobleman of ancient Australia do hereby take posession of England on behalf of the Aboriginal people. In claiming this colonial outpost, we wish no harm to you natives, but assure you that we are here to bring you good manners, refinement and an opportunity to make a Koompartoo - 'a fresh start'. Henceforth, an Aboriginal face shall appear on your coins and stamps to signify our sovreignty over this domain. For the more advanced, bring the complex language of the Pitjantjajara; we will teach you how to have a spiritual relationship with the Earth and show you how to get bush tucker.

We do not intend to souvenir, pickle and preserve the heads of your 2000 of your people, nor to publicly display the skeletal remains of your Royal Highness, as was done to our Queen Truganninni for 80 years. Neither do we intend to poison your water holes, lace your flour with strychnine or introduce you to highly toxic drugs. Based on our 50,000 year heritage, we acknowledge the need to preserve the Caucasian race as of interest to antiquity, although we may be inclined to conduct experiments by measuring the size of your skulls for levels of intelligence. We pledge not to sterilise your women, nor to separate your children from their families. We give an absolute undertaking that you shall not be placed onto the mentality of government handouts for the next five generations but you will enjoy the full benefits of Aboriginal equality. At the end of two hundred years, we will make a treaty to validate occupation by peaceful means and not by conquest.

Finally, we solemnly promise not to make a quarry of England and export your valuable minerals back to the old country Australia, and we vow never to destroy three-quarters of your trees, but to encourage Earth Repair Action to unite people, communities, religions and nations in a common, productive, peaceful purpose.

Burnun Burnum."

Idealism, democracy, and politics

2011-12-04T08:05:00.004+11:00

I was down at the ALP National Conference yesterday handing out "Troops out of Afghanistan" leaflets to the conferees. They're an evasive bunch... Most started life as political hacks handing out leaflets and now they run a mile to avoid being handed one... Strange...

Anyhow, after a couple of hours, having seen the delegates nicely tucked away inside, we lefty pinko bastards went and had coffee and a chat.

I made a comment that idealism can lead to extremism if not tempered by pragmatism (or some such comment).

Well... you could have heard a pin drop!

They looked at me like I was a blathering fool, or worse, an ASIO plant.

I've seen those looks before, when I was a member of the Greens. It seems that people drawn to ideologically driven political parties are not practicing philosophical free thinkers but blind regurgitators of ideological "Absolute Truths", and heaven help anyone who utters blasphemies which might question or challenge these.

True believers... It seems thinking and true belief are mutually exclusive cerebral activities.

So there you are, a minor political party, staunchly idealistic, with the balance of power in a hung parliament. The two major parties (one of which is trying desperately to govern) don't share your ideals, but hey, we live in a democracy. Majority rules.

What do you do? Do you negotiate compromises which will see at least some of your ideals (maybe even watered down) embedded in legislation, or do you stick blindly to the purest form of your ideals, knowing, as you do, that you, the select few, are in touch with the Absolute Moral Truth, and thereby cause the governing party to do deals with "the opposition" in order to get their legislation up? Remember, in a democracy, majority rules, ok?

What do you do? You sing this song >>>

Just thinkin'

2011-12-02T09:08:00.001+11:00

Thoughts.

They come and go.

Much like trains at a train station.

Where do they come from?

Where do they go?

Is there a Fat Controller?

Can you afford to live?

2011-11-28T11:19:00.003+11:00

"Business was bad, and the cost of living high." - Emma Goldman, describing life in New York, 1889.

This got me thinking about what we mean by "the cost of living". How much does it cost to live? What do we really need to live, and how much does that cost?

The Unsustainable Empire

2011-11-22T23:40:00.012+11:00

The US seems to have become an unsustainable economic entity. It is mired in debt it can't get out of if it does not radically change it's unsustainable persona. And what of its persona - a persona poisoned by the need for war and greed?

It needs to foment wars (or at least the threat of wars) in order to prop up it's massive military industrial complex. If peace were to break out, the military industrial complex would drastically shrink and this of itself would collapse the US economy. The major flaw in this "economic model" is that the cost of the wars instigated to justify the military industrial complex is pushing up debts to the point where the US taxpayer cannot pay the price any longer.

The original idea was that the "liberated" countries would grow rich and be able to repay the costs of "liberating" them. But guess what? The "liberated" countries were totally destroyed by this insane process and have no intention of paying the invaders and destroyers for the privilege having their country comprehensively trashed by an insane "economic model".

The US needs to perpetuate greed in order to justify the pillaging of the global resources, the consumption of which has become an addiction. i.e. addicted to insanely wasteful and totally unsustainable lifestyles which its citizens have been brainwashed into "aspiring to" by the marketing maniacs employed by the conjurers of consumerism.

The US is also trying to ride on a doomed philosophy: The philosophy of letting its robber barons browse and pillage the rest of the world to bring home the goodies needed to prop up the totally unsustainable American Dream. This is now seen for what it always was - a fatally flawed philosophy.

The robber barons have now created globalised corporate pirate outfits which have been exposed for what they really are: Psychopathic entities.

Thus the US Empire's ambition to dominate the world has been achieved - but it has also spelled its doom.

If that is the problem, what is the solution?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

2011-11-22T20:48:00.003+11:00

"Who watches the watchmen?"

Today some 5,000 angry, slogan-chanting police officers marched to Parliament House (Sydney), in uniform, protesting against cuts to their injury compensation entitlements.

Had they emailed me, I would have been right there beside them (again). I'm nothing if not a willing rent-a-crowdist for the underdogs.

But here's what amused the hell out of me:

All of the protests I have attended had a serious and menacing police presence keeping a close watch to ensure the protest "behaved". However, here were these 5,000 shouting, angry, uniformed protesters marching on Parliament House, led by a police car with flashing lights, and yet there was no menacing police or soldiers there to glare contemptiously at them to ensure that they "behaved"?

Interesting...

Wait till I see them at "our" next protest... [chuckle]

The perils of peaceful protest

2011-11-18T06:24:00.004+11:00

I went to Kambra yesterday [1] to join a small anti-war protest there to mark Barack Caesar's visit to this wonderful client state of the American Empire.

But this blog post will be more about why I choose to remain a non-aligned protester rather than become a member of any of the participating groups. The following account of an incident will explain why I feel this way:

Naturally, the police were there in force, outnumbering the small gathering. We were on the lawn near Parliament House. There were banners. One of the event organisers had made some impressive banners which were held aloft on tallish bamboo poles which, due to the wind, were a bit of a handful to keep upright.

This organiser (let's call him Grant) brought up six 2-metre long steel star pickets which were driven into the ground to hold up the banners.

The police (quite reasonably, I thought) asked for them to be removed, quoting all sorts of reasons (but I suspect the real one was that these star pickets would make awsome weapons if the protest went ugly.) I have to say that if I had been the police commander I would have banned their presence as well.

But Grant was having none of it, and ignored the police request for their removal. I felt he was baiting them to escalate things into a physical confrontation which could then have been spun to look like police heavy-handedness.

A lawyer at the rally suggested to me that we go along with the (reasonable) request to remove the star pickets. I agreed, and so we did. Grant was not impressed.

Based on this and other things I know about Grant, I no longer trust that he has a genuine commitment to keeping protests peaceful and absolutely non-violent. I suspect he doesn't mind a bit of violence as long as the police can be blamed for it, believing it to be good publicity and sympathy value.

My idea of non-violent protest precludes the presence of star pickets, because if things get out of hand you can bet London to a brick that they will be used by undisciplined, angry protesters and that would quickly escalate things into an out-of-control melee.

As for most of the groups there, I am not convinced that their commitment to non-violence is rock-solid or well-grounded. I suspect that if the police acted in a heavy-handed way, some of these groups' members would feel justified in meeting violence with violence. With no visible mechanism in place to deal with any protester violence, I cannot trust these groups' ability to ensure the protests remain non-violent.

So I shall continue to remain a non-aligned anti-war protester.

[1] My apologies to Andrew and Sue for not offering to meet either (or both) of you in Kambra. I wanted get back home same day, so with the 8 hour round trip, it was a bit much to also try to fit in any social activities. Sorry. :-(

How economic inequality harms societies

2011-11-14T13:19:00.002+11:00

An interesting video >>>

Compliments of Lemmiwinks.

The economics of the interweb

2011-11-12T10:23:00.001+11:00

When the global economy tanks, how will that affect accessability/availability of the internet? Will we still be blogging?

Discuss.

Remembrance Day 2011

2011-11-11T10:17:00.005+11:00

Today we remember those who died in wars.

Some people have hijacked this day to glorify war, or to use it as an opportunity to once again spin post-war propaganda.

I choose to remember some of the dead this way:

I remember the 500+ Australian soldiers who died in Vietnam (some of whom I knew personally). I remember the lies on which that war was based. I remember that we were only there to appease Big Brother America. I remember the 4,000,000+ dead Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodians whose only crime was to be caught up in the meat grinder that was America's mad empire-building spree.

I remember the 32 Australian soldiers who have died, so far, in the Afghanistan war - another mad US venture that is doomed to failure.

I remember the insanity of the Iraq war, and the more than 1,000,000 Iraqi dead. I remember that they had to die so that Saddam's decision to stop selling oil in US dollars could be reversed by the US occupation forces. I remember that the day after Iraq "agreed" to once again sell oil in US dollars, George W Bush announced "Mission Accomplished."

I remember the futility, nay, crime that war is...

I remember...

Lest we forget...

Have we screwed ourselves back into slavery?

2011-11-09T23:47:00.004+11:00

Eating and going through the motions of procreation, it is said, is all the human brain is ultimately motivated by. Well, now that the 7 billionth human has been born, I can see a wee bit of a problem with where our primary urges will take us.

Supply and demand determines price, yes? What will an oversupply of humans do to wages?

Add to that the trends in the globalised economy of jobs going to where labour is cheapest, and I see the demise of collective (and individual) bargaining for wages and conditions for all but a tiny minority.

Is this the end of Western Civilisation with its well paid, mostly white, middle class? Will this class devolve into "white trash" working for a pittance?

Will the world descend into a new form of slavery overseen by a new form of feudalism where the "lords" are the CEOs and senior managers of the transnational megacorporations?

Am I too pessimistic?

Assignment

2011-11-05T10:20:00.002+11:00

"Democracy (such as it is) is a race to the bottom which eventually leads to things becoming so bad that the people gladly embrace the rantings of any dictator who promisies to fix their woes."

Discuss (if you want.)

Is ethical investment an oxymoron?

2011-10-27T06:51:00.007+11:00

Are you a self-funded retiree with a conscience, investing in what you believe to be ethical investments?

Or maybe you sleep well believing your superannuation fund invests ethically so that your benefits are not derived from the misery of others?

Dream on, baby...

The chances are that the lifestyle to which you have become addicted, and which you now desperately hope will continue, is increasingly being financed by pain, tears, and suffering (not to mention mass murder) of those being exploited in your name.

Capitalism is finding it harder and harder squeeze profits from its enterprises, having to push "efficiency" and "productivity" ever higher in order to maintain the growth necessary to stop the house of cards collapsing. In the process, have we reached a point where ethics has become anathema?

Consider the plight of Sheraton's Algerian workers >>>
(I'm not suggesting that you sign the petition, just that you read the introductory article in order to understand the "shareholders profit and workers lose out" thing in a real world setting.)

"Recapitalise the banks!"

2011-10-25T22:46:00.003+11:00

That's the rallying cry from the pundits to a Eurozone on the ropes.

But what do they mean by "recapitalise the banks"? I think they mean steal from the poor (the taxpayers) and give to the rich (the bankers).

Do you smell the whiff of revolution?

I do...

Julia, you're stuffed, babe.

2011-10-20T22:38:00.009+11:00

Back in 2005, I thought she was the bee's knees.

But now that we see the way her government, including Gillard personally, has dealt with the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Allan Asher's concerns, as far as I'm concerned, she's chopped liver.

May she rot in hell.

Grrrrr...

Not happy, Julia & Chris...

Go get 'em, Bob & Sarah...

Hang 'em high !!!

(Update: It's 3:00am and I had to get up to add that my "chopped liver" comment was purely figurative and not at all to be taken literally. I mean the PM no physical harm in any way. OK, ASIO ??? F*cking paranoid idiots!!!)