The Baillieu government’s latest, and somewhat timid, regression into ethnocentrism was announced yesterday by the Minister for Multicultural Affairs Nick Kotsiras. In the name of multiculturalism, he claims the singing of Australia’s national anthem in schools will help in teaching children, and especially migrant children, “Australian values”. This sounds great until you realize that nine out of ten conservative politicians despise the idea of multiculturalism, opting instead for assimilation. And by assimilation they mean that all races should join the predominate white culture.

Whenever a right wing government intones “values,” be it national or family, they are almost certainly dogwhistling xenophobia and racism. Even if they’re not, the end result could lead to what the Americans suffer from: exceptionalism.

Making migrants feel at home here is more complicated than having them join in for a ritual intoning of “Advance Australia Fair.” When sung on appropriate occasions it gives a frisson of emotional appreciation for the fine nation that Australia mostly is. But sung ritually by rote you can just see the kids glazing over or giggling or pinching one another until it concludes.

At present the decision to sing or not to sing is up to individual schools. And that is as it should be. The government should stay out of it altogether.

Of course, Kotsira’s announcement may just be a diversion from the government’s attempt to screw the nurses out of a decent wage.

Technorati Tags: conservatives, nationalism, nick kotsiras, patriotism, ted baillieu

Employer associations are slavering at the possibility of a Qantas victory. Make no mistake, if the Qantas board wins this, all unions can expect the same treatment.

The greatest airline in the world, and the one many were prepared to pay a little more for because of its safety record and excellent service, is about to become just another commercial entity. If it survives.

Passengers who have been reserving judgement over years of cutbacks have had it.

NB. This deserves a separate entry, but read Paul Krugman Austerity not the only way, about one nation (Iceland) that refused to back the banks but instead backed the people. It gives moment to the belief that making people pay for the sins of the one percent is not only wrong, but unnecessary.

Technorati Tags: alan joyce, jeff lawrence, john lee, one percenters, qantas, richard woodward, unions

… of state-owned thugs in the service of World Corporatocracy.

The fact that the “one percent” will never be defeated does not mean the “99 percent” shouldn’t keep fighting. It’s what the living have always done in the face of rule by the dead.

Actually there is no 99 percent. If you count the Silent Majority — the larval demographic that wilfully believes what right wing demagogues tell them — then the percentage drops to around 50 percent. Of that number, you can count on around five percent to stand up and be counted.

But what chance do they have when Australia (and much of the world) is a Murdochracy. 70 percent of newspapers sold in this country are owned by Rupert Murdoch, and every one of them toes a line defined by Andrew Bolt. In the cities there is still a choice, but in smaller towns it’s pretty much all Right Wing Rupert.

How many people do you see picking up Fairfax papers at the newsagent or in coffee shops? Practically none.

So the problem is an entrenched right wing media in support of corporate rule and its political minions. And the rulers own the police. Occasionally you will hear of a nation’s military taking the side of the people. But never the police. They are the state-owned thugs, always ready with truncheons and pepper spray to move on unarmed dissenters.

The last decade or so has seen the worldwide corporatocracy shed its behind-the-scenes skulduggery for transparent warfare on hapless citizens. Tony Abbott’s popularity, reminiscent of early-Thirties Germany, owes a great deal to the neutered Labor Party and Julia Gillard, but mostly to the power of “corporate rent-seekers” and the Murdoch Press.

Is it all too broke to fix? The Silent Majority has always opted for security over freedom (and deserve neither), while those truly concerned are too busy working twelve-hour days to take a breath. That leaves the Occupy groups all over the world, the only demographic that still has the time to take action before being caught up in the soul-killing task of permanent wage slavery and its attendant grind until death. These people are perhaps the last front line troops to take a stand before the Corporate Masters have us sipping Victory Gin with a glazed rictus on our immobile faces.

When in doubt, act like a hero. OCCUPY EVERYTHING.

Technorati Tags: corporategreed, occupyeverything, occupymelbourne, occupywallstreet

… of state-owned thugs in the service of World Corporatocracy.

Technorati Tags: corporate greed, occupy melbourne, robert doyle

Fatimah Alazami, who died in the SIEV-X disaster ten years ago

The tragedy is that, as Michael Gordon says, Australia is still dancing to Howard’s tune on asylum seekers. The dead hand of John Howard, the Pied Piper from Hell, continues to wring decency from Australians. The cast of Illiberal characters are still there and still mouthing the same hate. Here are a couple of articles from the venerable Scum at the Top, printed all that time ago.

• Her desperation for ‘positive outcomes’ is over.

• Why they call him ‘Little Johnny’.

Technorati Tags: john howard, siev-x, sievx

Courtesy Michael Leunig, The Age

Technorati Tags: julian assange, wikileaks

Maybe she doesn’t know her arse from a hole in the ground. Then again, maybe she’s just stupid. Equipped with a brain that should’ve been a factory-recall owing to missing parts. But, we all know that, don’t need a leak to prove it. Can it be that she doesn’t know what the function of government is? Not that any government has ever been accused of having integrity, o’ course. Or does she just hanker after the good old days of Dodge City when women were doormats dressed in gingham and real men could twirl their six-guns and settle the argument right there in the pre-paved, pre-civilized muddy street. Think we’re getting close here. What’s the word, on the tip of the tongue, uh, oh yeah: Atavism: The reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence, usually caused by the chance recombination of genes. A throwback, that’s our winkin’, blinkin’, gosh-ain’t-she-purty soccer mom. A random sentience.

Meanwhile, Senator Joe Lieberman (who works for any old party that suits) is channeling ex-Right Wing pinup Joe McCarthy in his single-handed bid to turn Umeruhca into a totalitarian state. Apparently Joe has encouraged ubiquitous chump cards, Mastercard and Visa, along with the Biblically usurious PayPal, to turn off the donor faucet at WikiLeaks. Wow! Democracy in action. But wait, there’s more. He told Zombieland News that he wants the (hee hee) Justice Department to investigate the New York Times on the grounds the newspaper may have committed a criminal offense by printing WikiLeak’s cables. Orwell anyone? A paraphrase here: “All champions of free speech are equal, but some are less equal than others.” Which reminds me of another quote, this one from a Belgian movie (English title: The Easy Way): “Freedom is inevitably left-wing.” When it comes down to it, who ever heard of a right-wing government standing up for freedom? You could accompany that quote with: “Death-squads are inevitably right-wing.”

If this were a two-horse race, you’d have to say that China, having opened up a comfortable lead these last several years, is about to be overtaken by a righteously slavering Zombieland under Jockey Joe’s hand, boot and whip.

And the atavists love it. Especially when the blonde with the beat up knees takes over at Zombieland News to stiffen their little peckers with hate. If only they would turn their cherished Second Amendment weapons on each another.

What they don’t know is that this could finally be the revolution that can’t be stopped. We already look upon the corporate world with revulsion. Now, thanks to Julian Assange, the living can never again look at or listen to a politician with anything but loathing. Honest pollies simply cannot exist. This may be the first step in the mass of humanity (the living, not the zombies) withdrawing their support for voluntary slavery. Gen Y already has shown that they don’t give a stuff for the rules laid down by the Masters. Lead the way, boys and girls.

Technorati Tags: julian assange, wikileaks

The power of WikiLeaks though does not come from its secrecy or the new technologies that are being baked into the web to make it easier and more robust to share information securely, no, the core power of WikiLeaks is you. Whether you’re a government employee who has found documents that identify corrupt acts by those in power, or a private sector employee who discovers emails indicating fraud has been performed, if you are a person of moral decency and a sense of right and wrong the impetus is upon you to share this information. WikiLeaks can only do its job if brave men and women risk fines and imprisonment to make information that needs to be free, free. It’s getting safer and easier to transfer this information to people who will spill the disinfectant of sunlight across corporate and government malfeasance.

Technorati Tags: julian assange, wikileaks

CLICK HERE

“This is the first time we have seen an attempt at the international community level to censor a website dedicated to the principle of transparency. We are shocked to find countries such as France and the United States suddenly bringing their policies on freedom of expression into line with those of China. We point out that in France and the United States, it is up to the courts, not politicians, to decide whether or not a website should be closed.” Reporters Without Borders

At least 1334 mirrors for WikiLeaks here. Save page as Web Archive.

Technorati Tags: julian assange, wikileaks

About Julia Gillard, that is. All these years, I thought she was a mensch, perhaps the last standing Australian politician with integrity and a backbone. But especially a politician with an all-encompassing grasp of government.

Since taking over as Prime Minister, she has shown none of these qualities. Instead she has revealed herself to be an incompetent drone. The woman who used to eat the Coalition for Question Time snacks has suddenly become a wishy-washy fool. Several weeks have gone by without any evidence of the person we all thought she was. Who’s running her? I fear she is running herself. Too many bungles have surfaced for the blame to be put elsewhere. It looks like Julia Gillard is a fake.

It has become evident that the resignation of Lindsay Tanner (and attempted resignation of John Faulkner, who is remaining on the back bench as an advisor), was prompted by a fear of Gillard’s perceived inadequacies. Indeed, the Labor Party may be about to implode.

Where does that leave Australians? With Tony Abbott and the party that locked hundreds of children behind barbed wire for years until they went mad. And they plan to start it all over again.

Australia is facing its most absurd election ever. Two politicians going for PM and not a leader in sight. People are clamoring for action on climate change, and the response from on high? Willful Dithering. Both sides are pandering to an unhinged fear over an insignificant number of boat people. What is lost here is the humanity of those who believe these people are a danger. On all issues, our humanity is being king-hit by political behavior lower than the lowest common denominator.

I keep thinking that people like Tony Abbott and Sarah Palin must be kept out of office. But maybe it no longer matters. Perhaps they will simply give us what we deserve.

December 21, 2012 is looking more and more interesting. Not because it signals the end of the world, but because millennia of willful ignorance have brought us to the breaking point. Perhaps we are at the end of an ultimately embarrassing history where all the worst aspects of human beings have been routinely exploited by a patriarchy that regards human life abstractly. Everywhere the signs are pointing to an eventual paroxysm, both from a ravaged earth and from the despair felt by almost every human being at having lived a helplessly second-rate life. You hear this phrase often these days: “We are better than this.” But, in fact, we are not. We are a failed species. As things stand, we are too broke to fix.

Yet, we do not need to perish along with our planet. We simply need to wake up. To switch on whatever it is that has lain dormant since we acquired consciousness. Maybe it’s compassion. Not just a here and there compassion, but one that doesn’t go to sleep, that can always understand what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. I don’t have any more of it than you do. But I’ll wager it’s the answer. Or a good part of it.

In the meantime, I’m finally over politics. This is my last entry on the subject.

Technorati Tags: australian politics, compassion, julia gillard, labor party, liberal party, Politics, Sarah Palin, tony abbott