Mannie Blog, LGS, SPAIDS, InterSection, Israel/Palestine, Jewish Issues

Well, you have to hand it to them - that dinosaur known as the Australian Labor Party has today, 30 January 2004, rejected reforms to its asylum seeker policy and shown up Mark Latham for what he is, a complete coward in his backdown on this vital issue.
The delegates at the conference, and Bob Carr in particular, stand out as Howard's strongest supporters, never forgetting that it was this same ALP which introduced concentration camps to Australia in 1992.
It is to be hoped that those who have voted for the ALP in previous elections will remember this travesty when they go to the polls to elect the next government in Australia later in 2004.
Labor deserves to lose the support it thinks it is gaining since Mark Latham became leader of the opposition in 2003.
Australian politics at rock bottom? Every time one thinks it has hit rock bottom it goes even lower!!

I am reading a book called The Challenge of Post Zionism - Alternatives to Israeli Fundamentalist Politics, edited by Ephraim Nimni
The book has several essays by writers expressing different viewpoints in relation to the Neo-Zionist, Zionist and Post-Zionist philosophies argued by intellectuals and other interested parties to the ongoing Israel/Palestine saga.
One of the essayists expressed the view, very unpopular with most still pushing various Zionist positions, that the solution to the Israel/Palestine dilemma is to have a federal state in which two nationalist bodies, each with their own political aspirations would be part of one state, but would in effect be independent of each other.
It would be an Arab/Jewish federation and Jerusalem would be the capital of the joint unit.
However much both nationalist bodies are screaming out against such a situation at the moment, it would appear that there will be no peace in that part of the world until some major compromises are made by both groups.
I don't suppose I will live long enough to see the solution, but it is interesting that my father, who died in 1930 at the age of 31, was a passionate Zionist who believed that a Jewish homeland was the answer to the growing world anti-semitism problem.
How things have changed since 1930!

It really is appalling! Asylum seekers exiled by the Australian government to the island of Nauru, where they can be out of sight, out of mind, have been on hunger strike and several have sewn their lips together and some are in a terrible state.
The responses from the government are that an inspection team to the island to examine the reports of inadequate medical services and other concentration camp inadequacies are not correct - so, the government is telling the truth and everyone else is lying???
It is pathetic to read some of the letters in the media in Melbourne to see how people distort the truth, and the worst part of the horror is that so many of these people probably had origins very similar to the current asylum seekers!
They are often the worst ones -and in addition, those talking of restricting population growth in Australia are concerned that a few thousand asylum seekers will make a difference to the numbers of people in this country which is claimed to have limited sustainability due to its inhospitable interior and lack of resources in those areas
There is an election coming up in the next 11 months and the Australian Labor Party has a few members who are bleating for a change in the ALP's direction in relation to the asylum seekers and the concentration camps. Ultimately it is unlikely that the party will accept the proposals and they will continue as they are at the present, supporting the government's stance on the issue. No wonder they are not worthy of being considered an opposition that would be fit to take government!
Oh for some light at the end of this very long, very dark tunnel!!, but there is none!

So many issues to be dealt with, so many urgent ones, one doesn't know where to start!
Homophobia is a good beginning - it is one of the ongoing issues that doesn't get resolved, no matter how many laws are changed and gays, lesbians and transgenders improve some of the issues plaguing us, but religion and the discrimination, the bashings, murders, discrimination - all continue unabated.
Tied up with these issues is the issue of HIV/AIDS - a global problem but one which has been put on the backburner by the present government and it is now havibg serious consequences in Australia. Of course the issue is still critical in African countries, but many in the Asia-Pacific region are becoming crisis areas, and educational and medical assistances are crucially needed to alleviate the forthcoming disasters.
I just heard today (Friday 2 January 2004) that AusAid funding has ceased for the African projects undertaken by APHEDA - or Union Aid Abroad, which means that the work being done in Southern Africa in relation to AIDS education through trade union movements in South Africa and Zimbabwe will have to cease or slow down.
At a critical time in the African AIDS crisis this is a disaster, but is yet another step which the present Australian Federal government has taken to exclude itself from the world in terms of self gratification and grndstanding on the issues it wants to concentrate on for re-election, such as security and border protection.
Human rights no longer count for anything in this country, and it reminds me of the bad old aprtheid days in South Africa when the race card was everything and human rights abuses knew no bounds.
With the new ASIO legislation agreed to by the government and its loyal opposition we now have the police state the government wants in order to silence any opposition to its war mongering, Bush alliances, anti-gay issues and a whole lot more. Censorship is on the increase and there seems to be so much apathy around that it would appear people don't care.
Yet when it came to the anti-war rallies early in 2003, thousands turned out on the streets!