Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Well, it was interesting to see a documentary on SBS television tonight, Tuesday 23 March 2004, in which some Palestinians who were interviewed stated that the only solution to the Israel/Palestine situation was a one-state solution.
Some of us have been saying this for a long time, but it certainly won't reach a ground swell until there have been many more murders and massacres on both sides and the world population will have at last got tired of the endless, futile, useless slaughter and have got enough strength of character to DO something about it, and put and end to the non-productive wars in the middle east. Mainly this would require a change in attitude from the USA, and this seems unlikely in the immediate foreseeable future!
(0) comments
0 comments
links to this post
Some of us have been saying this for a long time, but it certainly won't reach a ground swell until there have been many more murders and massacres on both sides and the world population will have at last got tired of the endless, futile, useless slaughter and have got enough strength of character to DO something about it, and put and end to the non-productive wars in the middle east. Mainly this would require a change in attitude from the USA, and this seems unlikely in the immediate foreseeable future!
Friday, March 19, 2004
Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity Melbourne
PO Box 1675
Preston
Vic 3072
Australia
Phone:61 3 9471 4878
email: josken@zipworld.com.au
web: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic!
An article in IOC [Independent OnLine](15 March 2004) has as its headline "Don't use Aids
(sic) to scavenge votes, says ANC". Wasn't it Mbeki, president of the ANC
and of South Africa who has denied that AIDS comes from HIV? Wasn't it
Mbeki who, in the face of the biggest health disaster in South Africa's
history, stated he didn't know anyone who was HIV positive, or who had
died from AIDS? Isn't it the ANC - in government since democratic votes
came to South Africa in 1994 - who has failed - in every way possible, to
do anything to reduce the HIV infection rate in South Africa, who has
failed to give drugs to stop mother to child transmission (MTCT)? - who
has failed to make available generic drugs even after the courts have
ruled against the government? The KwaZulu-Natal provincial spokesperson
who said in a media statement that it was insensitive and inhumane to use
the pandemic in political campaigning, and who spoke about hypocrisy,
should take his head out of the sand and realise that HIV/AIDS is a major
election issue and one on which the ANC should stand and fall - basically
fall - over its continuing disgraceful handling of HIV/AIDS disasters in
South Africa, where at least one in five people is HIV positive! Mannie De
Saxe
(0) comments
0 comments
links to this post
PO Box 1675
Preston
Vic 3072
Australia
Phone:61 3 9471 4878
email: josken@zipworld.com.au
web: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic!
An article in IOC [Independent OnLine](15 March 2004) has as its headline "Don't use Aids
(sic) to scavenge votes, says ANC". Wasn't it Mbeki, president of the ANC
and of South Africa who has denied that AIDS comes from HIV? Wasn't it
Mbeki who, in the face of the biggest health disaster in South Africa's
history, stated he didn't know anyone who was HIV positive, or who had
died from AIDS? Isn't it the ANC - in government since democratic votes
came to South Africa in 1994 - who has failed - in every way possible, to
do anything to reduce the HIV infection rate in South Africa, who has
failed to give drugs to stop mother to child transmission (MTCT)? - who
has failed to make available generic drugs even after the courts have
ruled against the government? The KwaZulu-Natal provincial spokesperson
who said in a media statement that it was insensitive and inhumane to use
the pandemic in political campaigning, and who spoke about hypocrisy,
should take his head out of the sand and realise that HIV/AIDS is a major
election issue and one on which the ANC should stand and fall - basically
fall - over its continuing disgraceful handling of HIV/AIDS disasters in
South Africa, where at least one in five people is HIV positive! Mannie De
Saxe
Friday, March 05, 2004
The Age newspaper in Melbourne carried a headline on Wednesday 3 March 2004, "Abbott sparks AIDS ire".
The report states that Health Minister Tony Abbott has angered HIV/AIDS community groups by excluding them from the Government's top advisory panel on sexually transmitted diseases.
In the report a spokeswoman for Mr Abbott is quoted as saying that the list of committee members had not been finalised, but was "pretty representative" and included many health experts. "Being gay was not part of the selection criteria", she said.
The HIV/AIDS subcommittee includes Michael Kelly, a Jesuit priest who heads a Catholic church communications group, Church Resources. The report says that, when asked what health experience he had, Father Kelly answered: "Zero".
Now if this was happening in 1984, 20 years ago, when the AIDS epidemic was in its early stages around the world, and particularly in Australia, where the first few cases of the disease were emerging, one could perhaps respond to the above appointments and situation by saying, "Well, we don't know much about this, and we will have to feel our way, and we will try and co-opt people onto committees to help us to respond to what is emerging as a health crisis.
In the year 2004, this is an indefensible position, and Tony Abbott, a practising Catholic, is allowing his so-called religious affiliations to cloud his judgement and his responsibilities to people living with HIV/AIDS.
It is to be hoped that all the AIDS councils and all affiliated AIDS bodies around the country will protest at this outrageous behaviour by a politician who is out for his own self-aggrandisement, which is certainly against the so-called religious beliefs to which he aspires.
There have already been protests by some of the AIDS organisations and at least one person who has been appointed to the committee, and Lesbian and Gay Solidarity adds its voice to the protests. It is unacceptable in this day and age to have a minister in the federal government behaving in such a cavalier fashion. Being gay SHOULD be part of the selection criteria.
(0) comments
0 comments
links to this post
The report states that Health Minister Tony Abbott has angered HIV/AIDS community groups by excluding them from the Government's top advisory panel on sexually transmitted diseases.
In the report a spokeswoman for Mr Abbott is quoted as saying that the list of committee members had not been finalised, but was "pretty representative" and included many health experts. "Being gay was not part of the selection criteria", she said.
The HIV/AIDS subcommittee includes Michael Kelly, a Jesuit priest who heads a Catholic church communications group, Church Resources. The report says that, when asked what health experience he had, Father Kelly answered: "Zero".
Now if this was happening in 1984, 20 years ago, when the AIDS epidemic was in its early stages around the world, and particularly in Australia, where the first few cases of the disease were emerging, one could perhaps respond to the above appointments and situation by saying, "Well, we don't know much about this, and we will have to feel our way, and we will try and co-opt people onto committees to help us to respond to what is emerging as a health crisis.
In the year 2004, this is an indefensible position, and Tony Abbott, a practising Catholic, is allowing his so-called religious affiliations to cloud his judgement and his responsibilities to people living with HIV/AIDS.
It is to be hoped that all the AIDS councils and all affiliated AIDS bodies around the country will protest at this outrageous behaviour by a politician who is out for his own self-aggrandisement, which is certainly against the so-called religious beliefs to which he aspires.
There have already been protests by some of the AIDS organisations and at least one person who has been appointed to the committee, and Lesbian and Gay Solidarity adds its voice to the protests. It is unacceptable in this day and age to have a minister in the federal government behaving in such a cavalier fashion. Being gay SHOULD be part of the selection criteria.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Mannie De Saxe
PO Box 1675
Preston South
Vic 3072
Australia
61 3 9471 4878
email: josken@zipworld.com.au
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
It has been estimated that there are about 13 million Jews in the world at
the moment, of whom about 5 to 6 million live in Israel.
I have just read an essay by Ephraim Nimni, an Israeli living and working in Sydney,
Australia at the moment. Nimni's essay is in a book he has edited called
"Post-Zionism" and has essays by other leading Israeli and other
academics. Nimni estimates that about 20% of Israelis are now living in
countries other than Israel. What constitutes an Israeli? What constitutes
being a Jew?
I am Jewish, born in South Africa, now living in Australia.
Under no circumstances do I identify with what Israel under its current
Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is doing in relation to Palestine and the
Palestinians. Am I then an anti-semitic Jew because I am anti-Zionist? Am
I an anti-semitic Jew because I don't go and live in Israel? I don't think
so! Anti-semitism has been around for as long as christianity, and has
been responsible for countless millions of Jewish deaths long before
Hitler killed 6 million. The question needing answering is, why do so many
Jews continue to live in the diaspora when they could go to Israel and
help to fight for the survival of the Zionist state?
The threat to Jews living in most so-called western democracies of another disaster of the Holocaust variety is very slender indeed, and if push came to shove,
Israel would be neither willing nor able to take in 8 million Jews
clamouring at its doors. Nor would there be 8 million Jews clamouring! So
why all these unbelievable attacks on people who are critical of Sharon
and the Israeli government.
The Israeli government has shown itself to be as ruthless as the next state when it comes to oppression - just look at its apartheid Berlin wall - being built deep into Palestinian territory.
And apartheid is carried on in Israel by the Israelis who are Jewish
against Israelis who are not Jewish. I could go on and on, but there is no
point. These arguments are not going to solve the problem of
Israel/Palestine. The solution lies in a post-apartheid South African type
state in which several different and diverse ethnic groups live together
as one nation.
Let us hope that one day this will be achieved and peace
will come to that much- troubled small piece of land known as Palestine
until 1948.
Mannie De Saxe
(0) comments
0 comments
links to this post
PO Box 1675
Preston South
Vic 3072
Australia
61 3 9471 4878
email: josken@zipworld.com.au
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
It has been estimated that there are about 13 million Jews in the world at
the moment, of whom about 5 to 6 million live in Israel.
I have just read an essay by Ephraim Nimni, an Israeli living and working in Sydney,
Australia at the moment. Nimni's essay is in a book he has edited called
"Post-Zionism" and has essays by other leading Israeli and other
academics. Nimni estimates that about 20% of Israelis are now living in
countries other than Israel. What constitutes an Israeli? What constitutes
being a Jew?
I am Jewish, born in South Africa, now living in Australia.
Under no circumstances do I identify with what Israel under its current
Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is doing in relation to Palestine and the
Palestinians. Am I then an anti-semitic Jew because I am anti-Zionist? Am
I an anti-semitic Jew because I don't go and live in Israel? I don't think
so! Anti-semitism has been around for as long as christianity, and has
been responsible for countless millions of Jewish deaths long before
Hitler killed 6 million. The question needing answering is, why do so many
Jews continue to live in the diaspora when they could go to Israel and
help to fight for the survival of the Zionist state?
The threat to Jews living in most so-called western democracies of another disaster of the Holocaust variety is very slender indeed, and if push came to shove,
Israel would be neither willing nor able to take in 8 million Jews
clamouring at its doors. Nor would there be 8 million Jews clamouring! So
why all these unbelievable attacks on people who are critical of Sharon
and the Israeli government.
The Israeli government has shown itself to be as ruthless as the next state when it comes to oppression - just look at its apartheid Berlin wall - being built deep into Palestinian territory.
And apartheid is carried on in Israel by the Israelis who are Jewish
against Israelis who are not Jewish. I could go on and on, but there is no
point. These arguments are not going to solve the problem of
Israel/Palestine. The solution lies in a post-apartheid South African type
state in which several different and diverse ethnic groups live together
as one nation.
Let us hope that one day this will be achieved and peace
will come to that much- troubled small piece of land known as Palestine
until 1948.
Mannie De Saxe
