Wednesday, February 16, 2005
It occurred to me today, after listening to Philip Ruddock telling more of the Howard government's lies to smear, slander and in general discredit the government's opponents, those who have seen through them - and their numbers do at last appear to be growing - that there is a strange similarity between Philip Ruddock and Peter Reith.
Peter Reith was the minister at the time who told lies about children being thrown overboard, who told lies about the dogs and security being used on the wharves to support Patrick's stevedores, when the Maritime Union of Australia was to be discredited and ruined.
This government, more than any other ever in the history of Australia, has manipulated, lied, twisted and grovelled, in order to ensure it stayed in office - and it has succeeded admirably and depressingly.
Of course, as we also all know, they have been ably aided and abetted by a so-called opposition which has seen a total collapse of any sort of opposition whatsoever, which is just as capable of telling the same lies which support the government's stories, and which will help the climate of fear and smear which is beginning more and more to resemble South Africa in its apartheid years and the USA in its McCarthy years. The ALP will forever more be known as the Alternative Liberal Party, and deservedly so.
This is no consolation to those of us who believe that a strong democracy is provided by a strong opposition, something which is missing in Australia, the UK and the USA. It makes for a very depressing era ahead.
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Peter Reith was the minister at the time who told lies about children being thrown overboard, who told lies about the dogs and security being used on the wharves to support Patrick's stevedores, when the Maritime Union of Australia was to be discredited and ruined.
This government, more than any other ever in the history of Australia, has manipulated, lied, twisted and grovelled, in order to ensure it stayed in office - and it has succeeded admirably and depressingly.
Of course, as we also all know, they have been ably aided and abetted by a so-called opposition which has seen a total collapse of any sort of opposition whatsoever, which is just as capable of telling the same lies which support the government's stories, and which will help the climate of fear and smear which is beginning more and more to resemble South Africa in its apartheid years and the USA in its McCarthy years. The ALP will forever more be known as the Alternative Liberal Party, and deservedly so.
This is no consolation to those of us who believe that a strong democracy is provided by a strong opposition, something which is missing in Australia, the UK and the USA. It makes for a very depressing era ahead.
Monday, February 07, 2005
January 2005 proved to be a very exhausting and demoralising month during which there was no inclination to write diary items.
February 2005 has started with many issues needing to be put in writing, the first being the story of the concentration camps.
A woman was incarcerated in Baxter concentration camp by the government authorities in Queensland who found her wandering around with no explanation as to who she was or where she came from.
It turned out that she had come from a psychiatric institution in Sydney, and she was taken from northern Queensland to Baxter because it was thought she was a foreigner who was in Australia without permission.
Her incarceration in Baxter for 10 months has exposed to the public what most of us already knew - the appalling treatment of the locked up asylum seekers in the concentration camps - courtesy of the Alternative Liberal Party and the non-alternative Liberal Party - which really ought to change its name to provide some semblance of honesty about its human rights (sic)values.
The outcry is loud and an investigation is promised - no recompense, no apology, no answer!!
The other tragedy of January and February 2005 is the return of Mamdouh Habib from the US concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay where he was tortured and incarcerated for three years and then released by the US government without charge. The Australian government is now trying to smear him and to prevent him selling his story and profiting from it, and trying at the same time to silence him altogether.
This time, however, however dreadful his condition is and however long it takes him to return to some semblance of normality - as much as it could ever be - the Australian government will not be able to stop the story getting into the international media with its attendant publicity about the Australian government's record on human rights.
Ultimately, one hopes that Mamdouh Habib will be able to take the Australian government to the cleaners and get some financial payback for their abysmal treatment of a human being who happens to be an Australian citizen.
Unfortunately the Australian public has been silenced to a large degree, journalists have been silenced by their bosses, and brainwashing has done the rest!
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February 2005 has started with many issues needing to be put in writing, the first being the story of the concentration camps.
A woman was incarcerated in Baxter concentration camp by the government authorities in Queensland who found her wandering around with no explanation as to who she was or where she came from.
It turned out that she had come from a psychiatric institution in Sydney, and she was taken from northern Queensland to Baxter because it was thought she was a foreigner who was in Australia without permission.
Her incarceration in Baxter for 10 months has exposed to the public what most of us already knew - the appalling treatment of the locked up asylum seekers in the concentration camps - courtesy of the Alternative Liberal Party and the non-alternative Liberal Party - which really ought to change its name to provide some semblance of honesty about its human rights (sic)values.
The outcry is loud and an investigation is promised - no recompense, no apology, no answer!!
The other tragedy of January and February 2005 is the return of Mamdouh Habib from the US concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay where he was tortured and incarcerated for three years and then released by the US government without charge. The Australian government is now trying to smear him and to prevent him selling his story and profiting from it, and trying at the same time to silence him altogether.
This time, however, however dreadful his condition is and however long it takes him to return to some semblance of normality - as much as it could ever be - the Australian government will not be able to stop the story getting into the international media with its attendant publicity about the Australian government's record on human rights.
Ultimately, one hopes that Mamdouh Habib will be able to take the Australian government to the cleaners and get some financial payback for their abysmal treatment of a human being who happens to be an Australian citizen.
Unfortunately the Australian public has been silenced to a large degree, journalists have been silenced by their bosses, and brainwashing has done the rest!
