Another week, another exciting Open Thread to chat about the fine job our national media are doing.
Remember: there were no climate change rallies yesterday, and if you have to mention them at least pretend they were just a union thing and hardly anyone showed up if you make sure you look at pictures only showing a fraction of the crowd. (And since no-one knows the exact price yet, or the details of the compensation, that means that all these supporters are IDIOTS – unlike the self-interested folk damning the plan whose wildly paranoid speculations are ENTIRELY REASONABLE.)
What else is happening? Have the boat people done something again?
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Angra:
It’s down now. I didn’t think to translate it. What did it say? Was there a link to an original?
MoC – all traces of it have been removed! Even though it had a dozen or so comments. It only lasted around 60 minutes. Maybe the New Ltd lawyers got wind of it.
It was called “Worse if your standing in it” (not quite sure what that meant) and was a reprint of an article by a Swiss newspaper. More or less parroting his position about Behrendt and “professional ersazt aborigines furthering their careers by exploiting the aboriginal industry” then having the gall the threaten free speech by suing him. I’ll try and track down the original. It was by Oliver Marc Hartwich in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
If free speech was such an issue, why has the article been completely erased from all News Ltd sites?
Angra: I think that the whole right wing noise machine (aka the Murdocrats) is having a bit of a reality problem at present. The usual suspects are being overwhelmed by public recognition of the underlying hate. The Troglodytes attacking climate scientists have had a bit too much reality checking for the comfort of those further up their food chain.
MoC – here the original in German. It’s called “Not Black, Not White”
The Google translate version is a bit garbled, but you can get the gist. Maybe a decenyt German speaker can give us a summary?
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/kultur/aktuell/nicht_schwarz_nicht_weiss_1.10852312.html
Heres the translation (sorry for the length)-
Not black, not white
Is one shot Aboriginal blood to speak for the indigenous people of Australia?
In Australia, a column that has “white Aboriginal” Sun exposed acidly, that it brought charges against the author. This intensified the question of whether an urban elite, which may rely on a partially indigenous ancestry, the indigenous people perceive and adequately represented.
Oliver Marc Hartwich
No, the usual stereotype of a Native Australian she met not sure. She does not live in the remote Outback, their skin color is not very dark, and her name sounds rather than the central European Central Australian. And yet, the law professor Larissa Behrendt, who describes himself as an Aborigine, the focus of bitter controversy over the position of the Australian Aborigines.
Behrendt, born 1969, grew up in a white middle-class suburb of Sydney. Your Grandmother was a paternal a Native, who had married a German immigrant. The family of Behrendt’s mother in turn is white race. In Australia, a country of immigration are those colorful family relationships in and of itself is nothing special, and very few Australians would well up with the idea your way down from a part of their origin, a personality defining identity.
When Larissa Behrendt is different. Since her law degree, she specializes in legal issues of the Australian aborigines. Here she is concerned with land reform, land rights and social justice. Also a novel about the fate of the Aborigines they wrote. Their private and professional environment – Larissa Behrendt lives in the middle of Sydney, where it has a professorship at the University of Technology held – however, has about as much to do with the real life of Aborigines in the Australian outback as a heart surgeon with a medicine man. The Behrendt does not prevent themselves set as the representative of the Australian Aborigines scene.
If you wanted to put it nasty, then you could tell that Larissa Behrendt has made a career out of their home. But it is precisely this accusation, attack the Behrendt and some other urban Aboriginal people currently in court. Had raised him, the journalist Andrew Bolt. Bolt, who once worked for the government of Socialist Prime Minister Bob Hawke, is now one of the most prominent conservative commentators in Australia. In one of his columns Bolt reported more than two years before new under the heading “White is the new black” a trend. In the political field, there is more and more Aboriginal activists, where one can hardly see that they had a family connection to Australia’s Aborigines. It states that it is Australian, which is English with the same or even greater privilege could call it Jewish, German or Austria and.
That they do not, but is described as Aboriginal, led Bolt to the fact that this is the only identity on which to build in Australia build a career, with examples, he explained in what form the self-declared Aboriginal activists the benefits appeal to their ethnic background had. In the thus attacked was Larissa Behrendt. They and some other “white” Aborigines Andrew Bolt then sued on the basis of a law against Rassenverunglimpfung. What is a certain irony had lacked, but called Bolt in his column to get rid of old ethnic conflict at last. He wrote: “Let us overcome the racial pride, we have black and white behind us. Let us be just proud to be people who live together in this country. . . »
For Behrendt and her fellow seemed not an option but that’s to be, and the matter ended in court and the procedure is still in the process. Whatever starts the process, he would still employ more instances, because it bounce free speech of journalists and Bolt the allegedly injured honor each of the applicants. It is a policy argument for modern Australia. How much the urban Aborigines had removed it from the aborigines in the outback was still evident during the taking of evidence Bolt process. In a television discussion of the Australian ABC occurred Bess Nungarrayi Price. Price, born in the remote village of Yuendumu, comes with her curly brown hair and her broad nose, at least visually the idea of a typical Aboriginal woman is much closer than Behrendt. Price had, coming from humble origins, made possible by an educational social advancement. She now works mainly for the control of alcoholism and violence prevention in Aboriginal communities. In the TV show said Price, why they supported the measures of the government to take action against violence and child sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal settlements and military. She knows from personal experience these problems eventually.
Even during the show Larissa Behrendt said via Twitter, what she thought of Price’s arguments. You’ve seen how a man had sex with a horse, and this was not so disgusting as Bess Price, said Behrendt. Maybe it was the frustration at the fact that a Native one dared to have a different opinion on Aboriginal policy than she is however meant that Behrendt had to formally apologize to Price for her choice of words.
The incident cast a new light on the Bolt case with Andrew. He finally had insinuated that the white-Aboriginal activists basically pursued primarily their own agenda that had nothing to do with the real problems of the remote settlements are not necessarily matter. Bolt declined but at a hint: His lawyers have strongly discouraged him from any comments on Aboriginal issues during the procedure. At one time the black Aborigines in remote corners of Australia have been disenfranchised by white bureaucrats and patronized. Today this role is almost as white Aboriginal activists have taken over from the cities. The idea of Andrew Bolt, leave the old racial stereotypes behind is Australia so come no closer.
Oliver Marc Hartwich is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, Australia’s largest independent think-tank.
From link:
“Oliver Marc Hartwich is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, Australia’s largest independent think-tank.”
Sheesh. Even accounting for the vagaries of translation, I don’t think that article is a particularly fair or balanced description of the events or issues.
Matt @ 50 its hard to take that story seriously isn’t it. Doesn’t pass the smell test.
Do we have a cut/paste candidate here?
MoC – maybe this week it should the cut/paste/cut?
For those interested in posts 34, 36, 39, 40, here’s my letter to Roxon, Bowen, Wilson, Pitt. Please feel free to use this as a template if you are like-minded about this issue.
Also worth mentioning is that in the current state of negotiations about off-shore detention centres, any publicity about poor human rights by the way Australia treats it’s neighbours could be very damaging.
Name and address etc.
June 8th, 2011
The Hon Nicola Roxon
Federal Minister for Health
Dear Minister,
I am an Australian citizen who has lived and worked in Papua New Guinea and has a close relationship with our closest neighbours with whom I am sure you will agree we share any common interests.
I am very concerned about the proposed closure of the TB clinics on Saibai and Boigu Islands in the Torres Strait where currently 60 PNG citizens are being treated. I believe this is a backward step for Australian-PNG relations and will potentially damage the health and lives of many Papua New Guinea people and indigenous Australian residents of the Torres Strait Islands.
I understand there are no adequate facilities in Western Province to treat these patients should they be returned home. The PNG Health Secretary, Dr Clement Malau, has said that he has doubts about Daru Hospital’s capacity to adequately treat TB patients and that Daru Hospital struggles with access to clean water, sanitation and important drugs – as do many hospitals in PNG just based on my own experience.
Dr Vincent, one of the Cairns-based specialists who helps run the two clinics has said that he fears for these patients lives should the clinics close, and they they will undoubtedly infect other people should they be returned to PNG before their treatment is complete.
In addition a recent article in the Australian Medical Journal by Dr Paul Johnson, Deputy Director and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Infectious Diseases Department, Austin Health and the University of Melbourne says he fears that closing the clinics could lead to an increased threat of drug-resistant strains of TB on the Australian mainland. He claims the longer term cost to Australian health could be a lot greater than the money spent on continued operation of the clinics.
I believe closing the clinics is a very short-sighted step which will severely damage Australia’s reputation as a humanitarian country. I believe it is also morally unconscionable and sends a message that Australia does not care about the lives of PNG citizens who through no fault of their own have contracted TB and have relied on the good name of Australia to seek help. They were fully entitled to enter the Torres strait islands under the terms of the Torres Strait treaty. They are not ‘illegal’ entrants or asylum seekers.
I also note than many hundreds of asylum seekers to Australia are screened for TB and treated in Australia if found to be infected, without being forcibly returned to their homelands. It may appear that we have one policy towards these people, but a much harsher one towards our PNG brothers and sisters.
Please can you reconsider this decision to close the clinics. The expenditure of a few million dollars to keep them open is far less a price to pay than to risk international condemnation for what is widely seen as a harsh and mean-spirited policy and one which may put the health of many more Australian and PNG citizens at risk.
I look forward to your response.
Yours faithfully,
(Me)
Cheers angra.
Here’s some pretentious rubbish for musos.
Tennstedt and the RPO with Siegfried’s funeral march at the Festival Hall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbjDA26pIdM
I actually was privileged to see him once – not with Wagner, but Mahler.
One of the great things about London is you have five of the worlds greatest symphony orchestras to choose from.
My favourites were the NPO, LPO or RPO (I never understood the difference, as many players were in all of them).
I remember the LPO under Solti or Maazel or Bolt, or better still Haitink who was the best. The LSO was pretty good under Previn and Davis, but they pissed off to the Barbican (traitors).
The BBC ran four orchestras (BBC SO, the BBC Northern SO , Ireland and Welsh SO’s).
They used to have free organ and symphony concerts in midweek at the Festival Hall – I use to cut classes in the ’70′s to hear them. Once I heard Messiaen. And Rattle. And Ravi Shankar. And Stockhausen in person. And Duruflé on the organ!
However the best was Bolt conducting Vaughan-Williams Fantasia on Thomas Tallis with the RPO. It actually made some of the stiff-necked pommy audience cry.
Don’t forget your classical heritage, people. And I haven’t mentioned Karl Bohm and Beethoven. Or Isserstedt, or Bernstein – all of whom performed in London at the Festival Hall.
One of the great monuments to timeless music. (‘Cept maybe when I heard Ormandy conduct Mahler’s 9th at the Albert Hall).
Today, the boracle asks:
“The fact is that since World War II, no war has ended in a declared victory, other than the first Gulf War. When exactly was the Iraq war won? Is the Korean War even finished?”
I get his general point. Wars aren’t simple anymore. But whether or not anyone “declared” victory in a format that suits andrew, there have been wars since WWII which ended in a decisive, clear victory for one side and decisive military defeat and retreat for the other. For example – the falklands war, the yom kippur and six day wars (and obviously the israeli war of independence). Then there’s the successful bangladeshi war of independence and the defeat of the independence movement in sri lanka. Heck – even russia gave georgia a thumping a couple of years back, whatever they thought that achieved. So it’s just plain bogus to suggest that all wars are like afghanistan. I suspect I can also find examples in africa, but I’d have to google – it’s not really my thing.
A big part of the problem in finding “victory” in modern wars is because they’re so often within the bounds of a country (call them “civil” if you like, and feel free to consider outside interference). A country doesn’t win a civil war.
But here’s what caught my eye: “When exactly was the Iraq war won?”
I thought that was a bit rich. According to some, it’s been won at regular intervals over the last 8 years.
A nice piece of anti-intellectual thought engineering from the Herald Sun: “Boffins Blow $66,000 On Hot Water”
The barely transparent subtext: if “boffins” can’t get the hot water right, how can they know more about the climate than a “Rool Australian”?
For the SHTF department – The Guardian reports that the New Ltd phone and computer hacking scandal has expanded exponentially, with evidence that Jonathan Rees and his company hacked phone, bank records, computers and mobile belonging to senior politicians, members of the royal family, M16 informers and police officers in a feeding frenzy of spying. He sold the info off to News rags.
“According to close associates of Rees, he also targeted:
• Jack Straw when he was home secretary, Peter Mandelson when he was trade secretary and Blair’s media adviser Alastair Campbell;
• Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex, and the Duke and Duchess of Kent, all of whom are said to have had their bank accounts penetrated, and Kate Middleton when she was Prince William’s girlfriend;
• The former commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir John Stevens, and the current assistant commissioner, John Yates, who later supervised the failed phone-hacking inquiry for 19 months;
• The governor and deputy governor of the Bank of England, whose mortgage account details were obtained and sold.
Rees, who worked for the Mirror Group as well as the New of the World, is also accused of using a specialist computer hacker in July 2006 to steal information about MI6 agents who had infiltrated the Provisional IRA”
News are running a desperate cover-up campaign. A question was asked in Parliament about this by Labour MP Tom Watson. “Prime minister, powerful forces are attempting a cover-up,” Watson said. “Please tell me what you intend to do, to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
Rich Uncle, that has to be one of the lamest “Boo, Labor! Boo, Gillard” pieces I’ve ever read. It even contains the shocking truth: that the costs were set in train even before Gillard became PM, and include many of the usual necessities that public buildings must upgrade by law, such as fire extinguishers etc. And judging by the comments, there are people reading the article who are quite happy to expose their own stupidity to scrutiny. No doubt, the journalists will chalk it up as another “win”.
The sun beams down on a brand new day
no more welfare tax to pay
Unsightly slums gone in a flashing light
Jobless millions whisked away
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/progressive_enough_for_you_60_per_cent_pay_just_10_per_cent/#commentsmore
kill kill kill kill kill the poor tonight
RUC @ 64.
That piece was a joke.
How much did one hot water system actualy cost after you take out the cost of re doing the roof, removing the asbestos and all the rest I wonder.
I decided to piss in the wind for the first time ever today’ posted a comment on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s blog.
Calling these climate emails another climate gate after the revelation that some of the text appeared a year ago is stretching things a touch. I enquired whether death threats became okay after a year.
I doubt it will be published.
Last night, I posted a comment on the ACA web site (here) about my doubts regarding their “human cargo” story. Unusually, I didn’t keep a copy, but it went essentially like this:
This story doesn’t pass the smell test. Customs opens containers, collects bodies, but doesn’t think to mention it. Righto.
It doesn’t seem to have survived. Maybe I misunderstood how to use the page. The more I think about it, the more ridiculous that guy’s story is.
Meanwhile. I wonder if we’re starting to learn anything?
Oh, for god’s sake.
$66,000 so Julia Gillard can have a hot shower (was previously $66000 so Julia Gillard can have a hot shower – god knows why they changed it, given accuracy clearly isn’t their concern)
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/so-julia-gillard-can-have-a-hot-shower/story-e6freooo-1226072105534
If you read the story, it says:
On tuesday, AB was touting his new mate mark steyn’s beat-up of the NYT’s bland headline about weiner’s sex scandal. He said:
“… nobody who could write that headline with a straight face should be in the news business”
Well, anyone who could write the herald sun’s headline today is apparently unable to read. But they CAN make stuff up, so I guess they’re in exactly the right job.
Countdown to one of the trollumnists milking it, starting 10, 9, …
Oh, and the lodge isn’t a mansion. It’s actually astonishingly small, given its job. It’s a big house, sure. But the US embassy is bigger – I think most of them are, actually. A lot of the houses in the nearby suburbs of yarralumla and deakin are bigger. I’m pretty sure government house is bigger (the grounds sure as heck are).
Angra @62
Pffft. Dead White Men.
On the Solar Re-Fit: This was a similar non-story when it broke when JWH was in charge and he was staying at Kirribilli house. Shock horror! It costs a lot of money to maintain an old building and have state functions in it. Jesus wept. It’s all based on the Shock Of Big Numbers too; it doesn’t surpeise me at all that it cost $65k to install enough hot water heating for however many rooms, plus maintain the Heritage building they’re working on. Surprised they got change from $100k with the asbestos removal.
But Eponymous, that’s MY TAX money that coulda been spent on schools and hospitals and lockin’ kids up!!!!
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/cane-toads-of-the-air-thrive-on-stupidity-20110608-1fsuj.html
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/m_also_stands_for_mendacious/P20/
M also stands for Muslamic Ray Guns:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIPD8qHhtVU
quantize
That image is a pretty accurate caricature of jones. Spewing red herrings an all, loved it.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama has landed in Australia to much adulation.
I was feeling a bit depressed the other day and rang him to ask for spiritual advice. The next day someone delivered a long-necked animal to my front door.
I’d rang dial a lama by mistake.
Listening to Fran Kelly on ABC RN this morning. Really shouldn’t. ABC covering productivity commission report on carbon pricing… Sigh… The Opposition half hour… Started with a grab from Tony Abbott, then Michelle, and now a long interview with Greg Hunt… It would be nice to hear from the government occasionally.
Mind you, it is nice hearing Greg Hunt squirm. At least Kelly is asking a few hard questions for a change.
Quite astounding in its hypocrisy …
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2746976.html
From ABC’s The Drum, Lyle Shelton, ACL thingamy …
and
and
Normally, I’d try to take the piss out of this type of thing, but f**k me dead. I mean, really.
Pass the sick bag.
Tony Says Carbon Tax Will Kill Coal Industry……thus making the Carbon Tax an even more enticing proposition.
Lots of hoo-ha re. the PM’s hot-water system. Apparently Janette’s “overstuffed chesterfields” were OK though.
My comment that the Blot is “Mindless, pathetic, and juvenile” has remained up for a number of days now. Thank-you midnight HUN moderators.
Ross, what is it with these whining fucktards?
Since when did reinforcing the status quo and silencing or hiding a minority become dissent? You can’t dissent against someone with less power than you. No wonder these clowns think creationism is a science. English motherfucka! Do you speak it?!!
“So what led to us gaining this pariah status in the land of the fair go?”
Not giving someone a fair go Lyle. Are you being deliberately stupid or can’t you see that?
I believe details of the carbon tax are due to be released this month – I would think the Govt can’t wait for it to be out.
Any guesses as to how it will be reported on the ABC ? I think it will start with:
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