There is spin, then there is ignorance

Troop Stress

The Sydney Morning Herald ranks as one of Australia’s ore serious newspapers, and has a long history of stern, pedantic sub-editors. Several oddities today caught my attention, including the headline: Stressed out troops sent to war zones

Well I don’t know abut you, but I would be pretty bloody stressed going into a war zone! But the headline doesn’t match the story, which is focused on ‘military personnel who have returned from deployment’ and not receiving appropriate trauma councelling.

Cardboard king seeks fast exit

Again, this story should not conjure humorous thoughts, but alas… Pratt seeks ruling before he dies or the SMH Pratt waits on court ruling. Billionaire (Visy Holdings) Richard Pratt lies close to death with terminal cancer. He is facing four criminal charges alleging that in mid-2005, when under investigation for illegal cartel activities, he gave false and misleading evidence to officers of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Pratt’s lawyer has pleaded with the court for ‘an indulgence’ which sounds a little medieval to me, so that he can die in peace. Legally of course when he dies the case dies with him. But I’m inclined to think he should be stalling any decisions, indefinitely, thus prolonging his grip on life.

Can you trust a politician?

Over in Chilliwack Canada, where there is a provincial election underway, disgraced former minister John Les is opting to campaign on the economy. The question is, how can a provincial member effect the economy, which is the aegis of a national government?

Okay, I’m being pedantic, but if a former minister can’t distinguish between economic policy and fiscal management, the latter being the role of the provincial government, we are in trouble. Well of course we are in trouble, and this could well be one of the reasons why; we are led by people ignorant of their roles.

Harper and the free trade myth

I’m doing far more writing in my head than on the blog or elsewhere lately, and I’m not sure that anyone is the poorer for that. The times are changing thankfully and watching things unfold is both instructive and encouraging. Except for dear old Canada, stuck with an anachronism for a Prime Minister.

While the world rapidly readjusts to new economic and political time Stephen Harper insists on preaching the myth of free trade. At the 5th Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain his free-trade refrain has made him appear a bit of a lone wolf. Fine for Harper perhaps, but not for Canada.

From the outset the free trade push was dubious. I recall then Aussie treasurer and later PM, Paul Keating, going on at length about dismantling protectionism to create a ‘level playing field’. Paul still bleats about it, but it never happened cobber and never will.

John Howard managed to dismantle many of the old protection mechanism in Australia, but he replaced the likes of agrarian socialism with corporate socialism, merely shifting the zones of protection. Bush talked of fee trade but continued to builder higher and stronger walls.

Despite his waffle, his dreams, neither Harper nor any other Canadian PM is going to dismantle the entrenched barriers across his country. In many cases these issues are not only the prerogative of the provinces, but firmly held by the very people likely to support the Conservatives.

A government in decline

You don’t need to be a student of semiotics to recognise the signs and symbols presaging the fall of a government. Certainly the polls are suggesting Harper would be in danger if he went to election now; but he has no need to and polls are not always reliable. He can hold back his judgment day, but the signs are clear it is looming.

Harper’s party is a roughly cobbled coalition of the right; a party suffocated by his leadership and the dominance of the Alberta conservative heavies. While the rest of his party has been left to flounder now his Alberta fan club are starting to see the end in sight. They want to see a new potential leader, but know that another Albertan is out of the question. Problem is they have ‘killed’ them all off.

Having turned most other provinces away Harper really only has the west to depend on and only a fool would depend n the stout yeoman farmers of BC and Saskatchewan. Even if he could depend on them the real numbers are in the East where his support is dwindling.

I’m still not sure what the election trigger will be. It’s unlikely to be another coalition attempt and as dramatic as it gets at times the Mulroney scandal only serves to split the Conservatives more, not break them. Just one more sign, one more weakening for when the final event tips them out of office.

Fibre to the nerd? – if it sounds too good to be true…

When the Rudd government came to power in Australia it was partially on a promise to deliver a much waited broadband roll-out. The promise was based on a fibre to the node concept, depending on Telstra’s copper wire network to deliver to homes and businesses from local exchanges.

Instead of cooperation from Sol Trujillo’s Telstra we ended up with the highest stakes poker game this country has ever seen. Telstra’s arrogant non-bid to roll out an acceptable service has now been countered by Rudd’s plan for fibre to the nerd, T1 to every doorstep. Telstra is effectively cut out of the great communications revolution.

Okay, for the nerds among us it was an exciting, but unlikely proposal. Most Australians, including the federal opposition, have no concept of what a high speed connection really is, even a stable internet connection is problematic.

Telstra and institutional shareholders understood, however, when Rudd slid his $42 billion worth of chips onto the table. This had become a high stakes game. Telstra shares had already lost $9 billion in value in the earlier rounds of the table; there is every reason for tem to now fold and try and get back into the game.

Sol is a lousy poker player, but he is already on his way out of the game here. The Liberal/National opposition are looking like the perennial suckers, folding quickly then sniping from the sidelines. My guess is we will return to a fibre copper mix with Telstra grabbing back what it can on Rudd’s terms.

Consumer perspective

I’m just a humble end user; well an unhappy end user perhaps. There are several long running and unresolved issues I have with providers – Optus (Singapore government owned) as ISP and Telstra as line provider. We pay top dollar here for a broadband service which often slows below even dial up speed and is prone to constant drop outs.

Opus refer the connectivity problems to Telstra and Telstra technicians claim cut backs for their inability to address identified problems. It could well be a decade before we have a reasonable broadband service, but even a reasonable dial up level would be helpful.

A second issue is denial of service. I have been a regular contributor to ragebot.com for some time, no longer. My ISP has ragebot’s host server on a blocked list. These heavy handed attempts at internet censorship are bound to become increasingly annoying, and arbitrary.

It could be that the particular server hosts some objectionable material, but the approach seems to be, ‘block the lot!’ It is a blunt instrument approach limiting the usefulness if the internet while probably missing the real target. Frustratingly service providers really don’t care all that much about the needs of end users.

I expect to continue my personal campaign to address some of the issues plaguing me, but would much rather engage in discussion on the net rather than about the net.

Canadian Election – an event in waiting

The Harper government is hanging in, but their days are numbered. How long? That is the big question with the minor parties not keen to head to the polls and oblivion. Even so some of us are watching carefully for the trigger.

As one put it, quoting former British PM Harold Macmillan when asked his greatest fear: “Events, dear boy, events”. More often than not Harper creates his own events and events almost always favour the opposition. That event will most likely be economic.

‘But Harper is an economist’ I’ve been assured; he is also apparently an ideological conservative. “I’m a conservative. I happen to believe in the long term, we will see long-term economic growth from the private sector,” Harper

From PM Harper

“We all know that we have a massive and growing employment problem. We've seen dramatic drops in output, dramatic rises in unemployment in the last four months... We anticipate more big job losses.”

[Canada] is well poised to emerge quickly and strongly from recession when recovery begins.

From Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

Canada's recession will be relatively mild and that Canadians were not worried about the exact pace of the slowdown.

I think we're certainly looking at negative growth. I don't think Canadians are that concerned if it's ‘2-point-this' or ‘1-point-that'.

Banking on banks

Flaherty claims Canada has the No. 1 financial system in the world in terms of stability. Harper is busy urging banks to become more active in takeovers of US banks. I’m no great fan of the Aussie banks, but would argue they are at least as stable as their Canadian cousins and historically far more aggressive.

This is evidenced by the ease which the Aussie banks have just offered a 12 month holiday for those in danger of defaulting on their mortgage. Sure the banks will still capitalise on those loans, but they have the strength to cover the interregnum and still pursue a steady growth agenda.

The Endgame

In short, the Harper government comes across as economic flakes, dishing out platitudes in place of solutions. Somewhere, I suspect, among Harper’s economic deficits the ‘event’ will emerge. Most likely it will be a panic move to shore up his flagging support, most of his events have targeted shoring up his power.

We don’t yet know Michael Ignatieff’s economic agenda; after all, why would he feed clues to a beleaguered government? What we do know is the Canadian Liberal record for sound economic management and the apparent dynamism of the PM in waiting.

A Canadian goose among the leaders

The G20 Summit has been impressive, for the speed in which a consensus was achieved and an apparent lack of egos. So much so that Canada’s Stephen Harper would gone totally unnoticed if he had not gone missing during the obligatory photo shoot. So Canada provided the equally obligatory humorous moment.

What capped that sad episode of was the country’s main conservative newspaper, the National Post, leading the G20 story with a picture of Australia’s Kevin Rudd. Fair enough, I guess; Rudd had played a major behind the scenes role in the lead up to this historic talkfest.

While I do support Rudd it is not without reservations. Even so there is something especial satisfying when your national leader, punching well above his weight, is distinguished be such a fine performance. Michael Ignatieff is Canada’s PM in waiting and the sooner his Liberals gain government the better.

Harper waves his economic credential, no doubt well earned, but fails miserably to give them any credence in his role as steward of the country’s economy. He has been slow to acknowledge te depth of Canada’s exposure and slower to address the problems. It seems he was only a vague passenger at the G20.

I am inclined to thing the Liberal Ignatieff would find much in common with the Labor Rudd, Democrat Obama and New Labor Brown. The time for the conservative bully economics is past and Harper is among its last surviving relics. The current breed of leaders are distinguished by their flexibility in recognising real situations and responding without reference to ideology.

I hope we can welcome Ignatieff to the world community of leaders, for the world’s sake as well as Canada’s. The more considered and reasoning voices, as we recraft the world’s economies the better. It is time now for the Canadian goose to move on to other pastures.

Historians don’t repeat, do they?

David Bercuson, director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary recently published an article in Canada’s Globe and Mail - How long will this madness last? Don't ask the historian. He asserts that “People who study the past are no more likely to know what the future brings than people who read tea leaves.”

I take issue with a number of points in the article, but most of all it is the copout in his argument that history does not in fact repeat itself. Bercuson limits his view of potential repetition to exact circumstance, which is plainly a nonsense, ignoring the potential of replicating broader dynamics in favour of replication of the minutiae.

Even so, understanding historical background, I concede, is not an act of fortune telling, simply an indication f potential outcomes. However limiting historical vision will almost certainly produced flawed predictions.

Take Bercuson’s primary interest area and his reflection that: “In the past 110 years, Canada has been involved in two world wars, the Boer War, the Korean War, the Yugoslav civil war of the 1990s, the Kosovo air war of 1999 and the war in Afghanistan. There is no similarity whatever in the way these wars began.”

I note firstly that he omits several major conflict in which Canada was not involved, thus perhaps skewing his argument to fit his vision. But take his first example, the Boer War, which was firmly part of British expansionism, expansionism being a repeating basis for a number of the conflicts mentioned.

He did not mention Vietnam, as Canada was not involved, but it has strong historical links to the current Afghanistan conflict – illegal drugs trade. At the same time other conflicts and actions he omits, say Palestine or Cyprus, like Kosovo were, from Canada’s position, humanitarian endeavors. The Suez crisis comes right back to expansionism.

“History isn't a science. Neither is economics”

Quoth Bercuson, but if that is his position one must wonder, as an historian, how he justifies his tenure. The view almost suggests history is a simple waste of time. I doubt anyone would claim either pursuits are science, neither in broad terms can be exactly replicated. Yet I would argue that elements of both can be replicated in the right conditions.

Politics is not science either, but any politician worth his salt concentrates on the conditions of three key indices come election time; Trade balance, employment levels and CPI – those hip pocket Even though the available statistics might become harder to source the reality can’t be hidden.

I believe Mark Twain said something along the lines of ‘history doesn’t repeat it rhymes’. Semantics; but regardless there are still constants, indicators which are there to be found. Only a fool needs to see an exact overlay to spot the repetition, repetition in detail rather than the broad picture.

An art historian looks at detail, brush strokes and other signature marks; any forensic analysis looks for a swath of detail indicators, not the broad picture. Call it rhyme, call it history, but the repetition is there all the same.

The Age of Excess?

If my blogging hasn’t been excessive of late it is hardly because of a deficit of issues. Some like economics have become a problem for me; it’s one thing warning of looking problems, quite another formulating appropriate remedies. It also seems a little redundant going on about predicted situations like AIG.

Leaving those excesses behind, a whole raft of others have been playing on my mind, making me wonder if we have not indeed entered ‘The Age of Excess’. I don’t want to sound excessively curmudgeonly, but need to share these few observations regardless.

Language

I have a close relative who has displayed a frustrating inclination, most of his life, to a version of nominal aphasia. Put briefly, he can’t or won’t use peoples names, replacing them instead with lurid descriptive terms. The frustration is in knowing exactly who the moronic f***ing c*** is in any given statement.

For many years I only me a handful of people with this tendency, now it seems to be epidemic among men and women alike. It is a known condition, but I’ve never really worked out whether it is a mental lapse, low frustration threshold or just pure laziness. Whichever, an excessive use of gutter language does seem to be contagious.

Communications

I intend to live out my life without ever sampling a Maccas burger or KFC product, but if that doesn’t put me in serious minority try the fact that I refuse to have a cell phone. What is it with these bloody nuisance things? Increasingly I note tat the average person cannot survive without a phone of some sort connected to the ear.

So let me put it to you, communications company contracts are excessively (intentionally) complex, average use is often compulsively excessive, monthly bills are often cripplingly excessive – particularly with teens.

Not only that, but these people often have a TV screaming in the background, some sort of music device, an internet conversation or ten, a land line conversation coupled with cell phone wedged in their ear. But it is still only one more of the many current manifestations of excess.

Gluttony

A neighbour came in huffing this morning, having left her TV and other devices briefly, to tell me about an epidemic of obesity. This same woman, who could easily (or not) shed a few pounds, who constantly complains; I’m famished – staving… I could live for a year from her excess pounds.

They probably are famished and starving if they are surviving on junk food, but this woman cooks good solid BIG meals everyday for her brood. I could easily live for a week on just one, anyone, of their daily meals. Lucky country this, even in poverty you can easily become obscenely obese.

Excessive consumption seems to be drilled into people now as a duty, which probably works with all the other fears driving excessive behaviours.

Drugs

Just in my small region it’s estimated that half the population have some sort of drug issue, prescription and otherwise. In fact they are often, by explanation, related. “I needed to lose weight I became hooked on sped…” I needed speed to work the hours I was on, then crashed my truck. Now I’m on painkillers…” “I only smoke (marijuana) to control the pain in my life…”

So that takes in the screwed up adults, what about the school kids who seem to be equally enamoured of various substances? Or the local dealers supplying all and sundry. Or the biker runs delivering to town without drawing the slightest attention from local police. In fact I received a warming from the bikers recently for reporting activity to the police, which would suggest a tad of collusion.

Motor Cars

Talking of drugs… While many people are downsizing or getting out of cars, because of rising costs, the drug dealers are keeping the high end of the market buoyant. I just had one complain to me this very day about the excessive $500 service charge he was just hit for.

Why do these blokes need the biggest and fastest cars when most can barely drive? Because they can!!! We watch this particular bloke driving his high powered car like a little old woman, but it obviously helps his status.

To go further might seem a little excessive and a lot curmudgeonly. I certainly enjoy my glass of red wine, and I’m often accused of liking it to excess. Even so I’m never accused of being less than lucid and sober.

I can reflect on teen ‘heroes’ The Stones and The Who. With the latter it was and still is My Generation, and ‘I hope I do die before I grow old’ – still I hope that. Sure they were fairly excessive at the time, and tended to do our outrageous living for us. Now everyone seems to have a self-destruction wish.

Richard L. Armitage a name to conjure with

"Armitage is always one of those characters who just happen to be standing around when something BAD happens to America. Never anything good. ALWAYS something BAD. If he was a sailor, his shipmates would call him a Jonah." Libertypost.org, 8 May 2004

If you are still focused on Karl Rove as the bad guy who escaped justice give some thought to an even worse specimen - Richard L. Armitage. Dicky is well known in Australia. His name first comes up with the 1970s

His intermittent presence was strongly felt during John Howard’s reign, more particularly during a rather long ambassadorial hiatus. Dicky took an active political role here criticizing our then opposition party, squashing any US inquiry into Australia’s notorious Iraq wheat sale kickbacks, then noisily claiming that only a few dumb Aussies were concerned about the obvious corruption.

Armitage, it seems, cut his teeth in the CIA/Mob Golden Triangle drug trafficking from 1971-1975. This is where he linked up with his Iran-Contra co-conspirators; the likes of Gen Secord and Ted Shackley et al. Dicky has been up to his ear lobes in US black operations for decades.

In fact there is still disquiet over his appointment as Assistant Sec State under Colin Powell, based on the fact he was previously rejected for a cabinet post under Bush Snr because of his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal. The George W nomination actually passed the Senate on voices, without comment.

Despite his known illegal activities Armitage managed to retain his grip on powerful, influential positions. See: From An Approved Biography - Ambassador Richard Lee Armitage. He has also retained an influence on international drug trafficking, now out of Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Part of Dicky’s raison d'etre for supporting drug trafficking is the long held view that enemies can be controlled through drug addiction. It sort of works - according to the U.N. World Drug Report for 2005, Iran has the highest proportion of opiate addicts in the world. But obviously it works on enemies at home too, as his black operations involve smuggling drugs into the US for the domestic market.

Hillary Clinton tainted?

More to the point is that Armitage and his sponsors are addicted to the profits of drug peddling. The concern now is that Armitage has plied his trade through State for many years, and current Sec State Hillary Clinton, or a least Bill, is tainted, is tainted by past associations with these crooks.

When the Rudd government came to power in Australia the former diplomat Prime Minister virtually sidelined our State equivalent, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Rudd is constantly criticised for his foreign travel, but he is obviously taking a fir grip on that particular tiller. A good thing too given the history of playing by the riles of the US black ops guys.

I’m not sure any American President since Eisenhower has had any real control over State. I truly doubt that Obama deliberately chose Clinton and I’m curious about Biden’s past associations with the likes of Armitage.

On the other hand I can relate to the tears of joy from Colin Powell on Inauguration Day. Powell was sucked in as a stooge, the Senate of the day quietly allowing the appointments of the discredited thug, Armitage, to control any thoughts Powell might have about democratic practices.

Hitching the wagon to corruption trivia

Since 2003 I have been waiting for the full story on a pair of British Columbian ministerial assistants arrested in a raid on the province’s legislature. The charges included money laundering and bribery corruption in relation to the secret sale of British Columbia Rail (BCR).

Documents released this week by a judge in a political corruption trial trace the government's route from staunch denial to talks with bidders and then a media strategy on how to sell privatization to the public… Campbell haunted by BC Rail deal

I really have to agree with this comment:

It's trivia. Politically titillating, yes. Entertaining, certainly. But relative to the case itself, it's just trivia on a grand scale. …case buried in political trivia

Dave Basi and Bobby Virk were probably up to their ears in the corruption, but remain the scapegoats in a bigger picture and the exposed corruption is now incredibly commonplace. Selling off public assets is never popular, but hardly ever a government losing proposition, but this sale had all the conspiracy mix that is now so popular with our elected representatives.

Try this lot:

While the Premier, Gordon Campbell, was claiming there were no plans to sell potential buyers were being sought and briefed.

Among the major ‘bidders’ were Canadian National (CN), Canadian Pacific (CP), Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp and OmniTRAX,

The process wasn’t a level playing field and CP and the U.S. bidders fed only those parts which suited the government.

In fact they all complained because CN alone had been given an opportunity to meet with BC Rail shippers, gaining valuable knowledge about rates that other bidders didn't have.

While the sale was being denied Campbell’s communications bureaucrats were busy crafting a message and media delivery system designed to mitigate fallout from the final result. Basi and Virk were doubtless players in the game, but the game so far is just your garden variety corruption.

Now once upon a time you looked beyond a sex scandal to find the real corruption. Now, increasingly, the corruption is just a trivial distraction from drug trafficking. Here again, through Basi we meet Jasmohan Singh Bains, the 33-year-old would-be Mr. Big of the Vancouver Island drug world.

This becomes significant when we consider just how big the BC illicit drug trade really is. From the smoko (and don’t think trains) BC Bud is the North American marijuana of choice. I know in Australia there are regular interceptions of illicit chemicals, from the making through to product, intercepted on their way to Australia. God knows what gets across the border.

Sadly, its doubtful even these revelations will make an impression of the Campbell Governments electoral fortunes. Conservatives seem to walk under the scandal bar with impunity.

Second rate Super GoatTrack

When it comes to communications technology I expect Australians are not alone in enduring second rate services. Sure we have a particular and ongoing corporate/political battle resulting in retention of an antediluvian network infrastructure. In the past few weeks we’ve found out just how antediluvian.

In the wake of a series of severe storms and local flooding, not too local fortunately, we lost internet connection. A phone call assured us the state was out and suggested about five hours to restore service. The next day, and for many days later we had no service, even tough the ISP was up.

To date, besides the frustration and loss of connection, it has cost us hours on the phone to Punjabi operators and the cost of a new router/modem set up. Having sorted every other problem and obtained an intermittent service the problem now seems to be isolated to the copper wire service on the other side of our wall.

Of course no one wants responsibility for that issue, for the fact we live in a high humidity, high salt laden environment and wires in the junction box are merely twisted together and not soldered. Industry best practice seems woefully inadequate! Which brings us to a joyless celebration…

Adios Sol Trujillo

The now privatized Telstra is one of Australia’s biggest corporation and unfortunately the owner of our telecom network infrastructure; the roots of our ongoing corporate/political battle. There are some Americans who will know the reputation of Sol Trujillo, CEO of Telstra for the best part of past four years.

It seems Sol is a sensitive character and can’t understand why Aussies joke about his Hispanic antecedents. Fair go Sol, this is a country that calls a spade a nig nog; racial sensitivity is not our strong suit. But really, racial epithets are nothing to the sort of insults Sol and his amigos deserve.

Under Sol’s watch the general attitude from Telstra has been ‘fuck you’ to Australians, our politicians and regulators. “We don’t do things your way in America!” I guess given that Sol was rarely in Australia during the time he managed this major corporation suggest he never had the opportunity to understand Aussie ways.

One thing he did understand is that his exit needed to happen before a four year deadline on local tax exemption. Perhaps that deadline should be pulled back so we can get rid of arseholes like So more quickly. Even at a $30 mill price tag its worth seeing him off.

Cognisant of Sol’s racial sensitivities the Aussie PM Rudd received the departure news in true local spirit. Just one word – adios! Sol has pretty much destroyed any credibility Telstra had left so now we might get down to building a reasonably reliable communications network here. At the very least we might start soldering copper wire connections.

Not corruption, just plain crime

There is good news and bad news for your erstwhile correspondent, the writing muse has finally taken a firm grip; the inspiration is crime, but the research is going places I never contemplated.

I’ve blogged previously about this strange neighbourhood I’ve landed in; the proximity to serious rime past and present, to jailbirds historic and current, to the violence and desperation which shadows a brisk drugs trade. It is one thing to observe, until very recently the ability to write in depth about it alluded me.

I have the key now, thanks to the persistence of some informants eager to share their experiences. I wanted to avoid writing about local and current criminality, I’m not that brave. Instead I saw the path leading back to the rich, fecund fields of crime in Sydney in the 1960s and 70s.

Living there around that time I had some insights, if not personal experience, enough to create a canvas on which to paint the narrative. Best of all, the min players are now dead for the most part or never likely to leave prison. Those still active in the community seem to live happily with their notoriety, so again little risk there.

Enter corruption on a grand scale

The problem is staying focused and safe. I am being given great detail on the criminals of the period; bank robbers, hold-up men, hit men and body disposal experts. All suitably colourful and dramatic in their own right. But a little research leads to a deeper darker pond.

From the 1930s through to the mid 60s Australia had been gloriously free of the illicit drug menace, but the Vietnam war and presence of R&R troops changed that in major ways. Sure we had our organised crime, organised by police and major politicians quite often. That is where I am trying to focus, the local pissant crime, but a bigger story still beckons.

With the advent of Sydney as a major funnel for the Golden Triangle opium local politicians and police recruited by far more powerful forces, the American CIA/Mob interests. Indeed it was not just the heroin traffic which mainly just passed through but Australia was ideally situated to provide a growing US demand for marijuana.

While my informants can give me minute detail on our home grown criminals they quickly develop amnesia when it comes to that next level, even though they don’t deny associations. In fact it was talk of purely local activities that bought up the linking names, research is filling the rest of the picture.

My long concern over corruption is taking on a new level of understanding with the information being pieced together. There is now a picture of a corrupt local cop linked to a corrupt state premier linked to a know CIA agent or US Mafia figure linked to the highest levels of US government. I can understand the reticence of my informants, even dead some of these characters looms large as a threat, and besides others always fill the gap left by the dead.

Curiosity is going to drive the desire to research further but I’m not sure just how or how much I’m willing to revel. A book on the Sydney activities of Sydney criminals, with the personal insights I’m being given, is certainly plenty to go on with. The rest of the story is compelling however.

In the end I’m seeing that corruption is just crime, that international leaders, political and corporate, can be just crooks like the local variety.

Fire disaster

As I sit here in my South Pacific paradise, enduring a third day of intermittent torrential rain, I read that 31 fires are still burning out of control in Victoria. For a full week I’ve found the unfolding disaster in Victoria beyond words. Today I still find personal reflection pretty much irrelevant.

I note, with a great deal of pleasure, that people around the world care. I also note that foreign media find it easier to cover the story in detail than do our own media. Anyone who has ever reported on personal disaster will know how uncomfortable it really is to just be a hard nosed reporter.

Still, a week on and some very moving reports are coming through, not to dismiss the efforts of the reports we’ve had all week. I commend the following

The nation is mourning and searching for answers. How do we make sense of losing so many good people, of so much devastation? The painful truth

Marysville residents to see burned town

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

On arson:

Perhaps the hardest fact for everybody affected by these fires to accept is that they will not be the last. The Australian bush has evolved to burn and grow again. And for as long as there are morally malformed individuals in our midst, communities will suffer from the idiocies of arson. Australian editorial

Marysville the great unknown

This morning, the township's residents will be taken by bus into Marysville for the first time since last weekend's firestorm flattened their properties and devastated their lives.

At a closed meeting yesterday, police officers tried to prepare them before they re-entered what has become Australia's biggest crime scene.

Only 12 to 14 of hundreds of homes remain standing in the once pretty tourist town. The Australian

Leadership into the next decade

Like many people around the world, Canadians have been suffering for several months with a nagging chronic condition… The condition is Obama-envy, and the flare-up will be induced by the visit of the new President on Feb. 19. G&M

I understands the US looms large as the direct neighbour of Canada, the glare must be powerful as it constantly blinds Canadians to the realities of the rest of the word. I would hold the above assertion from Michael Adams is president of the Environics group of companies is demonstrably erroneous, at least for “many people around the world”.

Just look at your Australian cousins, more delighted that Obama, between the expected razzle dazzle of an election, is following the Kevin Rudd 'no drama' model; just quietly getting on with the job. PM Rudd is decidedly white and equally colourless politically, which suits Aussies just fine.

I personally long or those days when politicians had a fire in their bellies, but just coming out of thirty odd years of conservative politics of fear, entering a consequent economic readjustment, most people don’t want a daily diet of shock politics, they want our leaders to just do their jobs and fix the problems.

Doubtless many of us are thankful for Obama, but that is because our own national economies are tied to global trends and subject to the decisions made in Washington to a great degree. We just want our leaders to get on with the process of recovery without fanfare or fuss.

Technocrats

Rather than political theatrics we are increasingly choosing technocrats, leaders like Ignatieff in fact. But Canada is still stuck with Harper and the legacy of conservatism, albeit as a minority. I concede that is depressing but I doubt it will see the year out, and I doubt Canada wants an all singing all dancing political leadership.

Remember Harper took over a Conservative Party cobbled together from the bits and bobs of an historically splintered right, then shed any part of that with a semblance of policy direction, starting with the admittedly loathsome religious right. Overall, however, policy direction is not big on the conservative agenda.

Having gained the baton of leadership Harper then sought to secure it with rigid party discipline and a one man ministry. As Harpers star steadily wanes he has effectively left the ‘party’ bereft of serious leadership candidates. Without any effective voice the most promising, such as the treacherous technocrat David Emerson, were simply bored out of the game.

Other aspirants like the hapless walking accident Peter McKay, left to their own device with time on their hands, managed to foul their own aspirational nests. Ignatieff’s Liberals need only focus now on capturing the high ground with quiet, calm development of solutions the party and the country can wear.

Like Rudd and Obama Ignatieff needs to build a narrative on pragmatic solutions, fluid policies to be sure but 'outcomes driven' directions. I suspect, from observation of the Rudd government, there is a wide latitude for error as the global mess changes the dynamics at a rapid rate.

The media still try to beat up a story out of misfires, but the ‘no dramas’ approach by Rudd and now Obama is happily accepted by the wider community. It is common knowledge that we are in uncharted waters and navigation is problematic. But it remains doubly problematic for the likes of Harper who is potentially seen as part of the problem, not the solution.

So don’t be envious Canada, start aiming for your own Canadian flavoured solution to global impacts. You don’t want or need larger than life leaders, just hard working and focused leaders.

Friedman and Hayek undone

"With the impeccable sense of timing that has marked my career, my wife and I chose to renovate last year. But next spring we shall be joining millions of Canadians in saying "sod it." And then sending you the bill" Bob Rae

Bob Rae is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and the Liberal foreign affairs critic, who should be even more respected for stepping back from the recent Canadian Liberal’s leadership race.

That race was between two fine candidates, Rae and Ignatieff and a wonderfully acid article by Rae - Goodbye 'Rae Days.' Hello 'Harper Holidays' – is something he could never have done as party leader. Bob Rae is far more valuable off to one side picking off Conservative policies and ministers.

From that position he can tell Stephen Harper – “I am no longer the Deficit Poster Boy and Punching Bag. You are. Wear it in the best of health.” He can tell the Neo-liberals; “Your old copies of Milton Friedman and Hayek's Road to Serfdom will somehow seem less relevant and helpful.”

More than that he is the voice that can overcome the anti-deficit trash we’ve been force fed for years. “…deficits are not the product of the devil incarnate, but happen when there are recessions.”

I had hoped that ego would not get the better of Bob Rae, in the leadership stakes. He is the right guy in the right place. The article is worth reading and the unfolding story will be worth watching.

Slaves to preconceived ideas

I’ve always had a soft spot for Charles Darwin, not just for coming up with "the single best idea anyone has ever had". Now a new book suggests that Darwin’s theory of evolution was motivated by his outrage against slavery.

It seems a long call come up with a such a complex attack on slavery, and despite the debates at the time I suspect had only a marginal effect. Darwin’s family, along with their kin, the Wedgewoods of pottery fame, were staunch abolitionists so the hypothesis presented in Darwin’s Sacred Cause remains credible.

In 1831 Darwin visited Tierra del Fuego, Tahiti and Tasmania on the Beagle. It was a naval brig and Darwin was on board essentially as a gentleman companion to the captain, someone to provide intelligent conversation on the voyage.

I confess a personal penchant for reflected glory, even exulted glory like Darwin’s. Over my years in Tasmania there were many reasons and opportunities to research the numerous colonial newspapers held in the state libraries. Despite the focus of any specific research there were numerous side tracks, including Darwin’s visit to the island.

What never occurred to me at the time was the thought of Darwin being a mere gentleman’s companion, in fact the excitement was unequivocally directed at the man himself, the ship as his vehicle, but no other aspect of the ship’s complement.

Duck-Billed Platypus

Doubtless the excitement had been stirred up by the scientific discoveries on the earlier part of the voyage, with colonial papers reporting London news at great length. The great theory was yet to be expounded, but the gentleman scientist was highly respected in the outer reaches of the Empire.

One thing I looked for in contemporary reports was a Darwin approached to the strange creature known as the Duck-Billed Platypus. When local naturalists sent specimens of this animal to London it was dismissed as an elaborate hoax, a prank by those ‘dimwitted colonials’.

I never found reference to the platypus, but maybe for the best as it would have been a difficult precursor to his later revelations. Even without the theory Darwin would have been recognised as a major figure, perhaps only revealing our slavery to preconceived ideas. Perhaps the great logical leap was indeed a political argument. Either way he remains one of my heroes.

Questioning The Afghanistan Motive

When it comes to desired motives for our involvement in Afghanistan I tend to share the ideals of such exulted persons as Prime Minister Rudd and President Obama. The desire is a purely humanitarian one, the chance for the majority of people of that country to chose their preferred destiny.

For the Bush administration for the Afghan conflicts was primary stated purpose was the capture Osama bin Laden, a failed endeavour. As for the NATO and other international forces in the conflict there is a constant debate and disagreement over purpose.

“U.S. General John Craddock said all drug traffickers could be attacked, whether or not evidence connected them to the Taliban insurgency. The "guidance" was sent to General Egon Ramms, head of the NATO command at Brunssum in the Netherlands, and the commander of the NATO-led foreign force in Afghanistan General David McKiernan, and neither wanted to follow it.” link

“…Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called on NATO allies Thursday to target Afghanistan's drug traffickers as part of a wider effort to confront a resurgent Taliban, which he said is using heroin money to fund the insurgency.” WP

We know now that there were no WDMs in Iraq, it was essentially an oil war. Increasingly evidence has emerged that Vietnam was not about ‘communism’ but about the control of the ‘Golden triangle’, the world opium trade – read heroin etc...

Afghanistan, despite various pathetic attempts to paint it as such, is not about oil, it is about opium. The global corporates aren’t fussy bout the actual commodity, so long as it pays well. I’m still researching and cast no allegations on anyone, but still two major corporates linked to legal production of opiates are Glaxo Smith Kline & Johnson & Johnson, both of whom have been under scrutiny in recent years.

So lets go back: “Drug production that was all but wiped out by the Taliban by 2001 has shot up. Afghan farmers grew enough opium in 2005-06 to make 610 tons of heroin — more than all the world's addicts consume in a year. . . “ link

If the Afghanistan conflict is really about the humanitarian needs of the people of that country then serious efforts would also be underway to find cash crops other than poppies. There are obviously forces who want that illicit drug supply to continue, and the war must be against them as well as brutal government regimes.

At the moment there are too many questions, too many wrong reasons why we are there. Criminal behaviour is no less criminal because it is sanctioned or organised by legitimate governments and corporations.

The legacy of corruption still threatens the Obama dream

Corruption has always fascinated me, but then I grew up in Sydney with its unapologetic culture of corruption. My current community didn’t escape either, and research I’ve just been doing on some local figures is proving incredibly far-reaching.

I was chasing up the story on a guy I only ever knew through other people here, an exile mob lawyer Harry Wainwright. I still don’t know just where Harry was in the entourage of ‘Old blue eyes’ before the IRS swooped. I do know that he was responsible for an unannounced Sinatra after a tantrum on a Sydney tour.

These were the Vietnam War days and Harry was associated with the development of Sydney as an R&R centre for US troops. That involved the supply of drugs, sex, entertainment and all the other underworld treats.

Australia was also ripe to provide other services to our American friends, like a lush garden for marijuana supply and an ideal funnel for transacting the opiate trade from the ‘Golden Triangle’. Aussie authorities were more than happy to accommodate these services.

Harry was just one of the shadowy figures in this representing US interests. The Nugan Hand Bank has long been believed to be an enterprise of the CIA, co-sponsors of the Golden Triangle activities. Nugan Hand were the bag men, the money launderers.

Even back then there was talk about the connection to Air America, the CIA air arm in South East Asia. I am not given to simply swallowing conspiracy theories and have waited many years for the suppressed evidence to break. I know that sounds CT, but we are seeing and ignoring constant revelations.

The Obama factor

Maybe that should be the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton et al factor. Australia has already found that the cabal, whatever the current makeup, will destroy a government if need be. Obama’s problem is most of his team have never been on the pad, unlike many in Congress. There is a high level of admittedly pragmatic idealism.

To the power hungry freaks who have bought the world to this current situation there is no acceptable qualification for idealism. Wanting a fair and equitable society is way beyond simple idealism, but the greedy bastards will not simply surrender.

None of our cherished policy aspirations are worth squat unless this new dream becomes a solid reality.

Volunteering to build a new world

“When I go home tonight and I look into the mirror, I’m not going to regret what I see,” Bush to his Texas home crowd NYT

If George W needed to make that statement I expect he really does have some issues to deal with. I doubt many believe Obama was out of line drawing a firm line under the Bush years. In fact he was really drawing the line under the results of 30 years of dubious policy.

I have asserted before that the socio/economic rot began under Reagan, George W merely took the policy direction to its logical conclusion – at least as far as that was acceptable. Enough of the past – it’s time to use the bounce to create a more just, more equitable planet. Time to really get down to work.

One of the most encouraging aspects of Obama is his example of volunteerism. Now when it is about ME it must become; ‘what can I do for MY world?’ Sometimes that will mean getting stuck in without any expectation of material reward. The rewards will come in many other ways.

Papua Merdeka - Free West Papua

The jailing five Australians “for illegally entering Indonesia's Papua province” shines an unwanted spotlight on this forgotten corner of the world.

The group were accused of entering Indonesia illegally, after they travelled to Papua on a small plane from Horn Island, off the tip of Queensland's Cape York on September 12. The Australians have described it as a sightseeing flight and mistakenly believed they could get visas on arrival in Papua. SMH

Granted independence by the Dutch an elected Papuan council took office on 5 April 1961. The Council decided on the name of West Papua, a national emblem, a flag called the Morning Star or Bintang Kejora.

However, Indonesia threatened with an invasion, and with the help of the Soviet Union, the compliance of Australia, the US and the Netherlands, took control of the territory in May 1963. So much for the will of the people and the defence of their sovereignty.

Indonesians live in fear of West Papua freedom building the same sort of Australian and international support as their former colony of Timor Leste (East Timor). It seems the Australia government share that concern. I think it is time we made those concerns real by showing support and spreading the story.

The Free Papua Movement (Indonesian: Organisasi Papua Merdeka, abbreviated OPM) is a separatist organization established in 1965 which seeks independence for Western New Guinea from Indonesia. Some links for further details:

For a Free and Independent West Papua

Free West Papua Organisations and Offices

Unbelievable diversity

The people of New Guinea, Melanesians, are racially and culturally separated from the Indonesian archipelago by some 40,000 years. A racial classification is thought to be inaccurate because it ignores the broad cultural, linguistic, social and genetic diversity in the area. Some argue that there is no one "Melanesian culture" or way of life.

New Guinea is perhaps the most linguistically diverse region in the world. Besides the Austronesian languages, there are some 800 languages divided into perhaps sixty small language families, with unclear relationships to each other or to anything else, plus a large number of language isolates.

That is just the people, with about 786,000 km² of tropical land, less than one-half of one percent (0.5%) of the earth's surface, New Guinea has an immense ecological value in terms of biodiversity, with between 5 to 10% of the total species on the planet.

There are probably well over 200,000 species of insect, between 11,000 to 20,000 plant species; over 650 resident bird species, over 400 amphibians; 455 butterfly species, 284 species and six orders of mammals. The island's frogs are one of the most poorly known vertebrate groups, currently totalling 282 species, but this number is expected to double or even triple when all species have been documented.

Then of course there is gold, copper ore, crude oil, natural gas, timber, fish, oil palm, tea, rubber, logs; all of those choice goodies which ensure we wealthy nations will continue to support the subjugation of the Melanesians on economic grounds.

Time to rattle the cage

Given the outcome Timor Leste (East Timor) who achieved a bloody independence in 2000, the Indonesian have every reason to fear a gathering of support for Papua Merdeka. On the other hand Papuans have every right to stand alone, and not be subject to the brutal rule of Indonesia.

Journalists are banned from entering West Papua and tourists severely discouraged; a tight lid is kept in a largely successful attempt to prevent the true story of the province leaking out. This control is apparently supported by Australian and neighbouring PNG governments. The stories that do emerge are from radical sources and quickly buries.

The potential this time is to highlight the fate of five naive travelers who assumed it was fine to stop in Wet Papua on a small aircraft jaunt. That news story was quickly buried, but is potentially the catalyst for wider awareness of Indonesia’s atrocities in the province.

I do ask each of you to take a bit of time to look further into this situation, then act in the way you see most effective. To me simply spreading the word, telling and increasing circle of people, is a good start.

Not Black and white

In the lead up to the November election it was made clear, even by McCain’s campaign, that a Republican loss would devastate the party. The loss of a majority in the Senate has increased the electoral destruction with a number of incumbents willing to serve without the perks of power.

McCain failed to develop any continuing direction for the party, preferring his shoot from the hip approach. Now many remaining Republicans insist the party must cleanse itself, must champion a strong Christian America with an open economy and closed borders. Voters would flock to a party of such uncompromising principle, they argue. G&M

As it stands the party is now shunned by every part of the electorate that is growing - the young, Latinos, blacks, city dwellers, people in the New South. They obviously have no idea of what America wants:

“But we've tried moderation, say the talk-show hosts and the preachers and the guys at the institutes. We've kowtowed to the ethnics, and toned down on abortion, and supported deficits. Look where it got us.” G&M

One of the candidates for RNC leadership, Tennessee party chair Chip Saltsman, circulated a CD to committee members that contained "Barack the Magic Negro," a parody of a Peter, Paul and Mary song that only those with longer teeth even remember. I suspect if they continue down that path they might experience first hand the hardships of being an identifiable and unwanted minority.

Opposition within

It often happens that a formerly strong leadership collapses in the face of change. The danger is that regardless of how good the replacement they require a vocal opposition. All too often that opposition can only come from within, treading a fine line between support and attack.

According to key members of the Obama team there will be ample opportunity for voices beyond the lobbyists to be heard. That’s fine for the president, but he can’t really speak for those in congress. Perhaps the first push from supporters should be to convince their own reps and senators to forego lobbyist offering in favour of constituent preferences.

The hardest part is balance, there are so many issues we all want dealt with, and each one seems urgent. New governments rarely have the privilege of solving issues quickly and the focus will be very much on domestic economics, thanks to the Bush regime. Certainly moves will be signaled quickly, like closing Guantanamo Bay, but the reality is much more drawn out.

Since I was a neophyte political activist in my teens I’ve detested the concept of gradualism, but it is a sad reality of public affairs. It does not suggest we shouldn’t be