Scott Morrison; MP, racist … bully

Scott Morrison’s interview with the ABC’s chief politicalcorrespondent, Sabra Lane, this morning from Adelaide was an exercise in everything that is rotten about politics in Australia today.  The leaderless cancer eating away at the ranks of the ALP is so malignant that the Opposition knows well it need do absolutely nothing to get into power in September … nothing at all … not even needing to develop workable, articulate or costed policies.

This was certainly clear from a snarling Scott Morrison this morning whose aggression right from the go-get soon descended into paranoiac accusations of the ABC meddling in Coalition affairs, and eventually into outright bullying in his juvenile attempts to disguise the clear fact that the Coalition has not even attempted to cost what they are claiming they will do to ‘stop the boats’.

So it seems that Mr Morrison and his Coalition need not exercise any of the baby-kissing traits of conventional politics in the lead-up to this election.  They simply do not feel they need to be liked, and discernible, well-developed and articulated policies appear to be unnecessary also.

No one’s arguing that our current lot are doing very much for our best interests at present, but at least there is some compassion in the way they talk to and treat the electorate.  Not so Mr Morrison and his ilk.  I mourn the loss of humanity as a trait we value in our leaders.

Introducing the Coalition’s new media advisers.  Pic: http://csu301d.wordpress.com

Mind-numbing national capital

The midweek, Melbourne – Canberra run must be the biggest money-making scam this country has going; at best you might be lucky enough to snaffle a 1-way fare for about three-fitty, but in the main, you're looking at a blow-out of six-fitty and up.  I guess it's supply and demand; and charging exorbitant travel tabs to tax-payer [over-]funded execs and pollies may well be the only way to keep a fabricated city with no industry or self-sustaining infrastructure afloat.

The result of this feat of award-winning town planning is that Donkey, visiting our national capital next week for a one-and-half hour meeting, is looking down the barrel of having to kill 3 hours until after five just to escape the day within a reasonable budget.  What the hell am I going to do, other than sit in bland cafes fitted-out with generic office partitions, drinking disgusting brews at twice the price?  God Save the Governor General, indeed!

The title of this pic is "Painfully bored woman in cafe" – welcome to Canberra.  Pic: http://dailypic.co.uk

Now for today's puff news piece

I can always rely on China to haul me out of a writer's block.  Further to my recent remarks about the poor status of animal welfare at the Adelaide Zoo, this report in today's The Age is completely outrageous!

There is just so much wrong with this article that I dunno where to start; a zoo (being an institution supposedly in the business of protecting the lives of animals) breeding a tiger and a lion ... for what reason?  Or were they just locked-up in the same cage together? 

Then there's the mother abandoning the cubs (which under the circumstances is probably completely natural, even though the in-depth analysis from the reporter attributed this outcome to "unknown reasons"), resulting in two of them dying of weakness [presumably from malnutrition/starvation].  Sure, this sort of thing would happen in the wild, but isn't there supposed to be supervisory care of animals in zoos?  Surely the zoo staff would be tasked with paying extra special attention to newborn cubs?

And then there's the statement, "...zoo staff found a dog ... to feed the surviving cubs".  Ah geez.  Pretty lucky to have that dog hanging around – and she looks so impressed in the photo, too.  What sort of outfit is this?

There's so much more going on with this story than has been articulated in this three sentence grab.  I don't know who I am more angry with, a Government which treats its caged animals only slightly better than many of its citizens, or The Age, for spewing out this regurgitated, Chinese propoganda. 

And don't be blaming all this on on-line content killing the print media – I paid the full $1.70 for the print version, and that's where the story was!  Grrrr.

This poor girl's eyes are as dead as my faith in the international community to support both human and animal rights in China.  Pic: http://www.theage.com.au

Editorialising

Partly because I am so high brow and intellectual, but mostly ‘cause it’s the only channel on the TV here, I’ve been watching a lot of BBC World News lately.  I’ve noticed that in the midst of the hard hitting analysis and commentary, a lot of the reporters try to editorialise, and show a bit of flare, but with only very rare success.

For example one reporter, in describing the Libyan rebels’ brave stance against Gaddafi’s ruthless military juggernaut, said “…despite the sporadic mobilisation and apparent lack of discipline amongst the rebels, the militia leaders assure NATO that their forces are indeed well organised.  From here at the front line, however, one could only describe their position as organised chaos”.  Hmm, pithy - not bad, I suppose.

Or how about this, “for now, the world is asking, is there a cure for the US’ Afghanistan headache?”, lame!

And tonight, this one nit wit described Gaddafi at one of his recent, rare press appearances as wearing “his trade mark dark glasses”.  Hmm … trade mark?  “Distinctive”, I’ll give you, but surely if Muammar Gaddafi’s got a trade mark, it’s more in the line of political and military obstinacy and ruthless, blood-thirsty butchering and maiming of innocent civilians.

If you’re going to free-style it off the auto-cue, BBC World, at least have a go at keeping things on the straight and narrow as you fall over yourselves trying to let fly with the witty one-liners.

TM

Pic: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com

Might is Power?

There’s been quite a bit of a comment in the Australian media of late concerning the Australian Government’s “intervention” to arrest rampant child abuse and community dysfunction amongst indigenous communities in the Northern Territory through the deployment of a military and civil police force to remote communities to round-up suspects and limit misuse of government support pensions to households.

The Intervention, initiated by the Howard Liberal Government, and subsequently continued by both the Rudd and Gillard Labor Governments has polarised both the indigenous and wider Australian community, with as many advocates and commentators from both groups lauding the “something had to be done” approach, as those outraged by the blatant infringements on the civil rights of indigenous Australians.

The Intervention was modelled precisely on the Australian-led, Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), which was sent-in back in 2003 to restore law and order, and kick-start reform towards self-governance in the civil war-torn country.  The Intervention in the Northern Territory employed the same military tactics, the same infrastructure, the same logistics operators and even the same Military Commander to oversee its initial implementation, and like here in Solomon Islands, the Intervention is still in place, some four years later.

Whether you agree that a 600-strong military intervention to subdue a ragged collection of presumably unarmed Australian citizens was the right way to go or not, one would have to question what the impact of whole troops of white guys with guns barging-in on their community will have on the mentality of the young kids who will grow to become the leaders of those communities.

Here in Solomons, a visit to the only DVD store in town will demonstrate hoards of young people selecting their favourite entertainment option from a limited range of genres comprising “Action”, “Martial Arts”, Kick-boxing”, “War”, “Westerns” and “Horror”.

The same images glorifying war and violence amongst young people can be seen all over their school books, behind bus seats and on public walls all over the city; the fully-armed, equipped, cruelly calculating Melanesian Super-soldier (see pic).

Military might may be useful in creating a dramatic halt to actual violence, but has the unintended consequence of portraying the lesson of that ‘Might is Power’; a potentially dangerous lesson in a setting where young people are likely to grow-up with limited economic and employment opportunities.  I wonder whether this is good for our country as well.

These images appear all over Honiara.  This one beneath a bridge.  Pic: Hagas