In 2009 some Jewish Australian Zionist organisations complained and demanded action over a performance of the play Seven Jewish Children claiming it was anti-Semitic and should not happen. Thankfully they were ignored and the performance went ahead to great success. It’s called freedom of expression in a democracy. One year later, I’ve now been informed…
Showing all posts tagged Australia
What real democracies should do; take responsibility for war crimes
Colombo’s crimes against the Tamils are not forgotten even if many in the country would like the international community to celebrate their “war against terror.” Fat chance: A new project established for the purposes of gathering evidence of war crimes in Sri Lanka has been launched by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the…
Debating why the internet should not be censored
The following article by Erik Jensen appears in today’s Sydney Morning Herald: Governments should not censor the internet. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, disagrees and the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, broadly supports his position. But two journalists and the head of government affairs for Google in Asia strongly agree with the proposition. “We have to…
A government that shuns asylum seekers deserves sanction
Last weekend Australia’s leading unions sent a letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd demanding a more humane response to refugees (the story is covered in today’s Sydney Morning Herald): Dear Prime Minister, We are writing to express our concern at the growing stance of indifference towards and demonisation of asylum seekers from both sides of…
Why did the Australian government help Colombo in its vicious war?
A few months ago a number of Tamils in Australia walked free after pleading guilty to terrorism charges. It was a comprehensive disaster for the Australian government and highlighted a disturbing tendency to do the bidding of the Sri Lankan authorities in its “war against terror” and the Tamil people. One of those released, Arumugam…
Can Australia please not hate refugees for five minutes?
Here’s Australia’s Liberal Party, the main Opposition, with its election-style ad. Note the brief section on refugees, red lines indicating an invasion of “illegals” from countries such as Iran, Sri Lanka, Iraq etc. Not racist at all. No chance:
Asylum seekers in the pursuit of humanity
I went to this yesterday in Sydney. The Australian government (and dog-whistling Opposition) will not get away with demonising refugees in the pursuit of power: Onlookers stared and tourists took photographs as protesters formed a giant ring representing a lifebuoy on Bondi Beach yesterday to send a political message about the treatment of asylum seekers.…
No concern with cuddly Americans killing for Israel
In case anybody was unsure, this story in Politico includes a key point about the profound hypocrisy of America’s foreign policy (and the situation is little different in Australia). It’s alright for Jewish, American citizens to visit Israel and kill Arabs in the name of “fighting terrorism” but anybody caught on the side of the…
Britain shows a modicum of guts towards Israel (take note Australia)
Some Western countries, at least on the surface, don’t treat Israel as the woman they always want to bed: Britain has refused to allow Israel‘s Mossad secret service to send a representative back to the country’s London embassy following the row over the killing of a Hamas operative by agents using forged UK passports. Israel’s…
It’s a good time to be in the detention centre business. Just ask Serco
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: The Australian government’s decision to re-open the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia has attracted predictable outrage from previous detainees and refugee groups but missing from the media coverage was any mention of who will run the facility. British multinational Serco is in charge of the…