verging_on_random

Shameful xenophobia

Religious leaders often say things that are out of step with the mainstream views of the community. They regard it as part of their job to articulate moral standards that us ordinary folk have trouble living up to. From time to time one religious leader or another says something that many people find completely outrageous, but politicians and journalists don’t normally start screeching hysterically for them to be sacked, deported, disowned by their congregations or whatever. We usually regard that as the province of sleazy talk-back radio hacks like Stan Zemanek.
However, the outcry over the comments made by Muslim Sheik al-Hilali has been staggeringly over-the-top. Here’s the front page of today’s online Australian newspaper:

Sheik Hilali praises Iraq jihadists

TAJ Din al-Hilali has praised militant jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan, calling them men of the highest order for fighting against coalition forces - which include Australian soldiers - to “liberate” their homelands.

Editorial: Immigration advice ignored

Tanveer Ahmed: Islam can modernise

Canberra ignored secret agent’s warning

Islamic body to get rid of mufti role

We’re not fresh meat: women hit back

Shake off Hilali, PM urges Muslims

Enemies demonise Islam, say leaflets

It’s impossible to imagine such a reaction being caused by comments from a leader of any other religious faith. Well at least not since the days almost a century ago when Archbishop Mannix was widely regarded as the agent of the devil, aka the pope of Rome, undermining decent society with his suggestions that young Australians shouldn’t be conscripted to go and fight in Europe for the British Empire. The Mannix saga was of course part of the wider agenda to demonise Irish Roman Catholic Australians, just as this vicious attack on al-Hilali is part of the agenda to demonise Muslim Australians.
The Australian’s editorial staff would do well to take notice of this story they ran last Friday:

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty today warned the media against turning society so against Islam that it created a terrorist backlash.

Mr Keelty called for moderation in media coverage of issues including controversial comments by a senior Islamic cleric.

Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly compared skimpily-dressed women to “uncovered meat” and suggested they were “the problem” that caused sexual attacks, The Australian reported today.

Mr Keelty said that if true, the comments were inflammatory.

“Obviously what was said is going to be offensive to many of us in the community,” Mr Keelty said in Adelaide today.

“But I would also point out that there are many other people in the community who say offensive things from time to time as well, and many of them are … caucasian Australians.

This isn’t the first time the Commissioner has implicitly criticised the way politicians foment hatred of Muslims. Perhaps that’s because he’s trying to protect the whole community, whereas the politicians are only interested in pandering to hatred and prejudice. And lest I be called one-eyed, let me say that Kim Beazley and Bob Brown have been just as quick to pander to the lynch-mob mentality in this instance as our contemptible Prime Minister.

I disagree with what al-Hilali said. But I disagree much more with political opportunists who cynically make use of what he said to create even more hatred and prejudice in the community, purely to advance their own narrow political interests.

Old? Who’s old?

I started jogging more than 20 years ago. i could never claim to be an athlete but I loved jogging. For some reason I found it a great way to enjoy travel. Some of my most vivid memories of distant places involve jogging, usually in the early morning. The Swan River like a mirror in Perth. Moisture in my eyes and nose freezing to ice in a New Hampshire winter. When I think about New Orleans and the hurricane the first picture that comes to mind is an early morning jog along the levee bank, marvelling at the way the houses on one side were lower than the river on the other.

Anyway I gave up jogging 6 or 7 years ago. The chronic injuries just got too painful. If it wasn’t the knee it was the achilles tendon, and if wasn’t that it was the hamstring. One day I walked off the beach with an aching ankle and thought “That’s it … never again.” Which made me sadder than just about anything else associated with growing old .

About two years ago my vital signs all started to go in the wrong direction, weight and cholesterol, that kind of thing . So I spent $250 on one of those thingies that tells you if you’ve got plaque in your coronary arteries. I did. A lot. So the doc sent me to do a stress test on a treadmill, which showed the arteries weren’t blocked but my blood pressure nearly went off the meter .

That was kind of a wake-up call. I didn’t really want to drop dead of a heart attack just yet, or even worse, get some crappy disease like diabetes. So I started to do lots of walking and to really watch what I ate. Slowly I lost weight and about 6 months ago the vital signs were all going in the right direction … except for the blood pressure. After a bit of trial and error I found that the only way to get the blood pressure down was to cut right back on the rum . Oh well, at least it means I can stay awake to mark assignments after tea now.

But one day a few months ago I was walking on the beach and I had this urge to break into a trot … do I did. Nothing bad happened, except that I was bloody sore next day. So I started to do it more often. Then a few weeks ago I splurged on a pair of proper running shoes … the first ones I’ve bought for 15 years. I’m up to 15 km a week now and feel great … I might keep it at that I think. Hopefully I can stop the injuries coming back if I don’t overdo it.

Now if only I could find a way to make the hair grow back …

Imams

Our beloved PM and leader of the nation John Howard has adopted a new tactic lately. When something happens that contradicts his preferred world view he simply ignores or dismisses it. When Qantas announced that 300 local jobs might be lost and the work outsourced to India, he said he couldn’t be expected to “give a running commentary on every single employment decision made by a company”. When an official report summarising the combined work of American intelligence agencies was leaked, revealing the consensus finding that the Iraq invasion had increased the risk of terrorist attack, he said it was “just another view”.

Well it’s understandable I suppose. He’s a busy man, with a schedule of media commitments and photo ops that would make it hard for anyone to keep track of everything that’s happening in the world. Which makes it so surprising that he can find time to give a running commentary on anything that reflects badly on Muslims, no matter how insignificant the event.

For example, yesterday that weird imam from Sydney who appears to be nearly as big a media junkie as the PM made some offensive comments about rape. From what I understand, he suggested that some rape victims who dress in a sexy manner, get drunk, flirt with guys and so on invite sexual assault and it’s a bit rough to lock the guys up for 50 years if they let their dicks do their thinking.

It’s funny, I can remember my mum and assorted other white Anglo-Saxon men and women from an earlier generation in Australia expressing very similar thoughts 30 or 40 years ago (not in those exact words of course - ‘brazen hussies’ I seem to remember was mum’s expression).

Be that as it may, the imam has rightly been condemned for expressing thoughts that are inconsistent with contemporary Australian social attitudes. But for some reason Howard found the time to acquaint himself with the details of the incident, and to ventilate his outrage all over prime time television last night. He’s too busy to respond to official reports that undermine his whole rationale for being in Iraq but he can find time to read up on what ministers of religion are saying about things that aren’t part of the federal government’s responsibilities.

Well actually make that “read up on what Islamic ministers” are saying … he’s remarkably tolerant of other religions’ representatives’ right to say outlandish things. It’s just the Muslims that he bothers to condemn … closely followed no doubt by a disclaimer that not all Muslims are bad people, just some of them. Nudge nudge wink wink, say no more.

Does he think we’re as stupid as he is?

I know some people think that my contempt for the current American president is over the top. So here’s a nice straightforward example of the man’s ability to tell the most blatant lies, either as a deliberate tactic or because he is genuinely self-delusional.

First go here and watch the video, where Bush denies that his Iraq policy was ever ’stay the course’.
Then go here and watch.

This is the man our Prime Minister follows like a faithful puppy.

Racism triumphant

Here’s a classic example of the way the media boosts racism so it can feed off it:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sun-sea-and-slurs-racism-revisits-our-beaches/2006/10/15/1160850814497.html
If you read the story you realise that the people being interviewed played down the idea that the incident at Maroubra was motivated by racism, but of course there’s nothing sexy in a story like that …. thus the headline. And if there was any racism it appears to have been by Maroubra locals against people from an unspecified ‘Asian’ ethnic background. However I’m sure Peter Debnam will see the hand of those 200 middle-eastern thugs in the affair somewhere.

The spin goes on

I love the blogosphere. It really provides a more diverse range of opinions and sources of information than the mainstream commercial media. Over the last month or so, I think I’m starting to understand the next phase in the white English-speaking neo-conservatives’ stance towards the rest of the world.

Just to remind you of the story so far: during the 1980s the Free World, led by St Ronald and St Margaret, finally got sick of all the pussyfooting around by the wimpy lefties and confronted the Evil Empire of communism. Cue collapse of Soviet Union, Beethoven played at Berlin Wall etc. It was the End of History and Freedom was supposed to reign like crazy all over the world.

Unfortunately the wimpy lefties smarmed their way back into power, electing Bill Clinton who spent 8 years not having sex with that woman and letting the security of the Free World go all to hell. By the time he got turfed out along with that climate change panic merchant Al Gore, there was a whole new lot of Evil to confront, except this time it was an Axis not an Empire.

Luckily the greatest President in United States history, St George, came to power in the nick of time. Along with his offsider St Tony and his trusty Man of Steel, he planned a response to terrorist attacks such as the attack on the Twin Towers (carried out mainly by Saudi Arabians), the Bali bombing (carried out by Indonesians) and other outrages (carried out by Englishmen, Spaniards etc). In a stroke of inspired genius, the Coalition of the Willing invaded Iraq.

The Iraq invasion was justified because that badass Saddam had all these weapons of mass destruction that he could unleash on the Free World at 40 minutes notice. We know this because American intelligence said so. Unfortunately the intelligence turned out to be … ummm …. wrong. The Saddam-buys-uranium-from-Nigeria story turned out to be like one of those scams where they want to send you $36 million just as soon as you send details of your bank account and don’t forget the password; the mobile lethal gas factories turned out to be clapped out Kombi vans driven by German backpackers and the people shredder turned out to be a particularly vivid nightmare after Janette ate too much lobster at a dinner with Alan Jones.

Are you with me so far? Good.

This temporary setback didn’t worry the Coalition of the Willing because they could easily argue that the real reason they invaded Iraq was to get rid of Saddam and Let Freedom Reign, as St George wrote in a note to ex-Supremes lead singer now Secretary of State Condi Rice in a wholly spontaneous gesture that was luckily captured on NBC, CNN and Fox News. So for three years now they’ve been sitting confidently waiting for the Iraqi people to realise how lucky they are to have the chance to become a democracy. Waiting …. and waiting ….. still waiting.

So here’s the current state of play. The Palestinians adopted a democratic system of government and promptly elected a government that St George and company reckon are terrorists. The damn Lebanese gave Hamas seats in their democratically-elected government. Seventy something per cent of Iraqis want the Coalition of the Willing’s troops to piss off out of their country, like NOW. More Americans have been killed in Iraq than by the World Trade Centre bombing and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon, unless it gets worse that is.

Looking at other points in the Axis of Evil, Iran may or may not be developing nuclear weapons. Considering it’s surrounded by Israel (has nuclear weapons), Pakistan (has nuclear weapons) and Iraq (governed by America, has a shitload of nuclear weapons) it would hardly be surprising if it decided it wouldn’t mind having some too. North Korea now definitely does have nuclear weapons, which is something of a mystery because St George has drawn several lines in the sand over the last 5 years that the North Koreans weren’t allowed to cross. Maybe they went around the back way or something …. typical sneaky Evil tactics.

Leading to my opening point … where to from here? Well the straws in the wind suggest that the new line from the conservatives will be something like this. They extended the hand of friendship to the Axis of Evil and the Axis bit it (except for that nice Colonel Gaddafi). God, our own PM went on national television the other day to call the North Korean regime “seriously crazy”, which was obviously an attempt to build bridges using a bit of that larrikin kidding that Aussies use about their mates, but even that didn’t work.

So ….. no more mister nice guy!!!!

But that doesn’t leave many options really. There’s no military power left to invade North Korea or Iran. They might bomb the shit out of Iran just to make themselves feel better but the folks back home are going all wussy again so even that might not be a good idea. So it looks like they’re going to ….. sulk. Yep; the story will be that they tried to bring God’s gift of freedom to all these primitive heathens and the ungrateful pricks rejected them. Well you can’t help people who aren’t prepared to help themselves, can you? So last one across the drawbridge pull it up behind you and we’ll leave them to rot in hell. Oh unless they’ve got some skilled migrants to send us …. we don’t want to cut off ALL ties.

Let us devoutly hope that the Democrats get a majority in the American Congress next month. I think Mark Latham would have been a major disaster as PM but when he called GWB the most dangerous president in living memory he got one thing dead right.

The Weirdness of the Religious Right

It’s fun watching the whole Foleygate thing play out in America (for those who don’t know, Congressman Foley resigned in a hurry when a blog revealed that he liked to send online messages to high school kids - boys - who were doing work experience at Congress ….. messages suggesting things like “Hey I bet you’d look good if you took those boxers off”, that kind of stuff. Foley’s 53.)

Foley’s a Republican … sort of the American equivalent of the Liberals here. George W Bush is a Republican. The Republicans have appointed God and the Baby Jesus as honorary patrons and love to tell voters about the Godless Democrats (kind of like the Labor Party) who want to sink American values in a flood of depravity. They spend a lot of time whipping up moral panic about the evils of child molesters, the dangers of the internet to children, the decline in morals in the public school system and all that kind of crap. Think Peter Debnam and his hilarious “Sydney’s a war zone and the middle eastern thugs are running the streets” and you’ll get the picture …. Debnam would be right at home in the Republican Party.

It’s always nice to see one of our self-appointed moral guardians get caught out as an outrageous hypocrite. But Foley’s case was especially enjoyable because he was the chairman of some Congress committee that was set up to protect children from online sexual predators and if he gets charged with criminal offences it’s likely to be under laws that he was instrumental in getting passed.

Anyway it’s the biggest news story in the USA atm and there are all sorts of interesting things being written about it. I liked this comment from ‘A Night Light’ (http://nightlight.typepad.com/nightlight/2006/10/a_word_to_the_v.html):
I have profound policy differences with the Republican and conservative leadership, but that aside - these people are creepy.  Just look at them. Gaze upon DeLay, Trent Lott, and the rest and tell me that, in your heart of hearts, you don’t see what I see: a lifetime of greed and depravity etched into their very faces.

Well I’m not sure about the ‘greed and depravity’ when it comes to our local conservatives but the comment reinforces what I’ve thought for a long time …. some of them are just plain creepy. Be honest - would you like to be seated next to one of the following on a long plane flight? Philip Ruddock …. Tony Abbott …. Kevin Andrews …. Bronwyn Bishop? I mean I could go on but you get the idea.

Deeply creepy, but ppl keep electing them. Weird.

Enjoy the weekend

Death and politics

A year ago four Australians were killed by a terrorist’s bomb in Bali. This was a tragic event for their families and friends, as is the sudden death of anyone close to us. There will be a memorial service in Bali this weekend.

The Australian government has provided financial assistance to 40 people to attend the service.

This is another example of the way in which the Howard Government cynically exploits every opportunity to ramp up people’s hysteria about the Terrurist Threat …. and does it so cleverly that it’s almost impossible for anybody to object. I mean helping people to attend a memorial service is a nice thing to do surely …. although a ratio of 10 mourners to 1 victim makes you wonder where they drew the line when it came to handing out the money.

But what’s beyond argument is that a service in Bali attended by a reasonably large group of people will be a Media Event that makes the nightly news, giving Howard an opportunity to be interviewed and remind us yet again how we must keep supporting him and his government’s campaign to Make Australia Safe. Much more satisfactory for his purposes than leaving people to mourn privately at their own expense, as 99.9% of people have to do when sudden tragedy strikes their families.

It’s all a strange contrast to the experience of Kylie Russell, widow of the first Australian soldier killed in combat in Afghanistan, who not only didn’t get financial assistance to attend a wreath-laying service in honour of Australia’s war dead a couple of years back, she wasn’t even invited. Even though Howard’s bff George W Bush dedicated his wreath to Kylie’s late husband. Our PM had this to say about that incident: “As you may now know, Mrs Russell’s failure to be invited to attend the wreath laying ceremony at the Australian War Memorial last Thursday was a most regrettable oversight.”

He went on to say “that neither Mrs Russell’s activities nor criticisms of the Government in relation to war widows in any way contributed to her failure to be invited.”

Perish the thought Prime Minister.

I wonder if any critics of the government’s anti-terrorism practices missed out on a trip to Bali due to a “regrettable oversight”.

UPDATE: tonight the ABC reported comments that Howard made at a “spontaneous” doorstop interview earlier today:

“Could I just start by saying that Australians should today remember the four Australians who died in the 2005 terrorist attack in Bali a year ago and also many Indonesians who died in that same attack, it’s another reminder of the war against terrorism which we will have to wage for a long time into the future ….” 

The story was accompanied by footage of mourners in Bali. Nobody mentioned that the federal government had stage-managed the whole affair.

No I’m not gifted with second sight ….. it’s more that our Prime Minister has become unfailingly predictable.