Category Archives: Politics

Politics

Finally, finally

I have to celebrate the fact that John Howard, the man who culturally took Australia back to the 1950s, while presiding over an orgy of materialism, is finally, finally gone.

I think my mood is best captured by this audio-visual presentation from the SMH, of the victory speech of Maxine McKew, who unseated Howard in his home constituency, Bennelong, in which I grew up.

I can’t say Kevin Rudd, the new PM, excites me exactly, but at least he is going to sign the Kyoto protocol, and bring Australian troops out of Iraq.

And Australia does now have a female deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard, I believe the highest political office ever held by a woman in Australia.

Environmental politics Feminism

Stories to raise your blood pressure

* In Saudi Arabia, a 19-year-old gang rape victim has been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail for “being in the company of an unrelated man”. The rapists got sentences from two years and upwards….

* In the biggest irrigation area in the Australian state of Victoria, since there isn’t enough water to go around, the plan is to stop allowing access to small farms and save it all for agribusiness.

But more cheerfully, a restaurant that boasts a $25,000 dessert (which even with the state of the dollar is quite a lot of money) has been closed down for health infringements.

Feminism

If men can go topless, why not women?

That’s a question now being put to the test in Sweden, with the equal opportunities ombudsman due to rule shortly.

I would have thought the equality argument was impossible to resist.

But what I’d like to know is what is the “hygiene” issue referred to by the “leisure centre spokesperson”. Why is a woman’s chest less “hygenic” than a man’s?

(I was pleased to see that when I went to this story, the lead item on the entire Brisbane Times was the retirement of the Australian netball captain, Liz Ellis. Even though I personally could never stand netball as a sport.)

Feminism

The Safety First petition

Over on the Green World website I’ve an article about the Safety First campaign to entirely decriminalise sex work and the activities associated with it – I’d encourage you to sign the online petition.

Cycling Environmental politics

Some enforcement at last?

On a recent visit to a Camden council meeting (yes, I do have all of the fun), I did learn that there might, finally, be some plans to enforce the protection for cyclists provided by advanced stop lines.

In the “London Local Authorities and Transport for London Bill, Third Bill for Deposit in November 2007” is a proposal (clauses 25 to 27) to “create a civil offence for unauthorised vehicles blocking or driving into a cycle advance stop area and the cycle lanes that feed them”.

The whole thing is written in dense legalese, but as I understand it the idea is that while “crossing the stop line” (for cars) is now a criminal offence, subject to fines and penalty points, this will retain the possibility of criminal enforcement, while also allowing council parking officers (and cameras?) to take action for the offence.

Don’t really care about the details, but it would be nice is drivers actually got the idea what that green patch with bicycles painted on it means.

Environmental politics

Australia – land of polluters

Somehow I’m not surprised that Australians have come out, on one measure, as the among the world’s worst polluters:

The survey of 50,000 power stations worldwide shows the two biggest producers of CO2 in Australia are in NSW – the Bayswater station at Muswellbrook and Eraring near Lake Macquarie, which each produce 18.325 million tonnes of CO2 a year.
Their level of CO2 to power output is comparable to many of the power stations in China often criticised for being dirty plants.
The survey shows Australians each produce more than 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions for every person just through generating power, compared to nine tonnes for each American and two tonnes for each Chinese.

I’m quite often asked, particularly by taxi drivers, in tones of astonishment, why I would move from Australia to Britain? They are reflecting in general terms the fact that Australia has, since I left a dozen or so years ago, had an almost uninterrupted period of economic growth and materialist expansion.
Well, with the drought stretching on and on, and signs that the El Nino effect is growing in severity with climate change, it is clear that there is at least some form of rough justice in the world – and no there’s no way I’d choose to live in the extremely materialistic culture that has developed, and is reflected in these figures.