Howard's Legacy

Kay's letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald today -

RUDD vs HOWARD

For the past week, we have been hearing John Howard and the rest of his cabinet pouring smears on Kevin Rudd over his presence in three gathering which included Brian Burke.

Rudd has been trying to explain it all in his usual analytical and rational way. Along comes Paul Keating and contributed the best lines of the debate so far:

“Look, look, Kevin has done something, he's met Brian Burke. But I'll tell you what he hasn't done - he hasn't lied to his nation about reasons for committing Australia to a non-UN sponsored invasion and war. He hasn't turned his head from the plight of a boat full of wretched individuals looking for shelter, and then adding insult to injury by saying they threw their kids overboard first, you know. And he hasn't prostituted the UN Oil-for-Food program by falsely declaring that Australia's wheat shipments were not ultra vires of the UN guidelines. Now, this is what this prime minister has presided over, you know …I mean, look, you know, Howard has, you know, lied to the country about the reasons for going to war, going to war for God's sake, and now he wants us to believe it's a major problem if Kevin Rudd meets Brian Burke, you know, Brian who?”

and

“Well, the thing about poor old Costello, he's all tip and no iceberg, you know. He (laughs), you know, he can throw a punch across the parliament, but the bloke he should be throwing the punch to his Howard. Of course, he doesn't have the ticker for it.”

Perhaps Rudd needs to learn to use the old methods to deal with Howard and Costello. From Keating.

WHY HOWARD ATTACKED OBAMA

Interesting point made by Michael Gawenda in today’s Sydney Morning Herald -

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/howard-has-tarred-himself/2007/02/14/1171405293594.html

that John Howard attacked only Obama Barack but not other Presidential candidates - like Senator John Edwards (and, if I may add, Senator Hilary Clinton) for opposing the Iraq War.

Why?

Of course, John Howard has a long history of targeting those who are not Anglo Saxon. Is he up to his tricks again now that the polls are going badly against him?

THE SIGNS THAT SHOCKED SYDNEY

Not often are churches faced with irate customers or rather congregation members. Signs like the one below appeared outside many churches, including the Presbyterian Church in conservative Epping, smack in the middle of John Howard’s constituency.

I looked it up in my copy of the Bible, it was right there in Matthews 5:44.

I suppose those who are unhappy can take it or leave the church. Others may prefer to change the Bible. After all, history has been rewritten many times.

TAINTED AUSSIE FLAG

Our leaders from both sides of politics have expressed shock and horror over the banning of the Aussie flag from a Sydney youth music festival Big Day Out. Perhaps they missed those images that were flashed to the TV screens and the Internet for the whole world to see during the shameful events of the Cronulla riots. Here are some as a reminder -

Nowadays, I too get a bit nervous when young people wrapped the Aussie flag come near me. Perhaps the leaders have left it too late to condemn the wrong use of the flag. To many it no longer represents what it used to. Australia no longer represents what she used to. Our Prime Minister had made sure of that over the past decade.

Rudd's Interview (Unofficial translation)

In one of my previous posts I mentioned about Kevin Rudd handling a TV interview in Mandarin. Very interestingly I received comments from someone with the blog name of Goodtobewithyou, Rudd’s trademark greeting. Goodtobewithyou was kind enough to point out to me the link to the website of Phoenix TV network (a Hong Kong TV network partly owned by News Corp) where I could find a transcript of the interview, in Chinese of course, but he then asked if I could translate it for him! For someone supposedly to have an occasional contact with Mr Rudd, I thought he could get one more quickly from the man himself. We can only speculate who this mysterious and anonymous character really is – and if only we can get on his own well protected blog!

http://goodtobewithyou.blogspot.com

Being quite keen to read the full text, I looked for an English translation which I thought must surely exist. I had hoped for a quick perusal without the tedium of frequent references to my still brand new Chinese-English dictionary. The most obvious place was Rudd’s own office. Alas, my email went unanswered – either because they were too busy planning the takeover of Canberra or just plain rude! Undeterred, I ventured into an unofficial translation myself, while under my breath thanking my parents for encouraging me to build a basic foundation in Chinese during school. After some hours’ work, it was finished, all five pages of it. To post it in the normal way would take up too much web space on the opening page of my blog. Instead, I have posted them as comments, in two parts, below.

Iemma vs the Sheik

Premier Iemma of NSW must be happy to read that the bizarre Sheik Hilaly is considering contesting against him in the state elections in March.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/shock-showdown-for-iemma/2007/01/20/1169096030968.html

Apart from allowing the people (including the Muslims who make up more than 10% of the voters in the seat) to make a clear choice it it will be an opportunity for the government to debate the issues regarding the Muslim minorities.

Most of all, it puts the Liberal coalition leader Debnam in a quandary - who will he support or oppose ?

35 Days

I was away for 35 days and many things changed. Firstly and very sadly one of my best friends died, which among many things, reminded me of my mortality. Then there was a local council by-election which proved once again how resistant people are to change. And finally there was a new Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd.

Locked in a hotel room with my sick daughter in freezing Harbin a couple of years ago, I channel surfed the TV and happened upon an interview of Rudd by a Chinese reporter. I was most impressed with Rudd's handling of very technical foreign relations issues in fluent Mandarin.

It would serve him well if people are impressed with the ALP policies under his leadership as I was with his Mandarin!

New Hanson Hatred

Kay predicted this -



Full article at

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hanson-turns-on-diseased-africans/2006/12/06/1165081010724.html

Thanks, mum and dad

Kay's latest letter - Sydney Morning Herald 4 December 2006

"Society has always found ways to distinguish between people - by colour, class, wealth, birth. The divisions Michael Duffy describes ("Rich, smart and isolated: meet the new aristocrats", December 2-3) are just the latest variant.

Members of any group are there because of accidents of birth. Those born with IQs able to take advantage of the opportunities offered to them are accidental beneficiaries of their birth, just as those of the upper classes were in a previous generation.

So while individuals may consider they have an entitlement to their wealth because of hard work, we would all do well to reflect that our genetic inheritance is not a result of effort. It is good fortune.

Kay Kan
Cheltenham"

PM Howard to advise US on Iraq?

No doubt standing on a high rostrum looking down on the battered George W Bush, Howard has suddenly found his courage to tell his good friend what should have been done in Iraq.

But what was he doing before the disasterous (for Republicans) mid-term elections? Cheering Bush on while following a safe distance behind.

Fox News and the American Elections

Those of you who have had the misfortune of accidentally switching your cable TV to the Fox News Channel will be aware of how the Murdoch-owned news network adores George W Bush and his associates. It is amazing, if not nauseating, how spins are regularly dished out to denigrate any shades of opposition to the Bush Administration.

Needless to say we take care to avoid accidentally trespassing into this channel – except whenever there are news particularly bad for Bush and we want to enjoy a good laugh at the Channel's predicament in finding a good explanation for a dreadful situation.

Like the results of the US Mid-term elections held on Tuesday Nov 8th 2006 for instance.

As Bush's Republican Party Senators and Congressmen fell one by one to the Democrats, the spinners dug deep for a comment. One of the gems that came out was –

the situation was not as bad as it appeared because “the more liberal Republicans were being ditched by the voters in favour of more conservative Democrats”

I guess GWB should be claiming victory.

New Mobile Phone from Telstra

McDougall St at Kirribilli, beautiful at this time of the year being lined with Jacaranda trees in full bloom. This photo was taken today with my new Nokia mobile phone given to me free by Telstra when I agreed to sign on for another 2 years.

This new gadget is also an MP3 player, a radio, a video camera besides having email and web-surfing capabilities. And it even allows me to make phone calls. It runs on the 3G network, a network that is still being expanded and is not complete. I can also access the more advanced features, at addtional costs, in some places.

However, the Telstra staff told me that the 3G is fast becoming 0bsolete and was pushing me to get the alternate "free phone", a Samsung device capable of using the new Next G network.

And the advantage of the Next G? Faster data and ability to access Foxtel cable TV. I can't speak much faster and he did not know how bad my eyesight was. Point is, I told him I was not interested in watching TV on a small screen and hence I took the "obsolete" 3G mobile phone. Competition must be tough if they have to offer such high tech devices at apparently heavily subsidised prices.

I just hope that potential buyers of the Telstra T3 shares realise how vicious the competition is, how quickly technology is going obsolete and how much Telstra is hanging on the Next G to make them lots of money.

Another worry is how useless the new extras can be to people - like me!

Mr Brown

While on the subject of Singapore, this apparently is the article that "distorted the truth" and got blogger Mr Brown fired!

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/127762print.asp

Haze in Singapore

Time for an article that is not courtesy of Mr Fairfax or Murdoch, in fact this is a Straits Times opinion piece I found by search engine about haze in Singapore caused by Indonesian forest fires. - Yvonne!

Haze: Why Jakarta should accept international help

By Janadas Devan, Senior Writer Nov 04, 2006 The Straits Times

THE Indonesia forest fires are, in the first instance, a health hazard. Asthmatics in five countries cannot breathe, the old and infirm cannot go out, and the young and healthy have to ration their time outdoors because Indonesia, without fail, belches smoke into the atmosphere every dry season.
In addition, the forest fires are also a staggering environmental disaster - for Indonesia itself, but also for the globe.
The 1997-98 fires, the worst on record, pumped 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, almost half of what the United States emitted that year fuelling the world's largest economy. This year's fires probably emitted more than one billion tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of 15 per cent of all emissions from burning fossil fuels worldwide.
What is the use of the world meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, next week to discuss further curbs on the emission of greenhouse gases if Indonesia's pyromaniacs are free to routinely evaporate the carbon stored in their forests and peatlands into the atmosphere?
According to the experts at the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFR) in Bogor, Indonesia, the country's peatlands contain 21per cent of the earth's land-based carbon. Unless Kalimantan's annual peatland fires - which have accounted for 60 to 80 per cent of the haze since 1997-98, according to CIFR's experts - are brought to an end soon, all that carbon can end up as greenhouse gas.
A 2002 study in Nature estimated that Indonesia's annual fires 'launched enough carbon into the atmosphere to completely offset a year's worth of the planet's ability to control greenhouse emissions'. In other words, they cancel out all that humanity can hope to achieve by means of the Kyoto accord on global warming.
The annual fires are also a regional economic and strategic disaster. The 1997-98 fires, for instance, cost regional economies US$9 billion (S$14.1 billion), according to the Asean Secretariat's environment and disaster management centre. In addition to the immediate economic cost, there is also the long-term damage to the region's credibility.
What does it say of Asean's ability to compete effectively with China and India if it cannot prevent its territory from being periodically blanketed by smoke? What does it say of Asean as an attractive destination for investors if the largest country in the grouping, Indonesia, proves unable to prevent forest fires?
At bottom, the fires reflect a failure of governance. The longer Indonesia takes to resolve this issue, the more settled will the impression become that the region cannot deal effectively with its problems. And the more settled that impression becomes, the less credible will Asean as a whole seem.
Helping a neighbour
FOR all these reasons, Singapore has made a strong effort internationally to help Indonesia help itself.
Speaking before a United Nations committee on sustainable development last week, Singapore diplomat Kevin Cheok said Indonesia's annual forest fires have global as well as regional consequence, and thus 'require global action'.
'The scale and severity of the problem means Asean will require international assistance, including from the UN,' he said.
Ultimately, this is a problem that can be solved only if Indonesians wish to solve it. The fires, after all, contravene Indonesian law, and only the Indonesian government can enforce those laws. But that does not mean other Asean countries - especially Malaysia and Singapore, the two most affected by the haze, besides Indonesia itself - as well as international agencies do not have a role to play, as Mr Cheok noted.
If one neighbour's house is on fire, one would not hesitate to lend him one's hose. Similarly, because Indonesia is our largest close neighbour, and because it contains almost half of Asean's population, we would not hesitate to help it douse its forest fires. And neither would the rest of Asean or the UN.
The difficulty is persuading the Indonesian authorities to accept this help. Astonishingly, the Indonesian representative at the UN committee, Ms Adiyatwidi Adiwoso Asmady, characterised Singapore's call for international assistance as 'badgering'.
It 'is tantamount to interference in the domestic affairs of Indonesians', she claimed.
She went on to suggest that there might be 'some malice' behind Singapore's statement to the UN committee; that there were other 'issues related to environmental degradation that also need to be addressed - such as the export of hazardous waste, illegal logging and sand-mining'; and that Singapore should 'cease to give protection, safety and sanctuary for corruptors and their ill-gotten wealth'.
All this merely for suggesting that the haze is a staggering problem, that Indonesia and Asean cannot cope with it themselves, and that international assistance is urgently needed?
When Indonesia was struck by a tsunami in December 2004, the world responded generously, and Indonesia had no difficulty accepting the aid. It was obvious the disaster occurred through no fault of any Indonesian, and that its 'scale and severity' were such that the country's recovery depended on international assistance.
The haze is a man-made catastrophe, for which many Indonesians can be blamed. Though its 'scale and severity' are such that Jakarta cannot solve the problem without international help, some Indonesian officials find it difficult to accept that fact.
Unlike in the case of a natural disaster, asking for and accepting help for a man-made disaster seems to them to underline their culpability. This is an unproductive attitude.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself has acknowledged Indonesia's responsibility and has apologised to the country's neighbours for the haze.
Because of his intervention, regional environmental ministers have met to discuss the problem, plans have been drawn up for Asean countries to work directly with Indonesian districts where the fires occur, funds have been allocated for cloud-seeding and firefighting operations, and two Russian firefighting planes have been leased.
All these are positive steps, but more needs to be done. That 90 per cent of this year's fires have been put out is due more to the rains than to Jakarta's belated interventions.
Experts warn that next year's haze could be as bad as, or worse than, 1997-98's because of El Nino. To avoid that possibility, Jakarta should treat its annual forest fires as man-made tsunamis and allow the international community to help Indonesia help itself.
janadas@sph.com.sg
GLOBAL ACTION NEEDED
'The haze problem can be permanently resolved only if there is effective and sustained action on Indonesia's part. Indonesia will need help. Singapore, like other affected countries, is prepared to assist within our capabilities. Indeed Singapore and other affected Asean countries have already offered help and are now looking into what more we can do. But the scale and severity of the problem means that Asean will require international assistance, including from the UN... Annual forest fires on this scale have global and not just regional consequences. They require global action. But Indonesians themselves must muster the political will to take the crucial first steps and wholeheartedly support President Yudhoyono in his efforts to address this problem.'
SINGAPORE DIPLOMAT KEVIN CHEOK, speaking at the United Nations on Oct 25
NO SUBSTANTIVE COOPERATION
'My government remains open to any initiative that will maximise Asean cooperation, especially on vitally important aspects of this problem. Unfortunately, no substantive cooperation has been realised at this juncture. Hence, we find it difficult to understand the motives of Singapore in making that disparaging statement, unless there is some malice behind it.'
INDONESIAN DIPLOMAT ADIYATWIDI ADIWOSO ASMADY responding to Singapore at the UN