Tampa Day 2001 - remembered Saturday 27 August 2005

Lots of things have happened since my previous posting. We have gone from World Refugee Day on 20 June, to Melbourne and Morry Schwartz commenting on the impending federal defamation legislation 5 July (expect Phillip Ruddock to remove some more of our freedom of expression) http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/programs/ltf/lectures/rbl/2005/schwartz.html

Students of Sustainability Conference, 11-16 July at Monash University http://www.fta.org.au/node/472/view

Then came the poetry event 'Words Against Warriors' at The Brisbane Social Forum 29, 30 and 31 July http://www.brisbanesocialforum.org/

Then came Hiroshima Day 8 August (remembering two grotesque experiments that may not have ended the war in the Pacific and saved thousands of lives - as we were told for so long) http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s159696.htm

Next a state by-election in Queensland Saturday 20 August (more on this) to Tampa Day 27 August - a day of shame for Australians to ask forgiveness from asylum seekers who were so wronged by our pernicious government policies.

John Howard is not the only threat to our fragile democracy. This is a letter I wrote to Peter Beattie, following his comments on ABC TV (Saturday 20 August), when confronted by Greens candidate for the by election in Chatsworth, Elissa Jenkins, on the vexing subject of bogus How to Vote cards (are they legal?).

http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/margo_kingston_comment/001385.html
Gives you the letter I wrote to Peter Beattie, Premier of Queensland. This is someone who believes it is OK to cheat when the law is too weak to stop you. Moral relativism like that of 'Pete the Cheat' is not the sort of example I would like to be giving to children of the next generation.

The way politicians are reminds me of the 'development' industry and how they want to change other people. The problem is that neo-liberal political operators want to make everyone 'fall into line' (as John Howard would say of Muslim Australians). Things work (or don't work) in much the same way in developing countries. See next posting!