This take on the Freo by-election isn't as analytical as William Bowes', the self-proclaimed "doctor candidate" from UWA, but then it's not trying to be. If you want to hear droll takes on electoral science, check out his blog. For the truth in laymans terms, read on.
Saturday the 16th of August, while we were all telling Daylight Savings' supporters to stick the notion where the sun won't shine an hour earlier, the State Green Party somehow scored the seat of Fremantle in a by-election. Given that this has long be seen as perhaps Labor's safest seat both in state and federal arenas, I chucked a Clomumbo and began investigating.
The Fremantle by-election was necessary due to the retirement of Jim McGinty from state politics. Immediately, that's cause for concern. While Jim McGinty was Attorney-General in the Carpenter Government he managed to annoy a ridiculously large numebr of people, including those within Labor. Indeed, some reckon he was on a mission to discredit many memebrs of the Labor Part's right wing, especially when he authorised investigations against Brian Burke and Julian Grills.
As part of these investigations he did what I thought at the time was the stupidest politics move in the history of both politics and stupid moves: he had lobbyist Julian Grills' personal home phone tapped. He ordered the police to monior all of Mr Grills' personal phone calls. This man makes or break careers, in fact his job is to do the real politics behind all the farce and theatre of Parliament. Make no mistake, you don't mess with someone liek Julian.
So this by-election is on the cards, and the Mayor of Fremantle, Peter Tagliaferri, a well-known and general good local bloke, is pre-selected by the ALP, after joining the party last April (relatively fast rising up the ranks?). The Liberals don't even bother running agaisnt him. However some unions have a bone to pick with this man, albeit a small one. In his time on the Freo Council there was a disagreement concerning non-union contracts being issued which gave "scabs" 10% less pay than workers on collective agreements.
Suddenly the unions, in partnership with Mr Grills, are protesting, picketing and telling contacts/members to vote against old Pete. The Asutralian Service Union is particularly vocal, and former ASU Secretary Paul Burlinson helps run a concerted campaign against Labor. Mind you, Labor didn't help when they sent out emails and SMSs telling members to march with Labor, rather than thier union on May Day to "show your support for Peter".
Don't get me wrong, this wasn't the only factor (preferences played a major role), but in my view it was the deciding factor.
On the news we only here of a close by-election with a suprising result. Behind the scenes is a far more dramatic tale. As is the case with most political stories.
And now Adele Carles is the Member for Freo, and the state Greens Party gets a much needed funding boost at the expense of the ALP, whose heartland is stolen from under their feet, leaving them feeling more shaken than a baby's maraca.
Moral of the story: don't annoy lobbyists.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Immigration Debunks the Globalisation Myth
I was wondering why so many of us aren't too crazy about immigrants, considering we're meant to be a multi-cultural, global and above all politically-correct society here in Australia. At first I thought it much be because Australians are somewhat lay and can't be bothered competing for jobs with hard-working Asians. While this might be true, it dawned on me that the stuff we keep hearing from economists, polticians and uni lecturers about globalisation and its dominance could be having a lend of us. I know many people argue that globalism broke after last year's Financial Crisis, but here's why I reckon it never truly existed. So if you're doing "Macroeconomics and the Rise of the Global Economy" listen up.
Why has what many politicians and right-wing commentators call "the immigration problem" become in many Western countries a fundamental datum of state policy? (This is particularly topical as the Rudd Government is posied to announce cutbacks of migration quotas). Basically, because foreigners who arive, live and work here are proof that the thesis of a democratic unity in the world (realised by the market and the "international community", by the way: what comprises the international community? It certainly isn't the servility dubbed the UN, or the "civilised" USA and its clientele) is a sham. If globalisation was a reality, we would welcome these "foreigners" as people coming from the same world as ourselves. We would treat them as someone coming from another region of Australia who stops over in our town, then finds work and settles here. But this is not at all what happens
The most widespread conviction, and one which both Labor and Liberal policies seek to reinforce, is that these people come from a different world. That is the problem. They are living proof that our democratic and developed world is not, for those in charge of the dominant capitalist order, the only world of women and men. There exist in our midst women and men who, although they live and work here like anyone else, are considered to have come from another world. Money is the same everywhere (as dollars can be readily exchanged for euros, and the dollars, or more often yuan, of immigrants is readily accepted by everyone). But as for these people themselves, because of their origin and/or mode of existance we are told that they are not part of our world.
State authorities and their blind followers will keep tabs on them, ban them from staying, mercilessly ciritcise their customs, their way of dressing, their family or religious practises. Many people, inspired by fear and organised in this fear by the state, anxiously wonder how many of them there are among us, these people from a different world. Tens of thousands? Millions? And this question inevitably leads to persecution, prohibition and explusion on a mass scale. This question, in 1930's Germany, paved the way for extermination.
Yes, I am criticising our attitudes towards foreigners as well, however what I am really trying to illustrate to you is that we are told two contradicting things: that globalisation is alive and well, and that movement of human capital internationally must be restricted. Just one example of how ironic the state of affairs is today. And if you feel squeamish about my observations about Australian attitudes towards immigrants, well good. Maybe if we make a change as a society there will be less reason for you to feel disturbed.
Cheers for reading. Hope your day's better than the Tamil Tigers'.
Why has what many politicians and right-wing commentators call "the immigration problem" become in many Western countries a fundamental datum of state policy? (This is particularly topical as the Rudd Government is posied to announce cutbacks of migration quotas). Basically, because foreigners who arive, live and work here are proof that the thesis of a democratic unity in the world (realised by the market and the "international community", by the way: what comprises the international community? It certainly isn't the servility dubbed the UN, or the "civilised" USA and its clientele) is a sham. If globalisation was a reality, we would welcome these "foreigners" as people coming from the same world as ourselves. We would treat them as someone coming from another region of Australia who stops over in our town, then finds work and settles here. But this is not at all what happens
The most widespread conviction, and one which both Labor and Liberal policies seek to reinforce, is that these people come from a different world. That is the problem. They are living proof that our democratic and developed world is not, for those in charge of the dominant capitalist order, the only world of women and men. There exist in our midst women and men who, although they live and work here like anyone else, are considered to have come from another world. Money is the same everywhere (as dollars can be readily exchanged for euros, and the dollars, or more often yuan, of immigrants is readily accepted by everyone). But as for these people themselves, because of their origin and/or mode of existance we are told that they are not part of our world.
State authorities and their blind followers will keep tabs on them, ban them from staying, mercilessly ciritcise their customs, their way of dressing, their family or religious practises. Many people, inspired by fear and organised in this fear by the state, anxiously wonder how many of them there are among us, these people from a different world. Tens of thousands? Millions? And this question inevitably leads to persecution, prohibition and explusion on a mass scale. This question, in 1930's Germany, paved the way for extermination.
Yes, I am criticising our attitudes towards foreigners as well, however what I am really trying to illustrate to you is that we are told two contradicting things: that globalisation is alive and well, and that movement of human capital internationally must be restricted. Just one example of how ironic the state of affairs is today. And if you feel squeamish about my observations about Australian attitudes towards immigrants, well good. Maybe if we make a change as a society there will be less reason for you to feel disturbed.
Cheers for reading. Hope your day's better than the Tamil Tigers'.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Drugs
Okay so I've made this Blog because I put a note up on Facebook about how I reckon the military is unnecessary, and all my friends now hate me for having an opinion. It's not too cool among Aussie youth to write about stuff which could offend others. Anyway, to avoid kicking up another shit-storm I'm here.
Here's some thought on drugs and other things that help you get totally wasted.
1) If you really, desperately must get blitzed, you can't go past battery acid injected into the base of your brain. It'll kill you quicker than a .50 bullet to the face. Don't do it at home. Don't do it anywhere.
2) Heroin, aka smack, is sold in little plastic bags of white powder. It's retailed by nervous, sweaty, bad-smelling losers who can't help scratching themselves. Many affluent, hip, middle-class folks have procured a recreational, manageable and affordable relationship with this drug, thus acquiring for themselves an existential-Cold-War-era-Berlin-style cool. Many other affluent, hip, middle-class folks have tried the same trick only to end up addicted and morph into nervous, sweaty, bad-smelling losers who can't help scartching themselves. It's like Russian Roulette: a fantastic rush, but occaisonally you wake up dead the next morning.
3) Speed, or amphetamine, is the little brother of heroin. Speed freaks smell funny and have been known to exacerbatee their odour problems by dressing in "protective material" such as full rubber wetsuits when in the grip of a really awful delusion. On the upside, without these little pills our trucking industry would collapse, student newspapers would never get published and it would become really difficult to get through that week-long Simpsons marathon on Foxtel.
4) Less imediately devestating to your health are methamphetamines, which are often labelled under the umbrella term ecstacy. Part stimulant and part hallucinogen, this curious bunch of drugs were originally developed by the Nazis as marriage-counselling tools. Why Nazi Germany then tried to ensalve Europe instead of giving them a big hug and maybe a little dry-humping action on the leg is beyond me. "Eccies" seems to induce people to wear stupid hats, which then prevents body heat from escaping via the top of the head. Often enough this can kill you quicker than the drug itself.
5) At $200 a gram, cocaine is very much the Italian sports car of drugs. Have too much, and indeed, your life will come to resemble a lot of Italian sports cars driven around by crazy Italians, all of them fanging around at 300 miles an hour, paying no attention to anyone else, to road rules or even to the basic laws of physics. Basically, cocaine is God's way of telling you that you have too much money.
6)LSD/acid is the most benign of the really potent drugs. The choice of '60s hippies, it is making a comeback after 20 years in the unfashionable cabinet. What you get out of acid depends largely on what you put in: control freaks need not apply. A bad trip will transform happy-lopsided hallucinations into snapping gilla monsters from which you can't escape, and you'll probably break some bones trying to do so. But you might get to see people talk in rainbows instead of words, and rather than striking the hour, the town clock might jump through the window and tap out the time on the side of your head.
7) Marijuana, or dope, is different from other drugs in that the police don't care too much. In Adelaide you can grow your own, provided you don't push your luck with a 5000 plant crop in the Riverlands, protected by gun-toting bikies and hidden pits with sharpened bamboo stakes. In Perth its technically against the law, but the law has officially been told by the Government to find something better to do in its spare time other than shaking down befuddled hipsters for a few doobies at the Big Day Out. If you have an underlying mental illness, weed will certainly bring it to the fore. Not that you'll care, lying there, whacked off your nut as the giants bats swoop down, bringing with them the headache that ate Rottnest.
Thanks for reading. Hope you're doing better than the stock market.
Here's some thought on drugs and other things that help you get totally wasted.
1) If you really, desperately must get blitzed, you can't go past battery acid injected into the base of your brain. It'll kill you quicker than a .50 bullet to the face. Don't do it at home. Don't do it anywhere.
2) Heroin, aka smack, is sold in little plastic bags of white powder. It's retailed by nervous, sweaty, bad-smelling losers who can't help scratching themselves. Many affluent, hip, middle-class folks have procured a recreational, manageable and affordable relationship with this drug, thus acquiring for themselves an existential-Cold-War-era-Berlin-style cool. Many other affluent, hip, middle-class folks have tried the same trick only to end up addicted and morph into nervous, sweaty, bad-smelling losers who can't help scartching themselves. It's like Russian Roulette: a fantastic rush, but occaisonally you wake up dead the next morning.
3) Speed, or amphetamine, is the little brother of heroin. Speed freaks smell funny and have been known to exacerbatee their odour problems by dressing in "protective material" such as full rubber wetsuits when in the grip of a really awful delusion. On the upside, without these little pills our trucking industry would collapse, student newspapers would never get published and it would become really difficult to get through that week-long Simpsons marathon on Foxtel.
4) Less imediately devestating to your health are methamphetamines, which are often labelled under the umbrella term ecstacy. Part stimulant and part hallucinogen, this curious bunch of drugs were originally developed by the Nazis as marriage-counselling tools. Why Nazi Germany then tried to ensalve Europe instead of giving them a big hug and maybe a little dry-humping action on the leg is beyond me. "Eccies" seems to induce people to wear stupid hats, which then prevents body heat from escaping via the top of the head. Often enough this can kill you quicker than the drug itself.
5) At $200 a gram, cocaine is very much the Italian sports car of drugs. Have too much, and indeed, your life will come to resemble a lot of Italian sports cars driven around by crazy Italians, all of them fanging around at 300 miles an hour, paying no attention to anyone else, to road rules or even to the basic laws of physics. Basically, cocaine is God's way of telling you that you have too much money.
6)LSD/acid is the most benign of the really potent drugs. The choice of '60s hippies, it is making a comeback after 20 years in the unfashionable cabinet. What you get out of acid depends largely on what you put in: control freaks need not apply. A bad trip will transform happy-lopsided hallucinations into snapping gilla monsters from which you can't escape, and you'll probably break some bones trying to do so. But you might get to see people talk in rainbows instead of words, and rather than striking the hour, the town clock might jump through the window and tap out the time on the side of your head.
7) Marijuana, or dope, is different from other drugs in that the police don't care too much. In Adelaide you can grow your own, provided you don't push your luck with a 5000 plant crop in the Riverlands, protected by gun-toting bikies and hidden pits with sharpened bamboo stakes. In Perth its technically against the law, but the law has officially been told by the Government to find something better to do in its spare time other than shaking down befuddled hipsters for a few doobies at the Big Day Out. If you have an underlying mental illness, weed will certainly bring it to the fore. Not that you'll care, lying there, whacked off your nut as the giants bats swoop down, bringing with them the headache that ate Rottnest.
Thanks for reading. Hope you're doing better than the stock market.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)