And In Other News

Interestingly another fairly major news story was ignored by our media last week. Granted, it probably seemed a bit boring when lined up against Paul McCartney’s divorce or Keith Urban’s rehab adventures but I still think it would have been worth a mention somewhere.

For those who missed it, last week George W Bush signed the Military Commissions Act after it passed through the US congress. “Wow! Riveting” I here you say. Maybe that’s not very interesting but what is interesting is what the act means for the USA and the rest of the world. Essentially the act, under the pretence of creating a ‘safer’ America, overrides some of the most basic human and democratic rights that were previously unassailable in The American Bill of Rights.

The new law basically allows the US government to arrest any person suspected to be an ‘enemy combatant’ and hold them without charge indefinitely. The law excuses the government of any mistreatment of current detainees and worse, means that any US citizen, or foreigner (read ANYONE!) can be arrested and charged based on hearsay, be held without knowing the charges against them and be tortured until they confess. That confession can then be used to convict and prosecute the accused. Sounds tough, but then, the terrorists and ‘enemy combatants’ deserve tough treatment. Right?

But who exactly is an ‘enemy combatant’? According to the Military Commissions Act it is anyone who is declared an enemy combatant by the Government. This includes not only terrorists but also anyone who commits a crime of burglary or vandalism, or maybe someone who publishes an article critical of the government. The beauty of the law is that it doesn’t have any protections built in to stop anyone being labelled an enemy combatant and being arrested. And if you are mistakenly accused you will not have any right to a fair trial or to question the charges against you.

The notion of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ has been removed and it is now completely legal for the US government to ‘disappear’ anyone who they deem a threat. Sound familiar? Wasn’t that the sort of dictatorial system that the US was liberating the Iraqi people from?

Amnesty International have expressed their objections to this law. Other human rights commentators, mainstream media commentators, senators and lawyers have mourned the loss of liberty and expressed dismay at the complacency of the American voters who have accepted the destruction of their ‘self evident’ rights. So why haven’t our leaders, foreign affairs ministers or even media commentators raised concerns about this?

The attitude from these quarters seems to be that these laws are ok because we can trust the Bush administration not to misuse their new, self appointed powers. Well, I feel a whole lot better now.

Despite the fact that George W Bush has given himself the right to arrest anyone in the world, detain, torture, prosecute and even execute them because he believes they are a threat to the United States we should trust that he won’t abuse the privilege because he’s one of the ‘good’ guys. Thank God!

Let’s just hope that when his term as president ends none of the ‘bad’ guys get his job. What if someone less trustworthy had those powers? What if they decided that conservatives and not the ‘liberals’ were a threat? What if they started arresting Christians instead of Muslims with these powers? Would people care then? But I’m sure that won’t happen. The good voters of the USA will make sure that their next president is just as trustworthy as Mr Bush.

By the way, has anyone seen those WMDs?

Sydney

I’ve just returned from a trip to Sydney. While in our country’s most famous city I visited the Powerhouse Museum. Like everything in Sydney it is very easy to find… if you already know where it is! They don’t seem to believe in signs in Sydney. The road signs are just as bad.

Rather than clearly posted directions with reasonable advance warning they seem to prefer ambiguous road signs positioned 30 metres before the spot where you have to turn and good luck if you are in the wrong lane. If you miss it, there won’t be another exit for ten kilometres and if you think that you can just get the next turn and work your way back FORGET IT!

Sydney roads never go where you think they should even if you have a map. Just as God works in mysterious ways an elaborate array of one way streets, freeway exits and dead ends ensures that if you aren’t on ‘the one true path’ you will never get to your destination. Added to this you have toll roads which have toll booths in some lanes, usually the lane two over from the lane you are driving in and you’ll have about 5 seconds to get across the relentless traffic.

If you are planning to drive through Sydney I recommend a co-driver to help you decipher the signs while you try to juggle your attention between the directions, the road, the speedo and the myriad of mental drivers who have clearly decided that it is easier to just ignore the road rules altogether and just do whatever they like in their ludicrously expensive sports cars.

Of course once you have worked out where to go, getting around Sydney is fairly straight forward. It’s just that by the time you have worked it out you have probably lost your mind or at least become a selfish, arrogant road tyrant. (So that’s why there are so many of them.)

And now it seems the Sydney roads have taken me off course again. I was meant to be writing about the Powerhouse Museum. Where’s my map?

I was quite excited about going to the Powerhouse Museum to see the On The Box exhibition which celebrates 50 years of television in Australia. I’m not sure what I was expecting. I’d heard they had Agro, Mr Squiggle and Ossie Ostrich on display and I wasn’t disappointed. The three puppets were indeed the highlight. However, aside from some costumes from Norman Gunston, Mother & Son and Kath and Kim the rest of the exhibit was frankly, quite sad.

I’m not sure why exactly they thought that a couple of hand drawn posters from audience members on Australian Idol were worth encasing in glass. Even one would have been pointless, but two? I sure hope they were authentic and not just scribbled by the curator.

Generally the exhibition was a wonderful walk down memory lane and a great reminder that, on the whole, Australian TV has always been a bit crap.

More depressing however was the rest of the museum. Despite some excellent exhibits most were tainted by the evil hand of corporate sponsorship. The worst examples were ironically in the environmental future display. Kettle chips were displayed twice highlighting their ‘eco-friendly’ packaging. Kambrook were showing off their environmentally designed kettle. Brick companies, appliance makers and even Westfield Shopping Town were quite prominent in this exhibit which made me feel a little unsettled.

I know that funding a museum is not cheap and corporate sponsorship is necessary but these displays were blatant advertising. A sponsor board at the entrance used to be enough credit for generous benefactors but now their logos are emblazoned across the displays. The lines between advertising and education are getting very blurred. Children are now getting their nutritional information and pool safety tips from McDonalds. A real estate company educates kids on fire safety with the suspiciously named ‘Hooker’ Bear.

Where is it going to end? One day our teachers will be dressed as clowns and hocking Happy Meals and Pepsi to children as they explain the importance of multiplication tables. It will be too late to turn back. We’ll have missed the turn. The sign was there but we couldn’t change lanes in time.

Naughty North Korea

So North Korea is going to test a nuclear weapon. Is that a weapon of mass destruction? I would have thought so. And yet we don’t see the US rushing in to topple this cruel and dangerous ‘evil doer’. Instead it has been left to the UN to form a plan to deal with Mr Kim Jong Il.

It’s peculiar that the media hasn’t really questioned Mr Bush or Mr Howard over this issue. We went to war over suspicions of WMDs but when someone stands up and says “We’ve got em! Look!” our government just tut-tuts them and has a chat with their ambassador.

The really strange thing is that North Korea is rumoured to have lots of oil. Seems like a perfect place to go to ‘liberate’ the oppressed masses. I wonder what the problem is. There’s money to be made there too. Mr Rumsfeld himself sat on the board of ABB while they sold reactors to North Korea. Think of the boon they could have with rebuilding contracts.

Anyway this is just a passing observation. A busy week has kept me from a longer post. I’ll have something more substantial for you next week if nuclear war hasn’t begun.

Thanks for visiting.