Now what is this all about? I hope this has nothing to do with China's aversion to press freedom and open criticism of its egregious human rights record!
It is curious that official hectoring of critics has become more strident and pro-China supporters more fanatical the closer we get to this tarnished Olympics. The IOC must be alarmed that China obviously hoodwinked the movement to win the games and is now rubbing its collective noses in it. Did'nt the criteria for awarding the games include improvements on the human rights front and greater press freedoms?
The world has been subjected to rent-a-crowd spectacles of unrestrained hyper-nationalism, which has left a sour taste at all stops along the way, except of course in supplicant client states. The Chinese populace should have been free to celebrate these games in an atmosphere of cultural pride and international inclusion.
Rather, the repressive policies and strategies of the regime have exposed China to opprobrium. We have been regaled with a latter day version of the red brigades stamping on dissent and shouting down opposition.
If this was to be an open platform for China to showcase her economic and cultural wares and to progress her claims for due recognition as a good international citizen, it is failing on all fronts. Propaganda and dissembling shadow plays don't work. They might satisfy a quiescent and credulous population yearning for international respect, but this is not the way. What a shame!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
China has some serious choices to make
Decades of Han Chinese migration to Tibet, accompanied by a swathe of discriminatory social engineering policies toward ethnic Tibetans, including religious persecution, inequitable economic development and cultural marginalization, have amounted to a form of cultural genocide. The number of deaths associated with state policies are unknown but believed to be above a million.
The absolute denial of basic rights to Tibetans is a terrible tragedy that the international community has failed to address. The tired polemic that China swept aside feudalism and brought modernity to Tibet is somehow meant to justify the savage suppression of a whole people reduced to second class citizens in their own land. The claim that Tibet is part of China is where the lie began.
China should never have been awarded the Olympics. You can act now!
The absolute denial of basic rights to Tibetans is a terrible tragedy that the international community has failed to address. The tired polemic that China swept aside feudalism and brought modernity to Tibet is somehow meant to justify the savage suppression of a whole people reduced to second class citizens in their own land. The claim that Tibet is part of China is where the lie began.
China should never have been awarded the Olympics. You can act now!
Monday, April 07, 2008
Blog re-awakes - the plight of Tibet and China's propaganda must be exposed
I have decided to break out of a short hibernation to focus on the situation in Tibet. China has a capacity for greatness but if it continues down the current path of authoritarianism, suppression of human rights and press freedoms, its reputation will be irreparably sullied. China can choose the path of righteousness and be a force for positive change in world affairs or it can continue down the dark path of the repressive bully.
It is alarming to see the vehemence with which young, educated, middle class Chinese have attacked critics of China's Tibet policy. They have been served a carefully managed diet of state-sponsored propaganda on Tibet, such that fair-minded and well-intentioned Chinese are under the impression that Western media reporting on Tibetan protests is biased and distorted. Under the misapprehension they're defending their national dignity, young people in China today are just as misled as the cultural revolution youth gangs of the past.
Of course, switched on human rights activists in China are doing their brave best to counter the upsurge in jingoistic rantings by the state machine and a credulous populace, but it is a losing battle given the state's information controls and media manipulation.
It is alarming to see the vehemence with which young, educated, middle class Chinese have attacked critics of China's Tibet policy. They have been served a carefully managed diet of state-sponsored propaganda on Tibet, such that fair-minded and well-intentioned Chinese are under the impression that Western media reporting on Tibetan protests is biased and distorted. Under the misapprehension they're defending their national dignity, young people in China today are just as misled as the cultural revolution youth gangs of the past.
Of course, switched on human rights activists in China are doing their brave best to counter the upsurge in jingoistic rantings by the state machine and a credulous populace, but it is a losing battle given the state's information controls and media manipulation.
Friday, February 08, 2008
With the demise of the Pacific Solution its time to keep my own counsel
Media reports of the last of the asylum seekers leaving Nauru today appears a fitting point to call a halt to my musings and critique of the previous Government's human rights abuses. My role in the Pacific Solution stirred me to end my APS career and do something to balance the ledger. My admiration goes out to those who took a stand against the Howard experiment. My intervention was minuscule in comparison with the efforts of some brave souls.
Much remains to be done to put this country back on an acceptable footing when it comes to treatment of refugees. Mandatory detention is an open sore that continues to fester. I will continue to lobby within ALP circles for changes on that front, but this blog is not the preferred vehicle. The potential role of the processing centre on Christmas Island is troubling and will have to be watched closely.
To regular readers, thanks for your interest and support. I have found the process both rewarding and frustrating - my mind is far from made up on the scope for blogs to reach beyond a converted audience to wring real changes in attitudes and opinions. It is a wonderful tool to proffer, collect and store information in a readily accessible format, and it provides a virtual 'speaker's corner' and printing press for the frustrated polemicist and pamphleteer lurking in all of us.
Doubtless much of what was written in mine and other blogs would strike the Bard as "...a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing."
G'day and good luck...
Much remains to be done to put this country back on an acceptable footing when it comes to treatment of refugees. Mandatory detention is an open sore that continues to fester. I will continue to lobby within ALP circles for changes on that front, but this blog is not the preferred vehicle. The potential role of the processing centre on Christmas Island is troubling and will have to be watched closely.
To regular readers, thanks for your interest and support. I have found the process both rewarding and frustrating - my mind is far from made up on the scope for blogs to reach beyond a converted audience to wring real changes in attitudes and opinions. It is a wonderful tool to proffer, collect and store information in a readily accessible format, and it provides a virtual 'speaker's corner' and printing press for the frustrated polemicist and pamphleteer lurking in all of us.
Doubtless much of what was written in mine and other blogs would strike the Bard as "...a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing."
G'day and good luck...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tony Kevin warns, 'Howard mandarins capturing Labor ministers'
As an erstwhile member of the PM's task force on 'illegal' migration, I am acutely aware of the role of DIMIA and AFP executives in the development and prosecution of border control strategies. Covert operations to stymie people-smuggling have been core business for these agencies under Howard. Senior bureaucrats from these and other agencies progressed their careers effectively by serving up the policy paradigm, legal underpinnings, operational framework (with resources) and spin doctoring to keep the show on the road. Of course it was all (and no doubt continues to be ) justified under the banner of 'national security' and 'realpolitik', but my minimal role in the exercise still gives me the horrors.
Tony Kevin is a reliable commentator on such matters. In an article on the Eureka Street website, he writes that "Worrying questions are re-emerging over Australia's people-smuggling disruption program in Indonesia...How long before another mysterious life-threatening refugee boat incident happens in Australia's northern maritime approaches? Is this what the new ethical Rudd Labor Government wants to see happen on its watch? I don't think so.
Time, surely, for the full-powers judicial inquiry into people-smuggling disruption, that Faulkner and the opposition-controlled Senate advocated in 2002 and 2003. Kevin Rudd has the power to set up this enquiry tomorrow. He should seriously consider doing so."
Amen! I believe such an enquiry is essential and should also include an investigation of the inner workings of the Pacific Solution.
Tony Kevin is a reliable commentator on such matters. In an article on the Eureka Street website, he writes that "Worrying questions are re-emerging over Australia's people-smuggling disruption program in Indonesia...How long before another mysterious life-threatening refugee boat incident happens in Australia's northern maritime approaches? Is this what the new ethical Rudd Labor Government wants to see happen on its watch? I don't think so.
Time, surely, for the full-powers judicial inquiry into people-smuggling disruption, that Faulkner and the opposition-controlled Senate advocated in 2002 and 2003. Kevin Rudd has the power to set up this enquiry tomorrow. He should seriously consider doing so."
Amen! I believe such an enquiry is essential and should also include an investigation of the inner workings of the Pacific Solution.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
HREOC releases annual report on immigration detention
Last week the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) released its annual inspection report, The Summary of Observations following the Inspection of Mainland Immigration Detention Facilities 2007. The purpose of the report was to monitor conditions of immigration detention to ensure Australia's compliance with internationally-recognised human rights obligations.
The Human Rights Commission's Graeme Innes visited Immigration Detention Centres (IDC), Immigration Residential Housing units (IRH) as well as the new Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation between August and November 2007. These visits involved an inspection of the facilities and interviews with management staff, health, educational and kitchen staff as well as meetings and lunch with detainees. HREOC also visited 6 detainees who were or had been in community detention. Whilst some improvements have been made, especially by the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin, HREOC once again reiterated a number of its recommendations from the previous year's report.
Recent events at Villawood confirm the urgency for a review of the mandatory detention policy and closure of all detention facilities. We must stop treating asylum seekers like criminals.
The Human Rights Commission's Graeme Innes visited Immigration Detention Centres (IDC), Immigration Residential Housing units (IRH) as well as the new Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation between August and November 2007. These visits involved an inspection of the facilities and interviews with management staff, health, educational and kitchen staff as well as meetings and lunch with detainees. HREOC also visited 6 detainees who were or had been in community detention. Whilst some improvements have been made, especially by the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin, HREOC once again reiterated a number of its recommendations from the previous year's report.
Recent events at Villawood confirm the urgency for a review of the mandatory detention policy and closure of all detention facilities. We must stop treating asylum seekers like criminals.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Its not cricket, its 'monkey business'!
Sport has'nt figured on this blog before. However, the current imbroglio around the term 'monkey' and the relative merits of the arguments put by commentators and supporters of the Australian and Indian cricket teams has got my goat. A cursory trawl through Yahoo blogs yesterday revealed some Indian bloggers are lambasting Australians as being dysfunctional bullies with criminal tendencies. Whilst this would be a fair description of many of my fellow citizens, it misses the point. I have heard several Indian commentators proffer the jingoistic line that the racial slur on the Indian nation is the core issue. I beg to differ.
I have sent the following letter to Fairfax outlets:
"Racism is a problem everywhere, including Australia and India. When I was a Doctoral student in Mumbai during the late 70s and early 80s my African and Fijian student friends copped racial taunting, much like that directed at Symonds. Colour consciousness is deeply embedded in the Indian psyche, with light skinned favoured over dark.
Cricket lovers everywhere must get off the collective grass and face up to the fact that racism is a universal blight, no less an issue in Mumbai than it is in Perth. By the way, given the nature of the taunts, I am sure the source of the abuse directed at South African players in Perth during their last tour here were individuals who felt more comfortable with South Africa under apartheid.
A proactive approach by international sporting bodies to the application of human rights and anti-discrimination principles will minimize the toxic effects of racism and of jingoistic hypocrisy over the relative superiority of the attitudes of different cultures. It is time to lance the racist boil by acknowledging our universal ascent from simian primates, by celebrating our common ancestry and reveling in our cultural differences."
The failure by many commentators on both sides of the divide to grasp that a 'zero tolerance' approach to racism is essential is dissappointing. Some of our more celebrated commentators in Australia have climbed on the "its ok" bandwagon with suggestions that, as Symonds does look like a monkey he can expect to be called as such. All I hope is that the conveyor of that opinion has the guts to say it to Symonds' face, or, at the very least, acknowledge his lack of judgement and hang his head in shame.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
I have sent the following letter to Fairfax outlets:
"Racism is a problem everywhere, including Australia and India. When I was a Doctoral student in Mumbai during the late 70s and early 80s my African and Fijian student friends copped racial taunting, much like that directed at Symonds. Colour consciousness is deeply embedded in the Indian psyche, with light skinned favoured over dark.
Cricket lovers everywhere must get off the collective grass and face up to the fact that racism is a universal blight, no less an issue in Mumbai than it is in Perth. By the way, given the nature of the taunts, I am sure the source of the abuse directed at South African players in Perth during their last tour here were individuals who felt more comfortable with South Africa under apartheid.
A proactive approach by international sporting bodies to the application of human rights and anti-discrimination principles will minimize the toxic effects of racism and of jingoistic hypocrisy over the relative superiority of the attitudes of different cultures. It is time to lance the racist boil by acknowledging our universal ascent from simian primates, by celebrating our common ancestry and reveling in our cultural differences."
The failure by many commentators on both sides of the divide to grasp that a 'zero tolerance' approach to racism is essential is dissappointing. Some of our more celebrated commentators in Australia have climbed on the "its ok" bandwagon with suggestions that, as Symonds does look like a monkey he can expect to be called as such. All I hope is that the conveyor of that opinion has the guts to say it to Symonds' face, or, at the very least, acknowledge his lack of judgement and hang his head in shame.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Pacific Solution & Nauru- "Aid: With Strings Attached"
Regular readers of this blog will know that Tampa and the Pacific Solution were the catalyst for my discursive rantings on Howard's human rights record over the last couple of years.
I have posted many messages on the miscasting of aid to Nauru and elsewhere under the PS and the alarming 'somnambulism' of the Australian people as these events unfolded. I have been critical of Australia's fourth estate for largely failing to expose and condemn Howard's approach to human rights. The profound negative implications of the Howard experiment for the health of Australia's body politic will be the subject of much reflection in the coming years.
Writing in New Matilda, Nic MacLellan underscores the tawdry misuse of official aid under the Pacific Solution and the downstream implications of the strategy, which was made up on the run by bureaucrats trying to engineer good outcomes from bad motives. He quotes my published condemnation of aid to Nauru as "‘an unmitigated bribe’ to ensure the Pacific Solution continued". The public sector reform 'conditionality' that evolved was a half-baked and largely punitive response to Nauru's failed economy, wages crisis, decrepit infrastructure, growing civil unrest and the potential impact this instability could have on the management of the PS.
We have bullied, bribed and coerced our way to this point. The challenge remains to help Nauru avoid total failure as a state by salvaging its limited resource base sufficiently to sustain its small population into the future. We must commit ourselves to a genuine long term development partnership. It is time to discard the cynical, mercenary gambit to compensate Nauru for hosting our offshore detention facilities and to put the bilateral relationship on a proper footing.
It is necessary for the new government to investigate this dark chapter. I hope my oft repeated call for an enquiry to shine a light into the dark recesses of the Pacific Solution pork barrel will be realised.
I have posted many messages on the miscasting of aid to Nauru and elsewhere under the PS and the alarming 'somnambulism' of the Australian people as these events unfolded. I have been critical of Australia's fourth estate for largely failing to expose and condemn Howard's approach to human rights. The profound negative implications of the Howard experiment for the health of Australia's body politic will be the subject of much reflection in the coming years.
Writing in New Matilda, Nic MacLellan underscores the tawdry misuse of official aid under the Pacific Solution and the downstream implications of the strategy, which was made up on the run by bureaucrats trying to engineer good outcomes from bad motives. He quotes my published condemnation of aid to Nauru as "‘an unmitigated bribe’ to ensure the Pacific Solution continued". The public sector reform 'conditionality' that evolved was a half-baked and largely punitive response to Nauru's failed economy, wages crisis, decrepit infrastructure, growing civil unrest and the potential impact this instability could have on the management of the PS.
We have bullied, bribed and coerced our way to this point. The challenge remains to help Nauru avoid total failure as a state by salvaging its limited resource base sufficiently to sustain its small population into the future. We must commit ourselves to a genuine long term development partnership. It is time to discard the cynical, mercenary gambit to compensate Nauru for hosting our offshore detention facilities and to put the bilateral relationship on a proper footing.
It is necessary for the new government to investigate this dark chapter. I hope my oft repeated call for an enquiry to shine a light into the dark recesses of the Pacific Solution pork barrel will be realised.
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