Castro condemned for Roma Holocaust remark

Well, sorry French government but Castro is right. Obviously the truth hurts for Sarkozy's knee-jerk government when they come up with retorts of this calibre:"That Fidel Castro shows an interest in human rights is truly revolutionary."

The fact that the French government is very publicly deporting Roma from other EU countries, making a mockery of the fundamental EU right to freedom of movement, is pandering to ingrained universal prejudice towards Roma. This comes at a time when Sarkozy is languishing low in opinion polls, especially in light of failed promises of 'getting tough' on disadvantaged French youths who rioted three years. When all else fails, let's pick on the Roma.

Castro is quite justified in describing this as a 'racial holocaust' as the moves made by the current French administration is very reminiscent of the actions taken by complient Nazi puppets during World War II when the Roma were sent to the death camps such as Auschwitz and Birkenau in great numbers for much the same reasons as the Jews.

So instead of castigating Castro, Sarkozy and his ministers should devote more efforts into solving the problem rather than adding to racism, something that EU countries like France are always quick to denounce other non-EU countries of when the opportunity arises.

What I don't believe to be a coincidence is that news of French condemnation of what otherwise were previous non-newsworthy remarks by Castro have come quickly after a the revelation of a rather suspicious media 'gaffe' involving Castro. Much was made of Castro's supposed comments to US journalist Jeffrey Goldberg yesterday that he belives that the Cuban socialist system has even failed Cubans. This was a rather bizarre comment to be attributed to Castro as the US-imposed blockade is the usually main reason given by the Cuba for its economic shortcomings and not a fault of the system itself. Apparently this was a misinterpretation, and some media outlets, like the BBC, have pointed this out. However, many others have been comparatively mute about this, yet again lending to a distortion of Western public persecption. So many people out there will continue to believe that Castro is even against his own system when in actual fact he isn't. I also don't believe that this 'misinterpretation' was as 'accidental' as it has been made out to be. I believe this is Western misconception will play a dangerous role in future actions towards Cuba in the future. For instance, when the EU condemns Cuba for anything, it will be with the full-hearted blessing of the Western public because 'hey, even Castro said he doesn't like his system'.

Knowledge and awareness is strength, so a misinformed public is easier to control and manipulate.

First Australian indigenous member of federal parliament... the implications

Ken Wyatt, a long time compaigner for Aboriginal health, has become the first ever member of the Australian federal lower house of parliament of Aboriginal descent, as the Liberal Party candidate of the electorate of Hasluck. This is both a remarkable and sad achievement. Remarkable that an Aborigine will be part of Australia's main decision-making body, and for the conservative Liberal Party; sad that it has taken this long for this to happen. Wyatt's election has provided the Liberals with a trump card considering that Aborigines overwhelming vote for the Labor Party and deflects the latent racism that some of the Liberal Party's electioneering tactics and policies tend to feed off.

Hasluck, an electorate covering a wide-range of suburbs in the eastern part of Perth, Western Australia, was rather unique this election with the range of candidates. Namely, three were Aborigines! Ironically, the only main candidate who wasn't was the sitting Labor member, the party most Aborigines tend to support.

Aborigines in politics is quite a sore point in Australian political history. It must be first pointed out that Aborigines actually only make up 2% of Australia's total population. The electorate of Lingiari, which covers most of the Northern Territory (except Darwin) has the largest percentage of Aborigine voters, but at 43% of the total, they don't even make up a majority. Compulsory voting ensures that the Aborigines in isolated communities participate in the election process, however Aborigines were only given the vote (and citizenship or even be officially counted in censi) as recent as 1968.

The first member of the Federal Senate of Aboriginal origin was Neville Bonner, who served the Liberal Party in the 1970s and 1980s, while the second, Aiden Ridgeway served as a senator for the now-ineffectual Australian Democrats from 1999 to 2005. Taking into account Wyatt representing the Liberals, the irony is that despite massive Aboriginal support, no Aborigine has been in Parliament for Labor. The fact that Wyatt stood for the Liberals has come as a surprise to many, where the Liberals have been associated with policies against Aborigines such as dismantling the nationwide Aboriginal council ATSIC, and withdrawing the Discrimination Act to allow for the 'Intervention' in 2007, which saw the Authorities involved in a murky campaign of 'regaining control' of Aboriginal communities from the ravages of alcohol abuse, rape, child abuse and violence. While most of the actions of this campaign were conveniently far from the gaze of most Australians, some reports that filtered through reported of a situation much like a continuation of the past Australian government campaigns at 'civilising the natives' which has included officially-sanctioned kidnapping of Aboriginal children to be sent to schools and made to assimilate. The child victims of this policy, which continued up until the early 1970s, are called the 'Stolen Generation' and finally received an official apology from the Australian government under recently deposed Labor leader Kevin Rudd in 2008, after the previous Liberal government refused to apologise.

The lack of Aboriginal representation in Australia contrasts strikingly with the Maoris of New Zealand, where not only have there been many Maori members of parliament but even a Maori Party that holds the balance of power and is now part of the ruling coalition. There hasn't even been anything close to resembling an Aboriginal Party in Australia.

However, Wyatt's election to the House of Representatives is still no sign that the racism of the past is gone. Wyatt revealed that he has been receiving e-mails from voters stating that had they known what Wyatt was (i.e. Aboriginal), then they wouldn't have voted for him. The fact that people have these beliefs is not shocking, as judging by the very 'White-looking' image, above, the Liberal campaigners used for Wyatt's campaign posters, even they knew that the fact Wyatt is Aboriginal would be a turn off for Liberal voters.

As the song in the musical Avenue Q goes: 'We're all a little bit racist', but the extent that one feels they can express such racist thoughts freely and openly is the true measurement of how much a society is racist. These e-mails and comments made to Wyatt, and the apparent ease that these people were able to make them, highlights the main reason why Aborigines in Australia have not been able to sit in the parliament that represents their land.

Much ado about nothing - the myth of immigration numbers

As Australia's politicians gear themselves for the upcoming election on the 21st August, one of the main issues has been immigration. Of course, a majority of the public believes that there's too much immigration and for all the usual groundless stereotypes of 'they're taking away our jobs' etc. and 'they get special treatment to services'.

I was suprised to see that the numbers of immigrants to Australia is currently at 170,000 a year, which is the highest they've ever been. However, when looking at the numbers of arrivals as a percentage to the Australian population at the time, the level of immigration has significantly dropped from the 1950s-1970s period. Still, numbers have been steadily increasing ever since the lows of the early 1990s when the net migration total was as low as 30,000 per year. What is suprising about this is that during the past 15 years most of the Australian political discourse on immigration has been overwhelming slanted at cutting numbers, however in practice, that has not been the case. So we have a situation, not unique to Australia I might add, of politicians rather publicly saying immigration should be and will be slashed but secretly, away from public view, are not following through with what they preach. What does this mean? It certainly points to the fact that having a 'tough stance on immigration' is just a smokescreen for racism. When members of the public complain about immigration, often what they really mean is that they don't like visible minorities - Africans, Asians, Muslims. Rarely these days (at least in Australia) is much, if at all any, anger is directed at the much larger numbers of immigrants still arriving from the UK and especially New Zealand. By pandering to just talk of immigration cuts allows people to express deep-held (and otherwise socially-unacceptable) racist views towards 'others'. The people holding these views aren't usually the ones who would delve into statistic archives to find out true numbers nor are they really into politics or the complexities of population and demographic dynamics (too many syllables for them). Just some easy sound bites about cutting immigration is enough for them to feel rest assured that their insecurities won't be threatened by dark people and the ignorant majority and courting politicians are all happy.

Of course, by allowing this latent racism to flourish only gives the courage for ignorant people to be more forthright about their views. As what happened one time in Australia - I was waiting for the bus located next to flat complex that is notorious for being the first place of residence for the waves of immigrants to have arrived into Australia these past 30 years. Once they have settled into jobs and have cars (very important for Australia), they move on to other areas only to be replaced by the latest immigration wave. In the 1980s this complex was inhabited by Poles having fled martial law. By the early 1990s, it was a mini-Yugoslavia full of refugees from the Balkan wars. At the turn of the millenium, many African refugees called this complex home, and now it is the turn of Indian students and Sri Lankan refugees. Not surprisingly, the majority of the people waiting for the bus here are usually South Asian. However there was one white woman, aged in her 50s who arrived at the bus stop, approached me and immediately started talking, despite me obviously wearing white headphones and texting furiously. She said she was surprised to see someone that wasn't 'one of them' (while pointing at two Indians standing not far) waiting for the bus. I acknowledged her with an unfriendly grunt which she interpreted as an invitation to rant. "These people just come in here and they get everything served to them on a platter. I think that we should be looking after our own kind first. I mean how about all of the homeless people out there. They should all have a flat first", she said. That was it for me! I told her, "there are already social programmes available for the homeless plus we have a social security system." She pondered a little and said "Yes, but these people get everything and they should wait for the locals to get it first". I wanted to listen to my music but be polite (she could have been an axe-murderer - she looked like one), so I said "You can't play God here saying that one person is better than someone else to be entitled to stuff just because they're local. We all bleed you know". I wanted to say that we all shit and piss so who's to say someone is better than anyone else, but I didn't want to add more fuel to the fire. Now here's the catch. White woman then backs out by saying "Well, I'm from New Zealand anyway".... !!! What the...??? So who's the local then? I wanted to use that stalwart racist line 'well, if you don't like it here, go back to where you came from', but I just couldn't be bothered, and the woman herself realised how stupid she sounded. Yes, she was not that concerned about the homeless - she was just plain racist. Gotcha!

Aussie politician on FB: Non-Christians worship false God

In what has been a brain-dead Australian election campaign so far, it didn't take long for someone from the Christian-right of the conservative Liberal Party to make a complete goose of him/herself and publish something idiotic (with the obligatery speling and Capitalisation mistackes) against Muslims or immigrants. This stunner of a bloke, the Liberal candidate for the electorate of Chifley, David Barker, has had this to say on his Facebook profile and in letters to target groups:

"I am going to win this seat. I claim it as mine and when I get in I will give my votes all of them to God who is on the side of the Liberal Right,"

"I don't believe God would have called me to run in this seat if he didn't expect me to win."

"I vote for freedom of worship if the worship is of Jesus Christ or The Jewish God anyone else well they are worshipping a false god anyway so who cares." (note: so the Christian God and Jewish God are two different entities. OMG! ... well, depending on which one, so it seems)

"Voting should only be voluntary for Liberal and National voters the rest can not bother since with every vote they bring the nation closer to the brink of disaster and closer to the hands of a (sic)muslim country."

"Someone get me into parliament ... and watch me go. They will see my talent as the voice of ... God himself."

In a letter to Christian leaders in his electorate, Barker says there is "corruption and a lack of moral direction in some politicians", and asks for their support pointing out that Julia Gillard is an "atheist" and his opponent in Chifley, Ed Husić, is a "strong Moslem".

A lovely, devout Christian, obviously. I guess he's also a devout McDonald's and KFC consumer too, judging by his rather diabetes and heart disease candidate figure. It has been discovered that he used to be a member of the whacko extremist Christian 'Call to Australia' Party led by the anti-everything Fred Nile, famous for leading prayers for rain at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in the 1990s. This skeleton from Barker's past makes perfect sense as to his current delusions of Christian, and self, supremacy.

Campaigning in outer Sydney suburban electorates like Chifley has been notorious in the past for such anti-Muslim sentiment. The last federal election in 2007 saw the husband of the outgoing Liberal member for Lindsay, Jackie Kelly, distribute a fake pamphlet by the supposed 'Islamic Australia Federation' endorsing Labor for their support for Islamist terrorists. Kelly tried passing it off as a 'funny prank', but no-one was buying it, resulting in a resounding defeat for the Liberals.

Chifley, a very safe Labor seat, covers some of the poorest and most underprivileged suburbs of Sydney. However, the electorate also covers some areas of Sydney's growing bible-belt like Quaker's Hill, where the ever growing Hillsong church started, whose members might take a shining to someone with such religious zeal. Candidate registrations and endorsements are to be finalised this coming week, giving very little time for the Liberal Party to act. They must be fearful of a repeat of the party's bad 2007 performance after Jackie Kelly's bad stunt, or of 1996 when a little-known candidate was disendorsed from the Liberal Party due to racist comments but went on to win the safe Labor seat of Oxley - the infamous Pauline Hanson. It will be interesting to see where Chifley goes on this as this would be a gauge of general feeling among the 'battlers'.

By the way, it's only a matter of time until Barker claims that he's no racist because his wife is Filipina.

UPDATE!!!

David Barker has been unceremoniously dumped by the Liberal Party and has been replaced by Venus Priest, a small business owner who immigrated from the Phillippines in 1985.

Barker told the Australian public broadcaster ABC "I'm not anti-Muslim. I believe every one should have their own beliefs. But I don't know if we want at this stage in Australian politics a Muslim in the Parliament and an atheist running the Government."

Barker said he did not understand why he had been disendorsed as the Liberal candidate for Chifley. "I made a comment that I believe God is the only way to heaven and we shouldn't have a Muslim candidate running in that area," he said. His would-be opponent, Labor candidate Ed Husic, who is nearly certain to win the very safe Labor seat, is of Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) background. But in true Bosnian style, where fasting during Ramadan and wearing the veil is rare while alcohol and pork consumption is high, Husic is hardly a Muslim in the Western stereotype. Nevertheless, the Christian crusader Barker said about Husic's (nominal) Islam, "I don't believe that's exactly in line with what we believe as Australians."

In true 'I'm not a racist but...' style, Barker said about Muslims that "I'm not attacking them on the basis of their faith, I'm attacking them on the basis of their ideology." Based on comments like that, if he was to see past his belly, then he would realise that Husic is really the type of Muslim he would like. However, it's clear that Barker so ignorantly anti-Muslim that if someone was to suggest to him a book-burning of Muslim authors, he wouldn't see the symbolism.

Aussie opposition leader to Aborigines: Pick up rubbish for dole

Devout Catholic and self-confessed liar, Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott, has said that Aborigines must get jobs, even if this means picking up rubbish around their communities. The picture above appeared in Australia's tabloid press, reminding their main demographic of their long-held stereotype that Aborigines are messy people. Rarely is any cultural understanding applied in that the wasteful material goods of our modern Western society just don't mix with the values and needs of 40,000 years of Aboriginal society. Looks like this is yet another case of the opposition Liberal Party using everpresent, subliminal racism to win some votes in the upcoming election.

Most fitting comment made to this news item:
I am 64 and can't get a job. I would gladly pick up rubbish if that job became available! Where do I apply?