The Australian View Of America

Australia has been accused of being the 51st state of America. It seems that we are destined to follow America in most things, Australia's strict gun laws being a notable exception, but what do Australians really think of America and Americans? Conveniently for those of you pondering this question the University of Sydney has some answers.

The bitter pill first perhaps... here are some of the things we most dislike

- 85% of Australias think that gun control is the US is a joke and needs reform
- approx 2/3s think the US is crap at "social equality", "economic equality" and "race relations"
- more than half veiw the role of "religion in American society" as a negative.

Now, now, put away that indignation. There are also things we like about America, such as
- Science and technology
- art and literature
- personal freedom
- economic opportunity
- political freedom
- standard of living

We also like the influence of America on our television, sport, clothes and music but when it comes to junk food you can forget it. We are so over the "golden arches" and its equivalents.

We also think that America has, over recent years, diminished in its capacity to deal 'wisely with their own social and economic problems', with Japan and the UK being much better thought of in this respect.

Professor Alan Dupont, who authored the report says

What is striking is the loss of trust in US values and political institutions although this is balanced by a high level of respect for the excellence of US science and technology and a belief that the US remains a country of economic opportunity. Unfortunately, we understand less about American culture and society than we should because of stereotyping and a fall in the proportion of Australians travelling to the US to study or teach.

Read more here.

Gender Balance By Political Party

Below is a breakdown of the gender balance at the last Federal Election by political party.

Here are some interesting points to note:

What Women Want is not a male politian although I am reliably informed by Mrs Green Man that some of them are, well whilst not really cute, at least not brown paper bag material. They must have their eyes tilted at some senior bureaucrats instead.

Every part was able to identify the gender of all of their candidates which one would have to say is a positive first step.

None of The CLP (country looney party) - sorry Country Liberial Party, Fishing Party or Non-Custodial Parents Party could not muster up a female interested in standing.

The word "equality" in the Socialist Equality Party clearly does not refer to equality of the sexes. Either that or they also couldn't find a woman who cared so little about her reputation that she was prepared to be associated with them.

The Shooters Party (our watered down equivalent of the NRA) couldn't find anyone of either sex who wanted to stand. Well that is a positive step since the last election.

Post Election Report On Dumbness

The Green Man once again presents his post election analysis of dumbness in the Australian electorate. As all Australians would know, but possibly others may not, voting is compulsory in Australia. Whilst this is a concept that many may find strange The Green Man thinks it is a good idea.

One consequence however is that even the dumbest in the electorate are required to turn up at a polling station and mark their ballot paper. Fortunately this group manage to eliminate any affect they may have on the outcome by their incapacity to number six boxes in order of their preferance without stuffing it up.

Here are the top ten for the 2007 Federal Election

hmmm now let me see where are those seats?

Watson - NSW Sydney Southern Suburbs
Blaxland - NSW Sydney South-West Suburbs
Chifley - NSW Sydney Outer Western Suburbs
Prospect - NSW Sydney Outer Western Suburbs
Fowler - NSW Sydney South-West Suburbs
Bennelong - NSW Sydney North Shore (this is doosy, the PM's seat)
Reid - NSW Sydney Western Suburbs
Paramatta - NSW Sydney Western Suburbs
Werriwa - NSW Sydney Outer South-West Suburbs
Banks - NSW Sydney South-West Suburbs

Sydneysiders may like to dump on us Melbournites but hey we can count to 6.

Dont Mention The War (err Polar Bears)

Scientific American reports that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has issued an edict that scientist are prohibited from making any public comment about the plight that Polar Bears find themselves in.

It seems that if you want to get public funding from the Bush Administration to attend a conference you must agree that polar bears, the melting polar ice cap and global warming will not be discussed.

H. Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, defended the policy laid out in the memos, saying it was meant to keep scientists from straying from a set agenda at meetings in countries like Russia, Norway and Canada and you can understand why. Obviously none of those three countries will notice the collapse of the polar ice shelf if noone mentions it.

To take one example, on a discussion on "human and polar bear interface." it was forbidden to discuss the receding Arctic sea ice where polar bears live because it had no relevance to the topic. According to Hall, it was a bear management issue and as such discussion of climate change was inappropriate. Yeah right!

The time, it seems, has come for the Bush Administration to place its collective head even deeper in the sand. The Howard Administration don't need to do the same. They have their heads stuck clearly where the sun doesn't shine, vis-a-vis the Bush Administration.

Read more here.

Gun Deaths

hmmm. some years ago I posted an entry on gun deaths in the USA which continues to attrack numerous comments both in support and criticising the post. A common theme amongst the critics is that if you ban guns only the criminals will have them. A fundamental flaw in this argument is that criminals are somehow separate population from the rest of the community. The reality, of course, is that some people who weren't criminals become criminals and some criminals become normal law abiding citizens.

Never-the-less The Green Man thinks that reducing the number of guns in the community can't be a bad thing. In support of this argument research shows that the tough gun laws that were introduced in Australia after the Port Arthur massacre has worked. The number of mass shootings in the 18 years prior to Port Arthur was 13, after the gun buy back zero. The number of gun related murders and suicides has halved, accordingly the general murder rate and suicide rate have declined.

The reality is that if there are less guns there is less death. America may value its right to bear arms but it pays a high price in citizen death.

President Bush On Iraq

It is official America is not loosing the war in Iraq the trouble is they are not winning it either.

Courtesy of youtube

Doomsday Clock Clicks

Did you think that the end of the cold war meant that a nuclear disaster was a thing that only ageing hippies locked in the past need be concerned about?

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists don't think it is, although, in fairness, they may have quite a few ageing hippies in their ranks. Anyway they have advanced their doomsday clock to 5 minutes to midnight. This is an advance of 2 minutes and it is the closest it has been to midnight (symbolising nuclear catastrophy) since the cold war. They site the following reasons for the advance.

• Nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea

• Unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere

• The continuing 'launch-ready' status of 2000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the US and Russia

• Escalating terrorism

• New pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks.

Click here if you would like to review the movement of the clock.

Resist

The internet is still a wild and untamed medium. On the internet all kinds of content flourishes and only the worst extremes are checked. It is a two edged sword however and floating on the flood of purile and culturally worthless content are islands of thoughtful expression of free speach.

Mass media is more pervasive and more intrusive into our lives than at any time in human history and the opportunity for nation-wide promolgation of thoughts and opinions approved of by the current administration has never been greater.

If we take the "War On Terror", which The Green Man has pointed out before is a semantically nonsensical phrase, it seems that to question its motives or actions taken in its name is to be un-Insert your countries name here

In that case resist.com.au falls definitely into that category. Artistic, at times confronting and definitely questioning the extent to which the emperor is clothed it is one of the islands of intelligent free thought floating in the river of banality.

To quote Arundhati Roy in one of the clips

It is dangerous to cede to the Indian government, or the American goverment, or anyone for that matter the right to define what India or America are, or ought to be. ... To call someone anti-Indian or anti-American is not just racist but a failure of the imagination, an inability to see the world in any way other than that the establishment has set out for you.

Resis.com.au cannot be accused of a failure of the imagination and is well worth a visit.

Its My Party

Factoid of the week

In 2004 Australians spent $5.3 billion on food that was wasted.

$2.9 billion on fresh food
$630 million on take away we threw away
$876 million on left overs
$596 million on unfinished drinks
$241 million on frozen foods

This is more than 13 times what we donated to overseas aid agencies.

ID

It seems that much as The Green Man is trying to ignore, and accordingly not comment on, Intelligent Design (ID). It will just not go away as an issue. As previously stated The Green Man has no problem with ID as religious doctrine, you are free to believe what you wish. You can believe a giant benevolent turkey rules over us all and determines our fate if you wish but don't try and argue that it should be taught in a science class. Similarly, ID, whilst perfectly satisfactory as belief system, is just not science.

Science aspires to detached objectiveness that is not tainted by religion. It may not completely succeed but it has done reasonably well and because of this we benefit from technology, engineering and medicine. It is the scientific basis of medicine that makes it so successful and of all ministers of the federal government Dr Brendan Nelson should be one of the most intimately acquainted with this fact. Accordingly it is with utter disbelief that I read in OnLineOpinion the following

While commentators noted that Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) had met with Brendan Nelson and other politicians, and that following those meetings and his support, it would begin distributing thousands of ID DVDs into schools, little information was given about CCC

Not heard of the CCC before? Neither had The Green Man but they are no tinpot organisation. They are an arm of the extreme fundamentalist right in the US and according to money magazine "the largest evangelical organisation in the USA"; "the richest fundamentalist enterprise in the world".

This is an organisation that actively promotes "family values". Family values such as "vision of family which sees men in control and women submissive".
That removes freedoms such as the banning of abortions and of homosexuality. Who have a vision for the US and Australia which is, in essence, a new Dark Ages. This is the organisation that Brendon Nelson, a man of science, is getting into bed with.

Informal Voting By Electorate

a Medew R, 2005. ‘Analysis of Electoral Divisions Classification’, Australian Electoral Commission. 2001 ABS Census data used.
b These divisions had a high level of informality despite public awareness campaigns and new initiatives aimed at educating electors about how to cast a formal vote.

Source

Informal Voting In Australia

Presumeably most of the readership will have appreciated the flippancy of the previous post however there is some interesting social trends to be found in the patterns of informal voting in Australia. For those of you who are the poorer for not being Australian, Australia has mandatory voting at state and federal level, that is every Australian citizen of voting age, with some minor exceptions, is required by law to vote at the election. Practically, this means you must show up at the polling point, have your name ticked off, get a piece of paper which you can do a number of things with.

1. Decide who you want to vote for and, hopefully, fill it out correctly.
2. Decide who you want to vote for and stuff up the form
3. Decide not to vote and leave the form blank or fill it out with rubbish.

It is relatively easy to distinguish between the latter two.

Stuff ups are classified as follows

"Number 1 only", "Non-Sequential" - Incorrect numbering on the ballot paper
"Ticks & Crosses" - Incorrect approach to completing the ballot paper
"Voter Identified" - Including identifying material on ballot paper

Protests are as follows
"Blank"
"Marks and scribbles"
"Slogans obsuring numbers"

A comparison between the last election in 2004 and previous elections shows increasing percentage of informal votes. So are we as a population, in fact, getting dumber or, at least, more careless?

The significant shift in informal ballot papers is in the "Marks and Scribbles" category, which could be presumed to be random defacing of the ballot paper which rose nationally from 6.93% of the informal votes to 14.27%. The main contributors to this trend were ACT, Tas and Vic.

Additionally, whilst "Slogans Obscuring The Numbering" represents only a small percentage of the overall informal votes the percentage trebled from 0.26% to 0.83%. Once again the huge movers in this category were ACT and Tas. We could speculate that the Tasmanian phenonemon arose the forest policy curfuffle that resulted from Latham's 11th hour announcement of an $800 million plan to protect 240,000 hectares of old-growth Tasmanian forest, which workers there saw as a jobs sellout. Followed by Howards counter offer of $250 million spent to protect 190,000 hectares of old-growth Tasmanian.

The ACT is more mysterious. I know you lot don't comment on The Green Man much but I would welcome speculation on what had made the people of the ACT so angry that the number of informal ballots arising from slogans on the paper jumped ten fold, from .05% to .58%.

Source

The Dumb State

The Green Man got flamed last time he posted on this topic and, not being one to learn from previous experience, decided to reventure down this path. So which is the really dumb state in Australia, well either dumb or apathic anyway, it is, of course, New South Wales, as all Victorians knew already. (And based on the last post of this nature, some certainly have no sense of humour either.)

Please refer to the table of informal voting at the last federal election below. You will notice a standout candidate in the informal voting stakes. The New South Welshmen just can't or won't fill out a ballot form properly.

Source

Student Involvement in Protest

How politcially active are students of today if they are rated against their parents. The Australian Electoral Commission have recently published a study on student political activism within Australia. Below you can see the relative attitudes of students in 1987, 1992 and 2004 to various forms of protest.

It seems to portray a general perception that appealing to mainstream politics is a waste of time these days. In times past many more students believed that an effective form of protest was to write to the Prime Minister, their local politician or to the newspaper. Now students see little value in this form of protest. Perhaps it reflects a general perception that politicians these days are just not interested in listening to the ordinary person, and in particular, the young ordinary person. Politicians are seen as patronising and insincere, are cardinal sin when it comes to young people.

A consequence, sadly, is that a number see the alternative as violence. Whilst those who consider the use of violence, such as "Damaging things as a form of protest" and "Fighting with police", is still small it has significantly increased.

Consistent with gender stereo types young males are far more oriented to physcial action such as occupying buildings and young females to more abstract forms of protest such as writing letters.

So what issues would motivate students to protest. Possibly the war in Iraq, which the government wanted and most Australians didn't, has had an impact but "peace/anti-war movement" is the clear winner.

Generally it is the issues associated with more liberal attitudes that grab the attention and the enthusiasm of students, which makes you wonder what happens to them when they get older. How do we go, as a teenager, from a position of compassion for assylum seekers, belief in human rights and a rejection of war to a situation where the majority of Australians reelect a government that repudiates these very values?

It seems that our society manages to turn compassionate liberal young people into closeminded adults consumed by fear and selfishness that willingly swallow the messages of terror and greed dished out by the federal government; that are prepared to overlook the fact that we violate the UN conventions on the treatment of refugees and, in doing so, give traction to the very islamist activists of whom they are so scared.

A couple of days ago I was witness to a conversation on a bus where two late teenage girls, who were clearly the best of friends, were chattering away about things in general. It became clear as the conversation progressed that one was an Jew and the other a Muslim. This is the Australia that so many of us want. The best weapon against islamist terrorism is an Australia society where young Muslims, when they are approached by Islamist radicals, say "Get stuffed! Those people are my friends"

There are sad, isolated Muslims who are succeptible to this form of propoganda, just as there sad, isolated Christians, Jews and Hindus. We should be increasing social services to these people not placing them in a situation where they feel they have a righteous vindication for their misguided actions.

Source

Don't Buy Petrol From Mobil

Remember you are not supposed to be buying petrol from Mobil this week.

Do Not Purchase Petrol From Mobil

This is an official message from the www.NoPetrolDay.com protest group.

September 22, 2005 was a success with the oil companies running scared after a
strong campaign culminating in a widely supported day of action. In a remarkable turn around week by the oil companies, they have not increased their fuel prices after the lows of Tuesday September 20. Why have the prices stayed low? Not because of high crude oil prices! Not because supplies are threatened by Hurricane Rita! Only because we participated in a widespread consumer lead protest did prices stay low.

The oil companies admit to making large profits out of the current petrol prices
and have seen a threefold (300%) increase in refining margins over the last few
months. They also refused to attend the NRMA’s petrol price summit so we need to keep protesting.

With over 90% of those surveyed at www.NoPetrolDay.com supporting further
specific action we are now targeting all Mobil fuel outlets from October 1 till
October 7 inclusive. With just one day’s over capacity from their refineries a
worry to them we will see a significant impact from a whole week of no sales.

Please purchase your fuel from any other supplier and NOT from the Mobil Oil
company during the first week of October 2005. Mobil produce most of the petrol
they sell throughout Australia from crude oil they produce from Bass Strait.
This is a very cheap raw material (less than $3.00 a barrel !!!) so the high
prices they charge motorists is a simple rip-off. Boycott all 1200 Australian
Mobil and Quix petrol outlets for a whole week and their Altona Refinery will
choke on the over capacity production.

Since most of us fill our cars once, or at most twice a week, make your purchase a “No Petrol Day” for Mobil and Quix convenience store outlets from October 1 to 7, 2005.

Forward this message to everyone you know.

Let it be heard that the citizens of Australia say Enough is Enough!

Reposted from comments section see more info at NoPetrolDay

Meet Scott Parkin

Meet Scott Parkin, he is American who was visiting Australia. He is now back in the USA after being expelled from Australia for breaching our national security by briefing locals in the use of street theatre for the purposes of non-violent protest.

It is fair to say that, over time, I have been critical of the abandonment of civil liberties that Americans have embraced through the manipulation of their fear of terrorism by the US authorities. Now it seems that Australia, my homeland which I had mistakenly thought was above such purile manipulation, has embraced the same tactics of fear and bigotry.

Truely terrorism has won in Australia in a bloodless coup. No Australian blood has been spilt but we are abandoning our fundamental principals of justice and vilifying people who, under our justice system, are innocent civilians of an ally and expelling them because they have the potential to cause embarrassment to our government.

We did not have a McCarthy. Australia's pragmatic approach to politics in the past has seen us ridicule polititians who tried to pull the pathetic partisan politics of fear. No more it seems. These days even citizens of our most cherished ally are suitable for vilification if it takes attention away from the fundamental flaws in the sale of Telstra.

Here is the good oil. There is no terrorist threat to Australia any greater than there has been for the last 20 years. We managed in the past to prevent these attacks without utilising their threat to mask other politically inconvenient facts of the time. How sad it is that we have such a small minded Prime Minister that he is reduced to this. He is truely a political prositute willing manipulate the fundamental values that Australians hold dear to pursue his political objectives. Even sadder is that so many Australians are prepared to accept it.

Australian Petrol Prices

Here is something for you to ponder.

Courtesy of Australian Institute of Petroleum

Notice that the wholesale price of unleaded petrol has been heading south since the start of September during which time the retail price has risen from $1.19 to $1.40.

hmmm a bit of profiteering perhaps.

Helpless

The US Military version of providing assistance to the poor and vulnerable in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

It defies belief.

via Radar Online

Sept 22nd Is Buy No Petrol Day

It has been calculated that if everyone in Australia did not purchase a drop of petrol for one day and all at the same time, the oil companies would choke on their stockpiles.

At the same time it would hit the entire industry with a net loss over 4.6 billion dollars which affects the bottom lines of the oil companies.

Therefore Thursday September 22nd has been formally declared "Buy No Petrol" day and the people of this nation should not buy a single drop of petrol that day. The only way this can be done is if you forward this e-mail to as many people as you can and as quickly as you can to get the word out.

Waiting on the government to step in and control the prices is not going to happen. What happened to the reduction and control in prices that the arab nations promised two weeks ago?

Remember one thing, not only is the price of petrol going up but at the same time airlines are forced to raise their prices, trucking companies are forced to raise their prices which effects prices on everything that is shipped. Things like food, clothing, building supplies medical supplies etc. Who pays in the end? We do!

We can make a difference. If they don't get the message after one day, we will do it again and again.

So do your part and spread the word. Send an email linking to this page http://thegreenman.net.au/mt/archives/001163.html everyone you know. Mark your calendars and make September 22nd a day that people say "enough is enough"

IMPORTANT UPDATE

It appears that the above is an urban myth. Sadly withholding purchases will do nothing to the profitability of the petrol companies. See here. It seems a better approach, which I came across earlier, is to simply encourage the boycott of Mobil. If enough people refused to buy petrol from this one supplier then they would be forced to drop their price and the others would follow. Every time they put their petrol up simply start boycotting Mobil again.

New Orleans

A mother sits in desparation amongst the trash nursing her exhausted child.

Looks like another trajedy in Africa does it not?

It is hard to reconcile this image and the one below, both of which are from New Orleans, with the image of itself that America broadcasts to the world. An image of affluence, competence, preparedness. Yet inspite of the supposedly detailed rehearsals for just this form of disaster the response of American authorities has been ham-fisted and that is being kind.

Compounding the trajedy is the rise of mob rule in the devestated areas of the south. The thin veneer of civilisation has been lifted by the flooding exposing a sub strata of violence, racism, terror and lawlessness.

For the first time I am gaining an understanding of the passionate embrace with which the right to bear firearms is held in America. With civil society proving to be such a thin and fragile veneer, it may be that responsible households need firearms to protect themselves, not from external threats but from their fellow Americans.

Do you notice anything about the photo above? All of the troops are white and all of the civilians are black. It says something in itself really. Clearly the ones abandoned by the government were the poor and the majority of the poor in the south are black.

One might speculate on the rapid decline into lawlessness and violence. In Australia a study found that that those who felt they did not get value for money on their tertiary education were more inclined to cheat on their tax to avoid paying their HECS debt. The rational being that if you feel cheated you feel morally vindicated to cheat in return.

Do these individuals who have formed into violent gangs and are looting, raping and murdering feel somehow that the total failure of their society to provide for their wellbeing, both before Hurricane Katrina and particularly in its aftermath has given them the justification to abandon civil behaviour for mob rule. Perhaps they feel that it is some payback for the way they and their ancestors have been stolen from, raped and murdered with impunity in the past.

I am not condoning their behaviour in any way but in order to prevent something we have to understand it. Sending in the troops to restore law and order is undoubtely necessary but there are wider lessons to learn from this disaster than effective evacuation strategies. America promotes internally, and to the rest of the world, that it is the greatest country on earth in which to live. It's Achillies Heel is it's relucance to examine its major failings in social justice and welfare for fear of damaging this image. The consequence is the fragility of its civil society, the need for personal protection (ie firearms) and the consequential reduced quality of life for all Americans.

Sign of The Times In Which We Live

Forgotten Heros

Here is a photo of Paul Smith. He is dead now, he died saving many of his fellow soldiers in Iraq. If he had performed the heroic acts that lead to his death in World War II he would have been hailed a hero by the US Government. The propaganda machine would have been getting significant mileage out of his deeds and his image would have been splashed across the media. Shorts that used to precede the movie in the theatres would have chronicled his deeds. His loved ones could have gained some small consolation from the recognition of his heroics by his country.

Paul Smith, however, died in Iraq. A war whose profile his government is trying to minimise. For Paul and his family there is no official public recognition of his heroic death. There is no pagentry to accompany the return of his body. There is no consolation to be derrived by his loved ones from the honour that his government is paying him. He is just a statistic, like a death from a car accident.

It seems that, in pursuit of the US governments objectives, Paul has not only sacrificed his life but also his entitlement to the recognition by his country of the sacrifice that he has made.

Leunig on England

From The Age 5th May 2005

Polish Pay Homage To The Pope

City of Students in Krakow, Poland

(via Art Daily)

Limited News At NFF

Control Of Australian Parliament

Source dataAustralian Electoral Commission

Voting By Young Australians

In Australia it is compulsory to vote at state and federal elections, well more precisely it is compulsory to turn up, have your name crossed off and receive the voting papers. Never-the-less most people, having got that far, do end up voting.

As a person approaches the age of 18 they must enroll to vote and the Australian Electoral Commission has a longitudinal study underway to look at why Australia’s young people do or do not enrol and vote, their attitudes to the enrolment and voting process, and what motivates them to participate. It is being conducted on behalf of the AEC by the University of Sydney, and the Australian National University.

Although the study has a long way to go there are some preliminary findings that are of interest.

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