Drifter looking for Ms or Mrs Right

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Daniel James

Hi Ladies

My name is Daniel. I’m 5 ft 11” and enjoy sailing and bush walking. I love cooking and long romantic walks along the beach and sunset. I enjoy cinema and spending time with friends and when time permits in my hard working life I take time out to write poetry and paint oil landscapes.

I am a connoisseur of fine wines and like to have one or two casks a day. I am told that my personal hygiene isn’t up to “modern standards” so I’m trying to bathe on a more regular basis.

The fungus under my right large toe is treatable and I apply cream at least once a week when I can remember. My “bad breath” is caused by a rotting wisdom tooth that I can’t afford to get extracted at the moment because of my medium to significant debts.

I like to lead an active lifestyle because my piles mean that sitting down for any prolonged period of time results in quite a deal of pain. I love women and of the two remaining restraining orders in place I am quietly confident that there will be no more complications this time as my phone has been disconnected and my car impounded.

I am looking for a woman who will take me for who I am and not ask questions about how acquired my skin condition. Must like vacuuming.

So ladies if you’re interested please call me on 555 999 555, but not all at once lol!

Look forward to hearing from you soon!

D


 

 

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Martyr or Megalomaniac

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Daniel James

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martyr noun, a person who suffers very much or is killed because of their political or religious beliefs, and is often admired because of it.

megalomania noun, an unnaturally strong wish for power and control, or the belief that you are very much more important and powerful than you really are.

The controversy over Wikileaks and the subsequent treatment of Julian Assange, the curiously charismatic founder and face of Wikileaks, has created headlines around the world. Much has been written about the rights and wrongs of leaking to the world of classified and highly sensitive diplomatic cables. A great deal has also be written about Assange himself.

The complex arguments and counter arguments about Wikileaks seem to have come down, for the time being, to a basic public relations exercise, a battle for the hearts and minds of the average person in the street in the court of public opinion.

To millions around the world Assange has become a cult figure, a leader of resistance against all that is wrong with the world’s pre-eminent super power. Those close to Assange have described his battle against the US and extradition proceedings brought against him by Swedish authorities as a “David and Goliath” battle.

Regardless, there can be no doubt as to where the United States stands on Assange’s actions, Secretary of State has been damming, “The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information. It puts people’s lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems.”

Some right wing commentators in the US have called for Assange’s execution on the grounds of treason, of course forgetting Assange is an Australian citizen. Vice President Joe Biden has called the Wikileaks CEO a “high tech terrorist” and vowed to explore all legal avenues to bring prosecution proceedings against the 39 year old Australian. Leaders around the world have condemned Wikileaks.

The pressure being mounted by the US and the allegations of rape brought by Swedish authorities play very much to the idea of Assange being a martyr. A notion that Assange has done very little to down play. Assange has had high profile support from within the legal, journalism and celebrity communities, it is clear that Assange and his supporters are keen to paint him as a freedom fighter, a purveyor of truth.

According to several opinion polls, opinion is very much divided on Assange and his actions. Naturally there are wild variation in results depending on the publication and web site, yet what a brief analysis does show is that there is a PR battle to be won. It’s a battle that in all probability should be won by the under dog.

However is Assange at risk and bringing down he’s own comparative advantage. Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the former Wikileaks spokesman who left the website after a bitter dispute with Assange has described him as behaving like and emperor or a slave trader.

In an interview for Australian television’s Four Corners, Domscheit-Berg said of Assange and his motives, “I think he was aiming at taking up the biggest fight possible, and that fight was by taking up a fight against the United States maybe in that case, as the biggest political player in the, in the sphere. And that has some megalomaniac tendencies.”

Can these “tendencies” be seen on display in recent weeks as he fights extradition proceedings? Assange has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, there was speculation that he would be Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. One can’t help but think that Assange is lapping up the notoriety and the attention. The issue is no longer about the leaks, it is now about Assange.

Is Julian Assange a martyr or a megalomanic? As with all of the complexities involved with Wikileaks and its associated media frenzy, the truth undoubtedly lies somewhere in between.

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Further Constitutional Reform?

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Daniel James

One of the more pleasing outcomes from the Federal election impasse of 2010 was the bipartisan support, as pushed by the four independents, for the inclusion of a preamble in the Australian Constitution recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the original inhabitants of this land.

While the wording and contents of such a preamble are likely to be debated and argued ad nauseam, its eventual addition  via a referendum should be a no brainer. What may turn out to be more difficult for a majority of voters in a majority of states to stomach would be further reform to Section 51 of the Constitution. Further reform, of course means additional ammendment following the 1967 Referendum which provided overwhelming support to amend the section as follows:

The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:

(xxvi)  the people of any race , other than the aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws.

to

(xxvi)  the people of any race,  for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws.

This very small amendment by removing, “other than the aboriginal race in any State”, in addition with the complete removal of Section 127 which read, “In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, Aboriginal natives shall not be counted”, effectively gave recognition to Aboriginals as Australian citizens.

The case for further reform has been bought about by the law of unintentional consequences.

While the amendment of  Section 51 and deletion of 127, gave acknowledgement for Aboriginal people, as citizens of the Commonwealth with associated rights. These rights included the right to vote and to access social security and welfare. However the referendum  also gave powers to the Commonwealth ie, the “power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to: (xxvi)  the people of any race , for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws.”

Therefore the main change from 1967 was to give the Commonwealth authority to make special laws for Aborigines when required. This was most markedly evoked by the Howard Government in 2007 with the “Northern Territory Intervention”. One of the strongest criticisms of the intervention was the effective suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 which makes it illegal for Governments to make laws, policies or rules based on race.

So now in light of the ongoing intervention in the Northern Territory which continues to have bipartisan support in the Federal Parliament, the question of constitutional reform in relation to the Aboriginal community has moved past that of an inclusion in the preamble but back to section 51 and whether it provides too much power to the Commonwealth when making laws for the people of any race.

A referendum on such an issue is likely to act as a quasi referendum on the intervention itself. The Federal Government has established an Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians which is due to meet for the first time next month to determine such matters. As with all aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy it is likely to be a controversial, hard and lengthy debate before we see reform take place.

If you’re passionate about this issue there will be ample opportunity for you to submit to the expert panel and have your say. For more information visit -

http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/progserv/engagement/Pages/constitutional_recognition.aspx

DJ


 

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Australia Day

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Daniel James

A couple of Australian beauties wrapped in the Union Jack

At this time of year in this big brown land of ours a national debate about Australia Day is rekindled. You know the thing- is it the right day celebrate the birth of our nation or are their other dates that better represents the essence of what it is to be Australian? Well let’s have a look at Australia Day and some of the alternatives.

Australia Day

On this day 223 years ago a bunch of scurvy ridden, flea bitten and over sexed convicts under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip laid anchor at Sydney Cove and hoisted the British flag, declaring British sovereignty of the east coast of New Holland. Thus we have the birth of “Australia”.

While this may have been good news for the first settlers, having arrived in paradise and all soon after their King George III had recently got his arse handed to him in the American War of Independence, it wasn’t such great news for the mob that had been inhabiting “New Holland” for the previous 60,000 years.

Thus for the past 80 years or so Australia Day has usually been marred in controversy as the Aboriginal community and an increasingly larger slice of the broader community recognise 26 January as Survival Day or Invasion day.

Should we recognise 26 January as Australia Day? Hmmm..nah, surely there’s a better day, one that’s less divisive.

Federation

On the 1st of January 1901, it was proclaimed, some some 123 years after the founding of New Holland, that the six self governing British colonies that covered the continental land mass of Australia would unify to form The Commonwealth of Australia. Even though the  Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (UK) was passed in the House of Commons and given Royal Assent some six months earlier. With these proclamations the Colonies became states and all within them became citizens of Australia…well almost everyone.

There was only one slight problem with the Australian Constitution drafted 0ver several painstaking years by Australia’s constitutional fathers, it was racist! It is quitely uttered in defence of the Constitution that it was merely a document of its time and that any racist undertones, ie the exclusion of Aborigines as having the right to be Australian citizens, was born out of the ignorance of the period. Nah it was racist plain and simple and just to make sure you couldn’t mess with their master work, the nation’s father made very sure that it would be very difficult to change and it wasn’t until 1967 that Aboriginal people were recognised  as Australian citizens.

So should we celebrate Federation as Australia Day? Nah, plus January the 1st is already a public holiday, what would be the point of that?

Commemoration of the 1967 Referendum

The sixties were a decade of cultural revolution. Across much of the world a liberation in sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll was defining a generation of Baby Boomers. Here in Australia, while we recognised Aztecs thanks to Billy Thorpe, it wasn’t until 1967 that Australia discovered that were a  race of people known as Aborigine’s that had been here for some time and refused to go away.

On 27 May 1967 with a vote in favour of 90.77% Australians decided it was time to recognise Aboriginal people as their fellow Australians. This was indeed a momentous occasion and came after generations of campaigning from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal warriors alike.

The victory was a clear sign that Australia had matured as a nation and was looking to move beyond the White Australia policies of…hang on.  One of the first acts passed in the new Australian Parliament of 1901 was the Immigration Restriction Act. In short the act formed the basis of a conglomeration of policies that became know as the White Australia policy that as the name suggests forbid the immigration or greatly restricted the immigration of  ‘non-white’ immigrants to Australia.

The policies were strengthened up until the second world war and then gradually relaxed there after. However it wasn’t until the legislation of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 that made the use of racial criteria for any official purpose illegal. So in 1967 while Australians decided to recognise the first Australians, government policy was still pretty iffy about letting non-whites into the country.

Should the commemoration of the 1967 Referendum be recognised as Australia Day? Nah, there’s still more work to be done on the Constitution and plus it’s too close to the Queen’s Birthday!

Hmmm what other days can we contemplate?  Anzac Day?

Anzac Day

Nah it’s Anzac Day! The day many brave young Australian and New Zealand men and even more British men gave their lives to make Turkey British. Maybe that’s a bit flippant, it was the first time that servicemen from around the country had served as Australian Armed Forces in a theatre of battle and it is said to have gone along way to defining the nation’s character or at least our character as perceived by foreigners.

Should Anzac Day be Australia Day? Nope, it’s an important day unto itself. Leave it be.

Bloody hell I’m running out of suggestions and smart arse wise cracks. When was Don Bradman born? When’s Shane Warne’s birthday? Nah neither of those would work, NSW wouldn’t be happy with Warne’s birthday signifying Australia Day, he’s Victorian for Pete’s sake!

Here’s an idea. Maybe, just maybe, if we amend the preamble to the Constitution to recognise the First Australian’s and in the same referendum pose the republican question again and both receive a majority of votes in a majority of states then that would be an historic day and one worth celebrating or even marking as Australia Day.

However could we do  it on the proviso that the referendum is held in the second half of the year? After the Queen’s Birthday, public holidays are pretty scarce in this big brown land of ours. Let’s say September/October? The weather’s on the improve and it’s around the time of the footy finals and a number of cultural festivals. Just a thought.

DJ


 


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