A big thank-you to Alphabet Photography
and You Tube.................
Monday, 6 December 2010
Better access to film and TV programming for all Australians
From Regional Arts NSW December-January e-newletter:
In November Accessible Arts released an article on two rulings by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) which will substantially increase access to regular film and television programming for Australians who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or with low vision. In May 2010 the AHRC ruled that cinemas must meet their legislative requirements to provide access for Australians who are Deaf, hard of hearing, blind or with low vision. This was followed in October by the Commission's refusal to grant a temporary exemption from captioning of pay TV programs to ASTRA, the peak body for pay TV representing 34 broadcasters who operate 91 subscription TV channels. Sancha Donald, CEO of Accessible Arts, welcomes the AHRC rulings. "Viewing these decisions together I think we can gauge a shift in the way access to entertainment is being thought about," said Ms Donald. Accessible Arts has a variety of Disability Awareness and Access Training packages tailored to meet the needs of arts organisations, festivals and venues available online at http://www.aarts.net.au/training/
Sunday, 5 December 2010
What does France and Australia have in common besides national wine industries?
It has long been thought a national shame that in Australia the indigenous population is over represented in the prison system.
This is seen as indicative of both a failure of society to respond appropriately to Aboriginal social, cultural and economic needs and, as possible evidence of bias within the justice system.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics publication Corrective Services, Australia, Mar 2009 states:
Nationally, the December quarter 2008 average daily imprisonment rate was 166 prisoners per 100,000 adult population, an increase of 2% from the December quarter 2007 (163 prisoners). The Northern Territory had the highest imprisonment rate (629 prisoners per 100,000 adult population), followed by Western Australia (240) and New South Wales (184).....
The national average daily Indigenous imprisonment rate in the December quarter 2008 was 2,240 per 100,000 adult Indigenous population, an increase of 1% from the previous quarter, and a 3% increase from the December quarter 2007.
The highest Indigenous imprisonment rate was recorded in Western Australia (3,811 Indigenous prisoners per 100,000 adult Indigenous population), followed by New South Wales (2,423) and South Australia (2,413). The lowest Indigenous imprisonment rate was recorded in Tasmania (614), followed by the Australian Capital Territory (1,004)......
The national age standardised Indigenous imprisonment rate from the annual Prisoner Census conducted at June 2008 was over 13 times higher (1,769 per 100,000 adult Indigenous population) than the rate for non-Indigenous persons (133 per 100,000 adult non-Indigenous population).
In France it would appear that persons from Islamic backgrounds who make up only an estimated ten per cent of the total population may also be over-represented within the justice system (possibly based in some measure on institutionalised bias) as this observer admits that the French prison population is thought to be over fifty per cent Muslim.
From Wikileaks Cablegate website:
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 PARIS 005539
SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/16/2015..... SUBJECT: PUTTING OUT BRUSHFIRES: FRANCE AND ISLAMIC EXTREMISM .......¶1. (C) Summary:....According to recent press reports, the RG,
France's police intelligence service, estimates that 6 million Muslims
live in France, approximately 10 percent of the population.......
¶2. (C) In the Muslim community of some six million, 70
percent are estimated to be of North African (Algeria,
Morocco, and Tunisia) origin. Other sizable groups include
Turks and Pakistanis. Within this overall population, the RG
estimates (according to recent press reports) that roughly
9,000 could be considered extremist, or, just over one-tenth
of one percent.....
¶3. (U) Two specific sources of Islamic extremism are of
special interest. First is the French prison system, with a
population that is estimated at over 50 percent Muslim.....
Alice Springs brings forth a new political party
On 1 December 2010 the Australian Electoral Commission advertised an application for non-parliamentary political party registration by The First Nations Political Party (FNPP).
3. GOAL AND OBJECTIVES OF FIRST NATIONS POLITICAL PARTY (FNPP)
The goal and objectives of First Nations Political Party (FNPP) are...
- To provide direct relief to all First Nations (Originals) from Poverty, Suffering Destitution, Misfortune, Distress and Helplessness caused
..directly or indirectly or by the involvement with the Laws of the Commonwealth or States of Australia in all matters.
- Address all issues encountered by First Nations (Originals) in Australia subjects to provide a real collective political voice to determine any ..future involvement in any shape or form.
Therefore First Nations Political Party will endeavour to advance its:
- Vision in Redressing the Exclusion, Intrusion, and Displacement, Intervention of our Cultural, Sovereignty and Land.
- Mission to participate in all levels of government to ensure the voice of First Nations Original peoples are represented for the benefit of
..Sovereign ownership, Economic Development, Cultural, Education, Health, Social and Justice for our people.
Then as the inherited host to other visitors and settlers, the First Nations members will pardon injustices of the past, by forming a new national identity that is inclusive of other nations within Australia.
1. The sovereign rights and ownership issue is still as passionate and alive today as it was in 1770 when Cook arrived in Australia.
2. To advocate a representative political voice for the First Nations of the Northern Territory and other States of Australia, and within the Federal Government Political system known as the Westminster system.
3. To represent the First Nations and their descendents the Original Australians in both Federal and State Elections:
1. The Senate
2. The House of Representatives
3. Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory Politics
4. All of Australian States
4. To increase the First Nations political views and aspirations in all areas of;
1. Sovereignty
2. Prior ownership
3. Changing of the Australian Constitution
4. Republic
5. Seventh State of Commonwealth of Australia
6. Law and Justice
7. NT Stolen Generations Reparations/Compensation
8. Climate change
9. Immigration
10. Economics
11. Employment
12. Land; Cultural Issues; Resource; Water; Minerals and leasing
13. Social
14. Welfare
15. Education
16. Human Rights, Cultural Rights, Religious Rights, and Sexuality Rights
17. At an International level - United Nations
18. NT Stolen Generation Issues
19. RDA (Racial Discrimination Act)
20. NT Outstation Policies
Especially empowering, influencing and inspiring First Nations People as the Original inhabitants of Australia.
5. To have a Representative Participate in all Levels of Government to ensure the views and aspirations of First Nations People are involved in State/ Territory, Commonwealth and International Levels of Government.
Oh, poo - we lost!
Not only did we lose the FIFA Fútbol World Cup venue bidding war, we lost resoundingly:
2022
Round 1: Australia 1 vote, Japan 3 votes, Korea Republic 4 votes, Qatar 11 votes, USA 3 votes (Australia eliminated)
Round 2: Japan 2 votes, Korea Republic 5 votes, Qatar 10 votes and USA 5 votes (Japan eliminated)
Round 3: Korea Republic 5 votes, Qatar 11 votes, USA 6 votes (Korea Republic eliminated)
Round 4: Qatar 14 votes and USA 8 votes (Qatar obtained an absolute majority)
And here I was hoping that for the next decade there would've been a national meeja topic which might occasionally actually drown out Tony Abbott's carping, Mark Lahtham's whining, Paul Howe's big noting, Kristina Keneally's scolding, Chris Mitchell's posturing and John Howard's revisionism for whole days at a time.
Apparently the failed bid also cost the Aussie taxpayer about A$45.6 million and all we got for the money was this little video:
Saturday, 4 December 2010
The stupid and dangerous fireworks season is underway - there ought to be a law against it!
Actually, there is, so why isn't it enforced?
Where: Yamba, NSW, 2464
When: Saturday, 4 December, 8.30pm
What: Illegal fireworks
WorkCover NSW requires that:
The possession, use, storage and transport of display fireworks is restricted to individuals holding a:
- pyrotechnician's licence
- fireworks (single use) licence.
There are safety and security requirements for the storage of fireworks depending on the amount and type of fireworks to be stored. Licences are also required to:
- handle fireworks without supervision
- manufacture fireworks
- sell fireworks.
A licence will only be issued for a legitimate reason such as an organised public display that is open to the public. The display must be organised by a community or private organisation for a show, fete, carnival, cultural, religious or sporting event.
Notified fireworks are displayed on WorkCover's site and can be found here.
According to U.S. Government Assange not a journalist or a whistleblower, but a biased anarchic political actor with an 'agenda'
There is an awful fascination in watching a geo-political giant set out to eliminate one individual and website from any visible presence in cyberspace.
The fascination is heightened by the fact that Julian Assange was born in Townsville, Australia and spent some of his primary school years living in the NSW Northern Rivers region at Lismore.
The latest censorship effort resulted in the whistleblower website losing its U.S. domain name according to an Associated Press report.
In what may be considered the first World Wide Web information war, www.wikileaks.org appears to only be available in Google Cache at the time of writing.
However, this is cyberspace we are talking about and Wikileaks can now be accessed at http://88.80.13.160/ and Cablegate specifically at http://213.251.145.96/cablegate.html. While Wikileaks at Twitter is at http://twitter.com/wikileaks.
From the daily press briefing at the U.S. Department of State on 2 December 2010:
QUESTION: From your perspective, what is WikiLeaks? How do you define them, if it is not a media organization, then?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, as the Secretary said earlier this week, it is – one might infer it has many characteristics of some internet sites. Not every internet site you would call a media organization or a news organization. We’re focused on WikiLeaks’s behavior, and I have had personally conversations with media outlets that are reporting on this, and we have had the opportunity to express our specific concerns about intelligence sources and methods and other interests that could put real lives at risk.
Mr. Assange, in a letter to our Ambassador in the United Kingdom over the weekend, after documents had been released to news organizations, made what we thought was a halfhearted gesture to have some sort of conversation, but that was after he released the documents and after he knew that they were going to emerge publicly. So I think there’s been a very different approach. And Mr. Assange obviously has a particular political objective behind his activities, and I think that, among other things, disqualifies him as being considered a journalist.
QUESTION: What is his political objective?
QUESTION: The same letter --
MR. CROWLEY: Hmm?
QUESTION: What is his political objective?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, his – I mean he could be considered a political actor. I think he’s an anarchist, but he’s not a journalist.
QUESTION: So his objective is to sow chaos, you mean?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, I mean, you all come here prepared to objectively report the activities of the United States Government. I think that Mr. Assange doesn’t meet that particular standard.
QUESTION: But just so I understand, P.J., what – I mean you just said the – that you thought he was --
MR. CROWLEY: Well, but I mean – let me – he’s not a journalist. He’s not a whistleblower. And there – he is a political actor. He has a political agenda. He is trying to undermine the international system of -- that enables us to cooperate and collaborate with other governments and to work in multilateral settings and on a bilateral basis to help solve regional and international issues.
What he’s doing is damaging to our efforts and the efforts of other governments. They are putting at risk our national interest and the interests of other governments around the world. He is not an objective observer of anything. He is an active player. He has an agenda. He’s trying to pursue that agenda, and I don’t think he can – he can’t qualify as either a journalist on the one hand or a whistleblower on the other.
QUESTION: Sorry. What is that agenda, that political agenda? Can you be more --
MR. CROWLEY: I’ll leave it for Mr. Assange to define his agenda. He has been interviewed by some of your news organizations. He has the ability to talk for himself. But you asked -- I was asked a specific question, “Do we consider him a journalist?” The answer is no.
* In an allegedly unrelated matter Interpol released this:
_____________________________________________
Sweden authorizes INTERPOL to make public Red Notice for WikiLeaks founder
LYON, France - INTERPOL has made public the Red Notice, or international wanted persons alert, for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the request of Swedish authorities who want to question him in connection with a number of sexual offences.
The Red Notice for the 39-year-old Australian, which was issued to law enforcement in all 188 INTERPOL member countries on 20 November, has now been made publicly available by INTERPOL following official authorization by Sweden.
All INTERPOL National Central Bureaus (NCBs) have also been advised to ensure that their border control agencies are made aware of Assange's Red Notice status, which is a request for any country to identify or locate an individual with a view to their provisional arrest and extradition.
Many of INTERPOL's member countries however, consider a Red Notice a valid request for provisional arrest, especially if they are linked to the requesting country via a bilateral extradition treaty. In cases where arrests are made based on a Red Notice, these are made by national police officials in INTERPOL member countries.
INTERPOL cannot demand that any member country arrests the subject of a Red Notice. Any individual wanted for arrest should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
___________________________________________________
UPDATE:
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