Billy Field was raised in Urana in rural New South Wales. He grew up there and worked on a station in the Riverina region through his teens and early twenties before heading to Sydney to have a crack at the music industry.
Despite his association with pop music Billy Field was an extremely talented jazz and blues musician, influences that can be heard on his first, and most commercially successful, record "Bad Habits". The album, released in 1981, featured the hugely successful single "Bad Habits" and a second single that also reached Number One on the Australian charts, "You Weren't In Love With Me".
Field's next album, "Try Biology" went gold within weeks of its release and was followed by an adventurous third album, "Say Yes", which featured the entire string section of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. But none of Billy Field's releases could eclipse the phenomenal success of his debut and he was relegated to "one hit wonder" status across the globe.
You Weren't In Love With Me really should have been a world wide hit. Perhaps if a band like Air Supply had released it then it would have been.
Bad Habits
You Weren't In Love With Me
Sunday, 15 July 2007
CNN - The Climate of Fear
Hands up all of those people who are getting just a little tired of the back and forth in the climate debate? I must admit that there are only so many times I can suffer through both sides presenting the same information and, particularly, the pro-AGW crowd's profound corruption of the scientific method. After watching the ABC's unsurprisingly one-sided attack on The Great Global Warming Swindle, which did not even deal with the huge elephant in the room for Climate Brown Shirts - the inability of any climate model to ever predict climate correctly - I don't think that there's any room for common ground and a compromise between those caught up in the religious, save the planet fervour of Climate Change and those of us who would prefer that real science was really being done following traditional methods for establishing proof and letting the facts fall where they may.
Anyhow, here's CNN Exposed with their take The Climate of Fear. Have a look at Al Gore's history with the Kyoto Protocol as Vice President. Now THAT is a real inconvenient truth for the man and his supporters.
Anyhow, here's CNN Exposed with their take The Climate of Fear. Have a look at Al Gore's history with the Kyoto Protocol as Vice President. Now THAT is a real inconvenient truth for the man and his supporters.
Friday, 13 July 2007
The Great Global Warming Swindle ABC post-viewing 'debate'
Australia's ABC (= PBS, BBC) has shown The Great Global Warming Swindle - a documentary 180 degrees from its political bias - and instead of simply showing it and moving on they just had to have a dirty, great bash session afterwards.
Once TGGWS was aired, Tony Jones showed an interview he conducted with the film's maker, Martin Durkin.
The first tactic of the ABC was to discredit Durkin, which it did by showing previous documentaries he had worked on including one on silicon breast implants that quite unnecessarily showed footage of naked women. They then launched an attack on Channel 4 for commissioning the program, describing them as having a history of producing controversial material. Incredibly, a couple of snippets from that first class socialist clown George Monbiot were included, which really set the scene for what was to come.
Jones then very aggressively questioned Durkin about the accuracy of what was presented. He was clearly well briefed by pro-AGW scientists within the ABC, as well as, I'm guessing, by David Karoly. I thought that his questions were quite legitimate and were the type that should be asked. However, he never let Durkin answer them properly, which was problematic from a balance perspective.
I don't mind aggressive, probing questions but it's hugely unfortunate that the ABC's bias prevents it from taking the same tack with pro-AGW liars (there's no other term for them) such as Al Gore and Tim Flannery (and even its own Robin '100 metre sea level rise' Williams).
After the interview with Durkin was over Jones then attacked the scientists featured in TGGWS, particularly Fred Singer who has questioned the relationship between sunlight and melanoma (I have no opinion on that one) and second hand smoke and cancer (if you believe there's a correlation here then you should look at how the empirical science was done, which will shock you to the core).
The panel 'discussion/debate' was fairly predictable and I'll summarise as best as I can given my notes (I haven't got all of the panellists listed):
Andy Pittman - Believer - Claimed the world has a "natural balance" of C02, that we can measure CO2 exactly, understand the process and know it's us that's made the difference. Anyone who claims that there's a "natural balance" of CO2 is a grade-A ass-clown if you ask me, as it's completely unprovable.
Robin Williams - Believer - If Pittman is an ass-clown then this fellow is the circus ringleader. He referred to Richard Lindzen as having smoked three cigarettes in a twenty minute interview and that Fred Singer was a "serial complainer". So what? Does that make their science wrong? Later in the program Williams defended the Hockey Stick, claiming that the National Academy of Sciences had supported it a couple of years ago when it took a look at the subject. As Williams knows, this is an untrue statement. Their support was quite equivocal and they referred to uncertainties in the results. Subsequently, the NAS' own Chair of their Statistics Committee, Edward Wegman, supported the McIntyre and McKitrick criticisms of the statistical flaws in the Hockey Stick, which is why it's now completely discredited and has been derogated in the recent Fourth Assessment Report from its prominent, smoking-gun position in the Third Assessment Report. Williams came across as a profoundly shallow, immature thinker of the type you encounter with people who have never had a real job outside of academia.
Michael Duffy - Blasphemer - Attacked Tony Jones for not being so harsh when he interviewed Nicholas Stern about six months ago. Jones ignored the criticism but it's completely valid, as at that time the economics of the Stern Report had been not only challenged but profoundly debunked by economists across the political spectrum.
David Karoly - Believer - Professor Karoly is a climate scientist with his snout firmly in the global warming money pit. To me, his input was the most disturbing because he used real science to deflect legitimate queries in order to impress a viewing audience that lacked the scientific knowledge to question his statements. That Jones deferred to him so often I think gives away the fact that he was the one behind the questions to Durkin, as mentioned above. Karoly's claim that the IPCC "reviews science fairly and openly" is a remarkable statement to make given that it is so far from the truth, as anyone who has followed the IPCC's shenanigans over the last ten or so years can attest.
Nick Roley - Believer - Tony Blair's Climate Change advisor, a good speaker and a truly political player. He didn't say anything with any depth other than support the position that we need to do something and do it now.
Dr Nicky Williams - Believer - CEO NSW Minerals Council - I don't know if she's a Believer or just a Blasphemer that can see a huge pile of cash sitting on the table that is there for the taking as long as the coal industry wants to side with the IPCC orthodoxy. Didn't make a very profound impact.
Greg Bourne - Believer - Former businessman and now CEO of the World Wildlife Fund. Beclowned himself spectacularly when he wouldn't deny that there are too many people on the planet, pretty much promoting the standard environmentalist's anti-humanity leanings. Looked quite a zealot, really.
The most amusing part of the show was when Tony Jones asked the audience questions and, being unable to understand what was being asked by them, simply moved on. The first question was quite legitimate and related to the presence of Carbon-14 in the atmosphere, which seriously calls into question the persistence of CO2 - a major requirement if the catastrophic claims are to hold true. Some young student asked a question that Jones also couldn't understand and a couple of people mentioned that the modern environmental movement grew out of the eugenics movement. Most people don't know what that is so Jones simply moved on again. Apparently it's OK to question the motives of those opposed to the 'consensus' but not those in favour.
The program lacked any discussion about the problems with the climate models themselves, which I'm sure was deliberate, as it's a huge weak spot for the Believers and they wouldn't have wanted to argue against the fact that the models have not been right even once. Ever. It was poor form by the Blasphemers to not bring the issue of model accuracy up.
In summary, a fun time was had by all. Regardless of which side of the debate you are on your mind was not changed by the debate, though TGGWS itself might have got you thinking a bit, particularly about the morality of expecting Africa to forgo the use of electricity.
I'm sure other bloggers will have more in the next day or so.
Once TGGWS was aired, Tony Jones showed an interview he conducted with the film's maker, Martin Durkin.
The first tactic of the ABC was to discredit Durkin, which it did by showing previous documentaries he had worked on including one on silicon breast implants that quite unnecessarily showed footage of naked women. They then launched an attack on Channel 4 for commissioning the program, describing them as having a history of producing controversial material. Incredibly, a couple of snippets from that first class socialist clown George Monbiot were included, which really set the scene for what was to come.
Jones then very aggressively questioned Durkin about the accuracy of what was presented. He was clearly well briefed by pro-AGW scientists within the ABC, as well as, I'm guessing, by David Karoly. I thought that his questions were quite legitimate and were the type that should be asked. However, he never let Durkin answer them properly, which was problematic from a balance perspective.
I don't mind aggressive, probing questions but it's hugely unfortunate that the ABC's bias prevents it from taking the same tack with pro-AGW liars (there's no other term for them) such as Al Gore and Tim Flannery (and even its own Robin '100 metre sea level rise' Williams).
After the interview with Durkin was over Jones then attacked the scientists featured in TGGWS, particularly Fred Singer who has questioned the relationship between sunlight and melanoma (I have no opinion on that one) and second hand smoke and cancer (if you believe there's a correlation here then you should look at how the empirical science was done, which will shock you to the core).
The panel 'discussion/debate' was fairly predictable and I'll summarise as best as I can given my notes (I haven't got all of the panellists listed):
Andy Pittman - Believer - Claimed the world has a "natural balance" of C02, that we can measure CO2 exactly, understand the process and know it's us that's made the difference. Anyone who claims that there's a "natural balance" of CO2 is a grade-A ass-clown if you ask me, as it's completely unprovable.
Robin Williams - Believer - If Pittman is an ass-clown then this fellow is the circus ringleader. He referred to Richard Lindzen as having smoked three cigarettes in a twenty minute interview and that Fred Singer was a "serial complainer". So what? Does that make their science wrong? Later in the program Williams defended the Hockey Stick, claiming that the National Academy of Sciences had supported it a couple of years ago when it took a look at the subject. As Williams knows, this is an untrue statement. Their support was quite equivocal and they referred to uncertainties in the results. Subsequently, the NAS' own Chair of their Statistics Committee, Edward Wegman, supported the McIntyre and McKitrick criticisms of the statistical flaws in the Hockey Stick, which is why it's now completely discredited and has been derogated in the recent Fourth Assessment Report from its prominent, smoking-gun position in the Third Assessment Report. Williams came across as a profoundly shallow, immature thinker of the type you encounter with people who have never had a real job outside of academia.
Michael Duffy - Blasphemer - Attacked Tony Jones for not being so harsh when he interviewed Nicholas Stern about six months ago. Jones ignored the criticism but it's completely valid, as at that time the economics of the Stern Report had been not only challenged but profoundly debunked by economists across the political spectrum.
David Karoly - Believer - Professor Karoly is a climate scientist with his snout firmly in the global warming money pit. To me, his input was the most disturbing because he used real science to deflect legitimate queries in order to impress a viewing audience that lacked the scientific knowledge to question his statements. That Jones deferred to him so often I think gives away the fact that he was the one behind the questions to Durkin, as mentioned above. Karoly's claim that the IPCC "reviews science fairly and openly" is a remarkable statement to make given that it is so far from the truth, as anyone who has followed the IPCC's shenanigans over the last ten or so years can attest.
Nick Roley - Believer - Tony Blair's Climate Change advisor, a good speaker and a truly political player. He didn't say anything with any depth other than support the position that we need to do something and do it now.
Dr Nicky Williams - Believer - CEO NSW Minerals Council - I don't know if she's a Believer or just a Blasphemer that can see a huge pile of cash sitting on the table that is there for the taking as long as the coal industry wants to side with the IPCC orthodoxy. Didn't make a very profound impact.
Greg Bourne - Believer - Former businessman and now CEO of the World Wildlife Fund. Beclowned himself spectacularly when he wouldn't deny that there are too many people on the planet, pretty much promoting the standard environmentalist's anti-humanity leanings. Looked quite a zealot, really.
The most amusing part of the show was when Tony Jones asked the audience questions and, being unable to understand what was being asked by them, simply moved on. The first question was quite legitimate and related to the presence of Carbon-14 in the atmosphere, which seriously calls into question the persistence of CO2 - a major requirement if the catastrophic claims are to hold true. Some young student asked a question that Jones also couldn't understand and a couple of people mentioned that the modern environmental movement grew out of the eugenics movement. Most people don't know what that is so Jones simply moved on again. Apparently it's OK to question the motives of those opposed to the 'consensus' but not those in favour.
The program lacked any discussion about the problems with the climate models themselves, which I'm sure was deliberate, as it's a huge weak spot for the Believers and they wouldn't have wanted to argue against the fact that the models have not been right even once. Ever. It was poor form by the Blasphemers to not bring the issue of model accuracy up.
In summary, a fun time was had by all. Regardless of which side of the debate you are on your mind was not changed by the debate, though TGGWS itself might have got you thinking a bit, particularly about the morality of expecting Africa to forgo the use of electricity.
I'm sure other bloggers will have more in the next day or so.
Thursday, 12 July 2007
Why shouldn't everyone have the same carbon cap?
The astonishing hypocrisy of huge carbon footprint Climate Brown Shirts on display at last weekend's Live Earth series of global concerts reminded me to write a post about the manner in which rich, energy hogging celebrities purchase carbon credits to support their carbon profligacy while at the same time expecting the rest of us to fly less, own 'greener' electrical appliances, drive a Prius and shower no more than twice a week.
As is being more frequently pointed out these days, environmentalism looks more and more like a religion (some say a cult) every day.
With self-appointed high priests such as Al Gore and Tim Flannery, supported by a faithful litter of intellectual puppies whose major features include huge wealth and massively carbon dependent lifestyles, the religion now includes shaming non-believers, calls to put them (that's us!) on trial for our sins and a method of personal redemption - carbon credits - that mirror the Catholic Indulgences of five hundred years ago.
Environmentalists see themselves as morally superior to the rest of us. Fighting for the survival of the planet through the climate change cause is the most noble activity an environmentalist can undertake. Therefore, you'd expect them to lead by example wouldn't you?
For the sake of argument let's assume that all nations have ratified Kyoto, that carbon trading is in full effect, that countries are moving to clean energy technologies and that every person on earth has their own carbon limit and has to keep within that cap.
In this scenario, why is it morally OK for the Al Gores and Toni Collettes of this world to continue to have a carbon footprint 50+ times bigger than the average citizen but offset that by spending a minuscule part of their wealth - an option that is not available to the rest of us?
It's not. Not in my scenario and not in the world we live in now in which these hypocrites purchase dodgy carbon credits (Al Gore buys them from himself!) and Priuses while jetting all over the world, owning multiple massive properties and generally laying carbon waste to the planet.
Where is the Climate Mahatma Ghandi or Mother Theresa? An individual whose life is an example to, and inspiration for, millions of followers?
Non existent.
Which just goes to show how morally shallow the climate change lobby really is.
Do as I say, not as I do has never been a very inspiring message. The absurdity of preaching climate change while doing exactly those things that are supposedly destroying the planet seems to be lost on the high priests of the climate religion.
As is being more frequently pointed out these days, environmentalism looks more and more like a religion (some say a cult) every day.
With self-appointed high priests such as Al Gore and Tim Flannery, supported by a faithful litter of intellectual puppies whose major features include huge wealth and massively carbon dependent lifestyles, the religion now includes shaming non-believers, calls to put them (that's us!) on trial for our sins and a method of personal redemption - carbon credits - that mirror the Catholic Indulgences of five hundred years ago.
Environmentalists see themselves as morally superior to the rest of us. Fighting for the survival of the planet through the climate change cause is the most noble activity an environmentalist can undertake. Therefore, you'd expect them to lead by example wouldn't you?
For the sake of argument let's assume that all nations have ratified Kyoto, that carbon trading is in full effect, that countries are moving to clean energy technologies and that every person on earth has their own carbon limit and has to keep within that cap.
In this scenario, why is it morally OK for the Al Gores and Toni Collettes of this world to continue to have a carbon footprint 50+ times bigger than the average citizen but offset that by spending a minuscule part of their wealth - an option that is not available to the rest of us?
It's not. Not in my scenario and not in the world we live in now in which these hypocrites purchase dodgy carbon credits (Al Gore buys them from himself!) and Priuses while jetting all over the world, owning multiple massive properties and generally laying carbon waste to the planet.
Where is the Climate Mahatma Ghandi or Mother Theresa? An individual whose life is an example to, and inspiration for, millions of followers?
Non existent.
Which just goes to show how morally shallow the climate change lobby really is.
Do as I say, not as I do has never been a very inspiring message. The absurdity of preaching climate change while doing exactly those things that are supposedly destroying the planet seems to be lost on the high priests of the climate religion.
More fun with Climate Change polls - this time on the ABC
I've pointed out a couple of times before the manipulation that takes place on online polls about political topics.
Australia's ABC (read BBC or PBS) has a poll on their website: Do you think global warming is caused primarily by human activity?
As per usual, shenanigans started happening half way through today and ABC then suspended the poll.
Your erstwhile blogger, though, was busy taking screen captures.
9-Jul - 0728 - Votes: 2,033 - Yes 28%, No 72%
9-Jul - 1013 - Votes: 4,716 - Yes 25%, No 75%
10-Jul - 0748 - Votes: 5,336 - Yes 24%, No 76%
For more than 24 hours, the Deniers are miles in front. But wait for it, here comes the charge of the Left Brigade...
10-Jul - 2203 - Votes: 14,071 - Yes 65%, No 35%
In this period there were 7,865 Yes votes to 870 No votes.
Yep. That seems to comport with what people are really thinking out there. Not.
The software the ABC uses is really quite crappy, as it allowed people to vote multiple times so who knows what the real result it. The poll is now suspended.
I wonder whether any of the panellists will refer to this poll on Thursday night in the post-showing of The Great Global Warming Swindle. Nothing would surprise me. If the ABC was honest then they'd take down the graph altogether.
12 July Update
Having worked out that their polling software was able to be manipulated simply by pressing the voting button more than once - a complexity that seems to appropriately mirror the left wing ideology of the ABC - they've now introduced a new voting button that requires you to enter an email address and then click a link in your inbox to have your vote count.
Given that they know the poll has been manipulated why hasn't the ABC zeroed it from this morning? Could it be so that the Yes vote wins the day? From the website: "Results will be published here shortly after the program on Thursday night."
Let's see whether they refer to this poll in the post GGWS discussion as proof that the public supports the claim...
Click to embiggen
Australia's ABC (read BBC or PBS) has a poll on their website: Do you think global warming is caused primarily by human activity?
As per usual, shenanigans started happening half way through today and ABC then suspended the poll.
Your erstwhile blogger, though, was busy taking screen captures.
9-Jul - 0728 - Votes: 2,033 - Yes 28%, No 72%
9-Jul - 1013 - Votes: 4,716 - Yes 25%, No 75%
10-Jul - 0748 - Votes: 5,336 - Yes 24%, No 76%
For more than 24 hours, the Deniers are miles in front. But wait for it, here comes the charge of the Left Brigade...
10-Jul - 2203 - Votes: 14,071 - Yes 65%, No 35%
In this period there were 7,865 Yes votes to 870 No votes.
Yep. That seems to comport with what people are really thinking out there. Not.
The software the ABC uses is really quite crappy, as it allowed people to vote multiple times so who knows what the real result it. The poll is now suspended.
I wonder whether any of the panellists will refer to this poll on Thursday night in the post-showing of The Great Global Warming Swindle. Nothing would surprise me. If the ABC was honest then they'd take down the graph altogether.
12 July Update
Having worked out that their polling software was able to be manipulated simply by pressing the voting button more than once - a complexity that seems to appropriately mirror the left wing ideology of the ABC - they've now introduced a new voting button that requires you to enter an email address and then click a link in your inbox to have your vote count.
Given that they know the poll has been manipulated why hasn't the ABC zeroed it from this morning? Could it be so that the Yes vote wins the day? From the website: "Results will be published here shortly after the program on Thursday night."
Let's see whether they refer to this poll in the post GGWS discussion as proof that the public supports the claim...
Click to embiggen
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Global warming is "codswallop"
Martin Durkin, creator of the most controversial film of the 21st century - The Great Global Warming Swindle, writes for the Sydney Morning Herald:
I could not have upset the soft-left, soft-green middle classes more if I had crept in their kitchens and snuck genetically modified tomatoes in their paninis. Why did I make the film The Great Global Warming Swindle? The head of science programs at Britain's Channel 4, Hamish Mykura (who has a PhD in environmental science), asked me to. He suspected the global warming alarm was not based on solid science. So did his predecessor, Sara Ramsden, who was also eager to make a film in this area. I was an experienced science documentary producer used to handling complex subjects.I must admit that I'm a little bit amazed that Channel 4 would have a couple of highly qualified environmental scientists that doubt the man made global warming thesis. More power to them that they set out to test the reality of the so-called Deniers' claims and air the results whichever way they came. Channel 4 clearly has more moral backbone than the BBC or Australia's ABC, both of which carry on like spoilt children when faced with inconvenient truths such as the sun is causing or current warming period.
So what was our conclusion, after months of research that involved talking to hundreds of scientists and wading through mountains of science papers? It's all codswallop.Hundreds of scientists. Codswallop.
The notion of man-made global warming started life as a wild, eccentric theory and, despite throwing billions of dollars at it, scientists have failed to stand it up. Man-made global warming is unmitigated nonsense.A hearty congratulations to the myriad of self-enriching, politically motivated, morally malnourished hypocrites posing as saviours of the environment for sending billions of dollars down the toilet while millions of Africans live in abject (albeit mostly self-induced) poverty.
This is not the first time scientists have talked rubbish. Absurd theories come and go in science all the time. A few years ago an ostensible consensus of scientists said one-third of the British population were about to pop their clogs because they had eaten dodgy hamburgers (the mad cow disease scare). Many scientists build whole careers talking out of their hats. But usually it goes unnoticed. There is no real harm done.From mad cow disease to the non-existent heterosexual AIDs epidemic to the supposed risk of fluoride in the water to the completely fabricated DDT scare to peak oil to the population bomb, scientists have been doing a particularly good job of getting public policy dead wrong.
But global warming theory is different. It cannot be ignored. It is intruding into our lives to an extraordinary extent, shaping domestic and international policy in profound ways.
I urge readers to look at the evidence themselves. (We have assembled many relevant papers on a dedicated website, www.greatglobalwarmingswindle.com.) The global warmers try to discourage a close examination of the data. They say the time for debate is over, that there's a consensus of scientists who say it's definitely true. But this is rubbish. Check out www.oism.org and find an extraordinary petition carrying the names of 17,000 scientists who disagree.Read the rest of the article. I can't wait for the ABC to show the Great Global Warming Swindle just so I can see the unscientific, Climate Brown Shirts spit the dummy big time that the scam supporting their inflated status is the community is being exposed for the trumped up rubbish that it is.
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Even More Iraq Inconvenient Truth
If you've never visited Michael Yon's then you're missing out on a valuable source of information about what's really going on in Iraq and the progress being made. Yon is an embedded freelance journalist that gives a warts and all, unbiased view of things.
From his latest post comes the following:
From his latest post comes the following:
The big news on the streets today is that the people of Baqubah are generally ecstatic...As they say - read the whole thing.
I’ve seen this kind of progression in Mosul, out in Anbar and other places, and when I ask our military leaders if they have sensed any shift, many have said, yes, they too sense that Iraqis view us differently.
Most Iraqis I talk with acknowledge that if it was ever about the oil, it’s not now. Not mostly anyway. It clearly would have been cheaper just to buy the oil or invade somewhere easier that has more. Similarly, most Iraqis seem now to realize that we really don’t want to stay here, and that many of us can’t wait to get back home. They realize that we are not resolved to stay, but are impatient to drive down to Kuwait and sail away. And when they consider the Americans who actually deal with Iraqis every day, the Iraqis can no longer deny that we really do want them to succeed. But we want them to succeed without us. We want to see their streets are clean and safe, their grass is green, and their birds are singing. We want to see that on television. Not in person. We don’t want to be here. We tell them that every day. It finally has settled in that we are telling the truth.
Sunday, 8 July 2007
Sunday night Aussie rock
Models were an alternative rock group from Melbourne, Australia, formed in August 1978 and splitting in 1987. Although often referred to as "The Models", the group's correct title was simply "Models".
Models' early style was a spiky, distinctive blend of New Wave, glam rock, dub and pop: their most notable features were Kelly's strangled singing voice, Duffield's virtuoso synthesiser performances (he used the EMS Synthi AKS, also notably used on Pere Ubu's Dub Housing), and the band's cryptic, slightly gruesome, lyrics (eg "Hans Stand: A War Record" from Alphabravocharliedeltaechofoxtrotgolf), which were mostly composed by Duffield and Kelly.
By June 1981 Johnny Crash had been replaced by Buster Stiggs, and the group released the 10" album "Cut Lunch" (which consisted of demo tracks which had been particularly successful, including one track produced by Split Enz keyboard player Eddie Rayner), and, later that year, their second full-length album "Local And/Or General", which was recorded in the UK. Both releases helped to widen their audience nationally, thanks to regular radio exposure on Triple J in Sydney and on community stations in other cities, as well as national TV exposure through their innovative music videos on programs such as the ABC's Countdown.
Here's a bunch of their better known tracks, starting with my favourite song of theirs, King of Kings. They really did have a clean, crisp sound.
King Of Kings
I Hear Motion
Out Of Mind Out Of Sight
Cold Fever
Barbados
Hold On
Models' early style was a spiky, distinctive blend of New Wave, glam rock, dub and pop: their most notable features were Kelly's strangled singing voice, Duffield's virtuoso synthesiser performances (he used the EMS Synthi AKS, also notably used on Pere Ubu's Dub Housing), and the band's cryptic, slightly gruesome, lyrics (eg "Hans Stand: A War Record" from Alphabravocharliedeltaechofoxtrotgolf), which were mostly composed by Duffield and Kelly.
By June 1981 Johnny Crash had been replaced by Buster Stiggs, and the group released the 10" album "Cut Lunch" (which consisted of demo tracks which had been particularly successful, including one track produced by Split Enz keyboard player Eddie Rayner), and, later that year, their second full-length album "Local And/Or General", which was recorded in the UK. Both releases helped to widen their audience nationally, thanks to regular radio exposure on Triple J in Sydney and on community stations in other cities, as well as national TV exposure through their innovative music videos on programs such as the ABC's Countdown.
Here's a bunch of their better known tracks, starting with my favourite song of theirs, King of Kings. They really did have a clean, crisp sound.
King Of Kings
I Hear Motion
Out Of Mind Out Of Sight
Cold Fever
Barbados
Hold On
Saturday, 7 July 2007
Brown to lead the demise of Great Britain?
I can't remember commenting about it on Kerplunk previously but I have been saying to my friends that I think the ascension of Gordon Brown to the Prime Ministership of Great Britain will be the final nail in the coffin on that previously great country's lurch into irrelevance.
Brown's remarkable decision to prohibit his cabinet ministers from using 'Muslim' or 'Islam' and 'terrorist' in the same sentence seems to reveal a man completely devoid of strong personal values who aims to appeal mainly to the public sentiment in the same way as Bill Clinton did. Having wishy washy, androgynous EU values might be OK during times of peace and prosperity but when the world is facing an aggressor as determined as expansionist Islam I'm afraid that there is an urgent need for a far stronger moral backbone than Brown seems to have.
If one is not allowed to mention 'Muslim' or 'Islam' and 'terrorist' in the same sentence then how is one to describe the root cause of the terrorism? Is Brown being so cynical that he seeks to perpetrate the myths of Western oppression against Islam and poverty being the major grievances? How does Brown expect to tackle the issue of Islamic intolerance and violence if he's not prepared to talk about where it's coming from and what drives it?
How does one explain the following if not due to expansionist Islam?
Why are we bending over backwards not to offend Muslim sensibilities which are set at such a low tolerance level that cartoons and knighthoods set them off?
I commented yesterday that I am struggling to believe a moderate Muslim majority exists that doesn't support acts of terror carried out in its name. If Brown intends to pander to this largely non-existent group of people then Great Britain, and Europe itself, is in even greater peril now than it has been since the rise of Nazi Germany.
Brown's remarkable decision to prohibit his cabinet ministers from using 'Muslim' or 'Islam' and 'terrorist' in the same sentence seems to reveal a man completely devoid of strong personal values who aims to appeal mainly to the public sentiment in the same way as Bill Clinton did. Having wishy washy, androgynous EU values might be OK during times of peace and prosperity but when the world is facing an aggressor as determined as expansionist Islam I'm afraid that there is an urgent need for a far stronger moral backbone than Brown seems to have.
If one is not allowed to mention 'Muslim' or 'Islam' and 'terrorist' in the same sentence then how is one to describe the root cause of the terrorism? Is Brown being so cynical that he seeks to perpetrate the myths of Western oppression against Islam and poverty being the major grievances? How does Brown expect to tackle the issue of Islamic intolerance and violence if he's not prepared to talk about where it's coming from and what drives it?
How does one explain the following if not due to expansionist Islam?
- London doctors' attack
- JFK airport bomb plot
- Fort Dix attack plot
- The plot to destroy airliners over the Atlantic
- The Bali bombing
- The London 7/7 bombings
- The Madrid train bombing
- September 11
Why are we bending over backwards not to offend Muslim sensibilities which are set at such a low tolerance level that cartoons and knighthoods set them off?
I commented yesterday that I am struggling to believe a moderate Muslim majority exists that doesn't support acts of terror carried out in its name. If Brown intends to pander to this largely non-existent group of people then Great Britain, and Europe itself, is in even greater peril now than it has been since the rise of Nazi Germany.
Friday, 6 July 2007
More terror in the name of Islam but where are all the supposed 'moderates'?
From the UK's Daily Express comes this to the point article:
The more I look for signs of the existence of a moderate Muslim majority the more I come to understand that it doesn't exist.
The fact is that Islam is fundamentally a violent, expansionist, political doctrine. Those people carrying out atrocities across the globe really do represent Islam in its perfect form.
The 'silent majority' understands that they do not reflect Islam correctly and they are ashamed of this fact. Thus, they provide moral support to their braver, divinely inspired brothers in arms for doing what they're not prepared to.
It should also be noted that there are many Muslims that are 'non-practicing' although they do observe Islamic holidays and traditions in much the same way that atheists celebrate Christmas. These people have no legitimacy within Islam to drive change, if that were possible for such a static belief system.
WHERE are the marches and demonstrations, the passionate speeches and angry slogans?And it should be remembered that those rallies happened five months after the cartoons were published and, in what must be the greatest coincidence of all time, those 'spontaneous' protests all featured a multitude of Danish flags, which Muslims must have kept in their houses for just the right occasion.
Where are the protesters shouting “not in my name”?
Usually so quick to take to the streets at any perceived slight against their religion, all too many Muslims in Britain seem indifferent to attempted mass slaughter being carried out in the name of Islam.
When an obscure Danish newspaper published a satirical cartoon of the prophet Mohammed last year, there were such huge Muslim rallies that central London was brought to a halt on three successive weekends.
Yet the serious terrorist incidents of recent days have incurred no such heated response. In some cases, there was an outright attempt to deny Muslim responsibility. The deputy general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, Daud Abdullah, came out with this preposterous statement after the London bombings had been foiled: “Let’s not create a hypothetical problem. It can be the work of Muslims, Christians, Jews or Buddhists.”Groups that self-identify as victims find it much easier to justify barbarity than those that have a better grasp on reality.
To make such an assertion after the record of Islamic terrorist barbarity across the globe over the past decade is an insult to our intelligence. Elsewhere, half-hearted words of condemnation were mixed with the inevitable self-justifying blather about Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.
This points to a worrying state of denial within the Muslim community in Britain. Too often, there is a shameful unwillingness to face up to the reality of murderous Islamism, which uses the Koran as a blueprint for terrorism. As the former radical Hassan Butt, who has now renounced jihadism, puts it: “Most Islamic institutions in Britain just don’t want to talk about theology. They refuse to broach the difficult topic of violence within Islam.”Which is exactly the reason that Muslims are attacking the local Inuit population in Greenland because it's a well known fact that not only are the Inuit are up there with the Jews for causing Muslim misery but they're also strong allies of the US.
Even when Muslims admit to the link between their religion and political violence, they slide into the pose of victimhood, pretending that the actions of the terrorists are only a response to poverty or US imperialism.
What is just as sickening is that some of our key political leaders, who should be protecting our society, collude with this grotesque narrative of denial and blame-passing. So in Scotland, shortly after the assault on Glasgow airport, the new First Minister Alex Salmond claimed that “individuals, not communities” were responsible for terrorism, a piece of nonsense given that it is the Muslim community that has bred the terrorists.A sign of common sense in Scotland would be if the people voted this intellectual minnow out of office.
In London, Mayor Ken Livingstone was even more reprehensible. He dismissed the idea of any connection between Islam and terrorism, claiming that: “Muslims are less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims.” Yeah, right, tell that to the relatives of those killed in the July bombings, or the Twin Towers, or the Bali attacks or the Madrid massacre. Or tell it to your own Metropolitan Police, which says there are at least 2,000 Muslims in Britain linked directly to Al Qaeda. Then Livingstone sought to excuse the bombers by referring to the war in Iraq and to levels of unemployment among young Muslims, both of which had left them alienated from our society.It really is a tight race between Livingstone and Galloway as to who is the biggest fool in the UK. Galloway is probably slightly ahead at present but there's a huge gap back to third.
This is a seriously warped analysis. Hardline Islamists are alienated from the British mainstream because of their own sick, divisive ideology. They are the ones who constantly seek separation, demand special treatment and hold our democratic civilisation in contempt.That's exactly correct. Muslims all over the world enter nations with a strong commitment to multiculturalism and then immediately use that institution against the host state in order to remain separate.
Their so-called “disenfranchisement” is entirely of their own making.
Violent jihadism was occurring long before Britain and America toppled Saddam Hussein. The continual wailing about Iraq also points to the dubious loyalty of too many British Muslims, who seem to have more sympathy with a cruel dictatorship than with their own nation. Let us remember that, despite the abuse heaped on Bush and Blair, almost all the carnage in Iraq has been caused by Muslims killing fellow Muslims.You can hear the Europeans choking on their morning bowl of multicultural indoctrination. The fact that the United States actually stands for something and has strong values means that all groups are, individually, kept in check and conform with society's standards. You can't fight bad values with no values and as long as Europe heads down the path of irreligious secularism the problem will get worse.
They have a nerve complaining about their lot, when it is their co-religionists who have built a climate of fear in our society, murdered scores of innocent British civilians and brought chaos to our transport network. Rather than moaning, Muslims should take responsibility for reforming their own religion. For there is something rotten with the state of Islam in modern Britain.
We can see that not just in the propensity of radicals to resort to mass murder but also in the repression of women, the spate of “honour” killings, the shrill demands for the imposition of separatist sharia law, the refusal to integrate and the eagerness to cling to alien customs, such as the wearing of full Islamic dress.
All Western countries have had some problems with Muslim communities. But it is telling that in the US, where there is a far stronger sense of national identity, Muslims are much more integrated.
In contrast, the British official state creed of multiculturalism has encouraged victimhood and alienation, through the provision of separate housing, faith schools, language translation, support for mosques, grants to ethnic groups and the abandonment of border controls.I disagree with his last statement.
Home-grown terrorism is the price we are paying. And we will not win with yet more appeasement of Islam. Muslims’ grievances are nothing more than the expression of regret that they do not control our society. We have to fight back, and that means abandoning multiculturalism, cracking down on immigration and re-establishing a sense of national identity.
Those Muslims who are really opposed to terrorism will join in this struggle, not sit sullenly on the sidelines.
The more I look for signs of the existence of a moderate Muslim majority the more I come to understand that it doesn't exist.
The fact is that Islam is fundamentally a violent, expansionist, political doctrine. Those people carrying out atrocities across the globe really do represent Islam in its perfect form.
The 'silent majority' understands that they do not reflect Islam correctly and they are ashamed of this fact. Thus, they provide moral support to their braver, divinely inspired brothers in arms for doing what they're not prepared to.
It should also be noted that there are many Muslims that are 'non-practicing' although they do observe Islamic holidays and traditions in much the same way that atheists celebrate Christmas. These people have no legitimacy within Islam to drive change, if that were possible for such a static belief system.
Thursday, 5 July 2007
Best Climate Change survey yet
From one of the most enthusiastic proponents of climate change catastrophism, the BBC, comes this report on the results of a recent survey in the UK.
The headline really should read "If half the nation is in denial about the threats we face from Islamic terrorism, what hope is there?"
Of course, The Guardian has been a supporter of Islamic terrorism since it first reared its ugly head and continues to enable outrages such as we saw over the last few days in the UK by trotting out the normal rubbish about Muslims being victims, the war in Iraq etc, so it's an unlikely headline.
The public believes the effects of global warming on the climate are not as bad as politicians and scientists claim, a poll has suggested. The Ipsos Mori poll of 2,032 adults - interviewed between 14 and 20 June - found 56% believed scientists were still questioning climate change. There was a feeling the problem was exaggerated to make money, it found.Well, well, well. It seems the old adage that you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but not all of the people all of the time is holding true. The public has finally woken up to the false science of climate change and understands it's a grab for money and power.
The Royal Society said most climate scientists believed humans were having an "unprecedented" effect on climate.For the purposes of the statement a 'climate scientist' is one that believes that the models are 100% accurate and forecast doom. People like Richard Lindzen, John Christy etc etc etc are not considered 'climate scientists'. The fact that the Royal Society has fallen so far from its once lofty, honest perch is one of the great tragedies of the 20th century onwards.
The survey suggested that terrorism, graffiti, crime and dog mess were all of more concern than climate change.Terrorism? Terrorism? Hahahahahahaha! Stupid leftards have been not only ignoring the threat of terrorism for years but actively supporting it with their inane excuses. I wonder how the ninnies feel being shown up for the dolts they are by the public. If Climate Brown Shirts are consistent then they'll need to lobby for billions of dollars to be spent on avoiding dog poo and then introduce a trillion dollar poo trading scheme in order to limit the amount of poo we need to deal with. It would therefore be possible to consider a carbon credit to poo credit exchange rate in those areas where one was a bigger issue than the other.
Ipsos Mori's head of environmental research, Phil Downing, said the research showed there was "still a lot to do" in encouraging "low-carbon lifestyles"."Still a lot to do" means that more money needs to be pumped into enviro propaganda.
"We are alive to climate change and very few people actually reject out of hand the idea the climate is changing or that humans have had at least some part to play in this," he added. "However, a significant number have many doubts about exactly how serious it really is and believe it has been over-hyped."It has been over-hyped, people can see the evidence right in front of them and so of course they will have doubts. But could there be another reason why they're sceptical?
People had been influenced by counter-arguments, he said.Aha! I knew it! Those pesky pushers of a little thing called facts. How inconvenient.
Royal Society vice-president Sir David Read said: "People should not be misled by those that exploit the complexity of the issue, seeking to distort the science and deny the seriousness of the potential consequences of climate change. "The science very clearly points towards the need for us all - nations, businesses and individuals - to do as much as possible, as soon as possible, to avoid the worst consequences of a changing climate."To use a very British phrase - what complete bollocks. The BBC may be part of the loopy left but there's still The Guardian, which manages to take things to an even more unhinged level. The headline on this article is "If half the nation is in denial about the threats we face from climate change, what hope is there?"
I was more depressed by the findings of a single public opinion survey on climate change than I've been by all the pessimistic stories about how little is being done by governments and individuals to combat global warming.Isn't that the most pathetic thing you've ever read on the subject?
The headline really should read "If half the nation is in denial about the threats we face from Islamic terrorism, what hope is there?"
Of course, The Guardian has been a supporter of Islamic terrorism since it first reared its ugly head and continues to enable outrages such as we saw over the last few days in the UK by trotting out the normal rubbish about Muslims being victims, the war in Iraq etc, so it's an unlikely headline.
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
Thailand Religion of Peace slaughter update
The following is the list of attacks made in Thailand by Muslim terrorists, predominately in the south of the country from 8-Jun-06 onwards. It is an update of my original, longer post.
So far there are a staggering 57 attacks in my list.
What does the United Nations have to say about the slaughter being carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam? Oh, that's right. Nothing. What a shock. I'm happy to hear from anyone with a link to a site where the UN has criticised Islamic terrorists in Thailand. I've searched the UN archives and can't see anything.
27-Jun-07 A roadside bomb killed three people and wounded 17 in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south as they were buying food on Wednesday, police said.
24-Jun-07 Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand fatally shot two paramilitary rangers and two Buddhists, then set their bodies on fire in two separate incidents on Sunday, police said.
23-Jun-07 Three teenage boys were killed and a Buddhist man slain and his body set on fire in separate attacks in Thailand’s restive southern provinces, police said Saturday.
22-Jun-07 Seperatist militants in southern Thailand shot a Muslim man and then partially severed his head, while the nation’s junta leader was visiting the region, police said today. The man, a 29-year-old local government official, was returning from evening prayers late Thursday when he was ambushed by suspected insurgents in Narathiwat province, police said.
19-Jun-07 A bomb exploded at a busy teashop in southern Thailand on Monday, wounding 13 people, police said. The bomb, hidden under a tree by the teashop near a government school in Yala province’s Bannang Sata district, seriously wounded four people, said police Lt. Yothin Wanthawee, who blamed suspected Muslim insurgents for the attack.
15-Jun-07 A roadside bomb and shootings killed seven soldiers Friday in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces this year in Thailand’s restive south, amid tightened security on a key anniversary of a 15th Century Islamic sultanate.
14-Jun-07 Three Muslim men were gunned down, while separatist insurgents set fire to 13 schools in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, police said Thursday.
13-Jun-07 Suspected Muslim separatist rebels have killed four Buddhists and wounded eight soldiers in three separate attacks in Thailand’s rebellious south, police said.
08-Jun-07 One more dead and 23 injured in the south Thailand jihad: Woman killed in Thai tea shop blast. A bomb has exploded in front of a crowded tea shop in southern Thailand, killing one woman and injuring 23 other people, police said.
07-Jun-07
Insurgents opened fire on a police officer in the heart of a market in Narathiwat province, Thursday morning, riddling him with 14 bullets and killing him on the spot.
04-Jun-07
Muslim terrorists launched a spate of attacks in this southern border province, killing a Muslim teacher and a Muslim villager and injuring three officials.
31-May-07
At least 10 soldiers have been killed in a bomb attack by suspected militants in southern Thailand, officials say. The roadside bomb struck an army vehicle carrying around 12 soldiers as it drove through the province of Yala, the deputy governor said. The attack is one of the worst in the region in recent years. Another five people were killed in a separate incident in Songkhla province, when gunmen fired at local Muslims at a mosque, reports say.
29-May-07
A bomb planted on a motorcycle in a busy market in southern Thailand killed four people on Monday, the army said, the latest victims of a Muslim separatist insurgency in which more than 2,100 people have now died. “There are four dead and 23 injured, five of them seriously,” army spokesman Acra Tiproch said. Two of the dead were children.
26-May-07
Four Muslims have been killed by suspected Islamic rebels in separate shootings in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south, police said Saturday.
23-May-07
Insurgents killed six people, including two teenaged boys, in separate shootings in Yala on Wednesday.
22-May-07
Insurgents shot dead a Buddhist man and burnt his body in an increasingly used atrocity in Yala early Tuesday, before detonating a bomb at police responding to the scene, wounding four people including a foreign photographer.
21-May-07
Suspected separatist rebels have shot dead five people in Thailand’s restive south, police said Sunday. Buddhist motorcycle mechanic and a Muslim villager were killed in separate drive-by shootings late Saturday in Yala province, local officers said.
14-May-07
Separatist insurgents on Monday shot dead a Thai-Buddhist couple working as fruit pickers in the majority-Muslim area of Bannang Sata, Yala provine and injured their three-year-old daughter, police said.
11-May-07
A Buddhist man was shot dead by suspected separatist militants on Thursday in Thailand’s restive south, police said, after two Muslims were killed overnight.
09-May-07
Seven soldiers were killed Wednesday in a bomb attack by separatist insurgents in Thailand’s restive south, military and police said.
03-May-07
Two security officers have been shot dead by suspected Islamic rebels in Thailand’s restive Muslim-majority south, police said Thursday.
01-May-07
Suspected Islamic insurgents in southern Thailand exploded a bomb at a busy night market and wounded 20 people Monday, police said. Earlier in the day, police found the bodies of two Buddhist villagers, one beheaded, apparently slain by Muslim rebels.
18-Apr-07
Suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist laborers and then beheaded one of them as deadly violence and scattered bombings continued Wednesday in restive southern Thailand, police said.
11-Apr-07
A Buddhist woman was shot and burned alive in Thailand’s violence-torn Muslim-majority south on Wednesday, prompting angry protests in front of visiting army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin.
09-Apr-07
SUSPECTED separatist militants have killed three people in Thailand’s restive south, including a Muslim man blown apart by a car bomb, police said today.
06-Apr-07
Four Muslim men have been killed in shooting attacks by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's restive south, police said Friday.
05-Apr-07
At least 13 people were injured in a bombing in Thailand's mainly Muslim south, one of a string of overnight attacks by suspected Islamic separatists, officials said Thursday.
31-Mar-07
SUSPECTED Islamic rebels shot dead four Buddhists while three others were injured in separate attacks in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south.
21-Mar-07
Two soldiers were killed Wednesday in pre-dawn attacks by separatists in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, police said, as the prime minister headed to the region.
17-Mar-07
Three Muslim schoolchildren were killed and seven injured in an attack by suspected insurgents at an Islamic school in restive southern Thailand, police said Sunday.
14-Mar-07
Suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire on nine Buddhists who were riding in a commuter van in Thailand’s restive south Wednesday, killing all of them execution-style, police said.
13-Mar-07
Suspected Islamic militants shot dead three workers from Myanmar and beheaded one of them during an attack on a construction site in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, police said Monday.
08-Mar-07
Suspected Islamic separatists have killed three people in Thailand’s restive south, including one man they beheaded and set alight, police said Wednesday.
18-Feb-07
At least 28 bombs exploded Sunday in apparently coordinated attacks in parts of southern Thailand plagued by a Muslim insurgency, killing three people and wounding more than 50, the military said.
01-Feb-07
An ice cream vendor was killed and his headless body left sitting on the bicycle seat of his cart in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south on Thursday, police said.
14-Jan-07
A Buddhist man in restive southern Thailand was beheaded by suspected Muslim insurgents who left a note by the body warning Buddhists to leave the area that has been gripped by bloody violence for three years, police said.
04-Dec-06
Five people have been killed by suspected Islamic separatists in Thailand’s deep south, as some schools reopened for the first time in a week after a wave of arson and bombings.
03-Dec-06
Insurgents shot a school director Friday afternoon in southern Thailand then set his vehicle on fire killing him in the flames, the English-language Bangkok Post newspaper website reported.
25-Nov-06
Hundreds of schools in Thailand’s restive south will shut their doors in response to increasingly vicious attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents against teachers and schools, an official said Saturday.
18-Nov-06
FIVE people were shot dead and one policeman was wounded in a string of drive-by shootings by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand’s restive Muslim-majority south, police said.
10-Nov-06
Eight bombs exploded almost simultaneously at car and motorcycle showrooms in restive southern Thailand on Thursday, wounding nine people, police said.
06-Nov-06
Militants detonated three small bombs at karaoke bars and at a roadside in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south, wounding five people including two policemen.
04-Nov-06
Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand have burnt down three schools and shot and wounded a teacher.
02-Nov-06
Thailand’s interim prime minister publicly apologized Thursday for the former government’s hard-line policies against an Islamic insurgency, promising an investigation into allegations of human rights abuses by the administration deposed in a recent coup.
27-Sep-06
SUSPECTED Islamic militants today shot dead four Buddhists in two separate attacks in Thailand’s mainly Muslim south, where an insurgency has raged for more than two years, police said.
17-Sep-06
At least one Australian has been injured after a string of bombs tore apart a popular tourist area in Thailand, killing four people and wounding dozens.
16-Sep-06
Three bombs exploded almost simultaneously at two department stores and a hotel in the southern Thai town of Hat Yai on Saturday, wounding several people, police and the army said.
23-Aug-06
Muslim militants launched 23 coordinated time bomb attacks at commercial banks in this southern province Thursday, killing at least one man and severely injuring at least four bank customers, police said.
03-Aug-06
Four people are killed in two bomb attacks in southern Thailand, a stronghold of Muslim separatists.
01-Aug-06
Assailants carried out at least 40 bomb and arson attacks Tuesday night in Thailand’s three Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces, police said. At least three people were reported hurt.
25-Jul-06
A teacher has been shot and killed in front of a classroom of children in southern Thailand, according to police.
18-Jul-06
Six people, among them a retired policeman, were killed during the last three days in violent attacks in the restive South near Malaysia, police said.
29-Jun-06
A series of bomb attacks in Thailand’s Muslim south were launched by militants to coincide with a meeting of Islamic leaders in Central Asia next week, a top Thai security official said on Saturday.
27-Jun-06
Five security officers have been killed by a roadside bomb in Thailand’s south. They were attacked by a group of suspected insurgents, who ambushed them as they were guarding teachers on their way to a school in Yala province.
26-Jun-06
Thailand has become somewhat inured to the daily violence that has claimed more than 1,300 lives over the past two years, a startling death toll in a country that is still much better known for its beaches and massage parlors than its homegrown terrorism. But the beating of Jooling Pangamoon, who taught art at the elementary school, shocked the country, both because of its brutality and because witnesses say the group that abducted Jooling was led by women.
18-Jun-06
Police in the southern Thai city of Narathiwat have arrested an Indonesian man who was found in possession of explosives, sparking fears that Muslim fundamentalists are planning new attacks in the south of the country. A series of 72 bomb attacks by suspected Muslim militants were reported in the past two days in the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani
14-Jun-06
A SERIES of bombs rocked police stations, a government office and a tea shop in southern Thailand early today, wounding at least two people, police said
08-Jun-06
A BOMB killed five policemen and wounded three in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south today, police said.
So far there are a staggering 57 attacks in my list.
What does the United Nations have to say about the slaughter being carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam? Oh, that's right. Nothing. What a shock. I'm happy to hear from anyone with a link to a site where the UN has criticised Islamic terrorists in Thailand. I've searched the UN archives and can't see anything.
27-Jun-07 A roadside bomb killed three people and wounded 17 in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south as they were buying food on Wednesday, police said.
24-Jun-07 Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand fatally shot two paramilitary rangers and two Buddhists, then set their bodies on fire in two separate incidents on Sunday, police said.
23-Jun-07 Three teenage boys were killed and a Buddhist man slain and his body set on fire in separate attacks in Thailand’s restive southern provinces, police said Saturday.
22-Jun-07 Seperatist militants in southern Thailand shot a Muslim man and then partially severed his head, while the nation’s junta leader was visiting the region, police said today. The man, a 29-year-old local government official, was returning from evening prayers late Thursday when he was ambushed by suspected insurgents in Narathiwat province, police said.
19-Jun-07 A bomb exploded at a busy teashop in southern Thailand on Monday, wounding 13 people, police said. The bomb, hidden under a tree by the teashop near a government school in Yala province’s Bannang Sata district, seriously wounded four people, said police Lt. Yothin Wanthawee, who blamed suspected Muslim insurgents for the attack.
15-Jun-07 A roadside bomb and shootings killed seven soldiers Friday in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces this year in Thailand’s restive south, amid tightened security on a key anniversary of a 15th Century Islamic sultanate.
14-Jun-07 Three Muslim men were gunned down, while separatist insurgents set fire to 13 schools in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, police said Thursday.
13-Jun-07 Suspected Muslim separatist rebels have killed four Buddhists and wounded eight soldiers in three separate attacks in Thailand’s rebellious south, police said.
08-Jun-07 One more dead and 23 injured in the south Thailand jihad: Woman killed in Thai tea shop blast. A bomb has exploded in front of a crowded tea shop in southern Thailand, killing one woman and injuring 23 other people, police said.
07-Jun-07
Insurgents opened fire on a police officer in the heart of a market in Narathiwat province, Thursday morning, riddling him with 14 bullets and killing him on the spot.
04-Jun-07
Muslim terrorists launched a spate of attacks in this southern border province, killing a Muslim teacher and a Muslim villager and injuring three officials.
31-May-07
At least 10 soldiers have been killed in a bomb attack by suspected militants in southern Thailand, officials say. The roadside bomb struck an army vehicle carrying around 12 soldiers as it drove through the province of Yala, the deputy governor said. The attack is one of the worst in the region in recent years. Another five people were killed in a separate incident in Songkhla province, when gunmen fired at local Muslims at a mosque, reports say.
29-May-07
A bomb planted on a motorcycle in a busy market in southern Thailand killed four people on Monday, the army said, the latest victims of a Muslim separatist insurgency in which more than 2,100 people have now died. “There are four dead and 23 injured, five of them seriously,” army spokesman Acra Tiproch said. Two of the dead were children.
26-May-07
Four Muslims have been killed by suspected Islamic rebels in separate shootings in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south, police said Saturday.
23-May-07
Insurgents killed six people, including two teenaged boys, in separate shootings in Yala on Wednesday.
22-May-07
Insurgents shot dead a Buddhist man and burnt his body in an increasingly used atrocity in Yala early Tuesday, before detonating a bomb at police responding to the scene, wounding four people including a foreign photographer.
21-May-07
Suspected separatist rebels have shot dead five people in Thailand’s restive south, police said Sunday. Buddhist motorcycle mechanic and a Muslim villager were killed in separate drive-by shootings late Saturday in Yala province, local officers said.
14-May-07
Separatist insurgents on Monday shot dead a Thai-Buddhist couple working as fruit pickers in the majority-Muslim area of Bannang Sata, Yala provine and injured their three-year-old daughter, police said.
11-May-07
A Buddhist man was shot dead by suspected separatist militants on Thursday in Thailand’s restive south, police said, after two Muslims were killed overnight.
09-May-07
Seven soldiers were killed Wednesday in a bomb attack by separatist insurgents in Thailand’s restive south, military and police said.
03-May-07
Two security officers have been shot dead by suspected Islamic rebels in Thailand’s restive Muslim-majority south, police said Thursday.
01-May-07
Suspected Islamic insurgents in southern Thailand exploded a bomb at a busy night market and wounded 20 people Monday, police said. Earlier in the day, police found the bodies of two Buddhist villagers, one beheaded, apparently slain by Muslim rebels.
18-Apr-07
Suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist laborers and then beheaded one of them as deadly violence and scattered bombings continued Wednesday in restive southern Thailand, police said.
11-Apr-07
A Buddhist woman was shot and burned alive in Thailand’s violence-torn Muslim-majority south on Wednesday, prompting angry protests in front of visiting army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin.
09-Apr-07
SUSPECTED separatist militants have killed three people in Thailand’s restive south, including a Muslim man blown apart by a car bomb, police said today.
06-Apr-07
Four Muslim men have been killed in shooting attacks by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's restive south, police said Friday.
05-Apr-07
At least 13 people were injured in a bombing in Thailand's mainly Muslim south, one of a string of overnight attacks by suspected Islamic separatists, officials said Thursday.
31-Mar-07
SUSPECTED Islamic rebels shot dead four Buddhists while three others were injured in separate attacks in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south.
21-Mar-07
Two soldiers were killed Wednesday in pre-dawn attacks by separatists in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, police said, as the prime minister headed to the region.
17-Mar-07
Three Muslim schoolchildren were killed and seven injured in an attack by suspected insurgents at an Islamic school in restive southern Thailand, police said Sunday.
14-Mar-07
Suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire on nine Buddhists who were riding in a commuter van in Thailand’s restive south Wednesday, killing all of them execution-style, police said.
13-Mar-07
Suspected Islamic militants shot dead three workers from Myanmar and beheaded one of them during an attack on a construction site in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, police said Monday.
08-Mar-07
Suspected Islamic separatists have killed three people in Thailand’s restive south, including one man they beheaded and set alight, police said Wednesday.
18-Feb-07
At least 28 bombs exploded Sunday in apparently coordinated attacks in parts of southern Thailand plagued by a Muslim insurgency, killing three people and wounding more than 50, the military said.
01-Feb-07
An ice cream vendor was killed and his headless body left sitting on the bicycle seat of his cart in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south on Thursday, police said.
14-Jan-07
A Buddhist man in restive southern Thailand was beheaded by suspected Muslim insurgents who left a note by the body warning Buddhists to leave the area that has been gripped by bloody violence for three years, police said.
04-Dec-06
Five people have been killed by suspected Islamic separatists in Thailand’s deep south, as some schools reopened for the first time in a week after a wave of arson and bombings.
03-Dec-06
Insurgents shot a school director Friday afternoon in southern Thailand then set his vehicle on fire killing him in the flames, the English-language Bangkok Post newspaper website reported.
25-Nov-06
Hundreds of schools in Thailand’s restive south will shut their doors in response to increasingly vicious attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents against teachers and schools, an official said Saturday.
18-Nov-06
FIVE people were shot dead and one policeman was wounded in a string of drive-by shootings by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand’s restive Muslim-majority south, police said.
10-Nov-06
Eight bombs exploded almost simultaneously at car and motorcycle showrooms in restive southern Thailand on Thursday, wounding nine people, police said.
06-Nov-06
Militants detonated three small bombs at karaoke bars and at a roadside in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south, wounding five people including two policemen.
04-Nov-06
Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand have burnt down three schools and shot and wounded a teacher.
02-Nov-06
Thailand’s interim prime minister publicly apologized Thursday for the former government’s hard-line policies against an Islamic insurgency, promising an investigation into allegations of human rights abuses by the administration deposed in a recent coup.
27-Sep-06
SUSPECTED Islamic militants today shot dead four Buddhists in two separate attacks in Thailand’s mainly Muslim south, where an insurgency has raged for more than two years, police said.
17-Sep-06
At least one Australian has been injured after a string of bombs tore apart a popular tourist area in Thailand, killing four people and wounding dozens.
16-Sep-06
Three bombs exploded almost simultaneously at two department stores and a hotel in the southern Thai town of Hat Yai on Saturday, wounding several people, police and the army said.
23-Aug-06
Muslim militants launched 23 coordinated time bomb attacks at commercial banks in this southern province Thursday, killing at least one man and severely injuring at least four bank customers, police said.
03-Aug-06
Four people are killed in two bomb attacks in southern Thailand, a stronghold of Muslim separatists.
01-Aug-06
Assailants carried out at least 40 bomb and arson attacks Tuesday night in Thailand’s three Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces, police said. At least three people were reported hurt.
25-Jul-06
A teacher has been shot and killed in front of a classroom of children in southern Thailand, according to police.
18-Jul-06
Six people, among them a retired policeman, were killed during the last three days in violent attacks in the restive South near Malaysia, police said.
29-Jun-06
A series of bomb attacks in Thailand’s Muslim south were launched by militants to coincide with a meeting of Islamic leaders in Central Asia next week, a top Thai security official said on Saturday.
27-Jun-06
Five security officers have been killed by a roadside bomb in Thailand’s south. They were attacked by a group of suspected insurgents, who ambushed them as they were guarding teachers on their way to a school in Yala province.
26-Jun-06
Thailand has become somewhat inured to the daily violence that has claimed more than 1,300 lives over the past two years, a startling death toll in a country that is still much better known for its beaches and massage parlors than its homegrown terrorism. But the beating of Jooling Pangamoon, who taught art at the elementary school, shocked the country, both because of its brutality and because witnesses say the group that abducted Jooling was led by women.
18-Jun-06
Police in the southern Thai city of Narathiwat have arrested an Indonesian man who was found in possession of explosives, sparking fears that Muslim fundamentalists are planning new attacks in the south of the country. A series of 72 bomb attacks by suspected Muslim militants were reported in the past two days in the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani
14-Jun-06
A SERIES of bombs rocked police stations, a government office and a tea shop in southern Thailand early today, wounding at least two people, police said
08-Jun-06
A BOMB killed five policemen and wounded three in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south today, police said.
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Sarkozy attempts political triple axle, three and a half reverse somersault with pike
Demonstrating that he is not afraid of tackling the big issues confronting the French Republic, new President Nicolas Sarkozy is out of the blocks early attempting the highest degree of difficulty political manoeuvre possible - reforming France's stagnant higher education system.
Readers may be aware of what happened the last time the government tangled with universities, in 1968, by de Gaulle - a violent student strike that led to a general strike of 10 million workers and the fall of the government. France has never really recovered from this caving in to socialist demands (which saw the minimum industrial wage increase 35% and an overall increase of 10%) as has been demonstrated a number times since, the most recently in 2005 when the whole place went pear shaped after two members of that eternally racially nondescript body of people known as 'youths' ran away from police into a power sub-station and were, unsurprisingly, electrocuted to death.
Forty years of ignoring its own national motto, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", has led to a fractured society made up of a small elite that run the place, a population whose major aspiration is to be a 35 hour per week public servant, and an unassimilated, uneducated immigrant class with a 50%+ unemployment rate. It's no exaggeration to suggest that the only thing that has prevented France from collapsing completely before now is, ironically, the one thing that the majority of the French population despises most - globalisation.
From The Times:
There are two basic factors required to drive economic growth - entrepreneurship and opportunity. Add in Liberty and you have the United States.
European 'elites' have spent the better part of the last century looking down their well-educated, intellectual noses at their American cousins and complained sniffily about their coarse, crass ways and unnatural focus on money. It sticks in their craw that these supposedly dumb, God-fearing hicks can be the most powerful nation, economically and militarily, in the world.
Readers may be aware of what happened the last time the government tangled with universities, in 1968, by de Gaulle - a violent student strike that led to a general strike of 10 million workers and the fall of the government. France has never really recovered from this caving in to socialist demands (which saw the minimum industrial wage increase 35% and an overall increase of 10%) as has been demonstrated a number times since, the most recently in 2005 when the whole place went pear shaped after two members of that eternally racially nondescript body of people known as 'youths' ran away from police into a power sub-station and were, unsurprisingly, electrocuted to death.
Forty years of ignoring its own national motto, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", has led to a fractured society made up of a small elite that run the place, a population whose major aspiration is to be a 35 hour per week public servant, and an unassimilated, uneducated immigrant class with a 50%+ unemployment rate. It's no exaggeration to suggest that the only thing that has prevented France from collapsing completely before now is, ironically, the one thing that the majority of the French population despises most - globalisation.
From The Times:
President Sarkozy is preparing for battle with France’s rebellious students and education establishment over his plan to revamp a crumbling university system.That France has a 41 per cent drop out rate from its higher education system yet still has the world's fifth-largest economy proves exactly one thing - education does not drive the economy, as I pointed out last week when discussing Australian Labor leader Kevin Rudd's plan to increase spending on keeping people at school.
Under threat of a summer student uprising, he told the heads of the country’s 85 universities that he was taking charge of a draft law that lays the groundwork for the first significant reform in decades.
He has shunted aside Valérie Pécresse, his Higher Education Minister, and François Fillon, the Prime Minister, to direct proceedings himself.
Students’ and teachers’ unions are planning protests of the kind that have repeatedly forced French governments to retreat if Mr Sarkozy tries to promote “un-French” practices in higher education. These include entrance selection, fees, private funding and competition among universities.
There is, however, public acceptance that, with their 41 per cent drop-out rate and abysmal world ranking, French universities are in dire need of reform. Laurence Parisot, the head of Medef, the French Employers’ Federation, calls them “the shame of our nation”.
Jean-Robert Pitte, the reform-minded president of the Sorbonne division of Paris University, said: “It is a miracle that France is still the world’s fifth-largest [economic] power considering its weak investment in higher education.”
One of the most flagrant ills is the neglect of the rigorously egalitarian facultés, or universities, in favour of a handful of highly selective grandes écoles.
The lavishly funded grandes écoles, which include Sciences Po, the political sciences institute in Paris, and the École Polytechnique, groom the brightest 4 per cent of students to run business, industry, the state and the media.
There are two basic factors required to drive economic growth - entrepreneurship and opportunity. Add in Liberty and you have the United States.
European 'elites' have spent the better part of the last century looking down their well-educated, intellectual noses at their American cousins and complained sniffily about their coarse, crass ways and unnatural focus on money. It sticks in their craw that these supposedly dumb, God-fearing hicks can be the most powerful nation, economically and militarily, in the world.
Middle-class parents yearn to place their offspring in such colleges and dread their relegation to la fac, including those with old names such as Sorbonne. About 1.5 million students are registered at the universities, which are open to all who hold a baccalauréat school-leavers’ certificate.Good luck to Sarkozy in taking on the establishment and dragging France into the 21st century. We'll know whether the French people are ready to make that move by whether there are mass riots around the country. I suspect that Sarkozy has read the political wind correctly and things will remain relatively calm.
Libération, the newspaper that was founded by Maoists in the 1968 student revolt, noted yesterday that the universities are so decrepit that some academics are ashamed to show foreign colleagues around their premises.
In something of a revolution, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Fillon attended universities and their Cabinet has fewer graduates from the elite grande écoles than any administration since the early 1960s. Mr Sarkozy regards the revamp of the antiquated education system as one of the most urgent, but also potentially explosive, tasks in his drive to revive France.
“You cannot keep on saying that the 21st will be the knowledge century and leave our university system in a state of neglect because it is too politically dangerous to reform,” the President told MPs from his centre-right camp last week.
His Bill, due to be published next week, will grant self-management to universities that wish it. This will enable them to manage assets and budgets, recruit staff and design courses – all of which have long been controlled by the state. Mr Sarkozy wants the universities to create partnerships with research institutions and seek finance in addition to the €50 billion (£34 billion) that he has promised over five years. Student representation on university boards is to be heavily cut.
Most of university chiefs favour the reforms in outline but they have told Mr Sarkozy that they are alarmed over what they see as his haste.
The main unions are furiously opposed, seeing autonymous universities as the “Americanisation” of French traditions. “They want to impose on us an antidemocratic system that will confiscate . . . the values of collegiality and equality,” Jean Fabri, the secretary-general of Snesup-FSU, the biggest lecturers’ union, said yesterday.
“The Government wants to set the universities in competition among themselves while relinquishing its responsibilities,” he said. “It’s an aberrant and dangerous vision.”
Bruno Julliard, a students’ union leader whose 2005 protest movement ended the political career of Dominique de Villepin, the former Prime Minister, wrote to Mr Sarkozy telling him that he faced an all-out battle. “Do not doubt our determination,” Mr Julliard said.
The Socialist Opposition has been showing confusion, deploring Mr Sarkozy’s methods but accepting the need for reform.
François Hollande, the party leader, said: “Everyone should get together to put French universities into the category of excellence without rushing and incomprehension.”
Long learning curve
— France has about 1.5 million higher education students, 94 per cent of whom attend the 85 universities, plus the vocational colleges, which are open with no selection
— The other 6 per cent attend the grandes écoles – highly selective establishments for the elite. Two years of post school study are required before taking the competitive entrance tests
— About 40 per cent of all who register as university students leave with no degree or diploma
— The state spends €6,700 (£4,500) a year on each university student, below the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development average, and €13,000 per grande école student
— Only one French institution is in the Top 20 of The Times Higher Education Supplement 2006 international ranking: l’École Normale Supérieure, a Paris grande école
— In the 2006 world rankings by Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, the best French university, Paris VI, was 45th. Only three are in the Top 200, compared with four British universities in the first 26. (France contests the Shanghai criteria)
— President Sarkozy read law at Paris University and did not attend a grande école, unlike most recent French leaders
Monday, 2 July 2007
Zimbabwe cleric to Britain - "Please invade"
I was talking to my brother the other day and posed the question - if the population of Zimbabwe were given the vote to become a British colony once again or continue as they are what would the outcome be?
We thought that there would be an overwhelming vote in favour of recolonisation.
From the Times Online comes this depressing article which suggests Britain should intervene militarily in the country.
The catastrophic situation of the former African economic powerhouse makes a comedy of the UN's decision to appoint Zimbabwe to the position of Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development and demonstrates what an immoral, ineffective and corrupt organisation it really is.
If you think that things couldn't get any worse then consider the plight of many women who have to prostitute themselves in order to feed their families.
How do so called elites justify their support of this disgusting thug?
Where are all those snivelling, rich hypocrites to sing We Are The World on behalf of the downtrodden of Zimbabwe?
It's up to people with correctly aligned moral compasses to speak out at this time of urgent need in Zimbabwe.
We thought that there would be an overwhelming vote in favour of recolonisation.
From the Times Online comes this depressing article which suggests Britain should intervene militarily in the country.
Zimbabwe's leading cleric has called on Britain to invade the country and topple President Robert Mugabe. Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, warned that millions were facing death from famine, unable to survive amid inflation believed to have soared to 15,000%.Given the brutality of the Mugabe regime, which Morgan Tsvangirai has been just one high profile recipient of, Pius Ncube is certainly a brave man.
Mugabe, 83, had proved intransigent despite the “massive risk to life”, said Ncube, the head of Zimbabwe’s 1m Catholics. “I think it is justified for Britain to raid Zimbabwe and remove Mugabe,” he said. “We should do it ourselves but there’s too much fear. I’m ready to lead the people, guns blazing, but the people are not ready.”One wonders what it takes to make the people "ready".
Some parts of Zimbabwe have seen 95% of crops fail, leaving families with only two or three weeks’ food supply to last a year. Prices in the shops are more than doubling every week and Christopher Dell, the American ambassador, predicts that by the end of the year inflation could hit 1.5m%.Since Mugabe kicked white farmers off their land - a move roundly applauded by Western leftist elites - Zimbabwe has transitioned from being Africa's bread basket to Africa's basket case.
Ncube said that far from helping those struggling on less than £1 a week, Mugabe had just spent £1m on surveillance equipment to monitor phone calls and e-mails. “How can you expect people to rise up when even our church services are attended by state intelligence people?
“People in our mission hospitals are dying of malnutrition. We had the best education in Africa and now our schools are closing. Most people are earning less than their bus fares. There’s no water or power. Is the world just going to let everything collapse in on us?”Yes, Mr Ncube, it will. While the world's left are quick to speak out in favour of tyrants, as long as those tyrants denounce the West, they will always turn a blind eye and a deaf ear towards any atrocities or social calamity that might be taking place. Unfortunately, the combined strength of morally superior nations such as the US and Australia cannot overcome the vast number of left wing NGOs, the United Nations and the EU and intervene when it's needed most. One of the advantages of being on the left is never having to say you're sorry. Meaning well is the left's success criterion. On the right we believe that meaning well is all well and good but if you don't get tangible outcomes then you need to recognise the failure and learn from the mistakes made.
The catastrophic situation of the former African economic powerhouse makes a comedy of the UN's decision to appoint Zimbabwe to the position of Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development and demonstrates what an immoral, ineffective and corrupt organisation it really is.
If you think that things couldn't get any worse then consider the plight of many women who have to prostitute themselves in order to feed their families.
Stella Stithole is a high school teacher with neatly braided hair and a husband who works in a bank, yet in the twisted world of President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe she has to turn tricks to feed her children. Battling to survive the world’s highest inflation, estimated by local bankers to have reached 15,000%, the salary of Z$2.1m she has just received is six times what she got last month. But it is not even enough to cover her bus fares to school and back. In fact, it is equivalent to less than £3.50 a month. So for several days of the week, instead of standing in front of her class in Kwekwe teaching history and geography, Sithole takes the bus 146 miles north to Harare. There, she sits at the bar in clubs such as Chez Ntemba, Chez Mambo and the Stars Studio at Rainbow Towers hotel, waiting for a proposition.How does the United Nations justify its existence when this sort of thing is going on?
...Not only government ministers and officials from the ruling Zanu-PF party, but also top police and army officers and High Court judges have been cleverly woven into Mugabe’s patronage system, benefiting hugely from his despotic rule. Many have been allotted property that was violently seized from white farmers. But their real wealth comes from access to foreign exchange at less than 1,000th of the rate on the streets. This enables them to buy expensive vehicles such as the Hummers, S-class Mercedes and Toyota Prados that fill the hotel car park – one of which will whisk Sithole to a lodge on the edge of town.
...To show the impossibility of surviving on a teacher’s wage, we take her entire Z$2.1m salary to a local supermarket. All she manages to buy with the two large bricks of notes is one bottle of cooking oil, one packet of salt, one laundry soap, one pack of powdered soup, some milk powder and a pack of sugar.
...Although the Reserve Bank knocked three zeroes off the currency last November, the Zimbabwe dollar has continued to lose value at an astonishing rate. At the start of the year it was 3,000 to the US dollar. Last month it fell from 100,000 to 300,000 in a week on the streets where most people exchange. Yet the official rate is 250. “Imagine the money you can make,” a merchant bank director explained. “Say you buy US$100 at the official rate – that costs you Z$25,000. Then you sell that US$100 on the streets and get Z$30m. With that Z$30m, at the official rate you can buy more than US$100,000 – all for your initial outlay of about eight cents. “And that’s not to mention fuel vouchers,” he added. A litre of fuel for the privileged costs just Z$400 while everyone else must pay Z$185,000. “If you’re one of Mugabe’s cronies, you can live in fantastic wealth.” That wealth is visible not only from the number of new luxury cars on the streets of the capital but from a spin round Borrowdale Brooke, a private housing estate with its own golf course in northern Harare.
...In supermarkets such as the Bellevue Spar in Bulawayo, staff struggle to keep up with the increases. Every aisle has someone busy with a pricing gun and some items have six or seven price labels, one on top of another. The baked beans on sale for Z$66,000 five days ago have just been repriced at Z$125,000. Hardly anyone in the shop seems to be buying anything. People stare at prices and window shop as if they were ata luxury department store.
...Others, such as a white-haired pensioner, walk out with nothing. His monthly pension is not even enough to buy a toilet roll, he tells me.
...The state-owned media blame it all on a plot by British and American governments. Last week the Chronicle wrote: “We can reveal that British and US governments, after failing to incite a public revolt against the government of Zimbabwe, are now working overtime to destroy the economy, mutilate the Zimbabwe dollar, foment civil unrest.”
...A whole community of people whose homes were demolished by the government two years ago now live on the Richmond rubbish dump, surviving by foraging for glass bottles and plastic. Remedio Moyo, 26, shows the black plastic shelter he lives under with his wife and children aged three and five. Small black flies cover everything. “This is not a proper life,” he said. “I went to school and all I wanted from life was a job anda small house, not to be a big man. There is only one person to blame for this situation and I would like that man to die any minute.”
How do so called elites justify their support of this disgusting thug?
Where are all those snivelling, rich hypocrites to sing We Are The World on behalf of the downtrodden of Zimbabwe?
It's up to people with correctly aligned moral compasses to speak out at this time of urgent need in Zimbabwe.
Sunday, 1 July 2007
Sunday night Aussie rock
Sherbert was a 70s Aussie rock band most notably featuring Daryl Braithwaite up front and Garth Porter on keyboards. They had a string of hits in Australia through the 70s but failed to make it on the international stage, though their biggest hit "Howzat" made the top 5 in the UK, which is no mean feat. The band broke up in 1979 after having briefly changed their name to Highway but reformed in 1980 with exactly the same line up as The Sherbs. Success eluded them and they went their separate ways. Following the group's break-up, lead singer Daryl Braithwaite went on to a successful solo career in Australia, and Garth Porter and Clive Shakespeare became successful record producers.
Howzat
Summer Love
Magazine Madonna
You've Got The Gun
Howzat
Summer Love
Magazine Madonna
You've Got The Gun
Birds of a political feather wreck economies together
The Australian public has now had more than six months to get a feel for new Labor opposition leader Kevin Rudd. Opinion polls have favoured Labor over the Coalition since he became leader and he still leads in the preferred prime minister stakes.
With the next federal election still six months away I do not believe that opinion polls provide an accurate forecast of the outcome. The polls are slightly higher than where Labor has been at the same time of year in the previous two election campaigns, one of which they lost narrowly and in the other they were quite rightly hammered when they somehow endorsed the mentally unstable Mark Latham as leader.
With the announcement that Labor will appoint a petrol commissioner it occurred to me that Kevin Rudd is quite similar to a former US president who caused chaos at the petrol pump by trying to control the price of petrol when supply was freely available.
Birds of a feather - Jimmy Carter and Kevin Rudd
From the press release on Labor's web site:
With the next federal election still six months away I do not believe that opinion polls provide an accurate forecast of the outcome. The polls are slightly higher than where Labor has been at the same time of year in the previous two election campaigns, one of which they lost narrowly and in the other they were quite rightly hammered when they somehow endorsed the mentally unstable Mark Latham as leader.
With the announcement that Labor will appoint a petrol commissioner it occurred to me that Kevin Rudd is quite similar to a former US president who caused chaos at the petrol pump by trying to control the price of petrol when supply was freely available.
Birds of a feather - Jimmy Carter and Kevin Rudd
From the press release on Labor's web site:
Increasing petrol prices have become a number one weekly budget issue for many families across the Australia.One shudders at the similarity with the policy of the USA's most incompetent President ever, Jimmy Carter.
In recent years, petrol price spikes have become the norm rather than the exception over long weekends, the Easter break, and school holidays.
While international oil prices are the dominant factor in price fluctuations, motorists need to know that prices are being set fairly.
That is why a Federal Labor Government will task an Office of the Petrol Commissioner - within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) - with the sole purpose of ensuring Australian families are paying not one cent more to fill up their car than they should.
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