It's not an entire solution but it's possible a good beginning: New Immigration minister Chris Bowen is moving 1500 asylum seekers into Australian borders and wants to accompany that with community placements for children and families. Just his choice of language is a relief.
Of course, Abbott didn't miss a chance to decry this as leading to more boats. Yes Tony. You must do everything you can to keep children in concentration camps and whatever else Satan instructs you. Maybe, just maybe people are getting shitted off with that line, since it didn't work last time.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Go tell it on the mountain
Federal Judge tells the US military to stop with the DADT bullshit right the hell now Hooray!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Cracked article on why power corrupts
As always, there's some cherry picking in studies that aren't totally conclusive but it does seem to be gathering evidence that power corrupts, and not just because of the kinds of people who seek it. Power itself makes you more likely to lie, less likely to have empathy and more likely to believe you're a super-normal person with magical capabilities to whom the rules do not apply. (This also happens if you read The Secret).
Which is why we need to a) take as much as it out of the hands of authority as possible and b) put as much as possible into the hands of everyone else. Kind of like empowering employees. Or as so beautifully summed up by CJ on The West Wing:
"In times of crisis, people want to feel like soldiers, not victims."
And that's why the arguments of "don't vote, they're all bastards anyway" annoys me so much. The more you strip people of agency, the more they let themselves become victims, which just lets authority be even more bastardly.
Which is why we need to a) take as much as it out of the hands of authority as possible and b) put as much as possible into the hands of everyone else. Kind of like empowering employees. Or as so beautifully summed up by CJ on The West Wing:
"In times of crisis, people want to feel like soldiers, not victims."
And that's why the arguments of "don't vote, they're all bastards anyway" annoys me so much. The more you strip people of agency, the more they let themselves become victims, which just lets authority be even more bastardly.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Colbert Takes On The Hill
People sometimes view humour like sex, in that the moment it touches something, it corrupts it entirely and therefore there are things that must be protected from humour at all costs. There are, they say, places where humour does not and cannot belong. Certainly humour is dangerous. It reacts to the serious explosively and destructively and that can undermine important issues. But it doesn't have to do so. Humour can enlighten, enrichen and embolden the serious and the critical, raise the level of debate, evince truth, encourage nobility and demand attention.
So it is that while some cry out that Steven Colbert testifying to congress about the conditions of migrant farm workers is a mockery, I say it is awesome. Especially when he drops character slightly and, in his less-intoned voice, speaks from the heart.
CONGRESSWOMAN JUDY CHU: Mr. Colbert, you could work on so many issues, why are you interested in this issue?
COLBERT: I like talking about people who don't have any power. And this seems like some of the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come and do our work but don't have any rights as a result. And yet we still invite them to come here, and at the same time ask them to leave. And, you know, whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers, these seem like the least of our brothers, right now. And I know that a lot of people are the least of my brothers because the economy is so hard, and I don't want to take anyone's hardship away from them or diminish it or anything like that, but migrant workers suffer, and they have no rights."
With his comic spoonful of sugar, Colbert sneaks into the public consciousness, then shoots, scores and buries it to the bone.
So it is that while some cry out that Steven Colbert testifying to congress about the conditions of migrant farm workers is a mockery, I say it is awesome. Especially when he drops character slightly and, in his less-intoned voice, speaks from the heart.
CONGRESSWOMAN JUDY CHU: Mr. Colbert, you could work on so many issues, why are you interested in this issue?
COLBERT: I like talking about people who don't have any power. And this seems like some of the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come and do our work but don't have any rights as a result. And yet we still invite them to come here, and at the same time ask them to leave. And, you know, whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers, these seem like the least of our brothers, right now. And I know that a lot of people are the least of my brothers because the economy is so hard, and I don't want to take anyone's hardship away from them or diminish it or anything like that, but migrant workers suffer, and they have no rights."
With his comic spoonful of sugar, Colbert sneaks into the public consciousness, then shoots, scores and buries it to the bone.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Screaming in Crowds
One of my many day jobs is acting as a tour guide on horror and crime themed tours of my fair city. One of our tours, the Bloody Brisbane trail, talks about a particularly grisly murder. At around 4pm in a business office in Albert Street, in the centre of the city, a man discovered his secretary was moving to a new job, where he would no longer be able to pressure her into meeting his sexual demands. In a rage, he beat her savagely, tore off her clothes, raped her and then murdered her by throwing cleaning fluid in her face.
What was noted both then and now about the crime was that, according to witnesses, her screams were heard right across the busy CBD (then both a residential and working environment), up to a mile away. And when he'd finished, her killed walked out of the building covered in blood, with one of his fingers half bitten off from her struggles.
The suggestion made by the tour script is that most people are generally good natured. If you walk up to them and ask them for help, they will generally help. But they also assume, as part of their good nature, that someone else will help out of their good nature. Particularly in a big city. And most importantly, the more terrible the crisis, the more we assume someone else will help. Surely somebody is running to investigate that blood-curdling death scream?
The classic Milgram experiment found much the same thing. Yes, people kept pressing the button, sending shocks to the "victim", when ordered. What isn't usually mentioned however is that almost everyone who did so alerted the person giving the orders to their concerns and asked about the safety of the target. However, once they were assured that the survey organisers would take full responsibility and knew about the situation, they would continue pushing the button. Having cried "fire", they felt they had done their job. And indeed, we're told that that is the primary part of our duty - to alert people to the situation. As a child, we're told to tell a teacher or a parent or a policeman.
Of course, we're not usually told that this may do no good, and we have to keep telling until something is done.
The tour script concludes by suggesting that if ever you are in trouble, don't scream for help. Point to somebody or walk up to them and say "I need YOUR help". And if you see someone in trouble, help them or failing that, engage somebody else personally, by saying "THAT person needs YOUR help".
Where am I going with this? I'm going to politics, of course. We all like to believe that awareness is enough. That's the purpose of this blog, after all, to raise awareness (and vent hate, too, which is fun but ultimately masturbatory). That's also why we march in protest and write letters and call journalists. Once its in the paper, surely people will care? Once the crimes are known, surely they will stop? All it takes is awareness - if only the world knew, it would be okay. If only the media reported it more. If only the community understood the depths of depravity to which we have sunk. Then it would stop.
Except it doesn't. And we end up having newspapers reporting that it is the government's policy NOT TO REMOVE SHRAPNEL FROM CHILDREN because it costs money and hey, they're just worthless towelheads. And it's in the newspaper so surely something will be done? But no, it's like the blood-curdling scream - it's so incredibly horrible we assume even more it will be stopped (or we try even harder to assume it can't be that bad). And so it is never stopped and it only gets worse.
And the truth is, I don't know what the solution is. Yes, we can write to our MPs - point to them and say this is YOUR problem, fix it. But they too exist in a system where other people assure them the issue is being fixed. If enough of the public demand something is done, the government may act if they fear losing votes, but the democratic system rewards inaction and at the very best, change in teeny tiny increments. But even then, getting the public engaged at that level is terribly hard because things are so bad. We look at the Gordian knot and walk away.
Excuse me, I'm going to go read Watchmen again. Or chain myself to government house. Maybe both.
What was noted both then and now about the crime was that, according to witnesses, her screams were heard right across the busy CBD (then both a residential and working environment), up to a mile away. And when he'd finished, her killed walked out of the building covered in blood, with one of his fingers half bitten off from her struggles.
The suggestion made by the tour script is that most people are generally good natured. If you walk up to them and ask them for help, they will generally help. But they also assume, as part of their good nature, that someone else will help out of their good nature. Particularly in a big city. And most importantly, the more terrible the crisis, the more we assume someone else will help. Surely somebody is running to investigate that blood-curdling death scream?
The classic Milgram experiment found much the same thing. Yes, people kept pressing the button, sending shocks to the "victim", when ordered. What isn't usually mentioned however is that almost everyone who did so alerted the person giving the orders to their concerns and asked about the safety of the target. However, once they were assured that the survey organisers would take full responsibility and knew about the situation, they would continue pushing the button. Having cried "fire", they felt they had done their job. And indeed, we're told that that is the primary part of our duty - to alert people to the situation. As a child, we're told to tell a teacher or a parent or a policeman.
Of course, we're not usually told that this may do no good, and we have to keep telling until something is done.
The tour script concludes by suggesting that if ever you are in trouble, don't scream for help. Point to somebody or walk up to them and say "I need YOUR help". And if you see someone in trouble, help them or failing that, engage somebody else personally, by saying "THAT person needs YOUR help".
Where am I going with this? I'm going to politics, of course. We all like to believe that awareness is enough. That's the purpose of this blog, after all, to raise awareness (and vent hate, too, which is fun but ultimately masturbatory). That's also why we march in protest and write letters and call journalists. Once its in the paper, surely people will care? Once the crimes are known, surely they will stop? All it takes is awareness - if only the world knew, it would be okay. If only the media reported it more. If only the community understood the depths of depravity to which we have sunk. Then it would stop.
Except it doesn't. And we end up having newspapers reporting that it is the government's policy NOT TO REMOVE SHRAPNEL FROM CHILDREN because it costs money and hey, they're just worthless towelheads. And it's in the newspaper so surely something will be done? But no, it's like the blood-curdling scream - it's so incredibly horrible we assume even more it will be stopped (or we try even harder to assume it can't be that bad). And so it is never stopped and it only gets worse.
And the truth is, I don't know what the solution is. Yes, we can write to our MPs - point to them and say this is YOUR problem, fix it. But they too exist in a system where other people assure them the issue is being fixed. If enough of the public demand something is done, the government may act if they fear losing votes, but the democratic system rewards inaction and at the very best, change in teeny tiny increments. But even then, getting the public engaged at that level is terribly hard because things are so bad. We look at the Gordian knot and walk away.
Excuse me, I'm going to go read Watchmen again. Or chain myself to government house. Maybe both.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Oh, and also...
Burning of Koran rumours spread by Taliban lead to Australian troops being put in greatly increased danger.
I'm really not making this shit up. Racism KILLS PEOPLE.
I'm really not making this shit up. Racism KILLS PEOPLE.
Suicide in detention centre
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says that despite pressure on the detention centres, they are "coping".
Except that yesterday a man was flagged as being suicidal, and nothing was done. When he climbed onto the roof this morning, nobody with any suicide training was called, resulting in people doing REALLY STUPID THINGS that didn't help. Not surprisingly, the desperate man jumped to his death.
Now the protest on the roof of the Villawood centre is going through the night.
This coming a few days after it was revealed that child sex abuse is happening in a WA centre.
No, Mr Bowen, the centres aren't coping. The centres are FAILING. The centres are cesspools of abuse, violence, sickness, despair and terrible management. Stop them right the fuck now before more of this happens.
Except that yesterday a man was flagged as being suicidal, and nothing was done. When he climbed onto the roof this morning, nobody with any suicide training was called, resulting in people doing REALLY STUPID THINGS that didn't help. Not surprisingly, the desperate man jumped to his death.
Now the protest on the roof of the Villawood centre is going through the night.
This coming a few days after it was revealed that child sex abuse is happening in a WA centre.
No, Mr Bowen, the centres aren't coping. The centres are FAILING. The centres are cesspools of abuse, violence, sickness, despair and terrible management. Stop them right the fuck now before more of this happens.
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