Gypsies -- Roma

This is one of those moments where you read the sentence, shake your head, read it again, and then go, what?

Italy's highest court, the Court of Cassation, has handed down a decision which essentially says that it is OK to discriminate against gypsies because they are all thieves. Hey, did I fall asleep and wake up in the dark ages?

Italy is now governed again by the billionaire telecommunications expert and alleged corrupter Silvio Berlusconi. However, it is the Interior Minister who has decided that all of the Roma that are resident in Italy must be fingerprinted, including all Roma children.

The ruling was not about the fingerprinting issue per se but rather it overturned the convictions of a group of six people who signed a pamphlet which essentially said that all gypsies must be removed from Italy because where ever there are gypsies there are robberies. One of the six, Flavio Tosi, has since become Mayor of Verona.

The fact that the Court made the decision that it did would suggest that any legal action taken against the fingerprinting measure would be likely to fail as the Court appears inclined to accept the proposition that all Roma are thieves.

The Court of Cassation held that Mr Tosi was not a racist, but that he had "a deep aversion [to Roma] that was not determined by the Gypsy nature of the people discriminated against, but by the fact that all the gypsies were thieves". The Court then went on to say that his dislike of the Roma was "not therefore based on a notion of superiority or racial hatred, but on racial prejudice".

Yep, if you're lost a little on this reasoning then join the queue. This seems to be an exercise in hair splitting between the words hatred and prejudice.

It should not be too long and the government in Italy might require Italian Jews to wear a big yellow Star of David on their clothes. If Italians are going to start fingerprinting people then it must be non-discriminatory and all Italians must be fingerprinted and not just selected racial groups.

Golf -- Expensive Balls

Just because I cannot think of anything else interesting to write. And, I also read that Tiger Woods might not be back for a long while. So, this got me thinking about golf.

Did you know that Americans spend more than USD 630 million per year on golf balls.

That means that there must be a lot of balls going into the water hazards.

Piracy in Indonesia

The Jakarta Police had a bit of an event yesterday as they destroyed some 4.5 million pirated DVDs, VCDs, and CDs that they had seized in the period from January to June this year. This represents 55 separate cases and raids in 16 locations, quite a haul. The locations included Indonesia's perennial favourite pirate zones of Glodok and Roxy Square.

I am not sure who sat down and counted all the disks but it was noted that 19% of the disks contained pornographic material. The destruction was not restricted to pirated or illegal disks but it also included legal disks that were used as master copies.

Police have arrested 79 people in connection with this haul of disks and estimate that the state has lost some USD 1.6 million.

Domino's Pizza -- Indonesia

I am sure Domino's Pizza opened up in Indonesia once before and did not do so well! If I am not mistaken it morphed into something called Pizza Express. I am pretty sure that I once ordered a couple of pizzas for the office from Pizza Express and the delivery bloke was kitted out in Domino's gear.

Whatever. It seems that the current franchise holders, PT Mitra Adiperkasa, have decided to throw some cash at re-opening the Domino's chain by throwing a considerable sum of cash at it. The first store is scheduled to open on 15 August in Pondok Indah.

Why does this interest me? I used to work for Domino's in Australia and managed a couple of stores there. I did well enough at it that I had the opportunity to meet the founder of the company, Tom Monaghan. The fella gave me a real expensive pen and pencil for reaching some ludicrously high sales target that no one thought was possible (at least in the amount of time that I did it in). So, maybe they can give me a job at a local store.

Domino's Pizza is all about delivery and take out. Therefore, it is also all about location. So, it will be interesting to see where the franchise holder will open other stores. The other issue is price and that is one of the reasons Domino's has done well in other markets in the past. Good pizza at a good price is hard to find.

Nevertheless, and in my most sarcastic voice, more fast food is just what Indonesia needs, right?

"Causing Annoyance" -- World Youth Day

It seems that New South Wales is bending over backwards to accommodate those running the World Youth Day festivities later this month. Although considering some parts of the history of the Catholic Church it might feel to some as they are bending over forwards and getting the right religious shafting. This is one of those things you read or hear and then find yourself asking yourself is this for real.

The NSW police have been given additional powers during the World Youth Day festivities to arrest and fine people for "causing annoyance" to participants or as they are more frequently called pilgrims! These powers include a power to search and the power is based on the mere belief that someone is causing annoyance.

As Anna Katzmann SC, President of the NSW Bar Association, points out, there are already laws on the NSW Statute Books which regulate behaviour and police powers at large events like New Year's Eve on Sydney Harbour which attracts up to a million visitors or more. These regulations seem to work well enough at other events so what is different this time around?

Under the new powers if I was to hold up a sign that read "the Pope allows pedophilia" then I have committed an offence and can be arrested and fined. Where is my right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Simply, if I wanted to hold up a poster that said "Kevin Rudd is a wanker" then I am entitled to do so and I would not be arrested. So, why does the Pope get special treatment? Is it because he is Catholic? or the Special Emissary of God?

The special powers granted to police also allow them to conduct searches in designated areas that may require people to remove jackets, gloves, shoes, and head wear, as well as offer up any bags for a police search.

It is not surprising that the NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, is in favour of the new powers. He even goes so far as to say that they are not really new powers but the extension of already existing powers. So, really they are new powers after all. This seems to me like the NSW Police have thought all their Christmases have come at once as this is the perfect ruse to clamp down on protests and protesters.

The powers are draconian and seem only to have been put into place so that visiting Catholics and the Pope think that all Sydney-siders are for this little love fest. I wonder if NSW would be going to the same lengths to appease organizers if this event were some kind of Jewish, Protestant, or Muslim love fest?

Preah Vihear

The Preah Vihear temple sits in Cambodia and the staircase that runs up to the temple starts in Thailand. The temple had been at the center of a dispute that was resolved by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1962. The ICJ's decision was that the temple belonged to Cambodia.

The Preah Vihear temple is located on a mountaintop and affords some breath-taking views over the vast jungles of Cambodia. It is a pretty inaccessible place but not off the radar for those die-hard travellers who want to witness some of the best ancient Khmer architecture outside of that at Angkor Wat. The Hindu temple has endured much since the 11th Century and seems set to endure a little more.

The temple despite its significance is not yet a UNESCO world heritage site. Thailand seemed to have finally agreed to let Cambodia lodge an application to have the temple listed as a world heritage site. Nevertheless, this sparked the ire of the Thai people. Some 100 of them tried to march on Cambodia as a protest of the agreement. Not to be left out, a Thai then issued an injunction which purports to prevent the Thai government from supporting the Cambodian bid to have the temple listed as a world heritage site.

I must be missing something here. Simply, the listing of the temple complex as a world heritage site is likely to attract much-needed tourism and a boost to the local economies around the temple. The additional visitors would also likely help offset some of the costs of maintaining the ruins.

It beats me why would Thailand want to block the listing? Unless they still harbour dreams of one-day getting the ICJ to go back and hand down a decision that says, oops the temple is not in the territory of Cambodia but in fact it belongs to Thailand. The operative word here would seem to be 'dream'.

Thailand needs to pull its head out of the sand and get on board with the Cambodian application. It serves the interests of both countries and delaying the listing of Preah Vihear as a world heritage site serves the interests of none!

Australia -- Chronic Teacher Shortages

The Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, who also happens to double as Education Minister feels inspired by a British teacher recruitment drive. She is so inspired by the recruitment drive that she is hoping to introduce it to Australia.

Australia suffers a chronic teacher shortage for a number of reasons. Primarily among these is that teachers were underpaid for the value that they provide to the community through education and many simply became more valuable in the private sector and in other fields.

The recruitment drive was somewhat provocatively themed, "Those who can, teach". There were other catchy little slogans used such as, "Use your head, teach". It seems that this has resulted in a significant increase in the numbers of undergraduates entering into teaching based degrees.

However, the government's only real commitment to date on this front is to offer to halve the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) fees for those graduates that take a teaching qualification. I think that a commitment to raising salaries might go a fair way to "inspiring" people to get into teaching.

I guess we wait and see!

Ruslana Korshunova -- Spurned Love

A quick update on the recent suicide of a supermodel. It seems that Ruslana Korshunova was spurned by a lover or the love of her life (interpretation and emphasis mine). Kind of a Romeo and Juliet thing where it is unclear as to whether Romeo has kept his end of the bargain.

Reports are suggesting that recent posts on her social networking sites is revealing an inner torment over love and what it all means, life that is.

For me there is no woman (or for that matter a man) that is worth killing myself over. The pain of lost love is certainly painful and may seem irrecoverable at that point in time that it is lost, but it is what it is -- a mere point in time.

Life goes on and while we have it there is always the possibility that there is something better just around the corner. Maybe just a little better or maybe a lot better. But, if we pull the plug on life, then there is one thing that is certain, we will never know what might have been!

For me that is the tragedy of suicide.

Opportunity lost.

The Keddies Bill

Here is part of the Keddies bill for services rendered. It can be found here in full. The head shot is that of the founding partner Russell Keddie.

Keddies -- The Saga Continues

You have to wonder about some lawyers who continuously take their clients to the cleaners and expect to never get found out. Keddies lawyer Philip Scroope has been accused of charging almost AUD 600 to travel less than 2 kilometres for a conference. Scroope is also accused of charging AUD 60 to write a welcome letter to a client who decided to use Keddies services. Scroope's then went on to charge AUD 49 to read an e-card thank you from the same client, and then a further AUD 49 to tell the client he was going on holiday and would be out of the office.

The icing on the cake for me is that the client was charged AUD 98 for a phone call he made from his own phone.

Keddies are undoubtedly going to claim that everything is above board and no over-charging has taken place. Nevertheless, this particular client has already had some of the fees and charges levied by Keddies refunded. Providing a refund is hardly commensurate with guilt however where there is a pattern forming of consistent refunds to clients then one wonders is this indicative of a firm culture that consistently over-charges and then refunds if there is a complaint? I guess this is something for the Legal Services Commissioner to work out.

I guess personal injury law is a very lucrative field based on the sort of money that Keddies has been able to charge over a long period of time.

Alexander Downer Quits

I guess it is no fun being in opposition after a reign as Australia's longest serving Foreign Minister. Alexander Downer has pulled the plug on a rather long and somewhat distinguished political career.

There are, as in any long career, a couple of moments that could have run better that might have seen him as Prime Minister rather than Foreign Minister. Unfortunately, the comment that undid him and saw him dumped as Liberal Leader was a stupid attempt at humour through a play on words.

The former Foreign Minister is moving into a part-time United Nations role as Special Envoy for Cyprus. The major role here is thought to be an effort to revive the peace process between the Greeks and the Turks over Cyprus.

This means that there will be a need for a by-election in his seat of Mayo in the Adelaide Hills. This has always been a pretty safe Liberal seat and it is currently held by 7.1%. This is after a swing of 6.5% against Downer at the last election. However, with the recent results in the Gippsland by-election showing a swing away from Labor, it is expected that this will become a much safer Liberal seat at the by-election.

Labor is even considering the option of not running a candidate which suggests that they are a little bit concerned about being humiliated as the electorate has had a little time to re-evaluate their decision to elect a Labor government.

Anyway, good luck to the fella!

Marijuana -- Coffee Shops In Holland

You really have to give it up for the Dutch. The masters of the loophole but not the masters of the European Cup in 2008!

European Union law requires that member states put in place legislation that bans tobacco smoking in bars, pubs, and clubs, as well as restaurants. The Dutch have finally gotten around to this and as of 1 July 2008 they will become one of the last member states to put into effect this ban.

However, here is the loophole and the catch. The ban covers tobacco and not marijuana. Therefore, any coffee shop (aka marijuana-selling place) can continue to do what they have always done without breaking the law.

So, blogging colleagues, anyone wanting to make a trip to the Netherlands to explore this loophole, go for it and happy smoking to ya!

Aries -- My Horoscope for Today

Welcome back to the working week. Communications will be more emotive, so you should be very clear on how you express your thoughts and feelings to others. Ensure that you know exactly what you are about and if you are given instructions know exactly what you're supposed to do - don't leave anything to chance. You may find that you become concerned with about what's happening in other places of the world and you may travel more and process information in a different way than usual.

This is kind of close to what my day is going to be like. I have a serious email to send to my employers regarding my new work contract and whether I am going to accept the terms and conditions and stay or demand some changes. This is likely to be an emotive discussion.

But horoscopes are like statistics you can read anything that you want into them if you look hard enough!

Career Criminals In The Making

Here are some statistics that make you wonder about the parenting skills of some Australians. To be fair it might not be the parents per se, it might just be the case that these youngsters are beyond the control of parents who may feel like they have tried everything and still not managed to bring their children into some kind of respectable line.

NSW police are apprehending, on average, more than 50 children per week for sexual and other assaults, theft, armed robbery, drug dealing, and murder. What is even more scary in these statistics is that during the period from 1 January 2005 to 30 September 2007 some 7,724 offences were recorded by children under the age of 10. This is one of those moments where you close your eyes and go, "what?"

The statistics were obtained by News Ltd under a Freedom of Information request and show one murder by a 10-year-old, 1,109 assaults and 141 sexual assaults, including 31 by 8-year olds. At 8 years old I cannot even recall if I was thinking about girls let alone wanting to be involved in a sexual assault. I cannot even remembering wanting to assault anyone at that age. I mean the closest I might have come to an assault conviction could have been a punch up or two in high school. But most of the violence I was involved in was good wholesome fun on the rugby field and this was generally referred to as a crunching tackle.

Yet, the craziness continues as the statistics also highlight that there were 584 driving offences, of which 113 were by 8-year olds.

The question is what to do about this worsening juvenile crime wave as for those that are aged of 10 might get a Children's Court date which for first time offenders generally results in a slap on the wrist (this is the case for second and third time offenders as well depending on the offence).

However, for those under the age of 10 the current practice is to call in the parents, lecture the child on the evil of their ways and where this type of conduct will lead them and then release them back into the custody of their parents. Sometimes the Department of Community Services (DoCS) might become involved. Yet, DoCS are woefully under-funded and under-staffed as some of their more recent and public failings highlight.

Former Children's Court magistrate Barbara Holborow said, "I don't know whether it's because so many parents are working by necessity, loss of parents' rights, poor discipline at home or whatever, but something is wrong," ya think? no kidding!

A Model Life Ends In Tragedy

It is sad when people feel that there is no options left in life that they then decide to take their own. No matter what the circumstances, suicide is always a tragedy. Mostly for those left behind and scratching their heads and trying to work out why, or what the missed, or was there a tell tale sign that went unnoticed.

Yet, when the suicide is of a 20-year old model with the world seemingly at her feet it becomes particularly baffling. And this is the case with Ruslana Korshunova who is considered to be one of the supermodels and who has apparently jumped from the 9th floor window of her apartment in the financial district of New York City.

Hailing from Almaty in Kazakhstan she was a cover girl for vogue and one of the faces of 2005 (photo courtesy of AP).

It is a sad way to end a promising life.

Anwar Ibrahim -- New Sodomy Claims

One wonders why people want to get into public life and public service in the first place, but to be subject to constant allegations of sexual misconduct and to be able to keep the course and stay focused and want to stay in public service takes a person with a special level of conviction and call to duty.

The de facto Malaysian oppostion leader, Anwar Ibrahim, has been accused of committing sodomy against his 'special assistant'. Anwar is de facto opposition leader because he is not a parliamentarian as his previous corruption conviction meant that he was not able to run for a seat at the last election. However, it was expected that a seat would have been made available and a by-election held. Nevertheless, the latest claims throw this immediate plan into some disarray.

What the special assistant does will become clear over time I guess. However, I would not have thought that the 'special' part related to "special" services. Yet, who knows the truth? I do not, so I will be watching and reading with interest where this goes.

I guess, even though the original sodomy charges against Anwar back in 1998 were finally overturned by the Malaysian High Court in 2004. Anwar has consistently denied the original allegations and has denied these most recent ones. He contends it is an attempt to deflect attention away from claims Anwar was going to make against the national police chief and the attorney general for their alleged role in having him accused of corruption and sodomy in 1998.

Anwar has stated that he obtained evidence that implicates the Inspector General of Police, Musa Hassan, and the Attorney General, Gani Patail, of misconduct and fabricating evidence against him in 1998. This evidence is yet to be released but could be a bit of a bomb shell if it is.

This latest drama and series of allegations will continue the current turmoil in Malaysian politics. It is always interesting to see what lengths politicians will go to maintain their relevance and influence. This is particularly the case for the Barisan Nasional (National Front) which although retaining a simple majority were decimated at the last General Election.

I cannot help but wonder whether the special assistant is seeking to gain something and did not get it so a good old case of sodomy seems as good as anything else to run with as Anwar would seem to be an easy target on this front or is this a case of where there is smoke there is fire?

The Anwar saga takes another turn in an old direction and as I said I will be watching with interest as to how the story develops.

Mini Me -- Verne Troyer -- Little People Sex

In this era of political correctness do you call someone who is height challenged a "little person", a "midget", or a "dwarf". No matter.

Verne Troyer who played Mini Me in the Austen Powers series of spy spoofs made a 50 minute tape of himself having sex with his then girlfriend. Troyer alleges that the tape was stolen and the person most likely to be involved in the theft of that tape is Kevin Blatt. Now any regular viewers, collectors, or purveyors of celebrity sex tape news will immediately recognize Blatt's name as the distributor of another classic celebrity sex tape, "One Night in Paris".

The 39-year old actor who stands a mere 80 cm tall has filed a USD 20 million lawsuit for violation of his privacy rights, infringement on his copyright, and the misappropriation of his name and likeness. Additionally, Troyer is seeking an injunction prohibiting further dissemination of the video which was available on the TMZ website (although it has now been taken down...the attached photo is from the TMZ site). The 20 second clip shows the little man tongue-kissing a former "girlfriend".

The whole tape is supposedly way steamier than just a little French kissing in the USA.

Public Intoxication

Now here is a very disturbing story out of rural New South Wales.

A 9-year old boy and his two 14-year old friends were found roaming the streets of Albury (on the border between NSW and Victoria) at 01.00. The roaming the streets is not the disturbing part. The disturbing part is that they were blind drunk and the 9-year old was talking to Jesus on the porcelain telephone (Australian idiom for vomiting + there is a whole site devoted to the subject).

I am sure that there is more to the story than just the public intoxication and the puking of one's guts in the street. Yet, all the same, at 9 years old there is something definitely to be concerned with on this one.

The incident has been reported to the Department of Community Services.

What Tarot Are you?

This is something my better half sent me last week.

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Alaska

Apparently, Alaska has the highest percentage of people that walk to work.

My experience of Alaska is limited to the TV show "Northern Exposure". The photo is of Mt. McKinley and can be found here.

Having a look at some of the photos of Alaska has inspired me to want to save up and go see for myself first hand some of these places.

Burma -- Get Educated!

Being a regular viewer of You tube means that you come across lots of cool videos. Even so, you do not always see everything that is out there. This particular video I became aware of after dropping by the FriskoDude. CP has been out of blogging action for a while because of some hardware dramas but hopefully he is back in full swing now.

This video is part of the Burma: It Can't Wait campaign.




So, let's get educated. I wonder who Indonesia's equivalent of Tila Tequila is?

Schapelle Corby -- Guilty?

How things change over time. Based on a recent Taverner Research poll it is clear that the majority of residents surveyed feel that Corby is guilty of the crimes for which she is doing 20 years. The majority in this case is slim at only 53% however, there are only 15% of those surveyed who believed her to be innocent. The rest remained unconvinced either way on guilt or innocence (perhaps they just do not care one way or the other).

The survey also found that people would be favourable to Corby serving out her sentence in Australia if and when a prisoner transfer agreement was reached. I have posted on this before and my view is that it will depend on the conditions of the agreement. If 20 years means 20 years in an Australian prison then perhaps Corby and her family would need to give some serious considerations to the generous remission provisions that prevail in Indonesia.

Public opinion would seem to be shifting on whether Corby is guilty or innocent.

Travel Horoscope -- What's Yours?

By way of Life In Mono.

Travel Horoscope for Aries

When you travel, you literally want to see a whole different world. You want a vacation full of adventure, exotic sights, and tons of variety. You should travel to: India Kenya New Zealand Brazil Thailand

What's" Your Travel Horoscope?

RyanAir

It seems that RyanAir is going to offer some interesting additional free services on its Trans-Atlantic flights for its business class customers.

These services are to include free oral sex!

The CEO of RyanAir certainly knows how to stir the pot and generate publicity and get a reaction. RyanAir has been in the news regularly for its creative marketing including the "Girls of RyanAir Calendar" which featured some of RyanAir's most attractive flight attendants in their underwear.

I am sure that there will be plenty of takers for this interesting offer.

More Street Art

Street Art

Thermometers