Populist Politics At Its Worst: Tony Abbott, Foreign Aid, Islamic Schools...

Tony Abbott has shown his true colours while simultaneously showing why he is unfit to be Prime Minister of Australia; he simply does not have Australia's long-term and strategic interests at heart. The man who wants to become the man who makes "shit happen" rather than just talking about when and why "shit happens" has decided that an easy and populist target for cuts to the foreign aid budget is a successful Australian program that helps build and fund Islamic schools in Indonesia.

This racist and xenophobic policy about flip was cased in a need to strengthen Australia's natural disaster relief fund coffers in opposition to the Gillard Labor Government's attempt to introduce a special tax levy to fund the AUD 5 billion in repairs that flooding has caused in Queensland.

To be honest, I would rather not pay the levy. But, also in all honesty, I would rather pay the levy than see an aid program that has Australia's long-term interests and security in the region at its core disbanded because we might have to pay a few extra dollars a week in tax.

The reality is that Australia's involvement in building and providing ongoing support and funding for the Islamic schools program in Indonesia is a positive one. These are schools that provide an alternative opportunity and an alternative message to those being offered by the pesantrens of the fundamentalist and radical fringe of Islamic belief populated by the likes of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir (Bashir).

The Abbott proposal is nothing short of a race-based policy that takes money from a program based on the difference of the recipients. It is justified through the use of terminology that makes it sound as if these schools, and the aid program itself, are primary supporters of an Islamist network intent on destroying the Australian way of life. One almost gets the impression that Mr. Abbott is suggesting that there should be some degree of moral outrage on the part of Australians that their tax money is being channeled to those hell bent on destroying us. This is populist rhetoric designed to play to the fears of a select group of Australians.

Unfortunately, the Prime Minister wannabe is misrepresenting the facts and by default the truth. These schools are Islamic schools. They are not Islamist. I would argue that there is a difference, at least in terms of the connotation of the two words. Islamic merely indicates that the underlying belief is Muslim in nature. Whereas, and in contrast, Islamist suggests that these schools are breeding grounds for some sort of fundamental revivalist and ultra-conservative Islamic belief structure that is a "clear and present danger" to our free democratic ideals. Mr. Abbott has chosen his words carefully and to play to the base fears of those receptive to his message.

The withdrawal of Australian aid to these schools is narrow-minded and a step backwards.

Tony Abbott has already proven that he is not the man Australia needs with his finger on the button when the shit really does happen.

Peace.

Drugs, Politicians, and the Rest of Us

Ever since Bill Clinton uttered those famous words that amounted to a confession to having indulged on only one occasion to the smoking of marijuana but not inhaling, people have undoubtedly been paying more attention to the youthful pasts of our politicians.

It seems that this has not escaped the Australian political scene. The new leader of the Federal Liberal Party, Malcolm Turnbull (photo Glen McCurtayne), has confessed to having indulged himself. He did not go so far as to say that unlike some others he in fact inhaled but that was clearly the gist on the confession.

Unfortunately, he went on to imply that it was a youthful indiscretion and that the drug is harmful and it was a mistake to smoke it. He was right in suggesting that many people have smoked it and many continue to do so.

He is not the first Australian politician to admit a youthful past that involved smoking a bit of wacky weed. It is fun to imagine Wayne Swan, Peter Garrett, and Tony Abbott, among others, to be sitting around passing the joint or bong around with their mates. It all seems so normal, they seem almost real and not just politicians in nice suits.

If the drug is damaging then the onus would apparently be on the government to ban all damaging drugs or at the very least restrict their access to the scientific labs of the world. In this sense the government should be moving swiftly to list tobacco and alcohol as restricted drugs and / or substances. If it does not then it makes a mockery of the prohibition on marijuana.

Marijuana needs to be legalized so that it can be better managed. The revenue boost from taxes would also be a benefit. The government could then divert a proportion of the marijuana revenue stream to scientific and medical research. Then we could get definitive answers to questions on whether there is any real medical benefit from smoking marijuana for those with long-term illness and suffering chronic pain.

I look forward to the day when a politician steps up to the plate and says something like this, "Yeah, I smoked marijuana in my youth! It really did not do anything for me, there was none of the famed munchies or anything else, so I gave it away!"

Then going on to say, "Now, that said, I have friends who swear by the benefits in terms of keeping them relaxed and happy".

And then finishing with, "I really don't see the need to keep the drug illegal! I would think that better controls over the drug would reduce drug crime related to marijuana and this has to be a good thing for us as a community. The additional revenue would also allow us to direct more money to research!"

The icing on the cake would be a party leader taking this to an election as part of the party platform.

I guess it is time for me to go home and reactivate my wanna be political career. I think I could make this part of my platform!

Saluting the Bush

Yes, my erstwhile readers another pornographically tinged post! Just kidding! It seems that Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has triggered a storm in a tea cup by apparently being caught red-handed saluting the President of the United States of America, a one George W. Bush.

This has fed all those that have been waiting for an opportunity to get on the bandwagon and trot out the "Australia takes its Deputy Sheriff role in the Asia Pacific seriously"...Some questions have gotta be asked of the Rudd-ster as to why he would let himself get caught out like this. However, if most Australians thought about this a little bit it is something some of them do instinctively anyway as a simple means of acknowledgement. It could be as uninspiring as pretending to dip the old Akubra in respect and then pointing towards the intended recipient of that respect.

This is one of those Clayton's news stories; news that's not really news at all! The Libs and the Greens have gotta be pretty hard up for things to say if they are going after this. If this is the best that Brendan Nelson has got then it is time that the Libs put Peter Costello in charge and made Tony Abbott his deputy, a couple of head kickers is just what the Libs need to turn around their flagging fortunes!

Even if it was a salute so what? Conduct unbecoming of an Australian PM? Evidence of Australia's subservience to the US? -- some people need to get out a little more and smell the flowers! This needs to be filed in the WGAF column! There are bigger problems in Australia than whether the PM has an arse about face understanding of candid camera now that he is PM. Yet, when you think about it this is the same bloke caught on parliament cam picking his ears and eating his ear wax!

It reminds me of this T-Shirt about bush and associated words as reflected in the picture above (stolen from here)!