Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Blogday 2005

So it's BlogDay

While The Magnet is suffering a death of a thousand essays I just had to post a quick note for Blogday.

The 5 blogs I would recommend would be ...

News from the Front by head of Greenpeace International, Dr Anne Summers, who is a leading international feminist and activist and Walkley Award winning journalist.

Lew Rockwell.com I don't have a clue who he is, but this post caught my eye on Antony Loewenstein's blog.

Evil Pundit of Doom because it frequently gives me a hearty laugh and lets me know how the other half think.

and speaking of laughing ... Flutey and[drumroll please] tha Man that cooks...

Monday, August 22, 2005

Iceman too cool for roasting Turkey Grand Prix

Kimi Iceman Raikkonen took out P1 for McLaren, again, in Istanbul. P2 & P3 went to Alonso and Montoya.

Top ten regulars Fisischella, Button and Trulli took out P4,5& 6 followed by David Coulthard and Red Bull's Christian Klien.

The Schumacher brothers both struggled, Michael Schumacher retiring in lap 12 and brother, Ralf, coming in at a meagre P12.

Both Williams retired, with the now ritual race day skirmish between F1 bad-boy Takuma Sato and Aussie Ken doll, Mark Webber, sealing Webber's fate in the Turkey leg;-]] of the F1 season.

Webber needs to check on the warranty on his rabbit's foot, with another problem early in the race with Michael Schumacher delaying Webber in the braking area.

Sato finished in ninth place ahead of Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello who had a disappointing race.

Jordan may not get many podiums, but they should definitely get an 'A' for consistency, with the affable Monteiro and Karthikeyan, coming in last and 2nd last, respectively. Most likely they were distracted by thoughts of the media luncheon entertainment.

Other retirees were Albers and Massa with the customary paint-peeler performance by GP heir, Jacques Villeneuve, and Doornbos, another also-ran in the race, came in at P13.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Still silencing de Menezes

The police whistleblower who leaked documents revealing inconsistencies in police statements about the de Menezes killing has been suspended.

The whistleblower, a member of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, leaked witness statements and photographs showing the errors which led to the shooting of de Menezes 8 times at point blank range.

The case has attracted global attention and showed blatant weaknesses in Britain's 'shoot to kill' policy.

Police whistleblowers are renowned for making allegations under the stress of extreme pressure to suppress negligence and corruption, and typically experience workplace victimization afterwards as a consequence of no witness-support systems to facilitate in the pursuit of transparency in police services.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Bone marrow donor can save saxophonist's life



In his lengthy career as a jazz saxophonist and session player, Michael Brecker has won 11 Grammy Awards and helped to sculpt individual sounds for Donald Fagan, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Steely Dan, played in the NBC Saturday Night Live show band and has spent a lifetime touching people's hearts, the world over, with his music.

While the most likely matches for his bone marrow would be found in his own family, no matches have been found, and his family and friends are looking further afield to anyone who shares his cultural heritage of Eastern Jewish European, to have a test for compatibility [a simple test - similar to donating blood].

Mr Brecker is no longer strong enough to play, or even write music, and he is lucky to be able to chat everyday, via a webcam on his notebook, from hospital, with his twelve year old son.

Hi wife and daughter are desperately seeking a suitable donor for him.

Could you be the one to save this jazz legend?
One of the world's leading tenor saxophone players, Michael Brecker has been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer of the bone marrow with his only chance for survival being a life saving transplant.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Justice and Gallop's sex-offender giveaway

Hot on the heals of WA's controversial extradition of convicted recidivist paedophile, Robert Excell, back to his country of origin, the state has exported another child sex offender paroled back to his family in Banora, NSW after serving only 5 years of a 424 year prison sentence he was given by Justice Kevin Hammond.

Could this sex offender giveaway be prompted by a need for West Australia's ailing justice system to cut costs and use the funding to prevent more mass escapes?

It surely is not, that the state government does not consider the safety of children, and the responsibility of the justice system to prevent child sex crimes regardless of where they would occur, above the budget of the justice system?

These serious and repeat child sex offenders have travelled to the state to perpetrate their crimes, why shouldn't they be extradited for the duration of their gaol-terms to their place of origin, to cut costs rather than them being paroled?

Both cases of British born Robert Excell and Otto Seamus Darcy-Searle, involve serious and repeat offences, with paedophiles ranking statistically amongst the highest of recidivists, the high risk of reoffending in these new regions have to be addressed.

Police have also voiced fears that Otto Seamus Darcy Searle, who pleaded guilty to 104 sex offences against his soccer students, would reoffend and that the early release of a prisoner with such a heavy sentence was 'ludicrous'.

Darcy-Searle's release is certainly an indicator of the breaking down of justice in the 'justice system', with the 99% attrition rate of child sex complaints showing that very few sex offenders ever go to court - let alone ever being found guilty.

Are child sex offences simply not important enough to the Gallop government to warrant this responsibility to the ethics of justice - similarly would a convicted repeat offender terrorist presently be released after serving 5 years of a 424 year sentence? What would the state's responsbilities be towards the chance that terrorist could reoffend elsewhere if extradicted?

I gather that David Hicks has been held in Gitmo for the last few years merely on suspicion, yet here is a repeat offender sentenced to 424 years - more than any of the Bali bombers[who killed 202 people] and he is allowed to walk free after serving just over 1 hundredth of his sentence, so long as he leaves Western Australia.

Are child sex offences taking a lower priority than the expense gladly forked out to catch would be terrorists in sleepy old Perth, the most isolated city in the world?

Has terrorism become more attractive as a faceless public and media pleaser, than the burdonsome, social responsibility?

This is perhaps an opportunity a more experienced state opposition leader could utilize to the benefit of the general public and at-risk children.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Breaking through..

While Carrie is impressed that Keifer Sutherland's series, 24, is merely back on the box, I have to admit to being in two minds about the Sutherland's community cohesion disclaimer which is being broadcast on the telly, in a bid seemingly to counteract any anti-Islamic sentiment which may be reinforced by the shows topical plotlines and the controversial selections of USA's Fox network's programmers.

Perhaps before John Howard and Peter Costello discuss welfare reforms on tv, a community cohesion disclaimer could be played to alert viewers that single parents and disability pensioners are not particularly bad and actually quite an important part of the community?

Is the show's depiction of the torture of Iraqi terror suspects too controversial for public consumption? Is the topic of terrorism and the hunt for terrorists too raw for the viewing public. Of course if the program were equally willing to write and show more balanced scripts about various terrorist groups from varying ethnic backgrounds perhaps the disclaimer would be unnecessary.

There is no doubt that on most poor grade US tv scripts there is some thinly veiled plots involving terrorist organizations which have sprouted from the middle east, just as in years gone by, during the cold war Russia was given the same treatment, and before that was cowboys and Indians, with tv for the masses exploring/capitalizing on base fears of unknown peoples, who they have been told by either the government, the media or both, pose some sort of threat.

It is interesting to see in this era of globalization and multiculturalism how this good guy/bad guy simplistic formula-produced tv script rubbish is finally starting to have its drawbacks where it counts - with less viewers tuning in.

Journalists a dying breed

The blogosphere is mourning the death of journalist and blogger, Stephen Vincent, bringing this year's death toll of journalists to 41 according to the International Press Institute's figures, 12 of those in Iraq.

Vincent submitted a controversial and revealing piece to the New York Times on July 31st, in which he said the Basra Police was being infiltrated by Shia militants, some committing assassinations, even describing the type of car they had driven to commit the hits, and that British Services who oversee this area of Iraq were turning a blind eye.

After this, his body was discovered, he had been bound, gagged and shot several times in the head and chest. Reports say he and his partner, an Iraqi interpreter were abducted by five men in a vehicle marked with 'Police'. His Partner is in a serious but stable condition after having been shot in the leg and chest.

So this is the reward for a hard days work, the cost for the story of a lifetime? Journalism isn't just any ordinary 9-5 and the journalists who risk their lives to ensure some measure of transparency in a world fraught with corruption are not just your average people, but seldom is that recognized by the public they strive so hard to keep informed.