Saturday, October 20, 2012

Musical interlude

Mumma Trees and Sister Che did a huge show(especially the first hour) - check out the archived vershun... on RTR and now every week on Goolari Radio in Broome.



Peter Tosh's birthday,


Sunday, October 14, 2012

Guys who like staring at chicks who take photos...

So this is the first post for a while - I've been flat out like the proverbial lizard drinking. I'm still flat out with uni stuff, but I can see that you've all been rifling through the archives here as busily as you can go and you must be getting pretty tired of those old posts - so here's something new. The topic is a complex one and still developing(as Ludlam's tweets this arvo would suggest) so I will try to put a few smaller posts on it as new things become available. It seems like there are not really enough people talking about these very vital issues that will intrinsically affect the nature of our society in decades to come and our freedom to quietly enjoy our daily lives without State intrusion.
Perhaps, it doesn't fit neatly into the 24-7 news cycle... hmmn.
Between suburban complacence and blind trust, and what seems to be some sleight of hand by the soft on Australians' rights Gillard government, as well as a general, emerging anti-democratic legislative push(from states and Cth) that erodes the separation of powers, it would seem that the more people can write about these issues for debate and discussion  - even if it is in the Blogosphere, the better.




*Warning – the 3rd paragraph contains links to upsetting footage of police brutality, and the distressing footage of the death of Brazilian student, Mr Curti, in Sydney

NSW is an unusual and unpredictable place.
Despite the astronomical values placed on properties in and around Sydney, you can feel the years of hardship and suffering, tangible, on the Easterly. Multiculturalism planned into segregation in the suburbs, at times, spills over into internal community conflicts and rivalry.

There is a noticeable, oppressive air, partly from the police ethos and government social control, which does not appear to have changed in nature since invasion with routine violations of civil liberties blatant and out in the open, and in some aspects, even legislated for.

* It's an ironic turn of events that such Orwellian CCTV systems as they have in and around Sydney's metro area, that invariably are used to vilify minorities through racial profiling and disproportionate enforcement responses, are now also exposing human rights abuses by police .

The broad roll-out of CCTV, misguidedly, is marketed as having a Panoptican effect - modifying behaviour or exerting social control over the masses, who theoretically should perceive they're being watched.
 
Joliet, a panoptican-style prison courtesy of NotFlashyJustBright.com
Companies peddling the technology to councils and the Ministry of Home Affairs (which has control over the federal crime prevention budget) tout it as a deterrent, though monitoring it is outsourced, all without the checks and balances that Australians expect are being applied to all functions of police and other security agencies. Accountability is a basic public assumption that allows Jo(e) Average to get on with the mundaneness of his/her tax-paying life, unhindered by big issues. The complete absence – or perhaps ignore, of the need for stringent government regulation over all private security groups working in Australia, is concerning.
 
The breadth of the functions  performed these days by private security firms and the full ramifications of how the ethical choices of these groups impact on the justice process, are strangely under-examined in Australia’s mainstream media and this contrasts the effects of their work which are very visible.

This is a good budget-conscious idea from the left...


  This marketing ploy is just creepy and weird...




It is a sad indictment that such important stories are passed over or worse, spun and manipulated, by the mainstream media for a government that plays favourites with journos, and outlaws informed, educated comments by public servants, except that made through their PR filter.

 
Bad press for NSW Police Force didn't start with this assault on a Getty Photographer, who at the time, was filming a screaming, frightened teenage girl being man-handled by a wild, unruly mob of out of control NSW Police(they must have heard about APEC on Facebook)
 
Is this another one that missed the mainstream?
 

Why didn’t the government openly discuss the potential for the misuse of these intrusive surveillance and intelligence technologies for hunting human rights activists and whistleblowers, who should be protected by the government because they improve the quality of our democracy ?
 
Creepy Cube (Spin)Doctor from Dr Who - thanks Perspehone Magazine
 
Scott Ludlam tweeted yesterday that the long-awaited hearing that would have yielded answers about the government’s adoption of over-the-top surveillance and alliances with unsavoury private contractors, was closed due to yet more secret ASIO business. It seems that working for the public should entail being answerable to the public - at least to some degree.
 



Why isn’t the government allocating that budget to Australia’s police and security services instead of playing Russian roulette with global security companies with subsidiary companies (operating under different names) on Australian soil?


Most justice personnel will tell you that policing is most effective and accountable when officers live in the communities they serve, long-term, at a suburban level. That can’t happen with the Commonwealth's fondness for global technology companies and when it is outsourcing these very powerful and privileged roles to dubious third-world unknowns, and under-cutting the wages that would normally be paid to our own public sector staff (who, just by the way, have way too few accountability measures already without giving the sneaking around to people who don't have any rules to stick to or to break).

 


##Update - background to the hearings via the ASIO Annual Report for this year - or maybe last years...