Happy Christmas!

It's Christmas. So here's a pome I like about Christmas. Protestants, don't get too hung up about the last three words. Enjoy the ideas and the superb wordcraft and all the images it creates, especially for those who have been in the UK recently!
Happy Christmas!
(And WHO is the reason for the season? It's panto time, so I CAN'T HEEEEEAR YOU!)

Christmas

The bells of waiting Advent ring,

The Tortoise stove is lit again

And lamp-oil light across the night

Has caught the streaks of winter rain.

In many a stained-glass window sheen

From Crimson Lake to Hooker’s Green.

The holly in the windy hedge

And round the Manor House the yew

Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,

The altar, font and arch and pew,

So that the villagers can say

“The church looks nice” on Christmas Day.

Provincial public houses blaze

And Corporation tramcars clang,

On lighted tenements I gaze

Where paper decorations hang,

And bunting in the red Town Hall

Says “Merry Christmas to you all.”

And London shops on Christmas Eve

Are strung with silver bells and flowers

As hurrying clerks the City leave

To pigeon-haunted classic towers,

And marbled clouds go scudding by

The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,

And oafish louts remember Mum,

And sleepless children’s hearts are glad,

And Christmas morning bells say “Come!”

Even to shining ones who dwell

Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true? And is it true?

This most tremendous tale of all,

Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,

A Baby in an ox’s stall?

The Maker of the stars and sea

Become a Child on earth for me?

And is it true? For if it is,

No loving fingers tying strings

Around those tissued fripperies,

The sweet and silly Christmas things,

Bath salts and inexpensive scent

And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,

No carolling in frosty air,

Nor all the steeple-shaking bells

Can with this single Truth compare -

That God was Man in Palestine

And lives to-day in Bread and Wine.

John Betjeman

So very unimpressed. So very, very unimpressed.

Guess what I found out today?
And I quote...
"As one of the very last acts of the Howard Government, Brendan Nelson bought $14 million worth of cluster bombs ..."
My response being "He did WHAT?"
How have I not heard about this before? It must have been more that 6 months ago. Where was the outcry? Where was the media ruckus?
Where was the opposition? The debates?
And why has no one denounced it and said "never mind the expense, we will get rid of these right now." and then done so?
And sorry to sound a little clueless if there is an obvious answer to this, but why exactly does Australia need cluster munitions? Are we keeping them for just in case?
I heard about it because there is a petition from the group Get Up, which is doing the rounds. It is to put pressure on our current government to be stronger supporters of the total ban of cluster munitions. An international agreement on this is currently being debated and apparently Australia is not behaving as many of us would expect.
I will paste the email below.
But I was surprised at it's content. And I'm a student of international politics. Perhaps I ought to study harder. But perhaps also, there are lots of things being swept under the carpet.
Bec

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear friends,
As one of the very last acts of the Howard Government, Brendan Nelson bought $14 million worth of cluster bombs - weapons that contain mini-bombs, some of which remain unexploded on the ground for years awaiting innocent civilians. It's the first time Australia has bought such a weapon, and one we would hope the new Government would categorically reject.
But right now, as the international community meets in Dublin to ban them, the new Australian Government is going out of its way to frustrate the process. They're calling for their 'SMART 155' bomb to be excluded, and for rogue nations who persist in using cluster bombs to be permitted to do so. We've got just a few scarce days left before the fragile international agreement is drafted. Sign the petition today telling Kevin Rudd to ban the bomb: no loopholes, no exceptions.
www.getup.org.au/campaign/BanTheBombs
Thousands of civilians have lost their lives and limbs, mainly children from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon. So much so that the international symbol of the campaign is a limb. Just last week the Pope took the unusual step of calling on the international community to outlaw the deadly weapons.
But our government has refused to accept that a total ban on cluster munitions has to prohibit countries from assisting other nations who use cluster bombs. They are also arguing that the Smart 155 is not a cluster munition, despite having no independent tests on its safety and refusing to provide any evidence to back up that claim.
The UK Prime Minister yesterday reversed his decision to exempt his own weapons, leaving Australia increasingly isolated. We should be encouraging positive international agreements to save lives, not hindering them. Tell the PM today - as this decision is being made right now - to ban the bombs:
www.getup.org.au/campaign/BanTheBombs
The Government is hoping this issue will slip under the radar without anyone noticing - but the stakes are simply too high to ignore. Despite technological advances, cluster bombs can't distinguish between combatant and civilian - we need a strong international treaty to prevent horrors like those experienced as a result of land mines, and that decision is being made right now in Dublin.
The PM has shown what a 'creative middle power' can achieve - advocacy on Tibet, ratification of Kyoto, the Apology. Remind him we're supposed to be one of the good guys.
Thanks for being part of the solution,

The GetUp team

Well, it has been a long time since I posted. And now, I do it mostly to draw your attention to a particular article on the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7297139.stm

Now, you don't have to agree with all of it. Or any of it. Nor do you have to disagree with all or any of it. However, I would recommend reading it, thinking about it, picking an argument with some part of it (always a good tool for deciding your view) and, in short, finding yourself a viewpoint, a sophisticated, multifaceted (it will have to be because that is what the world is like. But don't worry. You really are up to it!) opinion about this issue.
Does this sound like homework?
It needn't be. Everyone loves to talk about themselves. So once you're done formulating, go and find someone to bail up! Air those newly found and clearly incontrovertible ideals! It'll be fun!
It'll all be fun!
Go on!
And have a lovely day.
Bec

It's a spade. That's all it is.

I would like to make a note of two things:
1)The Burmese government is oppressing its own people more than usual this week. The have been oppressing them for a long time but now it has come to the world's attention via the internet because they have shot monks and a foreign journalist. This puts them in a large and comfortable club of dictatorships with little regard for human life, freedom, or indeed, very much, apart from political and ideological survival and individual gain.
2) This may seem reasonably important, but it isn't. If you pay any attention to the news, you will see that of far greater importance is equine flu and football. Football, in fact, will be the most important issue this weekend.

The footballers, it seems, can run faster than Burmese monks.

This sort of narrow focus looks like delusional self interest and is, in consequence, an embarrassment, to say the very least.

Amazing Grace

Hello All.
I saw the film Amazing Grace yesterday. I was it with my grandmother, my mother and my sister. Three generations of socially active, politically aware christians.
I have never been ashamed of Christ. But I have been ashamed of the church in the past (and present.) This film reminded me that the church and christians have plugged away at issues because as christians they had to. And they have won. And I needn't give up.
I suggest everyone sees it, whether or not they are christians. It doesn't bring you out on a high like a lot of very hyped movies. But there is a difference between red frogs and corned beef with potatoes. Only one of them will allow you to work until the end of the day.
It's a good film.
And then, once you've watched the film, have a look at http://www.notforsalecampaign.org
And f course, the song itself is wonderful. Sing it through slowly and quietly to yourself some time when you are alone. You'll see what I mean.
And that will be all.
Oh, wait. If anyone would like to be involved or sponser me, I am running the 40 hour famine at my church with one of my friends. Talk to me about that.
Bec

Pome

I found this poem today. I liked it.

Leftright

In the year 1870

the Grand Duchy of Lichtenstein

sent eighty men

(leftright leftright

in their long overcoats)

and one cannon

to the Franco-Prussian war

and when the war was over

welcomed home again

(leftright leftright)

eighty-one men

and one cannon

no-one has ever

accounted for this

Evangeline Paterson

Oh dear!

Aristotle says:

"... political science is not a proper study for the young. The young man (I guess I, though not Aristotle, could include woman here, ed.) is not versed in the practical business of life from which politics draws its premises and its data. He is, besides, swayed by his feelings, with the result that he will make no headway and derive no benefit from a study the end of which is not knowing but doing."

I wonder what he'd think of the values espoused in today's great work of citizenship/ duty literature.

I refer, of course, to The Princess Diaries .

I see that a great number of my friends are at present posting "it's exam time and I'm procrastinating" blogs, whereas I have other means of procrastination and so haven't blogged for a very long time.
Well, this blog is supposed to be for the discussion of world issues etc. (can a blog be a highbrow art form? I think so.)
So here are some issues to chew over while I get back to my study:
*Darfur - the problems remain and are even spreading because of porous borders with Chad etc.
http://www.savedarfur.org/content?splash=yes
*Flooding in some parts of NSW while many other parts remain in deep drought. Farmers are continuing to commit suicide because they cannot provide for their families and are losing their stock and properties.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/s1946546.htm
* The planet is continuing to heat up.
* There is yet more fighting in Mogadishu (capital of Somalia)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6655261.stm
*There is plenty of fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo
http://www.pulitzercenter.org/showproject.cfm?id=17&gclid=COuT3IDa04wCFQJIYQodSStTsg
*Iraq continues to be a horrific mess.
*Much of Afghanistan continues likewise. (I don't think I need to put any links on these - everyone knows.)
*Russia and the US are having yet another face off over missiles (and much as I enjoy studying the cold war, I'd really prefer not to live in one, especially considering how desperate we'll all be for Russia's fuel pretty soon.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2099454,00.html
*Child (and adult) slavery continues to be rife, as does poverty, disease, illiteracy, hatred, violence, drug and other abuse and all the other detritus which forms our fallen world.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
AND...
*Most people in this area are not particularly bothered about this beyond "tsk tsk, how dreadful . . . have another biscuit?"

Well, in an astonishing act of hypocrisy, I will now leave all those problems to my small but dynamic readership and return to my study of declensions and conjugations. I just thought I'd put them out there. Feel free to investigate them for yourselves, of course!

PS: Please don't get me wrong. I am not sunk into a deep slump of blackness over these issues, not do I suggest that we all should be. Very rarely is a deep slump of blackness the place from which change can be perpetrated. I just think they should enter our consciousness, so that we can build our reactions and decisions around an honest and thoughtful awareness of the world we live in and the people we share it with. Good evening!

I did it!!!

Just a quick note to say I voted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, how highly surprising.
And then I watched the election coverage, where they tried to act like it wasn't a foregone conclusion. An exciting first election, eh?
Aaaand now, I finish posting. When there's something else to say, worth saying, I'll say it. Can't allow myself to be just a self obsessed blogger rambling about #1 ... not all the time, anyway!

My democratic perogative (isn't to spell poorly...)

So, State Election on Saturday.

Who's excited???????

Well, to be honest, not many people. Maybe Pete Adcock, because he's in the Young , er, Liberals.

But it's not much to jump around about, is it?

State politics is a thankless task. Get it right and everyone uses your precision hospitals, schools and buses without a word of thanks. Get it wrong and Quentin Dempster makes you feel a bit silly on Stateline. So hardly high praise or infamous glory.

Mind you, this time water is on the agenda and that's important. As are transport (including student cards, yes yes!) and health and education. They aren't moviestars like international peace or global warming (and I suppose exchange and interest rates matter to a lot of people too) but they make quite a difference to my life.

So, to wrap up this blather,

That's right, my own little poster. Because even voting in local council elections, which few of us seem to understand or care about anyway, we are exercising right which people fought for, died for and to this day, die without.

Goodness gracious, if I hear another girl say she's not interested in voting or is going to donkey vote (and who's the donkey then?) I'll throw her under the king's horse! For those who don't know their early 20th century history, type "suffragette" into a search engine. Or look in one of those book thingies.

So don't be bored with voting!

The current Premier certainly isn't!

. . . or maybe he's just about to sneeze

Got a sniffle and a cough and so much else!

Just a quick note to say this.
I have some nice viral thingy at the moment. Temperature and migraine and cough. And I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO lucky!
I am a uni student. I have stayed home the last 2 days and rested.
My parents looked after me when I was sick and miserable in the middle of the night. And I have a soft bed and comfy pyjamas and enough clean water to drink and have a shower. If it's serious I can go to the doctor.
This is an extraordinarily good situation, for this messed up world.
Do you know what I mean?
Anyway, I give thanks to God that I am so well looked after, even with such a minor ailment!
Bec

A first Post (with Plato!!!!)

I have intended this blog to be high minded in the extreme. To cover climate change and human rights and love and peace. To make a place where discussion can be wide ranging and clearly pragmatic.
But what actually gets my blood up enough to brave a volatile internet connection and write?
A local issue.
Here it is... (and anyone surfing who reads this, don't be put off if you aren't a NSW resident. I won't always be this parochial. I'm not a huge fan of blogs with a 2km radius of ideology.)
I went to get my tertiary student concession a few days ago. Grabbed a form and saw that I had to sign that I am not engaged in employment. What ho? Does this mean I can't employ people? Hardly a problem there. But I needed clarification.
I went to the student enquiries person to ask my question. I was serious in asking it.
But alas, I was met with a smirk. And quoth she:
" It's up to you, but I don't want to know about it."
Now that is NOT an answer to the question.
So I emailed the state transport ministry. No answer yet. But I rang them this morning and it turns out that although I am a full time student, because I work (less than 10 yours a week, generally), I am not entitled to concession.
Now, compared to the issues outlined above, this is minor. I freely admit. But here is why it matters and why Plato is in the heading.
1)Students pay tax. They pay GST. They pay HECS. They don't have much money (compared to other members of our extremely affluent society.) And so, there are student concessions. Great. But also, this means that they nearly ALL have jobs. So, is the State government out of touch or is it just tight fisted?
2) Plato:
".. what we have in mind is education from childhood in virtue, a training which produces a keen desire to become a perfect citizen who knows how to rule and be ruled, as justice demands. I suppose we should want to mark off this sort of training from others and reserve to title "education" for it alone."
So what is this student services lady at Macquarie Uni (name and shame) doing? Rather than facing the issue that she obviously thinks the rules are unfair? She's teaching students that when things aren't fair, just diddle the government.
Now, I don't know about you, but I think it stinks when the government lies to me. In consequence, to retain my moral high ground, I can hardly lie to the government. But nor can I afford the train and bus tickets coming my way.
The only answer is to take on the NSW government and win. Any suggestions would be very welcome. And help.
Petitions. Letters to MPs. (Mine is in opposition at present so I have a feeling he'd pass the buck, but I'll try anyway.
Because it isn't going to cost the government much more. But in moral terms it will cost students much less. And I have a feeling that students are sufficiently pliable that we can still teach decency (without words or lectures being necessary) even at a tertiary level.
And that's the first posting.
Hang in there!
Bec