So when do I begin the blog intro/retrospective? Probably next month, it'll give me a clear month of reading before the actual 10 year anniversary hits. The look of the blog won't change, but I'll do my best to get rid of the Disqus comment system to make it easier to comment on posts and what not. But no guarantees, cause it looks like some pretty significant coding, and I don't possess the other's skill in programming.
There's a new law being introduced into Australian Parliament that allows journalists to be prosecuted for reporting on leaked government/spy documents. What an absolute load of crap! This is not democracy! This is pretty much a dictatorial fascist regime! This is not free speech. Some idiots commented on the articles saying that the laws are justified because in WW2, what if the press had reported on allied plans to assassinate Hitler, or to invade Europe? Well it's not the same at all, that was somewhat pragmatic and not a national security issue. Governments back then were not actively subverting their constitutions to spy on their own people or violate rights. What's going on now is totalitarian and absolutely wrong. Journalists have every right to report on this kind of subversion and all the war crimes that are occurring right now. They need to be exposed. The public deserve to know. Unlike our Attorney-General, George Brandis (aka inhuman monster who loves to protect racists and government spying thugs), who believes that people's rights are not inalienable. Nobody should be supporting this law, and we need to let our politicians know.
That brings me to another point. There's a petroleum deposit North West of Australia near East Timor. The day after East Timor gained Independence, we signed a treaty to allow geographical water boundaries to be re-drawn, so that Australia could lay claim to that petroleum, despite it being far out of reach of our jurisdiction. This is incredibly troubling, and goes to our role in South East Asia and the South Pacific islands. It's no secret we contribute a lot of aid to our less well off neighbours, but in return there is a lot of political spying and cultural imperialism that comes with it. We have maintained friendly governments, helped put down foreign rebellions (that actually were looking after the best interests of the people), so that we can maintain a stranglehold on the poorer nations nearby, so we can claim their resources, keep them unstable, and stop them migrating to our country to seek a fairer, better life. The genesis of our spy agencies lies in East Timorese indepdence, where we were essentially playing all sides - Indonesia and East Timor. Australia cannot stand up to direct confrontation with Indonesia, so was obviously working covertly to ensure independence, but also wanted to ensure that we had access to this petroleum deposit. Australians died during that campaign - journalists, we knew about it and still kept quiet (I'm referring to the Balibo Five and Roger East). But all was covered up to help smooth relations with Indonesia, and to placate the East Timorese. There's no justice is there?
There needs to be some sort of release, doesn't there? Addiction is a tough thing to beat. But I'm reading, and days are just passing. One at a time. There will be a time. I can make it so. And the panic attacks are back. Great.
Joaquin out.
