It seems with each passing year since 2007 things have happened that have made me less optimistic and more cynical about the world. In an attempt to find the good in it, I’ve attributed this slide in my opinion of humanity to simply growing up and becoming more realistic. Well, another thing has happened -__-.
I did the Australian Political Party quiz and got… the Australian Greens. I never would have guessed!
I do protest the last line in the description of the party though; yes short term profits will be affected, but to be blunt if we don’t take action now, business won’t matter. We also have to stop valuing a society just on how much money it makes. Money is critically important, but how useful or valuable is it if generating it results in irreversible damage? I’m a huge fan of sustainable economics not just because in the long term it’s the only model that will actually work (refer to the current financial crisis to see this) but because it takes into account social issues and the environment.
I’m not [entirely] a socialist because I think capitalism is still more efficient than governments in determining what gets produced and at what price because purely socialist systems don’t have the market price mechanism to gauge demand in real time. That said, completely unfettered capitalism is efficient only for those in positions of economic and business power, and without [effective!] government oversight and checks, businesses will only serve their own interests and will price goods out of the range of some who need it (think healthcare, food, education). And that none of this matters if we wreck the planet.
Perhaps I should just stick to talking about green economics! Standing down from my soapbox now.
Monday, 30 March 2009
Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has called on the Australian Government to reveal the extent to which the alleged Chinese cyber-spy network has infiltrated Australia.
Overseas reports are that China has hacked into Tibet-related networks in 103 countries.
"It is extremely unlikely that China has not spied on the Tibetan representatives in Australia and New Zealand and the government should reveal what measures it will take to counter this type of espionage in Australia," Senator Brown said.
Senator Brown has written to the Attorney-General asking for reassurances on the security of the internet in Australia from Chinese government hackers.
"With the Dalai Lama due to visit Australia again later this year, it is important to know that we are not infiltrated by the so-called GhostNet network," Senator Brown said.
Senator Brown said that there are more than 20,000 internet police inside China.
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The ridiculous fun with a label printer episode!
ACT ONE: Roel247′s comments on electronic voting, compulsory voting in Australia, Senator Bob Brown of the Greens meeting the Dalai Lama.
ACT TWO: My label printing obsession! The Brother PT-80, labeling CDs, boxes, magazine holders and everything in my father’s home office, there’s no need to write anything anymore!
ACT THREE: The growing complexity of CMSs and why I’m moving over to home brew again using Ruby and SQlite, WordPress 2.5, loudly dropping aerosol cans, Elke’s gigantic honey sandwich.
ACT FOUR: Converting metric to imperial in Google, Russian mail order brides, Ruben’s idea for a standardised New World Order (patent pending), seeding torrent files, too many tabs in web browsers!
ACT FIVE: Why South Park is actually a great show to watch, being able to laugh at yourself, not taking life too seriously!
Download MP3 to listen ↓ 48:01, 22.0MiB
You can also stream this episode and view its Internet Archive page.
Clicking the link from Joel Housman’s Twitter feed, I arrived at one of the greatest weblog posts of all time, entitled I’m Sorry:
Barack Obama of course is one of the lead candidates for the Democratic party in the United States along with Hillary Clinton, the primary opposition to the Republican party of whom George W. Bush is currently serving with. If I had any say in American politics I’d be voting for Obama all the way :-).
The post reminds me of a photo of my favourite Aussie politician Bob Brown of The Australian Greens seen here having his awesomeness adjusted! Bob Brown for Prime Minister!!
Two awesome people in one post? What awesomeness!
I just came back from the Australian High Commission on Napier Rd here in Singapore after casting my vote in the 2007 Australian federal elections!
If you don’t know much about Australian politics, John Howard of the Liberal party (liberal doesn’t mean the same thing here as it does in the United States, the Liberal party is “conservative”) has been in power for over a decade now and basically acted like George W. Bush’s other sidekick on most things such as the Iraq war, rejecting the Kyoto protocol, backwards views on immigration and native Australians, not to mention various scandals… and the fact he has no charisma at all which is very embarrassing when he goes overseas!
The other major party is the Labor party which shares many things in common with Labour in the UK. The leader Kevin Rudd seems to have his head screwed on a lot better than Howard especially when it comes to education and technology, so I voted for Labor #2.
But as usual I voted for The Greens as number 1, headed by Senator Bob Brown. Ever since the Democrats have faded from relevancy The Greens have been a vocal minority. Some of their stances on issues are obviously quite controversial, but I find myself agreeing with everything they do. It’s like voting without your conscience getting pissed off at you for voting for the lesser of two evils when you vote Coalition or Labor.
And there ends my coverage of the Australian 2007 federal elections. All contained in one post, not bad right?
Hi! I'm Ruben Schade and this is my labour of love blog from beautiful Singapore and Sydney.
I also lurk on Twitter, Flickr, Google Reader and lots more places.
