by cameron | Feb 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
Following on from my video this morning about “A War On Democracy”, here’s a good quote from a recent article by Robin Hahnel (a Professor of Economics at American University):
Only Americans who search out the alternative media discover that Hugo Chavez was elected President by a comfortable margin in 1998, survived an opposition-sponsored recall in 2004, and most recently was re-elected in December 2006 with more than 60% of the vote. International observers certified all three elections as fair and square. George Bush, on the other hand, was selected President by a partisan Supreme Court after losing the popular vote in 2000, and won re-election only because enough black voters in Ohio were disenfranchised by a partisan Republican official to keep the Buckeye State in the Republican column in 2004. Few observers believe Bush could survive a recall election today, but of course this basic element of democratic rule is not permitted by the US Constitution. Nonetheless, the only storyline ninety-nine percent of Americans hear remains: Hugo Chavez is a dictator and George Bush is the democratically elected leader of the free world.
by cameron | Feb 5, 2008 | Uncategorized
eMarketer have some new data on podcasting in the US. Good to know we haven’t gone out of business yet. I thought everyone said podcasting was dead?
by cameron | Feb 4, 2008 | Uncategorized
I was just watching John Johnston’s response to my Seesmic video today and it struck me that JJ could actually be Pistachio Disguisey! Am I crazy?
by cameron | Feb 4, 2008 | Podcast, Uncategorized
Over dinner last night, I heard about a scam being run by an Australian bank, where they tell business customers to pay $20 to speed up the processing of cheques they bank. An honest teller finally told this friend of mine, who had being paying the $20 once a week for years, that it was rubbish. The cheques don’t get processed any quicker than they normally do.
This made me recall the number of times I’ve had arguments with tellers when they tell me that it takes 20 days to process a cheque drawn on an international bank. I’ve even banked cheques from GOOGLE and they tell me it takes 20 business days to “clear the funds”. What bullshit. I always ask them if they’ve heard of the internet.
So, I’m researching a podcast on bank scams. Not the Nigerian kind – the Australian kind. If you’ve got a story about unfair, excessive or unlawful penalty fees charged by Australian banks and other financial institutions, or just scams like the international cheque clearing, then shoot me an email. And check out the campaign being run by Choice and the Consumer Action Law Centre on the same subject.
by cameron | Feb 4, 2008 | capitalism, Iraq, Uncategorized
The world’s largest arms dealer, the USA, which is also the country with the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons (it maintains a current arsenal of around 9,960 intact warheads… how many DO you need to destroy the world?), will spend more that $1 trillion on “defence” for the first time in history in 2008, according to this article in Le Monde. I put inverted commas around “defence” because their current strategy of non-UNSC sanctioned pre-emptive attacks can hardly be called “defence”. It’s a typical PR sleight-of-hand. Let’s call it what it is. It’s an “ATTACK” budget.
As part of this $1 trillion, the US will spend $23.4bn towards developing and maintaining nuclear warheads.
The older I get, the more I read, and the more unconvinced I am becoming that democracy and capitalism contain the model for the future for the human race. If the USA is the beacon of modern democracy, then I believe we need a new system, a better system.
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It is virtually impossible to overstate the profligacy of what our government spends on the military. The Department of Defense’s planned expenditures for the fiscal year 2008 are larger than all other nations’ military budgets combined. The supplementary budget to pay for the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not part of the official defence budget, is itself larger than the combined military budgets of Russia and China. Defence-related spending for fiscal 2008 will exceed $1 trillion for the first time in history. The US has become the largest single seller of arms and munitions to other nations on Earth. Leaving out President Bush’s two on-going wars, defence spending has doubled since the mid-1990s. The defence budget for fiscal 2008 is the largest since the second world war.
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by cameron | Feb 3, 2008 | Melbourne, Uncategorized
Two great events on in Melbourne this week.
MODM 9 is on Thursday night and
The Hive, a new event for entrepreneurs run by Ross Hill, is having their first event on Tuesday night! I’m looking forward to both. I’m working on a plan to take MODM national this year and I’m very excited about it. It’ll be great to travel around the country every month talking to digital media folks about how we use our skillz to change the world.
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James Masini will be talking about how he started Hippo, raised significant investment and plans to take over the casual job market… be there!
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The Hive is networking for entrepreneurs. We get together to share advice, talk and hang out. Membership is free and easy, and everyone’s invited. If you have an idea and want to launch a venture or already have a venture already then make sure you come along.
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