by cameron | Aug 12, 2008 | Uncategorized
A few weeks ago I had director Matt Norman on the show. We talked about political protests at the Olympics (with reference to his Uncle Peter Norman’s protest at the 1968 Olympics). There was some debate afterward in the comments section about whether or not the Australian Government has gagged our athletes. It turns out they don’t have to – the IOC has done the dirty work for them.
Jason Slater told us how it works:
# Jason Slater Says:
Just so you are all aware, Matt Norman made a great point in an interview i’ve just heard.. The athletes are being gagged by the AOC as they have signed what he called a section 51 which states “Athletes may speak about Political issues but if they do so will not be entitled to any financial gain through winnings from Gold, Silver or Bronze medalsâ€. They are also entitled to speak their mind but not AT the Olympics and not AT the Olympic Village. They are also NOT allowed to wear any type of free tibet t-shirt or carry any banner which has any political affiliation. The facts are very clear. To protest in China you will never be a part of the Olympic team again and your views of civil and human rights issues will not be tolerated unless you do or say something about it outside the country.
I found this site which contains the clause in question. Basically any athlete that does speak out or even wear a badge signifying a political protest can be kicked out by the IOC. What an appalling state of affairs. The Olympics brings athletes from the world together but then gags them. Pretty fucking lame for an event which is supposed to be about peace and harmony.
Somebody on Twitter called me a jerk the other day for saying the Olympics was all about money. He said “Realize we have one place in the world -right now- with everyone together.”
Oh bullshit. Ever heard of the United Nations? The whole world gets together ALL THE TIME to discuss solutions to real problems, not running around in circles and jumping up in the air. Get the hell over it people. It’s a carnival, it’s not the second coming of Jebus.
The media loves it because it’s just another chance to them to increase their advertising revenues, as if people watching the Olympics really care more about buying tampons than they do on regular days.
So the media turn up their hype-o-meters, ranting and raving about the Olympics like it’s a cure for cancer or Britney Spears turned out to be the Messiah. And you pack of salivating Pavlovian dogs run slobbering up to your TV or your paper gobbling it all up like Homer Simpson chasing a donut. It’s obscene and sickening. WAKE THE FUCK UP PEOPLE. It’s just a bunch of steroid-laden children seeing who’s got the biggest dick.
What I hate the most (not that I’m watching, but I’m recalling a distant time when I did watch 5 or 10 minutes of it) are the television commentators who call bullshit like “HE’S TAKEN THE GOLD FOR AUSTRALIA!!!”
No. Noooo, he hasn’t. He’s taken the gold for HIMSELF. HE is the one that gets the sporting goods sponsorship. HE is the one who is going to turn his sporting career into another lame television gig once he’s over the hill. HE is the one who is going to use his profile to charge $10,000 an appearance for corporate speaking fees. He’s not doing it for Australia. He’s doing it for himself.
Meanwhile…. Russia invades Georgia on the opening day of the Olympics and hopes that no-one notices.
Meanwhile…. Thailand’s ex-Prime Minister has escaped, once again, back to London instead of facing corruption charges in his own country. And the Brits let him in.
Meanwhile… the US-backed Philippines “liberate” more villages.
Meanwhile… China spends $40 Billion on hosting the Olympics and $100 million on the opening ceremony alone while 130 million Chinese live below the poverty line.
And how much press coverage of the opening ceremony did you see that even SUGGESTED it is a total waste of money? Any at all? Or were they all jerking off about it? I didn’t watch it, so I don’t know, but I can take a guess.
by cameron | Aug 11, 2008 | religion
I heard Bill Maher say he was going to make this on Larry King a while back and Russell Buckley just sent me the trailer. It looks great! I want to make shit like this!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdkyLrDpaUg&hl=en&fs=1]
I read Maher’s book “New Rules” a few years ago and I loved it! He’s brilliant.
by cameron | Aug 11, 2008 | Brisbane, Uncategorized
Over on Brisbane Norg tonight I read a post by Durx on a UK online bookstore called The Book Depository. He sez:
…a few weeks ago I came across a British website selling books, cheap and with free “world wide delivery”. I had to give them a try. So I found my way to www.bookdepository.co.uk and ordered my first title from them, How to lose friends and Alienate People, an awesome look into the life of a guy with all the opportunities and none of the motivation. I loved it. However back to the website. The books were ordered, quickly and easily. The website is very user friendly, searching and checkout also easily navigated and quick. Postage was SO quick, well packed and of course as mentioned free.
So I checked out the site and did a quick comparison, using my friend J. David Markham’s new book “The Road to St Helena: Napoleon After Waterloo” as a test subject. I compared Book Depository with Amazon UK.
It turns out I didn’t need to, as Book Depository automatically show you on their site what you would pay on Amazon! Nice work!
Book Depository Price: £12.86
Amazon Price: £13.99 (+ normal shipping: £2.75) Total: £16.74
So you’re saving at least $8.50 AUD, probably more, as that shipping amount is for the UK and not Australia.
This “free delivery” business reminds me of all of the dotcoms in the late 90s who tried it.
So who are these crazy kids? It looks like a couple of their management team are actually ex-Amazon UK and they’ve been around since 2004, which is longer than most of the 90’s dotbombs survived.
I’ve just tested it out by ordering a copy of “In Praise of Slow” by Carl Honore, something I’ve been meaning to read for ages.
by cameron | Aug 10, 2008 | activism, Podcast
Today my guests is Donnie Maclurcan, Executive Director of Project Australia, a national organisation helping people launch ideas that seek to create positive social change within communities.
Donnie tells me how the idea came together, how it all works, and what they are trying to do. He’s a terrific example of someone who has taken the bit between his teeth and is putting action behind the dream of a better country.
If you’re wondering about the new intro music, it’s Dies Irae from Mozart’s REQUIEM, a favourite of mine. The lyrics actually come from an old Catholic hymn which starts off:
Dies iræ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla!
Day of wrath! O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophets’ warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning!
I love the piece of music (one of my dreams has always been to put together an annual live performance of it) and the lyrics are kind of fitting, don’t you think?
A list of all G’Day World episodes here!
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by cameron | Aug 8, 2008 | US politics
John Pilger has written a terrific article to commemorate the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (6 August, 1945).
I was talking about Hiroshima with American friends while in France. They gave me the usual answer “it was horrible but it stopped the war and saved lives”. These friends are Democrats – anti-war, anti-American Imperialism. And yet they still believe that old line about it saving lives. I asked them why America couldn’t have just shown the Japanese video footage of the bombs being dropped in the desert and used it as a threat. They replied that the Japanese were too arrogant and wouldn’t have stopped their war for anything. This is what even the good Americans want to believe. They have bought the propaganda.
To this, Pilger writes:
The most enduring lie is that the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war in the Pacific and save lives. “Even without the atomic bombing attacks,” concluded the United States Strategic Bombing Survey of 1946, “air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion. Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s opinion that … Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”
The National Archives in Washington contain US government documents that chart Japanese peace overtures as early as 1943. None was pursued. A cable sent on May 5, 1945 by the German ambassador in Tokyo and intercepted by the US dispels any doubt that the Japanese were desperate to sue for peace, including “capitulation even if the terms were hard”. Instead, the US secretary of war, Henry Stimson, told President Truman he was “fearful” that the US air force would have Japan so “bombed out” that the new weapon would not be able “to show its strength”. He later admitted that “no effort was made, and none was seriously considered, to achieve surrender merely in order not to have to use the bomb”. His foreign policy colleagues were eager “to browbeat the Russians with the bomb held rather ostentatiously on our hip”. General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project that made the bomb, testified: “There was never any illusion on my part that Russia was our enemy, and that the project was conducted on that basis.” The day after Hiroshima was obliterated, President Truman voiced his satisfaction with the “overwhelming success” of “the experiment”.
by cameron | Aug 8, 2008 | activism, Australian media, Australian politics
I did a show yesterday on China’s censorship and human rights record. A few people have told me that in Australia, we can say what we like and do what we like. Really?
Why is KRUDD spending $60 million on Internet censorship?
Why did a Gold Coast teenager get arrested and charged for wearing a “blasphemous†t-shirt?
Why was Haneef held without charge for 12 days?
Why was Dr Phillip Nitschke’s book on assisted suicide banned?
Why were two Islamic books banned?
China has censorship. Australia has censorship. Ours may be less strict and more sophisticated, but if you want to argue against the principle of censorship, let’s fight it at home first. I’ll be there with you. Let’s just avoid the mass hysteria and hypocrisy of criticizing easy targets when we have similar laws at home. That’s just the way the mass media and governments deflect attention from what is happening in our own backyards.
Australia has laws about what and can’t be said. So does China. And China isn’t going to change until the people of China was it to and do something about it en masse.
If Australia REALLY wants to protest China’s human rights record, let’s boycott the Olympics. We could also stop selling them coal but I suspect economic sanctions hurt innocent civilians more than the people in power. However let’s stop censorship at home first, then perhaps we’ll be in a position to critique other countries.
by cameron | Aug 7, 2008 | Podcast
On today’s show I’m joined by Sophie Peer, China Campaign Co-ordinator for Amnesty International, Fi Bendall from the Bendall Group, and Ben Barren, social media baron, to discuss the online campaign Amnesty have run over the last 3 weeks to raise awareness of China’s human rights record. The campaign asked Australian bloggers to unite and support their Chinese counterparts who have been banned, blocked, denied and imprisoned by the Chinese government for using the Internet to express their right to freedom of speech. The destination site for the campaign was UNCENSOR.com.au. The other site they recommend on the show is Stilgherrian’s blog.
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The G’Day World theme music:
Conquest
“Secrets of Life” (mp3)
from “End of Days”
(Dark Star Records)
More On This Album
by cameron | Aug 7, 2008 | Uncategorized
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 kilometer (17 mile) long particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, is nearly set to begin its first particle beam tests.
This is one of the most beautiful man-made objects I’ve ever seen. Bow down before the engineers who built this, people.
(title of the post obviously courtesy of xkcd)
by cameron | Aug 6, 2008 | Podcast, TPN
I’m excited today to launch the latest podcast to join the TPN family:
I had Katherine Cunningham as a guest on G’Day World back in Oct 2007 and afterwards offered her her own show on TPN. It’s taken a while (all my fault!) to get it up and running but I’m very excited about it.
Katherine sez:
The idea behind, or perhaps between, this show is to open up a conversation, a deep, juicy wet conversation about women, about men, about power, about sex, about passion.
Check out the first show or subscribe to the RSS feed or add it to iTunes.
by cameron | Aug 1, 2008 | Uncategorized
Once again this year, for the 4th year in a row, my old mate Ewan Spence is podcasting daily from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for TPN, talking to comedians, musicians, the audience, event managers, and anyone else who isn’t frightened off by Ewan’s pet crow, Crow. Don’t miss it – these shows are always terrific!
