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NEWS AND VIEWS
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Foreign Political NewsGermans have acted, will Australia?Monday, 19 May 2008 - The crisis in the Rhine Valley of the bees being killed by agricultural chemicals has seen the Federal German Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) ban a wide range of insecticides including at least one being sold in Australia by Bayer. more A Governor General's ClothesThursday, 17 April 2008 - "I wonder how long it will take for people to start bagging Quentin Bryce's appearance," wrote Catherine Deveny in the Melbourne Age this week . In a witty and entertaining piece with a serious point to it, Ms Deveny said society was very confused about what women should be. "A 1950s housewife, a corporate supermum, a neat size eight two weeks after giving birth, a wordless beauty, a devoted mother working part-time or a feisty ball-breaker in suspenders and stilettos."
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel would understand that comment. She has been featuring in the world's press for wearing a low-cut dress to the opening of the Oslo Opera House. more Denmark 's schäferhund loverWednesday, 9 April 2008 -While Clover Moore is clearly a dog lover she has not yet gone to the lengths of kissing one of her four legged friends in public as Denmark 's Minister of Justice Lene Espersen did recently.
A Little DDT with the Christmas Prawn CocktailTuesday, December 18, 2007 - In Canada this month a Chinese sea food company was in strife after a cancer-causing antibiotic was detected in a shipment of frozen shrimp. That in itself was not such a great surprise because there have been many questions recently in many parts of the world about the quality of Chinese products. What made the case of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products Corp different was that it alone among Chinese seafood exporters was exempted from automatic U.S. Food and Drug Administration safety inspections. more Let Anarchy Rule the RoadsFriday, September 14, 2007 - In the Dutch town of Drachten , population 45,000, they have scrapped more than half their traffic signs and only two out of an original 18 traffic light crossings are left with the rest converted to roundabouts. Cars travel over red natural stone and drivers communicate by hand signs, nods and waving. Cyclists dutifully raise their arm when they want to make a turn. According to traffic planner Koop Kerkstra, traffic is regulated by only two rules in Drachten: "Yield to the right" and "Get in someone's way and you'll be towed." more None so Deaf .Monday, 27 August 2007 - I did not really want to hear what Paul Keating was saying during a television interview last week about how he experienced the seemingly irrational views of Japanese and Chinese leaders when he was chatting informally with them as our Prime Minister. The distrust between the two nations that Mr Keating detected from his talks just seemed too incredible to take seriously. Surely Paul was taking an egg-beater to some meaningless asides that were well short of meriting the concern he was showing about future conflict in north Asia. more A Tale of Two OppositionsWednesday, 22 August 2007 - In Australia the Labor Party Opposition is against the deal Prime Minister John Howard has done with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh to allow sales of Australian uranium to India . Yellow cake exports to a country that is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, Labor Leader Kevin Rudd argues, help foster the spread of nuclear weapons. Even if controls are agreed on which limit the use of the Australian uranium to power stations, local supplies will then be available to fuel the Indian bomb making program. more Mutual assistance and a different interpretationTuesday, 31 July 2007 - Haradanahalli Deve Gowda Kumaraswamy, the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Karnataka, is no political novice and no stranger to the difficulties of dealing with potential Muslim trouble makers. His father, H. D. Deve Gowda, was for a time Prime Minister of India as well as Chief Minister of Karnataka where, like his son, he governed from Bangalore a population of 50 million people including some 12% of Muslims. more The Name we Dare Not MentionTuesday, 24 July 2007 - Two major United Nations organizations this week took the unusual step of issuing a warning about proven prove weaknesses in food safety systems around the world. more A Jolly Chinese Aid PartyThursday, 12 April 2007 - In Beijing at the end of last month a group of Australian government officials got together with some counterparts from the Chinese Department of Commerce for a celebration to mark 25 years of co-operation.
Annmaree O'Keeffe, AusAID's deputy director general and Yu Jianhua, director of the Ministry's Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs toasted the $1 billion given in foreign aid to China since the first Aussie dollar was spent in 1981. more Sending a Chinese Back HomeWednesday, 28 March 2007 - In March last year, according to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the United States State Department, the United Nations Special Rapporteur Nowak reported that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of victims of alleged torture while in Chinese government custody. ... In Australia this week, as a Falun Gong adherent in the country illegally was prepared for deportation, a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald saying: "We do not return anyone where it will be a breach of our international obligations." more Not Refugees – Just People Seeking RefugeTuesday, 6th February 2007 - Further to the short piece yesterday, the next time a boat load of Papuans arrives off the north Australian coast, Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews will have a perfect answer for denying them access. He will just have to apply the definition given this week by an Indonesian official commenting about some 2000 people who have left their homes near the Yamo river and are now facing starvation. According to Yamo district head Philipus Tabuni, as reported in the Jakarta Post those fleeing were not classified as refugees, but only as people seeking refuge! A Reminder of Papuan TroublesMonday, 5th February 2007 - One change there has been in Indonesia - the press is now more open and frank about discussing the country's problems with a recent revelation in the Jakarta Post suggesting that Australia has not heard the last about the refugee problem in West Papua . According to the Post, thousands of people fleeing a crackdown on Papuan separatists are now facing food shortages following police attacks on Free Papua Movement (FPM) rebels in the in theYamo district of the Puncak Jaya regency. more The Indonesian-Australian RelationshipTuesday, 4 July, 2006 - A speech by the Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr Ali Alitas more Advertisements on a Public BroadcasterMonday, 26 June, 2006 - As the pressure continues in Australia for the public broadcasters to turn increasingly to commercial revenue raising, a Canadian Parliamentary committee has recommended that the government owned CBC stop taking advertisements. more Sensitive and Hyper Sensitive Booths in Kerala ElectionTuesday, 2nd May, 2006 - They obviously hold their political views passionately in Kerala - in the two northern districts of Kannur and Kasaragod tomorrow 10,000 police will be on duty to supervise at "sensitive" and "hyper sensitive" polling booths. more Bombing Iran? Call it a 27% ChanceMonday, 10th April, 2006 - A story by the journalist Seymour M. Hersh published in the current issue of The New Yorker, asserts that the Pentagon presented the White House with an option of attacking Iran's underground nuclear facilities and says that it has not ruled out using tactical nuclear weapons. Well if you believe that Mr Hersh has his facts right and that President George Bush will bomb Iran in the next year, hop on to the internet and get set at Intrade.com. more An Afghanistan EmbarrassmentSaturday, 25th March, 2006 - Australian troops are fighting in Afghanistan to help a government that is preparing to execute an Afghan citizen who returned home after converting from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago while working for a Christian aid organization in Peshawar, Pakistan. more Reluctance to Accept the Vote in ThailandFriday, 24th March, 2006 - Politics in Thailand is making an interesting study for the world's democrats. There we have a Prime Minister under attack for personal impropriety who does the decent thing and prepares to let the people decide. The last thing that his opponents want, however, is an election they know they will lose. So they decides to boycott the election called for 1 April and keep protesting in the streets to have Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra replaced. more Romano Prodi Leads in Polls and BettingMonday, 13th March, 2006 - The six most recent opinion polls published in Italy since Feb. 21 show prime minister Silvio Berlusconi trailing his opponent, the former Prime Minister Romano Prodi, by 3.5 to 4.9 percentage points. The market at British betting exchange Betfair assesses the chances as Berlusconi 28% to Prodi's 69% (with the balance being any other candidate). Rather clear evidence that Berlusconi is on the way out. No so, according to the press. Journalists are reluctant to write the incumbent off. more Thai Election CalledSaturday, 25th February, 2006 - Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, elected for a second time just over a year ago, has moved to head off protests against his government by calling a fresh election for 2 April. more Coal's Big Future for Hundreds of YearsFriday, 24th February, 2006 - A big future for coal is being predicted by UK energy Minister Malcolm Wicks who is working on an energy review scheduled to be completed this summer. Mr Wicks has the job of meeting the twin targets of cutting Britain 's dependence on imported power sources - particularly Russian gas - and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In an interview this week with The Scotsman he said coal, and particularly coal mined in Britain, will play a key role in the country's future energy mix. more
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| © Richard Farmer 2008 |
Celebrating in Beijing