The Profits Of Slavery And The Recompense Owed
Imagine that your parent’s or grandparent’s house was invaded by bad men and their wealth and property was stolen. In addition, they were forced to work for these marauders, as were their children, without pay. Some time later on, you find yourself walking down the street and come across that house. It has been done up with lots of improvements and manicured gardens. Ask yourself how you would feel about the situation and the owners of the property now. These are the circumstances many Black people find themselves in. The progeny of gross injustices committed not so long ago in the bigger scheme of things. The profits of slavery and the recompense owed is something we need to talk about.Continue Reading
White Trash And The Voice In Australia
Americans are famous for their depiction of white trash in debates about class and racism. Australia was, however, also the new world home for what was considered as the human rubbish of the old country. Places like America and Australia were deemed as destinations for economic refugees and convicts from Britain by those in the upper echelons of power and influence of that colonising empire. White trash and the Voice in Australia are something old and new coming into agonistic contact in 2023. The friction between lower class white Australia and Indigenous Australians is, however, nothing new.Continue Reading
Robodebt Disgrace: The Legacy Of The Coalition
It has cost us, the Australian tax payers, $1.8 billion so far. Robodebt disgrace: The legacy of the Coalition government. The Royal Commission into the Robodebt scheme is being handed down today. The findings are being made public post haste. Peter Dutton, the leader of the Opposition, is calling this a political decision. The debacle and disgrace of this Coalition government scheme is like an albatross to hang around the necks of all those involved in its instigation and execution. It was illegal and they all knew that it was both illegal and wrong. It cost innocent and vulnerable people their lives.Continue Reading
The World Wide Web Is Predominantly Populated By Non-Humans
It is time for all of us to wake up to the imminent dangers we currently face via the digital world. Did you know that more than 60% of what goes on via the internet is non-human? Yes, much of the conversation happening online especially on social media is with bots. All you lonely people out there, you are wasting your time communicating with machines on Twitter, Facebook, and the like. A lot of the traffic to various sites and pages is by machines. All those likes and retweets are, in large parts, by bots. The world wide web is predominantly populated by non-humans. AI will only make that figure grow exponentially.Continue Reading
Do The Swans Need A Head Doctor?
Following another worrying performance in front of goals, do the Swans need a head doctor? It cannot be a complete coincidence that they were playing Geelong, the team that thrashed them in the 2022 AFL grand final. Scar tissue manifests in many ways and, perhaps, the Sydney Swans are traumatised deep inside. AFL is a physical game played at breakneck speed until that moment when the forward must compose himself to take a set shot. Suddenly, the expectations of team, crowd, and self coalesce into a pressure situation inside the player with the kicking boots on standing before the goals.Continue Reading
Conservatives vs Progressives: A Battle For Hearts & Minds
Australia and the world are in the midst of a tussle on the political and cultural stages. Conservatives vs progressives: A battle for hearts and minds. Those in the previously unassailable dominant cohort, white folk in the main, are being told that they have something to lose by their political leaders. Meanwhile, those growing minority groups and the lefty liberals want more progress on human rights and economic equality for all. The hardline right are playing culture wars by bandying about terms like ‘woke’ and ‘political correctness’ to attract more support from those on their side who have been economically left behind.Continue Reading
Pwc White Collar Crime Perpetuated On Australia
Here is another legacy from the Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison Coalition governments. Pwc white collar crime perpetuated on Australia joins Robodebt, as one of the most serious betrayals in this nation’s history. Both share the gutting of the public service as a core reason for the way they eventuated. This was initiated by Tony Abbott as PM and increased the volume of outsourcing to consultancy firms in key areas. The individuals involved in these white collar crimes put their corporate affiliations above the national interest. Money was more important than service to their country. Greed and self-interest over doing the right thing.Continue Reading
The Woman King
What a refreshing movie. The Woman King is wonderful stuff. I found myself cheering for the women and the Africans, as they won their battles against their male and European foes. History has often been depressing in its relentless exploitation of the noble savage and the female of the species. Watching a film where these folk finally get the upper hand was a welcome thrill. The depiction of the slave trade in Africa was a reminder of the horrendous role Europeans played in making their fortune in this manner. All too many of us, white, well fed Westerners put this stuff out of our thoughts, when it was really not that long ago.Continue Reading
Time To Get Murdoch Press Out Of Australia
Australians need to ask themselves whether they want an extreme right wing media organisation intent on creating division at the heart of our media landscape. Time to get Murdoch press out of Australia. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is the company behind Fox News, a blatant propaganda machine for right wing politics that was recently sued for peddling false information to its viewers. Fox settled for a billion dollars; money is the only measure of justice in America. Sky News Australia is modelled on Fox News and peddles the same vitriolic lies about centre-left politics downunder. The Australian newspaper, similarly, provides unbalanced editorial skewered to the hard right. Climate change deniers thrive inside News Corp’s programs and papers. Murdoch controls every tabloid newspaper in every state of Australia and they all toe the hard conservative line.Continue Reading
The Whale Watcher: Barfing About Blubber
Watching The Whale I was struck by several insights into the issues raised by this film. Firstly, by how un-American this movie was. Where were all the beautiful people? American celluloid and TV is, generally, characterised by a smug self-confidence with everybody sensing that they are the bee’s knees. The Whale watcher: Barfing about blubber. Holding up a mirror to a nation with a massive obesity problem is not normal fare on American screens. The clever use of intertextuality with that god awful American novel Moby Dick called attention to the theatrical roots of this production. The play/movie grappled with those age old American themes so densely inculcated within Moby Dick. God, religious belief, and questions of morality fill the pages of the great American novel. If you have ever attempted to read Moby Dick, the actual white whale is rarely sighted within its pages, rather Melville subjects readers to endless tracts on earnest searches for meaning within the Christian paradigm. It is a book that tries too hard to be morally deep and meaningful.Continue Reading