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Politics and Culture - July 2007

In these troubled times in which we find ourselves with the threat of terrorism seemingly hanging over our head I have decided to take a slightly lighter look at the recent terrorists attacks in London in the last few days and I hope people will take it in the spirit it is intended to be written.
Could this be our Hero?



As police and authorities throughout the U.K. and now it seems in Australia congratulate each other for the foiling of what could have potentially been a shocking and horrific attack on the London night club area the real hero of the moment has been forgotten.

As reported in the media in the last few days it was ambulance officers who noticed smoke coming from the parked Mercedes that alerted police to the vehicle. The ambulance officers were apparently called to the nightclub after a patron who was dancing fell over and hit his head and required attention.

So the real hero here was the inept dancer at the nightclub. Had this obviously uncoordinated disco star not fallen while trying to trip the light fantastic the nightclub and its patrons in it may well have suffered the full force of the exploding vehicle.

This guy should become a hero and role model to the thousands of men throughout the world who are to shy or scared to hit the dance floors for fear of embarrassing themselves. His falling over on the dance floor has saved hundreds. If it wasn’t for him the ambulance would have never been called and they would have not spotted the car.


One wonders wether he decided to wear his shoes that lacked tread but looked good which lead to his fall. In this case his vanity has saved the day. Regardless of how it has happened this dance floor klutz should be the toast of London. His actions have lead to the shutting down of another terrorist cell and England sleeps safer tonight knowing some where in a nightclub somewhere someone else is falling over and foiling another terrorist plot.
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The polls are in and it appears Howard’s move on the aboriginal issue has been seen as cynical political exercise. While I think it is true to say that most people hope that it ultimately leads to the betterment of the lot of indigenous children and the indigenous communities at large most people have now come to see through the cynicism of the Howard Government.

Wether it be tax cuts and childcare concessions delivered in the May budget, petrol pricing inquiries set up a few weeks ago and the now so-called sudden emergency within indigenous communities the general public are now wise and quite frankly rather sceptical of every thing Howard does. His longevity in office is fast becoming his Achilles heel. He no longer can expect to throw out a few dollars or hold a belated inquiry or declare an emergency without the public viewing them in terms of the electoral cycle we are in.

This must lead some in the coalition to wonder if it was Peter Costello announcing these initiatives in a fresh new look cabinet wether the electorate would be less cynical. Though it is no time to make that change now but last year would have been an ideal time to bring forth some renewal.

The pressure is certainly building on Howard and his attacks on Rudd seem to be failing. The fear has been for sometime now that the public feel safe with the conservative Christian approach of Rudd and they have done to Howard what they had been doing to Rudd’s predecessor Beazley. They are just not listening!

In away Howard’s desire when he was first elected to make us relaxed and comfortable is now working against him. He has so much of the electorate relaxed and comfortable that they are quite happy to vote for change, relaxed and comfortable in the knowledge that with the economy humming along and the prospect of one of the most conservative Labor leaders we have seen that things should remain the same. Howard’s fear mongering over the prospect of a Labor government is just not washing anymore.

The other problem is those who are not benefiting from a booming economy and who have no time to be relaxed and comfortable as they work hard to maintain high mortgage repayments or struggle to get a deposit together for a home or simple are marginalised into poverty have given Howard over ten years to let them seek some reward from the massive wealth we reap from a booming mining industry have given up on him.

Howard has probably less then 4 months to turn it around and as yet everything he tries does not seem to resonate anymore. Where he goes next with his efforts to persuade the electorate remains to be seen.
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The Howard Government’s declaration of a national emergency over the state of indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, as well as other parts of Australia, has seen a fundamental shift in the politics at large in the lead up to the forthcoming federal election.

Suddenly it is John Howard and his indigenous Affairs minister Mal Brough on the front pages with Labor leader Kevin Rudd forced to take up the usual role of an opposition leader.

It is the Government out there making decisions and Rudd forced to basically nod his head in approval fearing that any questioning of the governments response will be meet with the kind of response Mal Brough gave to Kerry O’Brien questioning him on the detail of the so-called emergency response on the ABC’s 7:30 report last week. Brough replied to O’Brien’s question for detail by asking him if we should just do nothing.

The Government has been trying hard to paint anyone who questions their response or seeks details to their plan as being opposed to it. It has also attempted to label anyone who questions a political motive behind their response as also opposing doing something to help Indigenous communities.

This is goes to the very heart of our democracy.

NO ONE in their right mind would seek to deny help for those who suffer the sexual abuse, health, education, housing and other numerous problems that have beset indigenous communities but it is simply ludicrous for political commentators, politicians and others to suggest that the response by Howard to this issue was not driven by the political electoral cycle we find ourselves in.

Are we to believe that at no time in coming up with this response thought was not given to how this response would position Labor and Rudd? Are we to believe that at no time it was not suggested that this would see Howard as driving the political agenda and thus putting him on the front foot for the first time in a long time in the lead up to the election? Is it wrong to ask the government how they intend to implement their plan of action? Is it not the role of a democracy to ask questions of government?

John Howard was quoted as describing this crisis as comparable to Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. If this is the case then his response has taken at least 4 years to respond to unlike Bush’s much criticised slow response of a week or two. Alan Ramsey in the SMH reported on a report received by the government in 1999 and it then took them 18 months to release. The report by Dr Paul Memmott discusses almost all the problems which Howard now sees as an emergency. He also printed an extract of a speech by Mick Dodson given at the National press club in 2003 calling on help for the exact same issue. Where was the emergency then?

No one can deny that something desperately needs to be done but it is disingenuios for Howard to make out that this crisis has suddenly descended upon us like some sort of natural disaster.
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