on October 16 when a boatload of 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, all ethnic Tamils, were rescued from their sinking boat by the Australian ship, but in Indonesia’s search and rescue zone.

Initially Indonesia refused to allow the boat to dock at an Indonesian port, but after negotiations … Indonesia took the boat “on humanitarian grounds” because there was a sick child on board.

But the asylum seekers refused to leave the Australian ship, demanding they be taken to Christmas Island for processing by Australian authorities.

Oceanic Viking breakthrough: asylum seekers to come ashore

There has been a spike in asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat following the increasing violence in Afghanistan and the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Kevin Rudd’s government has been heavily criticised for both its handling of the Oceanic Viking incident and refugee policy in general. His stance is supposed to be tough on people smugglers and border security but humane towards refugees. Critics see it as either too hard or too soft. It’s either encouraging so-called boatpeople or abusing the rights of asylum seekers.

Veteran News Limited journalist Piers Ackerman prides himself on his right wing zeal. Never a friend of Labor governments, he rarely misses a chance to go for the throat:

The Rudd Government has only succeeded in making Australia a more enticing destination for wannabe migrants who don’t meet the nation’s needs, it has helped people jump the queue of refugees seeking resettlement and it has boosted the bank balances of international people smugglers.

Rudd’s red carpet to asylum seekers

Jeremy Sears of An Onymous Lefty is a regular critic of Ackerman. He addressed his remarks to those whom he sees as driven by xenophobia:

One of the most obvious questions I’d like to ask the “THEY’D BETTER NOT LAND HERE” crowd is – where would you like to send them?

You realise that what the people on the boats are doing is precisely what you would do in the same circumstances.
And yet you want them STOPPED. You want them LOCKED UP. You want them SENT HOME.
And the party that promises to treat these people the worst, that party will get your vote?

I’m not scared of the “boat people”. I’m scared of YOU.

Mark Thompson blogs at Seeking Asylum Down Under. His detailed responses to the current situation have looked for the positives in a sea of negativity:

Rudd is between a rock and hard place, politically speaking, as the Coalition [Liberal and National parties opposition] and its conga line of fear mongers in the media whip up the refugee issue yet again. Many people are very prone to xenophobic responses on ‘boat people', choosing to believe the fear drum beaten relentlessly by Turnbull, Stone, Andrews and Ruddock et al. There appears to be something in a large slice of the collective psyche that responds negatively to people arriving on boats.

His hope is for multi-lateral approaches to asylum seekers:

Australia must model best practice in this area, ensuring the provisions of international legal instruments and human rights conventions are followed to the letter. This can be a win/win for asylum seekers, the respective processing authorities, and the countries in the firing line. Opening a regional dialogue and developing a well-resourced multilateral approach, empowering all parties with a stake in a solution to this growing human crisis, would be a good start.

Labor all at sea on asylum seekers - but an opportunity presents itself.

Although this issue has generated a lot of heat and was a crucial part of the 2001 Australian Federal election, very few bloggers have posted about it lately. Perhaps it’s just too complex or a case of Tampa déjà vu.

This week his successor Kevin Rudd became embroiled in another controversy:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he spoke to Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the weekend before Indonesian authorities intercepted 260 Sri Lankans on a boat who were on their way to Australia.

Asylum seekers stopped after PM's call

Heavyweight blogger Mark Kenny is Political Editor of The Advertiser, a News Limited paper in Adelaide. He blogs at The Punch, an online venture that brings together both News Limited staff and dozens of independent writers from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. His response was scathing of the PM:

In just one interview in Adelaide this week, Kevin Rudd used the terms “tough” and “hard-line” over and over again and repeatedly declared the Government made “no apology” for its hairy chested approach to boat people.

His condemnation of both leaders is unequivocal:

Yet there is no more pressing moral question before the world than the human rights of the forcibly displaced - some 42 million of them at present. And like capital, the movement of people is a global reality also.

The Government should now have the courage of its convictions and stare down the fear campaign being waged against it. If ever there was a case for evidence-based policy, it is here and now. That would be real moral leadership - voters respect that too.

My name is Kevin Rudd, and I’m just like John Howard

Mark Henderson, at The Australian Conservative blog, has the opposite view:

Kevin Rudd unwinds the Howard Government’s tough but highly successful measures against boat people and almost two thousand illegal immigrants find their way onto Australian territory.

… What a joke.

The “most hardline measures” involves nothing more than a phone call to the Indonesian president.

Rudd is not prepared to make the really hard decisions the Howard Government took, decisions that made it deeply unpopular with large sections of the media and the elite commentariat, but decisions that actually stopped the flow of illegal immigrants and stopped the tragic loss of life at sea.

Tough on illegals? Who’s he trying to kid?

Guy Beres’ presents his self-titled blog as: ‘Reflections on social democracy, economics, the media, and spin in an age of incorrigible cynicism’. In a lengthy and impassioned analysis of the issue he argues:

The Opposition seems desperately keen to contrast its own historical rhetoric on asylum seeker issues with the slightly softer, more humane approach being taken by the Rudd Government. Forgetting for a moment the rather ugly and sometimes disturbing human rights issues raised by the previous government’s mandatory and indefinite scheme of detention, the Opposition wants to remind us that they were “tough” on boatpeople when in government, and that Labor is “not so tough”. In concert with this mode of attack, every rickety boat that happens to depart Colombo or elsewhere on its way to Australia apparently represents a failure of Rudd Government policy in comparison with the Howard Government’s illustrious record.

The boatpeople furphy re-emerges

Incidentally a ‘furphy’ is an Australian term for a red herring or false report.

Meanwhile we haven’t heard the last of these Sri Lankan asylum seekers as they are on a hunger strike:

THE 255 Sri Lankan asylum seekers staging a hunger strike last night remained defiant, insisting they would not leave their boat or even consume liquids, despite the blazing heat.

A young girl who made a plea for asylum on their behalf has been the subject of a personal attack:

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan high commissioner, Senaka Walgampaya, cast doubt on the account of a nine-year-old girl on the boat, Brindha, who made an emotional appeal for the Tamils to be helped. ”She is crying and weeping and said, ‘We were in the jungles for one month',” he said. ”But she is quite well nourished and she spoke very good English. She is not from Sri Lanka.”

Boat people shun fluids in stand-off

There are seemingly no innocents in this ongoing struggle. It is not an issue that will disappear soon as a visit the news website of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) will attest. A click on the refugees tag brings up dozens of recent stories involving Australia.

According to an article in Australian newspaper, The Age, Grace Gichuhi, 22, and Teresia Ndikaru Muturi, 21, arrived in Australia in July last year on tourist visas for World Youth Day.

There have been few reactions to the case from most of the political blogosphere regulars in Australia. Climate change and economic stimulus strategies have dominated in the last week.

But the article on The Age has attracted 54 comments from online readers showing anything but popular disinterest. The comments represent opposite poles of opinion, including:

Let these women stay.

Ben | Adelaide - September 22, 2009, 9:30AM

They applied. Their applications were assessed. Their applications were refused.
Send them home.
Case closed.

David_T - September 22, 2009, 9:34AM

How pathetic that these two women should be refused asylum. Australia could do well to have more people like these two girls and as far as I'm concerned they're welcome here for as long as they wish.

jollysroger | Townsville - September 22, 2009, 10:22AM

On her blog, at Pocket Carnival, Penny Eager says she was moved to write to the Minister for Immigration & Citizenship, Chris Evans on his online contact page, expressing her outrage:

I have just heard of the case of Grace Gichuhi & Teresia Ndikaru Muturi, two women from Kenya who have been denied status as refugees.

I believe that the torturous practise of genital mutilation is abhorrent, and that to deny these women refugee visas is to take a weak stance on this issue.

I urge you to intervene in this case, not only to help these women, but also to send a clear message to Kenya that Australia does not condone these practises.

A religious issue?

Aussie News and Views a self-styled “American, Australian, Israeli, British ‘Judeo-Christian Friendly' blog” posted a video of a news clip about the women and asked:

Gee I wonder who could be behind this? what sort of Satan worshipping Death Cult could be alive and well in Kenya today that would do such a thing to young women?

Philip Maguire at Whaddya Reckon? drew a number of comments with his post:

TWO Kenyan Christian women are to be deported from Australia despite facing death or genital mutilation.

Maybe they should have arrived here cashed up via a boat from Indonesia.

Lisa Valentine of Embrace Australia, an online community for foreign nationals looking to live in Australia, also took up their case:

Both Grace and Teresia are now terrified of what fate will lie in wait for them if they are deported back to Kenya.

A spokesman from the Australian Immigration Department said: “Under the refugee convention, they weren’t found to engage with Australia’s international obligations.

The girls, along with Sister Aileen Crowe, a Franciscan nun who is supporting them, launched an appeal to the Australian Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, but he rejected that appeal. A second appeal has now been launched and the girls are awaiting the results but have been told to prepare for deportation.

Ironically new legislation is due to be introduced to Parliament that would ensure protection for the girls. The legislation is called Complementary Protection and it expands the criteria under which a refugee can apply for protection.

Online campaign

On Facebook a ‘Causes' page titled Help save these Women from Genital Mutilation has been launched by Australians who support the women's attempt to stay in Australia. So far, 91 people have joined. An update was posted on Tuesday by Vanessa Muradian:

This is the most recent update - sources said these women are protected here in Australia — until Evans decides what to do with them. Whether he rejected them or not the first time we are still to know… the government need to pass the complimentary visa… which I am further researching at the moment - Basically the complimentary visa, will ‘compliment' the protection visa, SO THAT THESE refugees can fall under a protection visa. CURRENTLY the protection visa doesn't protect women from GENITAL MUTILATION and honour killings. The bill was proposed to parliament in September and currently the Liberal party are opposing this bill…

Right now these women just need our support - Minister Evans will be making the decision with his privilege of Ministerial Intervention.

I guess we need to contact him…

As well as other governing bodies whom can help the government pass the complimentary bill!!!!!!!

Specialist social network sites in Australia reacted soon after the news broke.

Overlander 4WD Magazine hosts a forum on its online website. D200 dug gave a personal view:

Our eldest son was in Jakarta this morning and had planned to attend a breakfast meeting at one of the bombed hotels. So this is pretty close to home for me. I traveled through Indonesia in the 1970s and found Indonesians to be enormously friendly kind and hospitable. …Talking to my son today he confirmed that the general population of Indonesians have not changed, they remain incredibly friendly welcoming and hospitable.
Jakarta Bombings Forum

TrevG at RealSurfers Forum was less than hopeful:

I sometimes wonder how far they can push it before “normal” humans feel that “offence” is the best form of defence.
Sort of like “do unto others, before they do it to you”
Not advocating it, personally but I do despair for the future of the world at times.
Bombings in Jakarta

Peter Martin is economics correspondent for two major daily newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. His initial reaction was one of outrage. He quoted a very strong reaction to the 2005 London bombings :

I was angry when I arrived at work to be told the news. Really, really angry.

It put me in mind of this , written on the website of the London News Review hours after the 2005 London subway attacks. (Apologies for the language - it's necessary)
The Indonesia bombings were really, really stupid

Duncan Graham, a Perth journalist who blogs at Indonesia Now , gave a measured analysis at On Line Opinion. He looked at Indonesian responses:

SBY’s instant and unequivocal response does indicate a welcome rejection of past equivocation. That included tolerating outlandish theories to brush away the idea of homegrown Islamic terrorism.

and concluded:

Most Indonesians are tolerant pluralists, genuinely friendly, proud of their country, and keen to meet and help visitors. Proportionally there are probably no more fanatics in Indonesia than Australia but the chance of meeting one ready to do serious harm is rare - there and here.
Jakarta bombings: bad things and evil people

Regular political blogger Duckpond explored the motives of the bombers:

Clearly, by targeting international hotels they were intending to harm international visitors, and it is not surprising that Australians and New Zealanders have been killed and injured. In that sense, it is personal. The people responsible for the bombing must feel that we have caused them harm. I just wish they would tell us what their grievances are rather than take such an extreme action.

It will probably turn out those who have organized this horrific action against their fellow human beings will claim to be strongly religious. As far as I know Islam teaches compassion and peace, and right conduct in the pursuit of war.

After quoting an Al Jazeera report, he suggested other reasons behind the bombings and raised questions of morality on both sides of the terror war:

Thus it would seem that the attack is an act of vengeance with a view to damage the Indonesian economy following the successful presidential election. Seen in this light, the bombing would appear to be “criminal” without any religious or social justification. I note that using drones to attack and kill civilians is similarly “criminal”.
JAKARTA BOMBING

Australia remains undecided about whether it will attend a controversial United Nations conference, which begins in a fortnight.

There are fears the Durban Review Conference, to be held in Geneva from April 20-24, could become a repeat of the original South African event in 2001, which was marred by claims of anti-Semitism.

Govt not sure over UN Durban conference

The decision was only taken at the last minute:

AUSTRALIA will not take part in a controversial United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva this week.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said the Geneva meeting reaffirms the 2001 outcomes, singling out Israel and the Middle East.

“Regrettably, we cannot be confident that the review conference will not again be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic views,” Mr Smith said.

Australia to boycott UN anti-racism conference

Many Australian bloggers took the opposite view.

Duckpond argued:

Sometimes the truth needs to be told, and it can be unpleasant and discomforting. So was President Admadinejad doing that?

Ahmadinejad is not saying anything here in these extracts that is extraordinary. Anybody who even half follows events knows what he is saying is accurate. So why all the drama?

SPEAKING THE TRUTH

At group blog Larvatus Prodeo, Paul Norton explained his position on the Middle East:

I support Israel’s right to exist and a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and I am a critic of unbalanced, inflammatory and obsessive criticism of Israel. However, I am also critical of unbalanced, inflammatory and obsessive idealisation of Israel, of the kind that is rife in the polities of various Western countries including Australia and the United States.

He then addressed his concern about the boycotting countries:

One wonders how the countries participating in the Conference (including all of Africa, Russia, Asia (except for Israel), South and Central America and the Vatican) will interpret a boycott confined exclusively to the wealthy white men’s club. How might they respond to the fact that nations such as the US and Australia consider a purported slight on Israel’s good name to be of greater moment than many other issues on which agreement and cooperation is possible with countries of the global South and global East, and sufficient grounds to refuse to attend a forum to discuss such cooperation?

What if they held a conference on racism and all the whiteys stayed away?

Jason Soon, a supprter of the boycott, began an open forum at catallaxyfiles:

… devoted solely to the recent UN talkfest which for once has made Kevin Rudd do the right thing and boycott. So fire away. A little fuel for the fire
here.

Open forum for UN lovers and haters

On the other hand Gary Sauer-Thompson at Public Opinion decried the Rudd government's lack of courage:

I wasn't surprised that Australia didn't have the courage to attend the UN conference on racism (known as the Durban review) and then debate the views of those it disagreed with, namely President Ahmadinejad's interpretation of Zionist history. They just stayed away, rather than making the arguments that need to be made against Ahmadinejad and his followers.

Zionism does need to be questioned because this form of nationalism rationalizes conquest and colonization as “redemption” of Jewish territory on behalf of the world’s Jews. It treats the Palestinians only as an obstacle and threat to its own purposes, not as people with the same rights as Jews and with legitimate claim to the land on which they were born.

at the UN

Dan Goldberg, national editor of the Australian Jewish News from 2002-2007, put the case against the Conference in the strongest terms at New Matilda.

The UN's conference against racism opened yesterday. But Dan Goldberg writes that the meeting is a sham which reminds him of some other low-points in the history of hate:

Remarkably, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was welcomed into the bosom of Europe at a conference intended to deal with racism. It's a perverse irony at best; an utter abomination at worst. And all this on April 20 — the anniversary of Hitler's birthday.

Unsurprisingly, the tyrant of Tehran launched his invective at the Jewish state, accusing it of being the “racist perpetrators of genocide”. The bulk of the Arab delegates applauded. The 23 representatives of the European Union walked out. On the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, the United Nations, which has long been a bastion for Israel-bashing, hosted a dyed-in-the-wool Holocaust denier. Ahmadinejad didn't refer to the Holocaust by name, but left little doubt of his support for a second Holocaust against “the most cruel and repressive, racist regime in Palestine”.

Red-Letter Days For Racism

Author of the My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution, Antony Loewenstein, is a well known and controversial commentator on the Middle East and critic of Zionism.

As a Jew who writes extensively about Israel/Palestine, I have no desire for Iran to speak for me on human rights (and my recent book, The Blogging Revolution, details the woeful record of the Islamic Republic.) But the fierce resistence to even examine the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its well documented recent abuses in Gaza is shameful. These are not actions of a civilised nation. It is the behaviour that we would condemn if done by a relatively unknown Third World nation, but Israel is seemingly untouchable.

Durban II, the how, why and who

A final word comes from the mass media. Tim Blair who blogs for Sydney’s Daily Telegraph made his opinion of Iran's President Ahmadinejad quite clear:

Civilisation declined to attend the UN’s anti-Israel festival. Other representatives left once they realised what kind of atrocity they’d blundered into.

They can’t say they weren’t warned.

HATEFEST TURNS HATEFUL

The Middle East continues to divide Australians and the world.

A refugee boat has exploded off the north west coast.Three people are dead, two are missing and more than thirty have been injured, some with very serious burns. Three members of the Australian Defence Force, which was towing the boat, are among the injured.

Western Australian police say three people are dead and two are missing following an explosion on board an asylum-seekers' boat being escorted to Christmas Island this morning.

Three dead, dozens injured after explosion on asylum boat ABC News Online 17 April 2009

Allegations that the fatal explosion was caused by asylum seekers have also revived the political storm surrounding the children overboard affair.

Claims that fuel was deliberately poured over the small wooden fishing vessel before the blast will be the focus of inquiries by police and the Northern Territory coroner.

Sabotage fear on boat blast The Age 17 April 2009

A political stoush has erupted with Opposition parliamentarians accusing the government of causing the increase in boat people and encouraging people smuggling through its changes to border protection.

Bloggers are also taking off the gloves. Gary Sauer-Thompson at Public Opinion bemoaned the attempts to politicise asylum seekers again:

Doesn't the old hang on. The Liberals are banging the drum about border security, bad asylum seekers, boat people and soft on security. It is just like a replay of the old children overboard affair with undercurrent of Asian hordes invading Australia because they read The Australian and realized that Rudd Government has gone soft on the processing of asylum seekers.

The reality is that most asylum seekers arrive by plane, many are sent back, whilst the asylum seekers who arrive by boat are processed on Christmas Island. Children are treated more humanely, the so-called “Pacific Solution”, which had people sent to Nauru has been abolished and it has scrapped temporary protection visas, as well as reforming detention policy.

banging an old drum

Mark Thomson’s blog, Seeking Asylum Down Under, has a clear purpose:

Yes, we remember! Blame the victims for their own plight, extract as much sensationalism out of the role of people smugglers, put words in the mouth of ADF personnel who cannot answer for themselves, and then whip up public sentiment against refugees. Throw in dollops of confected outrage over your political opponents complete lack of preparedness to face down the ‘threat' and you have the typical Lib's stock in trade response to the terrible plight of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.

Oh, I forgot - then you set about making weak neighbouring countries complicit in policies that violate human rights!

Human rights in Australia - the fear & smear Liberals are at it again over asylum seekers!

Another progressive blog, Club Troppo, was more restrained:

Yesterday’s “boat people” explosion near Ashmore Reef west of Darwin, in which 3 people were apparently killed outright and many more seriously injured, has eerie if obvious parallels with the “children overboard” saga of 2001 which helped John Howard to his third successive election victory.

Returning to the present, there is a crucial difference between the situation the “children overboard” and “Tampa” asylum seekers faced and that of yesterday’s group whose boat apparently caught fire and exploded. The current group didn’t face being towed back out to sea, and they almost certainly didn’t face prolonged immigration detention while their protection visa applications were processed.

In those circumstances, WA Premier Colin Barnett’s claims that the asylum seekers deliberately doused their vessel and the surrounding waters with petrol doesn’t seem to make sense. There must be more to it than we’re being told, unless these particular asylum seekers simply hadn’t heard that the old Howard government “towaway zone” or ”lock ‘em up offshore and throw away the key” policies were no longer operative. There’s a lot more to be told about this story.

The old explosive asylum story reignites

The alternative view was put strongly by Andrew Bolt, newspaper columnist for Rupert Murdoch’s Herald-Sun and perhaps Australia’s best known and controversial right-wing blogger:

AT least three boat people now dead. So how much “kinder” do Kevin Rudd’s policies seem now?

John Howard was supposed to be the cruel one, said Labor. It was Howard when Prime Minister who put in the Pacific Solution, whisking illegal boat people to Nauru, rather than land them here.

Too harsh, said Kevin Rudd, and scrapped it. It was Howard who cut the legal circus that allowed illegal immigrants to play the system for years, until we gave up trying to deport them.

Too harsh, said Rudd, and laid on lawyers. It was Howard who cut the lure of benefits and then imposed on illegal immigrants the imminent threat of return.

Too harsh, said Rudd, and scrapped the Temporary Protection Visas, giving all illegal immigrants—including well-heeled ones fleeing no particular danger—instant access to permanent residency with all the tempting benefits and rights.

Too harsh, said Rudd. And enlightened opinion cheered. Now we were nice. Really? So how nice is it to have now lured at least three people to their deaths? To have not one child overboard—oh, what a confected scandal that was—but a whole boatload of 49?

Yes, indeed. This is a “people overboard” scandal, but for real this time.

People overboard, and the kindness than kills

Possum Comitatus at Pollytics did not show any restraint when condemning Bolt’s post:

… there is no larger magnet for outright bigotry than asylum seekers.

With refugees it’s literally Moral Panic Bingo; Islam, terrorists, race, xenophobia – refugees are the ultimate canvas upon which the shallow end of the public affairs pool can paint their own preferred pathological animosities. If you don’t believe me, then undertake an experiment:

Write down 9 favourite themes of the small minded nutjob set, not specifically about any given thing, any old generically bigoted idiocy will do – then pop on over to the usual creatures that prey on such feeble minded antipathy and read the comments sections on any post they have about asylum seekers. Every time one of your predicted themes is mentioned by a commenter, mark it off - you won’t have to read far before you’ll be shouting “Wingnut Bingo!”.

Of all the Wingnut Bingo halls in the land, there is none bigger than that hosted by The Undescended Testicle.*

He started yesterday with his sneering innuendo, of asylum seekers being “Lured by Rudd to their deaths?”. There really are no boundaries that Bolt’s hysterical Rudd Rage refuses to cross – although the only thing really being “lured” here are miscreants by the bucketful into Andrew Bolt’s site –herding the dross of the internet into News Ltd advertising by playing up to their shallow and spiteful little fantasies.

Why Andrew Bolt should be Sodomised with a Calculator – Part 142

Not the usual sort of criticisms we expect from a statistician and psephologist. For his data analysis you’ll have to visit Possum’s post.

It appears that most of those on the boat were fleeing Afghanistan, a country where Australian troops are currently fighting the Taliban.

Irfan Yusuf at Planet Irf saw it this way:

Pakistan may describe itself as an Islamic republic, but the real religion which unites all Pakistanis is cricket. This is a cricket-mad country. I remember being in Pakistan when an overseas team was touring, and seeing crowded city streets become almost deserted and shops open but with shop keepers having their eyes glued to the TV sets.

During the early 1990's, one Pakistani mufti became a laughing stock after delivering a fatwa that cricket was haraam (forbidden under religious law). His reasons? He claimed people who watched cricket rarely took time out to perform their nemaaz (the worship Muslims are required to perform at five set times a day). And that Pakistani women would get excited by watching Pakistani bowlers like Imran Khan rub the ball in a certain place as he walked back to start his run-up.

Perhaps the shock of the Marriot Hotel blasts in Islamabad shocked people in the middle and upper classes. However, cricket is something Pakistanis of all classes enjoy. Cricket is played in both slums and on the turf pitches of posh Pakistani private schools. Cricketers, be they Pakistani or foreign, are like the revered saints of this secular religion. Umpires (except when they are deemed to have made the wrong decision) are like the high priests.

Presenting others' claims about the usual suspects, he asks:

Who is responsible? Muslim extremists? Tamil Tigers?

PAKISTAN: Some comments on the recent Lahore blasts …

Andrew Bolt, controversial journalist and blogger for the Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne, is no friend of what he sees as dangerous lefties:

I think the apologists are running out of excuses. The US, we were told, brought 9-11 on itself through its aggression. We invited Bali on ourselves by siding with the US. India provoked the Mumbai slaughter by discriminating against Muslims. But the Sri Lankans? How on earth can even the barking mad blame them for this? Now, can we start discussing the role of Islam in political violence, and without the usual shut-ups of “racist!”.

Cricketers shot

Duckpond, a regular political blogger, started with a very popular figure in Australia, the former Pakistan cricket captain turned politician Imran Khan:

Imran Khan, who is close to matters cricket, says the level of security provided to to the Sri Lankan cricket team was scandalous. He is suggesting the Pakistani Government was negligent or incompetent.

He expressed his concern about Pakistan's instability:

It would not be the first time that attack on a soft target has organized to create maximum publicity. Pakistan with its history of military dictatorships, supported by the West, especially the United States, and its fractious ethnic populations, and a nuclear power, is not looking especially stable.

But he sees this attack as part of a failed global policy against terror:

The invasion of Afghanistan over seven years ago was supposed to be a quick fix, like that of Antigua or Panama, but as perhaps was predictable by those knew something about the area has proven to be very destabilizing, if not catastrophic.

CRICKET TEAM ATTACKED

Skepticlawyer, also referred to Imran Khan but with more negative connotations:

Despite Imran Khan’s repeated assertions that terrorists would never attack cricketers in Pakistan (even though the Taliban frowned on the game), terrorists have fired on the Sri Lankan team’s tour bus in Lahore, killing several local police officers and wounding several of the players, two seriously. Understandably, the Test currently underway has been abandoned, the Sri Lankan players have been airlifted home, and cricket lovers the world over are in utter despair.

Pakistan shits in cricketing nest

This terror attack has taken bushfires off the front pages of Australian newspapers and the lead stories of the electronic media.

Update:

Jack the Insider, who also blogs for a Murdoch paper, The Australian, has similar concerns about Pakistan's stability:

Elsewhere in Pakistan cities like Lahore, Karachi and the capital, Islamabad, have become war zones where chaos and carnage have become a way of life. The cities have become grid locked as people travel from one military checkpoint to the next and the sound of car bombs exploding reverberates around the cities on an almost daily basis.

Just 10 years ago Australia’s cricket captain, Mark Taylor made 334 not out at Peshawar, Pakistan’s most northern city. Now the city belongs to the Taliban and no Westerner with a scintilla of sanity would consider travelling there.

It should come as no surprise that Pakistan’s national game and the game loved by millions around the world has become entangled in the violence.

The world needs to view this disgraceful act as a call to arms. The rule of law is on the verge of collapse in Pakistan and there is a real prospect that the nuclear-armed country will lurch into a civil war.

New theatre in war against terrorism

The comments are worth reading for their diverse range of opinions.

Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister, reflected popular reaction to news that some of the fires were deliberately lit by talking of “mass murder”. Following the charging of one man with arson causing death, Facebook groups emerged that published his address and other details that had been suppressed by court order. These have apparently now been removed by Facebook. One group has this message:

Brendan Sokaluk, you will pay. you will be found out. and you will suffer. and when that day comes, Australia will have another Public Holiday to celebrate.

BRENDAN SOKALUK, THE VICTORIAN BUSHFIRES ARSONIST WILL BURN IN HELL.

These pages have stimulated an intense debate about issues such as the right to a fair trial. Some even fear that the lynch mob mentality and surrounding publicity may hinder the chances of a conviction. A warning: much of the comment on these sites is very disturbing for a whole range of reasons.

On a much more positive note Club Troppo highlighted the power of new online emergency communications:

If at least one agency in the Victorian Government wasn’t too flash at helping Victorians when the fire was raging, some true believers in there are making amends, using an embeddable panel, complete with a Google Map to notify the public of Bushfire Events as per below. The original page on which the map appears is here.

Googling the Victorian fire response

They include the code which you can use to put it on your own blog.

Dave Bath at Balneus tried to make a concrete suggestion for dealing with one aspect of firebug behaviour:

Rather than clamor for the arrested arsonist to be lynched, (especially before any conviction), shouldn’t such people as the Facebook vigilantes push for funding of psychological assessments of firefighters, both volunteers and permanents, so the “hero-firefighter” types are rejected?

Better than a lynching

Banning illegal material from social networking sites was one form of censorship. Your New Reality, “Weapons of Mass Information”, Daryl Mason was embarrassed by the self-censorship by radio stations.

Australian radio stations are now engaged in an exercise in moribund stupidity. Because nearly 300 people died in the Victoria holocaust last weekend, radio stations across the country are banning songs with the words “Fire” and “Burning” in the title and chorus from their playlists.
Examples: U2 - Fire (obviously) Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire, Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning

Do Fire Survivors Really Tremble In Terror When They Hear Songs About Fire On The Radio?

Finally a uplifting post from one person caught up the horror of 7 February. Shayne Hood shared his father’s story, A weekend of hell, but humanity prevails, on Facebook and created a group to spread the word:

As you may or may not know my dad lost his house and best friend in the recent bush fires… It has been a very sad time for both my family and I. I honestly don't know if I am still in shock, but either way I just can't gather my thoughts together, so I am just going to wing it.

His father’s reaction to the vigilante mood:

On Sunday my brother in law and I were discussing ways to punish some of the arsonists that ignited some of the fires, all my dad could say (whilst weeping) was ‘Even murders have mothers Shayne, there is good in everyone, people are just products of their environment'. Even after all the pain that has been inflicted on him, he refuses to see the evil in people. I always thought my dads big heart made him a weak person at times. But at that point I realized that he is the most courageous person I know. If I become even half the man he is, I will die happy.

Shayne’s tribute:

Even though my dad has experienced such devastation, he still insists that sympathy and financial assistance must go to the less fortunate… people who have lost children, parents, grandparents or family of some sort.

Today I stand proud of my father…

Sunday 22 February is a National Day of Mourning. There is a lot of healing to be done. Shayne’s request:

Please dig deep and donate to the people that have experienced loss in Australia's worst natural disaster. I hope my story will encourage your generosity as every dollar counts.

Victoria Bushfires - My Story (please read and spread the word)

Over $A100 million dollars has been donated to the Red Cross appeal so far.

Thumbnail image used is from the Flickr page of Drew

Disbelief has been a very common reaction. Daryl Mason at The Orstrahyun:

The scope of the destruction, the scale of human tragedy of the apocalyptic Sunday fires in country Victoria, Australia's worst bushfire disaster, is beyond comprehension.

More than 100 dead, almost 1000 homes, properties and business destroyed, entire towns and villages in country Victoria laid to waste, some 350,000 hectares burned.

Reading through dozens of stories, listening to the stories of remarkably calm and lucid survivors on radio, trying to take in all those images of horror on TV, of entire towns obliterated by fire and cyclonic winds, of lone firefighters taking on five and six story high walls of flames with a single hose, of frantic survivors trying to find missing friends and family members, it's impossible to summarize any of it, all of it.

A Holocaust Of Fire, Cyclones Of Flames, Burn 100 To Death

The indiscriminate nature of the tragedy was brought home by the death of a very well known Victorian, former news reader Brian Naylor. Like most members of our local media he was well acquainted with bushfires. Andrew Norton, at his self-titled blog, paid tribute to him:

Among the 108 confirmed dead as of this morning is Brian Naylor, who read the Channel Nine news for twenty years from 1978, in the years when Nine news dominated the ratings. Almost everyone who lived in Melbourne at that time would have received part of their news from Naylor, who had the sober, sensible and reliable demeanour we prefer in newsreaders, but could also handle the touching or quirky stories that Nine often liked to finish with.

He ended each broadcast with ‘may your news be good news, and goodnight’. It’s so sad that he ended his life as part of a very bad news story, for so many people.

Brian Naylor and dozens of others, RIP

Twitter has been buzzing during this emergency. Annette's Blog, Shoosh, the grown-ups are talking, posted her tweets last night:

# 08:41 Oh dear gods. Woke up to find the #bushfires became a lot worse overnight. It sounds like 2 whole towns got wiped out and familes missing.
# 09:34 In shock. Official said the Vic #bushfires are 300% their WORST cast scenarios! Skynews report: tinyurl.com/by4d8f
# 09:54 Bloody hell. Even the Premier is on Twitter @vicpremier. He's asking for blood donations (tho not thru Twitter). Will now watch TV news. eep
# 10:20 Whoa. Just found out that friends who moved to Kinglake lost their home but were among the “lucky ones” who got out alive. o_0 #bushfires
# 11:09 searching for Lixa who lives in the abandoned church in Craigieburn, outside of Melbourne. Worried about her. #bushfires #melbourne

Tweets for Today

Her twitter search is very active.

Meet Me at Mike’s is a craft blog. It took up the issue of how its readers could help:

I know that lots of saddened people want to make SOFTIES to donate to kids affected by these fires. Bianca at The Toy Society posted last night about that - and a couple of people commented here too. I think it's definitely worth making softies to be distributed down the track, once things have settled down a bit, and agencies are accepting that kind of thing. I think they'll be warmly received. But it's really important to try and help with the immediate issues that people are facing too. Donate money. Or donate blood. Or donate your time. You can do that here.

Victorian Bushfires - Ways To Help Today (and Tomorrow!)

The link is to the Red Cross. My mother worked for them at the time of Australia’s previous worst natural disaster, Cyclone Tracy, that hit Darwin in 1974. On Christmas Day, the morning after the cyclone, she woke us up and told us we were would be having lunch without her. We didn’t see much of mum for several weeks. Her usual job was helping to re-unite migrants and refugees who had become separated. She did wait for a phone call. The mass evacuation of Darwin was our own version of these international diasporas.

This is an ongoing emergency with fires still burning out of control and a lot of summer heat to go.

Picture on front page from the Flickr page of sunrise.seven

An online debate about the appropriateness of this date was already simmering before indigenous leader Mick Dobson was named Australian of the Year on 25 January 2009. The old left position was captured by John at En Passant:

Australia Day perpetuates our founding myths and enslaves our Aboriginal brothers and sisters. In the spirit of true reconciliation let’s abolish this celebration of genocide. Let’s instead celebrate the 65000 years of indigenous history and their stewardship of this land. And pay the rent.
Australia Day -a celebration of genocide

Harry Clarke, on his self-titled blog, aired his strong opposition to a change:

Australia day is viewed by certain backward aboriginal groups as Invasion Day – they want the date changed – (that would improve things?) presumably to a ‘year zero’ – but how do you date the Dreamtime? Well I have no idea but who should care about such myths anyway? Attempting to change the date would be a move by the Rudd Government I would favour - they would then be thrown out of office. Go on Kevin try to change that date! Aboriginal Australians would not have been better off living under Indonesian or Chinese control and enjoy better living conditions and prospects as a consequence of the advent of white settlement. Aboriginals need to make a go of it. Many are.
Australia Day

Jack the Insider, who blogs anonymously for News Corporation, sought a middle position, arguing for two national days:

26th January is not a day of celebration for indigenous Australians, many of whom prefer to refer to that space on the calendar as Invasion Day. The reality is that the men and women of the First Fleet, under Governor Phillip’s orders, sought empathy and understanding with the natives they encountered there: the Eora people. The degradation and brutality would occur later.
Australia Day - why not have two?

There are very few indigenous Australian bloggers who comment on politics regularly. One site is Whenua Fenua Enua Vanua, ‘revolutionary anti-colonilaism & anti-capitalism in the Pacific’. Ana posted a YouTube song Invader Captain Cook by Angus Rabbit:

Her post includes a reprise of an earlier article ‘Captain Cook, Joseph Banks and smallpox’ by John Tracey. It alleges a policy of deliberate infection of aborigines in the early years of white settlement. There is no shortage of alleged “wild conspiracy stories”, to use John's words, about colonial Australia's treatment of indigenous people.

Mick Dobson’s call for a national conversation about Australia day and its timing has brought the kind of swift blogger reaction that usually accompanies all indigenous controversies.

A less than subtle response came from kevgillett.net a blog that states clearly on its banner: “If you can read this page, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier” :

I don’t care that Pat is black but I do care that he puts the colour of his skin before his nationality.

We’re all Australians mate, and the vast majority of us are very happy with the date of Australia Day. Amongst other things it marks the day your race started coming out of the stone age and if you don’t see that as a positive then go back to the Simpson Desert and revert to eating goannas - in another million years or so you might even invent the bow and arrow and become more proficient at hunting.

If you blanche at that thought, then get back to the job at hand of lifting the quality of life of your people. It must include getting rid of the poor bugger me mentality and joining mainstream Australia. Agitate to get your people out of the outstations and into the towns and cities where the schools, medical centres and jobs can be found.
Australia Day

At Public Polity, Sam Clifford argues for a date that will celebrate both reconciliation and a new Australian republic:

… it needs to be the date of the adoption of a new constitution which has been updated to reflect the Australia in which we live, the Australia which has been before us and the Australia we can be together. We need a treaty with the indigenous nations (all of them negotiated individually) and a recognition that it is the people of Australia who are sovereign over themselves.
Should we move Australia Day?

This would certainly be in line with India where January 26 officially celebrates their becoming a Republic.

Former Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett has a similar perspective:

But it is not only Indigenous Australians who feel that 26th January is not the best day to celebrate our unity as a nation, as Ron Barassi’s views make clear. Many of the millions of Australians who are not of British heritage are also likely to find another day more meaningful. Plenty of other people who, like me, have some British ancestry, also feel the same.

Nor are those concerns limited to what 26th January symbolises when it comes to the dispossession, killing and discrimination endured by Indigenous Australians which flowed from the date in 1788.
The debate on changing Australia Day

Ron Barassi is an Australian Rules football legend, as player and coach, who has Swiss Italian ancestry.

Post Script: 13,000 people from 120 countries became Australian citizens at ceremonies around the nation on 26 January 2009.

There were 425 comments on Larvatus Prodeo’s first thread that argued that:

Any form of peaceful resolution to the conflicts in Palestine and Israel has been blocked for a long time by a range of factors - including but not limited to internal Israeli politics and the decomposition of its party system, the legacy of past atrocities, an effective economic blockade of Palestine, the power balance in the Middle East and the hypocritical and empty promises of the Bush administration. If there is a “peace process”, its outlines were frozen in time long ago. Unfortunately, I think it’s probably too much to hope for that there’ll be any sort of progress under the Obama administration, particularly with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

Eyeless in Gaza

So they’ve continued the discourse on a new thread, Eyeless in Gaza II. A comment on the original thread from Paul Burns (421) is typical of many people’s frustration with both sides:

I don’t agree with Hamas firing rockets at Israeli civilians. (Israel can kill as many Hamas militants as it likes, and Hamas can kill as many Israeli soldiers as it likes - that’s what happens to soldiers, and let’s face it, on both sides, whatever else they are, they’re varieties of a defence/offence force.)
What gets to me is the indiscriminate bombing of women and children, of mosques, (you’re not supposed to bomb places of worship - I know people don’t take much notice of it in modern warfare, but among other things places of worship are places of sanctuary for civilians as well as places of prayer.)
Its all very cliched, but the end result of all this is going to be that neither side wins, and we’re going to have a lot of traumatized kids, in whom the mutual hate will just live on.
There’s little point for me in debating the rights and wrongs of this - both sides are wrong, the Israelis infinitely more so because of their use of disproportionate force, and, at the risk of sounding really boring, their use of collective punishment on the Gazans as a whole.
Somehow the whole damn thing just has to stop for good.
I know the above is very simplistic, and probably doesn’t take account of the infinite permutations of Israeli and Palestinian politics, but really, surely that is what has to happen.

The Orstrahyun presented a series of photos of child victims of the bombing. He questioned the Australian government’s support for Israel’s actions:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was too busy over the weekend to explain how he feels about an Australian ally using indiscriminate terrorism to collectively punish the Palestinian people in Gaza, for the actions of their democratically elected government. Terror attacks that have killed more than 400 people, including at least 80 children, wounding thousands more in nine days.

Australia All But Silent On Ally Terror Attacks Killing 80 Children

Harry Clarke’s self-titled blog took a very different tack:

The response of the media and mealy-mouthed politicians has been predictable. On the one hand a section of the media, backed up by supporters of terrorism around the world, has been to attack the immorality of the Israeli attack often without mention of the past and continuing bombardment of Israel by missiles from Hamas. This is one-eyed hypocrisy given the avowed intent of Hamas to wipe-out Israel.

Mealy-mouthed politicians (including our own Julia Gillard and the toothless UN - this is particularly disgraceful) have participated widely in these forms of hypocrisy as well as by launching the standard response that both sides should stop the conflict, kiss and go home.

Israel launches ground attack into Gaza

This earned him the displeasure of Slim at The Dog’s Bollocks:

I’m always amazed at how polarised people’s opinions are when it comes to Israel - how generally reasoned and moderate commentators can be so single-mindedly supportive of Israel, despite the appalling anti-humanitarian conditions it imposes on the Palestinians and the numerous floutings of conditions imposed by the UN – as though Israel can do no wrong.

Why the taboo on criticising Israel?

At do not adjust your mind, Zac Spitzer also attacked local politicians as well as Barack Obama:

Obama needs to rebuke Israel (and it's use of the current Administration flawed spin), which is difficult and obviously given that Bush is almost out of the White House, unfortunate timing, but many, many lives are being lost.

Shame on Israel, I can really understand their situation, having rockets landing everyday in their towns is an outrage, unfortunately, they have overstepped the mark completely and now have lost most of their credibility with their actions in Gaza.

Kevin Rudd has been MIA on this as well, the Federal Opposition is going to have it's hand tied somewhat having Helen Coonan as the Shadow Foreign Affairs, given her seat lies in the heart of Melbourne's Jewish Community.

Israel and it's WMD Style spin on Gaza, Obama MIA

It’s interesting to note that the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Deputy PM Julia Gillard are seen as having different views on the conflict in Gaza.

So does the general populace. Pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protests were held over the weekend. Joni from Blogocrats attended one and took his video camera along:

Gaza Protest

The rally went past the Egyptian Consulate where chants against Mubarak were heard. So everyone realises that it is not just the Israelis that need to act - the Egyptians also need to act.

Of course, there was the (somewhat) militant fringe to the protest, but overall it was a peaceful protest - where the chants stayed polite, if passionate. The organisers tried to keep the protest to being one of respect and to be in support of the people of Gaza. I estimated that there was a couple of thousand people in attendance.

Protest for Palestine (Sydney)

Planet IRF has been posting AlJazeeraEnglish videos. He re-titled ‘Sderot residents live on the edge 30 Dec 08′ as Sympathy for victims…

They are presented without comment. The Al Jazera summary on YouTube is:

Israel insists that as long as Hamas rockets keep falling on the southern part of the country, it must continue striking Gaza.
And as Hoda Abdel Hamid reports, residents in Sderot - which lies near the Gaza border - say they support those attacks, even if it means taking civilian lives.

‘US military aid underpins Gaza offensive - 31 Dec 08‘ is The constant flow of terror funds …

The Al Jazera summary:

Israel receives billions of dollars in military aid from the US each year, much of it spent on American weaponry which US law says must only be used in self-defence.

But experts say there is little chance of cuts in aid to Israel despite its military operation in Gaza.

Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer reports.

Ana blogs at Whenua Fenua Enua Vanua, (Revolutionary Anti Colonialism & Anti Capitalism in the Pacific). As well as linking to Al Jazeera, she has included a lengthy piece from Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah. He took up the growing pessimism that anything can be done to improve the situation:

On top of the intense anger and sadness so many people feel at Israel's renewed mass killings in Gaza is a sense of frustration that there seem to be so few ways to channel it into a political response that can change the course of events, end the suffering, and bring justice.

But there are ways, and this is a moment to focus on them. Already I have received notices of demonstrations and solidarity actions being planned in cities all over the world. That is important. But what will happen after the demonstrations disperse and the anger dies down? Will we continue to let Palestinians in Gaza die in silence?

Palestinians everywhere are asking for solidarity, real solidarity, in the form of sustained, determined political action. The Gaza-based One Democratic State Group reaffirmed this today as it “called upon all civil society organizations and freedom loving people to act immediately in any possible way to put pressure on their governments to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute sanctions against it.”

The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement for Palestine (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) provides the framework for this. Now is the time to channel our raw emotions into a long-term commitment to make sure we do not wake up to “another Gaza” ever again.

Free Palestine

Antony Loewenstein, well known blogger and author of My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution. His mix of anti-zionism and jewish background have made him a controversial voice in Australia. He frequently posts items from a wide range of sources such as this one from Ynet News, the online Israeli news service:

Dozens of Israelis received text messages from Hamas Thursday morning, stammeringly warning them that the offensive in Gaza will only bring about massive rocket fire on Israel.

The message read: “Rockets on all cities, shelters not protect, Qassam rocket, Hamas.” A source in Hamas military wing confirmed the new tactic, adding that Hamas wants to warn the Israeli public against a future escalation in Gaza. Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) Spokesman Abu Abir said that the Palestinian organizations have a few surprises in store for the Israelis, and not just military-wise.

From rockets to texting

The latest post points to a new source of citizen journalism in Israel:

Israeli human rights group have launched a blog to document the abuses during the current violence in Gaza.

Bypassing the old timers

This group’s purpose:

In light of the fighting in Gaza and in Southern Israel, Israeli human rights groups are sending out ongoing updates about the impact on civilians. Our aim is to inform the Israeli public of events that are not being covered by the media. Each group is posting the information at its disposal, which is necessarily limited and cannot be taken as a comprehensive picture of the human rights violations currently taking place. Since the fieldworkers cannot access most locations at present, much of the information is being conveyed over the phone. The data has been verified to our best ability under the circumstances.

Carbon Media produced excellent video for National Indigenous TV (NITV) that is available at Black Tracks. Their 5 episodes include interviews with leading keynote speakers and conference delegates. A sample of the video interviews:

Black Tracks Melbourne Vodcast Episode 2 from Carbon Media on Vimeo.

I was fortunate enough to visit the traditional welcome, helping out on the ICV (Indigenous Community Volunteers) stall. ICV “is a not for profit organisation providing Indigenous Australians with new skills. Communities, organisations or individuals identify their skill needs then ICV matches the projects with volunteers to address those needs. Volunteering with ICV is about sharing skills and knowledge and learning together. Skills transfer projects can lead to employment, self employment and community development.”

There was considerable interest from conference delegates from around the globe in how this program could be adapted to their local needs.

A week after WIPCE closed, internet searches reveal little so far. An exception was in the Melbourne daily newspaper, The Age (13 December 2008) that profiled:

Graham Hingangaroa Smith, chairman of Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi — a Maori tertiary institution with students from certificate to PhD level.

A proponent of a self-described “education revolution”, Professor Smith was the first teacher of a Maori school. The system has grown from a single school in 1988 to a network of more than 80 government-funded schools.

His leadership also sparked the emergence of Maori studies at universities.

“We needed more Maori choices in the educational smorgasbord. It was both a reactive and proactive move,” he said. “We cannot talk as indigenous people about our socio-economic redevelopment without a prior education revolution.”

Dr. Chris Sarra, of Indigenous Education Leadership Institute of Australia and former principal of Cherbourg School in Queensland had addressed the conference about how we can have both stronger and smarter education that values both strong culture and smarter schools.

According to The Age:

Chris Sarra told the conference that educators had to adopt a “whatever-it-takes” approach to improving indigenous education.

Young indigenous people often mistakenly thought that being smarter made them less aboriginal, he said.

“How many of you have seen and heard of young indigenous children aspiring to do well in school, only to be pulled down by their indigenous peers with comments like ‘You think you're too flash for us now' or ‘You're a coconut',” he said to delegates.

He urged educators to embrace a student's indigenous identity as part of the pursuit of improved outcomes.

Maori educator still seeks the right answers

“The importance of keeping language alive” is one of the themes picked up in the Black Tracks interviews. “The issue of bilingualism in Northern Territory schools is a current hot topic” that they explore. A new government policy has seen a curtailment of classroom time for schools with bi-lingual programs.

This issue has been canvassed in Crikey, an independent Australian online media service. Their regular blogger, Bob Gosford,The Northern Myth, works in Yuendumu, 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. He has pursued this controversy:

Marion Scrymgour is Australia’s most powerful Aboriginal politician. As Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister, along with several other minor Ministries, she has one of the toughest jobs in Paul Henderson’s single-seat majority NT Labor government.

In the last 6 weeks she has summarily sacked her department’s CEO, announced a rushed and unpopular policy and faced relentless and sustained attacks from the media and in the parliament over her administration of education in the NT – particularly on what would be expected to be her particular strength — remote Aboriginal community-based education.

Marion Scrymgour – picks ‘big stoush’- gets bloody nose

The Minister replied at length. In summary:

I believe that schools have an important role to play in teaching regional Aboriginal languages and thereby ensuring their survival. I am simply saying that that teaching should take place in the afternoons.

Scrymgour: I support teaching regional Aboriginal languages

It is refreshing to see a politician engaging in a controversial debate through the new online media.

Finally, the NITV blog summed up the importance of the conference:

Many issues were addressed by other first nation people which our own mob here in Australia have encountered, are enduring, and will continue to battle with, such as native title, deaths in custody, Indigenous Youth Suicide, Stolen Generation, Assimilation and much more.

Whilst networking with other Indigenous delegates, there was a gold mine of information readily available to those willing to listen. We obviously share many battles as Indigenous people, we all aim to learn and be educated in one another's path's to victory, and finding the particular medium to educate the future generation, and preserve our culture, our heritage, our language, without compromise, without mediocrity, but with high levels of service and raising the bar.

WIPCE 2008 - Mitchell Stanley

It is a pity that the good news stories that were shared at WIPCE have not received greater media attention so far.