Thorns

Asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat to be resettled in Papua New Guinea

*flails*

Jon Stewart and the Burden of History A flawed but still interesting critique of John Stewart. This came up on my dash shortly after a discussion of how not-that-feminist Jane Austen was, and I think in both cases there's that ambiguity between satire for it's own sake and political statement. Critiquing hypocrisy and ridiculousness does not always extend to critiquing the system that allows such hypocrisy and ridiculousness to flourish, or those who are sensible and honest but harmful.

Mass Effect: Conviction Comic about the new crew member James Vega. And oh look, after the recent DLC where you had no choice but to destroy a planet of unfriendly aliens(*) we have yet another scene of a privileged guy berating thuggish aliens for being so belligerent about his complicity in the mass murder of their people. YAY.

A nice collection of links about this #yesgayya thing.

Also, I have no link to hand, but Australia now allows for a third gender on passports, and has removed the surgery requirement for trans people, huzzah!

(*)Making this the fourth time the player has to decide if (or in what way) they want to be complicit in genocide/mass murder. I would like a new moral dilemma please.

Al Jazeera has good coverage of the revolution (if it still counts as one, the way things are going?). I finally got around to subscribing to their RRS feed and it makes a nice adjunct to the more local focus of the ABC news, even if in both cases I mainly skim the headlines too sleepy to pay much attention.

Women in Tunisia’s Revolution has some nice criticism of the form of some of the attention it's gotten, and that lead me to Secular Good, Muslim Bad (nb: title is sarcastic) I do think it's a huge mistake to see countries as being on a one dimensional uncivilised/civilised dichotomy, with Western style secular capitalistic democracy etc being the pinnacle everyone should aspire to. I find this particularly obnoxious when Americans posit the US as the epitome of that pinnacle(*), because no (especially not in terms of secularity!)

Also, in other "things happening to in other countries that could maybe stand to have more attention" news, there is significant flooding in Brazil and Sri Lanka (and possibly other places I forgot, sorry :/). It seems in general like a good time to make unrestricted donations to general aid agencies such as the Red Cross, here is a post with some places to donate (I am sleepy and lazy, sorry)

(*)This metaphor got away from me a bit. Highpoint of that pinnacle? Hmm.

Because it is 3am and I have insomnia and this is the only thing on my to-do list I feel awake enough for.

One Nation Victoria State President promotes gay bashings on Twitter Normally "One Nation politician says terrible things" isn't newsworthy, but dear god.

GetUp ad of appalling things Tony Abbot has said (mostly but not all about women)

Also, for those who may have missed the not-horribly-conservative minor parties: The Sex Party seem pretty decent on a surprising number of issues. The secular party are, alas, in favour of banning the burka.

Don't vote above the line, it may be easier but your preferences may go somewhere unexpectedly crap! I really should figure out my preferences at belowtheline.org.au.

I've had trouble getting engaged with the upcoming election: I know who I'm voting for, and all the outcomes are just depressing. (Oh Julia Gillard. I was cynical about your chances of being an improvement, but not cynical enough)

Still! Via various people on twitter(*), The Age Vote-a-matic poll, which asks your opinions on various issues and tells you who to vote for.

This is interesting on two levels: first, it made me a little more aware of the main parties' policies and where I stand on them (I mean I knew I tended towards Greens policies, but I didn't know I agreed with them 88%)

But also it's a bit troubling to imagine possible bias in the questions chosen for the poll or how they're worded actually affecting the election outcome! (I didn't notice any, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist) I mean I'd like to think people wouldn't base their decisions solely on an internet poll but you never know...

Is it visible to non-Australians? I imagine you guys might find it interesting too, in an abstract sort of way :)

I reeeeally don't feel like getting into a political argument, this is one reason I don't tend to talk politics much. But I feel weird never talking about it at all.

(*)Where I am also sqbr, but I only tend to add people back if I know them irl, and not always then. I tend to forget to check it for long periods so like to keep my list short.

Disadvantaged kids dream big but fail

CHILDREN living in disadvantage are unaware of the harsh realities awaiting them, with a new poll indicating all students share the same ambitions and dreams.

Those silly children! Wanting to be doctors when they should realistically be aiming no higher than McDonald's manager! Clearly this is terrible, we should educate them on how they are doomed to lives of drudgery and despair, that way they'll be saved the disappointment later.

WHAT.

I grew up in a working class area. It's arguable that I was never entirely disadvantaged since my parents may have been poor but I got a lot more educational opportunities and general middle class...stuff than most kids in my class. But I was still ensconced in the culture. And let me tell you: those children's souls were already plenty crushed, their dreams sufficiently small, their hopes and aspirations sufficiently modest. We all "knew" we were going nowhere. God how we knew. Just sometimes we had hopes and dreams. How horribly ignorant of us.

Someone on debunkingwhite said they hadn't heard of the White Australia policy, and I started a "brief" post about it and it expanded into this...

The current situation is a direct result of 211 years of racism and anti-racism starting with colonisation, and a full history of race relations in Australia would take volumes. Specifically, I'm missing all the work by non-white Australians to fight (and in many cases overturn) these laws, I recommend Timeline of Significant Moments in the Indigenous Struggle in south east Australia. And of course the Australian population have done and are doing many horribly racist things (individually and as a group) that weren't government mandated, and Australian government officials have said and done many racist things that weren't explicitly part of broader policy, though in both cases it's not always easy to draw the line. See my australia+race/culture bookmarks.
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1) OMG Australian internet filtering ARGH ARGH

2) OMG Copenhagen, and global warming in general, ARGH ARGH

Any time I think about either of these topics I just get all ARGH and nothing coherent comes out. But yes. Argh.

This is a serious problem with me and climate change(*). I flip between not thinking about it and FREAKING OUT, neither of which leads anywhere very productive. I do force myself to read the posts that come up on my flist and do what I can to be less wasteful etc based on the knowledge I've managed to glean in bursts between thinking "What can I do about this?" and "ARGH can't think about this any more". But still :(

(*)The internet filter is bad, but might not happen and if it does is still very unlikely to lead directly to the end of civilisation as we know it.