Punch on: Open thread 10/12/09

stephen says:

04:45am | 10/12/09

The five permanent members of the Security Council should be expanded to include Germany, Japan and possibly Brazil. (Five is too few anyway).
The so-called Declaration of Human Rights (another bit of paper), should be supplemented by a permanent U.N. peacekeeping force, to be on stand-by to all parts of the world at short notice.
Otherwise, this mob will be redundant. (They talk too much.)

Joel B1 says:

07:15am | 10/12/09

Hurrah, my comment sort of fits! Thanks LK.

A Modern Australian Fairy-tale

For about two years now I been struggling to make sense of the world and Australia in particular. And searching for a way to explain to my primary school kids what’s going on. This is needed because they are “feed” all sorts of nonsense, along with good things like learning mathematics and stuff. As an example, they have a UN produced poster of 100 Human Rights in their classrooms.

One of those rights is the “right to be safe at all times”. Now call me thick but what? I’ve had to tell my kids that they still have to look both ways and be careful when crossing the road and we still wear seatbelts in the car and we don’t go walking down dark alleys at 3am in the morning after drinking lots wearing a micro-skirt and expect everything to be lovely and safe.

Anyway, back to the fairy-tale. This is how I describe modern Australian life.
All us peasants got a new ruler a few years ago, Sir Kev. Now Sir Kev is your typical ruler in that he’s always off overseas on some crusade or other (and to be honest that’s how us peasants like it). He leaves the lovely but chaste Lady Julia behind who doesn’t get too lonely because she has Sheriff Swan for company (she rather likes Sir Kev being off too). Sheriff Swan is your typical bane of us peasants’ life because he just loves taxes, and taxing, and then spending all those taxes. But at least some of those taxes pay for our ruler Sir Kev to be out of our hair more often than not. Sir Kevs latest crusade is against the much feared Dragon, the Anthropomorphic Global Wurm. Us peasants aren’t all convinced it exists but if it did it’ll scorch our meagre crops awfully. So it’s lucky that Sir Kev armed with his intellectual rigour is up against that Wurm. And if all that wasn’t bad enough we have the rebels in the wilderness taunting us with wild accusations of Sir Kevs impropriety. For the moment they’re led by the much trimmer and six-packed-stomached Friar Tony Abbot. And his unlikely accomplice Joyce as Robin Hood.
So that’s what life’s like in modern Australia, things still pretty much as they always have been. And that’s the way us peasants like it.

Matthew Bowen says:

08:58am | 10/12/09

Indeed,  Human Rights Day is something to be cherished and celebrated.

The Guiness Book of Records states that the UN Declaration of Human Rights is the most quoted piece of literature in history. A fine accomplishment for a document that should sit as the foundation of social interaction and political decision-making of the world. But one question still remains to be answered. If the UNDHR is the most quoted document in modern society, then what are we actually quoting and why is it not sinking in?

Since the late 1990’s, there has been huge violations of human rights in Darfur, Sudan. Over 300,000 civilians have been killed and millions of Sudanese nationals have fled the country to seek safe-haven in new countries. The Government of Khatoum actively engage and promote militia to kill non-arab sudanese communities. They too join in the killing spree.

On the other side of the civil war are the SLA and JEM, two civilian armies. Fighting for their freedom, liberation from war and for democracy in their nation. The price they pay for this is displacement, loss of life and an existence defined by poverty. The price of not fighting? displacement, loss of life and an existence defined by poverty. So if there is nothing to lose from warring with a government, and a small chance of a brighter, more prosperous future, who wouldn’t take up arms and fight for what’s right?

In Australia, We only gamble on horses.
We only stand up for something when we’re drunk in the pub. 
We only fight with our siblings on Christmas day.
In Australia, we are very lucky indeed. We take peace for granted, and very few stand up for social justice and human rights. 

On Human Rights Day, I challenge you to think who are the real heroes in this world. Those who fight for power, pride and oil or those who are fighting for a very basic chance at a life?

John A Neve says:

10:30am | 10/12/09

Joel B1,

Sad, but so very true. Why think? If we let others tell us what to do and all goes well Hurrah. If things go wrong (and they often do), we can blame the King and all his courtiers.

We really hate democracy, it means we have to think.

John A Neve says:

11:09am | 10/12/09

Matthew Bowen,

You quite rightly paint a bleak picture. But the answer to your question is very simple. For those of us in stable, relatively safe countries, there is no profit in intervention. The “free world” is profit driven; What’s in it for us, Irag was oil, Afghanistan is oil.

Come on Matthew, get real, are the Sudanees fighting for DEMOCRACY or what we’ve got?

Eric says:

04:26pm | 10/12/09

John A Neve, you are very naive.

Afghanistan has no oil.

Sudan has lots of oil, but it’s owned by China.

Please try to research the facts before you say stupid things.

John A Neve says:

05:49pm | 10/12/09

Eric,

Unlike you I won’t be insulting, but the oil companies want to built a pipeline across Aghanistan. As to Sudan, I did not even mention it, so what your problem Eric?

It seems I do a Little more reseach than you.

steve says:

07:38pm | 10/12/09

It is almost laughable that many spruik human rights, compassion & tolerance and yet one mention of refugees and the mongrel surfaces.