'Writings on the wall and for Brumby it's the blight of day'

THE world's most famous graffiti artist, Banksy, once said Melbourne's street art was arguably the nation's most significant contribution to the arts since the Aborigines' pencils were stolen.
He is possibly biased, but Melbourne City Council also appears to value it highly, recently covering a Banksy stencil in Cocker Alley with perspex to prevent its being vandalised.
And a poll by Lonely Planet found Melbourne's street art and lanes were the most popular cultural attraction in the nation, ahead of the National Gallery and Kakadu.
But Premier John Brumby yesterday slammed Tourism Victoria for including graffitied lanes in a recreated cityscape of Melbourne at Florida's Disney World, insisting the government did not want a display that "promoted graffiti".
"The department made a mistake. They've apologised to the minister and they'll be withdrawing the display," Mr Brumby said.
The Premier said the "nice part" of Melbourne's lanes was the "European-type" style, not the graffiti. "It's the openness, it's the little restaurants, it's the flower pots, window pots, all of those things. I don't think graffiti is what we want to be displaying overseas. We've put through very tough laws to discourage graffiti - it's a blight on the city."

The whole article, from The Age, is here.
John Brumby is being a bit silly. I'm wondering how long before we start seeing some rather unflattering carticatures of Mr Brumby in our laneways?

'SA defence expo cancelled'

Article from AdelaideNow:

Acting Premier Kevin Foley said yesterday the Government had full confidence in police to manage "these feral anarchists that would be descending on Adelaide" if the event, at the Convention Centre, had proceeded.

"However, the organisers had to take into account a number of factors, ranging from security issues as well as the level of support from the Defence Department," he said, also labelling the protesters "feral low-lifes".

"We had to weigh up a number of factors and the decision was taken that the cost of security, the possible threats of violence, were risks that on balance the organisers of the event and the Government agreed were not worth proceeding with."

Read the whole article here.
Props to Simon.

'Another hurricane looms, but New Orleans will rise again'

I forgot to mention this on Tuesday, but Andreana (my housemate) was in the opinion section of The Age again, this time writing about New Orleans and Hurricane Gustav. (Andreana was in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.)

ALMOST three years after hurricane Katrina ploughed through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, hurricane Gustav threatens to do the same. This time, the destruction could even be worse. The storm is already the same strength as hurricane Katrina but more than double its width. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has warned that the storm surge in some areas could be twice as high as the levees, although the US Army Corps of Engineers has been working on them since the destruction caused in 2005.

Read the whole article here.

'Australia can help the neighbourhood'

My housemate Andreana has an opinion piece in today's Age, about Australia's new scheme to allow 'unskilled' workers from the Pacific to come and work here:

The Government has announced this initiative after extensive lobbying by the National Farmers Federation — the scheme will tackle critical agricultural labour shortages by allowing Pacific islanders to work temporarily in Australian horticulture. Through the remittances that will be sent home to Pacific communities, this scheme also has the potential to help lift households out of poverty.

Read the full article here.

'Homeless crisis at top university'

THE Rudd Government is facing pressure to boost income support for tertiary students, as Victoria's most distinguished institution — Melbourne University — reveals that hundreds of its students are homeless due to rising living costs.

Read the whole article at The Age, here.

'Methadone treatment "too expensive" for most addicts'

A new report has found the cost of methadone programs is too high for most heroin addicts.
The Federal Government funds methadone treatment, but most pharmacies charge a $60 dispensing fee.
The RMIT University study found the fee was a barrier for many heroin users wanting to kick the habit.
Report author Dr James Rowe says the Government subsidises dispensing fees for most other medications.

The full article is at ABC News, here.
(Props to Tim.)

Pine Gap Four charges dropped!

Got this message from Simon about an hour ago:

Pine gap 4's
convictions quashed
and retrial refused!
Woo hoo!

(Me and Simon and the other Simon went and visited the US Consulate last year during the initial trial, to talk with them about the Pine Gap military base.)

Media coverage:
'Christian activist 'curious' about jail' - ABC News
'Pine Gap activists to appeal convictions' - ABC News
'Court hears appeal from Pine Gap protesters' - ABC News
'Australian Christian anti-war activists appeal prosecution' - Ekklesia
'Pine Gap protesters' convictions quashed' - Herald Sun
'Court finds in favour of Pine Gap protestors' - ABC Darwin

Apparently Sydney wants to become civilised?

'"Love thy enemy" -- U.S. soldier gets discharge'

A U.S. soldier who said his Christian beliefs compelled him to love his enemies, not kill them, has been granted conscientious objector status and honorably discharged, a civil liberties group said on Tuesday.
Capt. Peter Brown -- who served in Iraq for more than a year and was a graduate of the elite U.S. military academy West Point -- said in a statement issued by the New York Civil Liberties Union that he was relieved the Army had recognized his beliefs made it impossible for him to serve.
"In following Jesus' example, I could not have fired my weapon at another human being, even if he were shooting at me," said Brown, who plans to continue seminary classes he began by correspondence while in Iraq.

Read the rest here, at Yahoo News. (Props to Jarrod.)

Heroin in The Age

Yesterday The Age ran a number of articles about Afghanistan's heroin industry and the recent increase of heroin on Melbourne's streets:

Hammer horror - the curse of the streets returns
MELBOURNE is set to be caught up in an international tidal wave of high-purity Afghan heroin flooding world markets — with local addicts confirming the more lethal drug is already available on the city's streets.
The potential influx of Afghan heroin — produced from record opium crops flourishing in regions under Taliban rule — has sparked fears that Melbourne could once again become a destination for cheap, high-purity heroin as it was in the late 1990s.

A scourge woven into the fabric of Afghanistan
THE opium poppy symbolises the complexities and dilemmas confronting Afghanistan and its allies.
There are no easy answers in dealing with the crop that has made Afghanistan the world's largest opium producer, supplying 93 per cent of the illegal opium trade.
Opium cultivation accounts for 60 per cent of the Afghan economy and 90 per cent of its exports. More than three million people, 14 per cent of the population of 23 million, depend on it for their income.

Nothing but hits and memories
We cannot allow a repeat of the late '90s heroin scourge
Tragically, smack is coming back and drug experts such as Nick Crofts, from the Turning Point centre in Fitzroy, say we need to do some serious thinking about our treatment service. It is, he says, inadequate and struggling to cope with existing demand, let alone with what is yet to come. Says Dr Crofts: "We are working in a policy environment where the previous premier (Steve Bracks) said very clearly heroin is gone and the only problem we have now is amphetamines. Which is utterly wrong. State Government support for both medical treatment for people with addictions and the pharmaco-therapy program is pathetic."

A few days back it also mentioned Family First senator Steve Fielding's rebuke of the Labor Party for considering giving the Greens preferences, because of the Greens' harm minimisation policies:

'Outrage' at Greens preference deal
"It is absolutely outrageous to think that Kevin Rudd would want to preference the Greens, knowing their stance on drugs, free injecting rooms in streets, free heroin," Senator Fielding told ABC television...
...Senator Brown responded that the Greens' policies on drugs were for harm minimisation.
"Free heroin on the streets - that's absolutely wrong," he said.
"I'm a doctor. I hate drug addiction.
"But we've got to have sensible policies to meet it and we will make sensible policies."

(You can read the Greens' drug policy here.)

'The Rudd identity'

One of the central issues in this election campaign is what Kevin Rudd would be like as prime minister. Much of John Howard's campaigning is directed towards convincing us that, once he'd won, Rudd's me-tooing would stop and the real man would be revealed.
But here's the funny thing: what Liberal supporters fear, many Labor supporters hope for. They hope that once he'd won, Rudd's me-tooing would stop and the closet socialist — any kind of socialist — would be revealed.

(Read Ross Gittin's whole article from The Age here.)
It does seem really stupid that people are supporting Kevin 007 because they think he's going to be something that he's currently pretending not to be.

'Community's anger spills over'

The Age has published an article about how Kevin Andrews comments about Africans have given permission for people to bash Sudanese:

Youth leader Paul Bor Gatwech said said the minister's comments had given others licence to attack Sudanese people. He said an apology from Mr Andrews would help quell community fears that Sudanese-born migrants were being targeted.
Yesterday Mr Andrews was standing by his remarks on Sudanese refugees. A spokeswoman for the minister said: "Funerals are a very emotional time and the minister stands by his comments."

The full article is here.

'On common ground'

The Age's social affairs editor Farah Farouque has written a response to the federal government's decision to accept less African refugees:

RMIT's Professor Desmond Cahill, who was responsible for helping develop Vietnamese and Greek settlement programs, certainly sees something familiar in this week's debate. "In any immigration and refugees debate there are echoes of the past," he observes.
"When the Turks came in the early 1970s there was much doubt about there capacity to settle and integrate, followed by the East Timorese and larger Vietnamese groups. "Migration and refugee policy has always been a controversial topic, and most groups have taken a long time to be accepted.
"By the early 1970s, for example, 40 per cent of the Australian population did not want Italians admitted to Australia, even though most had already arrived."

The full article is here.

'African refugees face integration issues: Andrews'

Kevin Andrews says that the government has cut Australia's intake of African refugees because they have difficulty integrating into Australian society.

"We have detected that there have been additional challenges in relation to some of the people that have come from Africa over the last few years," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"We know that there is a large number of people who are young.
"We know that they have on average low levels of education, lower levels of education than almost any other group of refugees that have come to Australia. We know that many of them, if not most of them, have spent up to a decade in refugee camps and they've spent much of their lives in very much a war-torn, conflicted situation.
"And on top of that they have the challenges of resettling in a culture which is vastly different from the one which they came from," he said.

(The full article from The Age is here.)
Anyway... I feel pretty uneasy about this. It sounds to me a lot like what people said about Vietnamese when I was growing up.

'The sinister story behind chocolate'

Steve Chalke has an article in today's Age, about slavery.

'Afghanistan opium crop hits new record'

There's an article in today's Age about Afghanistan's heroin industry. This article from last year is also worth reading.

Pine Gap in the news #12

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has appealed the Pine Gap 4's sentence, claiming that the fines are 'manifestly inadequate', and that they need to go to gaol.
Donna Mulhearn and Adele Goldie are also appealling the conviction itself.

'Commonwealth appeals against Pine Gap sentences' - ABC News
'Govt to appeal "inadequate" Pine Gap fines' - Catholic News
'Commonwealth appeals Pine Gap sentences' - News.com.au
'Pine Gap protester surprised about DPP appeal' - ABC Alice Springs

'No way home'

When we show school groups and church groups around at Urban Seed, we often get asked about what causes homelessness. This article from Sunday's Age explores that question a bit.

Pine Gap in the news #10

Jess reckons the Pine Gap case is going to be finishing today, and says that yesterday the Pine Gap Four's defences were ruled as inadmissable. (I don't really get what that means though.) Jess's written about it here.

Also:
'Break-in was reasonable, Christian pacifist tells court' - ABC News Online
'Pine Gap invader cries in court' - ABC Radio Australia

Pine Gap in the news #9

'Pine Gap protest linked to Iraq war, pacificists tell court' - ABC News Online