Spitting Into the Wind

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator the Hon Helen Coonan yesterday launched the guidelines for the new Australian Broadband Guarantee program, a key element of the Australian Government’s recently announced Australia Connected package.

“This week, the Australian Government announced the unprecedented roll out of fast broadband services through the new OPEL network, extending coverage to 99 per cent of the population.

“The Government has not forgotten about the remaining one per cent of Australians without access to fast affordable broadband,” Senator Coonan said.

“The Guarantee provides a safety net that ensures Australians living in the most remote or difficult to reach areas are entitled to a broadband subsidy up to $2750 per household. That is the guarantee to all Australians.”

The media release contained challenges to Opposition leader Mr Rudd and the Labor Party to come up with details of their broadband announcement. The results are all good for the Australian population. According to one forum topic, Australia's broadband compared to the rest of the world is slower, has a poorer coverage area, has more limited usages and is more expensive. This response was followed by a post that claimed "Indeed, my personal experience is that US broadband is markedly inferior to Australian broadband, generally speaking."

Posted at 1:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was asked if he would like to meet Bono, and the guy declined, saying "I've got to say that meeting celebrities isn't kind of my shtick, that was the shtick of the previous guy". Shtick? This PM is reputed to be a somewhat wooden figure regularly mocked for his lack of flair, and told reporters Thursday that meeting Bono was not a priority. If only I could have been in this PM's shoes for five minutes. To his credit, he did say he liked the music of Bono's band U2.

I've been a U2 fan for as long as they've been around, and would give anything to meet the ageing rocker. Bono (pronounced BAH'-noh), who's real name is Paul Hewson, is my hero in his fight against poverty. He's one of the those legends of rock who are known to give cash hand-outs to the homeless, and donates millions in his work as an activist.

Posted at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

Hundreds of people have marched from Sydney's Town Hall to Circular Quay to mark Sorry Day.

The mood among the marchers was sombre as they marched through the CBD waving small Aboriginal flags.

This year's Sorry Day marks the 10th anniversary of the Bringing Them Home report, which documented the impact of the Stolen Generations on the Indigenous community.

Some marchers say today is about Australia coming to terms with its history.

"It's about the country coming to terms with our people and what they have done with them. They're still in denial there was Stolen Generations," said one marcher.

27 May 2007 to 3 June 2007

National Reconciliation Week is an important time for all Australians. It is the practice to mark National Reconciliation Week through the flying and display of the Australian Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag.

The two dates are significant in the history of reconciliation. The 27th of May is the anniversary of the date of the 1967 Referendum which successfully removed from the Constitution clauses that discriminated against Indigenous Australians. The 3rd of June is the anniversary of the High Court decision in the Eddie Mabo land rights case handed down in 1992. The theme of National Reconciliation Week for 2007 is ‘Their Spirit Still Shines’.

The Australian Aboriginal Flag is displayed at Aboriginal centres and is well recognised as the flag of Aboriginal peoples of Australia. It is flown during NAIDOC Week to celebrate and promote greater understanding of Indigenous peoples and culture and during National Reconciliation Week.

The top half of the flag is black to symbolise Indigenous people. The red in the lower half stands for the earth and the colour of ochre, which has ceremonial significance. The circle of yellow in the centre of the flag represents the sun.

The Torres Strait Islander Flag was adopted in May 1992 during the Torres Strait Islands Cultural Festival.

The green panels at the top and bottom of the flag represent the land and the central blue panel represents the sea. The black lines dividing the panels represent the Torres Strait Islander people. The centre of the flag shows a white dhari (dancer’s headdress) and is a symbol for all Torres Strait Islanders. Underneath the dhari is a white five-pointed star. The star is an important symbol for navigating the sea. The points of the star represent the island groups in the Torres Strait and white symbolises peace.

Posted at 7:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

I thought time off for good behaviour was something you got when you fronted a parole board after nearly serving all of your sentence. Seems that if you have influential parents, lots of money, and are a celebrity of sorts you can get all sorts of concessions not available to us ordinary folk.

Without even spending any time behind bars, hotel heiress and notorious party girl Paris Hilton has had her prison term halved for good behaviour.

According to this story from News.com.au, Paris will only serve 23 days of her 45-day sentence, and the good behaviour was turning up at court! She was sentenced to jail this month for violating her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case. A judge ordered her to report to jail by June 5.

She'll get to stay in a "special needs housing unit" at the Century Regional Detention Centre in suburban Lynwood, reserved for police officers, public officials, celebrities and other high-profile inmates.

It just doesn't seem fair does it?

Posted at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

With Mother's Day tomorrow, I was appalled to read these stories today. In my book, the mother is the nurturer, the one who gives love and protection to her child. Not these nightmare images of mothers who mutilate, starve to death, and even sell their own flesh and blood. My heart goes out to these children.

A mother who claimed the family dog tore off her baby son's genitals was arrested Friday and accused of mutilating the boy herself with a sharp instrument.

Such news stories are becoming every day events these days and we read them and have little reaction. They're all too commonplace. This particular woman's baby was only 3 months old and faces years of reconstructive surgery and God only knows what mental side-effects. Sadly, the mother probably sees herself as the victim of some other event that led to this horror story.

The New York Post reported two similar stories on the same day:

• A Texas woman is accused of selling her child to a man she knew for $3000. Authorities said the teen turned up in Mexico and is now back in foster care; and
• Prosecutors have filed murder charges against a Colorado couple, saying they killed a malnourished 7-year-old who died on Sunday.

To all those loving Mothers out there who are as shocked and outraged over these stories as me, Happy Mother's Day.

Posted at 3:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

I just signed a petition to jail Paris Hilton. This petition asks Governor Schwarzenegger to ignore other petitions asking for clemency and show the people of California that no one is above the law. This petition asks that Governor Schwarzenegger do everything in his power to ensure that Paris Hilton serve her full 45 day sentence.

For as long as she has been in the public spotlight, Paris Hilton has knowingly and willingly broken the law, and her actions have gotten more and more brazen over the last few years. Her actions indicate that she feels the law doesn't apply to her as she has repeatedly flaunted the law in full view of witnesses, often paparazzi and camera crews.

The petition so far has 51,00 signatures, and rising by the minute. That is an awful lot of anti-Paris Hilton people. Most of those 50,000+ people have left comments on the site and they make good reading, with lots of reasons why they think she should be locked up.

None of us "ordinary folk" would get away with anything like Paris has. I agree that she should do the time like anybody else, and that she thinks she is above the law. One petitioner wrote:

Keep the woman in jail. I want to see her serve the entire thing so that other people see that celebrities don't get treated better. I only wish California was a 2 strikes (instead of 3 strikes) state. Then she would be in jail for life, and we wouldn't have to deal with her constant complaining and whoring!

Only 22,006 people have signed a petition to free Paris.

Update: The New York Post ran a poll asking for viewers to vote on this topic. Here's the results:

Posted at 12:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) |

I read a story today that made me think about the strength of our love. You see so many people who profess to love someone, and suddenly they break up and are with someone else. Or sometimes they don't bother to break up and cheat on that person they profess to love.

Imagine loving somebody so much that after they die all you can think about is to join them in death. I'm sure that does happen.

There's an old man in India who has spent six years lying inside his own grave waiting to die as he mourns for his wife. Basanta Roy claims he is 103 and spends his day clearing weeds from the grave and lying in it. Belonging to a Hindu caste who bury their dead, Roy dug his grave close to his wife's after she died in the late 1990s.

"He cleans his grave every day and waits for his death, which seems to be eluding him," said Shyam Narayan Ram, a senior government official from Jharkhand state.

My heart goes out to this old man, and I am awed by the strength of his love for his wife.

Posted at 11:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |