As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Australia has the opportunity to make a substantial contribution to creating a better world. Foreign Minister Bob Carr declared Australia a 'fine global citizen'. Yet last Wednesday, we cynically ratified the international treaty to ban cluster munitions after legislating to create a loophole that will undermine the treaty's effectiveness.
We now know that, in the name of the US alliance, our Government attempted to scuttle the significance of the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions. Thus far the Greens are the only party to take the point, and the only party in full sympathy with the Vatican on this issue.
This week's international conference in Dublin has agreed on a draft treaty to ban cluster bombs. The Rudd Government has become the bad guy, by ensuring the 'smart bombs' purchased by the former Howard Government were excluded from the treaty.
The Independent Commission against Corruption in New South Wales continues to provide stunning insights into the compromised relationship between the major political parties and government in that state. It has moved on from Labor to the Liberal party and from political lobbying to political donations. But the essence of the story remains the same. Casual self-interest reigns, and the culture of political life at the top-end is corrupted.
Where were you? Not in the dark car, inside that shrunken space, on its slow glide to the boneyard. Perhaps in the white lineage of your brothers at the altar, or traced on your crucifix — your DNA, your trust.
Four new studies on the health crisis in Fallujah have been released in the last three months. The studies suggest babies are dying of wounds from a war they never saw. Australia has already breached its admirable 'Australian Agenda' at the UN, succumbing to US pressure to abstain from a vote on depleted uranium weapons.
Death is different at night ... A cool light we gently call dawn enters the tree tops and so enters me. I am entering the next world ... Can it be in some secret way I am dead?
The character flaws of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are being exaggerated in order to shift the burden of shame from embarrassed governments on to Assange himself. We need to be told why it's in the public interest to hide the undermining of the international cluster bombs ban by the British Foreign Office.
May I tell you about one refugee whom I met during the 20 years I lived and worked JRS? The story has no happy outcome, indeed far from it. But it may help to communicate some of the feelings that inspire many who accompany the refugees.
Julia Gillard appears to be in no mood to countenance the type of conviction politics that would be required to ratify the ban of cluster bombs. This is a far cry from the glory days of Kevin07 when Rudd said he would ratify Kyoto, then did exactly that.
There is tension in the churches between those focused on piety and those engaged with social justice. Benedict's document on globalisation will presumably stress that concern for social justice is essential to the Church's mission.
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