A new report from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) casts doubt on the ability of current government and corporate policy to meet its goal of 鈥渃losing the gap鈥 between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal unemployment.
The CAEPR report looks at the goals and achievements of two private-sector initiatives: the Australian Employment Covenant and Generation One.
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On November 22, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Vice-President Elias Jaua headed a meeting including the regional vice presidents of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV 鈥 the mass party led by Chavez) as well as government vice-presidents. The two groups make up the Council of Vice-Presidents.
A magistrate at the Geelong Magistrates Court dismissed the charges against nine peace activists on November 29. The activists had blocked the road to Swan Island Defence Training Facility in Queenscliff on June 16.
The activists 鈥 Jessica Morrison, Julie Moyle, Trent Hawkins, Mitch Cherry, Tom Beattie, Shane Anderson, Dave Fagg, Ellen McNaught, Leesl Wegner 鈥 were charged with hindering police and obstructing a road.
On June 16, the court dismissed charges against four activists who entered the base in March and shut off equipment.
As indigenous peoples, we are extremely concerned that the principles agreed upon in the Cochabamba People鈥檚 Agreement have been unilaterally removed from the negotiating document [for the Cancun climate conference] that was released on November 24.
Equally alarming is the misrepresentation of the Copenhagen Accord as a legitimate path forward, despite its widespread denouncement by civil society and its tepid reception last December in Denmark, when the United Nations merely 鈥渢ook note of鈥 it.
The Cuban Communist Party has called its Sixth Congress for April. It has presented a document for discussion that proposes economic and political reforms to be implement over the next five years.
The proposals are outlined in the 鈥淭he Economic and Social Policy Development Project鈥, a 32-page pamphlet that establishes 291 鈥渓ines of action鈥.
The document covers: the economic management model; macroeconomic and foreign economic policies; investment, agro-industrial and energy plans; and initiatives in the tourism, transport, construction and trade sectors.
One of the features of advances in military technology is that an increasing proportion of those killed in wars are civilians, not combatants.
During the 20th century, airstrikes became the preferred form of warfare by technologically well-resourced superpowers. This led to civilians becoming the majority of those killed in wars worldwide.
In the first decade of the new century, new developments in military technology have raised the possibility for powerful countries of increasingly dispensing with combatants entirely.
The United Nations global climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, looks set to repeat the failures of Copenhagen. The chances of Cancun producing a binding agreement that would avert climate disaster are next to zero.
Many world leaders have not even bothered to attend the summit, which runs from November 29 to December 10.
Leaders of rich nations and the media talked much about the 鈥渓ow expectations鈥 of an agreement in the lead-up to the conference.
The Venezuelan government released a statement accusing the United States of provoking the ongoing conflict between North and South Korea to further US interests in the region, Venezuelanalysis.com said November 26.
The statement came amid escalating tensions, as the US and South Korea carried out military exercises in disputed waters North Korea claims as its own.
Many liberal environmentalists say that people must sacrifice some luxuries to save the environment and/or help the world鈥檚 poor. A more equitable sharing of the world鈥檚 resources means some will have to give up a bit.
For the well-off, sacrifice is like charity: giving up a few privileges to make themselves feel better. For such people, the idea of sacrifice tends to reinforce an elitist mentality.
But for poorer, working-class people, sacrifice has a different connotation.
I do not support women being forced to wear the burqa. I see it as one manifestation of the myriad of ways women are oppressed in this patriarchal society.
But I want to make it clear that I do not support a ban on the wearing of a burqa. Banning the wearing of a burqa would simply mean that the person who wears it 鈥 voluntarily or otherwise 鈥 is criminalised. It would not, as some female supporters of the ban argue, help women extricate themselves from patriarchal control over their lives.
A common right-wing perception is that one either is, or is not, a member of David Hicks鈥 鈥渃heer squad鈥.
Chris Merritt, reviewing this book in the October 22 Australian, actually referred to a Hick鈥檚 鈥渃heer squad鈥. Merritt lamented: 鈥淭he whole appalling story of his treatment by the US military commission would be trotted out.鈥
Trotted out? A clever way to admit that what Hick鈥檚 says is true, but at the same time trivialise the details.
I am not sure what Hicks鈥 personal views have been on a number of issues, and not addressing them is perhaps a weakness of the book.
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