On August 18, as I woke up to the news of an attack that took place in Israel's southernmost city of Eilat in which seven Israelis died, the first thing that came to my mind was: 鈥淲ho the hell did聽 it?鈥
As my brother excitedly narrated to me the details of the oddly mysterious incident, I was foolish enough to wish the assailants weren鈥檛 from Gaza.
I naively said to my brother: 鈥淟et鈥檚 hope they don鈥檛 turn out to be聽Gazans.鈥
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that his government would nationalise the exploration and exploitation of gold and related activities, AVN said on August 17.
Chavez said: "I will soon propose an enabling law so as to begin taking control of the gold area and I expect you to support me, because anarchy rules in this zone, there are mafias, smuggling.
"This is a great wealth, one of the world鈥檚 largest. There is plenty of gold, precious stones, diamonds, bauxite and iron in Guyana.
Most of us protesters were across the road from the Sofitel Wentworth luxury hotel in the heart of Sydney鈥檚 business district where the $900-a-head NSW Mineral Exploration and Investment Conference was underway on August 18.
As far as I can figure out, watching the recent reports of stock markets making their bid for this year鈥檚 World Yo-Yo Championships, it works like this: if a bunch of rich bastards with too much money think shares will go up, they will go up; if the rich bastards think they will go down, they will go down.
And, among other things, this is how they determine whether we can afford to retire.
The Sydney Morning Herald said on August 7 that stock market plunges had wiped $30 billion from Australian superannuation funds over the past six weeks.
Depression article 鈥榙angerous鈥
Although I would agree that 鈥渄epression is a complex illness and capitalism is making its prevalence far worse鈥, the suggestion in that the core of these psychosocially manifest conditions is not biological and appropriately treated with medication is downright dangerous given that the suffering involved is so great that it drives many to suicide.
If you want to be Marxist, demonstrate a little historical materialism please.
Dr David Faber,
Adelaide, SA
Magdalena Sitorus, head of Friends of Indonesian Children and Women, and solicitor Edwina Lloyd spoke at a forum on people smuggling on August 15, hosted by Indonesian Solidarity at Amnesty International鈥檚 Sydney offices.
Sitorus provided background on the status of children in Indonesian law.
That day Lloyd had represented an Indonesian boy imprisoned on a charge of people smuggling, at his first age determination hearing at Bankstown Court. So many people are facing people smuggling charges in Indonesia that Monday is known as 鈥減eople smuggling day鈥, she said.
Angeline Loh, who works with the Malaysian human rights groups , will join close to a dozen international guest speakers at the World at a Crossroads, , which will be held at the University of Melbourne over September 30 to October 3.
The people of Koonawarra, Berkeley, Warrawong and Port Kembla are being neglected while redevelopments such as the Blue Mile (a foreshore development around Wollongong harbour) and $14 million Wollongong mall makeover soak up limited funds, say Community Voice Ward 3 candidates for council elections Adrianne Talbot-Thomson and Ken Davis.
鈥淐ouncil鈥檚 city-centric approach needs to be replaced with a more geographically equitable distribution of resources, services and projects,鈥 said Talbot-Thomson.
After the riots in Britain, magistrates were advised to 鈥渄isregard normal sentencing鈥 when examining the cases of people involved. The result of this is a rapid rate of convictions and a complete lack of proportion between the crimes committed and the sentences delivered.
After a screening of Gasland on August 10 attracted 60 people to Armidale鈥檚 Progressive Cinema, more than 30 people stayed after the film to discuss what to do locally.
Carmel Flint, from the Northern Inland Council for the Environment, alerted those present to plans for coal seam gas mining in the Pilliga forest south of Narrabri and new coalmines endangering native forests.
The meeting decided to form a local action group to stop coal and coal seam gas mining on agricultural land, as well as in native forests.
Quarantine staff at Australia's international airports walked off the job for four hours on August 19.
The action was part of a campaign by Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) members working in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) to win a better enterprise agreement.
The strike caused some delays at the airports, and affected cargo inspections, the release of imported goods and the x-ray screening of international mail.
Close to 1000 people turned out on August 14 for a rally to 鈥淪ave the Kimberley鈥. Musicians entertained the crowd in between speakers from environment groups and Indigenous communities.
The protest was called by local group Country Calling in support of the campaign to prevent a natural gas processing facility being built at James Price Point, called Walmadan by the Indigenous people of the area. The point is on the Dampier Peninsula near Broome, Western Australia, in the famous Kimberley wilderness region.
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