If the last federal election promised the beginnings of a break from the two-parties-for-capitalism electoral system that has plagued Australian politics for the past century, the March 29, 2011 NSW election seems to be a lurch in the other direction.
The Liberal-National Coalition won dominance of the Legislative Assembly and (with small right-wing parties) control of the Legislative Council because a large number of working class voters punished the Labor party with a -13.5% swing.
874
Twenty people gathered on March 21 in Mitchell Park to commemorate the victims of the March 11 tsunami in Japan. The gathering made paper cranes and heard from Sachi Hirayama from Darwin Youth for the Japanese Disaster who promoted charity events for the cause.
Cat Beaton read a statement from Environment Centre Northern Territory saying that people鈥檚 thoughts were with those who lost loved ones as a result of the natural disaster but also with the workers struggling to rebuild after the devastation.
The situation inside every one of Australia鈥檚 refugee detention centres has grown dangerously volatile.
Just days after the Christmas Island breakout and subsequent protests, nine refugees climbed on the roof of a detention centre in Darwin after watching the assault of another refugee on March 15.
Two days later, a 20-year-old Afghan man hanged himself with a bedsheet at the Scherger detention centre after his refugee application was rejected.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel鈥檚 governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) survived a narrow vote in elections for the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The right-wing CDU lost 3% of the vote from the previous elections, dropping to 32.6% support. The two other big parties in the state, the far left Die Linke and the centrist Social Democrats (SPD), remained steady on 23.8% and 21.5% respectively.
Merkel鈥檚 allies at a federal level 鈥 the pro-free market Free Democrats 鈥 failed to cross the 5% threshold needed to win a seat, as did the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD).
About 50 people gathered at Murray St Mall, Perth on March 22 to participate in a speak-out called by the Refugee Rights Action Network.
The protest was called in response to the deteriorating conditions inside the detention centres and the recent use of tear gas and rubber bullets against the Christmas Island protestors.
On March 20, 1500 people marched in Tokyo opposing nuclear power in the aftermath of the nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima that followed the devastating March 9 earthquake.
Protesters also opposed the imposition of fiscal austerity by the government in the face of the earthquake disaster.
Activists have also staged speak-outs at the offices of Tokyo Electric, which runs the Fukushima plants, and government offices.
鈥淎s rain poured down last night, I thought I can鈥檛 possibly go this morning, but then I got on this morning and Daniel Ellsberg has been arrested in his 80s outside the White House, so we can brave a little rain!鈥澛
Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti鈥檚 last elected president, has finally returned home.
He was kidnapped from Haiti in a US-backed coup in 2004 and exiled in South Africa until his March 18 return.
Aristide returned to a country still devastated by last year鈥檚 earthquake. The US and its allies broke their promises to provide badly needed aid.
Two months earlier, Jean-Claude 鈥淏aby Doc鈥 Duvalier, the notorious former dictator overthrown in a mass rebellion in 1986, also returned to Haiti.
Two days after staging a rooftop protest, Burmese Rohingyan refugees inside the Northern Immigration Detention Centre (NIDC), received .
鈥淵our concerns about the delays in finalising cases are understandable,鈥 it said.
Australia is one step closer towards embracing disability as part of human diversity. On February 28 the Australian Government Productivity Commission released a draft report on Disability Care and Support.
If the general recommendations of the report were to be implemented, people with disability, their families and carers would achieve a much-needed improvement to their lives, albeit starting in 2014-15.
The report recommends a doubling of funding to the disability support system based on 2009-2010 spending, financed from general revenue.
What's the best mix of electricity supply sources for Australia in the context of growing scientific and public concern about climate change? Energy efficiency and conservation provide the first part of the answer 鈥 they can provide large, quick, cheap greenhouse emissions reductions.
This poem, by Afrodity Giannakis, is translated from Greek, It was published in a book also entitled Stowaway.
* * *
A stowaway in your life,
a refugee in your land,
an exile in your country,
a foreigner in your homeland,
of your history 鈥 you鈥檇 think 鈥
an invisible viewer.
Forever inside
waiting rooms.
A patience test.
An endurance test
in the age of abstention.
The only power they have left you:
Gossiping life.
Talking about life
behind her back.
- Page 1
- Next page