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Frogs in the Melting Pot
Gang Shen | September 18, 2009Some 547,000 overseas students help create an A$ 15.5 billion annual industry for Australia.
However the countries third-largest export industry, following only coal and iron ore exports, is under threat as Australia ignores the calls of international students for better safety and fair treatment following a re-emergence of racist attitudes.
Hundreds of students took to the streets on 2 September 2009 in Sydney; again, to protest against racism. They urged the Australian government to take seriously students’ grievances; including concerns about safety, accommodation, visas, transport concessions and shonky institutions.
To be frank, none of these problems are new.
For a long time an inefficient bureaucratic system and ingrained racist attitudes have allowed all of these problems to remain unsolved in Australia.
The situation is similar to putting frog in slowly heated water.
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Drawing the Political Curtains in Myanmar
Monica Schubert | September 18, 2009To the junta, international relations are an unwanted side-effect of politics. Dumping critical attention on Myanmar’s doorstep only seems to alarm its agoraphobic leaders.
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German Climate Politics: All that Glitters not Gold
Nina Drewes | September 18, 2009Germany is often seen as an international leader in terms of Climate Protection, and deservedly so. Year after year, it takes one of the first positions on the Climate Change Performance Index, which compares the emission trends and climate protection policies of the world’s Top CO2 Emitting Nations.
But all that glitters is not gold, and the country might be less exemplary than it seems.
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How History Has Been Erased in China
Open Forum | September 18, 2009Glorious as China’s 60th National Day may be, people the world over still remember the image of a single defiant protester halting a convoy of tanks in Beijing Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.
But Chinese youngsters born in the 1980s may not, owing much to the government’s control over domestic media.
Heavily influenced by the western media, Chinese youngsters will probably not get an objective view over this historical event. Thereafter, they may be used by some as tools for an anti-China purpose. If this is not what people expect, why cannot they be given the chance to have their own interpretation with all-round information?
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Cambodian Land-Grabbing Epidemic
Katie Scott Aiton | September 18, 2009On the horizon of Cambodia’s future lies a mish-mash of high-rise casinos and five star beach resorts juxtaposed between swelling refugee camps and rubbish dump homes; a ‘justified’ vital makeover for the adolescent democratic kingdom.
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Typhoon Morakot the Aftermath
Yao Tong | September 17, 2009Typhoon Morakot has not only brought a deadly natural disaster to southern Taiwan, but also sees President Ma Ying-jeou face his toughest challenge since taking power.
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China a Partner Australia Can’t Live Without
He Yun | September 16, 2009After the arrest of Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu On June 2, and the visit of World Uyghur Congress leader Rabya Kadeer to Australia, Sino-Australian relations experienced an ice-age chill. China responded by cancelling the scheduled senior ministerial visit to Australia, leaving Prime Minister Kevin Rudd describing the bilateral relationship as “full of challenges.”
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Kenya’s Mau Forest Swindle
Lynette Mwangi | September 16, 2009Kenya’s political headlines are monopolised by scandals, of which the Mau Forest swindle is perhaps the most scandalous.
The Mau Forest complex saga has been an ongoing subject of political discussion over the past few years. Located in Western Kenya, it is the country’s largest forest, housing the nation’s main water tower.
As of 2001, during former President Daniel Moi’s administration, approximately 40,000 hectares in the heart of the forest was excised from Kenyans by corrupt political leaders. This corruptly grabbed land was acquired by both past and present politicians. The land was then sold off to gullible buyers who either settled or subdivided their ‘rightful’ chunks of land.
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Clinton’s Pyongyang Visit Rescue Mission: No Change to US Foreign Policy
Andrew Wilson | September 16, 2009A month has already passed since former US President Bill Clinton, husband of the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, flew to North Korea to broker the release of two American journalists.
The apparent political objective of Clinton’s trip was to lay some groundwork for possible negotiations between the United States and North Korea, who recently indicated a desire to engage the Obama administration in direct talks. In the short term, there is no apparent change in relations between the rogue state and the US.
The Obama administration has been eager to separate Clinton’s mission from their official policy regarding North Korea ever since his plane left for Pyongyang. Indeed, no government officials travelled with the former president and he chartered a private jet, instead of using a government plane.
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Ricky Ponting the Nathan Rees of Cricket
Louise Easson | September 16, 2009In The Art of War, Sun Tzu’s tells us that “without a general, the army is totally useless.”
This old adage has never been more pertinent than when applied to the current NSW Labor government and Australian cricket team. They are both so weakly led.Whether in politics or cricket, without a good leader, you lose battles.
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Indefinite Deferrals: Planning to Nowhere
stokes_hughes_anthony | September 16, 2009In 1998 the then Premier of NSW, Bob Carr, first conceived the NorthWest Rail Link. It was to be integrated into the existing CityRail network; connecting the city’s north, via the exisitng station at Epping, to the growth centre of the west with end of the line at Rouse Hill.
The project was due for completion by 2010.
However after the 1998 state election, which Carr won, the NorthWest Rail Link plans never followed through.
In March of 2008 former Premier Morris Iemma announced his major rail infrastructure plan to tackle the northwest. Construction was proposed of a metro-style subway, the NorthWest Metro; direct from St James in the city to Rouse Hill in the west.
This project was due for completion in 2017.
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Woman Bites Dog: Unequal Affairs in Australian Politics
Mark Worley | September 14, 2009As one political sex scandal roared to life in New South Wales two weeks ago, another in Tasmania finally came to an end.
