It is always worth keeping in mind that, despite the lurid fantasies of the right-wing nut jobs at News Corpse to the effect that the ABC is a bastion of leftist radicalism, the state broadcaster is in fact merely the propaganda arm of the Australian establishment.
Last night's Four Corners program, Inside the Greens: A Party in Turmoil, which featured former Greens leader Bob Brown and others attacking NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, was a case in point.
Cast your mind back to 2010-2011, when Sydney's Marrickville Council, dominated at the time by The Greens, bravely took a stand for Palestine by adopting a pro-BDS policy against the purchase of Israeli products, and when its Greens Mayor, Fiona Byrne only narrowly failed to snatch the NSW state seat of Marrickville from Labor for her party at the 2011 state election.
Many of Rhiannon's detractors on Four Corners have form going back to that time. Here's a reminder:
Sally Neighbour, the current executive producer of Four Corners, used to write for Murdoch's Australian, and earlier took The Greens to task (Divided we fall) in Morry Schwartz's The Monthly. (See my 3/2/12 post Get Rhiannon! 2)
Richard Di Natale, the current federal leader of the party, once cluelessly agreed to the proposition that the Palestinians should "recognise Israel's existence as a Jewish state," before later backtracking when apprised of the implications of what he'd said. (See my 23/5/15 post Richard Di Natale Reclassified.)
Bob Brown, the party's founder, has attacked the NSW Greens in the Murdoch press, claiming NSW Greens' support for BDS was "against his advice" and urging the branch to stick to "bread-and-butter issues." (See Bob Brown & A Failure of Courage, 1/4/11)
Ian Cohen, a former NSW Greens MLC, has condemned his party's support for BDS as "old style" and expressed concern about "Jewish community outrage." (See my 31/3/11 post Kahane Down Under?)
Christine Milne, Di Natale's predecessor, has spoken out against BDS, travelled to Israel (although whether or not at her own expense we do not know), and once spoke in favour of regime change in Libya. (See Some Questions for Christine Milne (21/4/12), Has Christine Milne Been Rambammed? (11/7/14), A Gripe About The Greens (24/3/11))
Jeremy Buckingham, a NSW Greens MLC, joined the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel and signed the so-called London Declaration on Combatting Antisemitism. (See my 27/5/13 post Et tu, Jeremy?)
The issue of the NSW Greens' support for Palestine emerged only obliquely in the program. Presenter Louise Milligan's bias against that support, however, was clear at this point:
Milligan: While her leader is travelling the country, trying to hold his party together, Lee Rhiannon has flown to the Middle East and is crossing into Palestine.
Rhiannon: When you see it like that you can see why they call it an apartheid wall. What you see when you arrive in this country is apartheid. From the West Bank to Gaza, people are treated as second class citizens. Their human rights are ignored or abused.
Milligan: And she's still lobbing political grenades at her party: reviving a campaign to boycott Israeli businesses in Australia which has seen a backlash against the Greens in the past.
Rhiannon: There is a value in this campaign, and it's a reminder of why people like ourselves in Australia and around the world... it's time to reassess this form of struggle, because there are very clear examples of the value it brings to solidarity and the results it can achieve.
Milligan: Her leader disagrees.
Di Natale: It's not something that the Australian Greens have ever supported. It's not something that I support.
Milligan: It's these sorts of clashes with the federal party that have prompted the Greens elders to tell Four Corners it's time for Senator Lee Rhiannon to go.
Brown: Oh, well, you know, I've been living with Lee for 30 years, but it's the end of Lee's reign. The end is nigh, and I look toward the future.
Showing posts with label Sally Neighbour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sally Neighbour. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Friday, February 3, 2012
Get Rhiannon! 2
Hot on the heels of Christian Kerr's smearing of Greens senator Lee Rhiannon as a natural born Stalinist, and BDS as her anti-Semitic devil-child, came a February 1 hatchet job on the NSW branch of the Greens by the Australian's chief political correspondent Matthew Franklin: Greens 'riven by branch warfare'.
Kerr's Back in the USSR theme was revived, with Franklin quoting supposed "revelations" that the NSW Greens are "run by a 'cadre' of Leninist-style ideologues whose activities are making it appear to be populated by 'lunatics'."
Franklin's "revelations" were conveniently drawn from an article in the latest issue of The Monthly magazine by Sally Neighbour, curiously described merely as a "journalist."
Is the reader supposed to have forgotten that Sally Neighbour, far from being a genuinely independent journalist, is actually a News Limited employee?
So, since we're dealing here with a case of churnalistic incest, with Franklin simply paraphrasing Neighbour, why not bypass the monkey and proceed straight to the organ grinder herself?
But first, a general observation: Does anyone really believe that the Australian would be so obsessed with Lee Rhiannon but for her support for the Palestinians?
Does anyone remember its repeated lashings of Labor's Julia Irwin?
For any Australian politician to speak out forthrightly and honestly in defence of the Palestinian people is to cross the Australian's reddest line - its near automatic, knee-jerk editorial support for apartheid Israel. It is not, therefore, the Greens per se that get the Australian going, rather it's the prospect that, in seriously embracing the BDS campaign, the Greens may one day arrive at a clear and principled, anti-Zionist position on the Middle East conflict.
Let us proceed then to Neighbour's Monthly feature article Divided we fall.
After a sketch of party history, she sets out her thesis:
"To... achieve... the success he aspires to, Brown needs to run a formidably tight and disciplined political ship, steered by a dedicated, professional party organisation, with the absolute support of its members and branches. Which brings us to their real dilemma. For like all political parties, the Greens are bedevilled by factional rifts, personal animosities and turf wars, which have intensified as the party has grown and have recently erupted in an acrimonious contest for the heart, soul and future of the party."
You can see where all this is coming from. Rather than a rigorous, disinterested and objective assessment of party travails and prospects, we're essentially getting the Bob Brown version.
Brown seems to me to be afraid of the Murdoch press (See my 5/4/11 post Murdoch Spooks Bob Brown on Palestine), and happy to talk to its churnalists in an effort to appease and reassure the beast, even if to the detriment of any of his colleagues courageous enough to cross the rag's red line on criticism of Israel. As for Sally Neighbour and the Australian, the prospect of the BDS campaign gaining traction in Australia's rising third political force is a major concern. The language says it all:
"Nine days after the Christmas drinks in Canberra, a far more toxic atmosphere prevails as the NSW Greens assemble for their bi-monthly meeting of the State delegates Council (SDC)... It's been a tortuous year for the party in New South Wales, with festering tensions brought to a head by an ugly bunfight over BDS... The fracas has culminated in a motion condemning 3 state Greens MPs who failed to support the policy, MLCs Cate Faehrmann, Jan Barham and Jeremy Buckingham. The motion states: 'MPs who do not support the position and policy of the SDC, thus being in violation of the NSW Greens Constitution, will be asked to resign their seat in parliament'. Tempers erupt as the motion is moved, its backers arguing the renegade MPs should be punished for splitting the party, opponents condemning it as an outrageous bid to deny the MPs a conscience vote."
Given that Neighbour wasn't actually there (the Greens couldn't possibly be that stupid), the question arises: who can have been her source for the dynamics of this meeting? Then there's the absence from the above account of the motion's context. That the "renegade" trio chose, in effect, to climb into bed with the likes of MLCs David Clarke (Liberal right), Fred Nile (Christan Democrats) and Eric Roozendaaal (Labor right) when they voted for Clarke's motion viciously smearing BDS at the behest of the Israel lobby (two of whose representatives were present in the visitors gallery) and undermined the informed and principled positions taken at the time by fellow Greens MLCs John Kaye and David Shoebridge, was the context for the SDC motion, but Neighbour deliberately leaves it out at this point. Only much further along in the piece, does she make reference to it, but then only in passing:
"[W]hen Liberal MLC David Clarke moved a motion opposing BDS and the Max Brenner protests, Faehrmann and Barham spoke in qualified support of it."
That Faehrmann's "qualified support" of Clarke's disgusting motion was born of complete ignorance of the issue, part regurgitation of the Australian's editorial line that the protests were 'counterproductive' and part Israel lobby line that a certain chant heard at them is anti-Semitic, is, of course, of no interest to Neighbour and is misconstrued in her article as some kind of free-thinking and courageous "speaking out."
By way of introducing Lee Rhiannon into the 'discussion', Neighbour trots out the sinister "Leninist cadre" line already featured by Franklin.
Typically, such nonsense is always attributed to unnamed individuals who speak "off the record," presumably because they're in mortal fear of a 2 pm knock on the door by the KGB. The existence of a cowed and quivering Greens opposition is suggested by "another" (oh really?) who is alleged to have said:
"They are stuck in an old rut which is all about running the show, controlling the structure, maintaining a code of silence. This old guard, this control clique, has done a lot of damage to the Green brand in NSW'. They're jokingly referred to as 'the Eastern Bloc - because they live in the eastern suburbs, and they're all communists'."
OK, now that the reader has been softened up, it's time for Neighbour to finger the supposed Leninist cadre's Svengali:
"The lightning rod for much of this critique (!) is Lee Rhiannon... Rhiannon's membership of the Socialist Party of Australia in the 1970s and 1980s... has been well reported... Rhiannon is routinely held up in media commentary about the 'watermelons' (red on the inside) dragging the Greens leftwards..."
Well reported? But only in the Australian.
Routinely held up in media commentary about the 'watermelons'? But only in the Australian.
Did I not mention incest?
Further along, on the subject of BDS and Marrickville Council, Neighbour has former Greens MLC Ian Cohen screaming that "[Marrickville] made us look like lunatics, dealing with an international issue on local and state government level." But don't expect Neighbour to ask Cohen the obvious: Did he also consider the MLCs who used the Legislative Council as a platform to condemn BDS lunatics? Similarly, while Neighbour quotes Max Phillips, a staffer of Jeremy Buckingham, complaining that BDS is not a "core issue" for the Greens, she doesn't bother asking him whether he thinks condemning BDS in state parliament should be seen as "core" business for that body.
Neighbour concludes:
"Right at the heart of this contest [between the NSW Greens' 'old' and 'new' guards] is a profound disjunct over what should be the ultimate aim of the Greens. For Brown and his supporters, it is self-evident: attaining power by being elected, where possible into government, in order to implement their policies. But for others the primal purpose is staying faithful to the grassroots origins and philosophy, without which the Greens would have no support and no future - even if it's at the cost of attaining power."
Or, to put it another way, between those who put power before principle and those who put principle before power. And the most reliable litmus test for sorting out the two is, of course, Palestine.
Brown's mob, it seems, have made their bed, and it speaks volumes for them that they're prepared to share it with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and his stable of court reporters at the Australian, and politicians such as David Clarke, Fred Nile and Eric Roozendaal.
Kerr's Back in the USSR theme was revived, with Franklin quoting supposed "revelations" that the NSW Greens are "run by a 'cadre' of Leninist-style ideologues whose activities are making it appear to be populated by 'lunatics'."
Franklin's "revelations" were conveniently drawn from an article in the latest issue of The Monthly magazine by Sally Neighbour, curiously described merely as a "journalist."
Is the reader supposed to have forgotten that Sally Neighbour, far from being a genuinely independent journalist, is actually a News Limited employee?
So, since we're dealing here with a case of churnalistic incest, with Franklin simply paraphrasing Neighbour, why not bypass the monkey and proceed straight to the organ grinder herself?
But first, a general observation: Does anyone really believe that the Australian would be so obsessed with Lee Rhiannon but for her support for the Palestinians?
Does anyone remember its repeated lashings of Labor's Julia Irwin?
For any Australian politician to speak out forthrightly and honestly in defence of the Palestinian people is to cross the Australian's reddest line - its near automatic, knee-jerk editorial support for apartheid Israel. It is not, therefore, the Greens per se that get the Australian going, rather it's the prospect that, in seriously embracing the BDS campaign, the Greens may one day arrive at a clear and principled, anti-Zionist position on the Middle East conflict.
Let us proceed then to Neighbour's Monthly feature article Divided we fall.
After a sketch of party history, she sets out her thesis:
"To... achieve... the success he aspires to, Brown needs to run a formidably tight and disciplined political ship, steered by a dedicated, professional party organisation, with the absolute support of its members and branches. Which brings us to their real dilemma. For like all political parties, the Greens are bedevilled by factional rifts, personal animosities and turf wars, which have intensified as the party has grown and have recently erupted in an acrimonious contest for the heart, soul and future of the party."
You can see where all this is coming from. Rather than a rigorous, disinterested and objective assessment of party travails and prospects, we're essentially getting the Bob Brown version.
Brown seems to me to be afraid of the Murdoch press (See my 5/4/11 post Murdoch Spooks Bob Brown on Palestine), and happy to talk to its churnalists in an effort to appease and reassure the beast, even if to the detriment of any of his colleagues courageous enough to cross the rag's red line on criticism of Israel. As for Sally Neighbour and the Australian, the prospect of the BDS campaign gaining traction in Australia's rising third political force is a major concern. The language says it all:
"Nine days after the Christmas drinks in Canberra, a far more toxic atmosphere prevails as the NSW Greens assemble for their bi-monthly meeting of the State delegates Council (SDC)... It's been a tortuous year for the party in New South Wales, with festering tensions brought to a head by an ugly bunfight over BDS... The fracas has culminated in a motion condemning 3 state Greens MPs who failed to support the policy, MLCs Cate Faehrmann, Jan Barham and Jeremy Buckingham. The motion states: 'MPs who do not support the position and policy of the SDC, thus being in violation of the NSW Greens Constitution, will be asked to resign their seat in parliament'. Tempers erupt as the motion is moved, its backers arguing the renegade MPs should be punished for splitting the party, opponents condemning it as an outrageous bid to deny the MPs a conscience vote."
Given that Neighbour wasn't actually there (the Greens couldn't possibly be that stupid), the question arises: who can have been her source for the dynamics of this meeting? Then there's the absence from the above account of the motion's context. That the "renegade" trio chose, in effect, to climb into bed with the likes of MLCs David Clarke (Liberal right), Fred Nile (Christan Democrats) and Eric Roozendaaal (Labor right) when they voted for Clarke's motion viciously smearing BDS at the behest of the Israel lobby (two of whose representatives were present in the visitors gallery) and undermined the informed and principled positions taken at the time by fellow Greens MLCs John Kaye and David Shoebridge, was the context for the SDC motion, but Neighbour deliberately leaves it out at this point. Only much further along in the piece, does she make reference to it, but then only in passing:
"[W]hen Liberal MLC David Clarke moved a motion opposing BDS and the Max Brenner protests, Faehrmann and Barham spoke in qualified support of it."
That Faehrmann's "qualified support" of Clarke's disgusting motion was born of complete ignorance of the issue, part regurgitation of the Australian's editorial line that the protests were 'counterproductive' and part Israel lobby line that a certain chant heard at them is anti-Semitic, is, of course, of no interest to Neighbour and is misconstrued in her article as some kind of free-thinking and courageous "speaking out."
By way of introducing Lee Rhiannon into the 'discussion', Neighbour trots out the sinister "Leninist cadre" line already featured by Franklin.
Typically, such nonsense is always attributed to unnamed individuals who speak "off the record," presumably because they're in mortal fear of a 2 pm knock on the door by the KGB. The existence of a cowed and quivering Greens opposition is suggested by "another" (oh really?) who is alleged to have said:
"They are stuck in an old rut which is all about running the show, controlling the structure, maintaining a code of silence. This old guard, this control clique, has done a lot of damage to the Green brand in NSW'. They're jokingly referred to as 'the Eastern Bloc - because they live in the eastern suburbs, and they're all communists'."
OK, now that the reader has been softened up, it's time for Neighbour to finger the supposed Leninist cadre's Svengali:
"The lightning rod for much of this critique (!) is Lee Rhiannon... Rhiannon's membership of the Socialist Party of Australia in the 1970s and 1980s... has been well reported... Rhiannon is routinely held up in media commentary about the 'watermelons' (red on the inside) dragging the Greens leftwards..."
Well reported? But only in the Australian.
Routinely held up in media commentary about the 'watermelons'? But only in the Australian.
Did I not mention incest?
Further along, on the subject of BDS and Marrickville Council, Neighbour has former Greens MLC Ian Cohen screaming that "[Marrickville] made us look like lunatics, dealing with an international issue on local and state government level." But don't expect Neighbour to ask Cohen the obvious: Did he also consider the MLCs who used the Legislative Council as a platform to condemn BDS lunatics? Similarly, while Neighbour quotes Max Phillips, a staffer of Jeremy Buckingham, complaining that BDS is not a "core issue" for the Greens, she doesn't bother asking him whether he thinks condemning BDS in state parliament should be seen as "core" business for that body.
Neighbour concludes:
"Right at the heart of this contest [between the NSW Greens' 'old' and 'new' guards] is a profound disjunct over what should be the ultimate aim of the Greens. For Brown and his supporters, it is self-evident: attaining power by being elected, where possible into government, in order to implement their policies. But for others the primal purpose is staying faithful to the grassroots origins and philosophy, without which the Greens would have no support and no future - even if it's at the cost of attaining power."
Or, to put it another way, between those who put power before principle and those who put principle before power. And the most reliable litmus test for sorting out the two is, of course, Palestine.
Brown's mob, it seems, have made their bed, and it speaks volumes for them that they're prepared to share it with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and his stable of court reporters at the Australian, and politicians such as David Clarke, Fred Nile and Eric Roozendaal.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
A Day in the Life of The Australian
February 18, 2011
Australia, do we have a problem for you, or Daddy, I want to be a drug baron or a night club owner when I grow up:
"Only 1.71% of Australians identify as Muslims, but we cannot simply ignore reports of behavioural problems among young, unemployed and disaffected Muslim men in the outer suburbs of Sydney, for example - problems that are increasingly acknowledged by community leaders... These are not racial problems but problems born of cultural difference. There is a troubling alienation from mainstream Australian values... Something has to give, and it is up to the communities... to try to change the expectations that are holding back so many young Australians. How wonderful it would be if the next generation of Lebanese-Australian kids held as their models the successful chief executives and footballers from their communities, rather than drug barons and night club owners." (We must acknowledge it's about culture, not race: Our Muslim community leaders face a deep challenge, editorial)
Ah, yes, mainstream Australian values - such as those displayed by Shadow Immigration Minister and MP for (Captain) Cook, Scott (Bad Timing) Morrison, and colorful (if monochromatically tattooed) constituent, "professional tree-lopper and Cronulla local Andrew Wilson":
"I'd rather see a nice girl in a swimsuit down on the beach than some sheila in a full burka... these people - they can't drink, they have to pray 5 times a day... You'd be better off having the Irish and the English who speak our language." (Multiculturalism has a long way to go, Higgins & Cleary)
No, sir, no sheilas in full metal burkas for Andrew, no way! But your Irish or your pommie sheila's OK. Lo, and it came to pass:
"A British tourist at Cronulla, former army officer Marguerite Wilson, said... 'Once you allow them to congregate in pockets, you have huge tensions between the indigenous whites and the people who have come to regard that as their own territory'..." (ibid)
Andrew Wilson, meet Marguerite Wilson. (Blimey, what is it about Wilsons and Cronulla?) Howz about you introduce her to some mainstream Australian values, know what I mean?
OK, OK, a little context:
"The Muslim community has plenty on its plate already: intergenerational poverty, under-education and unemployment, a pressing need for more social, welfare and aged-care services, a siege mentality fostered by a suspicious public and often hostile news media..." (Our high-profile Musim minority, Sally Neighbour)
She said... whaaat? An often hostile news media. Who'd have thought...
Now here's someone who should know about our little PROBLEM - Colin Rubenstein of the Australia-Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC): "The key concept for Australian multiculturalism has always been integration into the core values and institutions of Australian life, avoiding the pitfalls of the other two discredited models of separatism and assimilationism." (Integration the key to multicultural success)
I know what your thinking! I'm ahead of you. What about Israeli separatism, your Jewish state etc. Listen up, anti-Semitic swine, Israel's different, right? Now STFU...
... and have a nice Islamophobic day!
Australia, do we have a problem for you, or Daddy, I want to be a drug baron or a night club owner when I grow up:
"Only 1.71% of Australians identify as Muslims, but we cannot simply ignore reports of behavioural problems among young, unemployed and disaffected Muslim men in the outer suburbs of Sydney, for example - problems that are increasingly acknowledged by community leaders... These are not racial problems but problems born of cultural difference. There is a troubling alienation from mainstream Australian values... Something has to give, and it is up to the communities... to try to change the expectations that are holding back so many young Australians. How wonderful it would be if the next generation of Lebanese-Australian kids held as their models the successful chief executives and footballers from their communities, rather than drug barons and night club owners." (We must acknowledge it's about culture, not race: Our Muslim community leaders face a deep challenge, editorial)
Ah, yes, mainstream Australian values - such as those displayed by Shadow Immigration Minister and MP for (Captain) Cook, Scott (Bad Timing) Morrison, and colorful (if monochromatically tattooed) constituent, "professional tree-lopper and Cronulla local Andrew Wilson":
"I'd rather see a nice girl in a swimsuit down on the beach than some sheila in a full burka... these people - they can't drink, they have to pray 5 times a day... You'd be better off having the Irish and the English who speak our language." (Multiculturalism has a long way to go, Higgins & Cleary)
No, sir, no sheilas in full metal burkas for Andrew, no way! But your Irish or your pommie sheila's OK. Lo, and it came to pass:
"A British tourist at Cronulla, former army officer Marguerite Wilson, said... 'Once you allow them to congregate in pockets, you have huge tensions between the indigenous whites and the people who have come to regard that as their own territory'..." (ibid)
Andrew Wilson, meet Marguerite Wilson. (Blimey, what is it about Wilsons and Cronulla?) Howz about you introduce her to some mainstream Australian values, know what I mean?
OK, OK, a little context:
"The Muslim community has plenty on its plate already: intergenerational poverty, under-education and unemployment, a pressing need for more social, welfare and aged-care services, a siege mentality fostered by a suspicious public and often hostile news media..." (Our high-profile Musim minority, Sally Neighbour)
She said... whaaat? An often hostile news media. Who'd have thought...
Now here's someone who should know about our little PROBLEM - Colin Rubenstein of the Australia-Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC): "The key concept for Australian multiculturalism has always been integration into the core values and institutions of Australian life, avoiding the pitfalls of the other two discredited models of separatism and assimilationism." (Integration the key to multicultural success)
I know what your thinking! I'm ahead of you. What about Israeli separatism, your Jewish state etc. Listen up, anti-Semitic swine, Israel's different, right? Now STFU...
... and have a nice Islamophobic day!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Burchell Buffs the Banana
Every day, in every way, I just get better and better.
I was reminded of this little affirmation by the latest David Burchell discharge on Egypt's revolution, Swept along by Egypt's uprising (The Australian, 31/1/11) - except that it came out thus: Every day, in every way, he just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
So seriously weird that I lie awake at night thinking, No, it can't be! This guy is actually let loose on hapless, unsuspecting students at the University of Western Sydney, day in, day out. I mean, shouldn't the authorities be doing something?
Anyway, back to Swept along... by the most banal and sweeping generalities.
Where better to begin an opinion(ated) piece on Egypt, 2011... than France, 1789, right?
"In July 1789, as everybody knows, the French people took to the streets in spontaneous revolt, liberating the captives of the Bastille from their confinement and scattering a despotic regime of centuries standing like the startled actors of a tableau vivant. But then, at some undefined point during the following five years, the people's will was subverted by another group of people who turned the state's security apparatus on the people themselves. At that precise moment, the French people mysteriously vanished, as if assumed back into the heavens, waiting for some occult science to revive it once more."
I'm sorry, but I just can't get past the startled actors of a tableau vivant or the French people assumed back into the heavens, waiting for some occult science to revive it once more? I can't. I just keep reading them over and over again, mesmerised. What the .... is he on about? No, what the .... is he on? I mean, this is quality monkey-slapping! What stunning insight into the trials and tribulations of the Egyptian people is this, where he's got me more worried about the raptured French?
"In the same fashion, when the crowds sprang up like lillies on the streets of Tunis, Cairo and Alexandria last week, our eyes lit up with undimmed optimism as we raptly observed - for the hundredth time, surely - the sovereignty of the people asserting itself and driving out a dictatorship whose existence had been a matter of scant interest to most of us merely a few days before."
There he goes again, choking the chicken! Crowds springing up like lillies! Do lillies just spring up? Mushrooms, yes. But lillies? Consider the lillies of Tahrir Square, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin. Yet Mubarak in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Burchell toils not, but he sure as hell spins. OMG, see what this guy is doing? If he's messing with our minds, what the hell must he be doing with those of his students?
And what an admission is that! He's writing about a dictatorship of whose existence, he implies, he was virtually unaware until a few days ago.
How beautiful is the corporate media? Once you've got a foothold on the opinion pages, you've got a license to toot your horn on any subject that takes your fancy. No homework required. No sources cited. All just off the top of your... And here's the, if you'll excuse me, rub - you actually get paid for it! Unbelievable!
"What could be more joyous than to witness the inchoate majesty of the people displayed on somebody else's streets, at no possible cost to ourselves? Observe the delighted, childlike rapture of the commentators: from Britain's Sky News to America's CNN, their message is precisely the same. This is the people's spirit displayed in its primitive beauty. It is neither Stalinist nor Islamist, but some grand political mystery born out of the people's suffering alone."
Well, indeed, what we're now witnessing in Egypt would be some grand political mystery if it's only come to your attention within the last few days, now wouldn't it?
Fast forwarding Burchill's flogging nonsense until we finally reach Egypt. In the age of instant, behold the instant scholarship:
"There have been only two popular ideologies of consequence in the Middle East since colonialism's squalid death in the 1950s: Soviet-style authoritarianism, with its specious liturgy of anti-colonialism, and the grand, exultant nihilism of the Muslim Brotherhood and its fellow extremists. Even today informed observers are hard-pressed to name consistent Egyptian voices for liberal democracy and the rule of law, and to find them you have to scour the Egyptian media for lonely coracles of sanity in a vast ocean of paranoia, where the Protocols of the Elders of Zion masquerade as established fact, and the historic failures of a rich region are forever passed off as somebody else's fault."
Who or what is the grand exultant nihilism of the Muslim Brotherhood? I mean, at least The Australian's resident Muslim-finder, Sally Neighbour consulted Newsweek before spilling the beans:
"The brotherhood is far less extreme than the Iranian ayatollahs or some other radical militant groups. Unlike the jihadists, it is committed to working through democratic and parliamentary systems to achieve its goals... [Its leader, Muhammad] Badie denies the group is intent on establishing an Islamic state. He told Newsweek, 'We want a civilian state with civilian people, not religious people, but with a Muslim background'. However the organisation rejects the possibility of a woman or a Christian as being president, and would be sure to impose stricter Islamic codes, such as banning alcohol and topless sunbathing at the hedonistic beach resort of Sharm el Sheik." (Rise of the brothers a worry for the West, 1/2/11)
Oh, so that's the grand exultant nihilism!
But back to our informed observer who only discovered Egypt a few days ago. What to make of an overnight expert with such a command of Arabic that he's in a position to pronounce that the Egyptian media is merely one vast ocean of paranoia, where the Protocols of the Elders of Zion masquerade as established fact etc, etc?
"The special dignity of the Iranian opposition arises from the simple fact that Iranians have lived through three decades of a transcendental revolution that was fated to cleanse all the ills of the world, and have become sick of it. The next few months will show whether the Egyptian opposition has learned this bitter yet profound lesson - or whether it is doomed to repeat that familiar tragedy where the tyrant's executioner turns tyrant in turn, and is compelled to erect an even grander and more messianic political fantasy in its wake."
The special dignity of the Iranian opposition? Transcendental revolution? Enough already! The mayo's made! The banana's buffed! I just can't take it anymore. As the French might have said before their late 18th century occultation, Off with his...!
I was reminded of this little affirmation by the latest David Burchell discharge on Egypt's revolution, Swept along by Egypt's uprising (The Australian, 31/1/11) - except that it came out thus: Every day, in every way, he just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
So seriously weird that I lie awake at night thinking, No, it can't be! This guy is actually let loose on hapless, unsuspecting students at the University of Western Sydney, day in, day out. I mean, shouldn't the authorities be doing something?
Anyway, back to Swept along... by the most banal and sweeping generalities.
Where better to begin an opinion(ated) piece on Egypt, 2011... than France, 1789, right?
"In July 1789, as everybody knows, the French people took to the streets in spontaneous revolt, liberating the captives of the Bastille from their confinement and scattering a despotic regime of centuries standing like the startled actors of a tableau vivant. But then, at some undefined point during the following five years, the people's will was subverted by another group of people who turned the state's security apparatus on the people themselves. At that precise moment, the French people mysteriously vanished, as if assumed back into the heavens, waiting for some occult science to revive it once more."
I'm sorry, but I just can't get past the startled actors of a tableau vivant or the French people assumed back into the heavens, waiting for some occult science to revive it once more? I can't. I just keep reading them over and over again, mesmerised. What the .... is he on about? No, what the .... is he on? I mean, this is quality monkey-slapping! What stunning insight into the trials and tribulations of the Egyptian people is this, where he's got me more worried about the raptured French?
"In the same fashion, when the crowds sprang up like lillies on the streets of Tunis, Cairo and Alexandria last week, our eyes lit up with undimmed optimism as we raptly observed - for the hundredth time, surely - the sovereignty of the people asserting itself and driving out a dictatorship whose existence had been a matter of scant interest to most of us merely a few days before."
There he goes again, choking the chicken! Crowds springing up like lillies! Do lillies just spring up? Mushrooms, yes. But lillies? Consider the lillies of Tahrir Square, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin. Yet Mubarak in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Burchell toils not, but he sure as hell spins. OMG, see what this guy is doing? If he's messing with our minds, what the hell must he be doing with those of his students?
And what an admission is that! He's writing about a dictatorship of whose existence, he implies, he was virtually unaware until a few days ago.
How beautiful is the corporate media? Once you've got a foothold on the opinion pages, you've got a license to toot your horn on any subject that takes your fancy. No homework required. No sources cited. All just off the top of your... And here's the, if you'll excuse me, rub - you actually get paid for it! Unbelievable!
"What could be more joyous than to witness the inchoate majesty of the people displayed on somebody else's streets, at no possible cost to ourselves? Observe the delighted, childlike rapture of the commentators: from Britain's Sky News to America's CNN, their message is precisely the same. This is the people's spirit displayed in its primitive beauty. It is neither Stalinist nor Islamist, but some grand political mystery born out of the people's suffering alone."
Well, indeed, what we're now witnessing in Egypt would be some grand political mystery if it's only come to your attention within the last few days, now wouldn't it?
Fast forwarding Burchill's flogging nonsense until we finally reach Egypt. In the age of instant, behold the instant scholarship:
"There have been only two popular ideologies of consequence in the Middle East since colonialism's squalid death in the 1950s: Soviet-style authoritarianism, with its specious liturgy of anti-colonialism, and the grand, exultant nihilism of the Muslim Brotherhood and its fellow extremists. Even today informed observers are hard-pressed to name consistent Egyptian voices for liberal democracy and the rule of law, and to find them you have to scour the Egyptian media for lonely coracles of sanity in a vast ocean of paranoia, where the Protocols of the Elders of Zion masquerade as established fact, and the historic failures of a rich region are forever passed off as somebody else's fault."
Who or what is the grand exultant nihilism of the Muslim Brotherhood? I mean, at least The Australian's resident Muslim-finder, Sally Neighbour consulted Newsweek before spilling the beans:
"The brotherhood is far less extreme than the Iranian ayatollahs or some other radical militant groups. Unlike the jihadists, it is committed to working through democratic and parliamentary systems to achieve its goals... [Its leader, Muhammad] Badie denies the group is intent on establishing an Islamic state. He told Newsweek, 'We want a civilian state with civilian people, not religious people, but with a Muslim background'. However the organisation rejects the possibility of a woman or a Christian as being president, and would be sure to impose stricter Islamic codes, such as banning alcohol and topless sunbathing at the hedonistic beach resort of Sharm el Sheik." (Rise of the brothers a worry for the West, 1/2/11)
Oh, so that's the grand exultant nihilism!
But back to our informed observer who only discovered Egypt a few days ago. What to make of an overnight expert with such a command of Arabic that he's in a position to pronounce that the Egyptian media is merely one vast ocean of paranoia, where the Protocols of the Elders of Zion masquerade as established fact etc, etc?
"The special dignity of the Iranian opposition arises from the simple fact that Iranians have lived through three decades of a transcendental revolution that was fated to cleanse all the ills of the world, and have become sick of it. The next few months will show whether the Egyptian opposition has learned this bitter yet profound lesson - or whether it is doomed to repeat that familiar tragedy where the tyrant's executioner turns tyrant in turn, and is compelled to erect an even grander and more messianic political fantasy in its wake."
The special dignity of the Iranian opposition? Transcendental revolution? Enough already! The mayo's made! The banana's buffed! I just can't take it anymore. As the French might have said before their late 18th century occultation, Off with his...!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Islamophobic Chef
The Australian's Sally Neighbour shows you how to whip up a delicious, long-lasting Islamophobic souffle in no time at all.
Find one fire-breathing Muslim, preferably a convert as these tend to puff up better than the more traditional Middle Eastern Muslim ingredients. Don't bother with Christians or Jews, Islamophobic souffles are the in-thing right now.
Place him on the steps of NSW Parliament House. Whip him up until he's nice and frothy: "I hate the parliament in Canberra. I want to go straight for the jugular vein and advise the parliament that they have no right to legislate. They should immediately step down and let the Muslims take over." (Gillard should step down & 'let the Muslims take over', 20/1/11)
Continue whipping for two more days (Full-bred Aussie with a longing for sharia law, 21/1/11; Over my dead body, 22/1/11) before placing in oven.
When ready, serve with a hot Aussie sauce ("History tells us that if we don't nip this nonsense in the bud now, if we don't fight to retain our freedom and way of life, it will be so much harder later." Grace Bee, Bowral, NSW), or as we here at the Australian prefer, an even hotter Zionist concoction ("If Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon, who advocates extreme Islamist ideology, has lost his 'commonsense', Bill Matthew (Letters, 21/11), and should be ignored, what can be said about the commonsense of the extremist Islamists who advocate violent Jihad and fly planes into buildings? Should they also be ignored?" Henry Herzog, St Kilda East, Vic).
Stand back and watch it go!
Find one fire-breathing Muslim, preferably a convert as these tend to puff up better than the more traditional Middle Eastern Muslim ingredients. Don't bother with Christians or Jews, Islamophobic souffles are the in-thing right now.
Place him on the steps of NSW Parliament House. Whip him up until he's nice and frothy: "I hate the parliament in Canberra. I want to go straight for the jugular vein and advise the parliament that they have no right to legislate. They should immediately step down and let the Muslims take over." (Gillard should step down & 'let the Muslims take over', 20/1/11)
Continue whipping for two more days (Full-bred Aussie with a longing for sharia law, 21/1/11; Over my dead body, 22/1/11) before placing in oven.
When ready, serve with a hot Aussie sauce ("History tells us that if we don't nip this nonsense in the bud now, if we don't fight to retain our freedom and way of life, it will be so much harder later." Grace Bee, Bowral, NSW), or as we here at the Australian prefer, an even hotter Zionist concoction ("If Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon, who advocates extreme Islamist ideology, has lost his 'commonsense', Bill Matthew (Letters, 21/11), and should be ignored, what can be said about the commonsense of the extremist Islamists who advocate violent Jihad and fly planes into buildings? Should they also be ignored?" Henry Herzog, St Kilda East, Vic).
Stand back and watch it go!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Just Asking
The Australian just loves blokes like this:
"A Sydney artist whose anti-burka mural has infuriated left-wing and Islamic activists is vowing that the provocative artwork will stay in place despite death threats, abuse, a string of vandalism attacks, a violent weekend protest and a police request to remove it. Newtown glass sculptor Sergio Redegalli has this week restored the mural painted outside his studio for more than the 40th time after dozens of graffiti and paint-bomb attacks by protesters who say it is racist and inflammatory. In the latest incident last Sunday, a crowd of 50 activists hurled paint at the mural and then turned on police who had to call in reinforcements to restore order. Seven men were arrested and charged with offences including resisting police, assaulting police and destroying or damaging property... The sculptor... says he has since been visited by local police who asked him to take down the mural after learning of a threat to fire-bomb it. He refuses to do so in the interests of free speech and public debate." (Artist defies 'bullies' over burka mural, Sally Neighbour, 19/1/11)
OK... have I got this right? The freedom-loving Mr Redegalli believes in free speech, but not in freedom of dress?
"A Sydney artist whose anti-burka mural has infuriated left-wing and Islamic activists is vowing that the provocative artwork will stay in place despite death threats, abuse, a string of vandalism attacks, a violent weekend protest and a police request to remove it. Newtown glass sculptor Sergio Redegalli has this week restored the mural painted outside his studio for more than the 40th time after dozens of graffiti and paint-bomb attacks by protesters who say it is racist and inflammatory. In the latest incident last Sunday, a crowd of 50 activists hurled paint at the mural and then turned on police who had to call in reinforcements to restore order. Seven men were arrested and charged with offences including resisting police, assaulting police and destroying or damaging property... The sculptor... says he has since been visited by local police who asked him to take down the mural after learning of a threat to fire-bomb it. He refuses to do so in the interests of free speech and public debate." (Artist defies 'bullies' over burka mural, Sally Neighbour, 19/1/11)
OK... have I got this right? The freedom-loving Mr Redegalli believes in free speech, but not in freedom of dress?
Thursday, July 15, 2010
'An Element of Political Content'
Ho hum - until, that is, you get to the bit I've highlighted:
"A father has won the right to stop his children from taking part in Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies after a couple agreed they should be able to make their own religious choice. The mother wanted her children to participate in their bar and bat mitzvahs - ceremonies that mark the beginning of boys and girls taking responsibility for their Jewish faith. But the father, a Catholic who irregularly attends church, wanted them to choose their own religion in a 'voluntary and informed' way, once they were of sufficient age and maturity. The stoush played out in the Federal Magistrates Court in Melbourne where the separated parents... asked the court to determine the religious future of their 3 children... [The mother] had enrolled the children in a religious youth group for two hours each Sunday but [the father] was concerned the groups had 'an element of political content' and wished for the children not to attend." (Father wins right to stop children taking part in Jewish ceremonies, Belinda Kontominas, Sydney Morning Herald, 7/7/10)
Now what could the father possibly be referring to? Such a mystery!
And one which only deepens when you read the account of this case in The Australian Jewish News (July 9) - because there's no mention whatever of the youth group or that mysterious element of political content.
Hmm...
Still, nothing beats the high comedy of the AJN's front page - a close-up shot of a gavel about to descend; a headline - Judge denies bar mitzvah; and, piece de resistance, the following: "A mother's wish for her three children to have bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies was scuttled this week after their Catholic father took the matter to court. Is this a case of a judge overruling God?"
A judge overruling God - G-D for God's sake! - chumitz!
The last time a group of Australian sectarians tried running that line in public was at Hizb ut-Tahrir's recent Sydney conference - and they came under the immediate scrutiny of The Australian's current* Muslim-finder, Sally Neighbour, and were subjected to thundering headlines (not to mention the obligatory, denunciatory editorial) for their pains: "[Visiting British Hizb ut-Tahrir leader Burhan Hanif] said democracy was incompatible with Islam because the Koran insisted Allah was the sole law-maker, and Muslim political involvement could not be based on 'secular and erroneous concepts such as democracy and freedom'." (Muslims told to shun democracy, 5/7/10)
But then, to borrow Orwell, all sectarians are equal, but some sectarians are more equal than others, right?
[*Remember Richard Kerbaj?]
"A father has won the right to stop his children from taking part in Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies after a couple agreed they should be able to make their own religious choice. The mother wanted her children to participate in their bar and bat mitzvahs - ceremonies that mark the beginning of boys and girls taking responsibility for their Jewish faith. But the father, a Catholic who irregularly attends church, wanted them to choose their own religion in a 'voluntary and informed' way, once they were of sufficient age and maturity. The stoush played out in the Federal Magistrates Court in Melbourne where the separated parents... asked the court to determine the religious future of their 3 children... [The mother] had enrolled the children in a religious youth group for two hours each Sunday but [the father] was concerned the groups had 'an element of political content' and wished for the children not to attend." (Father wins right to stop children taking part in Jewish ceremonies, Belinda Kontominas, Sydney Morning Herald, 7/7/10)
Now what could the father possibly be referring to? Such a mystery!
And one which only deepens when you read the account of this case in The Australian Jewish News (July 9) - because there's no mention whatever of the youth group or that mysterious element of political content.
Hmm...
Still, nothing beats the high comedy of the AJN's front page - a close-up shot of a gavel about to descend; a headline - Judge denies bar mitzvah; and, piece de resistance, the following: "A mother's wish for her three children to have bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies was scuttled this week after their Catholic father took the matter to court. Is this a case of a judge overruling God?"
A judge overruling God - G-D for God's sake! - chumitz!
The last time a group of Australian sectarians tried running that line in public was at Hizb ut-Tahrir's recent Sydney conference - and they came under the immediate scrutiny of The Australian's current* Muslim-finder, Sally Neighbour, and were subjected to thundering headlines (not to mention the obligatory, denunciatory editorial) for their pains: "[Visiting British Hizb ut-Tahrir leader Burhan Hanif] said democracy was incompatible with Islam because the Koran insisted Allah was the sole law-maker, and Muslim political involvement could not be based on 'secular and erroneous concepts such as democracy and freedom'." (Muslims told to shun democracy, 5/7/10)
But then, to borrow Orwell, all sectarians are equal, but some sectarians are more equal than others, right?
[*Remember Richard Kerbaj?]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)