Some people claim ignorance when it comes to politics. Mostly I think it’s self chosen. They don’t want to know. It’s all too difficult. Or is it that they don’t know themselevs and what they believe in. After all, everyone has political beliefs. It’s impossible not to. Politics is how you feel about social justice, freedom of the press, national security, economic structures. Sure we mightn’t all have a really deep understanding of these complicated subjects, but we will have an idea where we stand on many of the issues if we just took our time to think about it.
Take Australia right now. A federal election is due to be called at any minute. We have had a conservative government in power for over a decade. We are experiencing an economic book, based on the resources sector, and unemployment is at an all time low. Sounds good doesn’t it. But it’s all spin as far as I’m concerned. The unemployment figures are as rubbery as water, and 2 hours a fortnight in a casual position is classed as a job. Any job security we ever had is gone, and now we have individual workplace agreements where the worker has to bargain (with what leverage I don’t know) with the employer directly. A typical AWA is all overtime and loading gone, and 2cents an hour in compensation. Yeah right.
And sure the economy is booming, but where is that money going? To the wealthy investors of the mining companies. They talk about trickle down economics, but I tell you in the real world, the trickle runs out long before it gets to the bottom end. In the real world living costs have increased about twofold while wages have gone up maybe 10%. The dream of home ownership is now firmly that - a dream for anyone but the wealthy. We have the most arrogant government we’ve ever had in power, and it’s time they WENT!
So watch the next election with interest. Kevin Rudd is likely to become the next Prime Minister of Australia, and this is because the majority of Australians can see through the amazing lies the government has been peddling for the last decade. Yes, we have been slow to wake up. But it’s happening.
Technorati Tags: politics, “Australian politics”, Labor, Rudd, election
Sounds uncannily like the UK. Government talks up the situation, compares Europe e.g as if they are living on food parcels. The UK electorate cannot argue because they are indifferent, brainwashed to the European situation by the media (the real kingmakers)
The media are incomprehensible here. On the one side, papers like The Australia are incredibly biased towards the incumbent conservatives, and the public media, while doing a much better job, only seem to focus on the various aspects of the agenda the government is setting. And in a way, the opposition is doing the same thing. Everyone is talking about national security as if some crazy extremists are going to bomb the place tomorrow, and the rest of the time attention is focussed on climate change and the economy. (OK, industrial relations is getting a look in this time, but only because of some draconian legislation the government passed last year that nearly everyone on the workforce side of life thinks is disgraceful). I want a political process that re-imagines life and society. What is important to us and where do we want to head? This country is heading at a rate of knots towards being the kind of callous cold hearted power hungry racist country that the USA is. European social values are all but wiped out here, and the mad, greedy run for wealth is controlling the country.
I feel a bit bewildered by it all, and talking to many of my peers and people of the younger generations, I am astounded by how little many of them care. It’s like no one has realised that life does not have to be like this. I suppose that’s one of the great benefits of living overseas for many years, and in a progressive amazing country like Denmark. You get to see how life can be so radically different, not just in big ways, (which it can) but also in really little ways that people would just not think of. I think many people in Australia are very isolated from the rest of the world, and that the typical travels they undertake are too superficial to really create a good impression of possible difference. Then again, maybe we are a country just full of arrogant idiots that think we are the greatest nation on Earth, and why should we change anything… That’s actually probably much more likely…
The election should be announced in the next few days. Bring it on Johnnie. I want to know where this country stands!
Looks like the various “Imagine” initiatives across the world might interest you. Here is the Imagine Chicago website, started by the dynamic Bliss Browne who has also collaborated with some Scottish friends of mine on similar initiatives
http://www.imaginechicago.org/home.html