East Timor
Tim Anderson's excellent analysis of "East Timor after Alkatiri" (GLW #674) goes only part of the way to explaining where Australia is at in its push to establish a puppet protectorate to its near north.
While the emerging picture in East Timor is unclear, insightful analyses like that of Tim Anderson's, focus on what the state is or is failing to do given current agendas. But we are all failing to go the next step and remember what that relationship could have created if we were different and offered a different partnership.
Contrast this relationship with the respect between true partners like Cuba and Venezuela (GLW #667) where the push towards openly negotiated agreements is truly respectful of their neighbour's needs — where the principle of people before profit is practiced in how they share material and intellectual resources.
Where are the agreements based on actively promoting self development for East Timor? Or real humanitarian assistance to lift the standard of living of ordinary people there? Where are the doctors, engineers and teachers Australia could have sent?
Where is the commitment to negotiations based on fair principles in the definition of our borders; that protect their sovereign right to their oil fields in the Timor Sea? And the repayment of many millions of dollars in royalties Australia has already taken — funds that would have bankrolled East Timor's own development their way — rather than through World Bank handouts with crippling conditions?
Australia's relationship with East Timor is one based on a paternalism — itself based on self-interest, on Australia's desire to build a buffer to international relations with Indonesia, its greed for the royalties from stolen oil, and its need to be seen as "military saviours" to justify its presence and role in shaping its own ambitions in the region — at its "poor neighbour's" expense.
Ernesto Presente
Sydney [Abridged]
Lebanon
When the last foreign vessel leaves Beirut will Iraeli bombs rain down on the people of Lebanon? The West has created a monster it cannot call to heel. Pre-emptive strikes and bombing people to pieces does not create peace. PM John Howard is too scared to call for simple human rights. If words stamped on a passport mean the difference between life and death we have stooped to a horribly low level of bigotry in Australia.
Yvonne Francis
Queanbeyan, NSW
Bias
Again your latest issue of GLW highlights the totally blatant bias in your articles; ie always pro-Islam and anti-Jewish and anti-Western. I would love to see how long you would last in an Islamic state. You are a racist, anti-intellectual and narrow-minded organisation that thankfully has limited readership and support. Further, your views echo the fundamentalist (only one position/belief possible) which I liken to fundamentalist Christianity. And as I note, every week in your letters, not one is of dissent of the views expressed in your paper. So much of democracy and freedom of expression which your paper espouses but never practises. An utter disgrace.
Peter Panania
Via email
Assaf Namer I
Terrorising villagers who had just survived a massacre and chemical bombs was not considered an act against humanity for Assaf Namer, an Australian passport-holder from Sydney's Bondi beach suburb, who died in Lebanon on July 26 while serving in the invading Israeli army.
It was seen by Australia's political leaders a heroic act — one that even received the support of federal ALP leader Kim Beazley. Namer has received national praise, reflecting Australia's hypocritical moral conscience.
Had he been a Muslim, he would have been labelled a terrorist — for no other reason than taking up arms to defend his family's home. However, Namer was not in his own backyard trying to protect his family — he purposely left Australia to serve in a military known for defying all human rights conventions.
Never have Australian politicians been so sickening in terms of moral standards.
Dalal Ouba
Turella, NSW [Abridged]
Assaf Namer II
So Australia has its first fatality in the terrorist war in Lebanon. The terrorist fighter Assaf Namer, fighting for the oppressive regime of Israel, met his death at the hands of the freedom fighters of Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the great freedom fighter David Hicks remains incarcerated illegally against all the Geneva Conventions by the evil regime of the imperialist USA and President Bush.
Oops, that's not right, is it? The great patriot Assaf Namer has died fighting against the Islamic terrorists threatening the very existence of the imperilled state of Israel, the shining light of democracy and restraint in Palestine.
Meanwhile, an Australian terrorist has received his just deserts by being incarcerated indefinitely for his crimes of fighting with the forces of a foreign power against the greatest supporter of democracy in the world.
As the founder of one of the three religions fighting over Palestine asked, "what is truth"? In the case of Palestine, it is what we are told to believe as opposed to the real truth.
Neither of the above versions are the complete truth. Certainly, however, that which paints an Australian Jew fighting (voluntarily) in the Israeli army as a hero and an Australian Muslim fighting (voluntarily) with the Taliban army as the worst of all terrorists, never to be released, has to be one of the greatest lies.
Gavin Ring
North Parramatta, NSW
A 'baby for the nation'
Please tell that Mr Costello fellow that if he was suddenly hit with a bad back, swollen ankles, varicose veins, fistulas or stitches, a weak pelvic floor, urinary incontinence, prolapsed bits, hernias, a thickened waist, eye bags, grey hairs, liver or kidney damage, mastitis and a broken heart as a result of taking on normal work duties, he'd expect holidays and a hefty slab of compo.
Make a baby for the nation, indeed! What would the nation do with this precious creature? Charge it for education, give it rushed, substandard medical treatment, send it to war, pollute and then irradiate it, I'd guess.
And look out. The last time this "more little white babies for the nation" rubbish started up (late 1890s) in Australia, our male leaders attempted to ban sales of all the (very limited and unreliable) forms of contraception available as "perversions".
Dear, dear, dear. Wherever will it end.
Jane Salmon
Lindfield, NSW