Che anti-queer
I was glad to see the Socialist Alliance attend this year's Queer Pride March. It is important that the left continue to have a presence at the event. However, I was not impressed with your choice of banner. Taking a banner featuring Che Guevara to a queer march is like turning up to a Hungarian national day with a poster of Joe Stalin.
The history of the Cuban revolution and queers is abysmal. Post-revolution queers have suffered from state sponsored oppression. Some claim that in recent years attitudes have changed in Cuba. But at best it seems that queers "are no worse off" than in other countries. This isn't much of a boast from a country that claims to be socialist and the liberators of humanity.
What is beyond question is that Che Guevara stands squarely in a deeply homophobic tradition. So rub the stardust from your eyes, burn that Che banner; this guy can't be rehabilitated.
Darryl Croke
Thornbury Vic
Bush's space plan
President Bush has outlined his ambitious space program to the US public. As a main justification for his expensive plan, he said: "Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit." No need to say, space exploration as a scientific necessity of our time is of vital importance for human life and future, however it cannot be singled out from many other challenges facing us today.
The world in which we are living now is obviously divided into developed and underdeveloped parts; the majority of people in the underdeveloped world are deprived of even the basic necessities for subsistence. Even in the United States itself, a considerable number of population are seriously involved in different economic woes.
Is President Bush's space program based on an optimal economic decision under the existing conditions? It seems that this ambitious space program is another political game orchestrated by the Bush administration to divert the public attention from some serious problems such as the Iraq quagmire and US economic situation to the election campaign.
Lastly, it is also interesting to mention that Bush's foregoing historical justification for his controversial space program is clearly revealing the adventurous and colonial purposes just like those in the past behind the plan!
Nasser Frounchi
Torbat-e-Jaam Iran
John Howard's values
If John Howard has a problem with "values" in our schools, then why doesn't he set an example for us to follow? The example that he has been setting has been quite an interesting one, for instance, the invasion and ongoing occupation of Iraq, which has killed and is still killing thousands of people. And why doesn't he set an example for us by stopping the locking up innocent refugees in concentration camps?
I think John Howard is the one who needs to get values, other than the rather large ones he has in his pocket!
Duncan Meerding
Hobart College Tas
Wealthy private schools
The federal government is still defending its payments to wealthy private schools. Brendan Nelson argues that, without such assistance, fees would rise, making these institutions even more financially exclusive. By this logic, state aid for Porsche purchasers can't be far away.
When only a small percentage can ever enjoy a privilege, it is not fairer for the proportion to rise. This increases the number with a major advantage over the vast majority.
Families electing to use high-fee schools are certainly not needy; and abolishing grants to affluent schools would probably save the government money, even assuming some shift of pupils to schools still receiving public assistance.
Achieving something resembling equality of opportunity in schooling requires that parents not be permitted to spend significant amounts on schooling other than via the tax system, which would fairly finance those schools deemed to be socially desirable. And while some children have over $10,000 per annum spent privately on their schooling, the government should certainly not pitch in too.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere NSW
Reality TV
In Australia, we love to see private details of a person's life, little titillations. We love to see some humiliation; some people put under stress and watch them squirm. When will a network bid to run one of our detention centres? Let's watch the good guard, the bad guard. How long do we have to imprison kids before they go really weird? Let's watch the guards do those intimate body searches, put a microphone on a "Management Unit" — no, that won't be necessary, these solitary confinement rooms are already set up with camera surveillance. How long will it take that young mother to become a pale lifeless doll, curled in the corner of her room? How long til that handsome young man goes blank in the eyes and begins to shake?
We won't have to worry about any Hogan's Heroes funny accents. The guards talk straight Ocker. The whole world will begin to identify this accent!
Anyone who would like to take part needs to first flee from a repressive regime, take a boat journey. It also helps to have already had some experience of torture and violence. Kids especially welcome, smaller the better.
Elaine Smith
West Haven NSW
NMD
Bravo to Latham and the ALP for putting the kibosh on Australia's participation in the US National Missile Defence fiasco thus saving many millions for pro-social policies. Howard should explain how much his NMD plans are going to cost the community and which of our cities are going to be "protected". How good is his intelligence this time? Time to go Johnnie!
Gareth Smith
Byron Bay NSW
Opera House protest On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist, angered at Gandhi's conciliatory policies towards Muslims. Gandhi stood for truth and non-violence. So it's ironic that on the 56th anniversary of this death, an Australian judge sentenced two people to prison for painting the words "No War" on the Sydney Opera House. The motivation for this act was the lack of truth in the government's justification for perpetrating acts of violence on people in another country.
For those who perceive paint on the Opera House as a desecration, it's worth noting Gandhi's words: "Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty." In pronouncing sentence, the judge asserted that it makes no difference to the owner of property whether the damage is committed as an act of vandalism or as a political protest. Gandhi asked: "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"
Petra Liverani
Newtown NSW
Nazis
Once again, John Howard is pursued by his nemesis, the Queensland National Party, which has spiked his petrol tank with a good handful of sugar. This time it was in the canefields of the north, where the Coalition knowingly ran a candidate with former Nazi Party links. And then one of Howard's less coherent backbenchers, Dee-anne Kelly, sputtered into post-holidays life like a clapped-out mower with a defence of the whole schemozzle.
The Coalition's associations with the right-wing, violent, proudly racialist Nazis, League of Rights etc., usefully remind us that not only does Howard have a darkly ugly and repugnant past — e.g., his 1980s whining about the "Asianisation" of Australia and his party's brutishly racist Northern Territory push-polling — but also the ugly bent of his Big Lie "border protection" abuse of refugees with detention of children and other innocents behind razor wire in hell-camps. How many Australians will this year vote Nazi in commonwealth, state or territory polls? Have we got what it takes to trip the loutish swagger of the Coalition's stormtroopers?
Peter Woodforde
Melba ACT
From Green Left Weekly, February 11, 2004.
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