ELECTION LOOMING AHEAD

We have a Federal election looming over our heads in the near future and the politicians have been busy drugging us with their sickeningly hypnotic oratory once again. Even our Prime Minister, who is noted for his arrogance and conceit has watered down his usually bombastic and self-centred pronouncements. He wishes to be elected again and break some sort of record as the most re-elected or longest serving PM, I think… Well, he has quite a record to break with Robert Menzies chalking up 2 years, 4 months, 4 days in his first term (26 April 1939 - 29 August 1941) and 16 years, 1 month, 8 days in his second term (19 December 1949 - 26 January 1966). Mr Howard has been in office for 11 years so far, and I think that most Australian believe that this is quite enough…

The most recent mortgage interest rate rises (the latest of several over the past few years) have caused Mr Howard to “apologise” to the Australian people, the face exhibiting distress and the crocodilian tears flowing as he was saying “sorry” – what a surprise! This is the same man who promised in his 2004 election campaign (rather foolishly, as he does not control the Reserve Bank, which is the authority that raises or lowers interest rates) that interest rates would not rise during his government’s latest term. This is the same man who said last time the rates rose that it was something that had to happen and was not apologetic about it (it wasn’t election time then and also, Mr Howard is not a man who is known for his apologies, as our aboriginal population will confirm).

As a result, many Australian families who are struggling to keep up with their house mortgage payments will experience increasing hardship. The rates rose on March 2nd 2006 to 5.50%, then to 5.75% on May 3rd 2006, to 6.00% on August 2nd, 2006 and again on November 8th 2006 to 6.25%. Another rate rise on August 8th 2007 took the rate to 6.50% and the latest interest rate rise has now taken the mortgage rate to 6.75%. More rate rises are tipped for the near future, sometime between February and March next year.

Meanwhile, the opposition is making much noise about the interest rate rises and is getting as much political ammunition out of it as possible, but the fact is that the bulk of struggling families will have to put up with increasing house repayments and deterioration of their quality of living. I am sick of the mud-slinging and vituperative attacks on both sides. I am thoroughly disgusted by the false smiles in their public appearances and yes they still go to shopping centres and kiss the babies! I would have thought that sort of thing was banned nowadays. To think that we shall be subjected to the bickering until November 24th is worrying, to say the least.

And yet, I always go and vote, I try to select candidates that will represent me and my values rather than vote for political parties, often realising that my vote is “wasted” by not voting the “party ticket”. However, I am more comfortable with that than voting blindly for representatives that my conscience will not support. As John Lennon said: “You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.” The Greens often have reasonable and forward-looking candidates, so my support has gone to these underdogs often in the past, but I have also voted for independents, whose activities and ideas I sympathise with.

What I will not vote for is a candidate that supports wars in foreign lands so as to strengthen our and our allies’ economies. My vote will not go to candidates that attempt to scare people into voting for them by waving the red rag of “terrorism” and “homeland security” in front of us. I will not support someone who is narrow minded, parochial and aggressively nationalistic. Mr Downer’s (our foreign minister’s) outburst a couple of days ago is an amazing sample of our present government’s ideas about Australia, its multicultural population and its relationship with the world:

“Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has accused Labor leader Kevin Rudd of being a show-off who can't hold himself back from breaking into Chinese. Mr Rudd, a former diplomat who speaks fluent Mandarin, used his language skills during an interview on a Chinese TV station yesterday. Mr Downer said there was no need for the Labor leader to do the interview in Mandarin.
‘He likes to show off, and you get that a bit with certain people in life,’ the minister told ABC Radio today. ‘I'm familiar with those types of people who like to show-off but I don't think, realistically, there are a lot of votes in the People's Republic of China for Kevin Rudd to win.’
Mr Downer says Mr Rudd is not the only person in Australia who can speak another language.
‘There are thousands upon thousands of Australians, there are tens of thousands of Australians, who can speak foreign languages and most of them don't bother to show-off about it,’ he said.”



Is this an Australian minister of the 21st century speaking or is it someone of the xenophobic 50s? I find it appalling! I would rather have a multilingual, cultured, educated and urbane man representing my country as prime minister, rather than a nationalistic, blinkered, jingoist who will support outmoded and backward looking strategies and whose foreign policy is that of lap-dog to its master.

My word of the day is a dirty word, it’s a four-letter word of eight letters:

politics |ˈpäləˌtiks| plural noun [usu. treated as sing. ]
The activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, esp. the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power: The Communist Party was a major force in French politics | Thereafter he dropped out of active politics.
• The activities of governments concerning the political relations between countries: In the conduct of global politics, economic status must be backed by military capacity.
• The academic study of government and the state: [as adj. ] A politics lecturer.
• Activities within an organization that are aimed at improving someone's status or position and are typically considered to be devious or divisive: Yet another discussion of office politics and personalities.
• A particular set of political beliefs or principles: People do not buy this newspaper purely for its politics.
• (Often the politics of) the assumptions or principles relating to or inherent in a sphere, theory, or thing, esp. when concerned with power and status in a society: The politics of gender.
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French politique ‘political,’ via Latin from Greek politikos, from politēs ‘citizen,’ from polis ‘city.’

I’ll get off my soap box now and remember, don’t believe everything you’re told, mostly it’s untrue (especially if it comes from the mouth of a politician)!