Pixelated Semantics

Living and dying through foreign eyes

Following yesterday's attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Reuters reports on "Australian Prime Minister Michael Howard" - which is if I recall properly not the first time Man of Steel has been misidentified by the US press either, and probably indicates JWH's actual standing in the scheme of things, as opposed to the "statesman" image he likes to project at home. The NYT reports "Australia is a staunch ally of the United States, and has been a vocal supporter of the war in Iraq" - but uses the name of the country instead of "the government" which is the actual situation. The majority of Aussies are in fact not supportive of the Irak adventure (75% against the war) and not Uncle Sam's greatest admirers either if the truth be told. Which it won't.

JI, deadly terrorists though they may be, seem to completely fail to appreciate Australians are among the world's least intimidatable people, and being labelled "one of the worst enemies of God" is not likely to change that. However the definition of "Australian" has been elasticised considerably by a disturbing High Court decision that parliament has the power to treat someone born in Australia as a non-citizen - following their recent approval of indefinite detention for asylum seekers it appears that avoiding responsibility for upholding human rights is the order of the day. Man of Steel continues his familiar approach to terrorism by declaring that there was another "intelligence failure" - when clearly that lethal failure is in the Government's mentality and lack of responsibility for anything but good economic news. To be Australian today is to be an expendable statistic at the convenience of party political imperatives, without a foundation of protective rights, and subject to the whims and fortunes of populist leadership.

Meanwhile in the USA, these photos of a sound cannon (a new military "non-lethal" weapon) being used against demonstrators recently shows just what government thinks of the rights of dissenting citizens, majority or not.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 9:48 am ::