Author Archives

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I’m sure the honeymoon will end soon enough, but for now, I’m happy

BBC: Canberra signals immigration move

Australia’s new government has accepted seven Burmese asylum seekers being held in Nauru, signalling a wind-down of a controversial immigration policy.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans said admitting the group was a first step in dismantling the previous government’s so-called “Pacific Solution”.
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Chief Executive of the Refugee Council of Australia Paul Power welcomed Labor’s move to change the policy.
“It (the ‘Pacific Solution’) was a failed policy that created great psychological damage to people who had committed no crime and undermined Australia’s international reputation on human rights,” he said in a statement.

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Good news for the environment

The Age: Governors take action to save rainforests

Vast tracts of tropical rainforests will be protected under a declaration signed last night by the governor of Brazil’s Amazonas state and his counterparts from the Indonesian provinces of Aceh, Papua and West Papua.
Dubbed the “green governors”, they will impose moratoriums on logging across their provinces, home to much of the world’s tropical forests.
With growing frustration at faltering negotiations in Bali to include programs to reduce deforestation in a post-Kyoto climate treaty, the governors have decided to take the lead.

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Oh yes! Australia signs up to Kyoto

Australia pledges to sign Kyoto protocol on climate change

Australia won applause at the start of UN-led climate change talks in Bali on Monday by agreeing to ratify the Kyoto protocol, isolating the US as the only developed nation outside the pact.
Soon after an Australian delegate promised immediate action on Kyoto, the new prime minister in Canberra, Kevin Rudd, took the oath of office and signed the ratification documents, ending his country’s long-held opposition to the global climate agreement.

In a piece of funny timing, I’ll be in Melbourne by NYE, so I’ll have a chance to see how Rudd is going for myself.

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Coolness in Paris

Klausmann and his crew are connaisseurs of the Parisian underworld. Since the 1990s they have restored crypts, staged readings and plays in monuments at night, and organised rock concerts in quarries. The network was unknown to the authorities until 2004, when the police discovered an underground cinema, complete with bar and restaurant, under the Seine. They have tried to track them down ever since.

Guardian, Undercover restorers fix Paris landmark’s clock

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Go Desmond Tutu!

BBC: Tutu chides Church for gay stance

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has criticised the Anglican Church and its leadership for its attitudes towards homosexuality.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4, he said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, had failed to demonstrate that God is “welcoming”.
He also repeated accusations that the Church was “obsessed” with the issue of gay priests.
He said it should rather be focusing on global problems such as Aids.

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Tokyo so far

Lots of shopping around Shinjuku – fetish items like stationery, a Hello Kitty camera (that I had to return cos it was crap), and generally enjoying the randomness of the shops and the shinyness of the roads that take you to them.
The shops around Harajuku are a bit like Camden’s Electric Ballroom or stable markets, and the people shopping there are perhaps more interesting than the show-offs on Jingu-bashi.
We accidentally found a lovely friendly lesbian bar – the Anchor. The scene seems small but decent.

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Yes! Goodbye Howard.

Australia sweeps Rudd into power

Australia’s opposition Labor Party under Kevin Rudd has won a sweeping general election victory, removing PM John Howard after an 11-year term.
Mr Rudd said Australia had “looked to the future” and that he would be “a prime minister for all Australians”.

Unbelievably happy about this. But it’s a long way back to an Australia I can respect and be proud of. Let’s hope it starts now.