Democracy on trial

Guilty until proven definitely guilty 

On 18th March 2014 the then Justice Head Adly Mansour declared he would  "spare no effort" in his attempts to secure Australian, Peter Greste's and his Al Jazeera colleagues release. Since then after a few fruitless trips to court where ,caged like animals, they awaited the judge's pleasure or displeasure , the journalists are still in limbo. The new Egyptian President , el- Sisi, despite calls from the Australian Prime Minister, has declared he will not interfere with the  Egyptian judiciary. (He obviously has a finely developed sense of irony . If it ain't working, don't fix it!) The ramifications of the Arab Spring are far reaching and Qatar's support of the Muslim Brotherhood, is not in the journos favour. The process is a farce and conditions outside the court and within the country are reported to be even worse than when under Mubarak. 

"Kiss my Asp"

Can or Can't or Won't?

Don't bank on it..

A transparent bank statement

There's something rotten in the state of the Commonwealth (Bank). Many investors who are out of pocket by not inconsiderable amounts of dosh are feeling the pain years after the GFC aftermath swallowed their savings, Commissions paid to so-called financial advisers encouraged the mob mentality that multiplied out of control and led to impossible promises and forecasts for investors.Greed and fear go hand in hand.
What is fairly obvious is the inherent inertia that is in-built in large corporations be they financial, construction or whatever. It would be nice but totally unrealistic to hope for complete transparency.

FIFA 2014

ORANJE........................Phew!

               Netherlands 2 Mexico 1

The too hard basket

Panda Baby

It would seem that in the West , we are fascinated by Chinese demand for what we can supply in the way of raw materials and energy. It helps our economy and our wealth.
China however has long term goals in mind as it tries too ensure that its insatiable appetite for energy and raw materials are met for the foreseeable future.
In her relations with the West, China has been maintaining and keeping up appearances. Low key, that is. So it's all tickety-boo as far as we are concerned. Loverly.

Our attention sadly is focused only on what we see and what interest us.

In South Easy Asia however, it;s a different story. There are a huge number of disputed areas which are causing some alarm among those countries confronting China over territorial and maritime disputed areas. China is beginning to flex its muscle more and more and reacting more aggressively in its response to disputed areas.

According to Wikipedia these are some of the following the following disputes involving China inter alia:-

1. Maritime boundary along the Vietnamese coast between Vietnam, China, and Taiwan
2. Maritime boundary in the waters north of the Natuna Islands between Indonesia, China, and Taiwan 
3. Maritime boundary north of Borneo between Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines, and Brunei
4. Islands in the southern reaches of the South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands between Vietnam, Malaysia, The Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, and China
5. Maritime boundary off the coast of Palawan and Luzon between the Philippines, China, and Taiwan
6. Islands in the northern reaches of the South China Sea, including the Paracel Islands between Vietnam, China, and Taiwan
7. Maritime boundary in the Luzon Strait between the Philippines and Taiwan, including islands.
8. The nine-dash line area claimed by China which covers most of the South China sea and overlaps Exclusive Economic Zone claims of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Western defence experts are also becoming increasingly aware of China's growing maritime prowess. 

One of the troubles in becoming dependent on Chinese trade and wealth is that eventually we might be faced with a situation where we will be worse off in any argument with the rising power of the economic Mandarins. 

Hope we have the stomach for it when the time comes.

Bye,bye carbon tax

Clive's titanic bluff

It was rather a bizarre day yesterday where Clive Palmer seemed to take on a green mantle, greener, in fact,  than broccoli. Standing next to Al Gore, a dyed in the wool climate change advocate, Clive calmly outlined his proposals for the abolition of our existing carbon tax.

Thanks to Clive it would seem that any savings made by this abolition would be passed on to the consumer. (You wish!)  

Bruce Baird of NSW also seems to think that power cost reductions can be achieved by selling off electricity assets. Seem to recall the same being said of CTP insurance, many moons ago when it was privatised. Call me a skeptic but I've found that while costs may be cut for a nano second in the grand scheme of things, they rapidly increase once promises made become hazy in the mists of time. Costs are usually replaced by fees.

Of course Mr. Abbott is over the Abbey steeple with joy at Clive's willingness to join in the fray. Cheshire cat doesn't even come close! Morris West once described this state of euphoria as someone "on cloud nine talking jabberwocky".

Jabberwocky all of the above may be but there's no denying Clive has got what he wanted and come out of this looking squeaky clean, a white knight, firmly on the side of the struggling consumer.

Does this not raise questions about Al Gore's credibility. What the hell was he thinking?

One weighty critic called Clive a "prankster". In  days of yore he would have been considered to be a larrikin. Funny how things change.