I do not support women being forced to wear the burqa. I see it as one manifestation of the myriad of ways women are oppressed in this patriarchal society.
But I want to make it clear that I do not support a ban on the wearing of a burqa. Banning the wearing of a burqa would simply mean that the person who wears it 鈥 voluntarily or otherwise 鈥 is criminalised. It would not, as some female supporters of the ban argue, help women extricate themselves from patriarchal control over their lives.
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A common right-wing perception is that one either is, or is not, a member of David Hicks鈥 鈥渃heer squad鈥.
Chris Merritt, reviewing this book in the October 22 Australian, actually referred to a Hick鈥檚 鈥渃heer squad鈥. Merritt lamented: 鈥淭he whole appalling story of his treatment by the US military commission would be trotted out.鈥
Trotted out? A clever way to admit that what Hick鈥檚 says is true, but at the same time trivialise the details.
I am not sure what Hicks鈥 personal views have been on a number of issues, and not addressing them is perhaps a weakness of the book.
Manic Street Preachers
Postcards From a Young Man (Sony, 2010)
From its opening strains, the Manic Street Preachers鈥 10th and latest album, Postcards From a Young Man, is clearly the successor not only to 2007鈥檚 Send Away The Tigers, but also to their critically acclaimed 1996 success Everything Must Go.
In the lead-up to the March NSW elections, the Socialist Alliance will campaign under the slogan: 鈥淣SW 鈥 not for sale! Community need not corporate greed.鈥 It sums up the radical shift in priorities needed in the interest of environmental sustainability and social justice.
Labor will get trashed in these elections. The Victorian election result confirms that. The Keneally Labor government is much more on the nose than the Victorian Brumby government was.
Sydney is the 鈥渟ex capital鈥 of Australia, said an article in the November 12 Daily Telegraph, which called the city the 鈥淎msterdam of the South Pacific鈥.
The article reported recent figures from the Government Interagency Brothels Taskforce that showed 271 legal brothels in the state, as well as claims that 鈥渢he industry is being infiltrated by organised crime鈥. The figures, which were labelled 鈥渟hocking鈥, were blamed on 鈥渄ysfunctional planning laws and legislation鈥 by one figure quoted.
鈥淢um鈥檚 dead鈥. The gloomy faced Sujendran Gunesekaram greeted me, as we met in person for the first time. His mother died of a heart attack on September 5, after suffering for three years.
Sujendran is a 27-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil originally from Muttur in Trincomalee, the war-hit town in the east. He was one of 254 asylum seekers on the Australia-bound boat Jeya Lestari that moored off at the port in Merak, Indonesia in October 2009.
One of the most vital features of the Bolivarian revolution underway in Venezuela is the development by workers and their organisations of different forms of workers鈥 control in their workplaces and communities.
The increasing participation and control by workers is taking place at the same time as hundreds of companies have been nationalised.
The launch of the community guide to the draft Murray Darling Basin Plan marks the latest step in the largely bipartisan process of water reform that started with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) reforms of 1994.
It also graphically displays the risks inherent in the increasingly centralised, Commonwealth-driven approach to water planning that developed under the Howard government and has intensified since.
It鈥檚 that time of the year again. It鈥檚 the festival of festivals to boost the profits of giant retail stores. The 鈥淪pirit of Christmas鈥 demands to be fed with your maxed out credit card.
There鈥檚 a new desperation to this seasonal message this year. The shoppers are not splurging like they should.
A recent Westpac survey found that consumers would spend 34% less in 2010 than in 2009.
The Republic of Ireland鈥檚 financial crisis, which has caused unemployment to rise from 4.3% in 2006 to 14.1% in October, has deep roots.
The conditions of the European Central Bank (ECB)/International Monetary Fund (IMF) 鈥渂ailout鈥 package for the Irish government will total 鈧85 billion 鈥 at a higher interest rate than that tied to the Greek bailout in May. It is tied to the Irish government carrying out huge government spending cuts, tax rises for workers and wage cuts for public sector employees.
Irish workers are being told to pay for a crisis they did not cause.
鈥淣ature is our home and is the system of which we form a part, and therefore it has infinite value, but it does not have a price and is not for sale鈥 said a November 3-5 meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) nations of Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua.
The meeting rejected the privatisation of nature, in which 鈥渘ature is seen as 鈥榗apital鈥 for producing tradable environmental goods and services 鈥 and assigned a price so that they can be commercialised with the purpose of obtaining profits鈥.
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