I'm currently really busy with a history subject, studying under Robert manne, and working with ICAN. So for the time being, I'm wondering who actually come to this blog? apparently there are people other than me, so...
 

Adding another book to my proposed resources section, Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon. One of the 20th Century's greatest political novels, it offers an interpretation of Stalinism and the Russian Revolution, and also an explanation to his contemporary questions of why prominent communists confessed in Stalin's show trials of the 1930s. 

The novel deals with the revolution and the revolutionary state created under Stalin, and the two competing ethics of revolutionary communism versus individual morality. I tend to side with the Rubashov of the final chapters, when finally refuses to seperate the ends from the means, which is one of the central points of the novel. I think this quote from Ferdinand Lassalle (also in the novel) sums it up more concisely than Koestler, 

"Show us not the aim without the way.
For ends and means on earth are so entangled
That changing one, you change the other too;
Each different path brings other ends in view"

Im not sure that Darkness is a refutation of revolutions on the whole, as some suggest, but it is certainly a denouncement of the crimes of Stalinism and Soviet Communism from someone who knew them well. 

One of the best political novels I've read. 

Last Tuesday marked one year since this blog came into existence. When I started it, I really didn't imaging it would still be stumbling along at this point. There have been a few extended periods without any posts, but I think there were more than 100 posts over the year, some of which actually said something worthwhile. Even more surprising, that people (other than me) actually visited. 


I went to a Friends of the Earth meeting the other day, and I urge everyone who can to get involved in the protests against the Asia-Pacific Defence and Security Exhibition. You can keep up to date with activist info here. Australia's role in the global military industrial complex is big enough already, we dont need to put even more money into promoting it now. 

The first video is the destruction of the cooling tower at Yongbyon. Pretty cool hey? The second is the new City and Colour clip for Sleeping Sickness. Also pretty cool.

Seeing as I generally have been too tired/unmotivated to post anything substantial recently, I'm just going to list the reading I have/am/plan on getting done over the next couple of weeks. I would do amazon links like everyone else seems to do, but you can do that yourself.

Thomas Frank: Whats the Matter with Kansas. I read it for Uni, but interesting and probably worth reading independent of that anyway. If your interested in US domestic politics.

Graham Greene: The Quiet American. A really good novel, his melding of the personal and political is excellent.  

Joseph Heller: Catch 22.

Rudyard Kipling: Kim.

Securing our Survival (SOS) from IPPNW/ICAN etc. I need to read this for my placement in a few weeks. Its seems really interesting, and also very relevant. Als o some prominent names involved in its writing.

Eric Hobsbawm: The Age of Extremes. Also for Uni, but I have read a little Hobsbawm before and he seems really good.  

Hopefully post something more soon.

Another short post today. I wish I could create some sort of resources section on this blog, with a whole lot of useful and interesting books/films etc that I've seen over the years. Maybe I will, if I ever get around to it, and if I do, this book would probably be one of the first to go in there.
 
A documentary on the fantastic Shake Hands With The Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Romeo Dallaire was on the ABC last night, and I managed to catch most of it thanks to helpful a tip off from a friend. I read the book a couple of years ago, and it is a truly fantastic account of the Rwandan genocide, along with the internal and international problems in effectively dealing with it. The book is an account of Dallaire's time as commander of UNAMIR in implementing the failed Arusha peace accords, and the later genocide. Dallaire recounts the internal problems inherent in the UN bureaucracy, and the troubles he had in getting assistance from the underfunded and over-bureaucratised organisation. He also describes the international troubles and frustrations of his quest to get additional assistance from the international community to stop the genocide once he realised it was planned, and when it atually began. It is a moving personal account of the genocide, and a fantastic book. Apparently a movie adaptation was released in Canada last year, which I would be interested to see.

It also reveals the international community's constant lament of 'never again' to be the self serving lie that it is. This gets rolled out after every international tragedy since 1945, along with the claim that we didnt fully understand the true extent of the crimes. I hope that the current lack of effective international action in regard to current crimes in Africa will not be so devastating as in 1994. 

Rage Against the Machine: Sleep now in the fire.

I've added a few new interesting and relevant links to the blog for you to check out. 

Paul Kerr's informative and often midly entertaining arms control blog. 

THE source for info on Russian strategic forces. 

The Federation for American Scientists. Which is a great resource for all sorts of things, and also has an interesting secrecy newsletter by Steven Aftergood that I would never have thought to look at until it turned up in my inbox.

And finally the Australian Medical Association for the Prevention of War. Its a great local organisation working for the elimination of nuclear weapons, and looks at all the dangers surrounding them. Im working at the moment on getting a work placement with them for the second half of this year. 

The internet is a great thing.

A general update today.

First of all, I really love the protests going on with the Olympic torch relay. Does it even still count now that they've put the flame out twice? They're even considering stopping it. The IOC, in giving Beijing the 2008 olympics, stated that they hoped it would help open up Chinese society and maybe be a positive influence on Chinese politics, so they cant exactly complain that protesters are politicising the games. Also, China is pretty clearly using the opportunity to show off China to the world as a world power and a successful developing state, so they cant complain when people point out it isn't that nice to live there (assuming you aren't rich anyway). Kevin Rudd has also exposed himself again as a dickhead on the issue, directing away criticism by claiming China is a lot better now than 25 years ago. So what? That doesn't mean its a good place to be. I don't think that sportspeople should boycott the games, but political leaders certainly should, so hopefully Rudd will get in on the act already, rather than avoiding the issue by leaving it up to his suposed 'schedule'. 

Secondly, this report has just been released by USIP, and details the situation and options for the US in Iraq, and manages to put a positive spin on the fact that security levels are back to 2005 standards. It doesn't paint a very attractive picture.

Thirdly, the SIPR arms transfer database has been updated with 2007 information. Apparently arms sales were down on last year, but overall continuing their upward trend since 2000. it shows Australia as one of the 20 biggest arms importers, and Sudan has imported 87% of its conventional weapons from Russia between 2003-07, so we cant accuse China of being that bad. Its a really useful resource, check it out here.

And lastly, to the Age. I admit I can give some leeway, what with it being the opinon pages and all, but to print such zionist propaganda does require a certain suspension of rationality. Danny Lamm's article on the 7th was a blatant piece of Zionist propaganda. And Danny isn't entirely to blame, we can blame editors for the title 'Israel is taking all the right steps along the pathway to peace', and starting from that, it only got worse. He gets off to a good start, ignoring the problems that are inherent in a two state solution, and moves on to the big guns...

"This solution, however, has its opponents, particularly those groups led by Iran and its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and terrorist movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah which reject the peace process and maintain a fanatical commitment to destroy the state of Israel.

This would deny the Jewish people's right to self-determination..."

Invoking 'self-determination' in the defence of the Israeli state? I dont even know how such hypocrisy can function. Has Lamm completely ignored the fact that Israel is a colonial state? Is he completely blind to the Palestinian population being militarily and economically oppressed? Yes, Israelis should have a right to self determination, but has he considered the reasons why so many people want the Israeli state gone?

Lamm then moves on to defend some of the useful state myths surrounding Israel's beginnings, such as Israel's 'David and Goliath' view of the first Arab-Israeli war.He then attempts to discredit the work of Walt and Mearscheimer thesis, which, if you look at it objectively, would seem to confirm their arguments about the Israel lobby. Lamm is clearly eager to fit into this lobby, and his willful ignorance of the perspective of the oppressed in this situation can only discredit his arguments. 

Why is The Age even publishing this crap?
 

The only show on TV worth watching has returned this week. 

Newstopia, 10pm Wednesday SBS. 

Watch it!