It is now officially election day, and I don`t have anyone to talk politics with.
Serves me right for doing away with Facebook.
No young people here will speak a word of politics, the word is dirt, as everyone is completely disillusioned with the complete corruption of the system. I`ve been reading about Mexican history and politics constantly since I got here. As far as I can tell, drug cartels and American business interests completely run this country. It is very, very, bad. The government and the federal army are arguably worse than the drug gangs, they hold shootouts in the streets with the cartels at the expense of the blood of the civillian population. Civillians are injured all the time, and it seems that the public gun-battles are only conducted in order for the government to convey a bullshit sense of action on corruption and crime. Acting tough on the drug cartels on the streets and on the front page of the newspapers and at the TV news gains them re-election through fear and bent ballot boxes and perpetuates the system of institutional corruption. So everyone closes their eyes and slaps their hands over their ears and squeals like a pig whenever you try to talk about voting or government or politics of any kind that even remotely resembles our traditional western style of liberal democracy.
I read that the polls are splitting it 50-50 after preferences.
What the fuck is wrong with our country?
...maybe I dont miss it so much. Average people here in Mexico have no faith in institutional politics. I wondder why? I can`t bothered writing about the ins and outs of this campaign like I normally would, nothing they are aruging over is worth giving the time of day. Mexicans don`t read the paper, they don`t vote, they don`t care about governMENTAL politics, they judge ALL people on whether or not the are nice, polite, kind, honest, and respectful, they simply don`t care about, let alone support, either side of the bullshit political spectrum. They only seem to care about each other, the people, not other people`s politics, because politics is a fairy-tale for them. All I can say is that if your `average Jose` trusted politics enough to vote, it would NEVER be for Abbott. Poor people here (the massive majority), care about human kindness and sharing food and drinks and music and dancing and laughter, not whether or not a few thousand people should be allowed to land on their coast in leaky boats.
'At least' in Australia we get to vote `comfortable` in the `knowledge` that government corruption and dodgy dealing is only suspected, and not accepted as normal and unchangeable.
The only thing better about systems of liberal democracy seems to me to be the real liberties we enjoy in regards to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The papers still print the same old shit and blind `the masses` from the truth, but at least we don`t often see people jailed for having alternative or `irrational` or `dangerous` views on politics.
The internet is the only tool we have with the potential to be utilised for truly free democracy and free-speech. It is being brutalised, like all other communication technologies before it, by the commercial imperative for popularity, into another weapon to be utilised for brainwashing people and distracting them from the things that really matter. But so long that it isn`t legislated out of the ability to be open-slather, it will always be a potential opening for truly democratic practices. NO NET CENSORSHIP.
Sorry family, but bugger the ALP... the alternative is undoubtedly worse... I want her to win... but I also know that her winning will not be that much better in the scheme of things.
So Abbott might bomb Indonesia if they refuse to take our asylum seekers, or legalise gay-bashing, or make it mandatory for women to leave school at the age of 14 to take Christian child-rearing and cooking classes.. but what difference will voting for Gillard make in terms of saving the planet from utter destruction?
Gillard isn`t as outwardly and openly "evil" as he, but voting for her won`t help bring about the sort of change in enironmental and economic policy that is necessary to avoid evil anarcistic social disorder and inevitable annihilation. I don`t think it is irrational to argue that unless there is international, RADICAL, policy reform in the immediate future, there won`t be any sort of planet to stage idiotic elections campaigns in the nearer-than-everyone-seems-to-think future.
I love the people and plants and platypi of Australia more than anything else in the world... we have an amazing and interesting national identity, character, and culture. It is one which I hold dear to my heart and one of which that I am proud, but I`d wipe my arse with the flag, and spit on the steps of parliament house without hesitation. Or maybe cut the Union Jack out of it, wipe my arse with that, replace it with the boxing Kangaroo (or a picture of a footy or a wave or a parma&pot or Warnie bowling a perfect leg-break), drape the new flag around my neck and wash the windows of parliament house with the shit-stained stupid little square of red, white and blue cloth. Jules was talking about the republic again the other day. Exciting.
I remember my very intelligent, wise, and wordly marine biologist navy-seal Grandpa saying something about it being muy importante, very important, (mierde, shit, I`m starting to think in Spanish already... it took me several seconds to figure out the English way to say that) to avoid `a one-way ticket to anarchy`...
I respect his opinions greatly and I know what he meant, but to the statement by itself and out of context I call BS. Anarchy can certainly be evil and undesirable, but the word is stigmatised. Noam Chomsky describes himself as an Anarchist, and the man is the most referenced academic alive today, he has the brain capacity of the entire Australian public combined and multiplied by five. Anarchy in terms of decreasing centralised governmental control of the decision making process and realising a more open, honest, direct form of democracy is an extremely attractive ideal, and an ideal which I believe should be inform all potential practial measures for reforming pathetic political systems the world over.
Continuing with the traditional left v right, liberal v conservative, pendulum game of politics that we have been playing for the past couple of hundred years is exactly the correct change for the aforementioned ticket. In the worst sense of the word anarchy. Our system of representaional democracy, while noble in its Jeffersonian intention and invention, has brought us to where we are today, and therefore must be done away with, or at least reformed beyond any real regonition. We desperately need to completely alter the foundations of our staid, pre-modern political system, the constant back and forth over nothing, and achieving only as much as the narcissistic two-party polticial system will allow, as soon as possible. If we don`t, over-population, environmental degredation, and shortages of food, water and resources will lead to a breakdown of all traditional instituions anyway, and a evil, cyclonic system of utterly evil anarchy will emerge.
Of course this is just a theory, but I think it is a reasonable one. A probable outcome, if you will. Reneage militant organisations the world over recruiting the starving and dying masses to wage war over resources and land. Dramatic? Yes. Far-fetched? I honestly don`t believe it is, and many others agree. `Respected` (i.e. much-read, i.e. not necessarily right by any means) political philosopher Robert D. Kaplan, made the argument of the aforementioned war-lords-and-ladies consequences of political stagnation in `The Coming Anarchy`, an article published in Atlantic Monthly in 1994. He argues this will become the norm everywhere, instead of just in smelly, weird countries in Africa, where he argues such economic and population-related anarchy is already becoming evident. That was in 1994. Anything can happen, no ones knows for sure what will happen, but on `current evidence` (aka what I`ve read, i.e. very little), I see no reason to doubt his assertion that future `anarchy` is largely inevitable. We should all try to make "The Coming Anarchy" as fair, free just, and truly democratic for all the people of the planet as possible.
Humankind's tendency toward a kind of slipshod, gooey, utopian and ultimately dangerous optimism may be its final downfall. Envirmonmental and political reality is a terrifying dystopia, and it must be seen as cowardly and evil to shy away from planet`s severe problems under a warm blanket of optimism. Life isn`t a terrifying dystopia, you can always like and love and have pleasureable and positive experiences while the world collapses, and so everyone should. I`m having a postively pleasurable experience right now, writing this, then Ox-tongue tacos and beer for lunch!!! However, pretending that reality is not as ill as we all truly know that it is, or hiding away from thinking about how we can prevent the planet from plummeting into further, irreparable illness, as the scientific evidence suggests that it will, is not a true, honest, honourable, or respectable way of conducting ourselves as human beings.
Therefore, I have these reasons NOT to vote for the same old ALP, when what we need is RADICAL policy change, right now.
1. Inhumane, evil asylum policy ponderings.
Some say it is necessary to return to government when Abbott is in opposition.
I say succumbing to populist front-page outrage over the non-issue of immigration is pandering to the liberals attacks on the issue, and serves to make the problem worse.
This is the worst kind of political expediancy; it legitamises idiotic Australian xenophobia in the national conscious. It is okay to hate refugees. Bullshit Jules.
2. Pressing forwards with plans for mandatory and anonymous censorship of the internet.
No one should ever vote for big brother. Secret government blacklists are for commies, not Aussies.
All of the technical experts agree that it will slow Australian internet speeds, and we are already way behind of the rest of the `developed world` on this front.
This will be bad for productivity, bad for the economy, and even worse in terms of open and transparent governance. So no secret censorship, Julia Stalin.
3. Literally no policy on climate change; except ``wait for community consensus on the issue``.
This is the clincher. The worst. She says she believes in it. Abbott has variously claimed that the planet might be alright, that the world has warmed in the last few years, that we could do it with clean coal or nuclear or something else we will surely invent soon; he should be taken out the back paddock and shot for stupidity. He is quite clearly an irrational idiot, she is claims not to be. Therefore, on climate change, she is worse than he is.
Anyone in a position of power, who is sane enough to believe the weight of evidence... seen by a massive majority of the world`s scientific community to mean that we need to stop the world warming, right now, or else... and does nothing about it... is evil. End of story.
Yes, Rudd and Labour lost face over backflipping on the ETS scheme, yes the Libs will try to play the scare card that the economy will collapse if we do anything at all to try to save the planet from exploding. This doesn`t change the fact that she is in power and she is telling the Australian public from the highest office that the best thing for our country and the best thing for the planet... is to wait until everyone agrees on what to do to. Some people will actually listen, and take this message on board, even if it isn`t the message she would rather be sending. Its called being honest. An honest politician. A foxymoron.
She won`t tell the most important truths to the people. She is therefore a complete muppet, a politician without principle, a power-hungry, two-faced, blood-thirsty, back-stabbing bitch who cares more about herself and her pathetic political party than "the Australian people", the people of the planet, or the planet itself. If I saw her in the street I`d ask her why her policy is to take years off the life expectancy of the all young people on the planet and ensure that there is no planet for my potential children to play on.
4. She is a woman.
5. She has red-hair.
6. She is childless and unmarried, and therefore out of touch with working families and real Australian women. She probably doesn`t even know how to cook or clean.
7. She is lovely and personable and is willing to be interviewed by equally lovely red-headed Australian rock-stars, and I wish she was my Aunty. THIS IS NO REASON TO VOTE FOR HER. PERSONALITY COUNTS FOR DIRT. POLICY OVER PERSONALITY.
MySpace Presents... Prime Minister Julia Gillard
MySpace Australia | MySpace Video
I have to admit, that in true-to-form, Miles Mouth-off fashion, I am claiming to care and doing the opposite. I didn`t get to vote. I didn`t even think of it until about 5 days ago. I checked out AEC website; naturally, I was already way too late to register for a postal vote, and didn`t have enough pesos to take the 14-hour bus trip to Mexico City to pre-vote at the Australian Embassy. So The Greens won`t get my vote in the lower house and The Australian Sex Party won`t get my protest-vote in the Senate. They are the only Australian party running on a platform of gay rights, sexual liberation, destroying conservative stigma, and destroying Stephen Conroy`s idiotic and evil plans for secretive censorship of the internet. Vote Sexy In The Senate. Leave secretive government blacklists to the `god-damned-gook-commies`.
Dad, please don`t vote for Labour and the same old shit. Vote for The Greens in both houses. You`re dead right. Bob Brown looks good. Bob Brown always looks good. He always speaks, thinks, acts, and tries to legislate for social progress and saving the planet and our Australian environment. He is a good man, a smart man, a logical man, and a courageous man; the best bloody poofter you`ll ever come accross. A vote for The Greens is a vote for progress; they are the only party who want serious reform in the fields of environment, education and healthcare, including dental and mental healthcare. Throwing more funding around before elections doesn`t mean better results; The Greens are thinking long-term, and Labour need to learn this.
Kindness and compassion for the poor, sick, and starving are not useless qualities to have in political leaders. Realistic, serious democratic debate and progressive thinking informed by an earnest spirit of compassion for people and the planet is the only way to fix things.
When Pete Garrett loses faith in the love-will-tear-us-apart Labour party factional fighting machine and returns to his `mental` environmentalist roots, together he and Bob might actually make some significant changes in Australian politics. If they can`t change it all, at least they`ll keep the bastards alot more honest about what they are letting big-business to our beautfiul old-growth bush, our oceans, our rivers, and our indigenous people. No more burning beds, blue-sky mines, U.S. forces, or letting the "fucking frogs drop their fucking radioactive fucking experimental warheads into the fucking pacific, our fucking pacific, the dirty bastards". Pete Garrett for President of the Australian republic, 2020. Bob Brown for PM. Mick Dodson or someone else who actually owns this country for minister for Indigenous Affairs, or both President and PM if they want to be. Vote for what you know is right instead of trying to ensure something doesn`t go wrong, nearly everything is wrong already. Maybe it doesn`t seem so in lovely little Australia, but out here the rest of the world is hurting badly, and we need to pull our weight in trying to solve the whole planet`s problems, not just our own. Vote for the Greens.
That is my bit of pent-up political propaganda anyway. Sorry for the epic ranting, but I needed to get that off my chest. Hehehe. I`ll post that as an entry on my blog now, but I guess I`ll send still send it to you guys too, even though you were just asking how I was. Haha.
Death to Tony Abbott,
I pray he doesn`t win by one vote,
Sorry Family,
Sorry Australia,
Sorry Planet Earth,
Peace, Love, and a promise to try harder to help from now on,
Miles.
PS. This is probably for Dad`s ears only, because it has lots of naughty words, and I don`t know if your internet will load a music video, but this song "Drunk on election night" is awesome. It is by Paul Kelly`s nephew, Dan Kelly. One of Barney`s mates plays guitar in his band, the Alpha Males. If you can`t watch it, look up the lyrics... he wrote it about 2004 election night, when we re-elected Howard with an increased majority a year after we invaded another sovereign nation without the backing of the UN, a year after we started carpet bombing Arab babies, a year after we started an unjust and unnecessary war. The yanks voted in Bush with an increased, popular (>+50%) majority a month later. Neil Young chose it for his compilation album called "Living with war songs of the times". I`m going camping in the desert with my fingers crossed until Sunday, I hope I`m not wandering around Monterrey singing this to myself in the weeks and months to come. If Abbott wins, and Collingwood win the premiership, sorry, but I`m staying here. Or moving to America.
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