Short shots; a John Howard diary, an Australian in Maryland gets the school to wear a uniform, and I got a migraine. More on; Putin's attack on democracy. Hong Kong's elections. Hicks has no chance of a fair trial according to an Australian QC. Labor's unveiled education policy.

Poll: Will there be a revolution in Russia to overthrow Putin?

Shorts

• A very funny satirical website that pretends to be John Howard making blog entries.

  Once during lunchtime at Parliament, we were playing cricket against some of the minor party members, and Bob Brown goes, "If it hits a tree, do you have to catch it with one hand?" And I was like, "But if it hits the tree, won't you wanna go and hug and kiss the tree better?" And he goes, "I dunno, John. What are you gonna do if it hits a Bush?" So I was like, "Yeah? Well... ya mum!" Ha, I totally burnt him hardcore. See, that's why I own the whole country, and he has to live in Tasmania.

  Hilarious.
• Can't find the article, but it was in the Washington Post the other day, an Australian biology teacher got a local school in Maryland to adopt school uniforms . Apparently the fellow used to be in the rock band, The Dingoes which must have been before my time. One of the apparent changes from it, was that kids at lunchtime in the cafeteria were not stratifying into socio-economic groups as much. Hopefully their uniforms are more stylish than the white shirt, grey king gees and desert boots I used to wear out in the western suburbs as a public school uniform.
• Have had a stinker of a migraine the last three days. It isn't the "can't handle light bad" but I am super-sensitive to noise, especially abrupt noise.

Failing Democracy in Russia

Vladmimir Putin has made a naked grab for power after the Beslan tragedy. Centralising power around himself which includes appointing Governors rather than having them popularly elected. From the Moscow Times;

Vladimir Putin on Monday announced a package of sweeping government reforms that will bolster the authoritarian direction of Russia's political development. Putin proposed a fundamental restructuring of the entire executive branch, making it far more rigid and centralized than before. His plan further weakens representative democracy by dismantling key institutions such as direct elections.

As the article notes, only one of the reforms has anything to do with Beslan, the rest have to do with him desiring absolute power through a one party state with himself as the head of government. The Soviet Union already showed that a centralised government cannot run a nation as large as Russia. Putin's attempt to become Musharef will fail, it will require too much energy and the Russians will rise up once again and replace him. The Russians have risen up several times in the last one hundred years, it is becoming a habit for their nation.

The neo-cons which have controlled American foreign policy the last three years place great value in democracy, they also see the US military might as a vehicle for positive change in the world. Robert Kagan had an op-ed published in the Washington Post this morning (Wed Sept 15th) demanding President Bush do something about Putin. Unfortunately Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons and the US military is drastically over-stretched with 140,000 troops tied up in Iraq.

To add to the problem, Bush claimed he looked in Putin's eyes and saw a man he could trust .I am sure Bush will retract that statement and McClellan will claim that by trust, the President meant; "as far as he could kick him". What will Bush do? Russia does what America wants on the international stage as long as the US doesn't lambast Russia for its lack of human rights, it government system that is back to dictatorship, and the manner with which it handles terrorist incidents.

If Bush turns a blind eye to this naked power grab he will have the support of Putin. But it goes against the Bush Administration's rhetoric about freedom and liberty. Bush is no friend of liberty however, his actions are louder than his polled, and prepared speeches which are often little more than vehicles to get the media and the population off his back. I expect the US to do nothing on the issue of Putin.

Bush has sat on the sidelines recently with Russia and watched Putin clamp down on independent media and jail an oligarch who threatened to have the resources to challenge the Russian ruling elites politically. I see no action being taken against Putin by the Bush Administration. They have already shown their rhetoric for a love of liberty is just political convenience, not of choice, character or consummate belief.

It will be the Russian people that will have to take matters into their own hands again. Good luck to them.

No Chance For Democracy in Hong Kong

Hong Kong also recently had elections, though these were rigged so the Beijing controlled groups would maintain a majority by having appointed positions that were greater than the number of democratically elected candidates. Appointments to the executive and legislative are the enemies of democracy. Australia's appointed Governor General may one day cause our flimsy wet noodle of a constitutional system the same aggravations.

The Legislative Council is under the appointed Chief Executive (Tung Chee Hwa) who heads a 400 member committee (Election Committee). The Legislative Council is made up of popularly elected members and appointed members. The elected members number 24 and the appointed 30. Of the appointed thirty, six are appointed by the Election Committee. The other twenty-six of the thirty are appointed by a Beijing controlled committees. This setup guarantees the elected members are subject to a majority of appointed members on the council that will do Beijing's will.

An interesting article on the Hong Kong Democratic Party which was one of the parties vying for the popularly elected spots on the Legislative Council. The west's "One country, two systems" extends not only to Taiwan, but also to Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a common law system which is slowly being chipped away at and replaced with the often arbitrary law of the one party state. Again, Hong Kong can count on support from the west, it will be up to the people of Hong Kong to demand and take from Beijing the political system in Hong Kong.

Confidence in the Judicial System

A nations internal strength is drawn from the confidence it has in the judicial system and the knowledge that all are equal in the eyes of the law. The indefinite detention of prisoners of war in Guantanamo Bay and the blurring of civil and military judicial responsibilities have done much to damage thiindefinitelys notion.

Australian liberties and justice are not supposed to end at the Australian shoreline. They are universal values, based on the human condition of being born into complete freedom and consenting to a government to maintain order that secures a person and their possessions from the arbitrary will of another. Like many others, I believed the embassies overseas served to ensure that Australians being tried or detained overseas were done so to the same levels they could expect in Australia.

John Howard has disabused this notion, by not ensuring Hicks and Habib are guaranteed the same rights and liberties they would enjoy in Australia. These include the right to a speedy trial, the right not be detained and the right to be judged for their crimes by their peers. Howard has left these two to rot under the arbitrary will of the American executive. It is hard not to look at this situation as Howard selling out Hicks and Habib to ensure Bush's influence.

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Lex Lasry, QC believes Hicks will not receive a fair trial under the military tribunal Rumsfield has set up to convict the Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Mr Lasry, who released his report on the hearing yesterday, called on the Federal Government to ask the United States to remove Hicks from the military commission process and either place him before a court martial, the US criminal justice system or return him to Australia.

John Walker-Lindh, an American citizen captured in Afghanistan in similar circumstances to Hicks, received a civil trial in the United States. This was for political reasons. But it has led to the justice system becoming arbitrary. Hicks and Habib should be tried in Australia by a civil court. We cannot trust the American military tribunal system under the Pentagon's and White House's direction, to enable a fair trial and justice to be served.

A diary entry on Guantanamo Bay from Dec 23rd, 2002 . Pretty sure I have done others on this issue, but HuSi's archives are not searchable at the moment.

Labor's Education Policy

Labor released their education funding policy as part of their election campaign. Their funding is based around bringing all schools up to a "Labor's 21st Century Standard". This resource standard is fancy political language for primary schools will get $9,000 per student and secondary schools will get $12,000 per student. The policy document claims that 95% of schools are below that standard and 5% are above it. This includes $1.9 billion extra funding for government schools and a re-distribution of money across private schools. Some of their commitments include;

$15 million to advance the development of a nationally consistent curriculum for all schools.

I don't like this, it smacks of federal interference. I know people that have kids and who through work have to travel from state to state have all sorts of issues with school term alignments and their kids having to catch up or wait and be bored; but one system means less innovation going on at the local level.

One of the benefits of a State education run system (rather than a singular federal system) is that there is choice. One of my mates was working in Victoria, which courtesy of Kennett has a strong private school system. My mate had to make the choice for his four year old son, should he seek work in Victoria or NSW; and based his choice on the school systems and the choice between public and private (The A.C.T. won in the end).

Ultimately the differences in the school system can become a deciding factor in states attracting workers and families into their state. This is a good thing for governments to compete on. A singular Federally mandated curriculum will remove this dynamic before it can develop.

I Was Prime Minister; Federal Education Policy

I believe the greatest issue facing education is not funding, but procedure and process; which I explored in the article; Reform for the New South Wales Education System . The current education system is set up to produce factory workers, autocrats and technocrats. It removes economic actors from the economy for large periods by repeating education at the lower levels and not specializing students fast enough. The education system is too slow, and needs to be sped up.

The industrialization of the Australian economy after World War II also came with a protectionist economy, where workers were expected to work in the one place their entire career and specialize in that one company and industry. Four year degrees are consistent with this type of career. Today workers job mobility means a turgid workforce where most people rarely stay more than three years in the one job, or the one location.

Private industry is also project based where workers specialize from project to project, often changing careers from project to project as well. Education needs to be matched to this dynamic of the information economy. For Australia to become competitive in the world labor markets and economies, it must overhaul education to suit the needs of individuals in an information economy.

As to where the funding for this system should come from? The states and the states only. the Federal Government is once again showing how little respect it has for federalism and minimal government; and education is one of the big areas (including health) that the federal government covets from the states.

If I was Prime Minister, I would warn the states, there will be no more funding from the Federal Government for education. I would phase out Federal funding for education to the states over three years giving them ample time to raise the revenue to cover it from somewhere else. I would then cut the Federal Budget for the amount education is costing, and drop the tax rates to the level of the new and smaller budget.

Needs Based Funding

Labor is basing their funding for government, catholic and independent private schools on a "Needs Based Funding". This is to counter the inequities in funding the Howard Government has leveraged to the independent schools. The document claims the under Howard that; " Schools that charge $15,000 or more in fees have received staggering funding increases of up to 300 per cent since 2001 ". In comparison to 20% for government schools and 25% for catholic schools. There is no mention how much the States fund each of those school categories though.

As Ken Parish pointed out the policy includes $150 million to " teach Australian values and improve discipline in schools ". I have no idea what values are going to be taught, and what makes those values uniquely Australian; either way the government has no business doing this, nor does it have any business funding "values". It is too open to government arbitrariness, the culture decides what the value system is, only a totalitarian government decides values for its people. This is a repugnant notion.

The most interesting part of the policy is how they are reversing Howard's existing policies on funding to private schools. Other than that it is just large sums of money going to headlines programs. I really have no idea if it will be successful or not. But I prefer the idea of all schools receiving equitable funding based on a per student basis.

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