Nukes
The September 29 issue of 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly (#600) offers up Lyndon LaRouche's support for nuclear power as further evidence of his reactionary, fascist views, comparable in nature to his homophobia and racism. Elsewhere in the same issue, however, GLW appears oddly supportive of Iran's bid for nuclear power and condemns the West's imperialist attempts to interfere.
Could it be that nuclear power is acceptable only when it is developed in secret, producing an unusual array of weapons-grade isotopes and is under the control of a repressive, theocratic regime which bans opposition candidates and beats journalists to death?
Could 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly please provide its readers with a breakdown of which nations should be free to pursue their nuclear ambitions free from the meddling of the IAEA, and those for which any nuclear tinkering should be seen as an act of Lyndon LaRouche-esque fascism?
Paul Barnsley
Sydney
Medicare Gold
John Howard has criticised Labor's Medicare Gold policy, saying treatment should be on the basis of medical need. However, when people with private insurance can gain immediate care — while people without sometimes wait months — treatment is obviously not based on need.
Despite this, the Coalition introduced the 30% rebate to financially assist those in a position to jump the needs-based public queue by attending a private hospital.
For citizens over 75, Medicare Gold will, to a significant extent, erode the distinction between private and public patients. All patients will have access, on the basis of their medical circumstances, to either a public bed or a bed in a participating private hospital.
If Howard really believes in needs-based treatment he should endorse the principles which Medicare Gold applies to those over 75 and promise that, over time, he will extend these principles to the entire population. Rodents might fly.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere, NSW
Water
In Owen Richard's article on water use "Who's draining our water away?" [GLW #601], he observes that domestic consumption only accounts for about 9% of total usage. This figure is misleading as it does not give any indication of per capita water usage based on consumption. More simply, water is required to produce food and consumables. So by increasing the cost of water for industry and agriculture, the cost of food and consumables will become higher.
Another factor which shows how misleading the 9% figure is, is the time over which the water is available. A huge amount of water available over a small timeframe might be of use for primary production, but of no use either in industry or for sustaining a population. Determining how much water is available and over what timeframe is the critical question, a question that will be answered by the National Water Audit.
I have often noted business lobby groups quoting the 9% figure to argue that Australia can support a much larger population. My own view is that this path would be highly profitable to some, but totally at the expense of the majority of Australians and the environment. Parasitism in action, if you like.
Bill Meredith
Received via email
Family First
The Taliban and the American religious right have a great deal in common. They want to smash the division between religion and state, and force everyone to live by laws derived by a literal but narrow and very selective reading of traditional holy scriptures.
The Family First Party is the voice of that religious right in this federal election, and represents a highly dangerous trend. It is part of a further Americanisation of Australian politics. This can also be seen in the Presidential style campaigns being run by the major parties, and the constant references to middle Australia.
Every law is an act of violence at least in a latent sense. If a citizen does not comply, the police will use physical force to arrest and detain the lawbreaker and haul them before the courts. This is a completely appropriate response to someone who is mugging random strangers at knife point, but a completely excessive and tyrannical response to someone who is smoking out the back.
The TV advertising campaign the Family First have been running, virtually accusing the Greens of peddling drugs on every street corner, is nothing less than a hate crime against the Australian people. The decades of tough prohibition laws have succeeded in producing a situation where drugs are readily available in every prison and every high school in Australia. The suggestion that things would be even twice as bad if the laws weren't so tough is laughable. You couldn't reach the same level of saturation of drug use in the community if you did stand on street corners and handed out drugs for free.
Queenslanders will see through this charade of morality. Remember all those years of Joh Bjelke-Petersen sprouting righteous Christian morality? At the same time that he led a direct assault on the rights of the Qld citizenry, he was also presiding over the most incredible corruption, including police protection of and direct involvement with major drug traffickers. Prohibition thrives on the alliance between Mr Big and Mr Bigot.
Tony Kneipp
Received via email
Anderson
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson's brush with truth in politics began with high promise. Having once treated Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty with scorn and derision for suggesting that Australia's involvement in the illegal war against Iraq would make Australia a target for terrorism, Anderson has now conceded exactly that.
An attack based on lies, an occupation based on torture and puppet governments, and a death toll of tens of thousands by the "Coalition of the Willing" against a resource-rich but terrorist-free Muslim Iraq has spawned what Blind Freddy could have foreseen through a Canberra fog — retaliation by Islamic terrorists against Australian targets such as the embassy in Jakarta.
Unfortunately, Anderson then went on to display the real "failure of intelligence" that has marked the Howard Government. Despite chickens coming home to roost on the bodies of dead innocents in Jakarta, the government will not be swayed from its "war on terror" declared Anderson, vowing not to change the government's foreign policy. So, Australia will continue to support President Bush's criminal wars for a "New American Century" which will surely generate even more bitter resentment and terrorist atrocities in response.
James Vassilopoulos From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, October 6, 2004.
Ainslie, ACT [Abridged]
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