Following this year’s Sydney Social forum (27-29 August), there has been a call for a protest against the Forbes’ CEO Conference on the 30th at the Sydney Opera House. I was at a forum last night where there was talk or oganising buses from Melbourne to Sydney for the event.

I’d suggest that this is a good protest for people to attend if they are concerned about the erosion of democracy and the neo-liberal global order.

Here’s that the Sydney Social Forum have to say about the conference:

Forbes magazine is an American business and financial publication, perhaps best-known for its many periodic lists of wealth. Steve Forbes, chief executive officer, is a right-wing member of the US Republican Party who has twice nominated for President.

Forbes is a founding member, along with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Francis Fukuyama,JebBush, Dan Quayle and others, of the right-wing think-tankProject For the New American Century.

Like the World Economic Forum, the Forbes Annual Global CEO Conference is becoming an important part of the calendar of the global elite.

Previous participants include Amcor, BHP, BP, Boeing, Citibank, Commonwealth Bank, Chevron, Dow Corning, Dupont, Exxon-Mobil, General Motors Holden,Haliburton, McDonalds, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Monsanto, Nestle, Nike, News Ltd, Rio Tinto, Shell,Siemans, Westfield, and Western Mining.

A flyer for the protests can be found here.

And more details can be found at the 30A site: http://www.30a.org

This is an interesting initiative. The federal government has produced The Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies.

I understand that a private members bill was put forward by either the Greens or the Dems in the Senate and subsequentially rejected which required government agencies to at least weigh up the benefits of open source technology. I also believe that the ACT has legislation to this effect (although I’m not 100% sure about either of these).

What ever the case may be it is clear that open source software provides some excellent opporunities including some quite large savings and a high level of customisation. A good move all round.

This is very exciting.

I’ve been a big fan of Lessig for some time.

The 1.0 Guide To The Blogosphere For Marketers & Company Stakeholder (launches PDF).

Science Minister Brendan Nelson has advocated the use of Nuclear Technology in Australia based on the fact that it is “green” energy.

It is certainly an interesting debate. In fact, the wonderful James Lovelock has lost a few friends of late by advocating the use of Nuclear power as a “green” alternative to fossel fuel.

Clearly there are a few problems here. Firstly there is the obvious issue of nuclear waste. I keep saying that Climate Change is the single most important issue that we face today. Using this as some sort of utilitarian measure then you would have to argue that the environmental problems caused by nuclear power are less than that of climate change but I can’t help but feel that a utilitarian logic is not appropriate here. Nuclear waste is simply an unacceptable by-product.

Moreover, it completely overlooks alternatives in terms of renewable energy. Renewable energy also has the added benefit of creating more jobs in more places – particularly rural areas which often have high levels of unemployment.

I know that in the US, the nuclear industry lobby has decided it’s time to push the nuclear power issue again and Bush seems to be quite receptive. No doubt they are therefore lobbying the Howard government as well. Howard is no stranger to helping out “favoured” industries. Witness the Coal industry. What is baffeling is that Australia is one of the world leaders in renewable energy technologies so why aren’t we favouring these companies that are now being saught out by foreign compaines?

In addition, why is funding being cut to research into renewable energies? Clearly another symptom of the Howard Government’s short sightedness.

Finally, there is this little number from our good friends at PR Watch:

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote, “Nuclear energy is green,” producing “no greenhouse gases,” although “radioactive wastes are a challenge.” But environmentalist Dr. Helen Caldicott stated, “According to data from the U.S. Energy Department, the production of nuclear power significantly contributes both to global warming and ozone depletion.” While “uranium enrichment is a particularly energy intensive process,” uranium mining and milling, nuclear reactor construction and decommissioning, and nuclear waste transport and storage all require ozone-depleting chemicals or fossil fuel use.

This piece is worth a read. Basically it argues that regulation and red tape is killing volunteerism because you now have to have any number of regulations adhered to for your volunteer activities.

It’s a tricky one. Obviously the public has a right to know that food being served is safe to eat and the child care volunteer you have just left your kid with is not a pedophile. In many ways the public (and lots of lawyers) demand these regulations.

Perhaps the problem is that the assumption seems to be guilty before proved innocent. There is also definitely problems with an over beaurocratisation.

Non-profit organisations, particularly smaller one, should be afforded certain concessions. They don’t have the time or the resources to shift through this red tape. They are also vital to a well functioning society and democracy.

I can’t help but feel that this is related to two different factors, firstly, the Howard government’s silencing of decent. And Secondly the increasing outsourcing of government obligations to non-profit organisations (also a way of silencing decent). So community groups are being reduced to service providers. This is fine for some – quite problematic for most.

As the article points out:

As the volunteer pool shrinks, groups in disadvantaged areas will fail because they lack expertise. As more money is spent on compliance, less will go to the people who need it most and for whom it is raised.

How important is the community sector? Although community work is hard to value, it does greatly improve economic efficiency, and not only by raising funds. The sector retains and uses the skills of retired people and helps others gain confidence and experience they can take into a workplace.

Getting involved prevents people from being lonely and alienated. People find paid work through their voluntary network and generate funds spent at local businesses.

The sector lessens the strain on government through these networks as well as services it provides. There would not be a Country Fire Authority or State Emergency Service without volunteers.

Andrea Dworkin has died. She was a leading feminist during the 80s and campaigned heavily against porn (but for quite different reasons to the reasons I oppose it).

A lot of people hated her and for good reason. She was highly controversial and, along with Catherine McKinnon managed to pretty well split the feminist movement down the middle, between those that we’re pro-sex (ir pro-porn) and those that were anti-sex (or anti-porn). Her views were pretty extreme and her methods divisive. She even sided with the right-wing Christians to advance her anti-porn agenda.

However amongst all the controversy there were some good ideas. More importantly she provided fuel for some important debates. So love her or hate her, she was significant and deserves some homage (I believe).

Some insight into her positions can be found here, here, and here.

An article on her death here.

Well those of you who have read the little intro bit to this blog will know that this blog was set up to trace my journey though my Masters thesis. While I haven’t been explicit about this, it is largely what I have done as the reoccurring themes are testament to. I’d like to thank all those who have contributed as it truly has made a difference to my arguments.

I now have a final draft of my thesis in my hand. It’s exciting and daunting and a lot of other things. I’m soon to be a non-student again and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

When I’ve submitted which will be a week or two away I’ll probably change the intro text to my blog. I’ve also been thinking about migrating this blog for various reasons, maybe even register a domain name.

So what I’m looking for now is a) someone to proof read my 20,000 words (really not many), and b) suggestions for domain names to register. I though that I could continue to call my blog ‘Goonanism’ but register another domain for other purposes (not sure what they are though).

I’m also more than happy to provide anyone with a copy of my thesis if they are interested.

The democrats seem to get a pretty good run around the blogsphere. Their fate seems to be of much interest to many for reasons I don’t really understand. Moreover the Greens don’t seem to get nearly the “coverage”.

So I’ve had a few thoughts on the Dems floating around my head for a while now but haven’t pulled them together enough to post on them. But I thought it was about to I give it a go and see what happens.

Firstly, while I don’t have a great grasp of the history of it, it strikes me the Democrats are probably quite different now to the party that Don Chipp created when he defected from the Liberal party. While I hold Chipp in fairly high regard because of his integrity and ability to ‘keep the bastards honest’, he was a Liberal none-the-less.

I think it then stems from this (and please correct me if I’m wrong) that when your purpose is to ‘keep the bastards honest’ you obviously lack any definable agenda. So you suffer the fate of a neutral state in times of war. If you don’t take a position on Nazi Germany you become morally bankrupt because in some senses you’re endorsing them by not speaking out against them (perhaps Howard’s defence of Handson is a better example of not taking a position being morally bankrupt). This is not to say that the Dems lack principle.

Lees’ position on the GST reeked of this lack of a definable agenda. What were the Dems trying to achieve in these negotiations? In my mind, and I’d suggest in the mind of many Democrats supporters, the GST is a discriminatory tax – one we should never have used. However (and I don’t fully understand Lees’ personal position on this matter) it appears that she attempted to keep the bastards honest by putting in place some concessions and safeguards on the GST legislation. But at the end of the day you still pay GST on Tampons which is simply unacceptable.

The final and closely related point I wish to make is that the Dems have a commitment to a certain tactical method that I believe leaves them in a difficult position if they are to represent the leftish views that they have come to be known for. They have a close to government approach. It is very pragmatic but this pragmatism often dilutes or compromises principle as again, the GST deal is testament to. This is a key reason I give my support to the Greens instead of the Dems. The Greens will always take the principled position so act more like an opposition party in that it provides policy alternatives that it advocates for. Where as the Dems act like a minor party in a coalition, trying to win minor concessions for their constituency. That’s not to say that the tactical position of the Greens doesn’t have its problems, they can often be accused of being ineffective because of their reluctance to hop in bed with the government, but at least they can always take the moral higher ground which is very important. It is also not to say that the Dems don’t have policies, they clearly do and they advocate for them, it’s just a case of the way they act during these negotiations.

Sadly I question whether the Dems will ever recover from the disaster that left us with a GST and the Dems with an ongoing and problematic leadership battle. I say sadly because I hold Andrew Bartlett and Natasha Stott-Despoja in very high regard. They are both highly intelligent and principled people. Dare I suggest they switch to the Greens?

I don’t know why I wanted to post this but the song has been going through my mind ever since I aquired The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Soundtrack (which is excellent):