2014-09-30

 

Hong Kong

I salute the people of Hong Kong for putting their lives on the line in the name of freedom. You are a beautiful and brave people. I have been trying to think of what I should be doing to show solidarity with the HK people. I heard (saw on the news) there was a protest outside "Hong Kong House" in Sydney (80 Druitt St). I went there today, but there was no protest. There were however lots of notes on the building, supporting the freedom-fighters. One very funny one was "Happy 65th birthday PRC - have you thought about retiring?". Retirement age in Australia is 65. And that would certainly be apt!

I wore my Chinese "democracy" headband (see photos on www.mutazilah.org) and some people (whites) from "Unions NSW" asked me what it said, and suggested posing with them behind the banner that they unfurled. They told me that the HK unions were going out on strike too (or something like that).

I picked up a notebook and pen to write something to place on the wall, but I couldn't think of anything to write. I was thinking of saying something like "if you want freedom, start with www.japan666.com". But I didn't write anything. There was also some yellow ribbon that could be cut and tied to the railings, but I didn't do that either. I have made enquiries about possibly going to HK to join in the protests, but that might be considered offensive, and the commies would possibly latch onto that and say that it "proves" that it is a foreign movement, not an indigenous movement.

I was also considering going into Hong Kong House and making a donation of $100, but I didn't go in. A couple of weeks ago I made a $100 donation to the Ukrainian military.

Oh, I also wore a new shirt I have with the NATO flag on it. My loyalty is to a coalition of the free world, not my country (Australia). I do expect that Australia will join NATO eventually though.

Anyway, not sure what I should do now. I'm open to suggestion.


P.S. It would be way cool if the HK protesters triggered a revolution in mainland China so that finally there can be some closure to the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I went to a protest march in Sydney back in 1989 when I was 21 years old.

P.P.S. Here is someone who has it exactly right (from BBC News):
Damon Chan, Hong Kong emails: Please, people from mainland China, stop calling us brothers and sisters. We are not siblings and even people in Hong Kong are not siblings. Get rid of this sort of sentimental, nationalistic thoughts, please. We are all individual. The idea that Hong Kong is nothing without China is simply wrong and it's part of the scaremongering campaign by the pro-China political parties. We are rational and we are determined. We won't stop until we get democracy.


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2014-09-22

 

Being frank with Frank

Open letter to Frank Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji

Congratulations sir on your stunning victory. There was a real risk that the racist party SODELPA would get elected. Fortunately only about half of the ethnic Fijians voted for this racist party and thus you were able to get elected with a large majority.

The next challenge is to ensure SODELPA or any other racist party never gets elected again. Can I suggest that in order to do this, you start by splitting FijiFirst into two parties - FF-left and FF-right. Split up your MPs as to who is more left-wing vs right-wing. SODELPA and NFP will then only be able to influence economic policy by supporting the left or right-wing parties.

Alternatively you might consider banning racist parties the same way that Belgium does. That's a really tough choice to make though.

Note that I believe everyone has a right to have a rational, humanist, non-subjugating government, and SODELPA fails on the "humanist" test, as being racist is non-humanist.

Thankyou sir and good luck with your administration. Note that I am Australian and unlike my government I supported your coup to end racist government in Fiji.


Yours faithfully,
Paul Edwards.



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2014-09-21

 

Thanks Abdullah

Thankyou very much Abdullah for gracefully accepting defeat in the Afghan 2014 presidential elections. Can I suggest that you lobby to get the Afghan election system changed to be the same as Australia (ie preferential voting) which would have seen you win the elections in the first round. Preferential voting is a much fairer system of voting than the US and UK and Afghanistan.


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2014-09-19

 

Scottish Independence

I am very happy that Scotland decided to stay in the UK. Big countries are better able to spend defence spending wisely. To that end, it would be good for the US, Canada, UK and Australia to form a single country. I dislike Australia wasting money on territorial defence that could better be used to fight overseas missions. Although admittedly at another level it is good that the Anglophones are split, so that hopefully one of them has the balls to fight any particular overseas battle. E.g. the right-wing Australia could provide boots on the ground for the anti-ISIS coalition, even if the left-wing USA baulks at that. I really hope that the right-wing Australian party goes it alone even if the US doesn't. I hate the thought that Australia would only act if the US acts first. That's miles away from where I want to be.


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2014-09-18

 

Fiji Elections

I have been following the results of Fiji's elections. There is great news. The non-racist party led by an ethnic Fijian has got 60% of the vote. Unfortunately the racist ethnic Fijian party SODELPA has got 27% of the vote, which basically means that 27/60 (ethnic Fijians are 60% of the population) = 45% of Fijians are racists.

I think it would be good if SODELPA could be shut down the same way that Vlaams Blok was shut down. While I believe that individuals have freedom of speech to be racist, I don't believe that racism should be allowed at any political level. The government should in fact be helping to make racism in individuals extinct by making it socially unacceptable. Not giving them a party to vote for.

It's a really tough question. On one hand I want to protect people who are being beaten up because of their race. On the other hand I want people to have their human right of freedom of speech.


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2014-09-11

 

Ten Years

It has now been 10 years since I wrote message 666, reproduced (roughly) here:

I am AGAINST racism.
I am AGAINST sexism.
I am AGAINST religious discrimination.
I am AGAINST dogma.
I am AGAINST subjugation.
I RESPECT INDIVIDUALS who VOLUNTARILY donate to COMPLETE STRANGERS (ie different race, different sex, different religion, different nationality) using their OWN HARD-EARNED MONEY.
I will FIGHT using my BRAIN subjugation of ANY HUMAN.

I am AGAINST nationalism.
I am AGAINST non-humanist behavior.


At the time I wrote this, I believed we now had the solution to world freedom and subsequently world peace, and it was all rapidly about to fall into place. I was also very pleased that an Australian atheist had derived the Holy Grail, instead of an American Christian.

However, it failed to go according to plan. I believe this is due to people being zombies, not real people. I have analyzed the zombies as best I can, and the result of that is my enlightenment document. In the last 10 years I have only had 1 or 2 people convert from anti-war to pro-war as a result of my debating them. A dismal failure on my part, but I don't know where I went wrong.

I must say that the 10 years has been fun-packed though, and hopefully I'll have a similarly enjoyable, albeit somewhat frustrating, for the next 10 years.


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