It has been 37 years since the Vietnam War ended, but you dont have to look far to see the scars of that war people who have lost limbs, people suffering deformities from the extensive use of chemical defoliants such as Agent Orange by the US military.
Peter Boyle
Australians Brendan Hurst and Justin Saint were recently killed in a roadside attack near Baghdad. They had been working for the Queensland-registered security firm BLP International as contractors training Iraqi police.
I am sure readers would agree that the real swindlers were exposed in the discussion after the much-watched screening of Martin Durkins Great Global Warming Swindle on ABC TV last week.
East Timor is holding parliamentary elections on June 30. Many commentators predict former president Xanana Gusmaos new party, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), will form government, ousting the current ruling Fretilin party. However, a new government is unlikely to bring an end to the severe social and economic crisis besetting the country, Tomas Freitas from Luta Hamutuk (Struggle Together), a Timorese activist group that monitors the state budget and the petroleum fund (now worth US$1.4 billion), told Green Left Weeklys Peter Boyle. Freitas is also a member of the Consultative Council on the Petroleum Fund, which is comprised of government and civil society representatives.
Heard the story about the last capitalist on Earth who sold the rope used to hang the second last capitalist? Well, they will try and make a buck from anything.
Ker-ching! $2.5 million from the Business Council of Australia. Ker-ching! $3 million from the Australian Chamber of Commerce. Ker-ching! $1-2 million from the Minerals Council (theyve got a few billion in spare change). Ker-ching! $3 million from the Master Builders (they swear they dont swear like those thuggish unionists in the building industry). Ker-ching! $1 million from the National Farmers Federation (Sorry John, were still bleeding from the Patricks fiasco and theres the drought
). Ker-ching!
Im taking control, said Johnny Howard, with a contrived quiver of righteousness in his voice. His face was set into a familiar pastiche of horror and disgust at the degraded behaviour of lesser beings. He also conveyed a weariness the weariness of shouldering the white mans burden.
OK, I admit this idea to boost the Green Left Weekly Fighting Fund was inspired (to be honest, stolen) from the recent adventures of one Canape Crusader from Kirribilli: we get 225 people to donate $8000 each to the Green Left Weekly Fighting Fund and, in return, I have them over to my place for drinks and canapes. That should raise enough money to make this column redundant for seven years!
When the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest national accounts last week it was revealed that the corporate profit share of all Australian income had risen to 28.1%, well above the long-term average of 20%.
The good news this week is that the Green Left Weekly Fighting Fund has reached a third of the way to its $250,000 target for 2007!
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