Good riddance Howard!!

Contents:
1. Piss off John!
2. Not coming home... yet.
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Piss off John!

That right wing, racist, homophobic, anti-worker scumbag has finally been dumped. After 11.5 years as the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard has been sent packing with a landslide loss. It was a long time coming, but the fact that he even lost his own seat (only the second Australian Prime Minister in history to lose his own seat in his defeat election) is definitely a sweetener.


The main issues he lost on can be counted as victories for the left: his participation in the Bush-led war in Iraq and his sweeping Industrial Relations laws, euphemistically (and sickeningly) titled 'WorkChoices'. And there were other issues he lost on too - his refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, to say sorry to Indigenous Australians, his government's policy of mandatory detention (read 'prison without charge') for asylum seekers, his willingness to let Australian citizens rot in that twisted hell they call Guantanamo Bay, his ferocious attacks on trade unions and student unions, and his policy of military intervention in Indigenous Australian communities - I read a report stating that in the communities where his Indigenous Affairs minister Mal Brough had made a 'real effort', 95% of the vote went directly to Labor. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of all the things the Liberal Party government did during the last 12 years (the Liberal Party is the conservative party in Australia).

On the subject of victories for the left, if you clicked on the link above you will have noticed the headline - Rudd claims victory. Well, I can certainly say that a victory of Rudd is NOT a victory for the left. Kevin Rudd is an arch conservative who we can expect to wiggle out of a vast majority of progressive reforms and in fact who will probably be incredibly right wing most of the time - let's just remember that he's effectively picking up where Paul 'free-market' Keating left off in 1996. However the fact is that ordinary people are going to be much better off without Howard.

Needless to say, the media have been treating Rudd like the new golden boy. The sheer size of the swing to Labor has produced some truly vomit-worthy stuff, the most hilarious of which was the 'Ruddslide' (note picture of Mr. & Mrs. Rudd frolicking through park with dog).

Nevertheless, we may as well live up the honeymoon while it lasts, although 3 days in and the cracks are already appearing. While they've already announced that they will make a formal apology to Indigenous Australians, sign the Kyoto Protocol and pull combat troops out of Iraq, their election promise to 'tear up' Workchoices is already being threatened by rhetoric about how difficult it will be to do that with what remains of the Liberal Party standing in the way. And it already looks like there are some major campaign battles on the horizon, with Labor maintaining complete continuity with some of Howard's most racist stances (see here for example).

Rudd also remains committed to having troops in so-called 'non-combat' zones like Afghanistan. And what of their approach to civil liberties and the 'war on terror'?

Let's just hope that Sharron Burrows' action of ripping up the Workchoices legislation remains a true indication of what Rudd will do, and then start getting organised to push the ALP further.


Not coming home... yet.

Several people have been asking me what's going on... I have been fairly wishy-washy about my return dates over the past few months, but:

My big plan was to be returning to Australia this December and begin a big scary study project (in fact I was supposed to begin my journey home yesterday on a flight to Buenos Aires, from where I was supposed to somehow get back to Melbourne ...yep - it was going to be a little complicated anyhow!).

But about 4 weeks ago I made the decision to stick around here for another while and put off my study for another 12 months. It was a difficult decision to make. You may recall my posts about how homesick I was this time last year. Well, ahem, the feeling hasn't exactly worn off I have to say. I crave the familiar. But really there's no big psychology about it - the long and short is I just miss my friends and now, going into winter again, the sun. And also I miss the activist stuff I was doing before I left, and I feel like my brain is turning to mush without that and uni. I really want to get stuck into my research (and the bulk of my initial research can't really be done anywhere other than Australia). But for now I will content myself with background reading.

But that reminds me - it's now been over a year since I arrived in Berlin. I had my one year arrival anniversary a couple of weeks ago. It's definitely colder at this time than it was last year. (hopefully I'll get a proper winter this time and then I'll be done with the whole romantic idea). There is so much that has happened over the past few months. Gradually over the next few weeks I will be able to fill in some retrospective reflections on my first year in Berlin, including photos from summer time. The g8 was interesting, and so was working as an English teacher to kiddies, as was speaking at a couple of academic conferences, and travelling to Paris, Budapest and Krakow with my lover. Lots of friends have passed through, some have left forever, others have moved here, and lots of new friends have been made and many operas have been seen. I've been unbelievably crap at communication with most people, but it doesn't mean I don't miss them.

So, stay tuned for some pics and memories soon. And some more interesting content.

kd.