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The greatest threat to Australia today is the current government.

9/24/2014

The greatest threat to Australia’s security is the current government.

Rule by dividing and terrorising the Australian population with misinformation and racially charged political stunts.

Add to our desperation by making us poorer, less able to afford education and health-care.

Continue to blame the previous government for budget shortfalls without tackling the wealthy who exploit the nation.

Perpetuate the torture of children in government care - their physical and sexual abuse.

Alienate and disenfranchise young people, especially young men.

Fail to represent over fifty percent of the population – women.

Belittle and mock human rights.

Expunge ourselves of our international obligations – shipping our poor and desperate to compete with the poor and desperate in Cambodia.

Do we feel proud?

Do we feel safe?

We have never been more afraid in our lives.

How many of us are wise enough to know the real extremists are the men in suits who are throwing away our security for political point-scoring? They know exactly what they’re doing: Play the ‘Security Card’ as their predecessor played the ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction Card’. All lies. All spin. All designed to make this nation fearful and force our children to grow up afraid and without hope. Such is the banner of Team Australia.

Let us hope those of us on Team Humanity can hold on long enough to bring about positive change.

Hold this government to account.

A true leader will unite people, not single out and persecute minorities. Destroying in a few short months a nation which was one of the most integrated and peaceful in the world.

Ask yourself why the government talks about human rights as though they only belong to white, male, Australians.

Ask yourself how a Christian country can bomb a country in abject poverty and disarray? Do we not hold Christians to account as we hold our Muslim brothers and sisters? Did Jesus tell Christians to slaughter the non-believers? It would seem, by our actions, that he did. And yet, I find it impossible to locate the scripture which insights me to hate my neighbour as Team Australia would have me do.

Lets look forward to the truth emerging from the spin and am comforted that Abbot and Murdock cannot control the internet, or what young people will discover in the months ahead.

They will vote for a government which will give them:

A safe and stable place to live

Clean air and water

Renewable energy

Hope of finding a stable job and not just a short term contract.

Affordable education

Affordable health

A fairer tax system where the wealthy pay their share and big business pays fairly for resources.

Gender equality.

A sense that Australia respects its international obligations and can be relied on to work toward a better world.

None of this is possible with the current government.

And a people without hope is a terrorised nation.

And so it is that the greatest terror threat we have on these shores today sits in Parliament House with a PM on his door and an armed guard designed to keep us, and the truth, out.

(I know that government should have a capital G, but I cannot bring myself to give it one. It would imply a respect I cannot feel. So for the grammar purists, I apologise)

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Emma Watson: Being a Feminist

9/22/2014

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Emma Watson: Gender equality is your issue too

Date: 20 Sep 2014

Speech by UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson at a special event for the HeForShe campaign, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 20 September 2014

Today we are launching a campaign called “HeForShe.”

I am reaching out to you because I need your help. We want to end gender inequality—and to do that we need everyone to be involved.

This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN: we want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality. And we don’t just want to talk about it, but make sure it is tangible.

I was appointed six months ago and the more I have spoken about feminism the more I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.

For the record, feminism by definition is: “The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.”

I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called “bossy,” because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents—but the boys were not.

When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press.

When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn’t want to appear “muscly.”

When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.

Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.

Why is the word such an uncomfortable one?

I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights.

No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality.

These rights I consider to be human rights but I am one of the lucky ones. My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influencers were the gender equality ambassadors that made who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who are. And we need more of those. And if you still hate the word—it is not the word that is important but the idea and the ambition behind it. Because not all women have been afforded the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically, very few have been.

In 1997, Hilary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights. Sadly many of the things she wanted to change are still a reality today.

But what stood out for me the most was that only 30 per cent of her audience were male. How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?

Men—I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too.

Because to date, I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mother’s.

I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them look less “macho”—in fact in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49; eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality either.

We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence.

If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled.

Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong… It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideals.

If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we are—we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom.

I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too—reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves.

You might be thinking who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing up on stage at the UN. It’s a good question and trust me I have been asking myself the same thing. I don’t know if I am qualified to be here. All I know is that I care about this problem. And I want to make it better.

And having seen what I’ve seen—and given the chance—I feel it is my duty to say something. English statesman Edmund Burke said: “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing.”

In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt I’ve told myself firmly—if not me, who, if not now, when. If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you I hope those words might be helpful.

Because the reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls will be able to receive a secondary education.

If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists I spoke of earlier.

And for this I applaud you.

We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen to speak up, To be the he for she. And to ask yourself if not me, who, if not now when.

Thank you.

- See more at: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/9/emma-watson-gender-equality-is-your-issue-too#sthash.BbjY8M7g.dpuf

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The greatest threat to Australia today is the current government.

Emma Watson: Being a Feminist

siobhan colman

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