International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

21 March last marked International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

All too sadly, racial discimination, in many guises, still exists around the world. There are many, many instances of plain bigotry and prejudice evident in various ways.

As far as I can see, the Day wasn't marked in Australia - probably "buried" by the Commonwealth Games - or even noted anywhere. So much for Australia's adherence to the tenets and principles of the UN.

Tolerance.org has published on its web site the message of Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, marking the Day. Read it here - and reflect on the racism you witness around you in Oz and overseas.

Whilst checking out the Tolerance web site to read the Annan Message take a few minutes to look at this other part of Tolerances' web site - Speak Up! - which can be viewed here.

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Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives? In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

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#1 Prize for a bizarre story.....and lying!

No comment called for in this piece from CommonDreams: Another young black man: The strange sad case of 21-year-old Chavis Carter. Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas stopped him and two friends, found some marijuana, searched put Carter, then put him handcuffed behind his back into their patrol car, where they say he shot himself in the head with a gun they failed to find. The FBI is investigating. Police Chief Michael Yates, who stands behind his officers' story, says in an interview that the death is "definitely bizarre and defies logic at first glance." You think?

Mahler's Prodigal Son

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