At the same time, we also have to recognize that China is rapidly increasing its military spending... We should not, at one level, be surprised that a more affluent China seeks to spend more on its military, but China also needs to be aware that its modernization drive also has an impact on the region. It is, in part, a question of transparency. It is also, in part, a question of uncertainties concerning long-term strategic purpose. We must remain vigilant to changing strategic terrain, but strategic vigilance must not be allowed, of itself, to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is nothing predetermined about a U.S.-China conflict in the future.

We decide the future by our actions today, and we need to give ourselves the best chance to choose the best future for us all. We need to have strong regional and global institutions, a China that is positively engaged in those institutions as a responsible stakeholder, contributing to a harmonious global and regional order and continued good management of the China-U.S. relations by both sides. [More] . . read more

He gave us in An Inconvenient Truth a melee of graphs based on sound scientific data; the affect of which was amazing in bringing the issue of climate change to the homes and cinemas of the middle-classes. 

However in a worrying change of tone, Al Gore stated yesterday in a speech in Copenhagen that:

''Reason based analysis has thus far proved of limited value in motivating action''

Now this may be true but the alternative- to rely on emotion and fear- plays right into the hands of deniers who claim the climate change movement is one built on unlikely doomsday prophecies. 

The risk is also enormous when you consider what has happened to the climategate emails. Those much analysed documents seemed to show a similar reasoning by renowned scientists who were frustrated by inaction so they used their credibility, and reputations to fuzz the numbers. 

Now it may have been a throw away comment, but I really hope that Al Gore- still the climate change movement's most prominent face- stays patient and prudent.  . . read more

The spectre of the thought police pulling down Bill Henson’s show in Sydney is now followed by the red necked council of Camden in Sydney’s south rejecting the creation of a 1200 student Islamic school ‘based on concerns surrounding the impact on traffic flows, loss of agricultural land, highlighted in the planners report and not on religious grounds.’ Oh yeh!

Our hopes for a more progressive Australia following the heinous Howard regime have been seriously dented in just 5 days. Where is the leadership promised by the Australia 2020 summit? It is certainly absent from the mealy-mouthed Front Bench.

Attention now shifts ironically to the Opposition where shadow treasurer Malcolm Turnbull is the lone progressive voice in a sea of mediocrity. He has the guts to point out the precious nature of our artistic freedoms which are being sorely pressed by political ratbags and the citizens of Middle Earth.  . . read more

In this provocative new book, The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy, David Shearman and Joseph Wayne Smith present evidence that the fundamental problem causing environmental destruction - and climate change in particular - is the operation of liberal democracy. Its flaws and contradictions bestow upon government - and its institutions, laws, and the markets and corporations that provide its sustenance - an inability to make decisions that could provide a sustainable society.

(The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy by David Shearman and Joseph Wayne Smith, Published by Praeger) . . read more

I recognise that recession causes hardship. Like everyone I am aware that it would cause some people to lose their jobs and homes. I do not dismiss these impacts or the harm they inflict, though I would argue that they are the avoidable results of an economy designed to maximise growth rather than welfare. What I would like you to recognise is something much less discussed: that, beyond a certain point, hardship is also caused by economic growth...

The most obvious way in which further growth will hurt us: Climate change does not lead only to a decline in welfare, beyond a certain point it causes its termination. In other words, it threatens the lives of hundreds of millions of people. However hard governments might work to reduce carbon emissions, they are battling the tide of economic growth. While the rate of growth in the use of energy declines as an economy matures, no country has yet managed to reduce energy use while raising gross domestic product. [For more] . . read more

Nevertheless I say this; you may feel a touch hard done by when you look around at the putrid conditions that your own ignorant way of life has created. You may just want to, instead of looking at your own stupidity, just blame the rest of the world, which has chosen to embrace all that is good and just. But it won't change the fact that you're still living in the world's sewer, the perfect little filthy rats you are, holding desperately onto the hope that your futile struggle against the free world will one day be successful.

Your strength only resides in those who have been so unfortunate to be born into the hopeless squalor that you have created for them.

Your war against the free world will do nothing more then bring light to your cesspool of a home, it will shine light on the injustice of your societal chains and it will inevitably bring all that is good, just and beautiful about our free world, raining down on you in the form of 500 pound bombs. Once the dust settles we will build a great big shopping mall for young teens to flaunt their new found sexuality in an innocent, yet quirky way.

And in the end the free will prevail; to one day create a world of peace, love and unity between all cultures, traditions and religions.

You won't break us, you can't break us and I will never live in fear

Peace and love to the free,

Khedra Cloud

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That all started to change when the U.S., early in the first term of President George W. Bush, taunted the Chinese by flying a spy plane into Chinese airspace, damaging a Chinese fighter jet that flew up to intercept it, and getting forced down itself on Hainan Island. That incident aroused a lot of anger among ordinary Chinese who felt that the U.S. was pushing their country around... Now, the Tibet uprising, which has garnered global support, particularly in Europe and the U.S., has further inflamed Chinese nationalism, with most Chinese seeing Tibet as part of China's historic imperial realm, and the global backing for Tibet nationalists as a throwback to 19th Century and early 20th Century imperialist attacks on China by the West.

In a way, the Tibetan riots have been a golden opportunity for China's sclerotic Communist Party leadership, which has been feeling growing pressure to open up the political system, but which can now ride a wave of unthinking nationalism and push those democratic pressures aside, at least for a time (much as 9/11 allowed Bush and Cheney to do the same to democratic traditions and the rule of law in the U.S.). [More] . . read more