Amazing World

I got yet another Nigerian Scam email this morning. This time, it was something about funds being transferred to my bank account. Whatever.

The point is, the scammer put a (fake) address on the bottom of the email. 236 Peckham Rd London.

That address meant I could respond with this...

Jeffrey,
Wow. This is amazing.
236 Peckham Rd.
Wow.
I used to live there. Really. Back in 1997 on a 12 month assignment in London. The big terrace with the green door and the camellias in the back garden.
Has the landlord fixed the leaking tap yet? I bet he hasn't. I called the managing agent every day with that one. It was always "we're looking into it". Seriously. How smart do you have to be to call a bloody plumber?
I remember catching the No 12 bus to work in the West End every morning. We had an office just near Covent Garden market. The bus was always quicker than the tube, and a damned site more comfortable. Too many sweaty people on the tube, don't you think? And from Peckham Rd, The bus was so much more conventient.
Is that great little café still there? You know the one. What's it called? The Como?
And the pub.... The Greyhound. Yes. That's it. Just down the road on the other side of the street. Do you drink there? If you do, say Hi to Annabelle for me. You know. The barmaid with big knockers. She'll remember me. Say "Schlong said hi".
Then there's Wendy's on the way home from the Greyhound after a few beers for a kebab. Not one of the world's great kebab houses, but that made me so homesick, because a lamb kebab on the way home from the pub is just about compulsory in Australia.
Oh... and that pie shop on the corner... Manzes. Fantastic pies, but I just can't bring myself to eat those jellied eels. Have you tried them? Say hi to Michael for me. He's the owner.
Wow.
This is great.
I haven't thought of Peckham Rd for years.
Thanks
Chester

I've never been to Peckham Rd, though I did spend most of 1997 in London working at an office near Covent Garden Market. (They say all good lies have to be based on at least a slither of truth.)

The research took 10 minutes, thanks to Google and StreetView. In a way, that's scary.
Actually, 236 Peckham Rd is a block of apartments. From what I can tell on StreetView, it's a converted terrace, but Jeffrey doesn't know that, I'm sure. There's one to rent there right now, by the way, for about nine hundred pounds a month. Nine hundred quid. For a one bedroom. Pffft.

Another quick Google search yeilded "The Standard Monetary Transfer Control Bank" at that address. It's not real, I'd suspect. You'd think the scammers would invest in some professional web design if they really want to pull his off. Ah well.

See? Isn't the web a wonderful place?

Even More Dangerous

And while we're on the subject of "dangerous to democracy", there's something happening in Australia right now that is, perhaps, the most dangerous of all.

The Labor Government is trialling new net censorship technology. They say it's to block access to child porn (which I would support... the blocking, not the porn). However, child porn clearly isn't the government's true intention, because the way they're implementing the filtering system is cloaked in secrecy, has no independent oversight, amd no right of appeal.

Last month, for example, the filters blocked access to a US anti-abortion site which the government deemed "inappropriate".

So now it's "inappropriate" sites that are to be blocked, and child porn is just a subset of that. And who decides what's inappropriate?

The government.

No. Stop. You're talking about Australia Chester. It's one of the few places left on earth where freedom and democracy are cherished, isn't it?

Well it used to be, but apparently no longer.

The web content filtering trial isn't about censoring child porn. It's about implementing technology that can censor ANY information that doesn't fit with what the government (or some nameless, faceless bureaucrat) deems 'appropriate'.

Last month, it was the anti-abortion website. This month, it's a Danish site that reveals something of the inner workings of the censorship itself. Next month? Maybe they'll switch off sites that raise concerns about union right of entry in their new IR package, or maybe they’ll turn attention to criticism of their ill conceived stimulus package And after that, how long before they find something on chesterbear.blogspot.com that they deem ‘inappropriate’?

Don’t you get it? Whatever the excuse, and whatever the merits of censoring genuinely objectionable sites (like child porn), no government should be allowed to implement technology like this without independent judicial oversight, because once that technology’s in place, it can be turned on anything a government doesn’t like.

What are we, China? Saudi Arabia? North Korea? Zimbabwe? I'm sorry, but I'm not comfortable with my nation being on that list.

I know the economy is at risk. I know the government’s got the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme all wrong, but there is no greater threat to this nation than giving a government the ability to arbitrarily censor criticism, and if you don’t believe that once the technology’s in place, sooner or later they’ll use it, then you are out of touch with the true nature of politics.

I urge you to write to Senator Conroy, the Minister responsible. His email address is senator.conroy@aph.gov.au.

Also write to people who are in a position to oppose this. Here's a short list.
Malcolm Turnbull, Leader of the Opposition - Malcolm.Turnbull.MP@aph.gov.au
Senator Nick Xenaphon, Independent Senator - http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/homepages/contact.asp?id=8IV
Senator Steven Fielding, Leader of Family First - senator.fielding@aph.gov.au
Senator Scott Ludlam, Greens Telecommunications Spokesman - senator.ludlam@aph.gov.au
Senator Nick Minchin, Opposition Telecommunications Shadow Minister - http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/homepages/contact.asp?id=JX4

And write to your newspapers, call your radio stations, talk about this with your friends and work colleagues.

If we do nothing, we won't have a democracy.

Dangerous

I read with alarm over the weekend that the Australian Labor Party has effectively taken over the Australian Red Cross, making it a defacto wing. They did that first by having one of their own, former Aboriginal Affairs Minister Robert Tickner, appointed as its CEO. Ok. I should clarify... The Red Cross appointed him, but since that appointment, Tickner has progressively politicised the organisation by appointing ex-Labor staffers and ex-union leaders to key positions.

The've then developed a cozy relationship with Labor Governments, both at a Federal and State level, such the the Red Cross has now become "the charity of choice" for many government initiatives, and is an instrument of Labor policy.

For example, the Red Cross controls the A$200m + that's been raised for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal, to the exclusion of other charities like The Salvation Army which raised $16m of its own, but has been frozen out of the comittee which will decide on how and where the aid is spent.

Salvation Army insiders are reported as saying that they are concerned at the closeness of the Red Cross/Labor relationship, and that, increasingly, to be selected for government partnerships, an NGO has to be seen to be a vocal supporter of the Labor government. Worse, they believe speaking out against government policy means an organisation could be sidelined.

This is a dangerous road for the Australian democracy. It's the sort of corrupt tactic that's commonplace in the third world, where governments attempt to remain in power by controlling every facet of a society.

I'm sure the Red Cross does good work. I just don't believe it ought be become an instrument of politics.

Eloquence

News Ltd CEO Rupert Murdoch received the American Jewish Comittee National Humanitarian Award this week and I'd like to quote from his acceptance speech. (Rupert, I hope that's OK with you.)

He had delivered a succinct summation of the situation in Israel and Gaza, and he ended with this...

My friends, I do not pretend to have all the answers to Gaza this evening. But I do know this: The free world makes a terrible mistake if we deceive ourselves into thinking this is not our fight. In the end, the Israeli people are fighting the same enemy we are: cold-blooded killers who reject peace … who reject freedom … and who rule by the suicide vest, the car bomb, and the human shield. Against such an enemy, I will not second-guess the decisions of a free Israel defending her citizens. And I would ask all those who support peace and freedom to do the same.

I encourage you to read the full test of his speech HERE

What Would You Do IV

How close do you think Iran is to developing nuclear weapons?

What do you think they'll do with them once they have them?

Think about this... think of just about any terrorist attack on Israel, the United States, and The West over the last 20 years, and you'll find the hand of Iran in there.

Those rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel... supplied and funded by Iran.
The Taliban... funded by Iran.
and I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

So here's anotehr hypothetical...

You're the head of a small country surrounded by enemies. One of those enemies, Iran, has vowed to bring about your total destruction. Its leaders use words like "we will wipe you off the map" on an almost daily basis.

That country is actively developing nuclear weapons, and all the while, it lies to the rest of the world about its intentions.

The day when they have enough fissionable material is fast approaching. SOme anaysts even think it has passed.

What would you do?

Make no mistake. A nuclear armed Iran which continues to fund terrorism on a global scale is an extremely dangerous animal. It doesn't just threaten Israel. It threatens you, because the creed of the people with their fingers on the trigger is that through bringing about the deaths of non-believers, they ensure their place in heaven.

Be afraid, and hope someone finds a solution sooner rather than later.

What Would You Do III

Did you know that Hamas terrorists are still firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel?

That's right, more than 200 of them since the end of the Israeli military action on January 18.

Yesterday, they launched 5.

Where is the international condemnation?
Where are the protesters on the streets?
Where are the spineless leaders of governments, who fail to stand up and utter any words of condemnation?
Where is the United Nations, the bureaucratic and politicised waste of space that is so quick to condemn when Israel defends itself?

Do I sound pissed off? Good. Because I am... bloody pissed off.

Israel is a beacon of civilisation in a cesspit of lunacy. Every day, thousands of tonnes of humanitarian aid and supplies cross from southern Israel into Gaza... 131,477 tons of aid and 12,701,900 liters of fuel since January 18. Show me one other nation anywhere on earth that would permit supplies to flow across its border into a territory whose leaders refuse to abandon war and calls for its destruction. You can't, because it wouldn't happen.

So let me ask you for a third time... if you were the leader of a nation, and lunatic terrorists hell bent on your destruction and the death of all of your people were firing rockets at you from the territory next door, and the leadership of that territory was either complicit in those attacks or failed comprehensively to stop them, what would you do?

Don't answer, because anything other than "I'd blow the crap out of them" isn't the truth.

Israel is showing extraordinary restraint.

Tara And Bella

I'll admit it. I cried.