Kevin Rudd’s tenure as Australian prime minister would be ‘historic’ in more ways than one. Recently he invited 1000 “brightest” among his countrymen for an “ideas summit” to develop key goals for Australia. And now comes the sensational news that suddenly Australia gains more territory equivalent to 20 times the size of the United Kingdom!!!

“Australia, already the world’s largest island, has just become substantially larger. A United Nations commission has ruled that the country can expand its continental shelf by nearly a million square miles,” reports The Independent.

“The ruling clarifies the extent of Australia’s control over the part of the continent that is submerged beneath the sea and follows requests by successive governments for clarification. The result could mean a ‘bonanza’ in oil and gas reserves. But while Australia acquires rights on the resources beneath the seabed, it does not gain control over shipping or whaling in the areas.”

More here…

Last weekend Rudd interacted with 1000 “brightest” Australians to chart out the future course of action. ” ‘Today we are throwing open the windows of our democracy to let a little bit of fresh air in,’ Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told the gathering of 1,000 scientists, unionists and central bankers, as well as actors Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman.

“Inscribing Aboriginal rights into Australia’s constitution, abolishing states and a fresh push for a republic led ideas at a summit of the nation’s top minds on Saturday, bringing Hollywood together with corporate chiefs.”

More here…

And here…

The river-systems in the world are under heavy strain with many facing serious crisis owing to a variety of reasons. Many civilisations prospered on the banks of the mighty rivers…and then perished when the rivers suffered. Although Murray-Darling is Australia’s longest river system, draining a basin the size of France and Spain combined, it no longer carries enough water to carve its own path to the sea.

The Murray and its main tributary, the Darling, are the lifeblood of Australia’s crop farms. It supplies four of the country’s six states. In the past two years, the volume of water flowing into the Murray from the rivers that feed it in New South Wales and Queensland was the lowest since records began in 1892. Officials now say there is a 75% chance of even less water in the Murray system by next June than a year ago.

Please click here for the report in The Economist…

A few months ago the same magazine carried a similar warning…which began like this: “The mouth of the Murray-Darling river sets an idyllic scene. Anglers in wide-brimmed sunhats wade waist-deep into the azure water. Pleasure boats cruise languidly around the sandbanks that dot the narrow channel leading to the Southern Ocean. Pensioners stroll along the beach. But over the cries of the seagulls and the rush of the waves, there is another sound: the mechanical drone from a dredging vessel. It never stops and must run around the clock to prevent the river mouth from silting up. More here…

‘Gondwana Link’ —- It is an ambitious project that attempts to restore the ecology of a more than 25-million hectare swathe of land in Western Australia, running from the arid red interior of the continent to the wet forests of the southwest coast. It aims to convert the farmland, that fragments it (and is dedicated to the monotonous hectares of wheat and sheep progressively cleared over the past 60 years), back to bush.

According to the New Scientist: “The belt of land lies mainly within one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. To give you some idea what that means, it’s been estimated that the 329,000-hectare Fitzgerald River National Park that lies within the belt has as many plant species as all of Australia’s rainforests combined.

“Named for the geologically ancient southern supercontinent that was fragmented by shifting tectonic plates, Gondwana Link has now involved private donors, local farmers, big companies such as Shell, and a variety of non-governmental organisations, including The Nature Conservancy and The Wilderness Society. The 10% of the swathe they plan to restore is still a huge chunk of real estate, so for now Gondwana Link is concentrating on two areas, where they are buying up strategically placed farms and replanting them with indigenous species.

“When they do buy a property, sometimes they plant native peas and wattle in strips, which may not look particularly natural but does provide protection for certain rare species of wallaby. The next year, aromatic sandalwood trees are sown. Sandalwood is a native, but it can also be harvested, and profits used to fund future restoration.

“One short-term goal is to restore some relatively small regions that were cleared only 30 years ago. Securing such pockets of land for perpetuity could be Gondwana Link’s most important contribution to plant conservation, according to Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, London, UK.” More here… Read the rest of this entry »

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday led the nation in apologising to the 460,000 Aborigines (that comprise 2% of country’s population) for “past injustices” towards them, including the forced assimilation of tens of thousands of Aborigines known as the ‘Stolen Generations’. Mr Rudd received a standing ovation from MPs and onlookers in parliament, and cheers from the thousands of Australians watching outside, when he said this step would help “remove a great stain from the nation’s soul”.

An official commission, which reported to Parliament in 1997, said that the assimilation policy amounted, under international law, to genocide and demanded a national apology, reports The Times. “The apology was directed especially at Aborigines forcibly taken from their families as children in assimilation policies that lasted from the mid-1800s until 1970, during which time up to a third of Aboriginal children were ’stolen’.

“The moment was followed live around the country, in cities, towns and Outback settlements, and brought an outpouring of relief. Thousands of Aborigines had travelled to Canberra, the national capital, for the event and the public gallery in Parliament was packed.” More here…

“Australia has no Aboriginal members in parliament, but 100 leaders of the community and members of the Stolen Generations were present for the historic apology, ” says the BBC.
“Former Prime Minister John Howard refused for over a decade to apologise to the Stolen Generations - a stance supported, polls suggest, by about 30% of Australians.”

More here…

In 1995 the aboriginal flag, its golden sun and black and red background representing Australia’s sunburnt land and aboriginal people, becomes an official flag in Australia. For more interesting facts please click here…

There is a world of difference when people want CHANGE in the ‘developed’ countries (such as the United States), and in the world’s poorest of poor countries, such as East Timor (earlier a part of Indonesia). The former watches the verbal duels of the presidential candidates, while the latter witnesses gory blood-letting. All for a change…

East Timor has witnessed the worst outbreak of violence since the country gained its independence six years ago. In the fighting between rival factions 37 East Timorese were killed and more than 100,000 fled their homes. Many still remain in refugee camps around the city.

The rebel leader, now a cult figure, Alfredo Reinado is dead…and East Timor’s President José Ramos-Horta is lying seriously injured in a hospital in Australia.

The BBC report says: “Despite oil reserves and international aid money, East Timor is still struggling economically. It is also a young country - with over half its population under the age of 25. This is a generation born during the final years of Indonesia’s brutal 25-year occupation, during which 200,000 East Timorese are estimated to have either been killed or died of starvation. Today’s young people lived through the violent struggle for independence in 1999 and are now looking to establish their future.” More here…

I covered eight presidential campaigns as a reporter and editor and am now involved in yet another as a blogger, but I have never seen a global explosion of enthusiasm for a candidate like that for Barack Obama since his Iowa caucus victory. That groundswell continues to grow as polls show that he may hand Hillary Clinton a second defeat today in New Hampshire.

A blizzard of stories in the foreign press, including fawning accounts from correspondents usually known for their reserve, have a common denominator:

They draw on an abiding hatred of George Bush and his politics of division that have driven America’s world standing to an historic low. Now, this chorus of voices in the foreign press is saying, there is an opportunity for that nightmare to end because of Obama and his politics of change.

Shorter version: It’s suddenly okay to feel good about America again.

Typical is this homage in the French newspaper Liberation:

“Obama should thank Bush in his prayers. Without him, America wouldn’t be seeking a uniter - or even a redeemer. A man capable of bringing together men and women, . . . Blacks and Whites, Blue (Democrats) and Red (Republicans). A man who pardons the original sin of the slave and who holds up a mirror to America in which she is beautiful, multi-racial and pragmatic. A man who will heal the gaping wound of the Iraq War and restore America’s image in the world.”

Obama, in fact, is being elevated to sainthood far too prematurely.

Read the rest of this entry »

Close on the heels of signing the Kyoto Protocol, the newly-formed Labour Government in Australia is sending out a clear message about its priorities with regard to environment conservation worldwide. Australia and some 30 other countries lodged a diplomatic protest to send ‘very powerful signal’ of international displeasure over Japan’s whaling program, despite Tokyo’s suspension of its plans to kill humpbacks, reports IHT.

Late Friday, Australia led a group of nations in lodging a diplomatic protest with the Japanese ambassador to Australia. Commercial hunts of humpbacks have been banned worldwide since 1966, and commercial whaling overall since 1986.

“Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said it was the largest single diplomatic protest yet against Japan’s whaling program. He praised Japan for suspending plans to add up to 50 humpback whales to its annual hunt of 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, but said Japan must do more.”

Among the countries who joined Australia in voicing opposition to Japan’s whaling program were France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Uruguay. The European Commission also participated in the protest, reports Melbourne Herald Sun.

Last week, Mr Smith and Environment Minister Peter Garrett announced that an Australian Customs vessel would monitor the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.

“The Japanese government is desperately trying to reduce stockpiles from last season, encouraging public schools and the food industry to increase whale meat consumption, reported The Australian,” according to another news report. Backed by Japanese government’s initiative to reduce 3,798 tonnes of whale meat stockpile, more Japanese schools have now started serving whale meat for children’s school lunches.

“In Japan, whale meat jerky has also been sold as dog food - although the company denies that this has continued. Another company, Asian Lunch, which runs street vendors in Tokyo’s central district, last month introduced whale mince curry for white collared workers. It has been serving 600 dishes of whale curry a day in 14 places in Tokyo.”

Meanwhile “the U.S., which currently chairs the International Whaling Commission, recently held several rounds of talks with Japan to seek a one to two year suspension of the humpback hunt,” reports the Associated Press.

Commercial hunts of humpbacks — which were nearly harpooned to extinction in the 20th century — were banned in the Southern Pacific in 1963, and that ban was extended worldwide in 1966. The American Cetacean Society estimates the humpback population has recovered to about 30,000-40,000 — about a third of the number before modern whaling. The species is listed as “vulnerable” by the World Conservation Union.

(Photo above: “A lunch vendor serves a whale meat curry lunch box to customers at a vending van in Tokyo. Whale curry made its debut as a takeaway business in Tokyo, attracting curious customers who seldom have the meat amid an international row over hunting the giant mammals.” — courtesy: AFP)

Whaling is the harvesting of free-roaming whales from the oceans and dates back to at least 6,000 BC. Whaling and other threats have led to at least 5 of the 13 great whales being listed as endangered. Commercial whaling is subject to a moratorium by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). More here…

(Swaraaj earlier posted a great roundup on the sea change in Australian politics. Here’s my take.)

The winning candidate campaigned on a platform of new leadership to address voters’ concerns about the environment, health and education. As one of his first acts as national leader he will push for the ratification of the Kyoto agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and negotiate the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

President-elect Barack Obama in November 2008?

Nah. It’s Kevin Rudd, leader of Australia’s Labor Party, who crushed Prime Minister John Howard in voting today. Howard’s Liberal Party-led coalition not only lost its majority in Parliament but he may suffer the indignity of losing his own seat to a former television news anchorman and rookie politician.

Howard, President Bush’s staunchest ally in the Iraq War, steps down after 11 years in power. Ironically, he gets high marks for his stewardship of Australia’s long booming economy, but his countrymen have come to take that for granted and felt that it was time for change at the top.

Glenn Greenwald correctly points out that Americans typically view elections in other countries based on the self-centered perspective that the result is a referendum on the U.S.

He notes that:

“The humiliating defeat of Howard . . . was driven largely by [Australians’] own domestic concerns, and it had little (though not nothing) to do with the U.S. Still, it is worth celebrating Howard’s defeat in light of how pernicious a presence he was, as one of the very few remaining world leaders who loyally supported the worst and most war-loving aspects of the Bush/Cheney foreign policy.”

Howard’s defeat follows that of José María Aznar of Spain, who also backed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and the political setbacks of Tony Blair of Britain.

So the Aussies, Spaniards and Brits seem get the message. But is America listening?

Mr Kevin Rudd, whose Labor Party swept to victory in Australian elections, said his government would start work immediately on an education revolution, rebuilding the hospital system, address the ‘great challenges of climate change and water, building ‘a 21st century infrastructure for a 21st century economy’.

Australia’s new prime minister-designate, Rudd praised his predecessor John Howard for his contribution to public life, whose Coalition government remained in power for more than a decade. More here…

(Photo above is of Kevin Rudd (L) and John Howard courtesy the BBC.) The BBC site has Australian poll pictures.

Click here for the facts regarding Australian elections 2007.

Who is Kevin Rudd? “Born in September 1957 in the coastal hinterland north of Brisbane, Kevin Michael Rudd lost his father - a farmer - at the age of 11. Apparently facing eviction from the farm and with nowhere else to go, his mother, Margaret, was forced to sleep overnight in a car with two of her four young children…”

For Rudd’s complete profile please click here…

The Guardian has this to say about Australia’s new prime minister: “Australia’s new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has been described as an antipodean close relative of Tony Blair, sharing the former British leader’s fervent Christian beliefs as well as the unwavering conviction that he has the personal vision to take his country forward. Like Blair, he will not be a traditional Labor prime minister and seems likely to run a government that is almost as conservative as his predecessor’s, distancing himself from the unions and the more radical members of the party.

“The 50-year-old is married to Therese Rein a self-made millionaire and working mother of three who owns a recruitment business. She will be the first Australian prime minister’s wife to keep working while her husband is in office.”

The Telegraph has an irreverent profile of Rudd: “Nibbling one’s ear wax and spending a boozy night in a strip joint could be expected, in normal circumstances, to spell disaster for a politician.” More here…

Recent times have witnessed women coming to the forefront taking on the might of the repressive regimes in their respective countries and not caring for the dangers inherent in taking such bold action. Interestingly, monks have also captured popular attention by stepping out from their monasteries to protest in public the excesses committed by their rulers.

It seems that men in such countries have left the task of opposing brutal actions of their governments to their womenfolk and monks!!!

It is not just in Myanmar that Buddhist monks have been causing trouble for a repressive regime. According to reports from human-rights groups and in the Hong Kong press, monks in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, have clashed with the Chinese police over the past month. Read on…

One of the major demonstration of international support to the “moral and spiritual” fight against repressive regimes came in the form of US Congressional Gold Medal for the Dalai Lama. Click here…

Meanwhile Australia slapped financial sanctions on Burma’s generals and their families as supporters of the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, marked her 12 years in captivity with protests in 12 cities across the world. More here…

Australia’s Aborigines have renewed calls for official recognition of past injustices after a court awarded one of their own nearly $450,000 for having been taken from his family 50 years ago.

In a landmark ruling this week, Bruce Trevorrow (photo) received the money in compensation and damages for being taken from his mother as a baby and, without her consent, given to a white foster parent.

Reconciliation Australia, set up to promote better relations between Aborigines and white Australians, said the case highlighted the need for proper recognition and compensation for the so-called stolen generation of Aborigines.

Said Barbara Livesey, the organizations chief executive:

“It is preferable, morally and financially, to face up to mistakes as a nation, rather than watching from the sidelines as they’re tossed around in costly, adversarial court proceedings.”

Australia’s conservative government has steadfastly refused to apologize officially for the policies of previous governments. Only the island state of Tasmania has set up a fund to compensate stolen generation members.

But can a long broken life be made whole with money?

More here.

I wanted to take this opportunity to let you all know that I have a new co-blogger at The Reaction — a political scientist from California (UCSD) who specializes in elections, electoral systems, and electoral reform (as well as organic farming), who writes the blog Fruits & Votes, and who, at my blog, goes by the name AviShalom.

Here are his three most recent posts, each one extremely interesting. Take a look:

– Madison on suspicious sheltering and its constitutional consequences

– Afghanistan and 2008 US presidential politics

– Timor-Leste results almost complete

What is the winning ‘mantra’ in an election? Sound economy? No? Then what? “If the economy is booming in an unprecedented manner, the leader of a country should be feeling confident of winning the next election. Not so in the case of Australia,” says The Economist.

“The country has had 16 years of continuous growth, the past 11 of them under (Prime Minister) John Howard’s conservative coalition. In that period, the economy has regularly grown faster than other industrialised countries.

“Thanks to reforms inherited from its Labor predecessor, its own prudent fiscal management and a revenue boom from China’s demand for Australia’s minerals, the government is blessed with an enormous fiscal surplus, low inflation, unemployment at a 33-year low and a reputation for competent economic management.

“With an election due later this year (in October or November), Mr Howard ought to be coasting to victory.

“Instead, his party has been trailing the opposition Labor Party in opinion polls by an average of 16 points — enough to lose in a landslide.

“So Australia’s boom could prove a ‘winner’s curse’, unless its politicians resolve the conflict between handing out sweeteners and investing for the future.”

Read more here…

Incidentally, John Howard is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies.

(John Howard photo above courtesy Getty Images)

If a child doesn’t have a strong father figure in his/her life he/she is liklier to become fat, a new study says:

Fathers who play less of a role in child rearing are more likely to have overweight or obese offspring, Australian researchers said.

A study of almost 5,000 youngsters revealed that fathers who do not set clear limits for their kids are more likely to have heavier children, according to the Australian Associated Press.

Dads who did lay down boundaries generally had children with a lower body mass index, said the study by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.

The study found that a mother’s parenting style had little impact on whether a child was overweight or obese.

Read the rest of this entry »

India’s leading and respected 129-year-old newspaper, The Hindu, carries an interesting and in-depth write-up The War of Ideas: Mindsets and Options. The author of the article is Hamid Ansari, a former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations.

Excerpts:

“The problem essentially is with definitions and the assumptions underlying them: Tyranny, freedom, modern, moderate are all interpreted unilaterally and in terms of prescriptive political preferences…

” ‘The War on Terrorism,’ said President George W. Bush in National Security Strategy 2002, is ‘a struggle of ideas’ in which America ‘must excel.’

“Five years on, an informed analysis by Bruce Riedel in Foreign Affairs concludes, ‘Al Qaida is a more dangerous enemy today than it has ever been before.’ It suggests a new narrative, and a re-packaged effort. The admission is damaging, the urge to rethink encouraging.

“From the viewpoint of the United States and its allies, the 2003-2007 period has been a humbling one. The euphoria of victory has given way to a ‘long war.’ The urge to modernise West Asian societies has all but vanished under the twin imperatives of local resistance and external convenience.

“The realisation has dawned that an unthinking assault on a faith and its adherents has stiffened the resolve to defy. The ‘neocon moment’ is admitted to be a folly. Altogether, the hegemonic impulse has failed to deliver.

“A re-conceptualisation is said to be in progress. It covers military strategy, political approaches, even the ideological thrust. Each of these could be genuine or simulated; analysis therefore necessitates deconstruction in terms of motives and objectives…

“Defence Secretary Robert Gates has publicly accepted that the U.S. is ‘not winning’ the war…

” ‘The U.S. repression of Sunnis,’ writes Professor Juan Cole, ‘has allowed Shiites and Kurds to avoid compromises’ and radicalised Sunnis to the point that 70 per cent of them consider attacks on U.S. troops legitimate. The corresponding figure for 2003 was 14 per cent!

“A set of contradictions emerge from the resulting situation: (a) the mismatch between American military thinking and the American domestic timetable for the war effort; (b) the gap between American military effort and the Iraqi ground reality; (c) the chasm between the political perceptions of Iraqi factions. How are these to be resolved?

“The key to prevent an intensified civil war, argues Professor Cole, is ‘a U.S. withdrawal from the equation to force the parties to an accommodation. Therefore, the United States should announce its intentions to withdraw its military forces from Iraq, which will bring Sunnis to the negotiating table and put pressure on Kurds and Shiites to seek a compromise with them.

“But a simple U.S. departure would not be enough; the civil war must be negotiated to a settlement, on the model of the conflicts in Northern Ireland and Lebanon.’

“Regional diplomacy has a role to play in shaping the modalities and content of such negotiations. The idea has been around for over a year but made no progress while the Americans and the Iranians manoeuvred for the high ground. There is some hope now of it being pursued seriously.

“In such an effort, Saudi Arabia and Iran could be encouraged to emerge as brokers to nudge the principal adversaries to a comprehensive, balanced, compromise package capable of being monitored and one in which the gains of each would be evident. An overarching coordination mechanism of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the U.S. would be a prerequisite, and so would the support of other neighbours of Iraq.

“A peacekeeping force could supplement the arrangements arrived at; it should avoid the pitfall of peace enforcement…”

To read the full article please click here…

Cricket arouses unbelievable passions around the world, especially during the Cricket World Cup tournament in the former colonies of (what was described as) the British empire - ‘where the sun would never set’.

For cricket lovers Saturday was a special day as the TV beamed the 2007 Cricket World Cup final between Australia and Sri Lanka from Barbados in the West Indies. The World Cup was televised in an estimated 200 countries watched by more than two billion television viewers.

As Australia seems to have made a habit of lifting the World Cup often (as it has done during the last three consecutive finals), my favourite place to watch this major cricketing event is the residence of the Australian High Commissioner (as the Ambassador is addressed in the Commonwealth countries).

At the Australian High Commissioner’s home, situated in the lush green heart of New Delhi’s exclusive diplomatic enclave, a huge screen is placed in the sprawling lawns that beams the cricket match, and watched by about 200 to 300 special invitees.

My wife and I reached our host’s home at 8.30 pm. But owing to the rains at Barbados in the West Indies, the match started almost an hour late. This was a good opportunity for the invitees to enjoy the Australian hospitality…excellent Australian wine and beer, and a lavish spread of Indian, Italian and Chinese cuisine.

In the absence of His Excellency Mr John McCarthy (the informal, amiable and friendly Australian High Commissioner to India), the Deputy High Commissioner David Holly played a perfect host. “The match may finish very late at night but you are more than welcome to stay on and watch it until the end,” Mr Holly told me.

Soon we saw on the TV the opening Australian batsmen playing wonderful cricket against the Sri Lankan team, and scoring at a rapid pace. In about two hours time it was becoming clear that Australia would be the winner.

And as the atmosphere at the New Delhi host’s party became more festive, the imbibing of the heady liquid servings, and partaking of the gourmet dishes, rose in equal proportion.

The World Cup has grown as a media event with each tournament. The World Cup venue (from 13 March to 28 April 2007) this year was awarded to the West Indies via the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) rotational policy.

The United States contingent lobbied strongly for matches to be staged at its newly built cricket ground in Lauderhill, Florida, but the ICC decided to award all matches to Caribbean nations for this year’s World Cup.

The 16 competing teams were initially divided into four groups, with the two best-performing teams from each group moving on to a “Super 8″ format. From this, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa won through to semi-finals, with Australia defeating Sri Lanka in the final, giving Australia its third consecutive World Cup victory (and fourth in all the World Cup matches that started in 1975).

A basic form of cricket can be traced back to the 13th century, but it may have existed even earlier than that. The game seems to have originated among children of the farming and metalworking communities in the Weald between Kent and Sussex in England.

It originated in its modern form in England and is popular mainly in the present and former members of the Commonwealth. In the countries of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, cricket is the most popular sport.

It is also a major sport in places such as England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bermuda, and the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean, which are collectively known in cricketing parlance as the West Indies. The Indian Cricket Team is currently the highest paid national sports team in the world (in terms of sponsorship).

Though the first match in India was recorded in 1721, when a group of sailors gathered to play in Western India, India’s national cricket didn’t play their first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord’s (in England), becoming the sixth Test playing team.

The Indian team has continued to be highly ranked since then in both Test cricket and One-Day Internationals. The team won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and was runners-up in 2003.

Jules Crittenden has another great historical post up. Today Jules commemorates the battle of Gallipoli, which took place in 1915 and was a disaster for the British, and, more specifically, for Winston Churchill. Churchill, of course, was force to resign as First Lord of the Admiralty.

Jules highlights another aspect of this battle:

The deaths of thousands of diggers at Gallipoli became a galvanizing event that helped establish a sense of nationhood for Australia, which until recently had been a British colony. A controversial event in which some see Australia as the victim of imperial Britain and others as an early example of Australian spirit in the face of adversity and a willingness to act in the world, at a time when Australia’s security and economy were in large part linked to great powers elsewhere, as they are today.

Today, this small nation of 20 million on the other side of the world, with total air, land and sea forces of about 50,000, puts many nations to shame with its willingness to engage. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again. Timor and the Marshalls. As Foreign Minister Alexander Downer put it several years ago, Australia is not subject to the popular multinationalism of the lowest common denominator, but has stepped up to play its role.

Next follow some personal accounts of what happened at Gallipoli. Go to Jules’ place to read them, they’re fascinating. Also read the Wikipedia entry on this famous battle.

The battle of Gallipoli left huge marks in the psyches of, indeed, New Zealand and Australia, but also in the national psyche of Turkey. As the entry at Wikipedia explains:

In Turkey, the battle is seen as one of the finest and bravest moments in the history of the Turkish people - a final surge in the defense of the motherland as the centuries-old Ottoman Empire was crumbling; which laid the grounds for the Turkish War of Independence and the foundation of the new Turkish Republic eight years later, led by Atatürk, a commander in Gallipoli himself.

Also be sure to read Shaun’s post on, what the Australians call, Anzac Day.

Cross posted at my own blog.

Through thick and thin, through “good” wars and bad, there have been no allies of the U.S. more ferociously committed to seeing the casus belli through until the last man is left standing – and none more overlooked by Americans – than Australia and New Zealand.

And so the Dear Friend & Conscience (who is from Oz) and I take a moment each Anzac Day to tip our hats to our Aussie and Kiwi family and friends, as well as the dear departed who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Recently I wrote a post on Climate Change: Australia Faces ‘Epic Drought’

An interesting comment was sent by Ivaylo Avramov and I repeat it here in this post because of its importance.

“So far we were fighting global problems one by one - no matter whether we discuss the Global Warming, the water scarcity, the Poverty, the problems in free trade, the AIDS, the illiteracy and religious fanaticism leading to terror and violence, etc.

“My point is: Don’t you think that we need to change the approach?

“Nature hints again the possible solution - please visit http://deserticeproject.com to see a project study about how we can handle with these global and complex problems, in one global, complex and multilateral initiative.”

To read more about the project please click here…

Australia has warned that it will have to switch off the water supply to the continent’s food bowl unless heavy rains break an epic drought - heralding what could be the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation, reports The Independent.

“The Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia yields 40 per cent of the country’s agricultural produce. But the two rivers that feed the region are so pitifully low that there will soon be only enough water for drinking supplies. Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record.

“Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock.

“A ban on irrigation, which would remain in place until May next year, spells possible ruin for thousands of farmers, already debt-laden and in despair after six straight years of drought.”

And the editorial in the same paper says: “Moreover, this is a taste of things to come - not just for Australia, but the world. As the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes clear, the runaway warming of the earth will bring severe drought in its wake. And the economic consequences will be disastrous.

“Sir Nicholas Stern’s report for the (British) Treasury outlined last year how climate change could be as economically traumatic as the Great Depression or the world wars of the 20th century…”

Read on…