For the last few days I’ve once again been embarrassed to be Australian, in a similar but far more serious way to the embarrasment I felt during the tennis this year. The cause? Our nations response to the Schapelle Corby verdict.

For those uninitiated, you might want to read something more indepth but basically Corby was caught in October last year with almost 5kg of marijuana in her boogieboard bag after arriving at the international airport in Bali. The trial in Denpasar lead to last Friday, where a guilty verdict was handed down in court, and 20 years jail was imposed on her.

Now those are the facts. The reason I feel embarrassed to be Australian in the wake of this is due to the sickening reaction Australians have had towards the verdict. An overwhelming majority of Australians believe Corby is innocent and have expressed fury towards Indonesia regarding the outcome of this case. Many have called for a boycott of Bali, others have contacted charities that were given donations for tsunami relief, asking that their money be re-directed to other countries or refunded, and most have labelled the Indonesian judicial system a joke. This is unfair, outrageous and incredibly stupid behaviour from citizens of a country I have considered to be among the best and brightest in the world (I can’t deny that this view is perhaps slightly biased).

Firstly, although I will be the first to admit that the twenty year sentence is incredibly harsh, this is standard for drug traffiking in Indonesia, and must be respected. For those who believe she is not guilty, I can assure you she would be found similarly guilty in an Australian court, when taking into account the circumstantial evidence both ways, although the sentencing would be likely to be far more lenient. Even so, this does not mean that the system is a joke, just that it is different to the system we employ in Australia.

As for boycotting Bali, or asking for money back from donations made to tsunami relief, what disgusting thoughts! Why should the struggling inhabitants of a country suffer even more for an injustice of the government, assuming there IS an injustice in the first place? These people who feel this way should be ashamed of themselves. To borrow an observation made on Triple J’s ‘Today Today’ program this afternoon, it seems Australians that feel this way seem to see their donation made earlier in the year not as much of a donation, but a bribe for leniency when Australians got into trouble next.

Another favourite comparison the newspapers have been toting for the last few weeks is the one between Corby’s sentence and Abu Bakar Bashir’s, the ‘mastermind’ (note the inverted commas) of the Bali bombings in 2002. Bashir was convicted of alleged conspiracy to commit terrorism last year and sentenced to two and a half years of imprisonment, and many Australians, buoyed by the print media are outraged at this ‘injustice’. What these people fail to notice is that there is a distinct difference in the two cases. Corby has been convicted of traffiking drugs, Bashir only alleged (happy, Kaz?) to be involved with terrorism. The four people actually found guilty of terrorism relating the the bombings, Amrozi, Imam Samudra, Mukhlas, and Ali Imron received three death sentences and a life imprisonment respectively – something the media has failed to reveal in the heat of this discussion of ‘miscarriage of justice’.

The bottom line is that the ruling of the Indonesian judicial system must be respected, as we would expect or even demand those from other countries to respect findings made in our courts. If our own citizens can’t manage to do that, they don’t deserve to be Australians at all.

Pete

I finally caved into pressure today and cut my hair. I suppose it was valid pressure imposed from all those around me, considering I did look like a total idiot, and could for the last few weeks actually chew my fringe, which has never happened before, but I still feel a sense of loss – afterall it is quite harrowing to lose that which is held dearly. Anyway today was the first time I’d gone under the snip since the mullet days of July last year, which is more evidence to suggest it was well overdue.

It’s funny what eventually got me to cut. My olds have been bugging me ever since Christmas to get a trim, but I’ve happily ignored them, putting up with the hair-in-the-eyes, prefering a bit of length. However, as soon as Theresa, a female friend at Uni told me that I’d be far more attractive with shorter hair, off it came. Interesting how much influence young women can have on male grooming choices. Actually, choices of males in all fields, come to think of it.

However, now that the deed is done, I’ve realised cutting at the start of winter is a bad idea. Today wasn’t particularly cold (15 degrees?) but I felt frozen to death without my insulative layer as soon as I stepped out of the hairdresser. Now I realise why cats & dogs get a definite winter coat.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Mum.

Pete

Dave contacted me the other day. I haven’t really heard from the little pommy bastard in a long time, but this email was particularly pleasant. He attached video footage of perhaps my fondest memory of our 9 month stay in Cape Town – the night we were evicted from Broster’s place and thrown into a smelly, dirty, cold little cottage nestled at the foot of Table Mountain. That may not sound so pleasant, but that first night was perhaps the most important single night of our stay, as we quickly came to love the independance our own place afforded us. That said, at the time we were so depressed that we were being forced to fend for ourselves, and more so when we discovered the house was literally teeming with cockroaches that we descended into a pest bashing madness for a few hours. By the end of the rampage, we loved the house, and all it’s oddities.

Anyway, this was a particularly endearing part of our evening – finding another one of the bastards in the bedroom, and capturing the hunt on Dave’s camera.

Pete

Follow up from this post. A bunch of wankers have graffitied slogans against VSU all over train station walls and billboards, from Toorak station all the way to Huntingdale, where the Monash bus departs from. I realise people feel strongly about the whole issue, after all it’s potentially pretty damaging legislation that the government wants to pass, however, blatent disregard for public property – or simply vandalism – really is taking the right to free speech a few (thousand) steps too far.

I’m all for student organisations. I think they’re swell – they mean there’s often free beer to drink at lunchtimes, and that there’s always a co-op that sells all the crap you need to get through the day. They mean that student art gets noticed and exposed, and also that student welfare on campus is taken seriously, by professionals. I think these qualities of uni life (especially the beer) are worth fighting for. I do honestly believe that the world would be a shite side worse off if it weren’t for organisations like the MSA, but criminal acts, like this cheap and frankly crappy vandalism makes me not only understand the government’s feelings on the matter, but almost support them.

Good one activists. You just lost the high ground.

Pete

I was meant to write this up on Friday, but oh well. I saw Revenge of the Sith on Friday morning, just touching on 24 hours after it’s initial Australian release. Before I dish out anything that will cause people to threaten my life over, let me say, in no uncertain terms that this contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film and don’t want to ruin it for yourself, don’t read the rest of this post. If you have seen it, or don’t care, read on.

Alright, so you’ve decided to read on, let me ruin the entire movie for you all. Anakin is Darth Vader. Woah – I didn’t see that coming. What magnificent plot direction from Lucas. While you try and grapple with the horrible idea of it all, let me make a slightly more serious review of the movie.

Overall, it wasn’t half bad. I went in with uncertain expectations – I was certainly hopeful that the film would be better than episodes 1 and 2, but I had no delusions that it would be even slightly comparable to the original trilogy. In many ways then, I was pleasantly suprised. It was visually stunning, as one would expect would be the case for a large budget, modern science fiction film, and the sub-stories were intriguing enough to keep an intense interest throughout the film, even when the conclusion was very much foregone.

The entire Star Wars franchise is built on political commentary, however this film was especially vocal. From where I saw it (and these views were further reinforced by later discussion) much of Anakin’s downward spiral seemed to be a subtle critique on the current US administration. One piece of dialogue, at the start of the utterly awesome Obi-wan/Vader confrontation was particularly poignant:

ANAKIN: Don’t make me kill you.

OBI-WAN: Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic … to democracy.

ANAKIN: If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy.

OBI-WAN: Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes. I will do what I must.

(ignites his lightsaber)

Anakin’s ‘If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy’ was undeniably similar to Georgey Porgey’s post 9/11 drawl that countries are either ‘with us, or with the terrorists’. Obi-Wan’s retort was fantastic – who would have thought the president of the free world was of the Dark Side?

There were plenty of other political side-notes, but I’d be talking for years if I was to dissect it completely.

My main grumble about the film was once again Hayden Christensen (Vader) and his shithouse acting. Unfortunately the black suit cladded Vader only has 2 or 3 lines, so those going along to see the film have to wade through over two hours of Hayden’s rubbish. Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan) and Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine) on the other hand were fantastic – almost to the point where they made up for Christensen’s painfully dull acting, but not quite.

An exceptionally smart step made by Lucas was the muting of Jar Jar friggin Binks. We saw the wankhead a couple of times throughout the film, but he didn’t utter a single peep! I was I was utterly ecstatic – Lucas finally figured out how to make a film without pushing the thought of suicide into audiences minds. Another great appearance was that of Samuel L (Windu). He was friggin awesome, once again – I think having a black guy in a film guarantees a big boost in coolness – perhaps an order of magnitude or two…. He was oh-so-close to killing the emperor as well – pity about a need to ensure continuity, if it weren’t so important Mace could have become galactic emperor instead – and what a nice change that would have been.

As I mentioned just before, continuity was required, and although the film reaches it in the end, it seemed to me that it was achieved by basically tying loose ends in last minute editing of the script, such as the decision in the last minutes of the film to have 3PO’s memory wiped, so that he and R2 have no idea what was happening some twenty years later. Some parts still leave gaping holes in continuity, such as Chewie’s inability to remember Yoda, or infact anything about the prequel storyline in the later episodes. There was also a niggling continuity problem with the Death Star. At the end of the film, the camera pans to the sky, where a half built Death Star is in orbit – assumedly all built in a few months, yet in twenty years, when episode four starts, the station has just become operational. I don’t think you could really argue that there were union strikes or anything – I have a feeling Vader would be pretty good at dispute resolution.

Overall, the film was pretty bloody good. Of course it is totally incomparable to the orignal trilogy, but the seduction of Vader was still a very nice story to tell, and given the incredible expectations that millions of fans have placed on the new trilogy, I think it was well done. For those idiots intending to boycott the film, go see it – it’ll suck if you don’t, only to realise it was well worth a $12 movie ticket when you see it on DVD.

Pete

So. iTunes is finally about to be thrust upon us poor and patient Australians. Although Apple didn’t officially announce anything (keeping with their tight-lipped approach about everything), there are reputable sources all over quoting that the ‘day hath finally cometh’ for the Australian store to be open. However, that hit a snag last week when one major record company failed to sign an agreement with Apple, sealing a deal that would have seen iTunes operational two weeks ago.

So it’s back to what us Australians seem to do best when it comes to emerging technology – wait. iTunes was launched almost 2 years ago in the states, and is now as available almost anywhere in western Europe. Oh the pains of being a market only 20 million strong. Le Sigh.

Pete

Perhaps I haven’t been watching enough telly since I’ve been back in Australia, because I’ve failed to notice the unbelievable amount of ringtone ads on TV that I noticed in England. While I was over in the mother country last year the only bloody ad on the the box was a stupid, annoying little frog wearing a biking helmet and goggles, pretending to start up a bike. Considering the utter shitness of the ad, I don’t exactly understand how Jamster manage to sell the bastard tones, but the ads are on so often, the sales must be good.

However, the good news I have to report to you all today is that it seems as though crazy frog’s days as the #1 ringtone in the world are at an end. There’s a better one that’s just been released, and although it’s just a tad rude, I think it has massive potential. Just a warning, when I said ‘just a tad rude’, I mean don’t watch/listen if you’re feint of heart, or have your speakers up beyond a whisper . Otherwise, get ready to fork out hundreds of dollars to get THIS on your phone!

Pete

Surely there are fewer more heinous crimes in our world than rape. Although it doesn’t actually (most of the time) end up with the victim dead ‘per sé’, the psychological ramifications sexual abuse has on the victim and all those around them are sometimes just as bad. So taking this into account, how can a legal system in any country enforce strong enough sentences on remorceless, serial rapists?

I was watching a report on the rape and murder of Jessica Lunsford, a 9 year-old Florida resident who was raped and murdered in February by a known pedophile who had moved into her neighbourhood months earlier, under police radar. What I noticed was a particularly innovative (but what I perceived as controversial and possibly problematic) regime that the state of Florida, under the governership of Jeb Bush has implemented since the death of Jessica. It consists of a multude of precautionary steps taken against known sex offenders in the greater Floridian community, as well as lifting the minimum jail time for convicted rapists to 25 years – the minimum time for first degree murder in the state at this time. The rest of the new law, dubbed the ‘Jessica Act’ is as simple as a well organised, police assisted community website that is to serve as a name-and-shame system, as well as slightly less humane measures such as permanent electronic tagging and tracking of sex offenders via satellite.

I believe a name and shame system can be extremely useful for society, although even a seemingly harmless and effective system such as this has potential major downfalls. Less socially aware citizens may be less interested or less informed of potential threats to family safety, endangering themselves and their families, but on the flip side reformed sex offenders, or those who where convicted wrongfully or for relatively minor offenses could have a damned, blackened name for all time, in the full, unflinching stare of the public eye. Although many would argue that sex offenders deserve this sort of treatment regardless of prevailing circumstances, it doesn’t seem entirely fair that a hypothetical man, convicted of raping a girlfriend while they were going out together in highschool – a conviction based solely on the evidence given by the accuser – be subject to a lifelong, extremely public record of a past discrepancy, especially when many such convictions are made on relatively hazy evidence. No-one, regardless of circumstances should be prohibited from fulfilling an otherwise legitimate and fruitful life.

Of course ignoring lesser offenses, there is a large contingent of people througout the world that believe that the death penalty should be implemented for use on sex offenders. Jessica’s father, although not originally a supporter of capital punishment now feels strongly otherwise (the stance is totally understandable, although perhaps it is not really an objective view). I’ve never understood the attraction of having a death penalty – perhaps it’s because I’m from a country that abolished the penalty over twenty years ago. Although I understand the social and economic benefits of having otherwise life-term prisoners put to death, taking a human life for whatever reason is wrong.

So, we can’t have rapists put to death, nor can we tag them electronically and have them run around beeping for the rest of their lives. We can’t increase the minimum sentences for sexual crimes – that will just further crowd already overpopulated prison systems, and we can’t reintegrate them into society without some massive hiccoughs. So what to do? I think I’ve found a solution, thanks largely to Phillip Dick: colonise mars and send the buggers there.

Pete

Alright after far too many serious posts, coupled with me feeling rather depressed this evening after an 85 point loss to Richmond, I thought it important to find something to smile about – so gather around children, for ‘some idiot, part 2′ (referring to this post a couple of months ago).

Pete

Happy 05!

05/05/05, 05:05

(yes, the timestamp was perhaps doctored a little for maximum effect)

Pete