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Australia finally ready to say ‘sorry’

31 January 2008 / / 1 Comment

The Howard government steadfastly refused to apologise to Australian Aboriginals for policies that saw children taken from their homes. Now with a new Prime Minister, the hardest word — ‘sorry’ — will finally be said.

Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, will deliver the apology to the “stolen generations” on the floor of Parliament on February 13. It will be the Labor Government’s first item of business.

“It’s building a bridge of respect which I think has been in some state of disrepair in recent decades,” Mr Rudd said. “But having crossed that bridge, the other part of it is all about practical business.”

The apology will come more than a decade after a government inquiry established that at least 100,000 children were removed from their parents between about 1869 and 1969. They were placed in orphanages run by churches or charities, or fostered out to socialise them with European culture. Some were brutalised or abused.

Americans, can you imagine what it must feel like for this Australian to see a return to sanity? For years, our respective governments have approached every problem with a stubborn belligerence, doing whatever they wanted, legal or not, moral or not, and they dared us to hold them accountable. Now in Australia at least, reasonable grownups hold the reins. Somehow it makes you feel exhilerated, and want to cry at the same time. I hope you get to experience this soon.

I remember the first Sorry Day in 1998, when people decided to go over Howard’s head, and apologise one on one. I happened to meet an Aboriginal man working at a community market. The place was mostly empty. I chatted with him for a while, and then said, “I just wanted to say sorry.”

He said, “It’s cool.”

But of course it was not cool. Not for him and not for the Native Americans of my own country. Nor for any of the displaced tribes whose history has been forgotten in nation after nation.

So I hope that in addition to a verbal apology, the Rudd government will back it up with money for social programs (in preference to the individuals themselves) to help stop the problems that still plague these communities.

It’s not all kumbaya over here, though. See this page for some truly nasty letters to the editor, including this one.

If being civilised and having modern technology is so hard for this tiny minority of aborigines who want to whinge (wasting tax payers money and destroying the reputation of most aborigines who are very decent hardworking smart people), then why don’t we fence off the National park, they can move there and live without our technology – see how long they last when they don’t even have the wheel.
Posted by: Anthony Henry of 5:40pm January 28, 2008

You stay classy, Telegraph readers.

Pacific Islanders are Asians, not Hebrews

30 January 2008 / / 6 Comments

The Book of Mormon tells the story of Hagoth, an ‘exceedingly curious man’ who sails away with some of the Nephites on boats around 55 BCE. They’re never heard from again, and the Book of Mormon narrative continues without them.

When I was on my mission, many of the Polynesian church members I came into contact with were convinced they were descendants of Hagoth (and therefore of Hebrew origin, like everyone else in the Book of Mormon). One Maori missionary even gave an elaborate presentation showing how the Book of Mormon narrative dovetailed with stories of his people’s origin.

And it wasn’t just the rank and file members that advanced the idea:

In the April General Conference of 1962, Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Council of the Twelve said, “As Latter-day Saints, we have always believed that the Polynesians are descendants of Lehi and blood relatives of the American Indians, despite the contrary theories of other men.”

The idea was even taught by President Joseph F. Smith, who told a group of New Zealand Maoris:

“I would like to say to you brothers and sisters… you are some of Hagoth’s people, and there is NO PERHAPS about it!”

But that story’s going to have to go.

Pacific Islanders’ Ancestry Emerges in Genetic Study

The ancestral relationships of people living in the widely scattered islands of the Pacific Ocean, long a puzzle to anthropologists, may have been solved by a new genetic study, researchers reported Thursday.

In an analysis of the DNA of 1,000 individuals from 41 Pacific populations, an international team of scientists found strong evidence showing that Polynesians and Micronesians in the central and eastern islands had almost no genetic relationship to Melanesians, in the western islands like Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck and Solomons archipelagos.

The researchers also concluded that the genetic data showed that the Polynesians and Micronesians were most closely related to Taiwan Aborigines and East Asians. They said this supported the view that these migrating seafarers originated in Taiwan and coastal China at least 3,500 years ago.

There will be a lot of disillusioned Polynesians, if indeed they notice at all.

It seems to me that religions should just stick to statements that can’t be verified. Most of the time, when they say anything falsifiable, it gets falsified.

To the barricades!

29 January 2008 / / 1 Comment

From the ABC News:

During his years in Government former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer developed a strong relationship with Condoleezza Rice.

For the new kid on the block, Stephen Smith, it would have been much harder work during his first meeting with the US Secretary of State.

But at a joint press conference in Washington afterwards it was all praise from both sides.

“Stephen, it’s great to have you here in Washington,” Dr Rice said. “It has really been a very good first meeting, and I look very much forward to meetings in the future.”

The Mr Smith in question happens to be my own Member of Parliament, now Foreign Minister since Labor swept into power. He’s giving the hard word — Australia’s pulling out of Iraq.

“We came to office in November last year with a longstanding commitment that we would withdraw our combat troops from Iraq by the middle of this year, and I advised the Secretary of State that when the current rotation from the Overwatch battle group is completed in the course of the first half of this year, those troops will be withdrawn,” he said.

This is what I like so much about the new Rudd government: they do the right thing, decisions seem to be made sensibly and thoughtfully, and they manage to get it all done without acrimony.

But this is interesting:

“Can I say that from a selfish, personal point of view as a person who comes from Perth in Western Australia, one of the most enjoyable parts of the meeting was inviting the Secretary to come to visit Perth and Western Australia, which I’m happy to announce she gratefully accepted.”

Condi’s coming to Perth? When will the protests be? You know I’ll be there. Perhaps the cream pie brigade could be persuaded to come along. If I can’t see her in an orange jumpsuit in the Hague, lemon meringue would be my second choice.

An ex-Mormon contemplates the passing of GBH

28 January 2008 / / 48 Comments

The news of Gordon Hinckley‘s death is bringing up some pretty complex feelings for me.

Hinckley was the president of the LDS Church for thirteen years. He was a likeable gentleman, a tireless traveller, and a savvy media handler. He was also considered by Latter-day Saints to be a prophet whose pronouncements were just as good as scripture, if not better. That’s pretty scary stuff. But he never seemed to be a megalomaniac, always seemed down to earth.

As a Mormon, I raised my hand to sustain him as prophet of a god that I now consider to be an elaborate fairy tale. So now part of me remembers a leader who seemed to be a genuinely kind man, and part of me struggles with the idea that here was someone falsely claiming to speak for a god. Someone who tirelessly promoted falsehoods, believing he was doing good.

Hinckley had a lot of control over the discourse for millions of Mormons. A common saying among conservative Latter-day Saints is “When the Prophet has spoken, the thinking has been done.” Hinckley didn’t seem to use this power for evil, as a lot of people could have. But he never should have had that kind of power in the first place. No human should ever say, “God exists, and I know what he wants you to do” unless they can back it up with facts, which no one ever has. It was wrong for me to say that as a missionary, it was wrong for my parents and teachers to say it to me, and it was wrong for Gordon Hinckley to say it to millions of believing people. It was power unearned and unjustified.

To the end of his life, he believed that he would survive his death, that he would go to the spirit world to meet his family members, that he would give words and symbols to angels who would stand as sentinels to let him into heaven. And he probably thought his belief in the whole elaborate scenario ensured his eternal status. His life was spent in the service of beliefs that were almost certainly false. Even though he was happy with those beliefs, I still feel kind of sad for him, and glad for myself that I somehow managed to see through it all.

Friday Random Five is always… wrong ong ong

25 January 2008 / / Comments Off on Friday Random Five is always… wrong ong ong

Can I revive the Five one… last… time…?

Hello, This One Is for You by Herrmann + Kleine
Album: Putting the Morr Back in Morrissey
This album has nothing to do with Morrissey — it’s just a bit of ambient glitch. It’s twinkly like stars, it has some beats, and some computer effects. I like this stuff now, but I’m not sure how I’ll feel about it in six months. Undemanding. Good for work.

Other Voices by The Cure
Album: Faith (Deluxe Edition)
Yes, I did buy Faith yet again, with the bonus album of extra bits. I love everything about it, from Robert Smith’s yelps to the insurgent bass to the echo-ey vocals. And they’re all here on this song.

Carry That Weight by The Beatles
Album: Abbey Road
A bit before my time. I didn’t know this song by name, but there’s no mistaking that sing-along chorus. Funny how Beatles songs are in our collective cultural memory.

Mr T. by Regurgitator
Album: Unit
A slow grind from the Gurge. Can’t explain the name.

Silhouettes by Prefab Sprout
Album: Faron Young (7″ Single)
An unusual b-side with a funk groove to it. I think the Sprout were playing with a lot of styles at this point.

Westboro Baptists picket Heath Ledger

25 January 2008 / / 6 Comments

Well, well, well. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church are planning to picket Heath Ledger’s memorial service. You know them; they’re the ones with the “God Hates Fags” signs. Apparently protesting the funerals of US soldiers isn’t bringing in the attention like it used to, so they’re kicking it up a notch.

Doesn’t look like they’re actually going to make it to Perth (the likely spot of the funeral).

In a news release from the church, Shirley Phelps-Roper says that she and other members will picket Ledger’s memorial services in the United States, not those held in his native Australia.

Too bad — there’d be all kinds of fun. But flying the entire congregation over would be expensive and time consuming. Then there’s accommodation. Would other Christians billet them? I think even the Potter’s House people would hesitate to have them over.

One thing I will say: the WBC folks are truly living their religion. They have absolute faith that they’re going to heaven and everyone else to hell. The theology they’ve settled on is certainly one of the possible Christianities that one could derive from the Bible, and who are other Christians to say that their theology is wrong? Other Christians claim to believe that homosexuality is a sin, but they don’t act like they mean it. The WBC folks have taken a normal mainstream Christian belief to its logical conclusion.

For my part, I notice that everyone creates gods in their own image. That’s why I’m sort of encouraged to see humankind make the transition from Old Testament genocidal maniac to New Testament groovy love god. Everyone picks and chooses from the scriptures according to whatever’s inside of them. By that standard, the Westboro Baptists are very scary people indeed.

Stellarium: coolest app in the solar system

21 January 2008 / / 3 Comments

I always wondered how I could find out what stars and planets were in the sky on any particular night. And now I’ve found Stellarium, a free application that shows you that very thing.

You can specify where you are and the date and time, and it’ll render the night sky in glorious Star-O-Vision.

Click for a larger image.
But there’s more. You can zoom in on objects, like planets or nebulae. Try speeding up time and watch Jupiter rotate.


Or you can go to other places and see what the sky looks like from there. Here’s how Saturn looks right now, if you’re standing on Mimas, one of its moons.


Here’s a fun one: try going back in time to the day you were born, and find out what sign the sun came up in. You may be surprised. (Bill Nye explains.)

Youngest Boy and I now spend part of our night sitting on the kerb with the laptop, looking for constellations.

Daniel font sighting: Baywatch!

20 January 2008 / / 5 Comments

The Daniel font (download here) has been sighted yet again, this time on the cover of the Australian editions of the Baywatch DVD.


No, not that ‘Baywatch’ logo — it’s those small black letters that say ‘season 2’, etc. Sorry the photo’s so crap; it’s difficult to take a good picture from a mobile phone when you’re all excited.

Here’s the spine view.


I’m so proud.

Liberal fascism?

18 January 2008 / / 1 Comment

There are only a couple of people on my automatic ‘punch in the face’ list. One is Jonah Goldberg. (The other’s Dinesh D’Souza.) It’s not anger. I’m not a violent person. I’d rather go verbal than mano a mano. But when someone has made the choice to argue the opposite of what everyone else knows to be so in a perverse attempt to rewrite history — truth be damned! — really, you can’t have a normal discussion with that person. It would just give them an opportunity to spew crap. Spewing crap is what they’re good at, and it’ll only make it worse. But a punch in the face transcends discourse. And it may provide that person with the reality check that reality never gave them.

The crap I’m talking about is, of course, Goldberg’s book, ‘Liberal Fascism’. Sadly, No! has done a great job taking down the Doughy Pantload’s premise, which is basically the associative fallacy spread over 400 pages: Nazis and Fascists liked organic foods, liberals like organic foods, ergo liberals are fascists. Fascist states are totalitarian, and totalitarians tell people how to live their lives. Liberals would like to tell people what to do (e.g. the environment, good parenting); ergo, liberals are totalitarians. Utterly fallacious, and remind me again whose vision of the state involves legislating people’s bedroom behaviour?

You might enjoy Jon Stewart’s interview with Das Lodenhosen, if your eyes don’t hurt from all the rolling.

Chick tracts

17 January 2008 / / 2 Comments

Don’t you love Chick tracts, in an awful way? PZ at Pharyngula has reminded me of this one about why evolution is a filthy devil-spawned lie. It’s called ‘Apes, Lies, and Ms. Henn‘.

If you don’t feel like clicking through, this panel nicely sums up the passive aggression of Extreme Christianity.


That’s right; I’ll pray for you — because you’re going to Hell.

I plan to use that line as I drop the boys off at school. Bye, boys! Remember not to believe in evolution instead of Jesus, or you’re going to Hell! Lucky for me I don’t ‘believe’ in evolution.*

While we’re on the subject of Chick tracts, here’s one of my favourite parodies: This Is Your Death!

It has a special place in my heart because of this idea on its back page:

1. Enjoy life while you can.
2. Be nice to others; they only get one life, too.

Believe it or not, it was the first time I could really grasp why lack of belief in an afterlife might not automatically lead to a life of psychopathic hedonism. I can now see why that was stupid, but a lifetime of church can do that to a person.

*Instead, I accept it as an accurate explanation of what’s happened in life on Earth, supported by overwhelming physical evidence.

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