Raving and Drooling – A lion’s tail

Don’t know who Paul Watson is ? Perhaps you know the name of his boat better. It’s the Sea Shepherd. He also has another boat in his fleet called the Steve Irwin. Yes, that guy. The wanker who runs around trying to get in the way of other boats, throwing acid at their crew and generally making a massive nuisance of himself.

Now, I’m not going to say that I support whaling, or shark-finning or any of that shit. I mean, I don’t even get finning, because shark is delicious, so I find it odd that people to fin sharks and throw the rest back, but that’s not the point. Those things are, arguably, morally wrong. But they’re not always legally wrong.

But what Paul Watson and his band of misfits do IS wrong. They are a terror (albeit a somewhat laughable one) on the high seas. They interfere with boats conducting what is for the most part, legal fishing activities because THEY don’t agree with it. They endanger people’s lives. They attack boats, they ram them, they throw acid on them and their crew. They put people’s lives in danger. In short, they are a bunch of fucking douches.

So, the Sea Shepherd were in Costa Rica, being as douchey as usual and harassing a boat which was allegedly engaged in illegal shark-finning operations. And of course they stepped in… made a citizens arrest and then demanded they turn around and allow themselves to be escorted back into port. I imagine this must have taken some form of pretty heavy coercion, which is what the boat’s crew are saying – that the crew of the Sea Shepherd tried to kill them. However, in an epic show of strength, a gunboat was despatched to intercept the Sea Shepherd and give them a pretty serious talking to. Oh to have witnessed that awesome checkmate.

Now, Paul Watson has been arrested in Germany and faces extradition to Costa Rica to stand trial for his crimes of bullying and threats. What he actually did is yet to come out, but naturally his crew are playing innocent and saying “Oh no. We did nothing wrong. We just asked the boat politely to follow us back into harbour. We have no idea why they sent a GUNBOAT out to intercept us. That was totally uncalled for”. Lulz.

I hope this fat, arrogant, crazy fucker drops the soap in a German prison and gets what’s coming to him. He’s a serial pest and it’s about time he got a good Assanging. I doubt he’s quite as smart as Julian though, so I expect he’s just gonna huff and puff and stamp his foot and go “It’s not fair ! Leave the wittwe fishies awone !”

Fuck you Paul Watson. Please change your nationality. I hate the fact that you’re Australian.

And the winner of the 2012 biggest douche in the universe award goes to.... PAUL WATSON !

Australian police aren’t known as being heavily corrupt like in some countries, but just like in the USA, they are rarely held accountable for the use of excessive and unnecessary force, even when it results in death.

There were two articles in today’s Australian about the excessive use of tasers to subdue people. One was the tragic story of Laudisio Curti, a young Brazilian student who was staying in Sydney and who had shoplifted a mere packet of biscuits from a convenience store, and when police arrested him they tasered him… to death. He was sent back to his own country in a wooden box after police’s excessive use of force and his family called it a gross miscarriage of justice and lacking a proper enquiry, have vowed to sue the NSW police force for the brutal killing of their son.

The other case was of Kevin Spratt, an aboriginal man in Western Australia who was arrested for reckless driving and threatening a police officer (and I hardly think that screaming abuse at a police officer while he is arresting you qualifies a crime so much as a normal human reaction) and they claim he resisted arrest, a charge which was later dropped in light of the evidence. When he was put into prison though, they put him in a padded cell, and when he was being removed, they tasered him repeatedly, in excess of twelve times in total in a matter of minutes out of sheer spite.

Doctors who treated the man said he also had a punctured lung, broken ribs and a damaged shoulder, but no charges have been laid for these injuries because they were not caught on camera. The man appealed to the corruption and crime commission and they supported his claim and said that the use of force was excessive and unreasonable (in the case of the tasering). You would think this would be a great win for the man, who will receive substantial compensation (coming out of taxpayer’s pockets of course), until you learn what penalty the police received.

Despite being found to have engaged in gross misconduct and abuse of police powers, the two officers were not stood down from duty, and they were fined a mere $1200 and $750 each. Now in Australia, a mere traffic offence or two can easily amount to this much, and being caught with even a tiny trace of marijuana will result in a heavier fine. So why were these two police officers who engaged in such disgusting misconduct given the equivalent of a slap on the wrist and told to hand over what amounted to small change to them ?

We all know that many police have a god complex and like to assert their authority and some of them will go as far as to physically abuse detainees for their own sick pleasure, but the disgusting thing is the way these two officers have gotten off with no significant penalty. The “criminal” went to jail for the “very serious” crime of threatening police, but the police themselves received a tiny cash fine for electrocuting this guy to within an inch of his life. What message does this send to other police ? That it’s ok to ignore basic human rights and to torture people or even kill them, because all you’ll get is a small fine and won’t even be stood down from active duty ?

West Australian police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan has been widely criticised for refusing to step down the two men for this serious offence. In fact, in defiance of the public criticism to have the men step down, one of the men has since been promoted. Shadow attorney general John Quigley was quoted as saying:

“If you are a public officer in the police department, you are less accountable than if you are a public officer in any other branch of the public service. That’s the message that the commissioner of police is sending out.”

Sometimes there’s justice in the world, and sometimes there is none to be seen as far as the eye can see. In the case of these two victims of police brutality, justice is nowhere in sight. Instead the police get a slap on the wrist and told to hand over a little pocket money as a token gesture, while one man dies and another languishes in jail. It’s one law for us and one law for them.

I’m going to be seeing SNSD tomorrow at the KPOP Music fest at ANZ Stadium in Sydney !
I already have tickets. VIP standing. $306 baby.

I just have to work out the best way to get there, balancing both fun and economy.

Also Kara, Sistar, 4 Minute, 2AM and others ! YAY !

Here’s the website for the event.

http://www.kpopmusicfest.com.au/

South East Asia has been rather devastated by flooding this month. The monsoon season has brought torrential rains and caused widespread flooding across Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Thailand and Cambodia have been the hardest hit, and many factories in Thailand in particular have been devastated. Since Thailand is the number 2 producer of hard drives in the world after China, this means that hard drives are going to become very scarce around Christmas time and prices will skyrocket until production can resume in the new year.

But putting aside such first world problems such as how much a new 4 TB hard drive is going to cost, the effect has been devastating on residents of those countries, with over 8 million people having been seriously affected but particularly serious is the effect on children. Vietnam hasn’t had the most deaths, with only around 70 deaths reported so far compared to more than 300 in Thailand and 250 in Cambodia, but I noticed a sad statistic when I looked at the numbers. More than 90% of all the flood deaths in Vietnam have been children. Other countries have also experienced this, Cambodia especially with over half their mortalities being children, but Vietnam is apparently leading SE Asia in percentage of child deaths due to flood waters.

I can’t think of anything insightful to say about this, so I’m just going to say… that sucks.

Ok, when bad shit happens in the world, sometimes the best thing to do is retain a sense of humour. Because when you see photos of the England riots, you can either cry… or you can photoshop funny items into the looters hands and laugh instead.

A blog sprung up this week allowing people to do exactly that. They only have a handful of pictures so far but I suspect they will get more as the word gets out. Here’s two images and a link to the blog.

Because it’s better to laugh about it than cry about it, right ?

See more here: http://photoshoplooter.tumblr.com/

What the FUCK is wrong with the poms ? They just go fucking nuts for no reason sometimes. There was a quiet, peaceful protest over a citizen who was fatally and possibly unfairly shot by a police officer, and somehow some hooligan idiots just decided “Peaceful ? Fuck that. Let’s fuck shit up” and suddenly the whole fucking country erupted in riots. London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester. People just went nuts, rioting, smashing cars, burning buildings, looting stores and destroying everything in sight for no good reason other than they could.

Why are young British people so angry ? Why do they have so much rage bottled up inside them that a minor protest can suddenly turn into country-wide riots ? I watched a video of a guy talking about how his shop had been burnt to the ground. It was built in 1867 and had been in his family for over 140 years and passed down through five generations and now it was destroyed because some stupid thugs wanted to make a point about how angry they were and they set it on fire.

Why ? What’s the point ? What are they trying to say ? Do they have a point at all or are they all just assholes ? People have reported groups of as many as 200 masked youths walking through towns just smashing shit up.

One man said “It looks like a war zone – I have never seen anything like it in all my life. There were about 25 to 30 masked youths on Haven Green and they just started tearing into a florist with bricks. It’s a local family-run business so I can’t see why they are doing this.”

Another man barely escaped from his burning house with his life.

Why ? Why are you fucking tards doing this ? What are you so angry about that you are willing to burn your own community and businesses and houses to the ground ? How is your life that horrible that you have reason to do this ?

WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM YOU FUCKWITS ?

I didn’t hear about this straight away. I don’t have a TV and I hadn’t been on any news websites over the weekend because I’d been camping and such. But last night, when I was at the bar, someone told me about the Oslo bombings and shootings that occurred on Friday.

A 32 year old man, who I am not going to give the dignity of mentioning by name, bombed the Norwegian parliament building, killing 8 people and injuring hundreds. Then he went on a shooting rampage on a small island, killing a further 68 in a bloody 90 minute massacre. He claims to be politically motivated and was trying to save Norway from being overrun by “Marxist and Muslim attitudes”. Clearly he is just disturbed.

Norway is a peaceful place. A witness, Eric Wikstrom said “Norwegians have never experienced anything like this before. We’ve heard it happen in the US and in Britain, but not here. I feel sick.”

When I first decided to talk about this tragedy, I went to collect some media to share with you. But I found there are two types of emotional footage of this story. There are obviously the moving photographs of people clutching their dead relatives and friends and pictures of the horribly damaged buildings. But that is not the story I want to tell you or the media I want to share with you. It is the story of the roses.

The people of Oslo did not protest and yell and scream on Monday when they came together. They did not carry placards. They carried roses.

Hundreds of thousands of people walked peacefully in the streets going to various different memorial sites that have appeared all over the city. Saying nothing, they just walked to their destination and listened to speeches of unity and solidarity with tears in their eyes.

Gabriella Stanland said “These flowers are full of pain and tears”. She went on to say “We Norwegians aren’t naturally angry people. Even when we argue, we don’t do it in loud voices.”

Norway may be crying, but if this man hoped to divide the country and cause some sort of revolution, he most certainly failed. The response to this terror attack was one of peace and unity. The Norwegian people should be admired for their courageous and calm response. They want peace, not retribution.

In Vietnam, this man would be shot by a firing squad for this crimes. But in Norway, he will serve the maximum sentence of 21 years in jail and if he is rehabilitated, he will be released. Many people around the world have differing opinions on which is the better way of dealing with this sort of act, but it is clear how Norway feels about the incident.

Roses, not rifles.

These photographs are used without permission. The first is owned by AFP, the following three are from the BBC, and the final two are credited to Emilio Morenatti of Associated Press.