I could not believe my eyes last week when I read an article on ‘Spiked’ (www.spiked-online.com) which claimed that the brilliance of the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony was due to the country’s ‘totalitarian regime’. The U.K. writer, Brendan O’Niell sounded like nothing more than a jealous child throughout his article- why on earth would anyone want to try and detract from the magnificent and inspiring ceremony?

“After Beijing: can only

dictatorships dazzle?”

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5652/

By his own admission, the British component to the closing ceremony was ‘mortifyingly awful’; however, I really don’t think this is any reason for his mud-slinging article which reported the similar opinion of another columnist who actually went to the extreme of calling the Chinese ‘nazi’s’!

One of the most prominent characteristics of Chinese culture is discipline- the kind which is derived from practices such as martial arts; it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the country is governed by a ‘dictatorship’. O’Neill may have felt embarrassed at his own country’s ‘wonderfully rubbish’ contribution to the Olympic ceremony, but as far as I’m concerned, it was an immature and unnessecary attack on what was a flawless and beautiful performance from China.

The initial concerns over the assasination threat of U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama have been somewhat subdued after the three alleged ‘White Supremacists’ have been dubbed nothing more than a group of “meth-heads” as reported on Salon.com.

Photo courtesy of Salon.com

The three men implicated in the assasination plot (shown right) are, from the left, Shawn Robert Adolf, Tharin Gartrell and Nathan Johnson.

As it turns out, the threats made against the potential President of the United States were deemed to be nothing more than talk rather than plans.

In an interview from CBS News in Denver, one of the men, Nathan Thompson, expressed his bigotist opinion that, ”Blacks don’t belong in political office. He ought to be shot.”   http://www.cbs4denver.com/video/?id=45839@kcnc.dayport.com

With the potential for Barack Obama the first African-American President of the United States, there are obviously seriously concerns over his safety. My personal preference of the two candidates is Obama and I think it would be a terrible tragedy to see another assassination incident similar to that of Martin Luther King. Thankfully the vigilance of authorities in America has taken these self-proclaimed assassinators off the streets, regardless of whether the threat is serious or not.

Over the past few weeks I have been regularly reviewing thirteen different web pages to find politically-based stories to make comments about on this blog. Overall I have found that most sites have been relatively easy to navigate and generally aesthetically pleasing. There is one wesite however, which I have closed almost every time I open it because of it’s poor layout and abundance of advertising banners and material- Frontline, India’s National Magazine from the publishers of The Hindu. www.frontlineonnet.com

This web-site has a four-column layout (one of which is devoted entirely to advertising) and at the bottom of the four columns, has a footer which is comprised, once again, entirely of advertising. Although this site may have interesting articles and content, I have been repeatedly disinclined to bother reading any of them for the sole reason of it’s poor layout.

Everywhere you turn the cost of living is sky-rocketing through the roof, record highs can be found everywhere from petrol prices to mortgage and interest rates; even the cost of groceries is enough to put a severe strain on the budget for those on an ’average income’. The strain of rising costs is especially being felt by the full-time student population who, according to the ‘Perth Independant Media Centre’ (http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=default&featureview=668), are being forced to survive on “income support [which] is set below the poverty line”. According to the Indymedia site “1 in 8 students can’t afford regular meals”. Whilst some high income earners may scoff at this claim, as a student, I can assure you that it is indeed accurate.

The average fortnightly payment from Centrelink is around $380-$430, but when you account for weekly expenses such as rent, food, transport, utilities etc, it is easy to see why many students are barely managing to afford regular meals. As a direct result of the struggling economy, rental prices are steadily rising and the market has never been more fierce. You might assume that the Government would take this into account and balance out the support-income for full-time students, however, this is most unfortunately not the case. Students are expected to survive on the same amount of money in spite of rising costs.

Although there is no immediate solution to the problem of student poverty there are some who believe that holding protest will help shed light on the issue. The Perth Independant Media Site – http://perth.indymedia.org/ is promoting the “National Day of Action” to be held in Perth on 20 August at 1pm at the Wesley Church. Hopefully, if enough people can create a bit of noise on the issue, then perhaps the politicians, somewhere between their first-class flights across the globe, might actually sit up and pay attention to the future leaders of our country who are in need of help.

As reported on the “ON LINE Opinion” site, the tax-hike on pre-mixed drinks has been in effect since midnight on 26 April. Ever since the tax rise was brought in there have always been a lot of quetions about the government’s motives behind its implementation. Although it has been claimed that the tax-hike is part of an effort to curb the rising tendency of teenagers to ‘binge-drink’.

It may be that this tax will in fact deter some binge-drinkers from purchasing certain pre-mixed drinks, however, it is obvious that there will be a higher demand for the cheaper alcoholic beverages. I work at a major bottle-store in Melbourne and I’ve noticed that since the tax on ‘alcopops’ was raised, there has not been any significant change in the purchasing patterns of R.T.D’s. There seems to be a slight trend towards the purchase of spirits, however, the sale amounts of pre-mixed drinks has remained steady.

The article on the “ON LINE Opinion” site makes a very good point, supporting the claim that the goverment is only chasing extra revenue with the tax:

“Look at the 2001, 2004, and 2007 surveys compiled by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and you also find that between 2001 and 2007 there was no overall increase in high-risk binge drinking by people aged 14 to 19. In fact, the percentage reported as bingeing weekly was 10.7 in 2001 and 2004, before falling to 9.1 in 2007.

The figures for young women are even more damning. In 2001, the percentage of 14 to 19-year-olds bingeing weekly – five or more drinks on any one occasion – was 11.8 per cent. In 2004, the figure was 10.5. In 2007, this had fallen to 9.5. Even the figure for 14 to 19-year-old young women bingeing monthly has fallen since 2001 from 21.2 to 18.8. And the number of abstainers has increased from 25 to 29 per cent.”  (http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7311&page=0)

Clearly the so-called “binge-drinking epidemic” is not quite as dire as the goverment would have the public believe.

It seems as though the U.S. election campaign has been going on for years and just when you thought you could see the end of the road, a new candidate has sprung from nowhere. The ‘video of the day’ on Crikey.com.au featured the short ad from the new candidate; it was none other than Paris Hilton.

Thank goodness this is not a serious campaign offer from the socialite heiress to the Hilton fortune, however, it would probably not come as a shock to many if she did attempt it. Most rational people would just dismiss it as merely her latest bid for attention. Ms Hilton always seems to be big-noting herself over her college education, but one is left to wonder at the credibility of her so-called ‘degree’ when she “like, totally” stumbles over the most simple words. Hilton pronounces the word ‘oil’ as ‘all’ and the word ’strict’ as ’strick’.

Although it is a mildly amusing prank from the folks at Funnyordie.com I must say that I’m sick of hearing about and seeing the self-ordained “princess” in the media. I don’t think that being famous just for being famous is a note-worthy achievement and Paris Hilton should either contribute something credible to society (and this does not include ‘how-to’s’ on which puppy-dog goes best with which handbag) or simply stop hassling society for undeserved attention.