ACT passes human rights lawsIndividuals and minority groups need the right to be able to express themselves because they are treated differently from time to time. Why? Because they have been accused or they look different or they have a different culture.
Overwhelming Federal and State powers and the corporate media can usurp, judge, and crush any individual into being treated differently. It may be because they don't belong to the boys/girls club or the populist views ramped up by 'politicians' and the 'shock jocks'.
It may be okay if the politicians and shock jocks had mercy in their souls but if they have prestige in their souls then you're done over and not necessarily based on any truth or fact but someone else's ideal.
It may be okay if you are amongst some larger groups like The Anglican Church and you don't get picked on for your individuality and have overwhelming support but if you're amongst the minority you get nailed to the wall.
The Tall Poppy Syndrome is another one. People getting dragged out of their position and status because someone has the power to bring them down after making a name for themselves and generally working hard to achieve their goals.
Sure they might make a mistake but they may have had an extraordinary mitigating fact for doing so. They may have predisposing factors for doing so. They may not have made a mistake like, Pauline Hanson and go to jail for their 'belief" or their 'political opposition'.
Should Pauline Hanson have gone to gaol in the first place?: Carmen Lawrence
For example, the cost of running the NSW prison system is over $530 million each year and rising. In addition, the government spends around $90 million per year on building and maintaining prisons.
Even Rene Rivkin could have done Community Service.
Will and Dave the 'No War' bell ringers could have done Community Service instead of going to Jail.
The Anglican Church is concerned the ACT's new human rights laws will place the rights of the individual ahead of community values.
Like I said, The Anglican Church is in part an accepted and protected group of individuals in Australia because of their believe and built up trust over time in the community. You'd be treated better if you said you were Anglican than if you said you're Muslim.
The ACT Legislative Assembly last night passed Australia's first human rights legislation, despite opposition from the church and the, [war criminal dictator], Prime Minister.
The territory legislation is based on international covenants aimed at protecting individual, civil and political rights. As it should be.
It is the first time notions such as freedom of expression and conscience have been placed into Australian law.
The ACT Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, says it is minimalist, concerned with promoting awareness of human rights amongst lawmakers and bureaucrats.
But the Opposition says its scope is broad and ill defined and could undermine the authority of the Parliament and the courts.
As if the authorities, parliament and the courts haven't got enough power over individuals. Especially when authorities have a different agenda like development opposed to community parks and recreation on public lands or by changing local council boundaries. Or when politicians lie for a vote, and courts bow to pressure of politicians and corporate media.
Anglican Bishop of the Canberra diocese George Browning says people should be encouraged to support each other rather than concentrate on individual freedoms. "What the Bill of Rights stands for of course is admirable, who wouldn't want to support individual rights, but that's not the issue," he said.
"The issue is if the community at large isn't robust and strong and cooperative then it doesn't matter what rights we have, they can't be nurtured because each individual is nurtured within a community."
The diagram above shows the major differences between the collectivist social order that is associated with takerism and the older, natural, social order of peoples such as the Australian aborigines and the tribes of the Amazon, who successfully followed Leaver principles for tens of thousands of years.On the left, we see that individual species, humans and others, have inalienable rights. These rights are not granted and they cannot be withdrawn. They stem from the divine order that creates matter, structure, and life.
On the right, there is the concept of human-created collectivism, and bigger and bigger governments, all the way to a global, totalitarian state. The distinguishing feature is that, here, the 'order' in society is made by men, it is not natural. Nor is it divine.
Whereas natural rights, on the left, cover all living things, the artificial rights that are given and taken by nation states, on the right, only apply to humans. The dominant idea is, as Daniel Quinn observes, "Humans belong to an order of being that is separate from the rest of the living community (there's us and there's nature)."
Historically, there have been periods when legal distinctions between animals and humans have been blurred. For instance, in medieval Europe, in the 14th and 15th centuries, numerous trials and executions of animals occurred. One source identifies 34 recorded instances of pigs having been tried and cruelly put to death. Besides pigs; rats, chickens, goats, and bees were similarly tried. Some of the pigs were fully dressed in human clothes at the time they were, inevitably, found guilty. In one case a vicar excommunicated a flock of sparrows that infested his church. All this happened despite the theological stance that animals had no soul, and no morals or conscience. They could not really be guilty of transgressing the Rule of Law.
Clearly, there was a period of confusion in the West when remnants of the beliefs (some would say superstitions) of the old, pre-taker, tribal societies existed alongside the new doctrines and dogma of man-made collectivism and religious interpretation. Today the distinction has all been resolved. Even the UN groups that deal with animal matters are clear that animals do not have natural rights. They are merely 'there' to be exploited.
By Minority 3 March 04
THE MONK: To support each other we need tolerance as well. But communities have adopted zero tolerance in the past in the US and Australia. Community Values? So on behalf of the community and in relation to someone else's ideology or expectations, (that may not take into account our individual culture, experience and human infallibility) then I say the individual must be nurtured and community values must be flexible. "Three strikes and your out!" No!
You have the right to be here like me because we are children of our wonderful Universe. So Bio-mimicri is a better solution hey "where do we fit in here". Communities cannot make decisions for the individual based on the communities values all the time because they cannot be said to have been treated the same as the individual all the time. Minimum standard guidelines set out by the community are not always implemented or adhered to for a variety of reasons.
An individual needs to be invited into the decision making process so that we can learn more about the individual and get an obligation by the individual to fit in with the rest of the community as long as the community is flexible. Individual rights are not an issue if you're not being picked on by blind toothless people, dictators, fascists, shock jocks, politicians, police, courts and the populist view.
In short issues welled up because of someone in the communities concern or some groups power to maintain the status quo. Those who have the power to crush "you" like an "ant" whether you are wrong, right or different or indifferent.
It is my understanding the individual is at the foot in a long chain that starts from, the individual, then the community, the suburb, the city, the state, the nation, the world and the Universe the highest power. Micro, Mezzo a Macro. While standing in a line at the clinic of a prison I said to a friend. "To justice". He said, "To justice no." "To the Universe the highest power."
Being nurtured by the community is essentially people who "nurture nature". Like cradling a baby in your arms, a cradle swings below us nurturing us. That is if you care for all creatures' great and small.Not much point having rights if the community's authority does not recognise or implement them.
You have the right to a telephone call if you get an opportunity to use the phone. You have the right to a lawyer if ASIO gives you one of theirs. You have the right to silence if you're not locked up for 5 years by ASIO. You have the right to freedom of speech and expression if you have a right to be heard and the right to tell someone in the community (ASIO law not allowed to tell). And so it goes on and on.
After being in prison I know very well the only right you have is the right you are granted by the powers that be, regardless of the community and the law. That is why we need a Bill of Rights.
Related:
Australia: Young and Free?
Australians all let us rejoice. For Pauline Hanson's free. Unlike poor Hicks and Habib who Are locked up overseas.While in the country behind bars, Are twenty-five percent, Of Indigenous Australia, And the kids of immigrants.
Hicks trial won't be fair: US lawyer
The military lawyer assigned to Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate, [prisoner and scapegoat for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], David Hicks has launched one of the most serious attacks yet on the legal process surrounding his client.
US military criticises legal process for Guantanamo prisoners
Military lawyers assigned by the Pentagon to detainees, [prisoners], at Guantanamo Bay are planning to present a brief to the US Supreme Court tomorrow, criticising the fairness of the legal process.
Guantanamo detentions slammed
A leading human rights group has denounced the United States Government for continuing to hold prisoners without charge two years after it set up the detention, [prison], camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Vigil: Season's Greetings for David and Mamdouh
The objective is to continue to inform the public; and maintain the issue alive. There will be information on both David and Mamdouh to hand out to the general public. There will also be two Season's Greetings cards for the public to sign which will be presented to Alexander Downer - as Parliament will be on recess by then, I will ask the Fair Go for David Group in South Australia to present these to Downer.
US court delivers blow to Guantanamo policy
In a stinging rebuke of the Bush Government, a United States appeals court has ruled the US cannot imprison "enemy combatants," [scapegoats and patsy's for the Coaltion of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], captured in Afghanistan, [held], indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay and deny them access to lawyers.
Hicks's lawyer hopeful of meeting before Christmas
Adelaide lawyer Stephen Kenny says he hopes to meet with United States military captive David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay before Christmas.
Red Cross warns resource wars in the Middle East are eroding human rights The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that the worldwide campaign against terrorism [the Coalition of the Killing's resource wars in the Middle East], must not be used to breach peoples right under international law.
Lawyers differ on Guantanamo deal
The lawyers for the two Australian men being held, [tortured in solitary confinement], at Guantanamo Bay have had different reactions to the, [war criminal], Federal Government's agreement with the, [war criminal], United States over procedures for any 'military trials'.
US 'political prisoners' demand rule of US law
FOREIGN prisoners, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], held in Cuba, including Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, will never have played their legal card until they're freed!
Government should fund 'free Hicks' doco
TAXPAYERS have forked out $185,000 for a documentary promoting the release of David Hicks - because the Coalition of the Killing used him as a scapegoat for their illegal and degrading resource war's in the Middle East.
A STRUGGLE ON TWO FRONTS: PRISONS & IMPERIALIST WAR
After a war waged by the U.S. military against Vietnam which took the lives of more than 3 million Vietnamese people and more than 58,000 GIs, the U.S. finally withdrew in 1975. It had suffered its first official major military defeat by a united people struggle led by the Vietnamese, along with a mass U.S. anti-war movement.
Supporters doubt PM's efforts to release Habib, Hicks
The supporters of two Australian detainees [prisoners] being held [tortured] by the United States at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba say they draw no comfort from [war criminal], Prime Minister John Howard raising the men's plight with [war criminal], US President George W Bush.
Greens For Freedom of Political Prisoners
The Greens politicians refused to be ejected and attempted to deliver a letter and photograph to the president. But Kerry was literally dragged away and that behaviour in Parliament was worrying.
Habib's wife to join Greens Protest during Bush Visit
The wife of an Australian man imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay has urged the Prime Minister to seek her husband's release when the United States President visits Australia this week.
Red Cross Criticizes Indefinite Detention in Guantanamo Bay
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Oct. 9 A senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday that the holding of more than 600 detainees [prisoners] here was unacceptable because they were being held for open-ended terms without proper legal process.
Australia: Crean backs war criminals
The Federal Labor leader, Simon Crean, has tried to head off planned protests by some opposition MPs when the US President addresses Parliament next week.
Bush's Vanished Prisoner
He Wonders Whether He Will See the Light of Day Again October 10th, 2003 6:00 PM
Guantanamo Bay treatment: Limbo
Former federal judges, diplomats, military officials and human rights advocates in the United States have urged the Supreme Court to review the cases of detainees [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource wars in the Middle East], being held without charge at Guantanamo Bay in the name of terrorism.
Australia: Justice for Hicks & Habib
The public forum Justice for Hicks & Habib was quite a success. Approximately 130 people attended the event, a big number for a Saturday eve!
Pilger said White House knew Saddam was no threat
Australian investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie which could cost George W Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.
Illegal and degrading war crimes: Society on the New World Order (OWN)! While Australia and the US are very distinctive societies war criminal, Prime Minister John Howard and war criminal, President George Bush share core values.
Civil Liabilities: Howard's diversity? I had a dream?
The war criminal, Prime Minister, John Howard, who only yesterday was claiming he was showing diversity has stepped up pressure on the states to support plans to increase the war criminal, Federal Attorney-General's powers to ban terrorist organisations, [scapegoats and patsies for the Coalition of the Killing's illegal and degrading resource wars in the Middle East.]
Terry Hicks Odyssey for Justice for his Imprisoned Son
Terry Hicks, David Hicks father, one of two Australian [scapegoats] held imprisoned [and tortured] at Guantanamo Bay, arrives tomorrow Saturday 20 September in Sydney. He will hold a Press Conference at 2pm at Breakout, 65 Bellevue St. Glebe.
Evidence that Howard was complicit in CIA, false flag, call to arms, Bali bombings War criminal John Howard was complicit in the call to arms - false flag operation - Bali bombings - instigated by the CIA - and the Coalition of the Killing - to bolster support - and quell dissent for their illegal and degrading resource wars in the Middle East.
State terror units caused the terror!
The level of suspicion and surveillance created by the [US false flag operation and call to arms] Bali bombings, created by [ the Coalition of the Killing and Australian's complicity to go to war on Iraq] means that all Australian's suffer the loss of their human rights, civil rights and their democratic rights, as well as those Australian's who lost their life in Bali.
Australia backs CIA Reichstag, Downer's propaganda
The Foreign Affairs Minister says the latest message from Osama bin Laden is worrying. [Just plain rubbish!]
Bin Laden calls? CIA blind man's bluff!
A [US propaganda, fear-mongering] taped message purportedly from Osama bin Laden has warned Arab nations against supporting a war against Iraq but has branded Saddam Hussein an infidel.
