Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. - The Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 18) State Opposition Leader John Brogden is staking his claim for a Coalition victory at the next election with a multibillion-dollar plan on infrastructure projects Brogden battle plan to raise billions for major projects Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Sink or Swim: Swept by Cold War Currents The stream of political corruption runs deeper than we think
• The cottage lawn [Politicians are being accused of double standards by lawyers. The NSW Law Society has complained that the State Government has made stricter laws for the conduct of lawyers than they have for themselves. You're hypocrites, lawyers tell MPs ; Pumping distant Saharan water costs almost as much as using bottles of Perrier for irrigation Gaddafi & The Vast Bulgarian Conspiracy ; UK Spy Bosses Admit Wmd Claim Wrong ] • · George Orwell would have been shocked. John Henry Newman would have purred with delight. And John Milton would have wondered why he bothered. Some 450 years after the Reformation, the Church of Rome and the authority of its pontiff have re-asserted an almost medieval grip on mainstream British opinion. Virtual congregations ; In the past five years, what most of us only recently thought of as "nobody's business" has become the big business of everybody's business. Goodbye to Privacy ; The latest issue of the Sunday Life, a hard copy magazine, features a variety of offices. Justice Michael Kirby has a bunch of flowers on his desk because European judges always have flowers. They remind you of the beauty outside the law! Entering the Era of Deep Politics • · · A Labor Party post-mortem of last year's City of Sydney election debacle has blamed the anti-democratic practices of the party's head office and the Carr Government's heavy-handed style ALP head office to blame for Labor loss ; Front-line police are again on the verge of industrial unrest - but this time they are angry with their union Sergeants slam union over wages and safety • · · · State Government figures show there are 41 drivers on the payroll, each receiving a $73,345 salary. Official drivers cost us millions ; Naked Eye of Sun Herald is the Minima Maxima Sunt of the weekend news as the smallest things (news) are the most important. The investigative duo, Alex Mitchell and Kerry-Anne Walsh, tackle many subjects (only available in hard copy) on p 22: Under Doctored Honorific they point out to the low level of corporate memory as Peta Seaton was last week given by a mistake the academic appelation of “Dr”. Seaton is still a bachelor of arts (BA) majoring in archaelogy. Peta was a dilligent digger back in late 80s and early 90s when she worked as a researcher for a number of Ministers during Greiner’s reign and before she became MP her degree served her well in her role as an environmental consultant One of the few must reads of the Sun Herald is the Naked City column • · · · · As New Yorkers learned in January, when a fire in a signal-relay room knocked out service for the half-million people who ride the A and C trains daily, Gotham’s subways are in deep trouble How to Save the Subways—Before It’s Too Late ; The transformation of literacy from an educational concern to a national political issue has been swift and significant The Politics of Literacy ; Over forty years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, America once again finds itself in the crosshairs of a determined China's Foray Into Latin America • · · · · · "Today is the second anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Here are pictures of the tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets, demanding the U.S. leave the country: "Chanting "No! No to terrorism!" and "No! No to America," Mass Protests in Iraq ; Google on Demonstration in IraqHere in Prague, it is an uneasy spring. Traditionally, spring is a time of hope. Yet as of this writing the country is going through yet another government crisis. The division between Mala Strana, the so-called "smaller town" where Parliament, the Senate, and the Cabinet all have their seats of power, and the rest of the country continues to grow, as does the associated cynicism and detachment on the part of the public. Fewer than 20 percent of Czechs approve of, or even believe in, their government. Four weeks ago, a lone middle-class Prague businessman by the name of Erik Matous organized a weekly demonstration in front of the Cabinet offices denouncing the criminal activities of the prime minister. Others, including myself, joined him... The billboards continue to grow in number. But whether the Cabinet falls or not, Czechs know that very little will change, for the cesspool that is Czech political culture runs very deep indeed.