Fruits and Votes » 2010

Planted by MSS
Planted in: FRUITS; Travel

At the port of Akko, Israel (29 July 2010).

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Blogging

We had an outage lasting 18 hours or so, caused by some problem at the host.

Once things were up and running again, I finally replaced the finca photo in the banner. I figured it was about time I stopped having what is now someone else’s house on my blog.

Propagation: Seeds & scions (0)

27 August 2010

Don’t forget the Senate! And remember Westminster!

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Australia; Coalition governance

Independent Senators are reminding the two contending PM candidates in Australia not to forget the second chamber. In particular, this could be a problem for a potential Labor minority government.

Labor does not control the upper house, which has 32 Labor senators, 37 Coalition, five Greens, Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding. If Senator Xenophon, Senator Fielding or the Greens join the Coalition in a vote, they can negate government motions.

The new Senate, with the expected nine Greens senators holding the clear balance of power, does not sit until July 1 next year. (The Australian.)

Does any other country have a legislature in which newly elected members do not take office for nearly a year?

Meanwhile, Liberal-National Coalition leader Tony Abbot has slammed Labor leader (and current PM) Julia Gillard for her willingness to allow the independents in the House to see government briefs prepared by Treasury.

“Our system depends on public servants being able to give free, frank and fearless advice to government,” he said.

“And that means the advice has got to remain confidential, and what we have got here is a desperate Prime Minister trashing the Westminster system in an attempt to hold on to power. It’s a measure of this government’s complete lack of respect for our system that they are doing this.” (same source as above quote)

Some folks might wonder if the very presence of an elected Senate is not already contrary to Westminster principles…

With all seats apparently settled, the House balance now stands, as expected, at Labor 72, Coalition 73, Green 1, independents 4. (See ABC Elections.)

Propagation: Seeds & scions (10)

26 August 2010

A fixed election date?

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Australia; Coalition governance; U.K.

As earlier this year in the UK, one of the demands to have surfaced in coalition/support negotiations resulting from the lack of a parliamentary majority has been the possibility of fixing in law the date of the next election:

And [Prime Minister Julia Gillard] promised to serve a full term and even offered to name an election date between August and October 2013, a promise [Leader of the Opposition] Mr Abbott matched, saying that, as prime minister, he would not go to the polls before August 2013.

See the full story, “Key MPs name price for power,” in The Australian.

Propagation: Seeds & scions (5)

22 August 2010

Australian government seized by gang of four!

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Australia; Coalition governance

ABC is only slightly less dramatic than F&V:

Australia’s political future hangs in the hands of a disparate gang of four independents and one Greens MP.

The linked item has backgrounds of the MPs whose support is being wooed by the top two party leaders.

Propagation: Seeds & scions (10)

20 August 2010

Will Australia have a balanced parliament?

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Australia

The news today, one day before Australia’s general election, is full of speculation (and the predictable angst) over whether Australia could have a parliament in which no party has a majority. As the NZ Herald notes:

Most analysts expect the Greens to hold the balance of power in the Senate after Saturday’s election, with as many as 10 Senators when the new Upper House is convened next July.

But the razor’s edge that opinion polls have been travelling for much of the campaign have led to speculation that for the first time since 1940 the nation could have a hung parliament.

Of course, “hung” parliament would be better called a balanced parliament, or a no-majority situation. “Hung” refers to juries, which must render a guilty or not-guilty verdict. Unlike parliaments, juries can’t make coalitions with a third option, or allow one of the two main options to prevail, subject to bargaining. And a New Zealand newspaper should know better–NZ has had quite decisive coalition and minority governments for more than a decade.

If there is no majority in the first chamber of Australia’s parliament after this election, it will be the first time since 1940. So that’s more than three decades farther back than the last such occurrence in the UK, prior to the current year.

NZ Herald again:

On a national basis, punters and recent polls predict a narrow Labor victory, but detailed polling in marginal seats in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia suggests the Coalition could pick up the extra 17 seats it needs to win.

If neither has a majority, then four independents and potentially one Green MP could hold the balance of power. The story notes that the independents are all defectors from the Liberal-National Coalition who hold views closer to Labor on many issues. It also describes their rural electorates.

Propagation: Seeds & scions (9)

Mamilla cemetery

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Zionism

In my (almost) daily watching of Mosaic TV, I saw some familiar street views yesterday morning–a street corner I was on just a couple of weeks ago. The controversy over the Mamilla Cemetery has flared again, as described in the JPost:

Despite what city officials have called “clear and indisputable evidence” of some 300 fraudulent tombstones that were discovered – and subsequently demolished – inside an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem in recent weeks, a handful of demonstrators arrived at the burial site on Wednesday morning to protest what they labeled the city’s “desecration” of the cemetery.

However, the news item I saw this morning did not indicate that there was any question over whether the demolished “graves” were real graves in the actual Mamilla Cemetery. The news item was from Al Jazeera Arabic (dubbed into English). It took it at face value that the Jerusalem authorities were destroying historic graves.

At the conclusion of the report, the narrator referred to the “occupation of the city in 1948.” The Mamilla Cemetery is not in East Jerusalem (which indeed has been occupied by Israel since 1967). It is located west of the “Green Line,” which defined the de-facto border of Israel after the First Israel-Arab War of 1948. That is, on the Israeli side of the lines that are supposed to be the basis of the final borders to be negotiated with the Palestinian Authority, if the currently talked-about talks somehow ever lead anywhere. So one can only conclude that Al Jazeera’s reference to “occupation” refers to all of Israel, or at least to all of Jerusalem.

Before I started watching Mosaic some years ago, I did not really understand the claims by some of the more outspoken Zionists of media bias against Israel. But one need not watch a lot of Mosaic to get it, by seeing what is reported to the Middle East itself.* And, as always, there is nothing like having set foot in the contested land and surveyed it with one’s own eyes (and endeavoring to keep the eyes and mind as open as possible) to crystallize one’s understanding.

I only wish I had realized just where I was standing–and wherever one is in Jerusalem, one is standing somewhere significant–when I looked across the disputed site. While I was aware of the controversy (google “Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance” for a somewhat ironic introductory lesson), I wish I had taken the time to tour the site itself. Next time…

___
* I still think claims of bias in the Western English-language media, such as BBC, are much exaggerated, but that is a topic for another day.

Propagation: Seeds & scions (0)

19 August 2010

Educating Palestinians about the Shoah

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Israel; Zionism

This is a great program, as reported in Haaretz.

Growing up in the West Bank, Mujahid Sarsur knew next to nothing about the Holocaust and saw little ground to sympathize with a people he saw as his occupier.

But thanks to an Israeli roommate overseas, the 21-year-old Palestinian student learned about the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II and discovered a new understanding of his Israeli neighbors.

Now he wants other Arabs to do the same. Sarsur heads one of a handful of Palestinian grass-roots groups seeking knowledge about the Holocaust.

On Wednesday, he led a delegation of 22 students to Israel’s official Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem.

During Ramdan, no less.

Still, one young participant said, “I am not giving them legitimacy to come here and make their own country, but I get their point of view.” Progress, I suppose.

Having just visited Yad Vashem a little over a week ago myself, I can attest that it is a phenomenally well presented set of exhibits. Not exactly an easy visit, but a must-see. However, unlike many Israeli museums, there are very few signs in Arabic; Yad Vashem does now have websites in Arabic (and Farsi), as noted in the Haaretz article.

Propagation: Seeds & scions (0)

17 August 2010

Australia Vote-a-Matic

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Australia

As readers of this blog know, I am a fan of these “quiz” sites where you respond to some questions and it calculates your proximity to the various political parties in a given country’s election campaign.

I took the one for Australia, and it told me I coincide 62.5% with Labor, 31.3% with Greens, and a surprisingly high 6.3% with Liberals.

Normally when I take a quiz for any country that has a Green party, I wind up closest to that party. So what is it about Australia, or Australia’s Greens, that makes me closer to the main center-left party? I suppose a caveat is in order: the quiz was far more specific to current policy debates in the country, rather than to general ideological principles, than is the case with many of these quizzes. Methodologically, I am not sure which yields more accurate results, but if I were more in tune with Australian issues, perhaps the result would have been different.

Propagation: Seeds & scions (38)

03 August 2010

Annunciation

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Travel

A banner of warning located conveniently near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

Propagation: Seeds & scions (1)

Legal challenge to California’s abolition of primaries

Planted by MSS
Planted in: AMERICAN POLITICAL REFORM; California

California’s voter-approved law abolishing party primary elections was hit with its first lawsuit Thursday, a challenge to provisions that discard write-in votes in runoffs and limit candidates’ right to list their party preference on the ballot.

Full story at SF Chronicle.

Propagation: Seeds & scions (1)

An actual Tea Party?

Planted by MSS
Planted in: AMERICAN POLITICAL REFORM

From the Detroit News:

A group that has filed petitions to make the Tea Party an official party on the general election submitted a slate of candidates to the Secretary of State office late Monday. [...]

Tea party activists across the state have said the group that is trying to place the party on the ballot does not represent the movement. Some have accused the group of trying to siphon votes away from conservative candidates.

Electoral reform, anyone?

Propagation: Seeds & scions (0)

02 August 2010

Want to rant a boat?

Planted by MSS
Planted in: Travel

Propagation: Seeds & scions (2)