If modern industrial capitalism were a person, he or she would be on suicide watch. The system that has brought us quantum physics and reality television, modern medicine and the columns of Andrew Bolt is set on a course which, by all the best reckoning, points directly to its doing itself in.
If capitalism goes on 鈥 everything goes. Climate, coastlines, most living species, food supplies, the great bulk of humanity. And certainly, the preconditions for advanced civilisation, perhaps forever.
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鈥淚 wish I could leave Greece. I can鈥檛 go on living here. I work very long hours and live more frugally than ever, but I still can鈥檛 pay the bills, the income tax or the other taxes like the property poll tax.
鈥淢y tax debt keeps building up. I鈥檒l end up losing my home. They are stealing our homes and they are not communists. And people are getting sadder and madder every day. I can鈥檛 go on like this.鈥
鈥淧atriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.鈥 Samuel Johnson鈥檚 aphorism is well known. But what does patriotism actually mean? Is it simply a matter of liking the sunshine, the gum trees, the beaches and a certain lifestyle? Is it about being overcome with emotion when we see the Australian flag or the Anzac Day dawn service?
REAL LOVE OF COUNTRY
The movers and shakers and heavy hitters in our society 鈥 politicians, business moguls, journalists in the corporate media, and so on 鈥 are all patriotic. But we should be very cynical about this.
A meeting of the Cartagena Dialogue for Progressive Action took place in the Marshall Islands on April 1. The body is composed of 30 countries working towards a legally binding United Nations climate change convention before of an international summit next year.
Delegates had a chance to witness first-hand the effects of climate change in the host country, a small atoll nation in the Pacific Ocean, where no land rises more than two metres above sea level.
鈥淣othing is free 鈥 someone always pays,鈥 federal treasurer Joe Hockey said in his latest softening-up, pre-budget speech on April 24.
Yeah, tell us about it.
Members of the Irish community and supporters of Irish freedom gathered at the Irish Martyr's memorial Waverley Cemetery in Sydney on April 20 to commemorate the 98th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
A powerful popular protest is sweeping through the Pakistani-occupied disputed territory of Gilgit Baltistan. Since April 15, an indefinite sit-in strike (dharna) has been waged, uniting for the first time groups from a range of political and religious backgrounds against the removal of a longstanding wheat subsidy.
Hard-line opposition protests continued over the Easter weekend in Venezuela. However, a recent poll found most Venezuelans support the peace talks occurring between the government and moderate opposition.
Opposition student groups and several hard-line opposition leaders led a march on April 20 to the United Nations office in Caracas, where they demanded that the UN send a delegation to assess the situation in the country.
A large march against austerity took place in Paris on April 12. Organised around the slogan 鈥淓nough is enough鈥, the theme of the demonstration was 鈥渁gainst austerity, for equality and sharing the wealth鈥.
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