Author Archives: Patrick

Which club would you like to join?

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Club 1:Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mali, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka.
Club 2:Bolivia, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Japan, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, Peru, Republic of Korea, Uruguay, Zambia
Club 3:Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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A Swedish model for Australia?

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In the last few days two articles caught my attention: one about a raid on a presumed illegal brothel and one about a Sydney city council using private detectives to gather evidence against presumed illegal brothels (as an aside, private agents employed by government agencies/branches should be bound by the rules of evidence as if police). These articles reminded me of the recent ‘Ipswich murders’, or more specifically, of this line from The Economist (traditionally, I believe, an advocate of legalisation):

Some advocate the Swedish model. In 1998 the government declared prostitution a form of “male violence” and changed policies. Men who buy sex are charged with committing a criminal offence. The public has been made more aware of trafficking. And the government finances schemes to help women get out of prostitution, which has now declined.

For the life of me I can’t see prostitution as a desirable career path for anyone, nor can I find merit in the ‘imagine if there were no prostitutes for all those desperate dateless young men’ argument in fact I have always thought it was produced by a sort of alliterative dyslexia and ‘prostitutes‘ was originally ‘prisons‘ or ‘psychiatric hospitals’. I can believe that there are women for whom it is an acceptable or even attractive way of earning more than they otherwise could, and I accept that the State ought to generally have as little say as possible in the sexual affairs of consenting adults. But states do regulate commerce, indeed outside of (attractive) libertarian thought-experiments the state is a necessary actor in a sophisticated commercial and consumer society. Also, prostitution seems increasingly linked to human trafficking, which in turn is one of the main drivers of contemporary organised crime. Not to mention that The Economist article also featured this tidbit (admittedly, sourced from the Poppy Project, an anti-prostitution organisation):

in two places where prostitution was legalised¢â¬âthe Netherlands and the state of Victoria in Australia¢â¬âthere is now a greater connection between crime and sex work than before. One nasty manifestation is a sharp increase in the numbers of women (and children) who are trafficked¢â¬âie, effectively kidnapped and forced into prostitution.

Now I may be just an out-of-touch conservative, but I think this is one Swedish model worth copying.

The French Elections

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For some time now I have contemplated posting here on Troppo on the French elections. More than anything else, I have resisted the temptation with diligent application of laziness. Second only to laziness has been the suspicion that very few people care about the French elections. Actual interaction with people (I should try that more) suggests that in fact a lot of people are interested in the French election just enough to appreciate finding out about it but not enough to actually bother ‘following’ it as (eg) I do. So, about 100 days out, I have decided to taste the waters with an introductory post, to be followed by approximately fortnightly updates should Troppodillians express interest. I rush to add that I am no expert, just an informed lay observer. I would appreciate any corrections, clarifications or criticism.
 

Part I – background
A the French electoral system
I should quickly note that I am concerned here with the Presidential elections above all. This is not unreasonable reading the French papers you might wonder if there was to be a parliamentary election or not. The French president in the Fifth Republic is elected by two stages. The first stage (le premier tour) involves anyone who can gather 500 (of nearly 36,000) mayors’ signatures, and in the second (le deuxieme tour) vote two weeks later the two candidates with the most votes in the first stage run-off against each other.
Obviously that system produces many more candidates than we are used to – in the last elections there were 16. Continue reading →

In praise of progress generally, and blogging specifically

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Last week, Eygptian blogger Wael Abbas (NB he writes in Arabic!) was credited by French newspaper Le Figaro with striking a major blow against oppression, thanks to three of the ubiquitous incidents of material progress a mobile phone with integrated videocamera, the multimedia internet and the unchanging nature of man. (Not credited by Le Figaro, but generally equally praiseworthy are Demagh MAK, and, in English,  3arabwy.)

In the example for which Wael is credited, Emad al-Kabir was arrested and released by the police. After complaining, he was arrested and violently  abused by the police, who used a mobile phone to film their exploits. Now the police are facing disciplinary action and al-Kabir looks unlikely to disappear (but see for a negative take on the same ‘disciplinary tribunal’ and an interesting discursion on Egyptian law re torture). They also cite the recent example of a woman appearing to confess to murder, hanging by her knees from  a bar between to chairs with her wrists tied to her ankles (an especially helpless position) and being beaten.

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Ireland 21 v 6 Australia, 19 November 2006, Dublin

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(crossposted at sidelined)

I am almost too disappointed to write this. Frankly, what a waste of a game. I suggested before that the backline selection was illogical, and indeed two people who had never played together in the centres before turned out, against arguably the best centre pairing in the world, to be a liability not a magical superstar act. It did not need to be rocket science for Pete’s sake Larkham can play inside, or indeed anywhere, Gerrard had just had a really creative game at five-eighth and is a great kick in a game that was always going to involve lots of kicking, Mortlock is amongst the world’s best outsides, Tuquiri amongst the best wingers, Latham arguably the best fullback. Why didn’t they all play in those spots then?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I am driven to profanity, although I will spare you it.

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Fred Argy, respected intellectual v Patrick, rugby fan

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Fred Argy has written a letter to the AFR protesting changes to cross-media laws. In it appears, to me at least, the incredible implicit assertion that Fox News is bad for American democracy. Because I think he is an intelligent man and I quite respect his opinion on most subjects, and so as to reassure myself that it is he and not I who have taken ideological leave of their senses, I’ve highlighted the relevant parts below:

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Ireland v Australia, Dublin, 18 November 2006

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also featuring:
Ireland A v Australia A, Limerick, 15 November 2006
cross-posted for the first time to sidelined.

Australia A v Ireland, 15 November 2006

Australia A play the Ireland A tonight, which might not seem like big news but in the greater scheme of things will be a pretty big match. Of course there is the small issue of having been embarrassed by a club team two weeks ago! More importantly however is that this represents a late and perhaps last chance for a couple of players to really push themselves up the selection list, notably Matt Rogers, Drew Mitchell, George Smith, Mark Gerrard, et al.
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Italy 18 v 25 Australia, Rome, 11 November 2006

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Perhaps the most embarrassing part is that they will probably out-scrum us, but that should be it. Our scrum should really use this as valuable training since they can be confident that even if they fall apart the backs will carry this one. For the record I expect we won’t concede a try and we will put half-a-dozen past them. 50 points would not surprise me.

That above quote was actually more on the money than I would have liked in what was negative and further in what was positive, except that I didn’t give enough credit to the lineout, and didn’t (at all) mean 50 points between them! Italy, probably quite intelligently since they clearly didn’t have the first idea how, didn’t look like even wanting to score a try until the 75th minute. This was a disjointed, out-of-sorts and scrappy match, for which the Italians’ deserve considerable credit and the Australians brickbats.  

That said, some humility is called for. I am happy enough to encourage experimental selections and quick enough to condemn not making them. So if they go wrong I should not in good faith call for the coach’s head, nor will I. In any case it is now far too close to the World Cup. With any luck, those players who might have been out of their depth a bit today will benefit from the experience and go on to make a better contribution in future games for it. Unfortunately, that apparently includes at least two of our first-choice squad front-rows (Cannon and Baxter).  

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