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It’s all About Unity:

The old prediction made by a medieval prophet that iron will one day mix with blood and flesh, is an accurate description of our times.  Probably no other time in history had witnessed a so blatant violation of the human body by machines before now.  Yet in the last century, war took its heavy machinery out of battlefields to the streets for a very good reason: the enemy has now become the street protester, and not solely renegades plotting overthrows in remote mountain caves, secretly dealing in weapon exchanges with invisible tribes across borders.

In 2009, United Nations special rapporteur James Anaya visited Australia to compile a report on the treatment of indigenous peoples. Specifically, he analysed the extent to which the human rights of indigenous communities have been respected. On balance, the report praises the efforts made by the Australian government but also points to a number of areas where Aboriginal people are still placed at an unfair disadvantage. Following the report I will briefly summarise just some of the historic and contemporary problems faced by indigenous communities in Australia.

The situation in Syria has become very serious but are the world either watching or even caring? Why is it we can invade Iraq, invade Afghanistan, assassinate people inside the territory of sovereign nations at will, bomb in support of Libyan freedom fighters but just watch with one eye as Assad's regime brutally murders its own people? Such is the world of political leadership at the end of 2011.

  The Pope, head of the Catholic Church (one of the richest  
 institutions on the planet), resplendant in magnificent robes
 stiched with gold and a golden cross is wheeled into position to
 give his Christmass message. The message this year is the
 condemnation of the commercialisation of Christmas. The

Sometime after the Christmas dinner is consumed, tiredness has set in and the noise of the family starts to peak, many people will be starting to wonder what the coming year holds for them. The television advertising will commence for the next great consumer feast day, The New Year Sales, and everyone will be getting off the couch and back onto the treadmill to start paying off the credit card bills that gave the kids their presents. Obviously, if the re-payments start to bite you can always apply to Megabank Multinational for a little Christian charity and some easing of repayment terms. After all they were more than happy to use Christmas to sell you credit limit upgrades so they must be full of spiritual values........ By the time the Western World wakes up from the nightmare pantomine of Christmas and starts to look at the bill it will already be too late. 2012 promises more unemployment, rising prices, home repossessions and increasing taxation no matter what any politician on the stump will say. You may all think that this is a bleak Christmas message coming from Scrooge himself but my point here is that if you are in this situation then you are part of the lucky end of human life today.

As the Legal Aid Bill makes its swift and increasingly undeserved passing through the Houses of Parliament, Britain can only bow its head in shame to see the cutting of our £2 Billion yearly budget of Legal Aid. These changes introduced by Ken Clarke, Justice Minister, are being aroused by the need for Government to cut back its spending by trying to address its debt. With Britain’s total debt predicting to hit £10 trillion by 2015, the cognitive concept that we are ridding ourselves of an internally and internationally respected symbolic pillar of our justice system and society seems fairly incomprehensible when we are seeing only around £350m saving a year at the end of it all. The social and cultural cost of losing this incredibly significantly needed welfare pillar of England & Wales seems irrational and unnecessary for it is Legal Aid that so many vulnerable individuals of our society depend so deeply on, the very individuals which this Conservative Government argued that its cuts would not affect and the very individuals they wanted to protect . ‘There is no justice without social justice’ said Baroness Kennedy Q.C. recently in her lecture in Cardiff on the 23rd of November. Thus, the decision to axe Legal Aid cannot be just if the decision seems too abstract among its social context.