JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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Eccoman
I think people who don't vote (except a donkey vote as a protest) don't have the right to complain if they don't like what the government of the day is doing.
We've just had an election called yesterday in Australia for Aug 21st. There's a window until Monday evening for unregistered people to get onto the electoral roll but no penalty for those who haven't enrolled, so in a way voting is not compulsory in Australia.
I'm probably going to vote for an independent candidate this time around. I'm basically conservative by philosophy but the Liberal Party here (roughly equivalent to the Republicans and Conservatives) have nothing outstanding to offer the Country and in many ways similar to the intellectually and morally bankrupt Australian Labor Party. The ALP has just dumped one arrogant and incompetent prat as Prime Minister and replaced him with a treacherous and equally incompetent socialist in sheep's clothing in Julia Gillard. Too many people ignore the fact that Gillard is just as tainted by failed and poorly considered policies as Rudd, but she's trying to bask in the glow of being Australia's first female PM, rambling on with some populist pap on asylum seekers, population policy, climate change, and the myth they saved the country from the worst of the GFC, which the ALP hopes will fool enough people during the campaign to get them across the line. The current government was just lucky they inherited a massive government surplus from the previous government, which they've squandered with bribes to the electorate and the disastrous home insulation scheme and Building the Education Revolution scam.
As for the Liberal/National coalition, they need to show some backbone and run a positive campaign highlighting what they would do to improve the country, pull troops out of the bogus war on terror (they won't, of course), and clearly state they will unequivocally reject the proposed government internet filter, which is massive threat to free speech.
As for the Greens, they'll probably benefit from the protest vote against Labor, but are essentially bereft of reasonable policies except for bringing our troops back from Afghanistan.
It's little wonder people get cynical about voting because we have here the preferential system in the Lower House that gets the Laberals in every time, and they're barely different from each other at the end of the day: they just want to get re-elected. We need proportional representation so protest votes have some semblance of real value. Until then, compulsory voting is a fraud.
Posted in: Should voting in elections be compulsory?
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Eccoman
GJDailleult, that's not a bad summary. I'd like to add that many of these world leaders - a very loose definition of them - are damned if they do and damned if they don't. They'll need to borrow even more, hike taxes to unpalatable levels or print money to reduce these debts, none of which are economically feasible due to even deeper deficits, electoral revolt or likely inflation.
And there is now way governments are going to allow large-scale bank failures. Sure, a few here and there are acceptable, but the real power-brokers such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and the like will never be allowed to crash. They pull the strings. Not sure about most of the central banks, but if Obama tried to cut the Fed out of the picture and create interest-free debt as the national currency instead of the scam run by the Fed, this would go a long way towards reducing the crippling and ever-expanding interest bill the US govt is accruing while trying to pump-prime the economy with public funds.
But that would likely get him dumped or suicided...
Posted in: World leaders walk economic tightrope
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Eccoman
Foggia, you're right, of course it's not just hooligans arrested! Journalists who ask serious questions are also targeted: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0627/police-arrest-peaceful-protesters-g20/
They mustn't have meekly trotted over to the Orwellian "free speech" areas designated for opponents of the G20 talkfest, where they can be more easily watched and identified so they can be barred from future events. Violent rabble-rousers aren't considered serious threats; it's the brave investigators who risk their careers and sometimes lives to expose the people who attend these events and make decisions and diktats that affect our lives and shield themselves from accountability.
It's increasingly clear these summits do not have our best interests in mind. If these heads of government were actually looking out for the best interests of their constituents, why the incredibly expensive and heavy-handed security operations? Why arrest these journalists and activists and stop others from entering the country (Luke Rudowski of We Are Change) when the same violent rent-a-crowds who regularly disrupt international summits are allowed through? Primarily, the answer is that the violent fools are used to discredit genuine protesters so that intelligent dissent is overshadowed.
Posted in: Police arrest more than 600 at Toronto summit
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Eccoman
Grafton,
Not likely, I think. Rudd is now damaged goods in the Labor party, and his autocratic style hasn't won him a lot of friends in the parliamentary party. Add to this Rudd's enormous ego that wouldn't risk another crack at the leadership lest he lose the challenge. I predict he'll slink off to a cushy job at the UN and join the rest of those corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats.
Posted in: Australia gets its 1st female prime minister as Rudd ousted
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Eccoman
Gillard is certainly more personable than the arrogant Rudd, but whether she makes a better prime minister, only time will tell. She owes a lot to the union movement who have backed her through her political career, and carries a lot of baggage such as the Building the Education Revolution fiasco (though Rudd took much of the brunt for this colossal waste of money).
This so-called bloodless coup has been in the making for a few weeks now. We've had Gillard regularly stating that Rudd has her complete support. In Australian politics, that usually means the opposite!
Posted in: Australia gets its 1st female prime minister as Rudd ousted
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Eccoman
Perhaps if they get on with the job of auditing, then shutting down, the Federal Reserve and putting its operators on trial for fraud and treason, some real positive change may happen. Until then it's just shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic, since so many of the politicians are beholden to Big Finance and Big Business.
Posted in: Senate passes massive Wall Street regulation bill
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Eccoman
Johnnyreb, I was just making fun of a typo (which has since been corrected). Do agree with your sentiment though.
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Eccoman
"Sea Shepherd Conversation Society" What do these guys do, gather in a circle and chat about saving the whales?
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Eccoman
I suppose one difference between Hatoyama and Brown is that Hatoyama has inherited his mess, whereas Brown has played a large part in creating the UK's one.
Posted in: What's up with Japanese economy?
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Eccoman
When the judge asked the horse if she enjoyed the experience, she uttered a vehement "Nay."
Posted in: S Carolina man gets 3 years in prison for sex with horse
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Eccoman
Can we really trust totally corrupt organisations like the EU and UN to distribute this money to 3rd world nations (most of which are governed by crooks anyway)? Realist and Sundoor, you're both on the money: money stolen from us through unrepresentative carbon taxes will be used to fund world government. I doubt much of this money, if any, will make it to citizens of the poorest countries. At the same time we'll get slugged with restrictions on freedom of speech and movement, high taxes, and our kids will be continued to be brainwashed with this climate change bollocks at school.
Posted in: EU can't agree on how much climate aid to give
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Eccoman
I wonder whether, if this thing gets off the ground and reaches a critical mass, the loving, caring folks at DoCoMo will start charging for each transaction?
Of course they'll be free to get people in to start with, but caveat emptor...
Posted in: DoCoMo to launch mobile remittance service
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Eccoman
Aso: "I only buy it for the articles"
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Eccoman
Agree fully with the first poster. Geithner represents the interests of one group and one group only: the bankers. As long as they get what they want, Obama will keep his job and the US public will be economically raped. If, however, Obama actually goes beyond empty rhetoric and attacks the root of the problem with some real results, he might suffer an "accident" of sorts...
The Fed, of which Geithner was (is) a member, intentionally caused this crisis to concentrate money and power even further in the hands of the elite by creating credit for people who could not afford it and trapping them in debt. Notice how none of the banking and political elite have been negatively affected by this whole ordeal and have even had the temerity the expect bonuses?
Posted in: My plan for bad bank assets
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Eccoman
Does JT just invent these "awards" just to keep us amused?
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Eccoman
I bent my wookie
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Eccoman
Wow, a meaningless trophy given by a fraudster to an incompetent git about something of rather uncertain provenance.
Posted in: Globe
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Eccoman
Good on the Irish! The headline demonstrates that the EU leadership and bureaucracy have absolutely no respect for the people of the only country that was even allowed to vote on the issue in a referendum.
Parliaments in other countries are clearly afraid of what their citizens want, so have instead railroaded ratification through assemblies instead of taking it to the people.
Posted in: EU leaders to push on with treaty despite Irish defeat
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Eccoman
What's the Japanese term for pointless knee-jerk reaction?
Posted in: 'Pedestrian paradise' to be suspended in Akihabara
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Eccoman
This scanner is nothing more than a measure to condition people to ever increasing surveillance. It has nothing to do with security against terrorism.
Posted in: Scanners that see through clothing installed in U.S. airports