LABOR WINS!

I will provide a more thorough Election Day recap later, but for now...

LABOR HAS WON GOVERNMENT. KEVIN RUDD WILL BE THE NEXT PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA.

Amen.

Election Day!!!

I have been a very bad blogger over the past six weeks. Not a single update during the entire election campaign. I feel bad about that, but oh well.

Election Day is tomorrow! I'm psyched! Labor is predicted to win, but polling can be unreliable, so we shall see.

Expect an update when I know the results. Plus, a very interesting Election Day story! Stay tuned.

Election '07

Well, my friends, it has begun! On Sunday, John Howard called the Australian federal election for November 24. It's official.

The election must occur every three years, but it does not have to happen on a set date. Australians (and foreigners engrossed in politics) have been playing a guessing game for the last couple of months trying to figure out when Howard would call it. We finally have our answer.

For those of you not well-versed in the Australian system, I will give you a brief summary: Australia has a parliamentary system, following the Westminster model like in Britain. (Australia is, after all, a British commonwealth and not its own republic. This means that the Prime Minister actually asks a representative of the Queen of England, the Governor-General, to dissolve parliament so that new elections can be held.) John Howard went to see the GG on Sunday and, voilà, we have an election scheduled. The Prime Minister is like our Speaker of the House in that he is just another parliamentarian representing a single constituency, then elected by his peers in his chamber. But here, he leads the nation and forms a government - i.e. forms a cabinet with ministers for the different ministries (departments). Interestingly enough, Australians use our names "House of Representatives" and "Senate" for their lower and upper houses of parliament, respectively, but use the word "Parliament" to describe the two together, instead of "Congress." In case you're wondering, Nancy Pelosi is much prettier than John Howard...and a lot more socially (little L) liberal. But we should not liken John to Nancy, but rather John to George. He leads the country and commands the armed forces and does all the stuff of heads of state do (although the Queen is actually still the head of the Australian state).

The leader of the opposition, Kevin Rudd, is a member of parliament from Queensland (the state just to the north of New South Wales). He is the head of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He is more youthful than John Howard, who has been Prime Minister since 1996. Kevin, as I will call him, is really the kind of new leader that Australia deserves. John is old, crotchety, and out of touch with the modern world.

Aside from the intangibles, there are real differences between the two parties, which I will highlight in the weeks to come in a series of side-by-sides. Being the good American (big D) Democrat that I am, I am a priori partial to Labor. However, after living here for a while, it has become clear to me that I could only vote ALP (at least in this election). You shall see why.

Interesting to note: Macquarie University (and where I live next to its campus) is located in North Ryde, in the electoral district of Bennelong. Guess who represents Bennelong in the House of Representatives: Good ol' John Howard. Bennelong is actually considered a "marginal" seat, in that it could swing to ALP. Maxine McKew, a well-known Australian journalist, is his ALP opponent. (You might be wondering how the PM came to represent a marginal district... He was first elected a parliamentarian in the 1970s. The seat he represented went through multiple redistrictings. Bennelong was redistricted again after the 2004 elections due to the population shifts in suburban Sydney. Labor support has grown in the area, much to Howard's dismay, no doubt.

It seems like only yesterday the American '06 election happened. What a year it's been since then. The Prime Minister has six weeks to convince the Australian electorate that he should be returned for another term. Kevin and his team are leading in the polls - and an ALP victory has been predicted for the last few months. However, closer analysis shows that the election will probably be very close. It feels good to be back in the heat of an election, even if I'm just on the sidelines for this one. It's exciting to watch a country decide its future.

What I learned from Quaker school and the Iraq War

War is not the answer.

Americans have woken up and realized (or remembered) that war isn't a viable solution to end war. In fact, it's not a viable solution at all. In the past year, some of the war's most ardent supporters - senators, congressmen, and prime ministers - have been calling for a political solution. A "political" solution? Is that like this thing I once heard about... I think they called it "diplomacy"?

If there's one thing that is drummed into the head of every Quaker school student, it's "war is not the answer." One of my favorite slogans - prominently displayed in front of various Quaker institutions - is "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." That pretty much sums up the current situation in Iraq, doesn't it? It seems like a lot of senators who voted for the war woke up one morning and realized that war hasn't really worked so far. Killing and bloodshed is not a way to secure peace.

Acceptance

I accept what has happened. I also accept the diversity of viewpoints and opinions on what should be done to end the war. I find the differences in opinions even among the Democratic presidential candidates to be a healthy byproduct of reasonable people disagreeing. And I don't know who I agree with. I accept that we can't just leave tomorrow and leave thousands of people unprotected and stranded. At the same time, I want to end the bloodshed. What's the best way to do that? I accept that I don't have the answer.

Equality

We all live in different countries, but we are part of one community. An Iraqi life is no more sacred than an American life. A bus exploding in Islamabad is no less tragic than one exploding in Baghdad - or Tel Aviv - just because our troops are nearby or die in the explosion.

The Sanctity of Life

Yesterday, an Australian soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. This is only the second Australian soldier to die in combat since the Vietnam War. The news has been playing over and over throughout the last day. It has been the feature story in news broadcasts and the cover story in newspapers. As an American, I have sadly been desensitized to news reports of soldiers dying. It has been a sobering reminder that the death of a soldier - or anyone - is something to mourn and take pause to remember.

Quakers do not have doctrine or law. This means that there are Friends who believe war and violence are justified under certain circumstances. But what most of the Quaker community realized a long time ago was that loss of life is too high a price to pay for solving problems. Every person is sacred - having "the Light" within each of us.

We must take the high road because no one else will

Elections have consequences. Anyone who might think otherwise need only look to the recent consideration by the House of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Getting nowhere for the past decade under successive Republican-led congresses, ENDA would be a much needed workplace protection for the LGBT community. The bill would, among other things, make it illegal to fire someone because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. On Monday, transgender protections were dropped from the bill because there is concern in the Democratic leadership that a bill with such protections would not pass. Almost all major gay rights organizations have now withdrawn support for the bill with the big exception of the Human Rights Campaign. The San Francisco Chronicle has some good recaps of what went on, but here is an excerpt (redacted):

Nearly 100 gay organizations sent a letter Monday to every member of the House saying "very clearly and unequivocally that we refuse to accept and in fact we oppose any legislation that leaves any part of our community behind, particularly the transgender community,"...

The letter was signed by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; National Stonewall Democrats; Lambda Legal; the National Center for Lesbian Rights; and dozens of other national and state groups...

[Rep. Barney] Frank argued last Thursday in pushing to strip gender identity from the bill that the measure would fail if transgender people were included. Frank issued a four-page statement late Friday defending his decision...

"The question facing us - the LGBT community and the tens of millions of others who are active supporters of our fight against prejudice - is whether we should pass up the chance to adopt a very good bill because it has one major gap," Frank said. "I believe that it would be a grave error to let this opportunity to pass a sexual orientation nondiscrimination bill go forward, not simply because it is one of the most important advances we'll have made in securing civil rights for all Americans in decades, but because moving forward on this bill now will also better serve the ultimate goal of including people who are transgender than simply accepting total defeat today."...

I read some pretty impassioned arguments in favor of leaving transgender people out of this bill, including Rep. Franks's. One blogger made me very angry with his claim that transgender people don't even belong in the gay community because "the transgender community was added to ENDA the same way the T got added on to the LGB. By force, and attrition, rather than by popular demand." I find that kind of discussion shameful at a time when we should support our brethren, not complain they are nuisance. Whether or not people thought they should have been included in the gay community in the first place is not at issue. And that kind of discussion at this moment is sad. Do we think it's inconvenient when transgender people champion gay rights? No, and now is not the time to use inconvenience as an excuse to forget about theirs. We have stood shoulder to shoulder at LGBT marches, protests, and court decisions for over a decade. We are one community.

There is definitely an argument to be made for working for incremental rights - in this case, first LGB protections and then T protections. And in fact, we've been doing things incrementally ever since "gay rights" entered into the mainstream American lexicon. There has been no quick watershed moment for gay rights. So, with that in mind, I understand the argument in favor of pragmatism here. But it is wrong.

Let's say the bill were to pass the House and then be introduced in and pass the Senate. And then let's say that, by some miracle, President Bush did not veto the bill. What if, at some point in the future, I had to watch a transgender coworker being fired? I would be protected from the same treatment. I do not think I could stomach such an injustice. If no bill is passed, it means that I, too, would not be protected. I understand that injustice already, so how could I face my transgender brothers and sisters with the knowledge that I was in favor of leaving them behind?

President Bush would veto this bill, in any form, so a victory for "gay" rights would be symbolic only. But I personally cannot stomach the symbolism of forgetting my transgender siblings like this. If gaining civil rights means losing self-respect, then I'll keep my respect and deal with society's injustices the way we've been dealing with it for decades: together.

La vie en café: Part Deux

It's been a while since I've written about my internal (and external) struggle with the coffee situation. I thought I would take a moment before classes resume tomorrow to share with you the latest in this ongoing saga. Last time we touched on this issue, I was reluctantly drinking lattes and other weakened drinks. I don't like strictly black coffee very much, so solo shots of espresso were not an option. I discovered an Australian coffee drink called a flat white, which is essentially shots of coffee with steamed milk and little-to-no foam. Flat whites generally feature a little bit more coffee than their latte counterparts. There is also something called a long black, but that is just espresso weakened with hot water. Still, these Australian alternatives are not cutting it. Outside the home, I've been drinking mostly flat whites since they are slightly better than lattes, which to me are like hot, coffee-flavored milkshakes. Meanwhile, "flat white" even sounds dull.

Inside the home, however, there have been big changes! A week or two before I left for New Zealand I made a purchase, which has turned out to be one of my most valued recent monetary investments.

I bought a French press. Also commonly known as a coffee plunger or press pot, this simple yet elegant contraption has single-handedly satisfied a deep, burning desire and saved me lots of money. I am not sure as to why I didn't think of it sooner. I did not want to purchase a more expensive filter coffee machine (à la Américaine), but I actually think it was for the best. The press makes a more concentrated cup of coffee than a filter machine does, closer approximating American coffee than an espresso machine, but much richer. It's definitely a welcome break from all the lattes and froo-froo drinks they serve here. I believe a few different European cultures take credit for having invented or popularized the plunger, but I will call it a "French press" because I think that sounds nicer than "plunger." Although I think from personal experience it's sometimes called plongeur in France, the actual French terms are cafetière à piston (according to Wikipedia), or Cafeolette (according to CoffeeGeek.com). I bought a Bodum, which is the standard bearer of French presses.

A rich, flavorful, full-bodied cup of plunged coffee is really something that any coffee enthusiast should enjoy once in a while (or, in my case, every day). It's true that I still have yearnings for a nice mug of filtered, drip-brew coffee, but in the meantime, I think I will be happy to explore this other side of coffee that I had long forgotten about.

And that's the thing about coffee. There are always new ways to rediscover it. Each morning, my freshly brewed coffee - profoundly rich and comforting - brings about a renaissance of passion for the day. And for that I am grateful.

Some pictures of New Zealand

As promised, here are some pictures of the beautiful land of New Zealand. (Click on any photo to enlarge.)

Interestingly enough, Transparency International just released the results of their most recent survey of leading private sector organizations all over the world which make up a "corruption perception index." It's a pretty interesting index, albeit based on somewhat arbitrary criteria. But, guess what country is perceived as the least corrupt according to their data... New Zealand! (Though I should say that Denmark and Finland get the same ranking) Australia is ranked 11th, the US is ranked 20th, and Chile is ranked 22nd. Iraq (178th), Somalia and Myanmar (179th each) are perceived as the most corrupt. (The full list and methodology can be downloaded here.)

	Downtown Christchurch - Also known as "The Garden City," Christchurch is the south island's largest city. It's pretty small and has a small-town feel (this is contrary to the city feel of Dunedin, which we also visited, and is smaller than Christchurch, but feels more urban). Straight ahead you can see Cathedral Square and the tram tracks which are in use, but only for a tourist trolley.
	Franz Josef Glacier - This is a glacier we climbed. It was a pretty awesome experience. It's hard to tell, but the glacier is actually quite large. (currently 12 km [~ 7.5 miles] according to Wikipedia.) Surrounding the glacier is a forest, which was surprising to me, because whenever I thought of glaciers I thought of ice on the edge of land. But actually, there are lots of glaciers in the middle of landmasses. However, this glacier used to reach all the way to the Tasman Sea. Its size has grown and melted in cycles, so while I'm sure global warming plays some role today, when it melts, it is not necessarily or entirely a result of man-made global warming.
	Unsettling signs - We ignored these.
	Lake Matheson
	Lake Tekapo

Back in Oz

I'm not quite sure why Australians call their country "Oz," but I presume it has something to do with the fact that (a) Australia is sometimes abbreviated as "Aus" which sort of sounds like "Oz," and (b) Oz is a place far, far away and Australia's geographic location as far from Europe gives it an aura of being like Oz (The Wizard of) to Europeans. In any event, here I am. There's no place like home -- err, I mean, Australia. It's pretty quiet around campus as this is the second week of the mid-semester break. Quiet is a relative term as there are still hundreds of people on campus.

New Zealand was a lot of fun. It is truly a beautiful country and the people I encountered were all exceedingly friendly. I cannot do it justice in words, but I will try to put up some pictures. I have been dragging my feet with the picture posting, but I guess these merit the effort.

Interestingly enough, the day after I commented here on the appearance of integration of NZ's indigenous peoples into its mainstream society, I read an article about the Maori rights situation in Christchurch's daily The Press (whose name is about as generic as a program called School Year Abroad). The article ("Vote taken 'to avoid key debate'" 15 September 2007) was reporting on the New Zealand government's recent vote against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. According to the article, NZ was one of only four countries to vote against it. Can you guess the other three? (Australia, Canada, and the United States) Essentially the declaration would have opened up the signatory governments to land rights claims by their indigenous peoples. Certain NZ political parties have declared this a step backwards for their country since NZ is generally considered to be among the more just nations vis-à-vis indigenous affairs. (I write more just, not just.) I think this shows that New Zealand struggles with some of the same historical injustices that our country, Canada, and Australia does, despite outward appearances.

Across the pond

After a brief, two-hour plane ride, my friend Marissa and I are in New Zealand. We are on mid-semester break, traveling up and down the south island of Australia's neighboring nation. The similarities between Australia and New Zealand are obviously manifold, but there are also some very interesting and important differences. One of the most obvious differences so far has been the inclusion of New Zealand's indigenous peoples and cultures into its national society. Unlike mainstream Australian society, New Zealanders (or "Kiwis" as they call themselves) seem to have a willingness - even a desire - to celebrate their indigenous peoples.

I'm currently sitting in an Internet cafe in Christchurch. Yesterday we were up in Picton (in the north of this island) hiking some of the trails along the sound. It was beautiful, but misty and cloudy. Here in Christchurch, it's sunny and in the 70s (F).

From what we've seen so far, this country is one of the most beautiful I've ever experienced. I don't usually like to engage in using superlatives, but in this case I will make an exception.

More to follow.

An epiphany of sorts

While the APEC summit is fully underway (and Bush is wreaking havoc throughout Sydney), my weekend has officially begun thanks to a public holiday tomorrow (see post here). I would like to take a moment to journey to the land of Geekdom.

On Monday I had my Computer Architecture class. It's three hours long so it's a bit overwhelming to think about, but once it gets started, I'm always very happy to be there. For me, this week's lecture completed a cycle of learning that truly began over ten years ago when I first started programming, following the lead of my brother and father. I will take a moment to recognize that my father was programming on punchcards long before my brother and I were born. Perhaps it is a shame that my brother and I started out in BASIC instead of punchcards. Perhaps my understanding of the internal workings of the computer would have been much deeper had I grown up among vacuum tubes and room-sized mainframes. But alas, I did not, and so I come relatively late to the party vis-à-vis how electrons become computers.

And what a party it is.

I finally understand the sheer magnitude of complexity that is the modern computer. I won't claim to understand it all yet (not by a long shot), but I do understand what there is to understand, if that makes any sense. I feel like Donald Rumsfeld when I say this (that's a scary phrase), but I now know what I don't know. My respect and admiration for those who helped develop the digital computer has deepened. Although I had a basic understanding - as most computer literate people do - that code becomes zeros and ones which are used in tiny circuits to make stuff happen. But that "stuff" has been a mystery to me until this week. Over the past several weeks we had been working our way from assembly language to machine code, and then from machine code to hardware description language to diagrams of digital gates, and then to the electronics of circuits and how voltage flows (and doesn't flow). I knew about transistors, resistors, diodes, and logic gates in concept, but not really how it all came together in practice. In other words, I was well aware that binary logic could be done through electronics, but it wasn't at all clear to me how to make that leap from the analog circuit to digital. information. What actually happens I won't try to summarize in a blog entry (that would be both trite and unfair, since it is very complex, not easily summed up in a sentence or two). But the point is that I made the leap.

For those of you reading to whom this is old news, I'm sorry if this makes you yawn. But for others, I can only say that this was one of most exciting academic experiences of my life. This is what teachers mean when they say they enjoy seeing that moment of enlightenment when a student "gets it." Well, that was me this week - in a big way. I got it. And it was pretty amazing.

The best part - and this will make all the teachers reading this (including my mother and brother) feel warm and fuzzy inside - there is so much more to discovery. I've barely scratched the surface.