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I must admit, for the last couple of months I’ve been a bit news-starved. I rarely catch the TV news and my newspaper abruptly stopped coming a while back (I didn’t bother chasing it since I knew I’d have to cancel it for our trip anyway)
So I get most of my news online, which is a bit of a patchy way to read the news because you can pick and choose which headlines are of interest. Often reading the Opinion sections of the news sites (esp The Australian) is the best way to get a handle on things.
So here’s a couple of opinion pieces that caught my interest today
A crawl to prosperity ain’t money for jam | Matt Price | The Australian - Matt Price is perhaps my favourite Australian journalist. Often humorous, always insightful, generally fair though perhaps with a very slight tilt to the right. And as an added bonus he comes from Perth, which means he gets it in a way that journos from the East don’t. The above article takes a step back and looks at why Kevin Rudd is so popular in the polls, how even in an environment of unprecedented economic prosperity, voters’ fears for the future, especially the future of their children, have a profound effect on their politics. Although Rudd certainly doesn’t have any better answers for these fears than Howard, it is his clever exploitation of these issues that may see him elected.
Noel Pearson: Politics aside, an end to the tears is our priority | Opinion | The Australian - this gives the perspective of an Aboriginal leader on John Howard’s extraordinary moves to address child abuse in indigenous communities. Pearson is broadly supportive of the Howard plan, however offers some important warnings about where it may fall short. For an analysis of the politics of the situation, check out this piece from Glen Milne - PM’s haters parade their own defects. Few people disagree totally with what Howard is doing, but many of the left-leaning journos are lining up to find dark, politically inspired motives behind it (aka the new Tampa) - Milne adroitly takes them to task in his article. I thought Kevin Rudd was very clever not to get “political” or criticize Howard much on this issue - he didn’t need to. All he needs is for the leftist press to sow the seeds of political doubt about Howard’s motives, and he can stand innocently to the side with his principled support. This issue will not be a new Tampa - sadly there are less people whose votes will be influenced by the plight of indigenous children than there were whose votes may have been affected by their fear of a wave of illegal immigrants and “terrorists.” Which hearkens back to the pointin the paragraph above - fear is a key political motivator. Howard (might have) used it in his favour in 2001, and it is Rudd who can use it to the opposite effect now.
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Diners Club - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Diners Club International, originally founded as Diners Club, is a credit card company formed in 1950 by Frank X. McNamara, Ralph Schneider and Casey R. Taylor. When it first emerged, it became the first independent credit card company in the world.
While many stores and businesses were in the practice of extending credit to their customers, or allowing them to set up charge accounts, the idea behind Diners Club was that the same card could be used to pay a variety of merchants. In 1950, the first Diners Club cards were given out to 200 associates of McNamara, mostly salesmen who often needed to dine with clients. Diners Club had signed up 14 restaurants in New York City. Membership grew quickly as both new customers applied for the card and more restaurants signed on. By the end of 1950, Diners Club had 20,000 customers and was accepted at over 1000 restaurants. [..read more..]
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