Well it was one stinking hot(32-33C) Australia Day today, had a family BBQ (few too many family members turned up... not sure if some were infact family:O) went out to the city and enjoyed the activities (well my sister did... I enjoyed the beach more) but I heard that Jeff Kennet (our *previous* state premier) was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia.
JEFF Kennett's confidence and self-belief was a key factor leading to his latest achievement.
The former premier, 56, today will be appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia.
And so, Mr Kennett becomes Jeff Kennett AC, an honour recognising his parliamentary life and his work with the national depression initiative beyondblue.
"If people are confident, if they feel good about themselves or the community, they've got a bright future," he said.
Forgive me for being political but he *was* the reason why most of the state was “depressed” during the time he was in power. He cut education, health and many more relief from families. Anyhow the article was in hte Herald Sun (The Age had no mention of it).
Tamil Tigers Recruit Young ones
Well I'm Sri Lankan (Sinhalese and Australian) and proud of it. But what I'm not so proud of is our ethnic war between the Sinhalese government and the Tamil Tigers that has ravaged on for the past 20 years or so. But even more degrading is what I hear that the LTTE (the “The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam”) have been recruiting children as young as 13 (who as you may have guessed would have lost everyone in the Tsunami and now displaced) to continue their scourge among the people of Sri Lanka for the next generation of this pointless war. Article from The Age:
Tamil Tiger rebels have recruited 40 children since the tsunami orphaned hundreds in Sri Lanka a month ago, the United Nations children's agency says.
"We have 40 verified cases," UNICEF spokesman Martin Dawyes said.Four of the cases were from welfare camps for post-tsunami survivors.The others were recruited in the aftermath of the disaster in villages under rebel control in the north and east of the island."UNICEF is very concerned about the recruitment," Dawyes said.
He said UNICEF complained to the rebel group last week over 29 specific cases, but that the Tigers had not responded. No immediate comment was available from the rebels. Most of the recruitment was from the area of Trincomalee on the eastern coast, which was hit hard by the tsunami.
One of the recruits was a 13-year-old, and others were 17, he said.
The organisation's field staff had received complaints from families of children taken by the rebels and verified 40 cases. He did not say how many complaints it investigated. UNICEF was focusing its efforts on providing relief for hundreds of thousands of survivors displaced by the tsunami, but was continuing to monitor alleged cases of child abuse and recruitment by the rebels, he said.
I hope they dont brain-wash those kids to thinking that the Sinhalese government was the root cause of this disaster. Dont get me wrong, I'm not anti-tamil (heaven no), I'm just sick of this constant violence and suffering everyone in Sri Lanka has gone through regardless of whether they are Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim or otherwise. Not suprisingly i find no mention of this critical news item from their TamilNet news site(just a whole lota bitching and propaganda).
Interested in learning more about the LTTE and what this war is about? Heres a good explanation about LTTE, what they're after and what damaged they've caused our country. Would *you* want an organisation like the LTTE controlling 28% (or so) of your country?