I'm tired
Long day, first back at Uni.
I'm tired now so I'm going to bed.
Goodnight
Rants and raves from the always ordinary Peter Fletcher
He's done it! Cadel Evans has taken second place in the Tour. What a legend. If you haven't seen the time trial there's some great video footage at SBS where you can see one of the grittiest, gutsiest rides to hold out Levi Leipheimer for second place. Evans is now part of Australian cycling folklore and is sure to inspire lots of young riders to get on their bikes and get fit.
Cadel, we salute you.
Could the Tour de France get more fascinating - or more farcical? Firstly Alexandre Vinokourov has been expelled from the race for failing a doping test, and now the leader, Michael Rasmussen, has been sacked by his own team for breaking team rules and lying to them about his whereabouts during a time he was to have submitted to a drugs test. Rasmussen must be feeling shattered! Two years ago he had a time trial from hell in the penultimate stage of the Tour which cost him a place on the podium. And now, with the yellow fleece glued firmly to his back, he's been sacked, costing him an almost certain win in the most prestigious bike race in the world.
Now all that remains is to see if Cadel Evans can bridge a gap of just under 2 minutes in the final time trial of the Tour. If Evans stands on the podium in Paris, it will be the best result by an Aussie ever. C'mon Cadel, you can do it!
Well, what a surprise, the Federal Police are now being asked how Doctor Haneef's diary got to read like a who's-who of global terrorism. As usual, the doctor is protesting his innocence, but his reputation is now in tatters. The weekend leak of a suggestion that he was involved in a plot to blow up buildings in Queensland was quickly, and conveniently, rebutted by the Fed's, but not before alarm bells were ringing for the good folk of the sunshine state. In the meantime Doctor Haneef will need a new bladder, after being used a political football for the past few weeks. Where's Labor I hear you ask? Obviously the polls are saying the matter hasn't gained sufficient traction for it to be worthwhile taking a punt (pardon the pun).
Is Haneef to become our next Hicks?
If you've got 10 minutes to spare this YouTube video is well worth watching. It starts out a little slowly, as many African safari videos do, but there's an amazing twist. Hang in there. Well worth while.
How good is Cadel Evans?! Now only 1:14 seconds from having the leader's yellow jersey on his back after a magnificent time trial, where he finished second, Evans now has a real chance of winning the Tour. If he can do well in the Pyrenees over the next few days we may be seeing an Aussie on the podium in France.
And congratulations to SBS for a the terrific coverage of every stage live. It's great to see some of the worlds great athletes battle it out in one of the worlds most grueling sporting events.
Well here's some news that's about 12 months too late. Chris Connolly has resigned as the coach of the Fremantle Dockers - and not before time. I'm sure Chris is a great guy but his performance at the helm of what should be, one of the best football clubs in the AFL has been poor. With the list he's had at his disposal including Black, Pavlich, Hedland, and Tarrant, Connolly should have been crushing all before him. Instead, he's allowed the Dockers to slip out of contention of finals football this year. As much as it's a poor reflection on his skills as a coach, it's also a poor reflection on the executive of the club, who persistently tolerate honorable losses and excuse poor performance.
The Dockers are high on passion, but poor on performance. It's time they stopped their pretense at being an AFL club and gave their loyal supports a finals dividend.
What a master stroke. As reported on the ABC's The 7-30 Report this evening, barrister for Doctor Haneef, Steven Kime, has released the transcript of his police interview - with the predictable hand-wringing and tut-tutting from the Prime Minister, Attorney General Phillip Ruddock, and the Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty. All accuse Mr Kime of being variously unethical, working against the chances of Haneef getting a fair trial, and being disrespectful of the legal system. Well if that's not the pot calling the kettle black, it's hard to know what it is. Doctor Haneef has been granted bail by the courts and it was the Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews who, on hearing this news, cancelled Doctor Haneef's passport. The effect of this is to make Doctor Haneef the highest profile suspect in Australia today, and that makes his chances of receiving a fair trial even more difficult.
It's actions such as these by the Federal government which are showing how far Howard and his colleagues are willing to go to get re-elected - even to the point of manipulating executive powers to prosecute their political ends.
Walking the dog this morning, I met up with a lady who works with aboriginal communities in the North West of Western Australia. As our dogs played, we got talking about the way the Howard government is handling the problems faced by aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, and her view, quite understandably, was that Howard's solutions are short-sighted and politically motivated. And this lead to a chat about the plight of Doctor Mohamed Haneef. Doctor Haneef has been charged with '"recklessly" supporting a terrorist organisation, with the Australian Federal Police alleging he supported foiled plans to detonate truck bombs in Britain'. If he is proven to be guilty, then he deserves to be punished - terrorism is a despicable, weak, and cowardly crime that has no place in modern society. However, our justice system relies on the presumption of innocence and, at this stage, Doctor Haneef is innocent. Furthermore, the magistrate who heard Doctor Haneef's bail application obviously saw a very different person to the person seen by our immigration minister, Kevin Andrews. In what could quite easily be seen as a political stunt, Mr Andrews revoked Doctor Haneef's visa, resulting in Doctor Haneef's incarceration in an immigration detention centre. How convenient.
Let's not forget that this is an election year. In the 2001 election, Mr Howard sailed home to victory at the helm of the Tampa, and Doctor Haneef is being set up to be Mr Howard's Tampa II. The line will be that we now have a terrorist in custody, someone that could have killed innocent Australians. Just as he did last night on the 7:30 report, Mr Andrews and his Liberal colleagues will be very sketchy when pushed for details about why they've made the decision to revoke his visa. They will hint at his poor character, at the atrocities committed by his second cousin, and the dangers we face - all as a way of drumming up fear that they know full well wins elections.
What will sadly go unchallenged is the manner in which our judicial system has been treated with contempt by those in power. In the context of threats to our society, Doctor Haneef is a tiny risk compared to prostate cancer, depression, youth suicide, and motor neurone disease. But because he represents something that generates so much uncertainty, so much mistrust, and so much fear, he is the unwitting pawn in a political power play that is set to destroy his career and any hope of financial independence for his family. Guilty or innocent, Doctor Haneef and the Australian public deserve more respect than what they're receiving from the Howard government.
Destiny. A word that has so much romantic connotation. A word that has a sense of our being out of control. A word that hints that we are merely pawns in the grand plan of the universe. A word that suggests so much, and yet so little, possibility.
What is our destiny? What is my destiny? To answer that question I draw on a moment of reflection, a moment when my mind was still and clear, where thoughts fade into a pure moment, where nothing exists but the sound of morning birds and buzzing traffic. A moment when the voice inside stills and gives way to the gentle, rhythmic patterns of my breath, to the sound of the tingle in my fingers. This moment was all there was - nothing more than just this.
Then the voice returned and the mind began labeling the sounds as traffic and birds and the purity left. Left but not forgotten. Replaced with a soft, gentle realisation that nothing comes about except through conversation. Through conversations had with friends and neighbours, with lovers and colleagues, and between our internal selves. It is these conversations that turn into the stories we make about our life and our history; our existence and our being.
How true they are is just another conversation. Just another story. Whether or not the story is real is entirely mine to chose. My response to these stories and circumstances create my destiny for tomorrow. It's mine to choose.