Olympics Torch Down Under (UPDATED)

The Olympics Torch is set to arrive in Canberra this Thursday. The torch is set to arrive in Australia on 23 April and will appear for about five hours the following day. The Australian Olympic Committee said in its website that “the route will include major cultural icons of Canberra including Parliament House, the Australian War Memorial, the Civic Centre and will be rowed across Lake Burley Griffin.”

The route, however, might change at the last minute if protests similar to the London, Paris and India leg will be repeated. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, however, declared that Chinese security officials would not be allowed to exercise any authority in securing the torch unless in cases of terrorist attack.

Activists found the best way of sending China their message to improve its recognition of human rights and call for its withdrawal from Tibet through the disruption of the Olympics Torch Relay.

UPDATE (24 April): There’s some confusion during the torch relay in Canberra today as despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s declaration that the Chinese security escorts the Chinese ‘blue guards’ tried to interfere with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in securing the torch. This made the AFP scuffling not only with Pro-Tibetan protesters but also with the Chinese escorts.

Some Australians did not welcome the action of the Chinese security escorts as Beijing Organizers insisted that the blue guards had a security role to play. Excerpt from news.com.au report are as follows:

But the blue tracksuited guards were seen by Australian relay organisers as a deliberate act of provocation by the Chinese, who have been told for months that they would not be allowed to have a security role.

Body to develop, preserve RP’s other languages

Last year, Inquirer.net reported that the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) was rethinking its purpose and was aiming to preserve RP’s other languages. This is a welcome news since we are slowly losing our identity as our culture is slowly swallowed by the different colonizers that came to ‘teach’ us the proper way. The alibata is almost extinct while there are some dialect that are slowly becoming a dialect only spoken among the senior generation. So, the move by the KWF is welcome news. Personally, I believe if we know our language well, then we have a chance for development and better understanding of other languages. Filipino is based on the Tagalog dialect, strictly speaking if we follow a pure Filipino language not everybody will be able to understand it. My Filipino teacher back in High School pointed out that in Tagalog, month and moon are spelled the same–buwan, so, how do you differentiate month from the moon? In Filipino, (if my memory serves me right), month is buwan and moon is bulan. Some of my Bicolano readers might say–ei that rings a bell. Well indeed it does because the Filipino language, ideally, is a mixture of all the dialect of the Philippines.

When the cat is away the mouse will play

As the saying goes and so what also legislators at the Australian Parliament did today as reported by news.com.au. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spent his Friday on an official visit to an indigenous community in New South Wales that the opposition went on “berserk” to “protest against his ‘rostered day off’.”

Plain blackmail

A report over the Inquirer.net caught my eye and I felt disgusted at how blatant some people in “forcing surrender to another party over a hovering threat to their money’s lifeline. ” The report quoted Makati Business Club Chairman Ramon Del Rosario, Jr. talking about a board member of the club who received a text message from a government official threatening to “set loose the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) on the MBC.” The threat is plain blackmail and the MBC shrugged it off welcoming any inquiry from the BIR. As expected there were denials from the government side and while throwing praises to the MBC as an advocate in tax collection, this showed that the BIR, or any other government office for this matter,could and will be used against any group or personality if they become a threat to the state (read: threat to their money’s lifeline).

Crime on the blogosphere

Well, this is off my beat but this is an interesting take on law and blogging. After the infamous battle of Yuga against a libel case against him and the fight for justice for a jailed Malaysian blogger, here’s another blogger fighting (or outwitting) the law. This blogger is certainly passionate but his passion is not welcomed by everyone.

This blogger blogs about his attraction to what he calls “LGs” or little girls. His confession of loving LGs has become a debate among lawyers and law enforcers as to how they will be able to protect the community. As one US federal prosecutor said (as this article reported) “there’s no law against someone making you feel uncomfortable.”

Law enforcers have tried to charge the blogger with minor offenses for taking photos of children in a certain school in the US. But in the words of the blogger, “I thought it was the best therapeutic thing for my own head to kind of put this out there, what I’m thinking,” he said before his arrest. “I’m determined not to do anything illegal. I haven’t done anything illegal.”

I hope you stick to your word brother. I hope you do.

Heath Ledger, 1979-2008

The news about Heath Ledger’s death spread like fire over Perth yesterday as radio, TV and internet broadcast news about his untimely death. His family formally confirmed Heath’s death and described his death as accidental. While police downplayed foul play, mystery still hounds the cause of Heath’s death as initial autopsy were inconclusive and it might take about 10 days more to identify the cause of death of the rising star.

Tom Watson: The Essence of Great Writing

Just re-posting a blog post I read last year from Tom Watson who quoted Ken Levine on “what it takes to be a professional writer”:

Day Care Centers could be good for kids

Day care here in Australia could be costly especially for single parents. It is good that most parents receive some support from the government for their children’s needs. It is almost inevitable to send children to day care centres especially when both parents are working. As to what effect this might have on the child, one still don’t know until now.

Australia welcomes New Year first

Australia welcomed the New Year ahead of other countries. The iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge became a spectacular site as fireworks marked the start of the New Year in Australia. Meanwhile here in Perth, about 10,000 are estimated to have attended the NYE (New Year’s Eve) Disco in Northbrige.

Christmas in Australia’s hot

While most of the world have to deal with snow and frost, Australia is bracing for hot weather in the coming days especially on Christmas when Perth is expected to be the hottest capital city in Australia at 38^oC, news.com.au reported.

While Western Australia Bureau of Meteorology said that this forecast “will be hotter than the previous five years,” it also confirmed that this month is WA’s coldest on record due to cold and wet conditions brought by easterly winds. Daytime could be warm but a cold snap could sometimes be felt during night time or early morning.

Some areas of WA have experienced an average of 45 degrees Celsius but the rest of December for WA is expected to be normal, i.e., warm as usual.