JC Political Thread - For All Things Political Part 2

[minux]

Anyway, seems like for Abbott his electoral honeymoon has been shortlived? Voter mood turns on Coalition. He may well lead preferred PM, but according to latest poll his approval rating isn't anything to write home about, and ALP leads 2PP....lol.....

Rogue poll.

Essential 53-47, Newspoll 52-48 both to coalition.

 

[monkeys437]

I don't resent the "occasional leg up", but this country has been extremely generous to Indonesia for some years, despite rocky times such as the East Timor independence struggle where our countries were not the best of friends. I wonder when Indonesia will be able to stand on its own two feet and doesn't require our small population to supplement their national income? We may have the world's 12th largest economy but that doesn't mean we are so flush with money that we can keep supporting nations who take their time getting on their feet.

It will take quite some time before they can stand on their own two feet. There is some incredible wealth in Indonesia, but many millions of people living in extreme poverty too. One of my first memories of Jakarta was looking at a bunch of people sleeping on sheets of cardboard beside a railway track from the comfort of my Taxi. As I was looking on a 7 series BMW drove past. Seconds later and S-Class Merc drove past. Clearly there's a shitload of wealth in the country but it doesn't really help the poor bloke living under a tarp with his young family beside a storm water drain

Just because we've given them so much already and they "should" be able to stand on their own two feet doesn't really help the tens of millions living in extreme poverty. I think any Aide given is really an investment into a country which is likely to be one of our greatest long term trading partners in the future

 

[Calaber]

It will take quite some time before they can stand on their own two feet. There is some incredible wealth in Indonesia, but many millions of people living in extreme poverty too. One of my first memories of Jakarta was looking at a bunch of people sleeping on sheets of cardboard beside a railway track from the comfort of my Taxi. As I was looking on a 7 series BMW drove past. Seconds later and S-Class Merc drove past. Clearly there's a shitload of wealth in the country but it doesn't really help the poor bloke living under a tarp with his young family beside a storm water drain

Just because we've given them so much already and they "should" be able to stand on their own two feet doesn't really help the tens of millions living in extreme poverty. I think any Aide given is really an investment into a country which is likely to be one of our greatest long term trading partners in the future

The problem is, how is the aid being invested? Those poor that you saw in the streets may be typical of a large proportion of the population, but what is Indonesia doing to rectify the situation? As you say, they have vast mineral wealth, which, after all, is the backbone of our national wealth these days. We seem to be able to benefit from that wealth, so what is stopping the Indonesians from doing the same? Is it corruption, because rumours abound about corrupt practice in that country, at all levels. If that's the case, is our aid simply being misdirected and furthering the corruption and imbalance of national wealth there?

To reinforce my original point, it may be that the bulk of Indonesians are unaware of just how much foreign aid they receive, not just from us, but other countries as well. It would be interesting to see what aid others provide to them as part of their national foreign aid bills. However, ignorance of the extent of the aid does not extend to members of their government and the lack of appreciation demonstrated by their Foreign Affairs Minister, for example, (who received part of his tertiary education in Australia), gives a distorted but poor impression here of Indonesia's gratitude. I know that countries don't provide foreign aid to gain gratitude, but the enormous amount that Australia has provided over many years, should at least temper their attitude towards us at a time like this. Obviously, it doesn't. I still think they are bloody ungrateful and I'll bet I'm not alone with that opinion.

They are already a very significant trading partner, though I suspect the trade is basically one way. I don't know what we export to them apart from foodstuffs and tourists, but I imagine there would be considerably more than that. However, what do we buy from them at present (other than Indonesian pottery, furniture and homewares)?

 

[minux]

Just because we've given them so much already and they "should" be able to stand on their own two feet doesn't really help the tens of millions living in extreme poverty. I think any Aide given is really an investment into a country which is likely to be one of our greatest long term trading partners in the future

The question has to be asked as harsh as many do gooders may find it...why do we continue to allow the very poorest of the planet to breed? Should we not be finding ways to prevent this to allow more sustainable population?

 

[gopher]

The question has to be asked as harsh as many do gooders may find it...why do we continue to allow the very poorest of the planet to breed? Should we not be finding ways to prevent this to allow more sustainable population?

What a stupid statement.
How do you propose to do that? Who decides what level of poverty before you can breed?
It could also be argued that people who are well off should be prevented from breeding too so we don't end up with a world full of stuck up ####wits

 

[gopher]

No Cookies | The Courier-Mail

We've pissed of indonesia may as well also piss off china

 

[Reaper]

No Cookies | The Courier-Mail

We've pissed of indonesia may as well also piss off china

Are you saying it was the wrong thing for Australia to speak it's mind on such matters?

I don't know anything about that dispute but had a quick look and found this: BBC News - Q&A: China-Japan islands row. On the surface it looks like China is manoeuvring for a takeover for the oil reserves in the area.

 

[c2105026]

No Cookies | The Courier-Mail

We've pissed of indonesia may as well also piss off china

We've got our very own Prince Phillip.....lol....

It all depends what China buys from us. Yes we do import lots of stuff from China, but I'd say overall they'd buy more from us. Coal, iron, gold, copper, agricultural foodstuffs. Thing is with natural resources you can have a captive market, because you have it and noone else does. If all of a sudden we stopped importing stuff from China, China would not notice it. If the Chinese stopped buying our natural resources we would be rooted. But then China sorta needs our natural resources to a degree.

 

[c2105026]

The question has to be asked as harsh as many do gooders may find it...why do we continue to allow the very poorest of the planet to breed? Should we not be finding ways to prevent this to allow more sustainable population?

As countries become more developed, fertility drops. In most developing countries the fertility rate has dropped a fair bit over the last 30 years. As a result, global population growth is slowing, UN predicts a plateau of 9-10 billion. This is sustainable, albeit if we do a few things differently.

 

[vr94ss]

What a stupid statement.
How do you propose to do that? Who decides what level of poverty before you can breed?
It could also be argued that people who are well off should be prevented from breeding too so we don't end up with a world full of stuck up ####wits

Oh come on Gopher... You know Minux has the right idea, he's no fool, in fact he's the smartest poster here, proven many times over. Yes it's been tried before to thin the population of undesirables and the world was up in arms with false indignant rage over it. They even tried the guys with the right ideas for war crimes. A travesty I tells ya! The human race needs someone like him telling people how to live, to share his wisdom, his solutions. In fact I don't know how we made it through millions of years of evolution and still be around without his marvellous direction. Minux for PM! Finally we have a solution! A final solution you might say, we just stop allowing them to breed because it is our rights they are abridging. How dare they breed whist surviving on less than a dollar a day, eating and using our resources that are meant for us to use as we see fit. You should be ashamed Gopher!