New Matilda gets an audience

The two-man army that is New Matilda feigned surprise a few days ago that Australians and Westerners generally are little moved by Muslims killing Muslims.  The article got picked up by overseas media, "going viral" as they say.  I add to their success by reproducing the article below.

The article closes in the usual Leftist way with an accusation that the indifference to Muslim deaths is all due to "bigotry".  We are not allowed to be satisfied when people are hoist with their own petard, apparently. 

The French have done us no harm but Muslims never stop their attacks.  So seeing some of them go to their doom at the hands of their own kind is some cause for satisfaction.  Reducing the ranks of the enemy is usually a good thing, regardless of their race or religion.  And Muslims make it very clear that they are our enemy

New Matilda, of course, persists with the desperate fiction that ISIS are "bad" Muslims who do not represent mainstream Muslim aspirations. So how come young Muslims are streaming from all over the world to join ISIS?  And how come ISIS is doing exactly what the Koran instructs?  Read the Koran starting from Sura 9 if you doubt it. 

And Turkey is the most Westernized Muslim nation so how did they see the Paris attacks?  When asked for two minutes silence to honor the dead, a Turkish crowd responded  not with silence but with loud and massed cries of "Allah Akhbar"!  -- plus whistles and boos. The REAL Muslims are the  Jihadis.  Most Muslims are not jihadis, mainly out of cowardice, one suspects, but they all stand behind the Koranic message of Islamic supremacism. And that is the problem



As France enters yet another period of mourning, Lebanon is just emerging from one. Not that you probably heard anything about it. Chris Graham reports.

If you didn’t know better, you could be excused for believing that the planning behind the latest terrorist attack in Paris is about more than just causing widespread death and fear in the West.

It looks like it’s also designed to highlight our selective outrage.

Overnight, dozens of people have been confirmed dead in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris.  News sites have fired up live blogs. Serious news Channels such as Sky are providing blanket 24-hour coverage of the event, and, as with all things tragedy, media are competing with each other for scoops and gory videos.

World leaders are also out in force, condemning the attacks. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull held a press conference in Berlin a short time ago, after sending out this message of solidarity with the French people.  He was joined by his Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.  Labor’s Tanya Plibersek also tweeted in support.

French president Francois Hollande has declared a national State of Emergency, and closed its borders.

Meanwhile, in a brown part of the world, as the attacks began in Paris, Lebanon was just emerging from a National Day of Mourning, after 43 people were killed and 200 more were injured during a series of coordinated suicide bombings in Beirut.

The attacks – for which ISIS has reportedly claimed responsibility – occurred in the southern Beirut suburb of Burj al-Barajneh, a predominantly Shia community which supports the Hezbollah movement. Not counting Israel’s assaults on Lebanon, the slaughters represent the deadliest bombings in Beirut since the Lebanese civil war ended more than two decades ago.

Like suspicions around the attacks in France, the bombings in Beirut are believed to be in response to Hezbollah’s decision in recent weeks to send in troops to support efforts in northern Syria against Islamic State.

But the bombings in Lebanon drew no tweet from Malcolm Turnbull, no social media statement from Barack Obama, no live media blogs from Western media, no wall-to-wall media coverage. And no twitter hashtags from Australians in solidarity with the Lebanese.

It’s a curious state of affairs, when you consider that there are around three times as many people of Lebanese descent living in Australia, compared to French nationals.

You’d think if we were able to identify with anyone, it would be with Lebanese Australians – after all, so many of them are among the most beloved in this nation, and have contributed enormously to public life.

Marie Bashir – perhaps the most admired Australian governor in history – is the child of Lebanese immigrants. Her husband, Nick Shehadie is as well – he’s the former Lord Mayor of Sydney, and a member of the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame.

Queensland parliamentarian Bob Katter has Lebanese roots. Former premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks does as well. One of the most loved rugby league stars of all time is Hazem El Masri. Benny Elias’ parents come from Lebanon. So do Robbie Farah’s.

In the AFL there’s Milham Hanna and Bachar Houli, and the current coach of the Australian Wallabies, Michael Cheika, is of Lebanese descent.

The Lebanese contribution to Australian business has also been immense – John Symond, the founder of Aussie Home Loans has Lebanese heritage. Jacques Nasser is the former CEO of Ford Motors in Australia. Ron Bakir of Crazy Ron’s mobile phones was born in Lebanon, and migrated to Australia.

There have, of course, been many great contributions by Australians with French heritage – commentator Richie Benaud, actress Cate Blanchett, businessman Robert Champion de Crespigny, politician Greg Combet, and the iconic AFL star Ron Cazaly.

But how do we explain our identification with French suffering and our apparent indifference to Lebanese suffering? Or more to the point, how do we explain our indifference to the suffering of people we perceive as different, Lebanese, African, Hazara, Muslim…. Brown people.

The sad reality is, Australia has been here before, and just 11 months ago. A few days before the Charlie Hebdo massacre, terrorist organisation Boko Haram razed the town of Baja in Nigeria, killing more than 2,000 people.

The world’s media – and most of its politicians – were mostly silent. Last month, at least another 30 people were killed in another attack on Nigerian mosques by Boko Haram.

That followed 10 people killed in a coordinated attack near the Maiduguri Airport, again by Boko Haram.

In Islamabad Pakistan, at least 20 people were killed in a suicide attack on minority Shias. That came a day after 12 were killed in an attack on another Shia shrine, this time in the province of Balochistan.

It is the Shia who were manning many of the boats that we turned away a few years ago, as sectarian violence reached unspeakable levels in towns like Quetta in Pakistan. When the Pakistani Taliban targeted the Hazara community in Quetta in September 2010 at the Meezan Chowk (a market in the middle of the city), they managed to kill at least 73 people and injure 160 more. In the background of the bloody carnage is a billboard sponsored by the Australian Government, warning Hazaras against the dangers of getting on a boat to come to Australia.

The Meezan Chouk attack in Quetta, In September 2010. In the background is a billboard sponsored by the Australian Government, warning locals of the danger of getting on a boat to seek asylum.
The Meezan Chouk attack in Quetta, In September 2010. In the background is a billboard sponsored by the Australian Government, warning locals of the danger of getting on a boat to seek asylum.

In September, at least 117 people were killed at a mosque in Nigeria, again at the hands of Boko Haram. The simple fact is, Muslims are far more likely to die at the hands of other Muslims – or more to the point, Islamic extremists who bear no resemblance to average Muslims. They’re also more likely to be killed by Westerners, who are seeking to kill Islamic extremists.

The difference is, they’re unlikely to see an outpouring of grief in Australia, or most of the rest of the world. But unlike Parisians, they already live in a state of perpetual terror. That’s why many of them have fled the Middle East for Europe, a reality which prompted this tweet this morning from American movie star Rob Lowe, a man who adequately sums up the outrage and frustration of white bigots everywhere.

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Turnbull agrees to a long-term climate "goal"

"Strong language about the long-term ambition" has been agreed to. Surely a bit of a laugh.  It actually commits nobody to doing anything.  Just politician-speak, real hot air

The Turnbull government has quietly committed Australia to support decarbonising the world economy as one of the goals for this month's global climate summit in Paris, a move that has drawn applause.

With little fanfare, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull agreed on the sidelines of the G20 gathering with European leaders in Turkey this week that the language of the Paris agreement should agree on a long-term goal to ensure temperatures keep within an increase of 2 degrees on pre-industrial levels.

The terrorism attacks in Paris are also considered to be a reason Australia's shift was largely overlooked.

The Paris agreement "must establish a durable platform for limiting global temperature rise to below 2 degrees, including through a long-term goal, accountability and transparency of contributions, and allowing for strengthening of ambition over time", Mr Turnbull agreed in a statement issued with the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the President of the European Council Donald Tusk on November 15.

The concession by Australia marks a significant advance on the country's position and stands in contrast to comments made just three weeks ago by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop that Australia wouldn't back wording supporting a long-term goal being added to the Paris accord because the country does not have a domestic target to cut carbon emissions beyond 2030.

Erwin Jackson, deputy chief executive of The Climate Institute, said the Australian government had previously committed to examine a long-term goal as part of a 2017 review of its climate policies so the statement in Turkey with the EU represented a shift of position.

"This is the first time they have publicly and explicitly supported a long-term decarbonisation signal as a central objective for an outcome in Paris," Mr Jackson said.

"The combination of shorter-term targets and a longer-term goal can facilitate long-term decision making and investment," he said.

"Long-term investment signals are essential in order to ensure innovations and investment in the technologies required to reduce emissions across the global economy."

Sem Fabrizi, the EU's ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, welcomed the Australian position. "The EU wants to work with partners to create political conditions to conclude an effective deal in Paris," Mr Fabrizi said. "So we are extremely pleased to share so many similar objectives with Australia ahead of the Paris climate talks."

The official Australian delegation to Paris has now been given its final negotiating mandate, which is understood to have been agreed to by cabinet in recent weeks.  That mandate will give Australian negotiators a great deal of flexibility on the floor of the summit to sign up to a strong agreement.

That includes the ability to accept strong language about the long-term ambition of any new climate deal, such as a push towards decarbonisation, carbon neutrality or other versions of the theme that are being considered in the talks.

However, how the long-term ambition of the Paris agreement will be expressed in the text is still an open question in the negotiations.

Some major developing countries are understood to be pushing against some of the stronger language on ambition.

A similar debate is understood to have taken place over the wording of the official communiqué for the recent G20 leaders meeting in Antalya, Turkey. Reports suggested India and Saudi Arabia argued against the inclusion of the commonly agreed global goal to keep warming below 2 degrees in the G20 statement, but later backed down.

A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the government would take a "strong and ambitious target of reducing emissions by 26-28 per cent [on 2005 levels] by 2030 to Paris".

"The government has a long-standing commitment to working towards limiting global temperature increases to below 2 degrees," the spokeswoman said. "We are confident that a strong agreement will be reached in Paris."

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PNG police detain 13 Vietnamese men 'heading to Australia'

Police in Papua New Guinea have detained 13 Vietnamese men they believe were attempting to reach Australia by boat.  The men had stopped in Wewak on the north coast of PNG to take sick people to hospital, where police were alerted to their presence.

East Sepik provincial police commander Peter Phillip said the men's boat was well stocked with water and supplies for a long voyage.

"One or two of them were very sick, [so] they're coming in to Wewak, and I suspect the boat [was] heading to Australia," he said. "They have about 10, 166-litre drums all filled with water and they have stock all through the engine room, well stocked for a long sea journey."

PNG Customs and Immigration officials are preparing to travel to Wewak from Port Moresby to interview the men, who police say do not speak English.

Mr Phillip said 10 of the men were being detained on their boat because they did not have any travel documents and may be carrying disease. Three of men remain in the Wewak hospital.

"They have no valid documents and even the vessel is not registered ... it does not look good [or] seaworthy," the chief inspector said.  "I am of the view that they are illegally here and they should be detained."

Mr Phillip said someone onboard appeared to have knowledge of Wewak because the men had found the hospital on their own.

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Risk of recession is waning as Australia outpaces its peers -- under a popular conservative givernment

Australia's economy is far from a recession – its outlook has improved and it is poised to attract international buyers, according to two major investment firms.

Stephen Roberts, chief economist at Sydney-based Altair Asset Management, said the local economy was faring better compared with most of the world, with global growth set to remain stagnant at 2.8 per cent in 2016.

"There is more reason for international investors to carefully trawl Australian opportunities and not to sell but to buy, especially after the underperformance of the Australian sharemarket over recent months," he wrote in a client note.

Mr Roberts listed four signs, albeit tentative, that investors should be encouraged by: the depreciating currency; the housing boom correcting rather than collapsing; the changing mix of the big banks' loan books; and strong employment numbers.

"The combination of these four positive factors means that the risk of Australia slipping into recession has lessened over the past month or so, from a near 50 per cent chance to under 30 per cent in our view," he said.

The depreciating Aussie, which has fallen 25 per cent against the US dollar in two years and 16 per cent on a trade-weighted basis was doing its job in lowering export prices while boosting tourism.

Housing not so bleak

Housing, meanwhile, had turned from a predominantly speculative investment market to a more stable owner-occupier market, meaning macro-prudential policy was working, Mr Roberts said.

"That does not mean that house prices will not fall, but it does imply that the fall is likely to be much less than if investors driven entirely by unrealistic expectations of capital gain had continued to be by far the most dominant influence in the market," he said.

The big four banks had managed to raise the capital required by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority without too much market disruption, and their loan books were shifting to more diversified mix of risk in both home and commercial lending.

Finally, employment growth, which posted very strong numbers in October and sent unemployment back to 5.9 per cent should prop up retail spending and housing demand.

Underpinning the unknowns was the fact that the Reserve Bank of Australia had room to ease if necessary, Mr Roberts said.

The optimistic note came as Olga Bitel, economist for Chicago-based fund manager William Blair, said Australia was beating its Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development peers in capitalising on China's economic transition.

While many Australians were disheartened by falling iron ore prices, which are caught in a global commodity rout amid weaker demand from China, services of exports have almost caught up with resources.

"We are talking about medical services, pharmaceuticals, tourism, education – all of these sectors are seeing a tremendous boost [in demand from China]," Ms Bitel told Fairfax Media on a visit to Australia. 

"The resources boom was a big tax on the economy. It made the exchange rate very expensive and the services sector very uncompetitive," she said.

China services sector strong

In a further blow to the resources sector,  the OECD on Wednesday struck an historic agreement to scale back coal production.

But the numbers coming from China's growing demand for services were extraordinary, Ms Bitel said.

Services consumption had risen from 45 per cent of China's gross domestic product to 50 per cent in five years, while retail sales were rapidly growing. Online shopping, almost non-existent a decade ago, was growing at a pace of around 40 per cent a year and accounted for 10 per cent of China's economy.

She said the legacy from China's manufacturing boom was that it knew how to build roads and bridges. It was not as good as Australia at building hospitals and nursing homes – for which there was a skyrocketing demand.

This meant that investor portfolios tilted at China should look very different to what they did a decade ago, she said, indicating less resources, and more healthcare and agriculture stocks.

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