Breakfast of Champions, East Timor, Nutty Theologians

[tcpip]

Cocktail party on Friday night was a smashing success. Special kudos to casca_2u whom I met in RL for the first time, Sydney-visitor v3nu5 and, of course, imajica_lj for provision of music. Many, many martinis were drunk, "the breakfast of champions". First toast of the evening was valedictions to the very recently deceased Kurt Vonnegut Jnr. My personal favourite of his books is Mother Night; his 2004 essay "Cold Turkey" pretty much explains his left-humanist point-of-view.

East Timor has had a Presidential election. Based on the first round results, it is indeed difficult to determine who will win the overall majority, although Ramos-Horta must be the favourite. The three front runners (Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres, Jose Ramos Horta, Fernando "Lasama" de Araujo) are all good candidates; especially compared to the calibre we seem to have in Australia (Alan Jones wins support of Rudd and Howard).

Religious fundamentalists, once again, are breaking my brain. Apart from the musueum in Kentucky, where "Tyrannosaurus rex was a strict vegetarian, and lived with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden". usekh reports that Jerry Falwell claims that global warming is a lie spread by Satan!. With more Fawell goodness watch Bill Nye engage in a bit of education on the origin of species. Turkey's secular state is being challenged by a leading presidential candidate; socialists led the nation's largest protests in history.

Comments

[angel80.livejournal.com]

The ACMA ruling is interesting because it focuses on the weight and meaning of comments rather than the literal speech as the key. There's no doubt at all that Jones promotes racial hatred, however he tries to disguise it.

Assuming that there is a run-off between Lu Olo and Horta, which way do you think the Araujo supporters will go?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

WRT the ACMA ruling, it is quite clear that the context of speech is important - the ACLU recognises the same in the US.

I have little doubt that the majority of Araujo voters will support Horta over Lu Olo.

[angel80.livejournal.com]

Then, if they can hold the whole process together, your old boss will win!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Quite true; I expect the final result will be around 60/40 in Horta's favour; and that includes a number of FRETILIN supporters, including the current foreign minister, Jose Luis Gutteres, who acknowledge Horta as the founder of FRETILIN.

Of course, in terms of power, he's taking a step "down" from Prime Minister to President, and the aim is to replace Horta with Xanana as PM.

FRETILIN have, unfortunately, really mismanaged public affairs in East Timor and is mostly due to the ex-patriates imposing their will; Lu-Olo was certainly their best candidate with the popular recognition as a former guerilla fighter during the occupation.

However I do not think this will necessarily translate into significant differences in parliamentary elections. The PD should pick up seats, but the majority will remain in FRETILIN's hands. The simply have the best connections and history in the districts.