I love Australia and I honestly believe it is one of the best countries in the world. Australia is one of the few nations that was not founded in war. Our country is made up of people from hundreds of different nations all living together in relative harmony.

It is amazing to just to walk down the street, your nose will pick up the scent of the best food from many different parts of the world.

Our strongest value is to give people a fair go. We don’t treat new people with suspicion instead we buy them a beer. We make sure everyone is included. In Australia we have no aristocracy, everyone is equal and we don’t call anyone sir – even the Prime Minister.

But again a chain e-mail threatens everything we hold dear. The ideas of Pauline Hanson have been discredited and her racist ideals are no longer fit for the political arena, but her beliefs have not died. Many who think as she does are still around – still spouting their theories.

The e-mail is titled: It’s Our Country! – Australia the right to leave.

It brings up a few examples like Sydney not wanting to put up Christmas lights or a Muslim woman in South Australia who apparently is veiled in her driver’s licence photo.

It goes on to say how many recent immigrants are diluting our sovereignty and our national identity.

This rant starts with: “IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It! I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.”

And goes on with: “However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the ‘politically correct’ crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others. I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Australia.”

And later: “We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Leba…” You get the idea.

There are a few questions I would like to ask the authors of this e-mail. Do you eat salami, kebabs, noodles, pizza or lasagne? You do! Well that must make you a fucking wog. Get out. Leave. I don’t want your kind in Australia. Bloody hypocrites. No seriously you are entitled to your own opinion, but try to keep your beliefs consistent.

The e-mail gets a little strange towards the end with: “’In God We Trust’ is our National Motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.”

I never knew Australia had a motto, but anyway… I would argue one of the best things about Australia is that God is not a large part of our culture. In Australia it is considered rude to judge people according to their beliefs. I am an atheist and I do not believe I’ve ever been criticised for my lack of belief. This is part of our belief in the fair go. No matter if you are black, brown, beige or purple or whether you have unusual religious beliefs or if you are disabled.

The funny thing about this e-mail (as you may have guessed) is that it’s not original. This was originally written for a local newspaper in the American state of Georgia. One or two words have been changed for an Australian audience, but essentially it is exactly the same. The two examples at the top of the e-mail about Sydney Christmas lights and the female Muslim driver were not in the original article. A few things were added and taken out and it was turned into a chain e-mail.

The source of the Sydney Christmas lights story is about the Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore in 2004 wished to cut down on the expenditure for Christmas decorations. Some right-wing commentators suggested that maybe the real reason was not to offend Muslims. Then Prime Minister John Howard agreed with them. Clover Moore denied this was the reason and in subsequent years emphasised the role of Christianity in Christmas.

In the American chain e-mail it was a Muslim woman in Florida who was veiled on her driver’s licence – she must have emigrated to South Australia. There is also an English version of the e-mail. That Muslim woman gets around a bit.

This e-mail is another sad example of ignorant people trying use lies and so-called “patriotism” to incite hatred of others.

The authors of this e-mail would see Australia a boring place with only meat and three veg to eat. There would be no cafes with tables and chairs in front. Pizza and the most Aussie of all dishes the chicken parmigiana would be banned.

Cultures that are open and flexible are successful. Those that are closed and ignorant die a slow and often painful death. Even our language is a bastard combination of French, Saxon, Latin and many others. This is one of the reasons why it is the most successful language ever known. The very culture you live in was forged by the blending of others.

As soon as someone begins to believe that their culture is superior people start being hurt. I believe that every culture that has come to Australia has improved our society – from the Chinese during the gold rush and the Afghans that opened up the interior of our country to the aboriginals that were here before we came.

Please do not demonstrate your ignorance by forwarding e-mails such as this.

The torture debate has started up again. In the new World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King there is a quests called “the art of persuasion.” This quest involves the torture of a captive through the use of a device called the neural needler.

This of course has stirred up all sorts of controversy, with those for and against torture doing battle again. I do not wish to talk about the controversy or the morality of including such a quest in a game. I do wish to make an attempt to explain why torture is not only bad, but in some ways counter-productive.

The most popular argument put forward by torture proponents is the ticking time bomb scenario. Terrorists have placed a bomb somewhere in a crowded city. The ‘good’ guys have captured one of them. They think he knows where the bomb is planted. He says that he knows nothing about it. The answer is of course to torture the information out of him.

Many people would say that torture is okay in that scenario – one person is sacrificed to save hundreds.

Most people will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid pain. The threat of torture would be enough for most people to crack and reveal everything they know. But just imagine that you are the one being tortured. Wouldn’t you say anything to get out of that room, to make them stop? Rationality would be the first thing to leave your mind. Your goal would not be to tell the truth it would be for the torture to stop.

The person doing the torture would not know when you are telling the truth. The interrogators would have an idea of the information they wish to obtain from you. And you would no doubt have an image of the information they want. What if the truth is something that the torturers do not wish to hear? Maybe there is no bomb and maybe it is a hoax. What do you think they would do if you told your interrogators this fact? Or if there were multiple bombs and you don’t know where they all are.

What if you are innocent?

An innocent captive has a lot more to fear from torture as they have no truth to reveal.

The thing that devalues torture the most is when you look at the big picture. When people are tortured we give the terrorists a gift. They can point to the West and say: “look how evil they are. They talk about the rule of law about human rights and then completely ignore them.” Those who were on the borderline of supporting the terrorists are now able to support them wholeheartedly. It becomes a recruitment tool creating more terrorists.

Even if the torture of one person saves lives, in the long run it will kill many more.

There is a new type of spammer in the world. They take advantage of people’s good nature to spread vicious lies designed to manipulate public opinion.

There are two e-mails that I have received the recently that have greatly angered me. The first I have talked about in my previous post. It is an e-mail titled: That History Does Not Repeat Itself.

In this e-mail is a PowerPoint presentation that really tugs on the heartstrings. It shows terrible photos of the Holocaust. This is followed by the lie that the English school system is forbidden from teaching the Holocaust for fear of upsetting the Muslim population who, supposedly, believe the Holocaust never happened. It is of course completely untrue that the curriculum does not include the Holocaust. In fact teaching of the Holocaust is compulsory in England.

Here is the story that inspired the e-mail. Mid way down it states:”Teaching of the Holocaust is already compulsory in schools…”

Ironically this e-mail uses the Holocaust to stir up racial hatred against Muslims.

There is another similar e-mail on a smaller scale, but almost as nasty. It states:

It is interesting that the federal government provides a single refugee with a monthly allowance of $1,890.00 and each can also get an additional $580.00 in social assistance for a total of $2,470.00.

A single pensioner who, after contributing to the growth and development of Australia for 40 to 50 years, receives only a monthly maximum of $1,012.00 in old age pension and Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Maybe our pensioners should apply as refugees!

What this e-mail asserts is total bullshit. Media watch has debunked this particular e-mail three times in the past few years. According to centrelink refugees are eligible to receive the same benefit as other Australians. Remember they are refugees who came here fairly and squarely – not illegal immigrants. E-mail such as this are also designed to stir up hatred of the least fortunate in our society.

In an age where the dreams of terrorists, nationalists and racists are all, but shattered e-mails such as these are the last effort to make public opinion reflect the baser natures of humanity. Be very suspicious of messages that promote a message of hate – do not send them on instead stick them in the trash where they can join their authors in miserable obscurity.