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Teachers accused of anti-US bias

John Garnaut, Geesche Jacobsen and Just Us | 22.08.2005 00:39 | Anti-militarism | Culture | Repression | World

The NSW Teachers Federation condemned costello's comments as "absolute nonsense". Its senior vice-president, Angelo Gavrielatos, said: "The constant denegration of teachers isn't good for the country."

But who owns the problem?
But who owns the problem?


costello: "problems with
American power and
differences in policy
were far outweighed
by benefits."

Since when? And for who?
[file photo's] (Rooters)

AUSTRALIA: The fascist federal treasurer has drawn a rebuke from teachers for warning them against spreading anti-Americanism in schools and suggesting it could mutate into anti-Westernism and terrorist attacks against Australia.

But who owns the problem?

Venturing outside his usual economic territory, peter costello the funny little pastor said many teachers were carrying left-wing ideological baggage from the 1970s.

But nothing about the current state of affairs right pete?

costello: "If your teacher's carrying that bias it tends to get passed on," he said yesterday. "...Anti-Americanism can easily morph into anti-Westernism. Particularly you've seen that with terrorists. They don't really draw distinctions between Americans or Britons or Australians; they just like to hit anybody who they consider to be part of the West."

But if your teacher is telling the truth then that bias has substance and the people who own the problem and the bad habbits ought to fix the problem I would have thought! Something called getting insight into your offending behaviour could actually be a good lesson.

costello's comments followed a lengthy critique of the US-Australia relationship at the Australian American Leadership Dialogue on Saturday night.

The NSW Teachers Federation condemned costello's comments as "absolute nonsense". Its senior vice-president, Angelo Gavrielatos, said: "The constant denegration of teachers isn't good for the country."

US accused of despotism

In his first public speech on foreign policy since becoming treasurer almost 10 years ago, pastor costello, the funny little fellow, acknowledged the existence of problems with American power, such as its success in exporting "distasteful" views on sex and violence through the mass media.

"Unfortunately, America has found it much easier to spread its mass culture than to spread its high principles," he said.

What high principals are those?

Observers said costello had used the speech to inject nuance into the Australia-US relationship, and contrasted it with comments made by some cabinet colleagues.

costello said Australia's regional interests would frequently diverge from America's, as he had made clear in his approaches to international trade, to Indonesia during the Asian economic crisis and more recently to China, when the United States was pushing for it to revalue its currency.

"Australia views this [revaluation] issue through the lens of regional economic stability," he said. "The United States views it in the context of bilateral trade."

costello also contrasted Australia's tolerance of democratic diversity with the utopian values often associated with neoconservatives in the Bush Administration.

"The United States believes it has a 'manifest destiny' to take its view of human rights to the world," he said.

Allan Gyngell, executive director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, said Mr Costello had "defined Australian policy in the tradition of British empiricism rather than American idealism".

costello said problems with American power and differences in policy were far outweighed by benefits.

"If the world is to have a hegemon, the modern United States is the kind of hegemon we would like to have: democratic, respectful of human rights, with strong and genuine belief in individual liberty," he said.

But Sharon Canty, spokeswoman for the Parents and Citizens Federation, suggested Mr Costello was more interested in media and leadership than policy.

"Evidence of successful education in NSW could be a student's ability to recognise a grab for leadership and media time when they see one," she said.

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John Garnaut, Geesche Jacobsen and Just Us
- e-mail: gkable@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/publik16/news2

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

The howard govt is an arm of theUS govt

23.08.2005 02:34

Downer on the 7.30 report supported the US maltreatment of Guantanamo incarceree David Hicks, in spite fo US and australian military lawyers saying he would not get a fair trial:

 http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1428678.htm

brian


What do you mean by this?

24.08.2005 09:52

Your article seems a little unbalanced. You mix genuine and reasonable criticisms of the US, with hysterical comments. What about this: 'So he calls remarkable progress sending 190 militants off to wage war against all the free and democratic people in Afghanistan? I think that is a remarkable statement. I mean what would he have said if there weren't any problems and he had to send troops just to rebuild after the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2002. Fantastic!' Australian troops are there to support the elections not to wage war on 'free and democratic' people. You've made this silly posts before describing the Taleban as freedom fighters! Why? How is Islamofascism freedom?

Paul


NSW Teachers Federation: leave your civil rights at the door

20.07.2007 12:26

The NSW Teachers Federation is a despicable organization and a blight on the union movement. For years, it has supported the NSW government medical office HealthQuest which is engaged in corrupt activities including certifying whistleblowers insane and solving workplace problems with a psychiatric diagnosis, after which the teacher is kicked out of their job and forcibly medically retired. The Teachers Federation states on its website that it is concerned with civil rights and that teachers should defend civil rights. It won't defend the civil rights of its members though. The teachers federation knows, from all the teachers who have suffered because of HealthQuest, that they employ DOCTORS WHO LIE and the Teachers Federation thinks this is OK. I know a teacher, a member of this so-called 'union', who was a union rep for years and years and was then certified insane after complaining about another teacher abusing children. The abusive teacher never missed a day's work nor lost any pay. The whistleblower was sacked by forced retirement on bogus psychiatric grounds. The doctor who wrote the certificate was an English doctor called Helia Gapper. She never met the whistleblower. The NSW Teachers Federation then said to this teacher "You are on your own - we don't interfere in medical matters." And this is what these bastards say to ALL teachers who are falsely 'certified' at HealthQuest. They have a corrupt agreement with the Department of Education to let HealthQuest have its way. Another one who is not supported by the NSW Teachers Federation is Val Kerrison, who complained that Aboriginal students were suffering discrimination. Wouldn't you think a union would support Aboriginal people. But no. Val was forced out of her workplace and the teachers federation is doing nothing about this disgusting travesty of justice.
Read all the documents proving the trail of corruption on
wbde.org

Samuel


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