Editorial
Welcome to the first edition of Critical Times.
We are living in a world of increasing contradictions, where what we are told is becoming further away from reality every day. Political leaders of all persuasions tell us that the economy is booming, that everything is rosy, we’ve ‘never had it so good’ – meanwhile, the realities of long-term entrenched unemployment (44,000 full time jobs lost last month), the crisis in our hospitals, and many other real issues continue to impact on the community.
People are increasingly expressing feelings of frustration and disenfranchisement – a lack of democracy. We are told that we live in a democracy – it is partly true, yet what rights do we have? Most people in South Australia do not want a nuclear waste dump of any kind, yet we will have one! The question has never been put to the people “Do you want a nuclear industry / nuclear waste dump?”
There is a lack of trust in governments – if John Olsen says there will be no high-level nuclear waste dump (committing South Australia to hundreds of thousands of years into the future) can we believe him? And even if we can, what if a later government changes their policy?
At a recent meeting about genetically modified organisms, hundreds of people expressed their feelings of outrage, frustration and disenfranchisement because their efforts have been deflected and ignored, and they have been lied to!
The referendum question on the issue of a Republic showed that people will not support structures that do not reflect their real wishes – many people want a real Republic, but will not settle for a sham one, that changes little in the balance of power. Simply calling the system a democracy doesn’t make it one, as is patently obvious from around the world.
This edition features stories on some issues that people have increasingly strong concerns about, including the nuclear waste dump and uranium mining industry, genetically modified organisms (especially GM food), and the need to change if the planet is to survive. Privatisation, deregulation, globalisation – all referred to by our Parliamentary leaders as natural and inevitable, something to be ‘managed’ and impossible to stop. If globalisation is inevitable and beyond the control of governments and the people, then why have governments at all? Surely we would be run more efficiently if the captains of industry governed! Of course, this ‘efficiency’ will inevitably lead to vast environmental destruction, and more misery for the overwhelming majority of the world’s people, who far from being ‘wired up’, have never even made a telephone call!
Solutions to problems of democracy and economy need to be practical and deliverable. There is also some urgency – we are somewhat sheltered in Australia due to our relatively high standard of living (thanks to massive and unsustainable use of resources), but any problems we have here are magnified many-fold in most parts of the world. This edition features an article by Ted Trainer, the author of various books on sustainable futures. His approach shows a way out of the parliamentary sham, which has the appearance of democracy, but a very different reality.
We hope you will regard this first edition of Critical Times as a reasonable prototype. Our aim is to expand the paper (by the next edition with your support) to sixteen pages. This will enable CT to cover a broader range of issues. So please send in your contributions, both literary and monetary. This issue, thanks go to Pei Shu Wu (opinion cartoons, p3)
Deadline for next issue is Friday, April 6th. See you next month!
