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Deeply Cynical

Entry 504, on 2007-03-28 at 15:35:16 (Rating 4, News)

What a deeply cynical and insincere world we live in. There were several items in the news recently which have lead me to this conclusion.

First, David Hicks has pleaded guilty to terrorism crimes. The balance of evidence is that he is guilty to some degree, but the US handling of people accused of these crimes immediately throws the confession into doubt. Hicks has said he was forced to give statements under duress, and says he was tortured, beaten, subjected to sleep and sensory deprivation, had unknown medication forced upon him, and has been in solitary confinement since last year.

I know people will say that this is war and the US has the right to use whatever means necessary to defend itself, but I disagree. As soon as the right to use any means is granted we run into real trouble. There has to be limits, and illegally detaining a citizen of an ally must be near that limit.

One of the lowest forms of life in the modern world, in my opinion, is the spin doctor. These people go by various titles, such as head of media relations, and public communications manager, but I prefer a simpler description: professional liar. I see Telecom has just hired a new professional liar, Mark Watts. I'm sure he'll enjoy such a fulfilling job at Telecom.

Recently we found that one of our popular drinks, a black currant fruit drink called Ribena, has no vitamin C despite advertising suggesting it has 4 times the vitamin C of oranges. The strange fact here was that the lack of vitamins was discovered by some secondary school students doing a science project. The thing that surprised me is that the drink is produced by a huge foreign multi-national drug company. More professional liars. That's the last time my family will ever drink that product!

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, who is currently visiting Australia, says he is no businessman. What a relief! Business people rarely do anything genuinely worthwhile. Its usually the impractical dreamers, tech nerds, artists, and lateral thinkers that make the real progress. As soon as business gets involved its generally the first step on the road to mediocrity. I hope business interests stay away from Wikipedia, which I believe is the most useful site on the whole Internet.

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