(no subject)

I wish I could feel undiluted delight and relief at the apparent foiling of a plot to commit mass murder. I no longer trust the people who are supposed to be protecting us not to break the law, not to target innocents, and not to lie.

I hope this drama doesn't bury a good deed shining in a weary world: the rebellion of a number of Liberal backbenchers against the latest anti-refugee Bill, which would have sent all asylum seekers arriving without visas to the hellish camp on Nauru.

(no subject)

MP Joe Hockey on the foiled plot: "We should not be surprised by this because all the governments keep saying this is a very real threat and sometimes we get into our daily lives and forget about it." God forbid.

MP John Forrest, who abstained from the vote to excise the Australian mainland from the "immigration zone", lost his position as chief whip for the Libs. Respect is due. (The SMH comments that now Howard will not be able to use refugees as an election issue.)

(no subject)

Reading a book about torture and watching Love Actually in the same week gives you whiplash of the soul.

Whatever facts about the liquid explosives plot eventually come to light, there will be acts of heroism great and small involved in the entire event, which ultimately will perhaps affect millions of people. There will be police officers who raided houses, knowing they might lose their lives. There are Red Cross volunteers at Heathrow Airport looking after stranded passengers. There are aeroplane passengers who have, with quiet patience, endured hours in queues (and then hours, sans books and iPods, on their flights); and weary airport staff and flight attendants who have stayed calm and professional in the face of chaos. Inside that chaos there will be ordinary people helping each other with medicine or kids or whatever. And around the world, there will be people who recognise their own paranoia when they see a bearded face or a scarfed head, and refuse to give in to it.

(no subject)

We're caught between the terrorists on the one hand, and our own governments on the other. A column in The Guardian about the raids brought home to me the danger we face from the latter.

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