Your time is up, Mr President!

Robert Gabriel Mugabe - you are requested to please resign and hand yourself over to the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal. Honestly, I cannot understand why he won't give up. I read all about him and what his actions with ZANU and the "bushmen's war" during the 1980's. He is from the Shona tribe (which I did not know) and he himself massacred (or passed on orders to massacre) the opposition tribe of Ndebele. He is a criminal, dictator, everything you can possibly think of under the sun.

In the 1980's, he raised a milita unit with his loyal and blind supporters in Zimbabwe and named it "Gukhurakundi". Then, interesting, he signed a treaty with Kim Il Sung (former Supreme Leader of North Korea) to provide arms and training to them. When this militia was ready and prepared for the mission, he unleased them on the rural heart of Zimbabwe to "finish off" (or attempt to) people from the Ndebele tribes. This is nothing short of being a despot.

Mr Mugabe, please, please, please see the writing on the wall. Although you think that all of your party members still love you, I think that the majority of them don't love you anymore (but are still saying that they do love you, because they are scared of being eliminated by you or indirectly by your Central Intelligence Organisation).

You need a holiday to the Hague, courtesy of your plane ticket being paid for the United Nations. You've been leader for 28 years now, and I think that you should just hand over the baton to Movement for Democratic Change Leader Morgan Tsvangarai. You can take Thabo Mbeki with you as well, he is not doing anything at the moment as well - I think he would enjoy having a holiday as well.

FOR GODSAKE, JUST ACCEPT THAT YOU LOST THE ELECTION, WHAT IS SO DIFFICULT ABOUT IT?

Though it has yet to be proven, Tsvangarai, I am confident will lead a Government of National Reconcilliation.

Republic or no Republic? - That is the question!

Look, I am not disrespecting our "British sovereign Queen" here, but seriously, we as a society need to move on. Okay, wonderful, the British were the ones who settled Australia and built it into a Federation (they claim). However, we should also realise that the world is more like a global village now and the "British empire" ceases to exist since a long time ago.

Yes, I am advocating Australia to move towards being a Republic. Well, okay, I agree that a large number of people are not as enlightened as me - they tend to be of the opinion of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" or "Change just for the sake of change, is no change". But come on people, we have an opportunity to define ourselves as being "Australian" and yet, you want to cling on to the idea that you are in some way or another ruled by "Britannia". Come on, go and get a reality check!

I can passionately argue on this issue - I think the general Australian public are so laid-back and casual that they don't actually realise what it means to be a Republic. If they attempted to delve deeper, then their apprehension would be taken away. For a number of reasons, in my opinion, Australia should move towards a Republic:

1) We have an strong free-market economy to see us into the near future (we do not rely on funds from the "British motherland"

2) Our judiciary, since 1984 and the passing of the Australia Act, does not refer any more matters to the Privy Council. In other words, the "law of the land" is made in Australia, not Britain.

3) We have our own Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force) that serves us well and works to defend our country. It is patriotic and it defines "Australian-ness".

4) We are entering the 21st century and there is no need to be linked to an "archaic" empire that ceased to exist a century ago. We need to embrace and cultivate a new definition for ourselves.

Now the reasons are there, but which model we will follow, that I have to think about. There are a few ideas going around:

• The Indian model: This is where the "President" is appointed by Members of Parliament (with at least a two-thirds majority in both houses).
• The American model: Where the "President" is appointed by the general population, vian an "electoral college" system for fixed 4 year terms. (a max. of two).

In my opinion, I would like to see Australia become a Republic (first and foremost) and a model adopted whereby a "President" is directly appointed by the people. Whether or not, we give the President executive powers (to dismiss parliament etc..) or not - that is an issue we can deal with later down the track.

COME ON AUSTRALIA, LET US MOVE WITH THE TIMES! ALL AUSTRALIANS RISE UP!

A rather stimulating weekend!

As the title indicates, I experienced a rather stimulating weekend. As I was typing up this assignment I had to complete, I was "Wikipedia"-ing in another window. In the span of 2-3 hours, I had expanded my knowledge base about the world and political history. I read about who the ZANU-PF actually are; I read about the Afghanistan and the situation in the country through the 1980's and 90's - and in doing so, began to come full circle and understand who was supplying traning and arms to who etc... ; I read about who the main players were in the Afghan civil war from about 1989-1992: Burhanuddin Rabbani, Gulbudin Hekmatyr, Shanawaz Tanai, Dr. Najibullah, Ahmed Shah Masood, General Rashid Dostum, Mohammed Fahim - to name a few of them; I read about what "actual operations" were undertaken during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. It was very worthwhile and fulfulling (to me at least!)

No time to read books! :'(

Leading on from the last post.... it is quite a ridiculous state of affairs.... when I cannot find the time to read books.... some of you know that since I was a kid... I have loved devouring books... The only time that I relish reading.. is when I get a long break.. summer holidays - I read pretty quickly.... 200 pages in a day.. sometimes I finish thick books in 2 weeks only! My mum, on the other hand takes forever to read a single page.... a 200 page book... she struggles to even read that much.... it takes her a month or so to get through it... having said all that.. each person to their own I guess.. as the saying goes! Although, I was able to read about 10-20 pages of a book titled "La Prisonnaire" by Malika Oufkir (this book is about the Moroccan royal family and post-colonial politics and political prisoners - which appeals to me!)

I always believe that you should read any genre that interests you. For kids doing English in High School, you have to read a "specified genre"... I didn't like to told what to read.. By reading whatever books they want, children learn new words/terminology which allows them to express themselves better.

I didn't intend to make this post meaningful about life, but as you can see as a result of my reading, I can always express myself in an elequent way.

Righto, the tutorial will begin in five minutes.. so I will put my mind to it.

What a hectic life I have now! :(

Good morning. Just thought I would write in just before my tutorial at 10.. which is 20 mins from now. Well, I am well and truly into the new semester at uni now.. it is Week 6 and I am still alive and kicking! There was a humorous message sent to all students from the Lecturer of Environment Issues in Business 201.... it goes along the lines of this....

"I am concerned about the number of absences in lectures and tutorials. For the last few weeks, a lot of students are not coming. Please encourage your classmates and friends to come along.... the people not attending will not get exam hints"

I think now that numbers will be up for the following weeks... as when students hear the words "exam hints" they will come running back in hordes!

I have been observing human character, learning about people, how to work together in groups and limiting conflicts... its all part and parcel of the journey of life I guess.

The new ideas for posts are sitting on my table at home.... but just can't get the time to actually sit down, think and write posts. I think I will be doing this... in another 2 weeks time... when I have a non-teaching week.

Right now..... its time to get back to assignmenting and studying for my mid-sems!

Getting back to normal again!

The reason that there are no posts between December 1 and today is that I recently returned from a family trip to India only 2 weeks ago. I am getting back into the Australian way of life - which is very different to India. All in all, it's nice to be back home, but I am still missing the sights and sounds of India.

Here's to a new and fresh 2008! I engaged in complete 'R and R', as they say, so I have got a million ideas in my head to write about. Watch this space for updates!

Despair and Hope

I took an old poem of mine that I composed this year and re-worked it this morning. Happy reading!

Despair and Hope

On a regular basis we hear and read about bloodshed,

Clearly people are not thinking with their head,

To them, fighting seems like the only option,

But still yet, there is another undiscovered direction.

This direction is the path of peace and harmony,

Of which unity and togetherness is the main philosophy,

Many countries have embraced this new door,

But from other nations we are hoping for much more.

This approach to friendship,

Will surely result in a stronger level of comradeship,

Reinforcing to us the notion that the human race is all but one,

Just one big world living under the sun.

Sometimes windows may be closed and doors may be forgotten,

So let us open the window of our heart,

And turn over the page to make a new start.

Will the world suddenly change to a new awakening?

Will someone light the candle of hope?

I dream of an ideal world of pure harmony and joy,

Where children play and flowers bloom,

And a place where there is a minimal amount of doom and gloom.

Written and edited by Paulash Chatterjee

Composed on: 26 July 2007

Edited on: 1 December 2007