What's Wrong With Christmas???

Image via Wikipedia

The Thought Police in Queensland have struck again with Secret Santa replaced with a "Secret Friend".  According to a report on Channel 7 this evening, teachers at Pacific Pines State School in Queensland have taken political correctness to the extreme.

Over the last 15 years my wife and I have had 9 Christmases while were living in Muslim countries.  Guess what?  Most of the Muslims that you meet in these countries wish you a Merry Xmas and many will give a gift.


Remember, although Muslims don't celebrate Xmas they recognise that Christians do and understand that we will celebrate it.

Image via Wikipedia

Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Xmas is celebrated and Christians hold all of the usual festivities.

While living in the Middle East, we found that the average Kuwait and Saudi will tolerate the Xmas celebrations as long as they are subdued and respectful of the majority Muslim population.

While living in Tripoli a few years ago, almost all of the Libyans that we knew phoned to wish us a Merry Xmas and while we were out shopping the shop keepers were wishing us a Merry Xmas as we shopped.

So, when these politically correct idiots suggest that we water down the Christmas celebrations in Australia or ANY Christian country tell them to SOD OFF and get a life.  If my wife and I can celebrate Xmas openly in many Muslim countries where we have lived, why can't we celebrate it in Australia??

Shedding Light On Corruption

Screen shot   http://www.corruptiontracker.org/main

Corruption exists in all countries around the world: there isn't a country in the world where it does not impact on people, business and government.

Corruption perverts justice, undermines democracy  and costs people their businesses, houses and in extreme cases their lives.

A new website focused on shedding light on corruption around the world has been launched in the US.

Corruptiontracker.org aims to capitalise on the burgeoning social media and crowd sourcing phenomena to generate maps and reports of almost real time corruption reports.

According to the Corruptiontracker website: "Corruption Tracker empowers people to report, identify and fight corruption via crowd sourced information sharing and analysis. People will be able to submit reports directly through CorruptionTracker.org via SMS, mobile telephony, and our Internet site. In addition, we will be fully integrated with all the major social networks.  " 

It will be interesting to see how countries with poor human rights records like China and countries like Libya (146)* and Indonesia (110)*  where corruption is part of every day life treat access to this website.

Reports are cross referenced with more conventional and well known sites like Global Integrity.

Image via WikipediaAnalysis of reported corruption from existing open source data streams such as Transparency International and IPaidaBribe provides a method of ensuring that this website is not used as an easy way of spreading rumour and innuendo.

* 2011 Transparency International Rankings