The End

Hey everyone,

After two years and 252 posts, I have decided to pull the plug on Counteract Now.

When I first started the blog, we had Howard and Bush in power, creating chaos and completely disregarding human rights. Now that they both have finally been removed from office, human rights has slightly improved.

I say slightly improved because both Rudd and Obama have on one hand done a lot to improve human rights and put measures in place to prevent those atrocities, but they also have continued policies from former administrations which completely disregard human rights in any shape or manner.

In the good column, Rudd has apologised to the stolen generation, removed mandatory detention and removed temporary protection visas.

Obama has given a timetable for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and signed an executive order banning interrogation techniques such as waterboarding which is deemed to be torture.

However, Rudd has continued the Northern Territory intervention which has disabled the Racial Discrimination Act, and Obama has continued the CIA extraordinary rendition program.

So while there still are issues I can be discussing, I have found that I have very little time these days to give some very important issues, the analysis and reporting that they deserve.

This does not mean that I have not been following and commenting to myself on the issues that are going on in the world. Those close to me still hear me "go off" on these issues, but the time it takes for me to get on to the computer, and try and analyse and report on the issues in a clear and concise manner in a blog piece takes a lot of time that I currently do not have.

I would like to thank everyone who has read and commented on the blog. I really have appreciated all the feedback that I have received... even if it was from the ignorant right!

Well... I guess that's it. I think there is nothing else left to say except... keep counteracting when human rights are abused and don't ever feel afraid to speak your mind. A path is formed one pebble at a time, so don't ever feel that one voice cannot make a difference. If everyone accepted defeat, then we wouldn't live in a country with democracy, but one with a dictator.

Thank you and farewell for now.

- Beju -