What is happening in society?

Just reading the newspapers and watching TV reports makes us ask this question 'What is happening?

Drugs and alcohol are so rife that police have begun an intensive operation to combat drunkenness and violence on our streets.

Meanwhile world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss 'climate change' - perhaps they should pay more attention to what is happening in our nation!

Just a few of the current events:

Operation Unite
A massive police operation is underway around Australia to crack down on alcohol use, violence, drug taking and more.
This report from Victoria Police says they had 800 extra police on the streets last weekend. Police arrested 400 people over the past weekend for drunkenness.
This SMH report says there are 1400 extra police on the streets in NSW - there were more than 600 arrests.

TV star faces cocaine charge
Home and Away - on Channel 7 - has had increasingly seedy plot lines over the past year - with violence, drug taking, rape and same-sex relationships.
Now a young star of Home and Away- Todd Lasance, who plays troubled widower Aden Jefferies on the Channel 7 show - has been charged with possessing cocaine, after police raided the Christmas party of the Home and Away show. Read report from the Herald Sun.

Drinking Age
A proposal to raise the legal drinking age from 18 years to 19 years has been rejected by Health Minister Nicola Roxon.

The proposal was made by the Prime Minister's advisory body on the drugs - the Australian National Council on Drugs - which declared that there was evidence that lifting the legal drinking age decreased the number of young people drinking alcohol and being harmed as a result. This also separates the age at which young people drive and the age at which they can legally drink.
Sources:
- Read SMH report.
- The latest ANCD meeting discussed the drinking age - see their November Communique.

Copenhagen and climate
World leaders are gathering in Copenhagen - over 100 leaders of nations are expected to be there for the final days of the Copenhagen climate conference, including Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. it has been reported that 114 Australians are there for the talks!
The 'carbon footprint' to get all the delegates an others there is enormous!

But not to worry- the organisers say they are planning to 'offset' the carbon emissions from the conference by giving money to a brick factory in India so they can convert its operation to cleaner gas fuel!
Why not just give the money to the brick factory anyway - the 'offset' idea is aimed at appeasing consciences.
See report of these two items - click here.

At Copenhagen, they're trying to get a world deal on cutting carbon (dioxide) emissions - the developing nations want huge sums of money to 'compensate' for the past emissions of the developed world and help them 'adapt' to the so-called 'effects of climate change'.

The list goes on

... the government has just released a Discussion Paper into whether R-rated video/computer games should be allowed in Australia.

We'll have a report on that soon!