Better later than never, I guess, but Australia has decided to take a moral stand against the bigots at the United Nations Geneva Racist Conference. It will not attend a conference whose main purpose is to attack Israel.

An attack so vitriolic and blatantly unfair was the highlight of the first conference in Durban which Australia did attend and decided to abandon when it turned into a hate-fest against Jews and Israel.

It was disappointing, therefore, that Prime Minister Rudd took so long this time to tell his Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, not to attend the disgusting exhibition of attacks on one little country, while so many violations of human rights are rife in other parts of the world, chiefly, in those countries who will attend.

Isn’t it ironic that one of the main speakers at the conference will be President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, that voice of moderation and tolerance. He is a monster of a man whose main vitriol is to deny the Holocaust so that he can attack Israel in the most despicable manner. Iran has a shocking record on human rights as do other Muslim countries in which women are tortured for trying to lead a life which is considered to be normal in civilised countries. There is no free speech in Iran. And yet will that be mentioned at the conference in Geneva?

Of course not.

Oh how I wish that Australia had taken a stand earlier. I would have liked to be proud of my adopted country which is usually renown for its fairness. And yet, Rudd prevaricated a long time. He wanted to see what President Obama would do first.

Obama has made his decision late as well. We saw how the American President bowed to the Saudi King while he simply nodded to the Queen of England. It was a shocking breach of the American ethos and a terrible insult to his English allies. Where was the dignity in that? Saudi Arabia is the country that spawned Osama Bin Laden and his fellow terrorists who destroyed the the Twin Towers in New York and murdered almost three thousand of its people. How the Saudis must be laughing at Obama’s humiliating bow!

With all the inhumane brutality that’s going on in this crazy world, why didn’t Australia take a stand against bigotry earlier, the way that Canada, Sweden and Italy had done? The Netherlands have just announced that they too will not attend.

I wish that the U.K would have the guts to do so now, but there has always been a great love affair between the U.K and the Arab countries.

In my opinion, no matter what the Arab countries do to the U.K, whether it is to train terrorists to blow up the Brits, whether it is to use oil as a tool to blackmail the Brits, whether it is simply because the British politicians no longer have the guts that got their ancestors through the Blitz, Arab countries will get away with murder, literally.

Anyway, it’s good to see that some countries are not going to put up with the vitriol that will spew forth from the Iranian president’s gob

One thing for sure, though, had John Howard still been the Prime Minister of Australia, our country would have been among the first to say no to this disgusting repetition of what happened in Durban the last time the United Nations met to discuss Human Rights.

Rudd’s reticence, by comparison, leaves a bitter taste even if he has finally been led kicking and screaming to make the right decision.

As I said at the beginning of this post, better later than never, I suppose, but to tell you the truth, later is sometimes too late when it comes to doing the honorable thing. It’s a missed opportunity to lead by example.