Kong hee fatt choy! Woof.

Oh, yeah, happy new year to you all! Sorry I let this one slip. Last Sunday saw the start of the Chinese New Year - it's the year of the Dog. The Fire Dog, in fact.

Traditionally, those born in the Dog year (like me) are meant to be loyal and have a strong sense of justice and social consciousness. A couple of Chinese bloggers (like these guys) around the traps are hoping that this year of the Dog will see a spreading of social consciousness amongst us all.

Here in Australia, there's a brewing corruption scandal involving the Australian Wheat Board paying bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime to ease Australian wheat exports through the Iraqi food for oil scheme - in contravention of the UN sanctions against Iraq.

If the scandal that is following on the tail of the inquiry exposes Howard government complicity in the corruption, I only hope that this spreading social consciousness we hope the Dog year brings will mean that the Australian public won't be so apathetic and be less prepared to let this government's continue its lies, cover-ups, dog whistling and dog wagging...

Can we do more than hope?

(Note: picture credit: http://www.chinapage.com/painting/langshining/dogstream.html)