(We) can do better

Wil started from the premise that disgruntled "bad-guy" Australians resent refugees because they are taking Australian jobs.

He went on to talk about how unemployed people should take 2 year TAFE courses to improve their skills so they could beat those refugees to the jobs after they had been released from 2 year internment in detention centres.

This article opens Australia's productivity closet and finds an extreme population growth skeleton there, masquerading as high labour costs. Some of us would think of it more as an elephant in the room than a skeleton, given the size of the problem, but the metaphor of hiding the issue serves its purpose.

With less than one week to go until the First ever European Presidential Debate broadcast live on Euronews, hosted by the City of Maastricht, Maastricht University, Connect Limburg and the European Youth Forum, the format and themes of the debate have been announced. The debate will see the candidates for the presidency of the European Commission battle out key issues on the future of Europe. With its focus on youth issues, it is hoped that the debate will ignite young people's interest in the European elections and encourage them to vote.

While mainstream press is only reporting that Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blocked twitter, the reason he did so goes unreported. Yet that is the most interesting and shocking thing: A leaked conversation between Turkey's intelligence chief and the war room reveals plot to create a casus belli for war with Syria by using ISIL, an alQaeda offshoot, to threaten a turkish shrine Suleiman Shah Tomb. Turkey has blocked youtube in order to cover up the leaks. Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed the recording of planning for a military incursion into Syria adding that a 'network of treason' was responsible for leak. Part two of the leaked conversation implicates John Kerry US secretary of state in the plot.[1] Retitled from original title which was, " EXPOSED: John Kerry, Turkish PM and Co implicated in Turkey False Flag Using AlQaeda To Start War With Syria".

If you thought that the affairs of the Ukraine and Crimea were too abstract for you, maybe this will make you more curious. Natalya Poklonskaya is or was a government prosecutor in the Ukraine Crimea. She has been made into an anime character in a video. She made strong statements about upholding the rule of law and is now on the illegitimate coup-installed Ukraine government's wanted list. The Ukraine government came to power as a result of a US/NATO orchestrated coup in the resource depletion wars of the 21st century. Russia is defending its oil and gas pipelines in the region. Russia had the very first and the longest petroleum product pipeline in the world in the late 19th century and British, US and European governments and commercial interests have been plotting to get more control there ever since. The region is criss-crossed with oil and gas pipelines going in many directions from Baku to as far as Germany and China. Natalya Poklonskaya rightly wants her message to be heard and dismisses this video, however it may be the way to get her message better appreciated worldwide, so we are promoting it. And we include in this article a video with Poklonskaya's real speech, with English sub-titles.

The term ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ was coined in 1973 after a bank robbery and hostage situation caused hostages to bond with their captors and helped them fight off those who were there to rescue them. Ironically, there is a new brand of the syndrome in the country where it originated – Sweden. Only, it doesn’t involve a few hostages and hostage-takers.

Ending world population growth as soon as possible is critical if the world is to limit global warming to 2oC, according to Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).

The South Eastern Red-tailed cockatoo is under increased threat from Victorian government fire "management" plans. A large part of its critical habitat will be burnt. (Editor: This article was originally submitted as a comment. The subject is so important we promoted it to an article and we recommend the Birdlife Australia site it gives a link to for the bird. The site is brilliantly written and illustrated, engrossing and informative on birds and 'fire-management' problems, although it is more diplomatic than this article, which pulls no punches. Readers of candobetter.net will know that there are a lot of people who aren't too impressed with state government fuel management programs. See similar pages on bushfires and on black cockatoos. These birds are wonders of nature, personalities in their own right, and incomparably beautiful. How could anyone allow them to perish?)

The recent strategy of these organisations for the management of the Southern Brown Bandicoot is based on 99% of bias and negativity. It is a declaration of war against this species. Their barbaric program is full of hypocrisy as well as hiding the real evidence in order to bolster their arguments. Their proposals are too opaque and misleading and often quite ridiculous, simply all in order to save money!

Here's an April Fools Day headline from the Guardian:

"Mark Scott: News Corp papers never more aggressive than now.
ABC managing director warns of dangers for Australian public debate in 'winner takes all' media battle.

The strident editorial stance of some of the mastheads in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire had serious implications for "public debate and the contest of ideas" as they headed towards an almost total print monopoly in a "winner takes all" media battle, the public broadcasting chief said on Tuesday evening."

An examination of the belief in divine GDP growth, and its miraculous origins.

Alphadog AnimalArmy Inc (http://animalarmy.org/) need to meet a target goal of up to $9000 right now for urgent ACT licenced Ecological studies to expose ACT Government manufactured science and provide a new habitat to release translocated kangaroos.

After many months of dedicated and tireless research and project development, the Alphadog AnimalArmy Inc ACT Kangaroo Translocation project trial proposal is under consideration by the ACT Government. For the past 5 months, Charity Director, Marcus Fillinger has poured his time, money, blood, sweat and tears into the 81 page document submission that will challenge and expose every aspect of the ACT Government’s current questionable, flawed and unsubstantiated approach to kangaroo management.

The war in Syria has entered its fourth year, yet “Human Rights Watch” and its executive director, Kenneth Roth effectively campaign for its prolongation. This article initially published on the AMRIS pages at http://australiansforreconciliationinsyria.org/kenneth-roth-and-human-rights-watch-campaigners-for-war-and-terror-in-syria/

This article was originally published at bloggerme.com.au Since Tony Abbott was elected, Australia has progressed with two trade agreements that place Australia at risk of Investor-State Dispute Systems (ISDS) — one already signed with Korea (which definitely includes ISDS) and another close to agreement with Japan (which may include an ISDS). ISDS creates a parallel legal system that allows foreign investors to sue Australian taxpayers if Australia passes laws that reduce the value of their investments or their profits.

Videos inside. Professor Buxton's speech and comments were hair-raising because he acknowledged our dire circumstances. He also confirmed a lot about how little government listens to citizens. Much of this comes out in the speech itself, but more comes out in the comments in the second film. We hope to find time to do a better commentary, with quotes, to whet your appetite and help you distill the information in the films. We would appreciate any help in transcribing the films and possibly subtitling the second because it is at times indistinct due to failure to remember to bring an extension cord for the camcorder. For the moment, however, we are mainly bringing these films to people who will find what Dr Buxton has to say most instructive.

This piece first appeared at Web of Debt."As things stand, the banks are the permanent government of the country, whichever party is in power." – Lord Skidelsky, House of Lords, UK Parliament, 31 March 2011

On March 20, 2014, European Union officials reached an historic agreement to create a single agency to handle failing banks. Media attention has focused on the agreement involving the single resolution mechanism (SRM), a uniform system for closing failed banks. But the real story for taxpayers and depositors is the heightened threat to their pocketbooks of a deal that now authorizes both bailouts and “bail-ins”—the confiscation of depositor funds. The deal involves multiple concessions to different countries and may be illegal under the rules of the EU Parliament; but it is being rushed through to lock taxpayer and depositor liability into place before the dire state of Eurozone banks is exposed.

Speakers: Jenny Warfe (Blue Wedges); Jenny Lowe (BirdLife); Dave Minton, Port of Hastings Development Authorities; Simon Brannigan, VNPA Marine spokesperson; Hugh Kirkman, Marine Environmental Consultant. Starts 5.45, Tuesday 15 April, Hastings Community Hub, 1973 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Hastings (booking essential) Westernport Bay is a site of international significance for aquatic birds and right on the doorstep of Melbourne. Its extensive intertidal mudflats, seagrass meadows, saltmarshes and mangroves support more than 10,000 migratory
shorebirds and 10,000 waterfowl. Yet despite its incredible importance as a bird sanctuary the Napthine Government plans to drastically expand Port of Hastings within the bay into an international container port - oil spills, dredging, land clearing, and thousands of more ships a year could put Westernport’s birdlife and habitats at risk.

Poor beautiful Tasmania, scene of abject tragedy for the local aborigines, site of Port Arthur, a cruel prison for lower-class offenders of Britain's laws, where a still unexplained massacre took place so recently, host to a disfiguring fatal cancer among its Tasmanian Devil population, and now to have its nature desecrated by people who just want to sell houses to anyone they can and the hell with the consequences. For a long time Tasmania was the one Australian state that lacked the problem of foxes predating on local wildlife, which was in consequence, abundant. Then a few years ago someone let a fox in. At the time it did not seem like a good omen. And it wasn't.

Don't miss the Video inside if you want to know what is going on between Russia, Crimea, Ukraine and the US allied forces! It's great to see women profiting from the internet intelligently and finding a place for themselves on the international media without needing to kow-tow to any particular country or the corporate media or a bunch of bloke-bosses. Syrian Girl is an impressive, self-managed commentator and analyst on Syria, who has created her own excellent reporting service. She has earned respect from powerful people, known and unknown, all over the world and obviously gets information from many different sources. Syrian Girl is one-woman education service on Syria today. Now she has introduced the world to "Ukrainian Girl", whom she interviews in this video about what is going on in Ukraine. Good on you Ukrainian Girl! Most readers will find Syrian Girl's questions to Ukrainian Girl helpful in understanding where East, West and 'south' (Crimea) Ukraine fit in the world, politically and historically. The interview is followed by an extremely useful and well edited illustrated analysis of the extremely poor behaviour of the US-aligned forces in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Although Syrian Girl is aware of oil pipelines in this region, she does not go into it here. She does touch on it in this article by Adrian Salbuchi about her on Russia Today. This report puts the the ABC, SBS and of course the Murdoch and Fairfax Press and the Australian government foreign policy to shame.

ABC's next "Q and A" on Monday 31st March will have Kenneth Roth, director of Human Rights Watch, as one of its guests. Consider directing questions to the panel, particularly Mr Roth. Since Q and A have a perspective that often screens out non-mainstream views, feel free to post your questions to candobetter.net as well.

We republish from VoltaireNet.org an article which gives the non-Anglophone sourced version of what has been happening in the Ukraine. There are, according to Global Research 6 ultra-right members of a neo-nazi party in the current government, whose Acting Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was welcomed by Obama on March 12, 2014. Hostility towards their treatment by Russians during the Second World War and the then perception of the German Nazis as a rescue force, underlies some of the anti-semitism and fascist sympathies of Ukraine today. We should not overlook, however, the real energy behind events in this regions, which is the battle between alignments with superpowers, Russia, US, EU, and China, for the difficult to access but tantilising oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Sea, and the power to decide who dominates the countries the pipelines go through and to what destinations future pipelines will go. (Editorial comment by Candobetter.net: Article follows.)