Just another couple of reasons why I find downsizing unattractive: clean and green vegies, getting out in the garden, getting out in the sun (and the wind and rain), having a decent sized shed to work in (out of the wind and rain), being part of the amenity and ambience of the town I live in (no ugly high rise here) and last but not least pride in the work I have done to restore the house I'm own and cherish.
Comments
Theaimn and a thank you to candobetter readers
Hi Sheila,
Sorry you experienced this on that site. I have encountered some vitriol and intolerance on that site also (not by the people you mention), but fortunately that has been occasionally offset by some very sympathetic and supportive statements from others - a shame that didn't happen in your case. It has stuck me that are some very strident, aggressive outspoken people commenting there that seemed to have cowed out those prepared to have a broader and more tolerant conversation which is a shame, as it could be a good forum for discussion. I am glad that candobetter is so supportive of discussion a wide range of ideas. Even if some of them are ones you or others don't agree with - the comments fortunately have always been extremely civil to authors. For that I thank you and all candobetter readers! It is a really rare thing to see forums where people are not attacked in a rabid manner these days - even The Age and the The Guardian have a somewhat feral audience (not all of course, but enough to make the comments unpleasant to read).
Mortality declined enormously with French Revolution
Mortality declined enormously with French Revolution, along with births, although marriages increased and celibacy decreased.
Although I wrote a long answer to Ecoengine some time ago, I neglected to say how mortality declined after the French Revolution. This was the subject of considerable study and statistical definition and testing. There is a comprehensive review of those demographic studies by Paul Spagnoli, which I cite here:
"In short, the INED reconstitution of the French population involved a number of assumptions, estimations, manipulations, corrections, and adjustments, but the end result is internally consistent and logical. It shows that after a long period, when mortality rates fluctuated with no clear trend, a decisive improvement set in after 1789. The crude death rate, which had fluctuated in the mid-thirties from the 1750s through the 1780s, dropped abruptly below thirty per thousand in the late 1790s and dropped a second time, to the mid-twenties, once the wars ended in 1815 . Between the 1780s and the 1820s, female life expectancy at birth rose steadily from 28.1 years to 39.3 years. Although the wars make it impossible to calculate male life expectancy at birth from the 1790s through the 1810s, the male gain between the 1780s and the 1820s was similar to the female: from 27.5 years to 38.3 years. Although the decline in mortality was greatest for infants and children younger than 15 years of age, there was also a significant decline for adults up to age 65. The proportion surviving to age 15 increased from less than half to almost two-thirds for both males and females in the same period, and the proportion surviving to age 40 rose from barely more than a third to more than half. More than four million boys and girls born in France between 1790 and 1829 survived their first 15 years of life but would have died if the mortality rates of 1750 to 1789 had continued to prevail. Similarly, almost two million girls born in France in the later period survived to age 40 but would have died if the 1750-1789 mortality pattern had persisted after 1789.(35) These, then, are the striking facts that need to be explained by anyone seeking to fit French demographic data into the larger context of French history." (Extract from,Spagnoli, Paul G. "The unique decline of mortality in revolutionary France."
Journal of Family History, vol. 22, no. 4, 1997, p. 425+. General OneFile, ezproxy.slv.vic.gov.au/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=slv&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA20151713&it=r&asid=343345c411a8925ed1ae7863291e2678. Accessed 24 Aug. 2017.)
Roads Minister Luke Donnellan should take a running jump
I am amazed at the arrogance of the people who have taken over power here.
But at least people can see it on candobetter.net. Wonder what questions the Minister Luke Donnellan will allow to be raised?
What a dishonest invitation he has issued.
Disallowed question at meeting with local state member
Correspondence to me from a resident of Narre Warren North
The Minister for Roads,Luke Donnellan,and the State Member for Narren Warren North,Victoria, has invited me and other local residents to a morning tea on 22 September.He has asked for questions and suggestions so I have handed his office the following question for a response:
"Melbourne is not The most liveable city in the world because governments are not accepting responsibility for the impact of an unsustainable population growth rate.Victoria's underemployment rate is at a record high of 9.5%; a key measure of economic health. Growth needs to be moderated to better reflect the capacity of the state's economy".
My correspondent received a prompt phone call from the Minister's Office to say that he was NOT allowed to raise this question at the morning tea.
Chilling hypocrisy:US Forces to Occupy Syria for Decades to Come
http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-forces-to-occupy-syria-for-decades-to-come/5604774
BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:00 P.M.) – According to Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Talal Silo, the strategic interests of the United States in Syria dictate that its forces will continue to occupy the northern regions of the country, in collusion with Kurdish separatist wishes, for many decades to come.
According to the SDF representative, Washington will continue to develop its strategic policies in SDF-occupied northern Syria via various military and economic cooperation initiatives with Kurdish-dominated political structures that have been established under the Democratic Union Party (PYD) long after ISIS in gone.
In the past, Silo has openly admitted that the SDF is a tool of American foreign policy in Syria and that the alliance group is forbidden by its US handlers from cooperating with either the Damascus government or Russia.
The announcement by Silo comes around the same time British Army representative for Operation Inherent Resolve Major General Rupert Jones said that the US-led coalition (supposedly against ISIS) would not allow “Syrian regime forces” to move north of the Euphrates River (into SDF-occupied regions). In doing so, Jones essential confirmed suspicions long-expressed by pro-Damascus analysts that Western powers (led by US) pursue a second unspoken policy in Syria aimed at preventing government forces from restoring sovereignty in the country’s northern regions.
and the one with $300,000
and the one with $300,000 is the one who can put a deposit on a house, competing with Australians of similar means who are also in the market for a house.
The US has done it again - facilitating ISIS by bombing the SAA
In an area not far from Sukna, where the SAA has already cut off some IS forces, the US has just struck at the SAA, and ISIS forces moved in following the attack:
https://southfront.org/us-led-coalition-warplanes-bomb-syrian-army-in-kadir-vilalge-in-central-syria-isis-attack-follows-reports/
As it says, the US state dept has just said the US will leave Syria as soon as IS is defeated, so the focus now is clearly on preventing IS from ever being defeated by interfering with SAA and Russian operations
Daniel Andrews and Matt Guy have declared war on Victorians
In contrast to the little Matt Guy rooster, Daniel Andrews seems more homely, but he is currently the more direct agent of our destruction. Matthew is his understudy. When I think of the growing suffering Andrews is inflicting on people in Victoria (bar a minority who seem to think that making money out of development will justify anything), the wildlife and generations to come, whose inheritance has been presold. Andrews is actively creating homelessness, extinction, and the conditions for famine, thirst and the displacement of whole populations. He might as well have declared war on the citizens of Victoria, and Matthew Guy and his mobster dining companions are helping Andrew by aiding and abetting sprawl three stories high. The Greens shamefully just help suppress and confuse resistance. I used to look at Africa, India and China and wonder what had happened, not imagining the same could happen to Australia. Now I realise that people like Guy and Andrews, Turnbull and Howard, Rudd and the rest, gamed the system and herded the populations for the profit of their mates.
That rooster is obviously a politician
What a magnificent rooster, albeit totally indifferent to the conditions of the hens. It makes you think of all the parking lots as well as the high rises and toll roads that the population boosters and politicians have invested in in advance. Mathew Guy always makes me think of a little rooster, so full of himself that he will deny himself nothing.
Politicians
I think you may have hit the nail on the head there Margit! Our politicians - Liberal Labour, Green or National - are indeed a lily-livered lot! No brain, no heart, no soul and definitely no intestinal fortitude!!
I remember when Ron Casey used to introduce boxers into the ring - "Introducing Ginger Rogers, a butcher by trade". Today when introducing politicians we should announce "Introducing Tim Smith, a population booster by trade"!!
Public expected to suck it up
At least the Libs admit it will be awful and is due to high immigration, both things that Labor pretends aren't so. However, the reports we have had do far indicate that the Libs also pretend they can do nothing but manage it. Our politicians are such liars and criminals. Why do we put up with them? I can't stand them.
New Melbourne suburb, Mt Atkinson
A new suburb to the north west of Melbourne to be named Mt. Atkinson has been in the news and much discussed in the media today. I wonder why. It will house no more than one fifth of a year's population growth,
Tame audiences expected at Liberal Party population meetings
Looks as though the Liberal Party Population Task Force is expecting tame audiences passively ready to receive the news about their dismal future in a city and suburbs which will eventually be unrecognisable. It is happening so rapidly that I get a shock at the demolitions if I have not driven down a particular road for 1 week. Regionalising the growth will mean possibly they can step on the accelerator of population growth as it will be happening simultaneously in regional cities and Melbourne. After all we are used to it in Melbourne so surely they will continue it?
Peulich seems ignorant about migration policy (Lib taskforce)
Interesting report, Giacomo. Ms Peulich herself acquainted me with the time and venue for that forum, without mentioning anything about RSVPing. Coincidentally, I raised the subject of how state governments tout for economic immigrants and set the numbers for the Feds. The response was that I was 'bullshitting her'! Good on you for raising the topic again and trying to educate the forum. Shameful that you were slapped down. I am putting up an article about the role of state governments in advertising for immigration. Here it is: "Why does overcrowded Victoria still advertise for more economic immigrants?"
Frankston Lib Population Taskforce forum suppressed discussion
I attended this forum tonight. I had been told that it was an open forum, but it turned out that you had to have an RSVP. I don't think all the forums are like that. Certainly the Rosebud Forum was not. The Frankston forum was run by the Shadow Minister for Multiculturalism, Inga Peulich. I asked the following question from the audience:
"I thought that this was a forum to discuss population growth, rather than how to 'manage' population growth. As far as I am aware, all the opinion polls show that the overwhelming majority of Victorians and Australians oppose population growth. Given that the Victorian Andrews Labor Government is in favour of high population growth, who should Victorians opposed to high population growth vote for at the next state election?"
The response from Ms Peulich was that this is not a matter for the state government. It is a matter for the Federal government.
I then responded that all the state governments, including the Victorian Government, were encouraging people to immigrate to Australia and that this was evident from the Victorian Government liveinvictoria website
( https://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au/).
At that point I was cut off and told that this was not the designated topic for discussion (or words to that effect).
Population Boosting or just a Game of Mates
Thanks Michael for your frank expose of the deceit of government and big business in Australia. While I admire your effort at exposing the folly of population boosting, getting the message across to the community can be extremely difficult as most take what is on the news (mainstream media) as gospel.
However, there are some glimmers of reality starting to hit home. Recently the State COALition has been running around the country drumming up business with their Population Taskforce with articles in local papers by MPs and others pumping a big Australia. After one such piece in the Riverine Herald a couple of weeks back a subsequent edition had an article that locals in the town of Echuca were worried about available accommodation for workers when works commence on the installation of a second river crossing in the town. Ah! The irony!!
Royal Park Community Planting - you are invited
Community Planting
Royal Park Protection Group Invites you to
the next plantings in the Bayles Street Grasslands - Royal
Park
When: Saturday August 19 th 10am to 12 noon
There will be a planting in part of the Circle grasslands in Royal Park.
This is a further step in increasing the diversity in this special grassland
area. It will complete the planting we had in June.
The plants we have this time are:
Wahlenbergia luteola Yellow-backed Bluebell
Rytidosperma duttonianum Brown Back Wallaby Grass
Rytidosperma caespitosum Common Wallaby Grass
Entry is from Gatehouse Street opposite Bayles Street.
Car parking is in Gatehouse Street and surrounds but is restricted so
watch the signs. Parking time limits vary from 1 to 4 hours.
Equipment and morning tea provided.
BYO gardening gloves.
All welcome. Do invite your friends.
More information: Call Anne(RPPG) 0412279156
or Chris (Royal Park Officer) 0437925553.
Hot issue all over Australia, Matthew
Hi Matthew,
Just read the article you linked to and noted that Ipsos research director Laura Demasi,Ms Demasi remarked: "Interesting to see both groups – incorrectly – believe that foreign investment is the driver behind the boom." There are a number of drivers. Population growth is the worst: it is used to guarantee demand to prospective investors. Negative gearing was mentioned as an additional driver in the Comments section, but, without rapid population growth, negative gearing would carry few rewards. See this article: Are the Greens on the right track with respect to negative gearing? - Article by Sally Pepper.
Game of Mates - Australians can arm themselves using this book
Yes, John, Game of Mates is terrific. Every Australian who hopes to help get us out of the mire needs to read it ASAP. It starts with the property industry and population engineering and goes through a number of other systemic rorts. I found their chapter on superannuation excellent and easy to understand. I liked Chapter 10 on the myths the Mates spin to cover their behaviour. Chapter 11 gives a rundown on 'other games': Taxes; Pharmacies, medicines and health; Agriculture (although this one I found a bit light-on ecologically); Taxis; Supermarkets; and University Education. University Education was wonderfully done, I think. Much better than much longer treatises on the subject. The only thing I did not agree with were their passing remark that Cromwell was a true reformer, but I guess that's a tad esoteric on my part. We did run an article on Game of Mates on candobetter.net here: Book & Vids: "Game of Mates" - How Australia's rich game our corrupt system. The article links to their videos too. But feel free to keep mentioning this useful book in comments.
Immigration hot issue in Sydney
Being blamed for housing unaffordability it seems:
focus-groups-voters-most-angry-about-housing-affordability
Population Taskforce = Population Overload
Thanks Sheila for a very informative piece. The local member for Murray Plains and leader of the Nats Peter "Whinger" Walsh has been running a series of articles in the local papers softening-up the electorate for an increase in population for rural and regional Victoria. After several of these pieces I penned a reply to which he hasn't replied. As you say, these pollies are either ignorant or the foot sloggers for the property industry.
Anybody thinking that I may be cynical should read the "Game Of Mates" subtitled "How Favours Bleed The Nation" by Cameron K Murray and Paul Frijters. The book lays bare how our fellow Australians are sucking the lifeblood out of us as we go about a daily lives, most oblivious to the fact that this happening and if they are, don't have the will, the know-how or the resources to do anything about it. But fight back anyway, it may give you some relief/pleasure.
Catholic education proliferating
Many schools in the Banyule area have been closed over the years, in record numbers. The recent closures have released land for housing, for property developers. All the schools in the area are overflowing and full to the rafters. Catholic Education is doing well! While church numbers might be dwindling, not so for Catholic schools, They are benefiting from "planning", synonymous to delivering population growth! In reality, the plan is no plan, but haphazardly trying to manage damage control, and schools are suffering.
This means lower quality education, crowded classrooms, crowded curriculums, and negative impacts on learning outcomes - and teachers. The benefits to the Catholic Church are clear- more students and revenues from private education delivery. While the horrors of child abuse runs deep in this culture, now the schools are run by professional teachers, not necessarily Catholic. No wonder they are part of "planning" now!
Church lands were gifted by the community
The idea that churches should sell their land for profit is abhorrent given that they were often entirely gifted to them by the Governors of early colonies. Australian historian, Michael Cannon in his book "Old Melbourne Town" (1991) explains how the churches and church schools were aided to land and wealth by the Government, by the allocation of community resources to them:
"Spacious sites would be granted free of charge to established religions, and the salaries of clergy would be subsidised" pg 268
and:
"communities which raised 300 pounds in donations towards building a church would be subsidised 1 pound for 1 pound up to a maximum of 1000 pounds" pg 268
Elsewhere Cannon describes how free land was also gifted for church schools. Now this I do not object to if the land is retained for community purposes, but to sell the land for profit, and to develop land that is currently open space, I certainly object to.
Vested interests should not be in planning
I followed your link to the SMH article, what a horrible story.
And certainly, even regardless of this, it does not make sense for a party who seeks to profit from development to have a role in making decisions about what can be developed. With growing urbanisation reducing space and forcing more people into more cramped areas we need to be preserving our open and natural spaces more than ever.
Matt
Mai Fong misleads on Chinese One Child Policy
"'One Child: Life, Love and Parenthood in Modern China' RN Breakfast interview with Mei Fong"
Comment:
Dear Fran,
Mai Fong's interview about the Chinese One Child Policy was moving but misrepresented the situation in a number of damaging ways.
Firstly, China's birth rates were mostly reduced by a popular voluntary program before the one-child policy came into effect. This can be seen by a quick glance at the United Nations fertility data. So it's not necessary to decry any benefits of reducing population growth in order to have an excuse to reject the one-child policy. Plenty of countries achieved similar fertility reduction without coercive measures, and each has seen a similar economic take-off after fertility fell.
Secondly, China's economic advance has everything to do with reducing its population growth. Without this, those cheap labourers would have stayed poor, poorly housed and poorly educated. She cited capital investment, but this only led to betterment when it didn't have to be spread so thinly. No poor country has advanced while fertility remains high.
Thirdly, China has always had vast numbers of unmarried men, due to female infanticide and concubines. Many male-dominated societies are similarly skewed - Pakistan has a higher ratio of men to women than China. The availability of sex-selective abortions might have increased the sex ratio, and the one-child policy may have incentivised its use somewhat, but similar ratios have been noted among overseas Chinese.
I note that she didn't mention the enormous advance in women's educational and career opportunities, and status, that has flowed from parents' investment in their only-daughter. (This is attributable to small families, not the one-child policy: it has happened similarly in places with voluntary family planning, from Kerala to South Korea.)
Her final call, that China now needs more babies as an economic resource, is deplorably ignorant of the concept of per capita prosperity and the role of natural resources.
I am dismayed that the tragic excesses of the one-child policy are used to undermine the demographic advantages that China has achieved.
Rejects MSM narrative but still labels Syrian govt a 'regime'?
The following was posted to the discussion in response to Heroes of Our Time: Defenders of Deir ez-Zor (31/7/17) Russian Insider
Dorothy wrote:
"Regime-controlled territory" ( see map key )
"Government-controlled territory" is the correct term.
Thanks for picking up on this, Dorothy. The BIG LIE that the Syrian government is a brutal regime seems to have been accepted even by a number of those opposed to the war against Syria.
To the contrary, few other governments across the globe can claim to have as much legitimacy as that of President Bashar al-Assad. Not even the parties governing the formal Western democracies, which have shamefully colluded with Israel, the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and the 'elected' Turkish government against Syria for nearly nearly six and a half years, can claim to have anywhere near the popular support that Bashar al-Assad gained in the Presidential election of June 2014.
As cited in the article above, according to a report Syrian election sends powerful signal of Assad’s control (3/6/14) from the Israeli publication Haaretz which can hardly be accused of bias towards the Syrian government, 88.7% of the 73.42% of eligible Syrian voters who voted, voted for President Bashar al-Assad. So, of 15,845,575 Syrians eligible to vote, eligible voters 10,319,723 or 65.13% voted for Bashar al-Assad.
That the elections were run properly was attested to at a press conference of five international observers at the United Nations on 20 June 2014. (See the article above (including the embedded 52 minute video) and the original article at Global Research. Not one of the 'reporters' who had been feeding their readers the narrative of the supposedly hated "Assad regime", and continue to do so, attempted to challenge those observers on that day.
St Kilda: Dozens of iconic trees already lopped for rail project
Published 10 Jun 2017
Workers have begun chopping down more than 200 elm trees along one of Melbourne's most picturesque boulevards. The St Kilda Road work is part of the metro rail project, but it's infuriated locals and activists who say it's unnecessary destruction.
Fauna First Aid courses in Tralgon 16th and 17th September
Fourth Crossing Wildlife is conducting two wildlife care courses at Traralgon, Victoria on 16th and 17th of September.
Course costs $25 to attend one day OR $40 to attend both days.
16th September: A Guide to the care of Bare-nosed Wombats
Brief History
General Biology an d Development
Rescuing
Hydration
Raising orphaned joeys
The Unwell Joey – The Carer’s perspective
Caring for larger wombats
Housing
Release
Living with Wild Wombats
Case Studies
17 September: A guide to the Care of Macropods
Meet the Macs
Compare the Pair
Rescue
Hydration
Raising orphaned joeys
The Unwell Joey
Housing
Caring for larger macropods
Release
TO REGISTER FOR THESE COURSES
Please contact Linda Dennis at [email protected]
Thank you.
Ingredients and cuisine
There is no doubt that ingredients are a pretty important part of a meal and i think good fresh ingredients were very available in the period so despised by writers like Jessica Irvine. Cuisine is a trivial point to raise in favour of mass immigration, especially when this art form is inaccurately reported. if it is going to be used to make irrevocable massive changes to Australia's population then let's get our facts right! PHD, anyone?
Australian cooking and the coffee culture
[Responding to Quark's comment of "Propaganda boredom" about Jessica Irvine's article at https://www.theage.com.au/business/the-economy/why-i-love-a-big-australi...
]
Jessica carries on about how Australians all ate really boring meals before mass immigration.
It's the elevation of gastroporn (glossy overeating programs) to a prescribed religion. Robert Doyle, in a Planning Backlash population debate (October 2014) where he was soundly beaten by Kelvin Thomson had, as virtually his only debating 'point' the idea that mass immigration brought the cappuccino to Australia. Cappuccino is just espresso coffee with milk. I looked this up and found that two Australians who went to London and brought back a espresso machine to Melbourne and started this trend in 1953. Not Italians or recent immigrants, and they didn't go to Italy to get it. In fact, Australia had a coffee culture going back to the 1850s. See http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00370b.htm
"In 1953 Henry Cyril Bancroft and his son Peter, having visited London's first espresso bar, secured the agency and manufacturing rights to Gaggia machines, opening Il Capuccino (sic) in St Kilda the following year. They successfully set the demand for machines, which were soon purchased by the University Café in Lygon Street and Pellegrini's in Bourke Street."
With regard to the simple (or dull) food of yore: This is a class snobbery thing. Further more, the idea that Australians never ate classy food until the 1960s or so is an introduced false belief. Poor people with little education cooked simple meals, but the middle and upper classes, who could read, used, at the very least, Mrs Beaton - an English cooking seer and author of many books on haute and middle cuisine as well as how to run a houseful of servants. Mrs Beaten's book contained recipes from all over the world and reflected material from British colonies. You can find clam chowder and curries, French sauces and Italian and South American dishes. Plus what wine to drink with everything. When I was growing up in the 1970s, I used frequently to dine on lobster, scallops, prawns and Morton Bay bugs. And my father speared fish in our back yard in Sydney harbour (where I could not afford to live today). What poor person can afford good seafood today? Lobster, scallops and prawns are now all exported, and lobster is so small that I cannot bring myself to eat it, since these almost immortal creatures that migrate across the oceans have been reduced to scarcity. The last decent sized lobster I saw was deep in a hole in a rocky island on the Mornington Peninsula, and I will never reveal its home. It is true that I learned to eat snails and frogs' legs from the French diaspora post 1968 riots, which created many affordable French restaurants, but I can no longer afford to eat in French restaurants and the cost of snails is prohibitive. Tins of boiled oysters for oyster chowder are also almost impossible to get, by the way.
What do people in Australia eat today? Many eat huge quantities of cheap simple carbohydrates mixed with fat: rice, potatoes, pasta, breakfast cereals and bread to which is added lashings of corn-syrup (fructose) by many different names. The country that produced tall lean athletes raised on meat and eggs now produces obese and sickly B12 deficient, diabetes II types and we have a climbing rate of myopia, due to the restriction of young peoples' outdoor range and activity.
What has this got to do with multiculturalism? Nothing much, except its false association with a big population. The big population has put pressure on resources, so we pay more for food and water and power and land for housing. And cereals have been marketed as a substitute for protein by governments and big business, possibly sometimes abusing the concept of 'multiculturalism' to popularise unhealthy amounts of pasta and bread.
Australian aborigines had highly varied and healthy diets and were lean and fit. Until they were introduced to industrial quantities of flour and alcohol and went the way of other simple carb-naive peoples, including the Irish and the Scotch.
"Australia has no culture.."
To say that Australia has no culture is paradoxical in the fact that it obviously doesn't include the first Australians. Indigenous Australians have the most wonderful and uplifting culture that is only matched by other indigenous cultures. Their connection to the land makes their culture unique as all actions by humanity affect the land.
As an Australian of white Anglo-Saxon descent I have very little connection with my forbears' culture. I am endeavouring to learn more about the culture of the First nations of Australia and I encourage all Australians to do the same. When I pass there will be no service, there will be song and dance and the opportunity for all and sundry to speak their mind.
Maybe the Christian diaspora you believe in is overstated!
Propaganda boredom
Jessica must be getting bored with her own arguments. She even used the culinary argument in her latest: that Australians only knew how to cook apricot chicken and a couple of other dishes a few decades ago-probably around the time she was born and on a diet of milk only. I guess jobs are hard to get so she is stuck in this one.
Terry McCrann's pop article trumps Jessica Irvine's nonsense
Lots of good data in Leith van Olensen's site. Terry McCrann, Mass Immigration not working for Australiais good for dismantling the usual twaddle written by Jessica Irvine, catastrophising about the ageing population, today in The Age ‘Why I love a Big Australia’ www.theage.com.au/business/the-economy/why-i-love-a-big-australia-and-you-should-too-20170714-gxbrrz.html
Is the Christian diaspora underestimated in the Census?
Comment originally headed, "Chin people want to be visible in Australia." Title changed by candobetter.net editor to emphasise the point made in the comment. Mind you, it might seem equally mysterious to the casual web-surfer. And, is the census trying to find our what religion we all are or is it using religion as an indicator of ethnic identification?
Chin people want to be visible in Australia.
In the news yesterday was an item about the fastest growing ethnic group in Australia, the Chin people of western Myanmar who distinguish themselves by culture and religion from the Burmese in general. They wanted to show up in the census, lobbied for it in some way and succeeded. People in Australia who have a Christian background but for whom church is not part of their lives or they do not follow Christianity literally, it would seem have done the opposite to the Chin people and in a way have made themselves invisible by saying they have no religion. This, to me adds fuel to the myth that "Australia has no culture." Maybe the question itself in the census should be re- worked, so that those emanating from a Christian tradition (and whose funeral services will in all likelihood call on some the traditional Christian favourites like the 23rd Psalm or the Lord's prayer )can be counted as belonging to this tradition even though their beliefs,interpretations and daily priorities are some distance from this. The question of religion as reflecting private beliefs on the day on the day of the census has the potential to reflect a sort of neutrality or blankness in Australia which is misleading.Shouldn't those with a Christian background however reticent they are to lay claim to it in everyday life also be visible?.
Pantheism vs Christianity
Sheila,
"Christians placed their god outside the universe and thereby distanced themselves from the earth." - perhaps some people think that, I am not sure Christians do. Christians placed God in the heart of man (i.e each individual) as a spirit to be experienced very personally as love, and in the voice of conscience, rather than in material things - those are just to be seen as His works. To visualise God, a Christian would bring to mind the person of Christ - as someone like themselves - humble, meek, suffering, rather than some super human deity like Thor.
Chesterton describes Christianity as follows:
"Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete."
"Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point -- and does not break."
" [...] the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God. And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay (the matter grows too difficult for human speech), but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist.”
And Chesterton compares the Panthiest view with the Christian view in this way:
"The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. "
"Nature was a solemn mother to the worshipers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.”
Religion with morality, pantheism, order without gods
Okay, Matthew, I looked at it. Very clear vid. Thanks. I don't get, however, CS Lewis's argument that he (a) was pantheist but worried that the world was cruel and injust and the universe therefore senseless (b) therefore became a Christian. Because if he was a pantheist, he would not feel that the world was cruel and injust; he would feel perhaps that there was cruelty and injustice from certain perspectives, without it invalidating the universe, but being a pantheist, he would assume that the god he believed in would not be interested in CS Lewis's perspective alone.
Also, pantheists, according to Lewis, believe that God is in everything, whereas Christians, according to Lewis, think that God is only in the bits their religion deems 'good'. This reminds me of something that Durkheim wrote, that non-heirarchical peoples had local gods that were a reflection of their tribe and its environment and not separate, and Ancient Greeks, more hierarchical, removed their gods to a mountain nearby, but Christians placed their god outside the universe and thereby distanced themselves from the earth.
I think that the belief in a God the father that is a moral force derives from a human family view of the universe, with the earthly children seeking approval and reassurance from that father. But others - the pantheistic and the atheists and non-theists presumably can see that there is order there and thermodynamic etc rules, and animal including human rules, which include justice.
Religion and belief can be separate
Regarding: "Does no-one else conceive of the idea of a universal force that has no interest in how we behave? Or Mother Nature who rules through the laws of thermodynamics, strictly impersonally?"
I think this is called "Pantheism". C. S Lewis discussed these different conceptions of God in the following
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaGwF7A79_w
Religion and belief can be separate
It seems to me that there is a difference between an individual belief in a god or gods (belief) and a group believing that these gods hand down a particular moral code (religion). Religious beliefs can be used to manipulate people by those who claim to have special information from gods. Religions are kind of like governments. Progress is a religion. Does no-one else conceive of the idea of a universal force that has no interest in how we behave? Or Mother Nature who rules through the laws of thermodynamics, strictly impersonally? (And 'smart cities' engineers who tell us they can control nature.) (It is late, I may be raving.)
Irreligious
John, you say "you don't need to be religious to be able to love and respect others, you don't need to be religious to be an honest and decent person and you don't need to be religious to do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Quite right. But being religious does not prevent you being these things either. One underlying principle of our society is that people can express and defend their ideas and beliefs - without this we can hardly be human. So please do not admonish people for expressing and arguing their beliefs. I am Christian, but I would not say that an athiest, or someone from any other religion should just 'agree to disagree', as in effect that means telling people to shut up.
Matt
Irreligious
As a person who is irreligious and who finds those who are religious (atheists included) confused, garrulous and way over the top, it's time to start loving their fellow man. This diatribe that my religion is better than yours is discriminatory in every aspect.
Your religion or the lack of it is entirely a personal thing whatever it may be. You don't need to be religious to be able to love and respect others, you don't need to be religious to be an honest and decent person and you don't need to be religious to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Why do we have to categorise people? Putting them into little boxes - "this goes with this and this goes with that......" I prefer to take people on face value, if I don't agree with something that they say, do or believe and if it is not against the law of the land then so be it. Agree to disagree and get on with your life and let them get on with theirs. Forgive and forget!
Athiests and Christian culture
I been watching a series covering the period of Alfred the Great. His was the last little Kingdom (Wessex) still standing as the Pagan Vikings gradually subdued England. By some miracle, Alfred managed not only to resist the vikings, but subdue them, and in doing so united England under one King. It is an amazing story, he was very pious and he converted the Pagan king whom he defeated into Christianity, thus moving England from Paganism to Christianity. And doing so getting rid of a lot of savagery and superstition. The series is called "The Last Kingdom" if anyone is interested, it is a bit Hollywoodised (actually a British production I think), but follows the basic historical story fairly well as we know it today. And yes, it shared culture that binds people. Who would fight for globalism? or a global state?
Atheists conversions?
Some of these atheists are keen to convert people to their non-belief, to "believe" and follow in their vacuum. It's a type of spiritual Terra Nullius, of nobody owning the land, in this case our religious cultural landscape, or heritage. This is about enabling governments to displace our original occupants with and overlay of foreign culture, and endorsing Multiculturalism. If we are a blank canvas, we can be displaced by foreign cultures and religions, and thus support more immigration. More than people losing faith, immigration has diluted our original Christian background.
At the corner of Bligh and Hunter Streets on Sunday 3rd February 1788, the first Christian church service was held in the Colony of New South Wales. After Revd Johnson returned to England, the colony of New South Wales was fortunate to receive as a chaplain the Revd Samuel Marsden. Marsden was a man of great faith with a strong desire to serve God.
The only other spirituality was that of Indigenous peoples. There's always been a faithful remnant of believers, even though church attendance in some denominations has declined, but churches have transformed remarkably over the years. Many now are non-denomination, without the rituals and traditions of older churches.
Seems that the atheists would want to encourage more people to their "church" of no-religion? Some are more evangelical than religious people!
JFK likened to Trump, Obama, Clinton, the Bushes, Nixon & LBJ!?
The following comment was
1. Recycling the smear/beat-up used by the mainstream media against Donald Trump during the 2016 Presidential campaign: "Trump seems to exhibit a paraphilia for female blood, a kind of sexual obsession that psychologists call 'Hematolagnia' …"; and, more seriously;
2. Likening the kind, visionary and heroic President John F. Kennedy to his successors including LBJ and Nixon. Amongst JFK's many gifts to humanity, included preventing his Joint Chiefs of Staff from launching thermo-nuclear war on at least two occasions. In contrast, his successors LBJ and Nixon escalated the United States' war against Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, whilst continuing their interference and support for colonialism elsewhere.
21st Century Wire wrote: "[the anti-war movement] disgracefully refused to confront wars launched by liberal politicians from JFK to Obama."
Is it right to liken John F. Kennedy, murdered by the deep state on 22 November 1963, to the warmongers Johnson, Nixon, etc. (even if only in passing)?
(Spoiler warning: Reading the quote below undermine the dramatic impact of "General Giap Knew" (30/8/2013) by Mani Kang at https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/general-giap-knew)
In fact, as attested to in 2011 by Vo Hong Nam, youngest son of Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap (1911-2013), the victor of the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu against the French colonialists:
"President Kennedy was withdrawing from Vietnam in late 1963. President Kennedy was finally changing his foreign policy in regards to Vietnam in 1963. ... President Kennedy was withdrawing from Vietnam in late 1963."
The commander in chief of the Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NLF) knew that President John F, Kennedy intended, upon re-election in January 1965, to withdraw all U.S. armed forces from Vietnam. Sadly, JFK's murder on 22 November 1963 prevented that and as a result more than 2 million more Indochinese were to die by 1975.
In the 1950's Senator John F. Kennedy also spoke up against the French Colonial war in Algeria. Senator Kennedy changed the U.S. policy of support for the French colonialists to neutrality. In 1960, as described by Ted Sorrenson in his 1965 biography "Kennedy", Algerian FLN independence fighters told visiting journalists that they were closely watching the U.S. Presidential race in the hope that JFK would win.
In January 1961, after JFK became President, U.S. foreign policy changed to support the Algerian FLN independence fighters.
Were JFK alive today he would undoubtedly oppose the United States' aggression, whether actual or through terrorist proxies, against Syria.
re form follows function
At the risk of seeming to start an esoteric aesthetic discussion which could bury the important points made in this video, the principle of form follows function can lead to excellent aesthetic results. The problem with the mega buildings which are the targets of this commentator is that the function which they are often trying to fulfil is not justifiable in the first place. How can a good result be obtained when it is seen as necessary to treat people as files and therefore store them in buildings based on filing cabinets? One needs to look at the complexity of what functions a building for people really needs to fulfil. These "storage units" would fail on many counts e.g connection with the outside, connection with neighbours, facilitating autonomy or control over immediate environment. There would be many other requirements for a reasonable quality of life and if these functions were built in the buildings would look very different. The problem is that the number of inhabitants seems often to be the only function that is satisfied and of course you end up with a soul-less monstrosity that is not even safe.
Modern Architecture
So true - this should have been a huge social issue a long time ago. Architectural schools seem to destroy creativity - why do al modern houses and other buildings look the same? Big ugly boxes. Is there no one who comes out of archicture school who does not adore and worship boxes? What sort of mental lobotomy do they go through in their 5 years of training?
And the press presents these things as though people want them - an example from today's paper:
"on how our appetite for high-density living is transforming Melbourne and Sydney."
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/2016-census-the-high-density-lifestyle-...
Being forced into high-density living because that is all that is available or can afforded. Suits investors, and developers who can sell more apartments if they are stacked up high.
And why do we have graffiti - what a weird behaviour, I think the video is right - young people look at these impersonal buildings and can think that they deserve nothing better than to be painted in a way that reflects their soullessness.
The building builder wanted to make a statement of slef adoration and power, The graffiti tagger uses that as acanvas to make their own narcissistic statement.
Matt
Julian Assange names and shames people sending him death threats
From article of 1 July 2017 by Adam Garrie:
Some people think that telling the truth is a crime and they apparently want to take the lawlessness into their own hands.
He has been re-posting them with the hashtag #tolerantliberal.
He finished the day’s Tweets summarising his views on the maddening death threats against him in the following way, …
Crammed!
Thanks William! In a first for The Age Ben Schneiders and Royce Millar have an article, "Crammed", on the front page of a Fairfax newspaper. Well worth the read, go to: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/4-million-5-million-8-million-how-big-...
Religion is also culture
I wonder what the question is trying to know about people in Australia. There would be many who have e.g a Christian background, are familiar with many of the stories in The Bible, New and Old Testament and the gospels but don't think about them from one month to the next. They will have attended many church services but not regularly for many years, be quite familiar with the rituals and conventions and be very attached to the music. They may also pay lip service to traditions such as Easter and Christmas, yet, not have any firm conviction that Heaven or Hell await them depending on behaviour, nor indeed that there is any God in the sense of a focussed deity. There are e.g Jewish people in a similar boat who may, despite being non-believers in God have varying associations with their their traditions. Should they consider themselves atheists or Jews? It's rather line- ball I would have thought and these examples are really 2 distinct groups. The question in isolation has the potential to be rather culture- denying. It would be interesting to know the religious tradition most associated with the ones who identify as atheist. Whether or not you claim to be an atheist depends on your own definition and is really a private matter. I could bet that after i die that I will cease to have any further consciousness for all eternity (and I think that this is most likely) but I am not completely divorced from the religious tradition that is undeniably part of my upbringing. What answer did I give to this question on the census? I honestly can't remember!
Age article railroads 'population debate' but you can comment
The "Age" has an article that attempts to railroad population debate to the decentralisation 'option' that government and opposition currently push as a pretend alternative to urban densification. There are very few comments, but this would be a good forum, since they don't seem to be censoring comments and I was able to get some useful URLs in. You do have to register to comment, but you don't have to pay.
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/the-population-debate...
I sent this. I thought it would not be published, but it has been:
"There is a great deal of objection to the issue of the engineering of Australia's population upwards by the state, on sites which include https://candobetter.net and macrobusiness. (Note that despite state pretence that it is the federal government that organises immigration, all states continually advertise for economic immigrants at sites like https://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au/.) When 'population debate' is presented as only about 'decentralisation' as in the above article, well, it pre-empts any serious discussion on a problem that will ultimately threaten survival. It is hardly worth reading the Age on the matter, because the Age functions as a growth-propaganda organ, historically in like with its global property dot com interests as well as its corporate mouthpiece role. Ordinary people are terribly worried about what is being imposed on them undemocratically, at growing financial, environmental and self-determination cost in guise as 'smart cities' or 'decentralisation'. (Whose city is it?) A proactive Bill of Residents' Rights has been devised by members of Planning Backlash and it asks that our population growth be scaled back to the OECD average, which is far less than our current rate, as well as demanding a raft of essential property rights. Wildlife carers are dismayed at the uselessness of Victoria's wildlife protection legislation and the carnage created by expanding road system - yet blamed on the wildlife themselves. Our leaders seem to identify with other 'elites' and against the rest of us. And the ultimate hypocrisy are the obscene wars we pursue in the Middle East then pretend that the flight of refugees and economic migrants from these destroyed economies has nothing to do with US-NATO policy or the history of intervention in this region, in a continuation of brutal trade-wars."
Committee of Melbourne
Yes, VivKay when I read that proposal for Mega Councils - I thought the same - a further dilution of democracy. And I am not at all convinced that costs would reduce, it would over time just become another impenetrable bureaucracy. Certainly it would be more efficient at developing the few remaining open spaces that we have left. That seemed to be the main intention of the whole proposal. Personally I think there should be a complete ban on the further sale of public lands - nay -that is not enough - we should be seeking to increase open public spaces every year - particularly if they are going to be forcing more people into communities.
Anyway, the whole system is completely unsustainable and when the final collapse comes, our urban populations will realise they cannot feed themselves, that their homes are unliveable without air-conditioning and electric heating, and there will be mass migrations away from the cities, no doubt across farmland, damaging food supplies even further. Future generations will avoid the dangerous collapsing structures of our cities which they will not the have the resources to dismantle, and thousands of years from now they will be sad reminders of mankind's worst period of greed, selfishness and folly.
Matt
Committee of Melbourne's own backlash
Community planning backlash groups who refuse to recognise the pressure of high population growth on what's now called "planning" are being deliberately ignorant, and contradictory. They are nothing more than NIMBYs, who would like to protect their own backyards, heritage and quality of life, and would rather the unwanted "growth" goes elsewhere! They are being rather exclusive and elitist.
The Committee of Melbourne is now in their own backlash and suggest one big Council for greater Melbourne. This would stifle community groups, with David and Goliath scenario. The more of us there are, the less power and significance each of us has.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/future-melbourne/committee-for...
A “greater Melbourne council” covering the entire city, or a handful of super councils, could be created to deliver rates savings to residents and help the city thrive, Committee for Melbourne boss Martine Letts said.
“We believe a new system of local government that creates economy of scale through collaboration is essential for service delivery and sustainability,’’ Ms Letts told the Herald Sun.'
This committee of property developers would not suggest anything that was not directly in their interests.
Sleep walkers and boiling frogs
Oh, I think the people are well aware that the temperature of water is already decidely uncomfortable, we just have no idea of what to do about it - our leaders and our elite rich act like an Alien species that will not have to suffer the consequences of what is happening to our society - so from that front there is no hope. So what to do? Unless everyone is prepared to risk life and limb in turning away from our current institutions, i.e stopping participating in them, and creating new, citizen controlled institutions, then things will continually deteriorate until uncontrollable violence and unpleasant lawlessness breaks out (as opposed to the possibly more pleasant wallking away from current system laws, created by the elites, towards real citizen created laws).
No risk investment
Foreign investors obviously would not be getting into Australian property markets if it were not for high population growth. The same goes for any investor, using negative gearing. Those in positions of influence who get quoted in the mainstream media and who blame these factors in isolation from investor-friendly high population growth are being disingenuous. Those who repeat these arguments as though they alone hold the solution to planning woes and unaffordable housing are falling to analyse the situation. Investment is supposed to hold some risk but there is no risk in today's big city Australian property market.
Quality of life
It is interesting that the GDP per capita graph shows a 14% rise in Australia (and a 43% rise in Estonia which has negative population growth). GDP per capita supposedly a measure of individual wealth does not as far as I know, show how well this is actually distributed throughout the population. Obviously it is a better indicator of how well well off a nation's population might be than is GDP but it could be that a few people are becoming mega- wealthy and others are not benefitting. Furthermore, the most important factor in a nation's well-being is "quality of life". The sorts of things which determine this, in my view, are amount of leisure time, ease of commuting to work, access to nature and other amenity such as sunshine, access to facilities and areas for leisure activities such as sport and recreation, access to affordable medical and other therapeutic as well as educational services. It is my perception that most of these factors have declined in the period mentioned, 2003-15.
Sleep walkers
People generally appear to be unaware that rights that they should have are being trampled on.They are sleepwalking to a much diminished future. It is happening just slowly enough for young people and those not yet directly affected not to notice but fast enough for it to look like a juggernaut to the rest of us. It is quite true that the numbers and scale of Melbourne's and Victoria's future, articulated by the Planning Minister on ABC radio the other day would not have been broached 20 years ago. The forces of growth have built up to them so that with each wave of increase of the expectation of Melbourne's future size, the populace is to an extent desensitised and thus the tolerance to the growthist ambitions by the public and the media are ratcheted up. It's an example of the frog expiring in the water as it gradually comes to the boil. (as opposed to jumping out of already boiling water and surviving) If people thought that they actually had rights to be passed on to future generations then they would know if they were being breeched or if they didn't it could be pointed out.
Creating a new political process
I appreciate your comment on my article, VivKay. It is difficult for people to understand how they might create a new process and to give up entirely on the hand-me-down pretend process we currently have.
Ellen José EAM send-off, Friday June 16, 2017, Ricketts Point
Family, friends and all those people Ellen has touched
during her full and fruitful life are invited to attend a
celebration of her life commencing at:
1pm at Ricketts Point, Beaumaris,
(Next to her sculpture Boon Wurrung Blossom)
Wear a splash of blue
Bring flowers from your garden.
The mouse is finally roaring
The public have been complacent and compliant so far in allowing property developers and other industries to assume they can use our established suburbs, change them, for their own vested interests. We might accept *some* population growth, natural growth, at some point in time. BUT, what we have now is our cities being flooded by people, for "diversity", specifically to keep up the Great Housing Ponzi scheme flowing with profits that rise to the top!
Great to see a model of protest, and their Rights established. Unless residents become self-determining and authoritative, the rort will continue and our heritage buried under high density housing, endless towers and apartments. Quality of life is diminishing and Planning Backlash can set a standard, and process and a model that can be copied, used and implemented in other suburbs, cities and States!
In fact Pearl Harbour helped prevent the triumph of Nazi Germany
It's unfortunate that Pearl Harbour is included above as an example of the United States government lying to its people to justify war. Whilst it is true that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (FDR's) claim that he was surprised by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was a lie, it should not be included in this list.
FDR realised months before Pearl Harbour that if the United States did not enter the war then raging in Europe, particularly after 22 June 1941 in the Soviet Union, then Hitler would win the war and humanity would descend in to a new age of barbarism.
Unlike the case for all the other wars listed above, all of humanity, including the people of the United States, had a vital stake in the outcome of that war.
However, given that there were powerful vested interests in the United States that sided with Hitler, FDR could not see how the United States' people, rightly angry about the needless First World War slaughter, including the loss of 117,000 American lives, were going to be convinced by reasoned argument in sufficient time to prevent Hitler's triumph.
President Roosevelt saw no choice but to pull a stunt somewhat similar to the stunts previously pulled to overcome opposition to past unjust wars.
That stunt was to provoke Japan into launching a surprise attack. He did so by imposing sanctions on Japan. Japan was then engaged in a vicious war of conquest against China. Without raw materials including oil, Japan would be left with two choices: 1. abandon its war against China; or 2. launch a war of conquest to gain the necessary raw materials from South-East Asia.
The Japanese rulers chose the latter course and, at the outset of that war, they attempted to knock out the bulk of the United States' Pacific Fleet including the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise, USS Lexington and USS Saratoga.
However, the attack was expected, all the more so, because the Americans had cracked the code used by the Japanese navy to encrypt their radio communications.
The devastation caused by the 'surprise' Pearl Harbour attack was considerable: 4 battleships sunk 15 other ships damaged, 188 aircraft destroyed and 2,403 lives lost, but the Japanese failed to sink the three aircraft carriers which had not yet arrived at Pearl Harbour. These aircraft carriers were to play critical roles in the subsequent naval war against Japan in the Pacific.
Pearl Harbour gave FDR overwhelming public support for the war against Japan, but not yet for war against Nazi Germany. Four days later on 11 December, fortunately, Nazi Germany, decided to declare war on America. No doubt this was spurred on by United States' warships attacking U-boats and the sendng of Lend-Lease aid to the embattled British Isles as well as Pearl Harbour.
The above is documented in a number of works, including "Day of Deceit" (2001) by Robert Stinnett.
It is my view that the seemingly cynical underhanded actions of FDR may well have made the difference between the triumph of Nazism and its defeat. Had the US not entered the war, even the heroic sacrifice of the peoples of the Soviet Union may not have stopped Hitler. Without military campaigns of the United States against Nazi Germany and without material supplies from the United States, would the Soviet people have been able to make the further additional sacrifice that was necessary to defeat Nazi Germany, on top of the 25 million that they did lose?
I think it unlikely.
ELLEN JOSÉ EAM
We at Candobetter.net offer our condolences to Dr Joe Toscano on the loss of his wife of many years.
Ellen died at 5:17am on Friday 2nd June 2017, aged 66
Wife to Dr Joseph Toscano.
Mother to Cheryl, Benjamin, Libera and Joshua. Grandma Aka to Madison and Eli.
Ellen died peacefully surrounded by her husband and children at Cabrini Hospital, Malvern after a 40 year battle.
A respected Torres Strait Island Elder who has lived in Melbourne for over 40 years. An internationally acclaimed visual artist, educator, anarchist, radical activist and tireless social justice campaigner. She will be missed by her husband, children, grandchildren, friends and all those she has touched during her full and fruitful life.
Australia Rolls out Red Carpet for Arizona Reptile John McCain
From Australia Rolls out the Red Carpet for Arizona Reptile John McCain (1/6/17) | Russia Insider :
John McCain says Putin is a greater threat to global security than his Islamist mates in the Middle East
Following a news bulletin in which it was announced with due solemnity that MI5 would be investigating whether it may have "missed" information related to the Manchester bomber, the ABC screened an interview with the very person who could have provided some – John McCain (see Vladimir Putin a bigger threat than Islamic State, John McCain says (29/5/17) | ABC News).
By chance McCain is visiting Australia this week, talking to Government ministers and media and giving a presentation on US policy at Sydney University. He is, they say – ‘Australia's favourite US senator' – and is seen as a useful intermediary in dealing with the difficult Trump administration.
Given this strange perception of one of the neo-cons'' chief war-strategists and trouble-makers, it might not be a real surprise that the ABC interviewer failed to ask McCain what he could tell us about "the Libyan Connection". It is even possible that Leigh Sales – a sensible and experienced commentator who spent years in the US as the ABC correspondent – didn't know that this was a question she could ask, and in fact really needed to ask.
Prof Tim Anderson, U Sydney, threat of sack re political comment
Dr Tim Anderson has been threatened to be sacked by the University of Sydney where he works as an academic for denouncing their treatment of Jay Tharappel, Tutor, and also for denouncing their guest's, Sen John McCain, link to Al-Qaida. John McCain's trip to Australia was sponsored by the University of Sydney US Studies Centre in conjunction with News Limited (Murdoch's press) and the Australian Govt.
https://www.ussc.edu.au/events/an-address-by-senator-john-mccain
JFK's significance
Thank you for keeping the knowledge of JFK's importance to peace and democracy alive, James. I think you have written about him every year on this date. You are right to say that the mainstream media will continue to try to bury his good works.
Homework and Footwork
I agree with you Geoffrey, wholeheartedly. However, before any elections take place we need to do our homework and then put our homework into action. The homework consisting of informing and recruiting those opposed to massive population increase and the footwork in the form of rolling protests. Until that happens the government (Labour and Liberal), corporate Australia and the mainstream media will take no notice of our lament!
What mandate has Wynne to double Melbourne's population?
What can adding 5 million more residents to Melbourne by 2050 possibly do for Melbourne's current 5 million residents? Melbourne is already terribly overcrowded and congested. Clearly, moving so many people to Melbourne over 13 years can only cause massive harm to Melbourne's current inhabitants.
Paraodoxically, a small minority stands to perversely gain by destroying the quality of life of most other Melbourne residents. Also, given that many of the new residents will be priveleged members of poor Third World countries, their moving to Australia can only add to the transfer of wealth out of those poor countries into the pockets of Australian developers as well as to support their own anticipated more affluent lifestyles.
This plan to so drastically change Victoria was never put to Victorian voters at the last state election of 29 November 2014. Neither Premier Daniel Andrews nor Planning Minister Richard Wynne have any mandate to proceed with this insane plan. If they fail to abandon this plan, they should resign and call new elections.
Growth conspiracy
Yes, it amounts to a conspiracy. The property lobby and both political parties have huge land-holdings and shares in property finance and they run, via their governments, the state land packaging. They have urged mass immigration and disorganisation of local government until they figure the citizens simply cannot fight back. It's the British way, as in Hong Kong. Take a fishing village, fill it with immigrants, submerge the original inhabitants, make zillions through land speculation and gambling, then hand it over to the Chinese to chew over the remainder. Australians need to realize they are ruled by a class of people in government and corporations who don't identify with the rest and think they can do what they like. They will use violence against us to make us kow tow, mark my words.
No Plan for Melbourne - just zombie growth
"Mr. Wynne replied that he had so many people to fit in! He mentioned over 127,000 in a year and a future population of 10 million. " So there's a definite target to reach 10 million by mid century? That's a plan we haven't really been informed about, and it's never been debated or voted on democratically. Just what will be achieved by millions more people in our cities that isn't being achieved now? Just how will jobs be created, or will the "migrants make jobs"? This growth is just zombie growth, with no real focus or plan except to perpetuate more housing, mortgages, and give a never-ending customer base to big businesses. The Plan for Melbourne keeps being upgraded and changed, and there's no real plan except GROWTH and the struggle of damage-control - and giving the public the illusion we are protected from over-development when it's simply released incrementally!
Greg citing Ken Alderton
Ken Alderton questions Roy but then offers his own unsubstantiated assertions using unknown HC justices as reference to add authority, and doesnt qualify if still on the bench or retired. I find it difficult to believe their Honours would dismiss omission of evidence such as figerprints as not material to the case. Dubious. There are many such cases in Australia where the High Court has held the need to provide all available evidence to test the criminal charges against the accused. Also Ken says his sources confirm ulterior motives for requesting close TV footage. I was starting to think that Roy and Ken are same person, just two different days where personalities alternate. More meds I think.
Why didn't Rafael Epstein question this dangerous insanity?
It was really dramatic. It sounded to me as if Wynn was desperately screaming something like, "But Melbourne will reach 10m in fifty years!" As if he had a gun to his head. And I thought it was amazing that the interviewer didn't say, "WHAT???!!! Are you insane? Who tells you that?" And then make that the subject of the interview. But Rafael Epstein just bumbled on as if developers were not at war with the people of Melbourne. Does the cost of living and the high rate of unemployment ensure that most people with a job, especially in planning or the mainstream media, never speak out? Because most people depend on them. And, you know, one could ring in, but the liklihood is that you will be kept hanging on line and, if you really know what you are talking about, they won't let you on. (Well, it's true that I once had an hour spaaing with ex-Premier Steve Bracks, on the conversation hour, but afterwards somehow, the comments page that was published to accompany that episode, was permanently dysfunctional so almost no-one could ever post on it - and I know that many tried. http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2010/04/19/2876868.htm
Planning Minister's insane objective
I have just listened to the Victorian Planning Minister talking on ABC radio about the new planning rules allowing a huge increase in dwellings per unit of land e.g 20 are now where 1 might have existed originally and 2 were allowed under the previous rules in what are called Neighbourhood Residential Zones (the most amenable zones all over Melbourne). The program host Raphael Epstein asked the Minister, Richard Wynne why he sounded so angry as he dismissed the complaints of the Mayor of Boroondara aired immediately prior. Mr. Wynne replied that he had so many people to fit in! He mentioned over 127,000 in a year and a future population of 10 million. Who is telling him he has to fit them in I wonder. How can he plan sensibly with such unreasonable targets? Planning becomes formulaic or an exercise in geometry rather than in liveability.
Video of Saudi Arabian war crimes against Yemen
The video embedded below was published on 6 April 2016 by the Arabian Rights Watch Association as Yemen | Restoring illegitimacy illegitimately
The US$350 billion of weapons that President Donald Trump recently announced that he will be selling to the Saudi dictatorship will be used by them to inflict yet more of the sort of crimes shown in the above video against the people of Yemen.
Democracy??
Unfortunately, I don't believe we live in a democracy. We seem to be living some sort of cross between an oligarchy and a plutocracy with a bit of autocracy thrown in for good measure.
Orwellian or just plain stupid?
How can we possibly accept populism within a democracy?
Ummmm... because that, essentially, is the nature of democracy?
Not 'New Improved Democracy'!
Faster and cleaner than the real thing.
And so, so convenient.
There's no need to think - we have experts who'll do that for you.
Just relax.
Actually the elite will do that for you too. You get back to your work and worry. The rent and utilities won't pay themselves, y'know.
It could be worse - you could have to work at the 457/11
Turnbull sacrifices turtles to the Adani God
Down the slippery slope we go:
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/mockery-turnbull-government-quietly-cu...
With enough sacrifice of public benefit, we will conjure JOBS… maybe.
Capitalism seems to make war on citizens and nature inevitable
It is a great source of anxiety and grief to me when I go into my front or back yard to think that the whole thing might be destroyed by bulldozers and to imagine the distress of the birds and small animals who have found refuge here for many generations. It seems that what the Victorian State Government is organising is tantamount to war against Victorian citizens and nature. I cannot imagine how it has come to this, except through capitalism, which seems to reward the powerful with almost direct lines to money-making so that they repeat certain actions again and again to ensure more money, like so many rats focusing on pellet rewards for repetitive actions, or pokie-addicts pulling the lever. Examples of ways to milk the increasing public herd either privately or publicly are constant road building, suburb construction, rent from high rise parking lots, toll roads, mass production of disposable items to cause continuous repurchase, and weapons sales for wars, always engendering the need and desire for more. And these criminal scams are normalised in our society through the mainstream press, which is like a multi-stream vehicle manipulating the market for those able to exploit and become addicted to simplistic exploitative scams.
Suburban transformation
If the rate of demolition and redevelopment accelerates as these plans indicate, especially with the fence to fence cavernous excavations for underground garages then apart from all the loss of trees directly from demotion sites I cannot see how how trees in nearby gardens or street trees wilt be able to survive. I think we will notice a huge loss of suburban wild life especially birds over the coming months and years. How can it not be so?
"Populist" as an insult
The word "populist" is used disparagingly, throughout the mainstream media. One gets the strong idea that it is wrong for a politician to represent or for a writer to express "populist"views i.e prevailing views held by a significant number of people but which don't accord with the current political mainstream narrative. Why would it be "wrong"? It could be said that it "wrong" because a potential leader should be leading the way as should a good writer, commentator. Leading where? Leading people to a higher level of discourse, I suppose. But if this higher level cannot be identified or is found only to serve a group separate from the masses, then why should it have priority over an idea described as "populist"? The interpretation of the will of the people by government or media is a mark of democracy; ignoring it or denigrating it is tyranny.
ABC sells growth with tragic consequences
I heard on the Melb ABC today that the will be a conference of planners in Melbourne today and their main topic will be to make apartment living more appealing since people can no longer afford houses with gardens. A female participant was interviewed who made it clear that was Melbourne's destiny. Next in another segment I heard someone mention the word "community". I thought well there will be no "community for people living in clusters of large scale high rise.
Hard to believe that the French would swallow that one!
With their beautiful cheeses, wines and general cuisine, it is amazing that anyone would try that on the French and expect them to swallow the line "France has no culture". It's been used on Australians for about 20 years and they guilelessly embrace it!
Macron and le Pen wrongly labelled in mainstream media
I have been taking quite an interest in the elections in France,following the televised French news on SBS for some weeks. People in Australia I speak to about it are under the impression that Marine le Pen is "far right" and no wonder as she is constantly described as such in the media. One friend even described Macron to me as "left wing"! Macron would not even describe himself as "left wing". I think he calls himself a "centrist". Surely these descriptions are the wrong way around? There is nothing in le Pen's utterances that I could describe as "right wing". This mis-labelling creates in those with only a passing acquaintance the impression that Marine le Pen is "bad" and that Macron is the only alternative. Even avowed feminists of my acquaintance normally well disposed towards a female candidate (all things being equal , of course) dismiss le Pen as "far right".
Melbourne traffic, overpopulation - getting to the airport, etc
I live in a suburb 50km from Melbourne CBD. Sometimes I fly to Brisbane. It is actually faster and easier to fly from Brisbane to Melbourne than to get from Melbourne to my suburb, although there is a train direct from the city. Steve Bracks' name will ever be mud or worse for having promised a train to the airport. What liars these politicians are. They do not work for us. You have to take a bus to Southern Cross, then a train to Flinders, then a train to my suburb, then a taxi up the hill after 7pm because there are no buses after 7pm, although this is a 'transport hub' where they are planning on building up for hundreds of thousands. You could take the airport bus, but that can take 3 hours to make the trip, at some cost. Or you could drive, but you have to give yourself an hour or more for traffic jams and pay for a tollway or brave the heavy traffic on the ring-roads, and the cost of parking near the airport (within walking distance) is totally prohibitive, only equaled by the cost of parking when you go to visit someone in a suburban hospital these days. As for meeting someone 25k away, it takes 40 minutes. The best bet is to meet a friend half-way. Meetings of environmental or other activist groups, if they have interests that go beyond one suburb can take your whole day, much of it in traffic.
France has no culture?
" Macron's ridiculous statement that 'France has no culture' seems overtly anti-France and smacks of economic rationalist slogans we have heard in Australia. " Surely France has been a focus of European culture, leading the way with secular government, tolerance of the persecuted, and in the arts, architecture, language, history and food? Just like in Australia, without "culture" or values, it's an easy path to globalization, and cultural destruction through mass immigration.
24 Hour Peak
Thanks for article Sheila, it's been put together really well. I have a sister Leah who lives in Pascoe Vale, a mid-northern suburb of Melbourne, and according to her the traffic slows around 1.00am but only moderately for about 4 hours.
She and another sister Liz had to take my niece Nina at the airport from Pascoe Vale and a trip that should only take 20 minutes took them best part of an hour on a Sunday evening. Personally I don't drive to or in Melbourne anymore as I prefer public transport although unreliable beats the hell out of driving and parking. Unless you're trying to get to the airport, of course!!
Leave well alone
This operation would ruin the ambience of this tranquil area. It is the first place most people would visit on arrival at Tidal River camping are. It needs to reman underdeveloped, non -commercial and wild. Please , Parks Victoria , leave Victorians this place to restore our sanity on our escape from Mad Melbourne.
Tell the ABC "Listener Survey" to stop spruiking for pop ponzi
ABC currently has a listener survey running. Consider taking the opportunity to complain about their appalling bias re reporting and 'educating' on population growth. Perhaps ask them to stop promoting commercially invested people like Bernard Salt and the Property Council of Australia or State Ministers to justify population growth as if they were scientific. They need to allow ordinary people to say what they think of the problem and they need to link the on-the-ground effects of population growth to the policy, since people often fail to realise what is driving all the traffic etc.
Go to http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/ and look for the yellow “Your Space” box in the right margin.
There are two open questions near the end: "What would you like to hear more of on [whatever stations you've said you listen to]" and the next question asks what you'd like to hear less of.
ABC "Listener Survey" on now
ABC currently has a listener survey running. Consider taking the opportunity to complain about this appalling bias re war reporting, which is doing as much damage as Hitler ever did.
Go to http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/ and look for the yellow “Your Space” box in the right margin.
There are two open questions near the end: "What would you like to hear more of on [whatever stations you've said you listen to]" and the next question asks what you'd like to hear less of.
There is an open question near the end, What would you like to hear more of on [whatever stations you've said you listen to].
I posted:
"Recognition of the role of population growth in a wide range of problems, from housing unaffordability, under-employment, urban design and infrastructure to environmental stresses and climate change, to international conflicts and flows of asylum-seekers. The constant omission, or dismissal as racist and anti-multicultural, of basic factual relationships, is frustrating - not least because it causes quite futile "solutions" to be peddled, addressing symptoms but not underlying causes."
The next question asks what you'd like to hear less of - some of you might have things to suggest there.
How could 4Corners do this?
Thank you for pointing people to the entire Assad interview. I noticed that 4Corners did an editing job on an interview with Assad where he quipped that he had not been in the prisons but rather "in the presidential palace" and then he laughed and then the recording was cut. What offensive editing! I couldn't tell if the bodies were real or not. It seemed to be told through one or 2 people- the woman whose son was killed 6 days after being taken prisoner and the guy who had made it to Europe. Obviously and tragically, 4Corners, which I once admired as reliable reporting with a conscience, has become a propaganda vehicle in this most dangerous of times.
ABC 4 Corners hit-piece on Assad about to be broadcast
ABC's Four Courners in a few minutes will be presenting Syria's Disappeared - The case against Assad. The promotion for the program states:
This powerful film shines a light on the barbarism of the Syrian regime at a time when the future of President Assad is being argued over by the world's most powerful nations.
I wait to see if any supporters of President Bashar al-Assad will be interviewed to get their point of view.
457 visa changes a distraction from high permanent immigration
Originally published in Canberra Times on 23 April under the title, "Stop the goats".
The end of the 457 visa program, while welcome, is a distraction from bigger immigration issues.
Australian residents' access to jobs, housing and adequate infrastructure is most impacted by the historically high permanent immigration quota, yet there is no word that this will be moderated.
While the list of jobs eligible for temporary workers has been culled of trivia such as goat herders and antique dealers, it is unclear whether the visa changes will improve prospects for graduate nurses and engineers.
Our low-skilled school leavers, seeking work in warehouses and convenience stores, are more likely to be gazumped by foreign students, usually illegally exploited.
Farmers claim that they need foreign workers to fill seasonal jobs, yet the government's harvest-jobs advertising facility remains virtually unused. Unless the immigration changes reduce Australia's population growth, infrastructure crowding, underemployment and household debt levels will only escalate.
[It is] time for root-and-branch changes, not window-dressing.
Jane O'Sullivan, Chelmer, Qld
RT video debate on apparent broken promises: "Pentagon Rules"
Originally published on RT as a CrossTalk debate Pentagon Rules (21/4/2017). The copy embedded below is from YouTube.
Who rules? For decades the imperial presidency has steadily grown in power. Wars today are named after presidents. Trump appears to be going a step further - now the military is being given latitude to conduct its own conflict around the globe.
CrossTalking with Michael Vlahos, Medea Benjamin, and Robert Naiman.
NFIRB gave made-up person foreign buying permiss - no checking
This article was published in 2013, but you wonder what has changed. My guess is nothing. It seems obvious that Australia's government institutions are increasingly thumbing their noses at all notion of patriotism, security, fairness and due process.
Non-existent man granted leave to buy $598,000 house
Mar 27, 2013 by Chris VedelagoRules governing foreign ownership of Australian real estate have been proved a farce after authorities granted a fictional person leave to buy a $598,000 Melbourne house.
It took less than one business day for the Foreign Investment Review Board to sign off on a pending purchase in Vermont South by “Chodley Wontok”, a non-existent Russian national with a non-existent Australian visa.
“You can imagine my surprise when the email showed up saying I was allowed to buy the property,” said the applicant behind the stunt, who asked for his real name to be withheld. “The system is a joke.”
The stunt has exposed a potentially serious breach in the review board’s online application system, OREN, which was introduced in 2011 and is designed to streamline the process and lower compliance costs for the government.
“I used a fake name, fake address [in Russia], fake passport number and just copied the visa subclass I needed directly off [the board’s] website,” the applicant said. “They didn’t check a single detail. It’s an utter sham. It’s a fraud.”
The applicant said he decided to test the system because he had concerns that the property market was being “gamed” to the detriment of young Australian buyers and that the review board was a “regulatory black hole”.
Under rules introduced in April 2010, temporary residents are permitted to buy existing homes in Australia but must receive prior approval from the board and sell the property before their departure. Permanent residents are exempt.
As part of the new regime, the government also announced it would create a national data-matching compliance monitoring program that would cross-reference applications and immigration and land title records in a bid to catch out cheats.
“Frankly, whatever the rules have been in the past we haven’t had a sufficiently tough compliance and checking program to ensure whatever rules we had were actually enforced,” then assistant federal treasurer Nick Sherry said.
“The compliance regime being announced today is very tough. It’s far tougher than Australia has ever had.”
The Chodley Wontok application was submitted: Read more here: https://www.domain.com.au/news/nonexistent-man-granted-leave-to-buy-598000-house-20130327-2gu0p/
As Pence threatens to start WW3 in Korea Trump has disappeared?!
I think the more pessimistic hypothesis given above in the paragraph Deep state victim is the most plausible of the hypotheses in Sheila's article. Paul Craig Robberts' grim appraisal is perhaps still better.
The following is from from his article President Trump's Disappearance (20/4/17):
In my long experience in Washington, vice presidents did not make major foreign policy announcements or threaten other countries with war. ...
But yesterday the world witnessed Vice President Pence threaten North Korea with war. “The sword stands ready,” said Pence as if he is the commander in chief.
Perhaps he is.
Where is Trump? As far as I can tell from the numerous emails I receive from him, he is at work marketing his presidency. Once Trump won the election, I began receiving endless offers to purchase Trump baseball caps, T-shirts, cuff-links, coffee mugs, and to donate $3 to be entered into a raffle to win some memorabilia. The latest offer is a chance to win one of "personally signed five incredible photographs of our historic and massive inauguration." ...
...
As a result of Trump’s failure to govern his own government, we have VP Pence telling Russia and China that there could be a nuclear exchange on their borders between the US and North Korea. Although Pence is not smart enough to know, this is not something Russia and China will accept. (emphasis added)
...
Camouflage
"What did Tarzan say when he saw the elephants coming with sunglasses on"? He didn't say anything because he didn't recognise them!
Which sums up the attitude of the Australian political parties at all levels, of all persuasions and the mainstream media when it comes to our overpopulation crisis!!
Typical inability to focus
I notice this when a lot of issues are discussed. The political class doesn't have that ability to follow a particular train of thought and enquiry. It's just about moving from talking point to talking point.
Labor are beginning to push NG reform as part of their platform, so they will just use any opportunity to push their platform. The LNP the same. Nothing ever gets fixed because there is no will to even EXAMINE the problem, let alone solve it.
None have decided that attacking the ponzi is part of their brand, so I guess they figure why discuss it?
I really am beginning to think democracy just doesn't work. If the issue isn't one parties have on their program, they'll refuse to discuss it because it doesn't promote their campaign.
That elephant again
Always getting ignored........
Flattr taken over by AdBlock because of flawed business model
The comment below was posted to the Flattr blog in response to the article about Flattr having recently, on 5 April, being bought out by Addblock Plus. Flattr is a system to provide any Internet user with an easy way to make a small payment to any creator of content - textual, graphic, video, visual or audio - that he/she sufficiently appreciated. It was launched in March 2010.
It's obvious to me that, two years since I joined Flattr, contrary to my hopes and to what was predicted by its creators, Flattr has made little noticeable impact on the Internet.
Instead of deriving adequate income through Flattr, each content provider still has to struggle to attract advertising to his/her site or go without income.
Those, who are not advertisers, who want to support web content producers are still obliged to use older means: credit cards, PayPal, direct deposit from bank accounts, etc.
Surely, it's time that the creators of Flattr ask themselves why it has not taken off.
The reason I no longer use it is that (as I recall) a Flattr users must commit himself/herself to paying a fixed amount each month.
Why?
Why not just make a payment and only have to pay more when it runs out?
What if one stops using the Internet for a period of time? What if over a given mopnth one one is unable to find sufficient content that he/she judges to be worth a Flattr payment?
Under the existing business model one just has to just keep on paying a fixed amount each month, regardless.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: Trump’s Military Strikes in Syria Are Reckle
Honolulu, HI—Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) released the following statement today after the U.S. launched military strikes on Syrian government targets:
“It angers and saddens me that President Trump has taken the advice of war hawks and escalated our illegal regime change war to overthrow the Syrian government. This escalation is short-sighted and will lead to more dead civilians, more refugees, the strengthening of al-Qaeda and other terrorists, and a possible nuclear war between the United States and Russia.
“This Administration has acted recklessly without care or consideration of the dire consequences of the United States attack on Syria without waiting for the collection of evidence from the scene of the chemical poisoning. If President Assad is indeed guilty of this horrible chemical attack on innocent civilians, I will be the first to call for his prosecution and execution by the International Criminal Court. However, because of our attack on Syria, this investigation may now not even be possible. And without such evidence, a successful prosecution will be much harder.”
Thank you for this truthful video against war ignored by MSM