How is our city meant to grow, and at the same time increase the quality of life, better choice of housing, and improve our economy? Obviously housing affordability is declining, while costs of living are increasing. A study by the Essential Services Commission also found electricity prices increased by an average 33 per cent over the past five years; and gas by 22 per cent over the same period.
Over 50% of the cost of power is due to distribution costs - the "poles and wires". A bigger Melbourne, geographically and in population size, will further cause power rises as dis-economies of scale become engorged even more.
Melbourne's household water bills are set to soar by an average of 34 per cent next financial year. Each distributor has flagged large increases next year, to cover the cost of the Wonthaggi desalination plant. Families face water bill hikes of up to $310 on an average bill next year, the new documents reveal. It comes as Victorians are warned of another blow - experts tipping power bill increases of at least $150 from next year.
Up to 2000 Victorian families are at greater risk of being made homeless this year because of state government budget cuts to a housing support program. A manager from one of the housing support agencies, who asked not to be named, said the 30 per cent funding cut and a proposed further 10 per cent cut next year meant more than 2600 households would miss out on help.
A decade into the planning Melbourne 2030 scheme we have seen escalating inner city dwelling prices push most home buyers well out of contention and price increases in suburbia push more would-be property punters out to the urban fringe.
In other words, the exact opposite of what the government intended with Melbourne 2030 has occurred and in fact, late last decade, house and land prices on the fringe were no longer affordable for most aspiring first-home buyers as the stock of land marked for subdivision had depleted.
The limits of growth are numerous, and further growth for Melbourne will only exacerbate the existing problems, and add more. Monash University’s Bob Birrell says, “Those planning Melbourne’s future have not come to grips with the causes of Melbourne’s affordability crisis. The provision of even more high-rise apartment blocks or further extension of the Urban Growth Boundary, — the current Victorian Government’s strategy — will not provide a solution.”
http://www.melbournebuyersagent.com.au/our-blog/2012/10/11/where-to-for-...
Comments
Flower petals and bird feathers
David Attenborough's technical team tried to show the effect of UV vision by insects on the way flowers appear to them in a show about plants recently on ABC 1. Of course we can't see UV so what was shown was an approximation of the effect on discrimination of having this capacity. We'll never know , but I wonder if birds and flowers would appear to us as beautiful or more so if we could see UV.
Dingo review independence compromised: group - Gympie Times
DINGO conservationists have accused Environment Minister Andrew Powell of breaking his promise of an independent, scientific Fraser Island dingo management review.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service figures indicate a worsening situation under the current policy, with hundreds of claimed "attacks" this year.
Members of the Save Fraser Island Dingoes group say the independence of the review has been compromised by the involvement of people closely associated with the strategy being examined.
They question the independence of Dr Lee Allen, a person acknowledged by the previous government as closely involved in the current strategy, and his son, Ben Allen, who has been employed as a "dingo expert" by review consultant, Ecosure, after collaborating on dingo issues with his father.
Dingo review independence compromised: group
Letter to His Excellency...Farce?
Very strong words indeed
"..... will enforce without redress "
almost sounds like a declaration of war.
Where is the back up?
Does Harold Reardon expect to be taken seriously?
I support the sentiment but this seems like silliness.
Living "green" is not about living like sardines
It shows how clever the media and social engineering of minds have become, especially in the area of housing. There's nothing "green" about higher density living, or amassing people into cities, or population growth. On the contrary, the most environmentally friendly way of living, according to researchers, is families in single detached houses, with room for gardens, trees, clothes lines, recycling, water harvesting and solar panels. It's amazing how humans can be so naive and so easily manipulated, and still consider Vancouver a most "liveable" city!
The mind-manipulators go to great lengths to disguise the "elephant in the room" - population growth by covering it in "green" language.
Due to the misleading misinformation that has accompanied these policies of promoting high density living, as being more efficient than suburban sprawl, the public may not fully realise the connection between these policies on the one hand and deteriorating standard of living on the other.
Australian Conservation Association’s Consumption Atlas shows greenhouse pollution per person in each postal code. Research shows that the actual travel energy used by dwellers in inner Sydney suburbs is more than those in the outer suburbs, even when air travel is excluded.
A study of Melbourne areas shows that the people squeezed into newly converted dense areas did not use public transport to any greater extent and there was little or no change in their percentage of car use compared to living in the previous low-density.
Analysis shows that greenhouse gas emissions of those living in high-density areas are greater than for those living in low-density areas. They are captive to power inside their apartments, and being exposed to climatic elements, must rely totally on power. An analysis of the data shows that the average carbon dioxide equivalent emission of the high-density core areas of Australian cities is 27.9 tonnes per person whereas that for the low-density outer areas is 17.5 tonnes per person. (Resisting Dickensian Gloom AUTHOR: TONY RECSEI)
There's nothing "green" about living in smaller boxes, and cities are becoming a tool for generating profits by growth-ists rather than human-and-environmentally friendly places to live and work. It's all about mass mind control, and clever manipulation. The Ponzi economic growth scheme promises goods and returns, but it's all an illusion.
Letter to His Excellency
AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY
14th October 2012
His Excellency
Mr Chen Yuming
Chinese Ambassador to Australia
15 Coronation Drive
Yarralumla ACT 2600, OPEN LETTER
Dear Sir, RE: Cubbie Station- 93,000 Hectares
Land Holding - Queensland
I write on behalf of members and concerned citizens, in relation to reports that the corporation
Shandong Ruyi Scientific & Technological Group Co. Ltd of Jining, Shandong, China, is seeking to acquire this agricultural producing property.
It is noted that Toad Wayne Swann, a member of the political caste in Australia has been acting to facilitate this purchase, albeit without any authority from the Australian People.
The concern is that any proposed purchase of properties of our Native Soil by foreign corporations Is indicative of economic imperialism, as such purchases undermine our sovereignly and independence, and have never been sanctioned by the Australian People. We consider this a very serious matter.
Your attention is drawn to understanding that land of the National Estate of Australia, whilst comprising public holdings under the Crown, and private ownership, is also based on a higher level of moral ownership vested in the People of the Australian Nation. This moral ownership of our Native Land is non-negotiable and is the guarantee of our People.
The Directors of Shandong Ruyi corporation may have been misled by other elements of our political caste that foreigners purchasing properties of our Native Soil is welcome, however be under no illusions as this position emanates from Quislings whom our Australian Peoples Movement will require accountability from for such actions.
I therefore call upon you as Chinese Ambassador to Australia, to bring these concerns to the attention of this corporation of your country, and to seek their withdrawal from undertaking any purchase of Australian land. And also to bring to the Company Directors notice that our Australian Peoples Movement, will enforce without redress, the nationalisation of foreign controlled and inhabited Australian land, as a necessity for our National Self Respect and independence.
I urge your compliance to this request as a means to add to the process of mutual respect between the Australian and Chinese People.
A public announcement from the Shandong Ruyi corporation rescinding any intention to now purchase such properties will effectively close this very important matter.
Your immediate attention will be appreciated.
Yours faithfully,
Harold Reardon
Assistant State Convenor
Melbourne Branch P. O. Box 223, Croydon, 3136
www.australiafirst.net [email protected]
National Contact Line - 02 8587 0014
Turning a blind eye to cruelty
Suggesting possums can be controlled by contraceptives is a typically naive, human-centric reaction to a vast ecological problem. It is extremely costly ($160,000 to do 60 animals in Melbourne apparently) and cruel as it interferes significantly with possums natural behavior, not to mention the surgery they need every year or so. While people starve, spending that sort of money on the problem is utterly immoral. Right now, hunting and a fur industry is as sensible as it gets. No-one's suggesting the animals be slaughtered cruelly (1080 should be stopped). Humans have always naturally exploited animals for food and clothing and dealing with the destructive possum pest problem is just a modern day version of an age old activity. These animals are destroying NZ's native environment (they're the facts I'm afraid) and aggressive culling to remove as many of them as possible is the right thing to do. Unless you're a strict vegetarian, suggesting otherwise is hypocrisy and would lead to the destruction of many threatened animal species. While we're at it, we should begin culling in some urban areas of Australia too: overpopulation is resulting in starving, sick animals and the destruction of valuable foliage, much of it native eg. old growth trees in parks. They've become the equivalent of rats in terms of the problems they produce in certain areas (and I don't hear people complaing about killing them). The illogical reactions to culling possums seem to be related to the fact people find them 'cute' - a ridiculous reason to not act on the problem. I'd take the advice of someone who works with and cares for animals every day like a farmer, over some city-dwelling bleeding heart who's experience of animals is a domestic cat or dog, a few visits to the zoo, the occasional witnessing of native animals in their backyards, and leather shoes and steaks for dinner!
"Asian Century" threat
China's 'one-child' policy has slowed population growth and brought prosperity — but it couldn't avert massive damage to the environment.
The colossal industrial expansion of recent decades has depleted natural resources and polluted the skies and streams. China now consumes half the world's coal supply. It leads all nations in emissions of carbon dioxide, the main contributor to global warming. Pollutants from its smokestacks cause acid rain in Seoul and Tokyo.
Logging, fishing and hunting to meet demands of the Chinese market pose threats to biodiversity as far away as Africa. It is estimated that by 2025 the nation will be the world’s leading producer of greenhouse gases.
It has been a long time coming. Beijing and other major cities have experienced dire levels of air pollution for more than a decade, but the government has been reluctant to investigate and publicly disclose the medical consequences.
Mercury emissions from China’s coal-fired power plants are building up in U.S. watersheds, for example, and particulate pollution from China appears to be inhibiting rain and snow production and reducing water supplies in some California cities.
The armyworm outbreak in China’s key grain producing areas has posed a major threat to the corn and rice crops this year. Heavy storms battered many parts of China over the last July, killing 20 people and affecting more than 3 million others, officials have said. The storms swept across 15 counties and cities, causing floods and landslides.
The country's population of 1.3 billion is increasing, even with the controls on family size. What is driving the growth is that hundreds of millions of Chinese are still in their reproductive years.
The government's Asian Century white paper will highlight the need for the country to have a highly skilled, high wage economy. The paper will identify China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and the United States as the six countries that matter the most to Australia. Economically, the paper calls for Australia businesses to produce high-value goods and services in line with Asia's growing middle class. The Australia in the Asian Century White Paper, put together by a team led by former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, says that aside from Asia's need for resources and energy, the next demands would be for education, health, aged care, tourism, finance, household goods and high-quality food and wine.
There's little consideration of the environmental costs of economic growth, and of the scarcity of natural resources used to fuel the growth.
Australia, the driest continent with poor soils cannot support a swelling population of Asian immigrants, (or whatever nationality), and supplying them with food and goods on finite resources will see our own resources fading over the horizon. Another aim is to promote Asian languages in schools. Literacy in English should be the priority, especially with declining standards in Australia. Burdening students with another language, inherently different from English when we already have a high mix of immigrant, will further push standards down.
The process of trade — particularly international trade — is increasingly challenged by environmental interests.
Under the GATT-WTO regime, world trade has continuously expanded. Today it involves all the countries in the world to a greater degree, and developing countries such as China and India have become major traders. Trade sometimes affects the environment through the channel of economic growth. Second, is whether the global biosphere can accommodate a situation of perpetual global economic growth. There are simply not enough natural resources for a finite planet to provide for Western levels of consumption, in light of the constraints of a swelling global population, climate change and diminishing natural resources. It could be a very dangerous and deceptive myth - of perpetual "economic growth".
Little "white man" comprehension of the dingo
The "management" of dingoes has been a sad tale of trapping, shooting and poisoning since Colonial settlement when pastoralists brought their livestock here. Dingoes have always had some human contact, and they were brought here by indigenous people about 5,000 years ago as companions. It's thought that they made extinct the thylaciene on the mainland, however, the rate of extinctions and threats to species since European settlement has accelerated since then. Although the Tiger may have been stronger than the Dingo, more capable of recovering from drought and a superior hunter, the Dingo's symbolic relationship with the nomadic humans gave it a huge comparative advantage.
Thus began an era of eradication and disaster for Australia’s native dog, which has continued through till today.
The dingo is a totem animal for the local Aborigine tribe. The dingo was so sacred and revered, that Aboriginal women nursed dingo pups from their own breasts. The dingo is connected to holy places, totems, rituals, and dreamtime characters. There appears to have been a close affinity between Aborigines and dingoes before the coming of the white man.
The draconian "management" of dingoes is sterile, objective and scientific, with little respect for it's place in ecology, the myths of our traditional owners, or respect for their suffering and the very small parcel of land left for them to exist on and eke out a living. Humans entering their territory need to be managed, not the dingoes.
Two dead in clashes with police in Peru
TWO people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a clash between police and vendors protesting plans to move a wholesale food market.
Some 5,000 police officers were deployed to La Parada, a wholesale produce market, after 500 police were attacked when they tried to block street entrances with concrete barriers in attempt to force the vendors to move to a different site, National Police chief Raul Zalazar said.
The health ministry said 46 people were injured in the melee, while the Interior Ministry said 66 policemen were also injured.
Today Lima has a population of more than eight million, and La Parada is overwhelmed by the demand for produce. Authorities also say the market today is an unhealthy, dangerous site run by gangs that force merchants to pay protection money.
News video shows one police officer firing a handgun and attackers beating police, including an officer who was kicked and pummeled after falling from his horse. At least one police horse was attacked and killed.
Jenifer Cunich should be first sacred cow to go
It takes one to know one. Jennifer Cunich of the Property Council is right - there should be no sacred cows. And she should be the first one to go!
Tale of two cities a happy story for inner suburbs
MELBOURNE may be developing as two cities — ''a successful and choice-rich inner core and a fringe with fewer choices'' — a government report has warned.
It's obvious that due to mass immigration and runaway population growth, people are being marginalized on the fringes of Melbourne's society, and deprived of basic services. It's a two speed economy, one of the elites making profits from growth, and others struggling to manage mortgages, costs of living pressures and trying to access affordable housing. It's a predator and prey economy.
In just two decades the number of people fully owning a home in Melbourne has dropped from 40 to 30 per cent and the number of people paying off a mortgage has risen from 30 to 35 per cent.
Read more: Tale of Two Cities - a happy story for inner suburbs
This is a far cry from the "Lucky Country" of the highest rate of home ownership in the world, and cheap housing! It has been eroded by greed and worship of destructive and dividing growth.
The Age reported that households on Melbourne's median income of $70,300 a year were being blocked from the city's housing market with few suburbs now affordable. There are a lot of people struggling to survive on less than $70k! Young people are being locked out of home ownership due to exorbitant or "improved" prices.
Jennifer Cunich, from the Property Council, welcomed the planning discussion paper and said there should be no ''sacred cows in this important community debate''. There can be no debate without addressing the growth of Melbourne into a monster - of increasing complexity, costs, demands, "shortages" due to a gridlock caused by excessive growth!
Hope for forests in S.E. Australia
From an informed source:
IT’S BIG NEWS!!!
Eden Woodchip mill fate to be decided by end of the year.
"Nippon Paper Industries expected to decide the ongoing viability of the mill by the end of the year."
This could be the end of logging in the entire SE of Australia!
Without woodchips and clearfelling, it wouldn't be viable. It's the woodchipping sales that VicForests relies on. By golly they must be in a cold sweat.
http://www.edenmagnet.com.au/story/420435/a-case-of-cut-staff-or-close/?cs=658
Vitamin C in snakebite treatment is just a dream
No problem, I wish there was a better treatment than antivenom but there isn't yet.
[Ed. Richard is a herpetologist with a very interesting internet site here: http://ophiophagus.nl/]
Demographer Nick Parr on the Baby Bonus
Mark O'Connor writes about Nick Parr's article on The Conversation:
In "Time to put baby bonus myths to bed," (The Conversation 26 October 2012), demographer Nick Parr writes:
"With higher fertility, the age structure would eventually become more economically advantageous than it would be with lower fertility — but only after about 50 years. In the shorter term, higher fertility creates an economically more challenging age structure."
Like many demographers he's looking at the proportions of those too young to work and too old to work.
He forgets the other big issue, however, that rapid population growth impoverishes. It impoverishes not just the parents of large families (obviously) but also the whole community who must, mainly through taxes, provide at least $200,000 worth of public infrastructure per extra person. On this see:
O'Sullivan J (2012) The burden of durable asset acquisition in growing populations. Economic Affairs, February 2012, pp 31-37. a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0270.2011.02125.x/pdf
and MP Kelvin Thomson's 19 March 2012 Speech:
http://www.kelvinthomson.com.au/Editor/assets/speeches_2012/120319%20grievance%20debate%20population%20growth.pdf
Both point out that the rate of pop growth is what produces the greatest economic costs, NOT the changes in the proportions of young and old.
Anyone can register and comment on the site.
Detailed comment on Vit C and snakebite appreciated
Detail much appreciated, Richard. Your surmise on the history of this proposed solution is interesting.
NEW Melb Planning discussion paper and forums website
Melbourne planning strategy preparations
Get Involved
Throughout the development of the new Metropolitan Planning Strategy we will be seeking views from the community, councils, industry, and other stakeholders on a range of issues. Your feedback will be used to help plan Melbourne’s future and we encourage you to get involved.
Have Your Say on the Discussion Paper
The Victorian Coalition Government's Ministerial Advisory Committee has prepared a Discussion Paper called "Melbourne, let's talk about the future". The paper was released by the Minister for Planning to prompt debate around the challenges and ideas for Melbourne's future. The Committee raises many interesting ideas for you to consider and there are a number of ways for you to provide feedback:
- Read "Melbourne, let's talk about the future"
- Make a submission
- Register your interest to attend an event
- Share your ideas in the online discussion forum
Council Elections- Greens betray on mandatory building heights
This article outlines how Greens on Moreland council voted against mandatory heights for Brunswick, and ditto voted against residents' notification, objection and appeal rights for the whole of the Brunswick Activity Centre.
http://moreland-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/moreland-labor-councillor-accuses-greens-of-hypocrisy/
Party politics have no place in running a council. Councillors should listen to the residents not Spring Street. The scandal happening right now in Moreland is the result. Voters should check the policies of any parties candidates represent. Disappointing for a party to be against mandatory height control when people everywhere are crying out for it and we finally have a government prepared to give it if you want it. For years we have been fighting Melbourne 2030 which has been responsible for the development disasters across Melbourne, allowing anything anywhere.
PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHO YOU VOTE FOR, the future of your city depends on it.
Vitamin C in snakebite treatment is just a dream
Vitamin C;
Another old treatment that has been around for a long time is the injection of large doses of vitamin C. This seems to date back to the 1930's soon after the chemical structure of vitamin C was worked out, and it was being promoted as a cure for anything from tuberculosis to cancer. It is still a popular remedy and can be found on many veterinary homeopathic naturopathic and other alternative medicine(quackery) sites. It also seems to be popular in Australia for some reason, possibly due to many farmers and pet owners living some distance from veterinary services and desiring an inexpensive and quick remedy to give. Various sites recommend giving large doses of vitamin C orally, intravenously, or intramuscularly. There is no real reason that large doses of Vitamin C should counteract snake venom, and this interesting site shows a series of cases in a goat herd, where the farmer carefully recorded the effects or lack thereof, of vitamin C injections in animals suspected of being bitten. Interestingly, several cases that survived turned out to be from non-venomous snakes, or "dry" or mild bites from venomous snakes or problems unrelated to snakebite. The animals confirmed to have serious snakebite died despite vitamin C injection. Vitamin C is acidic and is very painful when injected intramuscularly, and in at least one of the goats reported above, apparently caused sterile abscesses to form after the injections. Again, this treatment is not really any better than placebo, and may be harmful in some circumstances.
In conclusion, most first aid treatments for venomous bites are ineffective or minimally effective, and sometimes can cause injury themselves. Don't spend too much time trying to apply first aid to a victim of venomous snakebite. The best chance for humans or animals in such circumstances is getting to professional medical care as quickly as possible. As a friend of mine who is an expert in primitive desert survival techniques and wilderness first aid says, "the best first aid for snakebite is your car keys". Getting to a medical provider who can evaluate the severity of the bite and administer antivenom if necessary is the best thing to do in this unfortunate situation. Time spent trying to apply ineffective first aid, or even worse, self treating with vitamins or some other "natural" remedy can make the difference between surviving the bite and dying from it, and not in a positive way. Snake venom is natural too, and is one of the most toxic substances found anywhere.
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Journal of Applied Nutrition Vol. 23, No's 3 & 4, Winter 1971
Observations On the Dose and Administration of Ascorbic Acid When Employed Beyond the Range of A Vitamin in Human Pathology
Frederick R. Klenner, M.D., F,C,C.P.
Editor's Note:
Because of the unusually high amounts of ascorbic acid used in Dr. Klenner's treatment, as reported in his paper, we asked him to verify amounts mentioned. Following is his answer:
"To the Editor of the ICAN Journal: This will confirm that all 'quantity' factors given in my paper are correct and can be confirmed from hospital and medical office records. The notation relative to 150 grams represents the amount used for reversing pathology in a given case and was the amount given over a period of 24 hours. (The I.V. was continuous.) This was given in three bottles of 5D water, decanting only enough from 1000 cc to be replaced by the 'C' ampules.
"Recently the FDA has published a 'warning' that too much soda-ascobate might be harmful, referring to the sodium ion. In reply to this I can state that for many years I have taken 10 to 20 grams of sodium ascorbate by mouth daily, and my blood sodium remains normal. These levels are checked by an approved laboratory. 20 grams each day and my urine remains at or just above pH 6."
Signed:
FRED R. KLENNER, M.D.
Ancient History and Homespun Vitamin C Therapies
Folklore of past civilizations report that for every disease afflicting man there is an herb or its equivalent that will effect a cure. In Puerto Rico the story has long been told "that to have the health tree Acerola in one's back yard would keep colds out of the front door."1 The ascorbic acid content of this cherry-like fruit is thirty times that found in oranges. In Pennsylvania, U.S.A., it was, and for many still is, Boneset, scientifically called Eupatorium perfoliatum2. Although it is now rarely prescribed by physicians, Boneset was the most commonly used medicinal plant of eastern United States. Most farmsteads had a bundle of dried Boneset in the attic or woodshed from which a most bitter tea would be meted out to the unfortunate victim of a cold or fever. Having lived in that section of the country we qualified many times for this particular drink. The Flu of 1918 stands out very forcefully in that the Klenners survived when scores about us were dying. Although bitter it was curative and most of the time the cure was overnight. Several years ago my curiosity led me to assay this "herbal medicine" and to my suprise and delight I found that we had been taking from ten to thirty grams of natural vitamin C at one time. Even then it was given by body weight. Children one cupful; adults two to three cupfuls. Cups those days held eight ounces. Twentieth century man seemingly forgets that his ancestors made crude. drugs from various plants and roots, and that these decoctions, infusions, juices, powders, pills and ointments served his purpose. Elegant pharmacy has only made the forms and shapes more acceptable.
Early specifications, action and dosages for administrations.
To understand the chemical behavior of ascorbic acid in human pathology, one must go beyond its present academic status either as a factor essential for life or as a substance necessary to prevent scurvy. This knowledge is elementary. Listen to what appeared in Food and Life Yearbook 1939, U.S. Department of Agriculture:3 "In fact even when there is not a single outward sympton of trouble, a person may be in a state of vitamin C deficiency more dangerous than scurvy itself. When such a condition is not detected, and continues un-corrected, the teeth and bones will be damaged, and what may be even more serious, the blood stream is weakened to the point where it can no longer resist or fight infections not so easily cured as scurvy." It is true that without these infinitesimal amounts myriads of body processes would deteriorate and even come to a fatal halt.
Ascorbic acid has many important functions. It is a powerful oxidizer and when given in massive amounts; that is, 50 grams to 150 grams, intravenously, for certain pathological conditions, and "run in" as fast as 20 Gauge needle will allow, it acts as a "Flash Oxidizer,"4 often correcting the pathology within minutes. Ascorbic acid is also a powerful reducing agent. Its neutralizing action on certain toxins, exotoxins, virus infections, endotoxins and histamine is in direct proportion to the amount of the lethal factor involved and the amount of ascorbic acid given. At times it is necessary to use ascorbic acid intramuscularly. It should always be used orally, when possible, along with the needle.
Scurvy historically the target; todays goal of high blood levels to cope with selfinduced abuses and physiological traumas.
If one is to employ ascorbic acid intelligently, some index for requirements must be realized. Unfortunately there exists today a sort of "brand" called "minimum daily requirements." This illegitmate "child" has been co-fathered by the National Academy of Science and The National Re-search Council and represents a tragic error in judgement. There are many factors which increase the demand by the body for ascorbic acid, and unless these are appreciated, at least by physicians, there can be no real progress. It is vitally important that cognizance be taken of the demand by the body for ascorbic acid far beyond so-called scorbutic levels. Briefly these demands can be summarized: 1) The age of the individual; 2) Habits -- such as smoking, the use of alcohol, playing habits; 3) Sleep, especially when induced artificially; 4) Trauma.-- trauma caused by a pathogen, the trauma of work, the trauma of surgery, the trauma to the body produced accidentally or intentionally; 5) Kidney threshold; 6) Environment; 7) Physiological stress; 8) Season of the year; 9) Loss in the stool; 10) Variations in individual absorption; 11) Variations in "binders" in commercial tablets; 12) Body chemistry; 13) Drugs; 14) Pesticides; 15) Body weight; 16) Inadequate storage.
Flexible dosage standards explained as minimal standards.
With such knowledge it is no longer possible to accept a set numerical unit in terms of minimal daily requirements. This is true because of the simple fact that people are different and these same people experience different situations at various times. With ascorbic acid, today's adquate supply means little or nothing in terms of the needs for tomorrow. Let us start thinking in terms of maximum requirements. For too long a time we have under supplied our children and ourselves by accepting through negative ignorance and acquiescence so-called standards. Based on scant data on mammalian synthesis, available for the rat, a 70-Kg. individual would produce 1.8 grams5 to 4.0 grams6 of ascorbic acid per day in the unstressed condition. Under stress, up to 15.2 grams.7 Compare this to the 70 mg recommended for daily requirements without stress and 200 mg for the simple stress of the obstetrical patient, and you will recognize the disparity and understand why we have been waging a one man war against the establishment in Washington for 23 years.
Ascorbic acid not synthesized by man
Work on mammalian biosynthesis of ascorbic acid indicates that the vitamin C story as is generally accepted represents an over simplication of available evidence.8,9,10 This often leads to misinterpretations and false impressions. It has been proposed that the biochemical lesion which produces the human need for exogenous sources of ascorbic acid, is the absence of the active enzyme, l-gulonolactone oxidase from the human liver11. A defect or loss of the gene controlling the synthesis of this enzyme in man, blocks the final phase in the series for converting glucose to ascorbic acid. Virus can mutate cells, X-Rays can do it and it can occur by chance. Such a mutation could have happened, denying all progenies of this mutated animal the ability to produce ascorbic acid. Survival demanded ascorbic acid from an exogenous source. This is not remarkable. Other recognized genetic diseases in which a missing enzyme causes a pathological syndrome, in man, are phenylketonuria, galactosemia and alkaptonuria.
It is worthy to note that Sealock and Goodland have ascribed to ascorbic acid the faculty of being the necessary co-enzyme in the metabolic oxidation of tyrosine. The velocity of the oxidation in this reaction is dependent upon the concentration of vitamin C. Tyrosine is essential in breaking down protein to usable amino acid. The scorbutic guinea-pig's liver is unable to oxidize tyrosine except in the presence of ascorbic acid. This suggests a lead in the study of the metabolic abnormality-Alkaptonuria-in humans. Ascorbic acid administration will correct the alkaptonuria of the scorbutic guinea pig. Its effect on human alkaptonuria has been inconsistent. The reason: Inadequate use of ascorbic acid.
Bio-chemist Irwin Stone's concept has practical value
The inability of man to manufacture his own ascorbic acid, due to genetic fault, has been called "hypoascorbemia" by Irwin Stone.12 This is another reason for abolishing the present concept of daily minimal requirements. The physiological requirements in man are no different from other mammals capable of carrying out this synthesis.
Various procedures testing for the vitamin C levels and Requirements of the body.
Various tests have been employed to determine the degree of body saturation of vitamin C, but for the most part they have been misleading. Blood and urine samples analyzed with 2:6 dichlorophenol indophenol will give values roughly 7 percent less than when testing with dinitrophenol hydrazine. Gothlin advocates the capillary fragility test which is similar to the tourniquent test of Hess in results. Both can be used to estimate the quanity of vitamin C necessary to maintain capillary integrity. The intradermal test of Rotter as modified by Slobody13 is again gaining new recruits. In principle it is the same as the lingual test of Ringdorf and Cheraskin14 since both are based on the time required to decolorize dye. The lingual test is rapid and simple to perform but it requires a syringe with a 25 gauge needle and a stop watch. Since the dye methods depend on the reduction of the reagent by vitamin C, any substance having a reducing potential lower than the dye is a possible source of interference. Twenty years ago we elected to measure, as a theraputic gauge, the amount of vitamin C in urine by borrowing on its ability to reduce qualitative Benedict's solution. A 2 plus Benedict's reaction in a known dextrose free urine was accepted as a standard. This test was helpful in gauging requirements for simple stress, but not accurate enough when using needle therapy. Fifteen years ago we developed the Silver Nitrate-Urine15 test. This test employs 10 drops of 5 percent silver nitrate and 10 drops urine which is placed in a Wasserman tube. Read in two minutes it will give a color pattern showing white, beige, smoke gray or charcoal or various combinations of any two depending upon the degree of saturation. We have found this color index test is all one will need for establishing the correct amount of ascorbic acid to use by mouth, by muscle, by vein in the handling of all types of human pathology either as the specific drug or as an adjuvent with other antibiotics or neutralizing chemicals. In severe pathological conditions the urine sample, taken every four hours, must show a fine charcoal-like precipitation with a clear supernatant liquid if positive clinical results are to be realized. Spilling in the urine is not new. Abraham and Keefer have demonstrated that when penicillin is injected intravenously, excretions in the urine account for 60 percent of the administered dose.
Role played by ascorhic acid in intercellular reactions, neutralizing, possibly controlling virus production.
In 1935 Stanley isolated a crystalline protein possessing the properties of tobacco mosaic virus. It contained two substances, ribonucleic acid (RNA) and protein. The simple structure characteristic of tobacco mosaic virus was soon found to be a basic property of many human viruses such as coxsackie virus (which I believe to be the cause of Multiple Sclerosis), Echo and polioviruses - they all contain only ribonucleic acid and protein. There exist minor variations. Adenoviruses contain desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and protein. Other viruses such as that causing influenza contain added lipid and polysaccharides. Desoxyribonucleic acid is used to program the large viruses, like mumps, ribonucleic acid is used to program the small viruses, like measles. The role of the protein coat is to protect the parasitic but unstable necleic acid as it rides the "blood highway" or "lymphatic system" to gain specific cell entry. Pure viral nucleic acid without its protein coat can be inactivated by constituents of normal blood. There are several theories as to what happens after cell entry: 1) Once inside a given cell. the virus nucleic acid sheds its protein coat and proceeds to modify the host cell by either creating mutations or by directly substituting its own nucleic acid; 2) The infectious nucleic acid, after entering a human cell, retains its protein coat and starts to produce its own type protein coat16 and viral nucleic acid, so that new units can either depart to enter other cells or by destruction of the cell, thus making the infection more severe; 3) The introduction of a foreign fragment of nucleic acid in the cell-virus interaction approach as postulated by Starr17. In the Starr theory there can exist cells with partial chromosome make-up and cells with multi-nuclei. Hiliary Kropowski holds that these partial cells are 'pseudo-virons"18 and are found in some tumor-virus infections. A key factor in the Starr-Kropowski thinking is that the cell maintains its biological integrity to support virus development despite the abnormal morphology and genetic deficiency. If these invaded cells could be destroyed or the invader neutralized the illness would suddenly terminate. Ascorbic acid has the capability of entering all cells. Under normal circumstances its presence is beneficial to the cell, however, when the cell has been invaded by a foreign substance, like virus nucleic acid, enzymic action by ascorbic acid contributes to the breakdown of virus nucleic acid to adenosine deaminase which converts adenosine to inosine. The net result is to lead to purines which are extensively catabilized and not to p+urines which are utilized for further nucleic acid. Ascorbic acid also joins with the available virus protein, making a new macromolecule which acts as the repressor factor. It has been demonstrated that when combined with the repressor, the operator gene, virus nucleic acid, cannot react with any other substance and cannot induce activity in the structural gene, therefore inhibiting the multiplication of new virus bodies. The tensile strength of the cell membrane is exceeded by these macromolecules with rupture and destruction. Another hypothesis is that vitamin C acts to create new "L" viruses which are impotent. Still another, that the "binding" alone is sufficient to destroy the virus.
Promptness of massive ascorbic acid in avoiding fatal encephalitis related to stubborn head and chest colds.
In 195319 we presented a case history and films of a patient with virus pneumonia. This patient was unconscious, with a fever of 106.8"F (A. corrected) when admitted to the hospital. 140 grams ascorbic acid was given intravenously over a period of 72 hours at which time she was awake, sitting up in bed and taking fluids freely by mouth. The temperature was normal. Since that time we have observed a more deadly syndrome associated with a virus causing head and chest colds. This is one of the adenovirus striking in the area of the upper respiratory tract with resulting fever, sore throat and eyes, and when in children can cause fatal pneumonia. More often death is indirect by way of incipient encephalitis where the child can be dead in 30 minutes. These are the babies and children found dead in bed and attributed to suffocation. It is suffocation but by way of a syndrome we observed and reported in 195720 which is similar to that found in cephalic tetanus-toxemia culminating in diphragmatic spasm, with dyspnea and finally asphyxia.21 By 195822 we had collected sufficient information from our office and hospital patients to catalog this deadly syndrome Into two important stages. A 1) There is always a history of having had the "Flu" which lasted 48 to 96 hours complicated with extreme physical or metal distress; 2) A mild cold, similar to an allergic rhinitis, which lingered on for several weeks but did not incapacitate the individual. B This stage, which is always sudden, will present itself in at least seven forms: 1) Convulsive seizures; 2) Extreme excitability resembling delirium tremens if an adult and with dancing of the eyeballs if a child; 3) Severe chill; 4) Strangling in the course of eating or drinking (bulbar type); 5) Collapse; 6) Stupor; 7) Hemiplegic type.
Second Stage Findings
Other findings of this dramatic second stage are: 1) Rapid pulse; 2) Temperature can be normal, moderately elivated or high; 3) Respirations twice to three times normal and in some cases will be suggestive of air hunger; 4) Pupils will be moderately open and in some instances (hemiplegic) one will be markedly dilated; 5) Urine negative; 6) The white blood count running from 6,000 to 25,000 with a high poly count in the differential; 7) Young patients starting the second phase with a convulsion there has been not only a history of normal bowel movements but also an enema given at the time of first examination has produced a normal stool; 8) Bladder spincted control was abnormal in our cases who convulsed or who were in coma.
Neurological Changes
It is apparent that the second stage of this syndrome is triggered by a breakthrough at the site of the blood-brain barrier. The time required for neurological changes to become evident is roughly comparable to the time necessary for similar neuropathology to be demonstrated following a severe head injury. Cerebral edema exists in both conditions. In my practice I start massive ascorbic acid therapy immediately. I have seen children dead in from 30 minutes to 2 hours because their attending physician was not impressed with their illness upon hospital admission. An autopsy on one of these patients showed bilateral pneumonitis - all one needs to spark a deadly encephalitis. To indicate just how common this syndrome presents itself, I relate here a newspaper account of a 15 year old girl who had a mild, lingering cold for several weeks. She attended a dance party one evening and except for a complaint of feeling extremely tired, she went to bed apparently well. She was found dead in bed the following morning. An autopsy showed bilateral pneumonia. How many times have you read such an account? This is why it is necessary for everybody to take adequate supplemental vitamin C to guard against such disasters.
Literature Research
In 1960 we decided to re-search the literature before writing our paper. "Virus Encephalities As A Sequel Of The Pneumonias."22 Rosenfield in 1903 described a similar syndrome under the caption "Brain Purpura or Haemorrhagic Encephalitis." Comby, in 1907, was the first to call attention to the interesting '"metastic" sequela of the pneumonias. Baker and Noran in 1945 enumerated five groups, each showing certain definite clinical characteristics which may be of both diagnostic and prognostic significance in relation to this virus syndrome. 1) Symptoms of a nonspecific nature - headache, vomiting, irritability; 2) Delirious type; 3) Convulsive type; 4) Lethargic type; 5) Hemiplegic type. These groups plus two additional types, namely: 6) Chill - blood invasion type; 7) Collapse, were as we reported them, independently, in the Tri-State Medical Journal, October 1958. Their results: Some recovered, some died and still others lived as "vegetation" mental cripples. All of our patients recovered. Thirteen years from the time of the Baker-Noran report to the time of our report and 13 years from the time of our report to the present time. This makes the issue urgent. Physicians must recognize the inherent danger of the lingering head or chest cold and appreciate the importance of early massive vitamin C therapy.
How does the brain become involved in encephalitis?--some speculations.
Clinical problems such as these groups present, leads one to speculate on the pathways in which the virus gains entrance into the brain. We can summarize: 1) Through the olfactory nerves; 2) Through the portals of the stomach from material swallowed, either pulmonary or upper respiratory drainage; 3) Direct extension from otitis media or from mastoid cells; 4) The blood stream. Arriving in the brain the virus goes through the blood cerebro spinal fluid barrier and/or the blood brain barrier by one of three ways: a) Electrical charge; b) Chemical lysis of tissue; c) Osmosis. Bakay24 reported that the permeability of the blood-brain barrier can be changed by introducing various toxic agents into the blood circulation. Chambers and Zweifach25 emphasized the importance of the intercellular cement of the capillary wall in regulating permeability of the blood vessels of the central nervous system. In this syndrome the toxic substance is an adenovirus. Ascorbic acid will repair and maintain the integrity of the capillary wall.
Burns - degrees explained and some therapy rational.
In the treatment of burns ascorbic acid, in sufficient amounts, reflects itself as a truly miracle substance. In the early forties, when I was using ascorbic acid, intramuscularly, in treating bacillary dysentery, shiga type, with excellent results, Lund, Lam and many others were using, what they called, massive doses of ascorbic acid in the treatment of burns. One or two grams each day, in fluids, was the recognized dose. Burns are at the beginning first degree and some remain as just an erythema. Many times the first degree burn progresses rapidly to the second degree stage and remains as "blisters". Still others go on to third degree which usually is more pronounced on the third plus post burn day. There is a fourth stage which results from lack of knowledge in treatment. It terminates with skin grafting and plastic surgery. We believe that ascorbic acid will eliminate the fourth stage and the third stage if used as we will later program.
Burns - continued descriptive and related therapies.
The pathologic physiology of a burn wound from the moment of the accident is in a state of dynamic change until the wound heals or the patient dies. The primary consideration is the phenomenon of blood sludging originally recognized by Knisely in 1945.26,27 Initially there is intravascular agglutination of red blood cells into distinctly visible, smooth, hard, rigid, basic masses. Lofstrom in 1959 demonstrated that the oxygen uptake by the tissues is greatly reduced because of the sludging and therefore reduced rate of flow. Berkeley28 in 1960 concluded that this phenomenon of sludging or agglutination results in capillary thrombosis in the area of the burn, extending proximally to involve the large arterioles and venules and thereby creating tissue destruction greater than that originally produced by the burn. Anoxia produces added tissue destruction. Lund and Levenson28 found that after severe burns there is considerable alteration in the metabolism of ascorbic acid as shown by a low concentration of ascorbic acid in the plasma either with the patient fasting or after saturation tests and also low urinary excretion of vitamin C either with the patient fasting or after the injection of test doses. The extent of the abnormality closely paralleled the severity of the burn. Bergman30 reported an increase demand for ascorbic acid in burns especially when epithelization and formation of granulation tissue are taking place. Lam31 also reported in 1941 a marked decrease in the plasma ascorbic acid concentration in patients with severe burns. Klasson32 although limiting the amount of ascorbic acid to a dose range of 300 mg to 2000 mg daily, in divided doses, found that it hastened the healing of wounds by producing healthy granulation tissue and also that it reduced local edema. He rationalized that ascrobic acid used locally as a 2% dressing possessed astringent properties similar to hydrogen peroxide. He also reported that antibiotic therapy was rarely necessary.
Severe burns and related therapy.
Harlen Stone33 suggested the use of gentamicin in major burns to lower the sepsis caused by pseudomonas. Absorption of its exotoxin from the infected burn wound inhibits the bacterial defense mechanism of the reticuloendothelial system. Death can result either from the toxemia alone or from an associated septicemia. We have found that the secret in treating burns can be summarized in five steps: 1) The use of the "old covered wagon" type cradle when indicated, with three 25 watt bulbs. The patient controls the heat by turning on and off the first bulb as needed to keep warm. No garments or dressings are allowed; 2) The employment of a 3% ascorbic acid solution as a spray over the entire area of the burn. The spray can be applied with a Devilbis unit using an ordinary portable pressure pump. The old type "flit gun can also be used or even a 50 c.c. syringe with a 20 gauge needle. The 3% solution is used every 2 to 4 hours for a period of roughly five days; 3) The use of vitamin A and D ointment over the area of the burn and this is now alternated, q4h with the 3% ascorbic acid solution; 4) The administration of massive doses of ascorbic acid by vein and by mouth. 500 mg per Kg. body weight diluted to at least 18 c.c. per gram vitamin C using 5% dextrose in water, saline in water or Ringers solution and for the initial injection, run in as fast as a 20 guage needle or catheter will carry the flow. Cut-downs are frequently necessary and the foot-ankle area is recommended. Vitamin C solution is repeated every 8 hours for the first several days, then at 12 hour intervals. Ascorbic acid, by mouth, is given to tolerance. Loose stools is accepted as this index. Using large doses of ascorbic acid I.V. will necessitate the administration of at least one gram calcium gluconate, daily, to replace free calcium ions removed in the breakdown chemical action as ascorbic acid goes to dehydroascorbic acid, then to ketogulonic acid and later to oxalic acid"" as the calcium salt; 5) Supportative treatment; that is, whole blood and maintaining electrolite balance. If seen early after the burn there will be no infections and no eschar formations. This eliminates fluid formation, since the eschar traps will not exist and there will be no distal edema because the venous and lymphatic systems will remain open. There will be no arterial obstruction and no nerve compression. Pseudomonas will not be a problem, since ascorbic acid destroys the exotoxin systemically and locally. Even if the burn is seen late when pseudomonas is a major problem the gram negative bacilli will be destroyed in a few days leaving a clean healthy surface. I have seen eschars 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick, severely infected so that stench had to be controlled with deodorizing sprays, melt away when employing the method outlined. Ascorbic acid also eliminates pain so that opiates or their equivalent are not required. In extremely extensive burns that involve back and front of the patient, the "Hoverbed"" employed by the British should be considered. It uses the same principle as the hovercraft to lift a solid object. What has been overlooked in burns is that there are many living epithelial cells in the areas that grossly look like "raw muscle." With the use of ascorbic acid these cells are kept viable, will multiply and soon meet with other proliferating units in the establishment of a new integument.
Regarding personal and environmental pollution-carbon monoxide.
We are all plagued with varying degrees of chronic carbon monoxide poisoning. This is the price we pay for putting our "railroads" on our highways, smoking and being too lazy to walk. Small amounts of carbon monoxide, if constantly maintained in the alveoli, can produce serious effects. Carbon monoxide in the inspired air leads to oxygen deficiency in the tissues causing extreme exhaustion. The affinity of carbon monoxide for hemoglobin is roughly 300 times as great as that for oxygen. In addition to active replacement of oxy-hemoglobin the presence of some proportion of carboxy-hemoglobin decreases the dissociability of such oxy-hemoglobin as remains. Carbon monoxide can be released from hemoglobin if the patient is exposed to high pressure of oxygen, 93% along with 7% carbon dioxide. This is not always available. Ascorbic acid in the blood is constantly losing molecules of water. Perfectly dry carbon monoxide and oxygen cannot unite to form carbon dioxide, but carbon monoxide and water may give rise to carbon dioxide in the complete absence of oxygen. The reactions which take place are CO + H2O = HCOOH CO2 + H2 (Wright). Here the oxygen of the water has been used to oxidize carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide with the liberation of hydrogen. Glutathione may facilitate this cellular oxidation by acting as a hydrogen acceptor (Hopkins). Clinical experience suggests that if sufficient ascorbic acid is suddenly placed into the blood stream - 12 grams to 50 grams - that through "Flash Oxidation" a concentration of oxygen is made high enough to pull carbon monoxide from hemoglobin to form carbon dioxide. This rapidly formed carbon dioxide acts with the high oxygen tension to serve the same purpose as when given by "mask," further enhancing the chemical action taking place. Ascorbic acid will also prevent residuals such as paralysis, blindness, interference with sensations, muscle spasms or twitchings which in some cases can be permanent.
Primary and lasting benefits in pregnancy.
Observations made on over 300 consecutive obstetrical cases using supplemental ascorbic acid, by mouth, convinced me that failure to use this agent in sufficient amounts in pregnancy borders on malpractice. The lowest amount of ascorbic acid used was 4 grams and the highest amount 15 grams each day. (Remember the rat-no stress manufactures equivalent "C" up to 4 grams and with stress up to 15.2 grams). Requirements were roughly 4 grams first trimester, 6 grams second trimester and 10 grams third trimester. Approximately 20 percent required 15 grams, each day, during last trimester. Eighty percent of this series received a booster injection of 10 grams, intravenously, on admission to the hospital. Hemoglobin levels were much easier to maintain. Leg cramps were less than three percent and always was associated with "getting out" of Vitamin C tablets. Striae gravidarum was seldom encountered and when it was present there existed an associated problem of too much eating and too little walking. The capacity of the skin to resist the pressure of an expanding uterus will also vary in different individuals. Labor was shorter and less painful. There were no postpartum hemmorhages. The perineum was found to be remarkably elastic and episiotomy was performed electively. Healing was always by first intention and even after 15 and 20 years following the last child the firmness of the perineum is found to be similar to that of a primigravida in those who have continued their daily supplemental vitamin C. No patient required catheterization. No toxic manifestations were demonstrated in this series. There was no cardiac stress even though 22 patients of the series had rheumatic hearts. One patient in particular was carried through two pregnancies without complications. She had been warned by her previous obstetrician that a second pregnancy would terminate with a maternal death. She received no ascorbic acid with her first pregnancy. This lady has been back teaching school for the past 10 years. She still takes 10 grams of ascorbic acid daily. Infants born under massive ascorbic acid therapy were all robust. Not a single case required resuscitation. We experienced no feeding problems. The Fultz quadruplets were in this series. They took milk nourishment on the second day. These babies were started on 50 mg ascorbic acid the first day and, of course, this was increased as time went on. Our only nursery equipment was one hospital bed, an old, used single unit hot plate and an equally old 10 quart kettle. Humidity and ascorbic acid tells this story. They are the only quadruplets that have survived in southeastern United States. Another case of which I am lustly proud is one in which we delivered 10 children to one couple. All are healthy and good looking. There were no miscarriages. All are living and well. They are frequently referred to as the vitamin C kids, in fact all of the babies from this series were called "Vitamin C Babies" by the nursing personnel--they were distinctly different.
How concerned should we be about oxalic acid and kidney stones? A technical explanation.
One of the "scare" weapons used by the critics on high daily doses of ascorbic acid is the oxalic acid-kidney stone hypothesis. Meakins36 states that the chief factors in the formation of renal calculi are perversions of metabolic processes, infection and stasis in the urinary tract. There are two schools of thought on stone formation: 1) That there is a central nucleus of colloids on which the crystalloids are precipitated; 2) That the crystalloids are deposited from the urine in which they are present in concentrated solution, in which salt and hydrogen ion concentrations are important factors. In all cases stasis and a concentrated urine appear to be the chief physiological factors. The only way that oxalic acid can be produced from ascorbic acid is through splitting of the lactone ring. This happens above pH5. The reaction of urine when 10 grams of vitamin C is taken daily is usually pH6. Oxalic acid precipitates out of solution only from a neutral or alkaline solution-pH7 to pH10. Kelli and Zilva37 reported that "Nutrition experiments showed that dehydroascorbic acid is protected in vivo from rapid transformation to the antiscorbutically impotent diketogulonic acid from which oxalic acid is derived. Values reported in the literature for normal 24 hour urinary oxalate excretions for humans range from 14 mg to 56 mg. Lamden et al.38 found in a group of volunteers that the ingestion of 9 grams ascorbic acid daily resulted in oxalate spills as high as 68 mg for 24 hours and in the controls without extra vitamin C the high was 64 mg for a 24 hour period. These critics have overlooked the individual with diabetes mellitue. The amount of oxalic acid found in the diabetic patient approximates that found in the urine of a normal person taking 10 grams vitamin C each day. With the diabetic we find a paradox. Give this individual 10 grams ascorbic acid daily, by mouth, and the urinary oxalate excretion remains relatively unchanged. Diabetics are known for their diuresis. The individual who takes 10 or more grams of vitamin C each day will find that this organic compound is an excellent diuretic. No urinary stasis; no urine concentration. The ascorbic acid kidney stone story is a myth. Methylene blue will dissolve calcium oxalate stones giving 65 mg orally 2 to 3 times a day. (Dr. M. J. Vernon Smith: Med. World News, Dec. 4, 1970)
Why death from insect and snake bites?
It is estimated that 6500 deaths occur each year in the United States from snake bite. Many more from various flying insects, spiders, certain plants and some caterpillars.These are needless deaths. Several factors are at work in these pathologies: 1) The tox-albumin of the snake bite, like the copperhead or rattler; 2) Formic acid plus a toxin with a protein cover, called proteotoxin by Arthus,39 such as found in bees and wasps; 3) Neurotoxin from the Black Widow, the Fiddle Spider and snakes like the Cobra and Coral; 4) Production of histamine, especially in the more severe stings and bites. Wells40 in 1925 called the poison of certain spiders and snakes zootoxins and of poisonous plants, phytotoxins. Ford41 in 1911 reported three classes of toxins in plants and fungi: 1) Nerve poisons-muscarine; 2) Those causing structural changes in the viscera with resulting fatty degeneration; 3) Gastrointestinal irritants.
Ascorbic acid to the rescue.
It is a demonstrated principle that the production of histamine and other end products from deaminized cell proteins released by injury to cells are a cause of shock. The clinical value of ascorbic acid in combating shock is explained when we realize that the deaminizing enzymes from the damaged cells are inhibited by vitamin C.42 It has been shown by Chambers and Pollock43 that mechanical damage to a cell results in pH changes which reverse the cell enzymes from constructive to destructive activity. The pH changes spread to other cells. This destructive activity releases histamine a major shock producing substance. The presence of vitamin C inhibits this enzyme transition into+the destructive phase. Clark and Rossiter44 reported that conditions of shock and stress cause depletion of the ascorbic acid content of the plasma. As with the virus bodies, ascorbic acid also joins with the protein factor of these toxins effecting quick destruction. The answer to these emergencies is simple. Large amounts of ascorbic acid 350 mg to 700 mg per Kg. body weight given intravenously. In small patients, where veins are at a premium, ascorbic acid can easily be given intramuscularly in amounts up to two grams at one site. Several areas can be used with each dose given. Ice held to the gluteal muscles until red, almost eliminates the pain. We always reapply the ice for a few minutes after the injection. Ascorbic acid is also given, by mouth, as followup treatment. Every emergency room should be stocked with vitamin C ampoules of sufficient strength so that time will never be counted-as a factor in saving a life. The 4 gram, 20 c.c, ampouIe and 10 gram 50 c.c. ampoule must be made available to the physician.
A case history-success due to promptness with a twelve gram injection.
As an example of the lethal effect of certain stings and bites, I briefly relate a case history. An adult male came to my office complaining of severe chest pain and the inability to take a deep breath. Stated that he had been "stung" or "bitten" 10 minutes earlier. Thinking that it was a Black Widow and not bothering to look for fang marks, due to the gravity of the situation, I gave one gram calcium gluconate intravenously. This gave no relief. He begged for help saying he was dying. He was becoming cyanotic. Twelve grams of vitamin C was quickly pulled into a 50 c.c. syringe and with a 20 gauge needle was given intravenously as fast as the plunger could be pushed. Even before the iniection was completed, he exclaimed, "Thank God". The poison had been neutralized that rapidly. He was sent home to locate the "culprit". He soon returned with an object that looked like a mouse. It was 1 1/2 inches long with long brown hair. There was a dark ridge down the entire back. It had seven pairs of propelling units and a tail much like a mouse. The following day I took "The Thing" to Duke University where it was identified as the Puss Caterpillar. This unusual caterpillar left 44 red raised marks on the back of its victim. Except for vitamin C this individual would have died from shock and asphyxiation.
Some concern answered regarding high dosage of ascorbic acid.
Merton Lamden, a bio-chemist, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 11, 1971, expresses grave doubts about the safety of large doses of ascorbic acid taken by mouth. He gives a report by Paterson45 on the diabetogenic effect of dehydroascorbie acid on rats. Paterson in 1950 employed only the Ketone formula of ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic acid, which he administered, undiluted, intravenously, in extraordinary amounts. His results were based on giving rats, weighing 100 grams to 120 grams, dehydroascorbic acid in doses from 20 to 50 mg. This transposed to a man weighing 70 kilograms would represent a dose of 3,500 grams-roughly 5,000 grams ascorbic acid. Obviously the work has no relationship with the ingestion of ascorbic acid by humans. I have taken from 10 to 20 grams of ascorbic acid daily since my last visit to this college - 18 years ago. I do not have diabete mellitus and if I might digress a moment, neither have I had a kidney stone.
Diabetes millitus response to 10 grams ascorbic acid by mouth.
Over the past 17 years we have studied the effect of 10 grams by mouth, in patients with diabetes mellitus. We found that every diabetic not taking supplemental vitamin C could be classified as having sub-clinical scurvey. For this reason they find it difficult to heal wounds. The diabetic patient will use the supplemental vitamin C for better utilization of his insulin. It will assist the liver in the metabolism of carbohydrates and to re-instate his body to heal wounds like normal individuals. We found that 60% of all diabetics could be controlled with diet and 10 grams ascorbic acid daily. The other 40% will need much less needle insulin and less oral medication. Contrary to what Medical News Letter, (Vol. 12 # 26, Dec. 25 1970) carried to the physicians the Tes-Tape is accurate in testing urine samples.
Observations following post-surgery cases on blood plasma levels of ascorbic acid. Deduction is evident of the need for substantial amounts of ascorbic acid prior to surgery.
In 1960 and again in 1966, in papers delivered before the Tri-State Medical Society, I called attention to the "scurvy" levels of ascorbic acid found in postoperative patients. Plasma levels recorded before starting anasthesia and after cessation of such inhalents and completion of surgery remained unchanged. This has lead many to believe that surgery created little or no demand for supplemental "C". We found, however, that samples of blood taken six hours after surgery showed drops of approximately 1/4 the starting amount and at 12 hours the levels were down to one-half. Samples taken 24 hours later, without added ascorbic acid to fluids, showed levels 3/4 lower than the original samples. Baylor University re-search team reported similar findings in 1965. Bartlett, Jones48 and others reported that in spite of low levels of plasma ascorbic acid at time of surgery, normal wound healing may be produced by adequate viatamin C therapy during the post-operative period. Lanman and Ingalls47 showed that the tensile strength of healing wounds is lowered in the presence of "scurvy plasma levels". Schumacher48 reported that the pre-operative use of as little as 500 mg of vitamin C given orally "was remarkably successful in preventing shock and weakness" following dental extractions. Many other investigators have shown in both laboratory and clinical studies, that optimal primary wound healing is dependent to a large extent upon the vitamin C content of the tissues. In 1949, it was my privilege to assist at an abdominal exploratory laparotomy. A mass of small viscera was found "glued together". The area was so friable that every attempt at separation produced a torn intestine. After repairing some 20 tears the surgeon closed the cavity as a hopeless situation. Two grams ascorbic acid was given by syringe every two hours for 48 hours and then 4 times each day. In 36 hours the patient was walking the halls and in seven days was discharged with normal elimination and no pain. She has outlived her surgeon by many years. We recommend that all patients take 10 grams ascorbic acid each day. Where this is not done and the surgery is elective, then 10 grams by mouth should be given for several weeks prior to surgery. At least 30 grams should be given, daily, in solutions, post-operatively, until oral medication is allowed and tolerated.
Mononucleosis aided by ascorbic acid.
After studying hundreds of college students, Yale researchers have evidence that strengthens the like between mononucleosis and EB virus, a herpes-like agent also associated with Burkitt lymphoma. Large doses of intravenous "C" has a striking influence on the course of mononucleosis. In one patient who was given the last rites of her church, the girls mother took things into her own hands when the attending physician refused to give ascorbic acid. In each bottle of intravenous fluids she would quickly "tap in" 20 to 30 grams vitamin C. The patient made an uneventful recovery. Her mother has her B.S. in Nursing and has been a long time advocate of massive "C" therapy.
Could ascorbic acid have anti-cancer features?
Schlegel50 from Tulane University has been using 1.5 grams ascorbic acid daily to prevent recurrences of cancer of the bladder. He and biochemist Pipkin have been able to demonstrate that in the presence of ascrobic acid, carcinogenic metabolites will not develop in the urine. They suggest that spontaneous tumor formation is the result of faulty tryptophane metabolism while urine is retained in the bladder. Schlegel termed ascorbic acid "An Anticancer Vitamin". Along this line Glick and Hosoda51 reported on work by Von Numers and Pettersson that the depletion of mast cells from guinea pigs skin was due to ascorbic acid deficiency. The possibilities indicated are that vitamin C is necessary either directly or indirectly for formaton of mast cells, or for their maintenance once formed or both. Ascorbic acid will control myelocytic leukemia provided 25 to 30 grams are taken orally each day. One can only speculate on what massive therapy would do in all forms of cancer. Many pathologic conditions are cured by giving 5 million to 100,000 million units of penicillin as an intravenous drip over a period of 4 to 6 weeks. How long must we wait for someone to start continuous ascrobic acid drip for 2 to 3 months, giving 100 to 300 grams each day, for various malagnant conditions?
Barbiturate patients in shock normalized with ascorbic acid.
Clemmesen52 states that the important principles in management of barbiturate poisoning are anti-shock therapy, continuous oxygen and patent airways. Hadden et al.53 suggest six measures as supportive treatment. An intensive care unit would be necessary to carry out these functions. All one really need do is give adequate ascorbic acid therapy. One patient who had taken 2640 mg Lotusate (talbutal) was seen in the emergency room with a blood pressure of 60/0. Twelve grams vitamin C was given intravenously with a 50 c.c. syringe and then the needle attached to a bottle of 5D water containing 50 grams ascorbic acid. Within 10 minutes the blood pressure was 100/60 demonstrating the effect of vitamin C on shock. A second bottle of 250 c.c. 5D water containing one gram emivan was started in the other arm. The patient was awake in 3 hours, taking juice with "C" added. She received 125 grams ascorbic acid by vein in 12 hours. Ascorbic acid not only assists with hepatic metabolism but also as a major diuretic flushes these compounds out by way of the kidneys. Nasal oxygen running 6 liters per minute was also employed. Another patient who had masked 2400 mg seconal with paraldehyde was awake after 42 grams of ascorbic acid had been given by vein as fast as a 20 gauge needle could carry the flow. She received 75 grams vitamin C by vein and 30 grams by mouth in a 24 hour period.
Cholesterol not a problem, when daily intake of ascorbic acid is high.
Mention should be made of the role54 played by vitamin C as a regulator of the rate at which cholesterol is formed in the body; deficiency of the vitamin speeding the formation of this substance. In experimental work, guinea pigs fed a diet free of ascorbic acid showed a 600 percent acceleration in cholesterol formation in the adrenal glands. Ten grams or more each day and then eat all the eggs you want. That is my schedule and my cholesterol remains normal, Russia has published many articles demonstrating these same benefits.
Lock-law relieved.
Ascorbic acid has no equal as a adjuvant with other drugs in many conditions. With Tolserol it is curative in the treatment of Lockjaw. Both drugs must be used in proper amounts. In our case 1000 mg Tolserol given intravenously to a boy weighing 20 Kg. was the optimal amount to use. In 48 hours he was given 90 grams ascorbic acid and 3000 mg Tolserol, all intravenously.55 Jungeblut56 reported that vitamin C, when added to tetanus toxin "in vitro", brings about inactivation of the toxin. Two cases of Trichinosis was treated and cured using Vitamin C: and Para-Aminobenzoic acid.57 Although the temperature curve was returned to normal in 36 hours it was found that nine days of treatment was necessary for permanent cures.
Infectious hepatitis relieved.
Viral hepatitis needs brief mentioning. There are two types: 1) Infectious hepatitis; 2) Needle hepatitis. Physical activity has always been considered to increase the severity and prolong the course of the disease.58 In Vietnam, Freebern and Repsher showed that pick-and-shovel details had no effects on the 199 controls as against 199 kept at bed rest.59 One thing is certain. Given massive intravenous ascorbic acid therapy and patients are well and back to work in from 3 to 7 days. In these cases the vitamin is also employed by mouth as follow-up therapy. Dr. Bauer at the University Clinic, Basel, Switzerland, reported that just 10 grams daily, intravenously, proved the best treatment available.
Ascorbic acid therapy applied to various maladies.
We could continue indefinitely extolling the merits of ascorbic acid. Boyd and Campbell60 reported excellent results in the healing of corneal ulcers even though their massive doses was 1.5 grams daily. In one case of a corneal burn from the phosphorus off an old time match, the pain was relieved immediately with the intravenous injection of 12 grams vitamin C with a 50 c.c syringe. One gram was prescribed each hour for 50 grams. The cornea was normal in less than 24 hours. One single injection of ascorbic acid calculated at 500 mg per Kg. body weight will reverse heat stroke and one to three injections of the vitamin in a dose range of 400 mg Kg. body weight will effect a dramatic cure in Virus Pancarditis. One gram taken every one to two hours during exposure will prevent sunburn and intravenous injections will quickly relieve the pain and erathema, even the second degree burns when precautions are not taken. One to three injections of 400 mg per Kg. given every eight hours will "dry up" chicken-pox in 24 hours. If nausea is present it will stop the nausea. These injections are usually given with a syringe in a dilution of one gram to 5 c.c fluid. This concentration will produce immediate thirst. This is prevented by having the patient drink a glass of juice just before giving the injection. Forty grams ascorbic acid by vein and 1000 mg to 2000 mg vitamin B1 intramuscularly will neutralize the person intoxicated by alcohol and will save the life if one drinks after using Antibuse. 5 per cent ointment using a water soluable base will cure acute fever blisters if applied 10 or more times a day and we have removed several small basal cell epithelionhas with a 30 percent ointment. Dr. Virno61 at the eye clinic, University of Rome, Italy, reported very promising results in glaucoma with a dose schedule of 100 mg per Kg. body weight taken after meals and bed hour. He also reported that these large doses have proved to be safe. In arthritis at least 10 grams daily and those taking 15 to 25 grams daily will experience commensurate benefit. Supportive treatment must also be given. Repair of collagenous tissue is dependent of adequate ascorbic acid. Complications of smallpox vaccination are usually handled by adequate oral ascorbic acid. Several times we found it necessary to give the "C" intravenously along with Adenosine. Twenty percent ichthammol used locally with vaccinia necrosum is good psychology. In herpes zoster two grams vitamin C intramuscularry and 50 mg Adenosine 5-Monophosphoric acid, aqueous solution, also intramuscularly every 12 hours. Compound tincture benzoin locally is helpful. In massive "shingles" ascorbic acid should also be given by vein. Always as much by mouth as can be tolerated. Heavy metal intoxication is also resolved with adequate vitamin C therapy.
General all around benefits uia one to ten grams ascorbic acid per day.
It has been suggested that ascorbic acid metabolism may be an index of total metabolism and thus serve as a general diagnostic guide. Adults taking at least 10 grams of ascorbic acid daily, and children under ten at least one gram for each year of life will find that the brain will be clearer, the mind more active, the body less wearied and the memory more retentive.
SUMMARY
The types of pathology treated with massive doses of ascorbic acid run the entire gamut of medical knowledge. Body needs are so great that so called minimal daily requirements must be ignored. A genetic error is the probable cause for our inability to manufacture ascorbic acid, thus requiring exogenous sources of vitamin C. Simple dye or chemical test are available for checking individual needs. Ascorbic acid destroys virus bodies by taking up the protein coat so that new units cannot be made, by contributing to the break-down of virus nucleic acid with the result of controlled purine metabolism. Its action in dealing with virus pneumonia and virus encephalitis has been outlined. The clinical use of vitamin C in pneumonia has a very sound foundation. In experimental tests monkeys kept on a vitamin C free diet all died of pneumonia while those with adequate diets remained healthy.62 Many investigators have shown an increased need for ascorbic acid iq this condition.63,64 Brody in 1953 after studying vitamin C and colds in college students advised that ascorbic acid be given early and often in sufficient amounts. Regnier65 reporting in review of Allergy found that the larger the dose of ascorbic acid the better were the results. Our findings resulted in a schedule of one gram each hour for 48 hours and then 10 grams each day by mouth. Those under ten at least one gram for each year of life.
Virus Encephalitis.
Virus encephalitis is a deadly syndrome and must be treated heroicly with intravenous and/or intramuscular injections of ascorbic acid. We recommend a dose schedule of from 350 mg to 700 mg per Kg. body weight diluted to at least 18 c.c. of 5D water to each gram of "C". In small children, 2 and 3 grams can be given intramuscularly, every 2 hours. An ice cap to the buttock will prevent soreness and induration. Ascorbic acid in amounts under 400 mg per Kg. body weight can be administered intravenously with a syringe in dilutions of 5 c.c. to each one gram provided the ampoule is buffered with sodium bicarbonate with sodium Bisulfite added. As much as 12 grams can be given in this manner with a 50 c.c. syringe. Larger amounts must be diluted with "bottle" dextrose or "saline" solutions and run in by needle drip. This is true because amounts like 20 to 25 grams which can be given with a 100 c.c. syringe can suddenly dehydrate the cerebral cortex so as to produce convulsive movements of the legs. This represents a peculiar syndrome, symptomatic epilepsy, in which the patient is mentally clear and experiences no discomfiture except that the lower extremities are in mild convulsion. This epileptiform type seizure will continue for 20 plus minutes and then abruptly stop. Mild pressure on the knees will stop the seizure so long as pressure is maintained. If still within the time limit of the seizure the spasm will re-appear by simply withdrawing the hand pressure. I have seen this in two patients receiving 26 grams intravenously with a 100 c.c. syringe on the second injection. One patient had poliomyelitis, the other malignant measles. Both were adults. I have duplicated this on myself to prove no after effects. Intramuscular injections are always 500 mg to 1 c.c. solution. With continuous intravenous injections of large amounts of ascorbic acid, at least one gram of calcium gluconate must be added to the fluids each day. This is done because we have found that massive doses of ascorbic acid pulls free calcium ions from the vicinity of the platelets or from the calcium-prothrombin complex as the lactone ring of dehydroascorbic acid is opened. The first sign of calcium ion loss is "nose bleeding". This differs from the nosebleed found, at times, in cases of chicken pox or measles. Here it represents frank scurvy from vitamin C deficiency. The pathology being "Capillary fragility".66
Burns.
A new treatment for burns has been outlined, which if followed will eliminate skin grafting and plastic surgery. It is probably too simple to gain early acceptance. The literature has been suggesting the value of ascorbic acid in burns for many years. Proper local application and the amount for systemic usage has been misleading. One only need see one case properly treated with ascorbic acid to appreciate its importance. If ascorbic acid can destroy the exotoxin of tetanus, as Jungeblut demonstrated, it can also destroy the exotoxin of Pseudomonas. Ascorbic acid plays an important role in maintaining fluid balance in the body. Ruskin pointed out that the vitamin activates an enzyme arginase, which breaks down the amino acid arginine, resulting in production of urea which is one key to tissue fluid balance.
Pregnancy.
The simple stress of pregnancy demands supplemental vitamin C. This amount will vary with the individual. The silver nitrate-urine text will simplify these findings. Vitamin C seems especially concerned with mesenchymal tissue. When one considers the demands of the fetus and infant, especially premature babies, it is obvious that high vitamin C intakes are required during pregnancy because this "parasite" will drain available "C" from the mother. Greenblatt68 reports excellent results following the oral administration of vitamin C in the therapy of habitual abortion. In my own practice I was able to take women who had had as many as five abortions without a successful pregnancy and carry them through two and three uneventful pregnancies with the use of supplemental vitamin C. The German literature is "stacked" with articles recommending high doses of vitamin C during gestation because they believe that this substance is of great benefit in influencing the health of the mother and in preventing infections. The vital contribution of ascorbic acid to the body tissues can be summed up in the formation and maintenance of normal intercellular material, especially in the connective tissue, bones, teeth, and blood vessels. Genetic errors might be prevented if prospective mothers were advised to take 10 or more grams of ascorbic acid daily. It is significant that we found in the simple stress of pregnancy, a normal physiological process, that equivalent requirements paralleled those found in the rat when under stress. Experiments by King et al.68 have shown that the need for supplemental vitamin C begins with the embryo.
Kidney Stones.
The "scare" factor of large doses of ascorbic vs, kidney stones has been laid to rest. Since the urine is usually pH6, one can see that the opening of the lactone ring is a slow process. This reaction takes place in tissues and is probably regulated by the amount of glutathione present. The important considerations are that one must have a concentrated urine, that stasis must be a factor and that the urine must be alkaline for any appreciable amounts of the crystalloids to precipitate out. This will never occur with massive ascorbic acid therapy. Furthermore, it has been shown that the controls in a given experiment had almost as much oxalic acid spill as did those volunteers taking 9 grams of ascorbic acid daily.
Insect - Snake Bites.
The quickness of results in snake bite, spider bite, hornet stings and caterpillar reactions demonstrates the usefulness in saving lives. It is best to give the vitamin intravenously with a syringe since bottle preparations are too time consuming. One precaution must be given. There exist a 2 gram ascorbic acid ampule, and ironically it is the only one to my knowledge approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which might "kill" if used undiluted in a syringe. This lethal factor is due to the preservatives added. Each ampule contains 2 grams sodium ascorbate. Vehicle contains: Monothioglycerol 0.14%; Sodium Formaldehyde Sulfoxylate 0.05%; Methyl Paraben 0.13%; Propyl Paraben 0.015%. Neutralized to pH6 with Sodium Bicarbonate; Water for injection q.s. This ampoule can be used intravenously ONLY when diluted to at least 25 c.c. to one gram. One sometimes will be confronted with extraordinary allergic and shock symptoms along with acute respiratory obstruction. In these situation one must employ Benadryl intravenously and/or intramuscularly and an adrenocortical hormone such as Decadron. These can be given by a nurse while the ascorbic acid is being prepared. In their absence a second "syringe" dose of ascorbic acid will suffice. Fluids by mouth should be given to prevent or correct thirst which all patients seem to experience.
Diabetes
Large doses of ascorbic acid do not cause diabetes mellitus in humans as has been suggested. On the contrary 10 grams daily, by mouth, has proved to be beneficial. The fact that 10 grams will allow them to heal wounds like normal individuals will save many legs in. the future. Lamden, a bio-chemist, instigated these fears by misinterpretation of the results reported by Patterson using the Ketone formula intravenously in rats.
In Surgery.
In surgery the use of ascorbic acid resolves itself into a "must" situation. The 24 hour frank scurvy levels should be sufficient evidence to encourage all surgeons to use vitamin C freely in their fluids. Proper employment of vitamin C by the surgeons will all but eliminate the post-surgery deaths.
In Malignancy.
The part very large doses of ascorbic acid given intravenously over a prolonged period offers a medical challenge. From cabbage and tomatoes grown in the carbon-14 chambers radioactive ascorbic acid can be extracted, which can be used in tracer studies. At least one re-search team has demonstrated that in cancer all available "C" is mobilized at the site of the malignancy. Lauber and Rosenfeld reported that "C" is mobilized from the tissues of the body and selectively concentrated in traumatized areas. In one hopeless case we administered 17 grams daily for 92 consecutive days without changing the blood or urine levels from that associated with scurvy. This is the reason we believe a dose range of 100 grams to 300 grams daily by continuous intravenous drip for a period of several months might prove surprisingly profitable. Blood chemistry should be followed daily with such an investigation. Schlegel found that even a dose of 1.5 grams a day, by mouth, would prevent bladder cancer.
Barbiturate Poisoning.
Our findings in no less than 15 cases of barbiturate poisoning suggested that no death should occur from this error in judgment. We also observed the dramatic effect of 12 grams intravenously on blood pressure associated with shock. The shock seen in heat stroke had been corrected by the time the injection was completed. The dose range used was 500 mg per Kg body weight.
Tetanus - Trichinosis
The use of ascorbic acid with Tolserol in the treatment of Tetanus should be accepted as universal treatment. Here again the dose must be proper. Our case as reported will serve as a guide in making these calculations. Ascorbic acid along with Para-Aminobenzoic acid is curative in Trichinosis. Both drugs are administered by mouth. It is estimated that at least 5 niillion cases of chronic Trichinosis exists in the United States. Just nine days of treatment would return these individuals to normal. In our cases 10 grams ascorbic acid was given daily and Para-Aminobenzoic acid was employed in high range. Four to six grams to start then three grams every 2 hours for eight times. For the remainder of the nine day schedule it was given 3 grams every two hours during the day and every three hours during the night.
Viral Hepatitis.
Ascorbic acid is the drug of choice in viral hepatitis. The dose used ranges from 400 mg to 600 mg per Kg body weight, depending on the severity of the disease. It should be given every 8 to 12 hours. Ten grams ascorbic acid daily in divided doses is also given by mouth. Those under 10 years the usual schedule of at least one gram for each year of life.
Multiple Uses.
We have reviewed many other pathological conditions in which ascorbic acid plays an important part in recovery. To these might be added Cardiovascular Diseases, Hypermenorrhea, Peptic and Duodenal Ulcers, Post-operative and Radiation Sickness, Rheumatic Fever, Scarlet Fever, Poliomyelitis, Acute and Chronic Pancreatitis, Tularemia, Whooping Cough and Tuberculosis. In one case of scarlet fever in which Penicillin and the Sulfa drugs were showing no improvement, fifty grams ascorbic acid given intravenously resulted in a dramatic drop in the fever curve to normal. Here the action of ascorbic acid was not only direct but also as a synergist. A similar situation was observed in a case of lobar pneumonia. In another case of purperal sepsis following a criminal abortion the initial dose of ascorbic acid was 1200 mg per Kg body weight and two subsequent injections were at the 600 mg level. Along with Penicillin and Sulfadiazine an admission temperature of 105.4°F. was normal in nine hours. The patient made an uneventful recovery. In one spectacular case of Black Widow69 spider bite in a 3 1/2 year old child, in coma, one gram calcium gluconate and 4 grams of ascorbic acid was administered intravenously when first seen in the office. Four grams ascorbic acid was then given every six hours using a 20 c.c. syringe. She was awake and well in 24 hours. Physical examination showed a comatosed child with a rigid abdomen. The area about the umbilicus was red and indurated, suggesting a strangulated hernia. With a 4 power 1ense, fang marks were in evidence. Thirty hours after starting the vitamin C therapy the child expelled a large amount of dark clotted blood. There was no other residual. A review of the literature confirmed that this individual has been the only one to survive with such findings; the others were reported at autopsy. Ten grams vitamin C and 200 mg to 400 mg vitamin B-6, by mouth, daily will "shield" one from mosquito bites. Twenty percent will also require 100 m vitamin B-6 intramuscalarly each week.
General Nutrition.
Vitamin C plays a very important role in general nutrition. Deficiency of this substance in sufficient amounts can be a factor in loss of appetite, loss of weight or failure to grow, muscular weakness, anemia and various skin lesions. The relationship between vitamin C and the health of the gums and teeth has long been recognized. Laboratory studies on gum-teeth connective tissue have reaffirmed this relationship.70 Our son who will be 19 in July has never developed a tooth cavity. Since age 10 he has received at least 10 grams ascorbic acid, daily, by mouth. Before age 10 the amount given was on a siiding scale.
Intra-Venous Application.
Ascorbic acid must be given by needle to bring about quick reversal of various "insults" to the human body. We have found that doses must range from 350 mg to 1200 mg per Kg body weight. Under 400 mg per Kg of body weight the injection can be made with a syringe provided the vitamin is buffered with sodium bicarbonate with Sodium Bisulfite added. Above 400 mg doses per Kg body weight, and a particular ampoule described in this summary, the vitamin must be diluted to at least 18 c.c. of 5 per cent dextrose in water, saline in water or Ringer's solution. Many times Adenosine 5-Monophosphate, 25 mg in children and 50 to 100 mg in adults, given intramuscularly, is necessary to achieve results. The aquous solution is more effective for quick results, although Adenosine in Gel can be employed. In debilitated individuals or when the pathology is serious, Desoxycorticosterone Acetate (DCA), aquous solution, must also be added to the schedule. Usually 2.5 mg for children and 5 mg for adults is the daily intramuscular dose required. Sudden swelling of the feet indicates abnormal sensitivity and the drug must be discontinued.
It must be remembered when using ascorbic acid that experiments on man are the only experiments which can give positive evidence of therapeutic action in man. Likewise, the use of ascorbic acid in human pathology must follow the Law of Mass Action: "In reversable reactions, the extent of chemical change is proportional to the active masses of the interacting substance."
FRED R. KLENNER, M.D.
Reidsville, N.C.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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APPENDIX
Case History: Pesticide Poisoning - Three boys ranging in years from age seven to age 12 were walking along a North Carolina Highway. They were caught in the "spray" of a dusting airplane. The youngest boy had been covered by the other two and so received little exposure. He was seen in the emergency room of the local hospital and sent home. The other two boys had different physicians. One lad age 12, under our care, was given 10 grams of ascorbic acid with a 50 c.c. syringe every 8 hours. The concentration was one gram for each 5 c.c. dilutent. He was returned home on the second hospital day. The third boy received supportive treatment but did not receive ascorbic acid. His body was something to see. The spray had produced an allergic dermatitis as well as a chemical burn. He died on the 5th hospital day.
Case History: Nasal Diphtheria-Three children, living in the same neighborhood, developed nasal diphtheria. All three children had different physicians. A little girl under our care was given 10 grams ascorbic acid, intravenously, with a 50 c.c. syringe every 8 hours for the first 24 hours and then every 12 hours for two times. She was then put on one gram ascorbic acid every two hours by mouth. She lived and is now a graduate nurse. The other children did not receive ascorbic acid and both died. Our young patient also received 40,000 units diphtheria antitoxon which was given intraperitoneal. The other children also were administered the antitoxin.
Case History: Poliomyelitis-Although we were able to cure many cases of polio with massive doses of ascorbic acid, one single instance demonstrates the value of vitamin C. Two brothers were sick with poliomyelities. These two boys were given 10 and 12 grams of ascorbic acid, according to weight, intravenously with a 50 c.c. syringe, every eight hours for 4 times and then every 12 hours for 4 times. They also were given one gram every two hours by mouth around the clock. They made complete recovery and both were athletic stars in high school and college. A third child, a neighbor, under the care of another physician received no ascorbic acid. This child also lived. The young lady is still wearing braces.
Case History: Acute Virus Infection representing Deadly Virus Syndrome. Cases with paralysis are extremely interesting in as much as they challenge diagnostic prowness. One of our cases, a female age 58, demonstrated three different types. She entered the hospital because of a convulsive seizure. She had had a lingering cold for ten days. She experienced three additional convulsive seizures after hospital admission. The temperature was 100.8°F. pulse 140, respirations 32. She was extremely restless. Twenty-four grams ascorbic acid in 360 c.c. 5D water was given intravenously for three times at 8 hour intervals. One gram calcium gluconate was added to the first and third bottle. Twenty four hours following admission and 72 grams ascorbic acid in the blood stream, patient was awake and rational but completely paralyzed, right arm and leg. Five grams ascorbic acid was given in fruit juice every 6 hours by mouth and 6 grams ascorbic acid along with a B complex preparation was given intravenously, daily for eight additional days. The right arm and leg returned to normal 48 hours after admission. Classical pellagra was also corrected during this hospital stay.
Case History: Repeating virus infection-This case proved that adequate ascorbic acid therapy must be continued long enough to destroy all virus bodies, otherwise the infection will recur. In 1960, I treated a seven year old boy, off and on, over a period of six weeks, for influenza like symptoms. Therapy included one of the mold derived drugs, sulfadiazine and 5 to 10 grams ascorbic acid by mouth. On three different occasions this treatment schedule was dramtically effective. When the child became ill for the fourth time, the administration of the above antibiotics and oral vitamin C had no reversing effect. On the third day of this illness the child suddenly became lethargic and just as suddenly to frank stupor. The temperature which had been running low grade was now 102.6°F. At this point all oral medication was discontinued. I immediately gave six grams of ascorbic acid intravenously with a 30 c.c. syringe. He was awake and asking, "what happened" in 5 minutes. Six grams ascorbic acid was given in 4 hours and then at 6 hour intervals for two additional doses. The recovery was complete in 24 hours and remained so. Ascorbic acid was again started by mouth giving 5 grams in juice every 8 hours. After one week, this was reduced to the usual daily "take" of seven grams. I had ample opportunity to observe this case--the child was our son.
Case History: Snake bite-Child of 4 years was struck on the lower leg by a large highland moccasin at 7:00 P.M., while at play in the yard of her country home. Seen in the emergency room of the local hospital at 7:30 P.M., the child was vomiting, was crying because of severe pain in her leg, which she held with both hands above the "fang marks". Fever was 99.0°F. Four grams of ascorbic acid was given intravenously at 7:35 P.M. with a 20 c.c. syringe. The following 25 minutes were taken to follow a skin test on anti-venom. At this time and before the anti-venom was administered the child had stopped vomiting, she had stopped crying and was sitting on the emergency room table, laughing and drinking a glass of orange juice. She commented: "Come on, Daddy, I'm all righ now, let's go home." She was allowed to return home with the understanding that her father would give me a report, by phone, each hour during the night. This he did. His report, each time, was that the child was sleeping as usual and that except for moderate swelling to the "calf of the leg", appeared normal. Seen in the office at 10:00 A.M. the following morning she still demonstrated the small amount of swelling of her leg and had 1/2 degree fever. She was given a second dose of 4 grams of ascorbic acid intravenously. Seen at 5 P.M. she had no fever but the swelling remained constant. There was no pain. The following day, 38 hours after being bitten, she was completely normal. Since this was our first case of snake bite treated with vitamin C, we elected to give an additional 4 grams of ascorbic acid on this vist. No other antibiotics were given and none was required. Since she had had a booster injection of tetanus toroid in recent months, none was given at this time. Comparing this to an earlier case of snake bite in a 16 year old girl, struck by a moccasin of about the same size, as gauged from the fang marks, on the hand while pulling tobacco plants, and who was hospitalized for three weeks. She was giveq 3 doses of anti-venom. The arm was compressed continuously with magnesium sulfate solution. Swelling was four times that of the opposite arm and striae developed over the entire surface. This patient received no vitamin C other than that found in a regular hospital diet. Morphine was required to control pain. (We no longer use anti-venom.)
Case History: An Insidious virus-This was a child of 18 months. She was seen in the driveway to my home at about 7:00 P.M. The history was brief. The child had strangled on food while eating supper. A cursory examination given in the front seat of an automobile revealed an extremely restless, whining child. The temperature was 98.6°F. (axillary 10 minutes-corrected). There was no obstruction to the air-ways. We did elicit the information, that the child had had a cold for several days. We also learned that the child's mother had taken her for a long stroller ride the previous day--which in this area was damp and cold. Frankly the impulse to send the child home was great.
Remembering that I had seen children dead within 30 minutes to two hours after hospital admission without treatment, I decided to buy some time. The Uncle was asked to take the child to the emergency room of the local hospital. The nurse on duty was given an order to take a rectal temperature and then give a fleets enema. If the results proved un-satisfactory, she was to repeat the procedure in 30 minutes using a normal saline solution. Approximately 45 minutes after leaving my home, the intern on duty reported by phone, that the child was unconscious to a point where she responded only to pain stimuli. The enema had not been given. Going at once to the hospital, conditions were found as described. The little patient was lying motionless on the examining table. Using a suitable size rectal tube I gave the enema with good results. The stool was normal. Rectal temperature taken at the hospital was 98.4°F. (corrected). The pulse rate was 152 per minute and respirations were 32 per minute. It was impossible to visualize the throat because the mouth was "locked" as one finds after stimulation in lockjaw. Our impression was that the virus had now entered the brain. Thirty grams of ascorbic acid, in divided doses, was given intramuscularly over a period of 36 hours. Crystalline penicillin was started on the second day and 300,000 units were administered in divided doses over the next three days. This was added to block secondary invaders. One hour following admission we applied a 4 x 4 gauze, saturated with tap water, to the child's lips. The sucking reflex was still intact, but the child immediately strangled. Turning the child head down, the small amount of water ran from its nostrils. Now it was clear. It was this "bulbar phenonmenon" that was at play when the child was eating supper. The nursing log showed the temperature to be 99.0°F. (corrected) 1 1/2 hours after admission and 1 1/2 hours later it was recorded at 100.0°F. (corrected). The nursing log at this time read: "Shows no sign of consciousness." Temperature was 101.2°F. four hours after admission and was 102.4°F. (corrected) after six hours. Now the nursing log read: "Baby swallowed water without diffculty." At this point the temperature curve started back down and by 7:00 A.M. (11 hours following admission) the child was alert and taking water freely from a spoon. Twenty eight hours after the first injection of ascorbic acid the temperature was normal. Water, milk and orange juice were now taken from a bottle. Cecon (liquid vitamin C) was given by mouth. Discharge was on the 5th hospital day. The initial low fever recording indicated that the child was dying; after ascorbic acid therapy she began to respond, thus the fever. After the virus was killed, the temperature returned to normal.
Case History: Monoxide Poisoning-State highway employee carried into my office in unconscious condition. He was a known diabetic. The breathing was not Kussmaul type and his skin was warm and dry. We elicited the information that he had been found in the cab of his truck with the windows closed and the engine running. It was a cold Winter day. Entertaining a diagnosis of Monoxide intoxication we immediately gave 12 grams ascorbic acid with a 50 c.c. syringe using a 20 gauge needle. (We employ a 20 G. needle when using a 50 c.c. syringe; 21 G needle for a 30 c.c. syringe; 22 G needle for a 20 c.c. syringe and a 23 G needle for a 10 c.c. syringe. This assists in controling the rate of flow which is important, especially, in young children). Within 10 minutes the patient was awake, sitting up on the edge of the examining table, rubbing his eyes and saving: "Doc, what in the world am I doing up here in your office." He returned to his place of employment within 45 minutes.
Case History #1: Acute Virus qancarditis-A five year old boy was admitted to the local hospital with history of having a "re-lapse" after recovery from measles. The physical findings showed a thready and feeble pulse. A distinct rub was in evidence by auscultation. The EKG showed RS-T deviations. The temperature was 105°F. Ascorbic acid calculated at 400 mg per Kg body weight was given intravenously with a syringe. Within two hours the picture had almost reverted to normal. Injection of Vitamin C was repeated in 6 hours and again at 12 hours. A fourth injection was given after 24 hours although the patient was clinically well. The child returned home on the 4th hospital day.
Case History #2: Acute Virus Pancarditis following a deep cold. The findings approximated those of case #1. The parents elected to take the child to Duke Medical Center. Six grams of ascorbic acid was given by needle before starting the trip to the hospital which was 60 miles away. Upon arrival at the Medical Center the child had made such dramatic response to the single injection of ascorbic acid that the parents were tempted to return home. The receiving physician questioned the sickness of the child as being out of proportion to that relayed by me during our telephone conversation. The parents assured the physician that the child had been seriously ill, but that the change came about after receiving the ascorbic acid. Although 50 grams (25 ampoules) of ascorbic acid was sent along with the parents, none was given because the physician in charge stated that he would be afraid to give that size dose, intravenously, to a child. The fact that we had administered six grams, which represented a dose of 400 mg per Kg body weight, apparently had no influence. Laboratory findings, however, confirmed our impression and the child was hospitalized for two weeks. Two additional injections of vitamin C would have cured the child in 24 hours.
Case History: Acute Pancreatitis-Adult Male seen in the emergency room of local hospital complaining of severe, agonizing pain in the epigastrium which radiated to the back. Ngusea and vomiting were present. Serium amylase studies showed a concentration of 345. This was the 4th such attack experienced by this patient. Sixty grams ascorbic acid in 700 c.c. Dextrose in water was given intravenously. 20 mg Pantapon was given in the emergency room. No additional opiates were required. The patient made an uneventful recovery. He was placed on 10 grams ascorbic acid by mouth and has not had a recurrence in almost 5 years. He has, however, developed mild diabetes mellitus which is now controlled with diet and vitamin C.
END
I am in full agreement with Lancelot Hogben who said: "A scientific idea must live dangerously or die of inanition. Science thrives on daring generalizations. There is nothing particularly scientific about excessive caution. Cautious explorers do not cross the Atlantic of truth.
Frederick R. Klenner, M.D., F.C.C.P.
Reidsville, North Carolina
A native of Pennsylvania, Dr. Klenner attended St. Vincent and St. Francis College, where he received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology. He graduated magna cum lauda and was awarded a teaching fellowship there. He was also awarded the college medal for scholastic philosophy. There followed another teaching fellowship in chemistry at Catholic University, Where he pursued studies for a doctorate in physiology.
Dr. Klenner then 'migrated' to North Carolina and Duke University to continue his studies. He arrived in time to use his knowledge in physiology and chemistry to free the nervous system of the frog for a symposium by immersing the animal in 10% nitric acid. Taken in tow by Dr. Pearse, chairman of the department, he was finally persuaded to enter the school of medicine. He completed his studies at Duke University and received his medical degree in 1936.
Dr. Klenner served three years in post graduate hospital training before embarking on a private practice in medicine. Although specializing in diseases of the chest, he continued to do general practice because of the opportunities it afforded for observations in medicine. His patients were as enthusiastic as he in playing guinea pigs to study the action of ascorbic acid. The first massive doses of ascorbic acid he gave to himself. Each time something new appeared on the horizon he took the same amount of ascorbic acid to study its effects so as to come up with the answers.
"Dr. Klenner's list of honors and professional society affiliations is tremendous. He is listed in a flock of various "Who's Who" registers. He has published many scientific papers throughout his scientific career.
Does Vitamin C help with dog snake bite?
Dog snake bite has been a tremendous concern for us since moving to this current location. We learned about the properties of Vitamin C from a few locals who recommended it as an aid for snake bite for our pets. We bought a couple of syringes and a bottle of Vitamin C liquid from a local pet store, it was really easy to buy here in Australia – not sure of other countries.
Our Vet's have divided views on using Vitamin C for snake bite first aid. One says it will make no difference. The other Vet says it can help to 'buy time' which you need to get to the surgery for the snake anti venom. When I pushed him recently for more detail on this opinion he admitted there was no evidence of it helping to save pets and as it does no real harm he has no problem agreeing to use it ONLY if the pet is on its way to the clinic for the anti venom.
I have had Vitamin C information on my website for two years now and recently recieved the following information from a very experienced goat herder who has documented many experiences of snake bite from his local area. As a direct consequence of his information plus other stories I no longer support the use of Vitamin C for dog snake bite or for any other animal.
I am not going to take part in an ongoing discussion, I have made up my mind and place the information here for you – as the pet owner – to make your own decision. We have thrown out our Vitamin C bottle and syringes. The traditional snake anti venom is very successful in treating dog snake and seems to be the pets only hope of survival if the bite is serious enough.
Here is what Jim has to say regarding Vitamin C and snake bite on animals.
Having a herd of goats from 200-350 at times we have seen our fair share of animal husbandry and health issues. On the snake front, like many of the club, we used Vitamin C injections. On the 10 occasions we used it over many years ( and yes it stings like hell, they certainly bellow a lot), it did, on the face of it, work in 6 of the 10 cases, so you'd think 60% success rate, right?
That sounded great but, I'll tell you why we don't use it any more, and as you all will find in due course, why no one should use it for snake bite.This is over a10 year period so don't think we have plagues of snakes everywhere!
Two of our goats got bitten by a brown snake in the shed (I saw them both being bitten). I treated both with Vitamin C and took them both to the Vet.) and indeed it was confirmed at the Vets (counted the face scales) as a brown snake.
Goat 1: By the time I got her down there, she was frothing at the mouth and on her side. Knowing it was a brown snake with such quick advancement of signs, he said she would die unless we used anti-venom.We declined due to cost, and I guess a feeling that the Vitamin C would save her.
She died 4 hours later, a horrid death- you don't want to know. So the Vitamin C did nothing.
Goat 2: She wasn't bad at all at that stage, just agitated and distressed. I know she had been bitten by this brown as I saw the strike. The vet used the snake detection kit to test her, and she was negative! GREAT that is, she had no venom in her...he said that means the snake gave her a dry bite or the bite ejected in the thick hair. So no need for anti-venom and she would recover with no treatment, and sent us home. As he predicted, she recovered fine, because she didn't get any toxin into her system in the first place! How many people would have attributed her "recovery" to Vitamin C and told all their friends that they saw the goat being bitten by a brown snake and it recovered with Vitamin C? This is how these old wives tales become perpetuated. Not all bites get their target, not all are venomous, and many are dry!By the way, she developed a large swelling at one of the Vitamin C injection sites. It was a sterile abscess, in other words no infection, just a reaction to the Vitamin C preparation. It required lancing and frequent cleaning until all the dead tissue dissipated (after all Vitamin C is an acid). All came good by 8 weeks, but she never grew her coat back at that spot.
Goat 3: got bitten by a snake in the goat shelter. I gave her Vitamin C injections immediately. I was sure it was a brown, it slithered away, but I got it and threw a thick tarp over it and took it to the Vet. The Vet naturally didn't want to risk his own safety examining a live brown so he called in a snake handler. In the meantime the goat was anxious and holding up the leg which was bitten. The Vet felt since she wasn't showing any serious or advancing symptoms, she may have got only a small dose of toxin or perhaps the snake wasn't a brown at all. The handler eventually identified the snake as a non venomous one! The vet sent us home and aside from a sore leg for 3 days (where she was bitten) and painful neck where I gave the injections, she was fine! She recovered not due to Vitamin C, but because the snake wasn't venomous in the first place!
Goat 4: Found in the goat shelter, frothing at the mouth and staggering. I suspected a snake but couldn't find one. Gave her Vitamin C injections. She continued to deteriorate, and died the next morning. Found the snake next to the shed that afternoon, Tiger. The Vitamin C did nothing, perhaps may have accelerated her death due to intense pain at the injection sites.
Goat 5: Buck kid, found lying on his side paddling. Nest of small browns found 10m away. Vitamin C injections (boy did that hurt in a small kid). Died that evening. The Vitamin C did nothing, except again, add to his pain.
Goat 6: Brownish snake seen sliding away from a doe. Doe thereafter quiet and moves slowly. The doe was very valuable to us, so concerned at the possibility of brown snake bite, we gave her Vitamin C injections. Took her to the Vet, they took urine for testing for snake but no result till tomorrow. She improved that evening at the clinic. Test results were negative so it wasn't a snake bite after all! If we hadn't paid the money to have her tested and found out that she had no venom in her system, we could have easily felt and told everyone that Vitamin C cures animals with snake bite!
Goat 7: Doe suddenly twitching and weak. We suspected a snake, gave her Vitamin C injections and kept it in the shed hand feeding her. She recovered over the next 2 days, making us feel perhaps the Vitamin C did a lot of good and saved her from death.Amazingly another goat developed the same signs the next day, surely 2 goats can't have been bitten, that’s just getting too coincidental...so after thoroughly searching the area (somewhat sheepishly) for a nest of snakes, and we found the culprit, not a snake but a toxic plant! We removed the plant, didn't treat the doe except for removing her to the shed and feeding her some hay, and she recovered once she could no longer eat any more of the toxic plant!. So in hindsight, the one we treated "successfully with Vitamin C injection" the day before, well it wasn't the Vitamin C that cured her but the removal from access to the plant. How many cases of this do you see where the farmer never found the real cause, and attributes the cause as snake bite and the recovery to Vitamin C? I can certainly see how easy it is for the Vitamin C rumor to be perpetuated, and all in good faith too!
Goat 8: Kid playing in new paddock, walking very slowly and bleeding from the gums. Although I couldn't see one, I suspected snake bite, gave Vitamin C injections. The Vitamin C injections did nothing, and she continued to deteriorate so off to the Vets. He tested the blood with the test kit yielding a strong positive result. He used Anti-venom (cost wasn't too bad as she was very small and the dose goes on body-weight)... and she made a steady improvement and recovered after 2 days. The success rate with anti-venom is very high as long as the vet can administer it early in the course.
Goat: 9 Doe eating in newly fenced paddock.... lagging behind herd and wobbly. Being a newly grazed bush-land paddock snake bite was likely..... gave Vitamin C on suspicion. She recovered uneventfully. We found out later it was tick paralysis (dried up dead tick attached to her neck) and the cydectin drench we had used the week before killed the tick, but not before it caused a little mild paralysis before it died. So Vitamin C didn't cure the goat, it was going to recover anyway due tot he death of the tick! Again, would have been easy for the non astute to attribute this apparent "cure" to the Vitamin C when in effect all it did was cause some pain in a goat that was not bitten at all!
Goat 10: Doe found quiet and reluctant to get up. No other signs. She started shaking a lot and we suspected snake bite, gave her Vitamin C injections immediately. She deteriorated over night, and lay on her side, bloating, not moving much. To the Vet, tested for snake bite, strong positive for Tiger snake. The Vet felt at this stage, chances of survival with even with anti-venom was slim so we put her down. We should not have even tried to give Vitamin C, she could have been saved if she was taken straight away.So, after all that what conclusion?We used Vitamin C 10 times for snake bite6 lived
However, when you look at it.... those 6 that lived were all goats that had no venom in their system!When you look at the ones that had venom in their system, and they were treated with Vitamin C, they all died, except 1, which only recovered because it had anti-venom as well, just in the nick of time.
So the summary is, for goats that truly have received a lethal dose of brown or tiger snake venom, Vitamin C doesn't prevent nor delay the symptoms.
After a long discussion with 2 Vets now, both with natural medicine interests, we find that the same story exists for dogs, cats, sheep and calves and foals. They too often see cases brought in that have had Vitamin C used, and interestingly, despite both Vets being on the "natural side" of the medical spectrum, they both admit, that in the 60 years cumulative experience they are yet to see one success story of confirmed assistance of Vitamin C in snake bite and they themselves no longer use it. They have however seen dozens and dozens of cases in dogs where the Vitamin C has done nothing, and interestingly they have had cases where they have had to treat the abscesses formed by people giving the Vitamin C injections incorrectly. There are many a case which apparently recovers with Vitamin C injections, and these cases would have recovered anyway as they did not receive venom in their system. Without the test kit, it is impossible to prove many of these "hearsay" cases, and in fact people become quite defensive of Vitamin C and its abilities (I used to be that way myself!) but with mounting evidence now there is little case for its use in this situation. You can never "prove" all those old stories as false because they have been and gone, but listen carefully to all future stories, and you can bet your bottom dollar that those that recovered weren't envenomed.
ADDENDUM:
Interestingly, a major conference was held in Sydney 2 years ago in emergency veterinary medicine featuring emergency medicine specialists, where 2 days was spent wholly on snake bite emergencies mainly in dogs and cats. It was raised the problem of Vitamin C.The major problem with it, is that often owners, like us, frequently TRY Vitamin C to see if it helps, and when it doesn't we then go to the Vet, by which time the venom has spread to such a stage that often anti-venom cant help or if it does, the recovery is much slower often requiring intensive care which, in the absence of a Medicare for animals, can become quite financially taxing.So the Vitamin C old wives tale actually kills many dogs, cats and farm animals every year by giving people false hope and thus delaying testing and correct treatment. Furthermore, there are many animals which are treated with Vitamin C at home, and when they do not respond, they are left to die a horrid death of suffering.In bold letters in the conference proceedings is has " Vitamin C has been proven to be of no benefit what so ever in treating snake bite evenomation, it merely causes intense pain at the site of injection whilst delaying the access of correct medical diagnosis and treatment. Many cases where Vitamin C has been given to a an animal by rural owners, and those pets are subsequently taken to emergency centers and survived after being given anti-venom, have had large painful abscesses form due to the Vitamin C which in some cases have required surgical drainage to be effectively treated.Furthermore, with ever-advancing ready access to the internet, and the uncensored publication of so called cures featuring "natural remedies", more and more people will be taken in by such tales and Veterinarians country wide may see more and more of the result of the naive public heeding such tragic falsities"
I am embarrassed to say... we were in that category and have certainly have found that out the hard way!Jim
PPS: have found published success rates for anti venom in dogs and cats, With early diagnosis and treatment, success rate varies from 75-95% depending on type of snake encountered. There are no published rates for goats, but the local Vet estimates that for those presented to him in early-moderate stages, with accurate snake identification, the success rate of treatment with anti-venom is over 80%. Also, even though all Vets obviously cannot attend all conferences, the published data on that conference is now filtering through to most GP Vets and generally most now know the situation.
We would not use Vitamin C for dog snake bite now
Our way of life destroyed
Most homes fail affordability test for households on median income
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/most-homes-fail-affordability-test-for...
Most Melbourne homes are too expensive for households on a median income, and only a handful of suburbs - mostly on the city's fringe - pass the affordability test, a government report reveals.
Thanks to Matthew Guy and various State governments unhealthy and corrupt collaboration with property developers and investors, Melbourne's liveability is being destroyed. In many inner Melbourne suburbs - which have better access to public transport and services - a household requires an income of between $120,000-$200,000 a year.
They have designed cities that only the elite can afford. The once "Lucky country" with cheap housing and affordable lifestyles and high levels of home ownership has been wrung out, manipulated, squeezed out, exported and promoted overseas - and thus destroyed.
The ageing population are taking the pressure, as they will need homes. What about the young people being locked out of housing, and the disadvantaged who have to wait up to 20 years for public housing?
The section made available to The Age raises tough questions, including how Victoria will pay for the next-generation transport network. The problem of limits to growth being ignored means the problems will accumulate, with the costs of transport exacerbating the problem further.
The report also identifies the need to increase job options in Melbourne's growth areas so fewer people are compelled to drive long distances to work. Our massive population growth, with Melbourne bearing much of the brunt of immigration-fueled growth, means productivity is declining with long drives and destroyed economies of scale.
Melbourne's population explosion must stop, and the corrupt alliance between growth-pusher must end. Massive debt indicates limits to growth, and the benefits of growth we once enjoyed ends up eating up the benefits it once provided!!!
Deregulation of environmental protection - a looming disaster
The Federal Government commissioned a review of the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act several years ago. The review recommended strengthening the scope and degree of environmental protection, and improving efficiency by removing duplication in environmental assessments and approvals. But instead, they are ignoring the strengthening recommendations, but pursuing the efficiency ideas under the banner of removing so-called “green tape”.
Importantly, the Federal Government has proposed handing the states its authority to approve developments harming matters of national significance. It's a proposed deregulation of our environmental laws, and placing them into the power of developer-driven State governments.
The fight against “green tape” by development lobbies relies on a fundamental misrepresentation – that national environmental laws don’t really do anything for the environment and they are there simply as obstacles to overcome!
On the contrary, we a a mega-diverse continent but we have 50 extinct animal groups already and some 1400 endangered and critically endangered plant and animal groups. The future is poor for wildlife for many extinctions are likely this century unless we act now. Now is not the time to be weakening our national environmental laws. "Green tape" is about protecting our environment, not just rules for nothing!
The environment can't be assessed in monetary terms, and has abstract, intrinsic value along with capital value.
The key reforms that COAG agreed to are:
-- the withdrawal of Federal involvement in the approval of environmentally sensitive developments under federal environmental laws, through delegation to states,
-- the fast-tracking of approval of major developments in each State,
-- removing energy efficiency and climate change schemes in each State, and
-- the removal of other environmental laws seen as ‘unnecessary’ and ‘costly for business’
It's about allowing humans more space to foul their own nests!!
The environment is seen only as a sub-set of the economy, not the basis for it and our ongoing existence with Nature. Environment Minister Tony Burke must not disbandon his duties but actually do what his portfolio requires of him - to protect the part of the planet that holds together not only our welfare, our resources, but also of the millions of non-human species.
Placing environmental protection policies in the hands of States, already under the heavy control of business and developers, would be like putting the fox in charge of the chickens.
There's no life on a concrete, sterile, dead planet with dying ecosystems. The web of life needs to be included in our policies, not have them overwhelmed by the greed of powerful lobby groups.
I agree. All very well for
I agree. All very well for the Stable Pop party to say, okay, don't encourage beyond two people, but government could lessen the load for responsible parents by slowing down population growth so that rent would not cost so much and they would not both have to work.
and MP Kelvin Thomson says
Government MP Kelvin Thomson was interviewed on the ABC AM show yesterday. Mr. Thomson advocates getting rid of the baby bonus altogether saying it was a vote buying mistake of the previous government and the money saved could be much better spent. This is totally sensible in my view.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3617241.htm
Nicholson's cartoon is hilarious!
Human ethics and our connection to Nature
In the 1970s, agricultural policies led to smaller farms consolidating into big monocultures. Animals were taken off the farm and squeezed into these animal “factories,” They allowed us to raise many more animals cheaply. However, "cheap" comes at a great cost to the animals. Hundreds of thousands of livestock or millions of chickens are grown in tight, dimly lit, quarters where movement is restricted and the animals don’t have access to the outdoors. Piglets' tails are chopped off, and castrated, and the chickens’ beaks are clipped without receiving pain killers.
There's also the environmental impacts of monocultures. While soybean offers great economic opportunities for Brazil, huge mechanized, soy monocultures destroy tropical ecosystems, accelerate climate change, and cause human rights abuses primarily to produce agrofuel and livestock feed. Soy production has already destroyed 21 million hectares of forest in Brazil, and 80 million hectares, including portions of the Amazon basin.
Concerns about large-scale animal factory farming fall into four categories:1) of animal welfare; 2) large corporations destroying small farms and rural communities; 3)of farms straining soil and water resources and requiring mass transport of chemicals,4) generating more greenhouse gas pollution.
Projections for population growth and a rise in per capita consumption of animal protein in developing countries mean that the world will be consuming two-thirds more animal protein in 2050 than it does today. Worldwide, about 70 billion farm animals are now reared for food each year. The blowout of global world population will make us more reliant on cruel, unsustainable environmental and animal farming techniques. It destroys our connection to Nature. It's a lose-lose for humanity the non-human species - when they become commodities to be exploited. Ethics are being continually compromised by the growth in human numbers, causing extinctions, monocultures, increased cruelty and unethical and unsustainable practices. There's very little compassion in humanity - only a precious few people allow compassion to over-ride self-interests.
This makes total sense.
This makes total sense. Thank you for explaining. Developers are wrecking the planet - too many people and too much greed is the problem. How utterly tragic .... we must amp up the pressure against the forces that be bringing this into action.
Imagine a world without factory farming....
Pregnant pigs can be kept for their entire 4 month pregnancy in a tiny metal stall not much bigger than the size of their bodies. Nursing mothers are similarly confined. Unable to interact with their babies they watch helplessly as their piglets have their tails cut off and teeth clipped without pain relief. Male piglets are castrated without anaesthetic.
The growth of global and local populations is denying both wildlife and domestic animals habitat, allowing them the right to land, to live naturally. The squeeze on animals means their sentience is denied and they become no more the cogs in factory-industrial processes, to churn out food products to appease human demands.
The industry has hit back at Animals Australia's emotive new campaign against sow stalls and caged eggs, saying the group failed to mention efforts to phase out the sow stalls and the importance of caged eggs as a source of cheap food.
The Age - Industry fires back at factory farming campaign
Coles has announced it will stop selling company-branded pork, ham and bacon from pigs kept in crammed stalls as well as company-branded caged eggs from January,
Featuring flying piglets, the television advertising campaign is entitled "Make it Possible" and claims to give animals their voice so that factory farming and animal cruelty in piggeries and chicken rearing businesses will end.
It is estimated that 90% of all pigs raised for food are confined at some point in their lives. Pigs are highly social, affectionate and intelligent creatures, and suffer both physically and emotionally when they are confined in narrow cages where they cannot even turn around. Many pigs become crazy with boredom and develop vices like mouthing, and nervous ticks; others are driven to fighting and cannibalism because of their frustration.
Make the pro-pig pledge - Animals Australia:
Make the pro pig pledge
Watch the video: Imagine a world without factory farming....
Asma Al-Assad, not Clinton, a 'hate-figure' for Australia's ABC
Syria's first lady, Asma al-Assad, unlike Hilliary Clinton, became a 'hate-figure' for Australia's ABC on 12 March 2012:
The world was once smitten with Asma al-Assad, but after a year of lethal violence the woman who married into Syria's powerful ruling family has become a hate figure for many. ...
For reporting on Syria, Libya, Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East that is more truthful than what is to be found on the ABC visit Global Research.
'Rebel' assaults on Aleppo Christians rarely presented by ABC
@ABCNews24 @amworldtodaypm News of 'rebel' assaults on Christian population of Aleppo rarely presented on #ABC. Why not? :
“Living as a Christian in the Hell of Aleppo”: Besieged by Syrian “Opposition” Rebels. Testimony of a Priest at http://www.globalresearch.ca/living-as-a-christian-in-the-hell-of-aleppo-besieged-by-opposition-rebels-the-testimony-of-a-priest .
How both Jews & opponents of Israeli government are manipulated
ZOA Seeks to Manipulate Global Jewish Communities
Tony Cartalucci (aka "Land Destroyer") rightly opposes much of what the Israeli and US governments are doing in the world today, but he also objects to the way in which "Zionism" and often also "Judaism" are crudely damned in much of the literature which purports to oppose their actions. He believes it is no accident.
Inki the dingo
After considering what has been happening on Fraser, be it in the recent
past or present, with regards to the dingo, you can't dismiss the likeliness
that there is some yet to be understood conspiracy at work! Why are the powers to be so clearly determent to rid the Island of our native wolf?
Certainly, the supposedly “dangerous” behaviour of the dingo is just a cruel and silly smoke-screen, believed only by those who live under a rock! I repeat, dingo behaviour has nothing to do with what takes place on Fraser!
Queensland now have a different Government and yet the same basic policy and yet more ridiculous excuses!
My best guess is that some well-heeled developer(s) is/are "greasing" the palms
of politicians and public servants handsomely!
That is WHO makes the bullets
"low-light" Belcher is firing!
That is WHO keeps an individual
like Belcher in the job.
I stress yet again, you wonder what role the RSPCA plays in this genocide! I particularly refer to the Necropsy report, published in March 2010, attesting to unspeakable cruelty inflicted on a dingo under DERM management!
Yes! The dingo is in the way of “progress” big time, any other hypothesis just does not make sense, after all this is supposed to be a world heritage site for heaven's sake!
Only thing that would bring the real "goings-on" to light would be a public or royal
inquiry, fat chance for that to happen!
Only chance for the unique Fraser Island dingoes' survival would be to legally transfer as
many breeding pairs as possible off the Island into responsible care as far
away from Queensland as possible!
Short of this dramatic action, the Fraser dingo
is rapidly heading the way of the thylacine!
GONE, together with another thirty (30) species since the arrival of white
man and our corrupt way of life!
end
Petition to save our unique environment FOE
Keep key environmental protection powers with the commonwealth - FOE
Not only does our swelling population threaten environmental status and further extinctions of flora and fauna, the Commonwealth wants to ease "green tape" protecting our land. It's a loosening of environmental policies to create more ease for developers.
Protecting our wild places and native animals is not 'green tape', an simple obstacle to industries to streamline their development applications. It's there for environmental protection. Please take a strong stand against the proposals in the COAG (Council of Australian Governments) agenda to wind back the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and fast-track the transfer of federal approval powers to state governments.
It's about fast-tracking destruction!
Our iconic wildlife and environment are under greater pressure and threat than ever before. We need to strengthen rather than weaken environmental protection laws. However, our government has opted for "big Australia", not a sustainable one!
The environment is seen as a resource, to plunder for economic benefits. Economic growth requires loosening and easing the restrictions to access environmental resources and land.
In the past, the Federal Government has stepped in to prevent state governments from carrying out environmentally damaging projects, and to ensure the protection of our unique landscapes and wildlife.
The Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process makes the EPBC Act exempt. The RFA has led to long term controversy and conflict in every forest region, and the continued loss of native wildlife and forests around the country. More exemptions will dis-empower further any environmental policies.
Australia's environment is unique, precious and world class. The environment is not a sub-set of the economy, something that can be manipulated for economic activities. For our wildlife and threatened wild places, please prevent the weakening of our environment laws at COAG, and ensure the Commonwealth's essential role in preserving the natural environment is maintained.
PETITION
Ironically, Friends of the Earth deny that population growth is the main cause of environmental pollution and destruction. "The richest 20% of people consume 86% of the Earth's resources and have the lowest birth rates". So, they deny the IPAT equation, that the TOTAL impact on the planet is the product of population size, consumption and the technology we use. It's only per unequal per-capita consumption!! It's certainly not other species rampantly growing and plundering the Earth!
Dingoes' managed extinction a deliberate act of cruelty
This is all part of a elaborate plot to extinguish dingoes from Fraser Island and Australia. The ear tags, the vilification, the deliberate denial of food, the "aggressive" interpretation of their contact with humans, the "culling" of puppies, fires etc are all part of the conspiracy to cause their extinction. Dingoes have never been totally "wild" animals. They came to Australia with Aborigines thousands of years ago and do not share antiquity with other native animals. However, they deserve to be preserved for their unique development and history and ecology in Australia. They need contact with humans, and largely rely on them for companionship and dependence for food. This is being denied them. Inky is another victim of the draconian "management" of dingoes, ensuring their demise. Fraser Island is more lucrative as a tourist resort than for native animals. Money is the "bottom line" and they need to be seen "protecting" the public against potentially "aggressive" and "savage" dingoes!
There is no protection for native animals in Australia, besides various Acts and policies. They can all be simply made exempt when convenient.
Poor Inky
Poor Inky.
This is really nasty.
The application of the laws here seems psychotically divorced from the need to preserve the natural environment and the need to preserve some kind of decent human interaction with other creatures. This is as mad as what is happening to the sheep in Pakistan, but on a smaller, more focused scale, all the more obscene due to being overseen by a government which proposes itself as civilised, orderly and scientific. Shows how thin a cultural skin really is.
Right wingers and religion
Right Wing think thanks and Judo christian religiosity serve capitalism extremely well. Western societies have built our values around the religiously derived belief that humans are not animals. There are countless biblical references to beasts of burden and their role in serving us, but the bible tells us we humans are made in god's image, so we should go forth and multiply. We have been indoctrinated to see ourselves as a species apart from and superior to others. We are- we think- so much better and able to solve anything that nature throws at us. Our record demonstrates that is not the case and we are only capable of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic whilst the orchestra plays, distracting us from the oligarchs as they continue their gouging of the planet. But never mind that if you believe we are made in god’s image, as surely we will eventually conquer all adversaries and adversities.
"Western" religion has allowed us to detach from the environment and to trash our own nest. It serves the particular form of capitalism we are living under at present so very well. Indeed, perhaps it has developed especially for that purpose, in a symbiotic way. Little wonder it has even worked its way into our state - and supposedly secular- education system.
And then there’s the fact that religious institutions so often treat their own followers so very cruelly. Exploitation of women is the hallmark of most (maybe all) religions and sexual abuse of children has been rife (maybe the norm) for centuries, especially in the Roman Catholic system it seems. Like abuse in families, the Church’s cruelty to children must surely imbue their many victims with a completely buggered set of moral values, and an inability to easily think rationally and critically. And so the cycle continues.
If only the humanists had got the upper hand way back.
Super trawler seeks overturn of fishing ban
The Age: Super trawler seeks overturn of fishing ban
The super-trawler's 18,000-tonne quota is for jack mackerel and red bait, both of which are key prey fish which help to sustain populations of larger animals like southern bluefin tuna and fur seals. Species losses are contributing to dead oceans. We are currently allowing the greatest ecosystem on our planet earth to perish and die off.
After months of controversy about the largest fishing vessel ever slated for Australian waters, Environment Minister Tony Burke last month declared an interim ban on trawling in the small pelagic fishery by any vessel of Abel Tasman's size.
The company’s proposals are not based on science and will not reduce concerns about localised depletion or the threat to dolphins and other marine life.
The proposed catch will be frozen whole and most will then be exported to West Africa for human consumption. Despite licences for European factory fishing vessels not being renewed in Senegal, local fishermen now contribute hugely to the disappearance of species.
‘Global losses due to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) or “pirate fishing” are estimated to be between US$10 billion and US$23.5 billion per year. West African waters are estimated to have the highest levels of IUU fishing in the world, representing up to 37 percent of the region’s catch. Ninety percent of vessels documented by EJF in West Africa are bottom trawlers, which drag heavy trawl equipment along the seabed, resulting in damage to the bottom habitat and high levels of by-catch, including vulnerable marine life such as sharks and turtles.
Pirate fishing off West Africa
Fishing is Senegal’s foremost economic activity, employing around 15 percent of the workforce - about 600,000 people. Their diets of protein from fish is not sustainable. Their population growth of 2.5% increase per year means that demand is growing and outstripping supplies.
Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048. Hi-tech fishing vessels leave no escape routes for fish populations and how farmed fish as a solution is a myth.
"We have answered all of Minister Burke's concerns," said Seafish Director Gerry Green. A local solution here won't solve the global overfishing problem. Globalizing natural resources, such as fish stocks, gives the illusion of inexhaustible supply, and that local under-supply problems can be solved by plundering other nations' resources.
Urban growth threatens farmland
The Weekly Times: 18th October.
VICTORIA'S best farmland is set to be swallowed by urban development as Australia's population grows to 40 million by 2050. Australian Farm Institute chief executive Mick Keogh said decentralisation was a live issue as Australia debated how to deal with population growth and how much should occur.
Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy said the Government was funding new regional growth plans. These would allow "high-level strategic planning across regional areas to identify areas for food production".
Our population growth is NOT inevitable, but a political policy, a political choice. It's driven by high levels of immigration, increasing by stealth since John Howard's years. "Planning" has morphed into a political policy for allowing and encouraging population growth. An economy that is driven by perpetual growth is unsustainable. When will the growth stop? There can be no turning back. It means continually accepting increasing environmental problems, higher costs for energy, water and food, and loosening of environmental policies. We are really a small nation in a big, vast and expansive inland desert. This reality seems to evade our politicians.
Digging up farm land for housing is like mindless, brainless bacteria enjoying their breeding and eating, but blissfully ignorant of the future, and that their sources of food is finite. This problem falls into the portfolio of Minister for "Sustainable" Population Tony Burke - but he remains mute and in his silent comfort-zone. He is also the Minister for the Environment, so he must be guiltily aware of the limits to growth, and environmental threats.
The planet's population is expected to swell to 10 billion by the end of the century, yet Australian politicians are living in a bubble of deliberate ignorance, and still in the post-war mode of using population growth for "economic growth"
From Urban growth threatens farmland of 18 Oct 2012 by Leslie White & Kate Dowler at http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/10/18/545746_national-news.html
Think Tanks need competition
The right wing "think tanks" badly need some competition from some of Australia's intellectuals. The article referred to vividly describes the Orwellian mood of today's Australia and the flavour of the dominant voices dictating the shape of our future.
Mathew Guy says Yes to Mary Drost on Residents planning session
According to an email today from Mary Drost, of Planning Backlash, Planning Minister, Matthew Guy has now agreed to put on a free session for residents of the new metro planning strategy discussion paper. Mary asked him to put on a session where residents could have input. She reports that he says that the paper is in draft form currently as a discussion paper and that residents can have an influence on the end result. Another session projected for Friday October 26th is geared mostly to professionals and charges around $400 per seat. Mary Drost is to be congratulated in persevering with the Minister, who appears to be making an effort to accommodate residents in this matter, and should be acknowledged for this.
Candobetter Ed. Note however that it is only our system that makes it so unusual for citizens to be consulted. The real order of things should put citizens first, and in charge of what contractors and private companies carry out in terms of infrastructure , with the Minister, of course, their cheerful servant..
Melb metro planning dystopia symposium - maybe free tickets
See info below from PIA re the launch of the new metro planning strategy discussion paper at a symposium on Fri.Oct.26 with a free morning session. If enough people sign up for this free session, they’ll offer us a cut-price for the rest of the day – see below in large print.
But people need to indicate an interest by this Friday 19th.
Mat in the PIA office says this offer is definitely happening and the discount will be “significant”, so as many people as possible should at least try and sign up for this free morning session.
The symposium is at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.
The flyer link is Planning org documents
Speakers include Guy and Rob Adams. Adams happens to be the Vice Chair of the Urbanisation Council of the World Economic Forum, and this is what they say about increasing urbanization:
"Humanity is rapidly urbanizing, but will its cities be ready? In the face of historic worldwide migration that could lead to 80% of all people living in urban areas by 2050, cities will be hard-pressed to provide basic urban services. Clean water, efficient transportation and reliable electricity cannot be ensured in the future for any city - rich or poor - without massive investments to build or repair infrastructure. In almost all urban areas, decisions on allocating resources for infrastructure will shape the options available for other urban concerns: public health, crime and economic development."
[]
Not my idea of a sustainable future.....
Toscano & Ely Melb Mayoral campaign aims restore local schools
Note that Dr Joe Toscano and Dr Jean Ely's campaign for Lord Mayor of Melbourne seeks to restore public schools to the area. http://candobetter.net/node/3071 and go to the movie link.
Melbourne's shortage of public schools
Currently in many Melbourne middle ring suburbs there are community campaigns calling for reinstatement of government school provision.
These are generally areas which have experienced school closures followed by increased numbers of school aged children as a result of increased births, high immigration, and an influx of first home buyers and young families moving a bit further out from the inner.
Docklands, Southbank, Port Melbourne, Coburg, Northcote, Brunswick and Preston are expected to be placed under the greatest pressure from the soaring student population.
''There's going to be a huge shortfall of schools in inner-suburbs,'' said Melbourne University planning professor Kevin O'Connor, who based his research on official government population projections.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/critical-shortages-in-innercity-school...
Professor O'Connor said existing schools could absorb the population growth by increasing their enrolments. But even if half the extra students found places, there would still be demand for about seven new schools.
Reviews into the need for new schools in South Melbourne, Yarraville, Coburg and North Melbourne-Docklands are due to be released this year by Education Minister Martin Dixon.
In a report released in September, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission says it is ''deeply concerned'' that some students with disabilities are only attending school part time and parents are having to pay for support in schools.
Lack of support for children with disabilities, declining educational standards, bullying, crowding, school closures, over-crowded classrooms are an over-population one. With demands for infrastructure, there's not enough funds for education - including TAFEs.
Densification & bad design cause airconditioning burden on all
Ross Gittins writes, "It is surprising how little the airconditioner boom has been questioned, considering its economic, environmental and social costs." ("An air con: when the poor pay to cool the rich"
.
Ross's article is useful but he could also have raised the building design issues for which developers and town planning rules are responsible. They have resulted in houses without shade trees, without eves, with low ceilings and in high densities on land. All these things make it very difficult for people to cool their houses without resorting to airconditioning.
High rise and high density in the form of multi-appartments absolutely demand airconditioning and the article should have said that. High density is associated with overpopulation and is illogically supported by pseudo greens as if it were somehow conservative of energy.
Water restrictions (due to overpopulation and massive industrial consumption) make baths, pools and ponds luxuries as well.
Estate developers, builders and the planners that authorise these should be made to pay a tax on their profits and be fined for all design features that cause high energy consumption, including high density. Actually, in these days of looming energy constraints I would suggest that imprisonment for increasing energy consumption through design should carry prison sentences.
Conservation efforts need to rise 10-fold to succeed
In 1911, just 100 years ago, the human population of the world was around 1.6 billion people. One hundred years later, we reached 7 billion inhabitants. We are on course to reach 8 billion by 2020 and 9 billion by 2050.
Governments need to spend $US80 billion a year to halt extinctions of endangered animals and plants, many times current levels and only half the amount paid to bankers in bonuses last year, a study showed.
Read more: Conservation efforts need to rise 10-fold to succeed, report finds of 12 October 2012 at http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/conservation-efforts-need-to-rise-10fold-to-succeed-report-finds-20121012-27ggj.html
For world governments to spend $US80 billion a year to halt extinctions of endangered animals and plants, there needs a dramatic change in direction of business priorities.
Rather than pure altruism, it's an investment. Stanford University's Paul Ehrlich said "people depend upon 'ecosystem services' provided by plants and the other species.... Their support are income, like interest or dividends, flowing from the capital value of nature".
Species are disappearing about 1,000 times faster than is typical of the planet’s history but it isn’t because of geologic or cosmic forces but unsustainable human population growth.
U.N. reports say the world is facing the worst crisis of extinctions since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago. Pollution, climate change, land clearance of forests to make way for farms, roads and towns are among threats. The U.N. goals for 2020 include expanding protected areas to 17 per cent of the world's land surface - from 12.7 per cent estimated for 2010 - and to 10 per cent of seas under national control, from 4.0 per cent.
Human population seems to be expanding with self-generated natural force at an exponential rate, a juggernaut chained only by starvation and disease. This suggests that unless something unusual comes along to check this geometric growth, there will soon be "standing room only." By 2145 or 2245 there could be standing room only on Earth. It leaves very little room for biodiversity, a living planet.
An estimated 215 million women in the developing world have an unmet need for contraceptives, meaning they want to avoid or delay a pregnancy but can’t access contraception. Access to family planning is the first step towards healing and re-balancing our planet ecosystems, along with suppressing the tunnel-visioned drive for destructive "economic growth" at all costs.
Comments on this page now closed. "Miscellaneous comments" page from 16 October 2012 can be found here.
Great Southern Land-living on the edge
Last night's episode, the final one in the visually rewarding ABC 1 series filmed from the air "Great Southern Land" showed how urbanised Australia is, the extent to which its population centres cling to the coast and how rapidly they are expanding. The narration expressed a sort of horror about this extremely rapid growth and the consequent swallowing up of farmland and country side under housing. They showed the established suburbs of capital cities such as Melbourne still sporting evidence of green private garden space, stating that Australia's cities are the least densely populated of any in the world. (I have been told that actually, parts of Melbourne are denser than Singapore so this needs to be investigated as a possible myth) They concluded that as Australian cities simply cannot continue forever to grow out in the way they are , there is an imperative to be more compact and build a lot more high rise. There was not the faintest hint of a suggestion that Australia stop this rate of population growth and start to stabilise its population.It blithely went on to show what the night lights would look like over Australia around mid century when it will have doubled its population. The show took us to the Gold coast where a man is occupied extracting snakes from people's houses. He said that as the snakes habitat is taken from them , they remain on the modified land and get inside houses- an ongoing process. This was a perfect illustration that new suburbs are built on the habitat of other species.
Growth doesn't pay for itself - you do!
PostGrowthEra,
Your logic works for the European system which generally manages to treat growth as a social cost and not to confuse it with financial benefits, which it taxes. Our system does the opposite. It treats narrow profits from growth as a financial benefit and taxes everyone else to pay so that those few elite beneficiaries can maintain their outrageous supply. The rationale is that the rest of us benefit via 'trickle-down' - yes, just the way pigs do from scraps! That is why appeals to reason and logic do not work with our politicians. I posted the following at The Conversation, https://theconversation.edu.au/to-reduce-congestion-imagine-the-governme... where Mark O'Connor's article initially arose as a comment.
https://theconversation.edu.au/to-reduce-congestion-imagine-the-government-charged-by-the-kilometre-10035#
No-one should allow this model to proceed, and here is why; it will produce the exact opposite of what it purports to aim for.
As a land-use planning sociologist, I formally predict that this method, if applied, will increase revenue for governments and a few private industry beneficiaries and will also cause increased road traffic and congestion. This is because our land-use planning, political and economic system tend to maximise any activity that brings focused financial benefits to business or government via diffuse costs imposed on the general population.
The moment that even more money is to be made out of congestion (because money is already made hand over fist), we will see more policies and businesses designed to attract those benefits. If charges are specifically related to congestion, it will be treated as an overall good.
A similar situation exists with the treatment of population growth (which accelerates traffic congestion). It is treated as inevitable and desirable by all levels of government and big business, although it is increasingly openly resented by almost everyone else.
Examples of how this dysfunctional economic system works are to be found in the concept of toll roads and parking lots as major investments by big business in congestion and population growth and the blurring of business with government in areas where money is to be made from these sources, with big business advising parliament and government services outsourced. An incontrovertible sign that industry works to institutes such benefits is the existence of a population growth lobby that generates business for the property development industry (See http://candobetter.net/GrowthLobby).
Unfortunately for Australia the results of this system are loss of democracy and rise of cost of living and of manufacturing and farming on a local scale.
The way to combat congestion and population growth is to tax the beneficiaries to the hilt and preferably into bankruptcy. This will also greatly benefit democracy, the environment and society in general.
Sheila Newman, Sociologist
Reply
Dick Smith's message on limits to growth
Since World War II, our economic system has relied on perpetual growth, that is, our capacity to produce more and more goods and services. Its success depends on an ever-growing population that consumes increasing amounts of
energy and resources.
It’s common sense that perpetual growth in a finite world is impossible.
I’ve benefited from growth more than most, but even so, this doesn’t make
me believe that it can go on forever.
I can see that as we approach the limits of growth, social and environmental problems will increase.
Yet many economists constantly tell us that we have only two choices –growth or recession. Surely there must be an alternative?
I personally believe it’s possible to run our economic system without constant growth in the use of resources and energy. It’s a case of getting smarter, not bigger. We need a plan to develop a viable system based on improving quality of life by growth in efficiencies, satisfaction and happiness, rather than population and consumption.
Some Aussie-owned corporations have become part of the problem, rather than presenting a forum for solutions. Most have a “grow profit at all costs” agenda that prevents their boards from communicating that our economic system can’t grow forever. When was the last time you heard a Chief Executive encouraging our political leaders to develop a sustainable economic plan, one that doesn’t rely on an increasing use of resources and energy?
Without such planning, the problems for typical Aussies could become even worse, as big business desperately claws for every last bit of profit.
I believe our economy is moving into a phase that I call, “extreme capitalism”. The only way big business can grow profits is by taking over competitors or ruthlessly beating down a supplier’s prices, either sacking workers to reduce costs or shifting operations overseas for cheaper labour. In fact, it’s already
happening.
Surely this is not the Australia we want, especially when, with proper leadership and planning, we can move to a stabilised system in which wealth is more equitably shared.
Sooner or later we will need to find an alternative to constant growth.
Extract from Dick Smith magazine: "Aussie Grown Foods and other interesting ideas".
Public should not pay for government greed and extravagance
The public and business communities are being forced to face congestion for no fault of their own. We are all victims of the economic-population growth model. Why should drivers pay for something not decided by them, democratically, and not in their interests?
There's also the suggestion that taxes must be raised more to pay for the infrastructure for population growth - as if it were inevitable!
Dr Ken Henry said the projected growth in the population would place growing demands on government spending on vital infrastructure. The "projected" growth of our population is a political choice, and lands right within the portfolio of Minister for "Sustainable" population, Tony Burke.
Extracting more tax revenue means more public and heavy private debt, at a time of rising unemployment, funding cuts, weaker household spending, and housing stress.
Demand on infrastructure must keep apace with population growth - but the short-term benefits of population growth don't cover the long term costs. So, the solution? We end with an addiction problem. More people are needed to cover the funding shortfall, and the ongoing problem is never solved.
We need a circuit-breaker, and a "sustainable" population size. There is no precedent on a finite planet for unlimited growth, and when economic growth becomes uneconomic, it's time to reconsider the "business as usual" policy of "big Australia".
There's a definite question about environmental sustainability, but economic sustainability is another dimension of greed for growth - beyond our ability to pay for it.
The myth that cities must continually grow or "stagnate" must be challenged.
Eben Fodor, community planning consultant and author of Better, Not Bigger, has released a study comparing the fastest-growing metro areas of the U.S. with the slowest-growing, to test conventional wisdom that cities benefit from growth. This study ought to put the final nail in the coffin of the “grow or die” myth that misinforms public policies in many cities.
According to Fodor, “The slowest-growing MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) outperformed the fastest-growing in every category. The 25 slowest-growing MSAs averaged almost 1% lower unemployment rates, 2.4% lower poverty rates, and a remarkable $8,455 more in per capita personal income in 2009. They also had larger income gains from 2000 to 2009 and saw significantly lower declines in income from the recession (2007-09). “
http://www.growthbusters.org/2010/12/cities-with-stable-population-outpe...
For example, it is a "no brainer" that it is better to spend $X billions on universities, research and exports, and manufacturing, rather than spend $X billions on a road upgrade caused by population growth. There must come a time of betterments, improvements, not cost-cutting and austerity to pay for growth.
Letters Urgently needed: 104 Rescued Bears Face Eviction (Asia)
Subject:
PETA: Letters Urgently Needed: 104 Rescued Bears Face Eviction
From:
Claire Fryer
Date:
Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:34:36 +1000
To:
'Claire Fryer'
Hi Activists!
Our friends at Animals Asia Foundation need our help! Animals Asia’s Vietnam Bear Rescue Center has been rescuing bears from the cruel bile industry but now is facing a closure of its facilities without warrant. The eviction comes following an aggressive campaign by Tam Dao National Park director Do Dinh Tien claiming that the area is of national defense significance. Mr. Tien’s daughter has investments in Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company, a company that has submitted an application for “eco-tourism” and hotel development of the site that the rescue center currently occupies. The eviction would cause the rescue center’s 104 bears to be removed from the facility and the 77 local staff to be without employment. The financial loss to Animals Asia would be upwards of $2 million USD but the tragedy of the loss of a home for these bears and the countless hours of hard work by their staffers, volunteers, and supporters cannot be estimated. Please join PETA in speaking up for Animals Asia Foundation by sending in a letter to the Prime Minister of Vietnam the Honorable Nguyen Tan Dung.
Animals Asia Foundation is asking for our help with letters and petitions. You can view more here.
You can send your letters to the Prime Minister by e-mailing [email protected].
Public pressure can often be the main impetus for change! To make sure your letter has a good chance of being seen, follow these tips:
· Put “Stop the eviction of Animals Asia’s Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre” in the subject line of e-mails.
· Be brief! Sometimes one short, pithy paragraph is enough—try to stay under 300 words (about half of one typed page). Conclude by asking for a response.
· Be polite and concise. Keep everything relevant to the closure of Animals Asia Vietnam Bear Rescue Center. Never be threatening or insulting.
· Make sure you include your name and address in your letter.
For more tips on writing effective letters, please see PETA U.S.’ letter-writing guide.
The following are talking points that you can rephrase in your letter to get you started:
· Animals Asia Foundation is working hard in Vietnam to help animals that desperately need it. The closure of their bear rescue center is uncalled for and unfair. The words and acts of Mr. Do Dinh Tien are not truthful. Please ask him to hold to the decision that he made with Animals Asia in 2008. This is not a defense issue, it is a greed issue! This land was promised for the rescued bears and they should not have to suffer for someone’s business interests.
· These bears have suffered enough. These bears need the stability and home that they were promised. Animals Asia is helping the country of Vietnam and the world. Any compassionate person would not want to support this forced eviction of Animals Asia.
Thank you in advance for your action for animals! If you have any questions, I can be reached at
ClaireF[AT]peta.org.au.
For all animals,
Claire Fryer
Campaign Coordinator
PETA Australia
Australia's jobless rate increases
Queensland's unemployment rate has jumped to its highest level in nearly nine years but the state government denies it's because of its public service job-slashing program. Australia’s unemployment rate rose to 5.4 per cent in September with more people looking for work as softness in the national economy began flowing through to the jobs market.
According to the data, the unemployment rate in the nation's most populous state of New South Wales rose from 4.9 per cent to 5.2 per cent.
Unemployment Rates by State and Territory, August 2012 (%)
Labour Force Region Unemployment Rate
Australian Capital Territory 3.6
Western Australia 3.9
Northern Territory 4.2
New South Wales 4.8
Victoria 5.6
South Australia 5.7
Queensland 5.9
Tasmania 6.8
The "real" rate is likely to be higher, considering under-employment and those who haven't registered for benefits. Economist Ben Jarman said the data showed all types of workers were giving up the hunt.
‘‘Ultimately this is an unsustainable way of keeping the unemployment rate low," he said. ‘‘You either have to get the participation rate back, or there is less income circulating around the economy."
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/business/the-economy/jobless-rate-falls-...
All the rates confirm that Australia's economy is stagnating, along with that of Europe. Continually adding more people doesn't assure economic growth.
RMC Bullying Culture
Thankyou for sharing this, Im female and attended RMC in early 00's and experienced and witnessed a similar culture of bullying from Directing Staff and some other cadets which I formally complained about 2 occassions however they were dismissed. After I left it took me a long time to move forward and im still working on that. It appears the culture hasnt changed over time and isnt going to anytime soon.
Growth is all we've known
Although our well being, and very survival depends on us coming to grips with the end of growth, most people cannot conceive of our "civilisation"going in a different direction to that they have known all their lives. It is understandable that they will find new concepts untrustworthy since they are outside their experience. It is hard for people to imagine the future as being very different from the past especially if it is suggested that that future will be more difficult and that this is what their grandchildren will inherit from them.
Raises the question of intelligence
Memory is part of intelligence as is the ability to navigate. It seems that human intelligence in most people's minds is attributed an almost supernatural quality. When we discuss the abilities of other species such as the amazing feat of swallows finding their way to the other side of the world this is attributed to "instinct" or if a dog is cooperative and dutiful it is attributed to the fact that he knows who feeds him. There may be some part truth to either of these but what does it really mean? Our idea of human intelligence as qualitatively different from the intelligence of other species because we can talk and write, build skyscrapers and make and use of computers needs to be examined or at least seen as a possible artificial anthropocentric construct.
Pratt Dynasty excesses
http://theage.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/first-there-was-raheen-now-the-pratt-family-goes-one-or-two-better-20121009-27bd7.html
How’s this for excess? Melbournians are being asked to squeeze up and consolidate while this family does the opposite. It highlights the increasing wealth divide, the migration of money to the top few percent. It is disgusting and it is not the Australia I was brought up in.
Response to Generation Identitaire post
This Generation Identitaire movement seems to find its feet as a reaction to Muslim reaction to the film, The Innocence of Muslims. (See post - in French language - for 2nd October here Generation Identitaire).
France does not have a policy of multiculturalism like the Anglophone countries, which really do deprive people of democracy by forcing high immigration and multiculturalism. The French civil code is anti-communautarianist.
The Generation Identitaire activism shows signs of roots in militant Catholicism which is something that the French Revolution managed to minimise. In France the Civil Code specifically provides for freedom to criticise religion. Hopefully the Civil Code will also manage to minimise militant Islamism.
The Muslim population in France is not really historically 'foreign'. It arises largely from the fact that Algeria was French and therefore after Independence a lot of Muslims were French by birth and consequently had the absolute right (like other French) to move to the French mainland. It is however quite true that streams of the resultant Muslim populations have become ethnic ghettos.
Calls to 'war' are polarising and likely to serve the principle of divide and conquer, with elite winners, so fail in their stated objectives.
There is a fairly strong 'conservative' mostly Anglophone movement internationally that seeks to make common cause with a small right-wing movement in France and other ones in Continental Europe. This movement contains strong conservative Christian elements (not always Catholic) and is not generally an ecological movement, although you do get ecologists who identify ecology as an Anglophone movement. (I would explain the importance of environmentalism in Anglophone countries as an Anglophone reaction to the Anglophone political-economic tendency to privilege corporatism which results in in-your-face environmental damage where citizens have little recourse because we have such lousy political systems. Continental Europe simply does not have the overpopulation problems of the Anglophone countries. The Continental European countries are on a trajectory to decline after the babyboomers, whereas the Anglophone ones are going to keep on growing.)
At any rate this somewhat loose international Christian-identifying movement focuses on widespread legitimate resentment and fear at loss of national identity and ability of any citizen to organise and thrive through the rise of Islamic populations in Europe consequent on the dismantling of European colonies (but now irritated again by corporate colonialism in the Middle East).
It then links that rise in non-European populations to extreme left-wing globalism, which has also contaminated a lot of ecological activism and weakened it. (Candobetter.net often complains about Australian Greens failure to deal with overly high immigration and the detrimental effect on the environment and democracy of overpopulation). This globalism has also helped the corporate colonials and Islam tends to be against it.
Whereas the Left does have a lot to answer for in allowing the rise of high immigration in Anglophone countries, the history of the rise of Muslim populations was (as mentioned above) different in Continental Europe. So the common cause here is historically fuzzy because the systems are different.
In France the Catholics tend to be anti-Leftist, anti-immigrationist and anti-State and the Protestants to be leftist (but immigrationist). The State is anti-immigration. In Australia the State is for high immigration and the Catholics are also for high immigration and tend to back up the State. I believe this tends to be the case in the United States as well with Catholics and the State (even though the bulk of North Americans are not Catholic.) You then get a reaction amongst Christian US citizens who identify with Christianity but not with State policy and who seek to find common cause with other Christians independently of the official churches. Often they are not against population growth, but want to grow the population of Christians and object to competing religions.
Whilst it sad that movements to secure democracy by securing national identity are subject to polarisation into "Left/Right", it seems that it is much easier to organise narrowly nationalistic responses, especially by stimulating religious reactionism, than to organise ecological nationalist responses because the first has generational and clan bases whereas the second is bootstrapped on relatively abstract values (although could be localised much better). My conclusion is that the media and the power elites prefer to see nations divided and they like to keep ecologists divided too, as a subset, by massaging their passive identification with globalism and downplaying that of the Catholics, for instance.
A danger seems to be looming where the mass media is fanning violent confrontation between populations on religious and ethnic grounds. In the end, it will be an excuse for the states to put down popular revolts using the police and armies. We would be better off militating for Civil Rights in the Anglophone countries based on the European civil code model.
All sides should be able to see that high immigration puts pressure on all systems affecting democracy and safety, but the force of immigration ideology is so strong and backed by growth lobbyists who benefit financially that reason does not prevail. I agree that multiculturalism has been abused to put down legitimate peaceful opinion against high immigration.
(People may find this site's comment responses to the GI post interesting: Gates of Vienna blogspot)
Europe votes to tax all financial transactions vs UK dissent
Good News!
The French news France 2 JTof 9 October, report that 11 European countries have agreed to put a tax on financial transactions so the law will go ahead.
No surprise that the major dissenter is the UK.
Tax contemplated will be between 0.01% and 0.1% on every stock market transaction. Purpose to make the markets more responsible. France also would like to use profits to finance European institutions. Germany is against this use of the funds.
This will set the cat among the pidgeons internationally, showing, once again, how democratically corrupt the Anglophone countries are. I predict that not only the UK, but Canada, USA and Australia will all try to hold out against this.
I wonder if the Middle Eastern countries will come on board with Europe. I think that they probably will. Then, where will China stand? Interesting times.
Letter from France
We are Generation Identitaire.
We are the generation who get killed for glancing at the wrong person,
for refusing someone a cigarette, or having an "attitude" that annoys someone.
We are the generation of ethnic fracture,
total failure of coexistence, and forced mixing of the races.
We are the generation doubly punished:
Condemned to pay into a social system
so generous with strangers it becomes unsustainable for our own people.
Our generation are the victims of the May '68'ers who wanted to liberate themselves
from tradition, from knowledge and authority in education.
But they only accomplished to liberate themselves from their responsibilities.
We reject your history books to re-gather our memories.
We no longer believe that "Khader" could ever be our brother,
we have stopped believing in a "Global Village" and the "Family of Man".
We discovered that we have roots, ancestry and therefore a future.
Our heritage is our land, our blood, our identity.
We are the heirs to our own future
We turned off the TV to march the streets.
We painted our slogans on the walls.
Cried through loudspeakers for "youth in power" and flew our Lambda flags high.
The Lambda, painted on proud Spartans' shields, is our symbol.
Don't you understand what this means ?
We will not back down, we will not give in.
We are sick and tired of your cowardice.
You are from the years of post-war prosperity, retirement benefits, S.O.S Racism and
“diversity", sexual liberation and a bag of rice from Bernard Kouchner.
We are 25 percent unemployment, social debt, multicultural collapse
and an explosion of anti-white racism.
We are broken families, and young French soldiers dying in Afghanistan.
You won't buy us with a condescending look,
a state-paid job of misery and a pat on the shoulder.
We don't need your youth-policies. Youth IS our policy.
Don't think this is simply a manifesto. It is a declaration of war.
You are of yesterday, we are of tomorrow.
We are Generation Identitaire.
www.generation-identitaire.com
Meet the Candidates Forums Carlton/Kensington 15 & 17 Oct
Meet the Candidates Forums Carlton 15 October 2012 and Kensington 17 October 2012
Meeting: The Carlton Resident's Association will present "Meet the Candidates Forum" at the Church of All Nations, Carlton.
Time: 7:30 pm.
Date: Monday 15 October 2012.
Location: Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St, (cnr Drummond St) Carlton.
Transport: Church of All Nations. Melway Ref 2B G6, accessible by Swanston St Trams 1 and 8 to Elgin St, and buses on Lygon St and Rathdowne St to Elgin St. (C.A.N is a short walk from Elgin St).Parking: some on street carparking may be available along Lygon Street between Elgin and Princes Street near the Housing Commission flats.
Questions: Could PPL VIC members and associates send questions for the candidates to me Julianne Bell on jbell5[AT]bigpond.com and I will sort them and give to the meeting organiser. Questions are welcome from across Melbourne and Victoria on environment and heritage in the City of Melbourne.
Enquiries: Ian Bird, Carlton Residents' Association Email carltonresidents[AT]gmail.com
Meeting: The Kensington Association will present "Meet the Candidates" in the Holy Rosary School Hall, Kensington.
Time: 7:30 pm
Date: Wednesday 17 October 2012
Location: Holy Rosary School Hall, Gower Street, Kensington.
Enquiries: Tony Dare, Kensington Association. Email: info[AT]kensingtonassociation.org.au
Advice for Voters: Kensington Association has offered useful advice to people who are constituents of the City of Melbourne re voting as follows: The election is by postal vote only. You should receive two ballots (one for the Lord Mayor and Deputy and one for the election of 9 Councillors) between 9 and 11 October. You'll need to return ballots by 26 October. Please take the opportunity to hear from the candidates to help you make an informed choice and encourage your friends and neighbours to attend. (This was also circulated by the North and West Melbourne Association.)
Regards
Julianne Bell
Secretary
Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc.
PO Box 197
Parkville 3052
Mobile: 0408022408
Population growth for Melbourne - self-fulfilling prophesy
If there is confusion and misinformation about Planning Minister Matthew Guy sweeping changes to Victoria's zoning system, it's because he is dismantling previous planning constraints and zone definitions by stealth.
Residential zones will become more commercial, with shops, offices, medical clinics and churches not requiring planning permits, only building permits. Residents can object to the details but not to the overall zone character and amenities.
It's to allow planners and developers easier access to activity centres, green wedges, rural areas and industrial zones.
The State government's
Victoria in the Future 2012 states that by 2051 Melbourne’s population is projected to swell to 8.7 million - mainly driven by overseas migration.
This is despite our shrinking jobs, slashes to TAFEs, rising oil prices, rising costs of living, and economic austerity measures.
Expanding urban boundaries, blurring of zones, increasing urban density, obscure information and the lessening of democratic input is all about facilitating the huge expansion of Melbourne. Their "projected" population growth will be a self-fulfilling prophesy.
It means trading off zoning specifications, loosening environmental protection, restricting public input and compromising the betterment of Victoria's infrastructure and public services for “economic growth" - whether it's desirable, in our interests, or not.
Man shy matters
Anonymous does raise an interesting point on the decline of status for men, that is evident not just in health matters/services from governments , but into the wider society.
Many causes could be attributed - from the decline in productive skills due to transfer of manufacturing overseas to help the needy poor, no longer any sense of community through the immigration swarm and multiculturalism of/for big corporations for consumption demands and economic directions, lack of suitable comradeship as once was held amongst "blokes" of the past, and probably femininism inflicting feelings of uncertainty onto many men.
I do not feel however that "dropping out" offers any answer, as this only adds to increasing the huge number of men who currently sit down for all oblutions.
No, I think pursuit of freedom, identity and heritage could offer a reprieve, perhaps starting with a study of the time respected Magna Carta.
Well, just a thought anyway.
Reclaiming the Spirit of Australia
Australia First Party
Vote 1
JOHN CARBONARI
For Stony Creek Ward
Maribyrnong
City Council
Reclaiming the Spirit Of Australia
Maribyrnong residents can either put up with council status quo, or take a stand against agendas that are undermining our quality of life.
Many residents are experiencing economic stress from Council rate hikes, added to by infrastructure costs and inflated property valuations driven by population growth. Enough is enough.
I am committed to minimising Council Rate charges and the burden that they have now become, especially to those on fixed incomes. The waste from the old Council indicates it’s time for a real change. Rates must be curtailed to genuine services expenditure costs that directly benefit residents, and not be a form of land tax.
Rate increases due to non sustainable growth activity by exploiters/developers must stop!
Planning and development must be under residents influence to ensure sustainability and lifestyle and reduced rates are maintained.
I will promote sustainable living ideals and quality of life for residents, opposing the detrimental effects of unfettered population expansion and economic exploitation.
The retention and extension of open parkland under clean user friendly management; wider public transport use, and extension of bike use and facilities; renewable energy sources; family business encouragement, are integral in my primary aims.
I fully support effective re-empowerment of residents through the introduction of Citizens Initiated Referenda, whereby residents can canvas, and propose Council Policies directly, and have them confirmed by local plebiscite
I enjoy and will promote celebrations of Australian culture and identity, and will block all Council expenditure on multicultural propaganda that is undermining our Aussie society and way of life.
I will encourage Council action on our needy, homelessness and sub-standard housing. Australians before ‘refugees’!
LibLabs and Greens always install their puppet lackeys to serve party agendas, ignoring community concerns. They have proven they cannot be trusted, and their “have your say” jargon has become council consultant spin.
I do not represent the old system parties, or the exploitation dreams of the corporate elite who pay them. I will serve as a people’s ombudsman “
I am a Maribyrnong City local, retired and committed to advancing ratepayers’ interests.
Contact - Mobile 0418 535 516
email: [email protected]
The Australia First Party’s Community and Electoral Programme is available at www.australiafirst.net
Voting for other than Australia First is just a waste of time
Authorised by R Blythe Warbuton Hway Wesburn 3799
Printed by R Blythe Warbuton Hway Wesburn 3799
Victorian government ignores men completely
The following government website states all of the people and services that make up a community:
www.vic.gov.au/health-community
There's one rather glaring omission though: men. Apparently even Animals and Pets are important enough to rate a mention, but men as roughly half of the population? No. There's no links for men, no mention of services for men. Nothing. If we're going to keep ignoring half of the population we're going to continue to see more of men "dropping out". It's a sad day indeed when men don't even rate a mention when 'Animals and Pets' do. We're still citizens of this country, even if we're being treated like second class ones!
Take Action to end Live Animal exports
Help send a clear message to all politicians. You can download a form letter from www.AnimalsAustralia.org/my-street-letter and use it to get people in your street to send a message to the federal MP's office. Email your MP. To find your local MP go to www.AnimalsAustralia.org/mp. Phone you local MP and send a hard copy letter too. Meet your MP to tell him/her what you think of live animal exports. Leave them all in no doubt that unless action is taken to end this cruel trade, they will not get your vote.
Joe Ludwig - professional denier
Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig has declared the live export industry rules are working despite the brutal deaths of thousands of Australian sheep in Pakistan. Senator Ludwig says there is no reason to stop live animal exports from Australia to other international markets while that takes place. "But it doesn't mean we have to stop the trade to Indonesia, it doesn't mean we have to stop the trade to the Middle East. "Those markets continue to be very good markets."
He seems to be in denial,
and completely oblivious to any controversy, or contrary evidence to what he is saying. Time and time again, Animals Australia have exposed gross cruelty and corruption, but still the trade continues. The horrific disposal of thousands of Australian sheep in Pakistan, by stabbing, clubbing and being buried alive seems to go over his head!
The abandoned sheep, refused in Bahrain, were obviously thin and disheveled, but if they are proved to be "healthy" at the time of their disposal, then it's obvious that Australian sheep are not welcome. Maybe local producers don't want competition from Australia pushing down their profits?
Ed. Thanks for the comment, Bandicoot. I have removed two words that might have had slanderous implications, although you probably did not mean them to. The sense of your comment is retained, however.
No turning back from population growth
It's assumed by our State government that our population growth is inevitable, uncontrollable and must be "managed" and planned ahead for. Instead, our government is actually encouraging growth by providing "plans" that allow for it. Urban planning has become a retrograde process of unwinding previous boundaries and constrictions, and loosening zones, to allow for the swelling of our population. Once subdivisions are made, and higher density housing is provided for, developer will maximise them and people will come! It's a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Planning now is about declining living standards, loosening environmental controls, and lowering amenity standards. The costs of growth are ignored- such as the infrastructure and utility costs.
Urban planning is about de-structuring good planning principles of the past, and devolving standards. The new plans will allow commercial buildings and business to build without a planning permit, and access to green wedges. It's a devolution to a more free-for-all, open-slather, deregulation of planning. Access to rural areas will compromise our local food supplies, and biodiversity, something that is not in our interests. Once our population increases, there's no turning back.
NO CHOICE ?... WHY is mass medication mandated.. WHY ?
Industrial Chemical WASTE dumping in clean water supplies, in the guise of public health ?
It is a grievous harm done to humans, to mass medicate and mislead by chemical company sponsored propaganda. The thyroid and the pineal glands are sensitive & VERY important to human function on many levels. I am somewhat alarmed to have just discovered this vital function is becoming shut down through toxic fluoridation.. in a sense, this creeping stealthy menace has been implemented where ever there is ignorance & complacency.
It is well known that the calcification of the pineal gland by water fluordation, reduces the human's ability to be sensitive to spiritual vibrations. THERE is a very real reason why it is called the third eye.
Fluoride was added to WW2 POW drinking water to stupify them and make them apathetic.
It appears that the New World Order is implementing its strategy for dominance and control, by dumbing down the populace. This is a heinous crime crime against all living things.
Are you complacent and ignorant? Do your research, or be surreptitiously poisoned.
See also: Former Whitlam Government Health Minister says No to Water Fluoridation of 24 Feb 2008.
got a life
got a life..
Mr get a life, I have a life, I don't want it poisoned. I want the choice of having clean unadulterated water.
Mr get a life, do you have a wife who is aging ... then perhaps fluoride will make her bones brittle?
Mr get a life, I suggest, for your own health, if you want to stay out of strife, that you research all the information and then get a life, at least a better one ... regards.
Land grabs leave a billion people hungry
Enough land to grow food for a billion hungry people has been sold off in developing countries over the last 10 years, prompting international aid agency Oxfam to call for a six-month freeze.
Land grab leaves a billion hungry
Oxfam head of economic justice, Kelly Dent, said the world's hungry were most at risk from land grabs.
Land-grabs, following direct and indirect investments in land by large European financial institutions, mean European companies are snatching up land, increasingly in Africa. This comes at the expense of local livelihoods and food sovereignty, in addition to causing knock on environmental devastation through land-use change.
It's been argued that it would lead to food insecurity, hunger, poverty and convert the country from net food exporter to food importer – grave threat signs of which have already become visible.
Foreign investors have bought up more than 100 million hectares of land in poor countries in the last decade in deals which could be contributing to hunger and poverty, campaigners have warned.
The last global food price crisis in 2008 and 2009 saw land deals treble because they were seen as a profitable investment, Oxfam said, and with food prices at around record levels once more, there could be another wave of land grabs.
In Africa the need for land has lead to struggles for state power in vastly overpopulated regions such as the Great Lakes Region and Rwanda and Burundi in particular while globally it is becoming ever more pertinent to national security concerns. Agriculture in Africa is in a very deep crisis, indeed. And we have to realize that four fifth of all farmers live of a small bit of land, on which they are cultivate some food on which they and their families live. They are being deprived by land robbery, by people coming from outside who have nothing to do with the country. These are predatory people who do not have the population/people of the country in their minds and hearts, but they have very different interests - in profits and their own nation's food security.
It is estimated that there will be another billion people added over the next 15 years and yet another billion before mid-century. We have a food crisis, an oil crisis, a water crisis, soil crisis, shrinking economies, a jobs crisis, an immigration crisis and a population crisis. All these problems are harder to solve with a growing population exacerbating diminishing resources, adding to greed, terror and stress.
Clearer signs of overpopulation and Limits to Growth would be hard find!
Ironically, Oxfam refuse to recognise the problem of overpopulation as the cause of climate change- because under-developed countries produce less per capita carbon emissions, and they need more people of working age to care for the elderly!
Population: why it’s a dangerous distraction on climate change (and makes us feel uncomfortable)
High probability of even "bigger" Australia than thought!
Queensland Centre for Population Research (QCPR) demographers have done some probability modelling for Australia.
“Our modelling indicates there is a 95% chance that by mid-century Australia’s population will be between 29 and 43 million,” QCPR spokesperson, Dr Tom Wilson said.
“Our model tells us there is a 50% chance that the nation’s population will be greater than 36 million by 2051, so we could have an ‘even bigger’ Australia” he said.
Julia Gillard's rejection of "big Australia" was a lie, a farce, and cruel political spin.
The projections by QCPR are based on statistical models which include the variability of past demographic change and expert opinion on the future range of overseas migration.
Read more: http://www.gpem.uq.edu.au/population
If continued, our immigration policy of increasing numbers of immigrants will irreversibly alter the natural and urban environments, economic viability as well. It will undermine Australia as a nation with a unique and valuable identity and culture. The only policy is to get bigger!
We don't have to shut down our immigration, or shut our borders, but re-define it, and allow immigration to outpace immigration by only enough people to stabilize our numbers. Trying to add young migrants to dilute our "ageing population" is similar to being conned into buying snake-oil elixirs to maintain eternal youthful looks! Personal ageing can't be avoided, and neither can ageing populations. We must celebrate our ageing population as a symbol of success and maturity.
The obsession with "bigness", and "big is better" is a childish fixation, and focuses on dimensions rather than ideals, costs, long term value, heritage, dimensions of quality, and even our survival. Allowing immature and megalomaniac, easily manipulated adults to be in charge of policies such as our population size is like allowing children to play with matches!
Steve's story
This bitter sweet story is amazing - so much beauty in the night, the kangas and the wonderful Australian bushland - makes us remember what we are supposed to be doing, rather than sitting in rooms with tech boxes etc. But one thing we shouldn't be doing is having to put lives back together after the killing industry, the government, the ag industry and the hoons have injured wildlife and orphaned these poor babies. Thank goodness for all the Steves and Rosemarys of Australia, the Davids against the Goliath of cruelty and ignorance.
As an historical record of our terrible times this is priceless - as a literary work I feel there could have been a little editing done and possibly some dramatic connections made, to vary the tone of the delivery. However, I guess time is a factor as the writer seems to living several lives simultaneously! Incredible.
Rally against Live Exports - Australia wide 6th October
If you care about animals and want to protect them from cruelty,together we will stand side by side against live export on Saturday October 6 in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Hobart.
Despite assurances from the Australian Government that cruelty in the live export trade would be addressed, animals continue to be neglected, brutalised, have their throats cut while fully conscious, and recently, were buried alive.
Tragedy after tragedy reveals that animals exported live will always be at risk. And yet, they continue to be sent. This sends the appalling message to the rest of the world that Australia accepts animal cruelty. The animals are depending on us — we must urgently let politicians know that caring Australians will not vote for political parties that support live export. This is your chance to join with others at a family-friendly event to rally for a kinder future for animals.
Hear from Animals Australia investigator Lyn White, leading politicians, and other inspiring speakers
Mass petition signing
Other campaign activities
Placards will be provided, including child-friendly signs
Animals Australia Live Export Rally - get event details for you State
All power to Dr.s Joe Toscano and Jean Ely
This campaign is very courageous. At the very least it highlights the crazy system that exists in the City of Melbourne. As we know it is members of the establishment who normally get to wear the mayoral robes. The Toscano campaign highlights the issue of homelessness which is a result of unaffordable housing from too many people coming to live in the city of Melbourne. I heard yesterday that in the next 10 years , Melbourne must accommodate an additional population equivalent of the whole city of Adelaide! This madness must stop. On a palliative note, yesterday looking up at the rooms above Flinders Street Station. They have an empty look which prompted the thought that how wonderful it would be if they could be turned into accommodation for marginalised people.
Surprise blowout in the trade deficit
Australia recorded its widest trade deficit since March 2008 as coal exports dropped, sending the dollar to the lowest level in almost a month.
SMH- Surprise blowout in the trade deficit Oct 3, 2012
The campaign to switch to renewable energy in China faces economic and technical obstacles, and coal and gas are far cheaper and abundant. This year, China will – for the first time – account for half the coal burned globally.
Greenpeace and China's Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources in a report released in August this year said that coal mining is likely to guzzle up massive amounts of water in northern regions, leaving little for other needs like farming. The report echoes previous warnings that China's voracious appetite for coal is unsustainable. China’s Ministry of Land and Natural Resources and estimated that China’s coal production could peak between 2025 and 2032. We can't tandem our own economic growth with China's.
We are not about to run out of either coal or gas. However, here again costs of production are rising, and limits to supply growth are becoming increasingly apparent.
According to Richard Heinberg, senior Fellow-In-Residence of the Post Carbon Institute, and author of "The End of Growth", due to the fossil fuel revolution of the past two centuries, we have seen growth at a speed and scale unprecedented in all of human history. World leaders, if they are deluded about our actual situation, are likely to delay putting in place the support services that can make life in a non-growing economy survivable.
We need to manage declining natural resources, not become deluded by the myth of perpetual economic growth.
World Bank: 600 million jobs needed
HUNDREDS of millions of new jobs will be needed to keep up with world population growth by 2020, the World Bank says.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/world-bank-600-millio...
Jobs might equal hope, but jobs all depend on natural resources. Creating more farms in Africa is limited by "peak water", "peak soil" and peak just about everything.
Job creation is actually limited by the finite amount of natural resources on the planet to support those jobs. Jobs aren't created in a vacuum.
As populations surge in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa the number of positions will need to increase by 600 million over 2005 levels, the World Bank report said. The problem is not too few jobs; it’s too many people.
Tim Jackson in the UK, Herman Daly in the US, and Serge Latouche in France have argued that growth is not always good for the environment, or for the real health of communities. If all countries decide to maximize their populations and their economies, ice will melt, putting cities under sea level, oil will run out, food prices will rise, wages will fall, and human welfare will be reduced, not increased.
Say NO to ivory - Join the Elephant March IFAW
Elephants are being killed for ivory. While elephants have some protection through the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), several African nations regularly request that CITES Conference of the Parties allow further sales of ivory from existing stockpiles.
The trade in wildlife body parts is horrific, and decimating animal numbers - hurtling some species towards extinction.
Please sign:
ENDING IVORY TRADE IFAW
Nothing regulated or "humane" about the kangaroo meat industry
A new report by THINKK, the UTS-based think tank for kangaroos, has called for improved government oversight of the code of practice for the humane killing of kangaroos. The industry can't be regulated, as the shooting happens in remote, hot and dusty areas. Babies are disposed of by bashing, having no commercial value. It reduces animals to a mere commodity, rather than warm-blooded living creatures - in many ways like humans.
Authorities for animal welfare can't even supervise what happens in semi-urban abattoirs, let alone what happens when killing happens in remote bushland.
The researchers say government agencies do not regularly inspect carcasses at the point of kill and without such inspections it is impossible to ensure compliance with code. That the kangaroo meat industry is well supervised and "humane" is pure industry and political spin.
Some people see kangaroos as a "pest", a saleable "harvest, "green" meat, an industry for meat and skins. Fortunately there are people who are emotionally literate, who have their fingers on the pulse of the natural world, who understand Nature and animals for their intrinsic beauty, and empathise with the sentience of animals.
"Sustainable" growth a mockery!
Victoria's $24 billion extravagant desalination plant must be paid by the people of Victoria, despite our dams being 80% full. The plan for this expensive desal plant is due to a kneejerk reaction to Labor government's high population growth at a time of a severe, 13 year drought. It has a lifetime of 100 years, and must be paid for by water-users.
However, Victoria's population growth is set to double in under 50 years. With population growth outpacing any addressing of our water supplies, just how many desal plant must the people pay for for a reliable water supply?
The power of developers and the banks means that any strategic planning, or any form of real "planning", is being thrown out the window for the immediate cash-flows from population growth.
Ecological overshoot is costly - environmentally, socially and economically. It makes mockery of any "sustainable" developments, "sustainable" growth, or any investment in a long-term, meaningful future.
Syrian Girl's interview of murdered Iranian journalist
From the Syrian Girl Partisan's YouTube channel, 27 Sep 2012
Press TV Journalist Maya Nasser was martyred yesterday when FSA Mercenary Snipers while he was covering a bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus . He was a patriot and a brave hero that risked his life for the truth. Three weeks before his death I interviewed him on whether or not there was a civil war in Syria. I waited to put it out because i wanted to edit it, and now it's too late for him to see it. I had hoped to interview him again, 'inshallah' he said, 'god willing'.
From VoltaireNet: PressTV journalist
Maya Nasser murdered in cold blood
27 September 2012
Our friend and colleague, 33 year-old Maya Nasser, Press TV's correspondent in Syria, was shot in the neck by a gunman on Wednesday, 26 September 2012, while covering the double attack against the Syrian Ministry of Defence. He was murdered by terrorists as they were trying to take advantage of the bedlam to get into the burning building.
During his lifetime, Nasser Maya had never experienced anything except a war-torn Middle East. He was an exemplary journalist. He was also a sensitive and generous man who had dedicated his life to the Resistance and was always prepared for the exteme sacrifice.
Another colleague, Al-Alam bureau chief Hossein Morteza was wounded during the same incident.
Syria has been under attack for the past 18 months by mercenaries, funded by Qatar and overseen by NATO. They are intent on dismantling the secular institutions, undermining the defense system of a country partly occupied since 1967, and imposing a religious dictatorship in which Christian and Muslim minorities would not have their place. The conflict has already claimed more than 30,000 Syrian victims (civilian and military) and more than 6000 deaths among the foreign jihadists.
During the Battle of Damascus (mid-July), the Contras had mounted an exceptionally violent operation, shelling for three solid days the studios shared by Press TV and Al-Alam.
See also: Young Syrian patriot fights corporate media lies against her homeland of 10 May 2010.
Minister Simon Crean's big delusion - "big Australia"
Regional Australia Minister Simon Crean has backed calls by sections of the ethnic business community in South Australia for Labor to support a Big Australia through policy decisions and incentives for immigrants.
Crean crosses PM's vision for Australia
"I believe in a Big Australia," Mr Crean told senior politicians and corporate heavyweight in Adelaide this week.
He's suffering from megalomania, and a "big" syndrome. It's hardly a "vision" but a reality-distortion problem.
At least he has identified the source of the lobby group - ethnic business community and not the mainstream voters. As Regional minister, he obviously is not listening to regional constituents, or the vast majority of Australian voters.
Over the next 30 years the number of over-65-year-olds will double. However, adding more migrants to dilute the ageing will create a Ponzi-like scheme, which will require further influxes of young migrants to compensate for their ageing! It's like selling snake-oil products to delude people that they can buy the elixir of youth.
Australia is already struggling to preserve the Murray Darling Basin, the Great Barrier Reef, and the tide of species extinctions.
The economy is a sub-set of the environment, not the contrary.
The Cornucopia idea is one based on the Horn of plenty, that overflows for human welfare. It's based on the myth that when it comes to human desires, and whims, Nature will be forever bountiful and compliant with our dreams of riches and economic benefits. Other species don't have the same privileges, only humans. Sustainable Population Australia's Dr Coulter said "This is totally untenable in environmental, social and economic terms."
Minister Simon Crean's magnanimous and misdirected grandiose ideas need to be treated with a reality check, and maybe some therapy. He should study the constancy and beauty of Nature, the web of life, and comprehend that the permanence of the successful, most ancient, species on our planet have remained sheltered in long-surviving, untouched and stable habitats. We should be making plans to manage natural resource depletion, not aggravating misanthropic growth!
The vast majority of Australian do not want a "big Australia", something earlier Julia Gillard dismissed when she became Prime Minister, in response to Kevin Rudd's diplomatic blunder. Mr Crean's position puts him at odds with Julia Gillard, who has called for "a sustainable Australia, not a Big Australia". However, we are still heading towards "big Australia", only be stealth and not vocally.
Simon Crean not only is abandoning reason, is is committing political suicide by pushing our nation further towards a "big Australia" and inevitable implosion under the weight of human biomass.
Humourous proportions
I can sympathise with P Incorrect's frustrations at the his nibbled plants. I am host to one ring tail possum in the middle-inner suburbs of Melbourne (not Moonee Ponds) who gives me only one day a year in spring to enjoy the new leaves on the top of my fruit trees. After that I see that they are increasingly chewed each morning. The interesting thing is that back when Edna first used the word "possums" as a term of endearment, possums were no big deal at all. We hardly knew they were there, such was the "low" density of suburban living that it permitted large gardens and plenty of open space. At that density we apparently lived in harmony, not only with possums, but frogs, lizards and birds as well right in suburban Melbourne. It really is a matter of proportion and we are increasingly out of proportion with everything else that lives and breathes in the world because there are too many of us. People can't tolerate elephants that trample and eat their crops so the elephants get killed. The elephants only do it because they need to eat. We can't tolerate bears, lions and tigers living near us because they might eat us- so they all get killed.
It seems such a small thing to allow possums to climb native trees in public places in order to get some shelter.
Major Victory for Quebec Students, Environmental Activists
Full article on Global Research
Their demonstrations have shaken Quebec in recent months, and on September 20th students and environmentalists won major victories.
At her first news conference as premier, Pauline Marois announced that her Parti Québécois government had cancelled the university tuition fees increase imposed by the Charest Liberal government, and would repeal the repressive provisions of Law 12 (formerly Bill 78)
Charest had imposed in his efforts to smash the province’s massive student strike. Among other things, this will remove the restrictions on public demonstrations and the threat of decertification of student associations.
In addition, Marois has ordered the closing of Gentilly-2, Quebec’s only nuclear reactor, while promising funding to promote economic diversification to offset job losses resulting from the shutdown. And she will proceed with her promise to cancel a $58-million government loan to reopen the Jeffrey Mine, Quebec’s last asbestos mining operation.
End to Shale Gas Exploration
The new Natural Resources minister, Martine Ouellet, followed up by announcing an end to shale gas exploration and development in Quebec. ...
Harvard switches to open access publishing cuts big journals out
News - Science - Open access scientific publishing
Harvard University says it can't afford journal publishers' prices
University wants scientists to make their research open access and resign from publications that keep articles behind paywalls.
Scientific articles have become inaccessible to the general public and any scientist not affiliated with a university unless they can afford ridiculous sums of money for journal articles and journal membership. This means that scientific discoveries don't get widely known and favoritism flourishes whereby it is very difficult for new scientists to get useful peer reviews and to have their theories published. Academic publishing has become too precious for its own good. Amazing and cheering that Harvard is apparently leading the way.
Australia's costly budget "surplus"
Mr Swan said Australia's Budget and debt of $147 billion still meant that we still among the strongest economies in the developed world and the nation enjoyed the "great combination" of solid economic growth, low unemployment, contained inflation and a record investment pipeline. It's the same political spin, the need for budget cuts to maintain a "surplus". Treasurer Wayne Swan vowed the razor gang would make "responsible savings" in line with Labor values and keep promises to deliver the very costly overhaul to education and disability funding.
(Herald Sun, http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/more-spending-cuts-planned-to-...). It means that to deliver a $5.1 billion surplus by Christmas, the government has to cut spending.
As Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls prepared to deliver his first state budget, Premier Campbell Newman said the “once in a generation” document would outline how the new Liberal National Party government intended to turn around the finances. There is a simple, yet easy to understand trade-off between fiscal and monetary policy. A tight budget equals artificially lowering interest rates. Standard and Poors and Moody's, have declared that Australia must be able to reach a surplus across the business cycle to have a Budget worthy of a AAA rating.
Western Australian and Queensland budgets could be thrown into deficit to the tune of nearly $2 billion dollars as falling commodity prices hit their resources-dependent economies.
Premier Colin Barnett said Western Australia cannot continue to prop up the flagging Australian economy in the face of falling commodities prices. The government imagined that Australia's economy would "boom", even in non-resource States. This has not happened.
There are limits to how much debt households,corporations and nations can withstand. The Global Financial Crisis was never really solved but papered over with extensions and banking trickery.
Despite the international community agreeing to cancel up to 125 billion dollars for 33 countries since 2000 under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank predictions foresee foreign debt payments in the least developed countries (LDCs) increasing by one-third over the next few years.
If economic growth really takes resources of some sort–coal, or oil or copper, or fresh water to produce goods and services–it stands to reason that at some point, the resources needed for economic growth will run short. This is especially true for resources that are used up when they are burned, like coal and oil. No country expects huge additional oil supply during 2012. China is likely to have debt default problems relating to the debt supporting its recent growth. The financial meltdown has now come as a stark reminder of how the world’s failure to strive for sustainable development has grave consequences.
As Richard Heinberg says, "problems arising from speculative overreach, real estate bubbles, and the inherent Ponzi dynamics of our global debt-based financial structures are endemic and profound. Still, if these were our only difficulties, we might reasonably expect that eventually, once they are sorted out (however painful the process may be), growth will return". But there are seldom-acknowledged factors external to financial and monetary systems that are effectively choking off efforts to restart growth.
In his book "The End of Growth", he unpacks them in more detail, discussing limits to oil and other energy sources, as well as to food, water, and minerals.
http://richardheinberg.com/225-earth%E2%80%99s-limits-why-growth-won%E2%...
Mary Drost statement re Green Wedges to Age - correction
I received this from Mary Drost today and would like to help her get this message out in the manner she wishes.
"Dear Sir
I request that my letter to the editor be printed because how I was quoted Saturday has given readers the wrong idea of what I said. I guess that half of my statement was cut off the end, therefore I would appreciate it if you would print this letter by way of correction.
Many thanks
Mary Drost OAM
Letter to the Editor
When I was quoted in the Saturday Age (“Councils bemoan possible changes to planning zones”) half of my statement seems to have been cut off the bottom altering the meaning of what I said and this is causing misunderstandings across Melbourne. Let me make it clear. I share the concerns about the Green Wedges the Rural and Commercial areas proposed changes and I am of the strong opinion that these should be put aside until much more study and community consultation can be carried out. However the Residential Zones to which I was referring in the Age have great merit, providing we can have the changes we residents and most councils are asking for. For years we in the residential suburbs have been pleading for protection from inappropriate development and finally we can have it, especially the Neighbourhood Zone, it is excellent and even the General Zone will be protected by Neighbourhood Character. We and the councils will have the say about where these zones go and how big. Submission now dont close now until the 28th Sept, you are urged to write a submission.
We thank the Minister for agreeing that we have a community member on the Review Committee, the name will be announced soon.
Mary Drost
Convenor"
Planning Backlash Inc
34 Prospect Hill Road
Camberwell
9882 4453 0401 834 899
Control developers, not possums
Hmm. To me this comment, "Cull, baby cull," highlights the untenable nature of human expansion. Where is the fairness? What is left for the possums? Does the writer want to be the only species left in Australia, bar some exotic flowers, which would then be eaten by some other animal, including insects, that would step into the possum's place? I live in a house with a fair amount of Australian vegetation, including trees, as well as some camelias, roses and fruit trees. The possums won't even accept apples here, when I occasionally think to offer one. We do have permanent residents in the roof and in the trees outside, but they don't create a problem, unless you consider their courtship routines an affront, but personally I find those amazing banshee yowls amusing. The thumping on the roof also makes me smile. It is as familiar as rain. It doesn't keep me awake. What does keep me awake at night is developers, planners, and all the other people who force us to live with constant change, overdevelopment and overpopulation. We bought an old house - it is now about 80 years old. Maybe the possums here had time to adapt to human incursion, thus they don't rely on our fruit or our exotic flowers. They disdain them. The house seems to be able to cope with them in the roof and on the roof. What kind of house is so poorly built that it cannot cope with possums? Australian houses should be able to cope with Australian conditions. Yet another criticism of the feral housing industry in this country. Population growth at the bottom of it again, causing cruelty and intolerance. At least the anti-possum writer has a sense of humour and tries to put his/her case clearly. Thanks.
Cull Baby, Cull!
Dame Edna would often greet her audiences with a cheery “Hello possums!”. When I first heard this greeting I thought it was mildly amusing. It wasn’t until I became a home owner, or more particularly a garden owner, that I realised what an insult the good Dame was aiming at us. Recently I have taken to introducing the subject of possums in conversations with old and new acquaintances. I’ve found that it is a great leveler. Personal experiences and strong views abound. Doubtless, there must be possum lovers amongst us, but I have yet to meet one. If they do exist, they must keep their sympathies hidden, and for bloody good reason. In our last two houses we have fought an ongoing and losing war with these bastard creatures. They strip magnolias, roses and any other plant that we have nurtured, fed pruned and cared for. They break branches and strip vines. They run around on the roof and break their way in to the roof cavity through the smallest spaces, and then proceed to treat that space as their own personal en suite where they defecate, urinate and fornicate. They are bastards! I have heard people say “Oh, you must learn to live with possums. They have rights too”. Oh, really? A perusal of authoritative websites reveals ad nausea what could only be described as the possum Bill of Rights. It states that a possum found in your ceiling may be removed provided that it is released no more than a few metres from where it was caught. Pardon? Yep, you got it! These sites also point you in the direction of professional possum people [PPPs] who for a payment, will remove them from your ceiling and release them in the garden or thereabouts. They will then come back the following week, and the week after that and so on. For a further fee, the PPPs will also install unsightly plastic discs and tubes on your electricity and telephone cables to impede the bastards from accessing your property. They can also install spikes along the fence railings. Apparently it is unacceptable to catch and release possums in some nearby reserve, but it is quite alright to impale them. Go figure! It was suggested to me that possums hate the smell of human urine. Simply pee in a bottle, fit a spray to the bottle, and away you go. It was explained that it is far tidier if this job is delegated to the male of the house, notwithstanding the political incorrectness of this separation of duties . For extra effectiveness, he suggests consumption of asparagus beforehand. He said it works a treat but does not do much for neighbourhood relations and can discourage the local postman. Col, a friend of mine, recently became so infuriated by the bastards that he enquired at his local hardware store as to the availability of a possum trap. The store owner’s eyes lit up with excitement. Surely, my friend thought, here is a kindred spirit, and he was right. A trap was immediately produced and its workings explained enthusiastically, and with great clarity. However, the store owner also pointed out with a “nudge nudge wink wink” the severe legal restrictions that applied to the trapping of possums. Col said, and I quote directly, “I don’t give a stuff! I want to declare war on the bastards!”. At this stage the store owner was approaching a state of ecstasy. He said “Well, in that case, you should be aware that it is no use catching them and releasing them in the next street. The bastards will always find their way back. You need to take them a few kilometres away. Even then, they might come back.” He went on to say “what I do, is spray their tail with white paint before I release them. That way, if I catch one featuring a white painted tail, I know I haven’t taken the bastard far enough from my house”. You guessed it! Col not only bought the trap, but a can of spray paint as well. He set the trap each night and the following morning would take his catch, still in the trap, to a recreational park and quietly, and secretively release the bastard near a clump of trees to which it would scamper and climb. One morning he did encounter a difficult problem. Having set the trap the previous night, he forgot about it as he rushed to get to the airport the next morning. At 30,000 feet approaching Sydney, he remembered! On landing, Col rang his wife and asked her to check the trap. She did and reported that the trap contained the biggest possum she had ever seen, and it was not happy. He explained that she would need to put the trap in the boot of her car, drive to the park, and secretly release it. Many expletives followed. Finally she agreed and proceeded to the said park in a southerly direction. She waited until there were no pedestrians in sight, opened the boot and opened the cage. Col forgot to tell her that she needed to take the cage out of the car first. What happened next was to be expected. The bastard came out of the cage and hid in the far darkest reaches of the boot. She prodded it with sticks and swore at it profusely, much to the amusement of pedestrians and cyclists who, by then had started to appear. A classic Basil Fawlty moment! All in all, over two months Col caught several possums and none of them had white tails. And it was good! Well it was good until he realised that as soon as he removed one bastard from his property, another passing possum would see the vacancy sign and move in with extended family. In the end he surrendered to the endless supply of reinforcements that the enemy possessed. Col was out walking on Saturday morning with his wife. He tells me that on a busy corner he spied a possum that had been run over by a car. “It was as flat as a frisbee and a beautiful sight” he said. The world is in turmoil. We have financial meltdown, unsustainable government debt levels, unaffordable housing, climate change and so on. These are second order issues. The politician who says [to paraphrase Sarah Palin] “cull, baby, cull!” has got my vote.
Systems under threat due to climate change
If the growth-ists think that GM foods will feed continuing human numbers, then climate change will also hit their plans.
In a world first, researchers have shown that many species of fruit fly won't survive even a modest increase in temperature. Many are close to or beyond their temperature safety margin - and very few have the genetic ability to adapt to climate change.
Vanessa Kellerman, of Monash University's Molecular Ecology Research Group, said the scientists looked at the heat resistance of 100 different species of fruit flies. '
It was found that only a few species could withstand high temperatures, and that these species were all closely related - and had evolved in a more extreme climate.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/fruit-flies-at-boili...
A CSIRO project started in late 2008, has built on the results from the 2008 Implications of climate change for Australia’s National Reserve System report. There is compelling evidence, gathered over past decades, that the impacts of climate change on the world's biodiversity are likely to be significant.
"Increases in the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHG) will lead to changes in temperature and rainfall, and the occurrence and intensity of storms, wind, run-off, floods, droughts, fires, heat waves, El Niño and other climate cycles. These changes affect primary
productivity and many biological processes; hence there is every reason to believe many if not virtually all species on Earth will be affected. "
Download the report here:
http://www.csiro.au/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/Climate-Adaptation-...
One-fifth of the "spineless creatures that rule the world" may be at risk of extinction, according to a new study. The study, produced with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, could also have implications for humans. The value of insect pollination of crops has been valued at $US191 billion a year, according to the report. The projected increase in the world's human population to 9 billion by 2050 from 7 billion now and other factors such as man-made climate change could make things worse for invertebrates.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-31/spineless-creatures-at-risk/4237464
It's about time our population was not "projected" and fired into the dangerous zone of planetary extinctions and treated as inevitable, and uncontrollable!
Genetic Roulette
Yes, definitely see the documentary Genetic Roulette at http://geneticroulettemovie.com/ - a wonderfully persuasive movie about the dangers of genetically engineered food.
Genetic Roulette movie - very scary on-line free for day or so
http://geneticroulettemovie.com/This movie on GMOs will stop you cold. You can watch it free for the next day or so. After that it costs. Turns out this kind of stuff has been ruining farms, killing their animals, killing pets and causing terrible health problems in humans, but the influence of Monsanto in the US government health regulation has prevented the many complaints and research reports from getting any response. It is all just ignored. You need to get to this movie in the next day or so
if you want to see it for free.
Albert
Anti-War Protests Break out in Eastern Turkey
From Xinua, 16 Sep 12
More than 5,000 protesters staged on Sunday a massive anti-war protest against the Turkish government intervention against Syria in Antakya, capital of Turkey's eastern province of Hatay.
Protesters called on the government to stop the intervention against Syria and urged to stop providing aids to the military camps of Syrian freedom army in the border region between the two countries.
Shouting slogans like "Muslims are friends" and "We want peace, not war", the protesters walked along the street and drawed acclamation from many locals. "We want Turkey and Syria to be friends again. We want the Syrian militants outside of Turkey's territory."
Organized by the Turkey Workers Party, the protest called for the end of war and re-establishment of peace between Turkey and Syria.
Local residents joined the protest and complained that Turkey harbors Syrian militants or even terrorists in Hatay, which has caused social unrest to the local communities.
More than 2,000 policemen were deployed on the spot and claimed the protests illegal. They intervened the protests by firing tear gas while high-pressure canon vehicles driving the protesters away.
A few people were injured and some were arrested in the event.
Since the breaking out of the war, about 80,000 refugees have rushed to its neighbor of Turkey, mostly in Hatay province.
End of growth - an interesting concept
We humans appear to be propelling Earth into a “new normal” through soaring carbon emissions, deforestation, ocean acidification, and a laundry list of other assorted global impacts. 40 years ago The Limits to Growth, written by a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and published by The Club of Rome, broke a modern taboo: it suggested that growth itself might be the problem.
Kenneth Boulding, the founder of general systems theory, thought the view that economic growth can continue forever, to be a view held only by "madmen and economists".
Richard Heinberg's latest book goes to the heart of the ongoing financial crisis, explaining how and why it occurred, and what we must do to avert the worst potential outcomes.
Richard said in an ABC interview: “We are replacing regular conventional oil – which made economic growth happening during the 20th century – with harder-to-produce, more expensive-to-produce and environmentally risky tar sands, shale oil and ultra deep water oil. The problem is that these things are slow to come online and in the meanwhile regular conventional oil is declining.”
Are humans heading to a vortex of no-return through unsustainable economic, technological and human growth? It's seems to be the case!
Native Australian Awards = Order Of The Wattle Blossom
Australia First Party
Press Release
Native Australian Awards Announced
National Wattle Day 1st September 2012
Order of the Wattle Blossom
Archie Roach
For excellence in the writing and performance of music contributing to
the advancement of Australian Culture and Heritage.
Rex Gilroy
For persistent archaeological endeavour on our Native Soil to research and expose the pre-history of human occupation of the Australian continent.
Warren Fahey
For the preservation, recording and performance of folk music
from Australia’s heritage.
Keith Windshuttle
For advancing objectivity as a primary principle of research and critique into the historical records of Australia’s pioneering era.
AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY
P.O. Box 223 Croydon 3136 National Contact Line 02 8587 0014
www.australiafirst.net ausfirst [AT] hotmail.com
Voting for other than AUSTRALIA FIRST is just a waste of time
Human rights crisis of persecution
"Although I have heard the argument that Christians do not riot violently in the street every time a work comes out making fun of Christianity (Life of Brian, Piss Christ etc), I think that maybe they would if Muslims rolled into Western states in tanks, put us under curfew, told us how to run our countries and went about privatising our government oil companies..."
Western states aren't theocracies, like Muslim States under sharia law. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Pakistian, Malaysia, and Mauritania are Islamic theocracies. The Vatican City is the only Christian theocracy, although its laws are still limited to the secular laws of Italy.
Read more: What Countries use the Theocracy in todays world? at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_Countries_use_the_Theocracy_in_todays_world#ixzz26xS3lSSn
Read more: What Countries use the Theocracy in todays world? at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_Countries_use_the_Theocracy_in_todays_world#ixzz2709j7eP7
Read more: What Countries use the Theocracy in todays world? at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_Countries_use_the_Theocracy_in_todays_world#ixzz270B0c0bQ
Editorial comment: Each of the above three pages is different to the other two, yet the content in each is almost the same. Why this is so is not clear to me.
Most of the laws in these countries are loosely based on Sharia, or the Islamic law. Australia’s political system is based on the Westminster system used in Great Britain. In essence, Westminster is the name given to the system of parliamentary democracy used in countries such as Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This does not mean the law of the land requires any person to believe the Bible or to be a Christian. It means that the principles of government in Australia are justice, mercy and lawfulness understood in terms of the Christian ethics - however far from the ideal they are in practice.
There are no ‘Christian Nations’, just some nations where there is a higher percentage of Christians like USA, South Korea, and some emerging African Nations like Ghana. Australia is a secular nation with a Christian foundation in the Westminster system and common law.
Christian minorities aren't having tanks rolled into their territories, having oil resources stolen, and have curfews forced onto them. However, the grip of Islam and Muslim extremism in Africa and the Middle East means growing persecution of Christian minorities. There are now more than 300 million Christians who are either threatened with violence or legally discriminated against simply because of their faith — more than any other religion. While there are some Middle Eastern countries with limited government protection for religious diversity, China, North Korea and Malaysia, through India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Christians are subjected to legalised discrimination, violence, imprisonment, relocation and forced conversion. Even in supposedly Christian Europe, Christianity has become the most mocked religion, its followers treated with public suspicion and derision. The rising influence of Islamists has frequently been accompanied by increased harassment of Christians, ranging from bureaucratic inconvenience to terrorist attack. Syria regards itself as a secular state. Support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad from Christian communities has turned this religious minority into a target for Islamist rebels.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Christians have become a target for fundamentalist fanatics, and around 2,000 Christians have been killed.
This human rights crisis is happening on one of the largest scales the world has ever seen. It's reported that roughly 100-200 million Christians are living under persecution at any one time. That makes it the largest religious human rights crisis in the world.
In 2011, 350 churches were burned down and 510 Christians were killed in Nigeria by Boko Haram, a radical Islamic group.
On the other hand, the United Nations indicates that there are 800,000 Rohingya Muslims without citizenship in Myanmar. Reports state that Rohingya Muslims represent a large percentage of the displaced individuals in Myanmar. The Indian Muslims are persistently under persecution and harassment only because they are Muslims. Endless persecution has resulted in a process whereby the Indian Muslims are fast moving towards ruination culturally, educationally, economically, socially and politically.
Over half of the world's more than 10 million refugees are in Muslim countries while 9 million of the total of over 26 million IDPs worldwide are displaced in the Muslim world, including over 800,000 newly displaced as a result of the 'Arab Spring' uprisings.
Read more: Islam, international law and the protection of refugees and IDPs of 1 June 2012 at http://www.readperiodicals.com/201206/2733712001.html#ixzz26xbd1GUp
Disrupting and invading already saturated nations, already facing threats to their food and political security and social fabric, is like opening a Pandora's box. What follows is human rights abuses, displacements, resentments, conflicts for land and ideologies, and historical feuds. Never more in the history of our planet has PEACE and STABILITY been more essential.
Australian corporations demand labour market 'flexibility'
Previously published on johnquiggin.com .
In Victoria on the local news this morning, I think, a spokesperson for a group with a name like the "Business Council of Victoria" said that double pay for Sundays should be abolished.
This seems to have been quickly hushed up. I can find very little on the web about this specifically. The closest is: Keep Sunday penalty rates, demands Government in the Herald Sun.
That the anti-union, anti-public-service government of Ted Baillieu has gone on record as demanding that Sunday penalty rates be kept has shown how opposed to this measure vested interests have judged the broader community to be.
However, the intention of weekend penalty rates has been largely undermined by the need of many for more money than can be earned in a normal working week. Many are now forced to work longer hours and on weekends, with two or more in many households working in order to make ends meet -- thanks to the "efficiency" brought to the Australian economy by the "reforms" that have been imposed upon Australia by Paul Keating and his neoliberal disciples since 1983.
The comment below followed:
We got a glimpse of advanced “flexible” work environments in Romney’s recent fundraising dinner gaff were he points out that some 40% of US workers were earning so little that they fell below the minimum tax paying threshold. This entitled Romney to call these people hangers on and a tax burden.
That is the end game for free reign of working conditions by employers. I heard the recording of Romney’s talk and he very clearly knew what he was saying, and was happy to use the denigrating the plight of this very large section of the US community just to make political capital with his $50,000 a plate audience.
Limits to growth
German economist Philipp Bagus, author of The Tragedy of the Euro, told CBN News.
"The problem is too high debt, too high deficits. The states are just too big," he explained. "This self-destructive mechanism could have been prevented."
Energy has become a permanent and, perhaps, the most important matter at the latest three G8 Summits. If all the people we will have on earth by 2025 were to have Australia's present per capita oil consumption world oil production would have to be 15 times what it will probably be then.
Impressive figures for solar and wind energy are often cited, but these refer to the best experimental sites and do not take into account the very high storage and transport costs and losses that would be associated with attempting to base current rich world living standards on renewable energy sources. The rising grain prices, food riots, and famine parts of the world have experienced in the past few years are purely an outcome of population growth to worry that at some point further growth will be limited by constrained food supplies.
Our politicians may thus have an incentive NOT to fix the problems, since the problems promote the growth that swells government revenues. They see more economic growth as the solution to debt.
In Europe and the United States, expected GDP growth rates appear to be trending toward expected contraction, rather than growth. This could be evidence of Limits to Growth, of the type described in the 1972 book by that name.
Limits to peaceful co-existence
Muslims living in Australia are the result of immigration or our refugee/humanitarian program. The problem is of multiculturalism, of the expectation that all immigrants can retain their allegiances to their nations of origin, their identity, their culture and religion and at the same time be "Australian". There are always attacks on Christianity, and insults to Jesus. The churches usually ignore them, or protest without causing social discord, violence or loud demonstrations. We live in an increasingly secular world, due corruption within churches, multiculturalism, loss of identity with our past and a fragmented society. These are harsh times, and Jesus predicted persecution and the "end times". However, Christians don't feel the need to violently defend Jesus to such extremes. Unlike Mohommed, Jesus doesn't ultimately need our approval, as he is Lord, Creator, Himself.
All the chaos in the world will be created by poor governments, lack of social order and social justice, yes, but also by draconian, oppressive beliefs and regimes. While most muslims arriving in Australia are "moderate", there's always the danger of fostering extremist elements.
Humans, by their very nature, like to associate with like-minded people with common ancestry, common ideals, or with people who make an effort to be friendly, and "fit in". Some diversity is stimulating, but when new-comers cause threat and have violent displays of allegiances to foreign deities and foreign powers, then there's an obvious problem of dis-integration. We end up with a group of mono-cultures rather than harmonious multiculturalism. The dodgy and offensive film was produced in the US, not Australia. The film got forgotten about in the riots.
Never before on our planet do we need a steady-state, stable population, and a sustainable future to preserve our fragile "life boat" - Earth. The drive of greedy super-powers, like the US, for natural resources and energy is a global, unstabilizing threat.
Shuffling people around the planet, in such radical and unstable times, is a formula for disruption, conflict, inequitable demand for resources as more people struggle for survival - and a future.
See also: "The Innocence of Muslims" : Blasphemy as a Political Tactic of 15 Sep 2102 by Thierry Meyssan. Editorial comment: It's instructive that some of the very same political groups which push for high immigration and multiculturalism also support wars by the US and its allies against muslims. This includes support, by the phony UK socialist group Workers' Liberty, for the invasion of Libya and the current terrorist war against Syria by the US and its allies.
Global unrest causing persecution and religious extremism
There are the forces who have long opposed the rule of Assad based on faith. Assad is an Alawite, a mystical sect based on Shiite Islam that held most of the ruling offices as a minority in Syria. Nearly three-quarters of Syrians are Sunni, and some consider the Alawites to be non-Islamic.
In Iraq around 60% of all Christians have fled. Also, in Saudi Arabia not one single Christian church or Buddhist temple is allowed. Ten million Coptic Christian minority in Egypt now faces greater Sharia Islamic law and persecution. The iron grip of religious extremism is an wakening force, being propagated by illegal wars.
Syria of Assad is a place where Alawites, the Druze, Christians, Sunni Muslims, secularists, socialists, and others, are (were) part and parcel of society. Also, Afghanistan and Iraq were SECULAR societies which were overthrown by America and its allies. Egypt is now entering a stage of GROWING Sharia Islamic law and anti-Christian persecution. The Obama administration WELCOMED the demise of more liberal forces which have been replaced by the “radical Sunni Islamic Arab Spring.”
Syria which was multi-ethnic and multi-religious and secular – but then Obama insisted on supporting an opposition which isn’t unified and whereby radical Sunni Islamists were waiting in the wings in order to take power. This is despite the fact that this nation, Syria, was LIGHT-YEARS ahead of pro-Western supported nations like Saudi Arabia – with their religious Sharia laws. Syria shames nations like Turkey where Christians and Alevi Muslims suffer such blatant discrimination.
Assad and the government of Syria are fighting to maintain the sovereignty of Syria and the military of this nation, which is multi-religious. The losers are always moderate and secular Muslims, and Christians, such as those who make up the vast majority of Palestinians and Syrians. There's hatred for Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that some Sunnis reject as not being Islamic at all.
Those battling the secular Bashar al-Assad regime are NOT trying to create a “democracy” with “human rights” for all. Instead, they are waging so-called "holy war,” to build an Islamic dictatorship under Sharia law as part of an emerging international Muslim system. As The New American and several other sources, including U.S. officials, have documented for months, a large percentage of the Western establishment-backed fighters are actually openly affiliated with al-Qaeda.
U.S.-backed Syrian Opposition Linked to Bilderberg, CFR, Goldman Sachs & George Soros of 16 Jul 2012 at http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/asia/item/12084-us-backed-syrian-opposition-linked-to-bilderberg-cfr-goldman-sachs-george-soros
Financiers of the slaughter — Western governments, Arab dictatorships, and wealthy elites — will almost certainly escape accountabilty.
More than 20,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict and over 250,000 have fled Syria, according to the U.N.
Read more: Human Rights Group Says Syrian Opposition Committing War Crimes of 17 Sep 2012 at http://www.businessinsider.com/syrian-opposition-committing-war-crimes-2012-9#ixzz26la34iWS
Around half of the rebel fighters in Syria are foreign Islamists who aren’t interested in toppling the Assad regime. Instead, they’re seeking to implement SHARIA LAW throughout the country, according to a prominent French doctor.
The co-founder of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, Jacques Beres, discovered some interesting information while treating Syrian rebels in the besieged city of Aleppo. He says the fighters aren’t focused on the fall of the Assad regime. Instead, they have their eyes on a different kind of prize – implementing SHARIA LAW throughout the country.
According to all contemporary schools of Islamic jurisprudence, converting to another religion is a crime punishable by death, in accordance with the Prophet Muhammad's command: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.” All around the Muslim world, an assertive, combative, and expansionist Islam is newly energized. A mass exodus of thousands of Christians from Syria is taking place, even as mainstream Western reporters like Robert Fisk demonize those same Christians for being supportive of the secular regime.
The 2011 State Department Annual Report on International Religious Freedom refused to list Egypt as “a country of particular concern,” even as Christians and others were being murdered, churches destroyed, and girls kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam. The Obama administration played politics by failing to acknowledge this terrorist behavior.
Read more on Newsmax.com: Obama Overlooks Christian Persecution of 24 May 2012
Never before in the history of our planet is peace more important. Overpopulation, draconian monotheism, rising enforcement of sharia laws, declining democracies, and religious intolerance is an awakening deep set powers and rebellion, and spreading the dis-ease of unrest. It fosters rebellion, hatred, suffering, division and persecution.
According to a survey commissioned by the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., anxiety about immigration is more acute in Britain than in any other European country surveyed. And, as in the rest of Europe, in Britain—where the Muslim population has increased by seventy-four per cent, from 1.6 million to an estimated 2.8 million since 2001—concern about immigration is often a euphemism for concern about Islam.
Read more England, Their England - The failure of British multiculturalism and the rise of the Islamophobic right. of 4 July 20123 at http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/04/110704fa_fact_collins#ixzz26ljQWtm1
The great "multicultural" ideal of people from different cultural/ethnic/religious/idealistic/political backgrounds being able to celebrate their differences, but overwhelm the mainstream nation's culture and at the same time live harmoniously with "diversity" is being questioned. It's an oxymoron - to be a nation based on differences! Global forces inevitably infiltrate and disrupt and spill over within nations.
The drive for energy, economic growth and power is prying open forces against human rights and tolerance. Moreover, the U.S. economic woes are part of a growing world economic crisis. The Bush Doctrine of promoting economic growth and economic freedom promises to help countries facing economic crisis and to help countries prevent them, but the administration's actions show that it will use economic crises to push the interests of American capitalism.
Oh come on for Gods sake,
Oh come on for Gods sake, can't you see all this chaos has been set up by the Yanks to try and paint the Muslims as terrorists and trouble makers, and gives the Western governments more excuses to clamp down on their fairy tale terrorism stories, and tighten the belt on the human race and bring us all under ever increasing control? ... 9/11 was a set up ... Bin Laden was created by the Yanks and Al Qaeda a fairy tale ... Orwell's prediction is here ... All chaos in the world now is created by Governments ...
Great ideal of multiculturalism is falling apart
Eight people have been arrested and six police injured after protesters clashed with police in Sydney's CBD.
The NSW premier says the violence at a Sydney Islamic protest is an 'unacceptable face of multiculturalism'.
THE Prime Minister and NSW Premier have condemned yesterday's violent Islamic protest that has horrified the nation, saying it represented 'the unacceptable face of multiculturalism' and was not 'the Australian way'.
A child with a poster demanding that those who insult Mohammed should be beheaded is particularly chilling. "I absolutely condemn the violence that we saw yesterday on the streets of Sydney," Ms Gillard said. "There is never any excuse for violent behaviour.
Meanwhile Barry O'Farrell told Sky News: "What we saw yesterday was the unacceptable face of multiculturalism," "I'm just horrified by what I saw."
Mr Abbott said newcomers to Australia were not expected to surrender their heritage but were expected to surrender their hatreds. Maybe fostering hatred is part of their heritage?
While some people of Muslim background may be shrinking in horror of the violence, the big picture of global Islam is one of dis-rest, violence and disruption. This is not about The Salvation Army, Orthodox Jews, or Buddhists.
There are cracks appearing in the great and lofty ideal of multiculturalism. Not only have some European leaders pronounced the “end of multiculturalism,” but some governments have challenged the Schengen agreement, by bringing back border checks in response to the influx of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East.
On 14th August a group of Muslims living in Norway, called Ansar al-Sunna, expressed their desire not to mix with infidels "and your dirty values ??and attitudes", including women allowed to walk around "half-naked", promiscuity, drug and alcohol abuse. They requested to be handed over a largely Muslim neighbourhood in Oslo, Grønland, "which we can control completely with our own ministers, border guards, police and legal system governed by Sharia law, and prohibit the wickedness you stand for which is contrary to Allah's Laws".
Multiculturalism assumes that people can leave their past religious and political alliances, contrary to ours, but at the same time cherry-pick those that are acceptable to continue? People come with packages, and the amount of discernment needed is beyond what humans are capable of.
It was clear the very nature of British society was being changed by a new kind of uncontrolled mass immigration — and without the British people ever having been asked whether they supported the policy.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2104550/Mass-immigration-Labour-tried-destroy-Britishness.html#ixzz26gCLRnW2
UK Communities Secretary Eric Pickles plans to signal an end to the policy of multiculturalism. Instead, children will be educated in a "common culture".
Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/45495/immigrants-must-learn-english-and-join-common-uk-culture#ixzz26gBgiXHH
500,000 unchecked people were let in to Britain via Eurostar between 2007 and last year, while countless so-called students were just nodded through. Former Labour Home Office and Downing Street adviser revealed that mass immigration was a deliberate policy by the Left to change the social fabric of the country and to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’.
Immigrants will be expected to learn English and understand the British way of life, the government was due to say today when it unveiled its new strategy on integration. He says. "If we are to remain a country where people of different backgrounds feel at ease and get along, we need more confidence in our national traditions".
The bogus notion of multiculturalism was designed to open the door to mass immigration, and end national unity, common values, assumed normal lifestyles, and support population growth. It assumes people can be united by their differences, rather than by their common backgrounds and collective national memories and values.
Editorial comment: Whilst the writer is correct to be concerned about high immigration and the corrupting influence of multiculturalism, in recent years most Moslems in Syria and Lebanon have set an example in tolerance that is not often matched by Christians. This includes the defence of Syrian Christians against fundamentalist Islamist terrorists, funded by the US, NATO, Arab dictatorships and Israel, by the Government of President Bashar al-Assad. President al-Assad is an Alawite Moslem. More information can be found on Global Research and the YouTube Channel of the Syrian Girl.
The once-pleasant Melbourne is being ruined by Matthew Guy
I feel frustrated and powerless - the once-pleasant city I grew up and live in is progressively being ruined by growth-obsessed governments and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I thought Justin Madden was bad, but Matthew Guy is turning out to be even worse - he is profiled in today's The Age.
We need population growth to support our ageing population? VOTE