Comments

I have just listened to a broadcast from the Corbett Report (mp3 file, 11 Mb) in which James Corbett and his invited guest, Marc Morano, claim to have resoundingly refuted the arguments put by Paul Ehrlich and others against population growth. An indication of the tone of the discussion can be gained by what has been written on the broadcast page:

Overpopulation fearmonger Paul Ehrlich is back on the press junket trying to drum up panic in the name of his depopulation obsession. Tonight on the program we listen to a 2010 interview with Marc Morano of ClimateDepot.com refuting Ehrlich and his sky-is-falling pseudoscience.

I will soon post to James Corbett from his contact page, the letter included below:

Why was world human population less than
200 million for nearly all of its history?

Dear James Corbett,

I have admired your reporting against the profiteers and war-makers of the 21st century. I particularly liked your interview with Ellen Brown on Public Banking and have embedded it at http://candobetter.net/node/2861 .

That made me all the more troubled when I listened to your interview with Marc Morano purportedly debunking Paul Ehrlich and other population control advocates. I would have found that interview laughable if the ideas you put were not so harmful.

Just look at the graph at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Population_curve.svg and ask yourself:

What kept human population numbers well below 100 million for 90% of the history of intelligent human life?

What caused human population numbers to rocket up from 500 million to 7 billion, that is 14-fold in only 400 years?

The answer is the massive increase in the use of humankind's finite bounty of fossil fuel. This has allowed us to artificially expand agricultural production to feed many more people than was previously possible.

So what happens when fossil fuels run out as they must in 300 years more at the very most!

I ask either you or Marc Morano to name one agricultural scientist who knows how we can hope to make our soil sufficiently more productive than it was for more than 90% of human history to enable it to feed more than a fraction of the world's current population of 7 billion, without fossil-fuel based fertilisers?

I could name a number of people, including population sociologists, who could, with little effort, shoot down in flames all that was claimed by yourself and Marc Morano. I could do it myself.

So, why not prove me wrong to your audience by asking a population stability advocate onto your program to debate you and Marco Morano?

I have already posted this letter, together with a link to your broadcast to http://candobetter.net/node/2854#comment-8251 . (With your permission I would like to also put a copy of the mp3 file there so that our visitors can still find it on our page after that broadcast is no longer current on your web-site.) We expect responses which are also critical of your broadcast from our site's visitors. Of course, feel free to post your own comments to show us all where we are wrong. Also, please feel welcome to ask Marc Morano or any of your audience to do the same.

Yours sincerely,

James Sinnamon
Australia

It has been pointed out to me that what I had written in my previous post could be taken as an unjust implication that Professor John Quiggin deliberately delays posts which challenge his views until such time as they are no longer likely to be read by others. In fact there was a perfectly innocent explanation of why some of the posts I had submitted had their approval publication had been delayed. It is reproduced below in an explanation provided by another contributor:

@Malthusista

Anything at all with two hyperlinks goes to moderation. For the purpose of this calculation, a link to a prior post counts as one. This process takes no account of the content of the post and is automatically generated to preclude link spam.

Having read your contributions at “Candobetter” there is no reason that I can see why PrQ would have moderated. Occasionally, when he does, he makes this explicit and gives a reason.

I appreciate that it’s annoying when something goes into the mod bin. It happens to me occasionally. The other day my use of the word “g@mbling” {replace symbol with “a”} did it.

It’s regrettable that you’ve implied that he is engaged in some sort of political censorship. You should apologise and amend your comment, IMO.

As has been rightly asked above I do apologise to Professor Quiggin, who has shown himself to an exemplary upholder of free speech and informed critical thought on his web-site.

Melbourne town planning has become a concrete refugee camp.
As the Feds spew the hoards into Tulla, the locals are forced to make room for them.

These Refugees for the Good Life get a better deal than Melbourne's inner city homeless.
Whitlam's multicultural ghettos are infecting the city all over.

'Southern Dar es Salaam' or 'Southern Chongqing' may be better names for the old Melbourne locals once knew.

John Marlowe

This is taken from the Global Research article Economic Analysis: Neoliberalism in the Arab World, Rural-Urban Migration and the Destabilisation of Agriculture of 25 April by Professor Ali Kidri.

Between 1980 and 2010 the share of the rural to total population in the Arab world dropped significantly from about 60 percent to around 40 percent. In absolute terms, an estimated seventy million people left the countryside to urban centres at home.[1] This conservative estimate is nearly equivalent to the total number of rural-urban migrants since the beginning of the twentieth century until 1980. While this exodus was occurring, the regional rate of unemployment was rising and the share of labour in the form of wages fell to around a quarter of national income.[3] By 2007, the Arab League declared that more than half the Arab population was living at less than the two-dollar per day benchmark.[4] Basic food production was decreasing and food imports were rising in this high per capita food dependent and scarcest-water area globally. Around half the population in the Arab world was spending more than half of its income on purchasing food.[5]

...

Footnotes

[1] Summary of essay presented to workshop on ‘Agriculture & Food Production in the Shadow of the Arab Oil Economy,’ Amman, Jordan, 28 Jan., 2012

[2] These are very conservative estimates based on fixed coefficients of population growth and rates of rural-urban migration. These estimates do not include migration outside the Arab world. A middle range estimate would put this figure at around one hundred million. The rationale for my calculation has to do with the constancy of certain rural population characteristics. ‘In most Arab countries, there has been little change in rural fertility in the past and the prospects of its appreciable drop in the next 10 years are remote; despite a fall in infant mortality rates in rural areas, life expectancy is not projected to increase significantly in most rural populations of the region, and major declines in both fertility and mortality in Arab countries have been largely limited to urban areas; and in the absence of reliable data, the best and perhaps the safest course for making rural population projections by age is to assume a constant rural population age structure for the period 1980-2015.’ The Demographic profile of Arab Countries Ageing Rural Population, United Nations, 2008.(2 missing from text - GT.)

[3] KILM, ILO, various years.

[4] Unified Arab Report, League of Arab States, 2007.

[5] http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2011/05/27/000001843_20110601143246/Rendered/PDF/P126506000AWIFS000PID000Concept0Stage.pdf

...

Over a quarter of Australia's medical staff are overseas-trained but is that proving detrimental to the developing countries some come from.

The head-hunting of foreign doctors has left some impoverished nations desperately short of medical personnel and Australia stands accused of having blood on its hands. Gelukspan Hospital in South Africa was built by Christian missionaries, but it's a dangerous shortage of medical personnel. There should be 11 doctors here, not two. The magnanimous generosity of past generations, and support for missionaries, has turned into a predatory stealing of the best and brightest medical graduates for our own benefit. It's a saving of costs in training, to the detriment of the sourcing countries. Across Africa, the continent is bleeding doctors faster than it can train them.

There are some African countries where there are only 60 or 70 medical practitioners in the whole country and more than half of them are working overseas. It's a question of morality overtaken by economic interests, just like the live cattle and sheep export trade.

No-one is arguing about the rights of doctors to decide where to work, but if doctors are trained a the expense of their nation of birth, they should be obliged to work in their own country for a minimal number of years before they can be lured away to Australia or other developed country.
Gavin Mooney, Health economists says its the fact that a rich country like Australia is at the moment dependent on taking, poaching, stealing - whatever word you want to use - doctors from sub-Saharan Africa, from South Africa is unethical.

According to South African Dr Bushy Bella, "You see, the state spends money, about six million - about half a million to subsidise you through schooling, and then somebody takes you. It's a loss. It's a loss on investment. So basically, we are just being robbed. And we get nothing in return".

Doctors need to be bonded to stay in their country some 10 years, or Australia should send and replace the lost doctors with our own trained ones. As a first world country, Australia should be at the fore-front in medical training and expertise and by sending out doctors, nurses and educators to the developing world, not poaching them here!

Australia stands accused of poaching African doctors ABC

Since 1959, Cuba has invested heavily in health care and now has twice as many physicians per capita as the United States and health indicators on a par with those in the most developed nations - despite the U.S. embargo that severely reduces the availability of medications and medical technology. Since 1998, 7150 Cuban doctors have worked in 27 countries - on a proportional basis this is the equivalent of the United States sending 175,000 physicians abroad.

Cuba has the highest doctor-to-population ratio in the world. Cuba has over 80,000 doctors, and has sent more than 30,000 Cuban doctors to work abroad, in 40 countries around the world, such as Haiti, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. Australia is more concerned about using universities as businesses, as economic resources, by importing foreign money through international students!

Compared with Australia, which allowed is manufacturing base to be destroyed by Whitlam[1] , Keating and Howard, amongst others, China and other Asian economies can appear to be a long way ahead. While Australia turns itself into a big hole in the ground, the Asian countries use what we dig up from that hole to produce all sorts of seemingly marvelous and innovative devices for their own use and to export back here.

However, if we take a long term view of history, remembering that humankind, smart enough to burn fossil fuel had it chosen to, has existed on Earth for more that 25,000 years, John Marlowe is spot on about those economies.

Most of what is made in China, ends up in land fill in a matter of two years and little of what is left remains in use after 10 years, whilst the skies, oceans and land will have become saturated with pollution as a consequence. If we move forward a century or two, the net effect of manufacturing by the Asian 'tigers' will have been to transform the earth's non-renewable bounty of fossil fuels and metals into worthless landfill.

Whilst the Asian 'tiger' economies may seem impressive to some in these times, those who will inhabit the earth, two centuries from now, and their descendants, are hardly likely to concur.

Footnotes

[1] The Labor Government of Prime Minister Edward Gough Whitlam which governed from 1972 until 1975 showed vision and leadership and puts to shame the corporate glove puppets by which we have been governed since then. Its removal in 1975 by Malcolm Fraser, John Kerr and the CIA remains a terrible setback for democracy and Australian national sovereignty. Still, that government exhibited flaws which seem inexplicable in comparison its overall direction. One was Whitlam's removal of tariffs which had protected much of our manufacturing base. Another was Whitlam's collusion with the Indonesian Suharto dictatorship to cover up its invasion of East Timor during his last days in office. Yet another was then Energy Minister Rex Connor's moves to renew Australia's export of Uranium.

Only muppets gamble with Israels's Goldman Sachs. The organisation is not a bank nor an investment bank. It is a gambler of wealth of individuals, corporations and governments. Look at its record - Greece, Spain! Its clients are treated as 'muppets' Goldman Sachs has always been Golem. John Marlowe

Although Hockey's comments leave me speechless not so much because of what he says but the sanguine way he expresses it, I can't let it pass. I guess he is talking about the hoy polloy-rather than himself

Federal Minister for the Environment Tony Burke Dear Minister, Koala disease is most commonly brought on by stress. The most common cause of stress of urban and bushland koalas is loss of habitat. Stress can also result from threats to safety and disturbance to their normal routes and activities, and threats from animals such as dogs, roads and human activities. During times of stress, koalas are prone to outbreaks of the disease Chlamydia. Chlamydia is a bacterial infection which affects almost all koalas in South East Queensland. The disease weakens the immune system and causes various problems, including blindness and female infertility. In severe cases, it can cause death. Infertility from Chlamydia is a contributing factor to the current decline in koala numbers. The recent Australian Senate Inquiry into the status, health and sustainability of Australia’s koala population accepted evidence that not only had the Southeast Queensland Koala populations declined to the extent that they met the IUCN criteria for listing as 'Critically Endangered', but also Western and Central Queensland Koalas had experienced catastrophic collapses of even greater magnitude. One of the biggest threats to koalas is loss of habitat. South-east Queensland is one of the fastest growing areas in Australia. To make way for our homes, shopping centres, schools, parks and roads often means vegetation has to be removed. As urban expansion continues, koalas face ever-increasing threats to their survival. The greatest threat facing koala populations today is destruction of suitable habitat. In South East Queensland, the human population is increasing by more than 1,000 people a week. This rapid population growth and increased need for houses is placing considerable pressure on the limited remaining koala habitat. Many individual populations, including Victoria's Phillip Island's, are are under threat from habitat loss, dog attacks, and cars. The lack of genetic variation between and within koala populations is also a matter of concern. Since being found in Australia for the first time two years ago, myrtle rust has spread from New South Wales to north Queensland, and only last month it was detected in Victoria. It attacks the myrtaceae family of trees. The Federal Opposition's agriculture spokesman, John Cobb, says the fungal disease now threatens the livelihood of an Australian icon - koala populations. Where's the safety-net for wild koalas? The Queensland State Government has declared 6413ha of Bellmere, Wamuran and Rocksberg as a master planned area that could eventually house up to 70,000 people. This is a potential environmental disaster, and even more so for the koala populations. DERM's koala habitat mapping shows several pockets of medium value koala bushland, and a handful of medium and low value bushland in the Caboolture West Master Planned Area. As Federal Minister for the Environment, you are expected by the end of this month to pronounce his verdict on whether the koala will be listed a threatened species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC). the koala has been listed under Queensland law as vulnerable in the south-east bioregion since 2003. However, powerful residential industry lobbyists, the Property Council of Australia and the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA), argue national listing will encourage a flood of objections to developments, potentially paralysing projects during the process of commonwealth environmental scrutiny. Developers however are not an endangered or threatened species, and are over-protected. As Minister for Sustainable Population, when are you going to stop being mute? Just what is your number for a "sustainable" population? Surely when iconic wildlife such as koalas and kangaroos, animals that are famous world wide as representing Australia, face extinction for developers, causing land clearing and urban sprawl, we are over what should be considered "sustainable". Humans are supposed to be moral, ethical creatures, with higher intelligence, not just planetary predators and destroyers! High immigration is causing havoc on our cities, and environment. It's turning people into a plague on the nation. We desperately need some leadership on population, but all we get is growth, growth and more growth, and obstructive silence. Koalas urgently need protection: We need to stop the destruction, and see some common-sense and compassion from our politicians.

Getup are campaigning to save the Tarkine from fast-tracked mining. Getup! Don't Mine the Tarkine Venture Minerals are proposing to mine in the Tarkine Wilderness, Tasmania under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The two mines are proposed in areas that have been assessed by the Australian Heritage Council as being worthy of National Heritage listing. The National Heritage listing should urgently be reinstated and these projects should be assessed against that criteria and processes. As part of the Tasmanian Forest Agreement the independent expert who was engaged on behalf of the Tasmanian State Government and the Federal Government found, after extensive research, that the Tarkine was of high conservation value (HCV) and worthy of World Heritage Status. The two iron ore mines proposed would only operate for two years. But in that time the values of the Tarkine could be irreversibly damaged. Call on the Federal Government under the National Heritage to list the Tarkine and give these mine proposals the most thorough assessments and not allow them to be fast-tracked and assessed by the Tasmanian State Government. Economic growth - the catch-cry for almost all levels of government now - is not always desirable, in our interests, cost-less, and usually detrimental. There are no new frontiers to conquer, and no new lands to explore. The environment is continually under threat for more wealth-creation and greed. Economic growth means plundering forests and ecosystems for natural resources, disfiguring them, polluting them, destroying their integrity and causing more species extinctions. There are places that are sacred, of indigenous significance, and of high environmental value. Cathedrals, mosques and other religious sites can't be plundered for the gold and timber, and neither should Nature's natural holy areas of great intrinsic value be plundered. Economic growth is destructive on a finite planet that is facing enormous pressure from a burgeoning human population ready to dig and drill for the planet's minerals, fuels and precious metals. Go to Tony Burke's website form: Contact Minister Tony Burke Or click the GetUp site above.

Australia's eight million homes are responsible for approximately 13 per cent of Australia's energy use and 10 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions. The Baillieu government wants to abandon 6-star thermal efficiency requirements for houses. Rather than cutting government “red tape”, it's actually about abandoning any responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions and denial of climate change. All the "red" or "green" tape is to protect our environment, not to stifle and give extra unnecessary work to government bureaucrats. Before elections the Opposition criticized the Brumby government for not lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and now they have abandoned all promises to lower emissions and create more efficient housing. The Coalition has dumped the greenhouse target a 20% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 despite Australia's national cap on emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, and a carbon pollution cap on emissions under the carbon pricing scheme. Australian Building Codes Board, September 2009 Analysis found that by 2020, the updated building code will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 600,000 tonnes each year with a minimal impact on the cost of new homes. In the middle of all the controversy and pressure, Baillieu has done a quick backflip! Hours after The Age yesterday revealed a proposal by Treasurer Kim Wells to ditch the 6-star thermal efficiency rules in favour of a voluntary code, Mr Baillieu vowed to retain the existing system. The Association of Building Sustainability Assessors described the move away from 6-star as ridiculous. "Six star is not 'green tape' but a consumer protection measure which stops people being locked into the pain and cost of having to heat and cool an inefficient home,'' said acting chief executive, Rodger Hills. The concept of reducing carbon footprints to address climate change, especially in the Western world, has received some attention in the media and in politics. But a reduction from about 20 tonnes of CO2 per person per year to 15 tonnes (a big enough task in itself), would be totally negated by a 50 percent population increase. And an increase in population is not only predicted, but encouraged, at least in Australia where policies exist to grow population through both immigration and domestic births. An economy based on growth and consumption is not conducive to reversing mitigating the outputs of industrialization and population growth - energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Why we are bothering with the expense of a carbon tax when the rest of Australia will be doing all the savings in greenhouse gas emissions, and Victoria will continue "business as usual" with energy inefficient housing, and ongoing investments in coal mining and property developments?

My comment on Carr was about his relativism. Before annointment as Foreign Minister Carr promised A, afterwards, he demonstrated B, after a clear talking down by the Labor Party. Read this again to be clear. I do not support Carr, nor the Labor or Liberals on most things, especially foreign policy. (In my view Australia ought be regionally focused - Australian sovereignty, Aboriginal rights, and on the rights of indigenous (not colonists) - East Timor, Papua New Guinea, West Papua, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Boganville, Antarctica, Sri Lanka.) Certainly what Lib/Labs do is not noble in this regard. I was rather, in my comment above, describing Carr's sense of 'noble', not mine. Australia in my view has a foreign policy history of being ignoble. I have not had time to read all the background to the Syrian issue that others have much more depth in understanding. Perhaps my weakness is that I accept the dominant media (BBC/ABC) are reporting the truth. But if the truth is wrong, then the general public like me needs to be made more aware of the flaws/propaganda. My main appeal on the Syrian civil war issue continues to be to stop the violence, not to take sides, not presume truths nor righteousness. My real criticism is against those supplying the arms and the lack of control the UN has in this - which I read as UN incompetence. John Marlowe

Bob Carr within hours of gracious acceptance of yearned government foreign aristocracy, publicly invited noble bipartisan sharing of ideas and co-operation on foreign policy with the opposition leader Tony Abbott.

4th March 2012:

Carr said he will reach out to the federal opposition to try to engender a more bipartisan approach to Australian foreign policy.
Mr Carr said another of his top priorities in the role would be to reach out to the coalition.

"My door will be open to explore with the opposition further opportunities for the sharing of information and bipartisanship," he told reporters.
"After all this is about Australia, it's about Australia's place in the world.
"We can maximise this area of policy if it is above party political disputation."
[http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/03/04/450735_politics-news.html]

14th March 2012:

Immediately after his anointment, Carr was obviously taken aside by the Gillard puppetry and served a 'this is how it is, right!', only to then re-surface publicly with his now infamous acidic branding of Tony Abbott as a "cheapskate hypnotist".

..."He's saying to the electorate, 'Look into my eyes, you are growing weaker - no more boats'," Mr Carr said.
"'Look into my eyes, you are growing weaker in Labor's big bad tax'.
"'Look into my eyes, you are growing weaker - debt and deficit'.
"The endless repetition of these slogans is like an attempt by a trainee hypnotist to work wonders on a cobra in a basket.
"I think the electorate is far too intelligent for this."

The Labor Faceless Party controls the country.

John Marlowe

Is Geoffrey Taylor suggesting that there is no conflict in Syria?
Perhaps he also watched Capricorn One too many times and believes Apollo 11 never took off either, or that the Nazi Holocaust never happened?

Perhaps Geoffrey Taylor turns the TV off when Kofi Annan describes the mass slaughter going on in Syria?
Perhaps Geoffrey Taylor choses to ignore the presence of growing refugee camps of Syrians in Turkey?
'Syrian forces injure three Turkish refugee camp' [UK Guardian, 9th April 2012]

I re-state: consider what Turkey is currently taking on as a consequence of Syria mass murder'.

'Syria Assad: Army massacres 'scores' in city of Homs' [BBC News, 4th February 2012]

'Turkey seeks UN help as waves of Syrian refugees cross the border' [The Age, 4th April 2012]

It is bad enough that truth is distorted out of the Syrian Civil War without fabricators/conspiracy theorists propaganding denial of the slaughter.
Lies and mistruths are dangerous.
Travel to Homs, Geoffery Taylor, and do some live streaming back to us - if you make it!

I am not supporting any foreign invasion, so your subtext is a fabrication also.
Your source is You Tube - what credibility is that?
At least my sources are the credible BBC News, UK Guardian, and The Age newspaper.

Here's a report from the United Nations itself..

"The Syrian authorities remain fully accountable for grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. These must stop at once," Mr. Ban said.
The UN estimates that more than 8,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed, and tens of thousands have been displaced since the protests in Syria – part of the broader Arab Spring movement across North Africa and the Middle East – began in March last year."

'UN chief condemns latest escalation of violence in Syria'

Perhaps Geoffrey Taylor considers this also to be a fabrication of the ongoing mass murder reality in Syria.

John Marlowe

Patrick, Take a step back to the cause of the asylum seeking, which is what the UN is ignoring. The Asylum Seeker Problem is a UN handball to burden others. The problem needs to be solved at source. Consider what Turkey is currently taking on as a consequence of Syria mass murder. The cause was who supplied Syria with the arms, political support and financial support? The UN fails to deal with civil war because it is complicit it fuelling it - Afghanistan, Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechnya, Georgia, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya. John Marlowe

Who needs "The Chasers", Chris Lilley or "Getting on" or whatever tickles your funny bone when you can have such wonderful comedy as last night’s ABC1 program Q and A?The program with guests, evolutionist and atheist Richard Dawkins and the head of the Catholic Church in Australia, Cardinal George Pell was pure entertainment rather than an intellectual or even theological discussion with any progression of the issues or a meeting of minds. Dawkins blamed his certain curmudgeonly aspect on jet lag and Pell kept going off on fanciful trams that defied logic and eluded scientific scrutiny. The latter also managed hilariously to put his foot in it a number of times – comparing homosexuality as part of God’s creation of mankind with the mandatory flaw in the hand made rug, aligning Stalin and Hitler in the same continuum of religious belief (although as Dawkins pointed out, one was an atheist an one was not) and then Pell made a comment about the intellect of the Jews around the time of Christ lagging that of the Egyptians and members of other civilizations. Tony Jones pulled him up on that – asking what his evidence for this was and leaving Pell to explain his way out of it. Jones, then rubbing in a bit of salt, pointed out that Jesus was a Jew. The worrying thing about this wonderful hour of entertainment was the puerile questioning from the audience and the cheering whatever comment well expressed that may have fitted in with their belief systems. For example one question to Dawkins was about how something (the universe) could be created out of nothing asked in such a way that it implied that if Dawkins couldn’t answer it, he was snookered! The audience, in herd mode laughed a lot at Dawkins in reply discussing "nothing" as though the very discussion of this was ridiculous in some way. This question would seem quite normal and interesting to anyone who had studied physics at secondary school level, surely? Dawkins reacted to audience laughter a few times asking irritatedly "Why is this funny?" The last question from a member of the live audience was a real waste of space and air time- "Given that believers have better health and happiness is not religion a good thing (regardless of where it fits into reality)?" I think this is where Dawkins brought up the Easter Bunny but it may have been somewhere else in segment. For irrationality, pomposity, the attempt to achieve the equivalent of mixing oil with water (Dawkins and Pell) silly questions from the public, crowd behaviour, inane laughter from a set of people obviously uneducated in science especially physics interspersed with cheering and clapping as though it were a football match- this took the cake. I don’t know why Richard Dawkins appears so surprised by the whimsies of the religious fraternity especially when it comes to literal examples and apparent magic like transubstantiation. You just wouldn’t expect a rational discussion. I think Dawkins is play acting. In fact both men put in a wonderful performance of just who they were supposed to be last night.

Quite right, Open Australia is a deliberately obscure website. Try to find its aim, goals, objectives? Sarah Hanson-Young and OpenAustralia.org are advocating open door imigration in its Migration Amendment (Abolishing Detention Debt) Bill 2009, which would amend the Migration Act 1958 .."to remove the liability for immigration detention and related costs for certain persons and liable parties and extinguish all outstanding immigration detention debts; and ensure regulations can no longer prescribe sponsorship undertakings or obligations that include payments to the Commonwealth in relation to the cost of a person’s immigration detention." Hanson-Young as a Greens Senator advocates Greens policies such as the elimination of the policies of mandatory detention, and other forms of harsh, punitive or discriminatory treatment of asylum seekers and refugees, asylum seekers who arrive without a valid visa to have their claims for asylum assessed while living in the community. Judith Adams (WA, Liberal Party): "We have Senator Hanson-Young saying that she feels every refugee who arrives on a boat should be given the privilege of coming to Australia and being let out into the community, that it is their right and that they have had a terrible time, are all very hard done by and should not be locked up until they have had their credentials certified. Under that circumstance we would not know who is coming into Australia. That is the Greens—things change all the time." [Source: http://www.openaustralia.org/senate/?id=2011-11-07.180.2&s=immigration%2C+hanson#g184.1] John Marlowe

John,

Could you please cite content of this site which advocates open-door immigration?

Whilst I agree that the Greens have been, at best, ambivalent on the issue of population growth and immigration, I have not been able to find any promotion of open borders from my perusal of openaustralia.org.

Rather, it seems to me that the main purpose of that site is for the Australian Federal Government through Parliament to be made more open and accountable, which we would all surely agree with.

If anything that site would make open borders, high immigration and population growth less likely whatever the intentions of Sarah Hanson-Young and other Greens.

I posted the following to a friend after I had watched on SBS's "On Demand Service", part 1 of Korea: The Forgotten War In Colour which was broadcast on SBS Television last Friday 23 March. The on-line broadcast expires in 9 days, so it won't be possible to see it on the Internet after Saturday 7 April. Part 2 is to be broadcast at 9.35 PM on Friday 30 March, tomorrow night.

The documentary has value, but, amongst other omissions, omits
evidence that the Korean War was the continuation of the brutal
suppression of a popular liberation struggle by the US which began in 1945 at the end of the Second World War. The Southern regime was largely comprised of Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese occupiers.

This is shown in Korea - The Unknown War of 1988 by Jon Halliday and Bruce Cumings. It is 224 pages in total and largely consists of photos The introduction says that the claims made in the book are fully verified in a larger earlier book by the same authors, The Fire in Korea.

Looking on the Internet, it seems that The Fire in Korea is unobtainable. I found a note from a librarian in New South Wales dated 1992 which stated that she could not find a copy in any NSW library.

You can, however, find some traces of this book around the internet. Here is one useful source: "Selections from Jon Halliday and Bruce Cumings, Korea: The Unknown War (London: Viking; New York: Penguin, 1988)."

Tunisian parliament has voted against the introduction of Sharia law to the Tunisian constitution. (Reported on JT, France2, 27 March 2012, 2000hrs.)>