Miscellaneous comments from 28 August 2010

The Local Government Association of Queensland's (LGAQ) annual conference on Queensland's population growth will continue in Mackay in the state's north today. Local Government Minister Desley Boyle will update the 600 delegates on State Government issues. LGAQ president Paul Bell says councils cannot let population growth exceed infrastructure needs. Councillor Bell says delegates are keen to discuss the new Local Government Act that was introduced on July 1 and makes 10-year community plans mandatory for councils. Councils association to discuss Qld population growth Not allowing population growth exceed infrastructure needs, or natural finite resources such as water, is an inspiration of logic, a spurt of reason? The costs of infrastructure are not covered by population growth, and adding more people has been a tool to give a injection of funds towards these costs , but can never catch up. This means an addiction of cravings, satisfaction and then temporary relief. Research undertaken by Curtin University found that for every 1000 dwellings, the cost for infill developments is $309 million, and the cost of fringe developments is $653 million. This means $653,000 per house at fringes, and $309,000 per house at infill sites. Additional fringe development costs include hard infrastructure such as power and water, increased transport and health costs, and greenhouse gas emissions. Benefits for a few powerful elites have being given priority over logic, reason, long term planning, costs and any considerations for sustainability.

Subject was: Make Wealth History! William Wilberforce argued and won the case against slavery despite a popular perception that the economy could not function without slaves. Economic growth is similarly entrenched, and it may take a visionary of Wilberforce’s calibre to break its hold. Instead of being bonded to slavery, and the threat of economic breakdown if it ended, we are now enslaved to the lie that endless population growth will bring prosperity. People are considered no more than economic units, to be accumulated, suffer intensive confinement, pay excessive costs, all for the benefit of a few elite and the banks! The costs of such ideology is simply dismissed, or the symptoms are dealt with without seeing the cause. Dick Smith has offered the Wilberforce award because endless growth is not sustainable. Dick Smith said that if he "got up from my desk and walked 20 yards to the office kitchen, I’d be standing on the very the spot where Wilberforce and his collaborators met, albeit three floors up". Right out the window he could see the steeple that was donated by the family of Abraham Lincoln to thank the church for its role in ending slavery. MakeWealthHistory In the 19th Century, empires were built on the labour of slaves, and it was believed economies would collapse if slavery was abolished. But brave people like William Wilberforce fought to end the slave trade - and economies still flourished. One year from now Dick Smith will announce the winner of the $1 Million Wilberforce Award to go to a young person who is successful in communicating an alternative to our population and consumption growth-obsessed economy. The Award will go towards advancing the momentum the winner will have already achieved. There are people who deny the world is finite, and that Technology will allows us to grow our potential beyond our finite physical resources, without obvious limits. Technology has helped made our lives easier, but it can't expand our Earth's horizons, or replace natural ecological systems. Addiction to wealth creation that is dependent on misanthropic population growth is a form of human slavery.

3AW NEWS REPORT: There are claims a 16-year-old boy who drowned in the Yarra River on Monday night had been drinking. http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/3aw-generic-blog/explosive-aftermath-to-drow... The teenager who drowned in the Yarra was an African refugee in state care and had a $2,000 welfare payment from Centrelink in his pocket. It's alleged the boy and teenagers as young as 13 had been drinking and may have been spoken to by police prior to the drowning. A girl from the group also claims she was raped. The group at the Youth Bus on Federation Square several hours earlier. Police have questioned and released without charge a 25-year-old man and 15-year-old boy. A police spokeswoman says she can't comment on the allegations as the matter is before a coroner. This report raises many questions. Some of these kids would have experienced war and displacement and thus are not suitable for resettlement without proper support services. Why was a 16 year old with a cheque for $2000 from Centrelink? Why were kids so young allowed to drink? Where were the community members, the State carers? "Diversity" is disguising the inability and unwillingnes of people from some cultures to accommodate and assimilate to life in Australia. For those from war zones, it would be better to support them within their own regions and cultures than bringing them here. We already have rising youth homelessness, inadequate State care and rising drug/alcohol usage and crime rates. While refugees and "boat people" are being vilified as illegal immigrants, the heat and attention is conveniently taken off the real cause of our population growth rate, and woes - economic immigration!

An armed man believed to be James J. Lee took three people hostage in the Discovery Channel network's Washington headquarters before being shot by police this morning, Australian time. The gunman had been upset about the network's programming and had burst into the building waving a handgun and with canisters strapped to his body. Discovery Channel gunman shot dead Here is a summary of his demands: 1. The Discovery Channel and it’s affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn’s “My Ishmael” pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done... 2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions... 3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore.... 4. Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed.... 5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that... 6. Find solutions for Global Warming, Automotive pollution, International Trade, factory pollution, and the whole blasted human economy... 7. Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race.... 8. Saving the Planet means saving what’s left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies! 9. Develop shows that will correct and dismantle the dangerous US world economy... 10. Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels and on TLC. This man was obviously deranged and mentally disturbed, but some of what he says rings true! Our population blow-out, lack of birth control, excessive immigration adding to over-population, infrastructure stress, threats to our environment's integrity and planet's ecosystems, species extinctions, peak oil, denial of climate change, lack of housing and employment, and the media's on-going denial of today's real issues, were obviously heavy on his mind. Many thinkers today are subdued by political correctness, and by deniers! However, even environmentalists ignore the realities of the heavy impacts the blow-out of human populations are having on our planet. Today's generation only wants to deal with symptoms and trivialities and ignore the big picture issues! Handguns, hostages, threats of violence and killing are not the way to changing people's thinking, their hearts, their minds. Change must come through strong arguments, logic, intelligence, ethical thinking and scientific evidence. He lacked integrity, honour and mental stability. PS "ISHMAIL" novel by Daniel Quinn The story begins with a newspaper ad: "Teacher seeks pupil, must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person." The narrator responds at first with disgust because of the absurdity of "wanting to save the world", but decides to answer the ad out of nostalgia for his adolescence during the 1960s children's revolts. Upon arriving at the address, he finds himself in a room with a gorilla. He notices a sign that reads "With man gone will there be hope for gorilla?" Ishmael explains that the Fall of Adam represents the Semitic belief that once mankind usurps this responsibility - historically decided through natural ecology (i.e. food chains) - that mankind will perish. He cites as fulfillment of this prophecy contemporary environmental crises such as endangered or extinct species, global warming, and modern mental illnesses. Read more on Wikipedia Wikipedia on Ishmael

A report by the Centre for Social Cohesion - an offshoot of the right-wing think-tank Civitas, whose advisors include the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, alleges that the problem of honour violence exists in the country's Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities, even among second-generation immigrants. Women have been raped, abused and even killed for forming "inappropriate" relationships or merely for wanting to go to university. The report found that women may be attacked for nothing more than listening to western music. Families are claimed to have imported brides to work in prostitution whilst local authorities are not acting against such practices because of "political correctness" and a fear of being accused of racism. Many South Asian men brought up in Britain want to marry uneducated women, known as "freshies", who are "uncontaminated" by ideas of female independence, the report says. Government figures indicate there were 400 cases of honour violence reported last year. In many Asian communities, religious and secular leaders are either turning a blind eye or condoning it. Nazir Afzal, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said that the problem was particularly acute in areas where Islamic extremist groups were active. In some northern towns there are real horror stories - from places like Blackburn where people say that you might as well be in rural Kashmir for all the way that women are seen and treated. "One woman every month is the victim of an "honour" killing, the CPS says. "This has been a silent and invisible practice for too long," says Shahien Taj, director of the Henna Foundation, a women's group in Britain. Source: Telegraph UK http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1577425/Study-alleges-honour-kill... Not only has Britain imported cultures and population increase, but "diversity" in crimes and human rights abuses! All in the name of a secular humanitarian culture of political "correctness" and anti-"racism"!

Climate change threatens the lives of hundreds of millions of people. However hard governments might work to reduce carbon emissions, they are battling the tide of economic growth. Focusing on direct consumption, per capital emissions, hides the inherent increase in greenhouse gas emissions due to our economy based on high consumption levels , and increasing numbers of consumers. In 2006 Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions were 576 Mt CO2-e using Kyoto Protocol accounting provisions (DCC 2008c). From 1990 to 2006, Australia’s net emissions increased by 4.2 per cent (23.4 Mt). (The Garnaut Climate change Review) Australia’s net greenhouse emissions totalled 537 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2009, a slight decrease, no doubt by the use of solar energy and community awareness. 1990 Australia's population was 17,065,000. Now in 2010 we have 22,445,119 people. This means a 31.5 % increase in population since 1990. There is clearly a very close correlation between population growth and growth in net ghg emissions! According to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme White Paper13, Australia's expected population growth to 2020 means that a 34% per capita reduction in greenhouse pollution is needed to achieve only 4% national reduction from 1990 levels. Why make this effort for such a small outcome? Per-capita emissions are mainly misleading, and could actually reduce with more people! We have little power over the majority of the per-capita emissions. Any individual efforts are merely consumed by the pursuit of perpetual economic growth. Our growth-based economies will prohibit any real cut to our overall greenhouse gas emissions, and the battle to save our oceans, wilderness areas, indigenous species and natural resources will continue to be an up-hill battle.

Developing countries – including India, China and Brazil – have not signed on to an agreement to cut back greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels, arguing that rich nations should first agree to huge, short-term targets to cut emissions. Without significant new policy action, the OECD projects that world GHG emissions would increase by about 70% by 2050 and continue to grow thereafter. This could lead to a rise in world temperatures of 4°C above preindustrial levels, and possibly 6°C, by 2100. Developed countries have a responsibility not only to take the lead on emissions, but also to significantly scale-up financing to support mitigation action in developing countries. However, developing countries now emit more greenhouse gas than rich countries, according to a study that will intensify demands for all countries to set targets for cutting emissions. China and India are refusing to agree to any cap on their emissions and are instead offering vague targets for cutting emissions per unit of GDP. Loss of forests contributes as much as 30 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions each year--rivaling emissions from the global transportation sector. Over half of the proposed reductions are expected to come from efforts already underway to stem deforestation in the Amazon, which accounts for about two-thirds of Brazil’s total emissions. In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. Tourism is an important source of revenue for many developing countries. The snag is that aviation is a major source of greenhouse gases. According to a report prepared for Britain's Optimum Population Trust, spending just $7 on basic family planning would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by one tonne, while achieving the same reduction by using alternative low carbon energy sources would cost $32. By providing voluntary family planning and girls' education in the developing world, population growth will slow and CO2 emissions will be reduced. The developing countries are where the lion's share of population growth will occur, and they also are where development must occur if half of humanity is going to escape from grinding poverty. Slower growth can spur development in low-income countries by enabling families and governments to make essential investments in development and social services. A smaller population will help limit the environmental damage that development brings. Family planning and women's empowerment are vitally important in their own right, as a matter of human rights and social justice. The taboo on population growth must stop, and the emphasis should be two-fold: on reducing fossil-fuel reliance in developed nations, and reducing population growth in developing countries, along with renewable energy sources.

Claws out for greedy pet breeders The Age Puppy farms are to be outlawed if the Brumby government wins the next election. Dog and cat breeders found to be deploying inhumane practices risk having their animals seized and their operations shut down, said Agricultural Minister Joe Helper. Local councils will be empowered to conduct the seizures. Lobbyists and animal activists have been campaigning for years to have this issue addressed, only to have it swept away as trivial, or be diverted as something that individual councils are responsible for. This is a move forward to stop the avalanche of unwanted dogs in shelters each year, and all the euthanasia ("put down"s) that must be done to make room for the next batch of puppies from the breeders! Why is this being addressed by Agricultural Minister, Joe Helper? Puppies are being bred in battery farm conditions, like hens and pigs, for the mass market. Dogs and cats become family members, and are not livestock! Will battery-breeding conditions for poultry and pigs be banned too? Let's hope so! What about the cruelty of duck shooting? Will the Brumby government also stop the killing the last of our dwindling native waterbirds for entertainment?

Spain's parliament is poised to pass a bill granting human rights to great apes such as chimps, gorillas and orangutans. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1824206,00.html Susana Vera / Reuters

Mozambique police kept a close watch over the capital Maputo on Saturday after three days of riots over food and fuel price hikes that left ten people dead and more than 440 injured. It has been a summer of record temperatures – Japan had its hottest summer on record, as did South Florida and New York. Meanwhile, Pakistan and Niger are flooded and the eastern US is mopping up after hurricane Earl. There are "food riot" protests in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, and Chimoio about 500 miles north, due to a 30% price increase for bread, compounding a recent double-digit increase for water and energy. According to the United Nations, more than half the 22 million Mozambican population survives on less than one dollar a day. Wheat prices have soared on global markets over the summer in large part because Russia, the world's third largest exporter, has suffered catastrophic fires in its main production areas. With Mozambique importing over 60% of the wheat its people needs, the country has been held hostage by international markets. Longer term trends in population growth and meat consumption in developing countries also added to the stress. The events of 2007-2008 tipped more than 100 million into hunger and the global recession has meant that they have stayed there. Not only are the hungry still around, but food riots have continued. Half of Mozambique's poor already suffer from acute malnutrition, according to the FAO. The extreme weather behind the grain fires in Russia transformed a political context in which citizens were increasingly angry and frustrated with their own governments.

Newly appointed Greens MP Adam Bandt says he wants to introduce legislation to end the discrimination on marriage for same-sex couples. Parliamentary reforms that the three independents and Mr Bandt are all pushing for would mean that - if implemented - private members' bills would have to at least be debated. Political parties would not be able to use their numbers to suppress discussion around such bills. ''I would like to introduce a bill to remove the discrimination and I would hope the major parties would vote with me,'' Mr Bandt said. While Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott have said that they are opposed to same-sex marriage, a number of MPs are believed to personally support it. Like many other failed social experiments before it, the same-sex marriage agenda is driven by a blinding rush of idealism filled with the best of intentions. Under the guise of multiculturalism, we allowed a laudable desire for tolerance to morph "diversity", separatism and contempt for Western values. We verge on beginning another disastrous social experiment with same-sex marriage. There is a notion that marriage is just private love sealed by the state. But it ignores our learned wisdom from human experience. The state has a long history of defending traditional marriage not because it likes to put its stamp of approval on love affairs but because of its institutional value: marriage has withstood the test of time as the best way to rear the next generation. It has nothing to do with "discrimination" but a different state of relationship. Being barred from "Marriage" is not about being a second-class citizen, but the fact marriage is a social compact between a mother, a father, children and the state.

Monash University vice-chancellor Ed Byrne sees the continuing decline in the number of overseas students as a threat to universities, one that could "seriously harm higher education". On the contrary, this should be seen as a bonus for Australians wanting to study, with more places available for tertiary students in the future. In the decades after the war, the Columbo Plan helped many students from overseas to gain an education. These students had to leave Australia once their studies finished so they could contribute to their own countries' economic development. We used to export skills! Now, education in Australia has become a back-door to immigration to lure wealthier foreigners who can afford the fees! Our tertiary education system should be a national priority, and supported adequately to educate Australians wanting to study. In the light of our "skill shortages", it is time our universities and colleges stopped being businesses and started being available for our own youth. Our taxes should be sufficient and education of our next generation become a priority. And contrary to the Columbo Plan, we shouldn't be poaching graduates from developing countries where they are needed!

Gunns is ready to quit native forest logging, with the timber giant set to leave the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania. Company chief Greg L'Estrange told The Age that its future focus would be on plantation timber and processing. Australian Greens deputy leader Christine Milne said the woodchipper should be compensated if it pulled out of supply deals with Forestry Tasmania. The announcement was made at a conference in Melbourne yesterday, where Mr L'Estrange effectively conceded defeat in the decades-old war over Tasmania's native forests. The Age - Timber giant concedes defeat in decades-old logging war Together with the recent supreme court judgment against VicForests for not protecting wildlife or old growth forests, this news is an excellent outcome and the result of fierce and persistent lobbying!

Ecological Internet: Ecological Internet PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE Tasmanian Timber giant Gunns to End Old Growth logging In a massive win for the environmental movement, the new head of Tasmanian timber company Gunns Limited has broke ranks with Tasmania's forest industry and confirmed it will pull out of native forest logging altogether. At an industry conference in Melbourne Thursday, Gunns’ new chief executive Greg L'Estrange announced the company will move away from logging native forests and develop plantation-based products. "Native forest is not part of our future," he said. "We see that the conflict largely has to end. Our employees and the communities we operate in have been collateral damage to this process. We want to move our business to a plantation-based business." Further, Gunns revealed it would quit the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, which was arguing for a continuation of native forest logging in the state. The promises, if fully implemented, are a huge victory for Tasmania and Australia’s forest movement, such as the Wilderness Society, as well as a large body of international affinity campaigns. Tasmania has the tallest flowering plants on Earth, with trees reaching over 90 meters, and contains Australia's greatest tracts of temperate rainforest. Australia’s intact Eucalypt forests are also extraordinarily carbon rich. Gunns and Tasmania's environment movement have been long-time foes, culminating in a bitter five-year lawsuit brought by the company against 20 conservationists, including Greens leader Bob Brown, which Gunns lost in 2009, while failing to stifle opposition. Ecological Internet played a critical role in the victory with over a decade of Internet action alerts and protests, which successfully internationalized the issue. Most recently in August of 2008 some 7634 global citizens participating in EI’s Earth Action Network [1} sent 450,906 protest emails, urging the actions taken yesterday. Over a dozen such alerts were done by EI urging and end to Gunns’ native old growth logging over the years. Some thought EI’s demands to end – rather than regulate or certify –Tasmania’s primary forest logging as too extreme, yet if this announcement is implemented, EI’s demands will have been met in full.

In tragic news from Victoria, newly-released figures show that almost one late-term abortion is performed each day in the State and many of these abortions are for "psycho-social" reasons. Figures from the 2007 annual report of the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity show that 345 late-term abortions were carried out in 2007 - and 54 babies survived the procedure and were then left to die. This is a marked increase on 2005 figures which showed that 47 of the 309 post-20 week abortions performed resulted in the delivery of a live born child who was then left to die. 164 of the late-term abortions (or almost half) carried out in 2007 were performed at a Melbourne clinic on women with healthy foetuses who said they were suffering psychological or social problems. Two of the terminations of healthy foetuses were older than 28 weeks' gestation, but the majority were performed on women who were about six months' pregnant. These figures - reported as the highest on record - are even more distressing when you consider that they reflect the situation before abortion was decriminalised in Victoria. Late-term abortions at Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital appear to have increased from one per fortnight to an alarming three per week since Victorian politicians decriminalised abortion in October 2008. Media reports claim that "midwives and doctors feel traumatised" by having to perform so many late term abortions. These revelations are yet further evidence of the appalling situation for unborn children in Victoria, where babies old enough to survive outside the womb are being aborted regularly. "These are babies that are older than some of the children who are born premature and who will thrive. There are literally thousands of upstanding Victorians who they could be adopted out to, but they're being aborted," said Dr David van Gend, of the World Federation of Doctors who Respect Human Life. Right to Life member Dr Mathew Piercey said the deaths raised significant issues for medical practitioners. "If there is a chance of life then resuscitation facilities should be there. People could be in serious breach of their duties," Dr Piercey said. Victorians wishing to express their concern for this situation and their opposition to these laws can register their views with Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews at [email protected] and Shadow Health Minister David Davis at [email protected] . Source: Compiled by APN from media reports

Dick Smith's Population Puzzle poll How big should Australia be in 2050? 25 million people (stable) 50 million people (high growth) Julian Cribb, author of The Coming Famine, says: Scientists are mostly employed by the Government are are reluctant to talk about population. We need the discussion world wide now. The Copenhagen climate change conference didn't talk about population because most of the people there were politicians. We are heading for catastrophe unless we do something about population, consumption and our diets. Politicians think in short term, no more than 10 years. Politicians get criticized by minority groups.

Fed-up teachers at a northern NSW school claim they are being told to stop ringing the school bell, not hold sport days and plan different class times so they do not upset an influx of 20,000 flying foxes. Staff at Maclean High School say their school has been taken over by the noisy animals and are so upset that they plan to hold a stop-work meeting on Friday. Much of the Lower Clarence Floodplain has been cleared and it is estimated that the majority of the Clarence Catchment has between 20 and 50% has been cleared of native vegetation. Clearing for development, views, agriculture, and bushfire management remains one of the biggest threats to biodiversity. A visit to any of the Clarence Valley catchments to recognise the extent of the damage to our native forests and wildlife habitat from industrial logging on both state and private land. Along the entire east coast flying foxes are suffering the effects of a shortage of their natural food – nectar and pollen – the worst shortage in recent memory, according to a DECCW regional biodiversity conservation officer. Flying foxes fly over much greater distances than many other animals, dispersing seeds and pollen as they feed. This increases the genetic diversity of these plants, which has considerable health benefits for plant communities. They play a major role in the regeneration of hardwood forests and rainforests by pollination and dispersing seeds as they feed. The bat colony is an ideal way of students to relate to Nature and form bonds with an endangered species. Instead of seeing the bats as a negative, they could fund-raise for netting to stop them raiding orchards, help re-vegetate the floodplain, and thus learn some valuable skills and foster a community spirit. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/school-goes-bats-over-red-tape-and-fly...

Listen at 3pm, 16 September 2010. I will be interviewing Maryland Wilson of Australian Wildlife Protection Council about the future of Devil Bend (which presents a last opportunity to link Mornington Peninsula wildlife habitat through a corridor to habitat within and outside the Peninsula. The local council will be having a meeting on 20 September about whether to support the zoning of Devilbend as a 'natural features reserve' where humans will have priority over wildlife and the place risks becoming a dead-zone or whether to support the indigenous fauna. Predictably the Victorian state government is pushing hard - along with Parks Victoria - for a 'natural features reserve'. This despite the fact that the auditor general's report in 2009 reported showed that the Victorian state government has demonstrated incompetence and dereliction in monitoring the status of wildlife according to its own legal requirements and would need about 30 years to catch up on real numbers at the current pace. Unless we want humans, rabbits and foxes to take over the Peninsula for good (and the rabbits and foxes won't even survive our final assault) we Victorians need to make a big fuss about making Devilbend a magnificent wildlife preserve and part of continuous corridors ultimately going right round Australia. Sheila Newman, population sociologist home page

Three students from Torquay College have been suspended after a kangaroo was found dead during a school camp in Anglesea. The Year eight boys are being investigated by police, after the kangaroo was beaten to death with a metal pole in the Otway National Park last week. Kangaroo bashed with metal pole Humanity is not evolving but declining into savagery! Where is this generation heading? We are seeing more violence and crime, not only towards peers, but to the elderly, the vulnerable, and to animals. What were these boys thinking? Kangaroos are our nation's icon, the most recognizable symbol of Australia across the world! Not only have these boys showed violence and sadism towards an innocent animal, they are showed their disloyalty towards Australia! Humanity is descending downwards into chaos and destruction. Discipline for children is not fashionable any more. Children are supposed to learn morals by absorption, by reasoning, by example and consequences. Modern secular humanitarianism and psychology must take some of the blame for the savage morons ferals we are breeding today. They are little feral savages. The school, parents and killers need to be dealt with very harshly and learn to appreciate animals, especially our precious wildlife. State Schools used to promote and teach the appreciation of native birds, and the environment, through the Gould League! This program should be reintroduced into schools to encourage patriotism, love for our wildlife, and love for Australia!

Why is there so much criticism of President Nicolas Sarkozy for the deportation of 100 Roma Gypsies from France? Australia deports illegal would-be immigrants, and keeps them for indefinite periods in detention. France is a sovereign nation with the right to select who comes to live there and who is allowed to be the beneficiaries of their generous welfare system. These Gypsies a country of their own, and they are not being expelled, so they are not refugees. Gypsies have chosen their way of life, and should accept their fates. This immigration crackdown is nothing like the expulsion of Jews during World War 2. They are not being sent to concentration camps, or to their deaths! There is excessive neo-liberalism and universalism, and anyone opposing any sort of immigration or population growth is labelled "racist" or "xenophobic". Where are the boundaries that separate patriotism and nationalism from border protection? The lines are being deliberately blurred by political correctness secular humanitarian ideologies that promote excessive "rights" above national interests.