Not only is the Australian Population Institute a front for the growthists' pushing their agenda, but "Sustainable" population fronts can also hide behind this increasingly meaningless word. It's become an oxymoron!

There was a "Sustainable Population Forum" last Thursday, in High Street Thornbury. John Thwaites as a former Premier of Victoria, represented the Monash Sustainability Institute. Contradictorily to the name, he's an unashamed and unabashed pro-growth pusher! He's supporting of Melbourne's population boost to 8 million, and used all the stock and trade words of creating a sustainable city, with more people in apartments, and that we can "de-link" population growth from the impacts in the I=PAT equation! He claims water usage and green house gas emission have declined, despite population growth. He said we should welcome all the asylum seekers and embrace Asia to our heart!

Despite the forum title, of "Sustainable" population, it was chaired by a team of pro-growth activists, unquestioningly linking economic growth population growth. There was nothing said about the folly of the desalination plant, the homeless, the crowding, the congestion, the loss of amenity and unemployment.

Kevin O'Connor, is Professorial Fellow in urban planning (needs JavaScript). He was not quite as big a growthist, and at least acknowledged some limits to growth, but he also assumed that our population doubling in 35 years was inevitable, without questioning the politics. With vested interest in urban planning, he obviously thinks that "development" is the silver bullet to cramming more people into cities.

One woman was a wildlife rescuer and she reminded the speakers of the horrendous carnage on our roads, and that carers get no funding, not even for the bullets to kill mortally injured kangaroo! Limits to our environmental resources, and species extinctions, were given scant regard.

Lucinda Hartley gave some comforting words about our wonderful public spaces and urban designs, so we can all adapt happily to small apartments and have it endorsed as socially progressive and modern.

The myth of Cornucopia is vibrant, and many organisations based presumably on "sustainability" are really hiding their growth agendas, fooling the public who are naive enough to believe that it's inevitable!

Just heard on the radio (ABC news) that the NSW govt is considering narrowing footpaths to ease road congestion. There is the pedestrian mall idea and now the narrow footpath idea. They just don’t know what to do next IMO. It’s such a wonderful example of the impossibility of keeping on growing and keeping on moving!

Australia First Party
National Wattle Day
1st September 2015

Nominations for the Native Australian Award

"THE ORDER OF THE WATTLE BLOSSOM"

are invited from Fairdinkum Australians

GENERAL CRITERIA.
Persons nominated should have displayed a commitment to Australia's cultural heritage, our national values, our native soil, or any other suitable aspect that has contributed to the advancement of our European derived civilisation.

Nominations may be either Native Australians, members of the Australoid Races, or any assimilable [1] immigrant who has particularly exhibited having taken up the Australian Spirit.

Please forward particulars, including the following information to the address below before 25th August 2015.

Name and address of nomination; suggested award citation.

Include your own name and address.
In keeping with past tradition, up to five awards can be granted.

AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY
Identity - Freedom - Independence
www.australiafirstparty.net email: [email protected]
P.O. Box 223 Croydon 3136 National Contact Line 02 8587 0014

I've fought it through the world since then, I wrote for her, I fought for her,
And seen the best and worst, And when at last I lie,
But always in the lands of men Then who, to wear the wattle, has
I held Australia first. A better right than I? Henry Lawson
AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY - Reclaiming Australia for Australians

[1]
candobetter.net editor: We were inclined to commented out the term 'assimilable' before the word 'immigrant' in this press release because its meaning was not clear and could be deemed offensive because it implies that certain immigrants are not assimilable, although it leaves the reader to infer who, why or how. We are a website that focuses on numbers in the population debate, not ethnicities or 'race'. However we also encourage political alternatives and appreciate the idea of a National Wattle Day award. We do not like censoring although we do comment out anything that seems to be contrary to the law. Please comment if you have an alternative view on this matter.

The past governments were centrists who abided by the established political and social economic order. The Greeks then broke away (partially) by electing Syriza. Although I am sceptical of how far apart Syriza is from the established order (I doubted they were as radical as they appeared), the Greeks nevertheless must be punished for not choosing the "approved" Democratic path. Tsipras has dropped hints which could suggest that the ECB threatened to destroy Greece if Syriza did not capitulate. Its more then money, its religion. Everyone must truly BELIEVE in their neoliberalism. It is politics first and foremost. The Greeks will be punished for straying and not believing, Syriza will be seen to fail them (as they already have been seen to) and Greece will move to the only other anti austerity parties, the far right. An alternative to the stranglehold they technicrats have cannot be tolerated. You cant just offer to payback the money, you have to adopt and believe their world model. This is why Russia is considered a pariah, because they havent fallen into line. This was given as a reason for attacking Serbia in the 90's.

Actually, this IS the Greens party I have in mind. I'm not sure why anyone should expect any different. Knowing their ideological standpoint, arguing for population growth is in line, and necessary. Yes, there is a conflict with environmentalism, but if we are to take The Greens as a generally left/Progressive party, then this position is on par for the course. That general political ideology promotes a social vision which requires growth to achieve.

Geoff, Thanks for great post and party comparison... however, could you please fix image so Sustainable Population PARTY is SPP, not SPA? Thanks, William @ SPP

The Saudis have again violated the humanitarian truce in Yemen. It seems that the Saudis have no intention of halting their lethal and deadly campaign against Yemen. People in Yemen do not have enough food for their children. They have been living on the basic seeds which they can plant in their backyards but it seems that the world doesn’t care about that. The UN says violence has been escalating and humanitarian access decreasing in a war zone where more than 3,200 people have died and millions need assistance. Hours before the humanitarian deadline, warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition pounded positions of Iran-backed rebels, more than three months into their campaign in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. The departure of the close U.S. ally and the imminent fall of the southern port of Aden pushed Yemen further toward a violent collapse. Close to 13 million people are unable to meet their food needs, 15 million people have no healthcare and outbreaks of dengue and malaria are raging unchecked. Considering how frequently many US politicians like to opinion on other foreign conflicts, it is striking that there have been so few interested in talking about the U.S. role in Yemen! The war has generated virtually none of the outrage or criticism here in the U.S.

Authorities in Saudi Arabia continue to discriminate against Saudi women and girls and do not adequately protect the rights of migrant workers. The country’s anti-terrorism regulations can be used to criminalize almost any form of peaceful criticism of the authorities, and dozens of human rights defenders and others are serving long prison sentences for criticizing authorities or demanding political and human rights reforms. Other human rights concerns include the death penalty, with more than 2,000 people executed between 1985 and 2013; the arrest, imprisonment and harassment of large members of the Shi’a Muslim community and other minority groups. New legislation effectively equated criticism of the government and other peaceful activities with terrorism. Women faced discrimination in law and practice, and were inadequately protected against sexual and other violence despite a new law criminalizing domestic violence. Woman cannot open a bank account without her husband's permission, here are several other things women in Saudi Arabia are still unable to do: drive a car, vote in elections, show their hands in public, wear attractive clothes or makeup, go for a swim, compete freely in sports, try on clothes when shopping, go to a cemetery, read an uncensored fashion magazine, or buy a Barbie! Twelve things women in Saudi Arabia can't do (10/6/15) | The Week The irony is that Saudi Arabia is reportedly planning to make a bid to head the United Nations' Human Rights Council, in a move that has been described as the "final nail in the coffin for the credibility" of the Human Rights Council. The country will move to assume lead control over the HRC after 2016 when the presidency is awarded to a new nation. Saudi Arabia is one of the few absolute monarchies left in the world. There is no legal code in the country, leaving it to individual judges to set the punishment for a crime in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic doctrine. Yemen is where more than 1,500 civilians were reportedly killed, 3,600 others injured, and one million displaced in three months of violence. Saudi Arabia launched an air war in late March, hoping to stem the advance of Houthi rebels, who are allied with Iran. There's no oil supplies concerned, so it seems that nobody is really concerned. Analysts say that Shiite-majority Iran and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia are locked in a strategic contest for influence across the Middle East. The Saudis don't have the intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capability to determine all of these targets, so they had to have had some help, and it probably came from the United States.

Saudi Arabian ignorant king and his supporting countries are committing the worst, the most illogical mistake of the history and America (that always shouts for human rights!) and England (the old coloniser of many and different countries in not so far) and Zionist apartheid regime (that has committed many war crimes, crimes against humanity, etc.) are only a few of supporters of the Arabs, whose thought belongs to pre-Islamic era, only for their financial benefit. I believe there is justice in the universe and these evils will sooner or later pay for their oppression & mistake. Remember! the truth is mightier than everything and the Sun will not remain under the clouds for ever. The US, the small Britain, the Zionists and Saudi Arabia will pay for these crimes, I am sure.

This article is very interesting, most importantly for those who know that the Syrian society relies heavily on TV. TV is really at the focal point of any house, specially with the limited internet access everywhere. It is not a surprise that the society at large is going nuts with fanaticism and twisted mentality, undoubtedly due to the toxic daily combo of hatred they are receiving ...

You wrote:

"But I also have to say that the whole government rhetoric which we live daily and which formed the context of the controversy on Q & A seems to me like an exercise in hypocrisy and a subtle encouragement for people to go to Syria and join 'rebel fighters'. It is our government and its slimy billionaire mentors in the United States and NATO who demonise the Syrian Government as an excuse to continue to rape and pillage a whole swathe of countries in the Middle East, in a fine old tradition begun at the beginning of the 19th Century in the Great Game."

That, exactly, is the window with the vast dirty view that Mallah nudged opened and which everyone since, beginning with Jones at the immediate outset, has fallen over themselves to slam shut. I'm puzzled at how you might see Mallah's final observation as being ambiguous. It seemed crystal clear to me that he referred to the effect that Ciobo's expressed sentiment would created amongst the 'at risk' young moslem group. He confirmed this intent in a Guardian column the very next day.

Zaky Mallah: I stand by what I said on Q&A. Australia needs to hear it ₁ 

This clarification is being steadfastly ignored whilst column miles continue to be produced burning him to create the smoke necessary to obscure that window with the dirty view. It seems like an important issue to me. I don't often see an innocent person machine gunned in public to cover up a high profile crime. The extent of those joining in the massacre, or at least complicit by toleration, is one of the most bizarre aspects.

I think you are right. Abbott does want them to go. It helps maintain the middle eastern destabilisation and it gives him a cheap effective electoral wedge. His electoral opponents are clueless and terrified as to how to handle this wedge.

Footnote[s]

1. ↑ The linked story above was previously:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/23/zaky-mallah-i-stand-by-what-i-said-on-qa-the-public-needs-to-hear-it

What you are now viewing is the result of your HTML browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer or whatever), instead, rendering the following HTML code:

<blockquote>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/23/zaky-mallah-i-stand-by-what-i-said-on-qa-the-public-needs-to-hear-it">Zaky Mallah: I stand by what I said on Q&A. Australia needs to hear it</a></strong></p>
</blockquote>

... as:

Zaky Mallah: I stand by what I said on Q&A. Australia needs to hear it.

Also, the HTML codes for paragraph:

<p> and </p>

... aren't strictly necessary on a Drupal content-managed web-site such as candobetter.net. The simple carriage return (and, preferably, an additional carriage return to separate one paragraph from the next), currently used by most contributors, is sufficient. (Purists, possibly including one of the candobetter editors, prefer to include <p> and </p>.)

 - Ed

Australia's top public servant, Michael Thawley, secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, has dismissed any prospect of China leading the world, saying the economic giant is neither willing nor able to solve global problems. "China wasn't ready to take on the responsibility either economically or politically or security-wise," he said. SMH: China not fit for global leadership says top Canberra official Like human obesity, "growth" is not an indication of exemplary ethics or strong and ethical leadership. There are serious human and animal rights abuses in China. The anniversary of the 1989 4th June, the Tiananmen Square massacre, is generally showtime for the always-bubbling tension between Chinese authorities and the dissidents and activists in the country, who seek more freedom for themselves and their countrymen. There are now 70 Australians detained or jailed in China?—?a number that has almost doubled in the past five years. An estimated 500,000 people are currently enduring punitive detention without charge or trial, and millions are unable to access the legal system to seek redress for their grievances. The Hubei-based Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch group described a "worsening and regressive human rights situation," and a domestic security regime that is more oppressive than anything seen in the past 25 years. China is famous for animal rights violations. Yulin, China is home to the infamous and controversial Yulin Dog Meat Festival, which is no stranger to protests since tens of thousands of dogs have been slaughtered and eaten at the annual event. China pole dancing animal rights for dogs There are some people with compassion for their "best friends". A dancer recreates the image of a captured dog being torched by flames. The caption reads: “Burn: I die painfully and slowly just to satisfy their wants. Crispy skin. How does it smell to you?” More than 20 activists from various cities in China, most of them Buddhists, spent more than 100,000 yuan (around HK$126,000), most donated by animal lovers, to buy and save around 400 dogs from the local markets.The activists have re-settled these dogs on a farm in Shangrao, Jiangxi province. This sick and evil "festival" is an obscene display of human "dominance" of animals, and illustrates the depths of depravity that humans are capable of descending to. China's economic boom does not give them any leadership qualifications. They are the Goliath, impressive, but immobile and easily killed by strategy, skills and intellect.

I read today that our PM is actively working on a NZ type immigration pact with Singapore. ie unrestricted entry. Is that because it has been so successful with NZ? (500,000 people who won't go home.) I suppose we will all get a say when the deal is done.

Posted on June 13, 2015 by afghanistanwatch

According to The Washington Post, the CIA are spending a billion dollars a year on arming and training 'moderate' rebel groups, and running guns and fighters into the country. As here:

At $1 billion, Syria-related operations account for about $1 of every $15 in the CIA’s overall budget, judging by spending levels revealed in documents The Washington Post obtained from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

U.S. officials said the CIA has trained and equipped nearly 10,000 fighters sent into Syria over the past several years — meaning that the agency is spending roughly $100,000 per year for every anti-Assad rebel who has gone through the program.

The CIA declined to comment on the program or its budget. But U.S. officials defended the scale of the expenditures, saying the money goes toward much more than salaries and weapons and is part of a broader, multibillion-dollar effort involving Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to bolster a coalition of militias known as the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army.

Much of the CIA’s money goes toward running secret training camps in Jordan, gathering intelligence to help guide the operations of agency-backed militias and managing a sprawling logistics network used to move fighters, ammunition and weapons into the country.

Secret CIA effort in Syria faces large funding cut (12/6/15) | Washington Post

This is what is known in corporate media speak as 'Obama's hands off approach to Syria'.

Martin is innocent. His version is correct. Are there any witnesses who claim the shooter took another man from a vehicle at the store where Glen Roy Pears was taken? Write to me.

"Former French Prime minister Francois Fillon, told the public broadcaster France 5 in February that the United States was attempting to “unleash a war in Europe, which would end in catastrophe.” The United States has continually instigated wars and conflicts in South America. It started in 1856 when the U.S., fulfilling the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, goes to war with Mexico and ends up with a third of Mexico's territory. In 1984 the U.S. spent $10 million to orchestrate elections in El Salvador-- something of a farce, since left-wing parties are under heavy repression, and the military has already declared that it will not answer to the elected president. In 1989 the U.S. invaded Panama to dislodge CIA's Manuel Noriega, an event which marks the evolution of the U.S.'s favorite excuse from Communism to drugs. The U.S. battles global Communism by extending most-favored-nation trading status for China, and tightening the trade embargo on Castro's Cuba. There's a whole list here: History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America The conquest of the Americas is probably the greatest act of foreign intervention in history. Millions died, entire peoples and cultures were wiped out, and the wealth gained in the New World propelled Spain and Portugal into golden ages. The alleged support by the United States of wealthy landowners, business leaders, and their organizations tied to the violent uprising in eastern Bolivia has led U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg's expulsion from La Paz 2008. Now, they are standing up against the US! Bolivian President Evo Morales said earlier this year that Latin America is more united than ever against the policies that the United States government is intending to impose on the region. Evo Morales: Latin America Stands United Against US Aggression (17/3/15) | TeleSUR . If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english The United States must modify its actions, otherwise, Morales said, the countries of the region will most certainly defend their sovereignty, according to Prensa Latina. In 2006, Bolivia inaugurated as president Evo Morales, a coca union leader who was critical of what he termed "neo-liberal" economic policies. Relations with the United States deteriorated as the Bolivian Government began to dismantle vital elements of the relationship. In 2008, the government expelled the U.S. Ambassador and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from the country. Morales won re-election in 2009, and his government expelled the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2013. Morales is seeking re-lection to a third term in October 2014. Morales’s enduring popularity is a result of his extraordinary socio-economic reforms, which – according to the New York Times – have transformed Bolivia from an “economic basket case” into a country that receives praise from such unlikely contenders as the World Bank and the IMF. As Morales uses his third term, it’s clear that what he’s done already has been remarkable. He has defied the conventional wisdom that says leftwing policies damage economic growth. For the second time in 2014Bolivia is privileged to be the economy with the best growth in the region, others have been more affected by the international crisis and have had weaker growth. In the event of a US invasion of Venezuela, Bolivia would side with Venezuela. So said Bolvia’s president Morales during an emergency session of ALBA, and called on other Latin American heads of state to draw closer together. Bolivia’s president Evo Morales warned that the USA would pay a high price for any act of aggression against Venezuela. He also called on US President Barack Obama to apologize for the recent announcement that Venezuela presented a threat to the national security of the USA. Morales: "Bolivia Ready for War with US" No doubt the United States would like to open borders in Europe would unleash opportunities for open markets and domination of resources, and control

I’ve managed so far about 140 pages in your Vol 2. Wonderful stuff. I’m every day impressed by the breadth of your research and reading, not to mention how brilliantly you’ve put it all together; not to mention you’ve turned so much of what we (I) thought we knew on its head. One big thing I’ve learned since my last is that the basis of the British class system arose out the Norman invasion when Britain was forever changed: it became occupied territory and l the key former stabilizing institutions were overturned. Years ago I read David Howarth‘s 1066: The Year of Conquest, (1981), whose theory that the Pope‘s intervention turned out to be decisive in giving the victory to the Normans. It forced the British King to adopt an ultimately losing immediate do or die strategy instead of a more strategic plan of waiting out the invaders. In his fine book, Howarth made a point of explaining that pre-invasion stable and effective British institutions were in place and were overturned and crushed by the Normans. Since his book stopped in 1066 I hadn’t realized the effects of how the occupying force over time created the rigid class system with its attendant ramifications. So now I can understand better how these kinds of imperial interruptions – as with Easter Island – can overturn clan based systems and turn a sustainable society into inequality and injustice. I’ve just finished your coverage of Henry VIII, Cromwell, the Civil Wars. I’ve never been clear on that era and I had no idea of the ramifications for the economy and the forests. I’ve got Dirt on interlibrary loan. From only the first few pages I can see what a terrific writer he is. I’m looking forward to squeezing him in at some point. Thanks for mentioning the bit about Malthus when he got a chance to see sustainable communities. I gather you’ve gone beyond him in ways I still haven’t. He’s still my main man. Capitalism vs the Rest I guess my main query is where does science, technology and other things we call progress come in? Is progress bound up with inequality? I think of Newton for example who never had to work and lived off the bounty of his inherited estate. I think of Malthus’s dictum of the empty table where if you’’re not invited, you don’t eat. What if Newton had to work for a living? You’ve made clear that you’re not exactly a fan of capitalism. I’m someone who tends to place importance on leadership as opposed to systems. I’ve long concluded that private property and the profit motive -- the bases of capitalism ? – are the most effective means of production and distribution. And capitalism’s ills? From a technical /theoretical point, it would seem a trivial matter to emplace the necessary safeguards of transparency, oversight, anti-monopoly strictures, and adequate provisions for health care, education, social welfare, as well as sustainable management of the environment, i.e., regulation and legislation. Of course in the real world, there is politics and corruption. But doesn’t the real world also impact public ownership, socialism, anarchism, communism? Worst case of course in any system is tyranny, Stalinism. Which is of course is why institutions which provide for contested changes in leadership – shall we call this democracy? are the best chance of adequately responding to evolving circumstances. I gather you believe there’s a way to get back to sustainability from our present position if only we could localize production and distribution. I wish I could say I can see it, although you’ve already convinced me of plenty I’d didn’t think I’d change my mind on. On this larger question, my sense is that our huge outsized numbers make for unsustainable politics. Is it possible to imagine leadership campaigning on platforms of no growth? It seems too evident for words that we’re in an unsustainable trajectory with leadership in the U.S./Israel, Britain (EU?) etc., bent on a high speed acceleration off the cliff that Hitler sent us towards. Off the cliff? How do we explain or deal with our Bush-Cheney-Obama world? Why are we in such a fix? I can only think in Malthusian terms. Resource pressure, the power of ruthless leadership, the dearth or elimination of alternative positive leadership. How did we get to a Lincoln, FDR – people who helped get us to a measure of stability? And then there’s Hitler who brought us the CIA and its powers. And then there’s LBJ who eliminated the leadership that could have helped get us on a more sustainable track.

Re: S. M Newman, Demography, Territory and Law: Rules of Animal and Human Populations, (Countershock Press, 2013) and S. M Newman, Demography, Territory and Law2: Land-Tenure and the Origins of Capitalism, (Countershock Press, 2014) Dear Sheila I've finished Book 1, and I've started Book 2. I didn’t expect I’d be saying this: Where’s Books 3 &4? Wonderful. Some years ago I belatedly learned that the most fun in life is learning. Amazing. I had no idea on how much you had to teach, and how much I was able to learn.. I had no idea that incest restrictions was the dispersal force – nor that animals had the same propulsions. And the Westermark efffect was of course entirely new to me. Also, you convinced me about what is likely to have happened on Easter Island, overturning the Jared Diamond/mainstream analysis. Also it’s wonderful that you have discovered old and forgotten and marginalized sources that give what seems like a more accurate picture of what’s going on and what has happened. None of this was taught to me in high school or in the NYT or anywhere else. You have certainly made a tremendous breakthrough. I’ve learned now to be more patient until I’ve seen your presentations and research. So I’m looking forward to finding out how ancient societies, like the Babylonian, Roman Empire, China, India , millennia before the industrial age, ran pretty much according to the same unsustainable rules, devouring resources, as we are today, and crashed as a result – how they fit into your theories. Plus look what happened in pre-historical times: the extinction of the large mammals. I’m reminded of a documentary I saw years ago about the Greek port of Pireaus, if I’m not mistaken. They explained how over time, more and more of the trees were cut down for fuel, the rain brought down the mountain and the port extended out it turned out for a mile or more into the sea and no more mountain. I gather it fits in somewhere. In historical novelist Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon stories, set in 9th century Arthurian, not quite Britain, the main character again and again sees traces of a much more advanced technological Roman civilization and bemoans the depths to which his own times have fallen.

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know about a new Facebook page where we are planning a better system for Australia. We need all the help we can get. Please take a look:

Direct Democratic Communities

U.S. military confirms rebels had sarin (9/11/13) WND Weekly

As part of the Obama administration’s repeated insistence – though without offering proof – that the recent sarin gas attack near Damascus was the work of the Assad regime, ₁  the administration has downplayed or denied the possibility that al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels could produce deadly chemical weapons.

However, in a classified document just obtained by WND, the U.S. military confirms that sarin was confiscated earlier this year from members of the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, the most influential of the rebel Islamists fighting in Syria.

Not that the ABC or the Australian Government would give a damn about this really important evidence contradicting most of their bogus platform against Syria.

Footnote[s]

1. ↑  Many, who are actively opposed to the war against Syria, unfortunately still use the unjust and pejorative term 'regime' to describe the Syrian government. As was shown on Thursday 19 June 2014 at a press conference at the United Nations, the Syrian Government of President Bashar al-Assad enjoys the overwhelming support of the Syrian people. (The linked article also includes an embedded video of the press conference of length 52:45 minutes.)

The press conference was to allow four people who had independently observed the Syrian Presidential elections of 4 June 2014 to give their observations of those elections. All four testified that the Presidential elections were conducted transparently, properly and fairly.

The overwhelming vote for President Bashar al-Assad of the overwhelming majority of eligible Syrian voters, showed that he can claim far greater electoral support than most of the elected leaders of countries which are hostile to Syria, including France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

This electoral endorsement comes on top of the fact the the supposedly brutal tyrant al-Assad had, by June 2014 somehow been able to suppress a supposedly popular uprising against his rule for three and a half years by then (or for more than 4 years and 3 months by 20 June 2014). What other tyrannical ruler has been able to resist a popular uprising for so long with out help by foreign occupying armies?

It is striking that no-one amongst the audience put to the four observers the lying narrative presented to audiences by the mainstream newsmedia that Bashar al-Assad was a hated dictator. - Ed

There are more refugees in the world today than ever previously recorded — and more than half are children, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday. Nearly 60 million people were counted as forcibly displaced in 2014, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Pope Francis has called on the world’s rich nations to take serious steps forward on climate change, the poor and the growing refugee crisis, saying those who “close the door” on the less fortunate should ask God's forgiveness. Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/06/18/21/00/pope-francis-calls-for-gl... He seems to be on a blame-game roll of pointing the finger to "wealthy" nations, instead of addressing the source of the problem. Italy has threatened a backlash if other EU states refuse to share the burden of asylum seekers, but even so ministers took no decision to carry out proposals by the European Commission for quotas to redistribute 40,000 refugees. An estimated 1,800 migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have died in the last six months while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, according to international observers. By connecting the migrant crisis to the issue of global warming, the pope makes clear the need for collective responsibility on these conjoined fronts. Pope Francis gives a nod to those concerns in Laudato Si’, dismissing concerns about overpopulation. Significant progress has been made in reducing global hunger, but most of the gains have occurred in countries with relatively low fertility. Where fertility rates remain high, the battle against hunger is far from won. The population of South Sudan, which also ranks very high for hunger, is projected to rise by 236 percent. And these projections assume that fertility rates in these countries will continue their historic decline. Reproductive choice should the the right of every woman, and access to contraception is essential for their wellbeing, and that of our planet.

Michael Shand in reply to Stephen S Holden I dreamed to live in a house in australia - but you are suggesting that this is unrealistic....how bad and fundamentally sick must Australia be for the wish to live in a home is considered a dream If food prices were an issue would you call eating a dream? Source: Comment on the Conversation at http://theconversation.cmail2.com/t/r-l-aihdytd-yudyuutukl-d/

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/ridiculous-... (story behind paywall - editor) Finally, a politician, Bob Carr, is speaking out about our population growth, and drawing the dots to stress on infrastructure and housing costs! Any attempt to address soaring house prices in Sydney and Melbourne should focus on “ridiculously overambitious’’ immigration targets, says former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr. Immigration was running far ahead of the ability of major cities to absorb new people, straining infrastructure and pushing up the price of dwellings that increasingly are seen as being beyond the reach of average Australians. On Sunday, Assistant Treasurer Mr Frydenberg said the increases in house prices were due to a "number of things". "It's a function of population growth, it's a function of state governments not engaged in enough land release. It's a function also of foreign investment." It's not rocket science, and these two factors would be primary compared to any "number of things". "As someone who, along with the bank, owns a house in Sydney I do hope our housing prices are increasing," Mr Abbott said in question time on Monday. The ruling classes have no scruples in putting their own vested interests, and hat of their elitist colleagues, against the interests of the masses - the "normal" people who make up the great majority of the electorate! It's time for a clean up of our government and break the heavy collusion between the housing/mortgage industries and government!

Dick Smith, 71, is among Australians receiving the highest of accolades to be awarded in the Queen's Birthday honours on Monday. He was 24 when, with $600, he started Dick Smith Electronics in 1968. "I was fixing the Manly Cabs radios. Twelve months later, my accountant said, 'You've earned more than the Prime Minister.' I had made $30,000." Smith says he is too old to enter politics, but he is in discussions about lending his name to a political party: Dick Smith's Sustainable Population Party. Mr Smith told The Australian he was considering running under the Sustainable Population Party’s ticket but may also run as an independent. It follows Mr Smith’s announcement in March that he had registered the Dick Smith Party but declared he would not run as a candidate. The SPP is carrying out a survey to decide whether they should change their name to Dick Smith’s Sustainable Population Party, he said. Do we really believe our increasing population, which outstrips that of many "third world" countries is a good thing? No national debate is permitted, because there is a three-pronged support for this population Ponzi scheme in the form of the Liberals, Labor and property developers - and the silence of the Greens is also silent collaboration with "big Australia".