The unmet need of family planning in developing countries results in around 63 million unintended pregnancies and at least 26 million abortions every year - 60% of which are unsafe.
There are 222 million women around the world who want contraception but can’t access it. Of them, most are under 18 and live in the world’s poorest countries.
Global overpopulation is the root cause of many of today's conflicts, along with famine, poverty, childhood deaths, and displacement. There are no new frontiers on our planet to discover, no new continents to settle in, and no new colonies to plunder.
"The world is creating displacement faster than it is producing solutions," warned UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres in May 2012. It will be further exacerbated also by climate change.
The overflow of refugees could be minimized by increasing aid for family planning and preventing unwanted pregnancies. Rather than try and solve monumental human crises, it's more efficient, effective and logical to aim at addressing the root cause - global overpopulation.
Comments
Mind reading Rudd
My analysis when Rudd came out with "Big Australia" was that he suspected it might be unpopular and that people were not happy about the rate of population growth. He thought he would give it a try with the Australian public and in forthright but somewhat sheepish fashion said that he wanted a "Big Australia" so that people would either have to swallow it or choke on it. I think he knowingly took a risk in saying that his intention was to radically change Australia by vastly increasing its population which he was already, undemocratically doing anyway.
Massively increased coal extraction cannot continue
The following was posted in response to Disappearing Arctic Ice of 17 August on johnquiggin.com. The peril this planet faces at the hand of expanded coal mining may prove to be even more terrible and immediate than what Bandicoot has described in this article, if it is not stopped.
So, why are Australia the US and other countries now apparently resolved to dig up coal even faster than before with technology of a scale which dwarfs even the massive coal mining machinery used thus far?
From 1939-1945, when the world faced peril at the hands of German Nazism and brutal Japanese colonialism, our parents and grandparents were able to find the resolve to meet that threat.
Why should we be any less resolved today with the even greater threat of global warming? We should demand of our federal and state mis-rulers that the scale of coal mining be immediately scaled back to, at most, what it was a generation ago, before the expansion of recent years commenced and to hell with those who have invested their money in destroying the prospects of future generations.
Rudd largely clueless
I don't believe Rudd or Howard ever had a specific number they wanted Australia to grow to. Their governments just massively increased immigration because it seemed like the right thing to do at that point in time. They had no thought or care what the long term consequences would be. But they both certainly like the short term consequences. And they both, like most politicians and businesspeople, love growth. A lot.
When the Bureau of Statistics published their estimates for population by the middle of the century Rudd was proud and delighted, and happy to share this with the public. How could such a huge increase be anything other than just wonderful? When opinion polls came through which were largely negative, he was surprised and bewildered. This is telling. In the circles of big politics and big business, the idea that growth might be bad doesn't seem to exist.
Former MP Kevin Rudd also a hypocrite
Former PM Kevin Rudd is guilty of the same sort of hypocrisy as Jeff Kennett and his beyondblue campaign. He boosted permanent immigration to record high levels, in his preference for "big Australia". Australia was flooded with people, and sham "educational" colleges and courses sprang up, with foreigners lured by PR for basic skills such as cooking and hair dressing.
Each year about 100,000 Australians die and about 250,000 babies are born, so the population would grow by about 150,000 a year or about 400 a day if there were no migration. While Kevin Rudd approved the calculation that our population could grow to 36 million by 2040, on current trends it could be over 40 million.
The surge for housing means prices hit record heights, and homelessness became a crisis.
Back in 2008, when newly minted prime minister Kevin Rudd announced Labor's goals for halving homelessness and providing all rough sleepers with access to accommodation by 2020, there was no shortage of cynics ready to pour scorn on the idea. In 2009 the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd committed the Government to halve the number of homeless people by 2020. Since then $5 billion has been spent over four years to improve the national issue.
As we move towards 2020, there is widespread pessimism about our ability to reach our goals.
Kevin Rudd described his four-year $1.1 billion partnership agreement with the states as an effort to tackle the ''national obscenity'' of homelessness. However, his "big Australia" obscenity displaced many people from housing, within our own country. With no provision in the federal budget for a renewed deal, he said the government would need to find savings to fund it and match funding from already cash-strapped States.
Melbourne is obviously suffering from runaway population growth and immigration when there are record levels of housing stock on the market and increasing.....
Among its primary tactics, Ponzi demography exploits the fear of population decline and aging. Without a young and growing population, we are forewarned of becoming a nation facing financial ruin and a loss of national power. When the bubble eventually bursts - as all Ponzi schemes - and the economy sours, the scheme spirals downward with higher unemployment, depressed wages, falling incomes, more people sinking into debt, more homeless families ¬ and more men, women and children on public assistance.
Kevin Rudd decided on a whim that he wanted a "big Australia", and boosted our immigration levels to the highest since the 1960s. Despite his professed Christian faith, he gave little thought to the social, environmental and financial implications. The increased demands for housing, and the subsequent shortfall, means that prices have soared since 2007, along with rents.
This has been a bonus for the real estate, property developers and the mortgage industries, but has left many people struggling to pay excessive mortgages, or locked out of home ownership.
FSA Terrorists Bomb UN Observers in Damascus
Reposted from Land Destroyer article of 16 Aug 12.
US-backed "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) terrorists bomb UN in Damascus - US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's obtuse hypocrisy turns US into international laughingstock.
James Corbett
RT - Corbett Report
August 16, 2012
Beyond Blue and Mr Kennett
Mrs Tierney's comments below (Hansard, Council Proofs, Tuesday, 14 August 2012) on our economic and democratic environment and depression are very perceptive. It has always struck me as ironic that Jeff Kennett (former Liberal premier of Victoria) is a patron of an organisation for people with severe depression:
Manufacturing industry: former Premier Ms TIERNEY (Western Victoria) —
Members may be aware of recent comments by past Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett in the Geelong Advertiser advocating the closure of both the Ford factory and the Alcoa plant at Point Henry.[1] Contributions such as this are entirely unwelcome to the manufacturing industry, and to talk it down at a time when it is facing its most difficult challenges beggars belief.
Both companies are impacted upon by the high Australian dollar, with Ford’s impact being twofold, in that the Australian dollar makes its exports more costly and makes foreign imports more competitive. These issues require a policy solution from governments, not self-seeking platitudes from past premiers.
It is clear that Mr Kennett has not changed his views since being defeated by the regional voters of Victoria in 1999. He regarded regional Victorians with contempt then, referring to them as the fingers and toes of the economy, with major government investments going into Melbourne and its suburbs. It is clear from his recent comments that this attitude has not changed.
What is particularly disappointing, given his association with beyondblue, an institution that does excellent work, is that he seems to be oblivious to the conflict between his statements and his association with that organisation.
Job loss leads to depression, family breakdown and sometimes worse. This is well documented, and Mr Kennett must know this. His disregard for the human cost of his statements is a perfect example of why Victorians made the correct judgement on his time in office, but the failure of the current state government to comment on his statements is an alarming sign that some in this government may share his views.
Comment has also been posted to johnquiggin.com . - Ed
Footnotes
[1] See KENNETT: Stop cash for Geelong's Ford, Alcoa by Shane Fowles in the Geelong Advertiser of 9 Aug 2012.
Our day is past
I am with you 100%. But the day of Stand On Zanzibar, and Make Room, Make Room, Soylent Green, et cetera seem to have passed us. For some reason we seem to only want to focus on secondary effects these days.
I did take a course on ecology recently. The professsionals didn't seem fooled. They didn't scream about it, but if you read closely, you could see that they knew the underlying issue beneath all the other ones.
Planning has become synonymous to accommodating growth
Matthew Guy says: " In Melbourne our population is still growing very strongly and has been through the last few years to the extent where that growth of nearly 70 000 people per year is having huge impacts upon affordability..."
The State government, instead of actually addressing the root cause to the decline in planning regulations, is accommodating the growth and thus part of the problem.
The easing of planning restrictions is about nibbling away democratic input into how our suburbs and city evolve, or devolve! It's a step into mayhem, through deregulation. Standards of living must decline as we head into a bigger, higher, wider and a more dense city.
Houses are being made less affordable because potential buyers must compete with the demands of the 70,000 new arrivals each year! It's a real-estate dream, with customers guaranteed as housing is a basic human need.
Matthew Guy's constant claims of trying to provide "affordable housing" is an oxymoron as our State's economy is heavily reliant on housing - plus stamp duties and land releases. The short-term benefits of population growth are lucrative, but our State is being crippled by lack of infrastructure, cut-backs to government spending and constant "shortages".
Planning has become synonymous to accommodating growth rather than a system of balancing community needs, natural vegetation, heritage values, liveabilty to protect the integrity of Melbourne.
Nothing can keep being filled forever, and trying to over-fill a city is inevitably damaging. Obesity is a disease, placing pressure on functions, circulatory systems, and internal organs. The same applies to cities.
The "Livability Index" a tool to suppress dissent
We all know that the "Livability Index" is a tragic joke on the people of Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong and Vancouver, where it has often been applied. What do these cities have in common? Overbuilding, loss of democracy, high forced immigration and an English colonial background. In Melbourne property speculators have got themselves elected to parliament with the help of a media with commercial interests in development.
That Australian state governments are now resorting routinely to using this arcane tool to promote developer interests over those of Australian citizens is sinister. It is hard to respect anyone who stoops to using it.
This so-called 'livability index' report comes from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which is oxymoronic in itself and part of a group associated with the anglo-centric Economist magazine. People in Hong Kong rent cages stacked one on top of the other in rooms in concrete high rises. There are protests about the abrogation of public land and the ever increasing intensity of development. The EIU put overcrowded concrete Vancouver and Melbourne equal at the head of its list in 2002. Clearly this list is a list about concrete spaces and developers' anti-human values and the Economists silly promotion of economic growth and globalisation. The award is just a manufactured consensus thing promoted by big business for big business and against relocalisation, human scale and natural surroundings.
That the Sydney Morning Herald publishes this nonsense is just another indication of the corruption of real reporting by corporate agendas. In other words this is all just corporate propaganda which little girls and little boys should be taught to dissect in primary school and once were. Wonder what has happened there?
About the Economist group:
"From its beginnings in 1843, when The Economist newspaper was founded by a Scottish hat manufacturer to further the cause of free trade" ... http://www.economistgroup.com/what_we_do/our_history.html
"Many of the issues facing the world have an international if not global dimension. The Economist brand family is ideally positioned to be the commentator, interpreter and forecaster of the phenomenon of globalisation as it gathers in pace and impact." [In other words, a propaganda outfit that actually has some deluded ordinary subscribers.]http://www.economistgroup.com/what_we_do/our_brands/the_economist_brand_family/index.html
I adapted this comment from an earlier one here on July 9th, 2012.
Things just got worse in Melbourne
Melbourne today was again declared the world's most "livable" city. [1] But last night, the Victorian Upper House of Parliament passed a planning amendment to further extend Melbourne's Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) by 6,000 hectares following on from the previous government’s 40,000 hectares extension in 2010. The current government’s extra 6,000 hectares are endearingly called "logical inclusions". Well really, is up to the authors to call their brainchild "logical"?
If Melbourne is the most livable city it is somewhat dispiriting to think of the cities that came 4th 5th and 6th! Melbourne is jammed with traffic; its trains are overcrowded – such that the “solution” is to remove seats. There is practically no public transport at all in the outer suburbs. Houses all through the established suburbs are demolished in random fashion to make way for higher density living and the urban landscape is becoming one of generic non- architecture with non- gardens taking over. Areas of nature on the urban fringe are continually swallowed up with housing, roads and associated commercial use with no respect or provision for wildlife. Expect more of the same – forever.
Footnote(s)
[1] See, for example, Radio 3AW's current home page, on which the main embedded image at the top proclaims "MELBOURNE NAMED WORLD'S MOST LIVABLE CITY". The presenter on Radio 3MP just made a weather announcement, "Currently, the world's most livable city is 15 degrees!"- Ed
Syria's deputy health minister assassinated in Dara'a
From Press TV, 14 Aug 2012
Syria's Deputy Health Minister Ma'moun al-Zoubi has been assassinated in the country's southwestern city of Dara'a.
Zoubi was assassinated on Tuesday after a number of insurgents attacked him upon leaving the Health Directorate building.
The armed men opened fire on the officials at the building's garage and stole his car.
MRS/IS
Overtraining for low-skilled jobs a source of inefficiency
The following has been adapted from a response to my last post on johnquiggin.com which is also posted above. This post raises a number of important issues which I cannot attend to immediately.
Although I agree that neoliberal reforms started by the Hawke-Keating government are the main cause of the problem, I would like to present a different viewpoint on this situation.
My view is that the job market is facing such a problem is mainly due to the widening income inequality, and the significant loss in job security after the neoliberal reforms, rather than privatisation (although I oppose privatisation as well). The widening in the income inequality gap has made more people to weigh the income from different sectors of the economy more heavily. In the recent history, the income gap between the STEM sector (which usually requires tertiary education) and other sectors such as the manufacturing sector, and the agricultural sector etc. has caused people to obtain tertiary education. This increase in the STEM sector labour supply reduced the need for employers to offer positions to people who need training. While the excess jobseekers created by the market (when government refuses to employ them) will have to take on any job to survive, which includes the job that Freelander described: "Would you like fries with that?".
The significant loss in job security have also caused a tendency for people to choose an industry with higher pay and more job demands (especially since manufacturing sector employment is declining in Australia from 21.2% in 1978 after the oil crisis to 12.6% in 2000). This loss in job security has also forced the labour market to be more competitive, so most of them went on the gain a competitive advantage from education. Over time as the excess labour who holds tertiary education have to find other jobs to survive, a situation was created where clerk level job (which a high school drop out is more than capable of performing if training is provided) are filled with university graduates. This inefficiency of distribution of resource and the time wasted for people to gain low-skill requirement position is not being translated to an issue that requires policy attention somehow.
Creeping credentialism and career structure loss
The following was written in response to the article Privatisation and education (re-repost) by of 9 August by Professor John Quiggin.
One facet of privatised education that has slipped from public attention is that up to around a generation ago, much training was provided on the job by both government and private employers. Also, many employers provided career structures, which enabled those with ability to gain promotion as their skills improved and experience increased over the years. In these days, after which our economy was been made so much more efficient thanks to the neo-liberal 'reforms' which commenced with Keating in 1983, it seems that employers are unwilling or unable to any longer provide the training or career structure they once did. So, instead, most wishing to advance their career have to, instead, study in their own time at their own expense.
So, on top of excessive commuting times, many now have to spend their evenings and week-ends studying or attending classes, instead of with friends and family.
Even initial employment by many employers is now restricted to those able to include, in their resumés, tertiary qualifications and often postgraduate qualifications, whereas, up to a generation ago, anyone who had completed year 12 and who could pass an entrance exam was at least guaranteed a job in the federal public service or one of the state public services.
The above comment has, so far, drawn one response:
Seems nowadays, a degree is required even to ask “Would you like fries with that?”
US drought and the insane wastage of the livestock industries
More than half the counties in the US have been declared natural disaster areas by the US Department of Agriculture due to the drought, which now covers more than 60 per cent of the lower 48 states. In response, the US Government plans to buy up to $160 million of meat from its farmers to help them through the drought crisis.
Meat raising use up 43% of entire grain harvesting and 85% of entire legume harvesting. Of all the cause of Amazon virgin rain forest deforestation, 70% are cut down in order to raise meat.
If crops wastefully fed to livestock are included, European countries have more than three times more food than they need, while the US has around four times more food than is needed, and up to three-quarters of the nutritional value is lost before it reaches people's mouths.
Many ranchers have been forced to bring their animals to market earlier than usual because they cannot afford the rising price of grain, thus cutting into the market value of their animals.
Entire livestock in the world produce 87,000 pounds of excrements per second, which is 130 times more then the human population.
Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, energy, and water and contributes to animal suffering. According to PETA, more than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals. According to scientists at the Smithsonian Institution, the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed worldwide every minute to create more room for farmed animals.
PETA - Meat wastes natural resources
More than 70 percent of the grain and cereals that are grown in the USA are fed to farmed animals. Raising animals for food is grossly inefficient, because while animals eat large quantities of grain, soybeans, oats, and corn, they only produce comparatively small amounts of meat.
It takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie from animal protein as it does to make one calorie from plant protein.
Nearly half of all the water used in the United States goes to raising animals for food.
According to Greenpeace, all the wild animals and trees in more than 2.9 million acres of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil were destroyed in the 2004-2005 crop season in order to grow crops that are used to feed chickens and other animals in factory farms.
The EPA reports that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.
This industry is based on a cuisine that demands animal products, to conform to traditions of our assumed "hunter and gatherer" past, slavishly assuming that the hunting harvest is and must remain the main source of our nutrition. It's rapacious in it's appetite for natural resources, environmental destruction, pollution and ongoing animal cruelty. Farms are not what they once were, with farmers having a close connection with their land and stock. They are big corporations now, and factory farms are inherently cruel - with massive political power.
Much of the world's water supply is quietly being diverted to raise livestock without any media coverage, while millions of people across the globe are faced with droughts and water shortages. Sadly, as the Western diet spreads to the rest of the world, even desert nations in Africa and the Middle East are pouring what little water remains into meat production.
Vegan Organic and Environment
AF Electoral and Community Programme
Australia First Party - from the 21 point programme
2. The Australian People demand the Implementation of Citizens’ Initiated Referendum and Voters' Right of Recall of parliamentarians and councillors, so we the people can directly propose the laws and get rid of unresponsive leaders.
3. The Australian People demand accountability for all politicians, and for all those who have failed and corrupted Australia, sold the country to foreign states and agencies, or devoted themselves to globalisation, or been citizens of foreign states while in office, we pledge to nationalize their personal property and deny them parliamentary pensions and benefits.
11. The Australian People demand the public ownership of all essential services - namely roads (and abolition of tolls), water supplies, domestic energy supplies, postal services(, telecommunications services(?) - Ed) and rail services.
Voting for other than Australia First is just a waste of time.
Failure to campaign in Quebec elections would be a mistake
I attempted to post this comment here and then here and failed on both occasions. Update, 14 Aug 12:15pm +1000: My comment has been published on the first site, but not the second. The article has also been published on Global Research.
Whilst I thank you for a most informative article on the struggle of Quebec students, I take exception to the way that electoral strategies of some student leaders have been dismissed.
What should be obvious is that the vicious attacks on the Quebecois students' standard of living and democratic rights have been made possible precisely because Canada's and Quebec's parliamentary democracy is not functioning properly. The Federal Harper government got to power because of electoral rorts and it seems that the Quebec regional government is in power, at least in part because the voting system allows a government which represents only a minority of Quebecois to win office.
Had Quebec and Canada as a whole had a fair electoral system, then it is unlikely that such nasty governments would have got to power in the first place.
I think that the only way that the Quebecois students can win in the long term is to show fellow Quebecois and Canadians that this government does not represent Quebecois and is therefore illegitimate. It think this would be best done by:
1. demanding fair electoral system; and
2. demand that there be new elections.
Given that elections are to be held on 2 September under the current unfair system., I think the Quecebois students have no choice but to participate and try to maximise the vote for any party which opposes the attacks on the students. If such parties were shown to have obtained a higher combined vote in the elections than the parties which are in favour of the attacks on the students, then the illegitimacy of a government formed by the latter would be self-evident to the population of Quebec. In such circumstances, the justification for students to continue their struggle using extra-parliamentary would seem far more evident than if they had abstained from the elections.
So, I think it would be a mistake for the students not to participate in the election campaign.
Bahraini security forces attack anti-regime protesters in Sitra
From the International Observatory for Gulf State Despotism and Press TV
Bahraini security forces have attacked the protesters, holding an anti-regime demonstration in the northeastern island of Sitra.
The demonstrators took to the streets in Sitra on Sunday.
Meanwhile, protesters in Manama torched tires and blocked the roads near the Bahrain International Airport.
Bahrainis continue peaceful demonstrations against the ruling monarchy, despite the regime’s violent crackdown on the protests. The police frequently use teargas canisters, rubber bullets, and sound grenades to disperse the protesters.
The demonstrators hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for the deaths of the protesters during the uprising that began in February 2011.
Bahrain hosts the US Navy Fifth Fleet and is among the Persian Gulf countries such as Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates that receive military equipment from the United States.
Privatisation and political misrepresentation
James,
Thank you for pushing this matter. It deserves relentless exposure.
As you point out, the public was serially let down by its representatives on this matter.
It seems that they knew that they were doing wrong and that it was unpopular, but they pretended they would defend public ownership right up to the moment they welched on their promises to the electorate.
Why have the Greens failed to oppose privatisation?
The following is a response to a claim in a discussion on johnquiggin.com that the Australian Greens are a left wing party whose policies are too left wing for most voters. I believe the evidence shows the opposite to be the case. Update, 12:35AM, 14 August: My attempt to post a copy of this comment just now to johnquiggin.com failed. Comments have been disabled, presumably because Professor Quiggin is upgrading his web-site.
Terje @ 13 wrote:
The reason we do not have an ascendant[1] green left political party is because most people are not so stupid.
In fact, every opinion poll of which I am aware has, in spite of overwhelming media propaganda in favour of privatisation, shown that the vast majority of Australians oppose privatisation. This puts them, on that issue at least, well to the left of Labor and the Greens, not to mention the Liberals and Nationals. The opinion polls put public opposition to privatisation in the order of 70% to almost 90%, yet not not one amongst the Liberal Party, the National Party, the Labor Party or the Greens have ever put this policy to the voting public at any election in recent years as far as I am aware.[2] Of course his has not stopped governments of both major parties from embarking on privatisation fire sales following the elections.
I am not aware if public opinion polls have not been taken on other neo-liberal/Shock Doctrine policies such as deregulation, reduction of government services, the sell-off of public land, retrenchment of public servants, union-bashing, war, etc. but I have yet to see evidence that these policies enjoy any more public support than does privatisation. Certainly, if there was fair reporting of these issues, I believe the public would be no less opposed to all of these other facets of neo-liberalism than it is to privatisation.
So, given that the public is emphatically opposed to privatisation and most probably equally opposed to the other pro-corporate policies mentioned above, why have the supposedly left wing Greens Party failed again and again to effectively campaign against privatisation and neo-liberalism in general in any elections that I have observed in recent years, particularly in the 2009 and 2012 Queensland state elections?
Footnotes
[1] I have assumed that 'assendent' is a misspelling.
[2] From my recollection, the Labor Party went to the 2004 election opposed to privatisation, but that did not form a major component of that campaign. Curiously, more Liberal and National Party candidates, including Barnaby Joyce spoke against the privatisation of Telstra than for its privatisation in that campaign. John Howard, himself, barely mentioned privatisation during the campaign except on about two occasions when questioned by the press about it. In September 2005 Senator Barnaby Joyce broke his 2004 election promise and voted for full privatisation thereby enabling passage of the legislation. Labor also decided quietly to retrospectively support privatisation and abandon its commitment to repeal the privatisation legislation.
Disputing Growth lobby line on Aging Population on Jon Faine 774
Today 13 August 2012, Bill Shorten, Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations (ALP) promoted a flawed growthist view that Australia needs more immigration because our population is aging on the Jon Faine Show. Since there was no rejoinder to Shorten's contentious policy statements on Jon Faine's show, I refer our readers to "Discussing Australia's dependency", which refutes Short's growthist propaganda and shows where the problems and solutions really are. See also the more general topics on candobetter of 'Dependency Ratios' and 'Aging Population'. Please pass these articles round your email list if you want to promote democracy, population stability and combat agism in politics and media in Australia.
Supertrawler repudiated by public opinion
As of 9.52pm on Sunday 12 August, 554 or 92% of the 554 respondents voted No to the question "Should the super-trawler FV Margiris be allowed to fish in Australian waters?" whilst a miniscule 4 answered Yes.
One who voted No explained his opposition:
How the hell can there be a mixed reaction. There should be only one action taken and that is to totally ban fishing such as this.We have only one planet , the more we have of environmental vandalism like this, the less the rest of us have of our planet to share.Way too greedy. The state and federal governments should ban this vessel immediately.
The horror of pig farming - petition
Undercover investigation by Animal Liberation ACT and Animal Liberation NSW
Pig "farming" is carried on under a veil of secrecy. Animals are raised in sheds, hidden from public scrutiny. The Codes of Practice are created by the industry itself, for their own interests rather than any form of pretence of animal welfare.
New: undercover footage taken in August 2012 from two more piggeries in NSW.
This week, activists from Animal Liberation ACT and NSW captured footage inside two additional piggeries in NSW: Allain's Piggery in Blakney Creek (about an hour north of Wally's), and Tennessee Piggery near Young. Unlike Wally's, these are considered 'good' piggeries by the industry.
More footage from Wally's Piggery will be released within the coming weeks, including one and a half days of slaughtering.
Wally's piggery, a short drive from Canberra, was found to be in breach of many state laws; additionally, the farm was in complete filth and disrepair, with many piglets and sows (mother pigs) suffering injuries or death due to beatings by employees, the crumbling structure, and a high prevalence of disease.
The practices used by the employees, such as cutting the tails and teeth of all piglets without the use of anaesthetic, are accepted by the industry and are standard across Australia. The process is often carried out ineffectively, leaving painful and bloody stumps, and tails were found in the stalls. The equipment, including needles for iron injection, are not cleaned or sterilised between uses.
It's a holocaust of misery, atrocities and evil. This is not a "rogue operator". This is Australian pig farming - and it's where your bacon, pork and ham comes from.
Read more on the website and sign the petition.
Vale Bessie
Dear Mollie,
We are very sorry to hear of the death of your companion of six years, Bessie.
I have mentioned her in an article about a cat who I learned was also a victim of road kill. "Road death of a cat who was a great friend to baby kangaroos".
If you would like to send us a picture of Bessie, we could put this up with your comment asking for an end to roadkill.
Vale Bessie,
candobetter team
Vote NO
IT weighs 9500 tonnes, drags a net the size of a football field and if stood on end would be taller than South Australia's tallest building.
Twice the size of the previous largest vessel ever to fish Australian waters, the 140m monster is due to arrive early next month. It will largely be based in Tasmania, but it is expected to trawl the waters of the Great Australian Bight and will likely dock in Port Lincoln.
Vote NO
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania) said the federal government had no fisheries management plan, particularly for local depletion. Federal Fisheries Minister Joe Ludwig had failed to adequately address concerns raised in 25 questions about the super-trawler asked by the Greens, he said.
Environment Minister Tony Burke has weighed into the debate on a super trawler bound for Tasmania, saying it brings a risk of localised overfishing. Mr Burke says the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) usually focuses on number of fish caught, not the size of the ship.
"With this particular vessel, there can be an added complication with the issue of large takes in a very localised area," he said. Obviously the bigger the ship the greater its capacity to rape and plunder local marine life.
Greenpeace has previously confronted the Margaris off the West African coast where they have been pursuing a campaign against European super trawlers, in Greenpeace's views, plundering West African fisheries. It's been accused of causing overfishing in West Africa, and ironically, our local fish would be exported to West Africa. Globalization's greedy and rapacious quest for natural resources, for jobs and economic benefits, is a polite term for international predation of smaller, weaker nations, to feed the burgeoning populations of the world - populations that are outstripping local food supplies of fish.
My beloved Bessie, victim of roadkill
Subject was: Bessie, my beloved dog. - Ed
As I was taking my 6 year old dog out for a walk she was run over by a car. She survived the hit after a shattered jaw and a twisted leg, as my mum carried the battered loved one back home she lay there knowing she was loved. 5 minutes later my dad comes to help take her to the vets hoping and praying she will be alright... Unfortunately she never made it to the vets as she died in the car. However, she was with my mum and she was loved, and it was better that she went then and not alone, on the road with no one there... PLEASE!!!!! help me stop road kill! I cried buckets for her and can't let any one else go through that pain!!!!!!!! PLEASE HELP ME STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lebanese protest Qatar's complicity in terrorism against Syria
Sit-in Outside Qatar's Embassy in Beirut Demands Release of the Lebanese Kidnapped by Terrorists in Syria
BEIRUT, (SANA)_The families of the Lebanese who were kidnapped in Syria by armed terrorist groups staged a sit-in outside Qatar's embassy in Beirut to demand their release.
Sheikh Abbas Zugheib who is tasked with following the issue of the kidnapped Lebanese persons, said that Qatar has to get the message and cooperate to close this humanitarian case, indicating to Qatar's role in funding the armed terrorist groups in Syria.
M. Ismael
Good on you, Raoul, for saving Josie
Raoul, that's a great story - you gave a possum that would have had zero chance of life, an interesting and fulfilling one in return. I'm glad she gave you so much pleasure, and I think the feeling was mutual. They are gorgeous creatures, with very individual personalities - incredibly unintelligent in some ways, and very smart in others (like all marsupials, they have extremely small brain size per their body mass, but what brainpower they do have, they use extremely well). I hope you get another possum in your life, and I'm sure you'll care for it in return. Bureaucrats are bureaucrats, and you get alot of naive ideologues in these government organisations. I can see what they're trying to do, and respect it, but sometimes a little flexibility is needed, particularly when there is a close, caring relationship between humans and animals.
Syrian "Rebels" [read 'mercenaries'] withdraw
"Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad have withdrawn all main fighting units from their stronghold in the Salahedin area of Aleppo, after heavy shelling by government forces. The pullout from the northern city was ordered after intensive attacks on rebel frontlines." AFR citing The Guardian today Saturday Augst 11-12, 2012.
These Syrians are courageous!
Elephant poaching in Africa has hit record levels in recent year
WWF today is releasing exclusive video material from the scene of the shocking event. The release comes on the eve of World Elephant Day on Sunday, August 12, 2012. WWF fears that soon this event might celebrate an extinct species in Central Africa if ivory poaching and illegal wildlife trade is not ended.
Horrific footage showing elephants that have been hacked to death for their ivory tusks reveals the terrifying toll that mass poaching is taking on Central Africa's dwindling elephant population.
Humans are the greatest threat to all elephant populations. As long as there is a demand for ivory, however, poaching will continue. Today, an estimated about 70,000 African elephants are killed annually for the ivory trade. Some of this ivory comes from legal sources, such as culling (legalized killing), but about 80% is derived from poached tusks.
The disturbing video, released by the World Wildlife Fund, shows mutilated elephants after a mass slaughter in Bouba N'Djida National Park in Cameroon, where poaching has hit record levels.
Footage reveals elephant poaching horror
At least 200 elephants were killed at Bouba N’Djida National Park in northeastern Cameroon, the Associated Press reports. That’s at least half of the elephants at the remote wildlife reserve. One soldier reportedly died in the clash as Cameroonian forces attempted to deter the poachers.
The increase in poaching has been triggered by growing demand for ivory in China and Thailand, where the tusks are smuggled largely to make ornaments.
CITES is offering African governments support to hunt down the criminals and to locate and seize the poached ivory. Potential transit and destination countries had been urged to remain extremely vigilant and to cooperate.
CITES said elephants have been slaughtered by groups from Chad and the Sudan in recent weeks, taking advantage of the dry season.
The poached ivory is believed to be traded for money, weapons and munition, fueling conflicts in neighboring countries.
The Cameroon government has agreed a plan to recruit an additional 2,500 game rangers over the next five years. The Central African country also intends to establish a new national park authority, following the prime minister's approval of an emergency action plan for securing all frontier protected areas.
Cameroon increases elephant protection after mass slaughter
In 1930, there were between 5 and 10 million African elephants. By 1979, there were 1.3 million. By 1989, there were about 600,000 remaining, less than one percent of their original number.
Human populations in Africa and Asia have quadrupled since the turn of the century, the fastest growth rate on the planet still growing fast
Forest and savanna habitat has been converted to cropland, pastureland for livestock, and timber for housing and fuel. The planet's diversity is declining due to human greed and rapacious growth in numbers.
Challenges will increase as Asia and Africa further develop at their current pace.
"error of law" common
There are many "errors in law" all over Melbourne. The sham "community consultation" processes regarding developments are continually ignored in preference to developers. It's an attack on local communities trying to protect the integrity of their suburbs, their lifestyles and their well-being. Balance is being lost, and Melbourne is being overwhelmed by high rise developments and family-hostile apartments of brick and concrete.
Until local communities and Councils implement their own population policies, and enforce them, State governments will continue to cave in to the powers that demand growth, and "big Australia" will be a reality. The mass disability of "population blindness" is being captured and manipulated - until the public wake up to the root cause of increasing costs of living, less open spaces, shadows over our footpaths and backyards, increased congestion on our roads and footpaths, and increasing crime and social fallout from overpopulation.
France deploys troops to Syria-Jordan border
From Press TV, Thu 9 Aug 2012
France has sent troops to the Syrian border with Jordan amid reports of escalating foreign support for the insurgents fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
France said its soldiers have been deployed to 'help refugees' in the border area.
On Monday, the spokeswoman for the so-called Syrian National Council (SNC), Bassma Kodmani, singled out Saudi Arabia and Qatar among the countries providing arms for the insurgents.
Reports also indicate that the notorious US security firm Blackwater is reportedly training al-Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia and Turkey’s border areas to fight in Syria.
From Press TV, Thu 9 Aug 2012
Syrian army rounds up insurgents in northeastern city of al-Hasa
Tens of insurgents have been killed in the Hanano neighborhood in Aleppo as the Syrian army clears more areas in the restive northwestern city of the foreign-backed armed men.
The army forces on Thursday pushed out insurgents in Aleppo’s districts of Asileh and Bab al-Nasir.
The anti-government forces also lost scores of men in the Bustan al-Basha district, and had to withdraw from the Salahuddin neighborhood.
No proper laws in place to protect our wildlife.
When will we ever evolve as a species? Notice how these blood-lusting knuckle-draggers only come out at night to perpetrate their disgusting acts. Politicians only pander to these rednecks for votes (and probably 'donations' as well). Until we get people of integrity and fortitude in positions of authority these horrors will continue. I'm ashamed to be Australian.
How to make DSE listen
The thing to do is to take your protests against these culls to outside DSE. Just a few people, even only one, with a sign saying, "Get rid of DSE; it is just a front for developers and is culling our wildlife" PLUS a picture of the Minister's face, will help.
And protest outside any functions the Minister is attending and outside his office.
Role Occupant The Hon. Ryan Smith, MP
Phone 03 9637 8890
Fax Number 03 9637 8880
Email Address [email protected]
Website www.parliament.vic.gov.au...
Portfolio Minister for Environment and Climate Change
Minister for Youth Affairs
Other Roles Member for Warrandyte
Minister for Youth Affairs
Address
Level 17
8 Nicholson Street
East Melbourne
Victoria, 3002
Parliamentary Party Liberal Party
Electorate Warrandyte
licences to kill wombats, wallabies, kookaburras, swans, emus an
That our State government, under the umbrella of wildlife "management", continue to recklessly distribute permits to kill thousands of native animals. That permits were given out to kill black swans, kookaburras and more than 1500 wombats and 32,000 kangaroos and wallabies last year, exposes their inherent corruption and Colonial attitudes.
Never before in the history of our planet have non-human species been under so many threats to their long-term survival. Australia has the infamous reputation as the biggest exterminator of mammals in the modern world. Continued urban sprawl will eventually eliminate Victoria's once common growling grass frogs and southern brown bandicoots.
Population growth is placing undue conflicts and demands on our ecosystems, our environment, natural resources and wildlife. With heavy competition for limited farming land, Australia - one of the mega-diverse nations in the world - is undergoing rapid species depletions. Economic growth, and demand for resources, overwhelms any concern for the well-being of animals and habitats. Our indigenous fore bearers, the original custodians of this land, managed to live sustainable for over 40,000 years, largely in harmony with the seasons and only used what they needed.
Since European settlement, the greed has brought devastation to native animals, that they are seen as the "enemy" and still "vermin" to be eradicated. It's evolutionary to lose species, and natural to have population controls, but humans have wreaked havoc on numbers, and our extinction rate is one of the highest on the planet.
The DSE, instead of representing the interests of "sustainability" and the "environment", has been infiltrated by the interests of farmers and land-holders, and corrupted by a government that came to power devoid of environmental policies.
As Greens leader Greg Barber says, this all happens under the cloak of secrecy. The DSE have their own code of practices devoid of transparency and respect for native animals. Slaughter is the no-brainer, gun-driven way of eliminating any wildlife management issues.
Efforts to protect native animals are stonewalled by bureaucrats, but obtaining a permit to "control" (ie kill) wildlife are handed out without the landowners even getting a visit from DSE officers, or advice on alternative methods of managing any wildlife impacts.
Ignorance an intolerance prevails, with colonial and red-neck attitudes deeply embedded in government departments and agencies. We were never meant to be a bit nation, but a small country on a vast landscape.
The DSE need to be closed and replaced by genuine ecologists, zoologists, environmental managers and indigenous experts.
Letter to DSE re roo culls in Plenty Gorge
You may add what I wrote to Mr Wilson this morning:
Dear Mr Wilson,
I heard a rumour that the kangaroos at Plenty Gorge are to be culled Monday and Wednesday nights. Another case of DSE and Parks Victoria not have any concern or policies about our wildlife.
Wildlife carers Professor Steve Garlick and his wife Dr Rosemary have successfully relocated hundreds of kangaroos. There must be plenty of grass at this time of the year.
Already there are damning reports of DSE killing wildlife.
http://www.standard.net.au/story/70847/dse-burns-killing-wildlife-says-rescuer/
Controlled burns across Victoria’s public bushland to reduce wildfire risks are threatening native habitats, according to Koroit-based wildlife rescuer Tracey Wilson, in April this year. Ms Wilson said there had been recent cases of animals, including wallabies and koalas having to be euthanised because of severe burning.
Culling is killing, not some act of humanity
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/culling-is-killing-not-some-act-of-humanity/story-e6frfhqf-1226443384194
During 2011 the DSE issued permits to kill many thousands of wild native animals within Victoria -- including 32,000 kangaroos and wallabies. Other animals killed included wombats, possums, bats, seals and birds such as emus, kookaburras, parrots, galahs, swans, gulls, ravens, magpies and cape barren geese. It appears this information had to be pried out of the secretive DSE, which previously refused Freedom of Information requests in relation to the killing of Victoria's wildlife.
You are probably aware of widespread community anger, protests and current community court case to save the last habitat of the endangered Leadbeater's Possum, Victoria's faunal emblem. These animals occur only in the Central Highlands and were already in serious decline when the 2009 Black Saturday fires wiped out more than 44% of their forest habitat. The total remaining population is likely to be less than 1000, even as low as 500!
The government appears to want to scrap vital habitat corridors planned for the endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot in Melbourne's rapidly expanding south-east region. Growling grass frogs, once common, are disappearing. Plans for these corridors were developed under national environmental laws. But it seems the Baillieu Government won't let a threatened species stand in the way of new houses. Urban sprawl is locking wildlife out of Victoria, and there are no wildlife corridors to allow them to traverse the State into national parks. Fragmentation of habitats, and the many threats to their ongoing existence, is limiting their chances to survive in the long term.
The DSE need to be more accountable, not just trigger happy and using "culling" as a quick and easy solution to any wildlife issues.
Victoria has NO FAUNA Management FRAMEWORK, only for native vegetation. They are taken for granted and easily eliminated as of no consequence.
Killing kangaroos in a state park does not make sense.
Please reassure the public that this won't happen
Richard Heinberg touring Oz in September
Richard Heinberg will be visiting Australia and lecturing in most or all Australian state capitals in September. In Melbourne he will be appearing on September 22nd, 2012, at the Wheeler Centre. Richard writes about oil depletion and survival and is the author of ten books, including The Party’s Over, Peak Everything, and the soon-to-be-released The End of Growth.
Jenny Warfe and Vivienne Ortega will be organising the event in Victoria on behalf of Sustainable Population Australia (Victorian Branch).
$5 entry.
Information: www.population.org.au/heinberg2012 Inquiries: Jenny Warfe warfej[AT]bigpond.com
Electricity distribution and privatization is costly
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard was playing pure politics when she used a speech to the Energy Policy Institute of Australia on Tuesday to blame state governments for soaring power prices.
Queensland has had a 80 per cent hike in household electricity prices in the past five years. Mr Newman will seize every opportunity he can to blame his predecessors for financial and policy mismanagement.
Queenslanders are also paying the price for meeting growing demand, both from an increasing population and, in the southeast in particular, a rapid take-up of airconditioners, which places big strains on the system on the hottest days of the year. High rise living means being captive to powered appliances such as air conditioning, clothes drying and heating even in the more southern states.
Privatising the Government's electricity businesses to put them in the hands of efficiency-focused private companies. This would provide consumers with "greater choice" and "more competition" but also free the government from the public beating it receives each year when the Queensland Competition Authority announces the electricity price increase for the next 12 months. It also free governments from trade unions and industrial relations.
editorial - shedding light on power prices
Prior to Kennett’s election, the government-owned State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) was responsible for the supply of electricity in Victoria. Despite being accused of being unproductive, an Electricity Supply Association study of 1000 utilities around the world found that SECV was in the top ten for efficiency of resource use and that it was also highly efficient in terms of technical efficiency of distribution. The SECV in fact delivered affordable electricity to consumers whilst making a healthy profit. Project Victoria nonetheless called for the privatisation, deregulation and corporatisation of the State’s electricity demonstrates its ideologically driven nature.
Neo-liberal think tanks and neo-liberal restructuring: Damien Cahill and Sharon Beder
Victoria's State Electricity Commission (SEC) generated and sold power to Victorian consumers from 1926 to 1998. In every single year it reduced the real price of power to customers. This meant that for ordinary households buying electricity took a smaller part of their earnings in each successive year. the SEC also trained thousands of apprentices in electricity and other workplace skills. Eventually, many of these highly skilled tradesmen found their way into the wider workforce. In a similar manner, the SEC also trained engineers and other skilled workers, not all of whom chose to remain in the commission's employ. Either way, the community got the benefit of skills-training provided by the SEC.
ECONOMIC AFFAIRS: Privatisation has failed to deliver cheaper electricity
In 2000-1 the price of electricity in the National Electricity Market increased by 60%. When retail deregulation was introduced in Victoria, price caps continued with ‘safety net’ prices being set by the government to avoid the political implications of these large price increases. Privatisation of electricity in Victoria had failed to deliver any increased generating capacity and generator breakdowns were threatening blackouts.
About $2.5 billion over 15 years could be saved if electricity distribution reliability was slightly reduced, according to the Australian Energy Market Commission's (AEMC) review of rule changes for the state government.
More than $11 billion is poured into power infrastructure to stop "blackouts" occurring in peak periods, totalling about four days every year. Reducing reliability is an assault on productivity, on our lifestyles, and on our energy bills.
Now, we could be forced to compromise electricity reliability to contain the costs of power.
Blackouts costing Australia 11 b
The real costs of supplying energy are in distribution rather than generation. The "poles and wires" must be replaced, maintained, and also expanded to cope with population growth. Thus, reliability will be compromised to pay for economic growth.
While Julia Gillard blames the States for the surging costs of power even before the introduction of the carbon tax, it is Federal policies that drive our population growth.
Planning Minister Matthew Guy recently announced the creation of 6 new suburbs. All these new consumers, over 60,000 per year, will need either upgraded, or new, "poles and wires".
The costs and impacts of a growth-based economy are passed onto the people of Victoria, whose hip pockets will be raided to pay for basic utilities. The constraints to growth are becoming clearer, and economic growth is becoming more uneconomic.
Posting about cdb articles on other blogs is a big help, I agree
Or, if that seems a little technical, just cut and paste the URL into your comment, or even just give the name of the article and say it's on candobetter.net.
I am grateful to Malthusista for pasting a quote to Jon Quiggan's website from my recent article reviewing Laura Tingle's Great Expectations. If any one would like to add to discussion there, go to http://johnquiggin.com/2012/08/06/monday-message-board-215/comment-page-1/#comment-178173
Thanks James.
Katz on Tingle's interpretation of Australia's 'original sin'
On August 8, 2012, in response to a cross-posting, Katz wrote the following amusing and perceptive response to the above article by Tingle:
First posted on jonquiggan.com at http://johnquiggin.com/2012/08/06/monday-message-board-215/comment-page-1/#comment-178189 Katz wrote:
"Tingle makes a poor effort at historical synthesis. She is an exponent of the One Damned Thing After Another school of historical narrative.
I like your characterisation of Tingle’s interpretation of Australia’s “original sin” here:
Tingle often uses the word ‘paternalistic’ to describe Australian government from the earliest days of settlement, but a better word would be authoritarian. By using the word ‘paternalistic’ however, which has a somewhat benevolent undertone, she also manages to characterise Australians as childlike and passive. With Hirst’s help, convicts emerge as wimps who tugged at Daddy Governor’s apron strings, thus copping a few well-deserved slaps. This caricature sets the tone for this digest of Australian government powers and citizens’ rights.
I should also observe that this description of conditions in Port Phillip District/Victoria is completely incorrect. Granted that Victoria was only one of several colonies, but nevertheless after the Gold Rush Victoria became the population and financial centre of the continent at the time of the evolution of many of Australia’s economic, political and social institutions. At the very least, Tingle should be aware of not applying the NSW cookie cutter to the history of the entire continent.
Some inconvenient facts about PPD/Victoria:
1. It was founded in defiance of government.
2. Few British-convicted felons lived in PPD/Victoria.
3. The Eureka Stockade was in its economic aspects a revolt of entrepreneurs against government power.
4. After Eureka, Whitehall was genuinely alarmed at a repeat of the American Revolution and made significant concessions to democratic sentiment.
5. The Masters and Servants Act was a source of considerable class antagonism. Victorian workers fought successfully against this class-based regime, establishing a powerful trades union organisation.
6. Victoria pioneered the secret ballot to minimise the possibility of employers’ intimidating voters.
These attitudes and practices spread to a greater or lesser degree to all other Australian colonies. Tingle ignores them."
Change shouldn't be imposed on us.
Laura Tingle says that "constant mass migration" " more than anything else" pushed the Australian economy and the population through waves of rapid change. It's assumed that "change" is inevitable, unstoppable, desirable and something that if we can't and are unwilling to accept and adapt to it, we are personally inadequate, stuck in a rut, and living in the past. Not all change is GOOD, unavoidable, in our interests, and should be adapted to and meekly accepted.
The momentum of our growth-based economy must come to an eventual end. We can't be an "immigration nation" forever. Our cities don't need to descend into mess of entangled roads, plagued by shortages of funds to keep up with demands, less and less personal and civic spaces, and a decline in living standard along with increased costs of living.
Change shouldn't be imposed on us. Societies should largely change for the better, and be evolutionary in nature.
"Constant mass migration" is a political choice, and policy that benefited us in the past, but one that needs to be revised in regards to our present time. Policies shouldn't be locked in permanently, without revision and change - something governments are reluctant to do themselves!
We wonder why asylum seekers come here? We are an "immigration nation"!
We need a circuit-breaker to end the momentum of our growth-based economic Ponzi-like scheme. It's accumulating debris on the way, and people are counting on this debris for pensions, jobs, financial returns and retirement funding. Sometimes short-term pain must be accepted for a better future. A change in direction will hurt some industries, but in the long term Australia will be better placed to face the multiple challenges of the future with a stable population. It's imperative that our present immigration levels become political issues for any upcoming elections.
How you can provide support
Thank you, Agent Provocateur, for your interest and support.
In fact, I have been meaning for some time to re-write the section entitled What You Can Do in the About page.
One way to help is as follows:
If, as well as contributing artcles and comments to candobetter, contributors also posted similar comments to other web-sites with links back to articles and comments on candobetter the profile of candobetter could easily be increased by an order of magnitude as just a start. An example of how to link from a forum discussion site, is how I linked from johnquiggin.com back to an article on candobetter:
<a href="http://candobetter.net/node/2782">ABC markets new privatisation grab of public assets</a>
20 July 2012
Back in 2002 the Australian Government owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) surprisingly placed itself in the forefront of efforts to steamroll the public into acceptance of the Howard Government’s plans to privatise Telstra. In 2012, 10 years later, the same ABC Radio National Breakfast Show, but with a different presenter, is again at the forefront of another propaganda drive to impose yet more privatisation against the will of the overwhelming majority of Australians.
(To see how the above html (Hyper-Text Markup Language) is rendered on your browser, please follow the link I have provided above.)
Hi James-how do we support'??
.. I have just started a new job and I'm trying to buy a new home.. but if you let me know how to offer support (which I am able/qualified to give) I'd be happy to do so.
Best Regards
Agent Provocateur
More Fairfax media inanity
THE first policy a new federal government should dust off when elected next year is ''Big Australia''. The Kevin Rudd initiative aimed at growing Australia's population from 22.3 million to 35 million by 2050.....
Within weeks of taking the top job, Julia Gillard scrapped Big Australia realising that few votes would be garnered from the initiative.
Wow. That article is just incredibly bad. If an undergraduate journalist student submitted it they would probably be failed. "Big Australia" was never any kind of initiative or government policy. Just a consequence of the federal government's ongoing, haphazard policy of adhoc massive immigration. Which is still underway of course. And will continue under the federal government, Coalition, Labor or even Greens, for decades to come. Seriously, 5 minutes reading Wikipeda would show this journalist that we are on track to be well over 35 million by 2050. Either he's extremely lazy or wrote a deliberately misleading article. Probably the latter, knowing the Fairfax media.
re: Children's book about Koalas
Jump on board our Support Koalas campaign by clicking on www.pozible.com/koala We are 5% funded on Day 2 for this children's book about Koliptus Koala, written and illustrated to teach children to respect and love our native animals. We need your help..... Send this onto your friends. Thanks.
Australia is not the world's repository
"Australia, as a developed nation, should be expected to contribute to accommodating more people in a crowded world...." This is an absurd argument! There's no evidence that, apart from starvation, conflict and natural disasters (all consequences of overpopulation), the world's population will stall. Immigration gives a false sense of escape, of security, that people can keep overbreeding and find relief in Australia. This is turn will add to the Earth's overpopulation woes. It will just add to the population growth rates of the overpopulated countries, and wreak havoc on our own environmental/social infrastructure.
Australia has no obligation to be a repository for the peoples of the world, who through their own high fertility levels and lack of family planning, have overshot their ecological resources.
Apparently our economic model is fixed so that we must have ongoing immigration to support the age pensions and Public Servant superannuation schemes, to maintain our lifestyles. It's a Ponzi scheme, as migrants also will age and require pensions and superannuation, and they in turn will rely on young immigrants to supply it. Each generation will rely on the next, and it means increasing numbers of people to support this misanthropic and Earth-destructive scheme. Overloading the "life-boats", our planetary space-ship, is self-destructive, counterproductive and self-defeating. We will all go down the road to disaster together- non-human species and all!
The Melbourne Age's population growth edict of 16 July
If our population doesn't grow, the economy stalls
July 16, 2012, Matthew Kidman
THE first policy a new federal government should dust off when elected next year is ''Big Australia''. The Kevin Rudd initiative aimed at growing Australia's population from 22.3 million to 35 million by 2050.
Within weeks of taking the top job, Julia Gillard scrapped Big Australia realising that few votes would be garnered from the initiative. A combination of xenophobic and anti-growth feeling swelled and that was enough to bin the whole exercise.
The reality is though that without population expansion Australian economic growth will stall, placing pressure on company valuations and the performance of the sharemarket. Live examples of this already exist in Japan, Italy and Greece. Australia needs a demographic policy that involves targeted population growth.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the economy grew at an annual pace of 3.2 per cent in the 1990s of which 1.5 per cent was contributed by population growth. In the first decade of the new century, the local economy ratcheted up its growth to just under 4 per cent per year of which population growth can be credited with 1.8 per cent.
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As is well documented, the Australian population, like many other Western nations, is getting older.
In the latest census released last month, it stated that the median age of Australia was 37 years old, up five years in two decades. This is not in itself a concern given that the working population, defined as those people aged between 15 and 65 years, actually increased as a percentage of all people during the same period. The working population is the productive component of society.
This, though, is about to change. It is estimated that by 2015 the median age of Australians will jump to 39 years and the working age will start to shrink from about 67 per cent of the population to 66 per cent. While it does not sound significant, it effectively means demographics will go from being supportive of economic growth to a handbrake.
The Reserve Bank of Australia released a report in 2010 analysing the impact of demographic change on economic growth in a number of countries. It concluded that from 2011 to 2020 demographic changes relating to population growth and the size of the working-age population would reduce economic growth by a full 1 per cent per year in Japan. In the prior decade it had contributed a positive 1.1 per cent.
That is enormous burden to carry for a country that is struggling to grow because of the Japanese penchant for saving instead of spending.
The US is in a better position, but will suffer from a similar fate. In the period from 1996 to 2005 demographic change boosted economic growth by 1.3 per cent each year. But this is forecast to drop to just 0.5 per cent from 2011 to 2020.
A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in 2011 said the ageing population was already having a significant impact on the sharemarket, with the price-to-earnings multiple investors are willing to pay for equities already falling as the median age increases.
The second-largest economy in the world and Australia's biggest trading partner, China, will see the impact of demographics move from 1.4 per cent a year to just 0.2 per cent in this decade.
Many pundits will argue that growth is not compulsory but the economic contractions taking place in Europe should remind everyone how painful and socially disruptive it can be.
Australia's population has grown approximately 1.4 per cent a year over the past 20 years. If this rate continued to 2050, then Australia's population would hit 38 million, some 3 million more than what Rudd's Big Australia would contain. So fears of the population growing out of control are ill-founded. If a targeted population growth policy was implemented, it would require a careful selection process that kept the nation's median age down and, more importantly, retained a similar-sized working population.
The case for an orchestrated increase in the population gains currency when one considers the decline in the other two major contributors to economic growth - terms of trade and labour productivity.
The terms of trade have been a major driver of economic expansion in recent years, but it may have peaked recently with the crest of the mining boom. Meanwhile, labour productivity has been declining in relative terms for a decade with no signs of reversing.
There are strong arguments against population growth, mostly concerning social change, environmental pressures and a lack of infrastructure. Policy must accommodate all of these concerns but none should be insurmountable if a detailed plan is constructed. In fact, if Australia managed to come to terms with its poor infrastructure, dearth of water and lack of geographical planning, the country would be significantly improved from a lifestyle and productivity perspective.
Finally, the world is forecast to grow from today's 7 billion people to about 9 billion by 2060. After this it is expected to stall and then eventually shrink. With less than 23 million people, Australia, as a developed nation, should be expected to contribute to accommodating more people in a crowded world.
Former fund manager Matthew Kidman is a director of WAM Capital.
National borders must be softened to maintain high immigration
America’s experience with a low level of immigration provides a useful test of how that affects the nation’s economic performance.
Between 1925 and 1965 immigrant admissions averaged less than 180,000 persons per year. During that period, the share of women in the workforce nearly doubled and minorities gained access to new job opportunities.
Over those decades, the economy not only grew significantly, it grew more rapidly than it has since mass immigration was again unleashed by legislation enacted in 1965.
From 1925-1966 GDP per capita increased by 168.4 percent. That is an average annual increase of 4.0 percent.
The economy can grow in a healthy fashion with a low level of immigration. How do we know this? The US's economic history demonstrates this fact.
http://www.fairus.org/issue/low-immigration-and-high-economic-growth
Because there are other economic forces at play in shaping the national product, that is not a clear-cut prospect. Nevertheless, this period provides evidence that it is wrong to suggest that the United State's economy will suffer if immigration and guest worker programs are not increased as business interests are currently asserting and it suggests. On the contrary, that the economy would continue to be healthy if immigration were significantly reduced.
In most cases, rapid, immigration-fueled population growth results in increased unemployment and decreases in per capita income. Growth in a finite worlds leads to significant declines in quality of life, such as environmental degradation, urban sprawl, increased congestion, stress on public infrastructure, and strains on vital social institutions.
The problem of illegal immigration to the United States remains unsolved. There are some 11 million illegal immigrants, mostly Mexicans, in the United States.
GDP growth has become a gauge of what is good and bad, for success and failure. Moreover, steadily impoverishing Americans, particularly the American poor and disadvantaged by immigration-driven population growth, will likely turn Americans inward and compel the otherwise generous American to reduce economic and other foreign aid.
A growing population is expensive, mandating continual increases in technological efficiency and retrofitting costs only to maintain current levels and ecological footprint.
Maintaining the illusion of perpetual economic and population growth, something with no natural constraints, means manipulating the voting public. National borders must be softened, and eventually eliminated to create a "one world" humanitarian scenario. Patriotism must be quashed in deference to the displaced "asylum seekers", and immigration must be continued to protect the lofty ideals of multiculturalism. National identity and culture, history, patriotic fervour, protection of one's nation, the concept of sovereignty, environmental conservation are all "racist" and are barriers to mass immigration and realignment of the immigration nations to be global identities.
Go Back to Where you came from
Over 2.5 million people in war-torn Somalia remain in crisis despite huge global aid efforts and the situation may worsen, the UN has warned. Some 323,000 children are acutely malnourished, about a fifth of all children under five.
Even in a good year in West Africa, nearly 300,000 children die from malnutrition-related causes. In Australia, if a single child dies from malnutrition it makes headlines and provokes public outrage.
Most vulnerable refugees are smaller refugee communities, for whom finding paid work is hardest. Somali, Sudanese and other African refugees in particular face hardship, often relying on family and friends resettled to the West for survival.
The world's poorest and most helpless asylum-seekers are being increasingly displaced by those who, while also desperate, at least have the financial means to self-select and pay people-smugglers for a passage to Australia.
In the world’s top five source countries for refugees (Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burma), conditions are characterised by protracted conflicts, ongoing insecurity and widespread violations of human rights. There are often limited prospects for significant improvement in these conditions in the near future, seriously limiting opportunities for refugees to return home in safety. Terrorists may use local merchants such as tour and transport operators to identify foreign visitors for potential kidnap operations. Hostages may be taken by their captors into a neighbouring country. Humanitarian workers and tourists in Kenya have been kidnapped by militants and held in Somalia.
Go Back to where you came from: Six prominent Australians with strong opinions on boat people surrender their passports and agree to travel as refugees. The scenes for Peter Reith, Angry Anderson, Allan Asher, Catherine Deveny, Mike Smith, and Imogen Bailey are described as “intense, shocking, and one of the most challenging experiences of their lives.”
Once again guided by author and refugee expert, Dr. David Corlett, the six participants set out on their journey with varied and blunt opinions:
It assumes that Australia has unlimited natural and social capital and resources, and jobs, housing, finances and infrastructure and thus the idealized destination for the world's displaced - those who have the funds to pay for boats and the people smugglers. It's alternative to addressing overpopulation, the root cause of conflicts, famine and "shortages" that make life a struggle, and deaths inevitable.
Refugee Holidays
If I recall the story correctly the family of the young Sudanese girl, Ayen Chol who was killed by a dangerous dog last year couldn't contact her "refugee" father to give him the bad news because he was away on business in Sudan.
The U.K government warns against all travel to Somalia and Somaliland:
"We advise against all travel to Somalia, including Somaliland. In the southern and central regions, there is ongoing serious violence, dangerous levels of criminal activity and general internal insecurity. We advise any British citizens in Somalia to leave."
www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/sub-saharan-africa/somalia/
Travel advice for Sudan, Australian citizens are advised "Do Not Travel"
Ehrlich wasn't wrong - just the timing
Back in 1980, Paul Ehrlich and Julian Simon made their famous bet: Specifically, the bet was over the future price of five metals, but at stake was much more -- a view of the planet's ultimate limits, a vision of humanity's destiny. Simon allowed Erlich to pick the five metals. If the 1990 prices were higher, Erlich would win. Erlich selected chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), tin (Sn) and tungsten (W).
Simon won, but recent goings on with commodity prices have some people asking whether Simon's timing was just lucky and perhaps Ehrlich views will ultimately triumph.
During the 1990s things changed, however, with Simon the decadal winners in four start years and Ehrlich winning six – 60% of the time. And if we extend the bet into the current decade, taking Simon at his word that he was happy to bet on any period from a year on up (we don’t have enough data to do a full 21st century decade), then Ehrlich won every start-year bet in the 2000s. He looks like he’ll be a perfect Simon/Ehrlich ten-for-ten.
Jeremy Grantham of GMO, a fund-management group, points out that Mr Ehrlich would have won the original bet were it recalculated today (he is still alive; Mr Simon died in 1998). An equally weighted portfolio of the five commodities is now higher in real terms than the average of their prices back in 1980.
Too many people — and especially too many politicians and business executives — are under the delusion that a disastrous end to the modern human enterprise can be avoided by technological fixes that will allow the population and the economy to grow forever.
Australian researcher Graham Turner has examined its assumptions of the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth in great detail during the past several years, and apparently his latest research falls in line with the report's predictions, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
The study, initially completed at MIT, relied on several computer models of economic trends and estimated that if things didn't change much, and humans continued to consume natural resources apace, the world would run out at some point.
It is possible to fix, if governments enact stricter policies and technologies can be improved to reduce our environmental footprint, "economic growth" (a euphemism for population growth) doesn't have to be the measure of their success, marching toward inevitable implosion. But just how to do that is another thing entirely.
Syria conflict: Aleppo shootings by rebels condemned
Amateur video shows rebels preparing to kill alleged Assad loyalists
Human rights activists have condemned the public shooting in Syria of four apparent Assad loyalists by rebels in the battleground city of Aleppo.
Video posted online shows the men, who included the alleged head of a feared local militia, being put up against a wall and shot with Kalashnikov rifles.
Human Rights Watch has told the BBC the act was potentially a war crime.
...
"Limits to growth" on track
Limits to Growth modeled a whole range of scenarios. Their main run scenarios, with precipitous decline between about 2030 and 2070, seems to be on track. Of course these are scenarios, not predictions, but still very scary. We aren't out of the woods yet.
more on population momentum
Failing to understand the concept of replacement rate.
Fertility rate, average number of children per women, is a very inexact figure. But in any case replacement rate doesn't really apply until some time after fertility rate goes down. Population momentum can keep a population growing for years even with less than 2 child per women and zero immigration.
Algeria is an interesting example. Latter half of the twentieth century they had explosive growth. Very recently the fertility rate has dropped rapidly. According to Wikipedia it now stands at 1.74 children/woman, which is currently lower than Australia (a remarkable achievement and shows Muslim countries can reduce their fertility). Net migration is almost zero.
So with such low fertility and essentially no immigration you would think the population of Algeria would be dropping. Actually the estimated growth rate is 2.2%, which is higher than Australia. Because the population is so young as an after effect of their earlier explosive rate.
And similarly the populations of Australia and Canada are younger than most other developed nations. Nowhere as young as Algeria's, but enough so that an average of 2 children/women would see the population of both countries increase for a couple of decades even with no immigration (and the immigration rates of both countries are currently very very high).
Humans are such long lived animals its very easy to increase the population, very hard to reduce it. Overpopulation is the main problem worldwide, not low fertility. Even Japan where the population has only very recently stopped growing despite decades of very low fertility (population momentum again) is probably seriously overpopulated and needs to reduce their population, regardless of what you might read in the growth-obsessed media.
Population dud
I too read the book back then, and for decades thought it was the last word on the environmental disaster that lurked in our future. I no longer buy any of it. The Club of Rome's dire predictions of imminent resource depletion proved wrong. In 1990, Ehrlich famously lost his decade-old bet with economist Julian Simon regarding the future prices of industrial commodities (most were supposed to have been depleted by then), and prices continued to fall for another 10 years after that. I now believe that if we can lick the environmental consequences of burning "fossil" fuels, we can sustain and even raise current living standards around the world, into the indefinite future. More people means more of everything, as history shows. Malthus was simply wrong.
Lag time is more than a life time
The lag time between identifying a problem and getting mainstream recognition and possible action is amazingly long. I read Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb" when I was about 20 and I am now over 60. I have been aware of the threat to the world's wild life from pressure of human numbers all my adult life if not even before this. Nothing is getting any better but in fact the situation is worsening for both humans and other animals with e.g. pressure on urban wildlife in Australia's cities, orangutan habitat progressively destroyed just to Australia's north and the big cats of of the world as endangered as ever if not more so. Today I heard a food expert on the radio talking about the near future of food and the need to make cultures of cells - to form a meat product to feed the teeming masses. And that's probably just the first world! He also talked of declining fish stocks leading to very high prices and that farmed products would soon be the only affordable fish . With respect to world fisheries ,he said that "peak fish" was in 2004!
There is no leadership with respect to our very survival and the survival of the massive variety of other life forms on the planet. It seems that it is generally considered more important now to own an IPad or a massive television screen and see a virtual version of the bounty of life that used to surround us than to experience it directly. This distracts us from the deterioration in our real environment.
Obesity is painful and destructive
Any obesity is painful, and destructive to internal organs and brings stress to everyday infrastructure.
Great poem by brolga brolga!
Our once Marvellous Melbourne is under attack by a fetish for growth. It's misanthropic and destructive to the environment, and an attack on our living standards. Town planners keep on trying to convince the public that smaller is better planning, and better for housing. It's a fantasy - people usually like to have space, and it is something to be aimed for and an indication of living standards. Planners and trying to equate "small" with "good design" in an impossible effort to preserve our living standards against the surge of population growth.
Human population growth is destructive and assumes that growth in our economy and society can be perpetual and infinite. The greed of the human race has no bounds. As systems grow and become more complex, they are vulnerable to collapse and downfall. Why wait until natural limits implode on us, and our urban sprawl becomes no better than the crime and dirt-ridden shanty towns of many developing countries?
Alternative sedatives to Red Symons
On the other hand, you could just remain drunk.
(Instead of relying on the ABC as a sedative.)
Red Symons
Red Symons is neither Jewish, nor is he serious...although, perhaps his utter callousness regarding animals e.g if they are injured especially on our traffic laden roads is a way of lulling his listeners into not caring. His child like demeanor on his morning radio spot has been an absolute winner since he took over from the comparatively intense Lynne Haultain a few years ago. If you don't want to start the morning off with a jolt , Red Symons is your man. He engenders a feeling that everything is amusing and everything's all right. If you listen to Red Symons you may be able more easily to skim the surface and sail through the next hour or so of your day. This morning sedative is only available to Melbourne radio listeners.
Native Australian Awards = National Wattle Day 1st September
AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY PRESS RELEASE
National Wattle Day 1st September 2012
Nominations for the Native Australian Award
"THE ORDER OF THE WATTLE BLOSSOM"
are invited from Australian Citizens
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 Race, or any assimilable 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.
Name and address of nomination; suggested award citation.
Include your own name and address.
In keeping with past tradition, only five awards will be made.
AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY
P.O. Box 223 Croydon 3136
www.australiafirst.net ausfirst [ AT ] hotmail.com
Voting for other than AUSTRALIA FIRST is now just a waste of time
Diverse views lacking in Oz media on international events
Whilst we have serious concerns about Israel's role in fomenting terrorism against Syria and promoting threats against Iran, its nuclear weapons program and its brutal oppression of its native Palestinian population, we do not support antipathy towards any particular ethnic group. The Australia, US and British governments have similar policies. It is not clear how the military industrial complex arrives at such unity, but one assumes an interest in supporting a hegemony to dominate access to energy resources.
That said, we can only agree that diversity of political opinion going beyond narrow government policy on any public media commentating on international affairs, is sadly lacking in Australia. We did notice that the SBS evening news on Friday gave better coverage of Syria than the ABC or the Murdoch/Fairfax press have been giving. This was a welcome variation in SBS's otherwise narrow and dishonest reporting on this area previously.
Greenland: Bad title was Nasa's
Hi Anonymous.
I agree.
I considered changing the title initially but felt that since I republished the whole thing from NASA I would leave it as was. I heard about it from another source which made a far more dire interpretation from NASA's data. I will consider changing the title to reflect that NASA used that expression.
Thanks.
Sheila N
774's line up this week
774's line up this week, 5.30am-6pm; Red Symons, Jon Faine, Libbi Gorr, Rafael Epstein. It's all very cultish and clubby. The bias is just as obvious in the "Conversation Hour". It should be called "Voice for our mates hour".
What chance have you got with a view that is anything other than sycophantically pro-Israel and pro-Zionist with such gate keepers? What would happen if any other ethnic minority had such a stranglehold on the public broadcaster? It is a very strange situation. Is there only one talented ethnicity in Australia? The national broadcaster has been captured by a specific agenda.
Possums in the park
I have come to know the brush tail possums in a neighboring suburban park through trying to prevent the local council installing exclusion bands on all the palm trees. We were unsuccessful in the attempt and the council's actions have deprived the possums of habitat in the palm tree tops where they had lived for about a century with no apparent damage to the palms nor to other trees in the park. I find the possums to be timid nervous creatures who are very alert to possible danger and always on the lookout. They will approach people with whom they are familiar. Some of them will permit a human to stroke them and one even jumped on my shoulder. In all the time I have visited the park I have never been been scratched or nipped by a possum except by accident. They have have extremely sharp strong claws which help them climb and cling to branches and sharp teeth as well. I don't think they would gratuitously pick a fight but their teeth and claws make excellent defense weapons. It is safe to touch them if they are occupied (eating) and you just stroke them on the back. I have even given them a massage. To me they are very endearing animals but their nocturnal habit is a bit limiting as far as their role as pets is concerned. It is better to accept them as fellow inhabitants or Australia to leave space for them and to consider them in avoiding clashes with our dogs. We will sometimes meet them at those times when our diurnal and nocturnal worlds intersect.
Toolangi Grannies Stop Logging on Mount St Leonard
Media Release
Toolangi Grannies Stop Logging On Mount St Leonard
What do you do when you watch magnificent native forest habitat on your beloved mountain being bulldozed, loaded on to convoys of huge log trucks and carted off to the woodchippers to be turned into paper! You get angry and determined – that’s what!
Toolangi grandmothers, fed up with being kept awake at all hours by the sound of chainsaws, dozers and log trucks, have chained themselves to the bulldozers in a logging coupe on the slopes of Mount St Leonard.
They hope their desperate action will convince Premier Baillieu to put a stop to the madness of destroying the much-visited iconic mountain in the Yarra Valley. Still more coupes are to be carved out of the mountain slopes and the resulting coupe burns and wind tunnels will turn a once beautiful landscape into a eyesore and a firetrap.
“This is not the future I wish to leave for my grandchildren”, said local resident Lynn Dean.
It provided an excellent photo and TV opportunity of grannies locked on to bulldozers in an active logging coupe (Leo’s Foot) on Mount St Leonard. Police, DSE and VicForests staff are expected to try to stop the protest.
Local residents, including business owners, tourism operators and CFA volunteers will be there supporting the brave grandmothers and available for comment.
VicForests, a timber and logging agency of our State Government, is failing to see the forests for the $$$ profits they see in the trees! Forests are more than a few mere trees! They have a myriad of purposes, significances and attributes treasured by local and national communities. They are symbols of the richness of Nature, and sacred places of peace, tranquility and reflection/rehabilitation for the soul. They are a home for a rich biodiversity, and have profound intrinsic spiritual and natural value. Our State government doesn't "get it"! These grans deserve our utmost praise and support for their courage against a powerful adversary - our own State logging department!
Greenland ice sheet
It's not unprecedented. It happens about every 150 years ... also, THE ICE IS NOT GONE. Here is a link to a live view of the polar region:
View from 1000000 km above 90°N 0°W at http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth?imgsize=320&opt=-l&lat=90&ns...
As you can see from the satellite photo, the ice is still there. (You can do better....)
Japan behind Captain Paul Watson's arrest
Japan asked Germany to arrest Paul Watson, the founder of anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, days before he skipped bail and apparently fled the country.
Japan sought Watson Arrest in Germany
Sea Shepherd group had been aware of Japan's attempts to extradite Mr Watson. They were aware of some sort of connection between the requests made by Japan and Costa Rica.
The US-based group says it encountered an illegal shark-finning operation run by a Costa Rican ship, the Varadero, and told the crew to stop and head to port to be prosecuted.
The crew has accused Sea Shepherd of trying to kill them by ramming their ship. With ambiguous "anti-whaling" messages from our Australian government, and a defacto acceptance of their bogus "scientific" whale slaughter, Japan's pro-whaling groups have become megalomaniacs in their determination to pay-back Paul Watson for "eco-terrorist" activities. Sea Shepherd has the audacity to question their invasion of the whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean.
Even illegal shark-finners have become so confident in their rights to treat the oceans and species as a resource for their own ends, they can use Japan to take their side!
Any lea-way to criminals gives them more power and confidence against conservationists and ocean activists.
Older women as capable of rational thought and reading as you
"I am not the norm. I am not a grandmother".
How nice for you. Before you preen any more, let me tell you that older women are as capable of rational thought and reading as you are. Activism, too. At this very moment, some 60+ grans are locking onto machinery at Toolangi in the freezing cold. Are you?
I agree with the fact that the world is overpopulated, but like most articles on this, this fails on several levels.
1. Failure to acknowledge the sinister links -eugenics for instance - of historical population movements in the West and how they have attempted to shift the responsibility to people of colour and "developing countries" to reduce population. Because of this, I think anything we Westerners write on the subject should acknowledge this and overtly make it our responsibility as the people with the largest footprint.
2. Making women (next to, of course, people of colour) the culprits. "Murderer"? Oh please. And besides the stupidity of this hyperbole, unless there is a virgin birth here, there was a man involved. Why not point the finger at the father?
3. Failing to understand the concept of replacement rate. Oliver is not going to increase the population until there are three or more of him. Few of us weathy first-worlders have more than two children, but our consumption and huge environmental footprints more than make up for it. The problem is not as crude and simple as you make it out to be.
Snap Rally Friday 27 July Trains not tolls 1020am
Dear PPL VIC members and friends
Here is a reminder re our snap rally tomorrow rally to call for trains not tolled roads to fix Melbourne's transport woes. Here are details again:
Time: 1020 am for a 10:30 am start.
Date: Friday 27 July 2012
Reason: Continue the protest over the East West Link and to advocate for Doncaster Rail Link. This is for a photo shoot for the Melbourne Leader. It should only take half an hour - we will have a few speakers with messages about further action planned.
Bring: Green Triangles with NO TUNNELS or Trains Not Tolls signs or Public Transport Not Road Tunnels (I will have a supply placards) Wear Red if possible!
Location: Under the Lemon Scented Gums at the roundabout at north end of Swanston Street at the intersection with Cemetery Drive and Keppel St.. Melways Map Reference 2 B F4 .NOTE NEWS JUST RECEIVED FROM THE NATIONAL TRUST THAT THE CITY OF MELBOURNE IS TO PUT UP PROTECTIVE FENCING AROUND THE TREES so we might be on the edge of the roundabout! (This is only because we alerted the National Trust, the City of Melbourne and LMA over the threat to the trees.)
Transport: Contrary to previous advice, carparking is a bit limited in the day time at the north end of Cardigan and Keppel Streets close to the new development Lume but there is some further back in Cardigan Street. Tram up Swanston Street to the University and walk a block north past the colleges. TAKE CARE CROSSING ROAD TO ROUNDABOUT AS THERE ARE NO PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS.
Support Needed: We hope that opposition to the East West Link exhibited before the election can be sustained. Hope to see you there tomorrow.
Regards Julianne
Julianne Bell Secretary Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. Mobile 0408022408
Good to see he is still playful.
Thanks, I just enjoyed reading the editor's comment, and good to see he is still playful.
Why shouldn't Labor Party prosecute President Gül for terrorism?
The following is to be posted to jonquiggin.com. It is to be posted in response to a comment from Professor Quiggin:
Some further info on the Turkish Labour Party. They are followers of the late Enver Hoxha, it seems.
This was in response to my posting excerpts from this article to his web-site.
My response
Thanks for your comment and for your interest in the Syrian conflict, Professor Quiggin. It is unfortunate that this prosecution has not, instead, been undertaken by, for example, the Turkish Democratic Left Party, a party with more resources and electoral support. It is also of concern that the Turkish Labour Party is a follower of Enver Hoxha. Nevertheless, given the history of Turkey with its coups, its intervention in Cyprus and its conflict with its Kurdish minority and given the heroic resistance by Albanians to Britains's attempt in 1949 to impose a dictatorship as it had alraedy done in Greece, it seems not altogether implausible that humane and progressive Turks, particularly Turks oppose to NATO's war crimes against Syria, could be drawn into such a party.
I think anyone who supports the rule of law and opposes murder, particularly of officials of a sovereign government which appears to enjoy the strong support of the majority of the people of that country as the Syrian Government appears to, should commend the Turkish Labor Party for having launched legal action. Assuming that Turkey has laws on its books against the waging of a war of aggression against another country as every civilised democracy should, then I see no reason why the case should not succeed. I hope that this case proceeds and that it is reported in our newsmedia. However, given our newsmedia's so-far deceitful, selective and biased reporting of the Syrian conflict so far, there is no reason to exepect that it will.
I trust that you are not arguing that because this court case is not being undertaken by a larger organisation with more electoral support than the Turkish Labor Party that therefore they must be wrong to oppose the Turkish Government breaking its own laws?
It would logically follow from that that, because in 2009, no political party contesting the Queensland state elections opposed privatisation and the one independent candidate, who opposed privatisation in that election, did not get a high vote -- 163 votes or 0.65%, which was slightly more than the 0.58% that the Turkish Labour Party received across the whole country 10 years earlier -- that it would have been wrong to oppose privatisation.
The outcome of the Queensland state elections held on 24 March this year would suggest otherwise.
As a consequence of public revulsion at 'Labor' Premier Anna Bligh's announcement of the privatisation fire sale only after the 2009 elections had ended, Labor's representation in the Queensland Parliament was reduced from 51 of the 89 seats to only 7. Anna Bligh held onto her own seat of South Brisbane, but with her two-party preferred majority reduced from 65% to 55%. In the subsequent by-election, contested for Labor by Anna Bligh's friend Jackie Trad, that majority was reduced further to 52.85%, that is, it has now become a marginal seat.
So, I fail to see how the small vote for the Turkish Labor Party in the 1999 elections 13 years ago or some unorthodox opinions held by the Turkish Labor Party has any bearing on the Turkish Labor Party's claim that it has evidence that President Abdullah Gül incited terrorism and war against Syria and that this violates Turkish law.
Banks rely on population growth to drive up profits
Dick Smith says the banking model relies on more and more people each year borrowing money to purchase assets, expand their businesses or to buy goods. Credit growth (the growth in the size of the borrowings provided by a bank) is fundamental to banks’ profits. Therefore, a bank relies heavily on an expanding population to drive future profit growth through lending, in turn providing a suitable return on investment for shareholders.
So growth is good for investments, but growth also puts strain on our finite resources.
The boss of the RBA, Glenn Stevens, says that house prices in Australia are not unreasonably high, and we are still the "lucky country". Mortgages are at a healthy levels, filling the banks with profits.
Last year Glenn Stevens' salary blew out to over $1 million, the highest ever paid public servant. Of course banks want and lobby for population growth! It's "good" for the economy and for business and mortgages are an excellent way of extracting money out of the pay-packets of average Australian workers.
Glenn Stevens has his head in the clouds and is paid much more than our Prime Minister!
Just keep the possums away from New Zealanders
Just keep the possums away from New Zealanders.
..fur gloves, socks, beanies, hats, scarves. knitwear, accessories,
Backward, just like Laosian bear treatment.
Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria
Australia
Oh shove it.
Oh shove it.
[Ed. Not sure what this comment writer wanted to shove. Could be they had difficulty making a comment or that they don't like possums or that they don't disapprove of rearing an injured possum and are responding to Kimble's comment. Published in the spirit of non-censorship and mystery.]
Info lock-down like war already declared on Syria
I noticed that Jon Faine had as a guest a woman who had once managed the ABC. She was talking about the political pressure on management over content, which she conveyed was heavy. If Jon Faine wanted listeners to hear the other side, maybe it wouldn't be worth his career. It is as if we are at war with Syria already and no-one is allowed to raise any questions about our attitude because there are troops there. It is like an information lockdown in wartime. But we are not at war with Syria and we have no troops there. howevver there are troops there - mercenaries - as is reported far and wide on the internet.
Does Faine have time to know what the other side is anyway? He seems to spend most of his time talking to the Lord Mayor of Melbourne and a few others about what a great thing more roads and houses is.
Someone has to pose the questions you are posing, anyway. Now we have a record that we did not have before the non-existent weapons of mass destruction started this whole sequence of invasions off.
Since we hardly ever hear a peep from the Syrian community in Victoria on this, it sounds like they might disagree with the government position (as promoted by the ABC) and just not dare say how upset they all are about a bunch of westerners supplying mercenaries and weapons to destabilising forces there.
Re-Colonisation by the West of Syria and Middle-East
A prominent author believes that the way Western media depicts the massacres in Syria reveals the fact that they are “done under the auspices of NATO”.
http://presstv.com/detail/2012/07/14/250930/nato-encouraging-unrest-in-syria/">
The plan is to do to Syria what happened last year to Libya: to bring about regime change favourable to western economic and strategic interests. But we only need to see what has happened to Libya since the NATO war to know how disastrous this would be for the Syrian people. See Human rights now worse in Libya than it was under Gaddafi.
Tariq Ali, author, activist and expert on the Middle East, says we are witnessing in Syria a new form of re-colonisation by the West, like we have already seen in Iraq and in Libya. The only way forward, in the interests of all Syrians, says Ali, is negotiation and discussion. But it is now obvious that the West is not going to let that happen because they are backing the opposition groups who are against any negotiation.
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/tariq-ali-what-is-really-happening-in-syria
Britain risks being sucked into military action in Syria to prevent bloodshed spreading, a former Army commander has warned. Colonel Richard Kemp, who led UK forces in Afghanistan, said the escalating civil war made it increasingly likely that the West would be forced to step in.
Since its creation in 1947, the CIA has mounted approximately 3,000 major operations and 10,000 minor operations of this nature, every one of them illegal and many of them "bloody and gory beyond comprehension". According to former CIA agent John Stockwell (who was involved in several such operations), by 1988, over six million people had been killed as a result.
Arab governments that refuse to submit to Western and Israeli dominance are continually harassed and destabilized to the point that they are forced, in order to survive, to develop a security infrastructure that is, to one extent or another, totalitarian.
Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley, author and historian from Washington says:
"I think it is clear that NATO and the armed opposition, the death squads in effect, are the ones that benefit from these actions and I would caution everybody to realize that most of the reports that we get from Syria are totally unreliable and this has to do with the corruption of Western media and also with the school of journalism that is based on ‘activists say.’ "
Armed groups kill 25 Syrian civilians in Aleppo - June 2012
Published last month on PressTV on 22 June
Armed groups fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have killed 25 more civilians in the northern province of Aleppo.
According to Syria’s official news agency, SANA, the massacre took place in Daret Azzeh area in Aleppo countryside on Friday and the victims had been kidnapped by armed gangs earlier in the day.
Some reports suggest that the victims are all government supporters. Many civilians are still being held by the terrorists and their fate remains unknown.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has announced that 1.5 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in Syria and that the growing violence was seriously hampering aid deliveries.
Damascus has also said that armed groups are hampering rescue efforts in the crisis-hit city of Homs by opening fire at the International Red Crescent and the Syrian Red Cross delegation trying to evacuate the wounded, the elders, children and women from the city.
Syrian authorities say terrorist groups are holding nearly 5,000 civilians hostage in Homs, who are in need of immediate help.
Syria has been experiencing a deadly unrest since mid-March 2011, the violence has claimed the lives of many people, including large numbers of security forces.
While the West and the Syrian opposition say the government is responsible for the killings, Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
Calm restored in Damascus, fighting continues in Homs, Aleppo
Published on PressTV on 25 July 2012.
Syrian security forces and armed gangs are currently fighting in the cities of Aleppo and Homs, while calm has returned to most parts of the capital, Damascus, Press TV reports.
Foreign-backed armed rebels have attacked security checkpoints in Aleppo, while there have been reports of sporadic clashes between Syrian troops and armed groups in Homs.
The security forces are battling rebels in the al-Bab and Sha'ar districts of Aleppo, where many members of the armed opposition have reportedly surrendered.
Syrian security forces engaged the rebels all across the country on Tuesday, with Naher Aisheh, a suburb of Damascus, being the latest area fully cleared of foreign-backed armed gangs. Most neighborhoods are now calm in the capital.
Meanwhile, security forces have foiled repeated attempts by armed groups to infiltrate into Syrian territory from neighboring countries.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government.
The Syrian government says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings.
Damascus also says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country and the security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians.
See also: Syrian forces destroy armed gangs hideout in Homs, seize weapons of 16 July 2012, Syrian forces, gunmen clash in Aleppo of 22 July 2012, Syrian troops clear Khan Sheikhun in Idlib of armed groups of July 2012, Syrian forces kill terrorists in Douma suburb of the capital Damascus of 29 June 2012, Calm restored in Damascus, fighting continues in Homs, Aleppo of 24 July 2012.
Mining industry out of control - Tasmanian Devils in danger
Mining Industry out of control
Scientists tell us that the new roads and traffic created by strip mining the ancient Tarkine rainforest will increase the spread of the Devil Facial Tumour Disease - a deadly virus-like cancer that is already driving the Tasmanian devil population towards extinction.
What the devils need is Emergency Heritage Listing for the region they inhabit. This kind of listing would ensure the greatest amount of independent scientific scrutiny possible is given to the proposed mines in the Tarkine.
That's why we all need to take this opportunity to urge our local MPs to call on Tony Burke to take immediate action to protect the last healthy Tasmanian devils:
As leading wildlife expert and former chief scientist in the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program Professor Hamish McCallum has said:
"There is sufficient evidence to suggest that it may threaten the survival of populations of Tasmanian devils in the area."
Locals have been campaigning vigorously against Venture Minerals proposals to build three open cut and strip mines in the Tarkine, but now they need your support.
Our elected members right across the country have a responsibility to stand up for the things we care about. In non-election times the only way we can make sure they know what we want them to act on is to let them know directly, by telling them.
Can you send your MP a quick message asking them to lobby Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke to urgently enact the Emergency Heritage Listing for the Tarkine?
Thanks for all you do,
the GetUp team.
PS - Two of the Venture Mines will only operate for just two years! The mining industry is out of control, so let's do what we can to save the Tarkine for the Tassie devil and for future generations of Australians to enjoy. Find out more and contact your MP here: www.getup.org.au/devils
1Mines may endanger one of last healthy devil populations. The Australian. July 23, 2012.
Ultimate Asylum Seeker Solution - Limit Foreign Aid Budget
The above strategies would be a reversal of Gillard's betrayal of the Australian Nation.
More simply I suggest a financial governance protocol for Australia's Annual Foreign Aid Budget.
Like any nation, Australia has a limited budget and a fair and reasonable quota for its foreign immigration to respect social carrying capacity.
Once asylum seeker limit is reached, it is a case of adopting New Zealand's internationally accepted policy, and so subsequent illegals are to be returned to the country of illegal/unauthorised departure - Indonesia mainly. The full economic cost of receival, processing and return flights is to be fairly deducted from Australia's total Foreign Aid Budget, including the exorbitant cost of Australia's' US crusades in Afghanistan.
So, for our nation's fair and sound international governance that respects its citizens' finances and carrying capacity, means that the asylum seeker problem may be resolved fairly, expeditiously and supported by targeted media become an effective deterrent to people smugglers, would-be asylum seekers and negligent Indonesian coast watch.
Not only shall the the excess illegals be lawfully returned to their country of departure (complicit Indonesia mainly), but the associated costs are deducted from Australia's annual Foreign Aid Budget, including patsying to the US strategic war in Afghanistan.
The LibLabs can stage crocodile tears in our Nation's Parliament, but their joint uselessness in border control demands a National Citizen Initiated Referendum to overrule Party Politics incompetence.
Labor's bottomless overdraft is unconstitutional Treasury theft that demands a double dissolution of parliament.
No government has an electoral mandate to bankrupt the Natiomal Treasury.
Gillard has always been a Labor puppet. Her spend thrift addiction has set new lows beyond electoral pock barrelling, beyond chronic cheque writing Ruddism.
Exceeding Treasury Overdraft is a seditious crime and so ought to be life imprisonment for the Prime Minister.
John Marlowe
End of mining not close yet
The research firm BIS Shrapnel says that the end of the "boom" is not as bad as predicted, but >dwelling investment is about to take off in most of the country. It means the "boom" or growth period has subsided from its peak.
"Mining investment will soon stop growing," says senior economist Tim Hampton.
"It should remain high but it will stop growing. In its place we see an upswing in residential property investment from later this year.
Read more: Housing investment will 'replace' the mining boom in SMH of 24 July 2012 by Peter Martin
If a housing "boom" is to happen, it will be on the back of "big Australia" and the skills shortages being addressed by imports rather than investments in our main resource - the Australian people. There is a shortage of houses in the resource states that must be caught up with.
The end of the mining boom is not close yet. “We’ve got a long way to go,” Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA chief executive Reg Howard-Smith.
“There are expansions currently under construction and significant new oil and gas projects and mineral projects which haven’t started producing, so the full economic benefits are yet to be felt,” he said.
As Ken Henry says, "Abundant as they are, Australia’s natural resources will not last forever".
End in sight for Australia's mining boom
The end is in sight for Australia's mining and investment boom, according to Deloitte Access Economics' June 2012 quarter Business Outlook, but HSBC says there is a lot more still to come.
"The government has built a budget that is wholly captive to the mining boom and the taxes to be collected from mining taxes," Joe Hockey told reporters in Sydney on Monday. "Now it's apparent the budget is unravelling because it was built on smoke and mirrors."
All booms inevitably end.
The Labor Government indicated that there would be a further increase in the permanent-entry immigration program from 163,000 in 2010–11, 185,000 in 2011–12 and up to 190,000 in 2012–13. The government is making immigration decisions assuming that the minerals boom will require a huge increase in skilled workers who must be drawn in part from migration.
The official immigration program doesn't count the nearly 14,000 migrants who arrive in the humanitarian program, or a number of smaller categories. It doesn't include the 25,000 or so Kiwis who cross the Tasman each year, or the international students for whom visa requirements have again been loosened or the sub-section 457 temporary work visas which have been recently embraced and promoted by both sides of politics. The 457 program is uncapped and untargeted.
Dr Bob Birrell, says our skilled migration intake was more than enough to service the mining boom. “But the bulk of current migration has little to do with providing scarce skills to the resource industries,” he says. “Rather, it is delivering two major streams. One is a predominantly professional flow to the big cities where the immigrants are being employed in people--servicing industries such as health and welfare. The other, is a mass of people on temporary visas such as students and working holiday makers work on a casual basis".
Our government also assume that the rest of the Australian economy will surge, generating a nation-wide shortage of skilled workers. Most of the migrants in the record-high intake will end up in Sydney and Melbourne. Now, according to Deloitte Access Economics, Australia's budget surplus has evaporated and its mining investment boom has only two years to run.
This year's forecast $1.5 billion budget surplus is no longer there, and Treasurer Wayne Swan will have to decide whether to cut back spending again in order to create a surplus.
Feast of famine, apparently Australia will need more highly skilled workers regardless of economic conditions, and more tertiary education funding is essential to ensure the supply of qualifications, according to Skills Australia Amendment (Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency) Act 2012. They report that demand for high-level qualifications would grow more than twice as quickly as supply whether Australia faced boom or bust. It's a denial of our unemployment rate, and the heavy costs of tertiary education. Universities and TAFES are underfunded, and operating under a business model. It's assumed that the Economy, based on infinite numbers, is the basis of our future, our growth, rather than finite natural resources and environmental capacity to provide for living standards - and the inevitable pollution/waste from a growing economy/population. Immigration is driving rapid population growth and causing cost of living and congestion problems – pressures on food, water, land and energy supplies, housing affordability and species extinctions.
What will happen after the mining boom ends, many Australians ask. The hundreds of millions of people being taken out of rural poverty to the urban lifestyle must eat food that they buy rather than grow. However, swathes of agricultural land is being sold to foreigners grabbing land.
Once the boom is over, it could leave the economy vulnerable to crippling tourism, manufacturing, and education services, said BIS Shrapnel in its Long Term Forecast 2011-26. Australia, unlike many resource-rich countries, does not have a “sovereign wealth fund” to save the wealth of its resources boom. Norway has an enormous fund which has strict rules meaning it can’t be spent in a hurry. Even northern neighbours East Timor and Papua New Guinea have some form of sovereign wealth fund. The minerals boom is sucking skilled labour and investment out of other sectors. The high Australian dollar is killing manufacturing export industries and tourism.
Service industries are surviving, but other industries such as manufacturing, tourism and agriculture are going backwards.
BIS Shrapnel chief economist Frank Gelber says rather than channelling the financial benefits from the mining boom into a prosperity fund, they should be invested in infrastructure. As MP Kelvin Thomson says, numerous studies show that new arrivals come with a big infrastructure requirement – they bring their families with them, and all require houses, roads, schools, hospitals etc., and many require English-language and other forms of assistance.
Australia's two-speed economy could slow to Victoria's snail-pace, and struggle to provide infrastructure and jobs to keep abreast with our politically-determined population growth - based on dubious "skills shortages"!
See also: The end of the mining boom? Access Economics' warning may be premature of Monday, 23 July 2012 by Cara Waters. Comment: In any case, the 'boom', based upon the extraction of humankind's finite bounty of non-renewable fossil fuels and metals could not possibly last for more than one or two hundred years at most, a miniscule period of time in comparison to the 30,000 years for which intelligent human communities have inhabited Earth. If Vivienne's more pessimistic economic prediction is borne out, then, at least, future generations stand some hope of getting a share of the mineral bounty that our greedy corporate elites want to dig up now. If we succeed in taking back the control of this country from the greedy foreign and domestic elites, we may find a way to have a more fulfilling future whilst also preserving some of our bounty for future generations. - Ed
Nun from Damascus has no trust in so-called 'revolutionaries'
A Nun from Damascus: "We have no trust in these so-called 'revolutionaries'
See also: Christians threatened by Free Syrian Army of 17 July 2012
from Global Research, July 21, 2012
Agenzia Fides
(Agenzia Fides) - Refugees continue to knock on the door of the Shrine of Tabbaleh, dedicated to the Conversion of St. Paul in Damascus. The Franciscan friars of the Custody of the Holy Land and the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who run the Church, have welcomed eight families permanently and provide maintenance to 45 other families, Christians and Muslims. They are refugees from Damascus, the civilian victims of the clashes between the regular army forces and revolutionary groups that in recent days have put the city to fire.
"We walk in hope and try to comfort all in these tragic hours," says to Fides Fr. Romualdo Fernandez OFM, Rector of the Sanctuary, telling a crowd of people who come every day to pray in the Church, and spontaneous circles of Christians and Muslims are formed to pray together for peace and ask for God and the Virgin Mary’s protection.
Suo Yola, one of the Franciscan women religious who every day help the families of refugees, told Fides: "We are doing our best to help the displaced families. People cry and hope for better times. The cost of living is very high, there are no medicines, the impact of the embargo that we suffer is all on the civilian population and on the poorest. We hope and pray that this suffering will end soon. We have no trust in these so-called 'revolutionaries'. Who are the revolutionaries who harm the people? They have corrupted all, Christians and Muslims, many families who have lost everything. "
"In these armed actions and in this suffering - the nun continues - religion has nothing to do with it. With Muslims we have always lived side by side and we will continue to do so. The Syrian government has hitherto been secular, has guaranteed security and stability to Syria . Today we have only chaos, insecurity, and suffering. And what will happen tomorrow? But we know, as Christians, that God protects us and our hope is alive. And as Christians, we know for certain: we will never abandon Syria."
Stopping the boats
The FOREIGN REFUGEE / ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT assault on THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE continues unabated as Liberal/Labor politicians play a sham pantomime on this invasion. Essentially, it simply complements their plague-level immigration programme, now so despised by fairdinkum Australians
AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY as the champion of Identity, Independence and Freedom for our Australian People, calls for the following plan to be implemented to end this virtual RECOLONISATION of our land.
i] Withdrawal of our Defence Forces from New World Order imperialist wars and their return to Australia to fulfil their primary role of securing the Australia Nation.
ii] Repudiation of the UN Convention on Refugees as un-Constitutional and not in the interests of, and without the agreement of, the Australian People. A National Plebiscite to confirm this policy.
iii] Forward deployment of the ADF in the international waters and routes used to undermine our sovereignty.
iv] Interception of boats by trained ADF and their refuelling and reprovisioning, allowing sufficient supplies for their return to port of origin, or last port of call.
v] Identifying each FOREIGN REFUGEE through body scans and issuing a declaration to each that further attempt to transfer to Australian Soil will ensure permanent prohibition from entering Australia for any purpose.
vi] Rendering of emergency/temporary medical assistance to any illegal if needed.
vii] Levying an impost of 20% per head of currency carried to add towards costs [Customs Personnel continually report the FOREIGN REFUGEE wallets are full with convertible currency]
viii] Escorting the invasion boats to commence their return away Australia.
ix] Should any invasion boat refuse ADF direction it is to be placed under tow for removal to the vicinity of place of origin / last port of call. A levy of 20% per head of currency carried will be applied.
x] Illegals resisting the implementation of ADF strategy will be restrained whilst the procedures are undertaken. A levy of 15% of currency carried will be applied.
xi] LAW OF THE SEA norms to be abrogated as an emergency response whilst this assault on Australian Sovereignty continues.
xii) ] For foreigners who fly into Australia, the entry visa system will be changed to require a pre-paid return airfare before issue AS REQUIRED BY OTHER COUNTRIES, and automatic non-negotiable immediate expulsion to occur on any attempt to claim ‘refugee status’ by over staying in Australia. A levy of 20% of currency carried will be applied, and denial of any further entry to Australia for any purpose will become applicable.
xiii] Cancellation of all sham entry visa / residency status granted to fake refugees under the Lib/lLab administrations, and directed repatriation back to country of origin to be enforced.
xiv] Foreign Aid to be curtailed/suspended pending the resolution of this emergency.
xv] Subversives and fifth columnists in Australia who aid and abet this unarmed invasion of Australia, and the undermining of our European-derived civilisation, will be subject to curtailment of civil and political rights, denial of social services, and nationalisation / sale of property to aid the costs of defending the Australian People.
The AFP’s policy on illegals is required to release funds currently wasted on foreigners, funds sorely needed for programs to alleviate the suffering of Aussies - the homeless, disabled, unemployed, etc, etc, who are the real responsibility of the Australian Government.
Australia First Party. P. O. Box 223, Croydon, 3136 National Contact 02 8587 0014
www.australiafirst.net ausfirst [ AT ] hotmail.com
Attack on conservationists at Toolangi
A camp of anti-logging protesters in a state forest near Healesville say they were terrorised by "thugs" who attacked them in the early hours of this morning.
MyEnvironment spokeswoman Sarah Rees said up to 10 men ambushed the two-men camp at Toolangi State Forest, at Mt St Leonard, at 2.30am.
The attackers shone car headlights into the faces of the protesters, John Flynn and Andy Lincoln, and menaced them with star pickets and a large car jack.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/starpicket-attack-on-antilogging-campers-20120721-22gma.html
A Facebook page, set up by supporters of the timber industry, was "stimulating violence".
There's always money to be made from environmental destruction, and so-called "sustainable" industries. In many countries conservationists are assassinated and murdered for stopping profits and "progress".
The latest case in the Philippines was of 60 year-old conservationist and community leader Frederick ‘Fred’ Trangia of Barangay Mainit, Nabunturan, Compostela Valley Province, who was shot down last May 6 by two unidentified gunmen.
Prominent environmental activist Chut Wutty has been killed in Koh Kong province in south-west Cambodia, working to prevent the destruction of the forests he fought for 15 years to conserve.
Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espirito Santo were ambushed in Para state, near the city of Maraba. The environmentalist had repeatedly warned of death threats against him by loggers and cattle ranchers. They were killed in the Amazon region. The killers even cut off the ears of the da Silvas, a common practice of assassins in Brazil to prove to their employers that they had committed the deed.
In many parts of the world, standing up for one's forest, land, or environment has become incredibly dangerous. A new briefing by Global Witness finds that 711 activists, journalists, and community members were murdered defending or investigating land and forest rights issues between 2002 and 2011.
Are these deaths a consequence of a new global rush for the last remaining timber and mining resources, and a new ruthlessness on the part of oil, timber and mining companies? Probably, and if the behavior of humans was being exhibited by another expanding species, not nearly as destructive as humans, they would be declared a dangerous vermin pest that should be "managed" and eradicated!
Uplifted by Saudi princess's courage
I am so encouraged by this incredibly brave woman to be breaking away from her culture and her country and speaking up for what is right. She is definitely a light in a very dark time showing a better way for them all to be. I pray she will be given asylum (and Julian Assange too!). And I also pray that more Muslim women have the courage to speak out for their rights as Islam is an horrifically repressive regime for women and children.
Editor's comment: Thank you, Menkit, for expressing your support of Princess Sara. Regarding Julian Assange, I recommend you read what the Syrian Girl (who features in the candobetter article Young Syrian patriot fights corporate media lies against her homeland of 10 May) has to say about him. Whilst he appears to be a beacon of truth amidst a global storm of deceit, the information supposedly leaked by him, in fact, helps the New World Order propagandists. I suggest you also look at Webster Tarpley's broadcast embeded on Veterans Today.
Please sign Care2 petition to save Kimberley, Humpback Whales
Please Save The Kimberley and Humpback Whales
The Kimberley is one of the rarest environments on Earth and one of the last true wildernesses. Rich in history, culture and tradition, vibrant community and aesthetically beautiful. This precious and unique natural wonderland should be 'forever wild'. To learn more about the Kimberely and see a snap shot of this beautiful area please watch this ABC Catalyst video of 18 August 2011, West Coast Whales.
This petition was set up on or before 10 June. I don't recall how I became aware of it, but I should have posted this note before now. My apologies. - Ed
Over-population
I have been concerned for some time about over-population. The world's population has increased from four billion to seven billion in FORTY years. If we continue at that cracking pace, food and water will be as rare as rocking horse teeth. From its present groaning under the weight of numbers, we can surely see that this planet was not meant to be burdened by an ever increasing number of resource consuming humans! For goodness sake Concerned Catholic, what is your cut-off figure? 20 billion? 40 billion? At what figure would you recommend the brakes be applied? Or would you say humans should never stop multiplying? You would just keep producing people until they start killing each other over a grain of rice?
With all this carbon tax racket going on, don't you see that with population stabilisation followed by sensible population reduction, humans would not be consuming our resources at a rate that suggests our environment can no longer meet all our needs? Wasn't this planet designed to carry only sufficient numbers of humans that can live in a reasonable amount of comfort - without constantly worrying as to how they are going to pay their next energy bill?
Whether or not you accept the global warming science (and despite the forceful pro-global warming lobby many still exercise their democratic right to question it) it is common sense that if there are less humans there will be less pollution. Less cars, less energy/fuel consumption, less demand on food and water resources.
Just stop sending overseas aid in $$$$$$$$'s to corrupt regimes and multiplying bottomless pits of want. Send shiploads of condoms complete with instructions and make population reduction a condition for reduced foreign aid.
Australia should cut the kids' bonuses (political translation - plasma t.v.'s and poker machine entertainment) and cut taxpayer funded support for the irresponsibles who overload our environment with more than two children.
Thank you.
Rip Rip Woodchip
Because of the generous public support and donations for MyEnvironment a bank cheque for $30,000 was hand-delivered yesterday to the Senior Master at the Supreme Court, ensuring that the appeal in My Environment -v- VicForests will go ahead.
Listen to John Wiliamson's wonderful anthem, Rip Rip Woodchip, accompanied by images of their ongoing campaign to protect Leadbeater's Possum and the forests around Toolangi.
New pipes in Frankston, near Malvern Central Park, & city
Can anyone tell us what all this digging is for? What are these disruptive earthworks for?
Ashley Fenn Family First candidate should be last!
Ashley Fenn believes the three main issues facing Melbourne residents are:
-Traffic congestion and related pollution.
-Cost of living. For most Australian households, the cost of living is an increasing concern.
-The Economy. With the current coalition of the ALP and the Greens, our country is wasting millions of dollars every day, increasing debt for future generations.
At the same time, he sees Market forces causing Melbourne’s population continue to grow, regardless of political interference. He has failed to join the dots between cause and effect, and illness and symptoms.
He says that "ln light of this, it is essential that all residents – current and future – have access to suitable amenities, thereby ensuring Melbourne continues to be a great place to live".
As a Family First, by definition, they should put the welfare of families ahead of greed and economies of growth that put pressure onto families. All his primary concerns are related to economic/population growth symptoms.
Our population growth is not simply a victim of market forces, without political input.
A Christianity-based political party about social justice, fairness and should focus on equality and eqalitarianism. The God of Mammon, or materialism, is all empowering, and our city planning has been hijacked by developers and those with vested interests in property and growth. It's contrary to any concern for families, and future generations.
Population growth is stealing the well-being and futures of our kids. Family First should be put last, along with the Libs and Labs.
http://www.melbournetimesweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/melbourne...
Will praying mantises pose threat to catholicism?
Thank you for your inquiry, which was passed on to me by Another Concerned Catholic.
It is anticipated that few competing species will survive humans through to the middle of the 21st century as we cover the earth with concrete. The only reason that humans will survive will be through their ability to step down beyond the atomic level.
If any battles need be engaged against the Praying Mantis, (although its name would suggest a peaceful and religious disposition) humans will probably deploy tiny 634 gram Chinese manufactured miniature helicopters of which the Vatican recently bought up millions at only $29.99 each.
As the attached illustration suggests, these little machines are well up to the challenge. Because they are radio operated, human operators will be able to remain out of sight and in safety at some distance away.
A filmed demonstration is available here, but without the giant praying mantis, which must be purchased separately. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/__18283__2_4Ghz_Micro_Coax_Helicopter_4_Channel_RTF_Mode_2_.html
Vatican promotional staff
"Bring Out Your Dead" fur protest, Lygon St Carlton 11 am Sat
"Bring Out Your Dead" fur protest, Lygon St Carlton 11 am Saturday July 28
Come out dressed for a funeral and help us tell the truth about fur.
Meeting 10.30 for 11 am start outside Husk (324 Lygon St Carlton –google map link below*).
Husk is one of the outlets in a nation-wide franchise where fur garments are sold all year round without country of origin labels (possibly because they do not want to admit selling products made of Chinese rabbit fur); their fur stock is designed by Australian designers Bedelia, who disingenuously reassure the public on their website that they only use “humanely” sourced fur fabric in their designs. We have asked them to explain to us how the capture and deaths of raccoon, mink and arctic fox, among other animals whose fur is used, is humane but they failed to reply-nothing to say no doubt!
Feel free to make comment on Bedelia’s facebook page-www.facebook.com/pages/Bedelia-Australia/159746577443366
*Directions for Husk Lygon St here-
Rheya Linden, Campaign Director
Animal Active!
Practical theology
Dear Similarly Concerned Catholic,
I am most grateful to you for the reference to the the publication "Smartsized growth.." It accords well with my own view as you will realise. Since a soul does not have any physical dimensions, it seems to me that the art of bonsai through genetic engineering applied in this manner to humans solves the potential problem of the accommodation of souls. And it is quite sustainable as you so elegantly point out. My only problem with the down sizing of humans is the future scale of humans to bandicoots for instance or to sugar gliders. I can foresee that at a certain stage in "smartsized growth" that humans could ride bandicoots as they would have ridden horses and after a further downsizing, fly on the backs of sugar gliders but at some critical size ratio, humans could run into problems with other species. For instance when the human is 1/8 the size of a praying mantis might an encounter not pose a threat ? - to the minuscule human I mean - (complete with soul.)
An embarrassment of choice now though
But isn't it wonderful to receive calls from telecommunications providers offering deals with rates of phone calls in terms of getting e.g $100 worth of free calls a month when the sales people don't even tell you what the call rate is! How much spare time would one really need to work out what is in fact a good deal? No- I'd rather see a good deal for all whether one can work it out or not.
Great that you are back on the job, James!
Reply to Concerned Catholic on Vatican investment opportunities
Dear Concerned Catholic,
Thank heavens for some commonsense religion in the population debate. I share your views and have long been concerned about the impact on lost souls if the populationists succeed in their mission to have bandicoots and brushtail possums take back the earth, along with anarchists and other athiestic septics.
Can I recommend to you an upcoming Vatican/Property Developer Counsel publication which I recently received in an advanced draft form? It is called, "Smartsized human growth: how to accomodate All Souls."
In it, renowned Vatican scientist, Professor Dominico Desparado, talks about the future when we will all harnass genetic engineering and rescue the world housing bubble economy and cure the planet of world hunger. With a team of real-estate agents working day and night in his laboratory, the Professor has succeeded in resetting the human height algorithm to spontaneously reduce every generation by 50 per cent.
This means that within a generation all humans born will be on average half the size they are now. Within two generations they will be the size of medium sized dogs and able to live in kennel-sized homes in gardens subdivided tenfold. Within four generations it is anticipated that the entire human race will have shrunk to the size of mice and that there will be a property market boom in dolls' houses, dolls' tea-sets, dolls' furniture and model railways. Within 10 generations it is anticipated that humans will be well on the way to inhabiting an atom per capita and that from there a great historic diaspora will begin where our race will explore the infinity of quantum-space, emerging at some point as an utterly negative quantity.
After that we will ultimately emerge through black holes all over the galaxy as giants to take over planets and expand throughout the universe, endlessly, to the great glory of God.
This was all, of course, predicted in the bible in the parts that discussed the meek inheriting the earth and the rise of property developers as a chosen master-race.
Please save the Kimberley
Please save the Kimberley - petition
Tell WA Premier Barnett that you don't want unwanted industrial development on the Dampier Peninsula wilderness
More oil wells approved for 'heritage listed' Ningaloo! FRACKING has begun in the pristine Kimberley.
Massive industrialisation by BP,Shell, Chevron, BHP Billiton, Woodside, Conoco Phillips and many others - coal, gas, oil, copper, bauxite, alumina and uranium - the Kimberley will be destroyed.
All being done now behind closed doors. Politicians not listening.
Destructive oil, gas and mining companies lining up to destroy one of the rarest environments on Earth today and every living marine and land creature will fight to survive.
The peninsula supports a vast abundance of wildlife and vegetation, some of which is totally unique to the region and much of which is also threatened. The coastal waters and beaches are home to Dugong, a variety of marine turtle species - many of which are threatened - and perhaps the world's most significant calving waters for Humpback Whales.
The people of the Kimberley need us now.
The whole Kimberley coast should become a national park. Economic growth is a powerful and destructive force set to wreak havoc on the whale nursery and a pristine coast.
Make sure these oil and gas companies don't destroy the Kimberley coast - and don't support Government threats to confiscate land that is under Native Title claim.
The truth is there are viable alternatives to a Kimberley coast industrial site. The companies can use floating LNG technology or pipe the gas to existing infrastructure to the south (in the Pilbara). They just need some persuading.
Selling and Tolling Existing Roads Just Stupid
On July 17, Kelvin Thomson wrote:
The idea of selling and tolling existing roads is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard, and could only come from people completely out of touch with the lives of ordinary Australians and Victorians.
Ordinary Victorians are feeling serious cost of living pressures. How does being required to pay each time we drive on roads we can presently travel on for free make us better off? It makes us worse off. Selling off existing roads to private companies and putting tolls on them will make those private companies wealthy, but it will be at the expense of ordinary motorists.
The reason Melbourne and other capital cities have traffic congestion is because our population growth is too fast, and we should tackle that by cutting migration back to the levels we used to have in the 1980s and 1990s.
Improved public transport is a superior answer to traffic congestion than building more freeways, but seriously, what is the point of building a freeway and then discouraging people from using it by sticking a toll on it?
It is a stupid idea and governments at both State and Federal level should reject it.
Posted by Kelvin Thomson MP on his blogspot
Immigration never challenged by the media
Despite today's unemployment figures showing a 5.2 per cent jobless rate, in some parts of Australia, youth unemployment is nearing 40 per cent. Fifteen to 24-year-olds now make up more than a quarter of all long term unemployed.
TWO out of five youths in Melbourne’s North West who are out of school are unemployed.
Federal Employment Minister and Maribyrnong MP Bill Shorten
said the Government was working with a wide range of community groups to help get unemployed youths into work.
About one-third of 15 to 19 year olds in areas such as the Sunshine Coast, far north Queensland, north western Queensland and West Moreton were jobless.
Read more: Bleak outlook for Queensland youth trying to enter the workforce of 23 July 2012 at http://www.news.com.au/money/cost-of-living/bleak-outlook-for-queensland-youth-trying-to-enter-the-workforce/story-fnagkbpv-1226432430460 .
Australia's Skills and Workforce Development Needs report said one of the major reasons for the high rate of young jobless was that companies now want fully trained and experienced workers and were not prepared to hire young people and train them. It's easier to by-pass them and source experienced skills and willing workers from developing countries.
The Australian Government is working closely with state, territory and local governments, and regional authorities to provide regional migration programs that support regional development and help supply the skill needs of regional employers.
Kelvin Thomson says "I cannot see how running promotional campaigns to attract skilled migrants is consistent with the Prime Minister’s pre-election statements that she does not believe in a ‘Big Australia’ and that ‘we need to stop and take a breath’. " Workers with real skills in developing countries are more valuable where they are, and we should not try to strip these countries of their best and brightest for our own advantage.
Secondly, our high skilled migration program comes at the expense of skilling and training young Australians
Skills Minister Chris Evans, Industry Minister Greg Combet and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese have all come out in support of the plan to import foreign workers for Gina Rinehart's mining project. Last year the government was considering similar applications for more than 30 other such agreements including for US energy major Chevron, for its Gorgon liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia.
The media have no agenda in challenging our skilled migration program in the face of our high youth unemployment. Never do we hear a TV or radio presenter interviewing Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, as to why we have such a high - and increasing - skilled migration program at such a time? Or, why is privatization allowing skills to be lost in the first place? Some sectors of temporary employee sponsored skilled migration are unlimited, and after 4 years they are able to apply for PR.
The "immigration" debate stays safely on "boat people" and fails to touch on how many people in Australia are facing hardships of finding accommodation, training, jobs and affordable living standards.